.IO域名崛起，对话迈克·卡森
在今天的节目中，我们将再次探讨.IO域名日益增长的 popularity，向您展示一个快速估价的小技巧，并教您如何联系到合适的终端用户来出售这些域名。敬请关注。
在今天的节目开始前，有三条简短信息：
首先，如果您正在购买或出售某个域名或组合，并希望对其进行估价，请访问 Estibot.com。就像您会访问 Zillow.com 来估算房价一样，Estibot.com 能提供关键的统计数据，让您基于数据做出明智的决策。
其次：认真对待在线交易？请确保您的资金安全，保障您的交易物安全，并使用一家能全程保护买卖双方的 company。那就是 Escrow.com。值得信赖的支付平台。
最后，如果您是一位域名投资者，您是否意识到自己需要具备域名技术知识和行业经验的专业法律服务？这就是为什么您需要 Wiley Rein 律师事务所的 David Weslow。请在 DomainSherpa 上搜索 David Weslow，观看他的访谈，您会亲眼看到他能够清晰地解释问题，帮助您处理买卖协议、应对网站内容问题和 UDRP 诉讼，甚至帮助您撰写网站条款和条件。David Weslow 是处理互联网法律问题的首选律师。详情请访问 DavidWeslow.com。
迈克尔·赛格：嘿，Sherpa 社区的朋友们，我是迈克尔·赛格，DomainSherpa.com 的创办人——在这里您可以向专家直接学习如何成为成功的域名投资者或企业家。早在 2015 年初，我就邀请过今天的嘉宾来讨论 .IO 域名以及他名为 Park.io 的抢注服务。我这么做是因为我看到了 .IO 域名的价值，并曾通过他的市场以 1655 美元购得 PHP.io，然后在 30 天后以 6000 美元的价格转手。
在过去的一年里，.IO 域名的使用率和价值持续增长，今天我们将讨论一套用于评估和销售 .IO 域名的估值系统和流程。准备好你们的笔记本和笔。我很高兴再次欢迎 Park.io 的创始人迈克·卡森来到 Domain Sherpa。欢迎你，迈克。
迈克·卡森：谢谢。谢谢你再次邀请我。
迈克尔：很喜欢你这顶卡车司机帽。给我们展示一下。好了。Park.io。
迈克：谢谢。
迈克尔：那么，迈克会在即将到来的一月份的 NamesCon 大会上戴着它。也许他会多带几顶送给一些用户。
迈克：好啊。好的，没问题。
迈克尔：太棒了。大家都喜欢这个。现在卡车司机帽有多流行？
迈克：我不知道，是啊。
迈克尔：到处都能看到。
迈克：是啊。我的意思是它制作成本低，而且挺酷的。如果你头发乱糟糟的，戴着它很方便。比如刚睡醒头发乱糟糟的时候。
迈克尔：完全正确，是啊。好吧，你的头发可能就是这样，因为你家里刚添了个新生儿，所以你很可能刚起床就赶过来了。
迈克：是啊，最近忙疯了。
迈克尔：现在可是下午了。好吧，顺便恭喜你喜得贵子。
迈克：谢谢。
迈克尔：好的。对于任何在本节目中第一次听说 .IO 域名的人，你们应该向下滚动到这个页面上迈克的简介，点击观看他 2015 年的另一个节目。迈克，.IO 是英属印度洋领地的国家代码顶级域（CCTLD）。我甚至不知道那在哪里。你知道吗？
迈克：不知道，我一点也不知道。
迈克尔：很多 CCTLD，比如 .LY、.IO 和 .ME，正被初创公司用作”域名 hack”。甚至不仅仅是作为 hack。他们只是想用一个简短、酷炫的顶级域，于是选择了这些 CCTLD。你在你的市场上已经注意到了这一点，因为你过去只卖 .IO、.LY 和 .ME，现在你增加了 .TO、.SH、.AC、.VC、.GG 和 .JE。你在不断地增加 CCTLD。在你的市场上，哪些最受欢迎？
迈克：嗯，.IO 绝对是最受欢迎的。我基本上是按顺序排列的。顶部的标签页大致是按受欢迎程度排序的，但是，是的，.IO 排第一。.LY 可能是第二，然后是 .CO。
迈克尔：那么，你把 .TO 排在 .ME 前面。这让我有点意外。你卖的 .TO 比 .ME 多。
迈克：是的，.ME。我不知道发生了什么。也许只是很多好的 .ME 域名已经被注册了或其他原因，但它似乎不那么受欢迎了。我原以为它会更受欢迎的。
迈克尔：是啊，我也是。
迈克：但我的意思是它仍被使用。我仍然看到人们在使用 About.Me 之类的，但感觉它的人气比之前下降了很多，以前它要受欢迎得多。
迈克尔：是啊。而且，就销售额而言，Park.io 刚刚达到了一个重要的里程碑，对吧？
迈克：是的，我们刚刚突破了一百万美元的收入。
迈克尔：哇，一百万。七位数的大关。你达到一百万花了多长时间？
迈克：大约两年时间。
迈克尔：哇，恭喜。
迈克：谢谢。是的，实际上我刚统计了数字，六月是我们迄今为止最好的月份，实际上几乎是之前最好月份（也就是上个月）的两倍，所以进展非常顺利。
迈克尔：太棒了。你认为 Park.io 是一个抢注服务和市场，还是仅仅是一个市场？
迈克：我认为它是一项抢注服务。
迈克尔：你是这么认为的。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。那么，我可以去你的服务，为 Mike.io 提交一个预订，希望你不会出价比我高，然后你的服务会抢注到它，但它也会被拍卖。
迈克：只要另一个人也预订了它。如果只有你一个人预订，那么你只需 99 美元就能得到它。
迈克尔：对。好的，那么你购买它们的成本低于 99 美元，对吧？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，这就是 Park.io 赚钱的方式，你以更低的价格获得它们。大概是 60 美元左右，还是不同的价格？
迈克：是的，我们有一个折扣价。
迈克尔：折扣价。
迈克：是的，但实际上有时我们会付更多。我们真的很努力去争取那些域名。我们把所有即将过期的域名都列上去，有时它们会在之前被原持有人续费，如果有很多订单，我甚至会尝试联系续费的人，也就是所有者，看看我们是否能买下它，以便让它出现在 Park.io 上。
迈克尔：哦，哇。
迈克：所以，有时候我付出的价格会高于 99 美元，但通常会更低。
迈克尔：所以，你不仅仅是建立一个市场让它自动运行。你实际上也做了大量的管理工作，因为有些域名不仅仅是抢注那么简单。你需要去和卖家谈判，或者你自己向注册局提交预订才能拿到它，所以这对你来说有很多工作。
迈克：是的。是的，我的意思是，我试图非常积极地去获取所有出现的域名。
迈克尔：是的，这太棒了。所以，如果我记得没错的话，你最初是为自己使用而构建 Park.io 的，但后来你也开放给其他人使用。对吗？
迈克：是的，我一直在思考这个问题，我想我最初是 .IO 域名的终端用户。我是一名开发者，我开始接触域名是因为我想获得一些 .IO 域名来启动我的项目。所以，我从一个终端用户开始，现在我想我仍然是终端用户，但我进入了域名投资领域，这大概就是 Park.io 的由来。大致就是这样。
迈克尔：是的。你目前拥有多少个 .IO 域名？
迈克：我想大概不到一千个。可能大约七百个。
迈克尔：那是很多域名啊。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：那么在过去的 12 个月里，你大概卖出了多少个？
迈克：我想大约有一百笔私下交易。是的，一百笔私下交易。
迈克尔：哇。其中大概有多少是终端用户主动联系你购买的，相比之下，有多少是你主动在市场上销售的（我们稍后会在节目中讨论）？
迈克：我想可能略多于一半是终端用户主动找来的。大概是 65% 左右。这是我的猜测。可能更多。70%。
迈克尔：65% 到 70% 是终端用户主动找你。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：哇。这些人都是开发者，就像你一样，正在开发一些软件、产品或在线服务，他们想使用 .IO 域名。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：他们想要什么？什么样的名字？
迈克：各种各样。你能想到的一切。我可以看看。让我快速看一下。比如 Crawl.io。刚卖了 Tile.io。Drip.io。Teleport.io。还有很多 Bundle.io。
迈克尔：那么，我们可以说它们都是单个单词的 .IO 域名。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：名词。动词。我没有听到任何形容词，比如 great 或 bright。
迈克：是的，我想我从未那样想过。我在很多这类域名上只是凭直觉。
迈克尔：是的，你是说在购买或出售时凭直觉。
迈克：在购买时。
迈克尔：购买时，但你也将这种直觉转化成了一个我们将要讨论的流程，对吗？
迈克：是的。有几个不同的指标，但最终也还是要靠直觉。
迈克尔：没错。当然。好的，那么我现在要做的是开始共享我的屏幕。我想你应该能看到，迈克，因为我想和你一起回顾一些你完成的交易，然后是你的流程。让我来共享屏幕，我想共享窗口。好的。迈克，你能看到 Chrome 窗口吗？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。这是迈克。看到 Mike C 感觉有点奇怪，因为那不是我，但这是迈克·卡森在 Flippa 上的个人资料。那么，迈克，当你的域名没有收到主动询盘时，你会在 Flippa 上主动出售其中的一些，对吗？
迈克：是的。我的意思是，我试图每周大概上架一个，只是为了保持域名的流动和周转。我试图按规律的时间表来做，但最近有点松懈了。不过，我上架的不一定是那些没有收到任何询盘的。有时候，如果我对同一个域名收到了几个不同的询盘，我就会把它放到拍卖会上，然后把链接发给所有问过的人，让他们互相竞价。
迈克尔：所以，即使你收到了询盘但最终没有成交，你也会保存这些信息，然后如果你以后拍卖它，你会给他们发邮件通知他们。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：这很聪明。好的，你可以在这里看到 URL。是 Flippa.com/users。那是迈克的用户编号，我点击了”Listings”来查看所有的列表。不是看他的反馈，而是他的列表，我可以看到你列出了 Rabbit.io，接受报价。我看到 Teleport.io。你大约两个月前以 2600 美元的价格卖掉了它。有 104 次出价。那是很多出价。
迈克：是的，我的意思是，我试图所有东西都无底价上架，以获得尽可能多的关注。我觉得这是最好的方式。
迈克尔：是的，无底价让每个人都兴奋起来，因为他们觉得可以用一美元买到，对吧？
迈克：嗯，没错，而且这也迫使人们行动。如果你设置无底价，他们知道肯定会卖掉，所以他们必须采取行动。如果他们想要这个名字，如果他们对这个名字感兴趣，他们就必须做点什么。
迈克尔：是的，他们会意识到，如果不出价，别人就可能得到它，而这可能是他们理想的名字。它可能是他们目前能用这笔钱买到的最好的名字。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的。好的，那么你两个月前以 999 美元的价格卖掉了 VAL.io。57 次出价。GStream.to。显示为”报价获胜”。通常你会看到要么是报价获胜，要么是拍卖获胜。
迈克：是的，那个是最高出价者没有付款，但之后我和别人协商后卖掉了。
迈克尔：哦，好的。Wedding.io 卖了 1900 美元。两个月前 38 次出价。FB.io。这个是过去卖掉的，对吧？
迈克：它卖掉了，但最高出价者没有付款。我的意思是，我并没有太失望，因为我本来希望它能卖更高价。
迈克尔：是的。虽然没有成交，但当时的售价是多少？
迈克：我想大概是五千到六千美元。
迈克尔：是的。Idea.io 三个月前以 8888 美元成交。Tablet.io 四个月前以 800 美元成交。Stamp.io 四个月前以 1005 美元成交。Traffic.io 以一万四千美元成交。这看起来是你列表上最高的一笔。
迈克：是的，我想那是我在 Flippa 上卖得最高的一笔。
迈克尔：而且只有 59 次出价。所以，有时出价少反而卖得更高，有时出价多但卖得没那么高。那么，这些看起来像动词和名词。Tablet。Idea。FB 是缩写。VAL 也是缩写，除非我不知道 VAL 在软件领域是什么意思。
迈克：是的。我的意思是，我喜欢这个的原因是因为 VAL 在编程中是一个词。
迈克尔：比如 value（值）。
迈克：是的，但我想得到它的人，他们的名字是 Val。
迈克尔：那很酷。好的，所以我们看到你通过 Flippa 做了很多交易，有趣的是你使用 Flippa，因为你并不一定——我们稍后会讨论这个——你如何把终端用户带到 Flippa，但你基本上把它当作一个交易引擎。你可以把人引到 GoDaddy 拍卖或 Sedo 拍卖。你为什么选择 Flippa 拍卖？
迈克：那是我开始的地方，所以我就一直用下来了。它似乎很适合我，适合我用它的目的。我在那里有一些关注者。我知道怎么用。我认识 Kevin。我喜欢 Flippa 的 Kevin。所以，我也不知道。
迈克尔：是的，你只是开始用，现在你是那里的超级卖家，所以你得到了那个带有绿色徽章的 S 标记，因为你卖了这么多，有这么多良好的交易。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：酷。让我们看看你的一些列表，因为我想了解你是怎么做的。这是 Idea.io 的列表。它足够好，以至于 Flippa 的编辑决定将其选为”编辑推荐”，这给了它额外的突出显示。以”立即购买”方式售出，8888 美元。你写了这个。”非常罕见的机会。最好的 .IO 域名之一。无底价。”然后你可以在这里看到卖家的说明。”绝佳投资”。你可以仔细看看。基本上，你谈到了为什么它是好的投资，为什么 .IO 流行起来，谁在使用 .IO，以及投资者通过投资来支持他们。
这是维基百科的链接。这是一篇关于 .IO 崛起的博文。所以，基本上，万一有人从未听说过 .IO，你要说服他们，购买 .COM 以外的域名扩展并非疯狂之举。
迈克：是的，没错。我的意思是，我觉得很多描述其实不是必须的。这只是我每次都复制粘贴的东西。
迈克尔：每次都一样，对吧？因为如果我点开 Traffic.io 这里，内容是完全一样的。
迈克：是的，参与竞拍的人知道他们为什么想要 .IO。我考虑过这个问题。那么，当你选择一个域名时——我干这行才几年，所以我知道的不多——但据我观察，你想让人印象深刻，你想让人容易记住，并且当你推出时它要有力量。一个有力量的域名。当然，.COM 域名，比如如果你有 Stripe.com，我的意思是，那简直是完美，但如果你的东西没有 .COM，如果你拿不到 .COM，那是不可能的，人们知道 .IO，我认为用一个像 Traffic.io 这样的词来推出项目，显示出很强的力量。
我知道如果我在 Hacker News 上推出一个服务，如果我有一个服务并在 Hacker News 上发布，人们会印象深刻。它会显示出很强的力量。
迈克尔：是的，所以我想为正在观看但不了解软件、高科技社区的人们澄清一下。他们现在可能在想，迈克，迈克疯了，因为我宁愿要 GetStripe.com 而不是 Stripe.io，或者 GetTraffic.com 而不是 Traffic.io，但这不是你瞄准的终端用户的想法，不是过去一年里那 70 个在单独交易中从你这里购买 .IO 域名的终端用户的想法，对吗？
迈克：是的，我的意思是，这完全取决于你的目标客户是谁，你的业务是什么。如果你经营一家本地油漆公司，那么也许 PaintingSolutions 这样的域名可以，但你能想象 InstagramSolutions.com 或 FacebookSolutions.com 吗？这只是我的看法，但这看起来太弱了，甚至像 GetSomething 或 SomethingHQ.com 也比 Traffic.io 弱得多。对我来说，这都是基于我的背景等等的个人看法，但我认为 Traffic.io 显示出更强的力量。
