Sunday Update – July 4th Edition

Hope my American friends are having a nice Fourth of July holiday weekend and that if you live elsewhere you are also enjoying your weekend. Stay safe and enjoy the weekend!   Here are a few updates from the domain business as well as my company.

  • Does anyone else find it amusing when someone inquires about a domain name you own and then proceeds to tell you how “bad” the analytics are when you start discussing price? Just had it happen again, so I told the lady she should find a better name. Does anyone have a good reply to inquiries like this?
  • I am very excited that Burbank.com has been relaunched with the help of the Scottsdale.com team, using the City in the Box platform. The team (led by company Executive Director, Becky Kelley) took the articles and content I had previously created, added many more articles and events, and also added many more features to their platform. Not only does it look great (in my opinion) but there have been over 50 registrations on site so far in the last few days. In fact, about 5 minutes ago another company added a listing and asked for a paid upgrade.
  • The sales staff has already begun closing local deals, one of which is directly with the city to help promote their summer concert series. Not only is this something I couldn’t do before, but the signed deals are for greater revenue than what I was able to previously do with the site.   This is just the tip of the iceberg, as they are soon going to start contacting the 100+/- companies who asked for advertising information in the past year. To say Burbank.com is off to a strong start is an understatement.
  • One more Burbank-related bit, but also something that can be helpful to you, is that in the last year, over 5,600 have become fans of Burbank on Facebook. This has been a great tool in getting people to help with the site, including photos for the headers, articles, events…etc. It was nice to get a lot “Likes” after asking people what they think of the site, and we also received some suggestions. Having an engaged and interactive audience is important to me, and I think it’s one reason why this blog is so enjoyable to me.
  • I am excited to announce the relaunch of Newburyport.com this past week, a domain name I bought a couple of years ago, which now resembles Lowell.com. If I can get this new site to earn as much as Lowell.com, the ROI will be less than 2 years. My team will be managing the sales, and I will be spending next weekend in Newburyport, a great summer vacation spot on the Massachusetts North Shore.
  • One quick update that you’ve probably seen but is important to say nonetheless. Frank Schilling is blogging again.
  • Finally, Alan Dunn has an article you should read on his blog when you have an opportunity. You don’t hear a whole lot from Alan, but he’s the real deal and offers some sound advice.
Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

17 COMMENTS

  1. Hope you enjoy your fourth as well and note to everyone to be careful with fireworks. I was going for a walk before we head over to some friends’ house and had some neighbors shooting fireworks. It is kind of scary when you are walking and nearby behind you sounds a big BOOM!!!

    ‘look forward to hearing more about the relaunch of Burbank.com.

    Regarding the sale of a domain which hosts a site, if you only sell the domain IMO you should still retain the rights to the site’s content which should entitle you to relaunch the site with another domain.

  2. @ Leonard,

    That’s true unless the owner requires that you sign a non-compete or wants the content, too…. mostly for SEO purposes typically.

  3. Interesting, the guy ( Alf Temme ) basically served himself up for slaughter. Very naive to believe his business model would work ( if real ). In fact looking at his other generics names he has had a nice little group worth 6-7 figs. If he focuses on that more 5 years ago he’d be a multi millionaire, too bad. Sometimes people are too smart for their own good.

  4. Elliot,
    I’ve asked this before but never got an answer. Concerning sites like Burbank.com. does someone contact each hotel in the area and make a deal with you about reservations coming from the site? With a large city that seems like an enormous amount of work. ??

  5. Congrats on the relaunch of Burbank.com. The site looks great. Nice clean and easy to navigate design. I think it is a great fondation for Burbank.com 2.0

  6. “Does anyone else find it amusing when someone inquires about a domain name you own and then proceeds to tell you how “bad” the analytics are when you start discussing price? Just had it happen again, so I told the lady she should find a better name. Does anyone have a good reply to inquiries like this?”

    Tell them the price is for the domain. When you sell a car you value the vehicle, not what’s in the boot (trunk to you guys!)

  7. @Elliot,

    Burbank.com has come a long way. From your owner perspective, keeping up with the website is a job in itself.

    It’s almost like running the city of Burbank. Good job on building Burbank, as well as giving Scottsdale.com the green light to show their Hollywood magic.

    Jason

  8. Elliot,
    city-in-a-box starts at $12,500. Is that a marketing gimmick with the real cost being much higher or is it the price for a decent city site?

    I know it’s not yours and maybe you can’t reveal everything but try 🙂

  9. @Elliot,

    You have an idea how much it would cost to create a system such as what Website Outlook is running? I’m looking at something that is simple. For visitor to use a website to locate information from another system.

    It is unlikely I’ll have access to the cash to run a city site like Burbank.com. I do have one idea and a domain already reserved. The website would be basic, but will provide information on a certain aspect of a system. I really think it will work. I’ve been planning it for quitesome time. For the most part, cost and information are holding me back from accomplishing this goal.

    After you paid to develop Burbank, I’m sure that you will generate enough revenue to fund any overhead costs associated with the website. Do you see the Burbank website taking up more of your time? It’ll definitely be worth the time to run a city site.

    One domain investor shared his story about running a site for 10 years, and how it generated consistent revenue that would bring in a half a million per year. I sent Website Outlook an email regarding their website, bit of course they never responded. Any pointers would be cool. Congrats on your success.

    Jason

  10. Excuse some of my errors. I still use the Iphone to type messages.

    @Elliot,

    You don’t have to approve my post. It was more directed toward the cost and resources associated with building a website. Thanks.

    Jason

  11. @Elliot,

    Website Outlook is a website appraisal system. It is a rather simple to use, and is ranked in the top 1000 on Alexa.

    Would it cost a lot to create a program that acquires data from other location? Thanks.

    jason

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