Successclick, Domain Monetization

IS 3D A BUST? SHOULD 3D DOMAINERS DUMP DOMAINS NOW?

I’ve been reading a few stories here and there by blogs obviously trying to get some attention and feedback by writing against the grain. Those stories are trying to convince you that “3D” is not going to succeed. Here’s a shopping list of reasons I’ve read why 3D will fail:

1) Ouch, it makes me dizzy to watch 3D through those special glasses

2) I feel stupid wearing those 3D glasses. They’re a pain, and we have to buy so many if we have guests over.

3) The 3D broadcast content isn’t that great

4) My kid could have an epileptic fit watching that new-fangled technology on that there TV set.

5) I think 2D is just fine, don’t understand that 3D stuff.

For those of you who never thought the horse and buggy would be replaced by automobiles, here’s some other examples of critical attacks on new technology leveled at that technology in the first year or two throughout recent history:

• Back when the film industry putting out hundreds of silent movies a year, and Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Harold Lloyd ruled the movie theaters all over the world, most movie-goers were shocked and put-off by Al Jolson’s first “talkie” movie “The Jazz Singer”.  They didn’t like the “sound” of the actor in the movie, since it was so rough and hard on the ears.  The critics wrote immediately “Actors talking in a movie? It will never sell. We should know what the storyline is by the actions of the characters.”

• Then when TV’s were introduced, everyone had a radio in their home, and nightly enterainment and news was delivered by sound only. (Go back to that first “Talkies won’t work” comment.  A television was thought of as a novelty. Nobody thought TV would convince the public to change from radio. It was not that satisfying, watching people on a little screen, fuzzy and hard to receive because transmissions of the signal were so weak at the time. Then Uncle Milty and Lucille Ball came on the scene, suddenly, everyone had to have a TV to be “cool”.

• Believe it or not, there were critics of “color” film. The “ambiance” and “contrast” that creates the mood of the film scenes would be lost, making the film unable to create emotion in the viewer.

•  Even one of the creators of internet technology stated in 1997 that the internet would “never be used for anything other than email and porn.”  I won’t mention his name, since it has haunted him since, obviously.

For those of you looking at 3D domain names, you can be assured that every major company, across the board, providing the conduits, products, broadcast content, entertainment, visual and interactive experiences, are locked onto 3D.

It’s a fact. So all the naysayers can either keep driving their horse and buggy attitudes across their blog articles, or actually do some research on the direction of the 3D industry.

My efforts working with a particular domain auction company to hold a “Future Trend” domain auction, including 3D and Holographic domains will be decided within the next 10 days or so.  If it’s a go or a no, you’ll be the first to read it here.

CONFUSION ON “3D” and “HOLOGRAM” DOMAINS – THE TRUTH?

It’s obvious now that the biggest run on domains connected to an “adjective” term has been for “3D” and “Hologram” domains. Michael Berkens’ blog has at the time of this writing, passed the “comment” count of 1,420 for his one article on 3D domains. That’s by far the record of comments made on any post in the history of domain blogs. (congrats, EmBee! There should be a domain conference “award” for the “Best Domain Blog Article” – EmBee would win hands down.)

However, lately there has been a lot of discussion regarding the difference between the technology, products and services of the terms “3D”, “Hologram” and “Holography”.

Since this is an exploding trend and moving faster than anyone expected in companies rushing their products to market, there has been considerable confusion as to what each term means. This can be very important in how you choose your domains!

For purposes of making this easier to explain, I’m going to combine the scientific “meanings” with what the consumer/business market is being sold by the manufacturers and distributors of this new visual technology using these terms to identify these prodservs.  In other words, the way scientists term each word is really not the way these words are applied in the prodservs that are now being branded by companies that are selling these prodservs.

The biggest confusion seems to be what “3D” is, as defined by what television manufacturers and broadcast/content providers are promoting:

“3D” – as a consumer product or services (“prodservs”) trend such as an ESPN sports broadcast in “3D”, the term “3D” is currently a limited viewing experience (relational to what 3D expectations should be) where images seem to “float” in front of you.  There is a slight depth perception experience, but it still seems as if the visual is felt in “2D”, because the images viewed don’t have a 360 degree projection. This means the image won’t show a different view as if you “walked” around it.  Scientists don’t consider current 3D televisions and broadcast content to be a true “3D” image representation. HOWEVER, because the term has been used for the accepted type of visual effect for over 50 years, the public has come to recognize “3D” as what we see today, like the movie “Avatar” and other movies/TV events that need special glasses to experience the effect.

