Preview The New Blog

I've been putting the finishing touches to my new blog / site.

My intention is to have the entire site, not just the blog, based on Wordpress, now that I've finally mastered some of the more intricate things about how it all works.

But before I formally launch it, I'd like to show you the progress to date. Feel free to add comments, especially since I was unable to import all of the previous comments from this current Blogger version.

I hope to move the entire site this week, but in the meantime, the URL for the new blog is www.david-carter.com/wp - I hope you like it!

Geocities Closing

Yahoo! announced recently that it is shutting it's Geocities hosting at the end of 2009 and asking users of this free hosting service to move to their yahoo! Hosting service instead.

A number of early domainers and web site pioneers hosted their sites and pointed their names to a free Geocities account.

These sites will likely disappear altogether, since people change their email addresses and will be unaware of the change.

Personally, I've never seen a Geocities hosted site that I liked, so it'll be no great loss.

But of course, some have good search engine ranking and backlinks - which will be wasted unless the owner moves their hosting to a new account.

The moral of the story is avoid free hosting and get yourself a proper hosting account pronto!

Freedom!

Most of my domain names are on automatic renewal. Having just looked throgh my .co.uk, I have marked another 83 names for automatic deletion once the expiry date is met.

I have been asked in the past why I don't post a list of the names and sell them off cheaply.

The answer to that is simply that I don't want to.

This is just an exercise to teach myself not to register names for the sake of it. I wouldn't want to encourage ohers to do it either.

It is refreshing to have the occasional purge. It frees the mind.

Domainers Cause Swine Flu [.com] Pandemic

I guess there are hundreds, if not thousands of speculators grabbing up any names with some reference to the current outbreak of Swine Flu.

In fact, I bet there are more swine flu related names being registered at the moment than there are people affected by the illness.

The WHO should be issuing a category 6 warning that domainers have created a pandemic of panic buying useless and worthless domains that will never see the light of day.

This happens every time some big story hits the news, with speculative investors running off to register every name they can think of, in the hope that the story becomes so big, that they can either earn ppc income from it, or can quickly flip it to some village idiot who comes along with a large cheque book.

I wish them luck. They're going to need it.

FindJobs.com at Moniker Auctions

I was looking through the auction listings for the next live domain auction at Moniker (see http://domainauctions.moniker.com/viewCatalog.php?id=199), when I noticed the name, findjobs.com.

The reason it attracted my attention was because I own the .co.uk version.

It's one that I've had a few enquiries about during the time I've owned it and also one that I've placed quite a high value on, though nobody's ever stumped up the cash of course. They rarely do.

It was nice to see that the .com has an auction guide of $100,000 to $250,000. Personally, I think that this is an ambitious number, which is as good a reason as any why you should never ask me for an appraisal!

If it sells for anything like that guide price, I'd like to invite the buyer to contact me with a view to grabbing the .co.uk too!

I could do with a nice holiday.

Dropping Domains

For several months now, I have been letting some of my domains drop. These are the lower quality hyphenated domains for which I will have no use myself.

I haven't checked whether any of them have been snapped back up by others, as that's the kind of thing that keeps a domainer hanging on to low value or worthless domains for years, in the hope that somebody will come along to buy them.

As selling has never really formed part of my own domaining strategy, I don't get attached in this way.

The recession we are currently in makes no difference to my stance on this, as I chose the names to drop many months ago and am still registering more to replace them. They are simply better targeted these days.

It made me monder though, whether the registrars are feeling the pinch as people begin to let their own names drop because they cannot afford the renewal fees, or have higher priorities.

Back Online

I just spent another week working away without a laptop. That's the second time I refused to take one and it's so good to get away from the technology!

Infact, it was so good that I also switched off my mobile phone apart from when I wanted to call home and avoided television.

I think I am becoming a technophobe.

Having just read through most of my emails, I found two domain enquiries, which is always interesting, though I ignore all such emails unless they open with an offer that grabs my attention.

Double PPC Traffic By Using Generic Domains

My friend Edwin Hayward of http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ has conducted a study to demonstrate the value of generic domain names when marketing using pay per click.

Here's the press release:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/domain/names/prweb2305584.htm

Here's the study:

http://www.memorabledomains.co.uk/ppcanalysis.pdf

It's no surprise to me, as it's always been my experience that having a relevant domain name enhances click throughs both on PPC and on standard search engine listings. Plus you get the odd direct type-in too!

How Not To Enquire About A Domain Name

I get a few emails each week asking me whether certain of my domain names are for sale. The answer is usually no, though sometimes, I have been tempted with a nice offer.

Yesterday I received an email that appears to make some assumptions so I thought I'd post it here. I've removed any identifying information from the email, otherwise, it's as I received it.

Dear Sirs,

You have registered the top level domain (co.uk) of our registered company name xxxxxxxx. We are incorporated in the United States as xxxxxxxx LLC and have owned the xxxxxxxx.com domain since 1997.

We would like to utilize the co.uk domain for corporate use. Would you please let me know what kind of arrangement we can make for a transfer of the domain?

Sincerely,

I might be wrong about the intention here, but the way I see it, this person is assuming because he has a company based in the USA and owns the .com of the same name, that this gives him automatic rights over a UK name that I have owned for a number of years.

The first line is particularly accusatory in my opinion. It suggests that I deliberately set out to register his company name.

Asking for a transfer of the name is a bloody cheek, but maybe I am being unfair and he's really asking whether the name is for sale.

However, I've dealt with idiots like this before and I know the form.

My reply was simply to state that the domain name in question is not for sale. It won't be the end of the matter though, since people like this really do believe that they have an entitlement to something that's not theirs.

Owning a USA company of the same name as a .co.uk name carries no weight at all in the UK.

Owning the .com version of a name does not imply rights to any other extension.

Sending emails like the one above does nothing to motivate me to even consider selling a domain name. In fact, it just motivates me to point out the error of their ways on my blog.

Kepp it up Mr P and I'll post your URL too.

Attending Domain Shows

I was asked by reader of this blog if I could present a few tips about a domain conference for the first time.

As I am not really the person to ask, since I don't attend shows, I asked a few people who have been, for their own tips on making the investment pay off. Even the free shows have an investment of time, travel and accommodation.

Here is some advice from those who kindly took the time to answer the question when I passed it on:

Contributor 1

1. Don't be shy

2. Meals are designed to break bread with folks you don't know, sit at tables with new faces at each meal or function.

3. Don't be afraid to ask questions of the panels and introduce yourself to the attendees.

4. You will come away and say it was the best couple of days you ever had in business.

Contributor 2

Don't be intimidated by the long term players and dive right in to the fray.

Seems like yesterday was my first TRAFFIC, but it was 4 years ago.

As someone at the time with almost zero industry knowledge, I was met with open arms.99% of the show attendees are warm, welcoming and more than willing to help out someone new to our industry.In other words' - don't be bashful, and don't be worried about not knowing the industry all that well.

With so many experts in the room it is a perfect place to ask a lot of questions.

Elliot Silver was also asked the same question last week and posted his advice on his blog at http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/guide-to-attending-a-domain-conference/ (I think it was the same person asking the question).

To anyone looking to get the best from a domain show, I hope this helps.