Categories
News

So what happened with Eric Borgos and his 9,000 domain names?

Name Shopping

In mid-November Eric Borgos wrote a story on his company’s blog entitled: What To Do With My 9000 Domain Names?

The story sparked a lot of interest from readers and people started commenting with their own thoughts on what Eric should do with his 9,000 domain names.  Readers posted over 100 comments on the site that were all over the place – some offering to buy several of the names, to some suggesting Eric mass-sell or drop the worst of the domain names. 

Eric laid out a number of ideas in the beginning of the article on what he wants to do. 

Selling all his domain names at once to one buyer at wholesale prices was at the top of his list of considerations.  Eric wrote: “for $8 million for example, I would make $15,000/month in interest from the money in the bank (after income taxes and the brokerage fee I would net around $4.5 million from the sale) plus I would gain another $2000/month from the savings on domain fees (the difference between my parking income and my registration fees) that I no longer have to pay.” 

Unfortunately, there are very few buyers of portfolios right now Eric points out, but the wholesale option seems to be “Eric’s choice”.

Other considerations included selling more domain names than before by listing them with more brokers, setting up all his parked domains on minisites, and setting up real sites on his better domain names.

So, what did Eric do with his 9,000 domain names?

If you read through all the comments on the post, you’ll notice Eric is active and regularly responds to readers’ comments, even the not-so-nice ones.

You’ll also learn more about what he’s decided to do, that is, until selling all of his domain names to one buyer comes through. 

Eric doesn’t believe parking is the answer, and has no plans to let any of his names expire or sell any of them at registration fee.  “In terms of keeping vs selling my domains that make no money, the vast majority of my domains are worth at least a few hundred dollars each $500”, Eric writes.

Eric also states that he continues to get a high click through rate on Google Adsense ads, contrary to what many other domain investors are saying about their own domains.   

As far as his adult domain names, Eric is working with xpays.com: “A month ago I changed all my adult domains to be parked at xpays.com. They are not a parking company though, they put up a splash page giving the visitor some free content and then it tries to get them to signup for a free trial. I get paid $35 for each signup. Xpays has many different types of sites, and directs each of my domain to the best matching site of theirs. I switched my domains to their dns, so I did not have to do anything to set things up.”

Eric claims to have doubled his revenue using xpays, making nearly $2000/month from xpays with his 4,000 adult domains, rather than the $1000/month he was pulling in using traditional parking.

For Eric’s 4,000 non-adult domain names, he’s creating minisites using his own automated mass-development system he spent several months setting up.   Go to Inventing.com to take a look at an example of the mini site template that he is using across thousands of his domains. 

After all is said and done, Eric is still developing bigger web sites like Dumb.com and WatchMovies.com, and he’s still selling his domain names – with 2010 being one of his best years in terms of volume. 

Eric comments: ” Most years I think I have sold 30-50, but i am trying to accept more offers this year. I am not doing anything different to market them, and have never done any marketing other than listing them on Sedo.com and Afternic.com and on my own site at NameShopping.com.”

Categories
News

GoDaddy uses Twitter for customer service, not just for marketing its services and products

GoDaddy Twitter

GoDaddy, the web’s largest domain registrar, uses its @GoDaddy Twitter account to help customers on a range issues with web hosting and domain names.  

Customers follow @GoDaddy, then send information through a private message (formerly called a Direct Message) to GoDaddy’s Twitter account.  While helping out customers with their issues, GoDaddy is also able to build up its following, since you cannot send a direct message to a user who is not following you.

Domain Registrars on Twitter

@GoDaddy isn’t the only domain registrar on Twitter, but it’s one of the only registrars that helps customers resolve problems through Twitter.  Other registrars use Twitter as a means for marketing their services.

Domain registrar Fabulous who use @Fabulousdotcom, haven’t  tweeted in over a month.  Messages are far and few between, and when they are posted, they usually involve messages about services or promotions.  Fabulous only has around 300 followers.

Enom, another popular domain registrar uses @Enom for its Twitter account.  The company uses Cotweet for posting tweets, but doesn’t publicly interact with other Twitter users often.  Like Fabulous, Enom tweets about promotions and other services it provides, including tips on domain names.  Enom has just under 2,000 followers on Twitter.

Moniker is one of the better Twitter users out of the bunch.  The domain registration company that also runs SnapNames, tweets using @MonikerSnap.  Though Moniker only has about 1,300 followers, it does provide a certain level of customer service through its Twitter account.  As little as 11 hours ago, the company tweeted @PeterC saying: “I will escalate this issue and get more details. I understand your concerns-well warranted.”  @PeterC had posted a blog online shortly before Moniker responded, entitled: Moniker Deactivated My Domain 26 Days BEFORE The Expiration Date” that outlined his issue

Network Solutions also does much of the same as GoDaddy, describing itself on its Twitter account (@Netsolcares) as: “Real Person support – Looking forward to your questions and conversations! Need 24/7 help?”.  The company has just over 4,000 followers on Twitter.

Which domain registrar has the best use of Twitter?

There are dozens of more registrars on Twitter, but just a quick look indicates @GoDaddy to be the heaviest Twitter user.  With GoDaddy, it’s not all about marketing and promotions, it’s about customer service. 

That’s not to say that GoDaddy doesn’t use Twitter for marketing, it just doesn’t use its most recognizeable Twitter account to do so. 

If you’re looking for GoDaddy eslewhere on Twitter, check out @GoDaddyAuctions for hot aftermarket domain names and @GoDaddyMktplace for great products.

