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| Next
up on the agenda Tuesday was an 8-man panel discussion of the
respective merits of domain development versus domain
parking, a topic that was the primary theme for this
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference.
This
distinguished group included Mark Van Dyke,
President of Army.com, Lou Doctor of Arbor
Advisors, Dan Warner, COO at Fabulous.com,
Andrew Beckman, President of SearchAdNetwork,
Adam Dicker, President of High Impact Sites
(and owner of DNForum.com),
Ammar Kubba, CEO of TrafficZ, Brian Carr,
VP of Direct Search Services for NameMedia and Divyank
Turakhia, President of Skenzo.
Doctor
was a strong advocate for development, noting “Companies
want to buy companies, they don’t want to buy
domains.”
If
you do develop, Beckman cautioned that you should
understand that it is no guarantee of success
because you will have to develop something better
than other sites devoted to the same topic if you want to
attract an audience. “It is very competitive,” Beckman
said, “You have to build content and links, put out
press releases and continually update your site. Building
some content and then sitting on it will not work – it
is an ongoing process.”
Warner
favored a balanced approach, recommending that the best names be developed while
some are sold and
others are monetized through PPC.
Kubba
championed a hybrid model using new PPC technology his
company has developed to produce great looking multiple
page websites en masse with content on every page. Kubba said that TrafficZ
is working on content partnerships with major providers so
that it would be possible to automatically put content on
50,000 domains if a portfolio owner wanted to do so. |
Mark
Van Dyke (left) and Divyank Turakhia
Dan
Warner (left) and Lou Doctor
Andrew
Beckman (left) and Brian Carr
Adam
Dicker (left) and Ammar Kubba |
|
Kubba,
whose company is the lead sponsor for all three
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. shows this year, talked in depth about this
topic in a solo seminar that followed the panel session
and said “we think we have found the holy grail
for domains – which is to create pages with content that
will get indexed and generate search engine traffic.”
The company's new pages also pull in news headlines, maps
and other material related to the domain name. He
demonstrated that by showing TrafficZ generated
sites for Candy.com,
Reno.us,
Property.com
and other domains. |
|
Kubba
noted that Property.com, a parked page, now had the #2
listing in Google, out of more than 600 million
pages with the word “property”. He added that the
company’s new pages had generated traffic increases of 10-100%
during testing with traffic coming from Google, Yahoo, MSN
and AOL’s search engines.
Kubba
said TrafficZ had been working on the concept for years
and that “no one else has anything even close to
this.” However, to keep identical content from
appearing on too many domains, Kubba said that some of the
best new templates would be reserved for high quality
domains. |
TrafficZ
CEO Ammar Kubba |
Still, the attractive site generated for Candy.com, with java
animated graphics and deep content show how the lines between
developed sites and PPC pages are finally beginning to blur.
If
you follow our daily Lowdown
section, you may have seen my post Tuesday (March 5) about my
notebook computer’s hard drive dying the previous evening in Las
Vegas. There is no downtime in the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. schedule, so in
a last ditch effort to resurrect the laptop I had to skip the
5:15pm Speed Networking session to run some diagnostic tests on
the machine with the hope that I could revive it and get daily show updates
posted.
Unfortunately,
my rescue attempt was in vain and even worse it made me miss GoDaddy
girl Candice Michelle’s autograph signing party!
Michelle appeared in the cyber café that was set up by first time
sponsor GoDaddy.com in the hall. Fortunately, GoDaddy's Nate
Curran provided us with the snapshots below.
Above: Candice
Michelle signing autographs.
At right: Candice with T.R.A.F.F.I.C. attendee
Bruce McLeod |
See
other pics of Candice at TrafficPics.com |
Those
who participated in the networking session said it featured a new
wrinkle this time around. Instead of having people sit opposite
from each other and rotate every two minutes, 48 attendees were
picked to go to the podium where each delivered a 90-second pitch
to the rest of the crowd. In the old format 30 people were able to
meet 30 others. Schwartz said the new format multiplied
that exposure by a factor of 8. Since the networking session was
immediately followed by a DomainSponsor.com cocktail party, you
could approach anyone you saw on the podium who had a product or
service you were interested in.
| The
cocktail hour that followed also provided a good
opportunity to stroll through the expanded exhibit hall
and chat with representatives from the companies on hand.
There were several newcomers including Pricester.com
who was there to introduce a new low cost development
service for domain owners.
Given
that the theme of this show was development, their booth
attracted a lot of attention, especially since the company
(which started as a web development firm) offers to
produce websites (including hosting) for a total outlay of
just over $300 annually. Those who were at the
conference were able to take advantage of a show special
offering development of up to five free websites so the
company could prove their value to domain owners. |
Pricester.com
booth |
I
ducked out of the cocktail party briefly when I found out that
some of the industry’s best legal talent was in a meeting in
Howard Neu’s suite on the top floor of the Venetian. I walked in
to find the crème de la crème of domain attorneys gathered
around the dining room table; John Berryhill, Ari
Goldberger, Paul Keating, Phil Corwin, and Neu
himself. In another illustration of the kind of support the
Internet Commerce Association is building, these gentlemen had all
volunteered their time to serve on a special advisory panel to the
ICA’s legal subcommittee. Steve Sturgeon and Stevan
Lieberman, who were not at this meeting, are also on the
panel.
