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The 7 Domaining Niches March 30, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Business, Domains, internet.
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When you first get into domain name acquisition and development business, the first question that should inevitably pop into your mind is “Why do people go online?”… “What do they care about when they are browsing the internet? What are they looking for?” The answers to these questions will help you determine which product and service categories to specialize in, targetting your domain and website portfolio to these niches. I have come to the conclusion that there are primarily 7 areas of interest for potential consumers browsing the web. They are:

1) Money & Banking. This should be a no-brainer. There is money in working with money.

2) Health and Medicine. People get sick. That is a fact of life, and it will stay that way. There will never be a “miracle cure” for all human ailments, no magical panacea. The more people on the planet, the more health problems, and the greater number of expensive treatments for them.

3) Love and Adult Entertainment. Another no-brainer, but it must be mentioned. You can do very well by running an online personals site, judging by the sheer number of them out there, and their relative popularity. This is assuming that you have a good business and marketing plan, obviously. What will you offer that no one else does? How will you position your service to stand out from the rest?

4) Information Technology. The most frequent users of the web are the people directly involved in the IT industry, though this is slowly changing. One drawback to trying to cater your portfolio to this group of people, is that they are the most likely to know the difference between a parking page and a “real” website.

5) Specific product and service search. Your floor tiles, ladies watches, legal services, etc. would fall under this heading.

6) Careers. Almost every single person on the planet will need to look for a job multiple times throughout their lives. Why not make their lives easier and make a small return along the way?

7) Leisure. Here I would include everything from social networking to parks & recreation to book recommendations. This is a huge and varied niche, though it would be more difficult to sell high volumes of expensive products by focusing on this category compared to catering to niches #2 and #3 listed above, for example.

These are my thoughts, and I eventually seek to develop websites to cater to every single one of these niches separately, though it may be better to focus your efforts on one or two specific, narrower markets, which you are most familiar with, where you’ve had prior experience, or that simply interest you most. The dominant strategy then, is to register, or acquire (if you are well-capitalized) the category-defining domain names within the niches you identify, the more the better, and begin creating your own little media empire. Best of luck to you, me, and everyone else. There is a lot of good to go around.

 I hope this was useful.

Life as a Vicious Cycle… .or the greatest blessing? March 29, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Comedy, Fulfillment, Life, Purpose, beer, satire.
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“People all grow up to die.” – System of a Down

“The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.” – Leo Tolstoy

I wish that one day, sometime soon, I would just wake up and be a billionaire (who doesn’t?). I hate having to “work” for a living. The whole concept seems totally counterintuitive to me. Why can’t I just move to Monaco already, live out my life on a yacht in the peaceful harbor, be a good host to friends and relatives, challenge strangers to battles of wits, read Balzac, Tolstoy, and Dostoevsky, write more blogs such as this one, hold heated discussions about minorities and other racy issues (JUST KIDDING!), smoke cranberry hookah and drink fine Belgian beer, host lavish parties from dusk till dawn, and make this lifestyle a part of my every day reality, rather than a mere dream I keep playing over and over in my mind just before I have to crack open my eyes at 7:30AM every weekday morning. What indeed is the point of life? Many say “children.” What an evil joke, however, god is playing on us, forcing every new generation of humans to grow, learn, and practice the same boring skills necessary for self-sustenance and survival, rediscovering the same ideas, over and over again. Where is this all headed, and why must I be a part of it? I believe that we all deserve our own little piece of paradise, and deep in my heart, I trust that we can all have it, that and a quiet peace of mind for the short amount of time we’ve been allotted on this planet, to take life in with great big breaths of wonderful, instead of short gasps of suffering merely to endure, and never really to begin to live. How do I manifest my dreams… and do it quickly?

Can you figure it out if and when you need to? (QUICKLY!) March 29, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Business, Society, internet, technology.
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In a world that is overflowing with superfluous data, being able to sort through the heap, identify, keep track of, interpret, and synthesize the information that really matters (or matters to your particular purpose) efficiently, is quickly becoming a vital skill for just about any individual desiring to succeed in any trade or profession that is in demand today. This goes back to much of what Tom Friedman was talking about in his excellent work, “The World is Flat.” A huge part of this skillset involves being able to use the internet, of course. Fortunately, the technologies available to us for sorting through this proverbial “information pile” are evolving almost as quickly as our needs for them grow. However, keeping track of the resources that are available to us is a tall order all on its own! For example, just a few years ago, the browser address bar and a few original search engines were pretty much all we had to work with… Even now, huge amounts of type-in traffic to websites and parked pages seem to indicate that a large portion of internet users are not yet adept at utilizing even this simple search method (meaning SEs). But what percentage of internet users are aware of newer, more specialized technologies that allow you focus your search on forums (i.e. BoardReader, Omgili, etc.), images, videos, previously asked questions (i.e. Assista, Amason’s Askville, etc.). There are specialized algorithms for finding the right videos, images, jobs and products, whatever it is you are searching for, yet so many people are still stumbling around in the dark, having absolutely no clue about the wide range of sophisticated tools and shortcuts available to aid them in their quest for knowledge. Even I am not as adept at managing, locating, and synthesizing data as effectively as I would like to be… One piece of advice I can leave you with, is that in addition to stocking all of the tools mentioned above in your search arsenal, you should try to visit TechCrunch often and to subscribe to their newsletter to get updates on rising startups in the industry to stay abreast of the evolution of this massive, dynamic behemoth, that we call INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, and the various methods available to us for traversing the expansive oceans of internet media.

