Estibot.com Blog

LuxuryNames is presenting over 300 generic domain names in their current SnapNames auction. There are certainly some deals to be had. I analyzed the whole inventory using the Estibot v2.0 engine (in private beta) and present here a list of domains that Estibot v2.0 found to be potentially the best deals.

The domains are sorted in descending order of what I named (for want of a better term) the Bargain Factor. This is simply the Estibot v2.0 appraisal divided by the Minimum Bid Price. The higher the Bargain Factor, the more likely it is that the end user value for the domain will significantly exceed the minimum bid price.

This is not to say the other remaining domains are not good buys: There may well be other bargains not detected by Estibot. Please remember that Estibot v2.0 is geared toward end-user appraisals.

Most of the appraisals were pretty close to the minimum bid price, but there are some domains that stand out, in both directions. I only include the domains here that have a Bargain Factor > 1.

Check out the list and then go make some purchases at SnapNames.

I thought I’d report my experiences with the SEDO affiliate program. I have been a SEDO affiliate for about 2 years. The great thing, or that’s what I thought, about their program is that the referred accounts will always have my affiliate stamp on them, unlike many other programs where you only earn a commission for, say, from the first year of the referred accounts activities.

So far, almost 700 new accounts have been registered at SEDO through my affiliate links.

So far so good, but the bad news is, that it seems that nobody hardly ever buys or sells anything at SEDO. The average month results in less than 10 total transactions from which I get any kind of commission. These consist of a few very low quality (low price) domain sales/acquisitions and a few showcase ad buys and a few paid appraisals.

The parking revenue commission from referred accounts is practically zero. A few dollars each month, total.

I have concluded the following:
1. My affiliate links are very effective and convert well, a lot of people sign up for SEDO through my site
2. The affiliate program itself converts dismally, I make a negligible amount of money through the program., and the only party that benefits from this partnership is SEDO

With almost 700 accounts registered through my services, I would have expected a lot better.

To me it’s almost unbelieveable how poor the outcome has been. I’ve been using the SEDO API which provides great features for integration, but hasn’t helped the transactions.

What finally opened my eyes was that I introduced a few links through Commission Junction to the GoDaddy program, and the earnings went to a whole other level within the first month. With very little trouble, the GoDaddy program immediately started bringing in 10 times the revenue compared to SEDO.

I must conclude that there is something wrong with the SEDO program. It could be just that the vast majority of SEDO accounts are inactive. Either that or something else.

It’s not worth my while to keep the SEDO links on Estibot anymore, so I’m looking for alternatives and welcome any suggestions. I should have done this a long time ago, but I just couldn’t believe it…

Just thought I’d share my experiences, and hope to hear about your experiences and/or any pointers to other programs.

Thanks
-Esa

Firefox is a pretty good browser. So is Safari, although it’s far from being as stable as Firefox, especially when running Java applications. I have no experience with Chrome yet. There are some things however that irritate me greatly about these browsers. For us domainers, browsers are our most important tools. Our workflow depends on the stability, speed and security of web browsers and internet connection. I’m also a web developer and coder, and having a streamlined internet set-up is crucial for me.

My biggest gripe about Firefox is the incessant updates. I know I could turn those off, but on the other hand I need to keep my browser up-to-date, and if I switched the updates to manual, knowing myself I’d probably manually update it once every two years or so.

The updates are irritating because they occur when you start up the browser. It’s a nuisance when you’re you fire up your browser to do something real quick. And it happens often.

This irritation could be easily dealt with by having the updates occur only when you close the browser. This would be unlikely to bother you. It would just happen in the background and you wouldn’t be bothered by it. Alternatively, if you keep your browser on 24/7, you could set the updates to occur at a certain time of day, when you’re least likely to be actively using your browser. System administrators everywhere set up cron jobs to do server maintenance during the night, so it won’t affect performance when people are working. Why not adapt that to the mainstream?

