The domain owner will open your letter (hopefully) and see your professional letter as well as your signature that makes you sound like your in a high position in a company (whether you are or you are not). Psychologically, the domain owner will think, wow, if someone high up from this company is interested in my domain, it’s clearly worth more than I thought. That thought will automatically shoot through their head, conciously or unconciously. This will make the domain owner raise his or her price for the name when telling you what he or she is looking to get for it.

Now, let’s say you send a really casual letter to a domain owner. If the domain owner comes from an important position in his or her domain investment company, chances are your letter will go right to junk. Especially if there are spelling errors and/or if the grammar is bad, they’re not going to respond to you. Or if you start your letter with “Hey,” rather than “To Whom It May Concern;” the domain owner will once again send your letter straight to the junk folder.

So what point am I trying to get accross here? Don’t be too professional or too casual! Being too professional will cost you more if the domain owner is willing to sell his or her domain name and not to mention, might intimidate the owner. Being too casual can easily get your letter dragged to the junk folder. Mix it up a bit and hopefully you’ll see not only more, but better transactions in your future.

Chef puts out a domain name news video each week. This is easily one of the smartest ideas I’ve ever seen. One of the biggest parts of owning a blog is connecting with your readers. You want your readers to feel like they know you. A video allows you to do so. I feel like I can get a sense of Chef’s personality just from watching that news video every week. I’m sure other’s feel the same way.

So the lesson of the week: Connect with your readers. While videos are one of the best ways to connect with your readers, it’s not the only way. I like letting my bloggers get to know me through my experiences and connect with me. Share personal stories. It will all pay off because readers will want to read your blog more often.

Comments would be appreciated

I saw many threads advertising typo domain names of athletes, companies, along with other branded & trademarked names. The seller attempting to make money off of a trademarked name, is illegal in it of itself. People may challenge me on this point, but if you are telling users that this is a typo domain name for some big, branded company, you are making money off that company’s name. It’s a classic intellectual property case. And even if it’s a close call to an intellectual property, it’s a classic big guy chasing after the small guy case (who probably can’t afford a decent attorney).

While that bothered me, it bothered me even more to see smart, reputable domainers, buying these types of domain names. Unless you are making a legitimate fan website out of the domain name, I don’t see what else you could do with it, other than to wait for an offer to come your way for it. I just find it to be a real grey hat area. You can’t legally make profit other this other company’s name, or a name that could be confusingly similar.

Any comments?

Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs. _____________ (try not to use Sir/Madam)

I am contacting you on behalf of _____________ (company name). We own the domain name www._______________. We thought your company might take an interest in it because ____________________.

The domain name gets ______ visitors monthly (always use the monthly visitors because it will look like a bigger number). It is registered at ________________, and is set to expire _______________.

Our asking price is only $_________ (set the asking price a little above what you’re willing to take), but we do have some flexibility. If you’re interested, feel free to email us back, or call us at ____-____-____.

Thanks,

(Full Name)

(Position in Company)

(Company Name)

That end-user email has worked out for me in the past, but I would also love to see the emails you generally send. So please comment below on what you think of my end-user email, and make sure to submit your comments with the end-user emails you use to send to end-users. I hope this post helps to everyone who is sending out end-user emails!

1) Try to create a new website with a totally unique concept that hasn’t been done before.

2) Stick with what they know, and the different types of websites that normally provide a solid income.

Those are the most likely the two biggest things a business must evaluate. For option number 1, the risk you take is not knowing any types of statistics, or numbers, that can help you figure out whether that concept will be successful. For option number 2, your risk is simply, competition. So each has their own risks involved in it.

Trying something new normally will either prove itself to be a complete success or total fail. There are exceptions, but that is how trying new concepts normally goes. Right now, I am trying to develop my first website that is a totally unique concept you won’t find anywhere else on the web. I haven’t seen the results yet, but I will certainly share them to viewers. Also, another big issue I have now experienced, and most experience when creating a new concept is expenses. It tends to be a lot more expensive because if it’s a new concept, it normally needs a lot of customization to the website, and also to create a website that is fully functional.

Sticking with the basics is something I have done before. I built a PTC (paid-to-click) website, which is a relatively new concept, but there are a good number of PTC websites out there, including many big ones. I made it, promoted it, got many users, and made a lot of money. I ended up selling the site for an undisclosed amount after I figured out it was too time consuming, but I got a very nice return. So sticking with the basics can really pay off. But there are plenty of PTC websites for example that completely fail. I think if you are going to stick with the basics and build a website that isn’t a new concept, you need to know how to market it correctly. You need to also be willing to of course put some good money into that marketing. It’s important because you have competition, who you want to beat out.

Anyways, what do you guys think will make you bigger bucks in a general sense, new concepts or sticking with the basics? Please comment below, I think it would be interesting to see what everyone has to say based off and on personal experiences.

I got the chance to have a brief interview with Mr. Nardone last night over the phone, when I asked him a few questions I thought viewers might like to hear the facts about. Along with the facts, you can hear a little bit more about Mr. Nardone’s background, and what PriveCo is.

How long have you been in the internet industry for?

I started on October 1 of 1998, when I created PriveCo Inc.

What got you involved in the industry?

Basically I had this idea in my mind that some things are rather embarrassing to buy in person, and are better to be bought in private on the internet.

What exactly is PriveCo. and what do you guys do?

