Case Study Friday: Computer.asia
This week’s Case Study Friday features a great one word domain ending in an alternate TLD: Computer.asia. This computer site was submitted by Chris so let’s see if we can all give him some feedback on what he was done with the site so far and hopefully also give him some tips for improving the site.
To make things flow a little better I thought I would put some of my thoughts in bullet point form and then please chime in via the comments:
- I would try to stay away from dynamic looking URL’s like this: http://www.computer.asia/page.php?page=about as much as possible especially for static pages like an about page.
- Consider separating the TOS onto its own page instead of merging it onto the about page.
- The web 2.0 drop shadow is all the rage of course but spending the money to do a professional looking logo would be well worth the effort I think and the enhanced branding could go a long way to make sure users remember to type in computer.asia instead of computer.com the next time they want to visit the site.
- I really like the star ratings as it adds a nice level of interactivity as well as a value add to what is just a news aggregator essentially. That being said, it looks to me like every single article is rated 5 stars so there could be an issue there.
- I really do like the overall nice clean look of the site. The colors are great and I think its just the right approach for a computer news oriented site. With the addition of a professional logo and some buttons then it could look even better (I especially like the cool transparent effect for the login box when you click on “Login” on the top right).
- I keep thinking that there should be a test link to “Home” to the left of the “Published News” button.
- The site has 100 pages indexed in Yahoo and 522 links according to Yahoo Site Explorer as well as a PR of 3 so there is definitely some link building done so far which is very good to see. The one downside that I can see just from looking at the site’s link profile is that it appears that most of the links are domaining related links. This is not that bad because the computer niche and the domaining niche are semi related in that they are both in the “tech” family tree (although very distantly related cousins at best 
). The potential downside to this domaining heavy link profile is that there could be some kind of filter that is tripped that discount the site links and in turn rankings to some degree but that is just my paranoid speculation. There is absolutely nothing wrong with getting a couple or ten domaining related links for a non domaining niche site but when almost all of the links are domaining related then there could be a problem.
- There is a lot of white space underneath the comment section of individual article pages like this: http://www.computer.asia/story.php?title=singapore-gets-google-street-view-finally – rather than have all of that wasted white space it would be better to show things like related articles, products to buy, advertisements, anything at all really.
- I really like that this site has a lot of different social media type features to stimulate people to interact with the site and leave comments, reviews, star ratings, tags, etc. One potential downside is that in order to do any of these things a user must first create an account. Making people create an account before allowing them to comment will dramatically cut down on spam but it will also cut down on good comments as well as some people just do not want to create an account for whatever reason. One thing to consider would be to either open up the participation for non members or think of some different ways to inventivize people to become members like offering a members only newsletter or offering a point ranking system for members to compete against each other in some way, etc.
- The site should have more original content. It seems like most, if not all, of the content in the site are news feeds. The content is certainly relevant to the Asian computer market, but original analysis and articles would help with the search engine traffic.
- You probably shouldn’t show navigation to categories with no content. It’s disconcerting to check out a link from the menu and just get a blank page to appear.
- One really little thing I noticed that I like is the back-to-top button in the footer. It’s nice to have that little button to save my fingers from more scrolling
What do YOU think?
My Guest Post for a Personal Finance Blog on Domain Name Investing
Many domainers talk about the need to educate “end users” and further the domain name industry by telling people about the value of domain names. Now is your chance to chime in with some comments on a guest post that I just got published on the popular personal finance blog FinancialSamurai.com (one of his posts about the flat tax received over 100 comments – nice!). Here is the guest post that I wrote so go check it out: Domain Name Investing 101 – Online Real Estate as an Asset Class
Maybe getting guest articles and guest posts published in non domaining related blogs, websites, newspapers, and magazines is a great strategy to further the domain name industry – what do you think?
If you think that this is a good idea then why not reach out to some mainstream bloggers, writers, and editors and give it a try?
