Seven Mile

The Financier writes:

“”I am neither here nor there with my opinion on NAME as an investment. This is really one that you would have to base on the quality of all of their domain assets (they’ve sold a ton of the good stuff and a lot of the remainder is priced at “wish we didn’t sell the good stuff before” prices). Other than that, you have 50$ of their revenues coming from the other ancillary business units (Smartname, et al). It’s so hard to forecast something like that because Smartname customer could easily jump ship in a heartbeat based on something Yahoo! did down the pipe.

I think what this comes down to is belief in the management team. Can they excute on a growth strategy, which seems to focused on the premium site development. I don’t know them well enough and don’t know their history to make any assumptions here.

Personally, I don’t think the debt is an issue. The IPO should be okay and they’ll turn the debt into equity on the balance sheet. They’ll save a ton of cash flow because they won’t be making interest payments anymore and they won’t make any dividend payments so you can see all of the debt wiped off the books and expenses that used to be interested-related ($10m or so) will move right to the bottom line.”"

http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=618

Sahar talks about Elliot’s interview with Rick Schwartz, and subsequently talks about how development of funeralhomes.com has changed what was once a 10 cent click on a parked page, to a $10,000 sale of funeral services. From the bottom of Sahar’s post:

Quote: “We see that every single day with FuneralHomes.com. A click that used to be valued at 10 cents now converts to a funeral of USD10K revenue and for the funeral home, potential life-value of a consumer of much more.”

***FS***  Rick and Sahar show us where the rubber meets the road in this business.

Both Danno and Josh send this one ..  I’m sure you’ve all seen it already, but here is how “not” to be a domainer :

German job-seeker holds Google domains hostage
http://valleywag.com/tech/careers/german-job+seeker-holds-google-domains-hostage-317158.php

http://valleywag.com/tech/plentyoffish/how-much-is-a-one+man-dating-site-worth-316950.php

Quote: “”But what would he need VC money for? Being cash-flow positive means never having to say you’re sorry. There’s a simple reason why Plentyoffish hasn’t garnered more attention: Silicon Valley is only interested in stories it can grab a piece of.”"

***FS***  If there’s a downside about the Valley it’s just that …  The best companies, domain portfolios, software whatever, doesn’t “need the money” and don’t want to give away a piece of the action, so there is nothing to talk about. As a result many of the second rate shows rise to the top, becoming the first rate shows as people, backers etc are incentivised by the opportunity to enrich themselves.  Marcus will get bought eventually because running a site is a lot of work.  He will have to find liquidity one day, or leave the site to his kids. The big risk with a one man site like Plenty of Fish is that if Marcus gets hit by a bus, the value (perceived/real) evaporates.  Not so much with name portfolios which run on autopilot if managed well.

Danno sends three little vignettes: 

1.   NameMedia Announces Strategic Marketing Partnership with Network Solutions
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071030006018&newsLang=en

***FS***  Strategic reliances make for great press..  But this one could be juicy for NameMedia.  Story intimates that they get some kind of back-end passthrough to offer Name Media’s names to front door customers looking for new domain registrations at NetworkSolutions.com ..  It’s a great time to own large portfolios of domain names.

2.   IP Community Critical Of Proposals On ICANN Agenda
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=804&res=&res=1024_ff&print=0

 ***FS*** A little compromise would go a long way.  “Can’t we all just get along?”

3.   After losing Facebook Bid, Google Unveils Secret Weapon: Maka-Maka
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/10/29/googles-response-to-facebook-maka-maka

***FS***  makamaka, hukupookooo, comeoniwannalayya.. Hawaiian words are heaps of fun…  I say habeas secret. Hoping this is more than dodgeball.com on steroids.

Josh writes: “”Elliot Silver writes about how data from parked domains can reveal important information to the current domain owner.  Potentially useful if the current owner is planning to develop or to a future buyer that might develop on that domain.”"

http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/10/26/direct-marketing-via-parked-domain-name/

***FS***  There’s a relevant dynamic here for keyword marketing or arbitrage as well.. The best type-in domains often make the best arb sites as well.  No matter which angle you approach from, the map to success online typically begins with a good keyword name.