Basically we find things, like Vibrators, that are embarrassing to buy in person, and we sell themem on the internet. PriveCo. started with an online drugstore ShopInPrivate.com, which was the site that kicked off PriveCo. on October 1, 1998. Then in 2002, we founded Bachelorette.com. Vibrators.com started out as a partnership where we convinced the old owner that we would run his site and cut him in a share of our profit.

Was there much haggling done to buy the domain, or was it a fixed price you bought it at?

We have been haggling for years now. The rather wealthy owner wanted $1,000,000 since day one. Although at one point in time we almost closed for $600,000, but the owner backed out in the last minute, once all the paperwork was written up. What sparked this purchase is we wanted to market the site, while the owner didn’t want to spend any money doing so. As for the financial part, we put $200,000 down, and financed $800,000 over 5 years at 8%.

What are your developmental plans for the domain?

Well as I discussed before, we have been running this site for a while, but were only part owners of the domain name and had to throw a lot of the profits to the old owner who we just bought the domain name from. There won’t be any significant changes done to the site, other then our redesign of the site which will be up by December 13 approximately. We are also bettering our affiliate program we put in, not to long ago.

Well that wrapped up our interview. If you have any further questions for Mr. Nardone, just post your comments and questions here, and hopefully he will stay up-to-date with this article and can answer or respond to them for you.

I had a very interesting week this week. When I listed a few of my domains for sale on the forums, I got no offers. Along with my domains, I listed my one of my blogs, and got only one close-to-regular-fee offer. The market is just totally dried up. And I think others agree with me on that particular point. There is a lot of supply, and too little demand.

The one thing that people need to realize is that a lot of the investments or choices you make will work out for you in the long run if they don’t work out for you in the short run. One thing I have learned over my years not only in the online industry, but the stock market as well is that most markets tend to fluctuate. And I believe that’s what happening to our domain industry now. Many months ago, the domain industry’s market was at a high point, while now it’s at rock bottom. But don’t only focus on the recession our industry is in because it will eventually go back up, because as I said, markets DO fluctuate!

I like to compare domaining to the stock market, especially because this makes the perfect example for examples of fluctuation. The stock market crashed last week and went down 777 points. But today, it shot back up over 900 points, the biggest rise we have ever seen in history. So like the stock market, the domain industry will have it’s hard times like we are currently experiences, but it will bounce back up at some point in the future.

My suggestion for you is to not freak out at this point. Some people, especially in the stock market will freak out, and start selling all their things for any penny they can get. But those are the people who most of the time lose money. So in my opinion, I would say at this point, hold onto your domains. If anything, buy more domains while the prices are so low. And then when the fluctuation of the market kicks back in, and the domain industry’s economy goes back to a high point, sell your domains and make tons of profit.

DNUnderground viewers and I would love to hear any comments you have on our domain industry’s economy, and staying positive. So please, comment any questions, feelings, or ideas that you have about this subject.

It’s just an interesting point that the domain is  a .net. Personally, I feel that takes a major away a major part of this domain’s value. My prediction is the domain will sell for a good $25,000-$35,000. But my major point is that the .com extentsion of this domain, Government.com, would go for about double to triple that. The .net just absolutely kills the value.

People do say that domains are all about keywords. Thats how you get organic traffic from google. But, the average person will remember a .com the best. A lot of people are just unfamiliar with .net’s, and most of the other extensions. So while you a getting your organic google traffic, you are losing a lot of returning visitors, in most cases.

But discussing .com versus other extensions is a whole different article, which you can look forward to reading, because it will be coming out soon. Overall though, we will just wait and see how this Government.net auction turns out. If you are interested in bidding, again, the current bid is $20,100, you can Click Here. Feel free to comment your feelings on not only .com’s vs .net and other extensions, but about the auction, and your predictions, or after thoughts once it’s over.

DomainFEST runs a very exclusive live auction. Just to get in the convention, you need to pay around $1,000. The top domainers in the industry are at this major event, so I would have to guess domains will be going for some good numbers. Moniker.com sold over $900,000 in domains at their last live auction, so we are predicting that sales will be totalling if anything, more than the last auction.

I know I submitted a lot of my best domains into the auction, and I will see if any of them get into the auction. And if you want to submit your domains, it is a very easy processs. Just go to Moniker.com and go to the Live Auction link. Of course, to submit your domains for consideration, it is 100% free. The only things you need are a SnapNames.com account, a Moniker.com account, and domains to submit. Once you have these three requirements, you are ready to submit your domains for consideration! Good luck!

Today the stock market has gone back up over 300 points. And yet, I haven’t seen the prices of domains rising like I would have expected. On eBay, domains like SkinRetail.com, which I would normally appraise at about $80-$85 sold for only $31. It’s just very odd that the domain industry isn’t running along with the pattern of our economy and stock market as I thought it was. Once the stock market crashed yesterday, domain prices went down. Now that the stock market is climbing back up, why aren’t the price of domains going back up with it?

I have talked to a few friends of mine in the domaining industry, and most have answered that people are so unsure of where the economy is at this point that until we see the economy steadily going up, the domain industry along with other industries around the world will be at rock bottom regarding prices for services and goods.

In my personal opinion, Congress needs to come back to this $700 billion bailout bill and reconsider it. That would save all the industries, such as the domain industry, from getting worse and worse. Now, not trying to move this article onto politics, but I need to point my finger at Nancy Pelosi for causing an even worse recession in the stock market and industries. If she could keep her mouth shut, and Congress could pass this $700 billion bailout bail, the domain industry as well as other industries will start rising back to where they were before our economy turned horrible.

Please comment your feelings on this, and what you feel can be done to get the domain industry back on top!