General

Jamie Zoch runs the domain blog at DotWeekly.com.  I’ve followed Jamie’s posts for years and his blog is a core standards in my news feed.  Jamie is a family man and all around cool guy. I had a chance to connect with Jamie over the past week and get his perspective and learn a bit more about him.

Mike:  When did you first become interested in the domain world?

Jamie: I owned a sign business and sold a lot of stuff on eBay. Since I was always researching what was selling, I happened to run into a lot of listings for domain names that were selling for a fair amount and a lot of them, so I started researching domain names and haven’t stopped since!

Mike:  You were among the first bloggers I read when I started learning about domaining. What led you to launching DotWeekly.com and when did you launch?

Jamie: I launched DotWeekly around February 2008. During my 2 years of digging around on domains, I was noticing that many people would share information but they often were not sharing all the details. I didn’t see any reason to hide the fine details, so I started sharing detailed step by step processes of nearly everything I was doing. I just felt it was the right thing to do, to help others looking to learn.

Mike:  If I recall, a few years back you lost your blog and all it’s contents with no available backup.  What hard lessons were learned from that experience and how has it made you stronger?

Jamie: Man that sucked! A friend of mine was actually hosting my website and he changed servers one weekend and deleted my files, thinking I wasn’t using the website any longer. WordPress is great and there are so many plugins but sadly a backup plugin wasn’t something I was using. Technically speaking, the website was backed up on the server, but that was deleted along with my website when my friend switched servers.

What did I learn? Don’t let your friend host your website, so I have switched to GoDaddy’s managed WordPress hosting AND I use a backup plugin called UpdraftPlus.

Losing all that content felt like I wasted years worth of work. There was a lot of great stories, how to articles and more that vanished. Archive.org still holds many of them, but it’s not easy bringing all that data back in. The biggest kicker, I think at that time, DotWeekly was pulling in around $1,500 a month in affiliate ad revenue. Poof, that was gone with the data!

Mike:  Domain bloggers seem to have their own niche.  Yours seems to be your unmatched ability to research and track premium domain movement.  How have you been able to stay on top of this and report on transactions no other blogs are covering?

Jamie: Hard work really. I put in a lot of time researching movements. I get up everyday at 4 am and spend around 3-4 hours every day checking movements in several different variations. Sadly, there are a couple ways that need to be looked at and my process involves “double looking at data” but both need to be done to capture as many movements as I can.

The data that I dig up is very important for the domain name industry as a whole, because it really puts a pulse on the market. Yes, DnJournal.com reports a lot of domain name sales but the fact is, the majority of the bigger ones are not included in the weekly reports. Most are not included due to private transactions or between parties that are simply not involved in the domain industry, so its not news for them to report.

Just like Domaining itself is addictive, so is knowing what is selling. Since most of my findings are not reported outside DotWeekly, it really has become an addictive form of knowing what is selling and who is buying. Then digging into the why, trying to find a price and any info to help domainers.

Mike:  According to your blog, you offer brokerage services as well.  Tell me about your service and what differentiates you from other brokers.

Jamie: I do offer brokerage services but my main focus is Buyer Brokerage. If I had to pick one thing that I like doing the most, it’s helping somebody acquire a domain name. The fact is, a lot of companies and individuals do not know how to buy a domain name that is owned by somebody else. Can they go hunting for themselves? Yes, but it takes time and they are likely not educated on value, whois privacy and so much more. Going in blind and even contacted the domain owner via email can be a bad idea, as it often tips off the domain owner. There are better approaches and using somebody like myself for a small fee is well worth the time and very often will save you a lot of money! I deeply understand the domain name industry, understand the market and have a lot of connections which is often key in buying a domain name from its current owner.

Mike:  Tell me about MailboxPark and your involvement there?

Jamie: Ah, you have done your research Mike! I haven’t been very public about this new project but I’m very excited about it. I have long thought that incoming email was a vital under-looked asset of domain names. Consider the fact that some 200+ billion emails are sent daily, email is important and they are all tied to a domain name.

From a domain owners standpoint, it’s a pain in the butt to set up a “catch all” email on every single domain name they own to view email. If one were to actually do that, then they get hit with a bunch of email and the volume is often overwhelming to deal with. Then what? It gets ignored due to volume overload and what to do with it.

250ok.com, the parent company of MailboxPark is an email deliverablity service that helps brands with better practices of emailing, fighting phishing attacks and more. They were looking to diversify data sources and offer a product that I found very interesting if I could get involved and tune it towards the domainer! I took on a director role with the company and have been working with them since December 2016 to come up with MailboxPark.com.

