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I’m currently researching web-based programs that can help me track leads and manage sales. It’s easy enough to email end-users and keep track of prospects and sales in Excel, but personally, I find it clunky and difficult to use. I’d rather have something more flexible that’s web-based.

Domainer Income

I spoke with the co-founder of Domainer Income, Simon Johnson, this evening, who gave me an overview of what his program has to offer. Domainer Income is the first system to bring together all of the main domainer tools—drop lists, appraisals, portfolio management, and sales—under one roof. It’s the first program of its kind, and is geared toward serious domainers. There are videos highlighting the various features of DI on the website, and for someone who’s looking to manage and acquire an extensive portfolio of names, it seems like a fantastic tool.

What I need, though, is not so much a portfolio manager, as something that will help streamline the process of contacting end-users, managing sales, and sending out contracts.

I’ve become spoiled by online contracts since I launched my music business last year, and started using a program called Tave. Tave was originally designed for photographers, but I was able to customize it to meet my needs, and it allows me to have a fully integrated contact form on my website, so that when someone sends me an email, they are automatically added as a “lead” in the system. I can also easily keep track of quotes, send out invoices, and do all of my contracts online, which has saved me an enormous amount of time and stress.

Tave is great for jobs that are attached to specific dates, but not for managing a list of products (domains) or clients. It doesn’t seem like there’s a single program out there that can do everything (if you’ve found one, PLEASE let me know), so right now I’m evaluating a couple of different ones that cover all of the features I need.

Tout: Send, Track, & Analyze Emails

Mark Fulton wrote a great article titled How to Automate End User Domain Sales Marketing on DotSauce, which is where I first read about Tout. Tout allows you to create templates for email campaigns, manage lists of users, and get website-like analytics about your email’s performance. You can even see how many people opened your email, clicked on the links within your message, and which email templates perform better than others.

It’s free for unlimited email templates with up to 5 emails a day, and $30/month for the premium plan that allows up to 150 email pitches a day. I haven’t used Tout yet, but I’m putting it to the test later this week. There are a number of other email apps that provide tracking and statistics like this (Newsberry is one), but I like the simplicity of Tout. Tout is not a mass-mailing system—it is for automating individual emails, which is exactly what domainers need.

Pros:

• Simple interface
• Tracking & reports that let you know how many people opened your email
• Free for up to 5 emails/day

Cons:

• 5 emails/day isn’t really suitable for domainers who have to contact a lot of end-user prospects.
• At $30/month, it’s expensive, compared to apps like Newsberry, at $9/month
• No ability to create custom signatures for each email template
• Reporting is not that robust at the moment

Milton

I recently read about Milton in Entrepreneur Magazine last week on my way to New York. Milton allows you to manage contacts, organize projects, and track financials all in one place. I like that it allows you to keep track of expenses and create invoices. There’s no functionality for online contracts, but I think this is something I’m going to have to use EchoSign or ContractPal for.

You can read more about Milton here: http://www.yourmilton.com.

Pipejump

Pipejump is a way for small businesses to track sales and manage customer relations. Whereas some of Milton’s features might be overkill for what most domainers require, Pipejump seems more streamlined. I’ll be able to provide a more detailed review once I test the system, but I was impressed by what I saw on the features tour on the website.

More info on Pipejump: http://www.pipejump.com.

Why Do You Need These Programs in the First Place?

You don’t. There are a number of successful domainers who generate sales simply by emailing end-users, seeing who responds, and negotiating deals with the ones who are interested. That’s a perfectly legitimate way of doing business, and you don’t need fancy applications to track sales data. I am looking for programs to help me with this because I’d like to be able to track everything outside of Excel.

I am in no way implying that using programs like these guarantees success—success comes from perseverance, your ability to seek out and contact targeted end-users for your names, and your ability to craft a professional sounding email. If you have leads, clients, and email campaigns (or portfolios, in the case of Domainer Income) you’d like to manage, programs like these might save you time—precious time that can be spent on development projects, selling more names, or stepping away from the computer once in a while.

