Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

This is an exclusive picture of Mike Robertson – Business Development Manager for Dark Blue Sea and Fabulous.com

Mike has been growing a beard for more than three weeks now, in order to help raise awareness about the devastating floods in Queensland, Australia.

Not only has Mike’s campaign helped raise a significant portion of the pledged money before Australia Day on January 26, but it has helped bring out a lot of the humor that Aussies are known for – including Paul Hogan of “Crocodile Dundee” fame

Mike’s sense of humor is evident in the exclusive photo below, with Mike Robertson posing with “Wilson” – the volleyball that Tom Hanks spent “quality time” with in the movie “Cast Away“.

Simply awesome!

Please help Mike and his campaign by donating to the cause – every dollar counts.

I will personally mail Mike a shaving kit once the goal is reached!

One of the benefits of using Fabulous.com as my primary domain registrar is the ability to instantly track the number of WHOIS queries a domain receives.

With the proliferation of aftermarket services, domains are often polled and queried; that’s an indication of popularity that can be used as a secondary measurement of traffic.

When domains approach their expiration date, such WHOIS queries increase; domains that are “due to expire” begin to appear in pending droplists of drop-catching services.

To put it plainly, the vultures are watching.

Thus, it’s good to be able to see what the vultures are planning and to be able to gauge the popularity and selling potential of your domain names.

I just sorted my list of domains that expire in March at Fabulous by the number of WHOIS queries and I was amazed to find that one of them has had 2,500 WHOIS queries with 55 days to expiry. I’ve seen numbers in the upper hundreds *after* expiration, but nothing quite like this.

I can’t imagine what the number will be with 30 days to go or even past expiry, but I think I will play a game with the vultures, just to experiment a bit with their food.

I will let the domain expire for at least 2 weeks before I renew it, to maximize the WHOIS query stats and I’ll post the results after I renew it.

See you on the same topic in three months from now

I can’t say I’m a fan of either the Golden Globe or the Oscar awards.

But when domain investor and developer Elliot Silver won the 2010 TRAFFIC award in the Best Domain News blog category, I was right on the money with my vote.

Through his blog, Elliot churns out content daily that contains not just useful tidbits of information, but most importantly he shares his domain development endeavors with other domainers and developers.

For that matter, Elliot and I had an interactive discussion that’s split over two parts; his answers to my questions simultaneously appear at my blog, and my answers to his questions are featured at the latest blog post, at ElliotsBlog.com

I hope you will find the whole concept interesting and rewarding

Elliot, who was your primary mentor with regards to moving away from domain parking and towards development as a viable domain monetization option?

David Castello was my primary mentor when I began to develop (parking was never one of my major revenue streams, as I primarily flipped names).  When I first purchased Lowell.com, I emailed David, and within minutes, he emailed me back and told me to call him. Since then (almost 3 years ago), he has given me some great advice about development, monetization, and advertising sales. David and Michael Castello always seem to be willing to share information with people to help them build their businesses, and their advice helped to encourage me to develop, and they were very supportive of my efforts. There are a number of great people who have also given me great development advice.

A lot of people use the cybersquatter tag a lot. Outside of the usual “domainer” circles, what is the approach and attitude of your peers (e.g. former colleagues, friends, family). Do they understand and accept the concept of development moreso that simple domaining?

When I first started buying and selling domain names, most of my friends were very surprised that someone could make money this way. I think a few of them were annoyed because it was something I always talked about.  A few busted my chops for buying and selling domain names, especially when I dabbled in adult names back when I started. It was pretty funny brainstorming some adult names with them.

Now that I’ve been doing it for a while, they realize how much work I do to research domain names and development opportunities, and they understand it’s a real business.  A couple of my friends have entrepreneurial aspirations and they look at my building websites as building individual (small) businesses. It’s fun to see some of my friends start businesses, especially those who make the Internet a big part of their startups, and it’s great to be able to help them with their new businesses.

I don’t think my friends really thought of it as cybersquatting, but some random people I meet mention cybersquatting when learning domain investing is what I do.

