Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

Why Settle for a Lousy Domain Name?

At long last, I can finally reveal one of the cool initiatives I have been working on at Tucows over the last little while:

On October 29, we officially launched YummyNames, our new service that offers marketers the ability to purchase or lease premium domain names from the Tucows Domain Portfolio. As our tagline says...

"Why settle for a lousy domain name?"

That same day, I got new business cards, since I am now the General Manager of YummyNames. Woohoo!

The Tucows marketing team did an amazing job supporting the launch, so I'm going to explain what YummyNames is all about by sharing some of the material they created:

• You can read the news release that Tucows issued.
• You can have a look around www.yummynames.com, which was designed by the talented team over at Mouth Media. (They also worked with us to develop the overall YummyNames brand identity.) There’s lots of information on who we are and what we do.
• You can check out the special “Social Media Release” or SMR for the YummyNames launch. Think of it as a one-stop shop for bloggers or anyone else looking for information, images, videos, facts and quotes about the launch of YummyNames.
• You can watch the video below (or follow this direct link to the video), and I’ll do my best to explain YummyNames in three minutes.

The overwhelmingly positive response we've received so far from the marketing and advertising community proves that there's a need for a marketer-friendly premium domain name service, and I am delighted to be heading up this new service.

We've got lots of work ahead of us, but we're off to a great start! I hope that you agree.

Seven Killer Reasons to Attend the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference

As you may have noticed, I've been busy spreading the word on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter about the 11th annual Digital Marketing Conference, which is being held in Toronto on October 29th and 30th. I'm on the Organizing Committee for this year's Conference and after months of planning we are now finally able to publicly share our excitement about the speakers and sessions we've arranged for you to experience.

Here, in my opinion, are seven of the best reasons to attend the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference:

1. Rob Master from Unilever will be talking about how one of the world's biggest traditional advertisers has fully embraced digital marketing, especially social media.
2. David Pogue, technology columnist for The New York Times, will be riffing about Disruptive Technology. David's brilliant and entertaining, which is a rare combination in my books. Here's a link to a funny video of David Pogue in action!
3. Everyone I talk to these days is struggling to hire good people. That's why we've persuaded Charlie Gray from Google and Bruce Powell from IQ Partners to talk about how to recruit and retain digital marketing talent.
4. The videogame industry is bigger than Hollywood, and so we've lined up Ron Bertram from Nintendo of Canada to reveal how he helped take the company to the top of the videogame market in Canada.
5. Just in time for the biggest shopping season of the year, Derek Szeto from RedFlagDeals.com will share an awesome and uniquely Canadian Boxing Week case study.
6. The Experience Exchange Roundtables are back by very popular demand. This is your chance to pick the brains of some of the country's smartest digital marketing minds. I'll leave it up to you to decide if I qualify for that title, but I will be leading a roundtable on Domain Name Strategy.
7. Coming up right after the Roundtables is the Networking Reception. The company I work for, Tucows, is sponsoring the reception and we've got a few treats in store for attendees so you definitely won't want to miss this.

So there you have it, a small taste of the inspiring and informative agenda we've got planned for you at this year's Digital Marketing Conference.

Don't wait until the last minute to register. For the last several years, the Digital Marketing Conference always sells out and we literally have to turn people away at the door. Head on over to http://www.the-cma.org/digital for more details and to register today.

I hope to see you there.

Want to Work with Me at Tucows?

Because I am fascinated with the world of domain names, I truly believe I have the coolest job in the world as the General Manager of the Tucows Domain Portfolio.

Now I have the pleasure of adding a new person to my existing team. That's right, I'm looking to hire someone in the role of Associate Domainer. Maybe that someone is you or someone you know?

Here are some more details about this special role:

Associate Domainer at Tucows

Tucows is currently seeking a unique individual to join our Domain Portfolio team as an Associate Domainer. As a key member of this exciting and rapidly evolving business area, you will report directly to the General Manager, Domain Portfolio. (That would be me.)

Tucows has one of the largest domain name portfolios in the world, and these domain names are currently monetized through domain parking and domain sales.

In this full-time position, located in our office in Toronto's Liberty Village, you will assist in reviewing and selecting domain names from daily lists for possible acquisition by Tucows. You will also grade and price domain names, manage, restore, renew and transfer names, and optimize the landing pages of parked domains. You will generate daily, weekly and monthly reports on data trends and patterns as well as respond to internal and external email and phone sales and support inquires about domain names in our portfolio. Your ability to work in a fast-paced environment will contribute to the growth of this evolving business area and the ongoing success of Tucows.

The ideal candidate will have kick-ass Internet research skills and excellent verbal and written communication skills. Proficiency in Word, Excel is a must, while database experience (MS Access/SQL) would be a nice bonus. Previous experience in and/or passion for the domain name industry, domaining, or PPC advertising would be very useful.