迈克尔：是的。嗯，而且你有数据支持。这不仅仅是关于 GetTraffic.com 与 Traffic.io 的个人看法。你在销售这些域名。你有市场，你在那里卖给投资者，但你也是一个个人投资者，你在卖给像你自己一样的终端用户，这也是你建立这个市场的原因。所以，我想让人们明白这是真实的数据。我给你看了他在 Flippa 上卖的东西。我不知道你在私下市场具体卖什么，但我倾向于相信你所做的，因为我在 Park 上看到的情况，我是 Park.io 的活跃买家。
迈克：是的，我的意思是，这是个好观点。我刚才更多是从终端用户的角度来说，但也是从域名投资的角度。很多人会说，哦，你只应该搞 .COM。.COM 是王道。.COM 是王道。显然，它的价格更高。它的价值更高，比如 Traffic.com 会比这个值钱得多，但作为一个投资者，你不应该只考虑一方面。你应该从投资的角度来考虑。现在什么投资更好？Traffic.io 是比 GetTraffic.com 更好的投资吗？所以，从投资的角度来思考很重要，而不仅仅是价值。
而且我认为这非常有帮助。我个人就是这么做的，按顶级域分开看我的销售。我会查看我所有的销售。我在 .LY 上花的所有的钱和我从 .LY 上收回的所有钱，以及 .IO 和其他东西。把单个字母、单词等分开。然后，从那里开始，对我来说很明显，与 .COM 相比，.IO 对我来说一直是一项很好的投资。我想我在过去两年里只卖了一个 .COM。
迈克尔：哇。
迈克：所以，这只是我个人的看法，以及供其他投资者思考的一些点。
迈克尔：是的。是的，我公开谈论过。我不会从 Park.io 大量购买，但我认为自己是一个非常糟糕的开发者。当我建立我的第一家媒体公司时，我自己编程所有东西，结果八年后我被黑客攻击了多次，因为我不知道怎么做跨站 CSS 和 XSS。我有大量的漏洞。不管怎样，所以我在编程方面是个”黑客”，我喜欢 .IO 域名。当我看到一个域名时，我会立刻想到我可以在它上面构建什么。
这就是我喜欢它们的原因，而且我在 Park.io 上看到某些域名。我忍不住要出价，试图拿下它们。我拿下了 Staffing.io，因为我知道每天、每周、每月都有大量的初创公司涌现，他们需要优秀的人才，会有一家招聘公司想要专门服务于初创社区。也许拿公司的一部分股份作为报酬。等等。所以我拿下了它，仅仅几个月后，通过一个 Efty 的落地页，我以一千五百美元的价格卖掉了它。所以，我不需要去找任何人。他们来找我，这是一笔轻松的买卖，因为他们懂，正如你所说的。
所以，我在 DNAcademy 试图告诉学生们的是，域名投资有很多赚钱的方法。你可能不了解机器人或无人机。你不了解社交媒体。也许你不了解医疗保健行业。所以，你不想投资那些东西，但如果你了解初创公司，你喜欢阅读 TechCrunch 上关于初创公司的文章，喜欢看 CrunchBase 上谁获得了融资等等，那么 .IO 域名是一个可以赚钱的好地方，因为他们喜欢它们。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的，所以你提出了一个很好的观点，我想在这里再强调一下，迈克。好的，我们谈到了你在卖什么。我们谈到了 .IO 域名对那些正在创办公司的终端用户的价值。现在，通常情况下，初创公司没有多少钱，迈克。你如何协调这样一个事实：你拥有这些 .IO 域名，你想以几千美元的价格出售它们，对吧？Traffic.com 是一个百万美元的域名。Traffic.io 你卖了一万四千美元。所以，我们不是说它们价值相等。我们只是说，如果你拿不到 .COM，与其用一个两三个词的 .COM，不如用 .IO。你如何协调初创公司愿意为一个单词的 .IO 支付几千美元这一事实？
迈克：嗯，我个人认为，就其提供的价值而言，域名太便宜了。我是说就它们的作用而言。它是你的品牌。我的意思是，真是太便宜了。所以，我认为很多这样的人只是意识到了价值。Traffic.io 一万四千美元。我觉得从这个角度来看，它对业务的价值要高得多，而且我认为这些很多是初创公司，但很多初创公司有几千美元可以投入，所以我认为是可行的。
迈克尔：是的，他们意识到了。那些不是真的对必须从投资者那里购买域名感到不满的人，他们意识到这是一项有助于他们品牌建设的投资，他们意识到他们需要购买一个域名。一个对他们初创公司有利的好品牌。
迈克：我的意思是，起初，作为一名开发者，当我在做所有这些域名的事情时，我就在想，我是不是一个域名抢注者？天哪，我是坏人吗？但是卖了一百个之后，感觉就是那 99 次销售中，人们都非常感激，像是非常感谢你。他们非常高兴能得到那个域名。然后我意识到我不再觉得自己是坏人了。我觉得这是在提供一些价值。
迈克尔：是的，除非你违法——这就是 UDRP 存在的原因——你购买域名是为了从拥有商标的人那里获得经济利益，并且你是恶意购买的。你是恶意使用——这就好比购买未使用的土地。当有人来找我，或者我去找其他拥有未使用土地的人，他们告诉我价格，我可以选择支付或不支付。我不认为他们是”囤积者”，因为他们没有使用。我知道很多开发者。我知道 Reddit 社区会怎么说，但我同意你的看法。
那么，迈克，你可以指出哪些趋势来验证你对 .IO 域名增长趋势的认识？
迈克：嗯，是的，除了销售数据等，还有我发给你的 Google Trends 链接。那个图表。我是说，它简直是疯涨。
迈克尔：是的，就是这个。看看这个。从 2005 年、2007 年、2011 年、2013 年几乎没什么，2015 年你看到一个峰值，然后砰，看起来像是个错误。看起来不应该涨那么高。
迈克：有趣的是，2013 年看起来也是这样。
迈克尔：对，因为如果你去掉那个大峰值，你会看到 2013 年那里有一个小峰值，可能和现在看起来的差不多。
迈克：是的，但它已经疯狂了。我的意思是，超出了我的想象。
迈克尔：是的，如果你向下滚动到这里，地区兴趣你需要小心，因为这是厄瓜多尔人在搜索的兴趣。所以，我不看那个，但相关搜索。看看这个。Games.io。这是导致那个巨大峰值的 Google 上的查询。
迈克：是的，就是这些奇怪的事情发生了。所以，.IO。我进入是因为技术名称。就像初创公司之类，但现在有一整个游戏类别是 .IO 游戏。始于我认为是 Agar.io。
迈克尔：在这里。是的。
迈克：Slither.io。
迈克尔：是的，我的孩子们叫它 Slitherio。他们一直玩那个游戏。在我甚至不知道他们在玩 .IO 域名上的游戏之前，他们会说，嘿，爸爸，看我玩 Slitherio。
迈克：是的，所以现在所有这些游戏都用 .IO 创建，所以这很有趣。
迈克尔：确实。所以，你认为仅仅是游戏行业转向 .IO 导致了今年这个巨大的峰值。
迈克：我认为这有很大关系。我认为这肯定有很大关系，是的。
迈克尔：所以，我提到在我按下录制按钮之前，我女儿今天过 14 岁生日，我们出去吃早餐，我儿子带了他的 iPad，他在玩 Tank。这是一个新游戏，就像 Slither 一样，所有孩子都在玩，他称之为 Tanki Online。我去搜索了一下，有些人实际上在为 Tanki Online 使用 Tank.io，我想，尽管 Tanki Online 并没有为他们的游戏使用那个域名。
迈克：是的。所以，我的意思是，这是一个意想不到的事情。这有点像偶然的运气。所以，是的，我们拥有 Tank.io，我们刚刚注意到我们获得了大量的流量，所以我把它放到 Parking Crew 上，它赚了很多钱，比如每天一千美元。
迈克尔：这太疯狂了。所以，你以 50、60 美元左右的价格买下了这个域名，大概这个数量级，突然之间它每天赚一千美元，因为那个游戏开始用了。
迈克：是的。所以，每个看这个节目的人，所有拥有 .IO 域名的人，检查一下你的流量，因为你可能真的走运了。如果你还没有，我的意思是这些游戏一直在被创造出来。所以，暂时不要把你那些听起来像游戏的 .IO 域名卖得太便宜，因为它们真的可能带来丰厚回报。
迈克尔：是的，这就像一张彩票。这真是太棒了。恭喜你。如果有人来找你，你会考虑卖掉它吗，因为这可能是一个短暂效应？这个游戏的热度会下降，另一些游戏会在一两个月或三个月后取代它。如果有人来找你说，嘿迈克，我今天以 30 天的收入价格从你这里买，你会卖吗？
迈克：不是 30 天。不可能。六位数。六位数我就卖。
迈克尔：到它价值下降的时候，你可能已经从它那里赚到六位数了。
迈克：是的，可能吧。
迈克尔：我以后得回来再看看这个。好的，这是 Google Trends 上的 .IO 图表。所以，如果你以前没用过 Google Trends，可以去 Google.com/Trends，输入一个域名。你可以看全球范围。你可以按时间段、类别和网页搜索查看。你给我看的另一件事是 .IO 与另一个通用顶级域 .ORG 的比较。那么，这张图上有趣的是——.ORG 是红色的，.IO 是蓝色的——.ORG 有很多公司。很多非营利组织使用 .ORG，但看看 Google Trends 上 .ORG 随时间变化的搜索量，然后看看就在四月份发生的这个交叉，.IO 飙升，人们对那个域名的谷歌搜索兴趣更高了。
迈克：是的，这整个游戏的事情。谁知道会发生什么，但它才刚刚开始，所以现在也许是投资 .IO 的绝佳时机。
迈克尔：所以，你可以看到人们在搜索什么。他们会输入 PBS .ORG 或 PBS Kids .ORG，这就是 Google 如何查看其中一些域名的兴趣，然后与 .IO 进行比较。是 Games .IO 或 Slither .IO 或 .IO Domains，因为人们想了解他们在各处看到的 .IO 到底是什么。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的。好的，非常酷。只是想向观众展示那张图。那么，让我们进入你的估值系统。你有一套估值 .IO 域名的方法，因为你发现 EstiBot 上的估值并没有反映出你在终端用户市场上获得的真实估值。
迈克：是的。我的意思是 EstiBot 很棒。我一直在用，但我认为对于 .IO 来说，它还没有考虑到技术、初创公司的方面，所以我开发了这个其他方法。
迈克尔：顺便提一句，如果你身处另一个快速变化的行业，也许是一个细分领域，我们可以称之为这个。这是一个细分领域。一个很小很小的细分领域。迈克，不是要贬低你的市场或任何东西。显然你从中赚了很多钱，但这是一个细分领域，财富就在细分领域中，所以你需要审视自己在另一个行业有什么专长，你可以听迈克讲他如何做估值，然后看看是否有什么你可以类似地在你的行业里做的。所以，我只是想提一下，让观众们思考。我不希望人们仅仅想，哦，那是 .IO。我不投资那个。我不会做那个。我希望他们跳出框框思考，说我投资什么，迈克在他的估值系统中做了什么，我的行业里是否有类似的东西可以借鉴。
所以，EstiBot 对你来说不够用，那么你当时是怎么做的，迈克？
迈克：那么，举个 Estibot 的例子，Quilt.io。我想他们估计它值一万美元左右，我看不出有什么初创公司会用这个。对我来说，我真的不认为它值那么多。我的意思是，也许吧。所以他们可能更多是基于关键词之类的东西。
迈克尔：对。
迈克：但我还有其他域名，比如 Type.io 和 Command.io，EstiBot 估价两三百美元，而我知道它们的价值远不止于此。所以，是的，这让我思考了另一种方法。这个秘密方法，我现在就要揭晓。那么，我应该吗？
迈克尔：是的，我们开始吧。
迈克：是时候了吗？
迈克尔：是时候了。哒哒。
再来三条简短的赞助商信息。
首先，如果你正在从私人一方购买域名，并想知道他们还拥有什么，DomainIQ.com 是你应该使用的工具。查看他们的整个投资组合，按 Estibot 价值筛选，成为一个更好的投资者。每月 49.95 美元 250 次查询。请访问 DomainIQ.com/portfolio 了解更多信息。
其次，Efty 是由域名投资者为增加您的询盘、销售和利润而构建的。告别电子表格和存档的电子邮件——使用一个安全且完全保密的平台，在一个地方管理您的整个投资组合。请在 Efty.com 了解更多信息，网址是 e – f – t – y，Efty.com。
最后，如果你正在为如何购买、出售和评估域名而苦恼，你需要了解 DNAcademy.com。由我，DomainSherpa 的迈克尔·赛格创办，并受到 Uniregistry 的信任来培训他们的新员工，你也可以使用 DNAcademy 的域名投资加速学习系统来学习。更多信息请访问 DNAcademy.com。
迈克：那么，是的，Github。
迈克尔：那么，首先，什么是 Github？
迈克：版本控制是一种跟踪你对软件所做更改的方法，有不同的程序可以用来跟踪它，其中之一叫做 Git。而 Github 是一种在线进行版本控制的方式，一种社交化的跟踪方式，你可以与其他开发者协作，可以托管开源项目等等。但它非常受欢迎，有数百万用户。他们都是开发者，基本上都是使用 .IO 域名的人。
迈克尔：对。当你在 Github 上分享开源或其他软件时，或者你发现一个 bug，你可以分享你是如何发现和修复它的，然后分享出来，你会获得”街头信誉”。你可以和你的开发者进行版本控制，我也用 Github。所以，有很多不同的使用方式，但基本上开发者都想上 Github，因为这几乎就像他们构建的出色软件的简历。
迈克：完全正确。是的，当我招聘开发者时，我会看他们的 Github，看他们在做什么。对我来说，这比大学学位重要得多。
迈克尔：是的，如果你看到有人在上面有大量的代码库，并且人们因为想了解动态而关注它，而且他们活跃在上面，这很大程度上说明了他们作为程序员、开发者，愿意与他人分享回馈。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的。酷。那么，你去了 Github。你在那里做什么？
迈克：你只需搜索关键词。搜索域名。所以，我不知道你是否想举个例子。
迈克尔：当然。
迈克：让我看看。什么是一个好例子？嗯，试试 Type。
迈克尔：Type。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，你甚至不需要登录 Github。如你所见，我没有登录。我只是在搜索框里输入，按回车，就出来了。我要看什么？
迈克：那么，是的，它显示”我们找到了 50,728 个代码库结果”。所以，这个结果数量就是我用作指标的东西。这不是一门精确的科学，但可以作为域名的评估价值。所以，我会评估价值：该价值的 Github 评估值将是 50,728 美元，对应 Type 这个词。
迈克尔：哇。所以，每一个代码库结果对应域名 Type（然后加上 .IO，即 Type.io）价值的一美元。
迈克：是的。就是这样。
迈克尔：你并不是说它恰好值 50,728 美元，就像 EstiBot 也不会说一个域名的确切价值一样。对于所有那些总是说 EstiBot 不准或迈克的估价不准的新手们，我们说的不是精确价格。我们说的是数量级。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，它更接近一个两到三万美元的域名，或者可能是一个八万美元的域名，而不是一个两百美元的域名。
迈克：是的。我把它作为另一个指标，但基本上，在我的脑海里，我把它看作美元价值，就是那个结果数。
迈克尔：那么这些代码库结果是什么？
迈克：这些都是包含”type”这个词的代码项目。所以，第一个，你可以看到是一个 JavaScript 项目，有 54 颗星。19 个人 fork 了它，所以他们正在上面工作。然后 TypeScript，往下第三个有大约一万两千颗星。所以，你可以明白为什么。现在，这些都是技术人员，初创公司的人，你可以看到这如何成为 .IO 域名价值的一个好指标，因为这些人中的很多可能会有兴趣。
迈克尔：是的，有一个叫 Type Echo 的博客平台。2193 个人在关注它。七百个人 fork 了它，意味着他们把整个代码库复制到自己的账户，正在开发他们自己的版本。
迈克：是的，基本上是这样。