So what is MailboxPark? In a nutshell, it’s an easy solution for domain name owners to view all incoming email to your domain names, discover and earn some revenue with it. With building tools to view all the email, our technology categorizes all incoming email so its easier to manage and view what’s important. Personal, Social, Commercial and Other.

From the Commercial side, this data helps 250ok better serve its customers in practices of building better practices of emailing its customers. Because of this, MailboxPark is able to pay domain owners for Commercial email traffic. Is it as much as domain parking? Sometimes, because some domain names get a lot of email! In general, since most domain owners were making $0 and not even considered email to the domains they own, it’s a big plus!

Discovery is one vastly important part of MailboxPark. Since our technology categorizes the incoming email, it greatly reduces the effort to view the mail and find the things that are beneficial to you. Does one business assume another business owns a domain and are trying to communicate on this assumption, yet you own the domain? That happens A LOT and you being able to see this is really a great lead that truly makes a wise investment for the company missing these emails. Maybe you as the domain owner didn’t know of this company and the fact that they use a domain name close to yours. You now have data to alert you to this and you can discreetly use this information for a sales pitch for them to purchase the domain that they may not have know is important to them.

MailboxPark is just getting started and is very exciting! It’s similar in a way to domain parking but also vastly different. By simply setting MX records on your domain name, you can use MailboxPark. Did I mention it’s free! Very similar to setting Name Servers to use a parking service. By only needing to set MX records, this allows MailboxPark to be “non-disruptive” and you can continue to resolve the domain name as you choose, like using a parking service. MailboxPark does not reply to any incoming emails, nor serve any ads what so ever, so the service really runs in the background and you know 100% what is going on.

It is my job to make the service very helpful to domain owners and worth while. Based on a lot of feedback, the discovery aspect is highly enjoyed and the revenue is an added bonus. We understand that revenue is important and are working on a few things that can help continue improve the revenue aspect of MailboxPark. I have a creative mind, so this helps when looking at data. Domainers should be really excited about the service and the future it holds. Curiosity alone should entice domain owners to give MailboxPark a try, but it’s a very valuable service. 250ok is a really great company that is open and honest and truly open to building a great service for domainers and the reason I’m so excited about it and glad to be a part of.

Mike:  One of my goals is to educate domainers.  What advice do you have for domainers?  What are some of the common mistakes you have seen?

Jamie: Domainers are forwarding thinking individuals and some really smart people. Domain names are a very important and businesses are pretty slow to realize how important the internet is. Thankfully, many companies are finally understanding how important it is to be online, the communication aspects of email, apps, advertising and branding. These movements will reward many domain name investors handsomely that own premium generic one and two word domain names. .com is and will always be king, something that will very likely never be any other way. The ball started rolling a long time ago (1985) and it’s really the trendy, most common nature extension to use!

So from an investment side, .com domain names and in one and two word nature are the best investments. Look at what many of the largest companies in the world use, what some of the hottest new startups are using. It’s often 8 characters or less and matching .com domain to the branded term of the company.

From a business aspect, if you are not using a .com, you should! If your domain name is hard to spell, type, added words, hyphen etc., you need to deeply consider an upgrade! There is so much that relates to your domain name, from the power play of: “Hey, we mean business, look at our domain name” (aka, owning Money.com compared to, MoneyServicesOnTheWeb.com) to word of mouth advertising and easily being able to say and spell your domain, to email communication and the common/natural fit to your branding. All of this relates to your domain and much more (SEO, trust etc).

James Richardson started his online career running online Sports Fan sites, with the pinnacle being a write up in the Sunday Herald Sun ‘Wired’ column. His professional career began at ASX listed company Melbourne IT where he held various senior roles across the Sales and Marketing teams, before deciding to venture out on his own. Running several successful online websites and businesses himself, he is well placed at understanding what your business needs.

Mike: James, you founded SEO.com.au. Excellent keyword domain to say the least. How does .com.au compare to .com?

James:  com.au is the primary domain name used by Australian businesses. As we are mainly focused on the AU market – this work great for us and conveys trust to our customers. In the au market, as a general rule you have to be a registered business to be able to register a domain name, and you must also list all your details publicly, so with that comes an element of security.

You get all the benefits of a great .com domain name, but obviously a slightly smaller market!

Obviously when we are talking about value, it doesn’t compare to the .com which sold for $5 Million in 2007, but the domain name still carries some great value in our smaller market from a resale perspective.

Mike: Tell us what you do at SEO.com.au.

