Who'll Buy My Beautiful Duck Eggs?

Imagine for a moment that you're sat at home relaxing one evening and suddenly you get an urge.

It's an irresistible urge and suddenly, without warning you fancy some..... DUCK EGGS!

Maybe you're pregnant. Maybe you just need a bigger egg... who knows?

Where do you go?

If you're a domainer, or one of the new breed of Internet surfers* then the answer is obvious. You follow this banner:

Am I serious?

Yes! Type-in domains are natural destinations for younger Internet surfers, unlike old dinosaurs like me who still rely on search engines. (And i KNOW the value of domains!!)

* I was watching one of my three sons look for stuff online the other day. I asked him to find some information for me.

Instead of going to Google.com as I expected him to do, he simply typed what I was looking for, plus .com (not .co.uk as I expected) into the browser bar and clicked on the first link he saw on what turned out to be a pay per click landing page.

It was intresting to see at first hand, as my son is 17 years old and I didn't think he was that Internet savvy, even though he knows I'm a complete nerd when it comes to the net.

So when I saw that my friend had launched a web site selling duck eggs on a domain called duckeggs.com, I couldn't resist using it as the subject of a blog.

It's a domain that does what it says on the tin.

In preparation for this blog entry, I decided to see whether the .co.uk version was still available for registration. So, I typed in the UK name and found Horton Duck Farm in the UK.

Brilliant. They almost got my "Domainer of the Day" award.

Why almost?

Because unlike my friend Sai Pola, they didn't manage to get the hyphenated name as well as the non-hyphenated. The hyphenated duck-eggs.co.uk was registered two years later than duckeggs.co.uk - a missed opportunity in my humble opinion.

So Sai, today, you are my "Domainer of the Day".

It doesn't matter how stupid the idea looks to some, because on the net, eggs are eggs! Well done on doing something I absolutely endorse - you managed to build a business around a domain name - who can possibly knock you for that?

Also, your banner is as much asbout selling the concept of good, generic domain names as it is about selling duck eggs.

Decluttering For The Mind

I took an unusual step this morning and wrote to the admin of a popular domain forum asking to close my membership.

Normally, if I don't like a place for some reason, I just quietly disappear. Actually ENDING something though, brings about closure and prevents you from being sucked back into time wasting discussions.

Decluttering the mind is essential if you're to grow. I prefer my own path, it's quiet, it's peaceful and I can do what the heck I like.

I also closed my own board and that felt good too :)

Trouble in Domain Land?

The long-awaited (by some) London domain show that was publicised as taking place at the Savoy Hotel seems to have run into a spot of bother.

A last minute change of venue, away from the publicied Savoy Hotel, has led to much speculation on certain domain name message boards - and rightly so.

One of the posts quotes what I'm told was an email from the organisers, as follows:

Domain Focus could not predict that forces working within the UK domain
market have been active in recent weeks undermining the inaugural show of
Domain Focus London at The Savoy Hotel.

Forces?

I must admit, that I was intrigued enough to contact the events organisers at the Savoy today, who gave me the reason for the late change of venue. It seemed fairly black and white to me.

A clue was given at the end of the same announcement given above. It says:

The facilities have been paid for in full and the show will go on..., we look
forward in welcoming you to the new venue and apologies for the last minute
change of address.

I hope that the organisers recover from this catastrophe enough to be able to continue with their ambitious program. Anone can suffer teething difficulties, but domainers (and sponsors) need to know the truth behind this particular story, as there is far more at stake than a few hundred pounds worth of entrance tickets.

Some people were travelling from as far away as the USA and Australia to attend and somehow, "apologies" don't quite seem enough.

Is It Really ALL In The Name?

I was asked recently whether it's possible to generate leads for a company without having a great, or easy to remember domain name.

The answer is that yes it is. In fact I run such a site and it generates about 50-60 extremely targeted visitors per day on average that regularly turn into sales of a niche service.

To do this means getting the site visible in search engines, which of course, means at least on the first page.

This is still relatively easy if you know what you're doing, no matter what the search engine experts say.

The key, and this is very important, is to know what to target in the first place.

Even though the UK is a small country, smaller businesses are unlikely to want to operate on a national basis. The costs of travel means that local competitors will usually be cheaper than somebody operating nationally. More so in larger countries of course.

