Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

We all have our preferred domain registrars and sometimes we even change our preference, depending on customer experience.

GoDaddy is the registrar that I used in 2000, once the dreaded Network Solutions monopoly was broken by a handful of registrars. Back then, they were lightweight and offered less clutter along with the domain registrations.

They had some issues that I helped them with, which shows I was very satisfied at the time.

There’s nothing wrong with GoDaddy in its entirety as far as I’m concerned. In other words, overall it’s a healthy company – the biggest domain registrar in the world with almost 40 million domains. They also seem to possess a good sense of humor.

I just prefer not to use GoDaddy, simple as that.

As a domainer, I prefer convenience, competitive pricing and ease of managing my domains; for that matter I use Fabulous.com

However, when it comes down to GoDaddy, there is a single function that I really like, and that is the process of transferring a domain away.

While GoDaddy still enforces the annoying 60 day lockdown period every time a domain’s contact information is changed, GoDaddy is refreshingly understanding when it comes down to transferring domains away once that lockdown is not in place.

Once you initiate and accept a transfer out to your registrar of choice, GoDaddy will email the domain holder that a pending transfer exists; they can then log into their GoDaddy domain panel and accept or decline the transfer on the spot.

The process takes a few hours to complete, depending on the gaining registrar but it surely beats the practice of most other registrars that wait a full 7 days until a domain leaves their grubby paws.

Perhaps I have high expectations from people; I engage in communications with a polite, friendly tone. When someone makes several attempts to get in touch, I assume they are looking for dialogue, not mud-wrestling.

Alas, this is often quite far from the truth.

Yesterday, I received a call from the owner of a .us domain – he runs a business in the Midwest and I happen to own the .com. It’s a two word compound that is also a generic term for the industry it represents. Like saying “blue chip”.

The first sign of a buyer with no manners: he called, my answering machine picked up and he left no message.

I called back, spoke to his secretary, left my name and phone number and the reason I called as he was in a meeting.

Today, he called back while I was out for errands. Again, he left no message on the answering machine, he simply hang up.

So I called back and he sounds flabbergasted that the domain is owned by me and not some other company by that name (that company went bankrupt 7 years ago and let the domain expire).

Now, when I communicate directly I am giving the other party the opportunity to place an offer, after it’s made clear to them that the domain in question is lawfully my asset. This time, it was obvious I am dealing with a person that has no idea about domain pricing; to keep it short I gave him a low $x,xxx number.

Not interested! came the answer, and before I could thank him for his time and wish him best of luck with his business, the guy hang up on me!

What a shame this same individual worked for a large bank in the past and is also praised among his peers as an excellent business man and golfer.

Out of spite, I decided to give the .net owners that compete in the same business a chance to own the domain – at a price lower than what I offered to this domain redneck – if they talk nice to me on the phone.

As for our domain redneck, he’s clearly not in touch with his line of business at all.

A few days ago I explained why I don’t consider myself a domainer, a title and word that has yet to make any dictionary.

Simply put, the activity surrounding ‘domaining’ is not only misunderstood to those outside of the industry, it’s also often distorted and abused by those in it.

Allow me to explain, once again, that unless someone woke up one fine morning with a university degree that says “Domainer” on its certificate, no such pure thing exists.

My earlier post was about how the domaining universe is expanding versus contracting – Rick Schwartz used the word “shrinking” – and that’s solely because those that want to call themselves “domainers” are a fast-dying breed.

As a graphic designer & web developer, I have the luxury of observing the domain industry from a distinct standpoint, avoiding the pitfalls that many newcomers – but also old-timers – are running into.  You too can do the same, even if you are a musician, a real estate broker, a forex trader, an IT guy or an aspiring American idol.

To succeed in what you do with regards to domain names, you must step aside and away from the “domainer” mentality; keeping an one-track mind of what constitutes our industry is not going to get you anywhere. You need to take your industry’s perspective and carefully apply it to domain names; this way you will be having a distinct advantage over any self-professed “domainer”.

The domain industry is not in danger of contracting, simply because there is untapped territory that no hard core “domainer” will tell you about: the world outside of “domainers” – and this should be your business target, your goal, your oyster.

And reaching out, exploiting if you must the riches of that outside world, you have to first shed your domainer mentality – as if it were a sin.

Since the .CO Registry opened up its gates ten days ago, more than 370,000 .CO domains have been registered.

