MO.com Entrepreneur Blog Interviews Missouri.me Founder

Wow, now how is that for a domainer interview title, state code .COM owner interviews .ME state name founder, we thought it was neat.

Brian Null, a fellow Missouri resident and owner of MO.com reached out recently to talk about the launch of Missouri.me, MissouriWine.net, and other projects of mine like this blog.

I thought, heck, how fun would it be to have Missouri.me interviewed on MO.com , which for those who may not know, is the two letter state code for Missouri.

Thanks to Brian for taking the time, he actually did a great job asking me questions that I had not answered before around investment and social media.

Brian was a pleasure to talk to and I look forward to meeting him in person soon.

You can read the interview at Bruce Marler - Show Me The Entrepreneur

Chef Patrick Interviewing Me Live – What Have I Got Myself Into!

This should be fun. Chef Patrick will be interviewing me on DomainSuccess.com January 13th, 2010 from 2:30 to 3:30PM EST. You can sign up here.

Thanks to Owen Frager for the invite and I am very interested to see what I am in for with Patrick hosting.

We really want to try to get some new information out that Patrick and I have not discussed elsewhere. We are going to do our best to have a fun, interactive discussion that I expect will cover everything from social media to building a sales team and everything in between.

After hearing George Pickerings Domain Success Power Lunch show I was excited when I received the invite to be involved in the same format. If time allows I may even show a bit of the seminar talk I have been doing that I have been speaking about.

Sign up now and see what Patrick has up his sleeve....

Bruce Marler on WebmasterRadio.FM Domain Masters Show Tonight At 7pm ET

While at the Affiliate Convention I had the pleasure of sitting down with Victor Pitts from Moniker who is the host of the Domain Masters show that is aired on WebmasterRadio.FM.

I had been on once before, which is actually how I ended up at the Affiliate Convention ironically enough, and thought it would be fun to sit down with Victor again.

We covered plenty of ground, everything from .ME domains, to current status of Localtek/Missouri.me and also the various thoughts behind some of my latest blog posts.

The show will air on WebmasterRadio.FM tonight at 7 ET, while there make sure you listen to Morgan Lintons interview who was also there when I did mine.

Oh yeah, and Chef Patrick comes up : )

5 Ridiculous Things You Didn’t Know About Morgan Linton

Well, I have had the pleasure of spending the afternoon and evening with Morgan Linton, after some great sushi and drinks and figuring out how to solve the problems of the world we have settled back in his office/TV studio, kicked back listening to Radiohead and I thought I would let you know 5 crazy things you did not know about Morgan Linton:

Question: What is your favorite girly drink?

Answer: Cranberry Mojito

NOTE: We cheated here, Morgan introduced me to these tonight, no umbrella at least.

Question: What is the TV show you are most ashamed to admit you watch?

Answer: Cops

Question: If you could be anyone actress who would it be?

Answer: Jennie Garth

Question: If you could take any one movie to a deserted island what would it be?

Answer: Star Wars - A New Hope Episode 4

Question: What is the worst domain you ever registered?

Answer: MySlice.mobi

Well there we go, what have we learned? Well Morgan likes to drink girly drinks while watching Star Wars and registering bad .mobis!!!

Guest Post By Rob Ratliff – Domainer-In-Training

The following blog post is a guest post by Rob Ratliff who I hired on to help with the development and operations side of LocalTek.  He has taken the time to write a little about what he has learned working for us and his recent experience trying to sell a website to and end user.  Rob had a bit of experience in SEO and domaining before he started but learned quick that he needed to dig deeper and learn more before spending another dollar on a domain.

I really thought it would be great to have a guest post by someone who is new to domaining and what they are going through as they learn more and more.

Enjoy…

First of all I’d like to take the time to say how wonderful Bruce is as a boss.  (There I said it.  You can read how I really feel at the end of this post.)  Anyway, moving on, I can say there have been occasions when having Bruce around are a good thing.  He does in fact know a little bit about this domaining business,  but I don’t want to make his head swell too much.

EDITORS NOTE: I did not pay him to say any of that, I try not to pay him at all.....

Truth is when I began working for LocalTek I thought I knew more than I actually did about SEO and online marketing and in the time I’ve worked here I have been able to get my head wrapped around this type of business a little better.   What I’ve discovered is that while SEO is very important there are so many other important factors to consider when buying a domain, and building a website.

