Now this might not of made any sense whatsoever, but I will be the first one to admit that focusing on buying and selling domain names full time caused me to make a number of poor decisions.  Now that my time is limited I am forced to make better decisions with my names and truly do value focusing on one project at a time.  With that said, lets revisit one project that I am generating a little momentum on.

DataCenterDirectory.com

The site is up and running, but will continue to be in beta stage until I feel it is ready to officially launch.  Creating a launch date for myself is the first realistic task at hand.  I am now a weekend warrior and will allocate set periods of time to solely work on developing this name.  I have an enetrepreneur’s mindset and come up with great ideas on a weekly basis, its important for me to control the creation of these ideas and perhaps write them down in a notebook and get back to them at a later date.  Focus is definitely the key and for DataCenterDirectory.com to become a successful site it will require all the attention I can give it over the next few months.

Today also marks the first day of a schedule I have created for myself.  Every Sunday (with the exception of when I am traveling or on vacation) I have allocated around three to four hours to solely concentrate on domaining.  This time period will normally stretch from around 11 to 2.  I would of made it earlier but I tend to enjoy my rest on the weekends.  Today I am actually shifting gears a bit and am currently working a little later at the office that I have in Downtown.  I could easily work from home, but I feel it is important to get out of the natural habitat you are used to and place a little more emphasis on work.  There is something about driving to work, even if it is on a Sunday that helps my mind get into work mode.  Now that I have a full time job, I use the office in Downtown to escape and focus.  Its kind of my office away from the office.

These days it is important for me to have a space which allows me to zone in on what I want to complete.  As a domainer my three main objective are:

1.  Grow My Network Of Sites One Project At A Time

2.  Blog About My Experiences (This really does help me stay on track as a domainer.)

3.  Continue To Grow The Southern California Domaining Group (One Member At A Time!)

This industry is full of weekend warriors which tend to bend time to there favor.  I have learned a great deal from these wizards and am now ready to do the same.  I look forward to the next domaining adventure and who knows I just might see you guys in Florida a little later this year.

This was one of the smallest meetups we have had, but the conversation was simply amazing. I can’t begin to tell you how lucky I felt to be in a room discussing topics with such a diverse group of minds.  Our meetup consisted of ten members and Morgan Linton spearheaded the conversation by announcing our official committees.  Drum roll please!  The following committees made the cut:

1.  Domain Monetization and Development  (9 Votes)

2.  Selling Domains (5 Votes)

3.  Lead Generation And Affiliate Marketing (4 Votes)

Our members voted and the rest is now history.  In case you are wondering about the other categories that did not make the cut I have listed them here for curiosity sake:

4.  ccTLDS and IDNs (3 Votes)

5.  Hosting and Business Tech (2 Votes)

The new committee structure will be  a great addition to our group.  Members will now have an organized platform to learn, provide insight, inquire about services or simply connect with those that are interested in the same subject matter.

Half way into June’s meetup Michael Castello made a great recommendation which completely transformed the entire room.  Initially members were speaking to each other based on there location around the conference room table.  This created several private conversations, which in the end didn’t really benefit the entire group.  Michael, suggested that we try an open question and answer session.  Not only did the open Q & A session work, it kept all of us glued to our chairs well into the night!  Its amazing how much you can learn from people when everyone is free to ask questions and provide answers.  During the Q & A session I truly felt like I was at a domaining conference.

This is why my blog entry is titled “It Was All A Dream.”  I learned an incredible amount of information about domaining and couldn’t help but to think that this circle of minds was the root of the reason.  You couldn’t pay for this type of information and the member insight unfolded as if I were in a dream.  June’s meetup has invigorated me and I am thankful that Southern California has such a great set of domainers willing to meet every month to discuss the topics that are important to them.

I look forward to July’s meetup, let me rephrase that.  I look forward to every month’s meetup!  Morgan and I are commited  to making the meetups better each month.  We are even discussing taping future sessions and making them available for you to download right to your computer!  Since Morgan is the video expert I am sure that it will be done to perfection!  There was even an idea of streaming the meetups live.  We want as many of you out there to benefit from the discussions we have and this is our way of providing a transparent window into the SCDG.  Who knows what the future will hold for us!  Whatever it maybe we look forward to it!

