.mobi Winning domain name strategies in the wake of TRAFFIC...

[jeremyp]

I spend 50% of my time on this board and 50% on Rick's heavy hitting by-invite-only board.

- My objective here is primarily to educate, listen and field offers from the most positive group of domainers on the planet.

- My objective there is to evangelize (not religion, domain names!) and learn from the world's most profitable domain name luminaries.

Some takeaways from TRAFFIC and from the type of names that actually sell well to the heavy hitters.

1) The big boys are in fact interested in MOBI. This was proved yesterday with many of the biggest bids coming from the biggest checkbooks.
2) The MOBI people were at TRAFFIC educating/informing many on the future of the TLD from a marketing and usage standpoint.
3) Top MOBI names sold for a premium at auction.

So... that's what we know so far. But, what does it mean in terms of your buying strategy...?

THERE IS STILL LIMITED MOBI AWARENESS:
I have keyword MOBI names and the daily traffic is minimal. This is entirely to be expected as the sites are not hosted, not generating search engine traffic and part of a TLD that is just getting off the ground.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. HIGH VALUE ATTENDEES BOUGHT ON POTENTIAL:
There is not a single name that would earn out $200,000 on 10 years type-in traffic value in the MOBI registry. The reason flowers.mobi sold for that valuation was purely based upon potential. If MOBI (backed by some of the most powerful companies in the world and geared toward a reasonable use purpose) succeeds to create substantial awareness, then the $200,000 will prove to be a remarkable bargain. I believe that over the next few years MOBI will become the 2nd most important domain name. I could be very wrong as I have no control over the marketing or use.

BIG MONEY OFTEN CREATES BIG INTEREST
The fact that $ was paid for a few great names is just one more indicator that big $ will drive this process to awareness.

SO, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO AS A SPECULATOR/DOMAINER?
I've been doing this 10+ years. Take this with a grain of salt because many of you are way down the road in your particular buying strategy.

(1) Keyword, Keyword, Keyword!!! What would experts tell you if you were investing in real estate? "location, location, location." Well, folks, the exact standard applies in the domain name world. In my opinion, brand names are the death of the speculator. From a cashflow perspective, you could wait from now until the end of the world without a single bite. If you are investing in hundreds of names that say "4U" or "Go" or the dreaded "123" or any number of twists on traditional, type in language, then you are potentially doing yourself a disservice.

Keywords are great because the KEY to success in domain names is what? TRAFFIC. Not branding. TRAFFIC. The conference is named what? TRAFFIC. Why? Because TRAFFIC is key. If "4U" or "Go" were the correct strategy in domain name speculation, the conference would be called "TDNBC - The Domain Name Branding Conference." ...and, at this conference, pigs could fly.

(2) Not all keywords are created equal but don't be blinded by the medium.

What is most likely to be typed by the billions upon billions of people who have access to cell phones? Map searches? yes. Sports scores? yes. Financial quotes? yes. Games? yes.

Flowers???

Ummm... Yes?

Gosh, that's not what you said 2 days ago. I'm being slightly sarcastic here to get a point across. Drill this deep into your head... There will ultimately be very little difference in the search habits on laptops/desktops vs search habits on mobile phones and other PDAs.

Flowers... YES! Tickets... YES! Education... YES! Groceries... YES! And, everything in between.

So, there is much more to be said. I'm out of steam this morning. I will continue on this post in the near future.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Padawer
http://www.jeremy.com

 

[karamba]

Good "article"

 

[satsdifference.com]

I agree

I agree traffic is key. So get good keywords if you can.

I've been domaining since 1999 January and have been sitting on some brandable names for awhile waiting for a bite.

Since January 1999, I have never seen an opportunity to reg such great names (still) and phrases with such a promising, great extension.

Remember that these names, and their traffic, will be more global as PDA's are also global, and, the evolution of the cellphone.

Newbies try to register based on what you think is gonna go soon. If the name isn't gonna be regged soon, you might want to wait a bit, put it on a list, and instead look for that name thats gonna go soon (opportunity cost). (I see alot of dot mobi newbies, do your domainer research in the forums on strategies for drafting)

I like to make my dot mobi list, so then I can compare them side by side. I put the ones that I think are gonna go soon at the top of the list, then select a name I choose as my budget permits.

Well happy domaining, be careful and be wise.

 

[ezinaz]

Good stuff, Jeremy, and thank you for your observations. However it seems most of the relevant keywords are premium, so you'll be paying through the nose for these. So, where is there opportunity for the individual investor?

I spend 50% of my time on this board and 50% on Rick's heavy hitting by-invite-only board.

- My objective here is primarily to educate, listen and field offers from the most positive group of domainers on the planet.

- My objective there is to evangelize (not religion, domain names!) and learn from the world's most profitable domain name luminaries.

Some takeaways from TRAFFIC and from the type of names that actually sell well to the heavy hitters.

1) The big boys are in fact interested in MOBI. This was proved yesterday with many of the biggest bids coming from the biggest checkbooks.
2) The MOBI people were at TRAFFIC educating/informing many on the future of the TLD from a marketing and usage standpoint.
3) Top MOBI names sold for a premium at auction.

So... that's what we know so far. But, what does it mean in terms of your buying strategy...?

