Part 2: 15 names valued at $4,210 by Valuate.com — DomainTweeter

Part 2: 15 names valued at $4,210 by Valuate.com

December 4, 2009

Earlier today, I blogged about using Francois’ Valuate.com service to analyze 15 available domains.

Here is an overview of the results…

The appraisals varied from $110 – $680
Total appraisal for all 15 names was $4,210
Highest CPC was $11.50

I listed 7 of the names in my first post – all have since been registered. Here is the complete list (including the 8 additional names which were obscured in my original post). The 8 additional names are all available as of 10:30PM tonight.

names11

If you’re interested in receiving future available domain lists, here’s the link to sign up to my free domain update newsletter.

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Smartname Review Part II – Customizing Smartshops — DomainTweeter

Smartname Review Part II – Customizing Smartshops

March 10, 2010

In yesterday’s post, I discussed my recent experience using SmartName’s SmartShops to create free e-commerce minisites and gave an example of a minisite I created in less than five minutes, HomeDeepFryers.com.

Home Deep Fryers

Today I spent a few more minutes and improved the look of the site by adding a custom graphic header. Here’s how…

1. Creating the header. I’m good at a lot of things, but unfortunately graphic design isn’t one of them. Although I own Photoshop, I used a much simpler program called XHeaderPro to create the header. This program is specifically designed to create headers and comes with thousands of sample templates. I couldn’t find one specifically for Home Fryers, but choose one with a picture of fried food and added the domain and a slogan…

2. Matching the header size with SmartName’s e-commerce template.

After a bit of trial and error, I determined that 1000 x 95 pixels worked best for me. I saved the header in .jpg format and selected a medium compression setting that would look good but still load quickly.

3. I then logged into my SmartName account and edited the Header & Footer section of my HomeDeepFryers.com e-commerce site.

Here’s the updated site with the new header…

Summary

It took about ten minutes to create and upload the header, but I think the time was worth it. From a visitor standpoint, people are more likely to browse and shop from a ‘real’ site than a parked page and custom graphics do a lot to establish confidence and trust in a site.

In my next post in this series, I’ll look at adding custom tabs to my Smartshops site to improve the user experience and attract additional search engine traffic.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

Leonard Britt 03.10.10 at 11:54 pm: You raise a valid point about customization. I’ve seen a bit of traffic from (many alt TLD) domains in the Smartname platform which wasn’t there previously in parking. However, perhaps since I didn’t spend much time with the setup, the traffic hasn’t converted well. I suppose I should review those with the highest traffic and spend a little time optimizing/customizing the setup.
admin 03.11.10 at 3:32 pm: Thanks Leonard. Since I just started using the service, it’s too soon for me to have a good read on conversion rates, but if the site looks good (custom header, professional ad free layout, etc.) and the products are razor targeted to the exact domain keywords, I’m hoping conversion rates will be much higher than Adsense type minisites.
Arseny 03.12.10 at 4:48 am: Great post!

What I also did with one of the domains that I’ve parked with SmartName – added more categories. So it’s more than just a “Home” categorie.

I’ve googled for the keyword and found more google suggestion at the end of the search engine result pages.

Here’s the example – http://www.Luggage.mx
admin 03.12.10 at 11:17 am: @Arseny – Great tip and nice domain. Actually did this yesterday on my example site and am writing a blog post with a walk through on the best way to add relevant, highly searched tabs. Hope to post it later today.
Rob Lafaye 05.12.10 at 5:54 pm: SmartName looks nice but from what I understand the Instant Shops are only PPC . There is no PPA, affiliate commissions or lead generation revenue being shared which means the shops are worthless except to add visual appeal to “your domain” that is being leveraged to present merchants with customers and they’ll give you the same thing that you were getting with traditional parking.

In reality, all of these so called product portals are not worth anything if you have to put it on the platform in the first place.

In other words, if you don’t have the money to open your own “pink-scarves.com” store then how do you think you’ll make money on the a platform like Epik or SmartName.

Buyer beware!
admin 05.13.10 at 1:18 pm: @Rob – I’d also like to see an option of having affiliate commissions vs. PPC – not sure if it would pay more or less, but would be nice to have the choice. As to determining the worth of these types of services, I look for three things…

1. If the domain is already getting traffic (e.g. type-ins), can it increase the revenue per visitor? Done right, good looking storefronts can instill more user confidence than parked pages and encourage visitors to spend time clicking on more products.

2. Can the service generate new traffic to a domain by letting me create sites which are indexed by major search engines? I’ll be writing a blog post about this in the future, but in my initial tests of Smartshops, I’m receiving a steady stream of search engine referrals each day that I wouldn’t have had before.

3. Will the service help me increase the marketability of the site when approaching end users? This one is in the eye of the beholder, but having an ‘active’ site can be an advantage when negotiating a final price and also helps to demonstrate the value of the name.

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Available .coms with search demand, including one with $26 CPC. — DomainTweeter

Available .coms with search demand, including one with $26 CPC.

November 25, 2009

Wanted to pass along the following exact match .com keyword domains which are currently available for hand registration (as of 3:00 PM). All have good search demand with numerous Adwords advertisers. Average cost per click ranges from $2.14 to $26.

