From Left: Diana Jackson, Kevin Daste, Ron Jackson, Mary Danna, Chef, Me, Jessica Bookstaff and Fred Mercaldo

I’m a little late with the post but I’m glad I found the time to write about my first experience at a Geo conference. I’ve been looking forward to this conference for a long while. As some of you know I’ve been acquiring pure generic Geo domain names and actually want to develop all of them. But obviously that is an expensive appetite but I strongly believe in the Geo model. To me the right domain name means everything, and I only want to develop pure generic city domains. So now I have these domains, what do I do with them? How do I develop them? What platform do I use? Do I build them on wordpress or do I use a different CMS? All these questions needed to be answered.

In New Orleans at the conference I’ve spend time with experienced people and asked lots of questions. The beauty of it is,  everyone shares their ideas. Besides the knowledgeable panel which consisted of many well known industry leaders the mingling with the attendees was just as educational. I’ve met people at the conference who are willing to lend a helping hand. People like Jessica Bookstaff from PigeonForge.com and Durango.com, BTW a congratulations goes to her for being elected as treasurer of Associated Cities. People like Sarrah Mannix from MannixMarketing.com, she runs sites like LakeGeorge.com, Albany.com, Sarratoga.com and GlensFalls.com. It was a true pleasure to finally meet Fred Mercaldo from Scottsdale.com who was also elected as President of Associated Cities, a big congratulations to Fred. Fred’s company had developed Palermo.com for me and I just signed a contract with him to develop 7 more pure generic Geo domains, domains like NewRochelle.com and GreenwichVillage.com just to name a few. Fred’s City in a Box happens to be the best solution for a City domain development platform. I’m happy with Palermo.com and have all the confidence that these 7 city domains will be a success.

There are so many people that I want to mention that I had a pleasure of meeting, I just dont think that I can type any more.

Dan Pulcrano from Boulevards.com was just a treat to meet. Dan has a build an empire with this pure generic domains, domains like LosAngeles.com, SanJose.com, Denver.com, Philadelphia.com and I can go on and on.

It is always a pleasure to see both David and Michael Castello. These 2 gentlemen are always handing out free advise and listening to them on the panel is always a big learning experience. The business model that they’ve empowered is something that I’m looking to emulate. It always excites me when both Michael and David talk about branding your city domain. And you know what, they are a hundred percent correct. Branding your city domain is whats going to get you in the door. I just love that.

We all got a treat listening to Chef Patrick on the panel when he spoke about social media. His points were well taken and actually Chef did a fantastic job on the panel. He did admit that he was nervous but we couldn’t detect that at all. Bruce Marler from Missouri.me was on the panel and gave us great advise. I got a chance to meet Bruce in person at DFG 2010 in LA and the way he is attacking the dot me extension is just something to admire. This goes to show that if you brand something correctly then you too can be just as successful as Bruce’s dot me network. Great job Bruce.

Josh Metnick from Chicago.com was a delight to meet. Ryan McDonald from Marietta.com was there and his wordpress site is something that’s needs admiration. Nat Cohen from Telepathy Inc., was amongst the attendees and he is also  developing about 40 of his generic geo domains using Fred’s platform. Currently his OceanCity.com is being developed by Michael Sumner from minisites.com who was also amongst the attendees. Talking about oceans my friend Bob Olea who made a surprise appearance was also there to learn, network and share ideas, he is currently operating OceanSide.com. And lets not forget our eyes and ears Mister Ron Jackson from DnJournal.com who was there to cover the main event.

One of the biggest attractions for me was a visit to the corporate headquarters of NewOrleans.com. Many thanks go out Don Jones and Bill Hammack for spending their time with us and showing us the ropes. What they have done with NewOrleans.com in such a short time is just amazing. Taking a domain name which was generating only 25k visitors per month after Katrina hit to 250k monthly. When visiting their office both Don and Bill expressed the fact that no matter how great your domin is you always have to market it correctly, and these 2 gentlemen have spend their money wisely in branding their site.

I can not forget 2 individuals that have taken their time showing us New Orleans. I don’t think my experience in New Orleans would have been so great if not for Kevin Daste and his girlfriend Mary Elizabeth Danna. Pictures below will show what great hosts they are. Both live in New Orleans, right of famous Bourbon St. Thanks to them every night we were at different bars, different cafes and the memories with them are just piled up. Once again thank you Kevin and Mary, and I would love to extend my hospitality to them when they visit New York.

Another individual that needs a standing ovation is Patrick Carleton who actually runs the day to day operations of Associated Cities. The agenda that he had put together I don’t think anyone can top. To put together a conference like this single handed is no simple task, Patrick has thought of everything and I’m looking forward to the next conference as I know it will be another great success. Thanks Mr.Carlton for a great conference. Till next time.

David, Caroline, Craig, Lesley, Chef, Ken and Pat

Ammar, Me, Tony C., Bob, Chef, Craig

Bruce, Chef, bob and Me

Kevin and Mary

One happy crew

Le'Haim

Bruce, Mary, Bob, Chef, Christy and Patrick

Alissa and Patrick

Mark and Nat

Tony with Kelly

Mary, Bob and Christy

Lesley and Caroline

Bob, Christy, Patrick and Chef

David, Alissa, Kevin, Me, Ammar and Bruce

It was Traffic NY 09 when I met Pat in person. Pat has a great personality and is just an all around great guy. You would understand what I’m saying when you get a chance to meet him in person. Now mind you that Pat is domaining full time only about a year and half and has already made a name for himself. It takes a lot of talent to be able to brand yourself (ChefPatrick) and Pat has done it perfectly. He is adding great exposure to the industry through his successful blog ChefPatrick.com. I remember winning a $25 GoDaddy gift card on ChefPatrick.com and that was the best $25 that I’ve ever spent. You can read more about Pat on PatrickRuddell.com

Patrick is also the first one to organize a domain conference on a cruise, and let me tell what a great idea. Where else can you go on a cruise with your wife and attend a domain conference at the same time. My wife and I were planning to go on a cruise in October and sure enough Patrick announces the DNcruise.com. If you can make it I urge you to visit DNcruise.com and book a time of your life. You will catch Pat at his best. For one, we will have great food cause Chef is cooking and secondly the agenda will be fantastic as Pat is organizing a great itinerary.

