Domains 90210, LLC

I thought you might like to know that PJ.net is on auction at Godaddy.com:

https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?&miid=62115340

In addition to thousands of other potential uses, PJ is an abbreviation for Pajamas, Pomegranate Juice, Pear Juice and Pineapple Juice.  It’s currently at $3,430 with 28 bids.   This auction ends on 01/15/2012 01:02:00 PM (PST).

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Helo everyone,

I just returned from a six mile jaunt and a delicious plate of Pad Thai.  Upon my return,  I took a look at some auctions which I am following at Sedo.  The domain name  GoldShop.com was bid up to $3,204, when I checked earlier this morning.  This  afternoon, they received a new bid at $110,000!  That’s got to feel nice.

The reserve has yet to be met and there are still 2 1/2 days left in this auction.  I’ll be watching closely.

Thank you for visiting.  Please come back soon.

I had a delicious Mapo Tofu at home tonight that I picked up from a Japanese market on Sawtelle. Perhaps, by now, you have noticed a pattern in my culinary preferences —  I generally like to eat with chopsticks.

Afterwards, I walked to the Coffee Bean underneath the old Spago on the Sunset Strip, where I can blog, immersed in the essence of freshly brewed coffee, accompanied by a Brazilian Jazz soundtrack.

In a recent post, I touched upon domain name auctions. Domain auctions serve many purposes and benefit both buyers and sellers. Results can be mixed, often ending in lower than expected sales prices. However, there are some strategies that can help, and sometimes, you might be handsomely rewarded with a bevy of bidders and a generous sales price.

One advantage to auctions is that they can offer a small degree of liquidity for good domain names. This is especially true if you set a very low opening bid and a reasonable reserve, or no reserve at all. If you want to move product, and are not seeking the highest return, auctions can help.

One of the more important decisions that you will need to make is whether or not you will have a reserve price at all. A reserve price is the minimum price that you are willing to accept. It is rarely made known to the buyers until they have exceeded it. Some auction houses, such as Go Daddy, charge a few bucks to have a reserve price.

By having no reserve and a very low opening bid, you might generate more interest, but you might get far less money than you might have expected. With a reserve and a very low opening bid, you can have comfort in knowing that you will not undersell your prized domain.

My opinion is that you should consider putting domains up for auction that you really want to move. You then let the market dictate how much they are worth. If the domain you are auctioning is a premium name, perhaps a reserve is in order. I recommend setting a reserve that affords a comfortable, but not generous, return. That’s the goal, but you may need to work a little to get there.

Once your domain name is on auction, it’s a good idea to promote your auction. One easy first step is to point your domain name to your auction page. Most registrars make it easy. You copy the URL of the auction page and paste it in the domain forwarding, “Forward To,” box. You would probably not want to do this if you have a developed website residing at this URL.

Then, you might consider sending a tasteful email to potential end users, informing them about the auction. One can also contact end users by phone or post. It’s a good call to action.

Lastly, some newsgroups, such as Namepros.com, feature an “external auction” section. In this section, you can link to the auction page.

We currently have a number of domain names on auction. MM.tv is on auction at Sedo.com. We were going back and forth, negotiating with the buyer. We sent it to auction with his last $6,000 counter. I believe that it’s worth quite a bit more, and I am comfortable letting the marketplace determine the closing price.

So much to tell, so little time. I’m looking forward to discussing auctions in more depth sometime soon. Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon.

Not wanting to bore you with the sheer repetitiveness of my existence, I will spare the details of where I am. I will say that the black cod is excellent tonight.

Domain drops are a great resource for finding really high quality domain names. A domain drop is a domain name which was not renewed by its’ owner. Approximately 400,000 domain names expire daily, when their registrants don’t renew their annual subscription. Sometimes this can be quite costly.

A good example would be InvestmentProperty.com.au. The owner had failed to renew this domain name. Apparently, the domain was purchased at an expired domain name auction held by NetFleet.com.au, a domain auctioneer. It sold for over $125,000 – Ouch!!!!!

There are a number of reasons why domain names go unrenewed: Irrational exuberance while hand registering at 2 o’clock in the morning, companies go out of business, projects are scrapped, financial situations change, and so on. Probably the most common reason is that the registrant has a non-working email address on file with the registrar. It is very important to make sure that this information is up to date.

The majority of the domain names that drop, are surprisingly bad names. If you are ready to look really hard, you might find some jewels.

We were able to acquire a few really nice domain names on the drop recently. One domain name is Glassware.TV. This could be a five star destination for a glassware business. It is easy to remember and hard to forget. We also picked up, Lascivious.TV, which, in my opinion, is a really great dictionary word.