1. ThermalPhotoPrinters.com: (390/2900 searches per month, $8.31 CPC)

thermalprinters

2. DoubleDVDCases.com (880/3600 searches per month, $2.14 CPC)

3. RAIDDataRecoveryService.com: (260 exact monthly searches, $26.32 CPC )

Search demand is a little less than what I usually look for, but the high $26.32 CPC should more than make up for this. Data recovery domains tend to do especially well with parking and Adsense. In case you aren’t a techie, RAID stands for a redundant array of disks. RAID setups are typically used by larger organizations to protect mission critical data. When these arrays fail, companies often pay thousands of dollars to salvage the data – hence the very high CPC.

That’s it for today. Most names posted go within minutes. If you are interested in receiving future available minisite domains…

Subscribe here to receive 2 minute advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

As always, any feedback / comments appreciated.

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

admin 11.25.09 at 4:05 pm: Looks like all 3 names were registered within first 3 minutes. I’ll try to post some additional bonus names here within the hour.
Available Domains 11.25.09 at 4:06 pm: ThermalPhotoPrinters.com looks promising.
shane 11.25.09 at 4:24 pm: The RAID domain was a great find. Thanks for the posts
Ill 11.25.09 at 4:50 pm: The thermal, double, and service words in each domain kills each domain.

Descriptive or additional words destroy reach usually.

I would bet dollars to donuts it’s a ghost town at each of those domains as far as direct navigation traffic goes.

Chirp, chirp!
admin 11.25.09 at 5:43 pm: Thanks AvailableDomains, Shane – glad you found the names useful!
admin 11.25.09 at 5:48 pm: @ill Thanks for your comments – I agree that unnecessary descriptive keywords dilute a domain’s value, but I differentiate between micro-niche keywords and extraneous keywords. Based on search metrics, I’d rather own ‘DVDCases.com’, but ‘DoubleDVDCases.com’ describes a specific sub-set of cases and has good exact search demand – so people are looking for this exact product. As opposed to names like ‘BestDvdCases.com’,’CoolDvdCases.com’ which I agree are probably not worth reg fee.

I think ‘ThermalPhotoPrinters.com’ is a solid name since it has some exact demand and the ‘thermal’ keyword describes a specific type of photo printer. I probably agree with you the most about the last one (containing service), however the high CPC made up for the lower search demand.
admin 11.25.09 at 5:55 pm: Bonus available domain: In case you missed today’s batch, here is a bonus names which is currently available as of 5:00PM tonight:

DownloadableRingtones.net – 1900 searches / month, $1.82 CPC
(com,org,info,uk,cn versions already registered)
Shane 11.26.09 at 2:03 pm: I can’t thank you enough for the post. Registered recoveryraid5.com and although it doesn’t have that many searches, I will be able to pay for my $8 register very very easily. Thanks for the ideas

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Twitter search optimization: Will Twitter reputation become the new PageRank? — DomainTweeter

Twitter search optimization: Will Twitter reputation become the new PageRank?

May 7, 2009

Twitter just announced they are updating their real-time search to index links. If done properly, Twitter search could morph into a strong competitor to Google and may become critical in driving traffic to web sites. In this post, I’ll explain why Twitter reputation may become as important as PageRank and give specific advice you can use to improve yours.

Why is today’s announcement important?

If the predictions are right, Twitter users with excellent reputations will be able to have their sites instantly indexed and have their Tweets appear at the top of Twitter search results. This will give established Twitter users the ability to drive large amounts of traffic to their sites, especially if Twitter search becomes a major destination (or is bought by a top search engine).

Twitter search will never have the index size of Google, but it doesn’t have to. Twitter’s advantage is that it knows about events seconds after they occur (even minor ones that only effect a few people). Sure, Google News is fast, but it still needs to wait for a reporter or blogger to write up a story, edit it and post it. And most micro-stories don’t get picked up by Google news and if they do make a local paper or small blog they can take days to be indexed.

Just like Google, Twitter will need to come up with a good search algorithm and find ways to filter out spammers who try to game the system. Google relies heavily on Pagerank, site authority and incoming link analysis. Since Twitter controls their environment, they can do this without indexing and analyzing billions of pages.

Twitter’s enhanced search has not been released yet and it’s search algorithm isn’t finalized, but I like to conduct my Twitter activity as if it has. If I was writing their new algorithm, here is what I would look for…

date userid first registered (the equivalent to Google’s rewarding older domains)
percentage of tweets that are retweeted (taking into account the number of followers a user has)
number of tweets per day
percentage of tweets which are replies to other tweets (indicates taking part in conversations)
the reputation of the people you are following and the reputation of people who retweet you

I’d also put in the following ‘red flags’ to specifically demote spammy listings

threshold for the number of Twitter ids registered from same IP address
people who haven’t taken the time to update their profile picture or description
people who have included certain spammy phrases or URLs in their tweets (e.g. gain 20,000 followers in one day, etc.)
number of times a user is blocked
excessive following

This would reward established Twitter users who actively use the service. It would also discourage un-targeted mass following and neutralize the viral component of many spammy instant follower programs.

