Guest Post: How Domain Investors Can Benefit From Free Screen Sharing

I want to share a guest post with you, written by Lawrence Gentilello, an Internet entrepreneur who founded the startup, Screenleap. I believe Screenleap may be beneficial to domain investors, and I asked Lawrence to write a guest post to share how it can be helpful. You can read more about ScreenLeap  in an article posted on TechCrunch last month.

Since registering my first domain name in 1999, I’ve had an appreciation for creating value through the use of premium domain names. I’ve enjoyed watching the industry evolve, and have bought and sold several domain names. So when I co-founded a new screen sharing service called Screenleap, one of the first things I started using it for was to help me manage what I was doing with my names more efficiently. I’ve found Screenleap to be very useful in this regard, so I wanted to share with Elliot’s readers how it can make them more effective domainers as well.

Screenleap is free screen sharing product that simplifies the process of sharing what’s happening on your computer screen with others. Our product allows you to view someone’s screen from any device with a browser, including smartphones and tablets, without having to install anything. The person sharing the screen does need to have Java though, which is already the case on most computers. Most of our users are able to share their screen in less than 20 seconds.

Below are the top four ways I’ve found it helpful in the context of domain investing:

• Due Diligence– before purchasing or transferring a domain name or web site, I like to conduct due diligence that answers the following key questions: Does this person really own the name?   Are the traffic stats they’re providing truthful?   What are the traffic sources?   Are they juicing the stats with AdWords or redirects?   Are these legitimate type-ins?   What do the revenue trends look like?   Do a few abnormal revenue days skew the rolled-up results?

  Sending spreadsheets and screen shots over email is helpful, but limited.   There may be additional reports you’d like to see, and there may be lingering doubts that the screen shots have been doctored with a photo editing tool such as Photoshop.

  With Screenleap, you can have the person you’re striking a deal with start a screen sharing session, and then have them pull up the stats and reports to display what’s happening in their accounts for verification purposes before making a purchase.

• Sales Tool – domain owners in the process of selling their domains can benefit from Screenleap by using it as a sales tool that allows sellers to take prospective buyers through a tour of their domain parking, Adwords, and/or affiliate accounts.   Rather than sending over spreadsheets, or supplying screen shots, you can click through your accounts, highlighting traffic stats, referral trends, and/or revenue composition in real time almost like a sales presentation.   This can be a very effective way to communicate the value of your domain name or web site for sale and engender trust *with* your prospective buyer before closing the sale.

• Transfer Assistance – veteran domainers are experts at transferring domain names.   Most can recall from memory the exact steps necessary to conduct domain transfers at a variety of registrars.   Unfortunately, most people are paralyzed by the concept of transferring a name to a different registrar.   Its one of the reasons so many domains sit at overpriced registrars, or at registrars with poor service.   With Screenleap, you can instruct newbie domainers to share what’s happening on their screen with you, and then walk them through the necessary steps to complete the transfer.

• Collaborating with Remote Workers – domain investing is often a gateway drug to web site development.   Great domainers frequently become successful web entrepreneurs by enlisting contract work by programmers, designers, and SEO / SEM / Social Media marketers.   Screenleap allows you to collaborate very quickly with remote teammates.   When input is needed on progress or design, or you need to conduct training or testing, it’s very simple to share your screen to communicate more effectively.   Screenleap also works on mobile devices natively, so you can check up on worker progress while you’re on the go.

We recently launched Screenleap free to the public if you’d like to try using it in your domains business. We’ll be offering personal name handles soon (e.g. http://www.screenleap.com/MyName). Follow us on Twitter or Like us on Facebook to be the first to find out when you can reserve your name handle.