I’ve also put together a few questions that Pat took the time to reveal some answers to.     Here we go….

Patrick, you mentioned that you own about a 1000 domains, can you break down the extensions by percentage? And tell us your favorite domain.

Actually I’m down to about 300 domain names now. When I first started in the industry I bought like crazy, at my peak I owned as many as 2500. After learning the hard way what was good and what wasn’t, I dropped over a thousand domain names and sold a few hundred in 2009. My favorite domain has to be ChefPatrick.com

Do you park your domains and which parking company do you prefer?

I park all of my domain names with Parked.com. I think everyone should park their domains when not in use. Making a few dollars here and there never hurt anyone.

What is your highest dollar amount you ever paid for a domain and what was that domain?

XODA.com for $815. I hate to say, but I purchased a lot of the four letter dot com’s when I started. Most of them I wound up dropping. This one, I received an offer of $1500 just two days ago.

And out of these domains how many are in production?  I understand that you are all about development.

Actually not many, I’m not into development. I believe a domain name is pure land and should be bought and sold that way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against development, I just don’t have the time for it. I do have plans to develop out a few things, but nothing I want to discuss at this point.

What is a typical day for Chef Patrick?

I wake up around noon, head straight to the office and check emails and social media outlets. My wonderful wife usually brings me a cup of tea and something for breakfast. Beyond that, total chaos! I’ll admit, a normal day does not have a plan. I know that a blog post or two is on the agenda, reading other domain blogs , answering a lot of emails and coordinate projects with my web development team.

As you mentioned to me before you have lots of things on your plate. Can you talk about any of the projects that you are working on?

Right now I am trying to put the finishing touches on GoDrops.com with my project partner Jason. This will be a membership based service that provides the daily deleting domain names with stats to help make purchasing quality names easier.

I also just launched DNCruise.com, the domain industry’s first ever conference on a boat. It is very difficult to compete in the conference space, so to personalize it a little bit I have sent out dozens of video invitations and am working on over two hundred more.

I have one other project that I just can’t talk about yet. Your readers will have to stay tuned to ChefPatrick.com for more.

With all these projects in the works are you on these alone or are you working with other domainers?

I do have a couple project specific partners. The perfect example is GoDrops.com, my partner Jason is awesome with coding and making our website work how we want. That’s something I couldn’t or wouldn’t want to do which makes us ideal partners. I prefer to run the marketing and sales side of things.

DNCruise.com and my blog are stand alone projects.

Being that you only got in to the business recently did you have any guidance from any seasonal domainer?

Everyone in the industry has been so helpful, positive and welcoming. To name a few, Michael and David Castello, Donny Simonton, Craig Rowe, Michael Berkens,Ron Jackson and Alan Dunn.

What are your expectations from DNCruise.com?

As I mentioned above this is the first ever domain conference on a boat which should make for a great event. The main goal for this conference is to have 100-150 domain investors networking and really getting to know each other. Beyond the standard industry speakers I have a few non-domain speakers lined up to come to talk about social media, seo and affiliate marketing. More information will be released soon. In the mean time, if any of your readers would like a personal invitation send me an email or visit DNcruise.com

What are your development goals for 2010?

I have one or two directory projects that I want to develop, but nothing beyond that as of right now. My main focus for 2010 is to buy and sell high end domain names. I’m also open to any strategic partnerships that would like to utilize the Chef Patrick brand.

ChefPatrick.com is a successful blog, why do you think that is?

Chef Patrick as a whole has developed more into a brand and not just a blog. When an advertiser comes to me or a story breaks it is more than a blog post or banner.

What is the one thing that you would change about the industry?

Having a real estate background like yourself, I’d say throw in a title company into the mix. I know it would slow down the process of buying and selling domain names, but it would legitimize our business and make sure all transactions are handled safely and insured.

Would like to thank Chef Patrick for his time and wish him nothing but success with all that he does. I’m glad we have a Chef Patrick in our industry. For those who don’t know of Chef Patrick please visit and bookmark his blog at ChefPatrick.com and don’t forget to visit DNcruise.com and book your next domain cruise. Hope to see you all on the cruise. Till next time, over and out.

Pat, Moniker Princess and Mike Berkens

Chef, Tony K. (SocialDomainers.com) and Me

Alright..I’m back in action. The biggest challenge with running a blog that is based on waiting for interviewers responses to come back to me is just that, waiting for them to complete the questionnaire. I would love to post more often but as I said I gotta wait for the questionnaires. So with that being said this past weekend I received 3 interview responses which will keep me busy for the next few days.

My next interview comes from none other than Elliot Silver himself. Elliot really needs no introduction. He’s made a name for himself in the domain industry with his successful blog ElliotsBlog. Besides blogging Elliot is also very active in buying and selling domain names.

The first time that I met Elliot was probably about 4 Traffic conferences ago and we have been friends ever since. He is an inspiration to most of us. I’ve personally learned a lot from ElliotsBlog.com and its commentators and I’m sure Elliot will continue to dish out his knowledge in the years to come. Elliot also organizes Domainer get Togethers here in NY. I’ve  attended all of them and glad that events like this are put together and reasons are obvious. I’ve put together a few questions for Elliot that I thought most of us would find interesting. Like Zohan would say ” So lets go…..”

How long are you domaining? And why did you decide to leave AIG, did you have a crystal ball to foresee the turmoil in the financial sector?

I have been buying and selling names since around 2003, and I left AIG in October of 2007 to focus on building my business. I had no idea about the fragile state of the financial sector (or AIG). I was in a Direct Marketing Group at AIG, which had no connection to the financial group that had troubles. Ironically, my group at AIG has grown quite a bit in the last couple of years.

What was your first domain that you ever registered or bought?

I can’t remember what the name was, but I remember registering it at Network Solutions and it had a hyphen.  I am pretty sure it was a legal domain name. I broke even on the name when I sold it.  I think I paid around $35 for the name.