What to do today

1. If you aren’t on Twitter yet, take two minutes and register your Twitter ID.

2. If you are already on Twitter, you may want to consider the above algorithm when you use the service. Customize your avatar photo (this alone will boost the percentage of Twitter user’s who follow you). Be selective in who you follow. Take a moment to look at their profile and their last few Tweets. Just as you wouldn’t link to a spammy site, don’t reward spammy Twitter users by following them.

For more tips, you might want to read my ‘Don’t be a Twitter Twerp‘ post and follow me on Twitter.

{ 1 trackback }

SheToldMe.com: 05.09.09 at 7:55 pm

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

James 05.09.09 at 7:58 pm: Nice advices, I hope someone at Twitter will take them into account when developping their reputation system, because spammers trying to game the system will exploit any flaw in the Twitter reputation system’s design.

Cheers,
James

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Domainers – be careful when using keyword tools in January — DomainTweeter

Domainers – be careful when using keyword tools in January

January 19, 2010

If you are using Google’s keyword tool to check keyword demand, remember that by default it checks the previous month. Since demand for many items spikes in December, using this tool in January can provide greatly inflated results.

choc1

For example, I was just checking availability for ‘chocolate gift tower’. Google’s keyword tool showed 720 monthly searches in December. However, expanding these results by selecting ’show all columns’ reveals that the term gets about half that amount of searches on most month’s of the year.

choc2

I decided to purchase ChocolateGiftTower.com anyway, but now realize that demand for this product won’t really begin to ramp up until the second half of the year.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Andrew 01.20.10 at 12:40 am: Checking trends for keywords apply to all the months of the year. Some “travel” domains for example have higher trends during the summer months.
admin 01.20.10 at 8:18 am: Definitely, although I’m sometimes guilty of just checking the last month’s figures when reviewing many domains.

If you are using keyword tools to evaluate possible domains purchases, it’s also good to be aware of the ’summer effect’, especially August – when keyword demand for most phrases takes a dive. Of course there are exceptions – such as ‘back to school’ related queries and last minute travel searches.
Ty 01.20.10 at 1:16 pm: If you use the new keyword tool the figures given are rolling 12 month averages, not only that, but if you download them you get the monthly values for the last 12 months.

The new tool is available from a link at the top of the existing tool if you log in to Google.
Rauhbautz 01.21.10 at 4:37 am: I guess you should always double check those stats with Google Insights. And don’t forget about Valuate.com

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Handpicked available com, net and us domain names – many with $7-$15 CPCs. — DomainTweeter

Handpicked available com, net and us domain names – many with $7-$15 CPCs.

April 26, 2010

Here are my handpicked available names for the day along with demand, CPC and some possible uses. These names are all available as 11:00PM and unlike pending drops, can be immediately registered with your favorite registrar for about $10. If you find this post useful, please consider retweeting it or signing up to my domain newsletter.

1. DonorTracking.com – $7.23 CPC. Good candidate for review site or end user resale.

2. T1InternetAccess.net – $14.89 CPC. Good for minisite or SEO usage

3. SiliconeBracelets.us – $1,500 Valuate.com appraisal, 12,100 monthly searches – $7.26 CPC. Good for minisite or end user resale.

4. RoyaltyFreePhotography.net – $8.78 CPC, 1000 monthly searches. Good for minisite – can be monetized by affiliate programs from sites like IStockPhoto.

5. CameraLightMeter.com – 480 monthly searches at $1.43 CPC. Good for Smartshops type site.

6.JewelryAppraisal.us – $1,100 Valuate.com appraisal, 18,100 monthly searches. Good for minisite or directory and possibly end user resale.

7. 10957.com – zip code for Lewisboro, NY. Not sure what I would do with this one, but some domainers are into zip code com’s, so I thought worth mentioning.

8. ImmersionPrograms.net – Might be interesting to make this one into a directory. Using subdomains ( e.g. Spanish.ImmersionPrograms.net) may have some SEO benefit.

9. HowMuchCanWeBorrow.com – Low volume, but $9.97 CPC. Might have some enduser potential (if marketed properly) and could make a good URL for a loan calculator.

Update: If you missed the above names, here are a few affordable .info names I am offering for sale today. All are priced at $49 (less than a drop catching service would charge) and are well suited for Adsense or affiliate use.

DebtLeads.info ($17.04 CPC)
WeatherRadios.info (10,000+ searches per month)
BackProblems.info (5,000+ searches per month)
AirlineCreditCards.info ($16.78 CPC)
FishingMagazines.info – Good for use with Magazines.com type affiliate program
HomeBasedOpportunities.info

I’m also selling the following .com names today…

DomainNameExtensions.com ($295) [$6.53 CPC, 720 monthly searches – good for minisite, can be monetized by Adsense or registrar affiliate programs]
CheapFloridaInsurance.com ($295) [$21.79 CPC – good for enduser resale]
DiskRecoveryServices.com ($295) [$18.24 CPC – good for directory or mini site]

Domains are are available for immediate push. To purchase, be the first to contact me with ‘SOLD’ and the name of the domain. Payment to be made via Paypal within 24 hours.

That’s it for today. If you are interested in receiving future available domains, you can subscribe to my free available domains e-mail newsletter here and follow me on Twitter at @DomainTweeter.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Joyabo 04.27.10 at 10:23 am: Thank you for sharing those wonderful names…… Unlucky, most of them already registered moments ago..
admin 04.27.10 at 11:17 am: @Joyabo – no problem. Hope to post another batch of names tonight. If you want to be notified, you can sign up here.

