Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

Six Amazing Experiences I am Grateful For

For my first post after my unofficial 'sabbatical' from blogging, I thought I'd share some photos and observations from some of the more memorable positive experiences I have had over the last eight months. I am truly lucky that I get the opportunity to travel for work and pleasure.
 

Had dinner by the beach in beautiful and eclectic Key West, Florida with some fellow domainers (domain investors) who had gathered from around the world. The people I was dining with at this table manage portfolios of several million domains. I was there attending a business event hosted by Sedo, but it was the networking and informal social interactions that proved to be the most valuable.

Took my wife for a surprise helicopter ride over New York City at sunset. (Interestingly, it was one of the domainers at the Key West dinner that gave me the idea for this.) I never even realized you could charter a helicopter and do this, and I highly recommend it.

Scuba dived a Soviet warship off the coast of Cuba. I had visited this wreck 10 years earlier but had run into some complications and had to cut short my dive. This time around I was better prepared and brought along my camera.

Drove through Death Valley with one of my team members (who took this photo) and visited Zabriskie Point, which I have wanted to visit ever since seeing the Antonioni film of the same name. Despite its name, Death Valley is teeming with life, and my colleague and I had a great time exploring this amazing landscape en route to another domain conference.

Learned the fine art of "The Throw" on a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras. You learn a lot about marketing and negotiating doing this. Seriously. This was another domain conference, yet despite its more informal nature provided a great opportunity to really bond with new and existing business partners.

Explored The Crystal Caves in Bermuda, which I first visited as a child. They were first discovered by two teenage boys who were looking for their lost cricket ball. Thanks to the curiosity of kids, we can now all experience this natural wonder of the world.

It was amazing experiences like these, which I am very grateful to have had, that counterbalanced the negative energy of the deaths in my inner circle during the same time period. Here's to more of the former and less of the latter in the coming years.

Why It's a Wrap for my Movie Domain Name Website

Like many of the ventures I have launched over the years, the idea for Hollywoozy, my site where I would review movie domain names, came to me out of the blue.

At the time, I thought it would be both fun and educational to use movie domain names (the good and the bad) as a springboard to discuss what makes a good marketing domain name.

I also wanted to create an outlet to share my amusement and frustration with the idiotic domain names chosen by the marketers of movies.

I feel that I accomplished both those objectives, and the reaction to Hollywoozy has been very positive.

Since launching the site, I have had the opportunity to discuss movie domain names with studio executives, filmmakers, marketing folks, and intellectual property lawyers. In doing so, I gained a deeper understanding of why most Hollywood movies end up with less-than-ideal domain names. It was an eye-opening experience.

Here are some of the reasons why movie domains are the way they are (and won't likely change anytime soon):

1. Since the bulk of a typical Hollywood movie's marketing dollars are spent on traditional, offline media (mainly television and print), the online marketing component is given low priority, little attention, and relatively tiny budgets. Finding and obtaining the best domain name is not seen as a priority, and any money spent on purchasing the domain name(s) will come out of the already squeezed budget for the movie's Website.

2. Many movie marketers refuse to deal with domain investors who might already own the ideal domain name. It's become almost a matter of principle that Hollywood would rather pay $10 and register a brand new but inferior movie domain name than pay someone else $500 for a much better domain name. Hollywood feels it has been 'burned' too often by cybersquatters (or what Hollywood perceives as cybersquatters) and wants nothing to do with even the legitimate domain resale market.

3. Because the online marketing of a movie is treated as a low priority, there is little to no measurement done, which means there are few opportunities for the powers to be to learn how having a better domain name would impact their overall success.

4. Since the main focus of Hollywood movie marketing is to generate buzz and put bums in seats for the movie's opening weekend, most of the marketing activities are geared towards that tiny window of time. Having a better domain name is not seen as having much of an impact on this either.

5. The studios don't really care that they don't have the perfect domain name. They figure that because they will be spending millions to market whatever domain name they do have, they will still get tons of traffic to the movie's Website. And they also figure that the search engines and popular movie portals like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDb will also drive organic traffic as well.

Having learned all of this, I have decided it is pointless of me to keep making fun of Hollywood and its often silly choice of movie domain names. If anything, I've become very forgiving of Hollywood and its domain name foibles. I know the domain names are lame. You know the domain names are lame. And, yes, Hollywood knows the domain names are lame as well.

Since this situation isn't likely to ever change, and since I have a long list of ideas for other ventures I want to turn into reality, there will be no more updates to Hollywoozy.