Here are a few pictures, taken by both Morgan and I during the meetup:

Lucky me, since I took Tony up on the offer for the 2009 Zappos Culture book at DOMAINfest my name happened to be on the list to receive a free copy of his new book entitled, “Delivering Happiness:  A Path To Profits, Passion, And Purpose.”  This book couldn’t of come at a better time!  I am on the hunt to read as many great biographies as humanly possible and since I received this book a couple of weeks ago I’ve already read 158 pages!

I am a sucker for a good book!  The main aspect I like about Tony’s new book is the fact that he details the struggle of being an entrepreneur and explains that things weren’t always as easy as some would of thought.  Not to give away the story, but he does explain how he risked it all to keep Zappos afloat during tough times.   Did his risk pay off?  The shoes sitting on my living room floor can provide you with that answer.

Entrepreneurs are special breeds.  I can relate to Tony’s story and have found a great deal of inspiration through out his entire book.  As domainers, I feel like we are all entrepreneurs and we need to continue to motivate one another.  Remember, we are in this together!  If you haven’t had the chance to place your hands on Delivering Happiness email ceo@zappos.com and who knows you just might receive the book for free to your doorstep!

The initial offer that I received for the domain name was $150.  This was a hand reg domain name so I will make a decent profit regardless of the final auction price.  Here is the description I included for the domain name:

This is a great name which could be used for lead generation or simply building an insurance company site on. Are you in the insurance market? Does your company sell “Town Home Insurance”? If so, this is the perfect domain name for you!

According to Google, in the month of May there were over 260 people searching for the term “Town Home Insurance.” Build a site and capture this niche target market!

If you are interested in bidding on this domain name, now would be the time to do it.  Feel free to visit the auction and make an offer!  At the time of typing this blog entry there are a total of five days left before the auction is over.  Happy Bidding!

I don’t get many letters addressed to the blog so I figured it might be some sort of joke!  After I proceeded to open the package I realized this joke was more of a prank.  One that had my two business associates in the office Downtown laughing out loud!  The package came from China and contain three to four packing envelopes within it.  Every envelope had its very own custom message.  You can view the photos below to get a better ideas of what these messages were.  Each envelope presented a new challenge.  I say challenge because it felt like there was about a pound of tape wrapped around each of them!

After about the fourth envelope, guess what I found?  Well it was a can of SPAM of course!  Not just any can of SPAM, this can had a custom label which stated that it was Proudly Made in Communist China!  I knew something was up when I read that.  One of my business partners said we should open the can up, but I decided to leave it closed to keep it as a memento for others to get a kick out of.  Here is exactly what the front of the label says:

PROTEIN (AKA MELAMINE)
SPAM
NOW INCLUDES MELAMINE MORE PROTEINS
SEE BACK FOR DETAILS
ATTILA THE HUN FOODS
NET WT. 12 OZ. (340g)

On the back of the label, there is a LEGAL NOTICE which states the following:

THIS TO SERVE AS LEGAL NOTICE TO ANYONE WHO EAT OR HANDLE OUR PRODUCTS.  SHALL YOU CATCH A DISEASE OR EVEN DIE WHILE CONSUMING OUR FOODS.  PLEASE BLAME YOUR BODILY SYSTEM FOR REJECTING OUR POISONESS-LIKE MATERIAL OF A FOOD WE CALL SPAM IN A CAN.  WE WILL NOT BE HELP RESPONSIBLE NOR WILL WE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY.  IN FACT, WE DON”T EVEN CARE AS WE ARE IN CHINA.  EVERY WEEK WE WORK HARD TO SERVE YOU MAL-NUTRITIONED FOODS WHERE WE ADD PROTEIN LIKE MATERIALS TO FOOL YOU SILLY…

LOL!  I had to cut it short as the back of the label says a few things which a few of you might feel is a little over the top.  Attila, let me know when you fly out to Los Angeles and we can fry up the SPAM that you sent me from CHINA!  Here are a few of the pictures that I took of the prank package.  Go Lakers!  Enjoy!

In addition to the expo, the Lakers won game 6 and fans all over Los Angeles are eagerly awaiting to see them win another championship this Thursday, June 17th 5:30pm PST at the Staples Center.  Can you imagine what it feels like to be here right now?  I can’t even describe the energy which is currently running through this city.

This brings me to today’s domain spotlight!  As if E3 needed anymore publicity, but I must say if you haven’t been to the expo it is well worth it.  A few years ago, when I was still in college a friend of mine asked me if I wanted a ticket to the expo and of course I said yes.  Turns out his father invested in a video game company which provided them with a couple of free passes to E3.  Unfortunately that company went belly up and he no longer receives such passes.

Now lets focus our attention on the expo’s main domain name E3Expo.com. This domain name is short and to the point.  It is an extremely easy domain name to remember!  It has a total of six characters, with the last four characters of the domain name ending with a punch.  If you are in Los Angeles and don’t have any hookups to get into the expo for free, surf on over to E3Expo.com and click on the top right button entitled, Go to E3Expo.com! Then prepare to be presented with the following message:

“E3 Expo 2010 Attendee Registration has closed.”

Oh well, better luck next time!

On Thursday evening I plan on celebrating across the street from the Staples Center at LA Live.  I’ll make sure to take my SLR with me and try and capture as many moments as I can for you guys.  Who knows, maybe E3 will let me in on a media pass of some sort.  You’d be amazed at what a good digital camera does for you these days.  Enjoy!

On the documents itself there is a reference number which states that this is a seller’s invoice.  Perhaps this is there way of telling me that they are closing out my Yahoo Publisher’s account.  Whatever it may be I just knew the envelope would contain a check, one with a few digits on it.  I’m not surprised to say the least, I don’t tend to use my Yahoo! Publisher’s account and don’t even think that I have any domain names currently displaying Yahoo! ads.

It just seems like a waste of money for a company such as Yahoo! to send a check for $0.  Even worst the check displays the following PAY…ZERO DOLLARS OO CENTS.  I guess zero doesn’t always mean zero in this day and age.  They felt it was important to make sure that when I do deposit a check for $0 that this will in fact be the amount which is placed into my bank account.  LOL!  Give me a break, they didn’t need to send this check at all.

I am almost tempted to take the check to my local bank and present it to the teller for a good laugh.   Here’s a picture of it so you can see it for yourself!

Now that consumers have experienced what 3D has to offer, what is the next step?  The next step is to create compact experiences that users can enjoy within there own homes.  The 3D technology has matured and consumers are in line to buy the experience.

After reading about Sony’s 3D game launch I couldn’t help to think about the domain names which could potentially capture such a market.  I looked up both 3dGame.com and 3dGames.com and what did I find?  Absolutely nothing!  I am disappointed to announce that both of these domain names are parked.  A great opportunity is being missed here.

Are the owners paying attention to the current craze for 3D Games?  Something tells me that they might be in the market to flip the names and have someone else develop the property.  If there was ever such a time to sell the domain name it would be now!  3D technology has been around for quite some time, but it has never been as advanced as it is now.

When I was younger I was the proud owner of a Sega Master System.  This was one of the first consoles ever developed.  One of my favorite games on the console was called Missile Defense 3D.  To play this game you had to put on 3D glasses which were directly connected to the console.  Sega was way ahead of its time with this game and was never able to overtake the popularity of Nintendo’s Duck Hunt.

The demand is there now and consumers are ready.  Hopefully the owners of 3DGame.com and 3dGames.com are also ready to serve these hungry gamers!

Although there are several main stream group buying sites already out there, that won’t stop the masses from joining in on the craze.  Adding to this fervor is the top group buying site called Groupon.  Estimated at over one billion dollars Groupon reinvented the group buying craze.  I know it is hard to believe, but here is a great article which explains how they achieved this.

Now that I have given you a little background information on why I decided to register the domain name, lets talk about how the buyer proceeded to move forward.  Here is the first email I received on June 7th:

hi,
I need a price for groupbuyingscript.com.
thanks

This is a great way to ask.  The buyer wanted me to tell him the price I would be willing to sell the domain name for.  Since I don’t have an actual price in mind this makes it difficult to provide one.  I could provide a range or I could ask the buyer what his budget is for such a domain.  I decided not to do any of the things that I mentioned above.  I went ahead and decided to let the buyer know that they could make an offer.  Here is the reply email that I sent:

Hi (Blank),

Jason

I went the feel free to make an offer route.  This makes it fair for the both of us.  Locking yourself into a set price before negotiations begin is similar to shooting yourself in the foot.  I felt it was important to promptly reply to the prospective buyer’s inquiry.  This shows the buyer that I mean business and am actually interested in selling the domain name.   The buyer promptly replies with the following email:

Hi Jason,
yes, I know you own the other domain as well….and a couple of hundreds more
I’m on a tight budged -aren’t we all? so maybe we can make a trade. What sorts of domain names are you interested in?
Regards,
(Blank)