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Analyzing Snapnames Mardi Gras Extended Auction by Pagerank/Valuate.com appraisals — DomainTweeter

Analyzing Snapnames Mardi Gras Extended Auction by Pagerank/Valuate.com appraisals

February 15, 2010

Snapnames showcase auction ends tomorrow at 3:15PM EST. There are currently 24 domains with bids, but as usual expect most of the heavy bidding to occur in the last hour. There have already been several good posts about tomorrow’s auction (TheDomains,TeenDomainer), so I thought I would take a different approach and sort the dataset I analyzed using Valuate.com/Estibot.

9 Domains with PageRank 3 or Higher*

DomainStats.com – PR6
Marshall.com – PR5
Coast.net – PR5
HomeSchooling.com – PR4
Joker.org – PR
APW.com – PR4
MYBP – PR3
Jacob.com – PR3
HFC.net – PR3

* Using PageRank data from Estibot. If bidding, be sure to doublecheck to make sure PR is genuine. Also wanted to note I’m receiving Google security messages for the first two domains mentioned.

Domains with bids lower than their Valuate.com appraisals

woodshutters.com 10,000 current bid 63,000 valuate appraisal
swf.net 2800 12000
weak.net 2100 5400
ppc.info 1271 3500
3x.org 1000 6100
t4.org 1000 1600
ilovenyc.com 775 920
redlips.com 625 6500
ticketplus.com 380 1300
crispyduck.com 350 1900
forextradingtool.com 325 23000
cuteboy.com 325 7800
badloans.org 325 1800
hotjobs.in 300 3000
advise.in 240 3000

No reserve domains with Valuate appraisals of $1000 or greater

Domain	Valuate appraisal
shortsleeveshirts.com	28000
forextradingtool.com	23000
associatesdegree.co.uk	18000
flannelshirts.co.uk	7700
stretchmarkremoval.co.uk	7200
exerciseplans.com	7000
samedayloan.net	6900
movethis.com	5200
onlinemastersdegrees.net	4000
kingbeds.net	3000
selftanner.co.uk	2500
49r.net	2300
l50.net	2200
clinch.org	2000
crispyduck.com	1900
smallrug.com	1900
badloans.org	1800
electricbicycles.de	1800
londonrentalcar.co.uk	1800
dchr.com	1600
dieselfuelfilter.com	1600
motorcyclefinancing.org	1400
nylimoservice.com	1400
tennisshops.com	1400
ticketplus.com	1300
dmox.com	1300
straplessgowns.com	1300
40yearloans.com	1200
freshwaterpearlbracelet.com	1200
nvoc.com	1200
foldupbeds.com	1100
athleticwalkingshoes.com	1000

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

jorge 02.16.10 at 12:00 am: Nice analysis. I ran those domain names through another tool of mine, and came up with some search stats which may be useful:

http://hotnamelist.com/snap02-15-2010.html

Based on that you might consider:
jacob.com
homeschooling.com
ppc.info

– Jorge
mx sales 02.16.10 at 2:20 am: just to note you left off the number on the PR for joker.org
mx sales 02.16.10 at 3:47 am: also returned to say that pooping.net now has a $300 bid and a valuate appraisal at $3600

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Five available exact match .com generic domains — DomainTweeter

Five available exact match .com generic domains

August 24, 2009

Here are some available names I came across today and why I like them. All are available for registration as of 2:30 EST today.

1. EthernetNetworkCard.com

480 Exact match Google searches with $2.25 Cost per click (CPC). Google shopping shows 876 Ethernet Network Cards for sale. Good for minisite or simple Amazon Astore.

2. ExternalHardDriveCases.com

$1.72 CPC with 880 monthly Google searches. Google shopping shows 771 products. Nice candidate for niche-minisite.

3. RFExtender.com

1300 monthly searches with $1.00 CPC. RF extenders are used to extend the range of remote controls and are also used when installing flat screen TVs in furniture. 234 products listed on Google Shopping .

4. KitchenFireExtinguisher.com

720 searches per month, $3.17 CPC and over 55 products listed on Google Shopping. Good for minisite or possible end user sale.

5. NoveltyCandles.net

880 searches per month, $1.04 CPC

Additional names for sale: I’m also selling the following two names today. You can learn more here.

BiometricGunSafes.com
MultifunctionInkjetPrinters.com.

That’s it for today. Most names posted go within minutes. If you are interested in receiving future available minisite domains…

Subscribe here to receive 2 minute advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

As always, any feedback / comments are much appreciated.

{ 0 comments… add one now }

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Experiment – 5 Available niche domains for the weekend — DomainTweeter

Experiment – 5 Available niche domains for the weekend

October 2, 2009

Wanted to take a few minutes and post a few specializd niche domains that are currently available for hand registration. Since most posted names usually go within the first few minutes, I thought I would try something different today…

I’ll be listing 5 available domains, one at a time on this page. If you register one, please post a comment claiming it and I’ll update this post with the next one.

1. PortableBoomBoxes.com – 390 monthly searches / $1.55 CPC – Nice name for a niche minisite. Could be a good name for testing out Amazon.com’s Astore tool or use a free service like Devhub. Product examples.