迈克尔：或者可能在做一些调试或编码，然后稍后会把它合并回主分支。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：Type Theme。所以，基本上，它告诉你这个人是谁，然后是项目或代码库的名称，然后是他们的描述。比如”免费开源 Jekyll 主题”。我甚至不知道 Jekyll 是什么。”来自 Google 网页字体目录的最佳字体的展示”。那看起来确实很酷。FlowType.js，那是一个 JavaScript。你可以看到这是一个层叠样式表（CSS）。GLSL。我甚至不知道那是什么。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：但是有五万个结果。好的，这就是你确定的方法。
迈克：是的，那么作为另一个例子，你可以在这里输入 Quilts，因为我认为 EstiBot 估价一万美元，所以你可以看到区别。
迈克尔：312。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，Quilt.io 的价值数量级是几百美元。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的，我会说这是对的。我无法想象。也许 Quilt 可以是一个 WordPress 主题，允许你将你的个人资料整合在一起之类的，所以也许。也许有一两个用例，但没有那么多，不像 Type，会有很多人想用它。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：所以，开发的软件不多，同样，代码库结果也更少，所以那个域名的价格更低。所以，这大致就是它的原理。
迈克：是的，所以实际上我更依赖这个而不是 Estibot。对我来说，这是最终的决定因素。如果我输入一个词，只有三百个结果，我就会想，我不知道谁会买它。如果人们不用它来命名他们的代码，我不知道谁会得到它。也许是另一个域名投资者之类的。所以，对我来说，归根结底就是这个，是 Github。所以，我真的依赖这个。
迈克尔：是的。那么，这边列出来的是代码库，然后你有代码，数量是 48.2 万。你为什么用代码库而不是代码？
迈克：嗯，因为代码库是他们命名项目的地方，所以这更相关。他们通常会在一个域名上启动一个项目，所以我认为这与域名的相关性更高。代码只是在代码本身中搜索，所以我不认为这真的有太大意义，而 Issues（问题）是另一回事。我们待会会讲到用户。
迈克尔：有道理。那么，迈克，我把你在 Flippa 个人资料上列出的公开销售记录，和它们在 Github 上的搜索结果进行了匹配，然后我做成了图表。
迈克：好的。
迈克尔：哥们，这就是结果。这里是 Teleport.io。售价 2600 美元。搜索结果 815 个。VAL。我只是按顺序把它们放到表格里，然后画了出来，因为我想看看它们之间是否有相关性，看起来并没有直接的相关性。这里是 VAL，售价很低。一千美元，如果你是以 60 美元、一百美元或三百美元买下的，获得数倍回报，没人会抱怨。但你可能会认为这个应该有一个很高的峰值，但总的来说，如果销售价格有峰值，搜索结果也通常会有峰值。这里有一个峰值。虽然不是完全相同的数量级，但你确实有几个不太匹配的，比如 VAL 和 Well。
迈克：是的，这很有趣。那么，Github 搜索。当你输入 VAL 时，它返回很多结果，比如两万八千个，但这也返回了包含 value 的结果，所以没有办法精确搜索这个关键词。它搜索任何以 VAL 开头的词。
迈克尔：基本上就是广泛匹配筛选。
迈克：是的，所以我也希望。我联系过他们的支持，希望能有办法做到精确搜索，但没有。所以，是的，这是这个方法的一个问题。如果你在谷歌里输入 TYP，它会显示比 Type 更高的价值，因为会有更多结果，但 TYP.io 并不好。
迈克尔：不好。
迈克：是的，所以你必须记住这一点。
迈克尔：是的，当然。好的，但总的来说，我想看看这些是否匹配。搜索量高的和搜索量低的，是否与售价高的和售价低的相匹配，总体上确实是匹配的。所以，这不是一门精确的科学。会有例外，但我认为你用来确定相对价值——什么更值钱，什么不那么值钱——的方法，在 Github 上是个很棒的系统，迈克。
迈克：谢谢。是的，到目前为止，它对我很有效。
迈克尔：是的，让我们看看这里。哦，有件事我想问你，很多这些价格都是整数，我没想到在 Flippa 的无底价拍卖中会是这样的整数，人们会五美元一次或一美元一次地竞价，但这些价格都是相当整的数。你认为为什么会这样？
迈克：很多时候我确实用了”立即购买”。如果拍卖一开始就有很多兴趣，人们会联系我说，我想现在买下它，所以有时我会设个”立即购买”价格，他们就会接受，所以这可能就是发生这种情况的原因，比如 Traffic.io、Bid.io 和可能 Inspire.io。其中一些。
迈克尔：是的。所以，你愿意快速卖出，而不是最大化域名的零售价值。为什么不直接让它去拍卖呢？
迈克：嗯，我不知道。
迈克尔：抱歉。让拍卖按计划进行并结束。
迈克：嗯，我的意思是这很微妙。有时候如果一直拍下去，价格可能不会那么高。基本上，我试图做的就是尽可能卖得高。
迈克尔：我明白了。
迈克：所以，有时一开始有很多炒作。在拍卖中，一开始就有大量出价。很多人出价，很多人真的感兴趣，所以基于此，与其等待然后出现出价停滞、兴趣不高的情况。
迈克尔：是的，总是这样。一开始会有个大峰值，然后会有个停滞期，然后在最后，对于高价值或很多人想要的域名，你会看到更多动作。
迈克：是的，所以对于 Traffic.io，一开始就有很多兴趣。我的意思是，我可能第一天就卖掉了它。
迈克尔：你是认真的吗？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：哇。
迈克：谁知道呢？也许它本可以涨到四万五千美元。我的意思是 Cloud.io 卖了四万五千美元，所以我不知道。也许我那样做是个巨大的错误，但无所谓了。
迈克尔：但你赚了钱，其他人也对域名感到满意。你不需要最大化每一笔销售。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。所以，这些价格很多不一定代表市场能承受的零售价，因为你可能卖得比零售价高，也可能卖得比实际零售价低，所以我只是想向人们指出，这一列中的销售价格，在某些情况下，只是”立即购买”的价格。所以，这就是为什么你可能不一定能看到。并不一定说，再次强调，迈克·卡森想出的这个估值系统可能完全准确，也可能有偏差，无论哪种情况。我只是想指出，这里还有一些额外的因素，人们应该意识到。
好的，那么现在我们知道 .IO 域名正在兴起。我们知道有一套不同的估值系统，适合那些不一定身处软件领域的人，用来弄清楚软件开发者和初创公司在思考什么，关于他们的代码库，并去 Github 搜索代码库结果。但如果我拥有 Traffic.io，我把它列在我的 Flippa 账户上，是的，我可能在第一天得到一些出价，但我不认为我会得到一个一万四千美元的”立即购买”报价，所以你做的和我们这些只是被动上架、被动等待别人发现的人不一样。你做了哪些不同的事情，迈克？
迈克：是的，所以这是 Github 秘密的第二部分。回到 Github 的搜索结果，有一个”Users”标签。
迈克尔：是的，就在下面这里。”Users”。
迈克：如果你点击那个，这里列出了所有名字里包含”type”的用户。所以，你可以看到有很多初创公司的名字，比如 BackType。有 MyType 或 TypeSupply。有很多不同的技术初创公司的人，他们的名字里包含”type”这个词。所以，对于 Flippa，我通常的做法是无底价上架，然后我就来到这个搜索结果，这里有电子邮件地址。你可以看到这里有电子邮件地址。
迈克尔：是的，这里就有一个电子邮件地址。
迈克：是的，然后我就给他们发邮件说，嘿，看，我正在无底价拍卖这个域名，如果你有兴趣的话。所以，这就是你获得大量兴趣的地方。我认为，对于 .IO 域名来说，这是最好的外向营销资源，肯定是 Github。我的意思是，我取得了很大的成功。很多人因此来参与拍卖并赢得了拍卖。
迈克尔：所以，你来找用户。你寻找那些可能正在开发的初创公司的名字。这里像 TypeSafe。也许是在比利时，这里有这个人的电子邮件地址，他们可能对 Type.io 感兴趣，因为他们是个开发者。否则他们不会在 Github 上，所以他们很可能理解 .IO 的价值，他们可能想出价。所以，你会联系他们，告诉他们现在在 Flippa 上拍卖。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：明白了。那么，你找到的任何电子邮件地址你都会用吗？首先，他们直接把电子邮件地址放在搜索结果里，这真是令人惊讶。
迈克：是的。所以，我试着找那些看起来更个人化的，这样你就可以联系到具体的人，然后我就发邮件，说嘿，我会说他们的名字。我在 Github 上找到你。我想你可能对此感兴趣。但如果邮件是像 Hello@CompanyName 这样的，那么我通常会点击公司名称，如果你点击其中一个的话。然后，在右侧，有人员列表，这些是主要的贡献者。可能是管理这个公司 Github 站点的人。所以，然后我会点击他们的个人资料，查看他们的电子邮件地址，或者有时他们没有留，只留了一个主页，然后你可能可以从那里找到。但基本上你可以深入挖掘。如果看起来是通用的电子邮件，就不那么个人化。
迈克尔：是的，这个人实际上是 Github 的员工。这不是你想发邮件的人，除非你真的想被一个懂得如何玩转互联网的程序员整蛊。在互联网上惹错人，你会被报复的。所以，关于去 Github 找人的这个过程，我想说的一点是，你最好不要自动化这个系统，不要用屏幕抓取工具抓取所有电子邮件地址并发送邮件。
迈克：是的，不要。
迈克尔：如果你惹错了人，你会倒霉的。
迈克：是的。我的意思是，我真的试图判断谁可能会真正感兴趣，然后试着联系他们，把链接发给他们。所以，是的，我都是手动操作。
迈克尔：你全是手动操作。是的，好的。那么，有趣的是，我最近在 Park.io 上购买了 Popup.io，因为我觉得 popup 这个词不错。我喜欢它，因为人们总是想杀死弹窗或者需要弹窗。营销人员很讨厌，但你需要营销来卖东西。所以，当你来到 DomainSherpa，你会看到右下角有个小弹窗，邀请你加入我们的通讯。这是一个不引人注目的弹窗，不会挡住屏幕中央之类的地方，但我需要一个弹窗软件，而软件总是在改进。
所以，我买了 Popup.io。你和我聊过。实际上你是通过你的市场卖掉了那个域名，我是那个域名的最高出价者，对吗？
迈克：是的，所以理想情况下，我们希望所有域名都通过 Park.io 交易，所以我甚至让我私下拥有的那 750 个域名中的很多都过期，然后直接通过 Park.io 走，因为让所有事情都自动化并通过 Park.io 更容易。所以，Popup.io 是我们私下拥有的一个。
迈克尔：是的，我当时完全不知道，而且我告诉 DNAcademy 的学生我要买它，因为我怕万一他们真的很喜欢，我不想和他们竞争。它最终以 360 美元的价格成交，这远高于（如果我没做一年前的访谈，它可能只卖 99 美元，我就会得到了）。那本会很好，但我愿意支付市场价格。所以，360 美元，我买下它的时候想，如果今天我把它放到 Flippa 上，我觉得能卖到一千五到两千美元。甚至不知道你的系统，我认为它的实际零售价值大概在这个范围。
现在，你的系统，如果我在搜索框输入 popup，显示是 4,219 美元，因为大约有那么多结果，这和我们在讨论的数量级基本相同。所以，如果我来找用户，按照你的系统操作，这些是标题中包含 popup 的 53 个用户。第一个，Popup Popup 在巴伐利亚。你认为这是个值得我去联系的吗？
迈克：不，我认为那个不值得，因为他们连个标志都没有。信息也不多。当你点进去，也没多少活动。
迈克尔：对，这就是问题所在。你在这里登录，如果他们有活动，活动少是灰色，活动多是深色。他们零活动，所以他们甚至不在 Github 上活跃，即使他们在这里列出了电子邮件地址，他们也不是我该联系的好人选。
迈克：可能不是，是的。
迈克尔：好的。好吧，因为你手动操作，你不想浪费时间。你想找到合适的人联系。Popup Arcade 就在我所在的西雅图。他们确实有很多代码库。哦，他们实际上没有列出人员。
迈克：是的。所以，像这样的，他们有个图标在那里。Popup Arcade。看起来他们可能有兴趣，尤其是他们现在的域名是 PopupArcade.org，那个域名不怎么样。我就不多说了。
迈克尔：嗯，甚至看起来不像个真正的网站，但也许他们有什么东西要推出。你会试图找到 PopupArcade.org 的电子邮件地址吗？
迈克：我可能会。我可能会去他们的网站看看有没有邮箱。我的意思是，是的，看起来不像个真正的公司。可能只是他们在做的某个项目。他们可能仍然有兴趣。
迈克尔：是的，好的。然后我们有 Popup Archive 在加州奥克兰，我这里确实有一个电子邮件地址。你会如何判断是否要给他们发邮件，告诉他们域名在拍卖？
迈克：是的，我会的，因为看起来像是个个人邮箱。看起来他们可能会有兴趣。我的意思是，名字就是 Popup Archive，他们现在用的域名。我觉得获得 Popup.io 会是一个改进，或者至少对他们有价值，所以是的，我认为他们会有兴趣，我肯定会联系。
迈克尔：现在，为什么我没有看到我在第一个用户那里看到的相同的活动图表，即使我可以看到这个代码库是 13 天前更新的，所以他们相对活跃。
迈克：这是因为这是一个公司页面。如果你点击那边的某个人，你会看到贡献记录。
迈克尔：好的。所以，她在这里不活跃，但如果我回到 Bailey 这里，我可以看到他们有一些活动，并且有一个我母校的邮箱地址。我来到第三个，这是那个活跃的人。
迈克：是的，他们超级活跃，所以，是的，那可能也是值得联系的好人选。
迈克尔：是的。好的。所以，这基本上就是你的流程。你只需在这里往下浏览列表。那么，这里有一个你之前提到的那种。[email protected]。你认为一个弹出式营地，因为它是一个营地，会想升级到 Popup.io 吗？
迈克：我觉得他们可能有兴趣。我的意思是 Popup.io 又短又好。和他们的名字匹配。我会联系他们，因为我认为他们会有兴趣。
迈克尔：所以，他们真的很活跃，这里是他们的名字，这里是他们的邮箱地址，而且他们是个活跃的开发者，所以你会认为他们是个好的匹配。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：Popup Maker。Popup Cat。Popup Robots。总有一天机器人会控制我们，所以对机器人友好一点。所以，这基本上就是你所做的。你只需要在这里浏览。那么，这需要多长时间？那么，你为什么把 Popup 放在你自己的市场上，而不是去 Flippa 自己卖呢？
迈克：嗯，我只是试图让所有事情都通过 Park.io 进行。
迈克尔：你是个自动化爱好者。
迈克：是的，没错。从很多不同的角度来看，这样更简洁，从维护角度、从商业角度来看，而且我认为这对用户也好。所以，是的，我认为这是最好的方式，所以我试图让尽可能多的域名能通过这里。
迈克尔：那么，迈克，我得问你，因为我也在想，我相信我的用户也在想。有什么能阻止你自己购买每一个域名？好吧，我想你确实在买，因为你拥有这个市场。你自己以 60 美元的价格买入，然后最大化你自己的收入，但你拥有公司，而且你是公司里唯一的人，所以无论你是自己买入然后在你自己的市场上出售，还是让人们抢注然后出售，利润最终还是进入你的企业。
迈克：嗯，是的，如果在 Park.io 上没有人预订 Popup.io，那么它要么会直接开放注册，要么可能我会得到它。也许我会保留它，续费它，或其他什么的。所以，我不是强行把它塞给 Park.io 的用户。只是如果有人感兴趣，那么是的，它就会出现在那里。但如果他们不预订，它就不会出现在那里。
迈克尔：明白了。好的，那么通常需要多长时间？当你在 Flippa 上列出域名时，你做营销、做外联通常花多少时间？
迈克：这需要一些时间。可能需要几个小时左右，但我知道这是值得的。有好几次，我在 Flippa 上有个域名，一开始只有一点点兴趣，出价很低，比如只有一百美元左右，然后我花了几个小时做这个，到那天晚上，价格就涨到了五千美元左右。
迈克尔：哇。
迈克：是的，所以完全值得，但这确实需要一些时间。