Most of us know that you run a very successful blog, ElliotsBlog.com and you had told me that flipping domains is the best source of income for you, why flip premium domains when you can develop them and have residual income?

Development is time consuming, and it’s difficult to convince someone (especially a small business) to spend advertising dollars on my developed websites. Although I am probably limiting my upside by selling a domain name quickly after buying it, I am taking short-term profits over long-term potential upside. I have been focusing on developing domain names of interest to me rather than developing a name just because it’s good. Financially successful development isn’t a given, and I would rather create positive cash flow on strong domain sales than keep everything and need to take on debt.  However, I am building out websites to create another revenue stream that is more sustainable over the long term.

When your are contacting a domain owner, in your initial offer email to a potential seller do you include the price for the domain?

I almost always make a reasonable opening offer when asking if a person would sell a domain name. Most names I buy are purchased in private from people who have owned them for years. I am sure they’ve received countless emails asking if the domain name is for sale, and I’ve found that when I make a serious opening offer, it opens the door for discussion. Even if my offer is for less than the owner would sell it, I have found the response rate is significantly higher when I include a reasonable offer.

What is the highest dollar amount that you ever paid for a domain?  And what was your highest sale?

I’ve paid high 5 figures for domain names and I’ve sold for six figures. I have a built in NDA on my domain sales agreements, so by default, most of my acquisitions and sales are confidential and go unreported to everyone but the IRS. The one thing I really don’t discuss with anyone is my revenue and profits. I guess it’s the benefit of having a private business without outside investors.

Why do you think ElliotsBlog.com is a successful blog?

First of all, thanks for the compliment on my blog.  I’ve been told that people read it because I am very open and upfront about what I am doing. I also don’t censor the comments people write (unless they aren’t related to the topic at hand) and I enjoy discussing opposing viewpoints with people who post comments. I am happy to share the results of my projects (good or bad) and I let people know what I am doing – even if it’s to my detriment (as was the case when I shared information about how I was making money selling on Snapnames). People have been very open with me, and I like to help others learn about this business.  I hope I am flattening the learning curve that new investors may have.

Out of all the domains that you owned and currently own which one domain would you say was or is your favorite?

Torah.com is probably my favorite. I’ve turned down a couple of significant offers for it because I have plans to develop it. I think it’s an important domain name and will eventually be built into a helpful resource once I have the time and the circumstances are right.

As you just mentioned, one of your many premium domains that you own is Torah.com, is it for sale?

Torah.com is not for sale. I currently have a mini site up for search engine ranking purposes, as I don’t want to park the name.  I have a general idea of what I want to do with the website, but it will be time consuming, and I can’t dedicate the time to do it just yet.

Why have you chosen to develop Burbank.com and Lowell.com why not flip them? Did you buy them with intentions to build out or to flip?

I grew up about 45 minutes from Lowell, Massachusetts and I think it’s a great city with a rich history, and I am very interested in New England history. I strongly believe in the value and importance of city .com domain names, and I think there is good money to be made in the local markets. I think the city .com names are important assets, and developing them is the way to help them reach their full revenue potential.

I specifically purchased Lowell.com and Burbank.com with plans to develop them. I read about the successes of David and Michael Castello, Jess Bookstaff, Skip Hoagland, and others, and I wanted to see if I could replicate it.  I know that great domain names are getting more difficult to buy and flip, so developing geodomains is a way to build another revenue stream aside from domain flipping. I recently reached a deal with Fred Mercaldo, and his company will be re-launching Burbank.com on his platform, and they will be responsible for the marketing and ad sales.

Do you regret developing any of your sites and why?

I somewhat regret spending time building out some of my mini sites.  It was a great learning experience, but probably not a good use of my time. I was able to learn more about website themes, coding, SEO, and keyword research, but it hasn’t turned into a financially smart decision.

The one domain that I really liked and hated to see you sell was FrenchRiviera.com, Did you ever regret selling a domain and which one?

I can’t think of a domain name I’ve ever regretted selling. There are names I’ve sold that I like more than others (like FrenchRiviera.com and DebtCollectors.com), but I’ve used the proceeds to further grow my business, and I don’t regret that at all.

You’ve mentioned to me that you are going to relaunch Lowell.com using Wordpress, tell us why?

Originally the site was built without a content management system (using Dreamweaver) and it was time consuming to add articles and calendar updates. Because of my other projects, I got behind and became frustrated with the platform.  If the site were simply a static, informational site, the site would be more than sufficient. However, I constantly get press releases and local news articles that need to be added, and it became burdensome for me.

I am very comfortable using Wordpress, and this platform will allow contributors to add articles and calendar updates on their own, without the need for me to write the articles and post them. All I will need to do is read and approve them.  It will free up more of my time and allow me to make other changes to the design/layout when/if necessary. The platform will also allow people to post comments on the news articles, driving more page views and additional time on the site. Finally, local businesses will be able to create and pay for directory listings without the need for a local sales person.

You mentioned in your blog  that you own close to 300 domains, break them down by extensions using %.

98% are .com, there are a few .orgs, a couple .nets and maybe 3-4 others that correspond with .com names I own.

What are your development goals for 2010?

I’d like to re-launch Lowell.com and Newburyport.com on Wordpress in the first quarter of the year.  I would also like to continue growing traffic on DogWalker.com and CatSitter.com while growing the paid advertiser base. I’ve learned quite a bit about web development and business development in the last year and a half, and as a result, my development goals are much more modest this year

Do you think that developing Geo domains is the best way to make money?

I think there are a whole lot of ways to make money in the domain space. In my opinion, the best way to do it is to take something you love and turn it into a business.  My blog is something I have become passionate about. I love the chance to share with others and learn. I am very lucky that it has turned into a business because I enjoy the interaction. If you aren’t passionate about something (tropical birds in my case), it makes building and monetizing the site more difficult.

One other thing I’d like to add is that I still make a majority of my income selling domain names. I don’t consider myself a good advertising sales person, so the ROI hasn’t been there yet for my geodomain names. I do believe they are powerful brands and hold significant value. I am making more money in advertising and affiliate revenue than I would if the money was in a CD at the bank, but I am certainly leaving money on the table right now with these sites.