The buyer is obviously not an end-user.  Now the treading on thin water begins.  This email does not provide me with the information that I am looking for.  There is not mention of a firm offer.  In my opinion the potential buyer just through a curve ball towards my direction.  He states that he is on a tight budget and even brings up that he would be willing to barter!  These days a tight budget can mean almost anything, but the point I think the buyer was trying to get across is he doesn’t really want to make a firm offer because he has other domain names in mind which could potentially be used for his project.  Here is my reply:

Hey (Blank),

Jason

I was very brief in my reply.  I felt it was important not to entertain any sort of barter.  Since a firm offer has not been made, I reemphasized that I am interested in a dollar based offer regardless of how small or large it may be.  Again tight budgets can mean almost anything these days.  At this point I am starting to wonder if the buyer is serious about moving forward or not.  Lets see what they have to say:

Hi,
this domain name would be perfect for a script that I’ll launch in about one month.
I don’t have much money to offer at this point, that’s why I was looking to see if you would be interested in a barter trade or at least to find out if your desired priced could ever be affordable for me, so I can find another domain before it’s too late.
(Blank)

Now we are talking, the potential buyer has disclosed some sensitive information.  He has confirmed what I thought from the beginning.  He is entering into the group buying market with a script.  Great choice in my opinion, in fact it is something that I have thought about doing as well.  But before we jump into that story lets focus on this pending transaction.  I call it pending because it really hasn’t gained enough traction to consider it to be sale!  The buyer is dedicating the majority of his budget to the development of his script and probably a website to go with it as well.  But wait!  There is something missing here…What about a great domain name which is easily recognized by the masses?  A domain name is not something to be overlooked, I can almost guarantee that there will be a great deal of group buying scripts hitting the Internet in the near future.  What’s going to separate you from the rest?  A domain name will so lets talk business.  Here is my reply to the buyer:

(Blank),

I completely understand.  I always ask for an offer before any negotiations take place.  I am a fair person and am more than willing to work with you.  If for some reason your offer doesn’t fit what I am looking for we can always discuss a domain leasing agreement.  Thanks and I look forward to working out a great deal for the two of us.

Best Regards,

Jason Thompson

With the email listed above, I was able to get my point across.  I want the buyer to understand that this transaction needs to be fair for both parties involved.  Why move forward with a transaction which is one sided?  That is not how I conduct business, I always want the person that I am transacting with to benefit equally as much as me.  The other idea is to come up with a profit sharing agreement.  If the person doesn’t have the budget to buy the domain name outright and isn’t interested in leasing the domain name, we can determine whether a profit sharing agreement would be a potential avenue to take.  This would make things a little more complex, I would request to see a business / marketing plan of some sort.  I would need to know how they plan on making money with this script and if there is  a strategy.

For now we wait, I haven’t heard back from the buyer and the pending transaction can either go North or South.  But let me now post the question to you guys!

What would you do?

Domaining 2.0 Launches One-Stop-Shop for News, Information and Analysis in the Booming Domain Name Industry, and offers Free Domain Development eBook

Domaining 2.0 redefines the start-page for domainers with robust Web 2.0 information portal to the world of Domaining. Open platform includes Twitter, Facebook and social networking integration, and advanced SEO benefits to Content Partners. For a limited time, Domaining 2.0 is also offering a free Beyond Domaining domain development eBook to new newsletter subscribers.

(PRWEB) May 26, 2010 — Scott Carde, founder of the successful domain development franchise Beyond Domaining, and low cost web host and domain name registrar jRegister.com, today unveiled his latest series of services geared towards the domain name industry community. Domaining 2.0 (http://domaining20.com (http://domaining20.com)) provides a robust information portal to the world of Domaining, and includes an innovative browser based Domainers Toolbar and Daily Digest email newsletter of the top Domain Name Industry News Headlines (http://domaining20.com/newsletter-subscribe/). New Daily Digest newsletter subscribers will receive a free eBook from the very popular Beyond Domaining domain development eBook series.

“In 2009 we empowered domainers with Beyond Domaining, our do-it-yourself web site development system, and with jRegister.com, a popular destination for cheap domain name registration and web hosting services (http://jregister.com). In 2010 we set out to release a next generation information portal with Domaining 2.0 that would be helpful to anyone interested in following the latest developments in the burgeoning domain name industry,” says Scott Carde.

