Successful Name Change - Hooray !

28th February 2007 - 17:21

Well I finally managed to change the name of the blog so that it is now called www.netmonetization.com - well done me ! I probably did something wrong but Godaddy could have been more helpful. I finally sorted it out by comparing one of my other domain names with this domain name to see what the difference was and where I had gone wrong.

The blogger instructions seem to be correct but for some reason I ended up with two DNS servers and had to delete one of them, but of course when you are new to this game these things are not immediately apparent. However, I got there in the end so I recommend to other bloggers that they give it a go and change the name of their blog by choosing 'settings' - 'publishing' and clicking on 'custom domain' then following the instructions given by blogger. You will need to buy a domain from someone like godaddy or moniker - cost around $8.

What are Premium Names ?

27 February 2007 - 14:00

Ever wondered what people mean when they talk about 'premium names'? Me too.

Well here is a list of what are defined as premium names in the .mobi domain. How do we know they are premium names? Because they are being auctioned as premium names on March 7 in Las Vegas and are expecte4d to go for big bucks. (Sportsbook.mobi sold for $129,800 on 16 January).

The names are (although they may be changed at dotMobi's discretion) :-

"airfare," "areacodes," "cam," "casinos," "creditscore," "directions," "eat," "libre," "loancalculator," "models," "newmusic," "pics," "pizza," "realestate" and "singles."

basically generic names that presumably are not trademarked. In fact "a compilation of commonly used words and phrases which dotMobi has set aside for equitable allocation as an alternate to the traditional "first come, first serve" procedure."

If you look at the equivalent .coms you get some interesting information. For example I would have thought that 'airfares' was more interesting as a domain name than 'airfare' . Both sites exist - www.airfare.com and www.airfares.com - but airfare.com is ranked 47,211 on Alexa while airfares.com is ranked 4,763,440 - illogical?

Areacodes.com is ranked 648,057 while areacode.com is ranked 988,645 - but they both appear to be parked domains - areacodes takes you to massachusetts.com on Alexa (even though areacodes.com does exist) . Maybe they are making pots of money as parked domains? If not I can't see why areacodes.mobi would get the large amount at auction they are clearly hoping for. Watch this space!

Changing the Name of a Blog

I've been trying to redirect this blog for the last 2 days to a different name - www.netmonetization.com - following the instructions to the letter as far I can see but nothing has happened yet - so I have changed it back. A reply to the email I sent to godaddy.com would be nice !! The joys of the Internet!

Domain Name Auctions

23 February 2007 : 03:42

Another useful site for researching domain name prices and auctions

https://www.tdnam.com/trpSearchResults.aspx?ca=3138202220070239&ci=2170

Ebay Affiliate Program

22 February 2007 : 20:10

In the process of setting up my Ebay affiliate account. Basically you earn money by referring people to Ebay if they subsequently click on items in auctions. Sounds interesting - people even write Ebooks about it, which you don't need to read as all the information is available on the Ebay site. Not strictly domain monetization but you can buy and sell domain names on Ebay so not totally off-topic either. Trouble with Ebay is it seems to be run by robots, very difficult to get a clear answer to anything! Watch this space.

Well it seems to be up and running - just got to figure out how to make best use of it. If Ebay is to be believed some people make a fair amount - we will see how true that turns out to be!

.mobi Prices

20th February 2007 - 00:30 GMT - Posted by Advaita

If you are interested in investing in domain names it's useful to know what sort of prices you can expect to get.

The sites below have a variety of names for sale with a list of the prices they are asking.

This link takes you to .mobi sites on offer

http://www.california.biz/domains/mobi.htm

for .coms etc... click in the window on the top left hand side.

These two sites show you prices that were actually obtained http://www.namebio.com/ and www.sedo.com

Interesting Interview about .mobi Domains

An interesting interview with Pinkard Alan Brand (yes that is his real name) about the .mobi extension

(Q 2) What did you do before working in dotMobi?, How do you begin in the domaining world?

