Brandable or Media Domain?

Posted by Kyle Eslick on May 11th, 2008 | Category and Tags | 2 comments

Since the beginning of 2008, I’ve been very fortunate in that I’ve made a lot of really good domaining decisions that have resulted in a good amount of generated income. Add that to my affiliate income, which has at least tripled since the first of the year, and things are really starting to look up!

One thing that came with this success was my decision to form an online business to keep everything under. This has obvious benefits come tax time and will make it a lot easier for me to calculate earnings vs. expenses, etc. If things go as planned, this business will eventually become a LLC and be operated completely separately from my personal interests online.

Anyway, as I’ve begun to make this transition, I quickly realized that I had a VERY important decision to make before I get started. That is of course selecting the name of the business (and the corresponding domain name).

Of course, I felt that finding a good name shouldn’t be a problem as I have a huge portfolio of brandable domains that would work great. The problem I’m running into is that I would like the name to include the word “Media” at the end of it, but that kind of goes against my instincts as a domainer. An example would be something like using FireballMedia.com instead of Fireball.com.

Obviously we all know which is better and more valuable, but if you were starting up your own media company, would you rather use the media version? All input is appreciated.

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How Did You Get Started Domaining?

Posted by Kyle Eslick on May 9th, 2008 | Category and Tags | 1 comment

Whether you began back in 1998 or now in 2008, every domainer had to start somewhere. With good strategy and careful investment, even a new domainer today can achieve a lot of success and make a good living domaining. So, how did everyone get started as a domainer? I always enjoy taking a look back, so I’ll get the ball rolling.

Although I wasn’t to long ago compared to many domainers, I suppose I technically started domaining back in early 2006, though it wasn’t necessarily intentional. I had just purchased my first few domain names, all with the plan of eventually developing them. After grabbing my first and last name domain, I figured out some areas I could work with, did a lot of research, and grabbed about 10 domains. Over the course of the next year, I established maybe 3 of these sites with some success. The remaining 7 domains were coming up for renewal and I wasn’t sure if I had time to develop them. Rather than just let them go or renew them, I decided to see if anyone else wanted them. With a quick search, I discovered Namepros and posted my domains. After a couple days, I had collected several hundred dollars on my investment and realized I may have been taking the wrong approach to establishing myself online!

To test my skills, I used some of that money and went out and purchased another 20 keyword-rich domain names to work with. After about a week, I had made back more than I’d spent and still have about 11 domains left! Again, nothing major, but it showed me that I had the research skills necessary to find success in the world of internet real estate. Over the last year my portfolio has continued to grow as I started delving into the world of backordering domains and it has really been a fun ride. As I look towards the future, my hope is to continue to mix domaining with developing and hopefully create a steady and profitable web prescence.

So, that is my story in a nutshell. How and when did you get started domaining? Who were your mentors?

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Excuse Me? Your Registered That Domain Name?

Posted by Kyle Eslick on May 7th, 2008 | Category and Tags | 0 comments

Hopefully anyone who reads this post will take it with a grain of salt as I will be venting a little bit, but has anyone else noticed the really poor choice of domains registered lately? Check out any of For Sale sections of the domain forums and you are in for a real treat.

I’m sure we’ve all had those “What was I thinking?” moments on ocassion, but many of these domains are really bad. I mean really really bad. In many cases, they are so bad that I wouldn’t take them off their hands for free because it would just clog up my accounts. Do these people just have unlimited money to waste? Do they even try? Is any research completed prior to the domain purchase?

Unfortunately, domainer ettiquette requires me to refrain from posting a “WTF?” type of response to their posts, so I figured I would put it here. I would really like to know what some of these people were thinking when they register their domain names. Has anyone else noticed this trend getting much worse over the past few months?

As a quick footnote, I thought it would be fun to mention our worst domains ever registered. It is never a good idea to register a domain just because it sounds cool, but I was guilty of that when I registered ShadowOrb.com. Yikes! What was the worst domain you ever registered?

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Domaining in a Recession

Posted by Kyle Eslick on May 6th, 2008 | Category and Tags | 0 comments

With the current recession in the United States (despite what people say, I live here, and it is), domainers have started to place a lot of attention to their portfolios and many are trimming them down as much as possible prior to renewal to save some cash. I know this because I am one of those domainers.

My approach was to re-evaluate my portfolio about a month ago and figure out which domains I do not plan to renew, then go out and try to get whatever I can for them. $7.00, $5.00, $3.00? It is all better than just letting them expire and getting nothing out of them. I’ve still got a few names left that I’d like to move, but I must say that I’m pretty happy with what remains of my portfolio and I’ve now got a little money to play around with in the aftermarket.

So, what other factors should domainers consider when investing during a recession?

Renewal Prices - Domain renewal rates appear to be going up about 7% a year, and this will likely continue for the immediate future. Keep an eye on registrar rates and don’t be afraid to transfer your domains to a more affordable registrar when that domain comes up for renewal. This does not mean go to 1and1 of course, but there are always domain coupons to consider and special offers that you take advantage advantage of with the main 7 registrars.
Look for Deals - The domain message boards are filled with all sorts of great domains going for next to nothing. Monitor this area and get some steals from struggling domainers.
Develop Domains - As I trim my portfolio, I’ve been digging through my names to see which ones I could easily develop. This is generally a smart method to protect your investment for a domainer anyway, but with parking income down lately, it has almost become essential. I use a few techniques including keyword sniping (form of niche blogging) and BANS to easily monetize these sites and produce a steady income. My goal is to find methods that require a minimal amount of upkeep, but will generate comparable or additional income vs parking the domains.

What methods are you using right to continue to grow your domain portfolio?

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Domain Preference: Net or Org?

Posted by Kyle Eslick on April 30th, 2008 | Category and Tags | 0 comments

It is inevitable that every week at some point the question appears on every domain-related message boards. That question is which is better: dot net or dot org?

I find this to be a very good question, as it is widely accepted that dot com is king across most of the world, and certainly in any relevant country. If dot com isn’t the standard in your area, you probably use a ccTLD. Either way, it still leaves domain investors with a question that needs answered. Should I invest my money into dot net or dot org domains?

In the long run, this really comes down to a matter of opinion. You’ll even find some that argue for dot info as the second best TLD you can get. In my opinion, dot org is the 2nd best, but here are some positive and negative things to think about for each:

Dot Net

Seems to have the highest resale value on the market.
Gives the feeling to users that you couldn’t find the dot com.

Dot Org

Can be a first choice extension for many organizations or websites that that are informative by nature.
Most orgs were registered by endusers that wanted them. Investors have a tough time reselling them due to lack of demand.

Dot Info

Many feel this is second best for geo domains.
Four digit TLD
Not commonly known among the non-power users of the internet.

In my opinion, if you are investing to flip/resell the domains, dot net will probably get you the best results. If you are planning to develop or hold for an end-user, dot org is the best way to go and the way I go more often than not. It just sounds good and is easy to remember. If it wasn’t for the dollar promotion on info domains I probably wouldn’t own more than just a few. It is probably just personal preference, but I really dislike four letter TLDs.

So, as you can see, dot org is my preference. It also helps that domainers have largely ignored dot org, leaving a bunch of very high quality domains available on the registry. Just yesterday I picked up GeoDirectory.org which I hope to develop sometime in the next few months.

Which do you prefer? Dot net or dot org?

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