Archive for the ‘Domains’ Category

Pool.com has been good to me in the past. I’ve acquired quite a few decent domains that were let go by others. Just the other day, however, I backordered an unexpected domain. I rarely check my pool account and sometimes I go a little overboard backordering. When I checked my email I was surprised to see that I was the proud owner of I’mLinked.com. I don’t remember backordering it, but it’s there in my account. Now, what to do with it? Hmmm…any ideas?

It would appear that I didn’t think enough about OverThinker.com. I’ve held onto the domain for the past year stewing over my intentions for it. Originally, my plan was to build something similar to To-Done with my own creative spin. It would have been something enjoyable, but I had to break ties with yet another domain.

My commitment to my current projects can’t be forgotten because I found my new domain for the day. Hey, I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m a domain junky. There I said it! Searching for quality domains has become a hobby and when I spotted OverThinker.com way back when I couldn’t help myself…very marketable domain in my opinion. Basically, it boiled down to the fact that I wasn’t passionate about my new idea. This in no way implies I won’t happily start additional projects. Maybe I’ll just take an additional minute to contemplate adding tomorrow’s domain of the day to my shopping cart ; – ).

In the end I decided an auction would be to painful. : – (
I simply posted that it was available for a low ball amount on my favorite webmaster forum and I had an offer within minutes. FYI…the new owner is considering building a conspiracy theory website. Could be interesting. So did we really land on the moon or what?

Great news for those of you following my attempts to surpass Alex McArthur the actor in SERPs (search engine result pages). About 2 months ago this domain was floating around the 10th page for search results on “Alex McArthur”. At the time AlexMcArthur.com consisted of one static page with very limited content. I’ve since turned this site into a blog with SEO friendly pages and it quickly jumped to number 2 on most search engines. Also, I took some time to submit to numerous directories and acquire a handful of linkbacks. It will be interesting to see what this sites PR (page rank) is after the next update. I expect a small jump to 2, maybe 3 if I’m lucky.

As far as the Alex McArthur (me) vs Alex McArthur (actor) challenge goes it appears a long road lays ahead. I’m sure there will be ups and downs along the way, but hopefully before I die he will feel the pain of being #2. The actor’s fan site has numerous linkbacks that will take me some time to outdo. Why do people have to be so obsessed with movie actors? Quit linking to the schmuk! Desperado wasn’t that good!

This site is optimized fairly well. I’m sure I could do some tweaking and include a few more keywords, but my first priority is to get as many linkbacks as possible. Too bad I have a job and a family or I could spend all day getting links. This site isn’t very high on my to-do list so be patient. However, it will be interesting to see what happens over time.

I found the domain LinkTree.org on a deleted domain list and had to register it. I often browse deleted domains and very rarely find anything interesting. A couple times a week I’ll come across something I’d buy, but by the time it’s in my shopping cart someone else has registered it. Probably by chance I’ve spotted two great names this year that I now own.

Tools I use to find expired domains:

• ExpiredDomains.com – Simple search interface for expiring domains. Basically a free service.
• DeletedDomains.com – Expired domain search tool. Last year a signed up for an account with these guys when their were few comparable services. The cost was $99. I regret it now as free options have popped up over time, however none have the email update system DeletedDomains has.
• Pool.com – This service is used to backorder domain names. This means if someone lets a domain you’ve backordered expire that pool will reserve it for you. First off, this service isn’t cheap at around $60 per successful backorder. Secondly, if anyone else has the domain backordered it will go to auction. I have a large list of backordered domains although I highly doubt any will ever get dropped by the owner. I have only 1 successful backorder to my name and it was for a client.

Back to the point…LinkTree.org. What does this name make you think of? I’d like to offer some sort of free service. Any thoughts?

Within the past year I acquired the domain SwapWay.com. I just happened to come across it and liked it’s potential so I grabbed it. The name gives the impression of some sort of trading site so at the moment I am comtemplating that. However, I am open to any ideas. Do you have anything in mind?

Name Recognition:
I have come across numerous trading sites in my searches, but there are none marketed well enough to dominate the market (*Maybe this is a clue that there is no market whatsoever). Personally, I think SwapWay is a marketable name that is easily remembered. Would you disagree? If so, why?

The Marketplace:
Honestly, I have just begun to look into the trading market so my knowledge is limited. I don’t know how many people would be willing to trade online rather than sell items on ebay. Would you ever trade an item online?

Profit:
Presently, I imagine SwapWay’s business model focused on advertisments and add on features such as pictures showing the product or priority placement. The standard listings themselves would be free. I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of successful online ventures offer free services to appeal to the masses and keep them coming back.

Yes, I’m just babbling as I’m building this plan from scratch and at the moment have no direction. Any comments would be much appreciated.