If you can multi-task, are detail-oriented and have the ability to manage your time effectively under minimal supervision, then this is the job for you.

To apply and for more info, go here:

http://snipurl.com/24805

I have to say that this is an amazing opportunity for someone who wants to break into the booming but still relatively unknown industry of domaining (domain name investing). Here's a fascinating and seminal article on the topic of domaining that got a lot of people buzzing about domaining and domainers (those folks that practice domaining) when it was first published a year ago. It provides a rare 'behind-the-scenes' perspective on this fascinating industry and some of its key players. With any luck it will also inspire a few people to apply for the Associate Domainer position at Tucows.

Update: May 16, 2008

I am pleased to report that we have found someone to fill this role. I was delighted by all the interest in this position and impressed by the quality of the folks that applied. Thanks everyone!

The $165,990 Domain Name Mistake

Last month, I watched with fascination and amazement as the domain name shoppers.com expired and was then purchased at auction on Pool.com.

While it was impressive what the expired domain name sold for - $166,000 (USD) - what really blew me away was that the original registrant (owner) of this domain name let it expire. That's right, instead of paying a mere $10-20 to renew this terrific generic domain name, they somehow let the domain expire and ultimately end up in the hands of one of the domain dropcatching services (Pool.com), who then put the name up for auction.

What was the original registrant of this domain name thinking? How the heck did they let this domain name expire? And what must it be like for them to discover after the fact that a domain name they could have renewed for a few dollars sold for a small fortune?

As far as I can tell, the expiry and subsequent purchase of this expired name followed the proper channels - nothing shady took place - but I am still very curious to know how anyone could let such an amazing name slip through their hands. (I don't know who the new owners of shoppers.com are, but the domain redirects to the site of etailer ShoppersChoice.com.)

I think there are some lessons to be learned here for any individual or business that owns a domain name or two.

First of all, for the domain names you intend to hang on to, are you sure you know when the domain names are coming up for renewal? Have you put the renewal date in your calendar to ensure you renew the domains in time?

And if you are planning to NOT renew a domain name, are you aware of the potential value of that domain name on the aftermarket? Rather than let it just drop, have you thought about pro-actively putting the domain name up for sale?

Most people only dream about owning domain names that would sell for six-figures, but that's no excuse for not paying close attention to these valuable assets. Had the original owners of shoppers.com followed this advice, they'd have avoided making a $165,990 mistake.

2007 Digital Marketing Conference

The death of Princess Diana. The Bre-X scandal. James Cameron's Titanic.

Where were you in 1997? And what were you doing?

Although it seems hard to believe, this year marks the - gasp! - 10th anniversary of the Canadian Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Conference.

I'm on the organizing committee for this conference and we've really tried to pull out all the stops in honour of this year's first decade mark.

Some of the featured speakers we've lined up include Mike Murphy from Facebook, Chuck Porter from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and Simon Assaad from Heavy.com.

Ipsos Reid returns for a second year with the results of The Canadian Digital Marketing Pulse survey and we've just added a very special surprise session for Thursday afternoon featuring four Canadians you won't want to miss.

The enormously popular roundtables, "The Experience Exchange," are back by popular demand, and yes, yours truly will be moderating one of the roundtables on podcasting.

If you're serious about Internet marketing, please join me and a few hundred other Internet marketing enthusiasts at the 10th annual Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto, Canada on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26.

For more information and to register, visit the 2007 Digital Marketing Conference Website.

I've Joined Tucows as General Manager, Domain Portfolio

Today's the day I finally get to spill the beans about the amazing new job I've just started!

I've joined Tucows, one of the oldest and most legendary Internet companies in the world, as their General Manager, Domain Portfolio.

Here's a link to the full press release announcing the news:

Tucows Appoints Internet Veteran Bill Sweetman as General Manager of its Domain Name Portfolio

Tucows has an awesome portfolio of domain names, and I'm going to be leading the charge to further monetize that portfolio as well as develop new products and services related to the portfolio. Translation: I'm going to be performing Domain Name Karate as a full-time job!

When presented with the opportunity to turn my long-held passion for domain names into a full-time gig, I leaped at the chance. This was truly one of those 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunities' and I knew I'd regret turning it down. Plus, I get to work again with Ken Schafer and a great team of people who are equally passionate about the domain name space.

Effective immediately, I will be working from the Tucows Toronto office in Liberty Village, and I will continue to blog and do speaking engagements in Canada and around the world.

Podcast Idol, Anyone?

In a response to Joseph Jaffe's recent Most Valuable Blogs (MVB) contest, Kevin Behringer over at the Fly-Over Marketing blog has kicked off a Most Valuable Podcasts (MVP) contest.

But wait, it gets better...

