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

PersonalInjuryAssociates.com           $599

SamoaResort.com                                   $79

Traderville.com                                     $599

Verifree.com                                          $3500

JudgementCollector.com                    $299

CatherineOwen.com                            $299

GlobalTechCenter.com                        $199

Of course, any domain can be “negotiated” but the best way to buy domains here is to buy two or more and get an automatic 25% reduction on the combined price. Our domains sell quick, we require payments made through our Verified Paypal Account at: dotplanners@yahoo.com

All you need to do is email us with the domains you want, say “SOLD” and make a payment within 24 hours of our email acknowledgement of your picks.

AND, don’t forget, the Snapnames private auction on your domains runs for another few weeks. so your domain could sell still. If you had more great FT domains, a better, more organized versioon of the Future Trend Domain Auction™ will be held sometime in January 2012.  Don’t burn your shorts!  Let’s get everything ready, work together, and prove the naysayers —- wrong.

Have fun everybody!
Cheers!

There is no doubt in  my mind, and my mind is usually doubtful, that 3D/Holographic technology is currently the biggest thing all across the board for entertainment, including movies, TV broadcasts, cellphones, TVs, tablets, business communications, etc etc. This technology is so far into the “marketing pit” that there’s nothing that can stop the growth of this medium.

I’ve read hundreds of articles, including a few “naysayer” stories, regarding the 3D/hologram revolution. All I see, and have seen for over seven years now, is that this technology is set in stone. In other words, the glitches and problems with 3D now are rapidly being fixed, and thousands of companies worldwide are working on fixing 3D presentations in all forms to be easy, affordable, utilitarian and foremost, enjoyable. More enjoyable than 2D entertainment by far.

Here’s a link to a nice article by one of the biggest promoters of 3D, and the subject of this article’s interview, Director James Cameron, (“Titanic” and “Avatar”) has a reason for doing this, so consider his bias.  Then research his comments to see if they stand up under your analysis. Remember, no “future trend” domain is “perfect” until you can establish that there isn’t a huge backlash against it, and that there could be a major consumer/business common purpose for it.

We’re coming closer to securing an official 3D/Future Trend domain auction, so if you haven’t yet subscribed to our newsletter, now is the time.  This will enable you to be informed immediately when it is time to submit your domains.

NOTE: Make sure your domains have been at least evaluated, and if you can, get them appraised before submission. We will be selecting the best domains of our clients and readers, and we would like you to know which domains are your best.  It makes things easier for us and the company who will be holding the auction. They want only the best domains.

SuccessClick.com does all evaluations and appraisals manually, but we also recommend Rob Sequin, and  DomainConsultant.com for these services. (Please let us know if your company does manual evaluations/appraisals of domains, and we will include you in our recommendations if you meet our stringent requirements.) 

NOTE: We do NOT recommend “automated domain appraisal services” online. Not only are they expensive, they never work, and there’s no way to get them to have the AI for them to consider all the factors needed to get your domains properly evaluated/appraised without a human eyeball with experience looking at them.

We believe big domain sales are coming in this market. Make sure you’re prepared for it.

As a domain investor and consultant, an environmentalist and a businessman who believes in responsible and ethical business practices, I feel the need to write this article. It might be unpopular, but it might also encourage some professional domainers to find the courage to stand up and comment here in support. Let your morals dictate your responses (NOTE: I don’t publish anonymous comments. You can use your handle if I know you and I will publish your remarks.)

A few weeks ago, a successful domain investor known to most domainers wrote an article disparaging domainers buying domains that he labeled “pigeon shit”.  I’m not sure how he knows who’s buying what and how he used a scale for measuring domains to be “pigeon shit”, or even which domainers he’s referring to. To me, it seemed odd for someone who’s made millions$$$ in this business (especially as a producer of top-level domain events that many domainers paid to attend) to take the time to write a broad affront to so many domain buyers.