迈克尔：那么，你是个自动化爱好者。你为什么不自动联系所有这些人的过程呢？
迈克：是的，我认为联系别人这件事。自动化这些东西你必须小心。我自己主动发邮件都感觉有点冒昧，所以如果我要做，我想以最友善的方式来做。
迈克尔：是的，你想作为一个真实、真诚的人，单独给他们发邮件。你不希望任何 ISP 或过滤器，或其他任何东西发现你批量发送了邮件。不管你有多聪明，谷歌和其他 ISP 最终会意识到你在批量发送邮件，所以安全第一。如果你想赚钱，就做好功课，找到合适的人联系，以你个人的名义真诚地联系他们，提供给他们。你有没有收到过任何回复，说他们很生气，不要联系我，把我从你的列表中移除，之类的话？
迈克：很少。实际上很少。我的意思是，我确实收到过几个，我试着回复他们。不是防御性地回复。我试着只是说我很抱歉。我试着友善一点，事后赢得他们的好感，也许提供帮助，或者我会说，你可以在 Park.io 上获得 99 美元的信用额度。我很抱歉。所以，是的，我的意思是，确实有一些，但没那么糟糕。如果你主动联系，而且不自动化，如果你认为某人是真正感兴趣的，你认为他们可能真的有兴趣，那么我认为没问题。
迈克尔：是的。所以，如果有人现在在想，我可以抓取所有名字里带 Type 的人，通过我的自动化系统给他们发 GetTyping.net 的邮件，首先，那是个糟糕的域名，其次，这与你通过 Github 接触到的受众不相关。所以，你在好几个方面都失败了，我甚至想说，别给我们其他人添乱。迈克来这里分享这个我们可能都不知道的市场的信息，请别给我们搞砸了。做诚实的人。找到那些真正被低估的、人们真正需要的好域名，然后把它们提供给合适的人，不要做得太过分。慢慢来，循序渐进。
迈克：是的。总的来说，我认为这是个好建议。尽力而为。我认为这是最好的。所以，有些人可能现在通过域名投资没赚到那么多钱，所以他们可能会出于绝望做些事情，但是，是的，我想就照迈克说的做。如果你这样做是因为你认为人们对你的产品真正感兴趣，那么我认为没问题，否则就小心点，因为这很可能会反过来咬你一口。
迈克尔：是的，因为我每次收到一封关于一个糟糕域名的邮件，都会拿出我的域名投资巫毒娃娃，那是一个我拥有的两个词的域名，有人只是在抓取 WhoIS 数据库，给我发他们写得很差、语法错误的邮件，问我是否想买。我会在那个域名巫毒娃娃上再扎一根针，希望能给他们带来一点痛苦。所以，别做那种人。
嘿迈克，我可以分享一封你发给别人的邮件，让大家有个概念吗？
迈克：是的，当然。
迈克尔：好的，让我打开 Gmail 标签页。这里是你转发给我的那封邮件。主题就是域名本身。你就只写了这个。
迈克：是的。我现在其实看不到你分享的内容。哦，不，我看到了。
迈克尔：好的，所以主题只是 Idea.io 之类的。
迈克：是的，很多时候，或者有时我会写成 Idea.io Domain，所以是的，非常简单。
迈克尔：然后只是”嗨（名字）”，所以是个性化的。”我在 Github 上看到你的资料”，所以他们知道你联系他们的原因。”我拥有域名 Idea.io，正在 Flippa 上拍卖。这是链接。我想你可能感兴趣。谢谢，祝你有美好的一天。迈克。”就这些。
迈克：就这些。
迈克尔：就这些。你不需要推销。你不需要做任何事。如果他们有兴趣，如果你选对了人，因为他们活跃，他们使用那个词，也许他们正在做一个软件项目，或者他们的代码库在积极更新，那么他们很可能会点击进去看看。
迈克：是的。是的，这效果很好。我的意思是，这对 Idea.io 有效。我想买它的人就是我这样发邮件联系到的。
迈克尔：是的。好的，我要停止屏幕共享了，回到你这里。那么，迈克，你在这里分享了大量的信息。你联系我的时候，我说我不确定是否想向社区透露所有这些，因为能力越大责任越大，所以我很感激你愿意回馈社区。我可以随口说出几十个域名投资者，他们不会像这样分享他们的秘诀。是什么让你想回馈社区，迈克？
迈克：嗯，这是个好机会，让我可以向大家展示我有多聪明。开个玩笑。
迈克尔：说得对。
迈克：不，我不知道。我想我做开源项目，当我做一个项目时，感觉很好。我并没有赚钱或任何东西。当人们使用它时，感觉很好，感觉我在做贡献，所以也许就是那种感觉。希望我通过透露这些信息能帮助事情变得更好，也许会有一些问题，也许有些人滥用它，但最终会变好的。而且，我的意思是，帮助别人是件好事。这对生意有好处，对生活也有好处。这大概就是我这么做的原因。
迈克尔：是的，有很多人有同样的感觉，我很感激你能来这里，让我帮助讲述这个故事，帮助人们成为负责任的投资者，思考正确的事情，不一定要最大化每一个域名的每一分钱，而是让域名落到合适的人手中，他们会使用它，会富有成效，并创造出一些伟大的东西。软件。软件正在接管一切。一切都将用软件编写。总有一天，我会冷冻我的身体，直到有一个我可以把大脑放进去的机器人，然后我将通过由我的大脑控制的软件自动化永生。这不会让我感到惊讶。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：但我想告诉观众，如果你和迈克以及我一起坐了一个小时，你还有额外的问题、想澄清的地方、建议要问，你可以在 DomainSherpa 上这个视频下方的评论中贴出来，我会请迈克回来尽可能多地回答。如果你从今天的节目中受益，如果你学到了新东西，如果你对你对 .IO 甚至整个 CCTLD（国家代码顶级域）的价值的思考提出了挑战，或者你考虑过专门投资于初创公司、医疗保健或其他领域的域名，请花点时间。在下面的评论中贴一句感谢的话。
点击迈克的 Twitter 账号。快速给他发个感谢。说我正在某个领域使用它。你不需要告诉我们哪个领域。也许你可以说。也许你告诉我们你在哪个领域。听听这个也会很酷。我知道迈克想听听发生了什么，因为作为分享的开发者，听到别人正在做迈克帮助激发的事情是很酷的。那么，我将第一个感谢迈克。
迈克·卡森，谢谢你再次来到 DomainSherpa 节目，分享你评估和销售 .IO 域名的系统，也谢谢你作为其他人的”域名夏尔巴人”再次回来。
迈克：没问题。再次感谢你邀请我。
迈克尔：这是我的荣幸。感谢大家的观看。我们下次再见。
原文：http://www.domainsherpa.com/the-rise-of-io-mike-carson/
标题：The Rise of io. MikeCarson
On today’s show, we revisit the growing popularity of .IO domain names, show you a quick hack on how to value them, and show you how to reach the right end users to sell them. Stay tuned.
Three quick messages before today’s show:
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Finally, if you’re a domain name investor, don’t you have unique legal needs that require domain name technical know-how and industry experience? That’s why you need David Weslow of Wiley Rein. Go search for David Weslow on DomainSherpa, watch his interview and you can see for yourself that he can clearly explain issues, can help you with buy/sell agreements, deal with website content issues and UDRP actions, and even help you write your website terms and conditions. David Weslow is the lawyer to call for Internet legal issues. See for yourself at DavidWeslow.com.
Michael Cyger: Hey Sherpa Network, my name is Michael Cyger, and I’m the Publisher of DomainSherpa.com – the website where you can learn how to become a successful domain name investor or entrepreneur directly from the experts. I had today’s Sherpa on the show back in early 2015 to discuss .IO domain names and his drop-catching service called Park.io. I did it because I saw value in .IO domain names and had used his marketplace to buy PHP.io for 1655 dollars that I flipped 30 days later for six thousand dollars.
In the past year, .IO domain names have continued to grow in use and value, and today we are going to discuss a valuation system and process for selling .IO domain names. Get your notebooks and pencils ready. I am pleased to welcome back to Domain Sherpa the Founder of Park.io, Mike Carson. Welcome, Mike.
Mike Carson: Thanks. Thanks for having me back.
Michael: Love the trucker’s hat. Give us a little. There you go. Park.io.
Mike: Thanks.
Michael: So, Mike is going to wear that at NamesCon coming up in January. Maybe he will bring a couple extra for a couple users.
Mike: Yeah. Okay, yeah, sure.
Michael: Awesome. Everybody loves those. What is the popularity of trucker’s hats nowadays?
Mike: I do not know, yeah.
Michael: It is everywhere.
Mike: Yeah. I mean it was cheap to make and it is kind of cool. I mean it is nice to have if your hair is all messy. Bedhead or something.
Michael: Totally, yeah. All right, and yours probably is because you have got a newborn at home, and so you probably just rolled out of bed and came here.
Mike: Yeah, it has been crazy.
Michael: It is afternoon. All right, congrats on your newborn, by the way.
Mike: Thanks.
Michael: All right. For anyone that is just hearing about .IO domain names for the first time on this show, you should scroll down to Mike’s bio on this pair and click through to see his other show from 2015. Mike, .IO is the country code top-level domain or CCTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory. I do not even know where that is. Do you?
Mike: No, I have no idea.
Michael: A lot of CCTLD, like .LY, .IO, and .ME, are being used as hacks by startup companies. And not even as hacks. They just want to use a short, cool, top-level domain and they have picked a lot of these CCTLDs. You have noticed this on your marketplace because you used to just sell .IO, .LY, and .ME, and now you have .TO, .SH, .AC, .VC, .GG, and .JE. You keep adding CCTLDs. Which ones are the most popular on your marketplace?
Mike: Well, .IO is definitely the most popular. I kind of list them in order. The tabs along the top are kind of in the order of popularity, but yeah, .IO. .LY is probably second, and then .CO.
Michael: So, you have .TO before .ME. That surprises me. You sell more .TOs than you do .ME.
Mike: Yeah, .ME. I do not know what has happened. Maybe it is just a lot of the good ones are taken or something, but it does not seem as popular. I thought it would be more popular.
Michael: Yeah, me too.
Mike: But I mean it is still used. I still see people using About.Me and things like that, but it seems like it has gone down since before, when it was a lot more popular.
Michael: Yeah. And you just hit a major milestone on Park.io in terms of sales volume, right?
Mike: Yeah, we just passed one million in revenue.