Some of these factors include search traffic statistics, what keywords are used, exact search matches vs. broad search matches, what the domain name means for the site, as well as who will benefit from the site etc.  I’ve also learned it’s important to deduce whether the site would do better as an affiliate marketing site, a PPC site, or would it be a good site to develop and then sell to an end user.    With all this to consider, I’ve learned you don’t just buy some domain name and then build what you want on it, then spend months trying to promote the site unless you have the time and the money. Most mini-sites can be developed rather quickly and be reasonably effective tools for producing revenue.

What I discovered is that websites and domains are almost exactly like real estate. As a real estate investor one of the questions people ask is what should I do with the house when I get it.  Like domain names, you kind of have to let the house tell you what to do with it based on how you acquired it, the location of the house, the condition of the house, etc.  If it’s a very nicely finished house you owe a close to fair market value on, you may just rent it.  If it needs to be fixed up and you can sell it quickly for a profit, then do that.  Again though, you don’t know what’s best until you do the research. The same thing applies to domain names and websites.  Depending on how you acquired it, what the domain name is etc., can determine the best course of action to take with it.

For this reason I learned to do things like look at the keywords that fit the domain name better to learn how and what people search for related to that domain name.  I then learned to look into parking a site or developing the site as options and what may be best for the domain name purchased.  Lately I’ve been looking into selling domain names to end users who may benefit from their Google search rankings to get click traffic without paying for it by the click. Of course I am making mistakes and learning about that too.

For example, I recently I purchased the domain name: SamoyedPuppies.net.  Domain names like this I’ve learned are good because the domain name matches the way people search for Samoyeds.  I also discovered that the keyword term “Samoyed Puppies” is searched for several thousand times a month.  Fortunately, when you search for “Samoyed Puppies” on Google, my site appears on the first page of Google which surprises me and delights me at the same time.

Knowing my site ranked so well, I emailed a Samoyed puppy breeder and asked if they wanted to advertise on my site or even by my site so they could use it to drive traffic to their business.  The email I received back really surprised me.  Whoever responded said they weren’t interested because the picture of the puppy on the first page had blue eyes and blue eyed Samoyed puppies aren’t allowed to show in the ring.  She also wrote that the age Samoyeds live to was wrong on my website it should be 12 -14 years, not 12-16 years old.  Huh! Guess she missed the point, but that’s my fault because I didn’t explain why purchasing the site would do any good.

Of course, when I told Bruce about the encounter he already knew my approach was wrong and pointed me to a site where I could request an “end user sales letter” example.  After reading this letter I realized most end users really need to be told exactly how the site will be of benefit to them.  Otherwise, like the example I had earlier the end user just doesn’t see the relevance and looks at the content rather than the possibilities of free clicks and revenue generation.

My approach now will be to create email letters which clearly outline the reason purchasing the domain name and especially the website will be beneficial to the buyer in the long term and the short term. This letter will include information about why purchasing my website will give you access to the first page of Google under certain search terms which will eliminate the PPC method of creating traffic to their business’ website.  (Of course if the website isn’t on the first page of Google and other search tools, you could explain how this could easily be accomplished.

So in essence, while I’ve learned a lot, I still have much to learn but at least now I have a little more confidence when purchasing domain names and as I continue to learn, I’m sure Bruce will let you know.  So I guess in the end I must say Bruce is a good guy after all.

Robs blog can be found at RobRatliff.com

Thanks to Rob for taking the time, although he is still learning he has came along way and has made it past the buying domains because they sound cool and trademark phase and has also made it past the collector stage where he just buys and buys and buys with no plans on how to get a return. Thanks Rob, great progress!

DomainGang.com Exclusive Interview

And now for something completely different:) Recently I had the pleasure of doing and in-depth, behind the scenes interview with the DomainGang.com reporters (Lucius "Guns" Fabrice and Giovanni "Crazee" Mossolini). The two have taken the domain name news reporting industry to a whole new level as of late and I was honored they took the time out of their day of working to have the latest domain name news scoop to actually talk (ok email) with me.

Here is the interview, I hope you enjoy:

The two of you have done a great job taking the domain news world by storm, how do you two know each other, the team work is off the charts?

Stranger things have happened, like domain owners asking for full fledged development instead of minisites. We're both active in forums and possess similar writing skills that employ humor to deliver our message.

What does it feel like to be considered the de facto indepth research and news organization for the domaining world now?

We are not the de facto news organization, we're simple the most awesome news source for the domaining industry - delivering the news even before they happen.

As you reported Ron Jackson has sold DNJournal, probably due to your success, are you concerned bloggers will quit blogging and other news organizations will call it quits due to your success?

