FRANK: Well, the sellers aren’t going around now and saying the metrics don’t work, I’ll just lower my price. That’s just not happening. We’ve gone from 10X to 100X on the sell side. There are no big buyers anymore. But it really doesn’t matter. The good names are being renewed and the bad names will always be the bad names, and they will cycle in a boulevard of broken dreams to come.

That really hit home last night. I had to take care of my September and October renewals and it’s finally dawning on me how much crap I own. I guess because I have one of those runaway imaginations, it’s easy for me to get caught up in the possibilities of a domain. I also seem to become attached to domains I’ve owned for a few years. Even though the parking / WhyPark  stats barely dip into double digits a month, there’s something about owning a domain name that leads me to become fond of it!  But no more. Many will drop. I need to get leaner. These ideas didn’t ‘work’. Here’s the list of what’s going and in some cases, what I was thinking when I picked them up in the first place.

First off, my ‘click-alikes’. These are domains who because of clever letter configuration, appear to be other than what they are actually. Like an l/L representing a capital i/I or the one I was fond of, the letter m/M representing rn/RN. I guess this is similar to what Typosquatters do, but I was targeting generic keywords. I’m still convinced they could be very useful to someone, especially someone who already had a bunch of traffic but just wanted to move it around. I also think they might do well in a Google Adwords campaign, because they would appear to be authoritative keyword domains. If you built out around these names they might also be very effective. But developing click-alikes to compete with multi-million dollar companies, was more than I was up for. I think in the back of my mind somewhere was a get-rich-quick scheme that never materialized.  I want to state that I do not think there is anything ‘shady’ about these names! Words convey meaning. These click-alikes represent words whose meanings are worth millions of dollars – same meaning!

dornainnames.com    10/28/09 0:27
websltes.com    10/28/09 0:32
webslte.com    10/28/09 0:35
internetrnarketing.com    10/28/09 0:39
affiliaternarketing.com    10/28/09 0:43
rnassage.com    10/28/09 0:47
glfts.com    10/28/09 0:51
plurnbing.com    10/28/09 1:06
rnovlng.com    10/28/09 1:06
carnping.com    10/28/09 1:06
savlngs.com    10/28/09 1:06
freernusic.com    10/28/09 1:06
rnp3players.com    10/28/09 1:06
dornainname.com    10/28/09 4:16
hornevalue.com    10/28/09 4:16
apartrnent.com    10/28/09 4:16
horneforsale.com    10/28/09 4:16
rnoving.com    10/28/09 4:16
asianpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
bdsrn.com    10/31/09 3:25
bigtlt.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepommovie.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepommovies.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepomvideo.com    10/31/09 3:25
freepomvideos.com    10/31/09 3:25
latinapom.com    10/31/09 3:25
lesbianpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
shernale.com    10/31/09 3:25
shernales.com    10/31/09 3:25
amateurpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
hardcorepom.com    10/31/09 3:25
teenpom.com    10/31/09 3:25
attomeys.com    10/31/09 4:14
casinogarnes.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnusicvideo.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnutualfunds.com    10/31/09 4:14
freernp3.com    10/31/09 4:14
intemetdating.com    10/31/09 4:14
televislons.com    10/31/09 4:14
casinogarne.com    10/31/09 4:14
freegarnes.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnusicvideos.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnutualfund.com    10/31/09 4:14
unlverslty.com    10/31/09 4:14
homeirnprovement.com    10/31/09 4:14
rnaps.com    10/31/09 4:14
shopplngcart.com    10/31/09 4:14
covvboys.com    10/31/09 16:03 Remember?
covvboy.com    10/31/09 16:03
businesslnsurance.com    10/31/09 16:03
cheapautolnsurance.com    10/31/09 16:03
automobilelnsurance.com    10/31/09 16:03

Then there was the iTeachMusic directory business idea. Only iTeachMusic.com is taken, and he wasn’t selling for the few $k I could scrape together to offer him. Somehow I convinced myself to go ahead and purchase a network of iTeach domains anyway. “Yeah, they’ll all funnel into the main site!” Because music and teaching music is my background, I could do this, I do know the business.
ITEACHCLASSICALGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:45
ITEACHPERCUSSION.COM    9/19/09 17:45
ITEACHVOCALS.COM    9/19/09 17:45
ITEACHACOUSTICGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHBASS.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHJAZZGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHKEYBOARDS.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHBLUESGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHROCKGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHSHREDGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHSLIDEGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHVOICE.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHCOUNTRYGUITAR.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHSONGWRITING.COM    9/19/09 17:46
ITEACHMUSIC.ORG    9/19/09 22:46

And related keyword domains that would be easy to build mini-sites on to funnel traffic back to the hub. (Now which podcast did I get that from?)
BLUESSTANDARDS.COM    10/6/09 1:30
JAZZSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:30
BLUESSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:30
ROCKSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:30
BASSSOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:31
CHORDTONESOLOING.COM    10/6/09 1:31
Not a bad idea right? Except that because I’ve been involved with it for so long I have absolutely no passion left for it whatsoever!

