This is the 100th post from IDNTalk.com
Even though I created the first IDN Forum I did not create the first IDN Blog. IDN Blog began in February 2006 while IDN Talk began in November 2006 (maybe a little earlier). IDN Forums actually had a blog I maintained since November 2005 & those posts have been added here too.
I wanted to do a best post wrappup but looking through this blog it just has too much good stuff you don’t see anywhere else.
Through out my time blogging about IDNs & the Japanese maket there are a few points that I keep repeating.
Develop – It’s been 5 years & more either I or others have been into IDN domains. Minisite creation was a suggestion by me so IDN Domain holders can get used to the process of development. Development is a learning process. If you have experience & know what needs to be done you can create teams of multinationals for development. Starting now is basically pretty late.
Commercial Terms – Get commercial terms. If possible get terms that rely on the internet.
Extensions that make sense to the market – Only recently did Japanese domain services even offer IDNs in anything other than .jp, or .com. I have to update a previous posts but before those other extensions were not available generally in Japanese. Never would I advise anyone to get any extension for Japan except .jp, .com, or .net. I dropped other extensions I had.
Set a Budget – invest within your budget. Sell if you like not because you have to. If you are selling because you have too much people are only going to mainly want your best at their prices.
In the future I will be splitting my blogging time between here & my site International Sem
100 posts & almost 5 years later guys (gerls) control your investments. I don’t want to wait for folks to magically come to my domains & click something. It’s more rewarding to develop something that users want to go to & influence buying decisions. Think New School…
What can you do with my IDN Domains that I can’t?
I think of my IDN investments in terms of quality of the keyword, size of the market of the term, etc.
I personally think for those of us who invested around 2006 when it was a literal free for all we should not be selling these domains for pennies right now.
We have the knowledge to know that many of the domain investors who are selling for high figures now actually have been holding onto their portfolios for more than 10 years. So I looked at the investment in those terms. I don’t believe targeted consumers will automatically attach ” dot com” or “dot anything” to keywords. Browsers did though. This made parking page monitization easier.
Over the last year or two I have got offers through my whois, for some of my domains. Unfortunately it’s almost always offers for the exact same domains. I keep wondering, if I give you the top tier Japanese domains now, what will you do differently that I can’t do? Sit on it & wait another 5 years when the market is better & resell it? I can do that. I feel most of the offers have been really OK for today’s IDN market.
Anyway I want to take my investment steps further & not just limit it to a domain portfolio.
This all just personal thoughts.. Create your own future.
Geo Site #2 Launched LosAngeles.jp – ロサンゼルス.jp
Ok we seem to be meeting our self set deadlines.
The Japan Geo team has finished phase 1 of Our Los Angeles site.
ロサンゼルス.jp is live we kept the designs same for now, as our main focus is fixing technology to work well with IDNs. Then we can concentrate on making the sites a bit more unique. We also emphasize on what content we put in the site that appeals to our target users. We are also choosing destinations that interest ourselves so that we learn a little bit more about the cities we write the content for. Even being a Boston native when I do the Boston site I’m sure to get more familiar with the hometown I left.
Anyway on to the next travel destination. Great work Japan Geo Team.
It’s the team that makes the difference. We are trying to create long term ventures.
I hope that others following the blog take action too.
Japan Geo site 2
We are almost finished with the second site for the Japan Geo project. Actually I shouldn’t use the term finished but more of phase 1 of the site. Development should be continuous. Most of what takes so long is ignored by the average onlooker.
With Goldenweek coming up soon we should be finished this week to complete our goal of launching 1 Geo site per month. Even though we just started the simple data & A/B testing from making the second site already enhanced what we did for NewYorkCity.jp. For site number 3 I am going to incorporate some new technical solutions to see what are the results.
I’ll be quite happy when we are finished with phase 1 of 5 sites. Then we can bring them all to another phase of the project scope. The only setback will be the team has already started to develop other projects spurred by this synergy.
I’ll try to write somethings about development here but truthfully I think most of the stuff I’ve discovered should have been on the net by now. If you decide to sell your IDNs it is most useful if you can easily answer development issues to potential buyers. The Japan Geo network isn’t just a bunch of sites. It’s going to be an example for IDN development in a highly competitive industry. It’s also ongoing.
I have today & tomorrow to finish my part of JG2 (Japan Geo #2) before I start on #3.
We know the designs are too similar but that’s on purpose for now. We’ll change it later.
車選び.com puts their IDN in use
車選び.com puts their IDN domain in use finally.
After about a year of contacting them they finally got their domain up.
The site is branded with the Japanese characters & unfortunately when I started in IDNs I registered the IDN cause it came up in overture keyword tool.
Afterwards I realized if I dropped the domain they would never be able to use it.
So I kept conversating with ValueCommerce to put me in contact with someone there so I can give (YES GIVE) them the domain. All I wanted was for them to actively use it.
So right now it seems they have built a site around the IDN.
These are smart folks & 車選び.com has become an example for IDN Developers.
