A few months ago I was browsing some of the domains coming up for auction at NameJet and I had the idea to see what sorts of common people’s names - I mean the names are common, not the people - might be dropping. I looked at several names and ran Google searches on them, studied the results, and considered their search popularity.

I ended up back ordering a handful of names, and won several at the minimum bid of $69 each. These included AprilWilliams.com, LauraVega.com, and MattGreene.com. I thought I might contact some of the people with those names and try to sell them the domains. As it turned out I got busy with other things, but only a few months later I received an offer for AprilWilliams.com through Sedo, and sold it for $500.

If you’ve been trying to acquire generic domains at auction and getting outbid, you might try some real “names”. If they’re common enough there’s sure to be a market and a steady trickle of traffic, and at the moment there’s not a lot of competition for these domains.

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I had a dream that I wanted to register a domain name for a company that provided round-the-clock network security and emergency response.

I walked into a domain registry company owned by Tom Hanks, the actor. In my dream, Tom was a charismatic, well known figure in the domain name industry, kind of like Bob Parsons. Tom was famous for his incredible energy and customer service, and since I was a well known domainer he attended to me personally.

Tom met me decked out in a sleek, dark suit, with gleaming black shoes and sporting a goatee. He took me into an air conditioned circular chamber with large flat screen monitors on the walls. There was a smell of ozone in the air.

Tom shot a series of rapid fire questions at me, designed to discover the perfect domain name. As I answered the questions a technician in a glass-walled booth typed furiously, and domain names began flashing across the monitors. With each question I answered the number of domains on the screens diminished, until at last only one phrase glowed on the largest screen:

midday

“Dot what?” I asked.

“Dot com!” Tom shouted exultantly.

“I´ll take it,” I said.

“Sold!” Tom crowed, then he turned on his heel and walked away.

I thought to myself, How could midday.com still be available? Sure enough, the technician spoke up:

“Actually, it´s dot org.”

“I´ll take it anyway as an investment,” I said, “but I still need something for my business.”

With the technician´s help I tried a few alternatives, such as midnight.com - I liked this one as it conveys the sense that we, the network emergency response team, are up at all hours, ready to go. But of course it was taken.

Tom wandered back and saw that I had not yet found the right domain name.

“I can´t leave a customer unsatisfied,” he exclaimed. “Tell you what I´m going to do. I will give you - that´s right, give you - TomJHanks.com, my own name!”

“Thanks Tom,” I said, “It´s a nice gesture, but it really doesn´t pertain to network security, does it?”

Tom didn’t like that and left in a huff.

The techie and I tried a few other variations and eventually I settled on InTheMiddleOfTheNight.com.

I was quite happy with it and when I woke up from the dream - yes, real life now - I logged into my Moniker account and registered it. Yes, I know it´s six words and long as a garden hose, but it´s got a certain feel to it. You can almost see the network techs sitting before shining monitors in the dark of the night, hard at work. Problem is, I don´t really have a network security firm as a client.

Ah well, if it doesn´t work out maybe I can sell it to a Hollywood studio for a horror flick.

P.S. TomJHanks.com is available as of this writing. Help yourself. That really is his middle initial.

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BAAE.com gets good traffic (50 to 70 uniques per month); geographical breakdown so far is 47.3% traffic from North America and 47.5% from Europe.

It got a $9.76 click on Sedo the other day. I think that’s the highest payout I’ve ever gotten on a single click. Update 5-8-2008: A $3.23 click yesterday. Not sure what it is about this domain that is paying off so well.

A Google search of “baae” brings 300,000 results, and BAAE.com itself is number seven on the list. Wow! Search results include:

• British Army Antarctic Expedition
• Basic and Applied Ecology
• Bachelor of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering
• British Airways Avionic Engineering
• Bachelor of Art in Art Education
• Bay Area Automotive Enthusiasts
• Brighton Adult Alternative Education

And the list goes on. That means guaranteed type-in traffic. Develop this domain name, forward the traffic to an established site, or flip it for a quick profit.

BAAE.com:

Buy it now only $1,900

Update: Reduced to $1,750 for quick sale!