So the key is to target an audience that is looking to buy a product or service in a specific geographic region.

A business owner selling widgets for example, might offer to buy "widgets.com", though I doubt my friend Rick Schwartz would sell it!

But how would a local business person think? How does a local buyer think?

Let's take Birmingham as an example, simply because I live on the outskirts and it's my nearest big city.

If I want to sell widgets to a client base in Birmingham, the *maybe* I should be looking at birminghamwidgets.com or better still, for a local audience, birminghamwidgets.co.uk.

Similarly, although the Internet is a global phenomenon, what's the point of trying to capture a global (or even national) audience if you can't service the enquiries or satisfy the need.

For this reason, if I am doing search engine placement work, I tend to look for the low hanging fruit.

The low hanging fruit tends to be (though is not always) local.

People like doing business locally. It makes sense, it's more comfortable and of course, you can build a proper, personal relationship with your customers.

So taking our "widgets" example, if suitable domain names were not available, I would look to promote the company in the search engines, by targeting local customers.

If someone searches Google for "widgets", the chances are that he is looking for information about widgets - it's a general search with no qualifying information. This is probably somebody at the information gathering stage of their research.

If that same person searches Google for "widgets birmingham", he is looking for a local supplier - in other words, he's already made up his mind to buy!

What's the stronger lead?

Do you want to provide information and let someone else get the sale?

I know which search terms bring me money and I know which ones bring me useless enquiries.

As my online work involves generating real sales leads, I always include geographical elements when optimising pages for search engines.

It's not always down to a domain name.

Luckily, many search "experts" don't tend to educate their clients about this and that's why, as they spend tens of thousands of pounds / dollars on SEO, I sit back and make money from the fact that I target the right visitors, not high volume visitors.

The same is true of pay per click advertising too - always include the geographical locations you are targeting in your key words, because people doing local searches expect to see it there - and you're more likely to get the click.

Of course, it's only my opinion.

A Direct Challenge To Internet Marketers

The Internet Marketing silly season is upon us again.

During the relatively quiet summer months, I've received fewer "offers" from Internet marketers than normal.

I thought it was because I unsubscribed from their mailing lists, but that can't be the case, because this morning my inbox contained some great, new, unmissable, one of a kind offers that will show me how to make a fortune online!

I was wrong. Despite unsubscribing from all lists, I have today received record numbers of Internet Marketing emails.

The problem with these programs for creating massive wealth is that for the most part, they DON'T WORK.

The only thing that works is actually getting up in the mornings and doing something that will make you some money.

Exclusing things like "going to work", for most ordinary people with limited budgets, there aren't many opportunities to make money without doing some work.

The Internet does produce enormous opportunities to make money, sometimes in abundance.

It also provides enormous opportunities for the "get rich quick" merchants who peddle their latest video, ebook, seminar or course to the hungry army of people becoming increasingly dislillusioned with their day jobs.

Years ago, the get rich quick brigade was a fairly small bunch of people who advertised relentlessly by direct mail and Sunday newspaper ads.

They'd offer ways to make money simply by forwarding mail (that one's online now), or offer hope to the insecure by offering magic potions that would attract the opposite sex in their droves!

The SAME THING is being offered by many (if not all) of the current batch of Internet Gurus who want to make you and I stinking rich.

There's only one thing though.

Before they make you stinking rich, they want to EMPTY YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.

They do this by selling a low priced product.

After a week or two, they send you an upgrade offer. Join their club for just $xx per month. Join their super exclusive club for $xxx per month and so on.

Then, just when you thought you were ready to jump in and put everything into practice, the same guru steps up with yet another email and introduces you to his good friend, who, amazingly, has another great product that he's about to launch and he'd like you to be the first to see it!

If you're not familiar with this technique, it's called "Back End Selling".

When you've run out of ways to extract money from your customers, sell them somebody else's products and get anything from 50% to 100% of the sales value. (Yes, 100% commissions are available, because once the first sale is made, you're on somebosy else's mailing list for their back end sales!

So here's the challenge to any marketing guru with a sure fire way to make money online.

Send me your product.

I'll take a look. I'll follow the instructions to the letter and I'll report honestly on its effectiveness on this blog.

What have you got to lose?

Come on, I DARE you!