Janet Johnson | The Art of Marketing

Interesting article in today’s Boston.com about the practice of domain name tasting.  I’ve gotten to know a little bit about this practice as a result of my work with Portland’s SnapNames, a domain name auctioneer who offers “dropped” or expired domain names for sale. Marketers need to know more about this whole domain name ownership area…

Here’s an excerpt that  explains how domain name tasting works:

Entrepreneurs profit from free Web names - Boston.com
Cybersquatting has been around for more than a decade, and scores of entrepreneurs have made thousands and even millions of dollars reselling names they had bought for as little as $6 each. With tasting, entrepreneurs generally aren’t grabbing names to resell but to generate traffic and share in online advertising revenues.

The Internet’s key oversight agency for domain names, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has for years required operators of major Web suffixes such as “.com” to refund cancellations within five days. Tasting became more practical about two years ago when automation allowed newly available “.com” names to go live almost immediately, providing an additional half-day for sampling.

The practice has spiked, with an average tasting of 1.2 million names each day in December, compared with 7,200 two years earlier, according to data from Name Intelligence Inc., which analyzes domain name patterns. Legitimate registrations made up 2 percent of the registrations at the end of 2006, down from about half in 2004.  

Yes, this is a common practice among those who buy domains for the traffic (and subsequent ad revenue or resale value) they can generate. After all, a $6 purchase that can generate at least twice that revenue within a short period of time is a pretty good investment. No wonder the practice has exploded.

But it’s not for the faint of heart.  The pros are really good at grabbing these domain names, sampling them, and moving on.   

I’m still stunned, though at the number of really good domain names that are available on the market every day in SnapNames’ auctions. 

Let’s say I’m a florist, and I want to offer flowers for sale online.  Here are some of the 105 .com domain names that will be available in the next five days with the word “flower” in them at SnapNames:

• bleuflowers.com
• bulktropicalflowers.com
• lowestcostflowers.com
• lavenderroseflowers.com
• wildflowerunlimited.com
• windowflower.com

There’s a reason people taste these dropping domain names - they can be pretty darned good!

Consider setting up a search to be automaticially notified if domain names containing your ‘target’ words are about to come on the market. If you need help doing so, let me know.

You might be surprised at the quality of names that people are willing to let go.  Why? 

Well, that’s another post all together…

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Sean Lowery and I had lunch the other day.  His company, Prospera Events, puts on the Innotech conferences in Portland, OR and Austin, TX.  We were talking about his upcoming eMarketing Summit here in Portland, and he’s offering two tracks - one on the basics of eMarketing on Day One of the conference, and Day Two will be for those who want to see what’s new in Web 2.0 and such. 

I really appreciate someone who’s willing to put together educational sessions for people who aren’t yet participating in this whole online community thing. 

As much as we-who-are-steeped-in-technology want to believe people ‘get’ what blogs can do for your business and such; most people are just finding their way.  If you’re in Portland, consider going to Innotech in April.  It’s bound to provide education on innovation in emarketing - wherever you are in the path to understanding.

For those of you not in Portland, I wrote a white paper (Gross Blog Anatomy; read it and pass it around) a couple of years ago while I was at Marqui about blogging.  I think it’s a pretty good overview for people who are just beginning their discovery process. 

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I am going to be presenting a three hour seminar in Chicago in April for the Advanced Learning Institute’s Social Media Summit.  My pre-conference seminar on April 10 will cover the how-to’s of blogging, and I hope it’ll be an excellent experience for participants. 

I love talking to people at the point where they’re considering just how to blog for their businesses… the mixture of terror and excitement is pretty thrilling to diffuse and nurture, respectively. 

If you can make it to Chicago and want to register for the conference, you can save $200 on the registration fee by mentioning the code SPK.  And if you register before Feb. 21, you’ll get an early bird discount to boot. 

Yee haw!

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Portland, Oregon is a fabulous place to live.  You can get just about anywhere on public transportation - even to the airport for $2.00 on a clean commuter train.  We have some of the best restaurants in the world, and (shocking to me), Portland has just been voted the 9th most fit city in the country. 

Here are my favorite Portland food hangouts:

Paley’s Place for dinner and drinks - James Beard award-winning food, and sweet Suzanne makes the best martini on the planet.

Ken’s Pizza for pizza - better than the previous ‘best pizza’ favorite just outside the Vatican in Rome, and one heck of a lot closer!

Simpatica Dining Hall for breakfast - chicken and waffles!  Salmon hash with peas! Amazing food - and for a toast fanatic to say that about a place that doesn’t serve toast… you’ve just got to try it.