2. PhotochromaticLenses.com – 1000 monthly searches / $1.26 CPC. Exact match category domain. Product examples.

3. HepaFilterVacuums.com – $8.14 CPC / 590 searches per month. Nice cost per click on this one. Can be monetized with a combination of Adsense / affiliate revenue. Note: Just noticed that the .info version is already registered and appears to be a Whypark site.

4. CarCompanyInsurance.net – $20.64 CPC / 60,500 searches per month. This is one competitive niche with great demand and CPC. Might be worth contact some of these 67 advertisers. Name can be useful for SEO purposes, lead generation or Adwords optimization. (.com/.org and co.uk already registered)

5. InexpensiveHotels.us $3.08 CPC / 33,100 searches per month. Good name for a directory or travel blog.

That’s it for today. Most names posted go within minutes. If you are interested in receiving future available domains…

Subscribe here to receive 2 minute advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }

Tom 10.02.09 at 4:23 pm: regged PortableBoomBoxes, thanks
jose 10.02.09 at 4:25 pm: man! we are waiting go go go
Tom 10.02.09 at 4:27 pm: also regged, thanks again!
Tom 10.02.09 at 4:30 pm: this one may go to another one
michelle 10.02.09 at 4:39 pm: waiting…..
admin 10.02.09 at 4:41 pm: Just posted 4th domain…
Tom 10.02.09 at 4:42 pm: like the last one, CarCompanyInsurance
thank you!
jose 10.02.09 at 4:43 pm: lets go for the fith
michelle 10.02.09 at 4:44 pm: thanks, done
admin 10.02.09 at 4:45 pm: Thanks Tom – just posted 5th name.
jose 10.02.09 at 4:47 pm: yes i loved the car insurance, great potential thanks for the tips, look forward to next round of names!
Tom 10.02.09 at 4:49 pm: Oh, see that miguel fast faster for the CarCompanyInsurance.net, congrats!
admin 10.02.09 at 4:55 pm: Thanks everyone for helping today with this crowd domaining experiment. With no advance notice, looked like there were about 35 people simultaneously on this page as I announced each name.

If you’d like to be notified when I do this again, you can signup here to receive e-mail notification when the next one starts.

I’d also be interested in what time works best for you for future domain announcements – especially if you missed this one.

Thanks!
jose 10.02.09 at 5:01 pm: this time is good for me (it 22h30 or so when started), also saturdays
Tyler 10.02.09 at 6:41 pm: I like this new format, looking forward to the next round!
Available Domains 10.03.09 at 7:50 am: Great new experiment, congratulations!
jeffcool 10.03.09 at 11:58 am: IMO the “photochromatic” niche is a good idea (easy to make a website with an affiliate Amazon Astore for instance – although I don’t know yet how to make it SE friendly…)

I registered : PhotochromaticSunglasses.com (a bit long but it’s 2 words, category definer, about 1000 exact search and $0.90 CPC)

The following are free if somebody wants to register (some hundreds search and some CPC) :

PhotochromicGlasses.com
PhotochromaticGlasses.com
PhotochromicGlass.com (glass for building and windows I assume)

If was disapointed with what I thought was my best finding (automatic day/night car mirrors) :

PhotochromicMirror.com
PhotochromaticMirror.com

Only some marginal search and no CPC. Available for registration anyway.
admin 10.05.09 at 9:48 am: @JeffC – Thanks for posting the additional names.

PhotochromaticSunglasses.com is a nice one as is PhotochromicGlasses.com. If you set up an Astore, you’ll want to include some original content to help make it more search engine friendly. Even something as simple as a few paragraphs in your own words describing the benefits should help.

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.AU Dropcatching – Investigating the possibilities — DomainTweeter

.AU Dropcatching – Investigating the possibilities

February 17, 2010

Just added Drop.com.au to my domaining mindmap after reading today’s post by OzDomainer . This is a domain space I’ve largely overlooked, so I thought I would spend a few minutes to see if I’m missing out on a lucrative market segment.

I started by looking at some of the recent .au sales listed on Drop.com.au…

carparts.com.au	$18,011
printing.com.au	$9,221
motorhomes.com.au	$5,556
currencytrading.com.au	$5,205
livemusic.com.au	$4,501
financialadvisor.com.au	$3,889
audiobooks.com.au	$3,501
motorsport.com.au	$2,531
windturbines.com.au	$2,001

I’m not too familiar with .au pricing, so I ran the list through valuate.com and came up with the following…

auvaluations

Next, I wanted to see more aftermarket sales, so I used a few of the historical pricing resources from my mindmap.

I started with one of my favorite resources, NameBio.com which I use frequently for .com valuations, however it only contained the following 4 .au sales….

namebioscreenshot

It’s always good to try a few different tools, so next I used DomainTools historical pricing tool which located the following high dollar sales…

ausaleshistory

Summary

Based on my quick research, it looks like there are some interesting opportunities in the .au namespace. If you’d like to get involved, Drop.com.au offers drop catching memberships for a one time fee of $250.00 AUD with a no-catch no-pay guarantee. They also offer an aftermarket auction membership for $9.95 AUD.

I also came across DNTrade.com.au, a domaining forum dedicated to the .au namespace.

