Stay tuned….and thanks for reading.

Even the keyboard garnered some attention. In the official Apple video on the iPhone keyboard - which describes its intelligence and elegance - the company tells us that the keyboard adjusts itself for the task at hand. When you browse the web, for example, “the space bar…has been replaced by special keys relevant to a web-based application…because you don’t use spaces in a URL.”

Interesting…and smart. But what are the “special keys” that magically appear when you go web surfing? Sadly, there is nothing revolutionary here. The company threw in a “dot” key (a period by another name), a forward slash key, and a “dot com” key.

Ho hum. Not extremely innovative…and quite disappointing, in my opinion.

I honestly expected more from Apple. I had hoped that the new keyboard would open new doors to mobile users, but, alas…we got the lowly “dot com” key. The company really missed the boat here.

It’s not to late, though. Apple could make a couple of simple changes to the iPhone keyboard that truly change the mobile computing experience.

How?

Technorati Tags: Apple, domain names, iPhone

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Here’s some interesting facts:

• Panoramio is a web-based, geo-tagged-image storage company that agreed to be acquired by Google on May 31st of this year.
• The whois record for the domain was updated yesterday and now reflects an acquisition company as the registrant.
• Where I sit in the world, the domain redirects to this site. That might change as a DNS change propagates, but we’ll see….

Anyone want to give odds on whether Google bought the domain?

Technorati Tags: .info, domain investing, panoramio

Want evidence? Watch Wall Street during any given earnings season. Information flow is at its peak during the months in which most companies report quarterly earnings…and the market makes significant adjustments to stock prices during these months.

The domain name market is in its infancy for sure. Right now, it’s a nascent market that suffers from a dramatic lack of information flow. It’s basically the opposite of Wall Street - private deals with unreported sale prices are made all the time, valuation models aren’t widely distributed, and hard, reliable data on individual domain names is difficult to come by.

If the goal of all good domain investors is to create a stable and liquid market, then we should commit to letting information flow freely before someone comes in and makes it flow for us.

Technorati Tags: domain names, domain investing

There’s a bit of a background to this binge….My primary domain investing strategy is to speculate on domains that I believe will become generic at some point in the future. This strategy offers the advantage of being relatively cheap - most of the domains I identify are still available for registration. But, the risk is significant - there is no guarantee that the names will actually become generic (or even well-known).

A few weeks back, I decided I wanted a few political domains before the 2008 US presidential election. I figured that “all the good names were taken” and made a decision to throw my speculative strategy out the window. I started searching the aftermarket to see if any good names were available.

I found very few that interested me, and got a bit frustrated. Then, on a whim, really, I decided to do a bit of brainstorming and see if I could find some good names there will still available for registration.

To my surprise, I found - and grabbed - some decent names. I didn’t realize it until after I binged, but my speculative strategy actually played two roles here:

1. The value of these domains, clearly, depends on the outcome of the 2008 Presidential election;
2. Some of the best domains from this binge (in my eyes) are .us domains…the value of which is still largely unproven

With that as background, here’s my binge on political domain names. In each group, I’ve put the domain(s) at the top that I think has the most potential.

Technorati Tags: 2008 election, domain names

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Yesterday, though, that strategy was tested. I received an offer to buy a speculative domain that I’ve been holding for less than a year. The initial offer would have given me nearly a 100X profit (and would have paid the renewal fees on my portfolio for a long time).

I have to admit, it was a tough decision despite my commitment to the buy and hold strategy. I’ve set up my domaining business as a pure sideline - I pay for all of it with ‘extra’ money and don’t need it to generate any cash. But the temptation to realize a 100X profit was incredibly strong. Only a crazy person would walk away from that, right?

Wrong. I ultimately decided that only a crazy person would flip this domain at this time.

How did I make the decision? This was the hard part - I hadn’t received an offer like this before, so I had no frame of reference or rules to go by. I had no idea how to assign a value to the domain and, therefore, had no meaningful way to analyze the offer (other than “hey, that looks like a bunch of money”).