I know, I know, it’s a relatively minor nuisance, but enough to inspire a blog post. I do have some other gripes about these browsers, too, but enough complaining

It’s all about usability, oui? Non?

Just an update on the personal front, I’m on a hiatus because we have a 2-week old baby boy in the house (our second boy). Everything on the website is functioning normally, expired auction lists are being updated, SEO and minisite services are available, and Estibot support is online. My man Sri is handling the bulk of support at this point. I’ll be returning to work gradually, and will be focusing on building the new tools and services that are in the pipeline.

I’ve got to tell you, spending time away from the computer is something you should try. I’ve had a great couple of weeks, lots of family time, exercise (started training for a duathlon race), and although the two little poop-catapults keep us very busy, it still somehow feels like holiday.

Went to the zoo with my older son, and then on another day to the local Sea Life, a wonderful aquarium of exotic fish. We had a great time, and it made me really want to get back to diving. Maybe when the kids are a bit older..

Have a great summer!

I’ve run the whole MONIKER/TRAFFIC Extended auction inventory through the analysis tools, and here is the list of over 5,000 domains, complete with Search popularity, Alexa, Traffic, PPC bids, availability info, $valuation and more. All the data you need, complete with sorting function, to find the real bargains!

You can also export the data to your own spreadsheet program with simple copy-paste.

There are definitely bargains to be had there. But with over 5,000 domains to search from, it’s a lot of work to comb through the lists. I hope this data will help you to find the bargains you’re looking for.

Here’s the link to the results of the analysis of the whole inventory of 5,000 plus domains:

http://estibot.com/moniker-traffic.php

Enjoy! It’s just one example of how the Estibot tools improve your domaining workflow, and save you time and money. You can get this functionality and much more at just $19.95 per month, please visit the subscription plan comparison page to explore the various features.

Enjoy!

In this post: Look deep into domain name statistics. Presenting stats visually helps to understand the numbers ··· You can always learn from the masters – get the information on how to better manage your portfolio and actually make some domain sales ··· GEO Domain Expo 2009 is over – how did they fare? ··· Keep your sites dynamic with this automated content generator.

1. Adventures in Domain Statistics: A look behind the scenes
2. Sell your domains before they expire
3. Results of the GeoDomain Expo 2009
4. Adding fresh content to websites automatically

1. Adventures in Domain Statistics: A look behind the scenes
For some totally cool domain name stats, visit my new ‘behind the scenes’ series to see visualizations of the data that Estibot uses in its valuation algorithm: Take a look

2. Sell Your Domains Before They Expire
I have only ever come across one system for domain sales that makes absolute sense, and works. It’s pure business logic. I think it’s compulsory reading to every domainer, especially newcomers, but wouldn’t hurt for the more seasoned domainers to read what Mickie has to say about portfolio management. The Domain Sales Machine -despite its eBook pitch page look and fancy name, is a down to earth system for making sense of the domain market. I bought it when it still cost $299 and it was worth every penny and then some. Within the first 12h after starting to use it, I closed my first sale. Now it’s been discounted to $39 – an absolute bargain. Go get it – you won’t regret it.

3. Results of the GEO Domain Expo 2009
The auction by DomainConsultant.com is over and there were certainly some bargains to be had. It’s is my opinion that many of these names are significantly more valuable to end users than what they went for. Estibot seems to think the same. I compared the Estibot valuations (done before the auction) to the final results. For the most part, the valuations were pretty nicely in the right ballpark; there were some very spot on valuations. There were some very high valuations for names that went for significantly less. I’m still wondering whether Estibot overestimated those names or whether the buyers got incredible bargains. Probably a little bit of both.View the GEO Domain Expo stats in the Estibot statistics visualizer and see for yourself: The only linear correlation is between Closing price and Estibot valuation. No other variables can predict the price. Play around with the graph and try to find out what domain value is made of.