As with any namespace, before making significant purchases, you may want to investigate development potential including current search demand and CPC for .au businesses as well as possible monetization options (as they are likely to differ from US based businesses due to shipping concerns and other factors).

Finding additional domain tools

If you are interested in seeing some of the other tools I use to find, develop and monetize domains you can explore my Domaining Mindmap here.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

wix.it 02.17.10 at 7:16 pm: the cctlds dropcatcher are the next place to be in….
Michael 02.20.10 at 1:46 am: If you’re looking for sales history of .au names, we have kept a list over the past 2 years,
http://www.dntrade.com.au/domain-sales-list-2009-t337.html
http://www.dntrade.com.au/domain-sales-list-2008-t118.html

Some very great opportunities to buy .au domains.
admin 02.20.10 at 9:03 am: @Michael Great lists – thanks for posting them.

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10 Available domains and why I like them – 8/19/09 — DomainTweeter

10 Available domains and why I like them – 8/19/09

August 19, 2009

Here are some available names I came across today and why I like them. All are available for registration as of 3:30 EST today.

1. VirtualHostingReseller.com

$15.28 Cost per click (CPC) with 480 monthly exact Google searches. Nice name for starting a virtual hosting business. Or for creating a minisite reviewing virtual hosting resellers. Just a few clicks a year should cover reg fees.

2. MultifunctionInkjet.com

$5.68 CPC with 590 monthly Google searches. Google shopping shows 2,466 different product matches for this exact term.

3. HomeSpyCamera.com

$3.99 CPC with 320 monthly Google searches and 3,980,000 Google results.

4. RoseQuartzEarrings.com

1000 searches per month and over 450 products listed on Google shopping. Might be good for a mini storefront using a service like Devhub, Amazon aStore or PHPBay.

5. AdhesivePhotoPaper.com

$3.01 CPC with 720 Google searches per month. Google products show 82 different matches for ‘adhesive photo paper‘. Good for ministorefront.

6. CockroachTraps.com

$1.51 CPC with 720 Google searches per month and 35,500 Google results. Good for minisite or end user resale.

7. BehavioralPsychologists.com

$1.03 CPC with 260 Google searches per month. Not sure about this one, but liked the sound of the name. Possible uses include a directory (with sponsored listings) or a minisite monetized by affiliate revenue from a professional advice site like LivePerson.

8. UnsecuredStudentLoans.net -$18.65 CPC with 880 monthly Google searches.

9. RentalApartments.us – $1.85 CPC with 22,200 monthly Google searches.

10. OrlandoHouses.us – $2.86 CPC with 22,200 monthly Google searches.

That’s it for today. Most names posted go within minutes. If you are interested in receiving future available minisite domains…

Subscribe here to receive 2 minute advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

I’m also going to start emailing some names exclusively to my mailing list subscribers and tweeting others just for my Twitter followers.

As always, any feedback / comments are much appreciated.

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

admin 08.19.09 at 12:10 pm: Update: Looks like 7 out of the 8 com/net names were registered
in the first half hour. The following still appear to be available:

BehavioralPsychologists.com
RentalApartments.us
OrlandoHouses.us
admin 08.19.09 at 12:13 pm: Update: All 10 domains have been registered.
mike 08.19.09 at 5:43 pm: amazing the BEHAVIORALPSYCHOLOGISTS.COM was not taken before this?? i woulda like to add that

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Available .coms with search demand, including one with $26 CPC. — DomainTweeter

Available .coms with search demand, including one with $26 CPC.

November 25, 2009

1. ThermalPhotoPrinters.com: (390/2900 searches per month, $8.31 CPC)

thermalprinters

2. DoubleDVDCases.com (880/3600 searches per month, $2.14 CPC)

3. RAIDDataRecoveryService.com: (260 exact monthly searches, $26.32 CPC )

That’s it for today. Most names posted go within minutes. If you are interested in receiving future available minisite domains…

Subscribe here to receive 2 minute advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

As always, any feedback / comments appreciated.

{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }

admin 11.25.09 at 4:05 pm: Looks like all 3 names were registered within first 3 minutes. I’ll try to post some additional bonus names here within the hour.
Available Domains 11.25.09 at 4:06 pm: ThermalPhotoPrinters.com looks promising.
shane 11.25.09 at 4:24 pm: The RAID domain was a great find. Thanks for the posts
Ill 11.25.09 at 4:50 pm: The thermal, double, and service words in each domain kills each domain.

Descriptive or additional words destroy reach usually.

I would bet dollars to donuts it’s a ghost town at each of those domains as far as direct navigation traffic goes.

Chirp, chirp!
admin 11.25.09 at 5:43 pm: Thanks AvailableDomains, Shane – glad you found the names useful!
admin 11.25.09 at 5:48 pm: @ill Thanks for your comments – I agree that unnecessary descriptive keywords dilute a domain’s value, but I differentiate between micro-niche keywords and extraneous keywords. Based on search metrics, I’d rather own ‘DVDCases.com’, but ‘DoubleDVDCases.com’ describes a specific sub-set of cases and has good exact search demand – so people are looking for this exact product. As opposed to names like ‘BestDvdCases.com’,’CoolDvdCases.com’ which I agree are probably not worth reg fee.

