An oldie but a goodie (well, I think so - perhaps you will too)

[Commerce]

I am rehashing an old idea of mine I've posted here at DNForum in the past. I'm doing this again because time has passed, the Internet market continues to evolve and this particular audience (fellow exclusive members) is far better targeted for and far more likely receptive to the message, as well as I think the idea continues to mature in my own mind.

Those who know me also know that I have some super generic names in my company portfolio. Ultimately, I don't think any one company (never mind an individual) is going to develop many of these to their full potential. I bought strongly on the belief that sub domains are a great way to qualify and categorize a super generic into a more focused generic on a global basis (You can probably guess that one of my personal business heroes is former GE Chairman Jack Welsh). I think that GE is successful primarily because of its diverse segmentation and global reach.

Because this group understands the value of developed quality domain properties far better than most people, I think you will understand this concept easily enough.

I'm willing to put up Marketers.Org as a test case for the plan if I can get enough people willing to go forward with this idea. If that works, other collaborations would be the logical next move.

Bottom line, I'm looking to develop a small cartel of around 10 individuals to start who wish to "own" logical sub domains in the Marketers.Org domain. By logical sub domains, I refer to such things as Country (e.g., UK.Marketers.Org) and Function (e.g., Domain.Marketers.Org). The idea is simple enough; build a common platform operated by the cartel and leverage successes to the benefit of all.

In the case of Marketers.Org, there are marketers for just about everything made and sold. I think that once they realize they too can participate, the platform sub domain they want can be sold to them. In the case where a sub domain is already developed, the platform developer would get the lion's share of the revenues on such a sale (to offset development and provide a profit), but the value would be determined by the cartel and the deal would possibly be negotiated by a licensed legal mind participating in the cartel. Undeveloped names would be split three ways the seller, the cartel and my company (hey, I get compensated for my ideas too). Unlike conventional domain sales, the cartel, the seller and my company would get the revenue on sub domain renewals each year. Given we sell a whole bunch of sub domains (say there are 100,000 categories mapping to sub domains) that would mean a fair residual return (even at a renewal rate of $10 per year, that is an infusion of one million dollars - since this is a common interests "club" the renewals would likely be higher). Not bad on one domain, and it could be pretty darn good on several I and perhaps you can bring to the table if the idea works.

How much a sub domain might cost a cartel member initially is up for debate among would be cartel participants, but my thought is that initially, it may make the most sense to set things up as a "free" first year registration. How such an entity is formed and organized is also up for debate and hopefully the friend input of aforementioned licensed legal minds who may want to participate.

My COO on another venture I work likes to quote one of the late Ray Kroc's (founder of McDonalds Corp) favorite sayings "None of us is as good as all of us!" - a statement with which I certainly agree. I believe that as a cooperative venture, the diverse experience, backgrounds and knowledge in this group would make such a venture successful.

So go ahead, give me some feedback. Let's punch this idea around and see if anyone else wants to get this off the ground.

-Commerce

 

[Dale Hubbard]

In short, I think it's a great idea, and I've often pondered it myself. These generics can be extraordinarily difficult to monetise and here is a way -- most adeptly phrased if I might add, Commerce. I'll be watching this with great interest as I also have a generic .net emininently suitable for sub-domains; also there's a little money to be made by offering 'vanity' email addresses from the main domain. Like, if I was into marketing, I'd be happy to pay $12 per year for [email protected] - just a simple alias.

Good luck!

 

[groundctrl]

while i'm new to domaining, i'm not new to marketing on the web, and this is a great idea. what i'm particularly pleased with is that you seem to be really intent on creating value for a large group of people, creating value for yourself in the process. i can appreciate that. and likewise, i'd be very happy to participate in something like this... i see great potential.

 

[Commerce]

Thank you both for your kind words.

I think that I'm going to start a list for this Marketers idea. PM me if you would also like to be on that discussion list. Obviously, comments here are most encouraged and welcomed too.

-Commerce

 

[Creature]

Great idea Commerce. Good luck.

Azooza, is there a big market for paid vanity email these days? I was looking at using the web based services of load.com.

 

[BGray]

Not to put a damper on things here but I dont' get it.