Michael: Wow, one million. The big seven figures. And how long did it take you to hit one million?
Mike: It has been about two years.
Michael: Wow, congratulations.
Mike: Thanks. Yeah, actually I just ran the numbers and June was our best month so far and it was actually almost double our previous best month, which was the month before, so it is going pretty well.
Michael: That is awesome. Do you consider Park.io to be a drop-catching service and a marketplace or it is just a marketplace?
Mike: I consider a drop-catching service.
Michael: You do.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. So, I can go to your service, put in a backorder for Mike.io, hopefully you do not outbid me, and then your service will catch it, but it will be auctioned off as well.
Mike: As long as another person backorders it. If you are the only person that backorders it, then you get it for 99 dollars.
Michael: Right. Okay, and then you are buying them for less than 99 dollars, right?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, that is how Park.io makes money, is that you get them for less. About 60 dollars or something different?
Mike: Yeah, we get a discounted rate.
Michael: Discounted.
Mike: Yeah, but actually sometimes we pay more. It is like we really try to get that. So, we put all the expiring domains on there and sometimes they will get renewed right beforehand, and if there are a lot of orders, and I will even try to reach out to the person who renewed it, the owner, and see if we could buy it to get it on Park.io.
Michael: Oh, wow.
Mike: So, there are times where I pay more than 99, but it is usually lower.
Michael: So, you are not just setting the marketplace off. Go operate. You are actually doing a lot of management of it as well, because some names will not just be a catch. You will need to go negotiate with the seller or you will put a backorder yourself in with the registry in order to get it, so it is a lot of work on your part.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I mean I try to be pretty aggressive to get all the ones that come in.
Michael: Yeah, that is awesome. So, you originally, if I am correct and if I remember correctly from last year, you built Park.io for your own use originally, but then you opened it up for others to use as well . Correct?
Mike: Yeah, I have been thinking about this and I think I am originally an end user for .IO domains. I am a developer and I started to get into domains because I wanted to get some .IO domains to launch my projects on. And so, I started as an end user and I think now I am still an end user, but I moved into the domain investing, and so that is kind of the path of where Park.io came from. Along those lines.
Michael: Yeah. How many .IO domain names do you currently own today would you say?
Mike: I would say a little under one thousand probably. Probably like seven hundred.
Michael: That is a lot of domains.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: And how many have you sold in the past 12 months would you say?
Mike: I think it is around one hundred private sales. Yeah, one hundred private sales.
Michael: Wow. And how many of those were end users contacting you to buy them roughly verses like you actively selling them on a marketplace, which we are going to discuss later in the show?
Mike: I would say it is probably a little over half are end users coming. Maybe 65 percent or something. That would be my guess. Maybe more. 70.
Michael: 65 to 70 percent end users coming to you.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Wow. Those are developers, just like you, that are working on some software, a product or a service online, and they want to use a .IO domain name.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: What do they want? What kinds of names?
Mike: A lot of different ones. I mean everything you can think of. I could look. Let’s see here just really quick. Crawl.io. Just sold Tile.io. Drip.io. Teleport.io. A lot of Bundle.io.
Michael: So, what we can say is that they are all single-word .IOs.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Nouns. Verbs. I did not hear any adjectives, like great or bright.
Mike: Yeah, I guess I never really thought about it that way. I just kind of go with gut feel on a lot of these.
Michael: Yeah, go with gut feel in buying them or selling them you mean.
Mike: In buying them.
Michael: Buying them, but you have also converted that gut feel into a process that we are going to discuss too, right?
Mike: Yeah. There are a few different indicators, and then I mean at the end it is gut feel too.
Michael: Right. Definitely. All right, so what I am going to do right now is I am going to start sharing my screen. I think you are going to be able to see it, Mike, because then I want to go through some sales that you have made and then your process. So, let me go to share screen, and I want to share window. Okay. Mike, do you see the Chrome screen?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. So, this is Mike. It is weird to see Mike C, because I am like that is not my picture, but this is Mike Carson’s profile on Flippa. So, when you do not receive inbound inquiries on your domain names, Mike, you are actively selling some of them on Flippa, right?
Mike: Yeah. I mean I was trying to list like one per week or something just to keep the domains rotating and stuff. I was trying to do it on a regular schedule, but I have kind of slacked off on that, but it is not necessarily the ones that do not get any inbound inquiries. Sometimes if I get like a few different inquiries for the same domain, I will just put it on auction and then send the link to all the people that asked about it so that they can bid against each other.
Michael: So, even if you get inquiries and then it does not turn out to pan out with a sale, you will save that information and then if you later auction it, you will send them an email and let them know.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: That is smart. All right, and so you can see the URL up here. It is Flippa.com/users. That is Mike’s user number, and I clicked on Listings to look at all the listings. Not his feedback, but his listings, and I can see that you have Rabbit.io listed with make an offer. I can see Teleport.io. You sold it for 26 hundred dollars about two months ago. It had 104 bids. That is a lot of bids.
Mike: Yeah, I mean I try to list everything no reserve and just get as much attention as I can. I feel like that is the best way to do it.
Michael: Yeah, and the no reserve gets everybody excited because they think I could buy it for one dollars, right?
Mike: Well, exactly, and it also forces people. If you put it at no reserve, they know it is going to sell, and so they have to do something about it. If they want the name, if they have interest in the name, they have to do something about it.