 And why not..  They auction new airwaves and radio frequencies..  Why not coveted domain names?

http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/10/single-letter-domain-auctions/

Google running with G.cn in China today, illistrates the allure of single character names.

Karl Auerbach posts that 1/4 to a 1/3 or all the ICANN meetings this week are closed to the public.

http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000328.html

***FS*** ICANN in a nutshell: those who don’t add anything or don’t “get it”, are permitted to participate..  those who could make a difference don’t get to participate or are so beaten down by the process that they don’t want to.

Whizzbang/Michael further expands on his call for transparency by the parking companies.

http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/306/86/

Josh says: “”Michael gets it big time and digs into some of the nuts and bolts. He and many others, including myself, have said repeatedly that whichchever parking company goes the extra mile or 7 miles for domain holders, that parking company will benefit considerably.  If all of one’s domains are held at one registrar, it takes about 10 seconds to point thousands or tens of thousands of domain names away from one parking company and towards another.

*Or maybe not even towards a parking company.  Change is in the wind.  It always is.”"

***FS***  I was just thinking the same thing..  The “change always in the wind” and “not necessarily a parking co” part. Some parking Co’s aren’t in a position to provide transparency because they themselves don’t have the transparency they’d like from their upstream search partner.

From Sahar’s blog:

http://www.conceptualist.com/?p=597

***FS***Sahar brings up the comparison of domain names to real estate.  These comparisons will never go away, and for good reason, since they are comparable, though they aren’t the same. Ultimately what we’re “overlooking” today is the thing we don’t see coming..  a split platform of navigation where future browser manufacturers and search engines bring back the “realnames” concept to run in tandem with existing URL’s ..  looking for Hoover Vacuums?  Just type Hooverin your future iGoogle Browser and directed to the most popular front door. There will always be a domain name to match because you need a domain for email and not everyone will navigate using the same standardized browser..  but there will be a gradual marginalization of navigation toward other conduits such as search engines and browsers.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/62254

***FS***  If there is, the race is on to find it.  200 Billion in market cap cuts both ways..  You can’t sustain that kind of cap without outsiders trying to invest/compete against it.  Search has been a constantly renewing cycle since the dawn of the web..  I think google will always have a significant position, but like the browsers (where seemingly unstoppable IE has lost double digit share) Google will lose users at the periphery.  I already navigate to Wikipedia as my “first search” for 10% or so of my searches. Some day you will too.

G.cn points to Google.cn.
Beijing. October 29. INTERFAX-CHINA - Google China began operating from the new, simplified Web address “g.cn” this afternoon to overcome difficulties users have in remembering “google.cn”.

http://www.interfax.cn/displayarticle.asp?aid=29084&slug=CHINA-IT-SEARCH

***FS*** Can’t get any shorter than a single character..  Well, perhaps they could make it so you just press enter and Google appears.

Firstly let me say that I feel bad for Steve Ballmer..  I’ve never seen the head of a big co have more “out there” photos published than Steve..  and I’m not the only one guilty of publishing.  I’m starting to think there’s a conspiracy going on where photographers (having seen wacky pics of him previously) try to out-do their peers with ever wackier images.. an unspoken competition of sorts, where no-one openly acknowledges the kookiness of said photos. A kind-of schadenfreude specifically targeting Steve Ballmer.. I’m going to coin the phrase Ballmerfreude (it’s now Oct 28th 2007..  Don’t expect the .com to be available for long).

Perhaps it’s that Steve has a very pleasant yet comedic skull… nicely round but funny.  Me, not so much..  My head is more of an unfortunate square shape…

But I digress — It seems that Microsoft is in acquisition mode.  Having realized that buying 2% of Facebook and some decent earnings can add billions to their bottom line, M$ [”in the know” author code for ‘Microsoft’] plans to go on a buying binge, acquiring “up to 100 companies”.