Initial concern over the long-term visibility of .co domains was calmed down by Google’s reassuring statement that .co domains will be given equal treatment among .com, .net, .org and the various other TLDs and ccTLDs.

A lot of domain investors went after generics – keywords that retain their strength regardless of how exotic the TLD might be; the added bonus, in this case, being the relation to .com and potentially typo-traffic. Some domain investors, like Mike Mann, went after super-generics, such as Oil.co, Gas.co and Gold.co

Others foolishly registered blatant trademarks of existing .com domains – an example is Papajohns.co

Personally, I decided to limit my .CO acquisitions to geoDomains.

I went after a small group of domains that had the following characteristics: the .com was either undeveloped and parked, or its developed status was so antiquated as if we were stuck in 1995. In total, I invested in about 50 .co domains with the intention to develop and not park. It’s the first such group registration that I’ve performed with a strategic plan in mind.

Elliot Silver’s experiment with Bahamas.co shows that several other domain investors had similar ideas in mind. I’m just glad I did not compete with those; essentially, the niche market I went after was wide open and I’m happy with my domain acquisitions.

In the coming weeks a development strategy will be put in place; the .co TLD offers plenty of opportunities for search engine ranking and visibility, simply because the .com guys are sitting on their parked domains and virtual laurels for too long.

A developed .co domain with a matching keyword will outrank a parked .com any day.

A few months ago I implored Rick Schwartz to consider making TRAFFIC an invitation-only event, once again.

That conversation generated quite a bit of feedback and obviously invited opinions for and against the argument.

In today’s blog post, Rick stated that his intention of getting domainers together at a TRAFFIC conference without sponsors and “outsiders” has one extra reason: the number of domainers is shrinking, all while the industry itself expands.

This celestial paradox of a universe that expands and contracts at the same time requires some analysis.

The very definition of a domainer is not clear and thus, the numbers can deceive – intentionally or unintentionally.

A domainer - according to Rick - is a full time investor in domain names, who reaps his or her livelihood solely from the returns of a domain portfolio.

Using that logic, I am not a domainer, as my primary business is graphic design and web development. If you’re doing any type of creative, marketing or advertising work while delving in domains – whether you are successful at it or not – then, by Rick’s definition, you are not a domainer.

I will admit it then; I am not a domainer and I never was. In fact, I will go one step further and I will say that I don’t want to be a domainer.

Rick’s argument of “domainer shrinkage” reminds me of that Seinfeld episode, where George is caught with his pants off after coming back from the shower. Elaine witnesses a “scared turtle” of a manhood and George is forever scarred by the excuses he has to come up with.

In today’s domaining world there is no such shrinkage, simply because domainers are not what they used to be – gold-digging cowboys of the far west. Domainers of today are graphic artists, musicians, poker players, stay at home mothers, basketball players, lawyers and judges.

Some domainers live in Madison Street penthouses or Boca Raton mansions, others share apartments with their family in Spain, India or Kazakhstan. Some are 17 years old and still at school while others are 78 and still going strong. Some have budgets of $10 per year and some spend $1 million in every new TLD landrush.

I see an ever-expanding domainer universe, forever leaving the center of the domainer Bing Bang and forever refusing to look back to the core. But then again, I am not a pure core domainer.

Nobody likes competition. Especially the guy who receives an email that clearly states just that.

A few weeks ago I received an offer at Sedo for a financial term, a dot net that I registered “by hand” in 2003. As the story goes, I hold domains until the Rapture occurs and since I am not a Catholic, this might take a full lifetime.

But back to the domain – a two-word compound term that returns 700k results in Google.

The domain was at Parked.com due to its higher PPC for financial terms, but I had also listed it for sale on Sedo. As with most Sedo offers these days, the negotiation started in the low hundreds. I was dealing with an aggressive US buyer that left me with little room to raise my asking price.

The final offer was closer to my expected price but still, I felt I was being short-changed. Don’t get me wrong, $1500 is still good money for a domain I spent $8 to register and another $50 in renewals over the years. But why not expand its potential, if I could?

After all, the sale of 360.org a year and a half ago taught me that if you don’t ask, you don’t receive.

So I sent the domain to auction on Sedo, with the final offer I had received being the reserve.

What I did next was a first for me.

Personally, I am sensitive about receiving emails from companies or individuals that I haven’t solicited. However, in this line of business, a legitimate contact of a person or company related to the product or service on offer, might lead to a potential sale.

