Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

The Return of Erella.com: A Cautionary Tale

I often write about the importance of managing your domain names and caution people about what could happen should they fail to do so.

I recently witnessed a chilling example of this. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending.

Erella Ganon is a Toronto-based artist whom I have known for over a decade. She also happens to be a friend of my wife. On Friday night, my wife asked me to look into something on behalf of Erella. A few days prior, Erella had lost ownership of her domain name, erella.com, and she was very upset.

Erella had first registered erella.com in October, 2000 with domain registrar GoDaddy, and had been using it since then for her Website and email address. Her Website, located at www.erella.com, is where Erella showcases her work and promotes her services. It is her primary means of generating employment.

An artist and single mother, Erella supports her teenage daughter by doing a number of freelance creative assignments. Sadly, for many years, Erella has also been battling brain tumours. 2008 has been especially difficult for her as she's been in and out of the hospital for seven different surgeries. The good news is that she's on the mend.

During the last few months, in between surgeries and post-operative recovery, Erella was unable to do a lot of her normal day-to-day activities, and due to a misunderstanding, didn't renew her domain name like she normally did. The domain expired, and 26 days later it flowed into GoDaddy's expired domain auction, where it was bid upon and eventually acquired by a domain name speculator based in Hawaii.

Since I work at Tucows, one of the largest domain registrars in the world (and, full disclosure, a competitor of GoDaddy), I am very familiar with the domain name lifecycle and expired domain auctions. I knew that the domain speculator had broken no laws when he acquired the erella.com domain name. It expired. He bid on it. He paid for it. He now owned it.

To him, erella.com was just another domain name he won at auction. He didn't know the story behind how and why the domain expired, nor would anyone expect him to have known that.

At the time I first heard about this, Erella was convinced she'd lost her domain name forever, and was understandably very upset. Email messages to her were bouncing, and adding insult to injury, the domain speculator had added a banner ad for his Hawaiian real estate business to Erella's homepage.

I promised Erella that I would investigate what had happened and see what I could do to help. After researching and identifying the domain speculator, I contacted him via email on Saturday in Honolulu and convinced him to transfer the domain name to Erella.

By Sunday morning, erella.com was back in Erella's hands, and by mid afternoon her email and Website were up and running again.

Needless to say, Erella was ecstatic. I, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised. This domain speculator responded to my inquiries and could be reasoned with; that is not always the case, and I have the scars to prove it.

The truly frightening thing is that this can happen to anyone who owns a domain name, and most people who find themselves in this difficult position don't know a domain name specialist like me that they can turn to for help.

With that in mind, I'd like to offer five very specific pieces of advice to you on how to avoid ever ending up in a situation like this.

1. Make sure you know exactly when your domain name registration expires. Domains are registered in one-year increments and need to be renewed prior to the end of the previous registration period. Put a reminder in your calendar to contact your domain registrar (domain registration service provider) a few weeks prior to expiry to renew your domain. Then make sure you actually take the five minutes it usually takes to make the renewal, either online via the registrar's Website or by calling them. (Don't know who your registrar is? Do a WHOIS lookup at who.is. Your registrar will be identified as the "Registrar".)
2. Ensure that your domain registrar has your most current and working email address on file. 99% of registrars inform their customers about upcoming domain expiries via email. If the email address they have for you doesn't work any more, you will miss the reminder messages and are at risk of forgetting to renew the domain name. In my professional experience, not having the right email address associated with your domain name is the number one reason people lose their domain names. This is your responsibility, not the registrar.
3. Verify that your domain registrar has up-to-date payment information on file for you. Even if you have set your domain name to auto-renew, that won't do you any good if the credit card the registrar has on file is no longer valid. Make sure your registrar has the correct credit card number and expiry date.
4. Domain name registration is not the same thing as Website hosting or email hosting. Even if you are getting these services from the same company, they are three different services and will all need to be renewed at some point in time. People often confuse Website hosting renewals with domain renewals and mistakenly think they've renewed both when they've actually only renewed one.
5. Finally, if your domain name does expire, act quickly. Contact your domain registrar as soon as possible and ask them what your renewal options are. In most cases, you only have 25-39 days to renew a domain that has expired. After that, it could be gone forever.

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.

Expert Tips on Writing for the Web from Kindha Gorman of MightyThink

My good friend Kindha Gorman officially launches her own Web writing boutique, MightyThink, this week. Since I have always admired her wit and way with words, I thought that interviewing her about her new company and writing for the Web might be both educational and fun.

