Seriously, since every industry is going for a bailout, we might as well propose and apply for one. The economy has dealt us multiple blows. PPC has declined or vanished in some cases. Infact I have recorded a few days now with 0.00 earnings for the day from PPC.

To make matters worse, the landscape is becoming tougher for domainers with legal actions and what not. If you have a really good name, you might want to trademark it somehow and tie it to a service  or one day, some company with a lawyer and a dream could just be after your domain. We have seen even our industry greats fall prey so this is no longer exclusive to cyber squatters.

I say we propose a “Domainer Bailout  Fund” to Congress, who is with me?

On a more serious note, while this post was intended for humor, It is imperative that we as domainers start finding and getting our own lobbyist in Washington. If no one is there for us when the laws are passed, more than likely, the laws will be against us.

 Develop your dreams

I am in a kind of dilemma. I have three  likely domain names for a pet classifieds website. The problem is that I have to set up one of them as a pet classifieds site. Since I do not have the .com for the most likely term searched, which of the following domains will  you use if you were me  and why?

Please note that the industry leader on pet classifieds in google is currently a dot US!

So here are my options:

Candidate 1.) PetClassified (Dot) net

Candidate 2.) PetClassifeds (Dot) org

Candidate 3.) PetClassifiedAds (Dot) com

The most searched term is “Pet Classifieds”

I already have the best possible classifieds software installed at the back end of one of them since a year ago but never activated it.  I will switch if the vote is overwhelmingly against my original pick.

Thanks for your time and opinions.

I am writing this post from my PDA so bare with me. I am going to be calling similar post in future “micro posts”
Most domainers will not want to believe this. I am a domainer so this is a painfull micro post to make. I believe that for this moment, the smart money is in stocks not domains. GE stocks closed yesterday with a stock costing less than a GE flourecent light bulb. GM stock now cost less than a gallon of gas!

Have you ever wondered if  it is just you or the rest of the world does not get it? Have you ever told someone the url of a site. Let us use PetHall.com for example. Why will the person go home and type PetHall.com into Google? What is your browser for?

If you already know the place you are going to? Why do you need directions? This is like using GPS to go to your best buddies house. A route you are very familiar with.

Now 80 percent will type in the whole url in Google  as “PetHall.com” while some will just go and google “PetHall”.

Now it really sucks to be you if you are the owner of PetHall and when your name is googled, you are not #1

I have a .comsite  each time it is googled, Google  asks the googler if they mean thesite.org? this site is a .com!

It is amazing how little main street knows about simple browsing. Do you have similar experiences or stories?

Develop your dreams

Like I promised, for most of this week I will be posting what I believe as best in the world. Best in the world to me is usually based on research and documentation but mostly on personal experience. At the bottom of this post you will find a listing o f the top 20 webmaster forums in the world.

I have listed them here for statistical purpose but I am point out a few salient points that  I think the modern day domainer should be concerned about

For a newbie domainer, I am about to recommend a forum I do not even visit that often anymore but I believe it is a good place to start. It is more like kindergarten but the knowledge you will get here, however  rudimentary will help you throuugout  your domaining career. It is also worthy of mention that the people at this particular forum are much nicer and your idiosyncrasies will most likely be more tolerable here than the top domainer forums listed below.

The forum is DiscussNames.com managed by Afternic. Spend at least 3 weeks here, do not buy any domains until you have read most of the important post in that forum. Do a search on a fellow called “Danielr” and read as much of his posts as you can. This will prove to be invaluable information as you grow in your domaining career.

From DiscussNames.com I will recommend DNforum.com. A lot of players in this forum. It is very active. Less tolerant but by now  you should know your right from your left. I am a platinum member at DNforum. Don’t worry, the best time to upgrade is when they have a sale and hopefully it will align with when you have just made a sale so you don’t even feel the pinch. It is a once in a lifetime payment so it shouldn’t hurt much. Remember you do not have to pa y to be a member. A lot of big players frequent this forum and it is a rather very informative forum.

