It pays to advertise. I hope!

Many of you know I have a two-page spread in Website Magazine. I also just contracted for a two-page spread in Modern Domainer. Today, I took it one leap further. I’ve agreed to a very expensive, 6-digit contract for a two-page centerfold spread in the monthly Internet Retailer magazine.

This magazine is read by the major players in eCommerce. I’m sure Jeff Bezos himself checks it out from time to time. Well, his assistant probably does.

According to their audited demographics 13.4% of their readers are at companies that do greater than 1 billion dollars per year in sales. 17% of them do between 100 million and 1 billion. 31.3% do 10-100 million. The rest, naturally, do less.

Many of us have talked about proactively putting something in place to go after end-users. Is this the golden ticket? Probably not. However, I do think that with this ad, and more to come in the future, I’ll have an even greater chance of reaching them.

What’s funny to me about all the fixedloans.com hoopla

I was the one that had sold fixedloans.com at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in 2006. I remember that date well. Moniker had just started doing auctions and nobody really knew how well it would go over. I had a strategy of putting 10 decent names in all at no reserve that I had nothing into. I figured that there would be more people in the room that could afoard 5-20,000 dollars than there would be bidding on the really big names. I didn’t want them to be left out. I did about 180k in total sales at that show and I thought I had really done great! When I finish an auction at that number now it is a disaster.

Over the last two days I’ve counted more than 20 blog posts out there about this particular name being auctioned at Bido. They are talking about it being an auction that determines how much domains have appreciated in the last few years. After all, I sold it for $10,000 so if it sells for $20,000 than the market doubled, right? Right?

Let’s look at something that hasn’t been pointed out because only two people know it. I bought that name along with 24 other finance related names in 2004 for $25,000. In otherwords, I paid $1000 per name. Does that mean that for the domain business to maintain it’s growth rate it should sell for $100,000?

Who the hell really knows? Personally, I hope it proves that Bob’s Rug Syndrome is a horrible disease and that you should sell your names from time to time. After all, I couldn’t have purchased those 25 names had I not sold names before them and you can bet your bottom dollar that I have made more off that $8500 (after Moniker’s fees) than I ever could have made keeping that name and never having time to do anything with it.

It’s a good name. Personally, I think now it is worth more than $20,000 and I hope for Sahar and others that it does that or much more.

What’s funny to me about all the fixedloans.com hoopla

I was the one that had sold fixedloans.com at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in 2006. I remember that date well. Moniker had just started doing auctions and nobody really knew how well it would go over. I had a strategy of putting 10 decent names in all at no reserve that I had nothing into. I figured that there would be more people in the room that could afoard 5-20,000 dollars than there would be bidding on the really big names. I didn’t want them to be left out. I did about 180k in total sales at that show and I thought I had really done great! When I finish an auction at that number now it is a disaster.

Over the last two days I’ve counted more than 20 blog posts out there about this particular name being auctioned at Bido. They are talking about it being an auction that determines how much domains have appreciated in the last few years. After all, I sold it for $10,000 so if it sells for $20,000 than the market doubled, right? Right?

Let’s look at something that hasn’t been pointed out because only two people know it. I bought that name along with 24 other finance related names in 2004 for $25,000. In otherwords, I paid $1000 per name. Does that mean that for the domain business to maintain it’s growth rate it should sell for $100,000?

Who the hell really knows? Personally, I hope it proves that Bob’s Rug Syndrome is a horrible disease and that you should sell your names from time to time. After all, I couldn’t have purchased those 25 names had I not sold names before them and you can bet your bottom dollar that I have made more off that $8500 (after Moniker’s fees) than I ever could have made keeping that name and never having time to do anything with it.

It’s a good name. Personally, I think now it is worth more than $20,000 and I hope for Sahar and others that it does that or much more.

I wish I had taken ccTLDs and IDNs more seriously

True global brands need a .com extension. Clearly there are obvious exceptions but for the most part, if you want to market to the world, you need a good .com. However, with all the patting on the back old-school domainers like to give themselves, you have to admit, we should have registered more country-code top-level domains and internationalized domain names.