I would especially like to see some articles from:
Aron Meystedt (writer of “Big Boys – It’s Time – Taking the Industry to the Next Level – I’m Contacting You TODAY” and “Seeking the End User — We are Missing the Target — It’s NOT the Fortune 500“)
Bruce Marler (writer of “Quit Blaming the End Users It Is A Domain Industry Problem“)
Rick Schwartz (the “Domain King”? nuff said. Ok, and also the writer of “Domainers Fail to Even SPOT an End User“)
How about you?
Who Owns the Best Domaining Domain out of all of the Domaining Blogs?
If you take Domaining.com out of the mix then who do you think has the absolute best domaining related domain name out of all of our list of the Top 100 Domaining Blogs?
Here are some of my favorites (talking purely about their domain names and not their actual websites):
DomainNameNews.com – What could be a better domain name for a domain name news site?
DomainSuperstar.com – Come on, I had to put our domain name on the list right?
Symbolics.com – First domain name ever registered = instant domainer street cred.
ChefPatrick.com – Somewhat confusing to people that assume he is a chef at first but what the domain name lacks by not having anything related to “domains” or “domaining” in the domain it makes up for in memorability.
DomainingTips.com – Contains the target keyword of “domaining” plus a nice short descriptive word.
What are YOUR picks for the best domaining domain name out of our entire list domaining blogs?
How BankRate.com Juices Up Page Views: Bank Rate Advertisers Beware
It’s common for large content rich sites to implement measures to increase page views and decrease bounce rate but BankRate.com appears to be taking this philosophy to a whole new level. The reason that most sites want to increase page views is of course to theoretically better engage visitors but usually the real force behind the quest for more and more page views is that most advertisers pay on a cost per impression basis so the greater the number of page views the more moola the website makes.
I will admit that there is a fine line between splitting up an article into easy to read sections and incorporating rich media like pictures into an article to enhance the user experience and just downright chopping up an article into ridiculously small pieces with each piece on a separate page purely to increase page views.
For example, While doing market research for one of my finance sites I can’t tell you how annoying it was to try and read this 672 word article over on Bank Rate and have to click through 7 different pages to read the full article. Yes, 7 pages for a measly 672 words of content. That means that each page has maybe a paragraph or two (although page 1 is the longest by far) and since I can speed read then I practically have to keep clicking to the next page every second or so (maybe this means that an additional benefit to this article chunking strategy is that they hope that users will inadvertently click on ads as they are constantly being forced to click away simply to read a short article…)
Anyway, here is page 1 of the article and have fun clicking through 6 more times all to read just 672 words: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/mortgages/5-reasons-to-buy-a-home-during-holidays-1.aspx
What do you think of this content chunking strategy?
Case Study Friday: SimpleBabyNecessities.com
This week’s Case Study Friday features a baby cribs website submitted by Greg who is one of our readers: SimpleBabyNecessities.com.
(Notice the juicy anchor text for the above link that I am giving the site because A. I think its a well done and trustworthy site about baby cribs and B. Maybe this will incentive YOU to contact us and submit any sites that you want reviewed for a future Case Study Friday – we currently have a backlog of 5 sites to review for the next 5 weeks but if you submit a decent site then we will be happy to work it into the lineup).
OK, let’s just jump right into this case study and as always please participate by leaving your own input in the comments below.
I want to be sure to not just list of the things I like and don’t like about the site but also to make sure to give Greg some really practical action steps that he can maybe consider. That being said, here are some pros and cons for SimpleBabyNecessities.com and then I will give some recommended steps to take to make the site even better.
PROS
#1 For a site that is just over a year old (it appears the domain name was registered on 10/16/08) and that is not an exact match domain or even a keyword rich domain then to rank on page #4 in Google for the sites main keyword of “baby cribs” is not too shabby at all given that “baby cribs” is searched an average of 90,500 times per month in Google (exact match).
Granted, the competition is not overly fierce as the CPC is only $1.21 but it can certainly be a chore to try and get a big product site like this ranked.
(The site is also ranked on page 1 in position #10 for the secondary keyword phrase of “convertible cribs” and although “convertible cribs” only gets searched a relatively low 9,900 times with a CPC of $1.17 it is still a very nice phrase to rank for).
