Alex McArthurMy Projects | Alex McArthur

Just Landed A New Domain

Alex — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:07:32 +0000

Pool.com has been good to me in the past. I’ve acquired quite a few decent domains that were let go by others. Just the other day, however, I backordered an unexpected domain. I rarely check my pool account and sometimes I go a little overboard backordering. When I checked my email I was surprised to see that I was the proud owner of I’mLinked.com. I don’t remember backordering it, but it’s there in my account. Now, what to do with it? Hmmm…any ideas?

Getting Rid of Excess Domains

Alex — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 06:03:19 +0000

It would appear that I didn’t think enough about OverThinker.com. I’ve held onto the domain for the past year stewing over my intentions for it. Originally, my plan was to build something similar to To-Done with my own creative spin. It would have been something enjoyable, but I had to break ties with yet another domain.

My commitment to my current projects can’t be forgotten because I found my new domain for the day. Hey, I’m not afraid to admit it. I’m a domain junky. There I said it! Searching for quality domains has become a hobby and when I spotted OverThinker.com way back when I couldn’t help myself…very marketable domain in my opinion. Basically, it boiled down to the fact that I wasn’t passionate about my new idea. This in no way implies I won’t happily start additional projects. Maybe I’ll just take an additional minute to contemplate adding tomorrow’s domain of the day to my shopping cart ; – ).

In the end I decided an auction would be to painful. : – (
I simply posted that it was available for a low ball amount on my favorite webmaster forum and I had an offer within minutes. FYI…the new owner is considering building a conspiracy theory website. Could be interesting. So did we really land on the moon or what?

Portal Content Organization

Alex — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 17:00:31 +0000

I’ve made significant progress with Utahn.com the past few days. Most of the functionality is in place. So…now it’s time to work on the content structure. Most of my contract web projects are portfolio or small business sites so I lack experience organizing larger amounts of content. I’ve done some google searchs for content organization but can’t seem to find any useful advice. I guess I’ll just have to sit down and start organizing a hierarchy in excel and go from there. I’ll post any useful links I come across on the topic later.

Expired Domains … LinkTree.org?

Alex — Fri, 02 Dec 2005 04:37:56 +0000

I found the domain LinkTree.org on a deleted domain list and had to register it. I often browse deleted domains and very rarely find anything interesting. A couple times a week I’ll come across something I’d buy, but by the time it’s in my shopping cart someone else has registered it. Probably by chance I’ve spotted two great names this year that I now own.

Tools I use to find expired domains:

ExpiredDomains.com – Simple search interface for expiring domains. Basically a free service.
DeletedDomains.com – Expired domain search tool. Last year a signed up for an account with these guys when their were few comparable services. The cost was $99. I regret it now as free options have popped up over time, however none have the email update system DeletedDomains has.
Pool.com – This service is used to backorder domain names. This means if someone lets a domain you’ve backordered expire that pool will reserve it for you. First off, this service isn’t cheap at around $60 per successful backorder. Secondly, if anyone else has the domain backordered it will go to auction. I have a large list of backordered domains although I highly doubt any will ever get dropped by the owner. I have only 1 successful backorder to my name and it was for a client.

Back to the point…LinkTree.org. What does this name make you think of? I’d like to offer some sort of free service. Any thoughts?

What to do with SwapWay?

Alex — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 21:00:10 +0000

Within the past year I acquired the domain SwapWay.com. I just happened to come across it and liked it’s potential so I grabbed it. The name gives the impression of some sort of trading site so at the moment I am comtemplating that. However, I am open to any ideas. Do you have anything in mind?

Name Recognition:
I have come across numerous trading sites in my searches, but there are none marketed well enough to dominate the market (*Maybe this is a clue that there is no market whatsoever). Personally, I think SwapWay is a marketable name that is easily remembered. Would you disagree? If so, why?

The Marketplace:
Honestly, I have just begun to look into the trading market so my knowledge is limited. I don’t know how many people would be willing to trade online rather than sell items on ebay. Would you ever trade an item online?

Profit:
Presently, I imagine SwapWay’s business model focused on advertisments and add on features such as pictures showing the product or priority placement. The standard listings themselves would be free. I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of successful online ventures offer free services to appeal to the masses and keep them coming back.

Yes, I’m just babbling as I’m building this plan from scratch and at the moment have no direction. Any comments would be much appreciated.