Seven Mile

Invest.com bid up to 431k at Auction

auction is still live. 4 hours to go, as of 10 a.m. EST. Friday, Dec 6, 07  Reserve is 200,000 - 499,999. http://www.greatdomains.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=us&auction_id=21998&tracked=&partnerid=32392

***FS***  Great name..  This is fully valued from a wildcat-return investor’s perspective.

Which domain extensions have increased in value the fastest. 

Between 2004 - 2007. http://www.domainbits.com/increase-value All the data:  http://www.domainbits.com/data

***FS***Summary:  Buy .com’s

Whizzbang: Where to buy domains.

http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/335/86/

***FS*** still find deals on SEDO.com,  Afternic.com and GreatDomains.com

Verisign states that 146 million domain names registered across all TLD’s.

12 million in the last quarter. http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2007/dailyposts/12-05-07.htm Josh

***FS***  Most of the 12mm new names were discovered through tasting ..  and (very very important) only 5-10% of all 146mm names are worth anything whatsoever.. to any more than one distinctive entity.  That means there are just 7 - 14 million investment grade names available to the world.. How many do you own?

Alvaro Albarracin goes on a .mobi speculation shopping spree.

http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/06/alvaro-albarracin-breaks-dotmobi-sales-record/

MUSIC.MOBI = USD 616K
GAMES.MOBI = USD 401K
SPORTS.MOBI = USD 101K
MOVIES.MOBI = USD 82K
PHOTOS.MOBI = USD 51K
VIDEOS.MOBI = USD 51K

Alvaro says “I am not planning on developing these names,  I am planing on selling these sometime in the near  future.” .. 

***FS***Sell Alvaro ..  run like the wind and sell.  This man will be joining Dr. Van Neeste in the land of irrelevance shortly

Pubcon coverage.  Domaining.

Effective Domain name strategies  http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015575.html

***FS***  These are good beginnings..  bet that a handful of folks had the light-bulb domaining moment.. 

Domains and trademarks.

Clark Walton, Esq. - Domain Name Law http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015574.html

***FS***  Synopsis of presentation provides interesting insight into lawyer’s thinking, tactics.. Most domainers I know don’t run from lawyers.. They have lawyers too  :)  In 7 years I’ve found that you are more likely to be challenged by an over-reaching lawyer on a legitimate registration that you are to be backed into a corner over a name you really shouldn’t own.

Bruce Clay’s take on Richard Rosenblatt’s keynote

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2007/12/keynote_address.html

***FS***  I like Richard Rosenblatt..  He’s a one in ten million character..  One of the most charismatic people I have ever drank Patron with / met.

Pubcon coverage links above via Sahar.

http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/06/pubcon-coverage-effective-domaining-strategies/

***FS***  Thanks Sahar!

Domain industry events listed.  Til May 2008.

http://www.domainnews.com/industry-events/

***FS***Nice summary to bookmark on DomainNews.com

Domain Truffles.

Josh says: Michael Berkens talks about domains as commodities and collectibles.  As well, he highlights the notion of quality by briefly discussing buying oil paintings at a flea market as compared to going to Art Basel in Miami, where 500 million dollars worth of art is expected to sell in just 4 days. He likes truffles, too.  Btw, Michael, it was a dog and not a pig that found the giant truffle that recently sold at auction in Macau. http://www.thedomains.com/2007/12/05/domain-truffles-2/

***FS***Berkens is an attorney turned domainer..  He has great insight into the value proposition that meaningful generic names represent.  Love the truffle analogy Mike.

Moniker Pubcon auction results.