You’ve mentioned DogWalker.com and CatSitter.com, what are your expectations with these sites?

These have been fun to build – especially DogWalker.com.  My developer, Mike McAlister, exceeded my expectations with this site. Michael Sumner also helped with some of the Wordpress functionality, and it’s been going very well.  At this point, I am hoping to break even (including the expensive domain purchases) sometime early next year.  There are close to 140 paying advertisers on DogWalker.com, and CatSitter.com just launched but has several advertisers right now. Just about every day, I get new signups on DogWalker.com and CatSitter.com.

Well that raps up my interview with Elliot and want to wish him more success in the years to come.

Thanks  for the interview Elliot.

NY domainer get together

Thanks for dinner guys!!!!!

First of all I wanted to thank Elliot Silver for organizing one of the first and many more to come in 2010 NY domainer get togethers featuring the Castello Bros. I’ve met the Castello brothers on many occasions but never had the chance to actually have a conversation with them, its usually “Hi, How are you and Bye see you soon”, and at this get together I had excellent conversations with both David and Michael. What strikes me most is with all their success in the geo world they are still passionate about the business and that motivates us more and pushes us to concentrate on geo development. At the Campbell Apartment, a lounge that Elliot had picked out for the get together and props to Elliot for once again picking the right place to mingle, both Michael and David spend time talking to fellow domainers with topics ranging from local directory advertising, national advertising, LongIsland.com,what are the techniques of geo development and geo marketing. Being a Geo investor and developer I had many unanswered questions and both David and Michael  were able to point us in the right direction.

I was also able to connect with a few other domainers , domainers like Brian Benko from NoParking.com, Alisa Cromer from Local Media Insider, John Araneo a practicing attorney from Long Island, Jorge Martinez from Peruvian.com, David Reiff from Manortrade.com (who is the tallest person from the pictures below). There were other domainers present that I know and met before, guys like Keith Levinson from Vibrator.com who recenly purchaed a great geo domain Rio.com, John Yeomans from WinnerNames.com, Tony C. from AirportService.com and last but not least Andrew Hazen from PrimeVisibility.com. After the “Campbell Apartment” some of us decided to go out for dinner and David C. had recommend an excellent steak house PrimeHouse,  the food was just beyond delicious. Our thanks to the Castello brothers for picking up the tab.

These domainer get togethers I believe are important because not only do we share ideas but we are also making connections locally with other domainers who have similiar interests. Example: Last night  I met Brain Benko (who I will profile sometime in the near future), we exchanged business cards and the next day we got on the phone and were able to exchange ideas. With that being said I think that every state should hold domainer get togethers like Elliot in NY, Morgan Linton in California and a few domainers in Canada……………  share your ideas and passion.

NY domainer get together

Tony C. is always looking away and David Reiff (so tall)

Meeting John at the Grand Central Station

David, Tony, Myself and Alisa

Alisa and Michael

Elliot mingling with the crowd

John decided to take off his red scarf

Andrew Hazen, Jeff from (Student.com) and Jorge the Peruvian

David and Cambria

Alisa from NewMediaHub.com

Dinner at the PrimeHouse

Keith from Rio.com and Brian Benko from NoParking.com

Tony C. (AirportService.com) and John (WinnerNames.com)

Keith, John Araneo Esq., and Michael C.

PrimeHouse - fantastic food

Elliot with wife Karen - Thanks Elliot for a great night

Hi everyone,

It is my pleasure to introduce to you a gentleman that I’ve had  the pleasure of meeting about 5 or 6 conferences ago, a family man, a company man and of course one of us, Bill Sweetman.

Bill Sweetman is the General Manager of YummyNames (http://www.yummynames.com), a unique service from Tucows that offers marketers the ability to purchase or lease premium domain names.A self-confessed domain name fanatic, Bill registered his very first domain in 1994 and has been perfecting his “Domain Name Karate” moves ever since. Bill has provided strategic domain name advice to major companies around the world, and he has overseen the buying and selling of millions of dollars of domain names.  Bill is also one of the Internet marketing industry’s most respected authorities and his innovative work over the last 16 years has been recognized by numerous awards, including the prestigious Internet World Impact Award for Communications.  Bill has overseen hundreds of Internet marketing campaigns for companies such as Alliance Atlantis Communications, Bell Mobility, CBC, Dupont, General Motors, Harlequin Enterprises, Hewlett-Packard, Pfizer, and RBC Royal Bank.  Bill is a regular contributor to various trade publications and blogs, including his own acclaimed Internet marketing blog, Sweetmantra, located at http://www.sweetmantra.com/. I’ve compiled a few question for Bill so lets see how he answers them…..

Bill, I can see that you are in the industry since 1994, how many domains do you own?

I’ve bought and sold a few domains over the years, but the portfolio that I focus on these days is the awesome one that I manage for Tucows, and that consists of tens of thousands of domains.

Being the General Manager for YummyNames, can you tell us a little bit what YummyNames is all about and how long are you with them. And who came up with the name YummyNames?

YummyNames is a service from Tucows that allows marketers, advertisers (and anyone else who appreciates the value of a good domain name) to purchase or lease a premium domain name from the Tucows Domain Portfolio. From a business point-of-view, YummyNames is the consumer or ‘end user’ brand for the sale of premium domain names owned by Tucows, although it is just one of many retail channels we use every day to sell domains from our portfolio.

I joined Tucows in August of 2007 as the General Manager of the Tucows Domain Portfolio, and at the time we did not have a public ‘brand’ for the portfolio. In fact, we were rather coy about the fact we had this amazing collection of premium domain names. In early 2008, we started to talk publicly about the quality and size of the Tucows portfolio, and in October 2008 we launched the YummyNames brand.

As for the origin of the name, I have a long history of coming up with names for products and companies, and it is something I am passionate about. Not surprisingly, it was my responsibility and privilege to develop the name for what would become YummyNames, and this was a process that spanned several months. The name was chosen to appeal specifically to the marketing and advertising community, and it is meant to be fun, friendly, non-technical, and – of course – memorable. Feedback on the name from the target market has been overwhelmingly positive. You may be amused to learn that some of the other names considered, but ultimately rejected, were JuicyNames and HeavyNames.