4. Get fresh website content automatically
I use and recommend RSS News Content Builder for getting automatic,fresh news content or any other RSS based content for your websites. With this script you can doaggregation in bulk for an unlimited number of sites, and use keywords to provide relevant, qualitynews for your visitors. I don’t recommend making fully automated sites, but a news aggregator is a great addition. It keeps the site dynamic.

Finally, a reminder that we’ve still got some extra capacity for more domain development and SEO work.If you need an affordable minisite, or SEO for your existing site, please visit for details.

That about wraps it up for this time. I’m still very busy working on the improved version of the valuation tools and research tools. Some very cool tools in the pipeline. Stay tuned!

Shows.com is among the many premiums to be auctioned at TRAFFIC Silicon Valley. The most important thing is, there is no reserve, so the market can fully decide its value.

I offer a free domain development + SEO Super package ($136 value) to whoever gets closest in their prediction of the final sale price. Deadline for submitting your estimate is 24h before the auction starts.

I’ll start with the Estibot.com automatic estimate: $190,000

RULES: You may not submit a valuation that is within $20,000 of a previously submitted valuation.

Post your prediction as a comment to this post. Good luck!

Visitors do not read your entries. They scan them. Visitors don’t look at ads. They are banner blind. They don’t even look at any real content that looks like an ad, even if it’s inside the main content element. These are all proven facts. Yet many bloggers and webmasters disregard these facts completely. So – here’s what you need to do in order to get your message through, and make those ads perform.

The first two paragraphs need to contain the most important information. Start every paragraph with one or two information carrying words. Users focus on the first two words and if those don’t entice them, they are less likely to even read the third word. Use bolding to highlight important information in your text. Visitors are more likely to scan the bold text.

Visitors generally ignore everything that looks like an ad. Even if you present some of your real, and important, content in any fancy formatting, visitors are likely to ignore it because it looks like a promotion. Visitors’ eyes focus on text; they scan the page first in a horizontal movement, then move down a bit, and do another horizontal movement. Finally, they scan the left side in a vertical movement.

The cure? Make ads look like content. It’s borderline unethical, but it just plain works. Outside of that – use the 3 design elements that are the most effective eye catchers:

Get the Domain Sales Machine – I personally promise you will not regret it.

An easy way to create fresh, search engine friendly, 100% automated content for your website: RSS News Aggregator

Finally, I’d like to announce a new tool on Estibot.com: Web Host Comparison tool.

So- what were the three eye-catching elements?

1. Cleavage
2. Faces
3. Plain text

The source I used for this blog post is website usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s report on eye tracking usability studies. You will do yourself a favor if you read Nielsen’s stuff. It’s amazing how many webmasters ignore basic usability rules.

I ordered a wake-up call the other day. The phone rang and a woman’s voice said: “What the hell are you doing with your life?

-Demetri Martin

The airplane you see in the header image of this blog is a Cessna 152. It’s a classic single-engine trainer, a little gem of an airplane that has made the dream of flying come true for many a pilot, including myself. The reason I put that image in the header is to remind me often about the wonderful things that life has to offer outside of work. We domainers are a hard-working bunch; it’s easy to get completely immersed in building one’s online presence and domain portfolio. Many of us, like me, have day jobs. For us, between the day job, domaining, and family, there is little time left for pursuing our personal dreams.

I wanted to post something completely different today, and write just a really personal post – share with you some private thoughts.

The title of this post is a quote from the book “Jonathan Livigston Seagull” by Richard Bach. I first read it when I was just a child, my mother bought it for me. I was completely entranced by this book; I read it over and over again, and all I wanted to do was fly. I wanted to be Jonathan Livingston Seagull. I think the book definitely had a lasting effect on my outlook on life. I’ve always been something of an individualist, wanting to do things my way with little regard for what other people might say. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is probably something with which most domainers will identify.