A. In the 80s I worked in the television news and advertising industries. In the 90s I became an entrepreneur and started investing in a variety of businesses. In 1996 I became very interested in the domain name industry literally after seeing the original InterNIC WHOIS site in the middle of the night. The next day I co-founded a ccTLD registration company called idNames that I later sold to Network Solutions when they were still a monopoly. This company went from $0 to $33 million in annual revenue in 4 years. In 2002 I co-founded a corporate domain name registrar called Arcemus that we later sold to Iron Mountain. It does millions in annual revenue as well. Again, you can obtain information on my background and history in the domain name industry by visiting my personal sites at pinkybrand.com or on mobile at pinky.mobi .

The rest of the interview is here - it's quite long

http://www.domisfera.com/interview-pinkard-alan-brand-dotmobi-mobi-domains/

.mobi Domain Listed for Sale

Just listed my first .mobi domain for sale at Sedo for what seems to me to be a cheap starting price - it's a name which could be used by estate agents, travel agents, entertainment companies etc... - to have a look go here

http://www.sedo.com/search/details.php4?domain=londoncentral.mobi&partnerid=14456&language=e

Generic Domain Name not used in Bad Faith

On 29th January 2007 the National Arbitration Forum allowed a domainer to keep the domain pig.com, which it decided had not been registered in bad faith.


Registration and Use in Bad FaithThe Panel finds that Respondent registered the domain name based on the dictionary meaning of the term “pig” and not to take advantage of Complainant’s generic mark. See CNR Music B.V. v. High Performance Networks, Inc., D2005-1116 (WIPO Jan. 23, 2006) (“The registration of the domain name appears to have been aimed at exploiting the ability of the word itself to attract Internet users, and not aimed at taking advantage of the Complainant’s reputation or trademark.”); see also Target Brands, Inc. v. Eastwind Group., FA 267475 (Nat. Arb. Forum Jul. 9, 2004) (holding that the respondent’s registration and use of the domain name was not in bad faith because the complainant’s TARGET mark is a generic term); see also Miller Brewing Co. v. Hong, FA 192732 (Nat. Arb. Forum Dec. 8, 2003) (finding that because the respondent was using the domain name, a generic phrase, in connection with a search engine, the respondent did not register and was not using the disputed domain name in bad faith). The Panel finds this element has not been satisfied. DECISIONComplainant having failed to establish all three elements required under the ICANN Policy, the Panel orders that relief shall be DENIED.

How to Add Adsense to a Blog

Well, it took me about two hours of going round in circles, but I finally managed to add Adsense ads. to my blog. Why are FAQs so inadequate, infuriating or even worse! To add Adsense to your blog (this is for newbies like myself, not the old 'pros') first you need an Adsense account (which I had already) then on the page where your blog is displayed click on 'customize' (in the top right corner) then click on Template then click on ' add a page element' this opens up (in a pop-up window) a list of stuff you can add, one of which is Adsense, so click 'Add to Blog' you are then asked a couple of security questions and if you get the answers right you get to choose the sort of Adsense banner you want - I went for the 120 x 600 vertical banner on the right hand side and half banner at the bottom . All very easy when you know how, but nothing like what is written in the FAQ! If anyone needs help you are welcome to contact me via the email address at the top of the page.

The Truth about the Situation

This is my first post on blogger and I don’t really know what I'm doing, but here goes anyway.

I originally wrote this in wordpress.com but then discovered in their FAQ that you can't put adsense ads. on the free wordpress service (if that is incorrect someboyd please correct my misinterpretation). As I want to put ads. on my blog I have moved over to 'blogger' which positively encourages you to use adsense, which I will be doing once I've finished writing this.