What’s the best way you’ve found to keep track of clients and organize your business?

I am always on the lookout for ways to seamlessly integrate networking into content and improve user engagement, so I was pretty excited when I came across this simple way to improve your contact forms. During a recent search for web developers, I stumbled upon Chad Coleman’s website. Chad is a web developer and designer based in Idaho, and being very impressed with his work, I immediately requested a quote.

I noticed something brilliant about the contact form on his website—instead of the usual “Thanks for your submission” message that pops up after the message is sent, there were also links to his Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. I’m sure this has been done before, but it’s not something I see implemented often. How many of us are too lazy to go in and edit the default “submission” messages built into WordPress contact form plugins?

I’ve gone in and customized the text in those default messages, but I’ll admit that it never occurred to me that it’s a great place for social media links. A visitor who has just finished sending you a message is obviously interested in what you have to offer and wants to learn more about your company and services—so that’s the PERFECT time to provide them with links to learn more about you. By not taking advantage of this prime real estate in your contact form, you’re missing out on a valuable opportunity to connect with your visitors on Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks.

It only takes 30 seconds to open your contact form plugin or php file and add a few short links, so do it now! By making this small change, you can increase your following on Twitter and offer visitors another way to engage and interact with you and your company.

It’s a win-win!

There have been more mentions of the domain industry in the mainstream news this summer more than ever before, and CNN’s recent coverage of Domainfest NYC is no exception. This video is posted on CNN’s site and features Oversee.net CEO Jeff Kupietzky, broker David Parkison, and domain investor Kevin Wood, who was the highest bidder for Hoarders.com at $1500, and Companion.com at $45,000.

For an overview of Domainfest NYC, read Part I and Part II of my blogs about the conference.

With Chef Patrick of Moniker and Craig Rowe of WhyPark at Domainfest

This part of my report from Wednesday’s DOMAINfest Networking Event will be dedicated to the afternoon’s group panel discussions and live auction, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of the best parts about going to DOMAINfest—the people!

Networking

One of the first people I recognized was Patrick Ruddell, of ChefPatrick.com fame, who joined Oversee.net’s team in April 2010 as a broker for Moniker/Snapnames. If you were following our Twitter feeds last week, you’ll know that we bonded over Coca-Cola, since we are both self-proclaimed addicts and champions of Coke products (he even admitted he used to have a Coca-Cola bathroom set, which I think takes the cake).

Patrick is extremely good at what he does, an all-around approachable dude, family man, and definitely one of the more entertaining characters at DOMAINfest.

There were also several key figures who were involved in the Affiliate Summit conference, which was held earlier in the week, including Andrew Hazen. Andrew’s company Prime Visibility is well-known throughout internet marketing circles for boosting SEO and conversion rates for Fortune 500 companies, and in addition to countless other online ventures, he is well-known in the Twittersphere. I’ve been a huge fan of his work for a long time, and he couldn’t have been nicer.

I’m anxious to tell you about the small group discussions, but I should point out a few of the other interesting folks I talked to, including Craig Rowe of WhyPark, Prabhjat Singh of CoolThings.com, Dan from eDomaining.com (you can follow him at @eDomaining), David Cox of TargetMarketing.biz, who specializes in home services and construction names, Kim Boswell, Lori Anne Wardi of DotCo and her intern Shira, and Christoph Grüneberg of Domainvermarkterforum.

Small Group Panels: Meet the Experts

The afternoon’s expert panels were divided into four groups – #1 Local Search Trends, #2 How to Get the Most Out of Affiliate Marketing, #3 Online Advertising Trends, and #4 Legal Q&A.