Q. So I just have to ask you, Kindha, what motivated you to leave the stability of a full-time job to launch your own boutique, MightyThink?

Starting a content development firm like MightyThink has been one of my long-time goals. After spending considerable time learning about the domain name business, I saw an opportunity to contribute.

As the domain industry changes, relevant and quality content is becoming essential for premium domains. Websites have so much more potential when the content is useful, timely, and engaging. That's where MightyThink comes in.

Sure, a cushy full-time job has its perks but writing is my passion. Launching MightyThink is my way of being involved in this exciting domain industry by doing what I, and my team of writers, do best.

Plus, my fourth grade teacher said I had a problem with authority, so I figured I should just become my own boss. It's best for everyone.

Q. What's the most frequent mistake you see people making when it comes to the copy on their Websites?

Sadly, the Web is full of boring, irrelevant, and outdated copy.

Above it all, the most common mistake I have noticed is Websites that don't properly cater to their target audiences. When creating content for your site, think of your readers and the reasons they're likely on your site. Does your site give them all the information they need? Is it clear? Is it engaging? Is it visually friendly? Is it easy to read?

When you have a domain name, or a brand you want to market, you have a great opportunity to captivate your audience and make sure they visit again.

Since we're on the topic, here a few more of my pet peeves:

• Unclear messages;
• Long pages;
• Outdated information;
• Long paragraphs and no white space;
• A lack of keywords to entice the search engine;
• Off-topic and/or boring copy; and
• Spelling and grammar mistakes (A big no-no easily fixed by hiring an editor. The spellcheck function, by the way, is not an editor.).

Q. A lot of companies are interested in launching a blog but struggle with creating the content for it and keeping the blog updated. What advice do you give to clients like this?

A blog is a great tool to ensure there's fresh content on your site. The downside is that you have to invest a certain amount of time and energy to make sure people come back regularly. It sounds easy but there's some planning involved.

If you want to get your blog bookmarked by your target audience (and I imagine you do), the blog needs to be:

• updated daily;
• about relevant and timely topics;
• written in a conversational tone;
• professional looking and sounding; and
• interesting!

This may seem like a daunting task, especially since there are only 24 hours in the day. Many companies hire outside writers, who understand their goals and messages, to act as their voice. This frees up much-needed time, but still maintains a relevant blog.

Q. How important are online press releases?

A keyword-rich and well-optimized press release is quickly becoming an invaluable marketing tool for businesses to generate traffic and drum up clients.

Not only do online press releases tout news about your business quickly and effectively, they also can be easily optimized with keywords to ensure they're indexed by the almighty search engines. By adding some strategic links and relevant keywords, your little press release (and your Website) will attract the eyes of journalists, researchers, RSS feeds, search engines, news subscribers, and most importantly, your target audience.

Here's a tip: If you're writing the news release yourself, keep your press release to one page, two pages if absolutely necessary. If it's any longer than two pages, journalists become grumpy. No one likes a grumpy journalist.

Thanks, Kindha, and best of luck with your new company!

Kindha Gorman is the owner and brain behind MightyThink's brawn. With over 10 years of experience in writing, marketing, and strategic planning, Kindha has written for magazines, newspapers, Websites, large retail chains, healthcare organizations, financial institutions, and high tech outfits. Throughout her varied career, she has learned a thing or two about good writing. Just ask her. She has bored many of her friends with lectures about the proper use of commas, hyphens, and semi-colons.

"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.

My Internet Marketer's Diary: Chapter 1 - Sewing the Seeds

Last week, I officially launched my newest online venture, Hollywoozy, the first Website devoted to reviewing movie domain names.

One of the many reasons I am always launching new things is that it gives me a chance to experiment with and refine different marketing tactics, and Hollywoozy is no different.

What is different this time, however, is that I am going to lift up the curtain and share some of the marketing tactics I am using to promote my venture, along with the results. In most cases, these tactics do not involve spending any money, although they all require spending some time to implement.

In this first chapter of my Internet Marketer's Diary, I am going to list five of the key tactics I used leading up to Hollywoozy's official launch on July 20, 2008. I consider these the essential building blocks of a good online marketing campaign.