Bill, Congratulations on all the awards, can you tell us what Internet World Impact Award for Communications is all about?

That’s an oldie but a goodie, dating back to 1997 when Internet World was the leading Internet magazine and also a series of popular Internet conferences. At the time, I was a partner in one of the first Internet public relations firms, and we won this award for an online marketing stunt we orchestrated for the fictitious Canadian Internet Licensing Board (CILB). This was a viral marketing campaign before anyone used the term “viral marketing” and it generated headlines across Canada and got a lot of people talking about the topic of government regulation of the Internet. Sadly, 13 years later, governments around the world are still trying to regulate the Internet. Good luck with that!

One thing that I was never able to understand was leasing domains, I just don’t see a need for that. As we know YummyNames provides both selling and leasing of premium domains, please elaborate on the benefits of leasing a domain name.

We sell way more domains than we lease, but not everyone can afford to pay five or six figures for a premium domain name, and they may not even need to use that domain name for more than a few months or a few years. Leasing allows a customer to obtain use of a premium domain name for a finite period of time, like a seasonal marketing campaign at Christmas, or “try before you buy” a premium domain name. It’s just like leasing a car; as long as you make your payments, you have exclusive use of the domain. And if you don’t want to use the domain any more, you can simply end the lease. Of course, you also have the option of buying the name outright at any time. We’ve found leasing to be very popular with startups that want a killer domain name but can’t afford to buy it outright from day one.

Bill, I see you at the live domain name auctions raising your paddle, are you buying domains for your own interest or for YummyNames?

I love attending the live auctions – we always have some of our names up for sale – but I don’t bid on that many domains, and certainly not ours. When I do bid on domains, it is either to acquire them for YummyNames or clients of YummyNames who have asked us to help them discretely get a domain name.

I looked over the YummyNames portfolio and it seems that you guys have an excellent collection of generic domain names. Now were these domains purchased aftermarket or are they from the Tucows expired domain stream?

The tens of thousands of premium domains that YummyNames sells and leases come from various sources. Many of the ultra-premium domains (which we refer to as our “Gems”) were obtained when Tucows acquired companies (like NetIdentity) that owned their own portfolio of domains. The balance of the domains were acquired from the Tucows expired domain stream by my team, although on rare occasions we have purchased domains from individual sellers, dropcatching services, and other marketplaces. I am way more focused on selling domains that buying them!

I personally remember buying domains through Domain Direct and now that portfolio is being managed by Hover, can you talk about this a bit and also why did Tucows stop that auction platform?

Domain Direct was a successful yet fairly ‘traditional’ consumer-facing domain reseller that Tucows operated for many years. Its operations were rolled into Hover (http://www.hover.com), which launched last year. Hover is also a consumer-facing domain reseller operated by Tucows, however it represents a fresh, new approach to the business with its emphasis on ease of use, simplicity, and customer service. Hover is a different breed of domain reseller, and I am excited to see how it is evolving.

In regards to that auction platform, Tucows did use to operate its own expired domain auction, however only a handful of domainers knew about it, and it never lived up to its potential. Shutting it down and outsourcing our expired domain auction (Tucows expired domains now flow to NameJet) was one of the first things I did when I started in my role at Tucows.

What would be typical day for Bill Sweetman?

There is no typical day for me, and that’s what I love about my job. That being said, some of the things I might do during the day would include helping negotiate the sale of some of our domains, brokering the purchase of a domain for a client, analyzing lists of domains, reviewing various reports, planning and overseeing special projects, talking to partners and vendors, conducting research, managing my team, and networking. I am lucky because I don’t spend a lot of my time in meetings, and the day just flies by, in part because my team and I have a lot of fun together and we’re always learning new things.

Being from Canada, do you work together with other domainers? (Locally)

I’ve met and gotten to know a lot of the Canadian domainers – many of us are members of the Domain Owners Association of Canada (DOAC) (http://www.doac.ca) and/or attend the lively Domainer Dinner (http://www.domainerdinner.com) that Frank Michlick organizes – but I don’t do a lot of business with any of them, other than the occasional domain sale. The funny thing is that I am more likely to run into ‘Team Canada’ at a domainer conference in the United States than back at home. Also, most of the domains that YummyNames sells are to end users or large holding companies, not domainers.

Any advice to a beginner domainer?

I’d recommend focusing on the .com TLD and building a portfolio around several vertical niches that you are knowledgeable and excited about. This could be one of your hobbies or a topic that you’re keen on. Since the vast majority of domains in your portfolio will never generate much parking revenue, I’d encourage you to develop the domains using some of the excellent development platforms that are out there, such as DevHub, WhyPark, and SmartName. This will lead to more organic traffic, increase the perceived value of the domain, and boost the number of sales leads. If you are hoping to sell your domains, you must include a prominent “for sale” message on your landing page, and I would also encourage you to list your domains for sale with a buy-it-now price in the leading marketplaces, such as Afternic and Sedo.

If there is one that thing that you can change about our industry what would that be?

Domain investing is a very legitimate and exciting growth industry, but we still have an image problem because a tiny percentage of the players behave as if the laws don’t apply to them, and this continues to tarnish the reputation of the rest of us. We need to get the message across to the general public that domain investing and cybersquatting are two very different things, and we need to distance ourselves from the ‘bad apples’.

And that raps it up with Bill Sweetman, I want to thank Bill for taking the time to due this interview with me. Not only did I learn something but I’m sure my readers will too, thanks Bill.

Till next time – over and out.

Frank Schilling ( the man who bought my Raspberry.com).

I wanted to share my experience that I’ve encountered during DomainFest 2010. Over the past 4 years I’ve attended many domain conferences and even attended last years DomainFest and nothing compares to what we have experienced in Santa Monica. There were great sessions and its panel, there was good food, good music, good karma, plenty of booze and lots of great networking.  Exhibitors played a big roll as well. The .co extension handed out condoms that read “.coming soon” and “.contain yourself”, I thought that was hilarious, brought the condoms back home wife is asking why am I traveling with condoms?…oops, (she didn’t find that too funny). I thought that TrafficMedia.com gave a great presentation. Always good to see the Sedo crew and the crew over at Name Media. Thanks to Ted Olson for spending time with me and Morgan explaining the platform. There is so much more that one can learn when its face to face.