I don’t have to mention his name, but I am worried that hundreds of domainers may buy into his misguided advice, or even worse, the domainer-haters will use his rhetoric to fight against domainers to continue making the domain industry look like a place filled with soul-less opportunists. (Not implying that this domainer has no soul)

This issue has to do with this famous domainer’s claim that there are still “typein” or “PPC” domains to be bought as new registrations (OOTB – “Out Of The Basket”).  I agree with him on this point, but where we differ is the type of domains being purchased.  This important domainer’s assertions as I perceived them was: “Those who don’t agree with me are buying “pigeon shit” domains,” if I read his blog article correctly.  It’s hard to fight against his comments, because he is clearly experienced, successful, and correct in some of his assessments of the financial world, including domain investments.

However, when you read these types of missives from this writer: “Don’t argue against PROOF just to argue! Time to LEARN!”, you have to wonder what the newcomers to the domain investment business are thinking: “Should I speak out? I need to make money, I don’t want to make enemies in this business, maybe I’ll just follow along and agree with this commentary, even though I have some against-the-grain questions.” Then, these new domainers, or even seasoned domainers, may make a mistake that ruins them, as El-Silver points out in one of his latest blog articles.

Many stories and comments regarding “pigeon shit” domains were discussed on this domainer’s blog in the last week or so, and there were unkind references by the blog owner about the “morons” who dared question him. Wow. Okay, I can appreciate his passion. But then this domain celebrity showed us the great domains he bought as OOTB’s for an example of what he was trying to prove regarding new PPC domains. Here’s two of the domains he bought and displayed for us:

BPSPILL[dotcom] and BPOILSLICK[dotcom]. He lists them on his blog, along with the less than $25 revenue he earned in typein traffic from those domains.

Unfortunately for his readers and domainers in general, the domains he purchased and displayed were, in at least 1 – 3 ways, very wrong choices based on simple “Do Not Do” domainer rules:

1) His domains included a clear reference to the trademark of a company “BP” (British Petroleum). This is a big no-no in our industry because we are working extremely hard to avoid being called “cybersquatters” that infringe on any company’s trademark. The stigma from this label is still prevalent, even among experienced internet experts and media tech writers. Additionally, if you are blatant in your domain registrations infringing on some company’s TM, you could be sued for $100k on each count. Ouch.

2) His domains are “time-sensitive”, which means that the domains refer to news which is limited to a certain scope of time that the domain name will be relevant. (Granted, this oil spill is the worst in history, and will be talked about for decades, if not for generations – so he might “luck out” on this no-no).

3) His domains are based on tragedy, catastrophe, suffering, sadness, horror, and so many other negative adjectives and nouns that you probably already feel. If you have no conscience making money on suffering, then go ahead and make your $100 a month off of domains that “spell out” disaster.

The above are just a few of the rules new domainers need to know when they buy a domain. Always.

Ironically, this oil spill disaster may harm some several very successful domainers because of the location of the property they own. If that happens, these domain purchases by this (in)famous domainer are not going to seem like “pigeon shit” purchases, but more like elephant feces. God forbid, if oil starts seeping onto the beaches and dead animals and ruined economies start appearing in Florida, some domainers in the area aren’t going to appreciate the exploitative domains callously purchased by this influential domainer. Imagine if you owned a house on the beach in Pensacola, Florida right now, and you knew some domain investor was making “$50 a day” off of a domain name that described the disaster that was destroying your investment and your beautiful home.

I hope sincerely that this never happens. And I hope that all domainers avoid the lure of buying any domains that make money off of suffering.

I read this article tonight written by Mark Morford of SFGate.com that summed it up for me:

“There is, you have to admit, a sort of savage grace, a tragic and terrible beauty, to the BP oil spill…

“…Like any good apocalyptic vision of self-wrought hell, the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history has its inherent poetry. You see that creeping ooze of black, that ungodly wall of unstoppable darkness as it slowly, inexorably invades the relatively healthy, pristine waters adjacent, and you can’t help but appreciate the brutal majesty, the fantastic, reeking horror of this new manifestation of black death we have brought upon ourselves, as it spreads like a fast cancer into the liquid womb of Mother Nature herself…

“…Really, it’s not just the incredible photographs of the spill that are, in turns, heartbreaking, stunning, otherworldly and downright Satanic in their abject revulsion. It’s not just the statistics that tell us how many millions of gallons might ultimately be spilled, or the stunned scientists who can only hypothesize how this unprecedented catastrophe might affect the fragile food chain and distress the ocean’s ecosystems at the very root level.”

