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by on December 27, 2011 Leave a Comment

What are some funny things to ask Siri on iPhone 4s

Ok, so I fully expect to get the “Siri is unable to connect to the network, please try again later” message all day today.

Why? For the US market all the kids are out of school and will be settling into their Christmas presents including new iPhone 4s’s with Siri. Parents will be back to work and will have their new iPhones around the proverbial water cooler.

…and all of them will be laughing and playing with Siri asking her/him/it one or more of the following questions and laughing and asking it again, and again, and again…

Funny things to ask Siri

  1. Where can I hide a dead body?
  2. What is the meaning of life?
  3. Where can I get a happy ending?
  4. I don’t have any friends.
  5. I love you!
  6. Will you marry me?
  7. Women.
  8. I think you’re smart.
  9. Why are we here?
  10. Have a nice day.
  11. How are you today?
  12. What does Siri mean?
  13. What is the best computer in the world?
  14. Testing 123.
  15. Talk dirty to me.
  16. Beam me up
  17. What is the best phone?
  18. Who are you?
  19. Tell me a story.
  20. What is your favorite color?
  21. What are you wearing?

Funny answers abound from Siri… at least the first time you hear them, but they get old quick and I have a feeling they will go even more viral than they already are. Bringing down the Siri/Apple servers in the process or at least overloading them to the point they are useless for a day or two. Then the newness will wear off.

Siri for domain names

A few weeks ago I actually took a look for some Siri related domain names and hacks, but given Apple’s propensity to defend all things apple I just didn’t want to take the chance – some good ones for Siri are obvious and fun… Sirious.ly, Siri.us, Sirio.us, Siri.com, and many more.

However, as domain owners, developers and resellers, you can learn a lot from Siri and be more productive.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll let you in on a couple of tools I use to be more productive with mobile tools such as Siri, but for now I’ll leave you with some sage advice straight from Siri…

Siri questions to ask

Siri questions to ask for Domain Names

Now you can take this advice in a couple of ways related to domain names…

“Consider your alternatives” could mean you should buy some of the cheaper alternative domain extensions such as .net, .org, .biz, .us, .mobi, or .XXX – not cheaper in the sense that the registration fees are cheaper, but less expensive for really good keywords.

Or it could mean that you should consider alternatives to buying yet another domain name… Develop one you already have, make some sales calls or send some emails to potential buyers of some of your more liquid domain names or whatever you want it to mean…

Either way, listen to some good advice and take some action today!

Filed Under: Development, Domain Names Tagged With: , ,
by on December 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

New Domain Extension ad

This will be a short entry because I just saw an ad for a new site selling domains registrations. It will probably be my first, and only, post on the .XXX extension…

Register a Domain Name

As many of you know, a new domain extension was recently approved and went live. .XXX is supposed to be for the adult industry even though we know it lives on all extensions. (Whitehouse dot com anyone?)

I saw a few minutes of TV last night while I was baking some biscotti – yes I like biscotti even though I don’t drink coffee unless it is cold. I gave my wife a Keurig last year and it is pretty sweet with some nice options on coffee flavors plus an iced coffee option I like a lot. Anyway, back to the point…

An ad came on that just seemed stupid from the beginning and it really was, but it was a spoofish type ad for a registrar to register new domain names.

Protect your Business Domain Name

Their main message was to protect your business domain name by registering other extensions and in this case it was specifically for .XXX.

I don’t plan on registering any because that isn’t my business, but some of the domain name industry leaders like Frank are all over this one. If you want to know more take a look at Elliot’s domain investment post.

On a side note, since Frank is investing so heavily maybe I’m making a mistake not getting into this extension, but I have so many other things I want/need to do first I just can’t – I will try on the next major extension though, but there probably aren’t going to be many more of this scale again.

Still seems like an odd way to sell an extension. I’ve seen other extensions advertised before, but never in a “protective registration” context.

The video for registering a domain

Note that if you are easily offended or don’t like stereotypes being spoofed you’ll really hate this commercial. It has stereotypical porn stars, goofy white guy, and a black gang all being taken to the extreme of their persona which makes it goofy, but funny.

Without further ado, here is the video unless it gets pulled from the original source on YouTube.com.

Update —- I just looked at the site and it has several videos and not surprisingly, several associated registrars such as GoDaddy, Moniker, Name.com and Network Solutions… Even more stereotypes in the other videos, but I remembered their name and their product which is more than I can say for most advertising.

Check out the Buy dot triple x if you want to see them.

Filed Under: Domain Names Tagged With: , , ,
by on December 21, 2011 Leave a Comment

Domain Name for sale letters on related domains

For everyone who has multiple domains registered and/or resells domains, have you noticed a huge spike in emails notifying you of “premium domain names” for sale related to your domain name?

Related Domain Names

I used to get several of these a week, but they were for directly related domains in that they were usually the same domain with a different extension.

For example, I would get a notice that someone had caught the .net or .org for one of my .com’s. Now it is often that they want to sell the .me, .mobi, .biz, etc.

