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.

I Have Some Explaining to Do.

Wow.

It's been a long time since I posted something on my blog, especially given the fact that for a couple of years I had gotten into the habit of blogging weekly. The truth of the matter is that my absence wasn't because I forgot about my blog, or had no interest in blogging. Blogging, as much as it pains me to admit this, got de-prioritized in my personal and professional life during the last eight months. Every week I'd want to post something, but I had trouble finding (or making) the time, and I didn't want to push myself too hard or stress myself about it because that wouldn't be healthy. Yet, every week, there'd be the same nagging voice in my head giving me grief for not blogging, again.

Looking back on the last eight months, now that life has settled down a bit, I am starting to see that it was a "perfect storm" of too many things, bad and good, that consumed the energy I would have normally had for blogging. The good news is that this storm (especially the bad stuff) has passed.

It may sound like I am making excuses, and maybe I am, but life is about making choices, and for a while I chose to focus on other things. What were those other things? On the personal front, there were three deaths in my inner circle (all people my age), which were three too many in my book, but there were also three weddings, a new niece, and some amazing trips. On the professional front, the business I run has grown by leaps and bounds, but it was crazy busy for a while. I've now put systems and people in place to make things less pressurized. Don't get me wrong; I love my job, I have a great team, and I am excited about all the new things we are working on.

I've decided to stop nagging myself about blogging, to stop pressuring myself to stick to a specific (and arbitrary) schedule, and just post when and if I feel like it. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm also not going to be so rigid about writing solely about Internet marketing or domain names. On some occasions, and starting with my next post, I may share professional and even personal observations and experiences that are of significance to me and, with any luck, of value to you.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. It's good to be back.

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!

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.

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.

I've Been Waiting for this Week for Months, and Here's Why...

This is going to be a big week for me, and you can be part of it.

For starters, I'm really looking forward to this week's 2008 Digital Marketing Conference (October 29-30 in Toronto) from two perspectives: one as a member of the Organizing Committee, the other as a representative from Tucows.

Wearing my Committee member hat, I'm thrilled to see all the pieces and people finally coming together for what I believe will be our best Conference to date. (In case you missed it, here are my Seven Killer Reasons to Attend the 2008 Digital Marketing Conference.) I'm also really looking forward to learning, networking, and catching up with other digital marketers from across the country. I'll also be leading an Experience Exchange Roundtable discussion on Domain Name Strategy, so that should be fun.

With my Tucows hat on, I'm super excited that we're sponsoring the Networking Reception on Wednesday, right after the Roundtables. I'm sworn to secrecy, but what I can tell you is that I'll be unveiling 'something' we've been working on for months, plus Tucows will be giving away a one-of-kind door prize worth $2,000. On top of all that, reception attendees will be getting a special gift that I think is pretty darn cool.

If you haven't already registered for this year's Digital Marketing Conference, please don't wait any longer. The Digital Marketing Conference always sells out. Head on over to http://www.the-cma.org/digital for more details and to register.

Have a great week, and I hope to see you at the Conference and the Networking Reception.

The Sweetman is Back

You know you haven't blogged in a while when even your parents start noticing the long gap between posts. Sheesh!

Well, I am back.

For those of you who noticed, and especially for those of you who care, my little blogging 'sabbatical' was the result of a whole bunch of things (mainly good but a few bad) going on in my life that took priority over blogging.

For the record, I am healthy, happy, gainfully employed, and have not been abducted by aliens or angry domainers (yet).

Some of the personal and professional highlights for me over the last month include:

• traveling to San Francisco and Vancouver
• overseeing the sale of a single domain name for $200,000 (a four-letter .com)
• getting an iPhone G3, truly an amazing device
• debuting my new keynote presentation, "Minivertising - The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche"
• celebrating the one-year anniversary of working at Tucows
• getting lots of positive feedback on my movie domain name review site, Hollywoozy
• spending time with friends and loved ones

Before this starts to sound like an icky family holiday letter, I would just like to thank the many people who made it clear to me that they missed my Sweetmantra blog posts and were wondering if everything was OK.

Yup, all is well. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

"Minivertising" - Join me in Vancouver to Learn About this New Marketing Strategy

Forget about thinking big. You need to think small!

That's the rallying cry for a keynote address I am delivering in Vancouver on September 11, 2008.

British Columbia Association of Integrated Marketers (BC AIM) has invited me to present my newest talk, "Minivertising", at a Marketing Luncheon at the Four Seasons Hotel.

Here are the details:

"Minivertising" – The Big Future in Targeting a Tiny Niche
Presented by BC AIM
Thursday, September 11, 2008
11:30 AM - 2 PM
Four Seasons Hotel, 791 Georgia Street West, Vancouver, BC
Register for this Event

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 the size of your company, you can learn how to become a dominant player in a profitable niche.

If you’re a marketer, you’ll 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’re 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 BC AIM Website.

I hope to see you there.