I really only see this adding value for you as the base domain holder. I can't blame you as getting others to create content on your domain is gold. I think you'd be lucky to get people to do this for free as there would be real uncertainty about the ownership without a very firm contract.

Besides, why would you want to go through this when you could just reg UKMarketers.org or DomainMarketers.org which are available?

We know all know which version is easier to type into a browser and likely more favored by the search engines as well.

If I'm serious about creating a website I'd pay $10k for XXXXname.com before I developed on XXXX.name.com. Especially if I had to pay for the subdomain and didn't get all the revenues or have complete ownership and control.

Again, not to put a damper on your idea but I just don't get the motivation for the publishing party especially if the word combo is available to register in base domain's extension.



Just my opinion.

 

[Commerce]

BGray,

I really appreciate your post. It is exactly what I had hoped for and how ideas should best be kicked around and voted on as being great or late (as in that late idea was sent to the grave).

My thought was to create an entity (probably a Limited Liability Company [LLC]) where members are quite literally members. The domain is held by the cartel whose members are in the LLC. You are quite correct about the contracts. As I mentioned, that is where the legal minds come in.

I agree that one can acquire a domain like a sub domain on another as in your examples, but the idea in this case is not the domain name per se, it is the common community of sites that can be formed and found around a strong domain which represents the value proposition of the concept. When you think about it, in a way, that is part of the power of search engines themselves.

As to your remark on revenues, the holder of the name would probably realize all their revenue; it is the original sales fee and renewal registration fee for the sub domain which goes back to the cartel. The issue here is what use is permitted for consistency, which goes back to the decision of the cartel. The purpose here is to create, so I doubt for example, that the cartel would want the “parking” of a sub domain being an acceptable use.

Great constructive thoughts, which I hope that I addressed completely. Keep them coming.

-Commerce

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Great idea Commerce. Good luck.

Azooza, is there a big market for paid vanity email these days? I was looking at using the web based services of load.com.

I've not really explored it in depth lately, although I used to run a large(ish) email service a few years ago and I had about 200 domains that people could pick an alias from and it seemed to work.

I mean, would you rather be [email protected] or [email protected] for a few pennies a month? Not rocket science to me. Mind you, most people hate paying for anything :uhoh:

Maybe it's time for email aliases to have their chance again, now that we have Google in the fray. I guess that's why I'm keeping aliases.net - I've had it nearly a decade.

 

[Bill Roy]

As I see the proposal the term 'vanity' should be replaced with the term 'marketing', this is more aimed towards the business community than individuals. To businesses in general the email address is a direct subliminal message to the customer/client. Use of such as UK.Marketers.org in this respect is a positive enhancement to the 'owner' of such a sub-domain.

 

[David G]

....why would you want to go through this when you could just reg UKMarketers.org or DomainMarketers.org which are available?
We know all know which version is easier to type into a browser and likely more favored by the search engines as well...

A very interesting plan and concept which I would love to be successful.

However, a major issue with the plan is exactly as stated by BGray. Without checking I am sure most of the possible subdomains are also available to register as a non-sub-domain so if someone is thinking about participating they could easily decide to register the full domain instead.

Also, no question by adding the dot between the words it makes the work of getting traffic much more difficult.

My only subdomain site had poor success getting any of the subdomains listed in Google. I hand submitted all 30 of them numerous times and finally after about 2 or 3 yrs of ongoing effort and lots of frustration they got listed in Google. Not sure why that happened as could never find out if the SE's penalize them or not but it was very odd how tough it was.

Good luck. As I said, I would love for it to succeed.

 

[Commerce]

As I see the proposal the term 'vanity' should be replaced with the term 'marketing', this is more aimed towards the business community than individuals. To businesses in general the email address is a direct subliminal message to the customer/client. Use of such as UK.Marketers.org in this respect is a positive enhancement to the 'owner' of such a sub-domain.

It took me a while to understand what you were saying here (because I never used the word vanity, but I finally got it), but yes, and you have a great thought. Take the ISO variations and use them for email in addition to the web indexing potential.

Thanks for the input. If you want on the list for the cartel, just pm me.

 

[Bill Roy]

Commerce,

My apologies for the confussion, I was using the term 'vanity' as in Creatures post. Glad you could work that out though.

Will be sending a PM.

Bill