Finally met a lot of people that I wanted to meet. Morgan Linton and Bruce Marler just genuine great guys, if everyone can follow their methods then we would all be in a better place. Simonetta from Sedo was just a pleasure to talk to. Got a chance to meet another great guy Tony K, who happens to be from New York, he is also concentrating on Geo development. Always a pleasure to see John Yeomans from WinnerNames.com, who at one point disappeared with some playboy bunny at the mansion. (I wont tell your wife John.).  Always a delight to see Mike Berkens and his wife Judi, Larry Fischer, Lonnie Borck,  and Elliot Silver who hang out with Ron Jeromy and Justin Brescia (aka Justin Bobby) after the Mansion Party. And lets not forget Chef Patrick who seems like he is always having a good time no matter where he’s at.

Below are pictures that summarize the Madness that was happening at DomainFest…..Hope to see you all at the next conference…..

Heading to DomainFest, Elliot and Tony C

Chef Patrick and Tony K.

Bruce Marler

One of the sessions and its panel

Jeff Kupietzky's opening remarks

The hottest girl at the conference Bari from Moniker

John being tickled by Igal from TrafficMedia.com

Ted Olson and Morgan Linton

Shamata and Cyril from Skenzo and Seth Wilkof

Tony Hsieh from Zappos.com

Lunch outside

Lunch outside again

Simonetta from Sedo

Marc Ostrofsky - sold Business.com in 1999 for $7.5 million

Juan Calle from .co and Igal from TrafficMedia.com

We are on our way to the PlayBoy Mansion

Bruce Marler and his playmates

They made me do it

I'm surrounded by body paint

Partying at the Mansion

The Berkens

Still Partying

Chef is cooking

Pat, Bruce, John, Samantha - hanging at the bar

Chillin in Santa Monica

Janna and John

Elliot, Judi Berkens and Larry Fischer

John, Me, Jazmin and Tony K. at the exhibit hall

Joe, John, Me, Lonnie, Sean, Elliot, Eric (behind Elliot) and Tony K.

Ken Bhullar, Robert, David( in the back), Alan Hack, Bob, me and John

David(NameDrive), Tony K, me, Tony C and Ted Olson(Name Media).

Chris Hartnett on the left and Bob Olea on the right

Jay Westerdal is the Founder of DomainTools.com , Spry Hosting, Inc., Aboutus, Inc., and Domain Roundtable. Jay is also involved in another project as CEO of the .movie registry, which hopes to secure the  dot movie gTLD.

I’m excited to introduce a man that I had a pleasure of meeting, Frederick Schiwek, aka Freddy. I remember  watching an AfterMarket.com auction and the highest sale of the auction was VooDoo.com.  I later find out that Freddy was the seller and Donny Simonton from Parked.com was the buyer. When I saw Freddy last year at the Ad-tech convention I asked him about the sale, Freddy proudly answered I bought the name for $31k and sold it for $300k. Wow, I was amazed to hear that Freddy had bought the name for so cheap. This is the one thing that I admire about domainers who find the time to search for domain owners and turn that purchase into a histological profit.

Freddy has his hands in Domains for more than 10 years. In the mid 90´s he was a Webmaster and Marketing Assistant for the MLM Company; later he managed the Sales Department for a local Luxembourgish ISP. That was not enough, and he moved unto EuroDNS. With his support, EuroDNS.com (created in 2002) has become a leading Domain Registrar. He followed up this success only two years later with VoipGATE, a European Voice over IP Company, where Frederick is a Co-Founder. Now part of the same group, both companies share values of openness and excellence aimed at consumers and broader markets.

Since its creation, EuroDNS has sought to offer a global and direct service to its customers by strengthening links with a continuing addition of Top Level Domain Registries around the world. As a “one stop shop” for customers willing to consolidate their portfolio in several extensions and the Domainer Community, EuroDNS offers a variety of automated and streamlined services to ensure the market becomes as unrestricted as possible. This makes it possible for everybody to benefit quickly from the marketing potential of Domain names, across the globe. A firm believer in accessibility of Domain Names for everyone, Freddy supported as one of the first Registrars to offer Proxy Registrations in .FR, .IT and .DE and has successfully lobbied for the opening of other ccTLDs in the region.

Freddy, I see that you are industry for quite some time, how long exactly?

Uff, it has been a while. You say “Industry”, when did Domaining become an Industry? In the Internet Industry I am since ´96 or maybe earlier, lets call it earning money because of the Internet. My first Email Address I got in the early 90´s. Yes, a long time ago.  It took a few years until I registered my first domain, but this happened in ´96, at this time I was definitely not commercial enough to see the potential of the Domaining (Domain Industry).

What was the highest amount that you ever paid for domain name?

We paid around half a million USD for a .de domain name. At this stage we do not want to make public which name it is, but I will let you know as soon we will publish it.

Freddy tell us a bit about DomainInvest and what are the goals for the company?

Most domain investment companies concentrate on the .com market, of course there are some big domainers investing in ccTLD´s. But we had the idea to raise money from very rich individuals and from professional investors, so we raised more than 10 Million Euro and going for more. What we are doing is buying out Domainers which maybe want to exit our industry or sell a part of their portfolio. We did some very nice deals last year, because not so many Investors are able to pay a few million for ccTLD´s.  The main goal is of course to park these domains, but also to resell them like we did with the voodoo.com 300,000 USD or with Gartenmoebel Gartenmöbel.de for 300,000 Euro. Looks like all our names going for 300k, if it stays like that I am happy!

I was there with you when you purchased Whiskey.com, what are your plans with the domain?

Oh, I forgot about that one! No way! I am kidding. Hmmm, it was an opportunity acquisition. It simply looked like a good deal. I swear we had not planed to buy it! Today it is in our cellar parked with thousands of other names, of course this name is praying for being developed, but developing domains is not our main business. Maybe tomorrow someone will show up with this great and perfect idea and we might partner.

