I’m scanning Top on the Bloomberg and see the headline:

Google to Stop Selling Print Advertising Next Month

How nice of them to notify their clients through the media…

It’s a shame — seemed like a great idea.  This is indicative of the problems bubbling at Google.  They’ve got their hands in too many projects that they never finish.  So many of their offerings are feature-poor and under supported.  For those who do adopt their marginal offerings, you have to wonder whether they’ll be abandoned right when you count on them.

This makes me wonder whether I should depend as heavily as I do on Google Mail and Reader.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Adwords, Google Print Ads

Twitter will suspend your account for any number of reasons.  One of which is

‘following other accounts in order to gain attention to your account’

I mean, come on - isn’t that what Twitter’s all about?

Seriously though, I guess I need to go back to TwiTip and figure out how to do it without being so obvious.

In the meantime, you can follow me here.

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Technorati Tags: Autofollow, Follow, Suspend Owl, Twitip, Twitter

 (KEYWORD1)(KEYWORD2).NET

(KEYWORD2)(KEYWORD1).COM

(KEYWORD3)-(KEYWORD4).NET

At the end of his email he asked:

 (KEYWORD3)-(KEYWORD4).COM is selling for $12,000.  What do you think I could get for (KEYWORD3)-(KEYWORD4).NET?

Here’s my response:

These are some good keyword rich domains that will work well for SEO and development.  But they don’t jump out at me as domains that would have any type-in traffic or much value on the reseller market.  .Net significantly decreases the value of a domain.  Many believe .Nets are worth 10% of what the .com is worth.  A hyphen is even worse for a domain’s value, except in Germany and some parts of Europe where a hyphen is in some cases desirable.

(KEYWORD2)(KEYWORD1).COM is getting there, but the word order is off to me.  It may be common usage somewhere, but I’m not familiar with it. (KEYWORD1)(KEYWORD2).COM would make more sense to me, which is probably why the .com is taken.

Knowing your specific business plan/mix, and that you’re still learning about domains and domaining, I would strongly advise against buying domains right now for any purpose other than SEO and development.  The secondary/reseller market for marginal-value domains is dead.

Since I know you’re a hustler, the one caveat to this is if you’re selling domains to end-users.  If you can get your hands on a category killer domain; a two-word, proper usage, .com domain, a domain with qualified traffic - then you’ve got something to sell to an end-user.  I’ve got a TON of great domains for end-users, but no time to hustle them via email/phone to the decision makers.

I’ve got a list of at least 20, and perhaps more than 200 domains that are end-user sale home runs.  If you want to try your hand at flipping domains, I’ll share this list with you, give you some guidance on the pricing that I expect, and then pay you 40% of any sales you make, as well as give you an incredible bonus structure for any sales you make for prices beyond the price guidance.  

End-user sales are still a very viable segment of the domain market.  Rick Schwartz (RicksBlog.com) is the domain king, and king of end-user sales.  He sold Foreclosure.com for what many estimate to be over $20 Million (it was a private sale).

I want to strongly caution you against using the prices that people are selling/listing their domains for sale as any kind of guide.  Instead of saying ‘Sale Price’, it should say “Wishful Thinking Price’ for most of the domains you see listed for sale.  I also will strongly caution you against using recent domain name sales as a guideline for registering domains in hopes to resell them.  There are so many factors that go into the final price paid in a domain sale that we will rarely be privy to.  Some may have traffic, one sale could be an end-user sale, and other could be sale among buddies.  

If you want to learn about domaining or get into flipping domains - you need to read SevenMile.com.  This is Frank Schilling’s blog.  Even though it hasn’t been updated in months, it’s a treasure trove of essential reading.  Also, you should read RickLatona.com and subscribe to his domain newsletter — it’s the best out there.  Also read back issues of DNJournal.com and ElliotsBlog.com.

Domaining is a very incestuous industry.  I speculate that many of the reported sales are not arms-length transactions, but rather transactions made for inside deals, or to ‘keep the market moving’ so that there is continuity in pricing.  Remember that pricing is a function of:

1.  What a buyer is willing to pay.
2. Expectation of future revenue, discounted to present value to account for risk and cost of capital. 
3. Recent sales of comparable assets.
4. What a seller is willing to sell it for.

If there are no recent sales, how do you set expectations for prices going forward?  Don’t get me wrong.  There is a lot of money in domaining; but it is far from a liquid, efficiently operating market.

I hope I’ve answered your question.   Let me know if you want to hustle some domains, and take me up on my offer.

Technorati Tags: Domain prices, Domain values, Domains, Domains for sale, End-user sales, Frank Schilling, Keyword domains