NamePros is like the name says is where most of the big player like to hang out. It has a rather vibrant market place.
Has a boutique feel about it, some say it is more classy. I think it is heavily moderated. If statistics alone are used as a measure, NamePro  is the top domain forum in the world edging out DNforum in Alexa  and compete ranking

Overall as a webmaster, digital point is the best, it offers everything and an unbelievable knowledge base for all,

So her it is the final verdict

Digital point (Best webmaster forum in the world)
NamePros (Best Domainer forum in the world)
DNForum (My personal best Domainer forum)

TOP 20 Webmaster Forums in the world.

Non of the links here if any is an affiliate link. I have not been compensated in anyway directly or indirectly to write this post. As of the time of this post I have a paid sticky post on DNForum. I did not ask nor was any discount given to me. As of press time I do not have any personal relationship with any of the owners of the forums listed above.

I think we in the domain industry need to stop pitching domains as a marketing medium and start pitching it as an alternative asset class – as online real estate. If you approach a business and tell them that “ the right name is to a business what the right building or location is to an offline entity”, then  it’s easier for people to see things as valuable…
The problem with marketing is that it has always been a bit nebulous. By that I mean until online marketing and advertising, one couldn’t show EXACTLY the relationship between dollar-for-dollar spending on marketing and how much profit or increased sales have come in.

People need to know when you buy the right domain you are buying TRAFFIC. Yes the branding effect of a good domain is nice but the smart companies realize the right domain is buying you targeted traffic.

Here is an example. You can advertise on TV and spend $5,000 and get a 1% conversion rate. You can spend that same $5,000 and get a keyword rich domain name or a domain with type traffic that will:
a) land you on the 1st page of google; 54% of the traffic goes to the person in position 1 (according to AOL statistics) so the right domain can very likely and materially mean the difference between no.1 and no2 for the right set of keywords

b) get targeted type in traffic. The right domain lowers your online advertising costs significantly. Let’s say you get a domain with 10 type in visitors per day. That’s 300 visitors per month. If the PPC cost per one click is high – let’s say $1/click. You are spending $300/month for 300 visitors. If you divide 5000/30 what do you get?

That’s approximately 17. In other words in 17 months (less than 2 years), you’ve paid off your investment. But here’s the kicker, it’s like renting vs. buying. Not only do you get to live in a place while you are buying it, you are also getting EQUITY. Unlike PPC traffic, once you purchase the asset out right, it’s yours FOREVER. So not only do you get that same 300 visitors per month, in less than 2 years, you’ve bought yourself 300 visitors per month for life!

There are other benefits as well. The smart companies know that type in traffic converts at almost twice the rate or regular traffic. If someone type in buycarnewyork.com they are not looking for free mp3’s. Ever heard the expression “first impressions count”? If someone finds what they want at your site, people are lazy. They will buy from you and they will keep coming back to you….

There’s also the fact that a relevant domain lowers one PPC costs.  So in sum, the right domain isn’t just about “sounding good to your customers”. It’s about location, location, location.

In reality a name is nothing more than an online address, precisely. The domain [domain].com is really the verbal equivalent of the Internet address 123.456.456 (etc).

When you put things in a perspective that a business can understand – showing the comparables between domains as an asset and their alternatives (buying traffic, SEO, etc). People can get their head around it.

I personally view domains as an alternative asset class and I feel if we all can better educate the public, the better off we’ll be. By the way, I saw an interesting article about the guy who owns NewYork.com that you might find interesting – http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/november.htm

Written by S. Abidoye
Opinions stated are those of the writer and does not necessarily represent the position of SkyDomains.

This is a very bold title I must admit but by the time you are done reading this post, you will see why I beleive so and chances are that you will share my believe too. When I started my first Website,
PetHall.com, that was around the  year 2000. There were not many developed websites then. I arrogantly felt that only pets.com was my competitor or inspiration. I poured my all into PetHall.

At its peak, PetHall had free email for subscribers, that is somebody@pethall.com( Yes this was big back then) We had free greeting cards, horoscopes, you name it. PetHall was built to be a portal for pet lovers and they embraced it as such. PetHall also had one very important component, it had a fledging pet classifieds section. I had e-Classifieds Enterprise edition installed (e-Classifieds was the thing then) We were doing so good at the classifieds section that we had a couple of shelters listing stuff there: of course everything was free. I had no clue on how to monetize it then but that is not the reason for this post.