Ask yourself, what percentage of your total time do you spend searching for things? Realize that this time is no-value-added. Then, figure out how to eliminate this drain on your resources.

“Lord of War” Arrested. March 26, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Business, Movies, Society, curious finds.
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The movie was based on a fictionalized story of guy’s life:

NY Times Article

WE’RE ALL DONE! The latest Krugman editorial… March 22, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Business, Domains, Investing, economy.
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Brilliant economist and op/ed. columnist for the New York Times Paul Krugman has a way of dumbing down comlex, overarching economic issues into brief and elegant commentaries so that even intellectually challenged, ADD people like myself can get a whif of what the hell is going on and which way the financial winds are blowing. The latest article is a short and insightful discussion on where we currently stand economically, and where we may end up a few months from now, unless serious economic policy shortfalls and banking trust issues are dealt with: Partying Like It’s 1929.

What Krugman is basically saying, is that the economic failsafes implemented by Congress after the Great Depression have either been legislated away, or circumvented by clever financial engineering. What Krugman fears, and what we should all indeed fear, is that the current credit (i.e. confidence) crisis continues (it already started with last week’s BSC fiasco) as we enter a catastrophic period of failing trust (the worldwide economy at this point is just one big system of trust, of course), and potential bank runs. Neither is Krugman very supportive of the measures currently being taken by Paulson and major banks to avert the looming economic disaster as the lessons of the past have been forgotten or ignored.

More on the same: A Demon of Our Own Design (on the perils of financial innovation)

Another great Krugman editorial about the subprime crisis from October 2007. (Gone Baby, Gone)

This is afterall, supposed to be a blog dedicated to the domain name industry, no? So, what do you think this means for us fellow domainers? It certainly seems like the worldwide economic situation will get worse before it gets better, but when the storm does blow over (sooner or later everything blows over…), will we come out on top with our potentially priceless yet currently undervalued (and UNDERDEVELOPED) assets, or will our industry backed by nothing but computer code, virtual realities, and ambitious dreams fall and crumble once more, and maybe this time for good?

LIFE ON MARS? March 20, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in cosmos, science, technology.
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News.com reports that NASA’s Hubble telescope has just detected the presence of organic molecules of METHANE on a planet that is 63 light years away (quite a hike). Another telescope detected the presence of WATER molecules in the atmosphere of the same planet – wow!

One drawback is that the planet’s temperature is too high for life to exist on it quite yet. Read the story here: http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6235000-1.html

Domain names as status symbols? March 18, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Business, Comedy, Domains, Inspirational, Investing, Life, Society.
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The idea of domain names having purely collectible value (that is, in addition to the obvious commercial potential) has been raised by many individuals. What I want to touch upon today though, is a possible emerging trend that will have people pursuing domain names purely to say that they own a catchy name (we all agree that meaningful word combination DOT COMs are quickly becoming an increasingly scarce resource, correct?)

I mean, if everyone has a facebook or myspace page, why do we not all have our own domain name to go with it (think of the potential market here… think of this niche!!!)?

For example, the next time a girl tells me that I’m crazy or unreliable or whatever, I can quickly retort with: “Baby, I *OWN* EMOTIONALLYSTABLE.COM” – come on now, who’s with me? heh. I could use a similar trick to bring up my domain name FairyTaleLove.com , which I am about to begin developing by the way :-)

What do ya’ll think???

Recent registrations… don’t tell me that all good dot coms are taken! March 18, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Domains.
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If Bill Eisenmann’s “Unregistered Domain Names List” is not a part of your daily readings, I suggest you make it one now. Bill has given away some real gems over the last few weeks. Just today for example, I scooped up the following names that Bill posted: BecomeHot.com , SystemComparison.comTorahTeachings.com , and RookieRankings.com … The first two of these by the way have an Estibot value of $500+ Huge development potential there.

Check out Bill’s blog and sign up for his newsletter here: http://availabledomainnames.com/

Also, I registered EmotionallyStable.com on my own whim today. This baby has an Estibot value of $720.00 and 189k results in Google! Nice, eh? This one just begs to be made into a high-class dating site – ha! The domain also plays into my strategy of registering and potentially developing aspirational domain names (see older post below…)

Domain ideas from news articles March 17, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Domains, Society.
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The guys over at “Predictive Domaining” wrote a great read on catching on to rising trends by perusing recent press releases, as they reflect what is or may become popular and often have underlying commercial motivations. They give quite a few pointers and tips to get started.

Full post here: http://www.predictivedomaining.com/2008/03/17/press-releases/

I totally agree with this method. This is exactly how I scooped up some medical related names such as “TransplantScience.com” and growing trend names like “CarSharingReviews.com” I do hope my investment pays off in the future.

Places I might want to live after I graduate college March 17, 2008

Posted by unemployedalcoholic in Fulfillment, Goals, Inspirational, real estate.
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My goal to retire after graduation and become a traveling scholar / wandering sage still stands. I do want a place or two in the world that I could call home and always come back to though… Examples:

http://thechicagospire.com/

http://thecolumbianchicago.com/