Then there were the ‘clever business idea domain names’ (and to be honest I have kept quite a few of these). Some of these were the result of trying my hand at PickyDomains.com where clients are looking for a domain name to match a business idea and you get a finder’s fee if they like yours (in theory).
MALALATETE.NET    9/17/09 21:07 Nice ring to it for a French health-related site, only they’d probably want to use .fr
MATCHSET.NET    9/17/09 21:59 Still think this is a great domain for a tennis site.
SICKPET.NET    9/17/09 21:59 This one actually gets enough traffic at WhyPark to pay for itself.
CCMASHUP.COM    9/21/09 18:29 CC as in Creative Commons, and mashup. The .com would allow you to publish commercially.
CCMASHUP.ORG    9/21/09 23:29 The .org would be for the not-for-profit version.
NORTHPOLEREPORT.COM    9/21/09 22:20  A Christmas site that would follow Santa on his travels.
FAMILYVIDEOTREE.COM    10/2/09 16:0 A video business my wife and I thought about getting into.
COMPAREPORT.COM    10/5/09 1:29 Compare/Report/Port nice ring to it for a shopping comparison engine.
TODOLOOP.COM    10/8/09 15:25  Collaborative ToDo lists.
TODOLOOPS.COM    10/8/09 15:26

A couple of Geo/Keyword domains.
NEWYORKCITYUSEDBOOKS.COM    9/20/09 3:36
NEWYORKDANCEINSTRUCTION.COM    9/20/09 3:36

A couple of high search result keywords that didn’t get any type-ins.
HISTORYOFVIDEO.COM    10/11/09 13:38 Google: 205,000 for “history of video”
HISTORYOFINFORMATION.COM    10/11/09 22:49 Google: 124,000,000 for “history of information”

And a few leftovers from my flipping on Ebay experiment.
6-49.NET    9/10/09 18:25 Thought this might make a great 6/49 lottery info page. But very few type-ins.
1YJ.NET    9/4/09 19:24
5JD.NET    9/4/09 19:24

There you have it. That’s a little over $700 I’ll save in renewals by letting these drop. I kept another $400 worth. Hopefully I’ve learned enough in the last few years to know that the ones I’m keeping have more re-sale or development potential. But I also kept a couple of crazy names I just like.
As I mentioned, these are all going for $59, what you’d pay to backorder them. Or wait around and I’m sure a lot of them will make it back in to the pool–will, as Frank put it, “cycle in a boulevard of broken dreams to come”.

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A post on TheDomains last week reminded me of how much I hate that Verizon DNS hijacks my typos to take me to their “DNS Assistance” page full of ads. When it first started happening in 2007 I got Verizon Online support on the phone and, maybe because it was so early, they didn’t know what I was talking about. So I tried switching to OpenDNS, but they do the same thing, redirecting to their ‘Open Guide’. Thing is, when I typo a url into my nav bar and get the usual error message, the error is still sitting there in my nav bar, I can see the error, usually one letter, and correct it. When Verizon hijacks my typo, they load the nav bar with a whole new url, so NOT ONLY do I have to see all their ads (assuming I don’t have Adblock Plus enabled) but I have to clear their url out of my nav bar and start all over. No more. Today I found the Verizon help page that shows you how to reconfigure your modem so that you are not re-directed to their DNS Assistance page.

Here’s the url http://www.verizon.net/central/vzc.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=vzc_help_contentDisplay&linkflag=guestsso_fios_primary_east_undecided_consumer&case=dns_assist. (Tip: You need to click the ‘disable DHCP client’ button in order to make the changes. Don’t forget to  re-enable it before you ‘setVC’. If you’re asked for a user name and password, try admin admin (then change it).

If you’re on Comcast, this will get you started: “How do I turn off the Domain Helper service? Click on the Disable this error service link found at the top of the page …we will ask you for your email address and your cable modem MAC address…” http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/FAQViewer.aspx?Guid=e02580db-8813-43a3-9642-b66d8cfceb1a.

If you have links to other opt-out information pages, please leave them in a comment and I’ll add them to the post.

[Update 081709 I was having issues. The DNS settings weren't holding. I would either have troubles connecting to the internet or the old DNS settings would pop back and I'd again get the DNS Assistance page. What worked was taking the opt out DNS numbers derived through the Verizon instructions page and puting them in my (Mac) network settings. So instead of doing it network-wide I have to set it up for each computer.]

Virgin Media calls it Advanced Network Error Search, clever! Here’s their opt-out page.

P.S. Take Back The Beep!

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Adsense for Domains is used to monetize Type-In traffic, ie. people type your domain name into the Browser Bar and hit Return. That’s it! If you register a domain and discover it’s getting lots of traffic, it’s probably because you stumbled on (not likely now with so many generic keyword domains already registered) a phrase that a lot of people are looking for-so many that the tiny percentage of people who type the phrase into their Browser Address Bar amount to significant traffic. If you’re not getting hits/clicks on your Adsense for Domains domains it means you probably have an average domain name. Not meaning it’s a bad domain name, but it’s probably not a generic term that people are searching for. For example, you would be wasting your time entirely trying to monetize a domain (using AFD) like Figgs.com. OTOH you MAY earn a buck or two a month with a domain like usedfashionwigs.com Mostly I think Adsense for Domains is for ‘Domainers’ who, due to fortuitous timing and insight, picked up a lot of generic search term domain names early on. Rather than ‘park’ their domains at places like Sedo, Park, etc etc. they now have the option of parking with Google directly.

[Update 122209 Answered a question on another site]
The Google Adsense For Domains instructions are pretty good.
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=76049
Problem is, you don’t know if they’re going to accept your domain before you submit it and go through the entire hassle of changing your A records etc. And while the directions for setting it up are pretty good, there are no directions informing you how to change back. So keep good notes. I would recommend taking a screen shot of the settings before you make any changes. You might only discover that Adsense for Domains isn’t working for you a few months from now and have completely forgotten how the settings look. Ask me how I know

There should be an easier way to submit domains for consideration BEFORE you go through the whole A record hassle. For instance, two of the 5 domains I initially submitted were declined by Google. 2 others did worse than when parked. One did a little bit better.