Have you had a good or bad experience with domain registrars on Twitter?  Let me know in the comments.

Categories
News Video Games

Activision creating a buzz over domain name that contains the word “Murder”

Murder Your Maker

Registered on Nov. 11, 2010, the domain name MurderYourMaker.com has been creating a buzz in the gamer community. 

Although the domain is registered under MarkMonitor, the company that helps companies with brand protection, it’s owned by Activision who has been releasing teasers for the upcoming Spike TV Video Game Awards where the game (which is rumored to be Prototype 2) will be unveiled.

Videogames and domain names

I come across interesting “domain” stories since I’ve started a new blog about military video games over at MilitaryGamer including stories about BuyDomains: here and  here.  But none of the material I’ve come across has been as interesting as the commentary on Activision’s murderyourmaker.com URL.

Bloggers and journalists in the gamer community have been talking about the domain name MurderYourMaker.com for weeks, not only because they’ve been guessing at what game is behind the web site, but also because of the use of the word “murder” in the name.

Here’s a look at what Catalin Alexandru, who writes for TFTS had to say:

We don’t get why the word “murder” attracts so much attention. People say they’re going to kill each other all the time, but just try yelling something about murder to your wife in a crowded restaurant. Don’t get us wrong, people will be looking either way, but just say the word “murder” and those stares will gain some heavy implications instantly.

Murder domain names

While the word “murder” in a domain certainly draws attention, publicly reported sales of domain names with the keyword “murder” have not.

According to sales history provided by DomainTools, only a handful of sales have taken place.

Domain Date Sold Price Location
murderballmovie.com Feb 12,2010 $99.00 SnapNames
hollywoodmurders.com Nov 10,2009 $65.00 SnapNames
smileyfacemurders.com Jan 8,2009 $150.00 Sedo.com
murdertube.com Nov 5,2008 $70.00 Sedo.com
attemptedmurderattorney.com Oct 14,2008 $99.00 SnapNames
murderpictures.com Oct 11,2008 $69.00 SnapNames

The keyword “murder” according to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool had about 60,500 exact search last month, globally.

Categories
News Video Games

Bill Kara’s Hallpass Media Entertainment Network, one of the largest networks in the U.S.

Hallpass Media

Hallpass Media, a collection of casual gaming websites owned and operated by Bill Kara, is now one of the largest networks in the United States.

According to Quantcast, the Hallpass Media network which includes websites like StickGames.com, Hallpass.com, GirlGames.com and more, is currently ranked #1,381 in the U.S.

Unlike rough estimates provided by sites like Compete, Hallpass Media’s network traffic is directly measured by Quantcast. 

Since first tracking the network of sites back in January 2009, traffic has quickly climbed to nearly 4 million visitors per month, reaching nearly 3.8 million visitors globally in October 2010.

Soon enough, Bill Kara will be unveiling the crown jewel of Hallpass Media: Dressup.com.  According to a rough estimate by Compete, Dressup.com (which is currently parked) receives nearly 60,000 unique visitors per month.

While an exact date for launching Dressup.com is not known, fully expect to see the Hallpass Media network to soar in the Quantcast rankings.

Categories
News Trademarks

A brief history of 3D domain name sales

Avatar 3D

Ever since Stephen Douglas posted an article about 3D Domains as the next big trend for domain buyers and sellers, I’ve been more interested in learning about the space.  Domain investors have also been having a number of online discussions about 3D domains over at DN Forum, Namepros and other forums.

I decided to take a quick look at the sales history of 3D domain names using one of the best resources for domain investors: DomainTools.com – Sales History.

Some of the top publicly reported sales took place in 2010, with the sale of 3Dtv.co.uk leading the charts, selling for $22,650 in March 2010.  A web site is online and blog, run by a small team headed by the founder, Chris Conwell, who has been active on the web since 1995.  Chris Conwell is a big-time domain investor and developer.  According to the web site: ‘Chris also owns the popular gift ideas site Gadgets.co.uk and the domain name site Zycon.co.uk which has a portfolio of almost 8000 domains. He also owned one of the UK’s leading mobile phone sites, Mobiles.co.uk, until its recent sale to The Carphone Warehouse.’

3Dscience.com sold for $4,637 via Afternic in 2005.   3DScience.com is a website operated by Zygote Media Group, Inc.   The company’s mission is: ‘to be the best scientific visualization content provider to professionals and consumers while leading the industry in innovative creative development, artistic quality and service.’

Web3D.com sold in 2009 on the aftermarket site NameJet.  The price: $14,301.  3Dweb.com sold for $8,100 back in September via Sedo.  And that was just the tip of the iceberg for Sedo.

In 2010, Sedo closed several four-figure deals:

3Dweb.net €3,000.00
3D-templates.com $2,789.00
3Dwebcam.com $2,500.00
3Dmovie.com €2,499.00
3D-video.com $2,488.00
3Ddvds.com $2,200.00
3D-animation.com €1,888.00

The list of sales goes on and on.  At the time of this story, 3DPS3.com is in auction with a bid of $100.  As Mike Berkens recently discussed on his blog The Domains, Sedo hasn’t done much to clean up trademark infringing auctions.  Clearly, the auction for 3DPS3.com will draw attention – just this week Sony announced more than 50 3D-enabled games are in development for its PS3 platform.

If you have more information on 3D domain sales or tips on 3D domain names, please leave a comment below or use the Contact Us form.