James:  SEO.com.au is as the name suggests, an SEO company. Our main brand is Optimising.com.au, and we use SEO.com.au as our higher level brand.
We’re focused on high quality in house SEO, with a big focus on technical audits. At the moment the website acts more as a lead generator than a stand alone website, but we have plans to expend the brand more fully in the future.

Mike: In your experience as an SEO expert, how important is a keyword domain to a businesses success?

James:  Google has rolled out lots of updates to curb the benefits of EMD’s, but we still see a nice bump from having one. In addition EMD’s are usually older domains with some good authority and history behind them which always helps!

I would not say it’s a deal breaker to business success, but its certainly beneficial. The domain creates a great ice breaker in conversations and also gives the impression we have been around for a long time to get such a great domain name.

Mike: Knowing that keyword domains have a high level of importance, explain how businesses based on brandable domains often do well.

James:  I would actually say it can actually be more difficult to build your business around a generic domain name. It can actually make it more difficult to build a ‘brand’ as the domain name is not ‘unique’, the other issue you have is all the other in your industry using the term. If it is a dictionary word, it’s going to be tough to stop them using it and confusing your customers!

When we bought the domain, it had previously had an old website on it that had been up for about 10 years. When we took ownership we redid the branding, and created a website that better aligned with what our company was. The biggest benefit we see overall with using such a great domain name is its memorable. Clients can easily remember it if they meet you at an event, it’s say to remember when someone wants to mention it a a colleague, and it’s really going to stand out in any advertising we do.

Mike: What are the top 3 SEO tips you have for small businesses trying to get their sites ranked in Google?

James:  The biggest thing overall is that SEO can be done by anyone, it just takes time and effort (I am talking about the basics here. There is so much business owners can do themselves so easily, but most do not even bother. People need to start really utilising their website, which is a huge potential asset as a marketing and branding channel.

1. Build great content: Get great content on your website that visitors to your site would want, and expect to see. When they get to your website you want to ensure they can find everything they could potentially need to make a decision.
2. Great code: Ensure that your website is built well, loads fast, and works seamlessly on all devices.
3. Build great links: Links are still a HUGE part of ranking well on Google so ensure that there are other websites out there linking to your pages, and the great content you are writing.

Simple!

Mike: How did you get the name SEO.com.au? Can you talk me through the process you followed to purchase the name?

James:   We actually suited this domain name about 4 years ago when it came on the market. Myself and my business partner Daniel felt that it was an opportunity too good to pass up and one that only comes up once in a lifetime.

We had been talking to the seller for a reasonable amount of time before he sold it, and when he was ready to sell he came straight to us and we were ready to acquire it quickly.

Mike: What type of traffic do you see?

James:  Without putting in any real effort, we see a few thousand uniques a month, which as you can imagine converts to a very tidy lead source for us. This comes through pure organic searches, as well as Google Maps. We have plans to expand the link building efforts and flesh out the website some more which would further increase organic traffic.

John Z Wetmore was born in a neighborhood in Minnesota with 6-foot-wide sidewalks. After his family moved to Illinois, starting in kindergarten he walked to school along 5-foot-wide sidewalks. When he was in sixth grade, his family moved to a suburban neighborhood in Maryland … half a mile from the nearest sidewalk! Thirty years later, his family celebrated when the County finally built a sidewalk along their street.

Mr. Wetmore received a B.A. with High Honors from Princeton University and an M.A. and M. Phil. in economics from Yale University. He is an independent television producer, specializing in documentaries when he isn’t working on Perils For Pedestrians.

Mike: Pedestrians.org is home to the television series “Perils for Pedestrians.” Tell me a bit about the program.

John: “Perils For Pedestrians” is a public affairs series that looks at problems confronting pedestrians in communities like yours, and solutions to those problems from across the United States and around the world. It’s on 150 Public Access Cable Stations around the country. The title is a little misleading, because we also look at bicycles, transit, and urban design. And we look at good examples when we find them, not just “perils”.

Mike: Is this a for profit or not-for-profit endeavor?If for profit, what is your business model?  How do you generate revenue?

John: “Perils For Pedestrians” is not-for-profit. Since it runs on non-commercial public access channels, there is no advertising to support it. We keep production costs low and get some donations, particularly in-kind donations to help with travel costs. I make my living with the other video projects I work on.

Mike: Were you the first to register the domain name or did you purchase it from a third party?

John: We were the first to register the domain in 1998. I had struggled for a year with a long URL full of slashes and tildes. When my web manager pointed out that pedestrians.org was available, I followed her advice and obtained it. I plug my site at the end of every television episode, and it is essential to have something that viewers can remember without writing it down.