Michael: Yeah, and they realize that if they do not, that somebody else could get it and that could be their ideal name. It could be the best name that they can get for the money at this point in time.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah. All right, so you sold VAL.io for 999 dollars two months ago. 57 bids. GStream.to. It says won make an offer. Usually you see either make an offer it was won.
Mike: Yeah, that one was the high bidder did not pay, but then I negotiated after the fact with somebody and sold it.
Michael: Oh, great. Wedding.io for 19 hundred dollars. 38 bids two months ago. FB.io. That one sold in the past, didn’t it?
Mike: It sold, but the high bidder did not pay. I mean I was not too disappointed with that because I was hoping it would go for more.
Michael: Yeah. What was the sale price even though it did not conclude?
Mike: I think it was around five to six thousand.
Michael: Yeah. Idea.io sold for 8,888 dollars three months ago. Tablet.io for 800 four months ago. Stamp.io for 1,005 four months ago. Traffic.io for 14 thousand dollars. That one looks like the high one on the board here.
Mike: Yeah, I think that was my highest one on Flippa.
Michael: And only 59 bids. So, sometimes it is less bids and it gets more, and sometimes it is more bids, but it does not quite sell for as much. So, these look like verbs and nouns. Tablet. Idea. FB is an acronym. VAL is an acronym too unless I do not understand what VAL is from a software perspective.
Mike: Yeah. I mean the reason I liked that one is because VAL is in programming. It is a word in programming.
Michael: Like value.
Mike: Yeah, but I think the person who got it, their name was Val.
Michael: That is cool. All right, so we see a ton of sales that you are making just through Flippa, and it is interesting that you use Flippa because you are not necessarily, and we are going to talk about this later, how you bring the end users to Flippa, but you are basically using it as a transaction engine. You could send people to GoDaddy auctions or Sedo auctions. Why do you choose to Flippa auctions?
Mike: That is where I started, and so I have kind of just always used it. It seems to work well with me, with what I am using it for. I have a following on there. I know how to use it. I know Kevin. I like Kevin from Flippa. So, I do not know.
Michael: Yeah, you just went with it and now you are a super seller there, so you get that little S with a green badge because you have sold so many and had so many good transactions.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Cool. Let’s take a look at a couple of your listings because I want to understand how you do it. This is the Idea.io listing. It was good enough that the editors over at Flippa decided to make it an editor’s choice, which then gives it an extra highlight. Sold by buy it now. 8,888 dollars. You wrote this. Very rare opportunity. One of the best .IO domains. No reserve. And then you can see the seller’s notes right here. Excellent investment. You can read exactly. Basically you talk about why it is a good investment, why .IO has taken off, who is actually using .IO, and that investors are supporting them by giving them investment in it.
Here is the Wikipedia. Here is a blog post about the rise of .IO. So, basically, in case anybody has never heard of .IO, you are convincing them that you are not crazy for buying a domain name extension other than .COM.
Mike: Yeah, exactly. I mean I feel like a lot of that description is not really necessary. It is just something I kind of copy and paste every time.
Michael: Every single time, right, because it is identical if I go over here to Traffic.io. It is the exact same thing.
Mike: Yeah, the people who are bidding on it know why they want .IO. I thought about this. So, when you are choosing a domain name, and I have only been doing this for a couple years, so I do not know a lot, but when I watch things, you want to impress and you want to have something that they could remember and it has strength when you put it out there. A domain that has strength. And of course .COM, like if you have Stripe.com, I mean that is like perfect right there, but if it is something that you do not have the .COM, if you cannot get the .COM, it is not possible, people know .IO and I think it shows a lot of strength to launch with a word like Traffic.io.
I know if I launched that on Hacker News, if I had a service and I launched it on Hacker News, people would be impressed. It would show a lot of strength.
Michael: Yeah, and so I want to make it clear for people that are watching that do not understand the software, high-tech community. They may be thinking right now, Mike, Mike is crazy because I would rather have GetStripe.com rather than Stripe.io or GetTraffic.com rather than Traffic.io, but that is not the way the end users you are targeting, the end users that are contacting you, the 70 people that bought .IO domains from you on an individual transaction over the past year are thinking, right?
Mike: Yeah, I mean it all depends on who you are targeting and what your business is. If you are running a local painting company, then maybe like PaintingSolutions, but can you imagine InstagramSolutions.com or FacebookSolutions.com? This is just my opinion, but it seems so weak, or even like GetSomething or SomethingHQ.com. It is so much more weak than Traffic.io. To me, and this is all my opinion just from my background and stuff, but that shows a lot more strength I think.
Michael: Yeah. Well, and you have got the data to back it up. It is not just your opinion about GetTraffic.com versus Traffic.io. You are selling these domain names. You have the marketplace where you are selling to investors, but you are also an individual investor and you are selling to end users just like yourself, which is why you built the marketplace. So, I want to make it clear to people that this is real data. I showed you what he is selling on Flippa. I do not know exactly what you are selling in the private markets, but I tend to believe what you are doing because I see what is happening on Park because I am an active buyer on Park.io.
Mike: Yeah, I mean that is a good point. So, I was speaking more about the end user perspective, but also from a domain investing perspective. A lot of people are like oh, you should only go with .COM. .COM is king. .COM is king. So, obviously it is higher priced. It is higher value, like Traffic.com would be worth a lot more than this, but as an investor, you should not just think about things. You should think about it in terms of investment. What is a better investment right now? Is Traffic.io a better investment than GetTraffic.com? So, it is important to think about it in terms of investment; not just in terms of value.
And also I think it is really helpful. This is what I do personally, is break things up into TLD. My sales. I will look at all my sales. All the money that I spent in .LY and all the money I am getting back from .LY, and .IO, and other things. Break up single-letter, words, and stuff. And then, from there, for me it has become obvious that .IO has been a great investment for me compared to like .COM. I think I sold one .COM in the last two years.
Michael: Wow.
Mike: So, this is just from my perspective and things to think about for other investors.
Michael: Yeah. Yeah, and I talk publicly about it. I do not buy a ton off of Park.io, but I consider myself to be a really bad developer. When I built my first media company, I programmed everything myself, and I got hacked multiple times like eight years later because I do not know how to do cross CSS and XSS. I had tons of vulnerabilities. Anyways, so I am a hack when it comes to programming and I like the .IOs. When I see a domain name, I immediately think what would I build on top of that.
So, that is why I like them, and I see certain domain names on Park.io. I cannot help but put in a bid and try and pick them up. I picked up Staffing.io because I know for all the startups that are happening every single day, week, month, they need great people and there is going to be a staffing company that is going to want to serve just the startup community. Maybe take a piece of the company. Whatever. And so, I picked it up and just a few months later, from an Efty landing page, I sold that one for 15 hundred dollars. So, I did not have to go to anybody. They came to me and it was an easy sale because they get it, just like to your point.
And so, the thing that I try and tell students in DNAcademy is that there are many ways to make money in domain name investing. You may not get robots or drones. You do not understand social media. Maybe you do not know about the healthcare industry. So, you do not want to invest in those things, but if you know startups and you understand and you enjoy reading about startups in TechCrunch and looking at who is getting funded in CrunchBase and all that sort of stuff, .IOs are a good place to make money because they like them.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah, so you make a great point that I just wanted to reemphasize there, Mike. Okay, so we talked about what you are selling. We talked about the value of .IO domains to these end users who are starting companies. Now, typically startups do not have any money, Mike. How do you reconcile the fact that you have got these .IOs and you want to sell them for in the thousands, right? Traffic.com is a million-dollar domain name. Traffic.io you sold for 14 thousand. So, we are not saying they are equal. We are just saying if you cannot get the .COM, instead of going for a two or three-word .COM, you can get the .IO. How do you reconcile the fact that startups are willing to pay a few thousand dollars for a single-word .IO?
Mike: Well, personally I think domains are so cheap for what they offer. I mean for what they do. It is your brand. I mean it is just so cheap. So, I think a lot of these people just realize the value. Traffic.io for 14 thousand. I feel like it is so much more valuable in terms of the business from that standpoint, and I think these are a lot of startups, but a lot of startups have a few thousand to put up for this, so I think it works out.
Michael: Yeah, and they realize. The ones that are not really bitter about having to buy domain names from investors, they realize that it is an investment that is going to help with their branding and they realize they need to buy a domain name. A good brand for their startup.
Mike: I mean at first, as a developer, when I was doing all these domain things, I was like am I a domain squatter. Like oh man, am I the bad guy? But then after selling one hundred, it is like 99 of those sales the people are so grateful, like thank you so much. They are so happy to get that domain. Then I realized I did not feel like the bad guy anymore. I feel like it is providing something.
Michael: Yeah, unless you are breaking the law, which is why UDRP is there – you are buying a domain name in the hopes of financially benefiting from somebody who has a trademark on it and you bought it in bad faith. You are using it in bad faith -, it is just like buying unused land. And I do not feel badly when somebody comes to me or I go to somebody else who owns unused land and they tell me what the price is, and I could pay or not pay. I do not think they are a squatter because they are not using it. I know a lot of developers. I know the Reddit community and what they would say about it versus I, but I agree.
So, what trends can you point to, to validate your knowledge of the growing trend in .IO domain names, Mike?
Mike: Well, yeah, I mean besides the sales coming in and stuff, there is the Google Trends link I sent you. The graph on that. I mean it is just going crazy.
Michael: Yeah, here it is. Look at that. It is nothing from 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013, 2015 you see a spike, and then bam, it looks like it is actually an error. It does not look like it should be going that high.
Mike: And the funny thing is it looked like that in 2013.
Michael: Right, because if you take off the big, you see a little spike there in 2013 there that was probably similar to what it looks like now.
Mike: Yeah, but it has gone nuts. I mean more than I could have imagined that it would go.
Michael: Yeah, and if you scroll down here, the regional interest you need to be careful of because it is interest in Ecuador for people that are searching. So, I do not look at that, but the related searches. check this out. Games.io. Here are the queries on Google that is causing that massive spike.
Mike: Yeah, it is just these weird things that happened. So, .IO. I got into it because of tech names. It is like startups and stuff, but now there is a whole genre of games that are .IO games. Started from I think Agar.io.
Michael: Right here. Yeah.
Mike: Slither.io.
Michael: Yeah, my kids call it Slitherio. They play that one all the time. Before I even knew that they were on a .IO domain name, they were like hey dad, watch me play Slitherio.
Mike: Yeah, and so now all these games are being created with .IO, so it is interesting that that happened.
Michael: It is. So, you think just the gaming industry going to the .IO has driven that major spike this year.
Mike: I think that has a lot to do with it. I think that definitely has a lot to do with it, yeah.
Michael: So, I mentioned just before I hit the record button that my daughter had her 14th birthday today and we went out to breakfast, and my son brought his iPad and he was playing Tank. It is a new game, just like Slither, that all the kids are playing, and he calls it Tanki Online. And I went and searched and some people are actually using Tank.io I think for the Tanki Online, and they are just using the domain name Tank.io even though Tanki Online is not using that domain name for their game.
Mike: Yeah. So, I mean this is something unexpected that happened. I mean it is kind of just random luck. So, yeah, we own Tank.io and we just noticed we were getting a ton of traffic, so I put it on Parking Crew and it is making a lot of money, like one thousand dollars per day.
Michael: That is crazy. So, you bought this domain name for 50, 60, whatever bucks, like that order of magnitude, and suddenly it is making one thousand dollars per day because that one game started using it.
Mike: Yeah. And so, everybody watching this, all the people who have .IO domains, check your traffic because you may have really lucked out. And if you have not yet, I mean these games are being created all the time. So, do not sell your .IO domains that sound like games too inexpensively yet because they could really pay off.
Michael: Yeah, so that is a lottery ticket. That is just crazy awesome. Congratulations on that. Would you consider selling it if somebody came to you, because this is going to be a transient effect? This game is going to fall off and some other game is going to replace it in a month or two months or three months. If somebody came to you and said hey Mike, I will buy it from you today for 30 days revenue, would you sell it?
Mike: Not 30 days. No way. Six figures. I will do it for six figures.
Michael: And by the time that loses its value, you will probably have six figures out of it.
Mike: Yeah, probably.
Michael: I am going to have to come back and revisit that. All right, so this is the .IO graph on Google Trends. So, if you have not used Google Trends before, go to Google.com/Trends and you can type in a domain name. And you can look at it worldwide. You can look at it by time period, categories, and web search. The other thing you showed me is .IO compared to another gTLD, .ORG. And so, what is interesting on this graph – .ORG is in red and .IO is in blue -, .ORG has a lot of companies. A lot of not-for-profits are using .ORG, but look at the Google Trends, the searching for .ORG over time, and then look at the cross right here that just happened in April, where .IO shot up and it is being more interest using Google search for that domain name.
