Archive for October, 2009
Undeveloped Thanksgiving.com is owned by the Legendary Scott Day, but are there plans in the works?
There’s no shortage of category-killer domains sitting parked. Names like ThanksGiving.com are literally sitting on a goldmine, but it’s not being tapped for it’s SEO and Business potential. At least not yet. Thanksgiving.com is owned by none other than the Legenday Scott Day of Digimedia.com – who owns and operates domain names like FantasyFootball.com and Watermelon.com.
Scott is a fantastic businessman and domainer and has been developing his amazing properties for years. We wrote a story earlier in this month about Scott Day which higlighted his company Digimedia and how they turn their domains into “places people want to go”.
Are there plans to develop Thanksgiving.com? There aren’t any details, but could you imagine the possibilities if this name was developed? This is an opportunity ripe for the picking and with Scott Day, anything’s possible. And there’s always time and ways to get a category-killer right back on Page 1 of Google. Kevin Ham who let BlackFriday.com sit parked for years, finally developed the site this year and despite stiff competition BlackFriday.com ranks on Page 1 of Google already.
You can’t blame Scott Day for not developing Thanksgiving.com, after all he’s got a bunch of sites online running as businesses and more projects in the works – all with moneymaking potential.
How well do Thanksgiving Domains Fare on Google Search?
We’re surprised, but no one has developed really any of the top-level Thanksgiving domains into Search Egnine powerhouses. Take a look at the results from Page 1 of Google for the keyword Thanksgiving. Page 1 includes Wikipedia, History.com, and others – but not a single result listed has Thanksgiving in the actual registered domain name.
You’ll notice Holidays.net in Page 1 of Google though for “Thanksgiving” and they’ve definitely capitalized on more than just the Thanksgiving holiday with visitors well over 100,000 per month. And they not only show up on Page 1 of Google for Thanksgiving – if you type in “Thanksgiving”, “Christmas”, “Halloween” or “Days of the Dead” they appear on Page 1 of Google, too. Not bad for what some might call an “ugly site”. Googlebot doesn’t really care what you look like, as long as your site is properly SEO’d and has tons of unique and fresh relevant content.
What are the Other Thanksgiving Domains doing this Holiday season?
Thanksgiving.net – Parked
Thanksgiving.org – The official site for Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas, Texas. Shows up on Page 2 of Google
Thanksgiving.info – A website is online, but you’ll need to search far to find it in Google Search results.
Thanksgiving.me – Parked
Thanksgiving.biz – Unresolved
Are you developing your names?
As much as we’d love to own a category-killer name like Thanksgiving.com, we’ll never have the cash so we’ll just keep researching, hand-registering names, buying names on the drop, and plugging away at development. It’s what we love to do and it’s fun. And we’ll continue to develop our own names on long-tailed names and alternate extensions. Not everyone can afford a category-killer name these days, but everyone can certainly try to build a successful business with a little sweat and tears, even on alternate extensions.
If you don’t know the story of Bruce Marler, it’s fascinating. He’s building an enterprise on LocalTek and is building out domain names like Missouri.ME into businesses. And if you’ve taken a look at traffic to that site, it’s been climbing into the thousands since it’s launch.
Opportunities are everywhere, especially when you’re willing to take risks and try new things that others say can’t be done.
Twitter-Related Domain Names (AND Why We Love Them)
Retweet.com which launched their website and Retweet button in August is on it’s way to becoming a Killer site. In it’s first two months of being online with a new site, visits have climbed to well over 100,000 visitors a month according to Compete.com. Owning a great name and launching a service that’s IN DEMAND has allowed Retweet.com to go on a tear.
Will Retweet.com STEAL Tweetmeme’s Thunder?
Retweet.com created a flurry of news after it’s website and Retweet button launched. But a lot of the news centered around Retweet’s apparent rip-off of Tweetmeme’s (http://www.tweetmeme.com/) design and code. Though it’s a sure way to create some buzz (and maybe some legal troubles), Tweetmeme doesn’t have much to worry about, at this time with over 14 million visitors a month.
Retweet.com still has a way to go, but they’re taking a chunk out of the Retweet market share and they’re growing visitors to their site very fast.