As an individual who understands the power of domain names, all I can ask is why?..  Why, why, why, hasn’t Microsoft bought Marchex?  MCHX is a company with real infrastructure (I should know..  I’ve been on a tour), they have incredible assets and people who care so much about their jobs that they’ve personalized their cubicles.. and they were very spacious cubicles at that!  This is an organization with a very low market-cap and smart management who is in it for the long haul.. The company CEO lives smack dab across the lake from Bill Gates for gosh sakes and the real estate similarities don’t end there..  If you’re looking for spooky ironies, Marchex owns a significant swath of the Internet’s burn-down real estate. Unlike browser error-search, Microsoft is incapable of taking that real estate for free via their browser…  doo doo doo doo doo do do do — Okay, Rod Serling  is rolling over in his grave somewhere… but my point stands.  Buy MCHX, somebody is going to get there eventually..  Might well be Microsoft.

Reader Equity78 writes:

“”Frank this is not a question did not know how to contact you, this is for a post on the blog. A buyout of L-L-L.com going on, only 500 out of the 17576 left… [***FS*** that’s industry speak for “LETTER[dash]LETTER[dash]LETTER[dot]COM” for those of you new to the space… NNN = 3 Numbers .com and so forth] ..These are getting snapped now at $60 to $300.  These are a great alternative for a company that cannot get or cannot afford the LLL.com. There is a great site (not mine) at www.bluebecker.com with all the info and stats and an updated scan. I know you do not love LLL.com but this is another opportunity for those looking for another market. End Users should love the ability to get an L-L-L for $3000 instead of an LLL.com for $50,000.

BuyDomains surprisingly is a player in this niche too.

Thank you”"

***FS***  Not surprised that Buy Domains is a player here as they buy stuff that ’sells’ ..  who it sells to is to isn’t that important when you’re in the name-sales biz..  Not sure if BD is having more success selling these L-L-L.com names  to other speculators or end-users.  I’d prefer a good 4 letter vs an L-L-L.com because those dash-names are technically 5 character domains and if you type a lot (like I do), finding that dash key isn’t always as immediately intuitive (in repeat fashion) as another alpha numeric character. Not as memorable either IMO. Your point about short names vanishing is valid though..  You’ve probably seen this recent post about 4 letter .com names on Domain State.  I still Afternic chat in 1999 and reading live conversations about limited quantities of 3 letter .com names remaining…  others chiming in about three letters with Q’s, X’s and Z’s being worthless. Funny how perspective changes .. a three character .com containing all three such characters could be worth $$$$ thousands today.

Danno writes:

Google Silent On Adsense Bug
http://valleywag.com/tech/online-advertising/google-silent-on-major-adsense-bug-315703.php

***FS*** “In other words, Google can’t say what’s wrong and won’t say when it will be fixed. And users don’t know if the data will be fixed retroactively”.  How unGoogle-like!

Cnet looking to sell some domains/websites?
http://valleywag.com/tech/cnet/cnet-looking-to-shed-dead-weight-315655.php

***FS*** Comment from Valleywag: “When I worked there, it constantly pained me how little effort the company threw behind search.com. I think that was potentially a great domain name but they never spent the effort to figure out what to do with it.“  Don’t take my word for it folks..  When was the last time “you” visited a CNET site?..  How did you get there?  The only thing that differentiates this site from other content noise on the web is it’s stable of incredibly valuable URL’s..  They can sell those names at their peril.  It’s very easy to get lost in believing you’re an unstoppable “cult of personality” when you’re dating JLO or Britney..  nobody cares where you pump gas or eat breakfast when the relationship ends.  Domains are similar.  CNET is doomed without it’s core traffic driving URLs. Honorable mention to it’s terrific writers who are like speakers without a soapbox when the traffic-driving names go away.