I think this is especially true for those of us that resell our names. While I was in Spain this summer, I couldn’t help but notice that most of the small and medium businesses I saw had .es ccTLDs. Many large companies marketed ccTLDs locally as well. If only I had registered 100,000 of them to sell at 1000-10,000 Euros a piece!

The Domain In Spain Falls Mainly On The .es Extension

Instead I sat there comfortably fooling myself that .com was all that would ever matter.

This does not mean that I’m going to start buying $50,000 ccTLDs and IDNs so please don’t try and sell them to me. I just wish I had had the foresight to have gotten them early.

Time and again I am hearing stories about IDNs’ revenue growing year in and year out while revenue in most other extensions are falling. This of course, is especially true in Asian countries where businesses must adopt and promote an IDN because otherwise the masses wouldn’t understand the meaning of the name.

This almost makes me think .mobi names have a chance. Almost.

Let me repeat that I’m not a buyer on these names at big dollars. I just think hand-registering them makes a lot of sense. As does hand registering other extensions like .mobi, .name, .asia, .info, .me, etc. Hand register the hell out of them and sell them to end-users down the line.

More than anything I like the ccTLD names and I’m kicking myself in the ass for not having more of them.

Fortunately, there are still many opportunities left for everyone.

**Added after post went live** One thing I forgot to mention is that we are noticing it is easier to get a website ranked in Google.ccTLD if you have domain.ccTLD. In other words, Our aeiou.com customers are reporting higher traffic on their ccTLD names from the respective countries.

Buying houses can be as addictive as buying domains

Can someone tell me if I’m crazy? I’m about to take a very expensive domainer’s approach to the battered housing market.

I’ve been spending a lot of time on Foreclosure.com since reading about that company’s acquistion of Rick Shwartz’s property.com.

I’m fascinated with the Real Estate industry. There is more value in my neighborhood than the total value of all domains ever auctioned off. There is SO very much money out there in land and buildings.

So after looking at the daily email alerts I setup for myself at Foreclosure.com I’m starting to develop a strategy.

The image here in this post is a map of downtown Atlanta.  For those that know the area, they’ll notice the red marker’s proximity to Georgia Tech, Morehouse College, Phillips Arena, The Georgia Dome, downtown and midtown. How much is the asking price for the 3 bedroom 2 bath single family home? $17,900.

Granted, the neighborhood is bad, bad, bad. I have no desire to be a slum lord or to take a machine gun with me to collect rents so I’ll sum up my strategy like this: Basically, it’s to buy one crappy house in each major city in the country, maybe the world. I’ll only buy houses that are very close to downtown areas. Each house I buy I’ll pay cash for them and have them knocked down and fenced off. Then I’ll wait ten years.

Some of those neighborhoods are going to be completely revitalized over the years, don’t you assume?

I’ve always likened the domain business to a mine-field. The more names you own, the more likely some end user is going to step on one. The larger my portfolio gets, the more offers I get on names. Would it be any different with these houses?

Perhaps the cities will have to buy them for improvement projects, new runways, stadiums, and what-nots.
Am I crazy? My goal is 100 of these houses in 100 cities in 12 months.

2008 World Livestock Champion Matt Lowery joins Rick Latona Auctions, LLC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

2008 World Livestock Champion Matt Lowery joins Rick Latona Auctions, LLC.

Atlanta, Georgia USA – August 6, 2008 – Matt Lowery will be joining Rick Latona Auctions, LLC, who will be hosting their first Auction September 24, 2008 in New York at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C Domain Conference and Expo.

2008 World Livestock Champion Matt Lowery will be coming to New York as auctioneer for Rick Latona Auctions.  Matt Lowery will be coming from Burwell, Nebraska where he has been in and around the cattle business for his entire life.  Matt has over 3000 sales in his career and averages over 60 million dollars in gross sales each year.  Matt is one of three auctioneers to win all three major auctioneer competitions on the North American continent.  These competitions are judged on the following criteria speed, clarity, rhythm, bid spotting ability, and “Would I hire this auctioneer?”.  These are undoubtedly some of the qualities that are needed to make an auction a great success and we are very fortunate to be adding his talents and skills to our team.