The number of third-party Twitter sites on the internet is too many to count, but what separates Retweet.com from it’s competitors, has less to do with features and offerings – and more to do with it’s CATEGORY-KILLER NAME – which gives it’s instant street cred with many Twitter users.
Twitter Related Domains (AND Why We Love Them)
We love Twitter-related domain names. That doesn’t mean they’ll make us a milllion bucks, but with Twitter making headlines everyday, and growing by the millions, it’s a sign that Twitter-related names could attract buyers looking to build third-party twitter sites.
We own several Tweetup niche domains, including Tweetups.com (http://www.tweetups.com/) but we just haven’t found the time to develop the site. But it’s on our radar and it’s something we’re planning to do bigger and better in the next six months. In addition to Tweetup names, we hand-registered dozens more like StrangeActivity.com and others related to Twitter for fun. You just never know, stranger things have happened.
Adult Sites and Adult Domains not for everyone, but National A-1 isn’t afraid to make the tough calls
National A-1, the company that owns premium names like Pizza.com, Free.com and Cash.com, also owns and operates Adult Websites on some of their category-killer names.
When you own names like Condoms.com and SexToys.com, there’s really no choice except to operate a website, especially simple sites that can rake in the cash while keeping cost down by placing affiliate advertisements or using dropshipping.
National A-1 is Running a Business
Adult-oriented sites like any other niche on the internet are a business, they’re just not for everyone.
Many domain investors own Adult-related domains. It’s no shock or surprise, it’s just PLAIN BUSINESS. And National A-1: they’re one of the BEST at what they do, amassing one of the world’s best domain portfolios. And they’ve even gone beyond parking with many of their names like Divorce.com.
If you type in a National A-1 Domain name, you’ve probably ended up on a webpage like the one below for Ladies.com (http://www.ladies.com/) which is powered by D.D.C: The Domain Development Corp. But if you’ve checked lately, many of National A-1′s category-killer names are moving away from parked pages to websites.
Some Information About DDC
Most of National A-1′s domain names appear to be powered by DDC. Here’s a brief blurb from the DDC website about what they do.
Domain Development Corp (DDC) is a comprehensive monetization and full-scale domain development company.
Founded by industry pioneers, DDC’s experience optimizing premium digital real-estate and our strategic partnerships have made us a global leader. While DDC manages some of the world’s most successful properties, we remain nimble enough to implement customized solution to fit your needs, deliver quality traffic, and build real value. DDC’s impactful proprietary turnkey domain, development, and search solutions fully monetize your portfolio and maximize your revenue…
A Sample of National A-1′s Adult Properties
Some of National A-1′s other Adult properties (NSFW) that are more than just Parked pages include:
HotMovies.com
Teens.com
Condoms.com
SexToys.com
Spanking.com
National A-1 Has Been Launching Many of Their Category-Killer Domains into Websites, Next Up Antiques.com, Camps.com, More
"Antiques.com is brought to you by National A-1 Internet, a leading provider of Internet content since 1995. Antiques.com will be launching in November 2009"
Over the years National A-1 has amassed one of the best Domain Portfolios ever: with names like Pizza.com, Contests.com, Divorce.com, Fun.com, Cash.com, Girls.com and thousands more.
With some truly amazing properties sitting parked, it looks like National A-1 is going beyond parking into more and more full-blown Development.
National A-1 has several sites already online like SexToys.com and Pizza.com but this November, National A-1 is planning to unveil Antiques.com.
The Antiques.com site reads:
Antiques.com is brought to you by National A-1 Internet, a leading provider of Internet content since 1995. Antiques.com will be launching in November 2009 with two goals; to be the premiere resource for shoppers in search of antiques and various antique resources and to be a marquee venue for antique dealers, shows, auctions, flea markets and appraisers.
Upcoming Developments
And there’s more to come. If you visit National A-1′s Camps.com site, a Coming Soon page appears.
Several of National A-1′s recent developments over the last year or so include: Cash.com, Divorce.com, and Free.com.
About National A-1 Advertising
National A-1 Advertising, Inc. was established in 1990 as a full-service advertising agency offering an advertising and marketing presence for retail, corporate, and professional businesses. Our services include media buying, ad placement, and graphic design.