There are many places to look for expiring domains, such as SnapNames.com, NameJet.com and Godaddy.com. Please know that there are a lot of domain names dropping daily. Being able to sift between the chaff and the few seeds of grain requires an understanding of what makes for a great name. There are some valuable tools available which can help greatly as well. I’ll discuss those in more detail at a later date.

Thank you for visiting. Please check back soon.

Once again, adorned in full walking regalia, (Backpack, arm weights, teeshirt, jeans and New Balance shoes). I egressed from Beverly Hills, and once again find myself at Sushiya on the Sunset Strip. I’m hungry, thirsty, loaded with endorphins and ready to blog.

It’s hot here in L.A. We touched 90 degrees in Beverly Hills today. Thats not bad for mid-October. The domain name marketplace might be even hotter.

We’ve received several inquires on some of our domain names this week. Connect.tv received a second inquiry, this one from an international purchaser. We also received offers on EgoWall.org and CED.tv

For those of you who have never heard of an ego wall, it is the wall full of diplomas and honors that grace the walls of doctors, lawyers and other professionals worldwide.

CED are actually my initials, so I am not exceedingly anxious to part with CED.tv. Connect.tv, in my opinion, has every opportunity to become a mega-destination and a mega-brand. Life is all about connecting. Connecting through video is priceless. Let’s see what next week holds.

Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon.

I walked to several meetings in the afternoon. After the meetings ended, I planted myself on a wood bench at one of the coolest Japanese Robata restaurants in LA called Yakitoria, located in West LA.  Once I’m done eating and blogging, I’m looking forward to a nice long walk home.

I’m happy to report that our Amazon affiliate sites are up and running again.  In a previous post, we discussed a law that was passed and then repealed by California Governor Brown.  Amazon had terminated relationships with their California affiliates when the bill was enacted.  They recently welcomed back their affiliates, as the bill was just repealed.

Amazon affiliate orders are coming in once again.  Once you launch an Amazon associate site, it will pretty much run itself. Your site will feature the familiar and powerful Amazon shopping cart.  It can be configured in a huge number of ways.  Best of all, you don’t need to buy any merchandise, you do not ship any product and you don’t need to process any credit cards either.

The key is starting with the right domain name.  I recommend you stay away from cute, gimmicky domain names.  Focus on the product and what people will be looking for.  An example of one of ours is: Shredders.tv .  We were are planning a big marketing blitz soon.  That’s where your efforts are best served, with marketing and promotion.

Here’s what I see that is most intriguing.  There are a very large number of people out there who could easily get one of these sites up and running with a very modest investment.  All one needs to do is find a good niche, pick a great domain name and then develop it, or contract a developer to build it.  Then you need to nurture and promote it, sort of like raising a child.  It benefits Amazon, it benefits the affiliates and it benefits the consumer.

On the downside, the search engines don’t love affiliate sites in general.  But, there are other ways to promote it in the early stages.  One of the best ways to offset the affiliate stigma is to add useful content and to continue adding content and information.  An example from our websites would be Dosimeters.org.  On Dosimeters.org, we sell radiation detectors and sound level measuring equipment.

My utopian hope would be that Amazon, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will get together to promote Amazon affiliate sites and give them a ‘most favored nation’ status in their algorithm.  This would allow more unrealized entrepreneurs, the opportunity to build on a dream and to climb that rainbow up to the clouds where most business’ will reside someday.  Welcome to the decentralized world.

Thank you for visiting.  Please come back soon.

Hello again from the Coffee Bean on Sunset Boulevard. This particular Coffee Bean, (and Tea Leaf, I should note,) is placed in a most esteemed location in the hills surrounding all that is hip in LA. It sits directly below what was the original Spago on the Sunset Strip. One can only imagine. There were trollops, trolls and and the debonaire, side by side, with captains of industry and the Hollywood elite. It was an agglomeration of creativity, passion, myrth and fashion which would be impossible to recreate today. Heck, even I was wearing shoulder pads in my suits back then.

It was a good week for the .TV and .CO domain name extensions. My friend Vito of DomainSales.tv informed me that CNN had launched CNN.tv. That says an awful lot about the .TV extension. It says much more, in fact, than anything that I can say, except perhaps, “Well done CNN.”

In addition the Whois for “Wired.tv” is now showing that it is controlled by Conde Nast Publications Inc. I’m sure that they must have big plans for Wired Magazine.

All of this is topped off by the reported sale of OnlineCasino.Co for $100,000. It makes for a great online gambling destination. OnlineCasino.Co is also an easy to remember brand name. If I were to consider the downsides of this domain name, it is twelve characters long and contains two words. Once you add a second word (such as online,) there are so many possible variations which can dilute the value of the URL. $100,000 for a two word .Co is not too shabby.