Update 4-25-2008: Reduced to $1,500. Come on now, this is as low as it goes. Great deal for someone.

For comparison see these recent LLLL.com sales, all reported at DNJournal.com:

As you can see, BAAE.com is being offered at a discount.
Make your offer through my Contact Form.

Thank you and good luck!

Update 5-8-2008: BAAE is still available. It’s making fairly good money at Sedo. Nothing less than $1,500 will be considered. If I don’t get an offer I’ll hold on to it for now. $1,500 will look like a bargain next year.

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I’ve decided to build a social networking website focused on the Korean martial art of Hapkido. I have ten good domain names to choose from and I cannot decide. Can you help? I’d really appreciate any suggestions.

Half of my Hapkido-related domain names are parked at Sedo, and the other half at WhyPark.com where they display Adsense ads. Here are the stats from the last 12 months, except for Hapkido.info which has only been parked 10 months or so.

I’m going to create a website where Hapkidoists and other Korean martial arts practitioners can discuss, share photos, share videos and make friends. I will most likely use Ning, though I am considering Drupal. Ning is so much less work, but doesn’t offer the same degree of control.

I have narrowed it down to the four in red. Out of those, HapkidoVideos.com cries out to be developed into a video sales site, perhaps an Amazon affiliate site. So that leaves the other three: Hapkido.info, HapkidoBoard.com, and HapkidoDojang.com.

1. Hapkido.info - nice and short, and will look awfully good up there in a website header. I worry, however, that many people are not familiar with the .info extension and may not remember it.
2. HapkidoBoard.com - gets the most traffic of all my choices, and it’s precise and relevant. Only problem is, well, it’s kind of boring. I feel “board” already, ha ha.
3. HapkidoDojang.com - “dojang” is the Korean word for dojo. This is what the Korean arts call their training place. I think this domain has a nice ring to it, but I’m concerned that it might be too long or that the spelling might be challenging for some.

So, what do you think? Which of these would you choose to develop? Which is the easiest to spell and most memorable?

Are These Domain Names Dogs?

As you can see, none of these domain names are profitable on a purely parking basis. Several have made nothing at all, or very little. On the other hand, they get some traffic, and I never got around to optimizing them. I parked them and forgot about them, until I decided to tackle this social network project. Still, even if I were to optimize the parked pages they would probably do no better than break even.

Does that mean these domains are a waste of money and should be dropped? I don’t think so (ok, I might drop HapkidoWest.info. But not the others). Once I choose a domain to use for my social networking website, I will build the site, then forward all the other domains to that destination.

Adding them all up, these domains get almost 1,000 unique visitors per year. Build a website, use some Facebook-style viral marketing tactics to grow the membership, some linkbait, maybe a low-key Adwords campaign, and within a year I could see significant traffic. And that means profit.

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We all go through periods of discouragement and depression. At times like that it’s hard to motivate yourself to keep moving forward as a domainer or entrepreneur. The good news is that there are tools you can use to get through those rough patches.

I’m no exception. Sometimes the ills of the world, and my own personal problems, weigh on me like a sandbag on my shoulders. I feel lethargic and tired of my work. It’s easier at such times to pick up a good novel, especially a science fiction or fantasy novel, and lose myself temporarily in another world. Or I might begin several new online chess games and immerse myself in chess strategy. I have always been like this.

Now, however, this is a problem. I’m not a student or a 9 to 5 employee anymore. I’m a self-employed entrepreneur with a family, a business to run, and bills to pay. Furthermore, we are entering a challenging time, with PPC income down and domain buyers adopting a conservative stance as the U.S. heads into a recession.

So, what to do? It happens that I’ve survived stormy seas in the past and I’ve gotten to know myself well. Over the years I’ve developed a suite of motivational and organizational tools that helps me get through these rocky periods.

1. Affirmations

I’m a big believer in the power of affirmations. J. Donald Waters, a well known author and lecturer, says,

“An affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his life. It has been said that we are what we eat. It could be truer to say, ‘We are what we think.’”

I began using this tool in my mid twenties, when I went through a dark and difficult period, and it made a huge difference.

