I’ve missed a few sales last year always doing research on what I want for domains. On the contrast most buyers reaching out to me offer what they expect to pay for a domain. I began everything on the web as a developer so it was really common for me to register domains that I thought I could develop for my clients. Also back in 1999 ~ 2001 I didn’t know the value of domains I just registered what I really had in mind to develop.

These domains are starting to get request since last year. I’ve sold a few even a dot net or two to my surprise. The thing I’ve learned is people want to pay under $5,000. I had a much easier time selling the domains I just agreed to $3,000 to $5,000. Even for some good terms since I still have technology & finance related domains I’m starting to wonder should I just price them at those rates & sell on Flippa?

I also used this site http://dnsaleprice.com/ to look at sale history while back & really confirms lots of sales happen at that $3,000 to $5,000 price point.

I’ve been pretty successful with Facebook advertising & wanted to share some tips with the few that read this blog.

When creating a Facebook page to get a custom URL for the page you need 25 people to like the page
If you don’t have friends to like the page use FaceBook marketplace ads.
Update content on the page for at least about a week or two then run ads.
At the end place a call to action like “Like us now!!” in Japanese it’s 「いいねして下さい』.
As you get more clicks & the click through rate goes up your CPC actually goes down.
Usually if you target the right people to your page you can get those 25 likes for less than $10. Yep that’s right I just ran some ads for a Boston based project & wanted to get the custom URL. It cost me $8.50.

Before you change the custom URL please think about it carefully. Once you decide on it IT CANNOT BE CHANGED. Capitalization periods everything. I just applied for the US trademark for this project so I want to make sure I get all the URLs. This time it wasn’t an IDN but sometimes with IDN projects we are competing with for that name.

For example you own Travel.com katakana in Japanese. Getting just “travel” is long gone but also even getting TravelCom you have to compete with the English site for the URL. One might get TravelCom the other might use TravelDotCom. One of my IDN sites I had to put Dot in the middle.

I know a lot of old people might swear off FaceBook but you are missing the new generation of internet users by not catering to it. I’ve been developing web sites since 1997 & we have so much more ways to market than ever before. If someone downs a way for you to increase your revenue simply ask if they can provide you alternative “NEW” ways.

I’ve been looking more and more over what Adam Dicker is doing over at DNF as a forum owner and businessman. He’s implemented a lot of things that I personally believe are needed for the growth of a large community. Over the holiday he even had a great discount on upgrading memberships for DNF unfortunately I missed it but will be looking over going to exclusive this year.
Some of the things I really respect his progression on are:

1 Trying to get rid of the make me an offer.
I might have been the first forum owner to do this. It’s a waste of time if the seller is looking for how much my domain is worth. If you want offers put in a range that you find acceptable. Don’t waste people’s time.
2. Development is key
If you are not selling domains at least try to increase your revenue on your portfolio. Even little by little is good. He not only encourages conversation on development, he really knows it well and offers some services to help you.
3. Publication
Looks like DNF will start a publication with writers. I’m actually a bit interested in this myself. Not to really talk about IDNs but more so about marketing advertising from an ad agency workers perspective.
4. Expansion and keeping it fresh
Adam and his team has kept expanding DNF and although some of the designs weren’t the best the site looks great and has kept up with the Jones.
5. Mobile and technology in general
I haven’t used it myself but I know that they released an iPhone app. I’ve been learning app development all last year and have lots of respect for him for this.
6. Social Media
I wrote before that it sucks that no forum owns their twitter account or even tweets. A while afterwards they launch their Facebook page and twitter account. Connecting with your community is NOT just on your site anymore. it’s about the message and if it’s strong enough it will be shared. That’s the power of Social.
7. Credibility
I’ve wrote about using Linkedin for domainers. He’s recently made the move to just use his real name instead of Dot Com God. Before I started working at Ad Agency level and initially went from web designer to SEO there are so many people who will post really inaccurate information about marketing what clients want etc. If you are not an expert yourself you can save time and frustration if you knew a little something about the people you put your trust in.
For myself even though everyone inaccurately thinks my job is SEO for Japanese clients, people still make the association that I’m an ad agency professional that deals with clients. This is needed if you think you represent your community.

I’ve wanted to write about Adam for a while he’s really grown his community well and shows he cares about his member’s investments.

We have an opportunity to take technology made in English and apply it to category killer domains in a variety of languages still. Even if it’s one site in English follow some of the tips he gives then apply it to your portfolio.
www.DNForum.com

***Disclaimer***
Please don’t take my post as any reference to any other domain communities.

In Tokyo there are a few different auction platforms. Most have been active for over a year. The four main ones are Humeia, Rat, Onamae and WIXI. The first two were really behind closed doors until recently.

At the end of the month in December when the jp drop happened I have a feeling things went a bit too automated. No one was around to check which drops were caught. All of the systems catch .jps and immediately put them up for auction. There wasn’t a lot of great terms to catch to begin with. Also if the auctions just go until the 5th no one is really into business mode until the 5 or so.