Matt’s competitive nature is evidenced by the number of professional auctioneering competitions he has entered, winning the following: 1998, 1999 Nebraska Auctioneers Association Rookie of the year, 2000 Nebraska Auctioneers Association Champion, 2000 International Livestock Auctioneer Contest Rookie of the year, 2001 International Livestock Auctioneer Reserve Champion, 2002 International Livestock Auctioneer Contest First Runner Up, 2004 International Livestock Auctioneer Contest Reserve Champion, 2006 International Livestock Auctioneer Contest Champion, 2002, 2003 Greater Midwest Livestock Auctioneer Contest Reserve Champion, 2006 Greater Midwest Livestock Auctioneer Champion, 2002 Runner Up World Champion Livestock Auctioneer, 2003, 2004 Reserve World Champion Livestock Auctioneer, 2008 Midwest Regional Champion, and the 2008 World Champion Livestock Auctioneer.

During our auctioneer selection process, Matt told us that he loved to compete at a high level of competition and that he felt that we were on the cutting edge in our industry after doing his due diligence on us.

Rick Latona Auctions will have their first live auction on September 24, 2008 at the Mariott Brooklyn Bridge to an in room anticipated crowd of 425 and an anticipated live internet broadcast audience of 2,500 viewers.

Contact:
David Clements
david@davidclements.com
Rick Latona Auctions, LLC
405 Brentwood Dr. NE
Atlanta, GA  30305
Ph: +1.678.468.9228

aeiou.com Frequently Asked Questions

So after 2 days in business we’ve been inundated with questions and I thought it best to answer them right here on this blog. At least the most frequently asked ones…

If this is the first thing you are reading on aeiou.com, read the post I put in before this one for a general intro.

Question: How do I make money with my new site?
Answer: We place your ad codes on your websites and you collect 100% of the revenue instead of sharing with other companies! We recommend Google AdSense, it’s what we use on our sites. However if you would like to run any other ads, our team would be happy to assist you in having those placed.

Question: Do you have examples of revenue generated on some of the developed sites? What type of increases are you seeing?
Answer: We developed the system to run at a conservative 1 year ROI.  Keep in mind that you are not just developing for increased revenue, but you are also investing in the overall value of your domain name.  Earnings vary due to different topic earnings and available search traffic for a certain topic.

We have many clients that are doing well ahead of 1 year ROI, however we keep our conservative goal at 1 year.

Question: Do you accept any site into your rapid site development process?
Answer: No, we do have a small review process to make sure that your domain name will pair well with our service.  We believe in that golden rule of treating other the way you wish to be treated.  If we would not develop a domain name, we would not recommend that you do either!

Question: How long does it take for aeiou.com to complete a Rapid Site Development?
Answer: Depending on order flow we try to keep everyone on a 4-5 day turn around time. That means 4-5 days after your order is placed and paid for we will hand you over the keys to your brand new mini site.

Question: If the site goes to sale, what happens?
You own the site in all of it’s entirety.  If you wish to sell the domain name, you can sell the website with it adding value to your name.  This is one of the fundamental reasons we started doing this on every domain we have.  You will maintain all brokering roles including setting up escrow etc.  If you sell the name, our team would be glad to help you transfer the domain to the new owner.

Question: Do you have a contractual agreement for your service?
Answer: We do not have any contractual agreements in place.  Once we finish our development process you own all rights to the content, design, and marketing efforts.  You can do as you wish with them.

Pricing Questions

Question: How much is a Rapid Site Development mini site?
Answer: We charge a 1 time fee of $250 to develop and market your domain. Once our service is complete, you own 100% of the website. This includes all content, design elements, and the ongoing results of our marketing campaign.

Question: Do you offer bulk discounts?
Answer: Yes we do have a bit of wiggle room for volume buyers. Please note that we already have these aggressively priced from the start in order to maximize your ROI. If you are interested in a bulk deal please contact us and we will work something out.

Question:  Do you accept PayPal for payment?
Answer:  Yes, Paypal is actually our preferred payment provider.

Development Questions

Question: Which domains work best for you service?
Answer: Throughout building these sites we have found that generic keyword combinations produce the highest results. We do not recommend abreviations and acronyms.