#2 Although I am not too familiar with Volusion, the shopping cart software that powers his product pages, I think that the individual product pages look professional and have nice big product images which is something shoppers want to see.
#3 The left hand navigation bar does a nice job of being user friendly while still making sure to be SEO friendly at the same time because of the strong internal anchor text.
CONS
#1 I think we can all agree that the domain name chosen could certainly have been a little better. As you know I am a huge fan of exact match domains but in this case I doubt that Greg has the budget to go out and purchase Cribs.com or BabyCribs.com so I understand the brandable domain approach (after all that is what I am doing with my website CreditCardChaser.com that was previously featured in a Case Study Friday since I do not have the budget to buy a CreditCards.com but at least my domain is a keyword rich domain that contains my main keyword phrase in the domain).
That being said, I would have liked to see a shorter keyword rich domain that contains the sites main keywords – i.e. BabyCribsLLLL.com or BabyCribLLLL.com and does not have any long and potentially hard to spell words like “necessities”. In other words, if there is going to be a long and hard to spell word in your domain then it really should only be there because it is a part of your target keyword phrase.
It is worth noting here that maybe Greg has plans to move beyond just selling baby cribs and would like to offer all kinds of baby products – if that is the case then maybe it would even be a better idea to choose a very short brandable domain that does not contain the scope limiting words “crib” or “cribs” but just the word “baby” – i.e. BabyLLLL.com etc.
2. It a very very very good idea for e commerce sites to have as many trust building and credibility boosting symbols as possible on the site and while the site does have some of these symbols down towards the bottom of the site in the footer (Google Checkout logo, credit card logos, PayPal logo, “Privacy Guaranteed” logo, etc.) at least some of these logos should be moved above the fold and into a much more prominent location.
3. The individual product pages do a really nice job of showing a strikeout price/sale price, upselling a mattress, and showing related products but (prepare yourself because many may not like this suggestion) I think that the site could benefit from taking a Buy.com approach by not only doing all of the things I just mentioned but also showing competitors prices (with an affiliate link of course) and maybe even Adsense ads ONLY at the very bottom of the page.
I will be the first to admit that I am definitely not a fan of Google Adsense in most scenarios but I think that Buy.com has a nice approach to product pages (and I am sure that they have tested this to death) and that is that for any admittedly “second string” player (AKA anyone who’s name does not rhyme with “Swamazon”) then it makes a lot of sense to monetize not only the people who will click on your product and add it to your shopping cart and buy from you but to ALSO monetize the people who scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and choose to look elsewhere (likely on Amazon.com).
After all, if those people are going to leave by either hitting the back button or by clicking on an Amazon.com affiliate link/Google Adsense ad then as the site owner you want them to at least make you a small amount of money by clicking away on one of your affiliate links or Adsense ads rather than leaving your site and not making you a dime.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
#1 Consider optimizing the monetization of the product pages by using the Buy.com approach outlined above.
#2 Weigh the benefits of sticking with the same domain name vs. moving the site (and 301 redirecting everything) to a new keyword rich domain name.
#3 Move the credibility boosting symbols up from the footer to somewhere above the fold (or copy the symbols and have them visible in both the footer and at the top of the page).
OK, don’t be shy so let’s all pitch in with some advice for Greg. What are your recommendations for SimpleBabyNecessities.com?
Demand Media on the Importance of Domain Names
Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers! This will be short and sweet. I recently posted about Demand Media and as a new RSS subscriber of their corporate blog (and a big fan of theirs all around) I wanted to just point you to a great little post of theirs titled “What Do Domains Have to do with Social Media and Engaging Content?”
One especially interesting statistic that they mention in graph form is that over 100 million domain names lay undeveloped and that the gap between actively developed domains and undeveloped domains is getting larger and larger.
(Side Note: It is quite interesting/amusing that since Demand Media claims to be “The Leader in Social Media” that they don’t allow comments on their blog – the most basic of all elements of social media but oh well. Please feel free to leave a comment below if you so choose )
Wanna Make Money Blogging? Chances Are – You Won’t :)
If you think that you can make money blogging by just working a few hours a day in your underwear while the cash just starts to pour in then guess what? You guessed it – it ain’t gonna happen.