I've had a ball creating and updating Hollywoozy, I've loved the discussions and learning and relationships that have flowed out of it, and I hope its visitors enjoyed reading it.

Cut.

Print.

That's a wrap.

My Five Most Popular Blog Articles

I'm on holiday the next little while so I thought I'd share some links to five of the all-time most popular articles I have ever written for my blog:

• 10 Twitter Tips for Professionals

• 10 Facebook Tips for Professionals

• Does Someone Want to Buy Your Domain Name?

• 12 Questions You Must Ask Before Doing SEO

• Ten Must-Have iPhone Apps for Marketers

Apparently blog posts with numbers in the title do very well. ;+)

I hope you enjoy these, and I look forward to resuming writing again later this Summer.

Want to Learn About Domain Name Investing?

You probably already know that I am fanatical about domain names.

How would you like to learn about the world of buying, selling, and monetizing premium domain names? From me. This summer.

In my role as the General Manager of YummyNames, a service of Tucows Inc., I am hiring a Domain Portfolio Assistant for an 8-week contract. This is a rare, entry-level opportunity to work with me and my team as we manage one of the largest domain name portfolios in the world.

You will learn a ton, work on some important projects, and make some great connections. And you'll do it from our bright and funky Liberty Village office in Toronto. This is an awesome opportunity for someone who wants to get some hands-on experience in the rapidly-evolving world of 'Internet Real Estate'.

To find out more about this contract position and how to apply for it, visit the following link:

http://snipurl.com/kvr4h

Thanks, and good luck!

Domain Name Disputes: Honey or Vinegar?

One of the more unusual aspects of my job as General Manager of a large portfolio of premium domain names is that I see all the "poison pen" letters from lawyers representing clients who believe (usually incorrectly, I should add) they are legally entitled to a domain name that we own. Since we own over 100,000 domain names, we get quite a few of these letters every week!

I make sure that we respond to each and every one of these inquiries, and now that I've seen and dealt with hundreds of these letters I wanted to make a suggestion to the marketing community at large:

"You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

Admittedly, I didn't come up with this age-old concept, but I'd like to remind people that you will have better luck resolving a dispute - any dispute - by playing nice than by being hostile.

For instance, the next time you think that someone owns a domain name that you think you are legally entitled to, don't make your first move a "nasty lawyer's letter."

Instead, just reach out to the current owner with a courteous phone call or email (which you can get from checking the public WHOIS records) and let them know you have some questions or concerns. You might discover that the current owner is a lot nicer than you think, is not a hardened criminal, and is more than willing to negotiate in good faith. You might even learn that the original basis for your complaint is flawed and that - surprise, surprise - you aren't legally entitled to the domain name after all.

Not only will you save yourself the time, hassle, and significant expense of going the legal route (fighting a domain name dispute can cost many thousands of dollars), but you will begin the dialogue on a positive and constructive basis, not an adversarial one.

I go out of my way to help the small minority of folks who approach me nicely and are willing to listen to and consider our side of the story. Between us, we can usually resolve the situation within a few days. Unfortunately, I can count these "honey" folks on the fingers of one hand.

I'm not so sympathetic towards the "vinegar" folks - those who courier me six-inch thick stacks of legal documents that make all sorts of false accusations, ridiculous demands, and set unrealistic timelines for a response. (One law firm did this to me, quite deliberately, on Christmas Eve, two years in a row.) Sadly, these "poison pen" letters make up the vast majority of inquiries I receive. Sure, we respond to them as well, but I'm not going to cut them any slack or do them any favours. Why should I?

In the end, this boils down to one simple suggestion: be nice. ;+)

(A version of this post originally appeared on the Canadian Marketing Blog.)

Discover "Minivertising" at 2009 CMA National Convention

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small!

That's the rallying cry for a presentation I am giving at the Canadian Marketing Association's National Convention in Toronto on April 28, 2009.

The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) has invited me to present my newest talk, "Minivertising", at Canada's largest marketing conference. This national convention is held each spring in a different city and welcomes thousands of attendees.

Here are the details:

"Minivertising" – The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
10:30 - 11:30 AM
Register for the conference

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small! Until recently, it was expensive if not impossible to market to a highly segmented target audience. Not any longer. Discover how marketers and entrepreneurs can use social media and emerging Web tools for affordable and effective mini-targeting. No matter what the size of your company is, you can learn how to become a dominant player in a profitable niche.

If you’re a marketer, you will learn how to use the principles of minivertising to generate interest for your client’s products and services, no matter how constrained their budgets are. If you are an entrepreneur or business executive, you’ll discover affordable and measurable ways to attract highly motivated customers to you, almost overnight.