Affirmations helped me overcome:

• negative self-images of myself
• negative self-assessments of my competency
• negative memories of my past behavior that replayed constantly in my mind
• feelings of jealousy toward others who are more “successful”
• self-pity and cynicism

At the same time my understanding of my own strengths and worth, and my right to realize my dreams, came into fruition. Along with this came a new faith in the future.

In subsequent years I wrote extensively, held a steady job for years (a first for me), started a business, got married and bought a house. All of this was possible because prayer, meditation, and daily affirmations enabled me to change my self-conception. I went from confused to intrepid, self-reliant and determined.

I didn’t intend for this to be a how-to on affirmations, but I do think this is an important subject, as I believe that many people are crippled by negative self-beliefs that have been put upon them by others.

My personal affirmations consist of three short lists, each containing different types of “I” statements: “I am,” “I will,” and “I love.”

“I Am” Statements

“I Am” statements are affirming declarations of some good qualities that I possess, or want to possess. For example:

1. I am a loving, attentive husband and father. I cherish my family and they are the most important part of my life.
2. I am a hard working, confident and highly successful domain name investor.
3. I am a natural moneymaker. I am good at making money, investing money, and increasing my wealth.
4. I am open to opportunities that others may miss.
5. I am a talented writer, with an original voice and important ideas to share.
6. I am an athletic man. I love working out, practicing martial arts, lifting weights, hiking, and strengthening my body in every way.
7. I am a spiritual person. Prayer and meditation are an important part of my daily routine.

To those of you who are already self-confident and self-aware, such affirmations may seem like a waste of time. But most people are full of self-doubt in some or all areas of their lives, and their doubt acts as a brake, shutting them down when they try to move forward.

Keep in mind that the affirmations do not have to be 100% true. For example, looking at the second one above, I am indeed a hard working and relatively confident individual. But there are times when my confidence flags. And I would not call myself highly successful yet. That’s where I want to be, but not where I am. The affirmations steadily mold my self-perception until they become reality. In addition, they act as motivational kindling, stoking my internal fires to move me forward.

There are three critical points to keep in mind concerning affirmations:

1. Make them ambitious but believable.
2. Repeat them frequently, at least two or three times a day.
3. Follow them up with specific action plans.

You may have noticed also that my affirmations are balanced across the various spheres of life, including business, family, physical and spiritual. That meets my needs, but yours can be more focused on one area if you wish.

“I Will” Statements

These are statements of specific, concrete goals that you intend to achieve. Again, make these challenging. They should stretch your capabilities, but be believable. “I will sell a million dollar domain name within five years” is great, but “I will become the richest domainer on earth” is not believable.

“I Will” statements can also cover all spheres of life.

I suggest that you write these statements down and keep the list somewhere handy so that you can review it, at a minimum, three times a day: first thing in the morning when you wake up, once in the middle of the day, and last thing at night before you go to bed.

In the beginning you will be skeptical of your own affirmations and you may find yourself thinking that it’s silly or embarrassing. You have been conditioned for years to believe that your dreams are unrealistic and silly, and some of that will come out as you read your affirmations.

Never mind that. Just keep at it, three times a day minimum, and you will find that in time your skepticism will disappear. As your faith in yourself grows, you will see opportunities that you did not see before. You will conceive of concrete ways to realize your goals.

“I Love” Statements

This may not be for everyone, and in fact I only occasionally use this portion of my list. These statements are appropriate for individuals who are deeply depressed, discouraged or negative.

Make a list of the things in life that you love, no matter how small or remote that may seem. For example:

• I love my parents, my wife, my children, and my close friends (it’s a good idea to name each person individually).
• I love the color of the sky in the evening just after sunset.
• I love a good banana split.
• I love the soreness in my muscles after a workout.
• I love the satisfaction of making a good profit on a domain name sale.

Etcetera. Reading this list over each day will serve to remind you of all that is good in life, so that you’re not constantly thinking of life in negative terms.

Disclaimer: For individuals who are clinically depressed or suffering some emotional trauma, I am not suggesting that affirmations should take the place of therapy or medical care. But they can augment your recovery.