Building profitable relationships with clients and their target audiences requires innovation and more than just a catchy slogan. We create powerful ideas that transform our client’s businesses. We are fortunate to work with many top businesses and professionals as well as many small businesses that have experienced dramatic growth using our premiere advertising services and employing our skills that put us in the forefront of technology.
National A-1 Internet was established in 2002 and was spun off from National A-1 Advertising Inc.
National A-1 Internet is a leader in the development of innovative, state of the art technology. We use that expertise to run our own websites and those of a select few of our partners. From the creation of cutting-edge software to hosting, encoding, digitization, and offering bandwidth, National A-1 takes ideas and creates solutions from conception to creation without relying on outside vendors.
Whatever happened to the 800 names Chris Bosh won?
Chris Bosh indicated after he won over 800 names from Luis Zavala in court that he would give the owners back the names free of charge, however, many of the names are expiring soon and many more have already deleted and become available for anyone to hand-register.
The photo above includes MMA Fighter CHRISTIAN WELLISCH – christianwellisch.com is deleted and available again.
Looks like Britney Spears and other celebrities, don’t know or don’t care
Initially Bosh claimed Max Deal would be arranging the return of the names if the people affiliated with the names contacted Bosh, but it doesn’t look like too many people were informed or even cared.
Chris Bosh wasted no time re-directing ChrisBosh.com to his official site, but nearly every other name on the list points to the law firm. While many of the other names still re-direct to the Law Firm who represented Bosh, many are now available for hand-registration.
Names Allowed to Expire, Right Back on the Market
Chris Bosh might be thrilled he won the names in court, but it looks like Max Deal Technologies – a website development company that partners with Bosh on his internet ventures – has allowed many of the names to expire including PrestonMichaelSpears.com, MajorWingate.com, and dozens more.
Bosh and Max Deal according to News reports would be organizing the return of the names for FREE on the condition the would-be owners contacted them.
And chances are, since Max Deal has decided not to renew many of the names that were expiring, many of the names that were won in court, will end up being registered again by someone else. In the face of hundreds if not thousands in renewal fees, it looks like Chris Bosh doesn’t want to bear the burden of holding onto the names.
A quick bulk check of the names, and you can see for yourself. We found several available for hand-registration and we only checked a handful on the list, including:
PRESTONMICHAELSPEARS.COM
ILMAGOBARGNANI.COM
MAJORWINGATE.COM
TORINFRANCIS.COM
DANNYFORTSON.COM
DERMARRJOHNSON.COM
ORIENGREENE.COM
SHAREEFABDUR-RAHIM.COM
IVANHARRIS.COM
STEVANSTOJKOV.COM
JARRIUSJACKSON.COM
OLUFAMUTIMI.COM
NEILWAIN.COM
RAMEAUTHIERRYSOKOUDJOU.COM
COWBOYSENESPANOL.COM
PRESTONMICHAELFEDERLINE.COM
MARTIANARTS.ORG
CHRISTIANWELLISCH.COM
DELEHEI.COM
SAMYSCHIAVO.COM
Several of the names that Bosh won in court weren’t even illegally registered, but that didn’t stop the judge from handing them over. Names like MixedMartianArts.com and CockBlocks.com are a couple.
But the majority of the names on the list, are certainly names to avoid registering.
“Business in Vancouver” Calls Kevin Ham Cyber-squatter, But Shares Other Interesting Tidbits about Dotcom Guru
It’s not just people on the street who get it wrong, but often Media reporters who cover Domainers love to lump them in with Cybersquatters. Just check out the opening to this recent story by Business in Vancouver which calls Kevin Ham “one of Vancouver’s Most Famous Cybersquatters”.
Whether people want to think of Kevin Ham as a Cybersquatter or not in Vancouver, the reporter does offer up interesting tidbits you might not know about Kevin Ham and his Company – and also provides insights into his plans for Vancouver.com.
How much is true and how much the reporter made up, we don’t know, but here’s a look.
A Few Interesting Tidbits From The Story
The price paid by Kevin Ham for the domain Vancouver.com was undisclosed but rumoured to be more than $5 million.
