Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

As a domain investor I follow a simple mantra: buy low, sell high.

The question is, what exactly is that “low” that will eventually determine the “high” price and how does one determine that?

When evaluating the potential of a domain to be acquired, I consider its TLD, keyword, age, positive meaning and Google results for the keyword as the primary factors.

Price comes second, for a simple reason: when all you examine in an asking price is the monetary value in dollars, you don’t see past the particular sale and you’re ignoring the domain’s potential.

One has to see long-term: how much would the domain be valued a year from now? Five years or longer down the road? Is it worthy of development, or does it have competition in the field?

Whether I spend $30 or $3,000 to acquire a domain, I summarize my decision after consulting those parameters I mentioned above. The end result is then further processed by my own, personal “gut feeling”; something that seasoned domainers develop with time.

What is your sweet spot and how do you determine that?

Wikipedia is out of bounds today, participating in a global protest against the proposed SOPA bill that threatens our civil rights. And yet, I’m not so sad seeing Wikipedia’s black page after each search query.

You see, centralized sources of information aren’t really a good thing. Free or not, Wikipedia has somehow become an authority on people’s online research; whether you type the URL in or after searching in Google, Wikipedia articles maintain top relevancy.

Even when they are inaccurate!

I grew up in a home that encouraged research; my father owned more than 5,000 books from philosophy to astronomy, but not a single standard, multi-volume encyclopaedia. The only thing close to that was probably Le Petit Larousse.

In the 70′s, the “dream” of a grade school student was exactly that abomination: the multi-volume encyclopaedia. It sounds anecdotal but it’s entirely true: when asked to compose an essay, a friend cut out images and text from this precious, 20-volume strong encyclopaedia, then pasted them with glue onto the school book he presented to the teacher. In 1978, that was probably a pioneer act of “cut and paste”.

For that matter, I would like to see Wikipedia stay down longer, be it in protest of SOPA or for  some other reason. Students and others need to learn to do research, versus copy and pasting or plagiarism.

And never trust a single point of authority or one day it might go down along with your trust and dreams.

On Friday, Rick Schwartz announced a deal that myself and 34 others could not refuse; a $995 ticket for TRAFFIC 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale.

Having attended TRAFFIC 2008 in Orlando and TRAFFIC 2010 in Las Vegas, I can only say that I’m very excited to have booked my attendance for this year, a full nine months in advance.

It’s not just the price – now standing at $1,295 – but the fact that it’s for a top tier event I can actually look forward to; TRAFFIC is the top conference for domainers, developers and investors.

Those of you that are still skeptic, don’t be.

Provided that domaining is not just your hobby but a business you dedicate time and money into, attending TRAFFIC is a wise choice. Industry leaders will be attending and industry players will be interacting in a manner unmatched by other domainer conferences.

I’m looking forward to meeting again the best of you and to forge new business relationships as well.

See you in October, at TRAFFIC 2012 in Ft. Lauderdale.

The owner of Bodis.com – the domain monetization company that acquired the domain forum NamePros – gave an excellent speech today; albeit in the form of a unity post.

It’s not a secret that both DNForum and NamePros each have their own “gang” of supporters, fans and sworn “servants”. It’s what makes cliques fun and what makes fans active contributors of any given forum.

I hopped onto DNForum in 2002, after its launch was announced on Web Hosting Talk – a technology forum I frequented at that time.

NamePros was launched in early 2003 by Ron James, a DNForum regular, after the DNForum moderators of that time attempted to launch a coup d’etat by buying DNForum from its founder, Dan – a 17 year old student at that time. The same moderators opted out, after a Texan domain investor, Greg Ricks, stepped in and snapped the domain from under their noses; the formation of DomainState became their lair.

For the record, at the same time I launched DomainGator – not to be confused with DNGator, the now sold domain news aggregator – which didn’t fare well for one reason: I tried to run the show all by myself.

When owning a large community forum, it’s prudent to delegate tasks by either hiring a crew or by giving incentives to volunteers. Power is one such incentive, and both DNForum and NamePros at some point fell victims to moderator power abuse. Usually, things work out when there is a change of guard or when problematic moderators are ‘fired’.

Many lessons were learned during that period 2002-2004, especially when Adam Dicker acquired DNForum, reputedly for $50,000. Ron James of NamePros held out for almost a decade, before selling NamePros to Bodis for a deal between $200k and $300k.

What matters today is that there are two very active domain name forums and the need for unity and co-operation is necessary, in order to maximize the benefits and the potential of its members. Both owners are smart, business-savvy individuals with long records of success. Both forums can continue to perform using their distinct personality and best elements by joining forces and forging alliances.

I’ve bought and sold some great domains on both forums and established some long-lasting business relationships during the past ten years that I frequent them. Both forums deserve the best; and why not, let’s make them three, given the fact that DomainState is part of the old school domain forum game.

When I met the Parked.com crew during TRAFFIC 2008 in Orlando, I had the opportunity to engage with some of the best people in the domain monetization business.

It was clear that Parked rocked during those times and the company did remarkably well; the people that worked for Parked were top notch and experienced professionals.

With Parked.com apparently gone from service, I’m left with sadness about the demise of a company that later on declined in performance, due to its use of Yahoo feeds that imposed the dreaded TQ domain rating.

As far as I know, the now former Parked employees are either at Domain Apps that acquired the Parked.com brand and infrastructure, or working at other companies.

It was great knowing you guys, I wish I had kept my Parked.com t-shirt but I donated it along with other clothing before Christmas.