I think ‘ThermalPhotoPrinters.com’ is a solid name since it has some exact demand and the ‘thermal’ keyword describes a specific type of photo printer. I probably agree with you the most about the last one (containing service), however the high CPC made up for the lower search demand.
admin 11.25.09 at 5:55 pm: Bonus available domain: In case you missed today’s batch, here is a bonus names which is currently available as of 5:00PM tonight:

DownloadableRingtones.net – 1900 searches / month, $1.82 CPC
(com,org,info,uk,cn versions already registered)
Shane 11.26.09 at 2:03 pm: I can’t thank you enough for the post. Registered recoveryraid5.com and although it doesn’t have that many searches, I will be able to pay for my $8 register very very easily. Thanks for the ideas

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Why most domainers don’t get Twitter at first… — DomainTweeter

Why most domainers don’t get Twitter at first…

March 12, 2009

Twitter has an image problem, whether they realize it or not. I’ve been reading about how great Twitter is since 2006, but originally had no desire to use it. Here’s why…

The name doesn’t inspire confidence. Twitter. As in ‘Twitter your time away’. Like the rest of you guys, I’m pretty busy and am looking to save time, not find new ways to spend it.
The big ‘What are you doing now?’ question on the home page. I figured no one really cared what I just had for lunch or what TV show I am watching. And I was right.
The amount of data seemed overwhelming. Follow a bunch of your friends and family and be interrupted throughout the day every few minutes – not exactly a selling point!

As a result, I passed on Twitter back in 2006. And so did many of my domainer friends and associates.

But I was wrong. I started actively using Twitter this year and realized that it is being used for far more than what it was originally created for. Twitter has evolved into a very powerful micro-blogging platform. Since each post (called a tweet) is limited to 140 characters, most posts are either links to interesting sites or short questions and answers. By limiting my Twitter feed (list of subscriptions) to domainers, most of the posts were of interest to me and I was able to connect with a core group that I had a lot in common with.

I quickly built a following of over 250 users passionate about domaining – including many of my favorite domain bloggers. To start off, I ‘followed’ each of my favorite bloggers and read the profile of each of their followers. If their bio mentioned domaining (or looked interesting), I followed them too. This took some time, but was well worth it. Within minutes, people were checking out my profile and many were following me back. Pretty exciting, since I could now follow the daily updates of a great collective of domainers. And since many were following me back, they would see my updates as well.

I started receiving breaking domain news and exclusives before they appeared in the major blogs. Domainers commonly twitter about interesting news and domain events in real time – no more waiting for daily recaps. And since I could select the people I was following, I could tune out anyone posting spammy updates and just follow quality tweets. As an added benefit, many high profile domain bloggers tweet about things they don’t mention on their blogs and often offer bonuses to followers.

I started using Twitter to answer problems which Google couldn’t. Twitter is great for researching timely issues and reaching niche audiences. When one of my registrars suffered a major outage, a quick Twitter search showed tens of users confirming the problem – Google wasn’t aware of the problem yet. And if I had a domaining question, my group of Twitter domainer friends usually answered it within minutes.

I connected with a lot of great domainers that don’t maintain a regular blog presence. There are many professional domainers who don’t blog and don’t attend the major conferences. Many of these domainers have bought and sold hundreds of names and have a lot to contribute. As a result of my Twitter presence, I now have a number of valuable new contacts.

And there were a couple of other cool perks too…

Bypassing customer service hassles. I had a question for a major parking company and received a reply back from their VP within a minute of asking.
Domainers are a fun crowd. I’m enjoying getting to know a bunch of new ones and following their daily updates.
Tweeting about a mini site I was working on and having 20 people visit and comment on it within seconds.

Are there any downsides to Twitter?

Sure, just like blogging – following too many people can get overwhelming. And it requires some discipline (just like e-mail and Youtube) to use it as a business tool and not randomly surf all day. But used properly, it is a great tool and one which may become as important as email in years to come.

If you haven’t tried it yet, consider opening up an account and trying it for a week. And be sure to send me a ‘tweet’ and let me know what you think!

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

Kristoff 03.12.09 at 12:50 pm: Great inaugural post and congrats on launching the blog…keep it simple, stay focused on what you enjoy and have fun!
robb 03.12.09 at 4:12 pm: Twitter is really catching on the last few weeks, I am enjoying it too. Got the names of a couple of major cities as usernames for Twitter and am posting news about each city – like a mini media site. Also have an account for the small town I live in to post news and get traffic to my local city website. Now just opened a personal Twitter account to post whenever something strikes me, and to follow people I’m interested in. Twitter is simple to use and forces people to keep their posts short and to the point, not like having to read a long email. I hear Twitter is still in start up mode, with around 30 employees – I wonder if Google or Microsoft will end up buying them out – will be interesting to see how they try to make money from the site, so far they haven’t but are just trying to get the eyeballs for now.
Peter 03.12.09 at 7:00 pm: Good post, I have had a similar experience, not getting it. The thing that made sense to me was when I followed a small number of people that I had been reading about – mostly Internet Marketing types – as long as the content is relevant to what you are interested in – its good.
Morgan Linton 03.12.09 at 8:11 pm: Great post – very relevant and some really good points. Glad to have you as part of the community and looking forward to your future posts!
Jeremy Armer 03.13.09 at 1:48 am: Great post, I’d like to add one thing.