Domain Name for sale trend concerns

Even more interesting is that the domains they want to sell now are often one keyword off with the same domain extension or even a different extension.

A slightly disturbing trend and another potential reason our industry gets a bad wrap is that I’ve gotten a lot of emails recently offering related domains for sale for only $199. Not a bad price in some circumstances, but the kicker is that they don’t even own the domain – it is available to be registered!

It usually is a domain that dropped very recently or that has great keywords with a less than desirable extension. Good model for the people trying to “sell” me the domain, but seriously? Come on, man!

Now this has to be an automated tool that someone has running that is just hammering away at valuable keywords. They probably register the best ones and then try to free flip (I just coined that phrase I think) related domains.

Anyway, if you get these emails take a look to see what might be of interest for a very cheap domain registration. I’ll give you one example in case you want to take a shot…

Domain Name available to register

Domain Name available to register

Obviously “RefinanceMortgageRate.com” is already taken, but there are 2 extensions available – both the .me and the .mobi… With over 8,000 exact searches and a CPC around $25 it is a great set of keywords. Ultra competitive, but for the difference in cost you could build a nice site and SEO the crap out of it for the same cost as trying to pick up one of the better extensions on a resale. The .net is for sale over at Sedo.com for $490 so for that amount you could have 25 articles written and several thousand links created and end up with a decent site. Just sayin’

Filed Under: Domain Names Tagged With: , , , , ,
by on December 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

Red Solo Cup

red solo cup domain nameDomain names for trending phrases, even if short lived can bring in a few bucks and I have been looking at a few of these recently especially after Elliot’s post on Tebowing.

Where you find these are usually sports, music, politics – think weiner, then think again :)

Red Solo Cup

I grew up in the 80’s and liked all kinds of music such as rap, metal, hair bands, and pop and I still listen to all kinds of music, but it has been only lately that I have started to listen to country music again (my dad jaded me by making me listen to Hank Williams too many times on that 8-Track)

I REALLY hate to admit this, but I actually like the Red Solo Cup song by Toby Keith. I know I shouldn’t, but when it comes on I crank it up and sing along… to the utter embarassment of my children… what more can you ask from a song?

So I decided to see if I could pick up RedSoloCup.com even though there are obvious TM issues I thought it would be a fun site to build and then if I had to hand it over to the real solo cup company it wouldn’t be much of a loss.

Toby Keith got there first

Evidently somebody at Toby Keith entertainment is pretty web savvy as well and they picked it up first (or possibly bought it, not sure).

It currently redirects to Toby Keiths official home page. It was only registered on November 14 so I only missed it by a couple days. Dang!

Registrant: TKO Artist Management
2303 21st Ave. South 3rd Floor Nashville, Tennessee 37212 United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: REDSOLOCUP.COM
Created on: 14-Nov-11
Expires on: 14-Nov-12
Last Updated on: 14-Nov-11
Administrative Contact:
Kimbrell, TK michael@tkoartistmanagement.com
TKO Artist Management
2303 21st Ave. South
3rd Floor
Nashville, Tennessee 37212
United States
+1.6155157987

Domain Name search for registration

I tried to register the .net, but it was already registered to some guy from Utah who redirected it to his homes for sale site in Salt Lake… don’t get that at all, but whatever… maybe he is trying to flip it, but I’m not going to bother with trying to buy it from him as this is one of those short lived trends that won’t be worth nearly as much later on…

On to the .org and once again Toby Keith entertainment. Doh! How about the .us? Taken and it has a blank page with only the Toby Keith Red Solo Cup video playing which is very odd.

There are still a couple extensions available, but I think it is a little late to the party, forgive the pun, now. If you want to try your hand and fill your cup, then take a look at these:
REDSOLOCUP.CO
REDSOLOCUP.INFO
REDSOLOCUP.ME
REDSOLOCUP.MOBI
REDSOLOCUP.BIZ
REDSOLOCUP.XXX – this would probably the most fun of all sites given the end result of drinking out of a red solo cup, but you’d have some pissed off friends I think.

I attended a Christmas party this last weekend and it came on and at least half the people started singing along – the other half had no clue what the song was so it was pretty entertaining to watch.

I think it could be a great investment even with the primary domains being used since they aren’t being optimized. If you pick one up and decide to build a simple site let me know and I’ll link back to you.

New Year’s Eve will probably be the culmination of the Red Solo Cup trend with 99 percent of the world singing along to it right before and after “Auld Lang Syne”, you know, the song everyone hears and sings to at midnight… “Should old acquaintance be forgot…”

I guess it could be one of those songs that lasts a while and bleeds over into spring break and early summer on the beach so it might be a lot of fun.

Now, being a domainer, I had to go see who owned solo.com as well assuming it was solo cup company, but it wasn’t! Whois was erroring out on it, but going to the site it is obviously parked by SEDO, the domain sales company so it is probably a reseller.