For practical purposes, how do you outline the plan for development of a particular domain name? E.g. charts, spreadsheets, taking notes, other tools. Do you feel more of a project manager than a developer?

I definitely feel more like a project manager than a developer, although with my limited coding knowledge I can fix small errors and make small changes (as you can attest). When I start a project, I generally have a good idea of what I want in terms of style and monetization.  I brainstorm with my main developer (Mike McAlister) to discuss the options for the project, and he provides his feedback.  He will build the website and we’ll consult along the way. I think I’ve gotten better at managing the development process (and managing my own expectations/requests) than when I started. I don’t take a lot of notes, aside from email lists of changes/requests I send during the build phase. Most of my requests are done on the fly, making changes and improvements as we progress.

Do you believe that in the future more domains will enter the secondary market as sites with developed content? Is it then perhaps better to take each developed site a step further and build a real online business, prior to pursuing a sale?

Good question. I do think the hold time for domain names has probably increased over the last year and a half (at least it has for me), and as a result, some people have decided to try their hand at development.  I don’t think it’s wise for most people to build something significant on a domain name that’s intended for resale for three reasons. First, if a potential domain buyer visits the site and sees a developed website, he might look elsewhere. Second, the effort and expense might not yield the return that’s needed to justify it. Third, if a person sells advertising and a buyer wants the name but not the site, the site might be encumbered if there’s no out clause in an advertising agreement.

Ultimately, I think a person should only look to developing a business if he or she intends to maintain that business. Domain investors should know there’s a lot more to making money with development than just putting up a website, and even a good looking/profitable website might not be of significant value to a domain buyer who may want the domain name for his own project or company to develop.

What percentage of your developed domains do you build in order to ultimately sell, versus maintain for revenue?

I don’t really build websites to sell them. For my business model, it doesn’t really make sense to sell a website with a steady revenue stream, and when I put a full effort into building a website, it’s not generally for a quick flip. Of course the purpose is to make money, so if someone has a compelling offer for one of my developed websites, I’d certainly consider it.

As a followup to a post made on DomainGang.com, I’m asking for all domainers to donate to the relief fund for the flood victims of Australia:

The catastrophic floods in Australia exceed in area 1 million square kilometers – or about 4 times the affected area of hurricane Katrina. It’s an area so vast that it matches the total size of Germany and France combined. It’s a catastrophe, especially since there is no indication the waters will recede soon.

A lot of bloggers asked for the image used on DomainGang to be made available in a smaller, more usable format. Feel free to use this new, WordPress-friendly 125×125 image to link to the Queensland relief fund.

Please also note that Fabulous.com & Mike Robertson are also on a similar initiative that collects Paypal funds as seen at Mike’s twitter post.

Please donate and help spread the word that Australians need our help now!

The recent devastating floods in Australia have caused millions of dollars in destructive damages and even worse: loss of human life.

It’s probably not easy for most “Westerners” to comprehend how an advanced nation like Australia might be in need of financial aid for its victims, who have lost entire households and left their flooded homes behind.

The truth is, natural disasters don’t discriminate.

Contributions started to pour in from early on and every dollar counts. And that’s where the danger of scams ensues: people’s guard is naturally lowered when they want to offer their contribution, feeling empathy towards those in need.

The official Australian government web site of the Queensland province is accepting donations and is currently pointing to a warning by the Australian ScamWatch organization, alerting people to the be careful when being asked to offer money for the relief of the flood victims:

SCAMwatch is warning consumers to thoroughly check the legitimacy of charities when donating to help flood victims in central and south east Queensland. Whilst many legitimate charities exist, scammers have been known to take advantage of the public’s generosity and kindness in the aftermath of disastrous events.  Recent charity scams emerged during the Haiti earthquake crisis in 2010 and the Victorian bushfires in 2009. Charity scams operate in a number of different ways.  You may be approached on the street or in your home by people collecting money who are pretending to be from a legitimate charity. Scammers may also set up false websites which look similar to those operated by real charities. Some scammers will also approach you by telephone or with spam emails requesting donations. Not only do these scams cost people money, they also divert much needed donations away from legitimate charities and causes.

Be alert when donating and only do it via the authorized collectors of contributions.