I hear a lot about people getting overwhelmed by Twitter updates. Once you follow more than 200 people or so, it turns to mush.

First: Don’t try to read everything. That’s like trying to listen to 100 radio stations.
Second: Tweetdeck, tweetdeck, tweetdeck.

Get Tweetdeck and start creating groups, then turn off the “All Friends” feed (it eats up your API requests). I mostly want to hear from domainers but domaining is about *everything else*. If I only listened to domainers, I’d wouldn’t hear about a lot of the new trends…until after that perfect trending .com has been regged.
perchboy 03.13.09 at 5:46 am: Finally..a good explanation about why Twitter is so popular AND why I may want to re-consider the benefits of this phenomenon.

Good job!

perchboy
admin 03.13.09 at 6:26 am: Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

Jeremy – couldn’t agree more about Tweetdeck and great point
about monitoring non-domaining tweets as well.
Domain Superstar 03.13.09 at 8:05 am: Great points and over all very nice post. Hope to be hearing some more from you in the future!
wannadevelop.com 03.14.09 at 1:49 am: I started using Twitter few weeks ago… It’s “OK”

Not ready to abandon….yet.. Still experimenting with it.

So we’ll see how it goes. It does serve a purpose though:)

All the best,

Mike
Blake Worthington 03.14.09 at 4:12 am: Well you may have just convinced me to at least proceed with twitter. I have the same feelings you had in 2k6 but after reading this post it has changed my mind on things. Going to signup and see what is going on right after I post this comment.

Thanks again for sharing the information about twitter thought i was the only one hehe.
Will McCulloch 03.30.09 at 7:38 am: “What A Good Analysis” of Twitter , why many ( like me ) didn’t take it too seriously at the beginning – and why it’s now catching on …big time. Will be interesting to see how Twitter develops over the next weeks/months/years.

Best wishes & great site by the way

Will

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Micropost – 3 Available minisite domains for hand registration (5/11/09) — DomainTweeter

Micropost – 3 Available minisite domains for hand registration (5/11/09)

May 11, 2009

Wanted to post the following three exact match .com keyword domains suitable for minisite development, affiliate or SEO use. All are available as of 10:30PM (EST) tonight.

I’ve checked demand and CPC for each domain using Google’s external keyword tool. Since each domain is an exact match keyword domain whose keywords have Adwords advertisers, they can be easily monetized with Adsense/affiliate programs or possibly resold to an end user.

1. GermanWineGlasses.com

$1.18 CPC with 480 exact match Google searches last month. Good for minisite development or affiliate use .Google shows 14,900 exact match results for ‘german wine glasses’ with numerous Adwords advertisers.

2. MobilePhonePackages.com

$7.15 CPC with 390 exact match Google searches last month. Exact match. High CPC good for a minisite.

3. TaxPlanningBooks.com

$3.82 Cost per click (CPC) with 480 exact match Google searches last month. Nice plural version – good for minisite development or end user resale.
Google shows over 3900 products for listed for ‘tax planning’.

That’s it for today. If you are interested in receiving future available minisite domains…

Subscribe here to receive advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

Update: I’m going to try mixing it up a little for the next week or two. Some days I may not post a domain, other days I’ll try to highlight a few different names and do a more detailed writeup of possible minisite concepts or end user sales possibilities.

I’m also going to start emailing some names exclusively to my mailing list subscribers and tweeting others just for my Twitter followers.

Related post: Review of April’s Minisite Domains

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

admin 05.11.09 at 7:10 pm: MobilePhonePackages.com, GermanWineGlasses.com registered – Congratulations to @brucemarler @teendomainer.

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Micropost: 5 available domains for hand registration – 7/20/09 — DomainTweeter

Micropost: 5 available domains for hand registration – 7/20/09

July 20, 2009

Here are some available .com domains I came across tonight. All are currently available for hand registration as of 11:00PM EST. Since they are all exact match keyword domains, they may be well suited for mini site development, SEO development or end user resale.

I’ve hyperlinked each domain to an example of sample products or relevant search results and included cost per click (CPC) and search demand as reported by Google’s keyword tool.

1. WirelessLaptopAdapter.com ($2.36 CPC / 880 Google searches per month)

2. ScreenDoorGuards.com ($1.34 CPC / 1600 Google searches per month)

3. CushionStorage.com ($1.74 CPC / 1300 Google searches per month)

4. DigitalMemoRecorder(s).com ($3.67 CPC / 590 Google searches per month)

5. ElectricWindowShades.com ($2.70 CPC / 390 Google searches per month)

Typically, most posted .com names go within minutes. If you are interested in receiving future available minisite domains…

Subscribe here to receive 2 minute advance e-mail notification of available names.
Follow me at @DomainTweeter.
Since many names I post receive simultaneous registrations, you may want to use a fast registrar and have your billing information pre-programmed. Or use a program like Roboform to fill in your information.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

admin 07.20.09 at 7:21 pm: Update: All 5 domains have been registered. If you are interested in receiving advance e-mail notification for next time, you can signup here.
Vikz 07.21.09 at 2:14 am: Thanks for the list. Some nice names, but all taken now

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