“Hologram” or “Holograph” – It is very important to understand these terms are interchangeable, and both are correct in marketing and throughout most of the scientific community.  The term “holograph” initially was used in the mid-20th century to define a signature or letter that was physically written by someone’s hand using a writing tool.  However, now “holograph” is being used to define what “3D” actually should be representing, that is, the ability to see an object or space from any angle, representing the true image of a “3D” object. A true hologram would be like a “projection” that if was in front of you, you could walk around it and see the object from various positions as if its presence was actually there.

For example: Imagine having a hologram projection of a dog in front of you. You could see the dog’s face, and as you walked around the projection clockwise, you’d see the dog’s right shoulders and flanks, the backside, then the left flanks and shoulders and back to the front of the face, as if the dog was actually there.

The technology behind creating a true holographic projection is very sophisticated, and most experts didn’t think it would become available to the public, or even business, until 2015 at the earliest.  (The term “Telepresence” is also a part of the terms being discussed, but mainly dedicated to defining live conference meetings where all the attendees can be seen in true holographic form, hence the term “TelePresence”). However, that is rapidly changing as every hardware communication company is rushing to present this fantastic visual experience through their products. 

Read the rest of this entry »

THE 3D DOMAIN REVOLUTION – THE FUTURE TREND WAVE STARTS NOW

Hi Gang,

As most domainers know, I was one of the few domain buyers looking at the 3D and Future Trend domain buying strategy back in 2004.  I also let the cat out of the bag when it was sleeping just fine in there. I revealed my strategy on Monte Cahn’s “DomainMaster Radio” interview in October 2006.

Guess what? For all you old-timers, it’s time to “Erase Your Head!”

Those future trend domains are now maturing faster than expected and have started selling nicely, thank you. My domains were purchased from mainly OOTB, but I also bought domains from private sellers and in auctions and domain “listing” sites, like Buydomains.  I got very good prices from all because most of them weren’t keyed in with information I was reading daily in my “future tech” science report searches.

A good buddy and brilliant domainer, Michael Berkens (Em-Bee) posted an article on his blog TheDomains.com about the emergence of value in 3D domains over 3 months ago that has now reached past the 550 (!) comment mark, which I believe is a record for his blog site (and many other domain blog sites). Suddenly 3D domains have gone ballistic. We have noobies picking up domains for OOTB’s and getting four figure offers on them within less than six months. Talk about striking it rich!

Now it’s time for me to reveal the secret of 3D, Hologram/Holographic, and other future trend domains: If you’re not investing in now, you will be paying huge prices for them in the next year or two, or kicking yourself for not nabbing them when they began to blossom. Even now, 3D products and services are so huge in consumer trends, and every major corporation is looking at “New Media” advertising, including 3D displays and gimmickry. The public LOVES it. The manufacturers are scrambling, the New Media crowd is falling over itself to jump on this bandwagon, and most of them already have to some extent.

Deloitte, the top financial advisory firm in the world, has a nice pdf to download regarding the direction towards 3D marketing. Get it.  (this link is iffy, if it doesn’t work, let us know)

There’s some fun facts right now to impress you with what’s happening just with 3D prodservs.

1) Samsung has sold over 300,000 units of 3D-based TV’s since June 2010. They’re said to own almost 90% of the market in 3D TVs.

2) Sony has said they expect to sell over (read this right) a whopping 2.5 million 3D TV’s in the next year. Expect new technologies to make those TV’s obsolete before the end of 2011. Hey, for now, you can be the coolest house on the block with a 3D TV.

Read the rest of this entry »

WHYPARK REV SOURCES CHANGE FROM YAHOO TO BING! MORE MONEY 4 U!

Hi Gang,

Craig sent me the update on the rev source change from Yahoo to Bing (Microsoft), and I studied it for awhile but didn’t think about posting it. Shame on me!  I recovered from my daze, and immediately got to work. For my 200 daily readers, I would like to inform them of this change, and exclaim that this most likely means higher payouts for all users at WhyPark. Additionally, WhyPark just won the “Best New Monetizing Solution” award at TRAFFIC Miami. Really? Something I’ve known for years. And if you aren’t parking your domains at WhyPark, you’re losing this advantage.

