It’s going to be a long, long time before .me gets enough traction to command a price which is higher than the normal $20-or-so acquisition price, even for so-called “premium” domains.

The main problem comes from the very fact that ICANN is trigger happy nowadays and all sorts of “dot-anything” are scheduled to hit the market. With every new dot, lots of inexperienced (and sometimes experienced) domainers rush to land quality names… with a largely worthless suffix!

So the registrars are taking in insane profits in very short periods of time as a new wave of domainers try to secure the names they feel will become hot, over time. Just about every single generic word is a candidate for registration, under these circumstances but for a name to be worth anything, it has to bring some kind of added value to the end user, which is usually -not- the case with .me domain names since, as they stand, most of the registered names point to pay-per-click landing pages!

So thousands of domainers are stampeding for the .me names, okay. Good for them! For those who have been “in the game” for a while, sticking with the .com is the way to win big, even with seemingly silly made-up names because, at the end of the day, people type them… and remember them, easily.

Granted, names like “blog.me” or “for.me” will probably net 10 (or 100) times their acquisition cost but that’s still a far cry from their .com counterparts. And if the ICANN continues to spin out new “dots”, it might not even be 10 times because people will grow tired of the “dot madness” and intuitively fall back on the “dots with the most value”, and that’s .com, .net and some country-level suffixes, like .co.uk, .us and .ca.

So if you come across a domainer putting hard-earned money into .me names, wish him good luck but be kind enough to point them to this article, before they’re all out of cash.

One or two .me domain names —for fun— is cool but betting the whole farm on such new ICANN suffixes could either prove to be the smartest move ever or, which is more in line with reality, a (very) long shot that’ll break the bank before it turns out 1 penny of true, natural revenue.

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Most domainers agree it’s best to launch a value-added and contextually-relevant web destination for every single domain name in their portfolio but with only 24h in a day, that might be hard to do with a more sizeable group of names.

So the next best option for busy domainers might be to use their domains as pay-per-click landers. DomainSponsor (for Google ads) and DotzUp (for Yahoo! ads) do a good job at that but it’s also possible to whip up your very own landing page. Like any kind of web design, it’s time consuming but if you do it right, the PPC revenues could be worth your while.

If landers aren’t bringing in enough money, you can always look to rent your domains to interested parties. For instance, any medical condition followed by a .com might be a worthy natural visitor generator for pharmaceutical companies. When such deals are inked, it’s usually for several years which bring you significant recurring revenues. And best of all, you remain the owner for the rented domain name!

In the last resort, domainers will look to sell their domain names. The most valuable ones stand to bring in the most revenue but from an emotional standpoint, they’re the hardest to part with.

Selling domain names you’ve owned for a while isn’t easy because evaluating the fair value can be tricky. Furthermore, some domains might become more valuable in the future, for all sorts of reasons so selling them early at a discounted price might sound good in the short term but prove to be a profoundly frustrating sell in the long term.

Newbie domainers like to evaluate past domain name transactions to put a price on their own but web sites such as DNJournal, DN Sale Price and Sold Names might not tell the whole story. They do a good job at keeping the score for publicly announced transactions but since most valuable domains change hand privately nowadays, it’s increasingly hard to know the real value “on the street” for domain names.

At the end of the day, many domainers simply go with their gut feeling to match a name with its fair price. Even if the price sounds right to the sellers’ ears, prospective buyers will always attempt to get the name for next to nothing, offering ridiculous amounts like 100$ or 1,000$ (depending on the name) and eventually settle closer to the fair price, which might be multiples higher than the initial offering.

Domainers with good negotiation skills, especially over the phone, will likely get more for their domains than those who attempt to hide and negotiate poorly. Domaining has become a business and selling names is just one more part of a bigger ensemble.

What smart domainers need to keep in mind is that once they sell a valuable domain, they might never have the money to buy it back as the new owner will likely develop it and therefore add significant value to it. As a rule of thumb, remember that if you sell a name, it’s because you -really- want to. There’s no “undo” in a domain name sale.

Finally, don’t be surprised if the buyer requests that you keep the transaction private, usually in exchange for a premium. That’s the way the most valuable domain name sales happen. It mainly has to do with rich companies not wanting to set precedents of paying top dollars for domains and then, having to pay even more for their next similar purchases. This logic might also extend to entire industries, like banking which is known to keep transaction details as private as possible.

Good luck with making the most of your domain name portfolio!

Tags: domain name monetization, make money with domains, selling domain names, sold domains, domain name sale, pay-per-click, ppc, monetization, landing pages, landers, parking pages, domainers, domaining, valuing domains, domain names worth, worthy domains

Some more advanced web developers prefer to create valuable web destinations to encourage repeat visits which are more often exposed to their advertising (PPC or otherwise).

Now, lots of domainers don’t have the time or resources to create this much value associated with every single one of the domain names in their portfolio so they purchase outside help.

Dotzup offers such “domain name portfolio management” landing page services, setting-up for you a highly relevant landing page that direct type-in visitors will likely appreciate — and click through.

