If you’re a fan of The Beatles and if you have a spare $1 million, you might want to check out this collection. By the by, the owner understands that having a relevant domain name is a first step towards making a sale; he uses UltimateBeatlesCollection.com to promote his collection.
Archive for May, 2008
In a security advisory published on May 30, 2008, Microsoft urges its Windows users to stop using Apple’s popular Safari web browser, because Safari doesn’t ask for user permission before downloading files, including certain executable malicious files which are often automatically downloaded from visited websites in the background. These malicious files could then be activated by a second attack, so they represent a serious security problem, according to Microsoft.
MSFT also offers workarounds if you do not want to stop using Safari on Windows. Click here to read the advisory.
Via Advertising Age:
Local ad spending online may be the nexus of traditional publishers’ greatest hopes for future growth, but the anticipated spoils have already generated fierce competition, according to a new report from Borrell Associates.
Local ad revenue online looks likely to grow by 50% this year to $13.1 billion from $8.7 billion in 2007, Borrell said. The expansion can’t sustain that pace much longer, though; its compound annual growth over the next four years is likely to fall to 15% from 48% over the last four years.
Local advertising offers many opportunities to both pure web companies and “traditional” media companies that are now extending their offerings to the Internet. But looking at different types of ads, some ads are better for local marketing than others, in my opinion.
CPM advertising, as still offered mostly by websites of newspapers and by the bigger online portals, doesn’t offer as much value to advertisers as contextual sponsored links, individual flat-fee advertising deals and classified ads. This is because most CPM advertising campaigns are still untargeted and they do not offer any incentives for publishers to offer related quality content. Instead, CPM advertising might induce publishers to simply concentrate on the number of pageviews their site generates. PPC ads, flat-fee ads and classifieds, on the other hand, rely very much on traffic quality and high conversion rates. Thus these types of ads offer publishers an incentive for creating quality content and attracting quality traffic that will convert well into actual leads and sales for their clients.
That is why I think both publishers and advertisers should try to make more use of contextual advertising and classified ads, especially in local marketing, as it should result in more value being created in the long run.
The Economist has a chart showing the trend of US house prices from 1920 to 2008. It shows that house prices have fallen by 18% in real terms since 2007. This means house prices have fallen faster than during the Depression in the 1930s.
European buyers are already entering the US real estate market, because they can now buy houses at very low prices. Many houses are being sold in foreclosure sales and on top of that the US Dollar is weak compared to the Euro, so Europeans pay even less than American buyers currently looking to purchase a home.
The same applies for domain names too, by the way. I’ve said it before: If you’re based in Europe you can save a lot of money when buying domains from US sellers now!
The geographic domain name America.com, which had been put up for auction at Sedo, has not been sold because the reserve price has not been met. The highest bid placed was a petty $1,710,000, although many expected America.com to fetch mid seven figures (including me). What is even worse is that only three bidders were involved and it was only Bidder 3 who raised the bid little by little from $25,000 to the highest bid, probably because he tried to find out what the reserve price was. The other two bidders were not willing to offer more than a few thousand dollars.
I think this auction, just as the TRAFFIC East 2008 live domain auction, is a crystal-clear sign of a weakening economy causing a slowdown in the domain name market. Therefore, I would consider carefully whether to sell domains at the moment, unless you’re willing to let them go at low prices compared to what you could have gotten just a few months ago.
The dry spell will go over as the economy gets back on track. I would take these slow times as a chance to look over your portfolio, see which domains you want to unload, which ones to hold on for and where you see potential for more (e.g. development or strategic partnerships).
A user of WebmasterWorld has reported that Yahoo is going to increase the renewal fees it charges for domain names registered with them. According to this user, Yahoo will raise the price for domain registrations to a staggering $34.95 per year from July 01, 2008. He further points out that it doesn’t seem to be possible to advance-renew your domains at Yahoo, so you have no chance to bypass the price increase.
If I had any domains registered at Yahoo I would quickly transfer them out. This price increase is not justified. In fact, the only reason I see for it is that YHOO wants to make more money or it wants to cut down on its number of domain registration clients, hence reducing costs while still earning a similar amount of money due to the rise in prices. Either way, look for another registrar, because there are excellent companies out there. My personal favorite registrar is Moniker, but Fabulous is a pretty good company too.