Here is the dilemma, back then I had to hire freelancers every time I wanted to do anything to my site. I did not know how to FTP or do anything then. This would not have been much of a problem if not that every time my host went down, I had to repair or reinstall my classifieds. After moving from host to host trying to find a stable host, I gradually lost all my customers.

This was when I decided that enough was enough. After days o f extensive research, I learnt of this host Called ICDSoft They had a very bold statement about their up-time and reliability but what caught my attention was that they claimed to respond to all Support request within (if I remember correctly) 15 minutes.
You guessed right, instead of signing up I gave them a try. I wrote, ” My name is Frankie I am thinking of signing up but  I am also wondering how long it will take  you guys to get back to me” I hadn’t even left there site yet when my hotmail messenger service (I used hotmail then) popped up and this is what they wrote ” So Frankie how did we do? Let us know if we can be of any service to you” I  wrote back “impressed” I signed up and PetHall has never had a problem since then. Now this is why I signed up with ICDSoft but the reason I have stayed with them and hosted virtually all my sites there until recently is this. When you are new to domaining or not that tech savvy, this peoples support is unprecedented. They have helped me install scripts that they should not even bother with. They have helped me with all sorts of technical issues that they have nothing to do with just because I host with them. As of this writing, the following sites are still hosted with them PetHall.com, SkyDomains.com (yes this blog ) FleaMarketFinds.com, HearingDogs.com and PetMessageBoard.com.

While the links above and below are affiliate links, I put my websites where my mouth or shall I say my keystrokes are. ICDSoft is second to non when it comes to service and if you are a newbie and not too tech savvy, ICDSoft is  your best launching pad.

The Second is like it. HostGator is the choice of most experienced domainers. They have a very attractive price package. You get to host multiple domains on one account. A little tech know how is required. Overall service is pretty good. DNoptimizers.com is hosted by HostGator

Tech support is pretty good at HostGator though they will not bend over backwards for you. For most people the tech support is great but I have been spoilt already by ICDSoft 

Now  you know where I host my sites. Like I already stated, all t he links and banners in this post are affiliate links. I however pledge my believe in this post. I have not been influenced by the affiliate payouts as you can use domain tools to see that PetHall.com has been hosted with ICDSoft for a while now. Like I said, I put my domains where my keystrokes are. After you have checked this sites out, please do not forget that I do not get credit if you do not use the links or banners I have provided in this post.

If this review has been helpful to you please let me know. I plan to do a series of what I call the best in the world which is basically a review of services I use or have used.

Have you ever wondered how people make the leap from 9 to 5 working  for someone to 24/7 domaining? Have you ever wondered what goes on in there mind before the decision to quit there job and right after they actually quit? Have you ever wondered what it takes to quit your regular job? Well I met CleverlySlick about 2 months ago in the forum when he declared to the whole world that he was thinking of quiting his job. I kept tap on him and when he finally did I cornered him for a guest post. This is the story of a man who thinks he has had enough and have decided to take the bull by the horns like a valiant matador, defying all odds. This is the story CleverlySlick in his own words.

Thanks for your interest in my story. I will explain how I made this leap from 9-5 worker to 9-9 domainer. That’s right. I put 12 hours (sometimes more) a day as a full time domainer.
I have to. I quit a job that was sure to bring in a check every week to speculate (or should I say gamble) on domains so I have to put extra effort to make sure my son has the food and clothing he needs ALL THE TIME. So why did I do it? I had to because I was just seeing no future where I was working at. I was a Rail Car Technician for 5 years of my life, and for 5 years turning bolts and nuts I felt empty. Everyday it was the same repetitive things and really the only people making the monies was the company. This company makes an estimate of about 5-6 million a day selling trains.

I was only making $17.50 an hour. I would get paid on Fridays and by Friday evening after stretching the money to pay bills and buy food for the week I only had enough money to buy me a $12 bottle of rum and transportation money to go to work and come home. In 5 years of dedicating myself to that company physically and mentally, made a total of $1.78 in raises.