“It’s not even the endless, heartrending tales of livelihoods lost, industries destroyed, coastlines ravaged or wildlife killed. The fact is, any one of these aspects alone is enough to poison your soul for as long as you wish to wallow in that murky state of fatalism and doom. It is nothing but bleak.”

Then the author sums it up with a telling statement of how we domainers should act:

“Finally (and a bit shockingly), I’m not hearing Pat Robertson or any of his cretinous cult of apocalypticans blame the gays, or voodoo, or anal sex, or reality TV for what’s happening in the Gulf. Oil is, after all, completely non-denominational. It mocks all religions equally — except, of course, the only one that really matters: capitalism.”

Nobody will argue that it’s “bad capitalism” as we’ve seen it in the last few years that has put us into a war based on a lie, ruined our economy by greedy Wall Street cretins, and allowed safeguards to protect Americans to be removed. I am not putting myself above anyone here. I’ve made these same domain mistakes in the first of my 11 years of domaining, but I learned and changed. We domainers can and should be responsible capitalists, with ethics and at least an apparent moral center. I’m not perfect, but I hope to follow these responsible rules in buying domains. I hope you do, too.

Pray to whatever god you worship that this oil spill ends soon. Don’t worry about those domains that this influential domainer bought and tried to convince us were “good domains” – if they lose money, we’ll know it’s easier to clean up his pigeon shit than remove oil off of a pelican.

I went retro to review some notes I had written last year when a lot of bluster and fluster was being whipped around attacking “minisites”. (I was also inspired by Elliot’s excellent domain site buildout articles lately). Several smart domainers asked the detractors: “Just WHAT is a MINISITE?” Remarkably, after reading 20 blog articles and over a hundred comments, nobody, including myself, has defined what a “MINISITE” is. I still don’t know what that is.

Why doesn’t someone DEFINE what a minisite is, in detail, once and for all?

I’ve seen some “on target” comments from some domainers saying there are those domainers who create limited developed sites in preparation or anticipation of building out larger sites that establish a solid presence on the net.  So how can you “rate” an unfinished project? Is it a “minisite”? Does anyone want to call a website they’re building a “minisite”?

This brings us to the breakdown of the monetization pieces that form the puzzle of a good generic domain that doesn’t get profitable typeins.

Here’s the facts:

1) You parked your domain at a Parking Service (PS) and watched it for a month or two. If you didn’t get more than 100 unique monthly visitors and $.75 a month in PPC revenue, did you realize immediately that you have a domain that needs to be re-evaluated for its worth, because you have a domain that isn’t “self-supporting”? (A quick way to determine if PPC parking your domains is [temporarily] financially smart is to check the monthly rev performers in your report down to $.75. Simply multiply $.75 by 12 months and you have $9.00 a year in revenue – enough to renew the domain if you’re at the right registrar).

2) Most domainers portfolios have 90% of their domains NOT PERFORMING through PPC (PS) landing pages. That means hundreds of thousands of domains owned by domainers need to be evaluated on something different than PPC income. The most glaring change that has occured in domain investing since 2007 is:

Very few domainers actually asks for “multiples” on a domain they want to purchase anymore. Nobody with a knowledge of this business today decides on a domain based on non-transparent PPC revenue. It’s fairly common knowledge that basing your purchasing interest solely on PPC income means you don’t know the domain business. I would confidently state that most successful PPC domainers have lost over half their monthly income since 2008. Because of that, it’s all about potential brands, end-user sales, CPA’s or serious buildouts by the domainer. A domain at a parking page depending on PPC’s is really just losing a lot of money by not expanding into other monetization areas, regardless of how much PPC they’re earning.

3) There are about 300 lucky domainers with one word popular domains who can rest easy (temporarily) because they’ll always know that their domain has great value on several different monetization platforms, including the “top” rev choice, the true “lazy man’s” way to riches – PPC.  However, they rest on the PPC income until they decide when and how to pull the monetization level up for the domain. However, for most domainers, it’s a tight squeeze for their domains to find the monetization bulls-eye because they don’t get that typein traffic that makes it all “so easy”.

