Domain-Guides

dotMP today announces from the International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meeting that this summer it will provide ".mp" domains and robust domain-centric identity management services to all individuals online--free of charge. To help trademark owners protect their intellectual property, dotMP also announces it is initiating a Sunrise period at http://get.mp to provide ample time (May 15 - August 31) for trademark owners to protect their marks prior to the entire top-level domain being opened to the general public. The decision by Google, Yahoo and AOL to adopt OpenID, a system of federating and authenticating between domains, has caused a radical shakeup in the social network market. Social networks are moving from networks within a domain where a user has a profile to a network between domains where the user hosts their own site and connects with other users' sites in an open social network. This significant change in the social networking space, combined with personal users ability to get a .mp domain for free from September 1st will dramatically change the domain market and open it to hundreds of millions of new entrants. The potential for these users to secure and create a domain that infringes a trademark is higher than it has ever been. dotMP Chairman, Gib Bintliff, on site at the International Trademark Association (INTA) annual meeting in Berlin May 17-21 to guide the IP community through the Sunrise process as well as to brief trademark owners on the changes in the online space said, "there is a perfect storm brewing wherein all the barriers to entry for domain ownership will soon be removed and a land rush comparable to that of .com in the early 1990s is imminent. The 80 million .com domains registrations are now dwarfed by the 300 million personal profiles within the top seven social networks alone. The potential for this level of ubiquity and familiarity with .mp as the domain for personal identity and social networking, combined with the ease with which individuals can register and create potentially infringing sites means that trademark owners would be well-advised act on the Sunrise opportunity.".........

Dot mobi domain names typically get lost in the shuffle at traditional auction sites, but that's about to change with MobiSiteTrader.com, the newest player in the domain name marketplace. Dedicated exclusively to dot mobi names, it is already attracting top portfolio holders with premium, generic and landrush domain names. "We looked at the sales options available to domain name owners and said there has to be a better way," says Rob Horvath of MobiSiteTrader.com. Conservative estimates place mobile phone ownership 4 to 1 above computer ownership, and now that the .mobi extension is here to create websites for any mobile phone, not just the iPhone, we believe this market is about to explode." Unlike traditional auction sites, sellers are not capped at a $10,000 asking price. Other auction sites require an appraisal to list above that ceiling. Appraisals are available at MobiSiteTrader.com but are not required. It's free to list an unlimited number of sites, and upgrades are available for showcase listings at an additional charge. Domainers who list their .mobi sites on MobiSiteTrader.com may also park their sites for free, and the templates offered are visually appealing and are guaranteed to mobile compliant. The parked sites offer end user visitors an option to click on sponsored ads that resolve to mobile phones, or web ads that are designed for computer viewing. The host company will keep the web click revenue, and the name owner will keep 100% of profits for the mobile clicks.

Lead Generation

Generating leads for your own business or for someone else’s business is a quite common development strategy. This can range anywhere from a brochure site with a contact form to fill out to a full fledged website with articles and widgets all with the goal of convincing the visitor that this service is for them. You have probably seen this type of referral service on tv for dentists or lawyers and the setup is similar on a website. You can act as the middle man just like these referral services passing along the leads you generate. This can be a time consuming effort as you have to market your site to both the visitors and to the service providers. You need to have agreements with the service providers as to cost per lead and what data will be provided, at a minimum. You also need to have clear data policies visible on your website preferably with an opt-in or clear acceptance of your data policy by your visitor to store and transfer personal data without liability. You may also need to provide them with a way to unsubscribe if this is an ongoing service. The marketing tools you can use on your website include reviews or testimonials, email newsletter sign up, widgets such as calculators or other useful tools, articles of interest and biographies of people providing the services. Trust is an important part of lead generation so make sure your site looks professional and with a clean look. Make all the information easily available with minimum clicks to get there and provide an address and phone number. Lead generation can be quite profitable but you need good personal and marketing skills as well as patience and perseverance.

Services

If you are going to provide services directly yourself, then most of what I said about lead generation applies. You will need to communicate why your visitor should choose you over anyone else providing the same service and respond quickly to any inquiries. Marketing tricks should be used. For example, putting proofs of wedding photos online or even final photos online will mean that the bride and groom will often send that link to others effectively marketing you to their contacts. Always make it easy for people to “tell a friend” if they see something they like..............

Blogging

Blogging is a legitimate way to develop a domain and you can make money doing it. The catch is the time it takes to write posts and to manage comments.

Pros

• Creates a strong bond and trust between authors and readers
• Creates an aura of authority in a topic

Cons

• Significant time needed to write and respond
• Must be updated regularly to retain readership

Blogs can be very useful to develop domains that reflect new and emerging areas. If you have been trying some of the Predictive Domaining techniques then you will have some domains in these areas. Using a blog to establish yourself as an authority in an emerging area can attract reporters, website owners and even academics to your site. The catch is the time you must spend writing and responding to readers. One trick I use is to schedule posts. Often i find i need to be in the mood to write and when i am, then i can put together multiple posts. Other times I go through a dry spell. For a blog to succeed, you need to have an even release of new material so I use the ability of WordPress to schedule a publish date and time for posts. Basically once the post is written, I can then set the date and time I want the post to appear on the website. Of course I still need to field any comments so the claim by some that you could be off for a couple of weeks on a tropical beach while your software publishes your posts is not quite true. Bring a laptop to check on comments and it is true. And no, I am not on some tropical beach right now! Blogs also create relationships with other blog authors and readers. That strong bond is something advertisers would love to leverage because in effect, there is a strong level of trust and so recommendations from such a blog carry more weight. With a strong readership, one to one relationships can be leveraged with advertisers. You can also hire someone to blog for you or offer free blogging based on the theme of the domain name. WordPress MU allows you to host many blogs from one piece of software out of the box. (You do not need my e-book to use WordPress MU for blogs - only for websites). For example About.com and some newspapers use this third party blogger method with the former being paid and the latter being free usually. This is a good idea if you have the money to pay a blogger or can attract good bloggers for free to your topic.

Discussion Boards

Discussion boards have been around for a long time and can attract a large loyal following. One such board is WebmasterWorld.com where the idea for this blog started.

Pros

• Content is generated automatically by people posting
• Can develop a large and loyal following

Cons

• Have to deal with spam, off-topic and inflammatory posts
• Gaining significant and worthwhile postings can be difficult

The nicest part about a discussion board is that your visitors are your authors and so you do not need to be an expert in that area. What you gain in time and effort from not having to author content though is often lost through managing the posts to ensure spam, off-topic and inflammatory posts do not slip through.......