Successclick, Domain Monetization

HOW FACEBOOK TRICKS COMPANIES TO WEAKEN THEIR DOMAIN BRANDS

Facebook! Everybody in the world is on Facebook, yes?

Nope. But it’s close. The biggest con happening now will affect domain sales to large companies, even if it’s only for a short time. This involves a simple Facebook advertising link that companies (or their ad agencies) are using, trying to “expand” their client’s reach, without realizing that Facebook is MARKETING THE FACEBOOK BRAND FIRST.  I’ll explain this later on in this article.

First, a little history of Facebook. Launched in February, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has presented its seemingly innocent but clearly addictive website to the world, and millions have responded, thinking that having a system of sharing everything in their lives, including photos, messages, likes, dislikes, marital status, education, entertainment and basically anything a user could reveal about themselves to their friends and family and private people (if that’s their choice), would be safe. All this information about themselves would be kept private and open only to those people they wanted. *Zuckerberg snicker*

Facebook is now the premiere place for socializing, and it’s a magnet for sucking personal information out of you much more than you would want people outside your “inner circle” to know. Most of us would like our private information available ONLY to those we consider trusted and close to us. (Even that’s questionable. Just watch a few episodes of “Judge Judy” to watch people be bashed in the face by the crass and destructive nature  of their lovers, coworkers, friends and family who think destroying a relationship with you is worth $1,500 and a chance to permanently embarrass their names and faces on national TV.  Just think of the syndication rotation of these episodes, which I’ve seen sold on DVD, and replayed as “repeats” dating back to 2006. Facebook will hold all your info, photos, comments etc forever, even after you “close” your acct with them.)

How did this Pandora’s Box come about? Unfortunately, Facebook was “FREE”. No cost. Why is this unfortunate?  Because Faceb00k used the well-known trick of drug dealers by giving new customers their addictive wares for free or very cheap to get you “hooked”. So Zuckmeister built up a huge following for his “free” socializing service – using tactics at the beginning most of us would call “unethical”.  Now, the lure of “free” friend and family searching (sending the clunky “Classmates.com” to “Social-Outcast-land”) will come back to haunt those who’ve drank the Facebook Kool Aid.   The idea of having your  desire to be “accepted” back in high school struck a chord with even those who still want that past glory  into their “Senior” years.

Yet, nobody seemed to ask: How would Facebook and Zuck the Schmuck recover their costs and make money off the now close to 1 BILLION people registered with them?

Then comes the BIG BOMBSHELL – which exploded fairly quietly, spreading pieces of your private information shrapnel out into the unregulated corporate world. International companies, including magazines, auto manufacturers, clothing companies, discount warehouses and thousands more companies who suddenly became a part of your life without you even knowing it. They’ve got your photos. They’ve got your last few vacation info, including names of your guests, hosts, family members you’ve visited. They have your loves and likes.

Yes, you may not know it because they don’t broadcast it back to you, but every link of a FB advertiser you clicked opened up your “private” Facebook account to that company.  That company that advertised their Facebook link to you, and you clicked, have downloaded all your pics, comments, and personal information into their own database. Faceb0ok hasn’t really “sold” this info to them. Facebook sold their advertisers on how to “trick” FB users to innocently click on the advertising link connected to the company’s Facebook page.  Bingo! All your “private” info with FB is now available to that always-present and problematic “third party”.

I read about an amazing topic called “Marketing Myopia” on BusinessDictionary.com a few weeks back. The concept of marketing myopia was discussed in an article (titled “Marketing Myopia,” in July-August 1960 issue of the Harvard Business Review) by Harvard Business School emeritus professor of marketing, Theodore C. Levitt (1925-2006), who suggests that companies get trapped in this situation because they omit to ask the vital question, “What business are we in?“

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WAS THE FUTURE TREND DOMAIN AUCTION™ A MISTAKE?

Lots of people had an opinion about the Future Trend Domain Auction™ and the domains included. Lots of “domain talking heads” and quite a few amateurs shot down the domains listed and the auction.   Did Successclick make a mistake? Or was the mistake a series of lost chances by uninformed buyer to purchase very valuable domain names they don’t understand that are defining prodservs in our near future?

It’s going to be obvious to everyone within a year or two that the domains featured in the first Future Trend Domain Auction™ were worth five to twenty times their asking price, and for those with no reserve… kick yourself for not bidding.

The future is now, and what is known today as “common word and phrases” that sell for significant amounts of money, will be joined by “future trend” domain words and phrases shortly. The reality is that common usage of a prodserv term, whether it’s a one word natural or a 2-3 word descriptive generic phrase, will change in the future because new products and trends appear every month and year.

If you bought the word “cloudcomputing.com” back in 1999, domainers wouldn’t give you more than $100 for it. Imagine its value today.

You laughed like I did when I first saw a domain name regarding printing food in 3D. Now I’m not laughing, and neither will you when you find out that this will be the biggest 3D product on the market within a year.

