Seven Mile

The Free Internet .. Domain Names as 'Your' Platform

Sahar writes:

"Here’s a domain-parking related post on Mashable I found interesting… how parked pages are perceived by non domainers: Three Clicks to Spam: Google’s Hypocritical Link Selling Policy http://mashable.com/2007/10/24/google-page-rank/ Thanks!" "

***FS***  Sahar is correct of course..  Everything in life is a matter of perception or a gradient-optic through which you view things. Create a domain name and point it to your registrar's placeholder page and the name is "unused" ..  add advertising of your own and the name is "parked"..  Heaven forbid your inactive domain with advertising gets indexed into almighty Google..  If this happens by accident or design, you've unwittingly created the sinister sounding "Spam page" .. Point your spam page to another website to make money from those visitors and the name becomes "inactive". At least in some peoples eyes.  Never have so many "inactive" domains made so much, for so many active entrepreneurs.

Life is full of labels and when you're Google and your mission is the domination of Internet search, navigation and online user behavior, then it serves you well to create labels which empower you and weaken those who could challenge you.

I like Google the search utility a great deal, but I am  less than enamored with Google the marketing machine and businessman.  Google has managed to convince the world it does no wrong. It is a "happy fun ball of love" :) Not true of course. Google creates what business people perceive as great wrongs each day, but sells the masses on the fact that those wrongs are either not occurring or justified in the name of a greater Google.

Quote: ""...For Google’s part, the reason these sites are being slammed is because the company’s policy tells web publishers to “avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web.” Do some of the effected blogs sell links to such sites? Perhaps; we’ll let these folks defend themselves and their practices. But the real story is the hypocrisy of Google enforcing this policy on third-party publishers, when within their own engine they profit immensely by selling ads to spammers and so-called “bad neighborhoods.”"

Reading this I was reminded of the gent Vern told me about who attended a recent SES show.  This gent was practically in tears that his livelihood was wiped out after his site was scrubbed from Google's index, and he couldn't for the life of him get an answer or explanation as to what he had done wrong. Google giveth and Google taketh away..  When Google giveth it is your best friend.. But it's really sad to watch the "Google taketh away part" as Verno described it. People starting over..  but not knowing why or where to begin.

""Of course what Google was really doing was playing politics. Better than most, I might add. Sans the lobbyists and open debates, Google was working the people. Price controls? No, Google doesn’t control prices. Google measures quality, and adjusts pricing based on quality scores."" ...  Reading this quote Danno sent from Johnon's blog really struck me... 

As a domainer I get the majority of my traffic from "outside the Google framework". Google knows my sites exist but for the most part they work to actively deny visitors typing the domains I own (at Google) from ever finding my website in their search results.  I exist on the "Free Internet", you can navigate to me in your address bar because I run a real website.  But to believe Google's marketing machine, I reside in the "Bad neighborhoods" of the net. Why else couldn't you find me?  Because my sites advertising made me too much money for Google's liking?  Because I was displaying a Google competitor's ads?

You see Google knows my websites contain advertising. They hypocritically take visitors trying to navigate to my "bad neighborhood" and show show results with different advertising or content... In their view, this 'sleight of hand' miraculously gentrifies the Internet.

Luckily for me, Google only takes the dumbest and laziest of my visitors.  Millions of people say "screw this". Google won't give me the site I really want so I'll just head to my trusty address bar and leave 'the Google' for the site I really wanted. It's frustrating for users, but a necessary frustration that reinforces to users that the authoritative way to locate a website is via the browser,  not 'the Google'.

Plenty of others have been brainwashed into viewing the net the way Google wants them to. Tens of thousands of the Internet's brightest dutifully attend SES, they leave friends, family, loved ones - They miss life's important moments so they can serve the Google. When I look out across the floor of a show like SES, I see a group of people who have largely abandoned the Free Internet in favor of being a servant to the Google.