When I discovered domaining I thought to myself “the world is shifting toward the Internet so this has to be where the money is”. So I started studying, reading, learning and talking about domaining everyday. From 2005 until 2008 I was just studying and reading what people had to say in forums without saying a word to anybody. I had absolutely no money to invest in premiums so I started registering domains that I thought would be valuable in the future either for myself or for others. This happened late 2007. Every Friday I got paid I would set aside $20 to register domains (and of course my $12 bottle of rum) this went on for about a year. 

In October of 2008 I decided to grow some hair on my chest and start trying to sell domains. ALL of my domains are hand reg’d ( registered) so according to the domainers in the forum, I can’t get much for them. I started calling businesses and getting rejected (sometimes even cursed at) and emailing and getting rejected. By late October I got 2 inquiries about these particular domains that I reg’d. Both of my domains fetched me figures in the low to mid $x,xxx. All this did was swell up my head even more and that’s when I started to give this domaining hustle a serious thought. On November I received another email for a domain that I hand reg’d and they offered me $xxx for that domain.it was an adult related domain.  That’s when I decided I’m going to quit my job and domain full time because this has a lot of potential if I dedicate myself more to it. So by January 9, 2009 I quit my job and now domaining full time. Since I quit my 9-5  job, I’ve had four successful sales for nice profits.

A lot of people have told me I’m nuts for quitting my job in such troubled times and sometimes I catch myself questioning the same thing. But if I don’t do this for myself I will never know for sure if it would’ve worked. Besides I go with my gut instinct and only trust my own judgments. I know I will not fail at this because persistence is key to perseverance and I believe that’s what a lot of us Americans have lost, is the knack to be persistent and go out there and make those sales and get the job done no matter what.

It doesn’t matter if your selling domains or lemonade, be persistent and don’t give up and you’ll eventually close a deal. Don’t let other tell you how worthless your domain is. Decide that for yourself through trials and tribulations. I’m still learning about choosing the right names to sell to businesses and end users and resellers. This industry is similar to the stock market where you have to constantly stay on top of trends. And when you want to make a sale, do it with confidence, persistence and I promise you will persevere. I haven’t made it a goal to become a millionaire from domaining. If it happens it happens. But I will be successful according to my means of success.

 Check out some of my domains  at cleverlyslick.com.

Here is the advice I gave cleverlyclick about two months ago on DNforum where I post as “idealer”

“Before you leap.
It is always a good idea to get your side job which in this case is domaining take care of your smallest bill first, then your smallest bill and the next bill, by the time you make enough to pay all your bills and then some, that is when you can actually rationally begin to think of quiting your day job. I also have a new daughter and I appluad your confidence.
No matter how bad the economy is, I take solace in the fact that over 90% of the employable are still employed so that is not so bad.
Seek God first before you make a decision with your life.”

To  see how cleverlyclicks story started visit DNforum (The thread is already linked) There you will read over 4 pages of advice mostly telling him not to quit his job and why it is a bad move in this economy.

Please feel free to comment or just send words of encouragement below. If you have any story that you think will be of interest to our readers please contact me and you could be the next guest poster. Also if there is a topic you will want me to post about, let me know also.

Have a great  Superbowl weekend. It is not a sin to drink but God does hate drunkenness. If you must drink, drink moderately.

This is by no means an analogy of the Superbowl. I believe most of the bloggers have already done a superb job and blogs like DotWeekly has already gone in depth into the area I am usually  most interested in which is the ads.

This is just  to tell you about a little domain I purchased yesterday morning.  Call it predictive domaining, call it anything. Hopefully I made the right choice.  They are

100Ktalents (dot)com 

 100Ktalent(dot)com

Yesterday morning I wrote the domain name on a piece of paper and showed it to a  couple of non domainer buddies.  I asked them if they will remember the name tomorrow. One of then said something remarkable “yes but only because  have seen the ad  more than  10 times already” I was like ‘Dude” this was not the name  you saw, this name was just registered a couple of  hours ago. You heard it referenced in ads but this was what stuck in your head.

Oh I said I was not going to talk about the Superbowl but I could not resist. How effective are the GoDaddy ads really? I wonder because I still have people who watched the Superbowl still asking me where to register a domain name. hmmm!!!!
I told one “Name.com” and he was looking for a sheet of paper to jot it down– really I am not making this up.

You will be amazed how uneducated the outside world is about domain names.