In this podcast series we are calling Domainer Show – Blast from the Past, we are going back to some podcast interviews Ed did on his OzDomainer Show from 2008 up to 2014 with some amazing global domaining legends such as Michael & David Castello, Rick Schwartz, Mike Mann, Frank Schilling, Ron Jackson, Elliot Silver, Andrew Miller, Mike “Zappy” Zapolin and many more.
Their stories are timeless and the principles of domain buying still hold true to this day.
There is a wealth of information and experience captured in these interviews and we hope you get as much from them as we do / did! 🙂
Domain Names Podcast Episode 18 with Andrew Miller from InternetRealEstate.com
My guest today on Domain Names Podcast is Andrew Miller co-founder & President of Internet Real Estate Group one of the men behind (along with Zappy Zapolin) leading internet brands such as Beer.com, Computer.com, Music.com, Debt.com, CreditCards.com, Diamond.com, Chocolate.com and many many more.
Andrew shares his years of experience online and talks about what lead him to where he is today, what he thinks the future of the internet has to offer and his new domain sales platform website Simple Domains.
Enjoy!
Domain Names Podcast Episode 13 with Zappy Zapolin InternetRealEstate.com
My guest today on Domain Names Podcast is Zappy Zapolin co-founder & CEO of Internet Real Estate Group & InternetWarrior.com and the visionary behind such leading internet brands such as Beer.com, Computer.com, Music.com, Debt.com, CreditCards.com, Diamond.com and many many more.
Zappy shares his years of experience online and talks about what lead him to where he is today, what he thinks the future of the internet has to offer & we discuss his latest project www.InternetWarrior.com
Ed runs OnlineImpact.com.au
Robert runs Registry Australia and DBR.com.au
Yet to listen to the one with Zappy, but I agree with Andrew’s litmus test for the most bankable domain extension for your country:
Open your eyes and consciously look at what businesses is using, in TV ads, on radio ads and on billboards.
In Australia, the answer is .com.au, more than 90% of the time. If you throw in things like print advertising and vehicle advertising then .net.au actually comes in well ahead of .com in Australia.
This is because the only people running off a .com in Australia rather than a .com.au tend to be global hotel groups, airlines and major tourist destinations eg. Sydney.com.
You’ll still see quite few global brands running off the .com in magazines like Vogue etc, but in almost every case they are only using .com because they were too late and unable (still unable) to buy the .com.au.
Many small businesses actually use .net.au because it was available to them. Usage and being recognisable is what makes an extension strong.
Anyway, just wanted to share some thoughts and also what I’ve just noticed on TV right this second – Channel 7 has now copied Channel 9 and begun to use its generic domain name as part of its logo watermark. That’s the faint white logo you see on screen all day everyday.
So Channel 7 is now running Seven.com.au
And Channel 9 has been running Nine.com.au for the best part of a year
In Australia, it’s .com.au all the way and .com is a yawn for most Australian businesses unless they are marketing overseas.
Great points Darrell and I agree completely with what you have said.
.com is not King everywhere like many think. Definitely more valuable dollar wise in terms of sale prices obviously bit not for recognition or use cases for businesses in Australia.
Good interview with Zappy too.
I would caution new domainers against trying to hand register domains for new verticals or trends.
This is a poor methodology that results in failure 99% of the time for new investors, who usually take a scattergun approach and end up with a bunch of unusable names.
It’s a poor methodology generally, and is the exception rather than the rule about how to be successful with domain name investing.
If a domain is undeniably good because there is a current and growing demand for the goods or services it denotes, then great. But registering two word keyword names or variations of names or tacking on buzzwords to keyword names is a sure-fire way to fail.
It’s one of Zappy’s less preferred domain investing techniques and his first and favourite technique is to go after category-killer names.
There a many examples of leading businesses in Australia using category-killer names to crush the competition.
Examples include Beaumont’s using Tile.com.au in most advertising inc. TV, NIB’s multi-million dollar acquisition of Health.com.au and of course the many sports codes eg. Tennis.com.au, Cricket.com.au, Rugby.com.au etc
There are many category-killer domains out there punching above their weight because of the power of the generic nature of their names, Umbrellas.com.au for example which enjoys a top 3 organic ranking.
While Google’s 2012 algo update meant that poor quality sites could no longer receive preference based on the generic nature of the name, real businesses today continue to enjoy a higher ranking than they would have had than if they had utilised a domain that was not a keyword generic.
Like Andrew and Zappy said, you get instant brand positioning with a categor-killer name. Like Shaun McGowan has said in his interviews on the success of CarLoans.com.au, your click-thru rates tend to be much higher and you also save advertising space because you don’t need to explain to people what you do. They already know and it precisely matches what they are looking for.
Thanks again Andrew and Zappy for taking the time and Ed for the good interviews.
Thanks again Darrell for your thoughtful comments. 👍🙂
I too keep away from any buzzword domains.
They need to make sense as a solid business name before I would hand register or buy them in the aftermarket or drops. A strong history of exact match keyword searches is also a key factor for me.
That being said, a very small portion of my domains would be classified as brandable names which would either be made of LLL, LLLL or NNN names.
Cheers
Thank you for doing these interviews Ed!
I have not had the pleasure of meeting Zappy but he is widely known as a true domaining pioneer.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KkCSt7phArc