I spent the most time in Group #3, talking to Jay Berkowitz of TenGoldenRules.com, who stressed the importance of getting the associate assets related to your domain. Let’s take the example of TrademarkAttorneys.com. If you’re looking to build up traffic and repeat visitors to your site, you should really own ALL of the available assets related to that domain, so Facebook.com/trademarkattorneys, and trademarkattorneys.blogspot.com, as well. Set up a Twitter account and follow all of the trademark attorneys you can find, and RT (“retweet”) their posts.

Set up a newsletter that goes out on a monthly basis with the Top Ten Questions to Ask Your Trademark Attorney, and within the email newsletter, provide links back to your site. A lot of this is common sense, but it helps to be reminded that the domain name is not enough. If you’re looking to sell a name, you might even be able to offer these associate assets as a package deal.

John Berryhill and Ari Goldberger (pictured above) were the experts for the Legal Q&A, and I swear—they need to have their own podcast or TV show. They’ve both specialized in internet law and domain name disputes since before the UDRP existed, and they explained everything in a clear (and often hilarious) manner.

Group #1, Local Search Trends, which included experts Andrew Alleman (of DomainNameWire), Elliot Silver, and David Asplund (of Zco, mobile app developer) was also helpful. Andrew Alleman said that the biggest thing in local search marketing right now are the Google Listings (for businesses) that show local businesses on the map. You have to be a brick & mortar business (or at least have a business address) to sign up, but a lot of people have been finding ways around that, by using P.O. boxes or fake address. Andrew believes Google is going to start cracking down on that in the near future.

A lot has been said about the Moniker Live auction that took place on Wednesday, so in order to save space (and because I’m still sleep deprived right now), I’m not going to go into great detail. There were some good deals to be had, including FreeCreditReports.us, Companion.com, and GroceryStores.com. The folks at Oversee.net did a great job organizing and promoting DOMAINfest, and the Grand Hyatt was the perfect location for such an event. Lunch and the Power Networking Dinner were good, although according to some, they “skimped” compared to previous years.

Overall, I met some great people who I hope to keep in touch with post-conference, and I’m already looking forward to my next event!

What I Learned for Next Time

As successful as DOMAINfest was from a networking perspective, there are a few things I’d do differently next time. If you’re considering attending a domain conference, don’t make the same mistakes I did:

• Bring a Printout of Your Portfolio: I’m not talking about the people who go around trying to sell you their lists of names, but a list can come in handy when you need to intelligently discuss your portfolio. In hindsight, it seems obvious, but when Christoph Grüneberg asked which German .DE names I had, I could only come up with 3-4, which is just ridiculous. It would have helped to have a list in a binder, broken down by categories.
• Arrive Early: I had no choice but to fly into JFK that morning because I had something Tuesday night, but I missed the coffee & informal networking in the morning. I think it’s advisable to arrive the night before for these industry events, if possible, because there are often things going on beforehand (especially since in this case, the event coincided with the Affiliate Summit, which is a huge event).
• Get Plenty of Sleep: Again, my schedule left me with no choice, so I arrived on 2 hours of sleep. I had to down a 5-Hour Energy drink halfway through the day.
• Use Your Most Visible Brand: If I could do it over, I would have listed DomainSushi on my name tag, instead of my company name. At this point, my blog is much more recognizable and relevant, and it’s a lot easier for people to remember. I never thought I would need business cards for a blog, but I do. People seem to love the name and the branding, and it’s confusing to have to give people a personal business card (in this case, the one I use for my music business). I’ll definitely be better prepared next time.

I just got back from New York, where I attended DOMAINfest’s 1-day Power Networking event. It was my first industry event, and I don’t think I could have picked a better conference (well, mini-conference) to attend my first time around. The event, which was sponsored by Oversee.net, DomainSponsor, and Moniker/Snapnames, included a full day of guest speakers, panel discussions, a live auction, and plenty of networking opportunities.