Forget about your limited research on 3D, thinking that it only applies to television and movie features. It doesn’t, although soon it will. If that link doesn’t spark your interest, this one will.

And to freak yourself out, try this one about car design by 3D.

Although I heard of many negative comments about the Future Trend Domain Auction™, I didn’t see them because they were based on ignorance, and I don’t have time for ignorance. Those who commented negatively either fell into two camps:

1) “Dang, I didn’t get any future trend domains to submit, and I don’t/didn’t have the time to actually look into this area of domain investing. Better go to a blog and make fun of those domains I didn’t understand.”

2) “Dang, I heard about investing in FT domains, but never really learned how to buy domains. This is my first domain investment run, and I just started buying without knowing what the hell I was doing. I thought I’d be rich by now.”

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WHICH LIVE DOMAIN AUCTION SITE IS THE BEST?

Domain Auction Sites… which are the best?  Do they fall into strong categories of how well do they do in certain topics of domains? We’re not sure, but we all know the Big Domain Community auction sites:

Snapnames
Afternic
Sedo
Moniker
GreatDomains

(in no particular order)

Then you have the “we don’t get involved with promoting the domain industry” auction sites:

Namejet
GoDaddy

Then you have the “new auction sites”, such as CAX.com (by Francois) and others.

Question for the week:    Which Live Auction Site Is The Best?

If I forgot any, feel free to add them below.

HEARTFELT THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ADDED TO THE DISCUSSION OF FUTURE TREND DOMAINS

Successclick.com and Snapnames.com/Moniker.com want to thank everyone who took the time to write, opinionate, review and some who actually bought, the domains listed at the very first Future Trend Domain Auction™ held last week.

We obtained a lot of new information so it’s going to take a month of reviewing it and focusing on building a “hot list” of FT domains that are in the forefront of maturing either now or very soon.  It seems that “cloud” adj/noun is a great for a domain, except that there aren’t any decent variations of this word as a phrase that is left for purchase OOTB. (I checked,      )

However, for my readers and FT samurai, I am giving specific info to assist you in what areas to focus on for “fast sales”. Successclick.com is getting four figure offers daily on several of our solar domains. The buyers are “reaching” and hoping to get them cheap, but all FT domainers know that Solar domains are actually here, and I’d say were about 50% matured into the mainstream consciousness, both consumer and commerce.  This makes many of them at least low to mid level five figure domain names.

I want to thank those FT domainers who took the time to present their domains, include a bio with some relevant links, to allow us to build a nice PDF directory out of all the information that describes what the FT domains are, and will be, in the future.  After we analyze the results, we might send out an idea form for our members to email us on ideas they may have to make the auction better, easier, which categories they think we should focus on, or should we break up each auction to include at least five major FT trend categories:  Solar, 3D, Wind, Electric, Apps, Alt. Energy, and others.

In the meantime, to show those people we don’t just have FT Domains,  we’re cleaning house, and you might like a domain or two for the price stated:

PatientServices.net                                $199

KneeBoarder.net                                    $299

WebCompanies.net                               $499

NetMediaPartners.com                        $199

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THE FUTURE TREND DOMAIN AUCTION™ IS HERE! THE DIRECTORY IS COMPLETE!

The Future Trend Domain Auction™ is officially underway, and although we’ve struggled through putting certain new aspects for promoting the domains in an auction by getting the marketing material ready, it’s looking good for the first event.

NOTE FOR FIRST TIME AUCTION SUBMITTERS:  A lot of first time domain investors in a custom Live auctions like this one sometimes get worried if there are no bids on their domains out of the gate. There are strategies most “domainers” use to pick up a domain for a cheap price, and that strategy is: “Don’t bid on the domain right away, if at all. Wait until the auction is over and then bid on it during auction cleanup. The person will be desperate or dismayed that his/her domain didn’t sell, and they’ll take anything for it.”

Obviously that doesn’t work if someone else places a bid that matches the reserve. Then that “hurry up and wait” strategy fails, and they stand a chance to lose a great domain name to someone else.  The problem is MOST domainers play the “wait game”, and at the last 30 minutes,  start bidding up the domain. Even if someone bids on the domain outside domain investors (an end user), the smart domain auction bidders will wait until the last few minutes of the auction. That’s called “sniping” and people who want a domain name need to be very aware of that tactic. It could be the last five minutes and you have a bid on a domain name, nobody else seemingly bidding, so you fall into a comfort zone thinking the domain is yours. Then five minutes to the end, somebody bids the domain up $100. If you’re not watching, you could lose the domain by not counter-bidding.

Most auction sites, including Snapnames/Moniker will push 5 minutes extra on the domain if a bid comes in within a certain time period close to the end of the auction. That gives the other bidders a chance to splash water in their face and go “yipes! gotta get my bid in there!”  Then another five minutes are added, or less minutes, depending on the auction site, and it goes that way until someone gives up.