1. Build the Site with Search Engines in Mind

In addition to following SEO (search engine optimization) best practices, one of the best ways to ensure a site is very search engine friendly is to create it using a blog platform, because search engines love blogs. My site was created using TypePad, which is my favourite professional blogging platform, however you could probably achieve similar results using WordPress. I also made sure that my site featured the most heavily searched keywords and key phrases that I was targeting. For instance, since Hollywoozy is about movie domain names, I made sure the phrase "domain names" was used extensively throughout the site on every single page.

2. Invite the Search Engines to Crawl the Website Prior to Launch

I wanted to give the search engines a head start on finding my site, so I added discrete links to my new site from some of the other heavily trafficked Websites that I own. This got my site indexed by Google a few days prior to its official launch, so that when people started to search for "Hollywoozy" in Google on the day of launch (which many did, according to my Web analytics reports), the site was already listed in Google's search results.

3. Use Tags to Define the Content of the Website

Prior to launch, I registered my site with Technorati (the leading blog directory and search engine), complete with a keyword-loaded description and lots of relevant tags. Technorati is frequently and deeply crawled by the search engine spiders, and within 24 hours Google had found Hollywoozy's listing on Technorati.

4. Generate Targeted Traffic via a Multiple Domain Name Strategy

I am proud of the unusual brand name I came up with for my site, however I am the first to admit that "Hollywoozy'" is not a descriptive name. That's why I also registered moviedomainnames.com and a few other descriptive, keyword-loaded domain names, which I pointed to my new site. The $28 (total) I spent registering the four domain names was the only cash outlay I made towards marketing the Website. That's peanuts to pay for the targeted type-in traffic my site will likely get from these domains over time.

5. Invite Some Enthusiasts to a Sneak Peek

In the week prior to launch, I used my Facebook status line (and Facebook's message service) to invite my friends and colleagues to let me know if they were interested in getting a "sneak preview" of my newest venture. The curious keeners who responded got early access to my site. Not only did they tell some of their friends and colleagues about the site (thank you, everyone!), but they were also a great source of feedback and ideas. Michel Neray, for instance, suggested I make a small but important tweak to how I displayed my domain name reviews, and I quickly took him up on the idea. All told, about 20 people in my personal network got an early peek at the site, and they helped to quickly spread the word post-launch.

In the next chapter of my Marketer's Diary, I will reveal the tactics I used to kick off the official launch of the site, as well as share some of the results to date. For a taste of how successful the launch was, try doing a Google search for "movie domain names" (which is the focus of my site) and see if you can spot Hollywoozy in the search results. ;+)

Hollywoozy - Helping Hollywood Master Its Domain

It's a little-known fact that I used to be a movie critic in the early 80's. You see, I've had a lifelong obsession with movies. In fact, I studied filmmaking in university, worked in the feature film industry for many years, and still watch several movies every week.

As many readers of my blog know, I also have a thing for domain names, so I guess it was inevitable that I would find a way to combine two of my favourite obsessions.

Today, I am thrilled to unveil my latest creation, Hollywoozy (www.hollywoozy.com), the first Website devoted to reviewing movie domain names. That's right, I'm critiquing the domain names used to market movies.

I don't know about you, but over the last five years I started to notice that just about every movie trailer (another obsession of mine, by the way) ended with the display of the official movie Website's address. Many times, the domain name that would be featured in the trailer and other marketing collateral for the movie was laughably bad, at least to my marketer's eye. At first, I found this amusing. Then it became something of a game for me and my wife, as we would patiently wait for the end of the trailer to see how good, or bad, the URL would be.

I soon discovered that I wasn't the only one puzzled by the domain name choices the movie marketers made. A number of my Internet marketing colleagues were equally amused by what appeared to be Hollywood's inability to grasp the importance of having a good domain name when trying to market a multi-million dollar movie. After all, the producers and studios decide years in advance what the title of the movie will be, so there's no excuse for not researching (and securing) the availability of the appropriate movie domain name ahead of time. Yes, even if that - heaven forbid - means buying the domain name from someone who already owns it. If you're spending tens of millions of dollars marketing a movie, spending $10,000 to get the best domain name for the movie is well worth it.

While all of this was rattling around in my head, I was also itching to find a way to return somehow to my film roots. At first I thought I'd start reviewing movies again, perhaps for a publication or Website, but then I realized that the Internet is awash with movie review Websites and blogs, and besides, I had already been there, done that.

Then it hit me ... what about a Website where I reviewed movie domain names? And that's how Hollywoozy was born, although it took me months to come up with the right name for the thing. Naming, yet another one of my obsessions!