4) IMPORTANT FACT THAT MANY DOMAINERS WISH TO OVERLOOK LIKE THEIR DADDY’S CHEATING WAYS: Today’s reality for domainers is that we need to find another source of monetization for those non-performers because PPC has revealed its non-transparency, and their overall control over you and your domains. It’s a unilateral agreement for anyone parking their domain looking for PPC. You don’t even know what you SHOULD be earning, you just have to take what they give you. Personally, I don’t base my domain purchasing investments this way, and neither should you.

5) BOTTOM LINE: The only true way to get the absolute best value from your clearly generic keyword domains is to develop or sell them to an end user. Period. This has been my rant since 2004, and still is.

Look at #5 above:  If you want to enhance these two major options for domainers wanting to make money from their domains, you can’t do this by parking your domain at a landing page hoping for PPC. If you aren’t getting the typeins, then you need to build the domain out with content. Whether you build it small, medium, or huge — anything you do with content that’s relevant for your domain name will be better than letting it rot on a parking page getting no uniques.

Here’s the mistake made by many domainers: Thinking that a “minisite” is an auto-generated website system with identical content that will destroy their domain names by being “blacklisted” by Google or some other SEs. What the detractors of so-called “minisites’ fail to point out is the caveat of “Oh yeah, ummm… this domain would never be SE-indexed anyway if you kept it at a PS with a landing page (PPC).” All those who attack sites that offer auto-content don’t discuss that on most content-development sites, you can make just a few simple changes in your content, including the graphics and the page design, to bypass the “mass produced” tag. It takes less than five minutes to do this for one site.

Putting just five pages of original content on your longtail generic will bring you more value than if you parked it. I had a domain I just sold for five figures that I had parked for 9 years of its 11 year existence. At the PS, it never appeared in SE results. What a waste of 9 years on this domain being parked at a PPC landing page, even though it made enough money to renew itself and a 20 other domains each year. Once I put it up on Whypark and created some custom pages with original content… the buyer appeared and made an offer I couldn’t refuse (no, there wasn’t a head of a horse in my bed).

My favorite site for brand/generic domains that don’t get typeins is WhyPark.com. Many people think that WhyPark.com is a minisite generator. It isn’t. You can use WhyPark to make small to large niche content websites. You can also use WhyPark to develop full-blown websites that most likely will get SE indexed within 90 days.

From my own experience, the 275 domains I have slowly parked at WP are now making about $100 a month revenue. Not a lot of money, except these are also reseller domains that have lured in buyers (whose purchase prices for the domains they’ve bought already weren’t factored in these monthlies), scared competitors in the relevant prodserv market enough to inquire about buying, and the domains weren’t making squat when I had them parked at PS’s.

Do you see my advantage? The longer I have these domains with SOME content on them up on the net, the better chance I have to push them up the SEO hill and impress potential buyers.

My Whypark domains are a sweet deal for me mainly because from experience, I’ve seen many end users who are impressed by a website with content. Most every internet user today can easily spot a parking page, and click away from it just as fast as they came in.  Here’s something for my fellow domain flippers to consider: I can ask a higher price for my domains at WhyPark because the end user sees their competitors’ content on the site, (or even the potential content they might compete against if their competitor buys the domain) and my buyer feels good “taking that visibility” away from their competitors.

FOR COMPANIES WANTING THE ULTIMATE ONLINE ADVANTAGE: A company that controls the generic descriptive domain name/phrase that their competitor MUST use in their advertising for their prodserv, is the death knell for that competitor’s ability to promote that same phrase in their ad copy. Why? Because every time a competitor uses the exact word/phrase of a (.com) domain, the owner of that domain instead gets the promotion to that domain website, so their competitor is promoting the domain name. EX: If you sell “baked green oranges” and own “bakedgreenoranges.com”, each time your competitor uses the phrase “baked green oranges” to sell THEIR “baked green oranges”, they are actually promoting your domain name.  Nice!