The morning started with a great talk by Jeff Kupietzky, CEO and President of Oversee.net, who spoke about 5 Myths of the Domain Industry. The details of the talk have been covered by Domain Name Wire. The two points that stuck out to me the most were:

• Myth #2: Mainstreet Has Come and Gone
• Myth #4: Mobile Apps Will Threaten Domains

Jeff’s point about Mainstreet was that major media outlets have only recently started covering domains as a viable investment strategy. A key factor was CNBC’s 5-minute spotlight in July on domains and the upcoming sale of Sex.com, which you can view here. Moniker’s announcement of the sale of TShirts.com for $1.26 million on Wednesday helped generate some publicity for DOMAINfest, including a camera crew from CNN and writers from national publications PCWorld and the New York Daily News.

I think his point about it being “only the beginning” is dead on, and that we have to continue to educate the public and not be shy about announcing completed sales. For every 100 domain name sales that are listed in DNJournal’s weekly report, there are probably hundreds more than don’t get reported, because of non disclosure agreements and privacy issues. Big names like Sex.com and XXX.com (which did not sell at Wednesday’s auction) are sure to draw headlines, but most people will hear of sales like that, and think domaining is only for the elite. Sure, those names are only accessible to big players, but there are a lot of opportunities at the $100,000, $10,000, and $200-1000 level that would be of interest to mainstream America.

I actually have a few ideas about this, and think we need to stop advertising to other domainers, and start utilizing channels geared more toward the general public—the WSJ, YouTube, even Craigslist. But that’s material for another post.

Myth #4, that smartphone apps are threatening web domains, was especially timely, considering the meteoric rise of iPhone and Android apps in the last two years, and articles such as this one from Gigaom. Jeff’s explanation was that there is a shift coming, but that the industry will adapt by shifting away from using domains purely as address locators, and more as brands.

Next up was Naresh Rekhi of ComScore, who spoke about measuring users’ actions and online engagement. Here were a few of the points I found interesting:

• Canada leads the world in time spent online, with 39.7 hours online per visitor a month. Israel (#2) is rapidly growing in this respect, and surpassed the U.S. this year.
• Every single video metric has increased (although this isn’t much of a surprise)
• More than half of Google’s advertising revenue comes from international markets.
• In the last year, “coupon” searches grew at 53% compared to retail. With the economic downturn, people are turning online to find ways to save money. [Which makes me think I should develop CouponCompanies.com]
• Social retail and group buying (Groupon, LivingSocial, etc.) are growing quickly, although they remain more popular with women than men. Men prefer buying from pure-play retailers, where they can get in, find what they want, and get out.
• Despite the rise of social media, the majority of retailers still aren’t taking advantage of advertising opportunities within that space.

The keynote address was given by David Mason, Senior Vice President of the AOL Content Platform, which acquired StudioNow. His company employs a network of hundreds of content writers and videographers to produce videos for companies, at a higher quality (and lower price point) than most of its competitors. City Search and Simon & Schuster are among their clients. I was impressed by the quality of the demo videos he showed, and I think it’s a great model.

Next up, Part II: Small Groups and Some of the People I Met at DOMAINfest. Time to grab a Coke and take a break from typing.

> Go to Part II

This is a short post to check in with everybody before my trip tomorrow. My concert went well, and I should eventually have some photos, because it was streamed live over the internet. I’m currently at home packing for my flight to New York, which leaves at 6am (!). I should be sleeping right now, but when I got home, I had a dozen emails from earlier today that needed to be dealt with.

I wish I had a little more time to sleep, because at this point the three hours I have ahead of me constitutes little more than a “nap,” but I’m excited about my trip. DOMAINfest has invited some stellar panelists for its small group sessions in the afternoon, including lawyer John Berryhill, Elliot Silver, Andrew Alleman, and others. I’m also looking forward to getting to meet a few notable Twitter friends, like my fellow Coca-Cola connoisseur, Chef Patrick.

If I don’t get some sleep, I won’t have any energy for the full day of festivities tomorrow. Plus the after-party. There’s always an after-party, right? It’s New York, so I’m not really expecting everything to wrap up at 10:30pm. I will post photos and a review of DOMAINfest later in the week!