For more information and to register, visit the CMA National Convention Website.

I hope to see you there.

P.S. Here is a link to the list of Minivertising Resources.

Twitter IDs are the New Domain Names

It's 2009, so I would hope by now that any marketer reading this article online understands the importance of securing your company's brands as domain names. In other words, Acme Furniture should own and control the domain name acmefurniture.com (and, if it's a Canadian company, acmefurniture.ca as well) even if you don't yet have a Web site.

My question for you today is, "Have you done the same for Twitter?"

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that is growing in popularity at an astonishing rate. The purpose of this article is not to explain or promote the benefits of Twitter; that topic has been covered by others.

What I want you to understand today is that Twitter IDs (or "user names" or "handles") are the equivalent of domain names.

For instance, the Twitter ID for my personal brand, Bill Sweetman, is @billsweetman (which corresponds to the URL http://www.twitter.com/billsweetman) and for my corporate brand, YummyNames, it is @yummynames.

Even if you don't understand Twitter or don't think it has a role to play in your company's marketing efforts today, I strongly urge you to still secure your Twitter ID now.

In my case, I do all my Tweeting (as its called) as @billsweetman but I made sure that I registered all my other professional brands as Twitter IDs so that when and if I want to use Twitter for those other brands I already have the most intuitive Twitter ID.

I predict that over the next few years, millions of dollars will be spent by companies buying, selling, and fighting over Twitter IDs. I have already seen a number of nasty legal spats develop, and I have personally brokered the sale of several Twitter IDs already. And this is only the very beginning...

If you are Acme Furniture, you should make sure you get your hands on @acmefurniture right away. Since there is no fee to register a Twitter ID, you have no excuse not to do this. Simply head on over to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for a free account.

Don't be the person who in a year or two is having to explain to their company President why you didn't secure the company name as a Twitter ID. Take two minutes and do it today.

One final tip: Twitter will eventually suspend an account if it has not been used for six months, so make sure you post something once a month just to keep your account active and not risk losing your valuable Twitter ID.

Domain Name Resources from "The Secret World of Domain Names"

This past weekend I gave a talk at PodCamp Toronto entitled "The Secret World of Domain Names," which was a marketer's guide to domain names.

My session was Webcast live, and it was also archived on video. You can view a low-resolution video recording of my presentation here:

The Secret World of Domain Names (QuickTime)

Meanwhile, I thought it would be helpful if I provided links to the various resources and sites that I talked about during my talk.

So, without much further ado, here they are:

The Secret World of Domain Names: Domain Name Resources

Resources for researching domain names and coming up with a new domain name:

• CIRA
• NameBoy Radio Test
• RhymeZone
• Thesaurus.com
• Who.is

Where to register a new domain name:

• Hover (save 25% with this special discount link)
• MyHosting.com
• Name.com

Where to shop for premium domain names:

• Afternic
• BuyDomains.com
• FabulousDomains
• Sedo
• YummyNames (this is the business I run)

Where to shop for expired domain names:

• Afternic
• Go Daddy Auctions
• NameJet
• Pool.com
• SnapNames

Where to learn about the domain investing industry:

• DN Journal
• Domain Name News
• Domain Name Wire

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of resources for this topic, but it's enough to get you started...

For more information about PodCamp Toronto, visit the PodCamp Toronto Wiki.

Discover The Secret World of Domain Names at PodCamp Toronto

I will be attending, and speaking at, PodCamp Toronto next weekend, February 21-22, 2009 in downtown Toronto.

PodCamp Toronto is a free "un-conference" devoted to social media, and despite its name is about way more than just podcasting. I attended PodCamp Toronto two years ago and loved the energy and inclusiveness of the event. I highly recommend it, and you can't beat the price. Yes, it really is free to attend and hear from (and interact with) many of the sharpest minds in social media today, including Chris Brogan, Collin Douma, and Eden Spodek.

I will be giving a talk entitled "The Secret World of Domain Names" on Saturday, February 21 at 3:30 PM in Room 229. This will be a marketer's guide to domain names, and I plan to shatter some common domain name myths and show you how to buy, protect, and rescue your domain names. I will also explain how you can use domain names to generate a steady stream of targeted traffic. And for the first time ever in public, I will take you behind-the-scenes of the domaining (domain name investing) industry, a secretive, billion dollar industry that you can get a piece of for less than $10.

I'm really looking forward to PodCamp Toronto, hanging out with my fellow social media enthusiasts, and sharing my passion for domain names with everyone.