I’m making these assumptions because I hand registered belt.jp at about 1pm on New Years day. Usually I don’t comment about auctions while they are happening but this month doesn’t have a ton of great selections. Affiliate.jp that’s a fabulous domain but doesn’t seem to be in the auctions yet. I think that will be the money maker.

Happy New Year.

It’s the end of the year and want to wish many of you readers Happy Holidays.

I want to thank J-Seed which was the former incubator that my company came from.

I want to thank Amir of Zenlok for giving me a great start in a much higher level of digital marketing.

I want to thank Bamba San of DMM for the great projects we’ve done and will do in the future.

A bit late but I want to thank Ash formerly from NameDrive. You coming to Tokyo from 2006 to 2008 and hooking up is really paying off now in the form of WIXI.

WIXI team especially Darshaun and Steve. Thank you for creating WIXI and continuing to expand the domaining market in Japan. People don’t even realize that dot jps even being sold outside of Japan was because of your work years ago. Two pioneers from years back. Steve I’ll thank you in a day or two in the form of beer.

GroupM Mediacom MEC Mindshare Maxus Outrider Worldwide.
I work at GroupM as one of the heads of paid search and digital media technology. I’m grateful to be able to use knowledge I gain and coordinate with the top marketing directors worldwide. Some strategies that I’ve introduced to clients came from my developing of domains.

IDN Talk readers.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I’ve never been the one to tell you to sell the house to buy up all the IDN Domains you can. I actually believe that you could just buy or or two great domains and make more than any of us.
Investments are just that investments. It will affect your life.

If you want to have a few good marketing tips and insight from a person who works in digital advertising in Tokyo, I write for you.

Last tip of the year. Your Japanese traffic should increase until the 4th. From today Japanese consumers will leave their PCs and browse the web via their smartphones. Actually it started earlier in the week. It might not be true for strict business terms.

Happy Holidays

Can we base a domain’s value on current traffic?

I look over my domain portfolio & try not to base it on current traffic or parking revenue. Even though it’s good that the portfolio can pay for itself traffic & parking revenue IS NOT GUARANTEED. It’s important that you realize how you get those clicks in the first place.

A lot of people think increase of traffic means increase of Natives typing in their domain with the extension.
Think about it for a second. Do you do that? Do any of your friends do that? Any intelligent person that you work with do that?
The answer: No BUT THEY Do that…
Who are these mythical THEY?

1. iPhone
In Japan traffic is mostly increasing to parked domains because of the iPhone. It was just released to it’s second carrier in Japan. The default browser Safari adds dot com to any keyword entered into the address bar.

2. Mobile Advertising
Mobile Advertising is already robust in Japan but advertisers are switching from normal Japanese cellphone ads to more smartphone based ads. More advertisers means better ads displayed on parking.

3. Yen
The Yen is super strong right now against the dollar. WIXI optimizes my portfolio for me so I don’t do much but my parking revenue is way higher than it was just last year or even years ago. Let’s say that I get a 200 yen click today that’s $2.50 where in 2007 that would have been $1.76. Big difference. Also many international companies are increasing advertising budgets in Japan.

Mobile advertising will continue to increase but no one can guarantee that keywords from Safari’s address bar will continue to go to dot com by default. No one can also guarantee that the Yen will be so strong against the dollar forever.

When it comes to new IDN extensions they will have no relevancy to traffic. I’m basing this off of the fact that I have actually inserted Google Analytics on several of my high traffic IDN domains that are parked.  About 99% of the traffic came from Safari browsers. NameDrive WIXI and other parking stats see this as Direct Traffic, others in the industry even call it “Natural Traffic”, but it isn’t. If most of your traffic is coming from a browser direct, why would an educated person believe it will increase with new IDN extensions?

We’ll go back to my previous question.
Would you randomly type in a keyword insert an extension in your own language & go and buy something?
Think about it for a second. Do you do that? Do any of your friends do that? Any intelligent person that you work with do that?
The answer: No BUT THEY Do that…
Who are these mythical THEY? (Yeah I copied & pasted it because it’s the same result)

This so called Natural traffic is not Natural & we can’t guarantee it. So I believe we cannot hold & base domain value solely based on current traffic. Also some are holding out waiting for new extensions for dot com in various languages to increase their traffic & revenue. If a person cannot simply research where their traffic is coming from, how can you trust your investment in their hands based on their opinions?

I do believe we can firmly base domain value on search volume & competitiveness of the keyword. I don’t want you to believe this post is a negative look at IDN or any domain. It isn’t. I also want people who are waiting for whatever reason to have accurate information on what they are waiting for & why.

For those who disbelieve that their high traffic domain maybe coming from a browser redirect. I suggest try it. When I started doing this using an iFrame was ok. For one week take 3 of your high traffic domains. Put it in an iFrame & insert Google analytics code to see where your traffic is coming from. Look at the browser version number. Install the same exact version number of the browser & insert the keyword.

For dot nets dot jps etc you might find links to your domain that you didn’t know existed. I’ve found this on several of my dot jps that received traffic. Also sometimes people name their site in Japanese with my domain name. It’s happened with over 10 of my domains.

Happy Holidays guys. I write this for those who will listen & try to better your life based on facts.