See the Media Release below:

As many of you may be aware, the migration from Yahoo to Bing.com/Microsoft is already underway and will be completed within the next few days. All traffic that is currently sent to Yahoo in the US and Canada will be migrated from Yahoo to Bing. Since these changes are being implemented in phases, we wanted to keep you informed of the process by providing specific dates of each phase to make the transition as seamless as possible.

In the initial phase, 20% of all traffic we received was sent to Bing. Yesterday, October 21st at 10am PST, Yahoo migrated up to 50% of the traffic to Bing. Then in the final phase on Monday, October 25, 2010 at 10am PST, Yahoo will be migrating all of the remaining traffic to Bing. So far the migration has been going very well and we’re seeing some nice increases in overall revenue across the board.

WhyPark has utilized the PST time zone in regards to our reporting, because our primary ad provider, Yahoo, has always used PST. Bing however, uses UTC as their time zone. As a result, we have decided to change the time zone of our reports to match those of Bing to ease the transition now and going forward. This means that we will be changing everything to use UTC which will result in 7 fewer hours in the October 21st reporting day.

While the overall migration is going very well, there have been some delays in receiving stats from Bing. The stats for October 8th and October 15th were received after the payments were finalized for the October 22nd payout date. Instead of causing any disruption to the normal payout schedule, we have updated your account and added a credit on the next payment which will be on November 7th. If you generated any revenue with Bing on these particular days, you will see the amount noted in your account as a “Delayed Bing Revenue” credit under the My Account > Payments Received section.

There are additional changes that are currently occurring as a result of the migration including how keywords are used, changes in countries/markets, and traffic quality scores. For more information on these and any other changes, please check our forum which is updated with the latest information as it becomes available. The forum is located at http://forum.parked.com/forumdisplay.php?23-Yahoo-to-Bing-Migration

If you have any concerns please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or simply post them on the forum.

++++++++++++++++++++++

Read the rest of this entry »

IT’S THE DOMAIN, STUPID

I’ve been seeing some blog chatter lately on domains selling for traffic stats. Really? TRAFFIC STATS? The pic attached to this blog says it all.

Anyone who bases the value of their domain name SOLELY on what they make thru traffic and PPC revenue is an idiot. If you want to base the value of your domains on what Google/Yahoo pays out through their ad syndication or aggregate partners from LANDING PAGES, I feel bad for you.  Talk about lack of transparency.

It’s a new game. Take the domain name you own. Check the SE results on the phrase/word in quotes. Check to see how many ads are placed on those keywords. Check to see if the domain is maturing, or expected to mature in the future. Check to see if the domains are significant brands for identifying prodservs now and in the near future. Even if your domain name was pounded by huge traffic and payouts, you’re an idiot if you base your sale price on “multiples”. That doesn’t apply to domains anymore. (Unless you’re hard up for cash).

I’ve sold a number of my domains that were making minor PPC revenue, about $100-300 a month, but they sold at 30 times their multiple. Why? Because “It’s the domain, stupid.”

Put a number on your domain based on the POWER OF THE DOMAIN AS A BRAND, EITHER GENERIC OR OTHERWISE – forget about “traffic stats”. That’s reserved for those lucky friends of ours who nabbed all the one word naturals 10 years ago.

The rest of us can continue to make the 3-4-5 figure profits on domains that have nothing to do with traffic stats.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Don’t Forget To Sign Up For Our TitleDomains Newsletter!  See weekly domains, all generic, for less than $1000 each. Guaranteed to represent niche prodservs!  The signup form is on the upper left of this blog. If you have problems reading this email, or signing up, please contact us immediately. SUCCESSCLICK [at[ GMAIL.COM

DOMAINERS HAVE TO FACE THE TRUTH – OR FAIL

Have domainers all been dealt a huge slab of mistake?

What would that slab of mistake be?