Baker and Spice for coffee and cake - if we’re in town, this is where you’ll find us on Saturday mornings.  And bonus!  They’re at Farmer’s Market during the season.  (Another perennial Janet Johnson favorite.)

I’m sure I could list a bunch more - but in summary these are the tops in my book. My sweetie would say that if you’re looking for great information (insider stuff, too) on the Portland food scene, check out Portland Food and Drink.

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My name is Janet Johnson, and I’m a pseudo-blogger.  What’s worse, I’m not following my own advice, and I’m feeling ashamed. 

Anyone who knows me knows I take great pride in being a blogger.  Yet I’ve been suffering from Gross Blog Neglect.  I’ve not been a blogger since I left Marqui. 

I tell audiences all the time:  if you don’t blog 2-3 times a week, you’re not a blogger.   As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve blogged only occasionally. 

So here’s a post to catch everyone (who might still care) what I’ve been doing and what I’m up to now - since September of 2006.

October 2006 - launched janetleejohnson.com, in conjunction with O’Johnson Partners, a marketing consultancy borne of part inspiration (thanks Pamela Jones and Kerry Kelley) and part timing (thanks to being born in 1957, a watershed year).

Spoke at the Advanced Learning Institute on blogging (lucky me, I’ve been invited back to Chicago in April to do it again), and at the Blog Business Summit in Seattle.  As I look back to October posts, I was pretty much a real blogger then, sharing the love and blogging my experiences.

My clients were:  SnapNames, ITS Systems, and SoMA Designs (thank goodness for early adopters!) and they got me through the early “can I really do this?” stage of starting a business.

I networked a ton.  There’s no substitute for engaging your friends and colleagues when you’re starting a new endeavor, people genuinely want to help people. 

November 2006 - Added clients Saltmine (helping Intel’s Software Network) and the Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum, and continued to work for SnapNames and SoMA.  I was especially proud of the ISN work - the link above will take you to the recommended redesign of their blog site that we worked on - a HUGE improvement over the previous “home grown” version. And during that time I was happy to help OEF through a two-month search for a fabulous new marketing resource.

We sold our condo in the Pearl, and were able to breathe a little more easily that we weren’t carrying two mortgages any more.  Whew, as that had been going on since April, through a job change and all…  (Note: never will we ever buy a home before we sell our existing home again.)

December 2006 - Jammed on strategy for Saltmine/ISN, SnapNames and SoMA.  Started working with a wonderful group of people working on WorldPulse, an organization that will truly change the world for women and children.

Frankly, on December 31, I was happy to put 2006 behind - not that it had been so bad, but there had been a ton of stress that was surrounding our lives that I really don’t miss. And believe me, I know how fortunate I am in my cozy, warm, loving home.  But perception is reality, and I was glad for the turn of the year.

January 2007 - SnapNames continues to keep me busy and extremely happy - their market is pretty confusing to anyone who’s not familiar with the “domain name” industry (web site addresses); but they have the very best reputation in the industry, and I continue to believe they have golden pearls available to marketers.  We’re working to get the word out about the 10,000 domain names that come through their auctions every day. 

Saltmine work wound down for awhile, but I was fortunate to pick up work for OpenMake Software (formerly Catalyst Systems) and my old boss - Stephen King’s - new company.  They are revolutionizing the way software is built and delevered into production.  I got to know Barbara Stewart, from Patterson & Associates, a Scottsdale-based PR agency through Stephen.  She is a wonderful resource, and a delightful woman.

In addition, I was very pleased to start working for Chockstone, an extremely innovative loyalty and gift card provider with more than 30,000 installations in North America.  Holly Files, friend and mentor, became their COO last year.

At this point, I told my love I felt there was a freight train a ‘coming…

February 2007 - I continue to be fortunate in my work.  And am so amazingly lucky in my life, my love, and my family of friends.  I have never worked harder than I am working now.  My challenge is to give only my best to my clients.  And to continue to stay ahead of trends, pushing the worlds of marketing and the use of technology for their benefit.

I was recently on a panel here in Portland for a local entrepreneurs group, StarveUps.  One of their questions was “why do you blog?” 

My answer kind of surprised me, given my gross blog neglect… “to give back.”

So I’m going to re-engage in this grand communication platform.  Starting tonight.  I hope you’re still waiting around for RSS feeds of my thoughts. 

Thank you for the opportunity to give back.  I am so fortunate to have so much…

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