OBannons Leap

November 9, 2009 – Certainly the model can work, but I highly doubt it will for any of Newscorp’s properties; which is why I’m hoping they move fast on doing it :)

Mayor said he wanted to hear from those with better ideas and real solutions — so I sent him this email

November 9, 2009

Tweet or Die, Big Corp

November 9, 2009

16 WordPress Sites to Help You Build a Better Blog

November 9, 2009

For First Time Since Marino, Pitt Breaks AP Football Poll Top 10

November 9, 2009

Rupert Murdoch to Google: “Steal” Someone Else’s Stories!

November 9, 2009

ZOMG The Democrats Want To Abort Your Grandma!

November 8, 2009

Use Your Google Apps Domain To Make Short URL’s

November 7, 2009

Piece of Advice Before You Develop

November 7, 2009

Weekly Wrapup: Mega Content Sites, Gen Y on Twitter, iPhone App Recommendation Services, And More…

November 7, 2009 – He asks if massive content sites gaining momentum is “cause for concern about the future of the Web?” – my thinking on this is it’s cause for rejoicing. Regardless if you’re building your site(s) for fun or profit, the point is constant and quality content creation should ultimately be rewarded.

New Google AdSense Interface Will Tell You Precisely How Much You Suck

November 6, 2009

THE Blogger’s Guide to Facebook

November 6, 2009

What is this Article Marketing

November 5, 2009

Email this post

Technorati Tags: google reader, shared items

My Google Reader Shares – November 4, 2009

Scott — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:37:30 +0000

U.S. Needs Hit Squads, ‘Manhunting Agency’: Spec Ops Report

November 3, 2009 – The sad reality of human nature, eventually there’s going to be an over-reaching. Hunting squads to track down terrorists is a viable and defensible idea; using the same tactics to go after any and all other types of targets is about as un-American as anything I can think of.

Google Rolls Out Ad Sitelinks for Adwords

November 3, 2009

Four-Fifths of U.S. States Still Not Releasing Structured Election Data

November 3, 2009 – It really surprises me that many of the blue states are “hold outs” on this, surely they understand that every small step made to ease accessibility to voting trends in favor of the Democratic party? Not posting this information in an easy to aggregate and use manner is like knowing the winning numbers of tomorrow’s daily lottery but not bothering to buy a ticket???

Those Diabolical Democrats

November 3, 2009 – Just when I thought Republicans, Lobbyists and other gunslinger operatives had exhausted their bag-o-tricks fear mongering against healthcare reform, it seems they found one more “almost… just about… I suppose it could be in Bazarro-Land” conspiracy theory to throw out there. All that’s left now is for them to discover the “secret code” within the legislation that details how Democrats want to legalize eating children in Elitist rituals at Intellectual alters.

Newsday Charges and Columnist Walks

November 2, 2009

How to Get Lucky With Content Marketing

November 2, 2009

Dynamic HTML Editor 5.0 (WYSIWYG HTML Editor)

November 2, 2009

Four Years After Founding, Kiva Hits $100 Million In Microloans

November 1, 2009

12 Types of Stories You Can Tell On Your Blog

November 1, 2009

Philanthropy Fat Cats?

September 28, 2009

Created a Twitter Lists to RSS program | alexkessinger.net

October 31, 2009 – no RSS, twitter lists be damned. I can do that for you.

Daily Kos: Um, Bootstrappin' Conservatives? Socialism Made You Rich

October 31, 2009 – The list is pretty straight forward and understandable, which leaves little room for dispute.

“12 Things I’ve Learned about Online News”

October 27, 2009

Conservation of the Environment

October 29, 2009

Ellison Introduces National Same-Day Voter Registration Bill

October 29, 2009

Harkin: Lieberman Has Something to Lose

October 29, 2009 – It’s about time someone reminds ol’ Joe that he’s enjoying a nice position at the courtesy of Dems, and that can change on a moment’s notice if he strays too far.

Wait… What?

October 29, 2009

Jon Stewart Needs Your Help! [The Primate Diaries]

October 29, 2009

Apple to patent CSS transformations and animations

October 29, 2009

Overnight Success 4 – The Competition

October 28, 2009

Email this post

Technorati Tags: google reader, shared items

It Had To Happen, But So Soon?