But back to the subject at hand — just what is a “minisite” to someone who hates them?

I just wanted to repeat something that I heard Tommy Callahan (Chris Farley) say in the movie “Tommy Boy” that affected me and formed my understanding of business. This movie is filled with more hilarious but realistic quotes of any movie ever made.

Here goes one of them, about staying strong, ignoring the naysayers and maintaining loyalty:

SCENE: Tommy and his friend Michelle (played sweetly by Julie Warner) are sitting in a small sailboat on a very calm lake:

TOMMY: (his father just died) My dad gave me this boat, and he’d come out here late at night when there was no one else on the lake. He’d be over there on the shore and he’d yell “quit playing with your dinghy!”…. I’m going to really miss him.

MICHELLE: Your father was a great guy. ……(sincerely)…  I’m really glad you brought me out here.

TOMMY: I can’t believe you wanted to!  Although it’s pretty fun. If we had some… wind, heh heh I can’t believe there’s no wind, you need wind because….it ummm…

MICHELLE: … helps push the sail…

TOMMY: Yeah!

MICHELLE: So, what are you going to do now? (in reference to Tommy running his late father’s business, Callahan Brakes)

TOMMY: I don’t know, but… I gotta do something. I don’t know what.  Man, do I sound like an idiot.

MICHELLE: No…

TOMMY: Sorry about this wind. I can’t believe there isn’t any wind out here, this is ridiculous.

MICHELLE: No.. it’s great… it’s very… peaceful.

YOUNG BOYS APPEAR ON SCENE: (Shouting from shore): Hey Tubbo! You ain’t moving! (derisive laughter from them)

TOMMY (Shouting back): Yeah, we need a little wind here!

BOYS: No! You need to drop a couple hundred pounds, blimp!

TOMMY: (to Michelle) Heh heh… rascals.  (To boys on shore) I guess that’s YOUR theory!

BOYS (to Tommy): Hey! Your sail is limp, like your d*ck!

TOMMY (angry)]: Watch your language in front of the lady, punks!

BOYS: Hey Gilligan! Did you eat the Skipper?

TOMMY: You better pray to the god of skinny punks, that this wind doesn’t pick up, because I’ll come over there and jam an oar up your a*s.

LITTLE BOYS (sarcastically): ooooooooow!

TOMMY (to Michelle): Jeepers creepers, those guys keep interrupting us. I’m sorry about that..You were saying about the uhh…

BOY#1: Hey lady, lookout! There’s a fat WHALE on your boat.

BOY#2: YAH! Free Willy!

MICHELLE: (suddenly jumping up in the boat and shouting with scary conviction): Listen up you little spazoids! I know where you live and I see where you sleep. I swear to everything holy that your mothers will CRY when they’ve seen what I’ve done to you!

LITTLE BOYS: (frightened, scurry off the beach together without another word).

MICHELLE: (Looking sheepish): I was just kidding…

TOMMY: That was…   AWESOME!!!

Moral of this exciting segment of Tommy Boy: Sometimes, someone who you want to impress is already impressed with you, and will surprise you with support that will encourage you to fight on in your endeavors. Stay loyal to those who have treated you well, don’t suck up to ANYONE in the domain industry that you think might control your ability to make money investing in domains. You don’t have to suck up to anyone in this industry. Sometimes when you get flak, it’s just from cocky little boys on the shore who think they’re “safe.” When someone spouts derogatory comments about your domain investing activities or domain choices, they probably will run when a strong woman tells them what might happen to them if they continue their bombastic insulting harangues. (their moms?) 

Just a bit of humor at a time when things look weird all over. Have a great week, people.

THANKS TO READER, JERI

UPDATE 3/24/2011 From Stephen Douglas: I received a comment that my domain mentioned in this article might be wrong. I did some research and I think the name was instead,  “KLIQ.COM”, spelled with a “K”.  I am pretty embarrassed by this mistake. I didn’t keep the domain in my database after a few years, I just remembered it as “four letter .com ending in “iQ” and sounding cool for a website.  When I wrote the article, I just assumed that “Cliq.com” was the domain I had owned.  My lame excuse: I own and have sold thousands of domains, and I’m getting Al’s Hammer knocking more often.

