XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

Hi Douglas,

I did some background research on you and your websites, and you’re obviously no “igno-player” in the internet marketing arena. I’m a not surprised that you are asking this question, because you IT and programmer guys spend so much time in the details, you provide the perfect setting for “You can’t see the forest for the trees”. In other words, the “key” that unlocks the power of a website representing the products and services of a company is the domain name. There are ways to “break this key”, using a lot of money and a myriad of marketing techniques and tricks to achieve access to the access the “vault” of demographic results, but a perfect domain name sidesteps all of this, and also remains in the “asset” category of the company that owns it.

Companies can spend 100′s of millions of dollars advertising their non-specific branded domains, such as Amazon.com and eBay. Their money may have obtained market recognition for them, but they started out doing this when the internet was young, and both companies used guerrilla marketing tactics that quickly put their name in front of millions of people. However, what if eBay had purchased “auction.com” and pointed it to their website? What if Amazon.com had bought “books.com’ and pointed it to their websites? Even though both these companies are successful today, they would have saved MILLIONS of dollars in branding and marketing by each owning these two domains. What if “travelocity.com” bought “hotels.com”? The obvious benefits of investing in domains like this are that the domains remain as an “appreciable marketing asset” and the name direction traffic will always be there for the company to take advantage of. All major companies pay millions of $$$ to ad agencies in order to bring eyeballs to their websites or to their prodservs in retail outlets. When a company uses a domain to do this, the domain “value” doesn’t diminish with the investment, it grows in value the more the company uses the domain in promoting their prodservs.

So, when “domain naysayers” use these two companies as examples to dispute the value of generic descriptive domains, they always leave out the fact that these companies used many different marketing tactics, and a lot of cash, to establish their brands in the minds of users.

With a generic descriptive domain, also known as a “keyword domain” or “premium domain” (and many other terms for each variety of domain), the domain itself represents the company’s products or services (“prodservs” for short). Using these domains in your marketing, there is no need for additional “explanation” to what the domain’s website is selling. The domain name, from the start, (or what I call the “Prodservs”) tells each user what that website will be offering to the user/consumer/B2B client.

Back in 2004, I realized that every company that wants to maintain their internet presence and not be placed in the “bitch-slapped” position, will buy at least a few variations of the generic descriptive domains for their prodservs.

So let’s take “AudioCabinet.com”. Your question was “why would a cabinet maker want to buy a domain like “Audiocabinet.com”? How would he make use of this domain if he bought it?”

ANSWER: The domain “AudioCabinet.com” represents at least eleven competing companies using this keyword to advertise their products on Google. On Google alone, I found over 62,000 page results using this phrase “in quotes”. In other words, pages using the term “audio cabinet” and not just “audio” or “cabinet” separately. You always have to search in quotes when you are searching for phrased terms. If a cabinet maker sold audio/visual storage furniture, which many call “audio cabinets”, then owning this domain would disallow their competitors to be included in any “landing page promotion”, or even worse, a competitor using a domain name that would describe the product they’re selling. If your company didn’t own the domain name describing the product you sold, and your competitor did, everytime you used the phrase “audio cabinet” to describe a product you’re selling, you would be essentially promoting the domain name of your competitor. It’s very easy to understand once it is too late!

So the owner of AudioCabinet.com gets to control all the traffic generated by “typeins” (where the user just types in “audiocabinet.com” to see who owns it) to the constant promotion by their competitors when they try to describe their prodservs. I know I get a little mad when someone takes a domain I want for my own business, and that domain describes perfectly what my business provides. That means I WILL HAVE TO SPEND MORE MONEY BRANDING MY DOMAIN WEBSITE THROUGH TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING METHODS… and those methods always have a short life… usually less than 60 days.

So, would it be better for a cabinet maker to spend $1000 for “audiocabinet.com” and point it to their website, use it in certain ad campaigns, and use its ability to bring in customers all day/ all night, and then GROWS in value, or is it better they took out a 1/8 page ad in the SF Chronicle for $1000 for one day? (i’m guessing at the display ad prices at the Chronicle. I’m sure they’re much more than that).