I don’t know what you’re looking for when deciding where to register your domain names. But what is most important, in my opinion, is that your domains are secure. I’m willing to pay a premium for this additional safety, because I consider my domains valuable investments which must be protected. Customer service is important to me, too. Every now and then it happens that something isn’t working correctly or I need quick assistance. In such cases it is always good to have 24/7 support or at least reliable support that gets back to you within one business day at the latest. With this being said, consider wisely which domain registrar to choose. After all, it’s them who possess power over your domain registrations and if they do something wrong you might loose your domain name.
And if you’re a Yahoo customer, look for a better domain name registrar!
Moniker’s TRAFFIC East 2008 live auction took in just under $2,600,000 yesterday. I didn’t really expect a better outcome, although I had hoped for more, of course. But before drawing any conclusions let’s first look at the domains that were sold. The domain sales data are courtesy of DomainNameNews.com, who did a great job live blogging the event yesterday. All prices are in US$.
gasprices.com - 225000
InsuranceRates.com - 225000
rainbow.com - 170000
Athlete.com - 122000
ow.com - 120000
ringtones.org - 120000
Track.com - 92500
ComputerParts.com - 80000
Grass.com - 70000
SexShows.com - 55000
FilmMaking.com - 55000
Susan.com - 50000
Asia.net - 50000
Anger.com - 49000
postalcodes.com - 45500
maybe.com - 40000
FootballScores.com - 37500
SpecialOffer.com - 35000
UsedLamborghinis.com - 35000
usedguitars.com - 35000
sagittarius.com - 33500
blueray.com - 30000
floortiles.com - 30000
BassGuitar.com - 30000
piano.net - 29000
CLOSINGS.COM - 25000
boxingnews.com - 25000
typo.com - 25000
Conglomerate.com - 20000
engraved.com - 19000
LabSupplies.com - 18000
mortgage.mobi - 18000
exerciseballs.com - 17500
drugs.mobi - 17500
TVschedule.com - 17000
FreeTrailer.com - 17000
ENDORSEMENT.COM - 16500
INVESTMENTPLANNER.COM - 16000
CarCenter.com - 16000
Management.net - 15000
refinancerates.com - 12500
underconstruction.com - 12500
onlinecounseling.com - 12500
patti.com - 12000
influential.com - 12000
wwb.com - 12000
language.org - 12000
honey.net - 12000
MufflerShop.com - 11000
sales.mobi - 10500
celluliteremoval.com - 10000
men.mobi - 10000
films.mobi - 10000
escort.mobi - 10000
virgins.net - 10000
Migrate.com - 9500
BathSupplies.com - 9500
computers.mobi - 9500
airlines.mobi - 9500
Assorted.com - 9500
FreeCosmetics.com - 9500
michigan.info - 9250
EmploymentAds.com - 9000
TheaterReviews.com - 9000
CivilClaims.com - 8500
records.mobi - 8500
MetricConversion.com - 8250
physicians.info - 8000
honorroll.com - 7500
Flossing.com - 7000
hospitalization.com - 7000
LuxuryEstate.com - 6500
boats.mobi - 6000
BusStations.com - 6000
stockmutualfunds.com - 6000
thea.com & thea.net - 6000
WebClass.com - 5500
XmasList.com - 5000
scraper.com - 5000
rabid.com - 5000
forsale.mobi - 5000
show.mobi - 5000
airports.info - 5000
primebeef.com - 5000
ElectronicPestControl.com - 5000
garden.info - 5000
Boot.net - 5000
exerciseclothing.com - 4500
medicalsupplystores.com - 4000
badcreditloans.org - 4000
UniformServices.com - 3500
CemeteryLots.com - 3500
thankyougiftbaskets.com - 3000
burningdvds.com - 3000
religion.mobi - 3000
airforcebase.com - 3000
GraphicsSoftware.com - 2500
coconuttrees.com - 2500
bestmattresses.com - 2500
optimize.net - 2500
greeksculptures.com - 2000
armtattoos.com - 1500
slangwords.com - 1500
campfiresongs.com - 1200
HighDefinitionProgramming.com - 1000
If you’d like to see the complete list with all the domains that were not sold, please click through to DomainNameNews.com (link opens in new window).
Of the 249 domains in the auction, 105 (42.17%) were sold. But there was no seven-figure domain sale and there were only 6 sales in the low six-figure range. The average sale price of those 6 domains was $163,667, which is low compared to the past auctions’ top sales.