Scott — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:19:52 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

I have a massive list of blogs that I follow via RSS feeds in Google Reader, I’ve talked about this before. I love RSS and being able to consume tons of valuable (and entertaining) content quickly and efficiently from a central location.

This morning as I was browsing through the 938 new posts that Google said were waiting for me (that’s since I cleared everything yesterday), I found myself squinting at the 24 inch monitor screen.

The type was just too small on screen for me to read comfortably, even with the help of the reading glasses I picked up about a year ago–and until just now had safely hidden from anybody’s knowledge.

That’s not to suggest I’m placing any sort of stigma on wearing glasses, nor was I necessarily embarrassed at needing them when I got them. In-fact, I didn’t keep them “hidden” for anyone’s sake but my own. The truth is, I’m entering middle age, I’m beginning to realize that my body is losing a step here and there. The old punchline “What I used to be able to do all night, now takes me all night to do” is becoming my reality, and I don’t like it at all.

And I don’t like the fact that this morning I had to decrease the resolution of my monitor in order to increase the size of objects (and type) on my screen to a comfortable level.

Don’t get me wrong, every day I appreciate the experience and knowledge that I’ve gained in life. Those things provide my brain stimulation and allow me to earn an honest living doing what I enjoy.

But, sometimes, like today, the trade-off of youth for wisdom and experience doesn’t always seem very fair.

I was hoping that by venting/ranting here about it I might reduce my anxieties over being confronted with my own mortality, which is something I’ve fought harder than Peter Pan and really what this is all about–and be able to refrain from purchasing some ridiculous sports car just to make myself feel better–but they have them in Cherry Red and they look oh, so…sweet.

Email this post

Technorati Tags: Life, middle age

Also See:

My Google Reader Shares – October 28, 2009

Scott — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:37:16 +0000

(input please?) G20 Protestor use of Twitter leads to arrest.

October 27, 2009

Best of Best WordPress Custom Login Page Designs

October 26, 2009

The Super Simple Guide to Setting Up Your First Company Facebook Page Without Blowing a Gasket – Part 2

October 26, 2009

Social Media Myth, It Isn’t About the Conversation, It’s About the Sale

October 25, 2009

Make Three Times As Much Money with Your Blog

October 21, 2009

Email this post

Technorati Tags: google reader, shared items

Yell At Me, Please!

Scott — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:01:07 +0000

Go ahead, scream at me all you like - Image source: brbankston of stock.xchng

I have always viewed web sites as virtual real estate, and domain names as undeveloped property (until a site is built on the domain), and with that mindset I’ve spent a lot of money over the years on Geo-based domains, speculating that eventually local and more personalized search tendencies would become “the norm” with web users.

To me, that notion just made sense from a web browsing and consumer’s perspective. Sure, you might be able to save a few dollars on lingerie by buying from some site/company in China, but are you going to order your car from overseas? How about searching for a Real Estate or Insurance agent; or what about a Plumber or Attorney? Will you ever decide it’s a good idea to let your clogged drain wait until the Plumber from India that you hired from Freelancer.com makes his way to your home? I don’t think so, and I really hope not if you’re my neighbor.

There are just some things we need and want serviced by local businesses, and regardless of how small our global community may become, that’s not really going to change. At least, that has been my long standing belief, and my reason for speculating that GEO-based domains, like ANYTOWNlawyer.com or ANYCITYplumber.com would ultimately become very valuable.

Let’s be clear, these aren’t trademark or typo domains, they’re general/generic “Location” and “Industry” dot coms. I would never purchase a domain that I knew violated someone’s trademark or service mark, and I certainly wouldn’t buy a typo domain. That’s bad business, shady and unethical business, and more than that, it’s dumb business to invest in something that can never have stand-alone value.

But just as a property developer will buy vacant lots around major cities with the speculation that one day they may be perfect locations for a Wal-Mart, strip mall or condos, I’ve purchased hundreds of general Location and Industry based domains speculating that at some point people in those industries and locations would want them to enhance or compliment their online presence.

Local & Personalized Search Is Here

If you work online in any capacity then you know that local and personalized search is trending upward hard. Search Engines are scrambling to improve their abilities to serve localized and personalized results to searchers, because those searchers look for stuff, like businesses to deal with, in a localized and personal way.

No matter how well the biggest car dealerships in your region may be established and branded, it’s a fact that some (many) people living in your region will search online for “CITY_NAME cars” to find dealerships to do business with. That’s just how people approach online search.