(Clockwise
from the far left): John Berryhill, Ari Goldberger, Paul
Keating,
Phil Corwin and Howard Neu (with back to camera).
When
I started thinking how much this kind of firepower would cost if
the ICA were being billed for it, I started getting woozy! Maybe
it was just the altitude of Neu’s 36th floor suite, but I
decided to play it safe and head back down to the party while our
much appreciated legal eagles continued to plot strategy on behalf
of domain owners.
Following
the cocktail hour, TrafficZ.com sponsored Tuesday night’s dinner
in the main ballroom and after another one of the great meals that
have become a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. trademark, the conference’s keynote
speaker, John Reese, founder and CEO of Income.com,
took the stage and promptly stole the show. Reese has been
involved in online marketing since 1990 and is probably best known
for his “Million Dollar Day” in which he produced over $1
million in sales for a new product in less than 24 hours!
Better yet, he did it without spending a penny on advertising!
Reese has owned over 35,000 .com domains and has been
involved in this business since 1995.
| T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
has had some great keynote speakers, but let me say this -
when it comes to giving the audience practical detailed
advice that they can take home and immediately start
making money with, Reese was the best I’ve ever
heard.
I
was fortunate to be sitting at the head table in front of
the podium with some of the smartest people in the domain
business. Soon after Reese started talking, I noticed two
of the industry’s top pros, Larry Fischer and Ari
Goldberger, had started scribbling notes as Reese
talked. I don’t think there is any better endorsement
than that!
Reese
made so many great points there is no way to cover them
all in the scope of this article about an entire
conference, but I’ll pass along a few pieces of his
advice. |
John
Reese
Keynote Speaker |
Reese
told the audience to take some early profits because sitting on
your assets forever can cost you a lot in missed opportunity.
Years ago he
sold Ship.com for just $1,000 - obviously an incredibly
low price, but Reese said that sale helped make him rich. He took
that $1,000 and bought 10 more domains at $100 each, in turn
selling those for $5,000-$10,000 each. That snowball kept
rolling down the hill, getting bigger and bigger as it went.
|
|
He
also told the crowd not to be afraid of spending a little
money, suggesting outsourcing as a way to grow
their businesses. Reese summed up the tip this way, “Write
small checks – cash bigger checks.” He noted that
there are people who will write original 500-word articles
for you for $7 each. “You can develop properties
without having to write a word,” Reese said. Adding
forums to your sites is also an inexpensive way to get
user generated content and boost search engine
ranking.
I
think the single best piece of advice was Reese’s
emphasis on the importance of building a mailing list.
“Having a list is like having cash on demand,”
Reese said, noting that if he needed money he could
instantly email a product offer to his vast mailing list.
“Let’s
say Sailboat.com gets 1,000 visitors a day.
What’s worth more, those 1,000 visitors or a list of half
a million people who have visited that site (and
demonstrated their interest in sailboats and related
products)?” Reese asked. “I can’t believe how much
money domainers are leaving on the table!” If you are
not getting those visitors to sign up for a list, many are
lost forever, depriving you of a chance to cash in on each
visitor over and over for years to come. |
“Leverage
what you have,” Reese said, “if you only get 20 type-ins a day
on a domain, you can keep that customer on file and recycle that
traffic rather than get paid one time for a single click from
someone who never comes back.”
When
Reese’s talk was over, I went to the back of the ballroom to
talk with some people I had an appointment with. When I came back
out a half hour later, expecting the place to be empty, I noticed
a big crowd gathered around someone I couldn’t see. When I
walked over to the group and peered inside, I saw Reese was still
there fielding questions from a pack of appreciative domainers. Elvis
had not left the building!
Reese
(second from left) surrounded by attendees long after his speech
ended
Reese
even hopped on one the buses that took the crowd to TraffcZ’s
post-dinner party at GameWorks. In a departure from
previous T.R.A.F.F.I.C. parties that are usually presented in a
night club setting, this event gave people a valid excuse to act
like a kid again. People were given game cards they gave them free
reign in the popular arcade playground throughout the evening. The
huge building also had quiet corners where people could veer off
to pursue their favorite game – networking. With GameWorks
situated on the Las Vegas Strip, those who preferred
traditional night club/casino fare were just steps away from the
other attractions in the Entertainment Capital of the World.
|
(At
right and above): Scenes
from the
TrafficZ Party
March 6, 2007 at GameWorks |
|
A
little after midnight I was on the way back to the Venetian to get a
few hours sleep before the Wednesday agenda got underway.
|
Next
Page - Wednesday at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West
|
|
Paddles
Ready - On Your Mark,
Get Set, BID! |
-
Moniker's
Multi-Million Dollar Live Domain Auction!
-
Is
the Domain Sales Market Headed Up or Down?
-
More
Advice for Developing Your Domains
-
Emme
Rocks and Ray Dillman Rolls!
|
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