“Wait! Wait!” you say. “I realize it takes a lot of work. I am going to work 10 hours a day until I get a million page views a month and then I will be rolling in the dough”.
I hate to be the one to break it to you but even if you accomplish your goal then you likely wont be making as much money as are anticipating. I will be the first to say that I enjoy blogging because I enjoy writing and I enjoy it when readers leave comments and we get to debate different things and I also enjoy blogging because it does bring repeat visitors to Domain Superstar many of whom will go on to become happy customers of our domain name tools BUT I would never ever rely on blogging to make anywhere near the amount of money that can be made by developing a “real” website.
When I say “real” website I mean any website where people visit the site with the intent of buying something, applying for something, “getting” something – anything other than just visiting to comment on what a cool post you just wrote. Let’s face it. When I put up an insurance website I build the site so that visitors will come to the site as they are searching to buy insurance/compare insurance quotes/etc. When I put up a credit card site I build the site so that visitors will come to the site as they are searching to apply for a credit card. Yes, you can have a very high quality content rich blog that gets some of the exact same search engine traffic as I mention above but where is the majority of your traffic going to come from? People who just enjoy spending a few minutes reading your blog. Nothing wrong with that and it can be an ego booster for some I suppose but those visitors aren’t necessarily going to make the blog owner any richer – especially with CPM advertising prices so (justifiably) low.
My examples above are very tightly focused niches and my goal is of course to draw people into those sites by providing high quality content and helpful tools but let’s get real and answer this question:
“Why are visitors visiting my site?”
If you are a blogger then even if you have a huge email list and an enormous number of RSS subscribers then that does not necessarily mean that your visitors are coming to your blog for any type of commercial reason. Sure, you have influence but many people just like the way you write.
There are definitely some bloggers that make a significant amount of money: Shoemoney.com and ProBlogger.com come to mind immediately. I am definitely not one to say that just because something is hard that you shouldn’t go for it and work extremely hard to make it happen. That being said, is blogging really one of the better ways to make money online?
The Alexa blog published a great post a while ago titled: “Get Rich from Your Blog – Is it Realistic?” that should put a lot of your thoughts on blogging into the proper perspective. With so many other great ways to build content rich websites and develop new products and services I would strongly urge anyone that wants to make real money blogging to either just blog for the fun of it and devote the majority of your time to building out a “real” website or use your blog to drive traffic to your “real” website and connect with your customers.
What do you think? (Please do not be offended if you are a blogger since I called non blogs “real” websites as it was just to make the blog/regular website distinction )
(Thanks to Financial Samurai for pointing out the Alexa post.)
What Was the Best Deal in the LuxuryNames 11/18-11/24 Domain Auction?
Now is the time where we can all be armchair quarterbacks and look back over the LuxuryNames.com domain name auction that just completed today and decide who came away with the best deal.
Of course, I actually bid and won a few names that I am very happy with so I can be a “real quarterback” instead of an “armchair quarterback” to some degree.
I just want to say great job to Alan Dunn and LuxuryNames.com for the great showcase of domains and I definitely hope to see more auctions from them in the near future. Here is the full listing of what sold (thanks to Chef Patrick for compiling the list below and also be sure and head on over to visit Chef Patrick on December 1st to watch him announce the winners of the LuxuryNames.com prize money and the 2 annual subscriptions for our premium membership with full access to our domain name tools).
Grand Total of Sold Domains: $20,747
Above $1,000
businesscarinsurance.com $3,777
cheaphouseinsurance.com $3,100
cowboyhats.net $1,800
cruisevacations.org $1,550
csections.com $1,550
fivestarrestaurants.com $1,550
homeloancalculator.org $1,550
realestateus.com $1,050
Under $1,000
WeeklyPlanner.com $925
seoprograms.com $575
drumsets.org $320
chapter7lawyers.com $275
orlandoautoinsurance.net $275
teethcleaning.net $259
carinjuryattorney.net $210
luxuryheadphones.com $210
debtsettlementprograms.com $200
easterbaskets.net $155
newyorkdefenseattorneys.com $142
pancreatitiscancer.com $135
anaheimcriminalattorneys.com $104
chemodoctor.com $104
internetdeals.org $104
jesusapp.com $104
multiplepenetration.com $104
nyccustodylawyers.com $104
talkpot.com $104
vanityplates.net $104
woodfloorrepair.com $104
cookingracks.com $104
bestcellularphones.com $99
OK, I won’t tell you which names I bid on and won but what do YOU think was the best deal in the auction? (or which of the unsold names do you wish you would have placed a bid on?)