Remember that guy crying about his lost livelihood at SES?  Everybody attending that conference is "that guy" ..  like the car wreck you pass on your way home during rush hour..  That could have been you. Every person who ignores organic domain name traffic and embraces Google alone is basically selling themselves into a lifetime of servitude..  You are beholden to Google to get your traffic forever. God help you if they turn on you.

I guess a lot of this post is common sense with a bit of bluster.  Buy into another party's "platform" and live and die by "their" platform. Things could be worse I suppose. You can learn the "new smart pricing tricks" in 6-9 months..  and "quality adjustments" can be mastered in another 6 months.. as you gray, dancing to the tune Google plays for you, their black-box ensures that Google's house will always win.  Your revenue will remain flat, theirs won't. You will feel like an entrepreneur, but in the end, "you" work for "them".

Well good luck to you my SEO friends. If you're looking for me, I'll be on the Free Internet..  Buying generic names like Scott Day's DiamondsDirect.com ..  logical sounding generic domains.. I have opted out of the Google traffic generator in favor of creating sites for the 20 or 30 visitors who find their way to names like that each day.  The more sites you acquire the greater the trickle of traffic you get.  Buy enough and the trickle becomes a torrent. You can arbitrage traffic from Google (when they let you) and increasingly from other reliable traffic sources such as Microsoft, Facebook or traditional media in order to sell products, sales leads and other advertising.

When you own a generic domain name you join the Free Internet.. I encourage you to stake your own claim here and release the chains that bend your perception. Long Live the Free Internet.

A Search Engine .. Powered by Millions of Domain Names

Danno writes:

"Hi,

If there ever was a time in human history for a few 'domainers' and a few 'seo'ers/sem'ers' that understand domains and Internet search...to come together.

Now would be the time to for a "Field of Dreams" moment... 'build it and they will come'.

___

Dogpile Beats Google, Again Top Search Engine in Customer Satisfaction
http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2007/10/18/dogpile-beats-google-again-top-search-engine-in-customer-satisfaction/

Peace!
Dan"

***FS***  A bunch of domain registrants plumbing their traffic from countless individual names to the results page realting to the name's subject matter within the search engine.  Type eatingdisorders.com and get to Dogpile results for "eating disorders"  ..  Not a bad idea Danno..  but if you really think about it,  we already have that in the form of Google..  GOOG gets millions of unique visits each day to their domainpark syndication channel from domains like yours and mine  ;) ..  still this engine would be owned by the domain registrants .. a co-op..  I like the idea..  but it's hard to align interests. Great idea Danno.

Viacom's Bet on Web Diversity

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/archives/2007/10/viacoms_bet_on.html

Quote: "...But in the process of defending his position, he [Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman] did make it clear that Viacom is betting big on the notion that people online will travel to hundreds of individual Web sites for the content they want to view."

***FS*** Not hundreds of sites Mr. Dauman..  Millions of small microsites built across tens of millions of domain names. Same thing has been happening since the dawn of the commercial Internet. Just think of all those viacom billboards you own... displaying different adver-content to different drivers with different interests in different cities. Now think about a network of hundreds of thosands of domain names (microsites) displaying different advercontent to different people in different parts of the world.. You're getting warmer  :)

CNET's Michael Horrowitz on Defensive Computing / Domain Names

Geeky stuff ... Cnet blog post by Michael Horowitz about domain name forwarding. (Direct navigation.)  If anybody knows about the power of a great domain name it's CNET  (News.com, Seach.com, Com.com) .. 

These names drive huge huge traffic for CNET..  Com.com triggers a huge flood of error traffic in older Microsoft browsers that forward slow resolving DNS lookups for any domain name over to Domain.com.com ..  CNET activated this wildcard a year or two ago and experienced a significant surge in traffic. 

