The Rick Schwartz Domain Name and Traffic Blog: RicksBlog.com – Home of The Domain King®

Morning Folks!!

Sahar sent me the link below the other day and knew I would not be able to resist blogging about it. Prick! ;-)

Let me pull out the single most idiotic statement in their 'Expert' opinions. This is the reason why there is still so much upside in domaining.

'In our client's goal is to build a strong brand, we advise against the adoption of generics or near-generics as their company or domain name. We far prefer the ownable, brandable virtualvineyard.com to wine.com, for example.'

Wonder what other wrong moves they would 'Prefer'. And this is just one of the reasons I always say your journey to success usually fails on the very first few steps. Welcome to designed failure.

http://naming.com/assets/services/url.html

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

In the days ahead and into 2013 expect a new round of dotcom bombs that will be shutting down and closing their doors or being acquired for less than pennies on the dollar. We are in the midst of a huge reshuffling of things and as companies sit down to discuss these things they are going to get out their shotgun and put these marginal websites down and out of their misery.

Nothing to be alarmed about. It isn't the first time this has happened and it won't be the last. But between December 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013 just don't be surprised or even change your game because of this. Completely foreseeable. Just another mile marker.

And again, for domainers with weak stomachs, stop reacting to yesterdays news and tomorrows pitfalls. Being aware of them is what gives you the POWER to overcome and defeat them and take advantage of the situation and weakness for those that do have weak stomachs. Go grab some tums and a doggie downer. The best days are always ahead. Cycles and tides are way too big to control. But you sure as hell can take advantage of them and harnessing them regardless.

Reality scares some and empowers others.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I think Bing has finally hit a home run with their new TV commercial against Google and takes a direct swipe at them. Bravo!! http://www.scroogled.com.

It's simple, masterful and it is going to cost Google a lot of business. Well done, well executed, short, powerful, and knocks down the Jolly Green Giant and gives a bit of choice. This is GREAT news for domainers and surfers.

One of the best, most effective, 30 second spots I have EVER seen!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post about a domain name somebody sent to me. Now that the DomainSherpa.com interview is out I can reveal that domain name and you will see me talking about this domain several times throughout the interview.

What is interesting is I did my research on the domain AFTER the actual interview. Here is what I said then about this domain name:

'A domain was sent to me for consideration. The party wanted to know if their domain had a leasing potential. Problem he thought was that it only had 20 visitors a day. First of all, 20 visitors a day has value. Whether it has GREAT value depends on the research I do. I found out that this exact match domain name had multiple people advertising and one guy was upfront and was asking for $2000 for the service.

So let's say this guy charges $2000 for his service and let's say since it is a service he puts in $500 worth of time. Leaving him $1500 profit. Now ask yourself a question. From those 20 daily type ins how many would he have to close and make customers for the domain to pay for itself? Let's say that domain leases for $2500/month. Then back to the question and why many don't see the forest thru the trees. So the answer of course is 2. Let's say he gets one new customer each week from the leased domain. He just put $8k in his pocket with a gross profit of $5500.

What if he grows the traffic to 200 a day? What if he closes twice as many? And don't forget to add the money he just saved sending to Google. That was a chunk of change. Plus these are now clients that can come back for repeat business. What's to reject here? It's math! All the while the lessee is making more money and eventually may be able to afford to buy the domain name. Plus as you do business together over time you come to know each other and a dea becomes easier not harder. It's math!

This is just one example and if the owner gives me permission, I will list the domain. I will transform that domain from making pennies on PPC to thousands with my method. Because I see domains differently than most. I see it with the lens of 'Sales' and nothing more. Since few see sales like I do, I can only attract those that understand what I see and say and have demonstrated over the years.'

The domain name is SEOConsultant.com, owned by Michael Cyger and I would like to list this domain for $2000/month with his permission. In the interview I started at $250/month. Later on I went to $500/month and as I stated thinking about it stated that I would have to do some research on it to see the true value. Which I did in my comments above after the interview.

Value of the lease is in direct proportion to the product or service you are selling and the profitability. Do you see what I see?

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Quite stunning numbers for a one day event. But that really is not the surprise here.

I like seasonal domains just like seasonal businesses. Can be very profitable. Not my true cup of tea but I have known folks to make fortunes doing it. Lose fortunes as well.

I have been tracking the alexa numbers for BlackFriday.com and was impressed to see the rise in traffic starting in October and building up until just over a week ago. I also wanted to see if it had any staying power past Black Friday. It did have for that weekend, but then it crashed like a Christmas Tree tent the day after Christmas. What I was looking for was to see if the decline would be sharp off a cliff or whether it would ramp down like it ramed up. They were in the top 100,000 and top 10,000 and eventually in the top 200-300 for a couple months. Very strong performance. I was just looking to see if it would sustain the entire season or just the weekend.

Still a very impressive run and set of numbers. There is a political push to change the name of Black Friday by several groups. So I think GreenFriday.com may be a good back up plan.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz