Spence Yao wrote a post today on Search Engine Journal dealing with domain names and their impact on both SEO and Social Media.
From the article:
When starting a new website, one of the first and most important decisions you have to make is choosing a domain name.
That choice will impact the website’s success in nearly every area,
included search engine optimization (SEO) and social media marketing
(SMM). Let’s examine how a domain name impacts SEO and SMM and then
analyze the factors that make a good domain name.
The article discusses whether or not to choose a keyword domain.
7 factors to consider when choosing a brandable domain.
Day in and day out when buying and checking domain names, many
domainers check the exact amount of searches for the keyword or phrase
using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (GAKT). I took a look inward and
looked at domining terms, websites and personalities in the domain
industry to see what kind of search numbers there are.
The first number is the Global Exact and the second is the Local Exact (US)
Matthew Green just uploaded his presentation at the UnderGround Online Seminar, which is a rather interesting conference in that the location is not disclosed. Only attendees get the details on the location of the conference.
According to the conference:
This conference has hosted famous speakers like Bob Parsons, head of GoDaddy, Tim Ferriss, author of The Four-Hour Workweek,
Gary Vaynerchuk, NY Times and Wall St Journal Best-Selling Author.
Every year, its top information means that it sells out well in advance
of the event.
The speakers each year have to have success at something other than
selling “how to earn a living online” training. They have been
successful in their own real business; otherwise, they aren’t invited to
speak. So Silver says, “this year’s stage will be filled with the
widest cross-section of entrepreneurial geniuses you’ll ever meet.”
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When you watch the video, I think it would have been nice to give the people on stage chairs.
Dan wrote an article in The Guardian that is sure to make any domainer smile. Dan said the following, "My students get extra credit if they can show they've registered an internet domain name for themselves. In any future course I teach, this will no longer be optional; it will be a requirement."
Dan pointed out how Facebook and Twitter and other social sites have their place, but that its a mistake to leave your online reputation in the hands of a third party.
The real key to this story is the comment section. The number of people that in 2013 feel that owing a domain, just one, was foolish, a waste of money, would rather have a latte and many other reasons shows why we are still in the first inning.
It reminds one of this famous faux pas, “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a
fad.” — The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising Henry Ford’s
lawyer, Horace Rackham, not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903.
Sedo released its 2012 market study and it is a must read for those new to domain
investing. Those with second or third tier names that want to sell them for high five figures and even sometimes six figures should take a strong look at what the mean and median prices are.
When you look at the mean average price across all domain sales was $1,885, while the median price was $600, that shows you that looking to sell average to below average names for five figures in most cases is not realistic. It does not mean it will never happen, but you need some luck and special circumstances for that to happen.
The study also shows that buy it now pricing is becoming more prevalent and that over 46% of all sales were for $500 or less. Now Sedo and other exchanges want you to price your names as it makes transactions smoother, you need to make up your own mind on that, you need to think about commissions and what level of promotion you are using.
The $500 or less number in 46 % of sales shows that there are plenty of buyers out there but unless the name is exceptional buyers are not looking to spend four figures for their domain name.
Of course there are many great sales month in and month out. You should try to get those prices for your best domains but paying attention to the actual market with your lesser but marketable names may allow you to keep the cash flow moving and make more sales.
I was having an interesting conversation with another domainer who told me that he believed less than half of what he read about sales and success stories in the domain industry.
He mentioned that he tracked names that the whois never updated, some deals he believed were so crazy that it must be money laundering. He went on to say that he only heard of the successes but not failures of domainers.
I mentioned that domaining is still behind most industries in transparency and that I thought it certainly needed to improve. I also don't believe everything I read, but I do think what is posted or written about is above 50 % accurate.
The past year has shown that some old tricks no longer work and some new ones have been developed. Over the last year the Panda,Penguin and EMD updates by Google have made domainers and developers have to rethink their strategy.
We learned about unnatural linking profiles and negative seo. Eric Borgos wrote the most definitive and honest post on domainers trying to develop mini sites.
Frank Schilling opened up his InternetTraffic and DomainNameSales to just about every domainer.
Afternic and Sedo have made partnerships with just about every registrar out there.
Looking forward there will be a lot of new tlds that vie for the attention of the public and to domainers, especially new domainers who come into domains with the new tlds thinking they have found the next gold rush.
Portfolio focus will be more important than ever, there is not a need to own so so domains when future end users will have new options. Focus on quality whatever extension you like. Obviously the liquidity is in .com and the most popular ccTLDs.
Whatever you do make sure you read and have a budget. Stick to the budget and focus on your sell through rate. If you are not selling any domains, stop buying. Think of creative ways to sell and develop a name or two.
Melbourne IT put together this infographic on the changing look of the domain landscape. Its a nice infographic for those in the consulting side to send to potential clients.
What are your domain/development plans for the new year ?
As 2012 comes to a close its time to look back on what worked and what didn't. This time of year is rightfully dominated by holiday and family responsibilities, but when you have a little alone time it is good to look at your portfolio and see what needs pruning.
Every year there are fads in the domain business,things that work for a little period of time and usually get a lot of hype. Whether it be a buyout on some category of names like LLLL.com or if a certain niche generates a lot of sales such as the ikeyword.com domains. You need to look and see what names in your portfolio are still relevant from a speculative standpoint and what names may be on the down trend.
I can say a few years ago I took a spec on some L-L-L.com and was able to sell some for a nice roi, I held onto some others that I probably could have flipped but held onto instead. I did let a few of those drop early this year as it seemed that the interest in those names became close to nil. Of course right after I let them drop there were back to back weeks of four figure L-L-L.com sales.
Besides looking at your domain portfolio you should look to any developed websites and review their performance. Do you have time to maintain them and improve them ? Are they making money after hosting and reg fees ?
The industry will be changing big time with the addition of the new tld program and now is the time to think about what kind of domainer/developer you want to be moving forward.
Personally I have spent a lot of time this year reading all the sites selling on Flippa. I think about the time spent on certain domain investing activities and compare that to how much time it would require to build out sites selling in the $3,000 to $5,000 range on Flippa. I think I would like to spend more time on developing stuff and less time on what I consider the unproductive energy I spend on domaining. I need to spend less time searching and more time developing.
Leave a comment and say whether you plan on more names or less names moving forward ? Do you want to get more into development ?
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