Yesterday I had the chance to sit down with Michael Ward to discuss Domainer Mardi Gras 2010. After checking out the video make sure to get your pass here. I’ve got mine!

I almost forgot. Reserve your seat now and book your hotel before October 16th and get your pass for only $495. Once the early bird pricing is over tickets will run $895 and gradually increase until the day of the event.

Speak Your Mind (3)

That’s right, Google has run out of companies to acquire so they are buying themselves, lol. This comic strip was inspired by an article I read on DomainGang.com. If you have not had a chance to check out DomainingGang.com, then do so. Theo has created a domain news parody site that is extremely funny.

Click on the comic strip to enlarge.

In case you missed my last comic strip, it was Did Rick Schwartz Have Help?.

Speak Your Mind (5)

Guest post written by Caitlin Randolph of BrandBucket.com. On Monday, I am going to post my personal views on this topic.

In the sea of existing .com names many start ups find themselves stuck treading water, having an impossible time finding a keyword domain that is memorable yet inventive and unique. As the amount of internet entrepreneurs increase, you must find a way to stand out from all the other advertising companies that use ‘Advertising’ in the name. Ask yourself what makes your company different. Begin with a unique name; start ups need to be bold to be noticed. Try combinations of different words with various affixes and don’t pin yourself into a corner with an industry keyword.

It’s the information era, so consumers expect businesses to be more transparent. People want to read a sentence summing up a business rather than read a business name, make assumptions and then try to fit it into a business genre. Websites and networks like Twitter and Linkedin give web surfers all the short bits of your business that they want, so its now more important to have a memorable domain name and user name consistent with your business rather than fretting a business name consistent with your industry.

Take this lovely website for example, Patrick knows what appeals to people – food. ChefPatrick.com is an inventive domain name that makes you hungry. A ‘hunger’ for information is exactly what it appeals to for web surfers. A connotation like ‘hunger’ is far more important than the literal meaning. Patrick does not cook on his website but he does discuss what is cooking in the hungry world of domaining. It is this inventiveness that gives Patrick a very brand rich domain and leaves room to expand it into more. Put together words that you wouldn’t automatically match to create a great brand like Firefox and Facebook.

If matching up words isn’t successful, BrandBucket works to create all new words to build a brand off of. The three major parts used to invent names are suffix, prefix, and flair. These parts play a crucial role in the tone and connotation of your unique name. The suffix and prefix give the connotation of a name by adding word parts we are familiar with while the flair adds the tone of being fun, masculine, serious, relaxing, etc.

Prefix - Starts the word, examples: Syn, Sym- with, together (synonym, symbiotic, sync)

Suffix – Ends the word, examples: ster, er – Person who does something (swimmer, advertiser, friendster)

Flair – Adds memorability and activity to the new word, examples: io or i ending or the growing trend of dropping letters that are unnecessary to pronunce (Technorati, flickr)

Here is a breakdown of the domain name acentria.com using the three parts of a name. At first glance, you pick up a soothing feminine vibe due to the “ia” at the end, but in fact it has to do with something about circles, center or around because of ‘centr’. The letter ‘a’ at the beginning adds flow to the name as well as the benefit of being at the top in alphabetical listings. Every single word and every single domain can be broken down. This gives insight into how your customer will perceive your name.

A solid name allows your business to evolve and even reinvent itself at times. Don’t drown in the search for a domain name with your industry key word, but instead get creative and build a life raft of word parts and fun phrases to float right on out to the web.

Speak Your Mind (13)

No video this week. Instead, a short podcast with a few of the headlines from this week’s domain name industry news.


News Links:

• Domainer Mardi Gras early bird special ends Thursday. Get your pass now!
• Advise From The Most Successful Domain Owners of All Time – ElliotsBlog.com
• Dark Blue Sea and GoDaddy Get Back Together – DomainNameWire.com
• 15%-25% of Domains are Privately Registered – DomainNameWire.com

Speak Your Mind (1)

Ticket.com sells for $1,525,000, promoted through AfternicDLS global distribution network. The domain name is currently being redirected using an affiliate link to StubHub.com. Whois information is still under the seller, Rare Domains, Inc., whom also owns BuyDomains/AfternicDLS.

Ticket.com $1,525,000
Google Results: 120,000,000 (Ticket.com does not show on the first page)
Google Page Rank: 3
Compete.com Traffic: 989 Unique and Total Visits
Alexa Rank: 627,323

My post Top Domain Sales Of All Time has been updated with this sale.

Congratulations to the buyer and seller.

Source: AfternicDLS

Speak Your Mind (9)