- Impact
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:wave:
Although I don't spend a lot of time here anymore, I do occasionally drop by to see what's happening. Seeing some new names to the mobi game around here, so I thought it might be a good time to sow some seeds of advice.
First...to those who don't know me, I'll summarize my mobi history. It's an interesting thing now to go back and look at earlier threads here with me asking for appraisals / advice.
I missed the Landrush of mobi registrations due to my newness. I was simply unaware what was going on. My first registration was on Jan 30, 2007. These were the days of 2 year minimum regs (with higher fees), so much thought went into picking names.
At the time, my strategy of choosing names, in no particular order, was:
Short
Mobile relevant
Popular searched term / word
Taken in most other major tld's
It's been about two years now since that first registration. Looking back, I can clearly see many mistakes I, and many others, have made. I will be renewing many, but not all of my earlier registrations. Like many others, I'm refining my portfolio to fit my current goals.
Time has proven what I had suspected. DotMobi is different. It's truly the "red headed stepchild" of domains. Still put down by the majority of the domaining community, and done so rightly. Parking mobi's is a monetarily ugly proposition nor does it help the overall growth of the extension.
You need patience if you choose to invest in mobi. The mobile web is STILL very new. The advances of technology are really helping things out, but overall mobile web usage among mobile devices is minuscule. Like the PC based web, it will take time, so be prepared to hold. If not, save your $$ or reg stick with the non-specialty tlds.
I have to give a "Thanks" (and rep...who would've thought?) to Labrocca, for inspiring and challenging me to develop my portfolio. :p
Now, the number one reason I now register mobi's is:
Can anyone (preferably me) find this name useful for a mobile web site?
IMHO, this trumps any traditional domaining philosophy such as overture / wordtracker (fairly irrelevant as these tools don't measure mobile searches, which undoubtedly will differ from PC searches), simple generics, dictionary term, Google results, etc.
Many absolute gems have recently dropped in what's being called Landrush II. I see many nice names being picked up, along with many more questionable ones. I have also joined in on this tremendous opportunity and now own many names I had only previously wished. That being said, I'm still passing on SO many more deceitfully looking nice names that tempt the "inner domainer" in me.
My advice (for what it's worth), is to be careful when investing in mobi domains. Keep in mind at all times, it's not a traditional TLD, so don't let conventional habits guide you. If you're regging just because it's a dictionary term, has higher search / overture/ wordtracker results, is taken in other tlds.....you might want to think things through.
For those who do invest, I'd strongly recommend giving development a shot. Even simple content sites will out preform a parked site. They'll not only make you some money, but they'll increase the overall value of your portfolio. If you haven't done so already, it would be a good time to check out site.mobi to get you started. I have had some pretty good success using this sitebuilder application (I had no previous experience). I know many feel these simple sites are not interesting enough to hold an audience or get repeat visitors. Well, we had 540,713 of our mobile pages served up in 2008 to 125,926 unique visitors to our "little sites". We have no reason to expect these numbers will not continue to climb. Revenue continues to climb as well. We're very much looking forward to 2009. We have quit an ambitious goal this year....more news to follow soon...
Although I don't spend a lot of time here anymore, I do occasionally drop by to see what's happening. Seeing some new names to the mobi game around here, so I thought it might be a good time to sow some seeds of advice.
First...to those who don't know me, I'll summarize my mobi history. It's an interesting thing now to go back and look at earlier threads here with me asking for appraisals / advice.
I missed the Landrush of mobi registrations due to my newness. I was simply unaware what was going on. My first registration was on Jan 30, 2007. These were the days of 2 year minimum regs (with higher fees), so much thought went into picking names.
At the time, my strategy of choosing names, in no particular order, was:
Short
Mobile relevant
Popular searched term / word
Taken in most other major tld's
It's been about two years now since that first registration. Looking back, I can clearly see many mistakes I, and many others, have made. I will be renewing many, but not all of my earlier registrations. Like many others, I'm refining my portfolio to fit my current goals.
Time has proven what I had suspected. DotMobi is different. It's truly the "red headed stepchild" of domains. Still put down by the majority of the domaining community, and done so rightly. Parking mobi's is a monetarily ugly proposition nor does it help the overall growth of the extension.
You need patience if you choose to invest in mobi. The mobile web is STILL very new. The advances of technology are really helping things out, but overall mobile web usage among mobile devices is minuscule. Like the PC based web, it will take time, so be prepared to hold. If not, save your $$ or reg stick with the non-specialty tlds.
I have to give a "Thanks" (and rep...who would've thought?) to Labrocca, for inspiring and challenging me to develop my portfolio. :p
Now, the number one reason I now register mobi's is:
Can anyone (preferably me) find this name useful for a mobile web site?
IMHO, this trumps any traditional domaining philosophy such as overture / wordtracker (fairly irrelevant as these tools don't measure mobile searches, which undoubtedly will differ from PC searches), simple generics, dictionary term, Google results, etc.
Many absolute gems have recently dropped in what's being called Landrush II. I see many nice names being picked up, along with many more questionable ones. I have also joined in on this tremendous opportunity and now own many names I had only previously wished. That being said, I'm still passing on SO many more deceitfully looking nice names that tempt the "inner domainer" in me.
My advice (for what it's worth), is to be careful when investing in mobi domains. Keep in mind at all times, it's not a traditional TLD, so don't let conventional habits guide you. If you're regging just because it's a dictionary term, has higher search / overture/ wordtracker results, is taken in other tlds.....you might want to think things through.
For those who do invest, I'd strongly recommend giving development a shot. Even simple content sites will out preform a parked site. They'll not only make you some money, but they'll increase the overall value of your portfolio. If you haven't done so already, it would be a good time to check out site.mobi to get you started. I have had some pretty good success using this sitebuilder application (I had no previous experience). I know many feel these simple sites are not interesting enough to hold an audience or get repeat visitors. Well, we had 540,713 of our mobile pages served up in 2008 to 125,926 unique visitors to our "little sites". We have no reason to expect these numbers will not continue to climb. Revenue continues to climb as well. We're very much looking forward to 2009. We have quit an ambitious goal this year....more news to follow soon...