THERE IS STILL LIMITED MOBI AWARENESS:
I have keyword MOBI names and the daily traffic is minimal. This is entirely to be expected as the sites are not hosted, not generating search engine traffic and part of a TLD that is just getting off the ground.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. HIGH VALUE ATTENDEES BOUGHT ON POTENTIAL:
There is not a single name that would earn out $200,000 on 10 years type-in traffic value in the MOBI registry. The reason flowers.mobi sold for that valuation was purely based upon potential. If MOBI (backed by some of the most powerful companies in the world and geared toward a reasonable use purpose) succeeds to create substantial awareness, then the $200,000 will prove to be a remarkable bargain. I believe that over the next few years MOBI will become the 2nd most important domain name. I could be very wrong as I have no control over the marketing or use.

BIG MONEY OFTEN CREATES BIG INTEREST
The fact that $ was paid for a few great names is just one more indicator that big $ will drive this process to awareness.

SO, WHAT SHOULD YOU DO AS A SPECULATOR/DOMAINER?
I've been doing this 10+ years. Take this with a grain of salt because many of you are way down the road in your particular buying strategy.

(1) Keyword, Keyword, Keyword!!! What would experts tell you if you were investing in real estate? "location, location, location." Well, folks, the exact standard applies in the domain name world. In my opinion, brand names are the death of the speculator. From a cashflow perspective, you could wait from now until the end of the world without a single bite. If you are investing in hundreds of names that say "4U" or "Go" or the dreaded "123" or any number of twists on traditional, type in language, then you are potentially doing yourself a disservice.

Keywords are great because the KEY to success in domain names is what? TRAFFIC. Not branding. TRAFFIC. The conference is named what? TRAFFIC. Why? Because TRAFFIC is key. If "4U" or "Go" were the correct strategy in domain name speculation, the conference would be called "TDNBC - The Domain Name Branding Conference." ...and, at this conference, pigs could fly.

(2) Not all keywords are created equal but don't be blinded by the medium.

What is most likely to be typed by the billions upon billions of people who have access to cell phones? Map searches? yes. Sports scores? yes. Financial quotes? yes. Games? yes.

Flowers???

Ummm... Yes?

Gosh, that's not what you said 2 days ago. I'm being slightly sarcastic here to get a point across. Drill this deep into your head... There will ultimately be very little difference in the search habits on laptops/desktops vs search habits on mobile phones and other PDAs.

Flowers... YES! Tickets... YES! Education... YES! Groceries... YES! And, everything in between.

So, there is much more to be said. I'm out of steam this morning. I will continue on this post in the near future.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Padawer
http://www.jeremy.com

 

[jeremyp]

2 word keyword combinations with great Overture search response.

I preregistered many, many great 2 word combinations, not worrying at all about the keystrokes (what a joke). Most phones will be QWERTY or/and voice enabled shortly.

Good stuff, Jeremy, and thank you for your observations. However it seems most of the relevant keywords are premium, so you'll be paying through the nose for these. So, where is there opportunity for the individual investor?

 

[duceman]

Thanks for the post Jeremy

 

[Heman maximus]

Thanks Jeremy - Good article.

 

[cityforums.com]

$200,000 for flowers.mobi is

1. steep for a brand new extension that could potentially flop
big time despite the hoopla

2. the opportunity cost of waiting 3-5 years for a $200,000
investment is high

3. I hope you're right though because I have a few good .mobis

 

[jay28]

Great Read thanks

 

[seanboy]

very good read

 

[jeremyp]

I've known the person who bought flowers.mobi for 7-8 years.

He won't miss the money.



That's pocket money to him.

PS - I'm not in that league!!!

$200,000 for flowers.mobi is

1. steep for a brand new extension that could potentially flop
big time despite the hoopla

2. the opportunity cost of waiting 3-5 years for a $200,000
investment is high

3. I hope you're right though because I have a few good .mobis

 

[GeoOwners]

Great post Jeremy...I may need to raise my asking price for adultdownloads.mobi

 

[gamehouse]

I hope he is going to put that name to use and promote as heavily as one would expect. That would for sure help .mobi

If not, well, what can I say, its his pocket money anyway.

GH

I've known the person who bought flowers.mobi for 7-8 years.

He won't miss the money.



That's pocket money to him.

PS - I'm not in that league!!!

 

[Heman maximus]

Jeremy - If you had a choice of buying a premium name for $200k, would you buy it ? Or would you reg. simple name and try to promote it with $200k ?

 

[nrmillions]

i think it would cost a lot more than 200k to promote and brand a name. ebay, amazon, etc have spent millions or billions

 

[Heman maximus]

i think it would cost a lot more than 200k to promote and brand a name. ebay, amazon, etc have spent millions or billions

I disagree, All the compnies you mentioned did not start out by spending millions on promoting, they started to lift their budget as they made more profit. If i have $200k, i would def. develope and promote a site then just buy a name itself.

 

[jeremyp]

Absolutely no question in my mind...

I would buy the $200K name.

Jeremy

Jeremy - If you had a choice of buying a premium name for $200k, would you buy it ? Or would you reg. simple name and try to promote it with $200k ?

 

[Heman maximus]

Absolutely no question in my mind...

I would buy the $200K name.

Jeremy

WOW...

 

[gou]

Interesting difference of opinion.

 

[space101]

Great article Jeremy, and I have 1 question for you and other domainers? Now I know that are still some good generic keywords out there to be regged. But this one name i registered sometimes I feel i could have picked something better.

Down-load.mobi I know , I know that I could have picked up something w/o a hyphen in it, but it's also a premium name and the next best thing seeing as how other variations on the name are already gone.

But I guess the silver lining to this depending on how you look at it is that I will definitly be developing this name and that was the primary reason I got it. But from a domainers point of view how does everybody else feel the about the potential of this name.