I am pleased (if somewhat bewildered) to announce that my Marketing Martini podcast is one of the "Sweet 16" finalists for Most Valuable Podcast. And I'm truly flattered that the Martini shares the virtual limelight with some great podcasts like Joseph Jaffe's Across the Sound, Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation, C.C. Chapman's Managing the Gray, any many more. Congratulations to all my fellow podcasters on the shortlist.

If you'd like to vote for the Marketing Martini and/or any of the other fine podcast nominees, follow this link.

Thanks, Kevin! Let the fun and games begin...

Joost's PR Flacks Invite Hacks

I think it's time to start your office betting pool on how long it will take before the new Joost Internet television service is hacked.

If you haven't heard about Joost yet, trust me, you will. Regardless of its obvious merits (of which there are many, don't get me wrong), based on Joost's current rank and trajectory on the Web 2.0 Hype-O-Meter, it's already shaping up to be this year's Second Life. And it's only February!

While I am genuinely excited about the potential of this still-in-beta service, and I do NOT condone hacking or piracy of any kind, Joost's creators are all but begging the hacker community to take a run at it.

In today's press release announcing Joost's partnership with Viacom, Joost is described as being "powered by a secure, efficient, piracy-proof Internet platform."

Piracy-proof?

Now maybe Joost's PR folks got a little overexcited, but issuing a press release boasting that your online video service is "piracy-proof" is like waving a red cape at a bull.

Do I want Joost to be hacked? No, of course I don't.

Do I think Joost will be hacked. Yes, of course I do.

Name a "piracy-proof" video technology that hasn't eventually been hacked:

• "Scrambled" cable TV? Hacked.
• Direct-to-Home Satellite TV? Hacked.
• DVD? Hacked.
• HD DVD? Hacked.

Anyone spot a trend here?

I truly hope the Joost folks prove me wrong. But I wouldn't bet on it.

Blogger Doesn't Suck Anymore or: How I Spent My Christmas Holiday

Until recently, if you were an aspiring blogger and you asked me my opinion of the blogging software Blogger, I would have gone into a mini rant about how surprisingly clunky and user-unfriendly it is, especially considering it is hugely popular and owned by Google.

Then I would have added that, of course, you get what you pay for. (Blogger is free.) And finally I would have suggested that you'd be better off paying $5 a month for a service like TypePad instead.

That was until this past Christmas.

In December, Blogger officially launched their new - and vastly improved - software, and I had a really good chance to give it a workout since I spent some of my Christmas holiday helping my Dad set up his first blog, In A Mellow Tone. (He prefers to call it a Website, but that's another story...)

The new Blogger is much easier to use (especially for non-technical folks) and offers some customization and configuration features that rival those of paid services like TypePad. Best of all, it's still free.

For full-blown professional or corporate blogs, I still recommend more robust and configurable paid services like TypePad and Movable Type (along with WordPress, which is 'free' but requires considerable technical prowess). However, for personal or modest little blogs like my Dad's, the new Blogger offers more than enough bells and whistles and is extremely easy to use.

If you haven't played around with the new Blogger yet, I highly recommend it. It's a great way to start the New Year.

Wal-Mart Now Stocks Websites

Last week I popped into SAM'S CLUB Canada to see what they had in the way of bulk cat litter (don't ask). For those of you who may not be familiar with SAM'S CLUB, it's Wal-Mart's version of warehouse retailer Costco. The cat litter reconnaissance mission was a bust, however I did notice something intriguing as I headed for the exit. There, by the Customer Service desk, was a three-panel brochure with the headline "SAM'S CLUB Announces... Business Web Sites."

Intrigued, and somewhat fearfully, I grabbed one of the brochures. Sure enough, SAM'S CLUB has teamed up with Vista.com to offer its members a "professional web site at no cost for the first year." According to the brochure, "it's fast and easy... you create and manage your own site. Easy-to-edit templates and tools will get you started with no software to buy, and no special computer skills necessary."

I can't help but be impressed by what a good deal this must seem like to a business owner - who doesn't know any better. A free "up to 56 page" Website with all sorts of bells and whistles, designed (I use the term very loosely, based on the examples I saw in Vista's portfolio) and hosted for an entire year, with no extra fees charged to maintain it. Sure, your Website is clunky, generic, and template-driven, and looks like every other clunky, generic, and template-driven Website out there, but at least you've finally staked your claim in cyberspace.

Then it hits me. It doesn't matter whether a business owner spends a million dollars on their new Website or "activates" their SAM'S CLUB "complimentary business web site." Both Websites have one important thing in common: regardless of how much money was (or wasn't) spent building them, these sites have no traffic on the day they launch.

So go ahead, pour millions of dollars into building your Website, or get yourself a free Wal-Mart Website. Either way, if you want to get traffic, you're going to need a Website marketing plan. Which means you're going to need the help of an Internet marketing professional. And that's something that you can't get for free, even at Wal-Mart.