As you probably know, Ron Jackson now has a bobblehead figure - that's a premium height of success that we haven't ascented - yet! So there's room for more achievements in the coming months.

Your traffic has skyrocketed faster than any other domain focused site, is this due to the amazing SEO tips you have in your article 5 SEO Non-Expert Tips for the Expert SEO?

The fact is that all of our traffic is due to boredom. We are bored reading the same regurgitated news on blogs each day, so we write our own. Equally, bored domainers come to DomainGang.com to read refreshing and sometimes outlandish but believable news about the domain industry. We're the Onion of domaining - but we taste like garlic.

How do you keep the momentum going?

A couple of beers, nachos with salsa, coffee, lots of chocolate and not enough sex.

How much money did the “Bruce Marler is lazy and RT follow Fridays” fundraiser raise for the important Domain mass development research cause?

We cannot reveal that yet, the next fundraiser will probably meet the minimum $1 that Paypal allows to transfer.

What are some of the key domains that the DomainGang team has registered, I am sure you have some amazing .tel names for sure.

It's funny that you mentioned but someone did register WZGJC.com *after* our article about minisite development. They see the potential of humorous sites or backlinks from our site.

Thanks to team for taking the time to reveal their secrets and their thoughts on domain news reporting.

DISCLAIMER: If you still do not understand that DomainGang.com is meant to be humorous and fiction in most cases then this interview may not of made sense. Enjoy the humor.

Interview With The .ME Domain Registry Team – Where .ME Domains Are Headed

With the recent focus I have had on .ME domain developments I get quite a few emails asking about my thoughts on .ME domains and questions on values, where I think they are going, and other such things.  I was fortunate  enough to have the .ME registry team do an interview to answer some of he questions my readers have asked and I have had myself.  Special thanks to Predrag Lesic (CEO) and Natasa Djukanovic (Director International Sales)  for taking the time to do this interview.

Tell us a bit about the .ME organization, who are the leaders driving this extension forward?

With the professional guidance of some experienced people from Afilias and Go Daddy, as well as fresh ideas of .ME Registry Executive Director and CEO, Predrag Lesic, and his team, .ME was set up with a special marketing message, “It’s all about YOU!”. The domain’s usability and popularity exploded.  We are constantly trying to implement something fresh and new into .ME development and strategy. Interaction with the customers is the driving force behind .ME.

Whats the feeling from the .ME team about its growth and success thus far?

In a way we feel like proud parents of a beautiful baby. We gave birth to the concept of .ME and it has been embraced worldwide. With successful marketing moves, constant promotions and consultations with experts, we have managed to blaze the trail for this unique ccTLD. Now, being widely recognized for its international meaning and brandability .ME keeps making us very proud.

How has growth been since the initial landrush?

We have steady daily and monthly registration growth. We have reached a quarter million registrations after less then a year of going public. That is a record in the Internet business. Registrations are coming from all over the world and at the moment we have registrants from over 190 countries.

The .ME premium auctions have continued to do well with many names going into the 5 figure range. Do you think this says alot about how people feel about this extension as an investment or more about how people feel about its brandability to endusers?

Some people recognized its potential when .ME went live in July of last year and they immediately invested in .ME domains. They  recognized the great advantage of .ME - the meaning it gives to the words in a Web address. It makes them both personal and brandable. These two things are closely connected. We have a lot of individual users who use .ME with their personal name and you have probably noticed that many big companies have a logo, or a marketing campaign ending with .ME. This is the best promotion we can get. One of our favorites is Despicable.ME – it is the Web address for “Despicable Me”, a new Universal Studios movie coming soon to theaters worldwide.

How do the people of Montenegro feel about their cctld being re-purposed as an international brand?

Montenegro is a very small country - only 600,000 people. It is famous for its natural beauty and long history. Now, Montenegro is famous for one more thing - .ME. We believe that this is a good way to promote our country and that Montenegrin people are proud of .ME and its worldwide success. The .ME Registry is also investing in education by sponsoring summer schools in computer science, donating equipment and organizing seminars. And there are third level domains opened only for Montenegrin people (co.me, net.me, org.me, priv.me and its.me).

Much of the success with .ME recently has been with site launches in the US (YouAnd.ME and others) , what are your marketing plans to continue the push into the market here in the US?