Mike: The dot com and dot net are both parked pages, available for sale.Have you inquired about purchasing either of those? Why or why not?

John: I don’t think there is a high level of confusion between my URL ending with dot org and the alternatives. Back in 1998 when I told people my new URL, people rarely said, “dot org or dot com?”. What they did say was, “pedestrian or pedestrians?”. A week after I got pedestrians.org, I got pedestrian.org. About a fourth of my traffic comes through pedestrian.org even though I only promote pedestrians.org.

Mike: Where did your passion for sidewalks develop?

John: It all started when I was a wee little lad, literally. I went to grade school in a town with sidewalks on every street, and I walked to school starting in kindergarten. In the middle of sixth grade, my family moved to a suburb where I was half a mile from the nearest sidewalk, and I had to take a bus to school. By the time I graduated from high school, I realized the government wasn’t going to build sidewalks until people asked them to build sidewalks. It took 17 years to get the county to put in a sidewalk so that my elderly aunt could walk to the bus stop and the drug store without struggling on uneven grass.

Mike: The episodes show copyright of 2012 and the site looks like it may not have been updated in a while.Are you still maintaining it?Is it active? Are there more recent episodes?

John: The site underwent a major overhaul a few years ago. Prior to that, the design had not changed much since the 1990s. I added a couple of new sections last year. The part that needs attention most right now is the “Episodes” section, which is missing the last couple of dozen episodes. They are all available on my YouTube channel, but have not been embedded on my site yet. My web manager does a good job, but she has limited time to work on the site. That’s one of the perils of having a limited budget.

Mike: You mentioned to me that your web manager really understands SEO.Can you elaborate?

John: We have consistently shown up on the first page of results for [pedestrians] since Google was started, although as Google personalizes search results that is more difficult to measure. The most important part of that is having good content that encourages organic incoming links. However, there are design details that matter. For example, since the site relates to a tv series, it is very visual and I have pictures throughout the site. Each jpg has alt text, which helps out blind users but also helps out the search engines. We also have pages devoted to specific topics. Once again, that is good for the user, but it also helps us show up for search strings like [sidewalk obstruction] or [sidewalk setback].

U.S. Windshield Repair is a family owned and operated business located in Central Utah.   Started in Southern California in 1990 as a full-time windshield repair service, they began designing and manufacturing products soon after as they realized there was a shortage of quality tools and products. Bill Penrod’s previous history is 12 years in the retail grocery industry, 8 years in law enforcement as a deputy sheriff and marshal and 6 months as a property manager in a ski resort.

Mike:  With a domain name like WindshieldRepair.com, there is no denying that you have the market cornered.  Tell me a little about your business.

Bill:  Well that’s not true.  The name has been a boost but today larger companies with their SEO efforts and budgets have more than leveled the playing field.  In fact, it is I that have to work harder and harder to stay relevant.

Mike:  The name is a perfect fit. Were you the first to register the name, or did you purchase it from someone.   If the latter, walk us through the process you followed to obtain it.

Bill:  I was the first to register it.  A friend had told me the internet would be big some day and I should grab a good URL.  I wish I could say I was smart and saw the potential, the truth is I had good guidance and a fair amount of luck.

Mike:  Do you own any other domains?

Bill:  Yes, www.uswindshieldrepair.com ( my actual business name) and a few others.  I had hopes to grow several online businesses but find as time goes on I only have time for the one.

Mike:  I imagine you get a large amount of type-in traffic, or people that just type in your domain name needing.  Do you have any idea how much of your traffic comes from this source?

Bill:  Roughly 30%.

 Mike:  Are you willing to share your overall monthly traffic numbers?

Bill:  Hmmm, due to the extremely competitive environment I would rather not.

Mike:  What’s been the most challenging part of running an online business?

Bill:  Salesmanship.  I get a large number of potential customers that visit my site, call me, ask questions and advice, then buy from my competitor.  In almost every case they call back after making a purchase from that competitor and tell me two things:

1) I made a mistake I should have bought from your company in the first place and

2) Now that I’ve spent all my money elsewhere I have limited resources can you give me a break?  I have agonized over the years as to what I am doing wrong, what the other guy is doing right and how to turn things around.  Sadly I have not yet figured it out.  I have gone through several incarnations and surveyed these customers but not found the answer.

Mike:  Do you think there are still any good names out there for business owners to launch a site on?

Bill:  Absolutely!  With so many names already taken it is more challenging but certainly it can be done.