I crafted an email that announced the domain name and the fact that it was in a live auction that the recipient could participate in. Then, I searched ZFBot - a great tool for domainers - looking for domains that matched mine – either starting with or ending with the exact string. Once I had these domains, I extracted their contact information from the WHOIS using DRT – Domain Research Tool.

It’s important to mention at this point that ZFBot can narrow down your target recipients by sorting the domains according to their parking status: in my case, I wanted to avoid contacting any domain owners that simply had parked domains instead of legitimate companies.

I double-checked every email to ensure there was no junk, “do not contact” or WHOIS shield emails; then proceeded with contacting them – a total of 50 or so – with a description of what I had to offer: the opportunity to obtain the keyword domain most closely related to their business.

I made sure that I explained what was on auction, where and when the auction would end. As part of the sales pitch I described the importance of generics and keyword domains, using simple words. When you sell to an end-user, you don’t simply sell them technology and gimmicks; you are offering them an extension of what they already have.

The only thing I did not foresee was the fact that I sent the email right before a long holiday weekend; Monday was a holiday and that took away a day from the remaining days of the auction as most recipients’ businesses were closed!

Twenty-four hours before the auction end I followed up with another similar but shorter email, announcing the ending of the opportunity and its imminent closing; in doing so I used a bit of a provocative subject: In 24 hours new competition is born.

With a few hours remaining, two new bidders started bidding up along with the original offer. The auction was extended several times, as bidder #3 battled with bidder #1 – all the way to a very nice $3350. I’m definitely happy with the outcome and especially with the fact that the buyer is a person from the term’s industry who will put the domain to good use.

Had I attempted to sell the domain via cold calling, I’d probably be given the runaround. But since nobody likes their competition to get an advantage with an asset that’s being openly auctioned, the domain sold at an end-user price.

When computer technology advances, I don’t simply move on. I’m known for keeping old, functioning computer gear for years.

In the case of my original laptop – a 2004 Compaq I’ll affectionately call “The Brick” – the gear itself hasn’t quite gone out of fashion. I recently doubled its RAM to 2 Gb and the installed Windows XP 64bit still delivers some good performance.

Not only do I like “The Brick” for its sturdy construction and sheer weight, but it has a tall, non-reflective wide screen. When I shopped for a new laptop early this year, every single model had a reflective screen; I ended up buying a lightweight SONY VAIO that shines like a mirror when sunlight hits it.

Back to “The Brick”. As the old faithful alternative to my main box, “The Brick” worked particularly well, even gained a secondary partition with Ubuntu Linux along the way.

But I never expected to wake up one morning and find a “black screen of hardware death” on its screen, the drive spinning with the sound of a lawnmower cutting through an Amazonian weed forest.

The drive was unbootable, spinning on its axis all while screeching. On it were several hundred indispensable family photos, that I had never thought of backing up to another medium. Somehow, due to the non-continuous use of “The Brick”, I foolishly believed that the hard drive would outlast the OS installed on it, but Bill Gates had to prove me wrong.

I searched for data restoration services; each and every one of them offered to do the job for no less than $1,000 – the cost would rise to $1,500 if certain mechanical issues were involved. Although one cannot put a price on hundreds of family photos, tossing a grand plus out of the window didn’t seem like the last option I should have.

Upon attempting to boot, the drive took a lot of stress, so I wondered how it’d behave as a secondary drive. Lo and behold, I searched on Amazon.com for hardware cases that’d allow me to plug the laptop drive to my main box as an external device.

After some research, I decided against the generic drive cases, as most of them have no power supply of their own, relying completely on USB power and also they are specific to the type of one’s drive; in my case, an old 80Gb PATA made by Toshiba.

Further research took me to this wonderful multi-function connector that cost $19.99 and free ground shipping. The device supports 2.5″ (laptop) and 3.5″ drives, both IDE/PATA and SATA connectors and it came in a nice box with all the necessary cables and connectors. Quite possibly, the best item I’ve received this year with a Made in China stamp on it.

The manufacturer can be found at Sabrent.com

After plugging the adapter into the mains, I connected the drive to its power supply. The drive chirped rather pleasantly; the USB 2.0 cable was connected to my main box and sure enough, the drive was seen by Windows and everything was found in place, fully intact.

I backed up all the photos and other files that I had forgotten they existed; overall a great investment that saved me several thousand dollars and a whole lot of stress.

A must-have gadget to be used as the last resort before emptying your bank account in order to hand the drive over to expensive data recovery services!