A Biker's Domain

Some of us older folks remember when television was free. Then the powers that be (read rich corporations) brought out "cable" television and sold the idea to everyone on the premise that if you paid a subscription, you wouldn't be bothered with all those stinkin commercials. Sounded fair enough right? So we bot into it. Of course here we sit now paying for cable WITH commercials.

Now comes the attack on the neutrality of the internet. The rich corporations now want to provide high speed content only from those that agree to pay them a special fee. Those not willing to pay the piper, will be stuck in the slow lane, and possibly eliminated if Comcast et al get their way. Heck they think they own the net anyway. Watch the video to get the message, and then go to www.savetheinternet.com and sign the petition.

Just a funny little clip that I think reflects a bit of the current feelings being experienced daily by domainers attempting to expand their domain portfolios into foreign language keywords and/or foreign country code top level domains (ccTLDs)

Many domainers, frustrated in the search for keyword strings in .com, have instead invested in foreign domains in top level extensions (TLDs) and/or country code top level domains (ccTLDs). I do see the future potential for this strategy and have even dipped my own toe in the water sometime back with a couple like Motocicletas.org (spanish for Motorcycles).

The risk of course is messing up on the translations from english to whatever and finding that Bablefish or Google language tools just might not be cutting it. Imagine the horror that these brands experienced upon launching some very expensive advertising campaigns without the necessary translation due diligence.

Here's a few examples where ad campaigns went astray.

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the Wax Tadpole". General Motors had a fiasco in trying to market the Nova car in Central and South America. "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go". Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux." Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick." Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea." Last but not least, when American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

I won't be regging anymore foreign language domains without the review of a professional translator.

I guess I'm not done messing with Parsons at GoDaddy yet. I really think he was trying to be nice by sending me one of those email holiday cards. Problem is that I think GoDaddy took the "spirit" of the season literally and included Zombies walking around and dancing. Then again maybe they were trying to save money by covering both Halloween and Christmas with one effort. Don't you think they should have the music playing from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" instead? Anyway, if you want to experience the "joy" first hand, here's a link to the card.

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/holiday/winter/2006_playmovie.asp?isc=gdh1225&se=%2B

As Bob Parsons GoDaddy CEO

As ex KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko

Rumor has it that ex KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was NOT poisoned as reported widely by the press, and is still alive and kicking as his alter ego Bob Parsons, well known CEO of the registrar GoDaddy.

Attempts to contact Mr. Parsons to inquire as to his health were not immediately returned. A spokesman for GoDaddy claimed the rumors to be false, and replied that "Bob was off some place rolling over rocks with Mad Max". He also replied that they "were sure that the boss came from someplace remote, but that it definately wasn't from Russia. Heck, he doesn't even have an accent".

I've got an theme idea that might be fun for a young webmaster. The planning should start early in 2007 and be ready for some serious marketing during the prime Halloween season.

Started doing some related domain studies to see what was still out there and started cracking up. Some very funny stuff possible.

Hoping I can get my son Cory into it. He's been taking computer classes after school on Tuesdays all on his own. I think he could have fun with this, make a few bucks, and get him involved with the Web. We'll see.

Imagine a plane is sitting on a massive conveyor belt, as wide and as long as a runway. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off?

Scored today with a domain caught using snapnames. Picked up Laconia.info and made it through the private auction. Of course besides being a town in New Hampshire, it's home to the oldest of the original BIG 3 US Bike/Motorcycle Rallys. The other two being Daytona Beach Florida (Bike Week), and Sturgis South Dakota.

I now have ownership of both Sturgis.us, www.Sturgis.info , Laconia.us and now Laconia.info. I'm going to have to work on picking up Daytona Beach even though I do have a few variations.

The great band "QUEEN"

Well, I'm trying a bit of domain news monitoring, checking Overture, Wordtracker movers and shakers, Alexa, etc. Picked up a few that would go into the 4 1/2 day domain tasting project if we had that running. We expect to have it cranked up around the first of the year. Anyway, regged these to test traffic:

www.airplanetreadmill.com www.playthegamelyrics.com by Queen, and last but not least, www.chinesenewyear2008.com lol. I'll let ya know how they do in the stats.

Well, in the continued review of all new things that might be incorporated into our web projects, I set up a little video website to hold some of my favorites. I'll continue to add to the archive and make it available to friends and family. I regged a couple names that might hold some appreciation value, but I chalked them up to amusement anyway. They are in2vdo.com and in2vdos.com with the former used as the url frame on the magnify it platform. I've even added it as a permanent link on my blog template here to the right. On in2vdo you can watch, review, register for updates, search other videos, and even add one yourself if you think others would like it. Of course I can delete any stuff you put up that I think stinks ;-) Click on the link on my homepage here and see what you think. Enjoy!

Well, another lesson learned. I sat there and watched as the new .mobi sponsored Top Level Domain (TLD) was proposed and thought "no way". I watched as it was approved by ICANN and thought "what are they thinking". There I was with all my experience and databases and programs and watched as the new extension was released. I ran some checks for the heck of it and found tons of the better keywords, and 3 letter or 3 number domains available, and I continued to hold back. As a supporter of the "One Web" idealogy, I was and still am against it's use. The fundamentals didn't make sense. It was more of a tech format than a domain. After all, any existing site on any existing TLD or ccTLD extension could just add pages as a sub-domain as easy as mobi.mysite.com or mysite.com/mobi. Why the heck would anyone need to buy a .mobi extension?

Well, it came down to my old lessons learned through the financial business. While I stick to my guns on true fundamental based valuations, the market runs away from me based on technical values and momentum. A stock or an extension doesn't make sense at all, but someone yells fire, and everyone one piles in driving demand and reducing supply.

That's what happened folks. I continued to sit there and lose good money because the stupid extension doesn't make any sense. While those who went with the hype, and added to it, made some good money. For example, the mobi registry has some strong backers, however small their investments, by no other than the great Google herself and several phone suppliers etc. The registry held back what they call "premium names" for later release. They didput up a small list of "premium" names for auction at the last T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in October for continued hype value. Not a complete surprise, the conference founders bid up flowers.mobi to $200k adding to the fever.

I don't know how long they can keep the hype going or if they can really gain acceptance by the public down the line, but for the first couple months, .mobi investments have proved to be winners. One of my friends from the forums (Think) jumped in a bit and has made a killing. But I see all these n00bs that are regging garbage like submarine.mobi with no clue whatsoever, and I doubt any amount of hype or even fundamental acceptance is going to save them from losing money.

I did register a few as defensive mobi regs, (to cover coms and website plans I have in progress) and will probably add maybe up to a dozen more for the same reasons, but as for speculation, I think the boat has already sailed.

Not exactly new news, but part of the reason that you'll start to see more videos on my blog. It's due to the ease of use in adding videos from either youtube.com or Google's original Google Videos. The purchase price was $1.6 billion. That's right folks. The founders of that site made a fortune in very short time. It's just another example of the popularity of what they refer to as web 2.0 platforms, where people can create and add their own content. It will be interesting to see how Google monetizes this venture. My interest in these web 2.0 setups is tied to our plans for the Cartel, and it's grass roots army.

HA HA

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