Submit Your Site to be Reviewed for Case Study Friday!
Are you developing a website and want to get some feedback from John and me and all of the Domain Superstar members? In previous posts in our Case Study Friday series we reviewed a couple of sites that John and I have been working on although our goal is to review many different sites from either Domain Superstar readers or just any old site that catches our eye really.
Many of the Domain Superstar readers are expert developers and Internet marketers and have a lot of experience in turning domain names into fully functional websites that generate significant cash flow so if you submit your site for review then you may just find an idea or two from John or I and especially from our readers via the comments section that will end up making you quite a nice sum of money.
The only requirement is that your site actually has to be functional (please don’t just send in a domain name and ask us for ideas ) so go ahead and CONTACT US to submit your website(s) for a potential review in an upcoming Case Study Friday post!
PS “Show Offs” and “Noobs” alike are welcome to submit any site they want so don’t be shy!
3 Ingredients for a Psychologically Powerful Domain Name/Business Name
When you first heard the product name “Viagra” then what came to your mind? If you are like most then the name brought to mind images of strength and life and maybe even a flowing waterfall because of its close association with the familiar name “Niagara” as in “Niagara Falls”. Now what comes to mind when you hear the product name “1-[[3-(6,7-dihydro-1-methyl-7-oxo-3-propyl-1Hpyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-5-yl)-4-ethoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-4-methylpiperazine citrate”? Does this product name sound like something safe? Not likely, as it brings to mind some sort of lethal combination of chemicals that one should never want to ingest. Here’s the catch: both of those names describe exactly the same thing. “1-[[3-(6,7-dihydro-1-methyl-7-oxo-3-propyl-1Hpyrazolo[4,3-d]pyrimidin-5-yl)-4-ethoxyphenyl]sulfonyl]-4-methylpiperazine citrate” is just the official name for what we all now know as “Viagra”.
Jason Zweig of the WSJ has a great article titled Wall Street’s Use of Acronyms that while primarily discussing the reasoning behind some of the popular naming conventions for many financial products also mentions some studies that seem to suggest the 3 ingredients that are necessary for a psychologically powerful product name, business name, or domain name. Now of course there are many other things to consider when choosing a domain name but I thought that approaching the domain name selection process from a psychological perspective was an intriguing one so here are the 3 ingredients along with some data points to support them:
1. Easy to perceive
2. Easy to pronounce
3. Easy to remember
Two interesting studies mentioned:
A) “In a classic psychological experiment, people were shown a series of fictitious names of food additives, all with 12 letters. Some, like Magnalroxate, were fairly easy to pronounce; others, like Hnegripitrom, were a cumbersome mouthful. Asked to imagine that they were reading the names as ingredients on food labels, people rated how safe each additive was likely to be. The unpronounceable additives were, on average, rated 29% riskier.”
B) “The psychologists also presented people with the names of amusement-park rides. Some were short, catchy and pronounceable, like Chunta. Other names were hard for most people to say, like Vaiveahtoishi. With no information about the rides other than their names, people rated the unpronounceable rides an average of 44% riskier and more likely to make them sick.”
In a nutshell, the conclusion that Zweig makes is that “So the easier something is to perceive, remember or pronounce, the safer it will make us feel—regardless of its actual risk or benefit”. It is certainly easy to see how we can translate some of the information gleaned from this study into our domain name selection process.
What other psychological elements do you think are involved with coming up with a great domain name?
(I really can’t believe I just put the word “Viagra” into one of our blogs posts which I’m sure tripped all kinds of Google spam filters but oh well )