For those who think this first Future Trend Domain Auction™ is going to be wowing the world, don’t get your hopes up. We’re nowhere near the amount of marketing we want to do, or have done to this point. This is a slow process, but we have time because we’re “future domainers” anyways… and our domains just grow more valuable as each month passes.

Imagine feeling disappointed not selling your domain in this auction, and then four months later, you enter your domain back in the next Future Trend Domain Auction™ with double the price, and someone buys it?  It’s a great feeling, and it’s happened to me several times.

We worked very hard in finishing the Directory. However, we didn’t want to put it up until Moniker had reviewed it and synched the domains in the Directory with their catalog.  Same thing goes with sending out the Directory to our marketing contacts. We didn’t do “pre-promotion” of this event, because we want everything to be perfect before we approach the serious buyers. I don’t think we reached “perfection” in our first auction preparation, but we learned a lot. That knowledge will help all of us for the next auction

Everyone who has submitted their domains to this auction, and had those domains accepted, have been included in our Future Trend Domain Auction™ DIRECTORY. This is a Powerpoint-style PDF that we are using to send to marketing websites and other New Media contacts.  We aren’t bombarding our complete list yet, because we didn’t get the DIRECTORY completely filled out since at least 25% of the domain submitters didn’t provide us with 15o word descriptions and at least two links to news articles backing up their domain name’s value.

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ALERT: The Future Trend Domain Auction™ List is OUT, but NOT COMPLETE YET!

Moniker and Snapnames have released the registered domains for the Future Trend Domain Auction™, tentatively set for August 24 – Aug 30.

However, that list is NOT complete yet. This isn’t unusual. We wanted to get out the first of the auction’s domains quickly, so all of the FT domainers could see their domains included, and start promoting those domains.  At the same time, we are writing a “Directory” of these domains, with relevant links and data that explains why the domain is valuable.

Don’t get confused by Moniker’s labeling of the “List” as their “catalog”.  But to save time and effort, the real catalog of all the info on the domain in the Future Trend Domain Auction™ will be called the “Future Trend Domain Auction™ Directory.”

That way there won’t be confusion, hopefully.  Moniker calls their “list” their “catalog”, so we’ll call the final data file on all the domains in the Future Trend Domain Auction™, the “Directory”.

This directory will be downloadable as a PDF file, not only at Moniker and Snapnames, but at many blogs, including ours.  This is important for promoting the FT domains, because the more people publishing the domains and the directory for the Future Trend Domain Auction™, the more interest we may gather from end users who would be excited in controlling their prodservs generic descriptive domain brands.

NOTE:  If you are sure your domains have been listed on Moniker’s auction list after you registered them, PLEASE BE SURE TO WRITE YOUR 150 WORD REPORT, WITH AT LEAST 2 RELEVANT NEWS LINKS and email them to Successclick.com IMMEDIATELY so we can include that data in the Directory.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR DATA SUBMISSION FOR THE DIRECTORY:

1) Your Full Name

2) Your email address

3) The domain name along with the reserve price you chose when you registered your domains at Snapnames

4) That you have at least TWO links that support your domain’s value based on the articles/reports that those links promote.

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MORE NEWS FOR THE LUCKY FEW ACCEPTED- Future Trend Domain Auction™

Hi Future Trend Domain Auction™ participants.

If you’ve registered your domains at the special Snapnames registration link: FUTURE TREND DOMAIN AUCTION™ then you can complete you final step in getting your domain listed worldwide, in the largest promotion of a single domain category ever in the history of domain auctions.

Successclick.com is creating a Powerpoint-style report that allows all buyers to download and read so they can learn about the domains and other domain that may seem similar to their needs.

IMPORTANT: If you have registered your domains at Snapnames, then your next step is to submit the following to the Successclick email address:

1)  For every domain accepted into the auction, write a 150 word (none plagiaristic, write it in your own words!) short report on why your domain is valuable. DO NOT EXPLAIN WHY DOMAINS ARE VALUABLE, FOCUS ON YOUR DOMAIN!

2) Add at the bottom of your report at LEAST two links from legitimate news sources on why your domain is either maturing now, or will in the near future.

3)  When you SUBMIT THIS INFO TO US, Please use these EXACT words in the SUBJECT LINE SO THERE IS NO CONFUSION FOR US TO FIND OUT WHICH EMAILS ARE INTENTED TO PROMOTE THE ACCEPTED DOMAINS!

SUBJECT LINE:  “ACCEPTED FT DOMAINS DETAILS AND LINKS

That subject line will allow us to wade through the hundreds of email we get daily.
We’d like to thank ALL the participants in this auction. Remember, this is a TEST auction. We aren’t sure which domains have matured yet and either are you.

Both Moniker and Successclick will be spending the next 2 weeks contacting most of the marketing company we know, including the New Media Marketing groups.

With the completed PDF file of all your domains with their descriptions and followup links, when potential buyer download the list of domains we accepted.

Congrats again to all of you, thank you for your constant support and offers to help promote the event, and good luck!

PS: More Info Coming