And while it’s smart business for a big dealership to own their company name domain, like FredsUsedCars.com — it’s also smart business to have domains like YOURCITYcars.com and YOURCITYusedCars.com too. Those additional domains can either point directly to your company name site, or (the better option) be used with special landing pages, single page websites that promote and upsell the services and selections at your company domain site.

Owning many of these type domains, I know the numbers on them. I know that several thousand people search online each month for one particular city name and the word cars (i.e. “CITY_NAME cars”), and I also know that over 70% of the dealerships in that city don’t show up on the first page of results for that search. That’s just a numbers thing, there’s only 10 spots open on the first page of results, and it’s a mid-sized city with several dozen dealerships in it, so there just isn’t room for all of them on the first page.

Do you know what does show up on the first page for that search though? My domain CITYNAMEcars.com – it’s in the #2 spot and has been for months, because I don’t leave my domains empty, I put a little information about the region and industry they represent on them and then let them age like a fine wine, and they ultimately creep up the search listings all by themselves.

So, how valuable would having the #2 spot in Google be to a car dealership in a mid-sized city–knowing that a thousand or more people searching for local dealerships would see it there every month? That seems like an awesome point of contact with potential customers to me–in an industry selling high-ticket items.

Knowing what I do about online search marketing, if I owned a dealership in that city I would value that domain in the low $xx,xxx range, no doubt about it. It’s a great reach with more long-term potential than producing and broadcasting an expensive television commercial would be.

And The Punchline Is…

Now, here’s the point of my posting (and the reason I’m taking a break from working this morning to write a blog posting). Last week I made the decision to lighten my domain portfolio a little. I don’t have any urgent financial needs, and usually I do just sit on a domain until someone approaches me about acquiring it, but I’ve got hundreds of domain names sitting out there in the wild that are a bookkeeping nightmare and with the holidays coming I figured it was a good time to shed some of the load and convert it to cash.

So, I picked out some domains that I thought were going to be the easiest to sell at a fair rate, and began contacting potential end users for them with “well below market value” offers. I’m talking about deals like low $x,xxx for domains I know are worth low $xx,xxx and mid $xxx for domains I know are worth low $x,xxx levels.

Like I said, I have no urgent need for cash or I’d be aggressively pushing my domains for top dollar at some of the after market sites, and I’m not out to put the squeeze on small businesses either. I’ve registered most of the domains I own by hand, at registrar pricing, because I saw the value in domains like these long ago and began buying while many were still available. So, if I can turn $20 or $30 worth of registration fees into a $300 or $400 profit, especially after I’ve earned PPC profits just from having the domains parked for the last few years that I’ve owned them, even if a domain might be able to sell for $1,000 or more, I’m still a happy guy and feel that everyone has made out well on the deal.

Then this morning I get a reply back from one of the potential end users I had contacted. The guy was yelling and screaming at me about cybersquatting, and me being the lowest form of pond scum he’d ever come across. He told me that if I was a “decent man” I’d sell him the domain for $10 like he could buy it at GoDaddy for, and not try to blackmail(???) him.

Now, I’m a hot-headed Irishman at times, but I never let that emerge while doing business. So I listened as he ranted aimlessly on and on, then I thanked him for his time and opinions, and just before ending the call I asked how much he paid for the lot his dealership sat on?

He was silent for a second, obviously the question was unexpected, but then he recovered and asked “what the hell does that matter?” — To which I replied that whatever he had paid for it, I’m sure it was more than he would have paid for the same sized piece of land if it was located out in the middle of nowhere, 40 or 50 miles from the nearest homes or businesses.

He said, “Your point?” — And I said online real estate is no different. You pay a premium for access to through-traffic. Sure, you could go straight to GoDaddy right now and purchase a domain that nobody has ever heard of, gets no organic search or type-in traffic and has no presence in the search engines at all for $10, but without investing a ton of time and money to build traffic traction for that domain it would be a waste of your $10. However, I’m offering you a domain that already has traffic, has reputation and has search listing results. My price isn’t based on the letters that make up the domain name, my price is based on the value of accessing the traffic that already travels through that domain. Just how much would you pay for the chance to invite 1,000 people who are looking for a dealership to do businesses with onto your sales floor each month? Because that’s what my offer is for.

Again, there was a moment of silence from his end, and then he quietly asked, “Listen, what’s your lowest offer here?”