Question: Do you offer domain development other than mini sites?
Answer: Yes, we do offer services for your development needs beyond the rapid mini site.  Custom projects will be treated as such and we can discuss your goals and expectations and formulate a business plan that will help you get to those goals. We always recommend starting any big development with a mini site as it allows your domain to “saturate” into the search engines and also creates a traffic base that is very helpful in the launch of a new site.  If you are interested in these services let me know and we will take it from there.

Question: How often is the content updated?
Answer: Once we complete our development and marketing process there are no on-going updates.  If there are small changes that need to be made to the finished product in order to maintain relevancy and such we handle those free of charge.

Question:  Do I have any input on site content or categories?
Answer:  Of course!  If you have a certain direction you wish to head with your domain we can definitely talk about that and work it into the build.  We do research on your topic in order to make sure we maximize your opportunity to gain as much traffic as possible while maintaining a site that is useful for the surfers.  We also analyze and base our content around which areas of your subject will yield the optimal earnings per click.

Question: Does every aeiou.com developed web site have the For Sale option on it?
Answer: This is an option that we offer to our clients, it is totally optional.  If you are a reseller I recommend placing this link as it does not effect anything and you have a lead generator for the sales process outside of any other companies commissions.

Question: Is email address capture on the web site a possible future option?
Answer: Yes, this will actually come standard on all developments.  We are constantly adding features to our developments and we gladly take requests.

Marketing Questions

Question: What is involved in your marketing process?
Answer: The marketing portion of our development process is really the driving force behind why Rapid Site Development works. Not only do we build a custom site focused on your target keywords, but we also go out and set the foundation for a lifetime of additional traffic for your site.

Question: Do you use spammy or questionable methods when marketing?
Answer: Absolutely not. We do not believe in shady, black hat, what ever you may want to call it, tactics. Our team believes in quality traffic, and that is what we strive for.

Question: What is your long-term SEO plan for the finished w/site?
Answer: Our Rapid Site Development process does not include any long term SEO management.  We have however designed our marketing campaign to last.  We do not use any spammy technique or short term methods to just get your site listed.  All of our methods are natural, targeted and meant to continue to benefit the site over its lifetime.

Hosting Questions

Question: Will I need my own server for hosting?
Answer: Nope, we will host your site for free for you in exchange for a free link back to aeiou.com on your site. If you would like to host your own sites, that is not a problem either. Really it is whichever is easiest for you!

Question: How long is the hosting agreement for?
Answer: If you choose to host with us, we will host the site for life in its current state.  If you wish to add more features and require additional resources, we can work out a monthly fee to cover this.  We have many servers so we are able to keep the prices low on this.

aeiou.com is now live. Mini-sites done the right way, here’s why…

We’ve been building, SEO optimizing and marketing our domains as mini-sites for a couple of years now. I hate parking and most of you know this.

When we build a site we put custom written content on it and then do link building on the domain so that Google  and the other major search engines will feel it is relevant. The end-result is that the names get listed in the search engines and have rankings that continue to improve.

What we’ve put together is a simple formula and an asembly line process that can quickly and cheaply allow us to take any domain, slap a simple design on it, 5 pages of custom text, and a day of intense link building all at an affordable price.

Because we use separate experts for each task and pump out hundreds of sites per week we are able to offer this service to you, the domainer, for $250 or less per name. It’s totally worth it. The names not only make more money but are worth more money.

To hell with parking. Check out my new www.aeiou.com, fill out the form to request information and we’ll tell you more.

aeiou.com is now live. Mini-sites done the right way, here’s why…

We’ve been building, SEO optimizing and marketing our domains as mini-sites for a couple of years now. I hate parking and most of you know this.

When we build a site we put custom written content on it and then do link building on the domain so that Google  and the other major search engines will feel it is relevant. The end-result is that the names get listed in the search engines and have rankings that continue to improve.

What we’ve put together is a simple formula and an asembly line process that can quickly and cheaply allow us to take any domain, slap a simple design on it, 5 pages of custom text, and a day of intense link building all at an affordable price.

Because we use separate experts for each task and pump out hundreds of sites per week we are able to offer this service to you, the domainer, for $250 or less per name. It’s totally worth it. The names not only make more money but are worth more money.

To hell with parking. Check out my new www.aeiou.com, fill out the form to request information and we’ll tell you more.

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.

« Previous Page — Next Page »