When I started learning about this industry and interacting with other domainers via Twitter, DNForum, and Namepros, I wasn’t sure what to expect. They might not look like it from the outside, but most musicians are cynical, socially inept, and for the most part, miserable creatures. They’re fiercely competitive and often don’t enjoy talking about anything outside of music—or at least it seems that way. So I thought I might encounter the same tunnel vision with domainers—after all, both professions involve a fair amount of isolation, in the sense that they require a lot of time spent alone, staring at a computer screen, or practicing four to five hours a day in a practice room.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out I was wrong. Domainers, at least the ones I’ve met thus far, are incredibly generous and nice people.

I’m not saying that egos don’t occasionally get in the way. Sometimes there are misunderstandings that have to be ironed out. And every one of us has a competitive streak, or else we wouldn’t be doing this. But what I’ve seen from the domaining community so far is a collective willingness to share knowledge, welcome newcomers, and do it all with a level of transparency and creativity that is unparalled. They are always looking for ways to grow and evolve the industry, expand its reach, and think “out of the box.” They even manage to poke fun at themselves from time to time. How awesome is that? Oh, and we have a guy who runs a CONFERENCE on a CRUISE. Beat that.

I was a Twitter skeptic for a long time and put off joining until earlier this year, but by my third day, I had somebody approaching me to help publicize and sell some of my names. This person who had never met me or talked to me before was saying, “I’m going to help you find end users!” I was blown away. I’ve also received invaluable advice from veterans on the message boards, through blog comments, and over email.

I’m also continually impressed with how much the veteran domainers give of their time. Elliot Silver, Morgan Linton, Mark Fulton, Mike Sullivan, Chef Patrick, and others (too many to list here) all have sites that are essentially goldmines of information. Their blogs are well monetized and have become revenue sources for them, but their passion and commitment to their audience, and to this industry, is apparent in everything they write.

On top of all of his development projects and full-time (non-domaining) career that has him dashing in and out of airports, Morgan Linton runs a weekly television show, radio show, and his blog, which is packed with useful information for newbie and veteran domainers alike. A large portion of his weekly show is devoted to evaluating domains submitted by viewers, with advice about which ones to develop, and also “spotlighting” viewers’ current development projects. Again, this is all FREE information. This guy has NO time, and yet he makes time for his visitors, and always seems willing to answer questions.

I’m sure I will meet my fair share of curmudgeons eventually, but so far, I’m incredibly impressed by this community as a whole. The public perception of domainers as “cybersquatters” who are simply sitting on their .COMs and counting their stacks of cash just isn’t true. In reality, they are incredibly enterprising, hardworking, and generous business owners with some fascinating stories to tell (just ask, they’ll probably be willing to tell you, provided you don’t go spreading it all over the internet).

As I remarked to one friend shortly after joining Twitter, “I think I’ve found my people.”

My new pastime is scouring the Market Activity pages and domain catalog at Sedo. I’m mostly looking to see what German names have received offers. Every once in a while I’ll come across what I think is a decent keyword (in terms of searches), but then I’ll look it up on Sedo to see that only 1-2 of the names containing that word have offers.

I’m looking for industries and search terms that have several pages of domains with bids. For example, the word “entwicklung,” which means “development,” only yields about 15 names with bids (I should note that I’m specifying German as the language, and searching by keyword, not category). Anything involving renewable energy and solar power, in particular, is REALLY hot in terms of the German market. SolarEnergie.net has a whopping 47 bids, and the list goes on with 6 pages of names that have received at least one bid.

Now, I should clarify that it’s important to not get too carried away with all of this information, because those bids aren’t necessarily representative of how hot those keywords are right now—they’re the total number of bids have gotten over several years of being listed on Sedo. Also, those bids are not binding, and there’s no guarantee that they were placed by real buyers. It also doesn’t convey anything about the price of those bids. Multiple bids could also mean multiple bids of $xx or low $xxx.