For more information about PodCamp Toronto, visit the PodCamp Toronto Wiki. See you there!

Ten Must-Have iPhone Apps for Marketers

I can't believe it's been such a long time since I posted something to my blog, and I feel so terrible about that. The last few months have been a whirlwind of family 'stuff' and business trips and all sorts of other craziness (good and bad), but I am not using that as an excuse. The one thing I was able to do during the last few months of chaos was Twitter, so if you're not following me on Twitter, I strongly encourage you to do so. My Twitter handle is @billsweetman, of course, and I am having lots of fun experimenting with this micro-blogging platform. For my first official blog post in months, I have decided to offer up something that I hope will be of lasting value to anyone who uses an iPhone.

Now that I've owned (and loved) my iPhone for nearly a year, I thought it would be helpful to share my personal recommendations on iPhone apps (programs) that a marketer would find useful. These are apps that I use on a daily or weekly basis, and in most cases these are free. As with anything Mac-related, opinions will vary, but these are the iPhone apps that I think no self-respecting marketer should be without. You can download them from the App Store or via iTunes.

Scribble - Ever found yourself in a meeting looking around the room to see if there's a whiteboard you can write on, only to discover you are out of luck? Scribble is a straightforward doodling application that I use as a mini whiteboard when I need to quickly illustrate a concept. Unlike a real whiteboard, however, my diagrams or drawings can be easily emailed to myself or others within moments.

AirSharing - This very cool app turns your iPhone into a wireless file server, allowing you to drag and drop documents between your iPhone and other computers without the hassle of connecting any cables. I use it to store backups of PowerPoint presentations for talks I am giving, and because AirSharing includes a built-in document reader, I can review and rehearse my presentations right on my iPhone.

DomainScout - Want to quickly check if a domain name is available to register? Or curious to know who the current owner is? DomainScout is a fast and easy tool that allows you to quickly conduct a WHOIS search. You can even customize it to search for your favourite TLDs, so if you only care about .com, .net and .ca domains, DomainScout can be configured to check up to three TLDs of your choice by default.

iTalk - If you're like me, you get ideas for things at all hours of the day and night. But what do you do when you don't have pen and paper handy? iTalk is a wonderfully simple voice recorder that allows you to quickly capture your thoughts, or record an entire presentation, on your iPhone. A very handy little app that turns your iPhone into a digital voice recorder, without the expense of the real thing.

Urbanspoon - Need to find a nearby restaurant or café to meet up with someone for a biz meeting? Urbanspoon is a wickedly handy tool that helps you locate whatever kind of eating establishment you are looking for. For example, if you've just landed in a strange city and need to find an affordable Vegan restaurant that's open for lunch near a client's office, just consult Urbanspoon. In seconds you will have restaurant hours, phone number, and a map of how to get there.

Wikipanion - Need to consult the oracle that is Wikipedia to settle a bar bet? This app provides an elegant and highly usable front end to Wikipedia, allowing you to quickly find the information you need in the world's largest human-editable encyclopedia. I find this to be way more effective than browsing the Wikipedia site using the iPhone's Web browser.

Firemail - If you need to type a lengthy email, the iPhone's tiny default vertical keyboard can make it difficult, especially if you have large hands. This clever little add-on allows you to use a wider horizontal keyboard to type up your email, then pastes the result into the body of the email. Until Apple offers a horizontal keyboard for the iPhone's email program (Apple, are you listening?), this app will save you from typo Hell.

Facebook - Being a savvy digital marketer, you are, of course, an active user of Facebook. Make sure you've downloaded the Facebook iPhone app because it makes accessing and using Facebook so much better than via the iPhone's Web browser. The photo browsing capability is one of my favourite features. No matter where I am, I can show people any photo album that I have uploaded to Facebook, including my now infamous Playboy Mansion party photo album.

Twitterific - When you're on the road and need to get your Twitter fix, this is, hands down, the slickest application to do it with. You can favorite posts, get detailed user info, and it even includes a mini browser allowing you to quickly view the Web pages that people link to. Twitterific will make you fall in love with Twitter all over again.

Google - Sure, you can use the iPhone's Web browser to surf the Google Website, but the Google app is way more efficient. It also includes a surprisingly effective voice search capability, which allows you to search for "Ferret leashes" by saying "ferret leashes" into your iPhone's microphone. Even when the app doesn't understand what you are searching for, the results can be fun! Imagine the fun you could have at parties with this one...

What are some of your must-have iPhone apps for marketers? Share your recommendations in the comment section below.