Update: Live Auction Submissions

Evening Folks!!

I am finished with the selection of domains for the live auction. Many great domains submitted and even tho I may have not selected your domain does not mean it was not a good domain. My selection was based on what was on the market right now. And I think you will like what you see.

Howard will be sending out the contracts next week. Please return them promptly. We can't start publishing and promoting until we get the signed contracts back. With that in mind we would like to publish the initial list no later than Monday the 16th. We may publish a little teaser list before then. So if you want your domains to be out there, help us with the process.

Thanks and I think the bidding will be quite intense!

Rick Schwartz

A LIVE Lesson in Picking a Domain Name.

Afternoon Folks!!

Ocean, River, Lake, Pond, Puddle. Pick which one you want to aim for.

Hint: There is Pigeon Shit in the puddle. So pay attention if you want to avoid. One extra word can be the difference between a 6 figure domain and a worthless domain. I see it all day long.

So verbs and adjectives LIMIT your audience but at the same time TARGETS your audience. Target too much, you have a puddle or maybe just a dried up hole. Here is the recipe for the happy medium.

So here is a real world example of targeting and limiting.

HallofShame.com is universal.

It may not be the ocean of Shame.com for example, but it is a universal domain that is targeted and you know you are going to see some bad behavior when you get there. And in time can become subdomains to include different subjects, industries and companies etc.

What I did not do is use DomainHallofShame.com which would have been much more targeted, but much more limited when we are trying to hit a wider audience. Plus, I already have that ability. Add one more word and you are at worthess.

In each case you must decide who you are aiming for. In this case I am trying to vault over the walls of a POND that would be DomainHallofShame.com. What I am trying to do is jump into the RIVER because the River goes places. It has greater circulation than a pond. It travels. Sometimes you only want to be in that pond. And that is fine. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE! Many do not.

In my case the River may be better than the ocean. That is what targeting is about but you must have a target audience and they don't go to puddles and dried up holes. I could have also had DomainNameHallofShame.com or Domainnameshallofshame.com. Each one gets increasingly further away, harder to remember, less traffic and so on. On the other hand owning those combos can't hurt if you have a business. But that is the extent of it and the value is severely limited.

This is a 3 word domain that just happens to work because it means something. It is a known phrase. It has already been advertised and sold to the public before I ever entered the picture. Something most domains and most new gTLD's won't have the luxury of.

Now I have a running start and all I have to do is BRAND. Yes Brand. Not selling. I have nothing to sell. I have something to brand. Something the startup guys need to learn the difference about. If THEY are busy branding they are busy going out of business because they CAN'T sell. If they COULD sell, they would be busy selling because that way they make money and grow. Branding means you got  a bag of shit and the only way you can make it is trying to be cool. Good luck with that.

Point is, if you approach it from left field you may end up in left field. These are the basic building blocks I and most other successful domainers use and you can reject at your own peril. Most do. I can only put it out there.

AdjectiveKEYWORD.com

VerbKEYWORD.com

NounKEYWORD.com

DescribeKEYWORD.com

LetterKeyword.com (i or e)

NameKeyword.com

LocationKeyword.com

That is the foundation I use.

Rick Schwartz

 

I Seldom Ask for Favors, But I need a Favor Today!

Morning Folks!!

I have often talked about harnessing the power we as domain investors have. Another inadequate result for me. You too. Harnessing our power to try to do just one big thing. It's what my 18 wheeler story is based on. So let's try an experiment. It costs nothing and I can envision a big dividend. It's an insurance policy and today and together I can give us all free insurance policy against current and future Reverse Domain Name Hijackers.

Now some of you are already moaning and I have not even asked the favor that is in YOUR best interest. It's a simple one. Go to HallofShame.com and Tweet the website. Like it. Circulate it. If you want to make a difference. If you want some insurance. If you want to HELP ME do something proactive to help YOU, then simply do me that small favor. Please.

I never talk about the cost to defend a domain name from a predator. It's part of the cost of doing business. I have been fighting since 1999. BIG companies. Campbell's, Lilly Industries and even bigger. In the 1990's I had so many cease and desist letters that I registered ceaseanddesist.com. I still have the letters. I met this guy named Howard Neu. I liked him right away. Instead of scaring me with this and that, he told me to toss them in the garbage and let him know if I ever heard from them again. 99% never. The 1%, we fought, mostly won and have taken the battle to even the biggest like P&G and now Jaguar/Landrover.

Folks always ask what they can do to help. Well today you really can help. Just help me get to 100 tweets on HallofShame.com, 50 folks can certainly like it, etc. That's it. That's all I ask to show what we can do when we actually harness the power we have. If you don't care, why would anyone else? Laws don't get passed by the tooth fairy. It happens with simple grassroot efforts like this. Ya never know who might ally with us.

Michael Cyger asked me on his show this week why not just point to RDNH.com. I said it is a great resource but it is a little too inside for me with initials where HallofShame.com is very mainstream and I am hoping will catch the eye of whoever in the future and then you will understand why I need your help. I am hoping that the passion I have comes thru and shines a bright light on this practice. So help me do this. Please.

While Reverse Domain Name Hijacking is a scourge that must and will end, I still relish each win. It tastes good! It feels good! It shows that no company is beyond being labeled for LIFE a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker. It helps to show others see our point of being abused and it validates what we do. The risk we take. The INVESTORS we are and the game of Capitalism we play and play well. No GIANT is too big to go down against the smallest of us.

So I ask you to help me move this one 18 wheeler over the crest of the hill and you can make a difference. Besides. It's in your self-interest. And you will see what SEO is all about because I will do nothing proactive search wise and because of RELEVANCE HallofShame.com will be on the first page in the weeks ahead. PURE SEO. Matched content not designed to fool but designed to be what it is. RELEVANT.

Why do this? AWARENESS is the result of circulation and that is the road to protecting all of us. Grab a shovel or hit the road! YOU can make a difference.

HallofShame.com