I wouldn’t go making purchasing decisions based solely on this info, but it is interesting to note. It also helps me gauge the demand for different extensions in Germany. Of course, .de is still on top, but I’m also seeing .info, .net, and .org names with bids. Of these, .info seems to have been embraced the most by Germans.

It’s a little hard to relate to the value of some of the names. For instance, “KarnevalsLieder.de,” (carnival/parade songs) which has 34 bids. Germans have a festive season called “Fasching” before Lent, which is basically the German version of Mardi Gras, and involves a lot of city-wide parades. I’m sure there are traditional songs that are used for such occasions, but I had no idea they would be THAT popular.

On a side note, “Weihnachtslieder.de” (Christmas Songs) has had 22 offers. I registered Weihnachtslieder24.de. The .CO and .BIZ versions without the number are listed, but the suffix “24″ is very popular in Germany, and the .de is always going to win out against those other extensions.

It’s no secret, like many domainers, I have a second career. Mine happens to be in a non-office environment, as a musician in the United States Army Band. It’s a great job—it allows me to do what I love, paid off my student loans, and affords me the free time to pursue other interests.

For the next week, I have two rehearsals a day because I’m a featured performer in the band’s annual 1812 Overture concert at the Sylvan Theater on the National Mall on August 17th. I’m performing a piece that was written especially for me, titled “Brazilian Holiday” that is based on folk songs from Brazil, where my father is from. Needless to say, I’ll be playing in front of a large crowd right by the Washington Monument, so I really need to be prepared.

If there are decreased posts and tweets this week, that’s why. Don’t worry, I’ll still be around – I just need to prioritize and devote most of my attention to my music this week. Now that I’m thoroughly addicted to Twitter, I’ll still be keeping up with everyone’s tweets!

Here’s what else is new:

• I’m testing the Category Showcase feature at Sedo to promote some of my domains, to see what sort of impact it has on traffic. They’re mostly .de names, which are being targeted toward a German audience. One of the names is computers24.de, which is featured under the general “Computers” category, as well as under “Computers: Hardware”.

• On August 18th, the day after my concert, I’m attending the DomainFest mini-conference in NYC. It’s my post-concert reward to myself, and I’m looking forward to kicking back in NY for a couple of days. If you know of anyone who’s going, drop me a line. Most of the NY domainers already know each other, and it would be nice to connect with people before the actual conference.

After DomainFest, I a MUCH lighter schedule to look forward to, as well as a 3-week tour to Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, and Grand Rapids, MI, in September that will give me some much-needed downtime to contact end-users and put myself through a self-conducted “Domaining Crash Course,” including reading everything I can get my hands on from DNJournal, Morgan Linton, Elliot Silver, Bruce Marler, and others.

Details to follow!

DomainSushi now includes a section of available Resources and Tools for researching, buying, and selling domain names. If you’re an avid domainer, these sites will already be familiar to you. The list is a work in progress. It’s far from complete, and doesn’t include anything relating to ccTLDs, IDNs, or development yet. My goal is to eventually offer a comprehensive list of tools to help newbie domainers as well as established investors, but this was just what I was able to put together in the last 30 minutes.

Right now, the list is divided into popular Domain Marketplaces, Research and Keyword Tools, Domain Sale Prices and History, Available Names, and German Domaining Resources. I added this last category because I have a particular interest in .de names, and I’m in the process of learning more about the German market. When I first started looking for spots where German domainers hang out, I found it frustratingly difficult to find a list of country-specific forums. For those of you interested in .de names, I’m gathering all of these sites in one place. I will eventually add forums for Spanish, Portuguese, and French speaking countries, as well.

I hope you will find this list helpful, and check back, because I will be adding to it frequently. If you know of a site that you think should be listed, feel free to post it in a comment, on Twitter, or send it to me in an email.