The domain names this company owns are what sets it apart from any other tech news websites. Honorable nod to some of the authoring there.

http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13554_1-9800302-33.html?tag=nefd.blgs

Aaron Wall Spots Google Typo Fixing of URL Search Queries in The Searchbox

Aaron writes:

""Hi Frank,

Hope you are doing well. I am still overseas, but thought you might be interested in how Google is spell correcting some domain name and filepath spelling errors. http://www.seobook.com/google-corrects-domain-name-spelling-errors

They dont fix .nt or .xom, but they directed an seibook.com/bok query to seobook.com/blog !

seibook.com/book is a real URL, only 1 character away from that URL causes google to point to my domain while changing a character in the domain name and 3 in the filename.""

***FS*** This type of stuff can backfire for the obvious "confusion issues" you touch on Aaron. Google acting as the arbiter, deciding which site you want, based on ancillary information you give it..  Type seibook.com in the Google search box and the algo results spit back the requested seibook.com site (for me in Cayman anyway)..  Give Google more information such as the /blog filepath after the URL and Google thinks the user is looking for Aaron's site because it knows that seibook.com/blog isn't indexed or doesn't exist.

I think this gradual shaping of navigation will eventually creep into address bar navigation..  That could reignite browser competition... and combined with higher registry renewal prices will cause lots of longer tail "tasting acquired" portfolios to start dying off.  Expect a lot more name deletions in 2008-2009 ..  partly based on the economy (speculative chaff jettisoned) and partly based of changes like these.

That said, this only works so far. History has shown, you can't cage the user...  Throw up too many blockades, detours and roadblocks to user intent and people will abandon your platform. I am living proof of that statement as we get almost 100% of our traffic from around Google..  Google sends us nothing -- effectively no traffic, yet all our visitors are Google users.. That's a lot of disgruntled customers who are forced to leave Google, finding their way to our front door by avoiding the natural path (through Google).  If Google stopped the gaming their search results, allowing Domain Name searches in their search box to resolve or at least show the actual site requested, our traffic would spike significantly..  I don't expect the cold war against direct navigation to stop anytime soon ...  but a fellow can always hope.. and take comfort in the fact that Google, Microsoft and all navigation helpers can game and cajole as they wish..  People will find their way to the 'free Internet'..  (the site they actually want) eventually.

Everytime I post on this subject it reminds me of the great quote by Gandhi:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you; then you win!"

For the longest time Search engines ignored domains..  and later some (not all) search operators laughed at the domain name navigation concept, ridiculing it as "Grandma Navigation" .. well the fact that Google runs a registrar, a domain parking program and aggressively shapes domain searches in the Google searchbox, illustrates to me that they have decided to fight (or at least try to control) some forms of domain navigation.

I look forward to the day when every domain name correctly entered into the Google search-box will reward the user with a link to the site they request.  If you love your users Google,  set them free. :)

Interactive Marketing Spend to Surpass $61B in Five Years

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/10/15/forrester-interactive-marketing-spend-to-surpass-61b-in-five-years/

Something's gotta give here..  there is only so much inventory..  Only so many eyeballs..  The price of a unique IP visitor is going to go wayyyy up in future.

Pink Houses

"..And theres winners, and theres losers
But they aint no big deal
cuz the simple man baby pays for the thrills,
The bills and the pills that kill.."

--John Cougar Mellencamp

What a difference a year makes..

Miami’s economy was not swinging like just twelve months ago..  Lots and lots of empty homes and condos..  Lots and lots of foreclosures. There was a foreclosure convention running in the same hotel facility as the TRAFFIC conference and those foreclosure specialists were making money.

This new foreclosure dynamic is partly responsible for the global credit market flux we saw in August.. Why? Lenders took debts they couldn’t sell as stand-alones and grouped them with other loans.. Those packages of loans were resold as securities effectively hiding 'the bad' in a forest of other loans. When times were good and interest rates were at 1%, the market bought those ‘securities’ and discounted risk. When rates rose, some loans stopped performing and the securities that constitute them didn’t look so hot. The debt markets started to question the soundness of all similar securities and liquidity got scarce.