At one time, he owned 300,000 addresses worth an estimated $300 million.
Reinvent’s websites attract 30 million visitors every month.
He has made only a single domain acquisition since December 2007.
He said Reinvent, which has less than two-dozen employees, is cutting back on spending.
The Point of the Story
The reporter attended a rare presentation given by Kevin Ham in September in which he shared plans to develop Vancouver.com by partnering with other businesses.
Ham told the audience during a rare public presentation at the Vancouver Enterprise Forum (VEF) on September 15 that his company, Vancouver’s Reinvent Inc., is looking for partnerships to develop Vancouver’s brand globally through Vancouver.com.
To showcase it to the world, we want to showcase it to everybody in Vancouver,” said Ham near the end of an hour-long speech that included such topics as Walt Disney and how Ham built his domain empire.
GreatDomains Auction one day left, Might be some Good Deals to be had
There are most certainly some good Domain Deals to be had all over the place – on the drop, deleting and available again, even at Auction.
The GreatDomains auction has a little over a day left, and the prices haven’t got too high on a lot of the good names.
Not good news for the sellers if the bids don’t spike up by tomorrow, but for buyers, GREAT NEWS.
Sample Bids (as of 10/21/2009 – Updated 03:26 AM ET)
Promiscuous.com – $1,250
SoftMusic.com – $540
Rebounds.com – $495
Galoshes.com – $2,300
To track the auction and see the full list of names, visit www.greatdomains.com
Kevin Ham’s BlackFriday.com Had 1 Million+ Visitors in 2008, Dotinfo 4 Million+
Though not built on a .com, the BlackFriday.info website owns the top spot in Google Search.
Seasonal domains like BlackFriday.com don’t see a spike in traffic until a certain time of year.
Last year, BlackFriday.com (Parked) saw a SPIKE of over 1.3 million visitors. Now the Category-killer domain is developed and shows up on Page 1 of Google – can you imagine the online traffic it’s going to see this year?
Back in July, BlackFriday.com had over 2,000 visitors and has been experiencing an increase in traffic as BlackFriday approaches.
You think that’s impressive? Let’s look at BlackFriday.info last year.
BlackFriday.info had over 4 million visits and in September is already over 50,000.
This Holiday season should be a battle between Dotcom and Dotinfo for Black Friday. At this rate – Kevin Ham’s dotcom doesn’t look like it’s going to gain any more ranking in the Search Engines, but there’s still a lot of time left. Even though Dotinfo is on top right now, now that the Dotcom is developed – it should be even more interesting to see if it dethrones BlackFriday.info from the top spot.
NBC’s Style Editor Bobbie Thomas Redesigning Her Internet Image with Domain Name Bobbie.com, New Site
Whether you’re a celebrity or a business, you need to decide how you’re going to build your internet presence.
Bobbie Thomas has been working hard to improve her brand name – in September she purchased Bobbie.com for $15,000 through Sedo and now she’s working on redesigning her site for her unique brand.
No word on when the new site will launch, but she has a Twitter account to keep her fans informed.
Big Plans on Tap for another one of Kevin Ham’s Domains: Spanish.com
It looks like Kevin Ham's company Reinvent could have big plans for Spanish.com - "Where the Internet and Television Coverage Converage." Other than the current landing page - really no information has been made public.
Kevin Ham has big plans for his category-killer domain name Spanish.com. The Dotcom Mogul has been working on developing several of his category-killers.
BlackFriday.com is now on Page 1 of Google, Vancouver.com is getting ready for the Olympics, and his Gospel Media Network which includes names like Religion.com and God.com is in development.
What’s next?
Though most of Kevin Ham’s domain names remain parked, Reinvent has been busy developing. If you take a look at BlackFriday.com on any given day, you’ll notice change. Same with Vancouver.com. But with Spanish.com – Reinvent will reach a MASSIVE audience and MASSIVE success with a single category-killer.
Wondering about other category-killer Language names?
Chinese.com – parked
English.com – blank page
German.com – parked
French.com – parked
Hindi.com – parked
Italian.com – parked
Russian.com – parked