Now, in our second year, the most important thing is increasing usage,through Web sites, new technology, service providers, or just simple personal e-mail addresses. There are already some great sites in existence and we are closely monitoring their activity, success and growth. We set up a procedure for the allocation of premium names to people with best development ideas. This program will connect two most important things in domain industry - a good idea and memorable name. People can find out more about that program at our Web site www.Domain.Me.

What would you say to the domain investor crowd who typically focus on .COMs or maybe .NET and .ORG when it comes to building their portfolio of .ME domains?

With Facebook, Twitter and similar services drawing the attention of  individuals and making everything online more personal, the Internet is becoming a widely-used social networking tool.  .ME is a perfect match for these innovations. It is something that goes hand-in-hand with a new trends and provides new marketing potential. Just take a look at new marketing campaigns and ask yourself how often the "me"  word is used to connect the product with the customer. (Mobile ME - Apple, ME phone - new Dell mobile phone, Just ME - new Max Mara collection, Toni & Guy's Model.Me product, PC for ME - Microsoft, Despicable.ME - new Universal Studio movie, Set your watch to ME time - BAA marketing campaign, Planet ME - TNT service... ). The word  itself is extremely interactive and using it is much easier and effective with .ME.

What industry events are the .ME team planning on attending in the near future?

The first one is ICANN Seoul, then TRAFFIC Las Vegas, and DOMAINfest Global 2010

With the recent announcement of WP.ME and the great use of a 2 letter .ME by the Wordpress team do you plan on starting to make these available to those with specific users for them?

Generally speaking, two-letter domains are not planned for allocation. However, we are willing to make an exception whenever we recognize a big
usability potential, like we did this time, with WordPress.com.

Also recently Tweetmeme.com has announced their ReTwt.me URL shortener, how does the .ME team feel about the added awareness coming from such highly trafficked services using the .ME brand?

We are very enthusiastic about seeing high-traffic web sites using .ME for different  kinds of services since this introduces .ME to the wider audience. It is a perfect vehicle to provide .Me with more exposure.

Godaddy.com has been a huge supporter (BobParsons.ME saying alot in itself), how do you feel the Godaddy support has helped .ME with the general consumer rather than the tech and domainer crowd?

Go Daddy's support is very important for .ME and the company has greatly contributed to our growth track. We think that they share our .ME enthusiasm. Apart from Go Daddy we have more then 115 other registrars, most of which are  top ICANN Registrars. Thus, .ME’s success lies in the mutual effort of Registry and Registrars, and its general appeal to both tech / domainers and general consumers.

Any interesting .ME announcements we should be watching for?

The most important thing is ensuring strong content on .ME sites - so we now have the procedure to allow interested parties with good development ideas to apply for certain premium domains. The procedure is published at domain.me

Once again, I want to thank the .ME team for taking the time to do this interview and wish them luck as they move forward with their vision.

WebmasterRadio.FM Domain Masters Interview with Bruce Marler at 7PM EST

Today at 7EST I will be on the Domain Masters show on WebmasterRadio.FM hosted by Victor Pitts. We discussed topics ranging from Geo Domain development, alternative extension development, and how domain investors and geo domain developers are making an impact in local communities.

I have a bit of a crazy schedule today but should be online during the time of the interview if there are any questions. I appreciated the time Victor gave me to answer questions and look forward to future appearances on Domain Masters.

To attend the interview click here: WebmasterRadio.FM

ChefPatrick.com and BruceMarler.com Together On Video At Bido.com

I will be getting back to full blog posts starting tomorrow but in the mean time heres the video of the ChefPatrick and Bruce Marler show on Bido. It was a great time and I hope there is plenty of info on there to keep you interested. Its fun being live and not knowing what type of questions are going to come your way. Sorry if I do not look like Patricks usual partners on his Friday videos!

Thanks for watching.

Interview with Marc Gawith of Godaddy.com Executive Accounts

Godaddy.com is without a doubt the gorilla of domain name registrations. They hold more registrations than any other company and are the company most general consumers think of when they go to register a domain name. What some domainers do not know is they also have an executive accounts program for domainers and individuals with high value domains.  Today I am interviewing one of the members of their Executive Accounts team, Marc Gawith.  I think you will find some interesting insight into Godaddy.com's thoughts and plans for the domaining community.

Marc, tell us a bit about yourself, how did you end up at Godaddy.com and get into domaining yourself?

I grew up in Kansas on a pretty large farm and never had much experience with the web or technology as a whole.  I moved to Arizona several years ago and got a job at GoDaddy where I have learned and taught myself everything that I currently know about domains and the web industry as a whole.  I invest in domain names myself and try to keep up with the current trends and use my names for testing purposes to see what does and doesn't work for my clients.  I love my job and I love helping my clients and the sense of accomplishment I feel when they sell a domain name or start making money with a concept that I introduced them to.