In the range between $10,000 and $99,999, 49 domains were sold at an average of $27,214. This is also at the lower end of the spectrum.
Then there were 50 domains sold at prices in the $1,000 to $9,999 range: They sold at an average of $5,474, which I think is not bad.
If you look at the sales data above you will see that the higher-priced domains clearly suffered as opposed to the lower-priced domains which sold quite well. There are, as always, various factors at play, but I think that the slowdown in the economy in combination with high reserve prices are the main reason why we didn’t see many sales this time. Most people at the auction apparently didn’t want to afford a high-priced domain in today’s market, so they opted for low-priced domains instead.
As said earlier, I didn’t expect a much better outcome. I wasn’t surprised that none of the top-dollar domain names changed hands, either.
All domains that were not sold will now go into the silent online auction, where you can still place bids on them. I don’t think this will add much to the bottom line. But as a buyer you might be able to find some bargains.
If you’ve always wanted to be on the cover of a book, now might be a good opportunity to appear at least in a tiny section of one. Seth Godin, marketing guru and author of bestselling marketing books, is looking for photos of his readers to put on the cover of his new book which will be out in October.
If you’d like to be on the cover–at least in a teeny tiny little section of it– (no promises, none at all–the cutting room floor is bigger than the cover), send a photo of yourself (headshots are best) to me here. If you’re lucky, you’ll join a thousand other handsome folks immortalized in print. It could even get you on the Dick Cavett show. Here’s your chance to be slightly famous.
Seth Godin is the author of books such as Unleashing the Ideavirus, Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars, The Dip, Meatball Sundae and several others. I’ve read a few of his books and I’m a frequent reader of his blog, which I really enjoy reading because of the often out of the box ideas and topics he covers. He hasn’t written about domain names yet, unless in the context of SEO or business names, but who knows… maybe he too will eventually “get it”.
About two weeks after the initial announcement, Sedo’s America.com domain auction started today. The auction will be open through May 29, 2008. Bidding is already at $1,050,000 and the reserve price has not yet been met. The Boston Globe dared to pose the question whether America.com could top the estimated $12 million record price of Sex.com. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes and whether or not the brokers involved invited corporate buyers to place bids on this premium geographic domain. Sure, a price above $10 million is possible, but it will be difficult to achieve unless there is more than one well-funded end user bidding on the domain.
Please note that you must be a certified bidder in order to participate in this auction. Sedo launched a new buyer certification program this week after it had received lots of complaints from domain sellers about sales and transactions that had not been completed. The new certification process might also have been a reaction to the widely reported Pizza.com multi-million-dollar auction in particular, which has been pending for almost two months now.
I sure hope America.com will receive lots of bids and, more importantly, that the domain sale will go through if the reserve price will be exceeded.
Now that Microsoft didn’t buy Yahoo and isn’t going to do so in the future, it is considering new ways to gain share in web search. The company is going to sort of buy share by offering users cash as part of its Cashback program for using its Live.com search engine:
- Search for cashback deals at Live Search cashback. Each time you click a Live Search cashback listing, you’ll find great deals on the product you chose. Your results will clearly list the cashback savings you’ll receive off the store price, and your final bottom-line price that includes tax and shipping costs. Also look for this icon (omitted) when you search for a product on Live Search to find great cashback deals.
- Compare and sort products by the bottom-line price. Click the best deal to go to the store. Everything you buy during that store visit will be eligible for Live Search cashback. On your first time using Live Search cashback, we will ask you for an email address so we can tell you how to quickly set up your free cashback account.
- Keep saving money each time you use Live Search cashback. Every time you make a qualifying purchase, we’ll send you an email to confirm your Live Search cashback savings. When your cashback account reaches a balance of at least $5, you can claim your cold, hard cash.
This is an innovative approach to growing insofar that no other competitor in the search engine market has taken this road before, as far as I can tell. But I’m not convinced that Live Search Cashback will actually work out in the long run and help Microsoft close the gap between Live.com and Google.com. The software giant certainly can afford to give money away to its users, it is sitting on a big pile of cash. The question is, however, whether the incentives offered through Cashback will result in sustainable growth.
I remain skeptical, because I believe Microsoft will need innovative search products in addition to innovative marketing if it wants to seriously compete with the world’s number one search engine Google.
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