SkyDomains

When Francios the head man at domaining.com annouced  yesterday, he is thinking of going to a pay as you read format for the popular site Domaining.com, Jamie from DotWeekly.com  picked it up on his blog and his readers went wild. For and against.

Bring money into any relationship and  you are going to have some friction. But again we all might love the  popular news site for domain names but is Francios not entitled to earn a living from his sweat ? 

“…for the laborer is worthy of his wages…” Luke 10:7

 He does not need permission from me or anyone to do what he pleases. It is his site and his business and he alone knows what pains he has gone through to bring it to this level. However this  post is to highlight other alternatives he might not have considered.

Let me say that I do not support the charging idea. However if he does go ahead with it, I hope it does work for him. I for one will support him to the best of my ability.
The current 10 to 30 dollars a month being floated around in my own opinion is sort of out there. On the high side, 30 bucks a month is a lot especially in this tough times. I subscribe to SmartMoney Magazine but believe me if it were 30 bucks a month, I will just have to find a smart- alternative.
Depending on your level in the business, this might be nothing or a drain. If this were nothing then people will not complain when gas prices were up because all it did is add for some people an extra 30 bucks or so a month.

Like most people already pointed out in dotweekly, if Domaining charges, an alternative will come up. Yes the name domaining.com is great but if truth be told, it is due to the excellent work and branding effort of Francios. It is not a natural type-in for a novice looking for domain info for the first time or a domainer who does not know about this site. More than likely they will type the following:
1. Domain Names
2. Domain News
3. Domain Name news
4. Domain Info
5. Domain Blog
6. Domain Forum
7. Domains

What is my point? Charging will open you up to competition like has already been pointed out and there are some very good names to do the same thing you are currently doing. 
How did I find Domianing.com?
Afternic.com –> DNJournal –>Conceptiualist.com—> RickLatona.com ElliotsBlog.com and RichShwartz.com  (found domaining.com in one of them and visited once in a while) After a while I felt like a taker and not giving anything back to the community and that was then I started SkyDomains after reading a post Francios placed on DNForum for a blogger asking for relevant feeds for his site.

However here are some options to consider. What if you could make money indirectly from your empire and you should. I am going to throw out some options here

1. Premium advertising space on your site. Call it domain billboard where people can advertise a domain for 7 days

2. Use your news letter to market and broker domains and other services

3. Have a list of premium domains you are brokering on site

4. A fee based  domain classifieds ( With your reach, this could be successful)

Charging the bloggers will not solve the money problem except you are going to charge each blogger at least 100 dollars a month. Now even though the traffic from domaining.com is targeted traffic, but unless you are selling domain related services like hosting, parking and etc, it is basically useless as per conversion. It is unlikely a reader will suddenly buy a name from you since most are fellow domainers and have other avenues for sourcing out names.

The point I am trying to make here is to use the traffic domaining.com is  generating to leverage another product but if in the end domainging.com still decides to go for green, I wish you the best because you gave me a platform to reach a wider audience quickly considering my blog is relatively new.

When we mention “offer”  the first thing that comes to mind is making an offer  for a domain. What about making an offer to sell a domain to someone. What if you could make an offer to your potential clients that they just cannot refuse. Be it pitching a domain name, a website or a service, the ability to present an in-resistible offer can never be over emphasised.

Yesterday morning I received one of those offers, It was from Francois Carillo the admin of expriringdomains.com and below is the original email correspondence.

After you have gone through the email I will make my final notes and what I have learnt from this experience.

Hi,

I just noticed you never submited names for sale at ExpiringDomains.com
That’s strange…
Are you renewing all your expiring domains?
I am really curious to know the reason.

Francois Carrillo
Domaining.com

Ok this has got to be the best marketing email I ever got.
I checked it out and it seamed to overflow with names that I decided not to bother.
I also do not have that many names I am letting go.
However I will reconsider.

Frankie Aladi
Sent from a mobile device

Here is my point. This simple email was the best call to action email I ever received from a fellow domainer. It was short and straight to the point. It subtly refers to the fact that if all I stand to do is gain, why  am I not participating. Ever since this email, I  have been thinking of how I can incorporate such effective communication in my pitches to customers and clients.

Once you can write an email like this for a product, then you have the right product in your hands. I guess one of the most important things that jumps out of an email like this is that;

1. )  you are confident about your product.

2.) You know the client and your product well enough to know that the product will work for him or her

Finally, I had not participated earlier in the expiring domains thing because most of my names were regged with a 5 to 10 year outlook hence I have very few names I am not renewing.   All the same, I am going to give it a short. What do I have to loose?  Well about 8 bucks per domain if I do nothing!

There are a lot of information out there laying out the path to the promised land of success but what happens when you get to the Rich County?  How do you behave when you are rich ?. How do you stay rich?  And if you are not there yet, how do you become rich and fulfilled?

