Verisign Tag Cloud Tool

Ever rush to the domain search screen at your favorite registrar only to wonder just how many of your fellow domainers are jumping on the same keyword bandwagon? Verisign is helping domainers think out of the type in domain name search box and drop list.  This is also a valuable reminder of key word and tags to be used as density and subject reference for SEO and content building brainstorming. The domain tag cloud is in beta, but one look instantly tells the story. Not only can portfolio domainers see what names are trending for auction consideration and flipping purposes, but they can see what niches might be walking out of the everyday into the special. Common keywords, like “gold” or “shop” or “play” can mix with whatever the day’s mix in blogs, news, search engine trending and type in domain searches yields. A very visual, instant thinking cap with big eyeball appeal. Bravo, Verisign.

 

Google Shakes Up Management

Any book written since 2005 on VC startups or funded dot com ventures or even enterprise angel funded corporations with bricks and mortar realities behind a new Internet presence has a different story today.The next page has been turned for Google (Earth), with a juggle king, veteran Page again newly crowned at the top of the biggest new media empire since, well , Microsoft, Ebay or Apple. Sergey Brin will turn to other projects.

Larry Page, coming back from semiretirement at thirty seven, will take up the reins as Google Czar at the company he helped found in 2000. Just as Google and many other flexible flyers in the new Internet race a decade ago flashed ahead of the huge titan companies still trying to grasp what the Web could mean, it now will muster new (old) leadership when products are most at stake. Google’s online apps, email and evolving omnimedia in Internet life needs a courageous hand at the tiller.

As Silicon Valley has ebbed and flowed in the last decade and then gone back out with the tide, dynamics like those posed with respect to FaceBook in the Social Network and other dotcom stories have never touched the giant that is Google. Ebay, IBM, Microsoft, Apple Computers, Yahoo, and other online behemoths have settled into their respective territories. Google is generally regarded as valuable rather than on the cutting edge among anaysts.

But this was the year FaceBook roared, in 2010 and probably louder in 2011 as well. Google, whose footprint currently is stamped in SEO, Android and online apps, will cement a possible social networking presence online soon. They’ll have to, with so many age rank and indexing players getting into the game (Yahoo, Bing). And if Google sees which way the wind is blowing, it might want to get into the domain business. Before Facebook does.

Bill Clinton Addresses ICANN March 2011

Remember back in the day when the Internet was in full swing and no TLD seemed out of bounds? This year’s March ICANN meeting in Silicon Valley/San Francisco gives domainers a sprinkling of that same flavor when Former United States President William Jefferson Clinton gives the keynote address for the domain namers gathered there.  Clinton formed ICANN back in 1998, when the World Wide Web needed strong controls, formal structure, and organized oversight. Domaining partners sponsoring the upcoming  event will shoulder the fee, which will not be insubstantial. Predictions of  the opening line of the address go something like, “Ask not what your domain can do for you, but what can you do for your domain”. The deep pockets of the players and the global reach of the talent has raised eyebrows, making one domainer comment, “Bob Parsons could probably get the Queen”.

Domain Niche Markets in 2011

Big Domain Opportunities in 2011: The domain markets have shifted and slanted but reformed into the same structure they started 2010 with. But domain growth and site development will happen apace, especially in markets where organic domains can be exploited for end user traffic in organic wares, organic consumer product ideas, organic and environmentally friendly lifestyle coaching and tutorials. Niches like insurance (child insurance) financial products( reverse mortgages), and technology devices (Androids, Ivos, Windows 7, etc. continue to offer domain revenue potential.

The pivotal monster domain and website market for 2011 is gaming. Recreational gaming has become bigger better broader and better implemented worldwide. Universals of multigame, multiplayer, multiuser, online destinations attract more users every day. Veteran users exit one game and look for the next game title. Traffic from these end users come from a player looking for a strategic screenshot or playthrough. Any site with a bot, (skill advancing program), hints for gaming playthrough, game reviews, physics tips, scoring cheats, leveling tips & codes, and storyline summaries will find search engine results.

Pool Skim for Sunday September 26th

Many exotic noms churning the shark infested bidding waters at Pool.com. Foaming at the top of the froth are the likely numericals. The domains 100 ItalianRecipes.com and 100MovieQuotes are born traffic magnets. the likely follow-up name 100quotes.com has quizzical potential. 123bids.com could be the store portal of tomorrow. 12monthcarlease.com could have a domainer in the driver’s seat.

The march of the 1800 number names commences tomorrow at Pool.com. The name set includes 1800files.com and many others. 1800chase.com, 800carkey.com, and 1800golfbag.com as well as 1800nyctaxi.com make geo and niche ideas come to mind. 1dollarbiz.com gives a lot of bang for the buck. The domain name 1roomlife.com could be a minicam video hit.

The nom url 1stopkid.com makes a domain shortstop out of a parenting search. And the sport name 2010-football.com could be a hyphenate traffic touchdown. The shorty domain 2-cp.com could also be a high scorer. The name 20dollargolf.com could be a gift site or a geo locator. Many, many 247 names on the pool.com list wave. Such as 247livemd.com. The domain 2cool4mail.com is a philosophy statement.