How many domain names do you own? And what percentage of them are dot coms?

We have around 20,000 Domains today, 50% are .com but they are getting diluted. We concentrate now totally on ccTLDs, on which exactly, I do not want to disclose, sorry. All I can tell you is, that these are not only Europeans, we look also into south America and Asia.

Do you develop any of your portfolio or are you strictly concentrating on buying and selling?

There are some plans to develop a few in 2010.

If you are parking your domains which platform are you using?

We have some at Streamic, DDC, Sedo, Parklogic, Domain Sponsor, Skenzo, TrafficZ and so on, we really use everybody.

What is a typical day for you?

I think its very similar to most other domainers. In the morning I check the blogs and forums like the most of us, and then try to fight the incoming emails. In the early morning I work with the Asia/Pacific market, during the day with Europe and in the afternoon till the night with the Americans…. A typical Euro-domainer life!

BTW, where do u live? Married? Any kids? Girlfriend?

I live in Germany, very close to the the Luxembourg border, maybe just 300 meters. I am married  nearly 10 years and have a 9 year old son, he wants to become a domainer, “Oh My G-d”!

Any advice to my readers?

You chose the right industry! Just keep your eyes open, opportunities are every day in your inbox. The big boys usually don’t need any advice. From the smaller domainer I hear sometimes complains about paying the fees for attending Targeted Traffic, DomainFest or Domain RoundTable. I can tell you that it is worth going there. You learn a lot from people, just by listening to them. You can not find a better place to make better deals in a short time. And if you think it is not worth the time and money, then you did something wrong. I usually get paid back on the first day, you buy there a domain which u would not have not bought if you stay at home, like I did with wishkey.com, or you sell a domain, even better! Put domains in the auction and if you go to the event do marketing for your domains. The only way to become bigger and better in this industry is to get a training, the best training you can get is to learn from your competitors face to face. ( Great advice Freddy).

And last the question Freddy: If you can change one thing about this industry what would that be?

I would add a zero to all my sales, just one, I do not want to be greedy.

Well thats all folks, I know you want to read more about Freddy but thats all for now. I want to thank Freddy for taking the time to do the interview with me. I wish him more success in all that he does and look forward to interviewing him in the future again.

Stayed tuned to my next post where I interview a man who went from being in the car business  to an executive position with the biggest domain company in the world.

Welcome all to DomainersDigest.com. At DD I will attempt to introduce to you the domainers and advertisers that thrive our industry. People that I’ve interviewed are in some way or another have an influence on our  industry. With my questions and their answers I hope that we can all learn from their practices and services they offer and take their advise as a learning curve.

My first person to interview is Andrew Rosener. It’s interesting how I met Andrew. We were introduced by Tess Diaz  our account manager at Godaddy. Being that Tess manages both our accounts she felt that Andrew and I had lots in common. Sure enough I made the connection with Andrew and the rest is history.  I’ve compiled a list of questions for Andrew that I believe my readers would love the answers to. Here we go…..

When did you start domaing and why?

• I started “domaining” in 1998, but unfortunately, I didn’t have the foresight to grab up as much real estate as I could have. Not to mention, I was buying what I refer to as “Clever Names” instead of simple generic descriptive names. My education was in Database development and Management Information Systems. I saw the web and basically saw the tremendous opportunity to reach out and touch a lot of people fairly easily. However, I didn’t know what I wanted to tell them. I registered probably 10 domains or so and never did anything with them except the one for my name which I essentially made into an online resume. Unfortunately, as the stock market started going through the roof, I let most of my domains expire and used the cash to buy stocks (mostly .COM companies which eventually went bust).

Are you making money domaining? I know that you have sites launched, but are they making you money?

• I am making money with my domains, but not the kind of money I was making in the Seafood Business. Primarily, my domain marketplace (www.MediaOptions.com) and newsletter is where I’m making the majority of my revenue through domain sales and brokerage commissions. We aren’t making the money yet that I would like to be making, but it has been a better start than I expected when we launched MediaOptions.com in January 2009. We are getting around 1,500 – 2,000 visitors per day at MediaOptions.com and are adding hundreds of new domains to our catalogue each week.
As for development, I just started developing and experimenting with my domains very recently. We have sites like: www.SWFrance.com which is generating around $2 – $5 per day as an informational portal on the South West of France and the wine and cognac of that region. The site is heavy on content and light on design. We built this one free using DevHub. We’ve got online pharmacy sites, like: www.EDMeds.com generating a few hundred dollars a month, but require some marketing and lead generation. Then we have sites like: www.CascoViejo.org which we just launched with a totally different business model, no advertising or PPC, just selling premium listings for local businesses in that small geographic area (a Unesco World Heritage site in Panama). So far we have enough commitments to cover our costs and once we put some more time into sales, I expect it will generate around $400 – $500 per month.
As most domainers will tell you, PPC is barely showing signs of life, so we have been experimenting with other platforms like: DevHub, SmartNames, RootOrange (very interesting, but no results yet) and a fixed rate development platform called CustomSimple.

Is your future MediaOptions.com or are you concentrating on other projects?

• For the moment, we are focusing on growing MediaOptions.com. We feel we have a good shot at being one of the top domain brokerage firms and marketplaces for people who want to sell their premium domains to end users. I come from sales and I’ve never been shy about picking up the phone and tracking down a potential buyer. I’ve sold many of my own domains and had great success so far with many of our customer’s domains. Other than Rick Latona, there isn’t anyone else out there whose really targeting end users, I see a huge demand that is not being filled. We get over 5,000 domains sent to us every week from people who would like to sell their domains or help them sell their domains. Unfortunately, most of it is not worth our time. You need to focus your resources where they will be the most profitable, and selling $500 domains for someone else, is not profitable. Our traffic on MediaOptions.com has been growing very quickly and steadily with very little more than grassroots marketing and networking. I expect next year that we will begin advertising with a more aggressive strategy. But we wanted to be sure our framework and platform was sound before we ramp up.

Approximately how many domains do you own in your own portfolio? And which one is your favorite?