Donna Writes 

“”You have been my unfaltering example, mentor and idol. I have followed you tirelessly for years! Such a great teacher deserves to bask in his students successes! Check this out and a very humble thank you for all you do for our industry! http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/category/5-with“”

Donna Mahony

***FS***   There are several kinds of people in this world..  those who see the glass as half empty.. or half full .. Donna is a half full kind of girl and it brings me great pleasure to help people like that find “their way” and make a better life.  To be fair, Donna was already well on her way when we ran into each other and she gives me way to much credit… but it warms my heart to see her thrive all the same..  Thanks for the memories Donna and heartfelt congratulations on your success.

http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2007/10/16/googles-paid-search-vs-organic-results-a-rickety-wall-of-separation

The fact that Google has recently hired thousands of new staff members (all trying to look like they’re doing their jobs and show growth in their respective divisions) and this dynamic:

Quote: ""…Google will offer technical assistance in achieving better organic search engine placement to those who spend more for paid search results.  I know for certain that these rumors are true in at least two instances.  In fact, I actually have the minutes from one of these technical assistance meetings after the company met with Google engineers.""   

[and] 

""since Google is willing to give advice about organic search engine placement to companies that spend a great deal of money on Google advertising, is the phrase "…While Google never sells better ranking in our search results…" truly accurate?  I suppose this is open for interpretation.  It may be technically true, but offering advice regarding organic search engine placement straight from the horse’s mouth in exchange for millions of dollars in money for paid search results isn’t far from selling rankings""

..Will ultimately lead to a deterioration in search product.  Many loyal Google users can already feel a slight change in the core product..  It takes several searches and refinement to get the result you’re looking for if you’re not searching a specific site or news-story. Research takes longer when Wikipedia isn’t a result option.

Again from the story: "Please don’t get me wrong – I still believe that Google is the best search engine out there.." .. WRONG.  Google is the only search engine out there.  Nobody is even trying in search anymore..  I can’t even think of a number 2 who is "promotiong" search ..  maybe Ask.com with their mainstream ads.  But the more the great wall of seperation crumbles ..  the more opportunities for a strong and viable number 2 emerge.

http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/297/86/

More interesting perspective from Michael per yesterday’s post… Some great charts too. He surmises that Google’s TAC (traffic acquisition costs paid to syndicators/affiliates) is increasing and its margins are falling as it engages in a war to deny traffic to competing keyword marketplaces. I have heard several publishers hypothesize that there is an unspoken "screen" or "discard rate" applied to traffic in the major keyword marketplaces. 

Even if this is just a figment of paranoid publishers imaginations Google’s black-box and record earnings just don’t add up against flat publisher revenues..  a bit more transparency on Google’s part would likely drive more publisher loyalty, longer commitments and trust.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

So NameJet has launched a new secondary marketplace for domain names which will consolidate the exclusive inventory of deleting and expiring names from registrars Network Solutions / eNom and make them available for auction on Namejet.

This is a huge blow to Snapnames as it essentially moves the expiring domain train onto a different set of tracks.

The new service is going to allow its customers to create an account, manage backorders, and participate in auctions on recently available domain names.

As Jay Westerdal comments on his blog:  "you can be assured that they are actively talking to other registrars to join the program. Snapnames was the first and biggest Pending Delete auction marketplace, I think it will be a matter of time before NameJet takes that title."

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m05/i17/s01

Many web-surfers go to MSN, Google and Yahoo typing strings like "ebay sign-up", "sell it on ebay", "ebay store" ..  Clever entrepreneurs were setting up rudimentary websites that lead into Ebay and then purchased traffic under those search strings via Adwords, arbitraging the cost of the clicks at Google against the revenue earned by selling the "sign up" or "lead" to Ebay’s affiliate program. Ebay won’t allow entrepreneurs to fix the market’s inefficiencies any longer.  This is exactly the wrong way to keep long term traffic acquisition costs down?  Why?  These little arbitraging entrepreneurs were fixing an inefficiency in the market.. now that traffic will circulate back to the search engines, and potentially to other non Ebay websites.