Chances are that one or more of you reading this blog are already there or will get there. No matter how bad the economy is, someone is always making bank. The question is if you are that someone what do you do.

If you had one advice to give to the rich folks out there what would it be? (Why don’t you write it on a sheet of paper before you read the next line)

Paul the apostle is someone who knows what it is to be rich. Paul had been very very rich and successful before he took up his apostleship. Now this is the message Paul gave Timothy his surrogate. “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant” 1Timothy 6:17a (NIV)

How do rich people act arrogantly ?

1. They tend to think they are smarter than everyone else but are they?

Well the wisest man ever in the history of the world “king Solomon” may just have something to say about that. Below are his words.

“  I have observed something else in this world of ours. The fastest runner doesn’t always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn’t always win the battle. The wise are often poor, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don’t always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being at the right place at the right time. ” Ecclesiastes  9:11

2. They tend to think they are better than other people
“…I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value…” Romans 12:3

Maybe you are one of those who believes that you are not rich so this does not apply to you right? Chances are that you are not in a public library right now, the computer you are using  now is probably yours, at work or at home. If this is the case then you are already richer than more than half the population of the world.

In our quest for the finer things of life, In our quest to sell that mega dollar domain we often forget that domain selling and success is not the essence of life. Ask your self, where is my focus? on my domains? on my websites? on PPC? on Google adsense? or on the God that makes all these  possible. You think Google will be around for ever right? or one day you will retire on your PPC earnings;  I hope so, but who would have imagined that GM will be trading at what it is now.

Do not put your hope in these things which are uncertain, instead put your hopes in God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment  (1 Timothy 6:17b (NIV)

“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money”  ( Substitute money for “your Domains“) Matthew 6:24 (NIV)
Is the quest for higher PPC, better domains, more revenue competing with your focus for what really matters in life?

“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” 1 Timothy 6:10 (NIV)

So how do you know that you are focused in the wrong direction?.

How do you know that you have not neglected what really matters in life?.

Which statement creates the most anxiety in you?
There is no God
or
There is no PPC revenue anymore

If the second statement had your blood pumping then you have your eyes fixed on the wrong target.

Do you have money in the bank but no peace in your heart? wondering what tomorrow will bring?
“Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil”  Proverbs 15:16 (NIV)

Do you secretly feel that if you had a little more money, or better domains, you would feel a whole lot better about yourself? Then hear this ” Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)

Is your future security solely your domains or bank account?

” The wealth of the rich is their fortified city; they imagine it an unscalable wall” Proverbs 18:11 (NIV)
Is your future security solely your domains or bank account?

Does the fear of not having money impede your ability to be generous?

” Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able. and even beyond their ability” 2 Corinthians 8: 2-3 (NIV)

Fellow domainers, in conclusion, most of us are already rich if we focused on the right thing instead of our domains. Those of us that are already blessed in the domain world should not forget that it is the Lord who gives us the power to get wealth not because we are the smartest man or woman in the world.

Focus in him who never fails and with time everything else will be added unto  you.

Now that is the secret of being rich!

 The above post was adapted from a sermon delivered by Pastor Greg Surrat of Seacost Church on 11/16/08 “How to be Rich”

About 2 weeks ago, I was working on my garage to move my home office so that I can make room for the new baby and all that comes with her. Well I seem to have bitten off more than I can chew. I had never done drywall before but here I am hanging walls and so forth. After that comes the part everyone hates: Sanding the drywall. After about 3 hours on this task, I decided that there must be an easier way apart from the obvious which is to get a pro. I commenced a search in one of the most popular classified sites on the web looking for a motorized drywall sander. After I emailed the owners, out of boredom, I decided to enter the search term “Domain”.  Of the 5 or so results, one of them was iCharleston*com

I thought the seller was smart by localizing his sale. After about 5 emails, I bought the domain. I have many plans for the name but that is not the purpose of this post. I am just wondering was the seller smart in localizing his advertising for this domain or was I just lucky for finding it. This is by no means the greatest name in the world but I live in Charleston and I can make it work for me in several ways. Thoughts and inputs are still highly welcomed and appreciated.

I run  a classified ads site FleaMarketFinds.com and I have noticed that one of it’s greatest challenges is getting it populated with ads. Because a lot of people now use search properly, I tend to get inquiries and sales often which means It is seldom populated because each time I have some goodies there at the right price, they are gone. The iCharleston experience got me into thinking about starting a domain section in Fleamarketfinds. Believe it or not, there are a lot of end users that have never heard of Sedo. This section will Cather to low end aftermarket domains like what the regular mom and pa’s shop will want. Domains in the 300 to 1500 dollar range.

If you have a localizzed service oriented domain like LALawncare*Com for example, it might be a good idea to advertise where  your prospective clients might actually look.

In summary, determine who your customer might be and put your domain within there proximity. You are not going to catch a crocodile on a tree.