• I own a little over 2,000 domains myself. Although I am still actively buying domains, both from owners and expired auctions, I am actually trying to widdle down my portfolio by around 50% (which is why we’ve been blowing out a lot of domains nearly at cost recently). There is too much administration involved with owning so many domains (as you know) and it eats up time and resources that could be better spent on development, marketing and sales.

Of course, the first question anyone ever asks when you tell them you are a domain investor is “what is your favorite or best domain?” It is a tough question to answer. There are the highly liquid 3 Letter .com’s like: CFJ.com and then there are domains which I like for one reason or another like: Hungrig.com (“Hungry” in German), iHospitality.com (Hospitality is the second largest industry on the planet behind Tourism), and ItalianAuto.com (I am a car enthusiast and there is nothing like Italian Automobiles). However, by the numbers, these probably are not my “best” domains.

What was your highest sale and what was your highest purchase price?

• My highest sale so far (I only started selling my domains a year ago) is OralSpray.com for $15,000. I’ve also had several sales around $10,000. But the majority of sales have been between $1,000 – $2,500. As for purchases, I have shied away from making any outlandish purchases. I like the economics of buying low and selling high, even if I could buy high and sell higher. Probably the most I’ve spent for a domain is around $6,000. However, I am currently looking at making a single large purchase of a domain for a development project for next year. That domain is around $25,000.

Do you park your domains and with whom?

• I do park the majority of my domains, but domains which fit verticals in which I have developed or semi-developed sites, I forward the domains to the developed site in order to catch the long tail and improve rankings. I have tried out nearly all the different parking companies, but at this point with so little PPC revenue, I have started moving many of them over to Sedo for the simple fact that the brokerage fee is less if the domain gets an offer. I also forward many of my domains directly to their for sale page at MediaOptions.com. This has been a very effective sales strategy and I may implement it further with more of my portfolio.

Where do you live?

• That is a tricky question! I am from Rhode Island and my wife is from Germany. We lived in Rhode Island until about 9 months ago when we moved ourselves and our business to Panama (Central America). We were looking for a warmer climate, fresh environment for both of us and a place which was neutral for us, meaning not English, not German and not surrounded by either of our families and friends. We couldn’t be happier with our choice. Panama has first world infrastructure, a huge Expat community and a very diverse population and landscape. We can drive from our place on the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean in just one hour! In Panama, we live in the ‘Old City’ called Casco Viejo (www.CascoViejo.org). It is a beautiful 16th Century Spanish Colonial neighborhood on a peninsula in Panama City.

Do you read blogs and if so, who’s?

• I don’t have a lot of time to read blogs, but it is important to stay on top of current events. So when I get a chance I mostly read ElliotsBlog.com, TheDomains.com (Michael Berkens) & DNJournal.com. I recently upgraded my membership at DNForum (thanks’ Adam) to Platinum, so I’ll likely start spending more time on there as well.

What is a typical day for Andrew Rosener?

• I usually start my day around 7:30 in the morning reading emails while downing a few shots of espresso (check out my recently launched site BuyEspresso.com). Once I’ve answered my back log of Emails, mostly from project managers, developers and people looking to sell their domains, and taken appropriate actions on them, I scan through the keyword domain lists which get emailed to me every morning from various services. If there is anything interesting I backorder it or bid on it. Once 11:00 rolls around, I’m usually switching over to sales mode and start seeking out and contacting potential buyers for domains which I am either selling myself or brokering for another customer. Right now we are brokering, among other domains, the 2 letter .COM domain: HX.com. Later in the afternoon I’m usually involved in a handful of expired domain auctions and then I get back to work selling. On Monday’s and Wednesday’s I also spend a few hours putting together our Domain Deals Newsletter to go out the following day (Tuesday’s & Thursday’s). I usually am at my desk actively working until 7:30 – 8pm, but thanks to my Blackberry, the fun never really stops until I go to bed.

Do you work with other domainers (partners) or are you basically on your own?

• I’ve made a lot of friends in the domain industry and in some sense I would like to call them partners; we share ideas, information, new development concepts, experience with different models and parking platforms, etc…but I don’t have any direct partnerships. My wife, Anna, works with me, mostly handling marketing, design, newsletter management, and managing the administrative tasks for our own domain portfolio. We also have several individuals who are not employees but outside contractors who we employ on a regular basis. These include a Graphic Designer, Web Development Team and our SEO expert. We are currently looking at a partnership agreement with NameMedia in order to list and sell their domains on our platform, however, we have not moved ahead with that yet.
We are very open to partnership opportunities either on specific domains or business in general. If anyone has an idea that you think will be beneficial and/or profitable for both of us, please contact us.

Are you domaining full time or do you have another day job?

• As I’ve said before, I used to be a Fish Monger. I traded frozen seafood commodities worldwide. I loved that business and it was extremely lucrative, but I decided to leave it behind last year and go into the domain industry full time. That’s what I’m doing now and intend on doing for the foreseeable future. I’m sure my business model will change, but the internet is in its infancy and I intend on making a mark before it grows up…or at least owning my share of it.

Any advice to a beginning domainer?

• I get hundreds of emails every single week from what appear to be rookie domainers. They are all pretty much the same: “Hello, would you be interested in buying MyFloridaBakedSugerCookies.com for $3,000? This is a great Geo domain!” I feel bad for these guys and I honestly want to reach out to them and help them but I just don’t have time! The single best piece of advice I can offer is be more disciplined. Do your research and be highly critical of what you buy. Buy less, but higher quality. These guys send me a list of 100 domains they own and want to sell. If we assume that they are buying these domains on backorders and no one else is bidding on them, then they are paying $60 – $70 each for them. That means their list of 100 names cost at least $6k – $7k. Instead of 100 names which I would pay a registration fee for, they could have bought 5 – 10 excellent names or even 1 fantastic name for the same amount of money. Those names would be much easier to sell, much fast turnaround, and potentially much higher profits which could be reinvested into even better names. Patience and Discipline!

And that’s all folks, as you can see Andrew is a busy guy and thank you Andrew for taking the time to answer my questions. If anyone is interested in listing their names with MediaOptions.com please do so and also check out his site, it’s fantastic.

MediaOptions.com

Expired Domain Name Sales and Acquisitions