Go Big or Go Home. RickLatona.com is now in the live auction business.

“Exciting times my friend!” Those were the words used by the illustrious Rick Schwartz when we came to agreement on my company doing a live auction event at the TRAFFIC meeting in New York this coming September. Exciting times indeed, Rick.

I’ve become the largest individual reseller and broker of domains in the business because I’m a domainer to the core. I understand what names people want and what prices will get them to bite. It’ll be more than interesting to see how this winning formula will perform in a live format.

Granted, there are four other companies doing auctions along side mine at the show. Schwartz is breaking the mold again by testing a multiple auction format. I’ll have only one hour to do my business but a lot can be accomplished in that amount of time.

I have a plan on how to make the names we are listing really stand out from the crowd but it would be silly for me to tell you guys about that here with competitors watching.

As details become available you’ll be able to find out about them here on my blog or more importantly on my newsletter. If you aren’t signed up yet, do so on the top right corner of this web page.

Pig butt anyone?

You have to admire a country with such a passion for ham, or Jamón to be correct in Spanish.

Here in Madrid you can really splurge on the tasty asses of swine.

I personally prefer the jamón ibérico which is taken from Black Ibérian pig which eats only acorns while roaming oak forests between Spain and Portugal. It’s a romantic thing to think of them hobbling around eating nuts waiting to be slaughtered. It’s romantic because in the States it’s usually the abused animals that taste the best like baby calves that hang in the air on ropes and are never allowed to touch the ground for fear of their meat becoming less tender.

A small plate of jamón ibérico will set you back about 20 Euros or more than 30 dollars U.S. but it is worth every Euro cent.

The olives here are tasty as well but they aren’t nearly as funny to write about.

On the subject of meat, for the domainers who are reading this, it’s interesting to note that cubesteak.com does over 1 dollar a day for me on AdSense. That name shouldn’t do so well. Clearly it is because the name has a mini-site on it and isn’t parked. If you’d like me to help you put mini-sites up on your names and you are willing to pay my team for their time, drop me a note with the names you’d like done and we’ll get back to you.

Where are they now? A look at domains sold in the past.

From time to time, if you follow the domainer message boards, you’ll see posts about domains that have been sold and what the new owner has done with them. This is my post on the subject.

For the purpose of this exercise, let’s look at only names that have sold over two years ago as the recent ones haven’t had enough time to develop properly if that is what the buyer intends.

I’ve seen very few turn into interesting products. Here’s one that does peek my curiosity. Look at ideposit.com. It’s a system that allows you to scan checks in remotely through a machine on your desk. With it, you don’t have to make trips to the bank. It’s obvious why this would be handy but probably especially so for the domainer working in remote locations from their actual bank. I could see people scanning checks like this to deposit them in their account offshore, for example.

There are the fair share of brochure websites that are a product of my sales. Typical ones would be InvestmentBrokers.com or GoSleep.com.

My personal favorites are the developed sites I’ve sold, many of which haven’t been updated since I sold them. Soundboards.com comes to mind.

The trend, as far as I can see, is that none of the names I have sold have gone on to become massive Internet companies. It’s a sobering thought really. A vast majority of the names are still parked by the new owners or are simple sites which I doubt make very much like Bogey.com.

Even the sites that were developed out nicely, don’t get more traffic than this blog, according to Alexa.com anyway. Look at iFares.com, mybanks.com or GreenWithEnvy.com.

Then, of course, there are those names you sell which are now dead links or even better, they still point at your name servers! This is much more common than one would think.

In summary, I have no regrets and will continue to sell most names, and keep and develop the ones I have a personal vision for. There are the dissapointments now and again but they are the result of me realizing I could have gotten more for them, not that I should have kept them.

vTLDs - My Thoughts

So I’ve had time now to digest and summarize my thoughts on the new vanity top level domain extensions that ICANN has decided to soon allow. Yes, I’m also supporting David Castello’s coined terminology “vTLDs”.

The quick and dirty answer of mine is that they are a bum deal for speculators but a great opportunity for entreprenuers. In otherwords, I will be applying for a few of them.

I think the smart money is to go after small niche markets. Let’s take for example a potential .nyc in the New York market. Say about 200 grand is spent on ICANN fees, software, support and a first year’s small, grass-roots marketing campaign.

You would need 6667 regististrations to break even at a $29.99 price point per year.

I have to think you could bump into a couple thousand of those just from big companies protecting their brands. So the work is 1/3rd done for you. After that you just need to have a team of kids go to concerts in the park and colleges and pimp vanity domains to individuals. Give them free email addresses, etc and you have a better than excellent chance of clearing that 6667 required registrations.

In time, a market like that could get up to 50,000+ registrations with relative ease, I would think. That’s cash flow.

So far I’ve identified 20 niches I will be going after. My plan is essentially to create a network of partnerships so it’s not just me applying for 20 niches. If ICANN gets 20 applications from the same company they will most likely only grant one of them, I’m guessing. So, my plan is to submit each application in conjunction with other individuals and companies.

There you go. I’m an open book. There are few secrets on this blog.

If you have an idea for a vTLD, contact me and we’ll try to work something out. I’m actively seeking partners with the right goods and ideas. I have the cash but I won’t want to put up all the money so don’t hit me up if that’s your idea. If you want to invest in the domain business along with me and have something to bring to the table where together we can make it work, let’s talk.

dyslexia is a disease horrible

I’m not sure why I keep making so many mistakes in my daily newsletters. Just yesterday I made two.

I told my audience that on jp.net I can no confirm that this name does 5 dollars a day on Sedo. What does that mean? It looks like I’m saying I can’t confirm when in fact I can. Well, the name sold anyway, fortunately.

I also listed NewRochelle.com for the first time. I told everyone that it is on Long Island when in fact it’s just outside the Bronx. It’s a suburb of New York City.

Maybe I should have stayed in high school after all. The day before I spelled BusinessSupplies.com as busnesssupplies.com. Shoot, I make mistakes at least a few times a week.

If it was one of my employees butchering emails that went out to all of my customers I’d freak out on them. Yet here I am the guilty party.

It sucks because I proof read them over and over but I still miss stuff. It’s not like there is a ton of content on those emails to review!