Simply put, the domain name investment works for the buyer in locking down the brand for the buyer’s prodservs, eliminates their competitors from using the domain themselves, takes advantage of their competitors’ usage of the domain’s phraseology, and the domain gains value annually because of its use by its owner. This is the simplest but most powerful way I can describe why every company should own their generic descriptive domains representing their prodservs. I believe that within three years, this will be the first chapter in the book for ONLINE MARKETING BASICS 101.

So if buying AudioCabinet.com for $1000 makes you scratch your head, keep scratching while this domain name grows in value and the price could rise. If you think this domain is not memorable, then I’d agree, don’t consider it. But if you took the domain name and understood the many underlying benefits that aren’t easily apparent, buying this domain or any others like it for a few hundred to $50,000 for small companies can actually turbo boost their prodservs sales.

Hope this helps. Any more questions? Arguments?

Stephen Douglas

One thing I’ve been noticing about the .net advertisements lately is that some ads will color only the .net of the domain name in bright red.

Perchboy Roy

XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

Roy, are you serious? THIS IS GREAT! Man, we can ride that wave for a long time… can you provide some examples? I haven’t seen any yet, but if you’ve got some sites this is happening on, I’ll post em here. EXCELLENT!

Touche’ yet again, Stephen.

The fear of loss can be a powerful motivation for businesses striving to compete. And many businesses are competing plenty these days.

Small to mid-sized business people typically have some sort of strategic mindset, however difficult to figure out. You make a great point in mentioning to prospective domain buyers that if they buy a given domain name or names, it will give them ‘one up’ on their competitors.

One modification to that same approach would be to tactfully inquire if the prospect might control more of the ‘sales pie’ if his competitor controlled a given name.

A slightly more ham-fisted route would be to let the prospect know that he’s being given the first opportunity…but if an agreement isn’t reached, the name or names will be presented to others on your list of prospective buyers. But ultimatums can backfire. Simply letting the prospective buyer know that you “really want this to be ‘win-win’” could help.

Perchboy

XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

I’ve used both of your approaches, Roy, and they both work, depending on how you present it. I’ve also, unbelievably, *shocked look* made some marketing people so angry that I would have the nerve to assume they don’t know what they’re doing, and how dare I point out to them the value of domains. Then they say they don’t need generic prodservs for domains. LOL. That doesn’t happen too often, but I have a lot of fun with them when it does. Contacting their CEO and giving a detailed report on why domains are valuable for the company and that their “marketing director” doesn’t “get it” has changed the course of those types of responses to my cold calls on domain sales.

Man, people… put together a list of 50 domains that are owned by top corporate companies… half by the big names, and then the other half, find generics owned by companies located in your geo area. Up in the Pac Norwest… I SWEAR TO YOU, THIS DOMAIN WAS ADVERTISED ON TV THIS WEEK:

http://www.ChairOutlet.net

really. Now that’s a .net, which I really hate/like, but used in this manner, as long as the domain is promoted nice and large on the TV screen at the bottom of the commercial, and in a final fadeout screen that shows it large and prominent, way to go! How hard is it to remember “chairoutlet.net”? Although their website sucks, (no email address contact), a little help from a website development/marketing team can probably put them into “pro mode” for less than $5,000. Yes?

Freek my grey meat on this fact: Domains are, unquestionably, the best appreciable marketing asset there is… period.

Have you actually sold a domain using this method?

Thanks

J.R.

XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

Yes, probably over 1000 domains in the last five years using this method specifically. Some companies will actually buy all the “niche” domains you have that cover various ways to state their prodservs… for example “Audiocabinet.com” (for sale!) would have a cabinet maker/retailer buy similar domains, substituting “CD” or “DVD” or “tower” etc etc. You can actually get generic domain ideas by visiting a potential endusers own website and looking at their catalog. Oops! That’s a very valuable secret. Everyone lucky enough to read this response will get an extra advantage in finding several great prodservs domain.

Stats that shall prove what this domain shall do for there business is also key.

Im actually trying something different which I shall let the industry know if it works.

Great Post Stephen