I received two emails like this in the past couple of days for geodomain names, and a friend also forwarded me the same email for a completely different domain name. Because the emails were nearly identical, and because the domain names in question were very different, I believe this is a domain spam email making the rounds.

While I don’t think it’s any type of scam, I have heard that people will send out thousands of automated emails based on certain domain attributes, and when someone responds, the emailer will then decide whether he is interested in replying or not based on the domain name.

Here’s the email in the event you receive the exact same one.

Hello there,

I am contacting you to offer you some cold, hard cash. Unfortunately in this case you have not won the lottery, nor do I need you to help me wire a ridiculous amount of money.

I am contacting you in relation to the domain name XXXXXXX.com which I am aware that you own.

I was just curious as to whether you would be prepared to sell the rights of ownership to this name to me? If so, I how much would you want?

Payment would happily be rendered through any medium you feel safe utilizing.

I would greatly appreciate a response in a timely manner.

Yours

James Watson

I like Supplies.com domain names because nearly every business or industry has supplies, and where there are supplies, there are usually companies that sell supplies online. Likewise, people search for different types of supplies online, and as we all know, a developed website on a keyword domain name can rank well in Google and Bing.

So how do you know what type of Supplies.com domain name to buy? I generally do two types of searches before making an acquisition – a Google keyword search and a general Google search. With the former, you are able to see a very rough estimate of how many people are searching for that particular keyword/phrase per month (I do an exact match search). With the later, you are able to see the number of results and get an idea of the amount of advertisers. Obviously the more advertisers, the greater the potential to earn with Adsense/PPC, as well as seeing who your potential buyer could be if you opt to sell.

If you plan to develop a Supplies.com domain name, there is one important thing to keep in mind. People who visit aren’t generally looking for information – they are looking to buy supplies. Most of my developed domain names are informational websites, and I don’t need to have a product. With a Supplies.com domain name, it would behoove you to sell supplies.

One way to sell supplies without having to worry about inventory management and fulfillment is to work with a company that does drop shipping. Many companies offer this option regardless of who you are (as long as you open an account and possibly subject to a minimum opening order). Additionally, if you own the category-defining Supplies.com domain name, other companies who don’t regularly offer drop shipping might offer it to you, because they recognize your brand, even though it might not be developed. It’s one of the benefits of a great domain name.

I don’t own any Supplies.com domain names, but I would buy a good one to develop in the future.

Yesterday, I blogged about the smart thinking of Melanie Oudin’s family, which registered MelanieOudin.com a couple of years ago. With Melanie competing in the quarter finals of the US Open tennis tournament, she is winning over new fans and becoming a highly searched topic. Her website is operational and is run on Wordpress, which Google and other search engines generally love – as blogs typically lead to fresh content.

I was surprised to see that MelanieOudin.com did not rank in the top 100 Google results on a “Melanie Oudin” search. Almost without fail, Google will rank the developed keyword .com domain name fairly well on a search for the exact keyword phrase. I then checked to see if the website was even listed in Google at all by searching for MelanieOudin.com directly. It was then that I found the culprit for its omission from the top 100 results – the site isn’t indexed in Google.

Whether the site isn’t ranking because it’s new (not sure) or whether Google penalized it for some reason, now would be the best time for it to be listed among the results, as “Melanie Oudin” is one of the top searches right now on Google, Yahoo, Twitter…etc. If the site was indexed, it would almost certainly receive more traffic, which could lead to bigger things such as endorsement deals and sponsorships.

There is something Melanie Oudin’s family can do to ensure the website is indexed in Google. In fact, I recommend that all website owners do an exact search for their domain name, and if it’s not listed among the results, they should think about filing a Google Reconsideration Request (requires a free Google account). This will tell Google that you have a legitimate website, and that Google should reconsider listing it. Since Google generally lists all websites they can find (based on links to it which do exist), they frequently have a reason for omitting a website.

Requesting reconsideration can get your website indexed in Google quickly, and it’s a smart thing to do, especially when there are a lot of people searching for you or your keywords.