BANG! I dropped my asking price 5% and we had a deal.

Summary

Obviously I’ve left out the names of the domain, city and dealership from today’s little adventure; to protect the innocent :)

But I wanted to share the story because I think there’s some value in it for anyone who may eventually end up in a similar situation of negotiating with an angry and irate customer.

It would have been easy to just hang up on the guy when he was screaming at me, or to just end the call with a “thank you for your time” and move on to the next potential end user on my list for that domain. Heck, I might have even been able to sell the domain for my original asking price to the next person without having to drop my price the 5% that I did–but I may not have.

You never know what’s around the next corner. There may not have been another interested buyer out there right now, it’s an unknown. However, I had this guy on the phone, and his anger told me that he actually did want the domain name. If he didn’t he wouldn’t have cared enough to bother calling to yell at me.

Also, his remarks about being able to go buy a domain at GoDaddy for $10 told me he just wasn’t recognizing the true value of an established and keyword rich domain. All I had to do was keep my cool and show him that value in a manner he could instantly relate to and not ignore, hence my questions about what he paid for the land his dealership is on.

By asking him about that, I was framing the value of access to potential customers in a way he would get it, and he did.

Email this post

Technorati Tags: angry customer, cool negotiations

Also See:

My Google Reader Shares – October 21, 2009

Scott — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:37:17 +0000

Quintessential Autumn in Small-Town Pennsylvania

October 19, 2009

Library Closings – by the numbers

October 19, 2009

Do You Have A Business Plan?

October 16, 2009

The Green Marketing Landscape Presentation Materials

October 15, 2009

Daily Kos: German Solar Surges to Victory

October 17, 2009

How Safe are Facebook Applications?

October 16, 2009

Four House Republicans Have In Their Hands a List …

October 15, 2009

Facebook Lets You Easily Integrate into Sites and Widgets with New Create Application API

October 15, 2009

Reef Life: A Multiplayer Fish Game From Storybook Anytime

October 14, 2009

Payvment Enables Retail Storefronts On Facebook Via PayPal’s Adaptive Payments API

October 14, 2009

RUMOR: EA Acquires Facebook Game Maker Playfish for $250 Million

October 14, 2009

AlphaLab Demo Day Showcases Pittsburgh’s Finest

October 14, 2009

My Local Paper Disrespects Local Bloggers

October 14, 2009

CNN fact-checks SNL

October 14, 2009 – Not all is lost, checkout This American Life, if you want some great news makers.

Email this post

Technorati Tags: google reader, shared items

My Google Reader Shares – October 14, 2009

Scott — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 10:37:38 +0000

Do local bloggers need insurance?

October 13, 2009

Why RSS Submission is Important in Every Site

October 13, 2009

Banks Get Billions in Bailouts, but an Unemployed Blogger Loses Benefits Over AdSense Check

October 12, 2009

A Day in the Life of a Hyperlocal News Site

October 11, 2009

23 Eco Friendly Sites that are Using WordPress

October 11, 2009

WITN?: Yahoo didn’t sentence 200,000 Iranians to death, and other misadventures in online journalism

October 10, 2009

Barack Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize – NYTimes.com

October 9, 2009

How One Blogger Made $3k a month by Helping People – And How He Can Help You

October 8, 2009

Watch NASA’s Exploding Moon Rocket Live on NASA TV

October 8, 2009 – We’re bombing the moon!!! We really are a war loving people, huh… sure, we’re chasing water there, like we were chasing WMD’s in Iraq? I think we just like blowing crap up with expensive toys.

Worst Volcanoes Even More Dangerous Than Feared

October 6, 2009

Email this post

Technorati Tags: google reader, shared items

My Google Reader Shares – October 7, 2009

Scott — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:37:57 +0000

Here it comes: the first FTC regulation on blogs

October 6, 2009 – Uh, where’s the regulations on banks and Wall street to protect us from future meltdowns? Shouldn’t that be a higher priority than legislating stay-at-home Mommy/Daddy-bloggers earning a few dollars or getting a free CD now and then for endorsements?

An interesting side-note to this is I just spoke with a friend who runs multiple adult entertainment blogs, and he said he believes “Joe Schmoe with a car review blog” is in more danger than he is from Feds. Not sure if that’s accurate or not, but it’s an interesting point to ponder.