The aim of this blog is to write about ‘domain monetization’ and to see if it is possible to make money from domain names. At this point in time (Sunday 18th Feb. 2007 20:40 hours in the UK) I really don’t know what I’m doing. I find blogs strangely confusing and getting useful information very difficult. I’ve been reading up on blogs for a couple of weeks, but in my experience you only really learn by doing, so I’m doing. I will document what I learn and let the world know how it goes and if it works out. Not because I think the world is particularly interested in me, but so as I can keep a record of what happens, and also because if I can do it then ANYBODY can do it! I’m a reasonably intelligent sort of guy, who has been to university (modern languages) but I know very little about how the Internet or computers work and I have one great disadvantage, I am the laziest person I have ever known. I certainly don’t recommend laziness as a way of getting on in this world, but hey, if you’re lazy you’re lazy, and if YOU are lazy then you’ll know what I mean. I’ve been lazy all my life and it has created lots of problems and got me into all sorts of trouble with the other 'unlazy' types. In my experience ‘unlazy’ people don’t like lazy people and by and large it’s ‘unlazy’ people that rule, ’cause we lazy sods generally can’t muster enough energy to give a sh*t (the asterisk is there in case there are any young and impressionable minds that stumble across this!).

Anyway, enough about me, let’s get on with the ‘domain name monetization’ caper. A domain name, in case you need to know, is what you might call a website name e.g. Dunnanddusted.com How do you make money from domain names? As I understand it at the moment there are 2 ways. 1) You register a name with a registrar such as moniker.com (cost between 7 and 40 USD - or you can buy a name that has already been registered, from someone else, but you will probabl pay more for it) you then ‘park’ your domain with a ‘parking company’ (free) such as NameDrive. The parking company allows you to create a ready-made website full of adverts (by clicking on templates - easy to do and free) . Surfers somehow find their way to your website and click on an advert and you get around 10 cents per click. So all you need is 10 million clicks and you’re a dollar millionaire! I started doing this around 3 weeks ago, it’s cost me around 60 USD registering a variety of domain names e.g. ‘campingabroad’ and so far has made me around 35 USD. Advantages - it’s easy and requires minimum effort. Disadvantages - income seems low unless you manage to get some good names (i.e. generic names people type into the address window such as ‘cheaploans.com’); all the ‘good’ names were registered long ago (so they say); some but not all parking companies say you can’t promote your domain names in any way (either directly or indirectly).

2) Register a domain name for x USD then re-sell it either privately or via auction for xxxxxxxx USD. Advantages - bigger bucks are possible (see dnjournal.com). Disadvantages - a bit hit and miss.

Points to note : best sites to register at the moment are .coms (i.e. a name that ends in .com, they are more widely used than .ca, .cn, .fr etc…) but equally it is more difficult to find good names. Some people say that the future is in .tv, .mobi, .cc so bear this in mind, good names with these extensions have not all been registered so you can register a name and hope that the extension you chose (.tv, .mobi etc..) becomes popular and prices go up. There are also legal constraints regarding trademarks etc… e.g. someone recently decided to register Ringostarr.mobi and now Ringo Starr’s people have decided to sue, so check out the legal situation before you jump into something that seemed like a good idea at the time. Someone else has just registered 90210.mobi - can you have a trademark on a number? There is some debate on this matter. Personally it sounds like too much hassle to me, so I shall be sticking to stuff that is generic.
For futher info. check out specialized forums such as Namepros.com or webhostingtalk.com

Well I’ll ‘publish’ this now (it’s getting long) and see where it goes.

What is the title the ‘The Truth about the Situation’ all about? It refers to this :-
In 1907 Ramana Maharshi, who had been living in silence on Arunachala in Southern India, broke his ten year silence. In answer to a question about the nature of the mind, ego and truth he said :-
“If one watches whence this notion of ‘I’ springs, the mind will be absorbed into that.” - Ramana Maharshi, 18th November 1907, 1.30 p.m. These were the first words he had uttered for 10 years, so I think it is safe to assume he thought they were important.
So I leave that to you to figure out. I'm off to figure out how to put adsense on this blog.