I thought about it for a bit, and ultimately scratched the following questions on a notepad:

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A lot of domain buying seems to happen in binges - short bursts of high buying levels. It happens in new registrations and aftermarket buys alike and seems to afflict most of us in the domaining game.

I binge on new registrations quite often. It’s a natural result of one of my strategies - registering domains that I expect to become hot generics tomorrow. This strategy requires that I closely follow the news in a few selected topics, and often puts me in a ‘race to the registrar’ with other speculators out there (you know who you are). When I win the race (or at least part of the race), a binge usually follows.

In the BingeReviews feature, I’ll present a group of related domains that I recently registered and ask for your comments. You can say anything you want - don’t be shy. Comment on a single name, the whole family, the topic…whatever.

But wait, there’s more….

I’m still working out the logistics, but I’ll be opening up the BingeReviews feature to you as well. You’ll be able to post your own domain buying binges…and get comments from the readers. More details to come.

There is a serious goal behind the BingeReviews feature - creating a forum where domainers can get relevant feedback on their purchases.

Let me know if you like the idea. I’ll probably post my first binge later this week. And, yes, I own bingereviews.com and bingereview.com.

Technorati Tags: domain names

“I like to think of these little gems as ‘instabrands.’ Imagine you’re a an entrepreneur opening a relatively modest local business…say, a tree care company in Toledo, OH. … You head on over to GoDaddy and start hunting for a great domain name.

Here’s where the savvy and not-so-savvy entrepreneurs part ways. The not-so will immediately think of (and probably be able to register) a unique domain based on his chosen company domain. Think “MadHatterTreeService.com.” He’ll rejoice in the fact that he was able to get the domain for 8 bucks and happily move on to setting up his website. What he won’t realize - probably for several years - is that the use of that brand-oriented domain will greatly increase the work he needs to do to educate his customers - and potential customers - about his services, and indeed about his existence.

The savvy entrepreneur, however, gladly seeks out a localized generic domain that accurately describes his business and the geographic area in which he operates. ToledoTreeCare.com is born and he’ll probably be rewarded with high localized search results.” (from the original instabrands post)

Just a couple of short weeks after writing that post, I came across a great example that illustrates my instabrand point:

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In these early days, I’m soaking up as much information as I can and am trying to distill all of it into a framework that can guide me over the long haul.

So far, I’ve managed to identify five principles that I’m using to guide my early domaining efforts. I find them useful and hope that others will, too.

They are, in no particular order:

Technorati Tags: domain names

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Lately, though, the priorities in this critical early stage decision have changed dramatically, which should lead to easier branding strategies for entrepreneurs.

In the past, picking a name was largely a creative exercise. My background is in intellectual property, and I’ve watched newco entrepreneurs struggle to settle on a name that succinctly and accurately identifies the company and its goals. Envision brainstorming sessions, creative consultants, and graphic designers all working with the entrepreneur to settle on a name, logo and an overall branding strategy.

Painful? Very much so. Especially when this process yields a “good” name that can’t be cleared based on trademark concerns. Ouch.

Importantly, this old strategy put branding before the naming decision, which often lead to incredible angst and pressure on the newco principals.

The scarcity of good domains has changed all of that, though. Here’s an anecdote to illustrate the point:

Last year I was involved with helping an entrepreneur get a new venture off the ground. His approach to branding was incredibly simple:

“get me a list of domains that relate to this industry…I’ll pick one, and we’ll name the company accordingly. Branding can follow that.”

While we did have a brainstorming session on relevant keywords, we didn’t consider the branding side of things until later. The critical lesson is the shift in priorities: branding is placed after the naming decision, and the naming decision is guided by the domain decision.

This has to be the branding strategy for new companies starting out in today’s world of limited domain availability. Not only should you start with the domain issue…but you should consider yourself limited by it as well. The domain race is, simply put, one you can’t afford to lose.

Find a good domain, buy it, and name the company accordingly. All branding efforts should follow, not precede, this critical early step.

Technorati Tags: domain names