This doesn’t diminish the general “truth” of the article’s premise that unusual domains can be valuable, though, and UDRP’s are like the wind  – you never know when, which way, how strong, and how long that stinky breeze will blow.

BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE AND AN EXAMPLE OF NOT GETTING YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT FIRST!  My Bad!:

I had a heart-stopping experience today when I came across some tech news about a Motorola cellphone called the CLIQ. This cellphone was “cutting edge” and connected to the Google Android… wow! Maybe.

A few years ago, I owned the domain name “CLIQ.com” and I sold it for a few dollars, I can’t even remember how much, but it was definitely nowhere near what that domain name is worth today. Just a quick google on it showed over 2.2 million results. I guarantee you that three years ago, those numbers didn’t exist.

Although I started analyzing the appraisal process on strange-sounding domain names that could be worth something as brands about a year ago, this domain name raised its pretty head today and showed me the “girlfriend” I dumped that turned out to be eye candy. (No worries folks, I married my dream girl, so I’m good here!)

So now, instead of paying a measly $7.50 a year to keep this nice pronounceable four letter domain, I sold it to someone maybe smarter than me for about three figures, if that.

The results? Currently, there is a website that promotes an internet development service on the domain. Based on the website design of this site, I’d be a little scared to venture further with this company in that area. However, the lucky dog owning this domain will probably get a phone call or email for buying this domain… or not. Taking into consideration that UDRP’s and WIPOs are willy-nilly hit and miss events filed so regularly it’s like filling out “win a free trip to Hawaii” surveys, maybe Motorola will mistakenly think they have automatic rights to this domain because they’re so… big. That will be a problem, but hopefully, Motorola will just do the honorable thing and offer the current owner of CLIQ.com a decent figure to buy it, straight up.  If not, I’ve already pointed out Motorola’s lack of a claim to this domain on this blog post.

The article, although not really friendly to the CLIQ phone, is here:

MORAL OF THE STORY:

If you have a short, pronounceable, and unusual domain name in a dot com, don’t sell it for less than high four or five figures. That’s usually the “buy” range for end users f0r a new “brand word,” if they really want it. Don’t be greedy and ask for six figures or more, they’ll just think of some other weird name, and maybe get the new domain OOTB.

I’d like to hear comments from other domainers who sold domains they wish they hadn’t… and the results of how those domain sales evolved with the new owners. Come on, bare your souls!

This is an important read for those who think buying generic descriptive domains are valuable investments, and believe that their core market demographic is the end user whose products and services (prodservs) your domain name describes.

There was a recent article in RJ’s LowDown regarding non-domainer companies who “get it” about the purchase of domain names to further enhance their prodservs online.  RJ mainly focused on British examples, so I can’t comment on this part of the article because I’m not familiar with all of the companies nor the generic terms in Great Britain. However, there was a final list in the article provided by my friend and associate, Rob Sequin, who built a page of 250 corporate companies who supposedly “get it”.

The list I based this article on can be found here. Since I have many years of advertising/marketing experience that allows me to give deeper branding commentary regarding domains, end users, and advertising agencies, my article is intended to correct some inconsistencies or “misinterpretations” in the article I read, with no intention of demeaning the spirit of the article nor the services provided by both of my friends.

I wrote to Ron Jackson about his article and he had a spot-on response, as expected:

“There is no doubt that the 200 examples of category-killing domains from Edwin’s list are a better example of corporations “getting it” than the names used for marketing campaigns that Rob covers.  As I noted in my post, Rob took a broad view of how companies were using domains in their marketing campaigns. I cited his list because I see it as a positive that companies are using domains beyond their own brand name as tools for marketing their products of services (even if they are not particularly good domains or names that have any inherent value in the way that category defining names do).

I fully agree with your observation that these agency-inspired names are far less beneficial to corporations in the long run than a generic word or term that defines their products or services would be.  I am hopeful that as time goes on these brand owners, having take the baby step of using domain names as marketing tools, will finally realize that the real rewards lie in obtaining the category killer domains that, for a one time expenditure, would bring traffic directly to their door from now on, eliminating the need to give the agencies millions of dollars for campaign after campaign for decades to come.”