Domaining 2.0 (http://domaining20.com) syndicates, tags, categorizes, and re-broadcasts news and analysis from the most trusted sources in the domain name industry. Headlines from the leading authorities in the domain name industry at outlets such as David-Carter.com, DirectNavigation.com, DNJournal.com, DNXPERT.com, ICANN, IDNblog.com, MorganLinton.com, and many more can all be found at Domaining 2.0.

Mr. Carde and his team are experts at search engine optimization (SEO) and social networking, and at building online interactive communities. Domaining 2.0 leverages this expertise to provide incremental SEO benefits to Content Partners through advanced tactics such as Keyword, Category, and Tag Stacking. Such tactics help search engines determine the original author of a piece of content which protects original content authors from search engine results page (SERP) link spam.

Domaining 2.0 SEO methods crowd out competing and irrelevant search results from long tail search queries that rightfully belong to domain name industry blog and web site owners.

Users benefit from Domaining 2.0 in four ways: a more robust domain industry information search and browse experience, a daily digest of the top domain name industry news headlines (http://domaining20.com/newsletter-subscribe/) delivered by email each day, a Domainers Toolbar (http://domaining20.com/install-domaining-2-0-toolbar/) that provides one-click access to common tasks during a domainer’s workday, and an open platform for publishing domain name news, thoughts and analysis at any time.

“Our platform is the most flexible. We give complete control to all members of the Domaining community to publish content on our platform. Valued RSS content partners such as DotWeekly.com and UDRPcommentaries.com can choose exactly how much content to syndicate to us. Some partners choose to syndicate intro article excerpts of a limited length, and others choose to syndicate their full posts,” says Mr. Carde.

Mr. Carde goes on to say, “We have the flexibility to syndicate as much or as little content as an owner likes, and individual domainers without a blog or web site are welcome to post content on our site right alongside the ‘big guys’. They can just go in and sign up for an account, send us their Google AdSense or favorite Domain Name Affiliate Program (http://beyond-domaining.com/affiliates/) code, and then begin publishing Domaining content on our site and earning money through Google AdSense almost immediately.”

TRAFFIC Conference Co-Founder, and Internet Lawyer, Howard Neu was the first to break the news on Domaining 2.0’s launch on his popular blog located at HowardNeu.com. In his blog post titled, “Domaining.com Gets Serious Competition,” he says, “the winds of change are blowing” and cites Domaining 2.0 as the “new kid on the block,” going on to observe “Domaining 2.0, (Domaining20.com) features each new article that is blogged from the myriad of blogging sources.”

As promotion for the new Domaining 2.0 web site, and for a limited time, Domaining 2.0 is offering a Free eBook (http://beyond-domaining.com) from Beyond Domaining to new subscribers of the Domaining 2.0 Daily Digest email newsletter.

Beyond Domaining Domain Development (http://beyond-domaining.com) eBooks have never been made available to the public for free before, so anyone curious about Beyond Domaining or Domaining 2.0 can take advantage of this opportunity to obtain a free copy of the eBook and a new subscription to the popular Domaining 2.0 Daily Digest. Beyond Domaining eBooks currently sell for $50 each and are perennially one of the most popular paid products in the Domains category in the ClickBank Marketplace.

About Domaining 2.0

Domaining 2.0 is dedicated to the promotion of domain name industry news, opinion and analysis. The brightest names in the industry can be found at the Domaining 2.0 web site, in Domaining 2.0 Daily Digest newsletter, and on the Domaining 2.0 Toolbar on a contributing and syndicated basis. Domaining 2.0 offers a collaborative environment with an open-door policy for all Domainers to syndicate their blog or web site content as an RSS Content Partner, or to publish their thoughts as a Contributing Writer at any time.

About Beyond Domaining

Beyond Domaining offers step by step illustrated guidebooks for rapidly launching powerful web sites. Initially developed for members of the Domaining community looking to earn more money from their domain names than parked pages, Beyond Domaining has been increasingly used by domain name owners and Internet entrepreneurs from all walks of life to launch full blown web sites. At last count, Beyond Domaining was powering nearly 1 million web pages indexed in Google, and it is currently being used to power the Domaining 2.0 web site.

About jRegister.com

jRegister.com offers full service web hosting and domain names at shockingly low prices. jRegister.com offers free one-click installs for all the popular content management systems (CMS), including WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, phpBB, Coppermine, Gallery, MediaWiki, and ZenCart with each new web hosting account. jRegister.com provides award winning 24/7 Free customer service and support.