My company operates Retailer.co, Ethics.co, LimitedLiability.co and some other really choice .CO domain names. We are also holding and developing some very powerful .TV domain names such as Pain.tv, Ink.tv and Luggage.tv I’m very happy with what I’m seeing here on the front lines. We are experiencing very little resistance in our advance but there is still lots of space to cover.

Thank you far visiting. Please come back soon.

I’m back at Sushiya on the Sunset Strip. It rained yesterday, and the air is fragrant with the scents of Plumeria and tobacco. This restaurant is one of the last bastions of freedom for local cigarette smokers. Unfortunatly for them, this privilege will go up like a puff of smoke in the very near future.

Although I did not have the pleasure of knowing Steve Jobs personally, I was touched by him, as all of us were. If I may paraphrase Winston Churchill, “Never in the field of technology, was so much, owed by so many, to so few.” There is not a person in this world who hasn’t been touched by the accomplishments of Steve Jobs and his colleagues. I expect we will be able to say the same, thing for generations to come.

If I were to try to imagine the types of qualities Steve Jobs may have possessed, I would believe that he was a man who would not have hesitated to help his fellow man, if he could. A man whose focus was on achievement rather than earnings. I would guess that in spite of all of the time he invested in Apple, Pixar and Disney, he always found time for his family. As much as he earned, and as much as he enjoyed the fruits of his labor, he gave back even more to this world and to future generations to come.

So perhaps we should set a reminder on our calendar each February 24th, to remember a man who changed our lives in a most positive way. We send our deepest condolences to those closest to him, who I am sure are suffering a loss unimaginable.

May you rest in peace and in comfort, dear sir, knowing how much you have done for so many, and for so many more to come.

Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon.

It’s a quiet night in Los Angeles.  As the barometer drops here, most of the locals have an innate sense to stay home.  Perhaps it has to do with the very expensive shoes which everybody but me is wearing. No rain yet, but I will keep you posted.

Entrepreneurs across California, even those who haven’t figured out that they are entrepreneurs, can be very pleased this quiet evening. Governor Brown has signed legislation, repealing a law which, was implemented several months ago. In my opinion, this law was counter to the interests of all parties involved. It was especially detrimental to the spirit of free business and entrepreneurialism.

To simplify, this bill penalized Amazon for having affiliates (like yours truly,) in California. Amazon has an affiliate program which allows just about anyone, to create a really cool affiliate site. Your affiliate site can have its’ own branding, product mix and most importantly, its’ own domain name.

The penalty for having affiliate sites in California was that Amazon would have been forced to charge California residents, sales tax on their purchases. This was not based on Amazon having a physical presence in California. It was based on their having a virtual presence. Amazon opted instead, to terminate their relationship with California associates.

As unhappy as I was with Governor Brown’s decision, I very much respect his ability to realize that he had erred, and to change course rapidly. Once we relaunch our affiliate sites, we plan to invest in marketing and promotion. Many of these investments will benefit local business.

I see this as a positive move for the domain name market. Putting doubt as to the future viability of affiliate sites in the State of California, raises concerns of a developing trend across this great country.

I plan to talk more about Amazon affiliate sites in the near future. I think that they might be at the forefront of the next Internet revolution. This will empower of the individual to do virtually anything, virtually.

Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon.

I am at the Farmer’s Market on Fairfax, after having walked three miles, with a backpack and arm weights, in seventy-six degree heat. I am feeling quite relaxed. In spite of the marginal blogging conditions, I continue to blog.

I have this crazy utopian ideal, that if we can give back more to this world, than we take from it, we have done pretty well in life. Every now and then, I am prone to an irrational act of kindness; Helping like.

I had a funny thing happen to me on Friday. I went to a local high end car dealership to offer them a domain name that I own, at no charge to them whatsoever. It was perfectly suited to a major component of their business model and their brand. Believe me, It was not a name which you could hand register at this point in time.

Let’s cut to the chase. This car dealership did not have a virtual brand identity expert on their team, so I was directed to the General Manager.

Without catching his breath, he rolled off the name of somebody at corporate for me to contact, He did this in a somewhat dissmissive fashion. There was no acknowledgement of my irrational act of kindness, not even a thank you. He quickly rambled off some name, and then came the zinger. He said, “Corporate handles that, we don’t do anything here anymore.”

And therein lies the problem. This once proud family business, now doesn’t, “Do anything.” Instead, everything is done from a far away place by people who might not be attuned or sensitive to the desires of their customers and the local community.

I strongly believe, that in order for our economy to get bigger and better, American businesses need to get smaller. Decisions, for the most part, should be made by those that live and breathe the business, and not from an ivory tower, far, far away.

Thank you for visiting. Please come back soon.