More “pay-per-click revenue” generated through well-thought landing page design is obviously very be good news for any domain name owner so Dotzup’s continued partnership with Yahoo’s popular (and lucrative) PPC advertising network makes for an enviable sustained revenue stream.

Established in 1997, in Spokane, WA Dotzup is a leading Direct Navigation Technology Development and High Profile Domain Name Asset Management Corporation.

One of their goals, probably the most important one dor domainers, is to both produce higher PPC revenues -and- grow the domain names’ value (even in a “landing page” context). This is quite important for domainers looking to maintain the high “desirability factor” associated with their domain names.

If you want to see what some Dotzup “niche optimized” landing pages look like, you can check out MiamiJob.com, DetroitJob.com or DenverJob.com.

If your domains have to do with American or Canadian web visitors (naturally typing-in the names), Dotzup’s Yahoo Advertising Network back-end might yield surprisingly high revenues.

If you’re serious about growning your landing page pay-per-click revenues, make sure to give Dotzup a spin and see for yourself how high your monthly revenues can go.

Tags: dotzup, ypn, yahoo, domain names, ppc, pay-per-click, landing pages

Although you might have missed it, Google Co-op seems to have a huge potential impact on the way we search for relevant content as the service allows users to subscribe to other people’s “bookmarks” in hopes that search results will be more accurate.

“In other words, if you subscribe to feeds managed by people who appears to be experts in their fields, you’ll get extra links in your regular Google searches, coming from your subscriptions.”

This all translates into a credible path to creating a giant, worldwide bookmarking community. Google Co-op even has the potential to transform the way we think about SEO and SEM.

You can subscribe to my Google Co-op bookmarks that will grow over time and of course, you should create your very own profile so I can subscribe to it, in return.

Online advertisers need to look for the right media catering to the targeted customers who are the most likely to buy the offering. It’s easier said than done but using the AxROI software from Axandra might help make sense of the metrics being acquired.

When you purchase the AxROI software to install on your MS-Windows PC, you’re able to setup, monitor and analyse as many campaigns as your wish. In a nutshell, here’s what this software helps you achieve:

• Increase the profits of existing advertising campaigns;
• Save money by identifying and terminating campaigns that only cost money;
• Optimize the return on investment (ROI) of all your Internet marketing campaigns;
• Find the organic search engine listings that work best for you.

It works fine with both Google AdWords and Yahoo!’s Overture pay-per-click services but that’s not all, you can track any all other pay per click service, banner campaigns, newsletter ads, text link ads and all other types of online ads. Furthermore, it can watch over your organic search engine listings as well as your paid inclusion links.

In short, you’ll be in charge of what’s going on with all the places you’ve advertised. You’ll have easy to understand metrics about who delivers and who doesn’t. This makes it much easier to make decisions, especially if you need to report to a board, for instance.

Current customers use AxROI to lower their costs by eliminating ineffective campaigns or reinvesting their savings in successful campaigns. The software is both easy to master, flexible and very affordable considering the number of high-end features delivered.

Will you start monitoring your ads with AxROI?

Each of these specialized tools is designed to help you land the #1 position in many search engines, for the keywords that matter the most to your business.

WebCEO 6 offers a host of new features, such as:

• Partner finder (NEW!) – a new powerful tool that helps look for potential link exchange partners, evaluate their websites and manage your correspondence with the website owners.
• PPC campaigns manager (NEW!) – A new tool that allows you to take control of your paid search campaigns: register new accounts with the PPC search engines, and easily manage existing ones.
• HitLens traffic analysis service – A revolutionary way to share your reports with the customers by using the Client Center (a small report browsing utility installed on your customer’s computers for convenient report browsing).
• Ranking checker – 2 new reports added: ‘My indexed pages overview’ and ‘Indexed sites overview’. There’s also a new possibility to import keywords from the Keyword Suggestion tool into the Ranking profile
• Keyword suggestion tool – a new tab ‘Find Suggestions’ to search for relevant keyword ideas by spying your competition. It helps you build a list of thematic keywords.

You can download your free version now and see why this PC software makes a great ally in promoting your web sites.

This strategy has proved to be a lucrative alternative for countless domain name owners and managers so could this also be good for you?

To make money with landing pages filled with PPC ads, you need the right partner. In most cases, DomainSponsor will deliver amazing monthly revenues for domains you don’t use and probably don’t suspect could convert such ongoing riches.

The monthly checks are always on time with DomainSponsor but they can also deposit your monthly revenue share in your PayPal account. The company is solid and very respectful of their partners (the domain name owners).

You need to be serious to get anywhere in this business. Your names need to pull a few visitors each day if you intend to see any revenue at all. This being said, some PPC ads pay you a few dollars per click so you might make good money with little known domains, as long as they’re targeted for those money making themes (casinos, mortgages, web hosting and so on).

If you haven’t already opened your account, now is the time to do it!

It’s 100% free and it can bring you a very serious monthly revenue stream from those domains in your portfolio which you don’t currently use.