Monte continues to move auctions outside of the  domain investment community.  That’s a good thing. http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=84850
GrandPa.com - $55,000
FamilyServices.com - $45,000
MortgageRates.org — $17,000
BlindDating.com — $14,000
ComputerDiscounts.com - $10,000
More sales results of other names here: http://www.domainnamenews.com/events/moniker-pubcon-2007-auction-results/1328#more-1328

Tips for finding brandable domain names. 

by Bill Eisenmann.
Excerpt: “”Not everyone is looking for keyword rich, generic domain names. Many Internet startups are looking for a simple, catchy name or phrase to build their online identity around. Brandable, web 2.0 style domain names have gained popularity in recent years mostly due to the explosion of social-networking sites. http://availabledomainnames.com/2007/tips-for-finding-brandable-domain-names/

***FS***  Everybody wants traffic..  Everybody..  Whether they say it or not..  whether they know it or not..  nobody wakes up in the morning, says “I want to start a website that nobody will visit”.  Nothing happens on the Internet without traffic.  Generic keyword style domain names get a primer-level of organic type in traffic for nothing more than the keyword weight or gravity of the name itself.  Those are the “catchy”, “brandable” and “cool-sounding” names which constitute the 5-10% of all names registered which are worth anything at all..  Those are the names you want.

Domain Tools Auction

Jay responds to auction criticisms, reduces after auction pricing reduction for names that don’t sell to 10% reduction from previously stated 20% reduction, and drops his commission to 9 % from 10%. http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/12/auction-rules/

Joshsays: Read the post for more details and other info.  One of the things that Jay says is they they will do alot of pre auction promotion, to generate interest.  Thing is, the cut off date for name submissions is Christmas eve, and the auction is on January 3rd.  ?. Jay retains exclusive rights to sell the domain for 60 days after the auction.

***FS***  It’s his sandbox..  and he needs some kind of tool to discourage off-block sales after auction close.  Understand the sellers POV too tho.

Facebook bows to pressure about Beacon Ads.

Allows users to turn them off completely.  How many will turn it off?  Choice. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9051119&intsrc=hm_ts_head
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/12/05/2114247.shtml

***FS***  Josh Quitner was unfairly silenced on this..  It’s Facebook who deserved the slap-down IMO.  http://valleywag.com/tech/media/facebooks-foolish-foes-330424.php

Nokia to continue to invest in online services

.. to add value to their phones. http://www.news.com/Nokia-sets-eyes-on-Internet-to-support-handsets/2100-1039_3-6221589.html?tag=nefd.top

***FS***  Nokia is in trouble long-term..  They don’t have the software..  Anyone can make hardware.

Trial to be tested in Seattle.

http://www.domainnamenews.com/editorial/marchex-to-build-neighborhood-blog-network/1313

I’ve never been that excited by the zip code domains that Marchex owns.  Domain names are interesting when they get type-in traffic for no other reason than the keyword weight or gravity of the name.  The only zip code domains that get any type in traffic (of measure) is 90210.com and net and those names get traffic because there was a popular show named 90210.. not because you and your neighbors are typing the name to see what’s happening at Nate and Al’s on Beverly.

As cool as it is that Marchex has those zips, they could have rolled out the exact same blog network concept if they registered M90210.com (for Marchex-90210) or paid nothing and just launched subdomains like 90210.marchex.com as full sites.  People don’t type those strings either but doing subdomains would have saved them $700,000 a year in renewal expenses.

I have a few zip code domains that I run PPC on and I think certain ZIPs will get traffic and have resale value as third-party stand-alone sites..  but I think this blog concept could have been done without the names and the good zips as names won’t offset the bad on PPC alone.

Marchex’s other domain names could be worth more than their present market cap so they can probably do whatever they want on this execution and get away with it.  If they’re right on this particular implementation then I will have learned something.

http://blog.snipperoo.com/2007/11/death-of-the-do.html

  Summary:  A guy who could have bought billions of dollars worth of domain real estate by applying his foresight (but didn’t) now declares “domain names dead” and hypothesizes that we will abandon domain names in favor of Rube Goldberg inspired Universal Search Locators (USLs) which will take over as the foundational elements of the web.. 

While I could actually see some variant of this trying to marginalize domains in the next 50 years,  in the end I think the obstacles are so many and the challenges so daunting that nothing could actually “do away” with the usefulness of domain names.  Consider:

—You would need to have Google agree on a global standard with Microsoft, Yahoo, Sina, Baidu and all other competing search services so that the experience of USL’s is uniform. You wouldn’t want to type Snipperoo at Baidu and get to Widgettown instead.