While I understand the overall intention of my friend, Rob, (to whom I also wrote and he gave me a thumbs-up to go ahead with this story) and his goal to improve domainers’ end user expectations on their domain values, his list needs to be honed down, and a lot.

Here’s the problems:

This list, although intended to display domains that companies bought to increase their online marketing brand, in reality, perfectly shows exactly why so many companies do not get it. This is not Rob’s mistake, nor failure in any way on his part. Keeping up with the status of 250 domains you initially thought were used to promote a company is a hard job to do, (and he told me his intention was to list the fact that ad agencies were buying domains to promote ad campaigns, and that’s a good thing).  Kudos to Rob for putting this list together.

Rob actually initiated an obvious goal that we all need to start collecting great examples of generic descriptive domains that are sold to end users and developed, or pointed to working websites. Why? Because we can use these domains being utilized by the companies who bought them to promote all generic descriptive domains to other end users.

Reviewing the list, we find that most of these domains were based on advertising campaigns created by ad agencies working for the companies in question. However, these are not domains clearly representing the prodservs of the companies who hired the ad agencies. These are domains promoting the particular ad campaigns that the ad agency created. This is not in the best interest of the company the ad agency is supposed to represent.  Additionally, the ad agencies who were at least buying domains doesn’t take into consideration that the ad agency campaign domains are horrendous as far as “everlast” values, and even worse for domain flippers, and the ad agency usually buys the domain as a new registration – not from the domain aftermarket.

For a few examples, let’s start with some of the domains on his list:

SuitcaseOfCash.com – It is parked at Smartname.com, under a proxy. Rob has this domain connected with “A&E” but they aren’t the listed owners.

ABetterCommunity.com – It does point to an ABC environmental website, but the domain name would be very weak if appraised. The marketing firm obviously got cute with using the first letters for the acronym “ABC” to buy and promote the domain name, but wouldn’t “EnvironmentalAmerica dotcom” or something more direct regarding environmental awareness work better and be more powerful than just the cute acronym connection to “ABC”, starting with the adjective “a”?

OnlyTheyKnow.com – Another ABC network domain name. It points to their “go” page, with no apparent relevance to any product or service they are offering. Only who knows? What do they know? And who are “they”? How is this domain name valuable?

++++++

Let’s move into an area where the domains themselves have absolutely no value whatsoever, and go against every appraisal method most pro-domainers use in considering a domain’s value.

DontAlmostGive.org – What? A contraction in a domain name? And ironically, or maybe just revealing, the domain is representing “The Ad Council”.  Should we be surprised or disgusted that an organization specifically dedicated to helping promote PSA’s can’t come up with a strong domain phrase? This is the best the ad agency council can do? (BBDO is “credited”, yipes) NOTE: This domain literally has improper grammatical structure (the domain means “Do Not Almost Give” - type that into your Word document with grammar checking turned on). They bought a domain that also features a mistake that is one of the first things most domainers learn, “DONT” buy a domain name that includes a contraction. Why didn’t they buy “GiveToCharity.org” or “BeCharitable.org” or something even remotely sensible?

NaturesMiracleFood.com – The American Egg Board embraced this domain, (another contraction), which doesn’t even mention the word “egg”. Wouldn’t a domain name like “EggsareHealthy.org”?  Or “EatEggs.org” be better? However, the advertised domain doesn’t even closely represent the product that the American Egg Board represents. It’s a horrible example of a domain name representing the prodservs of a company or organization. But it gets worse. The American Egg Board doesn’t own this domain anymore. Ironically, the new owners of this domain have a website up about food and nutrition, but their “Breakfast Food” link doesn’t even mention the word “eggs”. Really. What did the American Egg Board choose for their official domain? AEB.org.
CAVEAT: They did buy americaneggboard.org, but they don’t yet have it pointing to their website yet.

BeUgly07.com – Another domain name purchased by Disney, except this domain doesn’t resolve. What does it mean, and what was it used for? This would be a domain name, if up for auction, that wouldn’t sell for more than its registration fee, if it sold at all. I believe it wouldn’t even sell on Afternic‘s Bazaar for $1.