Flying and aviation is a tough subject for me, because while it is a passion I’ve had throughout my life, it is at the same time my biggest regret. I say so because I always regret that I did not dedicate myself enough to become truly proficient in any of my aerial activities. It is like the intro to a theme song that has been playing quietly in the background, without ever really growing into a proper tune. I first flew on a small airplane when I was just 5 years old. My estranged father was a paratrooper, and a pioneering parachutist in the 60’s. Like him, I did my military service in the airborne troops, and looking back that always seems like it was the best time of my life, though it certainly didn’t feel that way at the time – not all the time, anyway. We flew on various aircraft, fixed wing and helicopters, and jumped from them – day and night, into swamps, lakes, tundra, and always there was excitement and dangerous situations and camaraderie.

Well, that was a long time ago. When I was in college I did spend some time at the local skydiving club, and while I enjoyed it immensely, it was too time consuming and mostly we just hung out at the airport waiting for the sky to clear – the weather is generally lousy here – and medical school demanded some attention, too.

And then, when I finally returned to the skies on that Cessna, life had already become so complicated. It’s not the simple life of a 20-something anymore. Work, kids, mortgage (sound familiar?)… and then I started domaining and went and created Estibot, as if there wasn’t already enough on my plate. The result? I have not piloted an airplane in more than a year. Now I’m so out of touch that I don’t know if I could trust myself with the controls. And, to make things worse, I missed my biennial flight review, and so my pilot’s privileges expired today. So now you know what inspired me to write this post: I did not remember to live life, not even enough to renew my pilot’s licence.

When you’re a battery, you’re either working or you’re dead. It’s a shit life.

-Demetri Martin

Let that be a lesson to everyone: Remember to live life – pursue your dreams. Don’t be a battery. Don’t get too distracted by work, money, power, and the rest of it. Life happens now, and could end any second. This was surely a wake-up call for me. I’m going to renew that licence, promise. I’m going to take time to focus on the important things in life. Will you do the same?

It might be that I’m just a bonehead, but I can’t get my head around the Snapnames user interface. Every time I visit the site I get discouraged because either I can’t find what I’m looking for, or I can’t find a way to download the lists I need. Snapnames.com is the legendary site for expired domain auctions and most domainers use it, so they must have done something right and it must be that I’m just a bit thick. To me, finding domains at Snapnames is not a ’snap’. Plus, I always have some trouble with their search feature. I always seem to be doing something wrong.

I mean, finding single domain names, sure, that’s a snap. But for a serious domainer, that’s not good enough. What you need is large scale search features and fully customizable download lists. For instance, I noticed that Newfound Names are trimming their portfolio and selling 3,000 geo names through Snapnames private auctions. I would have loved to peruse their list, but Snapnames doesn’t give a ‘download search results’ option, but gives at most 100 results per page. Am I going to click through the 30+ pages and copy-paste everything into Estibot domain extractor? Nope, too time consuming. I want a downloadable list of all those names that I can feed to the Estibot keyword tools. If they had an option to view all 3,000 names on a single page, then sure, I could copy-paste it to the Estibot bulk tools, but as I said they only display 100 results per page.

It’s a turn-off for me. I built my tools specifically for eliminating the need for manual browsing of domain lists. I need large-scale bulk stuff, man. Maybe the guys at Newfound Names might consider setting up a downloadable list of those names on their site, or email me their list. If they do, I’ll reward them by promoting their names on Estibot: I’ll run the whole list through my keyword and valuation tools and set it up for everyone to see. Estibot gets almost a million hits per month, so it should get some eyeballs.

As some of you may know, I publish daily Snapnames lists on Estibot – pre-analyzed with overture, appraisal and other data. Just go to the Expiring Domains Lists page (if you’re a member). What you get is daily pending delete plus premium Snapnames auctions and Namejet prerelease auction lists, pre-analyzed complete with appraisal plus keyword statistics, all a few days in advance so you have plenty of time to place those bids.