The url 300gas.com could be a buck saver in the neighborhood. The name 30minrecipes could take a half hour to resolve. The domain name 3daydeal.com could be a trifecta of domain value. the name 3-dpods.com could phone it in. The url 3gbike.com could be a dimensional cyclic name. A seris of 411 names fall from the Pool.com waves, 411bid.com among them. 411ww.com could be warcrafty, and 411hiv.com isn’t about the birds and the bees, specifically.

The name 4drealm.com is for domainer namer gamers. 4Fresno.com is geo specific. The name 55to.com could be speedy. 5rules.com is short and sweet. The domain 7daygames could mean a day of rest. 8000g.com is cryptic but memorable. 80day.com and 80web.com could be link mirrors. The site at 96tv.com could be a video site for nostalgia tubes.

More deleting names at the drop at Pool.com.

1st (Annual) Epik Seattle Starts

An old/new name in the world of domain names (Epik) is starting with some tasty speakers lined up.  Editor of Domainnamewire.com Andrew Allemann, followed by Luke Webster (DevRich), Chad Fisher of Pyramid SEO, as well as Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome (Gnomedex). Colin Pape of Shopcity.com and David Fairley of Website Properties will also shed light on the future of developing domains.

Jay Lohman of DomainDevelopmentFirm.com also contributes to the speaker’s wisdom, and John Lawler as Senior VP of product management at Epik reigns in the audience with feature product news. Rob Monster of Epik displays his Dutch-American common sense which many Internet companies pay good money for.

Hint to domainers: if you don’t know who these companies are or what they do, get Googling. Development IS the future of domaining. Godaddy.com knows that, which is why they are the Gold sponsor of the Epik event. Moniker.com will be holding an auction and serves as thePlatinum sponsor. Silver sponsors of the 1st annual Epik conference of domainers are ….WebsiteProperties, Lockergnome, Estibot.com, and more.

Glancing at the site, Epik does offer a free site analysis and evaluation. Hard to believe many domainers won’t act on that, especially as it could attract some feature bidders if the url shows “Epik” potential. A webcast of a Powerlunch with Rob Monster can be enjoyed by clicking here.

Pool Skim for Sunday September 12, 2010

With the date on the calendar moving on, the pool waters are frenzying with domain name currents. For the brave domainer there is a (survey said) page: 1000womenday.com. For the bargain shopper, the name 100peso.com might be right. 101thingsyoudontknow might be a very good site unless it’s personalized…

The name 1-800-refund.com is a mighty appealing name. 10rep.com might be a zen-minimal workout website. 10tvhd.com brings things more clearly into focus for the right tech buyer. A slew of 123inkjets typos are available, count em up! And the nom 12stems.com will make some florist happy somewhere. And in the 800 news, 1800bike.com, 1800besity..com, 1800chicken.com, 1800greenclean.com and 1800supply.com make some telephony tempting.

the domains 1biglead.com and 1border.com could be very political website names. The name 1stcreditcard could be good for a freshman domainer and the freshman traffic he draws. The domain name 1smallfarm.com could be an organic or agricultural inspiration. The travel domainer will to snap up 2010worldcruise.com. Rio fans will like the name 2016olympicstuff.com and worldwide gun fan domainers can grab 22colt.com.

The names 2fat2go.com and 2fat2run.com might be curiosity sites with swelling potential. Whatever website gets launched at 30dollargascard.com could be a gas. The name 360vpn.com could be a global hosting brand. And 3DpHp.com could be an animated scripting tutorial portal. And the url 4cheapticket.com could be the student travel site of the year. And 4dXd sounds like a luxury entertainment portal of the future.

For the organic crowd the name 4greentips.com could go swimmingly. And form fronters might like 4legalform.com as their calling card. Fore! Names like 4mygeo.com, 4nhl.com, 4mywin.com and more await at Pool.com in the numericals chum. The name 4singleparents.com could have an elastic traffic rate after 11 p.m. 4tarotreading.com and 4u2digg.com also vend at Pool.

Many church- names at Pool this round. The names cigarpick.com and cighub.com could be rolled into a profit. Cinemacrafts.com and cinemaobserver.com go on the auction block. The Halloween crowd might like the nom 666horror.com. Grocery retailers might like the name 777-food.com. The names 7figurethinking.com and 7figuretraining.com might get 7figure bids. 8-bet.com makes the casino crowd remember.

Finally, the name 95games.com might be a good portal for Win 95 time travelers. Alphas and more names dropping at Pool.com.

to Dmoz or not to Dmoz?

To DMOZ, or not to DMOZ-That is the question. Friends, Domainers, name-countrymen, lend me your bandwidth. The topic at hand is the much-ballyhooed DMOZ directory inclusion which has come under speculation by many domainers of late as to relevancy and utility.

Domainers worldwide are looking to find a level playing field. Yet long term domain owners want historic DMOZ values when it can help them market a name sale. Is it fair to webmasters and domainers that the inclusion of Adsense or Google (or any ads) is a mystery factor that is a variable for each application?

