A few weeks ago, I wrote about using WhyPark in a SEO play, and I want to share how this is working and how it’s saving me money. I bought several City DogWalker.com, City DogWalkers.com, and City DogWalking.com domain names and put them on WhyPark. I added a couple of links and on a few of the sites, I added a unique article. That’s all I did, and in total, it took somewhere around an hour to set up about 17 websites.

The purpose of this test was more for search engine optimization purposes, but I noticed another benefit that might have an even more valuable pay off.

I was going through my stats on DogWalker.com, and I saw that one of the city WhyPark websites has referred 13 unique visitors in the last 3 weeks. The site is in the top 10 results in Google for “city dog walking” and “dog walking city” and it ranks higher than the main website for that search. I know 8 visitors isn’t much in the whole scheme of things, but I want to share why I think it’s something you should find interesting.

At the moment, I am running a Google Adwords campaign, and I am paying between $.75 and $1.50 per click. The domain name cost me $8.00 and it wasn’t too expensive to open an upgraded WhyPark account. The 8 visitors would have cost me around the $8 registration fee.  Should this domain name refer 8 visitors a month on an ongoing basis, the click value alone is just under $100 in a year. I think the domain names would also be valuable to a local dog walker, but why would I sell it if it’s providing value to one of my websites?

I am not sure whether this is an anomaly or a sign of things to come, but it’s interesting to see. I have different inbound links for each of these “mini sites,” and they are placed in different areas on the sites. In a few months, I will do a more thorough analysis of the traffic, click throughs, and referrals, but it’s something I am tracking and it’s a good sign. A number of the other sites are also sending some traffic, but it’s just one or two visits per site.

I woke up to a Google News alert this morning with the title “Three Businessmen Quick to Jump on City Domain Names.” I nervously awaited as the site opened, fearing a negative article about owning city .com domain names.

The article interviewed and discussed Leland Hardy who owns NewYork.com, Larry Fischer who owns Queens.com with Ari Goldberger, and Kevin Cahill who owns StatenIsland.com. Although there isn’t anything really groundbreaking in the article, it was interesting to note that Cahill became a real estate agent as a result of owning StatenIsland.com, and he said he’s made $100,000 from the site.

It’s always interesting to see articles like this appear in the general news.

I recently posted a comment on my Facebook wall about blocking those annoying Farmville posts that seem to frequently appear on my wall, and judging by the messages sent by friends on and off Facebook, I thought I would share how I did it in case you don’t know.

When someone posts something (whether it’s Farmville, a Facebook game, comment, or other Facebook app), if you hover over the upper right side of their post, a “hide” button appears. When you click the hide button, it gives the option to hide the person or the app they used. When I clicked the comment related to Farmville, it allowed me to block all Farmville comments from anyone that uses it.

Another friend pointed out that if you want to unhide a friend that you hid previously, go to the bottom of your wall feed and click on the edit options button.

I know this isn’t related to domain names, but I am sure there are plenty of people who would like this information. I am glad I learned how to do this, otherwise the next step would be to block these people.

I was bidding on two domain names this week on Snapnames – WristletPurses.com Vs. WristletPurse.com.  Both domain names had relatively little bidding until the final day. WristletPurse.com ended a couple of days ago and WristletPurses.com ended today.

Neither domain name was especially interesting to me, but it’s a product (and a plural) so I figured they’d probably be worth a couple hundred dollars or more to someone.  I locked in both bids, and I wasn’t surprised when I was outbid on WristletPurse.com. I was very surprised when I saw the final price was $1,450.

With the singular auction done, I figured I didn’t have a chance at the plural, so I left for the airport without even looking at my Snapnames account. I logged onto the Wifi network on Delta, and I was even more surprised to see that I was the winning bidder on WristletPurses.com for under $100.

Doing some quick research, here’s a brief comparison of the two terms:

Wristlet Purse – 33,600 Google results (lots of advertisers)
Wristlet Purses – 40,300 Google results (lots of advertisers)

Wristlet Purse – 3,300 Google exact match monthly searches (US)
Wristlet Purses – 720 Google exact match monthly searches (US)

Clearly, people are searching more for the singular but in my opinion, it doesn’t really justify such a huge price differential. When I see a name sell for over $1,000, I know there has to be a pretty good reason. However, I don’t understand the reason for such disparity between the two domain names.

What are your thoughts on the price differential for these domain names?

As I previously reported, Sex.com will be up for auction at the law offices of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, 156 West 56th Street, New York, New York on March 18, 2010 at 11 am. The auction is a result of a foreclosure, a few years after the 2006 sale, which was reported (but never confirmed) to be in the ballpark of $14 million.

At the time of my initial article, neither the auction house nor the law firm representing the lender would confirm the opening price/minimum bid for the auction, although it was stated that a $1,000,000 certified check would be required to bid. 

I was just informed by Richard Maltz of Maltz Auctions that there will be no reserve price for the Sex.com auction. Registered bidders will be permitted to bid online or in person at the Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP offices. In addition, Maltz added, “the secured party does reserve the right to bid under the law.”

Without a reserve price set, I would expect several bidders to participate in this landmark auction. Full auction details, including the terms and conditions (pdf) of the auction are available on the Maltz Auctions website.