The MediaWizard’s Blog | mwzd.com

It takes a LOT to get domainers excited about anything.  We’re a jaded lot, have been there and done that. Everybody plugs their new services and offers on community sites (NP/DNF) and we see the underbelly of every successful and not so successful online venture.

So what does one do to make the domaining community take notice? Ask Rick Latona. He’s one smart cookie. He bought a theme change at NamePros, one of the top two domain communities online. It went from a sober blue and white to a stark orange and red.

The comments were thick and fast… its been bought… it got hacked… wtf is Rick Latona. Which is exactly what I think it was about. Doubt ANYONE in domaining will forget that name now, thats effective advertising for you - in your face, to the point (right demographic) and viral… got me to blog about it. :)  Wtg Rick and welcome to NamePros.

I think all the kudos for organising this and getting it together goes to Ty Maier (bfluid). He put in a LOT of effort and hard work to get it together. I just stepped in to help out an overworked fellow NPer who was handling more than one person should.

And even though we agree the results were not as great as they could have been, it was a great learning experience for all involved and for me too, as it was my first live auction as an auctioneer.

And it was way more effort than most other people are willing to put in - everyone talks about it, here’s someone who went ahead and did it. Getting the permissions, managing submissions, creating lists, updating lists, answering endless pms, rectifying errors, getting the word out, inducing people to blog about it and much much more.

Hats off to you Ty, and congratulations.

Congrats also to NP management and staff, for pro-actively providing their facilities and support.

My analysis -

1. The Easter weekend hurt, a lot of people who could/should have been there were not. Choosing the right date is more important than we thought. So no weekends, holidays and major ‘family’ days for live auctions.

2. The time confusion hurt too, people were there for one hour before the event even started, restless crowds are not the best for auctions.

3. The $5 buyout clause for high value (or even not so high value) domains didn’t work either. I’d think a reserve price as start would work a lot better, NP auctions follow this format. While this might mean less bids, it would ensure that those that did receive bids would be sold. And sellers wouldn’t be out anything (not that $5 makes a difference).

4. There was no paid advertising to support the event, something that seems to be a must for domains that value in at $300k or more. Maybe a payment for each lot would keep out the low value names, bring the list down to a more manageable level (2 hrs).

5. A themed auction might also be desirable - a. High Value names (above $10k) b. Middle value names ($1k-$10) c. Low value names ($100-$1k) would also be better in attracting the right crowd for each event. Someone with $100k to spend might not want to hang around for 2-3 hours.

I’m sure I’ll have many more ideas once my coffee goes in but these are off the top of my head. Thanks to all the sellers, bidders and participants, cheers!

I read an article in a major newspaper a few days back - the new form of cybersquatting - domaining. Hogwash! Its as much a legal business, if done right, as any other business. While booking someone’s name or brand is generally unacceptable, there is another type of domain investment that’ll shock your socks off.

Before I go any further, here’s some recommended reading -

#1 - pls note, this is just for 2008.

here’s the one from 2007 - #2

And here are some resources to allow you to do your own research -

http://www.namebio.com

http://www.dnsalesprice.com

Ready for the punch line (what did you think… its a blog post, not a novel )

Domaining is nothing but short for ‘Domain Name Investing’. Not much different than property development. You buy a barren piece of land, get a road to it, add water, add electricity and sell to a builder for a decent ROI. In this case, think of the web as a blank unlimited universe. The only planets or even solar systems that are worth anything are those on a common ‘type path’.

Once people type in a common term and stick a TLD behind it (.com / .net / .in / .tv / etc) and do it often enough to generate a decent amount of traffic… its worth money. To you as a domain owner, to the parking company as a source of traffic, to the ad company (goog/yahoo) as a potential location to place customers ads and even to the advertiser (most so tbh) - who gets targeted interested traffic… at a pittance.

Once you have enough of these type in types, all you need to do is sit and count your money at the end of the month, sit and chat at NP or DNF and live like a king!!

edit - interesting article in LA Times