Mike: Yeah, this whole gaming thing. I mean who knows what is going to happen, but it has kind of just started, so it is maybe a really great time to invest in .IO.
Michael: So, you can see what people are searching for. They will type in PBS .ORG or PBS Kids .ORG, so that is how Google is looking at the interest of some of these and then comparing it to the .IO. It is Games .IO or Slither .IO or .IO Domains because people want to understand what the .IO is that they keep seeing all over the place.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah. All right, very cool. Just wanted to show that graph to the audience. So, let’s get into your valuation system. You have a way to value .IO domain names because you were not seeing the valuations on EstiBot reflecting the true valuations that you were getting in the end user market.
Mike: Yeah. I mean EstiBot is great. I use it all the time, but I think for .IO it does not yet take into account the tech, like the startup aspect of it, and so that is why I developed this other method.
Michael: Which, quick side note, if you are in another industry that is changing rapidly that maybe is a niche, and we could call this. This is a niche. A teeny, little niche. Not to belittle your marketplace or anything, Mike. Clearly you are making a lot of money doing it, but it is a niche, and the riches are in the niches, and so you need to look and see what expertise you have in another industry that you can listen to Mike and how he does his valuation and look to see if there is something that you might be able to do in a similar, analogous industry for you. So, I just wanted to throw that in to get people. I do not want people to just think oh, that is .IO. I do not invest in that. I am not going to do that. I want them to think out of the box and say what do I invest in, what is Mike doing for his valuation system, and is there something that is similar in my industry that I can take a look at.
So, EstiBot was not cutting it for you, so then what were you doing, Mike?
Mike: So, just as an example for Estibot, Quilt.io. I think they estimated it at like ten thousand, which I cannot really see a startup. To me, I did not really think it was worth that much. I mean maybe. So, they are probably basing it more on keyword and stuff.
Michael: Right.
Mike: But then I have other domains, like Type.io and Command.io, which EstiBot puts it at like two hundred or three hundred and I know it is worth a lot more than that. So, yeah, that made me think about this other method. This secret method, which I am going to reveal right now. So, should I?
Michael: Yeah, let’s do it.
Mike: Is it time?
Michael: It is time. Ba-bam.
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Mike: So, yeah, Github.
Michael: So, what is Github, first of all?
Mike: So, version control is a way to keep track of the changes you make to your software, and there are different programs you can use to keep track of it and one of them is called Git. And Github is a way to do it online, like a social way to keep track of this, and you can collaborate with other developers, and so you can host open source projects and things like that. It is really popular though, and there are millions of users. They are all developers and basically all people who use .IO domains.
Michael: Right. And you get street cred when you share software on Github that is open source or whatever, or you find a bug. You can share how you found it and fix it, and then share that. You can do version control with your developers, which I use Github for. So, lots of different ways to use it, but basically developers want to get on there because it is almost like their resume for awesome software that they have built.
Mike: Exactly. Yeah, when I have hired developers, I look at their Github and see what they are doing. To me, it is much more important than a college degree.
Michael: Yeah, if you see somebody on there with a ton of repositories and people are following it because they want to see what is going on and they are active on there, that says a lot about them as a programmer, developer, sharing back with others.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah. Cool. So, you went to Github. And what do you do there?
Mike: So, you just search for the keyword. You search for the domain. So, I do not know if you want to do an example.
Michael: Sure.
Mike: Let’s see. What is a good example? Well, let’s try Type.
Michael: Type.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, you do not even need to be signed into Github. I am not signed in, as you can see. I am just going to type it in the search box, hit enter, and it comes back. What am I looking for?
Mike: So, yeah, it says we have found 50,728 repository results. So, that number result is what I use as an indicator. It is not an exact science, but as an appraised value of the domain. So, I would appraise the value: the Github appraisal of that value would be 50,728 dollars for Type.
Michael: Wow. So, every single repository result is one dollar in value for the domain name, Type, and then you append the .IO, so Type.io.
Mike: Yeah. So, that is how.
Michael: And you are not saying it is worth exactly 50,728 dollars, just like EstiBot does not say the exact value of a domain name. For all your newbs out there that always say EstiBot is off or Mike’s appraisal is off, we are not saying exact pricing. We are saying order of magnitude.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, it is closer to a 20 to 30-thousand-dollar domain name or maybe an 80-thousand-dollar domain name than it is like a two-hundred-dollar domain.
Mike: Yeah. And I use it as another indicator, but basically yeah, in my head, I think of it as the dollar value, the results.
Michael: And then what are these repository results?
Mike: These are all code projects that have the word ‘type’ in them. So, that first one, you can see it is JavaScript project and it has like 54 stars. 19 people have forked it, so they are working on it. And then TypeScript, the third one down has like 12 thousand. So, you can see why. Now, these are all tech people, startup people, and you can see how this is a good indicator of the value of the .IO domain, because a lot of these people may be interested.
Michael: Yeah, there is a blogging platform called Type Echo. 2,193 people are following it. Seven hundred people have forked it, meaning they have taken the entire codebase into their own account, and they are working on their own version of it.
Mike: Yeah, basically.
Michael: Or maybe doing some debugging or coding, and then they are going to bring it back into the main channel later.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Type Theme. And so, basically it tells you who the person is and then the name of the project or repository, and then they have whatever description that they have written. So, free and open source Jekyll theme. I do not even know what Jekyll is. A showcase of the best typefaces from Google web fonts directory. That would be cool to actually see. FlowType.js, so that is a JavaScript. You can see this is a cascading style sheet (CSS). GLSL. I do not even know what that is.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: But there are 50 thousand results. Okay, so that is how you determine.
Mike: Yeah, and so as another example, you can type Quilts in there, because I think EstiBot puts it at ten thousand, so you can see the difference.
Michael: 312.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, the order of magnitude for the value of Quilt.io is a few hundred dollars.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah, and I would say that that is right. I cannot imagine. Maybe Quilt could be a theme for WordPress that allows you to integrate your profiles together or something, so maybe. Maybe there is like one or two use cases, but there is not a ton, like Type, where people would want to use it.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, there just are not that many pieces of software developed and likewise, there are less repository results, so the price of that domain is lower. So, that is generally how it works.
Mike: Yeah, and so actually I rely on this more than Estibot. For me, this is the end. If I type it in and it has like three hundred, I am like I do not know who is going to buy it. If people are not naming their code off it, then I do not know who is going to get it. Maybe another domain investor or something. So, this, for me, is what it comes down to for me, is Github. So, I really rely on that.
Michael: Yeah. So, repositories are listed over here and then you have code. 482 thousand. Why do you use repositories versus code?
Mike: Well, because repositories are what they are naming a project, and so that is more correlated. They are usually going to launch a project on a domain name, so I think it correlates more to that. The code is just like it searches in the code itself, so I do not think that really make, and issues is like another thing. Users we will get to.
Michael: That makes sense. So, I took your public sales that are listed on your profile at Flippa, and then I matched them up with the search results on Github, Mike, and then I charted it.
Mike: Okay.
Michael: Here is what it is, man. So, here is Teleport.io. 26 hundred dollars sales price. 815 search results. VAL. I just took them right in order, added them to the spreadsheet, and threw this out here, because I wanted to see is there a correlation between these, and so there is not a direct correlation. Here is VAL, which was a low sales price. A thousand bucks, which if you bought for 60 bucks, or one hundred or three hundred bucks, getting a multiple time return nobody is going to complain about. But you would have thought this one would have a really high peak, but generally, if it has a peak in sales price, it has a peak in search results as well. Here is a peak. It is not the same order of magnitude, but you do have a couple that do not quite match up, like VAL and Well.
Mike: Yeah, this is interesting. So, the Github search. So, when you type in VAL, it returns a lot, like 28 thousand results, but that is also returning results for value, so there is no way to search it for the exact match of the keyword. It searches for any word that begins with VAL.
Michael: It is a broad match filter basically.
Mike: Yeah, and so I wish. I contacted their support, hoping that there would be some way to do it, but there is not. So, yeah, that is the one problem with this. If you typed in TYP into Google, it would show higher value than Type because there would be more results, and TYP.io is not good.
Michael: No.
Mike: Yeah, so you have to keep that in mind.
Michael: Yeah, definitely. All right, but in general, I wanted to see are these going to match. Are the highs in search volume and the lows in search volume matching the highs in sales price and the lows in sales price, and generally it does match. So, it is not an exact science. There are going to be exceptions, but I think your process to determine relative value – what is worth more and what is worth less – is a great system on Github, Mike.
Mike: Thanks. Yeah, it has worked pretty well for me so far.
Michael: Yeah, so let’s see here. Oh, one thing I wanted to ask you is that a lot of these prices were round numbers and I would not expect them to be round numbers like this on no-reserve auction on Flippa, that people are going to knock it out five dollars a piece or a dollar a piece, but these are pretty round numbers. Why do you think they worked out like that?
Mike: I do buy it now a lot of times. If there is a lot of interesting at the beginning of an auction, people will reach out and they will be like I want to buy it now, and so sometimes I will just put a buy It now price out there and they will take it, so that is probably the case where that happened, like with Traffic.io and Bid.io and probably Inspire.io. A few of those.
Michael: Yeah. So, you are willing to sell it quickly or more quickly rather than maximize the retail value of a domain name. Why not just let it go to auction?
Mike: Well, I do not know.
Michael: I am sorry. Let the auction proceed and end on a schedule.
Mike: Well, I mean it is tricky. Sometimes if it plays out, it might not go as high. Basically that is what I am trying to do, is try to get it as high as possible.
Michael: I see.
Mike: And so, sometimes there is a lot of hype. In the auction, there is a ton of bids right at the beginning. A lot of people are bidding and a lot of people are really interested, and so just going off of that, instead of waiting and then there is a lull in bids and not much interest.
Michael: Yeah, that is always what happens. You get a big spike at the beginning, and then there is sort of a lull, and then you will get more action at the end for the high-value domain names or domain names that a lot of people want.
Mike: Yeah, so with Traffic.io, there was a lot of interest right out of the gate. I mean I probably sold it the first day.
Michael: Are you serious?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Wow.
Mike; And who knows? Maybe it would have gone to 45 thousand. I mean Cloud.io sold for 45 thousand, so I do not know. Maybe I made a huge mistake doing that, but whatever.
Michael: But you made money and somebody else is happy with the domain name. You do not need to maximize every single sale.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: All right. So, a lot of these are not necessarily what the market will bear as a retail price because you may have sold it for higher than the retail price or you may have sold it for lower than the actual retail price, so I just wanted to point out to people that the sales price in this column, in some cases, are just buy it now. So, that is why you may not necessarily see. Not necessarily to say that, again, the valuation system that Mike Carson has come up with could be right on the money or it might be off, or whatever the case. I am just trying to point out that there are some additional factors in here that people should be aware of.
All right, so now we know .IOs are taking off. We know there is a different valuation system out there for those of us that are not necessarily in the software space to figure out what software developers and startups are thinking related to their codebase and going to Github and searching on the repository results. But if I took Traffic.io, if I owned it and I listed it on my Flippa account, yeah, I might get some bids on the first day, but I do not think I would get a 14-thousand-dollar offer to buy it now, so you are doing something differently than the rest of us that are just actively listing, but passively waiting for people to find. What are you doing differently, Mike?
Mike: Yeah, so this is the second part of the Github secret. So, back on the search results for Github there is the users tab.
Michael: Yeah, right down here. Users.
Mike: And so, if you click on that, this lists all the users with type in their name. And so, you can see there are a lot of startup names, like BackType. There is MyType or TypeSupply. There are a lot of different tech startup people that have the word ‘type’ in the name. So, what I usually do for Flippa is I list no reserve, and then I just go here to the search result and there are email addresses. You can see that there is the email address.
Michael: Yeah, there is an email address right here.
Mike: Yeah, so then I just send an email to them and say hey, look, I am auctioning this domain no reserve in case you are interested. And so, this is where you get a lot of interest. This is, I think, the best outbound marketing resource for .IO domains, is Github for sure. I mean I have had so much success. So many people have come to bid on the auctions and won the auctions from this.
Michael: So, you come to the users. You look for a name for a startup that might be actually developing. Here is like TypeSafe. Maybe it is out in Belgium, and here is the email address for this person, and they might be interested in Type.io because they are a developer. Otherwise they would not be on Github, so they likely understand the value of .IOs and they might want to bid. So, you will contact them and let them know that it is at auction right now at Flippa.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Got you. And so, do you take any email address that you find? First of all, it is amazing that they are putting the email addresses right here in the search results.