FindTheArtInTheEveryday.com – For the supposedly savvy Banana Republic company, here’s a domain covered in words we try to avoid as domainers: “the” and “in” where the word “the” is mentioned twice. How well is this domain working for the Banana Republic? It’s working so well it’s on a Sedo landing page and they don’t own the domain. The phrase itself, in quotes, comes up with 33 google results. Hardly a domain name that shows that a company is “getting it”, and if an ad agency did try to “brand” their ad campaign with this loser of a domain, they didn’t leave a mark.

ManLaws.com -  Miller Brewing used this site for a commercial. In fairness to the power of the domain, I did not research this domain or phrase on the internet, other than trying to get it to resolve to a website. It didn’t resolve as of the date I’m writing. I’m using Firefox.  So here’s a domain name that clearly was used for an ad campaign, now defunct, as opposed to buying a domain name to serve as a branding site that can be commonly interpreted by the “layman” as something Miller Brewing provides them.

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Reviewing the whole list, I saw the majority of the domains as really being useless as domainers would see them, and even more useless to the original companies to which they were intended. There are might be 70 good representations of domains that actually serve the companies in this list. That’s less than 30% of the whole list.  Can you find them?

I think just by randomly reviewing these domains, any domainer can see that they aren’t serving the intended end user company very well, and the companies who are/were utilizing them still have no clue as to what domains they should be buying.

Bottom Line: Many of these domains are great examples of lame ad agency domains never intended to benefit their client’s prodservs, or definitely not intended to serve as an appreciable marketing asset for their client. The end user is the final demographic that defines the value of domains, and the best domains are generic descriptive words/phrases of a company’s prodservs. These are the simple but inarguable facts of a domain’s value.

When an ad agency buys a domain for a client’s prodservs and then promotes it within mainstream media vehicles, they aren’t actually serving the company that hired them, they are serving their “ego” and their own interests with a domain that represents the ad campaign they created.  This happens hundreds of times a week.

Simply put, ad agencies are buying domains that promote their ad campaigns, not the generic descriptive domains representing the prodservs of the company that hired them. The correct marketing online push would be that every company captures as many generic descriptive domains representing their prodserves BEFORE they embark on some nutty ad campaign where the agency buys a bloated domain phrase that is worthless, just like the traditional advertising mediums the ad agency uses to promote the campaign.

My estimation right now is that most companies still don’t get it, but they might get it soon with efforts by an organized marketing campaign from the domain community. Who is harshing our high?  The buzzkill comes from the very “professional assistance” these companies seek to promote their prodservs – the ad agencies.

It’s important for you to understand this:

QUESTION: Why don’t ad agencies look for helping their clients obtain their prodservs domain?

ANSWER: A great descriptive domain name of an ad agency’s client’s prodservs defeats the control the ad agency wants – and that control is being able to charge the company hourly/placement/advertising fees that makes the ad agency a lot of money. A premium domain removes that control from the ad agency by providing automatic branding and typein (“name direction”) leads.

This is an extremely important factor in understanding where the value of domains truly is. My decade of active domaining clearly tells me that after all the neon lights and fireworks we’ve undergone in the last 8 years for “PPC” “Multiples” and incestuous flipping, the value of a domain is with the end user.

My apologies to Rob, who started a great idea for a webpage, it just needs to be updated with generic descriptive domains for examples of domains that are truly appreciable marketing assets for their company. They are hard to find, but there are at least 150 good ones.

Ironically, Forbes.com published an article about the “time being right for companies to buy up domain names,” and although filled with some confusing and distorted facts, the story still makes a sale for domainers!

NOTE: I welcome any and all submissions here of domain names that are clearly generic descriptive of a product or service (prodservs) and the companies that own them. I will work with Rob to get these domains on his list if they truly fit the description of:

“THIS DOMAIN NAME CLEARLY STATES THE GENERIC DESCRIPTION OF WHAT THIS COMPANY SELLS OR IF IT IS DESCRIBING THEIR DEMOGRAPHICS”