What these are really useful for is long-term reshaping of your self-conceptions, which then changes your approach to everything in life.

To learn more about the power of affirmations and how to craft them, I’d suggest reading the following books:

Affirmations of Wealth: 101 Secrets of Daily Success

Affirmations for Self-Healing

Part two of this article will discuss simple organizational techniques that can keep you moving forward when you’re not in the mood.

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There are a number of important differences between Namejet and Snapnames, two popular domain drop-catching services. But there’s one difference in particular that you need to watch out for. It has to do with the auction process.

Namejet.com is, of course, the new domain name drop-catching service that has stolen a lot of business from Snapnames.com. Namejet now gets the domain names that expire on Network Solutions or eNom, while Snapnames picks up expiring domains from dozens of other registrars all over the world, large and small. When I want a domain name, I always back order it at both sites, as well as Pool.com, just to be safe.

When Namejet first debuted late last year, their interface was very buggy, but they seem to have worked out the glitches.

Another point on which Namejet lost to Snapnames was that on Namejet you could not see who you were bidding against when a domain went to auction. They have since corrected this problem and now, once you’ve back ordered a domain name, you can see a complete bid history showing each bidder’s handle, bid amount and time/date of bid.

Watch out when back ordering on Namejet, though. Their back order process works differently from Snapnames.

On Snapnames you can bid the maximum amount you’re willing to pay and the amount will not be displayed to other bidders. Snapnames will increase your bid incrementally as you are outbid, first by increments as small as $1, then increasing to $10 and eventually $20 as the bid increases.

I like this system, because I can look at abc.com and say to myself, “I’d pay as much as $5,000 for that, not a penny more.” So I put in my bid at $5,000, even if it’s still only at $70, and I walk away. Once the auction starts Snapnames will walk up the bid for me incrementally. If I end up getting the domain for $1,000, great. If it costs me $4,500, ok, I was prepared for that. If I get outbid and it goes to someone else for $5,100, well, that sucks but I said in advance that I wasn’t prepared to pay that much, so my absence has enforced a sort of unconscious discipline on my bid.

Namejet does not do this. If there are five current back orders at $69 each, and you order the domain for $5,000, the bid is immediately increased to $5,000 and that is visible to everyone. If you win the auction you will pay $5,000, even if none of the other bidders go above $69. That’s awful. Maybe the other bidders would not have paid more than $1,000, so that’s a wasted $4,000 you did not have to spend.

What that means it that if I really want the domain name I must be present when the auction starts, and I have to sit there, manually increasing my bid by $10 at a time or whatever, until the auction ends.

I don’t care for that system and I have asked Namejet to change it. I will continue to place back orders on Namejet because of the quality of the domains dropping there, but I am careful with my back orders.

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MaidSolutions.com, an excellent two-word generic in a saturated business market, is at auction right now at Sedo with only a $300 reserve. There’s only one day left in the auction.

To bid go to MaidSolutions.com and click on the link at lower left that says BUY THIS DOMAIN.

Or click here to go directly to the auction page.

The above postcard was designed for businesses who might buy the domain name and you are free to use it to market the domain name if you buy MaidSolutions.com (the postcard is slightly larger than you see here but I have re-sized it to fit the page. In the full-sized image the text is sharp and clear).

The reasons for a domainer to buy this domain would be slightly different from the ones above:

1. The domain gets traffic and earns revenue.
2. Great re-sale market. If you look at any phone directory you’ll see many maid services in the yellow pages.
3. There are several large, national maid service chains who would be obvious buyers.
4. You could build a directory of maid services and charge for listings.
5. Build an e-commerce site selling automated solutions like the Roomba.
6. Bargain price for a two-word generic dot com.

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I’ve been thinking about developing a few of my domain names into social networks, and I’ve been researching various possible software platforms. I’ve considered such varied solutions as Drupal, Pligg, a combination of Wordpress and phpBB, and Ning.

All of these are open source and free except for Ning, which is a hosted application that lets you build your own full-featured social network. It’s free, but Ning runs ads on your network, unless you pay a (fairly low) monthly fee in which case you can do away with the ads or run your own if you like.