 —Even if you got everybody to agree on a standard you wouldn’t have mail because email runs on domain names.  This chap would surely argue that we could all abandon our email in favor of search engine messengers.. but those would have to run on a globally universal standard too.

— After clearing the initial hurdles above, you’d just have to convince every existing site owner to adopt your new platform and abandon their trillions on global collective branding in domains (think of every business card, bus bench, billboard, TV commercial, directory you’d have to change)

— You’d have to persuade governments of the world to cast away their national heritage embodied in (CCtlds)

— You’d have to convince Verisign to roll over and play dead.. or just buy them.. ditto with PIR (.org) and Affilias..

— Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, and Safari would have to give up their browsers because we wouldn’t need them.

It’s funny to read posts like this because search engines actually search for domain names.. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Without a name there is nothing to search for  

In fact it would be easier to just buy all the available domain names from large name holders around the world..  a few billion would roll up 60% of the most visited sites on the net.

Quote: “”The idea here is that as your content is broken up and thown out into the four corners of the web, that is where you come to reside. You no longer have a central address, you only exist where you end up. If you are good, you end up in some very powerful places. If you are bad - well, we all know what happens on the web if you are bad.”"

Those “Places” will need to have a unique location of course..  There is no such thing as a “place” without a unique location..  and on the Internet you need a Domain name to have a unique location – unless you want to start typing-in IP numbers that is.

This guy needs to lay of the over the counter cold medication.  Sahar calls bullshit too..  Next.

Motley Fool/Rick Aristotle Munarriz looks at 4 internet based stocks that he calls intriguing.

http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2007/11/12/4-internet-stocks-under-the-radar.aspx

Marchex
Autobytel
Copernic
Jupitermedia

Quote: “”So I’ll keep watching the four companies, hoping to jump in early before they go “ping” on everyone else’s radar. Why watch? Well, somebody has to.”"

***FS*** I like Marchex because they are trading near the break-up value of their names alone. The other pieces of the co. represent even more opportunity .  That said,  I would still prefer to buy generic domain names themselves because I understand that animal better, and because they can’t be diluted.  Buy a domain name with traffic and get “the name”..  buy a share in any public co and get the risk that management takes the business in a direction you don’t want to go.  That said,  If you’re going to be long a domain stock..  this is it. If they keep this tack they’ll probably get bought by VIACOM or FOX at some point..  that kind of buyer.  Worst case,  I could see them going private if a broader market correction affects their segment.  This company has the ability to generate the one thing everyoner wants…  ca$h.  It doesn’t need the overhead it carries to generate that ca$h.  Nice position to be in.

Javier writes:

""Hi Frank

More on the subject of SEO, from another angle:

""I expect the weight on domain names to be lowered significantly (especially for competitive queries) as Google moves toward incorporation more usage data into their relevancy algorithms. This is especially true if many domainers put up low quality to average quality websites on premium domain names. Moves like creating 100,000 keyword laden sites in one massive push (as Marchex recently did) don’t bode well for the future of domain names as a signal of quality.""

http://www.seobook.com/archives/002323.shtml

I thought the same as Aaron when Marchex released their domains publicly. I may be wrong, but couldn’t see the benefit of ringing Google’s alarm like that.

Maybe Marchex know something that I don’t (I don’t overestimate my knowledge in this area) but they should also know that it is fairly easy and quick for Google to automate in SERPs the downgrade of any site associated to a certain company, or that responds to certain common features.

Yes, I can hear you saying that they have such great domains that they don’t need google because they get most direct nav. traffic, and I understand that. But should they have been more discreet, they could benefit from both sources until Google joined the dots.

Unfortunately we live in king Google’s realm…"we are not free" anymore for quite some time now.

Maybe you can comment or you are in touch with the Marchex guys and they can give their take on this?

Regards

Javier Marti
Trendirama.com""

***FS***  Great comment Javier. I think Marchex is learning that we don’t live in "King Google’s realm" after all   It doesn’t really matter what Google wants.. It matters what their users want. There comes a point in time when parked pages become so good that they are effectively a real website that was lovingly created by an individual entrepreneur. As those sites each become a mini-nucleus in their own right, ‘drawing‘ unique visitors outside of Google through the keyword weight of domain name and ‘keeping‘ some measure of return visitors coming through the content provided there; it becomes less important what Google thinks - and it does their search engine more harm than good by blocking user intent, failing to display the site the user calls for..

