DomainSherpa interviews successful domain name investors and entrepreneurs – people we call Sherpas – who share their strategies and tactics to help you be more successful. Hosted by Tess Diaz.
Latest Interview
If you own a geographic domain name, such as HiltonHead.com or Seattle.com, or a newspaper, radio station, television station or media company focused on a local geography, there may be an unseen competitor to your business – and the competitor might not be playing fair.
Skip Hoagland has been fighting against unfair business practices since October 2011. Watch this interview to learn more about this issue, and what you can do to determine if abuse is happening in your city.
Michael Cyger July 8, 2013
If you want to learn about domain name sales and negotiations, why not go directly to the broker who facilitated the world record-setting sale of Sex.com for $13 million?
In this interview, Jeff Gabriel shares some emotional highs and lows of his career, as well as domain name sales and negotiation strategies and tactics.
Michael Cyger May 27, 2013
Worldwide, there are about 150 million new businesses being started up each year.
With some startups being funded to grow as quickly as possible, many are interested in purchasing killer domain names so they can create a memorable brand. Noted venture capitalist Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures suggests to start-ups he invests in that they allocate $50,000 to buy a good domain name.
Is spending tens of thousands of dollars a smart investment for startups? That’s the question we’re going to answer on today’s show.
Michael Cyger May 20, 2013
Oversee.net already had a profitable online ecommerce business with AboutAirportParking.com. So why did they buy AirportParking.com?
Learn how Oversee is diversifying their parking aggregator offering, how one site helped jump-start the content of the second, and how a differentiated website offering can be custom tailored to a different demographic group of customers.
Michael Cyger May 13, 2013
Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world. And the CEO of Chicago.com is preparing to auction off [email protected] and http://you.chicago.com to the highest bidder.
Hear how Josh Metnick acquired and evolved Chicago.com to its current form, and how “place identity” makes people want to own a piece of the city they reside in – for a relatively high fee per year.
Do you have a domain name that defines a product, service or industry – one that a company should want and buy from you if you could only reach the right person at that company with the right pitch?
Mike “Zappy” Zapolin is back to help you accomplish that task.
After walking through his methodology and the tactics he used to sell Diamond.com and Beer.com for $6 million and $8 million, respectively, we discuss three domains that are not as valuable, but are more representative of the domain names many of us have in our portfolios: Weights.com, QuantitativeResearch.com and NoFlat.com.
Michael Cyger April 29, 2013
You are probably like today’s guest: You learned about the Internet and domain names in 1995 or 1996, but domain names were expensive and “the good ones” were taken. Although Shane Cultra dabbled in domaining, he mainly considers his fruitless investment during that time to be part of his learning curve.
By 2007, Cultra had figured out what makes domain names “liquid” such that they can be sold more readily in domain name aftermarkets and auction sites. By doing so, Cultra earned six figures in 2012 from domain name investing – in addition to his full-time job running Country Arbors Nursery in Urbana, Illinois.
In this show, Cultra shares his methodology for determining and valuing “liquid domains,” as well as his sweet spots for buying and selling, and how he finds and sells through his favorite marketplace platforms.
Michael Cyger April 22, 2013
In the past, through its portfolio of category-killer, industry-defining domain names, ZipSmart sites hosted geography-based directories and allowed companies to own their zip code online for products and services and – in the process – to generate customer leads.
Today, with Google’s Panda and Penguin updates and with Google+ Places’ being prioritized at the top of Google search results, ZipSmart has had to completely rethink its business.
Jake Ackerman, the founder of ZipSmart, came on DomainSherpa.com more than two years ago to talk about his fast-growing company. We’ve caught back up with this entrepreneur to see how his business model has changed and hear about the challenges he’s facing today.
Michael Cyger April 15, 2013
Does Google have you guessing about your SEO strategy? Have you been slapped with a search engine ranking penalty, or worse, is your site not even showing up in the organic search results at all?
This interview with an SEO veteran covers not only the current state of affairs, but where SEO is heading and how to create great content for your business.
The days of thin sites, inexpensively purchased content and machine-generated websites are gone. Learn what you need to do in the future to have high-ranked sites by watching this show.
Michael Cyger April 8, 2013
In 1995, Richard Lau registered several domain names that he simply thought were cool, but never considered would be worth thousands of dollars. His portfolio attracted the attention of Microsoft, who tentatively agreed to pay $9,500 for one of his domains. That gave him an inkling he was on to something big.
Later, after spending 80 hours per week building one of the first 30 domain name registrars in the world, he was faced with stage A colon cancer and a series of unfortunate business liabilities.
In this biography, Richard Lau discusses how he learned the industry, tells some fantastic stories, and provides guidance to others that are just starting out.
Michael Cyger April 1, 2013