By the way, the Ning blog recently wrote a post on the unveiling of Magicians.com. I remember July last year when the owner posted the following on the NamePros.com forum:

Hello everyone,I’ve owned several excellent domain names for some time, but have not posted them for feedback in a forum like this! If you have any thoughts on value or other for these domains, please let me know! I look forward to your posts! Have a great day,

Magician.com
Magicians.com
Illusionist.com
MagicComedian.com

The respondents valued these domains anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 each, although one fellow had a unique offer:

I wish I had one of those names. Are you interested in my first born child?

Anyway, I’m glad the owner chose the development route and I’ll be interested to see if he sticks with the Ning platform over the long term.

In the course of my research on social network solutions I came across this fantastic article on TechCrunch, from July of last year:

Part One: Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network

Part Two: 34 More Ways to Build Your Own Social Network

Michael takes a superbly detailed look at all the solution providers in the social networking space. I have not yet decided which solution I’ll be using, though I’m fairly sure I’ll go with Ning for those domains that I feel have a good chance of attracting a large user base.

For communities that might be smaller (a few hundred members or less) I will choose a solution with no monthly fees and no cost after initial set up (aside from hosting of course).

Have you developed any of your domain names into social networks? What software did you use? What success have you had?

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My recent article, “How to Find Great Domain Names: 12 Super Tips” has proved enormously popular and has received thousands of views.

In one part of the article I wrote, “Ignore trends that may have a cult following but are not widely known. For example, I recently read about a new trend among photography hobbyists called lomography. I tasted several domains related to this trend but found that they got no traffic, so I let them drop. Instead look for trends that have the potential to be huge.”

One of my readers, “woolwit,” was intrigued by the mention of domain tasting and asked the following question:

“Excellent article and a great reference for creative domaining. You mention domain tasting in the article. I’ve always assumed that it was only the big bulk domainers who had access to domain tasting. Would you consider writing a short How-To taste domains for the rest of us? I’ve looked around on GoDaddy and not found anything. Can you recommend a registrar who makes tasting available one domain at a time?”

At the risk of sounding like a hypocrite, let me say first that I’m opposed to domain tasting. The big tasting companies use automated scripts and sneaky tactics of all kinds to taste domains by the millions, keeping the ones that make a few pennies and throwing the rest back. They’re very secretive about ownership and are generally located offshore. I think it’s bad for the industry and unfair to individual domainers, and I’m in favor of abolishing it altogether. In particular the practice of churning vast numbers of domains but registering none, keeping them in an endless trial period loop, is disgusting.

Until that day comes, however, I do make use of domain tasting on a small scale. I’m talking one or two domains at a time. I think that tasting in this manner is a reasonable way for a domainer with a limited budget to try out ideas without racking up a big credit card bill.

Last year I did a lot of searching, trying to find an affordable tasting solution for the little guy, and I finally found TastingGenie, which bills itself as “Domain tasting for the masses.” It’s run by a registrar called MindGenies.

By the way, this is not an affiliate link or paid post. I don’t get anything for recommending them. I’m simply helping out my readers.

At TastingGenie you pay $100 up front to set up an account. They have sort of a complicated pricing scheme with different plans to choose from, but what it basically amounts to is that you pay as little as 7 cents per domain to taste. They are partnered with DomainSponsor.com, you’ll need an account there. Each domain that you taste is automatically configured with DomainSponsor’s nameservers, and you then go to your DomainSponsor account and add the domain.

The tasting period is 4.5 days. If you do nothing, TastingGenie will automatically drop the domain name. If you want to keep it, you must log in to your TastingGenie account and select the domain name to keep. At that point it will be registered at MindGenies for $7.25. That money will be taken out of your $100 credit that you started with.

I’ve been satisfied with TastingGenie’s service and I think it’s a good way to try out a few domain ideas every now and then without ending up with a lot of useless no-traffic domain names.

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I’ve decided to write an e-book on domaining. True, I started in 2005 which makes me a latecomer to the domain name industry. Also true that I have not made millions of dollars (yet), though I do own upwards of 2,000 domain names that earn good parking income and I have made many good sales.

(more…)

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