Long before Google flexed its monopolistic muscles, the DMOZ set the standard for relatable, categorically indexed links in the big-brutha of all directories. Yet today even many former editors debate the relevancy of the DMOZ. The foul whiff of corruption taints the purity of the DMOZ resource.

Many newb and career domainers offer differing opinions. Some domainers barely know what it is, while others dismiss it as a one-shot task amid a laundry list of other, value-establishing domain activities like link building, blogging, community hosting, social networking, article posting, and advertising.

This has become a philosophical topic in the realm of domain name buying and selling. Insofar as many domain name estimators use the DMOZ inclusion as a factorial in the valuation, the cementing of its value is of interest to all. Furthermore, the possibility of obtaining paid DMOZ link attainders by committing e-commerce with DMOZ editors has reared its ugly head.

Paid link directories are all over the internet and dozens if not hundreds arise daily. Just as many erode due to lack of interest, poor SEO ranking, little or no active promotion or marketing, and/or failure of hosting or webmaster resources. It seems DMOZ may be in Wiki development stages, where free unpaid editors and contributors have moved on in bulk.

Since the model of the DMOZ assumes the same level of attention to contemporary applications as historic inclusions, do today’s rejections operate on the same benchmarks as yesterday’s DMOZ inclusions? is the archived out of SEO relevancy? And do domain estimation sites and evaluators for domain name resale amounts take that into account?

These are hard-hitting question that will hopefully be answered either by policy changes in SEO and page ranking sites or implied in the continued inclusion of archival DMOZ listings when traffic, density, and SEO value are measured up for a domain name evaluation and resale value estimates.

Pool Skim for Thursday September 9th

There’s big apps hiding in the name chum at pool.com The sharklike domain name bidders are already circling…Names like kindview.com and kingnaif.com compete for buyers.  The name kidscolorit.com is made for a children’s coloring images site or directory of same. The domain kidsecoshop.com is vital with good re-use energy. The url kidsnotepad.com vends as well.

Real lingual opportunities in the auction today. Kiqbox.com should have a major kickoff. Kiteaviation.com and kit-junkie.com go different ways according to different drummers. The domain name beerdough.com could be the recipe for traffic success! And some thrifty domainer will bid on BeingScottish.com. Beingftnotfat.com bellies up to the bar as well.

More at Pool.com…

Why Luxury Domains are Hot Now

The domain name market has seen some global upticks and none more rapid than the interest in luxury names of late. Why are luxury domains hot? Because the consumer markets that luxury brands are reaching out for are growing more broad. Because companies holding luxury labels have to vend goods to wring value from the brand. And with the new Internet shopper, the online domain is the gateway to tapping the luxury market consumer clicks.

Luxury brands are spending more money on advertising for more modest consumers and getting lean and mean for the bottom line.That means their ad spending online is up as well, a boon for webmasters and domainers. PPC and Adsense minded webmasters have long been searching for new markets in traffic and search engine referrals. For the good life, premium travel, fantasy living, celebrity lifestyle, and glamorous brands, the luxury market is here.

Witness the PPR brand Puma leading the sports pack of franchise brands with Usain Bolt, and Burberry refashioning its clothing line to the signature plaid. Shopping sites with keywords like top, grand, posh, gourmet, luxury and other luxury domain name root words are very brandable and very promotable at the present time. The Gilt Groupe (Gilt.com) got dual rounds of financing, not chump change in a global recession.

Luxury properties are being auctioned off to the lowest bidder as mortgage banks and finance companies flee long term structured debt on properties in densely for-sale neighborhoods. Attracting the luxury buyer, both from middle class and top tier demographics is more appealing and lucrative than ever before. Sites like Net-aporter cater to the designer savvy online shopper. These are the new affiliate sponsors.

Hedge funders like the Fortress group will be vending their luxury properties soon, and where will their brokers look for frugal shoppers with luxury tastes? At the sites savvy domainers have the skill to buy names for and make. As one expert domain in the retail sector says, “With the fall of the shopping mall and the rise of the online bargain hunter, any geo market right now should have its own luxury goods consignment shop.”

Christie’s Great Estates is a good example. The real estate market has always been a fast-moving domain name arena, but the current hybrid market for real estate in the luxury demographic at fire sale prices means floodgate traffic based on the quality of listings and the strategy webmasters employ getting new eyeballs arriving and sticky. Luxury hotel revivals like the Los Angeles mainstay Chateau Marmont and Miami’s Raleigh need sites to deliver customers from.

That mean domainers can craft communities of customers ready for bright ads. But credit card and hospitality niches are looking most hardily for visitors. Says the webmaster at www.luxury.org.uk, “Sites like Gilt.com, for frugal but posh shoppers looking for designer seconds, with an invitation-only user base, show premium consumer appeal”.

Luxury travel now is also so steeply discounted that advertisers are paying top affiliate rewards to populate their sites with banners and links. This is good news for webmasters with premium or luxury travel or hotel domains. For a development site project that is hot right now, luxury and its domain has never looked better.

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