It’s beyond me why any publisher in 2007 would sell their traffic to some affiliate program (like Ebay’s) in the first place. There is no guarantee, and little payout in exchange for sending the site very valuable traffic.  I would rather flush my traffic into the ether than send it to an affiliate program like Ebay’s. This is the real world equivalent of working on commission.  Affiliate programs don’t pay you up front, make "you" do the work converting the traffic into "sales" for them and then pay you a stipend for the privilege…  I’m surprised they don’t make you stuff the boxes, ship the product and call their customers with a follow up call to see how satisfied they are.

Years ago I bought a basket of generic names which the previous owner had pointed to an Amazon affiliate program. As soon as I took over the names and set them up in a PPC program, they started making significantly more money. The next day I got a call from an Amazon affiliate manager who desperately wanted to get our traffic back.  You see, for years AMZN had been enjoying 50,000 visits (or so) a day, paying practically nothing. Now the traffic was gone and they had to buy it back on a per click basis via Yahoo (the upstream PPC partner).  So they did.

Paying publishers $25 to deliver a new sign up to eBay is not blowing anybody’s hair back. Most of the free world has an Ebay account,  so signing up "new" people is quite a challenge.  If ebay was smart they would be buying targeted traffic to specific auctions on a PPC basis or join basis rather than trying to get new people to the front door.  It should be encouraging arbitrage (not dissuading it) because somebody has to do the work..  Nothing like money to incentivise that somebody.

Besides, it’s disrespectful to smart, high quality publishers to see Ebay offering $25 dollars for the amazing feat of providing a "new join" in an Ebay saturated world, when Ebay is a massive backfill PPC bidder paying 100’s of thousands of dollars a day to bid across bajillions of keywords at Google, Yahoo and others.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/04/23/china.internet.reut/index.html

I didn’t think more of such a thing was possible..  but hey, color me naive.

Quote:  "Development and administration of Internet culture must stick to the direction of socialist advanced culture, adhere to correct propaganda guidance".. "Internet cultural units must conscientiously take on the responsibility of encouraging development of a system of core socialist values."

Well sign me up for that move to China!… "Not"   This kind of thing is ultimately good for America..  say what you will about the US being technically broke (entitlement programs) or indebted, it’s next generation not as well educated or complacent..  at least you can walk up to the White House gate and shout at George without being sent away for re-education

God Bless America!

Last Week I blogged about China’s predilection for trying to get its people to surf the Web in Chinese characters..  this week it’s India’s turn.

Quote: “While there are websites with Indian language content, one is yet to see a web address in Hindi or Tamil".

Que the "Tears For Fears" .. and let’s all sing it: "…Everybody wants to rule the World…." 

Roland Orzabal would be rolling in his grave if he was dead.

So Vern,  you’ve just been to SES in NYC and sat through early morning Keynote’s featuring the "Smartest people in Search" (who are still making monthly mortgage payments on their co-ops)..  What are you going to do now!?

" I’m going to world famous domainer Michael Bahlitzanakis’s night club. " 

Well, okay it’s not Disneyland…  But hey, your employer’s lackadaisical oversight of your expense account should make the Savvis CEO’s trip to "Scores" look like a trip to the Sam’s Club :)).

Mike B, it’s nice to see one of the world’s sharpest domain minds leveraging their free-cashflow into something with bricks and mortar burn-down value.

Those genius programmers and their glowing brain-power really make you look good homey :))

http://searchwithkevin.prodege.com

Okay..  so I laughed at first..  But this kind of thing is so kooky it just might work..  Everybody has different interests..  some people are into K-Fed some are into Justin ..  have a search page for each one .. then you could put search boxes on other topics of interest..  a unique search start page for each person depending on what folks are interested in.  You could have one on movierentals.com and one on testdrive.com and one on antarctica.com …  crap .. wait  ..  somebody already thought of that… ok,   back to the drawing board.

http://www.dmnews.com/cms/dm-news/search-marketing/40156.html

Textbook play here,  Demand Media’s Richard Rosenblatt is Chairman of the Board at iCrossing ..   So iCrossing goes ahead and buys Spannerworks (in a deal valued at 40 million pounds) which goes ahead and does a bunch of SEO work on those Enom domains over at Demand Media that have recently gotten their eHow content. Something like that anyway.