How goes a standard day for a Godaddy Exec Account manager?

A standard day for me starts at 6:00am when I get in the office.  I begin my day by processing any outstanding emails from the day prior.  Once that is done I load up my portfolio of clients and begin calling customers for the next 8 hours.  The calls range anywhere from follow ups from previous days dealings or related to new products, services, or information revolving around domaining.  This could be products that GoDaddy offers or products that I have come across by reading industry forums or blogs from other companies.  The day really doesn't end except for getting some sleep.  I have my email coming to my cell phone that I am constantly checking to make sure there is nothing that is pressing that needs to be taken care of immediately.

What types of services do you help with that a domainer would be interested in?

We offer a lot of standard services that most other registrars offer but there are a couple that specifically are created with our Exec Accounts in mind, specifically domainers.  We have a program that is called Domain Transfer Validation.  This allows an extra level of security for domainers portfolios.  It protects against domain names being transferred out of or moved out of the current GoDaddy account.  After all domain names are the biggest and most important asset for domainers.

Godaddy and its site are really focused on a the "general consumer", do you think the exec account manager service is Godaddys way of saying that they understand the domainer and our needs?

Absolutely!  I think that initially the executive accounts department was just created for a go between for our larger customers and GoDaddy's development.  However recently our focus and mantra was changed to be directed towards domainers specifically and their needs to be sure that those needs are met.  We as account managers do our best to stay abreast of the most recent happenings and current events in the domaining community.

What are the requirements to be assigned an account manager?

Currently as a rough requirement it is at least 500 domain names.  However that is up for interpretation based upon the domain names and the quality of those names.  For example if someone owns 100 domain names but they are all high value premium domain names that is someone that is going to be a good fit for our department as we can help them fulfill their goals with their domain portfolio.  In the same breath if someone is registering  hundreds of domain names that don't have any value and is trying to sell them for outrageous amounts and using up our time and resources that person is probably going to be  a better fit just calling in to our general support department.

One of the major complaints from Domainers with Godaddy is the amount of steps it takes before a name can be purchased, in many cases seconds matter, any tips for getting from search to buy faster?

I would recommend creating a buyer profile which saves all of the criteria for your domain names when registering.  You set this up one time and it allows you to choose the profile you are wanting to purchase the domain under.  Also once you have selected the domain name and your buyer profile you can click quick checkout which takes you straight to the shopping cart without having to go through the upsells and offers.

One of my complaints has been that I have to email my list of names in to receive my discount, is Godaddy working on a way to bypass this step?

GoDaddy is currently working on a way to bypass this.  It is something that we as account reps have been trying to get completed for quite some time.  We know that it can be a pain to have to put the domain in an email and then send it over and wait for us to register it.  We have a plan in place for discount purchasing plans for our executive accounts customers we are just waiting for it to be put into place by our developers.

What extensions after .COM, .NET, and .ORG are doing well from your daily experience?

This is a very good question and one that everyone would like to know.  Honestly it changes daily given the current trends in the market.  If I had to pick a domain name that wasn't a com, net or org that would be next in line based upon my daily experience it would be .me.  I know it is a cctld  and it is relatively new but I see a lot of people investing time and money and actually building out .me sites and driving up the value.  I believe you just did an interview with Steve Sikes who has been very successful with .me domain names not only developing but buying and selling.

How has the recession impacted the registrations you are dealing with, are you seeing more drops from your customers?

The recession has definitely affected customers.  We are seeing a lot of people selling domain names for very cheap to try to recoup some of the cost associated with renewing names.  Others don't have the ability to sell the names before they expire and end up letting them go and other domainers that aren't in the same boat are able to pick them up through our auction site at a very good price.

Why should I use Godaddy over moniker or another register?

The answer to this question used to be price.  However after the changes that were made to our executive accounts department to cater towards domainers the answer would be service.  Our job here is to work for our clients without being paid by our clients.  What I mean by that is I am basically your employee but GoDaddy is providing my paycheck.  That is our mentality here in our department.  When a customer asks me to do something I get it done to the best of my ability as quickly as possible.  If there are requests that aren't requests that we get on daily basis it may take a little longer but it gets done.  We as executive account managers go out of our way to make sure things get done for our customers.

Thanks to Marc for taking the time out of his busy day to do this interview.

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