On the last night of TRAFFIC (or the last ‘morning’ depending on your definition of night) we went to a private party in South-beach.. We rolled past lots of new, darkened condo towers, many of them unfinished.  When we got to the club we walked past the line at the front door.. I thought about the other would-be patrons standing in line.

There are several types of club goers. Those who dutifully wait in line, chatting with other pals and strangers to pass the time... those who try to buy their way through the back-door of the club and those who cut through the line by signing-up for "bottle service".

I learned about bottle service several years ago.. and thrilled to learn you can whisk through the line at hot clubs and secure a great table by calling in advance for a $350 - $900 bottle of liquor. Pay up-front and get ushered in like a baller.  Prepay two or three bottles and bring your entire crew of ballers. The good tables are always taken by those with bottle-service... and there is always somebody bigger.  I once had a friend buy a $350 bottle of champagne only to be evicted by a celeb ordering 6 bottles of $750 champagne.

Well, selling Internet traffic comes with a similar set of secret handshakes. Traffic is Traffic...  I own domains and you own domains. Some of us sell our traffic through the front door (Google Adsense, TrafficZ or Domainsponsor main-page signup)..  Some negotiate specialty deals which run directly through Yahoo, Google or Ask. Behind those curtains are differing revenue share percentages..  Big, high-quality traffic publishers can negotiate a greater percentage of gross revenue than small publishers with bad traffic.. That’s the way it should be I suppose.

The problem with life (and traffic for that matter) is that it isn’t always fair.  Sometimes the nicest, most fun people have to wait in line at the club and sometimes worse traffic can get handled much better than 'the cream' - and than it deserves to be.

Just as sub-prime loans can be repackaged and sold for more money, sub-prime Internet traffic can be sent to traffic aggregators and parking co's where it hides in the forest with other good traffic, making the parking co look like a better traffic source than it is..

Consider Ask.com ..  which has a deal to send traffic to Google and provides redistribution services to third party middlemen and optimizers.. Ask may not offer a "fire and forget" feed that any domainer can use out of the box, but because Ask’s feed is not Smart-priced, there is a huge opportunity and inefficiency for those who know how to handle it. Traffic can be sent to a parking co with an Ask deal, (where it subsequently flows to Google) skirting the Google smart-price filter that this same traffic would be subject to at the front door Google "Adsense for domain" (AFD) feed.

And like our nightclub where serious drinkers with open expense accounts and a penchant for tipping have to wait in line at the bar with those nursing a VOS; the good Internet traffic going through Google's Smart-price filter pays the freight for a lot of VOS drinking, sub-prime, backdoor syndication fluff.

This is just one inefficiency of many on the Internet of course..  The loopholes seem to get created faster than previous ones are closed.

Whether it’s Google providing access to different types of feeds to different parking co's or whether it's a volume lead buyer purchasing sign-ups from one parking co and not another; there are always differences which act as a backdoor, providing enhanced monetization to some traffic for no other reason than the fact that the loophole exists.

In the final analysis it is higher converting, quality traffic which pays the thrills, the bills, the pills that kill by underwriting the paid-search advertising market and accompanying loopholes.  If you own 'that' traffic in the form of quality domains or quality subsyndication partners, you will be in a much better position if credit market style 'contagion' shake-out ever finds it's way to this industry.

Smoke Mirrors and Deception

Josh comments on Johnon.com/Michael Gilmour..  His thoughts posted raw and unfiltered..  except for heading, courtesy of me..  Smoke and mirrors never last tho ..  Cream always rises, truth always finds a way to show.

http://www.johnon.com/417/domainer-profits.html

""Domainer profit margins: Michael Gilmour of WhizzBangsBlog.com knows his business. He presented numbers (I love to see numbers) on Google's traffic acuisition costs and the percentage of ad revenue shared between Google, domainers, and parking companies.