This report could open your eyes to what you need to do to make more money on your domain sales.  A big domainer mistake is trusting your longtime/current domain registrars and auction sites to actually promote your domains for sale. On one hand, registrars are happy to suck your domains away from you if you miss renewing them in time for one reason or another. On the other hand, domain auction sites are selling domains, but are they YOUR domains? (And if they’re your domains, did they get those domains from you when they sorted through the ‘pending delete’ domains in your account, snatched the good ones and offered them for auction? If so, you get nothing. Happens to all of us, even me. And it happens many times to your portfolio without you even knowing about it if you miss renewing the domain)

Here’s the big question: Are major domain companies making connections with end users and holding the information they’ve gained from these company/marketing contacts to themselves? This idea was brought up by a domainer on one of the blogs, and it set me to thinking:

“Why would any major domain-owning company that runs a Domain Auction Service want to help you sell your domains if they have their own domains to sell? It’s better for them to spend time marketing a domain that gives them 100% profit on a sale than only taking that overcharged 20% listing fee commission most domain auction services (DAS) make by putting your domain in their “directory”. Whoopee.

If you are a member of AfternicDLS, did you know the same company that owns BuyDomains.com (BD) also owns Afternic?  A lot of domainers don’t realize that BD owns over 500,000 domains according to several sources, and some say as high as 1 MILLION domains. Through their website, Buydomains.com, they’re trying actively to sell them to business owners. I was told by a “buyer” from BD who wanted about 50 domains I offered them, but didn’t want to pay more than $20 each, that their “main source of sales was non-domain industry businesses” or what we simply call “End Users”.

It’s obvious Buydomains has the funds to reach the right buyers. I think they sell a significant amount of domains, and they’re not reporting those sales – oops, wait, they just ANNOUNCED that they aren’t going to report their domain sales anymore, which usually was done on Ron Jackson’s DNjournal.com Weekly Domain Sales page.

So what about the thousands of other companies who need their prodserv domains, and whose marketing directors and VP’s don’t include aftermarket domain purchases because they supposedly don’t understand how domains bring them value? Have some of the domain auction services who have their own inventory saved THAT part of the direct connection to companies interested in buying domains to themselves?

In other words, does Buydomains or other DAS who have their own domain inventories promote their own domains to the companies they know are interested in certain domains, putting their own domains ahead of yours? It would make sense business-wise for the DAS, yes?

The question begs an answer: What domain auction service is actively promoting our domains we have listed with them, and how can we be assured that our own domains aren’t competing with the auction houses’ domain inventory? Can you imagine Sotheby’s holding auctions on items they failed to sell in their auctions, and bought them up at dirt prices, then promoted those items to their buyers? Nope. But that’s what I believe is happening in the domain industry. Everyone for themselves, make a dollar from anything you can get, stab your customers in the back, or just plain keep them uninformed.

Read the rest of this entry »

BETTER DOMAIN SALES PRESENTATION TIPS! New Domainer Shows Me How It’s Done

BETTER DOMAIN LISTING TIPS! (and a second chance to buy killer domains at insanely low prices!)

An up-and-coming new domainer who signed up for our fast-growing NameProspector domain sales newsletter handed me my butt on this one.   I LOVE smart and constructive criticism! (Thanks, Secret Domainer Girl)

She thought the fact I displayed the last group of domains in ALL CAPS was hard on the eyes (*FACT: All CAPS is considered rude unless it’s a HEADING and studies have shown that “All Caps” writing makes it harder for the reader to comprehend the content).  Now why didn’t I take that into consideration before I sent out the NameProspector newsletter? I was aware of these “presentation” guidelines. I will ask my therapist when I get one.

To my benefit and yours, my reader graciously handed me a gift of all the domains I was selling in a more appropriate, reader-friendly format. This gives you the chance to see what you might have missed previously:  killer geo-domains in one of the most lucrative payout markets – “Home Loans”.

Here are the domains again, displayed this time with a newbie’s touch:

MinnesotaHomeLoan.com – SOLD
NorthCarolinaHomeLoan.com – $999
WisconsinHomeLoan.com – $999

CaliforniaHomeLoans.org – $499

NewYorkHomeLoan.net – $399
NewYorkHomeLoan.org – $499
NewYorkHomeLoans.org – $499
NewYorkHomeLoans.net – SOLD

OhioHomeLoan.net – $299
OhioHomeLoans.org – $299
OhioHomeLoan.org – $299

FloridaHomeLoans.org – $599

NewJerseyHomeLoan.net – $499
NewJerseyAttorney.org – $399
NewJerseyHomeLoans.net – $399

Read the rest of this entry »