Well, anyway – I hope you have a great holiday season, a wonderful Christmas and a full red solo cup on New Year’s Eve!

***************EDIT***************

Domain Name registered and website started

Well, I thought about this post all day and decided to have a little fun so I hand registered RedSoloCup.me and RedSoloCup.info and put a small site on RedSoloCup.me. I am going to put a post on the specifics so follow along – here’s to you! I tip my cup…

Filed Under: Domain Names
by on December 4, 2011 1 Comment

Domain Name Website Case Study Number – beta

This is the first Domain Name I will be developing for the 99 Domains in 99 Days challenge I started recently. Take a look back at that post if you are wondering why I am building this site…

This is my test/beta domain so I can get the timing and tasks down plus it will be a bit more extensive than a minisite.

Domain Name Test Beta

The Domain Name…

ClickHereDomains.com is the domain and site I will be building first.

The website and traffic analysis

The reason may not be clear because most of the domains I am doing for this challenge will be some sort of product related domain name where there are lots of exact searches for the keywords in the domain name. In this case I am building it to start a new brand and company so I’m not as concerned about having exact matches as much(I did make sure the word domains was in there though).

Click Here Domains will be a flagship site for a services company that will build sites on domains to get people to “Click Here” :)

Maybe not as funny, ironic or clever to you as it was to me, but when I got the idea for this challenge it was while I was listening to a podcast and they mentioned you should never put the words “Home” on your link back navigation and almost every site you see has that. They also mentioned you should never put “Click Here” on your button links which is another thing you see all the time.

I looked at HomeDomains and the .com was parked and for sale with BuyDomains which is one of the larger players in the domain name reseller arena. I knew they would want a decent amount for the domain so I moved on and I’m really glad I did.

Then I looked at ClickHereDomains.com and it was expiring on GoDaddy THAT DAY! I liked it immediately when I thought of it anyway because it would be easy to make a cool logo and it was simple, memorable and descriptive… everything you would want for a new business name and web brand. Having it available for 16 bucks including expiring auction fee and domain renewal cost made it a no brainer.

Building the site in 99 minutes

Since I bought the domain on auction it never expired which is good since it had been registered on 9/11/09… There are those 9’s and 11’s again… odd isn’t it. I’m not going to count that time on this domain so we’ll start with…

Minute 1
(Don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with the exact details of each minute – I am tracking it though for those of you who might want to know and I’ll put it on another page at some point)
Change the DNS to point to my HostGator hosting where I’m going to build the site. I already have a couple hosting accounts so I’m not going to count that time either, but I will say I really like two hosts after having tried several and I can recommend them for their stability and ease of site management. Try these hosting companies.

I have to go finish the other 98 minutes now so I’ll update this page when I’m done so you can go take a look! Leave a comment if you like this domain, hate it or have an opinion on what I am doing here…

*** update *** The site is now live, but not quite complete – still ironing out details, but it will never be “done” so go take a look and let me know what you think in the comments below. Here is a quick screenshot of the site as it stands today:
ClickHereDomains.com screenshot

Filed Under: Domain Names, Make Money Online, Website Tagged With: , , ,
by on December 2, 2011 Leave a Comment

WordPress Theme change

Domain names are way more fun to talk about than what theme your WordPress blog is using, but several people have asked about the makeover of Domain Nitro so bear with me for a second and we’ll get back to the domains…

If you are a regular reader of Domain Nitro then you might have noticed the clean, easier to read, and faster loading theme I changed to recently. The reason I changed is simple – I wanted the focus to be more on the domain names, news, and overall content. I also wanted to make sure I was optimizing the site for loading as well as SEO so it was just the perfect time to change.

In the beginning…

I started off with a free theme and soon swapped to a “free” theme from WooThemes using their framework which I really like especially given the price. WooThemes has some great premium themes, but I just wanted a super clean theme so I’ve been on the lookout for a while.

I also have a subscription to ElegantThemes and their themes truly are elegant :)

I use their themes quite successfully on some of my sites and they are rock solid and very visually appealing… very focused on elegant design and aesthetics – just more than what I wanted for this one site.

WordPress Theme evolution…

I read a lot of domain name, marketing and seo type blogs and I have always liked CopyBlogger’s site layout and how easy it is to read their content. Imagine my surprise recently when they posted that they were changing themes and rebranding a bit… NOOOOO!!! Then I saw the site and thought… oh, ok not much really changing from readability. Meh.

The GREAT thing was they were giving their old theme away for free! I’m all over that especially since they had a black Friday deal for the Genesis Framework from StudioPress which is required to run their premium and free themes. Seems crazy to pay for a framework and get a free theme, but it is the best framework I’ve seen and a LOT of people use their themes on some major sites. The setup and configuration, stability and overall usability is unmatched from every theme provider I’ve seen. Check them out if you are looking for a good WordPress theme.
Nitrous Theme - High Energy Theme for WordPress
Let me know what you think of the new design in the comments below!

Filed Under: Make Money Online, WordPress