Guess what? Google¹s share has gone down (-29%), domainer¹s have basically stayed the same (-3%), and parking companies revenues have increased around 45% (since Q4 2005).

Google¹s share has gone down (-29%), domainer¹s have basically stayed the same (-3%), and parking companies revenues have increased around 45% (since Q4 2005). I think you get my point.  :)

My prediction:

Some very smart person or group of people is going to set up a transparent and very well run "parking" company that will disrupt the current situation in a significant way. My guess is this company will offer variances of parked pages, real mini-sites and Transparent Accounting to those who park their domains with them.

Lastly, this company will take a much lower revenue share than other parked companies, and domainers with Traffic will stampede towards them.""

***FS*** I'll go one better..  the parking company that acts as the disruptive conduit upsetting the apple cart rev-share will be domainer centric. I have watched so many parking co's come and go..  Many "get" this biz but many don't..  A significant percentage of present day domain parking co's play a combination game of "keepway", "watch the competition then react" and "I think I've got something really special that nobody else does..  but I'm wrong"  All those games eventually blow away amid disruptive competitive actions.

So It Begins...

Lately I've noticed that the results at Google are not as good as they used to be.  SEO experts have been getting better and better at breaking higher into Big G's search results with ad-only pages. At first I thought it was just me who noticed, then I read this: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/10/01/google_spam_infiltration/

All great Search utilities have ultimately succumbed to SEO pages.. Excite, AltaVista, Webcrawler..  The crushing weight of all comers wanting into the algo.  It's hard to stop the tide..  Google has held the beach for a long time but the tide is beginning to turn.

This is ultimately good for domain names as a higher percentage of disenfranchised Google users opt out of the search-engine framework to simply type the domain name versions of their searches into the browser address bar. Even I've been typing more search query style domains lately and I've been pleasantly surprised by the higher quality of domain name pages and small websites than I saw just a few short years ago.

The evolution is palpable...  to me anyway.

So Long, Goto Tool

http://domainnamewire.com/2007/09/17/so-long-overture-scores/

Ahhh the 'goto tool'...  Old timers in the domain industry still ask "What's the goto" when trying to determine the popularity of a given search-phrase with spaces between the words (apart), with spaces removed (together) and as a complete domain name (with extension). What these folks are asking is "How many times has this term been searched over the past month across the goto, (later called Overture and currently called Yahoo) paid search network? The answer to that question will determine whether a given phrase will garner organic, generic-intent type-in traffic when registered as a domain name.

I'll never forget the day when Garry Chernoff showed me this tool for the first time. My eyes lit up with wonderment at this window into the hearts, minds and souls of the Internet browsing public. Want to know what the most popular types of pie are?  Just enter the word "pie" and see how many people search for apple, blueberry, cherry etc.. "American Pie" and "Pie Theory" always seemed to be the most popular pies..  but after a while you learned why that was.. 

It stood to reason that if some portion of the browsing public was so determined to find pictures of dolphins that they simply typed dolphinpictures.com into the search box at yahoo (recording one search in the suggestion tool) that those same people (and others) would type the domain-name in their browser address bar looking for the non-existent website that this powerful name describes.

I acquired the name when it dropped and was surprised to see 25 visits a day.. The people still come back, half a decade later.

That goto suggestion tool faithfully turned back billions of queries over the years and helped guide countless novice domain investors as they mined for untapped traffic veins. Many of those folks became "Fabulous"ly successful and created vast fortunes in spite of being late to the domain game. As word about this open software tool made rounds on the Internet it became much slower as parties ran monster lists against it, trying to harvest data. Surprisingly, Yahoo kept the tool open and unrestricted even after acquiring Overture.

Those days now appear to be "over" .. Several folks have reported the demise of the tool's monthly update and results appear skewed since last week. Thanks for the memories goto tool. We'll always have Wordtracker but you will be missed by many.