Marchex is running similar play:  Marchex names —> Openlist Content —-> Traffic leader SEO

I haven’t seen the full Demand Media name list, but based on known and rumored name-asset acquisitions, Marchex has a better (higher quality) overall domain-name footprint.  Still, Richard Rosenblatt is one smart guy and his team (Sean Colo, Paul Stahura, John Kane, Courtney Montpas Sean Muller, etc etc etc etc) are absolutely first rate people.  So I predict a happy ending.

This was the biggest drop of traffic names in months. It looks like somebody let a bunch of very valuable adult domain names expire and they crossed the auction block today. I have always liked generic adult domain names because they are essentially brands.  There is no better way to brand your adult website than by naming it after the content you provide.  I am always surprised by the reluctance of large public minded domain companies to buy or hold this type of inventory.  The large media companies Fox, Viacom, etc. all distribute adult programming.  Owning an adult domain name does not mean you are obligated to become a pornographer, but it seems wise to me to buy and hold high quality generic adult names in order to control that potential distribution channel.  Like it or not Adult content is a reality of the Internet and draws significant numbers of consumers online because that content is "Triple A"  (Accessible, Affordable and Anonymous).

There’s a great quote "Not everyone who buys Toothpaste will buy pornography, but everyone buys pornography will brush their teeth". That quote nicely summarizes the logic behind maintaining a stable of generic adult domains with type-in traffic.

Here’s a partial list with prices paid..  congrats to the winning bidders:

freepornmovie.com     $59,750.00

sexvedio.com          $42,000.00

sexvidoes.com          $41,250.00

freepornovideo.com          $39,638.00

nudebollywood.com          $35,250.00

hentei.com          $30,250.00

bollywoodnude.com          $30,250.00

bignaturalbreasts.com          $26,000.00

amatuervideos.com          $25,250.00

hornyteachers.com          $25,000.00

freepornomovie.com          $22,250.00

hornyolderwomen.com          $16,250.00

nipplepiercing.com          $15,250.00

bollywoodnudes.com          $13,750.00

fineasses.com          $13,250.00

freenudecelebrity.com          $11,750.00

cutebutts.com          $11,250.00

thongbabes.com          $10,750.00

beautifulbutts.com          $10,000.00

nylonstocking.com          $9,100.00

womenmasturbating.com          $8,100.00

hardcorejunkies.com          $7,400.00

bigboobpics.com          $6,125.00

matureamateur.com          $5,300.00

freetitpics.com          $5,200.00

puertoricanwomen.com          $4,100.00

nudistclubs.com          $4,000.00

wetshirts.com          $3,800.00

orgasmsounds.com          $3,166.00

thumbnailporn.com          $2,900.00

underwearmodels.com          $2,877.00

amaturewives.com          $2,600.00

xxxthumb.com          $2,600.00

nylonpanties.com          $2,250.00

babesinbikinis.com          $2,049.00

latinasnude.com          $1,750.00

actressnude.com          $1,383.00

sexsound.com          $1,383.00

freexxxstory.com          $1,255.00

fattit.com          $1,250.00

mexicannudes.com          $1,250.00

oldersexywomen.com          $1,055.00

freexxxphoto.com          $1,050.00

cheerleadernude.com          $913.00

sexualbondage.com          $825.00

amatureasian.com          $666.00

amaturemodels.com          $650.00

sexpicturesfree.com          $315.00

showingnipples.com          $266.00

This was a good deal IMO:

http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/296859-designerclothes-com-sold-for-25k.html