The Google/Marchex relationship becomes more symbiotic when fueled by arbitrage.  Marchex can leverage their own organic visitor stream to buy millions of dollars of targeted traffic from Google each month for it’s pages, arbitraging the cost of that traffic against the amount of advertising it can sell. Make no mistake .. Google "needs" the revenue from large scale high-brow arbitrage plays because that arbitrage underpins its stock price. The 4 or 5 large scale arbitrageurs on my radar collectively pay Google more than 300 million dollars a year…  there are many more I don’t know of.. Google needs that money.

High quality generic search-term style domain names are the ultimate killer search-app for that reason. You are working "outside" of the Google/search engine framework to get your traffic and revenue, with the option being entirely yours whether you want to get bigger by dipping your toes ‘into’ the Google realm to buy additional traffic.

Now imagine Wikipedia content (which is often featured in the first 3 links of a Google search query anyway) married to an organic traffic driver (a targeted domain name), coupled with arbitrage to buy incremental targeted visits who’s costs are offset against directly-sold (or syndicated) display advertising on those wiki-esq pages. The users win by finding relevant content, the Engine wins by making money selling traffic and the site operator with the potent domain controls the platform and ensures a burn down value in the high quality domain name.

If you can draw incremental visits (non domain, non-arbitrage, algorithmic search visits) from Google as Geosign has done, that’s when the potential for incendiary growth exists - but that last element is the only spot where Google can exert any real control. As you pointed out, they can take their foot of your accelerator by blocking algorithmic visits via blacklisting your site or changing algo’s.

I think it’s safer and more predictable to live outside of that algorithmic world  .. but obviously more profitable to jump in..

Just my free-flowing thoughts on this…  some of it you’ve heard before.

Rhart writes:

""I am surprised that with the thousands of struggling, yet still profitable newspapers in this country that they (newspapers - who are searching for a solution***) are not gobbling up any available good generic domain portfolios.

Here is an article where they are just waking up and "Allowing readers to contribute content online" to their "1" domain, of course. Meanwhile Marchex and Demand Media are taking a large chunk the advertising dollars that they used to get. Do they ever notice this?

*** "Newspapers across the country are laying off employees to deal with declining revenue even as they search for a workable online business model."

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070627/BIZ01/706270332/1076/BIZ

I should have added this article too

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8PSRFLG1.htm

***FS*** I’m frankly surprised by how much easier it is for online folks like us to come after traditional media business models than the other way around. In a way it’s sad.. in a way "that’s life". This opportunity is open to anyone, but buying/managing thousands of domain names for traffic and dynamic-development is not going to be "for everyone".  As one of my friends recently opined: "We’ll live to see the day when a large scale domain registrant leverages the power of their portfolio to buy a large traditional media outlet."   And unlike AOL Time Warner of the Past,  This time it will be based on EBITDA, not stock prices.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/more-than-just-squatting-on-domain-names/

These guys own the catalog. If all their sites start to look like http://www.sanfranciscoveterinarians.com/ and http://www.newyorkdoctors.com/ then I have seen the future of large domain portfolios/parking…  and they look like multi-billion dollar companies.

You have to remember, this is only the first generation of the names married to Openlist.

Jordan Rohan publishes this report: Download marchex.pdf  which questions the amount of keyword to keyword arbitrage going on at Marchex.

It’s no secret that Marchex has one of the best pure-play domain name portfolios in the business and I have previously suggested that the "break-up value" of that portfolio would be many hundreds of millions if they were to peel the names off their deck individually and set conservative "buy it now" sales prices on them.

That said, many folks are apparently under the impression that Marchex’s revenue comes solely from those terrific domain names. Jordan’s report is the first time I have heard a financial analyst intimate that a significant tranche of MCHX revenue might be coming from buying and selling third-party traffic via arbitrage.

A very interesting read, this report is packed with data. It doesn’t change the burn-down value of Marchex’s name portfolio which is there, and solid IMO.