Unlike my other online ventures (see sidebar), Hollywoozy is a little less serious, although at its core it is meant to be educational. Hollywoozy also gives me a chance to roll up my sleeves and try my hand at some new (and not so new) Internet marketing techniques. In the coming months, I will be sharing excerpts from my Hollywoozy "Marketing Diary" with you so that you can learn about the techniques I am using to promote the Website and, perhaps more importantly, find out what works and what doesn't.

Before I wrap up, I'd like to thank the gang at Mouth Media for creating the official Hollywoozy logo. They helped turn my crazy idea into a reality.

I hope you enjoy it!

Buffalo Stampede: The Power of a Generic Domain Name

I love it when I stumble across a great Internet marketing case study as I am just going about my day-to-day life.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I took a quick day trip to Buffalo, New York. At one point during the day, we needed to call for a local taxi, so my wife whipped out her mobile phone and began dialing. I was puzzled as to how she happened to have the number of a Buffalo taxi company at her fingertips. So I asked her about this.

As it turns out, my wife - who is the more practical one in the family - knew that we'd need the services of a local cab company while we were in Buffalo, so prior to our trip she had turned to our mutual friend, Google, for help.

It turns out that she had typed "Buffalo taxi" into the search engine. My wife was presented with the first 10 results out of over 3 million. Quickly scanning the Google results page, she saw "Buffalo Taxi Cab" (second from the top) and the URL www.buffalotaxicab.com. And that's what she clicked on. And that's who got my wife's business. (Yes, even with the crappy, one-page Website that currently resides there.)

I was intrigued by all of this, so I asked my wife how and why she chose this particular taxi company. She explained to me that the number one thing that got her attention was the fact that the company had "the best Website address." She went on to explain that, based on the fact that this company was using buffalotaxicab.com as their domain, she figured they were "legitimate" and "had their act together."

My wife is right, of course. buffalotaxicab.com is a terrific generic domain name that not only clearly explains what the company has to offer, it is intuitive from a type-in perspective, and it is also loaded with the keywords that are ideal for high search engine ranking.

The thing I found most interesting was that the clever company that owned this domain name consists of just two guys with two cabs. But by having this great generic domain name, two guys with two cabs beat out dozens of larger competitors for my wife's business.

Way to go, guys. And thanks for planning ahead, honey.

Mission Accomplished: Tucows Expired Domain Names are Now Available at Afternic.com

From the moment I joined Tucows back in August of 2007, I felt there was an opportunity to improve the way we auctioned off expired domain names. Ten months later, after a ton of work by an army of talented people (go teams!), I can finally reveal that Tucows has collaborated with Namemedia’s Afternic.com to auction our expired domain names.

I am super excited about this because this was by the most challenging -- and therefore fascinating to me -- Internet project I have worked on to date in my career. While on the surface it might seem simple, there were (as my colleague Zeljko would say) lots of moving parts.

You can read all the gory details in the official press release. Then you should head on over to Afternic.com and start bidding on some of the names!

Domain Slamming: Don't Let It Happen to You

Earlier this week I got an email from my friend Mike. In it, he wrote:

"I just received a letter from the Domain Registry of Canada asking me to renew [my domain name] through them, and I'm confused... Do I renew through them or through [my current registrar] Register.com? Or does it really matter?"

As fast as I could, I fired off the following reply to him:

"Hi Mike,

I am SO glad you asked, and you will be too.

You were about to fall prey to an old and nasty trick called "domain slamming". Google the term "domain slamming" and you will find lots of articles about this slimy practice and the havoc it causes, as well as more information on the companies that have been accused of domain slamming.

Renew your domain name via your current registrar ONLY. You can always identify who your current registrar is by doing a WHOIS search."

Mike is a highly educated technology professional who has worked in the Internet industry for over a decade. If someone like him can come close to being duped by domain slammers, imagine what could happen to someone who is less tech-savvy (or less suspicious).

You may be reading this and saying to yourself, "yeah, yeah, this is old news, I'd never fall for something like this."

And that's great. Good for you.

But I'll bet some of your colleagues, clients, friends, or family could get suckered in.

Do them all a big favour and spread the word. Share this blog post and/or the following list of domain slamming resources with them, and help protect them from being the next victim of the domain slammers.

Domain Slamming Resources:

Domain Slamming

Be Aware: Domain Registry of Canada Scam

Domain Registration Scams

Beware of Fake Domain Name Renewal Notices

Domain Registry of America Scam

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.