Mike: Yeah. So, I try to find the ones that look more personal, like you are reaching out to a specific person, and then I just send an email, like hey, and I say their first name. I found you on Github. I thought you might be interested in this. But if it is like Hello@CompanyName, then what I will do is I will usually click on the company, so if you just want to click on one of those. Then, on the right side, there are people, and so these are the people that are the top contributors. Probably the people that manage this company Github site. So, then I will click on their profile and look at their email address, or sometimes they will not have it. They will just have a homepage, and then you might be able to get it from there. But basically you can drill down. If it looks like it is a generic email, it is not as personal.
Michael: Yeah, and this person is actually Github staff. This is not a person that you want to email unless you really want to get messed up by a programmer that knows how to work the Internet. Screw with the wrong people on the Internet and you are going to get screwed with. So, the one thing that I will say with this process of going to Github is that you better not automate the system and just screen scrape it and pull every email address and send it.
Mike: Yeah, do not.
Michael: And if you mess with the wrong person, you are going to get messed up.
Mike: Yeah. I mean I really try to see who I think would genuinely be interested and try to reach out to them and send them the link. So, yeah, and I do it all manually.
Michael: You do it all manually. Yeah, okay. So, funny enough, I recently purchased Popup.io on Park.io because I thought popup. I like that because everybody always want to kill popups or have popups. Marketers are terrible, but you need marketing in order to sell stuff. And so, you come to DomainSherpa, you are going to get a little popup down the right-hand side that asks you to join our newsletter. It is an unobtrusive one. It does not get in the middle of the screen or anything like that, but I need a popup and software is always being improved.
So, I bought Popup.io. You and I were chatting. Actually you sold that one through your marketplace and I was the high bidder on that one, right?
Mike: Yeah, so ideally we want all the domains to go through Park.io, so I am even letting a lot of the ones of the 750 that I privately own right now. I am letting them expire and just go through Park.io because it is just easier for it to be all automated and everything to go through Park.io. So, Popup.io was one that we privately owned.
Michael: Yeah, which I had no idea at the time and I told DNAcademy students that I was going to buy it because I did not want to compete against them in case they really liked it. It ended up selling for 360 bucks, which is way more. If I did not do the interview with you a year ago, it probably would have only sold for 99 bucks and I would have gotten it. That would have been great, but I am willing to pay market value. So, 360, and I bought it thinking that if I put it on Flippa today, I think I could get 15 hundred to two thousand dollars. Without even knowing your system, I think the actual retail value of it would be around there.
Now, your system, if I type popup into the search, says 4,219 dollars because there is that many roughly, which is basically the same order of magnitude as what we are talking about. So, if I came to users and I am going through your system, these are the 53 users that come up with popup in their title. This first one, Popup Popup in Bavaria. Would you think this is a good one for me to pursue or not?
Mike: No, I do not think that one is because yeah, they do not even have a logo there. They do not have much information. And when you click on it, there is not much activity going on.
Michael: Right, so that is the thing. You sign in here and if they have activity, less activity is gray and more activity is dark. They have zero activity, so they are not even active on Github, so they would not be a good person for me to contact even if I did have an email address listed here.
Mike: Probably not, yeah.
Michael: Okay. All right, and then because you are doing this manually, you do not want to waste your time. You want to find the right people to contact. So, Popup Arcade right here in my own town of Seattle. They do have a lot of repositories here. Oh, they actually have no people listed.
Mike: Yeah. So, for something like this, they have an icon there. Popup Arcade. That seems like they might be interested, especially because their domain right now is PopupArcade.org, which is not that good. I will not say anything.
Michael: Well, it does not even look like it is a real website, but maybe they have something coming on. Would you try and figure out an email address for PopupArcade.org?
Mike: I might. I might go to their website and see if they have an email. I mean yeah, it did not look like it was a real company. It might just be some project thing that they are doing. They may still be interested.
Michael: Yeah, all right. Then we have Popup Archive in Oakland, California, and I do have an email address here. How would you determine if you would email them to let them know that it is at auction?
Mike: Yeah, I would do it because it looks like it is a personal email. It looks like they would be interested. I mean that is the name. Popup Archive, and the domain name that they have right now. I think it would be an improvement to get Popup.io, or it would at least be valuable to them, so yeah, I think that they would be interested and I would definitely reach out.
Michael: Now, how come I do not see that same activity chart that I saw on the first one even though that I can see that this repository was updated 13 days ago, so they are relatively active.
Mike: That is because this is a company page. If you click on one of the people over there, you will see the contribution.
Michael: Okay. So, she has not been active here, but if I come back over here to Bailey, I can see that they have had some activity and there is an email address at my alma mater it looks like. And I come to the third one, and this is the person that is active.
Mike: Yeah, they are super active, so yeah, that would be a good person to reach out to too probably.
Michael: Yeah. All right. And so, this is basically your process. You just go down the list here. So, here is one that you were talking about. [email protected]. Do you think a popup camp, because it is a camp, would want to upgrade to Popup.io?
Mike: I think that they might be interested. I mean Popup.io is a nice and short. It matches their name. I would reach out to them because I think that they would be interested.
Michael: So, they are really active, and then here is their name, here is their email address, and they are an active developer, so you would think that they would be a good match.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Popup Maker. Popup Cat. Popup Robots. Robots are going to control us someday, so be nice to the robots. So, that is basically what you do. You just go through here. So, how long does it take? So, why did you list Popup on your own marketplace rather than go over to Flippa and sell it yourself?
Mike: Well, I am trying to just make everything go through Park.io.
Michael: You are an automation guy.
Mike: Yeah, exactly. It is just cleaner from a lot of different perspectives, from a maintenance perspective, from a business perspective, and I think it is good for the users too. So, yeah, I think it just the best way to do it, so I am trying to get as many that can go through as possible.
Michael: So, I have got to ask you, Mike, because I was just thinking and I am sure my user base is thinking it. What is to stop you from just buying every domain name yourself? Well, I guess you are because you own the marketplace. Buying it yourself for 60 bucks and then maximizing your own revenue, but you own the company and you are the only person in the company, so regardless of whether you buy it and then sell it on your own marketplace or allow people to drop-catch it and then sell it, it is still the profits are going into your business.
Mike: Well, yeah, and if Popup.io was not backordered by anyone on Park.io, then it would have either just become available or maybe I would have got it. Maybe I would have kept it, renewed it, or something. So, I am not forcing it down Park.io user’s throats or anything. It is just if people are interested, then yeah, it goes up there. But if they do not backorder it, it is not going to go up there.
Michael: Got you. All right, so how long does it typically take? How long do you spend of you time when you list it on Flippa, doing the marketing, doing the outreach?
Mike: This takes some time. It can take a few hours or so, but I know it is worth it. There have been times where I have a domain on Flippa and it had a little interest, but it was pretty low bids, like up to one hundred dollars or something, and then I spent a few hours doing this and then, later that evening, it is up to like five thousand dollars.
Michael: Wow.
Mike: Yeah, so it is totally worth it, but it does take some time.
Michael: So, you are an automation guy. Why don’t you automate reaching out to all these people?
Mike: Yeah, I think the reaching out to people. You have got to be careful automating that stuff. I feel a little bit just sending an email out of the blue, so I want to do it the nicest way possible if I want to do it.
Michael: Yeah, you want to be a real, genuine person emailing them individually. You do not want any ISPs or filters, or anything to see that you sent out an email in bulk. Regardless of how smart you are, Google and other ISPs are going to realize that you are sending out emails in bulks, and so play it safe. If you want to make money, just do the homework, find the right people to contact, make just an earnest contact from you to that person, and offer it up. Have you ever gotten back any emails from people saying that they were pissed off, do not contact me, take me off your list, or things?
Mike: It is rare. It is actually rare. I mean I do get a few and I try to reply to them. Not defensively. I try to just be like I am really sorry. I try to be nice and win them over afterwards and maybe offer help, or I will be like you can have 99-dollar credit on Park.io. I am sorry about that. So, yeah, I mean there are a few, but it is not that that bad. If you reach out, and do not automate, and if you think that somebody is genuinely interested, you think they might be genuinely interested, then I think you are okay.
Michael: Yeah. And so, if somebody is thinking right now boy, I could scrape everybody with Type and send them GetTyping.net via my automated system, that is a crappy domain name, first of all, and it is not a relevant offer to the audience that you are going to reach through Github. So, you are failing on a couple of different points there, and I will go as far as to say like do not screw it up for the rest of us. Mike is coming on here. He is sharing information about this marketplace that any of us probably did not realize, and just do not screw it up for us. Be honest people. Find great domain names that people really want that are undervalued, and then offer them to the right people, and do not go overboard. Work your way into it slowly.
Mike: Yeah. In general, I think that is good advice in general. Just try. I think it is best. So, some people might noe be making as much money with domain investing, and so they may do some things out of desperation, but yeah, I guess just do it what Mike is saying. If you are doing it because you think that they are genuinely interested in what you are selling, then I think it is okay, but otherwise just be careful because it probably will come back to bite you.
Michael: Yeah, because I get out my domain name voodoo doll for every single time I get an email of a crappy domain name because it has a word of a two-word domain name that I own and somebody is just scraping the WhoIS database and sending me their poorly written, grammatically error prone emails asking me if they want to buy it. I stick another pin in that domain name voodoo doll, hoping that it is going to cause them a little bit of pain. So, do not be that person.
Hey Mike, can I share one of the emails that you send to people just to give an idea?
Mike: Yeah, sure.
Michael: All right, let me go to Gmail tab here. So, here is the forward just because you forwarded it to me. The subject is just the domain name. That is all you say.
Mike: Yeah. I am not actually seeing what you are sharing. Oh, no I see it.
Michael: Okay, so the subject is just Idea.io, for example.
Mike: Yeah, a lot of times, or sometimes I will do Idea.io Domain, so yeah, it is very basic.
Michael: And just hi (first name), so you personalize it. I came across your profile on Github, so they know why you are contacting them. I own the domain name Idea.io and I am auctioning it off on Flippa. Here is the URL. I thought you may be interested. Thanks, and have a great day. Mike. That is it.
Mike: That is it.
Michael: That is it. You do not need to sell them. You do not need to do anything. And if they are interested, which they should be if you picked the right people because they are active and they use that phrase and maybe they are working on a software project or their repository is actively being updated, then they will probably click through and take a look at it.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, it has worked pretty well. I mean it worked for Idea.io. I think the guy that bought that was somebody I emailed like this.
Michael: Yeah. All right, I am going to stop the sharing of the screen there and come back to you. So, you have shared a phenomenal amount of information here, Mike. You contacted me and I was like I am not sure I want to reveal all this stuff to the community because with great power comes great responsibility, so I appreciate you wanting to share back with the community. I can rattle off tens of domain investors that would not share their secret sauce like this. What made you want to share back with the community, Mike?
Mike: Well, it is a good opportunity for me to show how smart I am to everyone. I am just kidding.
Michael: Nailed it.
Mike: No, I do not know. I guess I do open source projects and when I do a project, it feels good. I am not making any money or anything. It just feels good when people use it or are using it, and it feels like I am contributing, and so maybe it is some of that feeling. Hopefully I am helping things to work better by revealing this information and maybe there will be some kinks, maybe some people abuse it, but it will eventually work out to make things better. And also, I mean it is good to help people. It is good in business and it is good in life. Those are the reasons probably of why I am doing it.
Michael: Yeah, and there are a lot of people that feel that same way and I am appreciative of you coming on here and allowing me to help tell that story and help people be responsible investors and think about the right thing and not necessarily trying to maximize every single penny out of a domain name, but getting the domain names into the hands of the right people, who will use it, who will be productive and create some great things out there. Software. Software is taking over. Everything is going to be written with software. Someday, I am going to cryogenically freeze my body until there is a robot that I can put my brain into, and then I will live forever through software automation just controlled by my brain. It would not surprise me.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: But I want to tell the audience that if you sat with Mike and me for an hour now and you have additional questions, clarifications, suggestions that you want to ask, you can post them in the comments below this video on DomainSherpa and I will ask Mike to come back and answer as many as he can. If you received benefit from today’s show, if you learned something new, if you challenged your thinking about the value of not only .IO, but CCTLDs in general, country code top-level domains, or you thought about specializing in domain names for startups or healthcare or something, take a moment. Post a thank you in the comments below.
Click on Mike’s Twitter handle. Send him a quick thanks. Say I am using it in an area. You do not need tell us which area. Maybe you do. Maybe you tell us which area you are. That would be cool to hear too. I know Mike wants to hear what is going on because as developers who share, it is cool to hear that other people are doing things that Mike helped inspire. So, I am going to be the first to say thanks to Mike.
Mike Carson, thanks for coming on the DomainSherpa Show again, sharing your system for valuing and selling .IO domain names, and thanks for being a repeat Domain Sherpa for others.
Mike: No problem. Thanks again for having me.
Michael: My pleasure. Thank you all for watching. We’ll see you next time.