NEW YORK – Once in a while I come across a person, customer or prospect that doesn’t understand what website hosting is and why they might have to pay for it. They seem to feel that hosting is some unknown, unexplained add-on which seems confusing at best or a rip-off at worst. The particular people seem to think a website just 'exists' out there on the Inter-webs or are somehow part of the World Wide Web; they have trouble understanding what website hosting is and why … [Read more...]
Google Say’s Don’t Buy Domains for Past Rankings; Knows When They Change Hands
NEW YORK, NY – In an article that came out in Search Engine Roundtable the other day, long-time search marketing expert Barry Schwartz points out that a Google employee named Aaseesh, tasked with monitoring Google’s Webmaster Central Help Forum, posted a comment which suggests that Google zaps a domains ranking juice, not only when the domain expires (which most have already suspected), but also when the domain merely changes hands or is sold. This adds a new layer of … [Read more...]
Lights Out for Broadway Ticket, GEO Domain Site NewYork.com Over Legal Dispute
NEW YORK, NY – While researching some GEO domain names last night I discovered that NewYork.com has now disappeared. It was a huge site I was quite familiar with as I had some past affiliate dealings with them, but today it appears its gone offline and parked at Godaddy.com. This was initially very hard to believe as last time I visited the site it seemed bustling with traffic and activity similar to its New York City streets in which it ‘virtually’ represented. This … [Read more...]
Gargiulo Reiterates Necessity for .COM in New Forbes Domain and Branding Article
NEW YORK, NY - Michael Gargiulo, owner of VPN.com, a group of virtual private network consultants, is also part of what Forbes Magazine calls its “Forbes Technology Council”, an invitation only community for senior technology executives. Gargiulo, who I have begun to follow for his ‘straight-shooter’ domain advice, writes periodically for Forbes Magazine and certainly believes in the value of a great domain name, indicated by his decision in 2017 to purchase VPN.com for … [Read more...]
27 Ways to Increase Website Traffic in 2018
NEW YORK, NY - I remember when Internet marketing was easy. Back then, it did not take 27 things, it took more like three. For me, it was all about: Knowing who I was trying to reach by doing some initial keyword research, then Optimize my web site for particular keywords and phrases my research showed traffic for, and Find links to point to my site including related keywords and keyword phrases in the anchor text of the links. Basically, I could do those three … [Read more...]
Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Purchase an Ngtld Domain Simply for Search Rankings
NEW YORK, NY – Many who read this site will be familiar with the out-of-the ordinary sales of a few new gTLDs recently, one of which was Vacation Dot Rentals. I stumbled onto an old post about it over at Ricks Blog [I enjoy Rick's ramblings and story telling as I am sure many others do: The post was called "Fake site on a Fake GTLD Sale? The tale of “No Results Found” at Vacation.Rentals" - I'm sure you all read it.] I wanted to see where the site was ranking today … [Read more...]
Shortcut to GDPR Preparation for Sites and Services That Do Not Target EU Users
NEW YORK - As you are probably well aware due to the number of emails you are receiving, by next Friday, May 25th, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will go into full effect. You should be preparing to update your Privacy Policy even if your site does not target EU users. I wanted to share what I have learned so far as I prepare to update some of my United States websites. I urge you to seek out your own advice and council on what to do to bring your … [Read more...]
More Bad News for Monetization with AdSense; Introducing Lazy-Loaded Ads
NEW YORK – According to a discussion from users over at Webmaster World, it has been found that Google is now utilizing ‘lazy-load’ technology to only load AdSense ads when they are in a user’s actual device view-point. Not only have I personally noticed continual drops recently, but a frustrated colleague who has been monitoring his website decline in AdSense revenue called me up yesterday and pointed out this forum thread detailing the find - which I finally had time to … [Read more...]
Ad Revenue Down? Here’s the Latest Things That Could Be Affecting Your Revenue
NEW YORK – You might say that declining ad revenue is becoming a typical part of the business; if you feel like you are constantly trying to find new ways to build both revenue and traffic on your domains while increasing the number of channels and ad networks you rely on, you’re far from alone. Publisher revenues are being squeezed across the board, and while sometimes you might even feel that the more web traffic you build, the less it pays out – you’re probably correct in … [Read more...]
Got Traffic? There’s a New Sheriff in Town
NEW YORK, NY – If you have become accustomed to following my Internet ramblings, you’ll have heard me talking about overall declining Google Traffic and the heavily improving Facebook referrals I see while monitoring websites. Today, I figured I would share an example with you, because often ‘images speak louder than words’, and while I find myself with some extra time today, why not share a screenshot? If you are not yet focusing your efforts on Facebook and are still … [Read more...]
The “Super Secret” to Appraising Your .com Domain Name for 2018 and Beyond
NEW YORK, NY - There have been many changes over the last five years when it comes to Internet domain names. I will say that this pertains to the average domain (web address), not so much a super-premium domain name, but your average .com two or three word domain name. For the most part, pricing has gone down, for whatever reason. Some changes you may have noticed such as: The EMD Penalty: Where Google will not simply rank the domain at the top of search for its exact … [Read more...]
Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) for “CEOs” – ln Layman’s Terms
NEW YORK, NY - About twelve years ago when “search engine optimization” was beginning to get popular, a competing news publisher invited me to lunch at his restaurant to brainstorm about collaborating. It never materialized, but while there and after getting to know each other for a little while, he then turned to me, changed his posture in his chair a bit, sort of gathered his thoughts, and asked me straight out, “sell me on search engine optimization”, “what is it” and “how … [Read more...]
Greatest Benefits of New gTLDs is PR, Temporary “Buzz Factor” “Link Equity”
NEW YORK, NY – A long time ago, say, 8-10 years ago, to effectively market a website on the Internet you needed to know how to do some very basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and you needed to acquire lots of inbound links to your site – from just about anywhere you could find them, and when you understood this and utilized it, you could reap tremendous reward from search engine traffic. This is because if you simply acquired or purchased enough inbound links to your … [Read more...]
Mark Your Calendars: Upcoming Domain Name Events in the United States
LONG ISLAND, NY - The following domain name events are coming up within the next few months and will all be held in the United States (Las Vegas Nevada, NYC New York and Orlando Florida - All fantastic destinations for just about anything you can think of). Whether you are looking to meet new business prospects to grow your revenue, get to meet (in-person) people you ordinarily deal with only online, or you're just looking to get away, domain name events are great places … [Read more...]
Uptrend: Revisiting the Competing Sites for the “Most Valuable Domain Name”
LONG ISLAND, NY - At the end of last year, based on what was happening in the online automotive industry, I took a good look at some of the major automotive websites as there was a steep industry decline in web traffic for the 4th Quarter. This is an update to where these sites are now and what's changed. The 3rd domain name on the list happens to be Cars.com, which was recently valued at a staggering $872 Million Dollars. If you are interested in a breakdown on just how … [Read more...]
The Domain Business: An American Dream and Reality of .Com Domaining
Below are some of the best videos on the domain business that I have ever seen. These stories lend credibility to what domainers work towards each day. I’ve been in the domain business for over a decade and I had not seen two out of three of these videos so I am sure there are others who have not seen them either and would love to watch them. These videos articulate the reason that the domain business, a relatively unknown industry, is one of the most exciting and lucrative … [Read more...]
Websites and Domain Names to Become Insignificant within 20 Years or Less
LONG ISLAND, NY – Ten or twenty years ago, if you wanted to find information a search engine such as Yahoo would allow you to simply type-in what you were looking for, and countless websites would appear with information related to your search. Sometimes, ugly websites would appear that had keyword-stuffed their pages with the search string, but often you would be able to find what you were looking for within a few clicks around; and your answer was always on a website or web … [Read more...]
Who Needs Domains and Websites Anyway? Google Say’s “You’re A Loser”
NEW YORK, NY - It started way-back years ago when business directory owners noticed that Google looked like it may be starting to get into the local directory game. These cool little listings with pointers on helpful maps started to show up on Google with phone numbers, addresses and links to websites. After a while webmasters started to say “Hey, this is diverting traffic away from my business directory… what’s going on here?” Further down the road, Google began to use … [Read more...]
80% of Top 100 Highest .club Domain Buyers Leave Parked, Redirected, or Failing DNS
Next up in a new series of top 100 development potential domains lists is the .club domain. In comparison to top 100 LLL .com Liquid Domains, top 100 .net, and top 100 .org, I wanted to take a look at some gTLDs to see what buyers are actually doing with them and .club comes to mind first. The team at .club has done a fantastic job in marketing their new gTLD and it will be interesting to see. Sales figures are one thing when valuing domains, but actual development shows … [Read more...]
Throwback: Is Domain Parking Really Dead? If So, What Killed It? (Reprint: It’s That Good)
A lot has changed with Domain Parking Revenue as well as Google Ad Earnings over the last, say, decade. There has been such great change that it's sometimes difficult to articulate - in a nutshell, why things have changed so drastically and in how many different ways this change has come about. I don't think anyone would argue that these changes have and continue to fundamentally reshape the entire industry. Last evening, I came across an article by writer and marketer Doug … [Read more...]
11 Tools to Market, Maintain, and Improve Your Website; Measure Your Competition
Below are ten great online tools which will help you be successful online. They are invaluable tools for both marketing and research and can help save you lots of time as well help you make critical decisions with much more insight then without them. Although there are probably thousands of tools online, these are the ones I like to use most and can help you gain a competitive advantage over your competition. A List of 10 Great (and mostly free) Tools to improve your … [Read more...]
Automotive Shopping Sites Take Major Plunge In Web Traffic, User Visits for 4th Quarter of 2016
COMMACK, NY - Something happened out there in traffic land, beginning sometime in September 2016, which has sent the worlds top 10 automotive shopping sites into a complete nose dive when it comes to traffic, page-views, and likely, revenue. Something is definitely happening in the automotive shopping space, and potentially across the board effecting multiple industries. Why Are Auto Shopping Sites Taking A Major Plunge In Traffic? Was it the returning school year [as … [Read more...]
