“Historically, it’s been kind of a wash about when to use subdomains vs. subdirectories. Just as a reminder, in a URL such as subdomain.example.com/subdirectory/ , the subdomain is “subdomain” and the subdirectory is “subdirectory” (also sometimes called a folder). If you’re still unclear, you may want to read my tutorial on the parts of a URL.”

As usual he is intentionally vague in how Google ranks these. It interests me because I’ve been experimenting with acquiring some domains that can be extended with subdirectories. An example is BestRestaurantIn.com/Rochester (there is no site yet so don’t bother checking). Theoretically I would only need the BestRestaurantIn.com domain and then could build out an entire range of cities using subdirectories. This would provide the advantages of geo-focused domains without having to buy hundreds of individual domains. It would also mean that that the domain would become a very valuable property, assuming we can get search results for that keyword string (i.e. searcher enters query: best restaurant in Rochester and the site ranks). That’s the $10,000 dollar question, actually more like the $100,00 question!

Read the comments on Matt’s post – a lot of people are wondering about this.

Search is based on two concepts, intent and relevance. The searcher broadcasts their intent by the keywords they enter into the search box. If you have the most relevant content match to their intent you rank higher on the SERP (search engine results page). This is the basis of SEO. So your first step is understand the intent of the searcher who is headed towards your site and make sure that if you rank and they click that they see that relevant content. Parking pages won’t cut it in most cases. One common measurement is that there should be at least 600 words of relevant content including headlines, bullet lists and text (not embedded in images) on the landing page for your URL.

I understand that for a lot of people the prospect of writing 600 words is intimidating. But those 600 words are going to drastically increase the conversion rate for your site and the traffic stats. It also ensures that contextual advertising like Adsense will be a lot more relevant, increasing revenue. If you can’t or won’t write, hire a writer. While I am a writer, I have a lot of other things to do so I put an ad on Craigslist offering $25 for 600 words on a specific topic. Then I edit that content, making sure it is valuable and relevant. That’s peanuts for something that can turn a url into a valuable commodity.

Writing is step one. Edit the writing to get your keywords into headlines, break up blocks of texts into lists or bullets and keep paragraphs and sentences short and sweet.

The next step is relevant monetization. Again “relevant” is the key phrase here. The beauty of Google is that they reward Adwords advertisers for relevance by giving better positioning to ads that perform better. As a publisher (and that’s what you are if you take this path) then you want Adsense ads that closely match intent. Good content makes the difference. These ads will enhance the value of your site to the visitor.

And then there are monetization strategies like API access to Amazon Web Services. With Amazon’s API (application programming interface) you can place Amazon content on your site and generate affiliate revenue, while maintaining that content as your own site content. You can choose what data to display (reviews for instance) and use keywords to automatically display products without manual selection. This means you can create shopping sites with a template and automatically populate them with relevant product offerings. Add your 600 words of advice and serve up the site on your domain.

If you’re efficient you could put these things up very quickly and see results that are much more valuable than any parking service. And once you’ve developed a portfolio of these automated content sites, you’re got a real marketable asset.

Gawker Media, the big blog network, announced that it was selling off a few assets including Wonkette, a very popular inside Washington political blog that had over 5 million pageviews last month. With that kind of traffic you’d think they’d be crazy to dump an otherwise successful site. My guess is, that with a downturn  economy, a site like Wonkette which never had a strong advertising model- readers go there for opinions and gossip, not shopping, was probably seeing a big drop in ad revenues. I’m guessing their CPMs were in the toilet despite the high traffic.

To make money with a site you have to choose your subject matter carefully. Is the information you’re providing something people seek during a buying process? Are the types of purchases associated with the site Internet e-commerce friendly? Things like books, jewelry, gadgets, courses and other high value, easily shipped, high margin products work best. Things that are heavy, cheap and have low margins like pet supplies, large appliances and groceries don’t cut it.

Is the subject matter information-intensive? If the buying decision is easy you can’t add enough value via a web site or blog. Look at the ads on general news, opinion and lifestyle blogs/sites- they are often big brand ads for cars, insurance and other generic subjects that are neutral in relevance to the content. These kinds of ads generate almost nothing in CPMs (measured in cents per thousand impressions) and contribute to banner blindness.

Getting a formula that delivers higher revenues requires something a lot of Internet media entrepreneurs don’t want to do: hard work. I’m in the process of inserting relevant affiliate text links into the hundreds of articles on one of my kitchen design sites. I have display affiliate ads but they draw very poorly. The text links are carefully chosen for very high relevance but it’s a lot of work:

• Determine what the reader of the article is most likely to be interested in at that moment. I have an article that recommends getting material samples when planning a new kitchen. The reader wants to know where they can get these.
• I go through the various affiliate programs and find a vendor that not only offers samples but pays out for sample requests, in this case $15 for a sample order (because they know that if you have a flooring sample you like you’re likely to order that specific flooring- resulting in a big sale). This takes a lot of time to research.
• I build a text link with the affiliate code that includes the appropriate anchor text. Free Flooring Samples from XYZ, for example
• I choose the appropriate place the article and insert the link text inline with the content. I don’t hide that it is a link (different color) nor do I hide the brand because I want it clear to the search police that I’m offering legitimate relevant content even if it is commercial. And I want the reader to know that I considered their interest, time and needs when selecting this revenue model.

This is a lot of picky busy work but when I’m done I’ll have an information site that is optimized for revenue-generation in a way that the consumer appreciates. And it is sustainable because once the work is done the site is self-sufficient.

The fact is there are very successful businesses that are profitable without employees or customers – they’re called investment or trading firms. In many cases they may be an individual or partners that only trade on their own account (they don’t manage money). Taking some capital and growing it via investing or speculation is an age-old business that is not reliant on customers or dependent on employees.

The domain world is simply the latest incarnation of this business model. Of course you can hire employees but you don’t necessarily have to. And you could provide domain services like development to customers but why would you make money for them that you could be making for yourselves? Domaining can liberate you from these responsibilities if you don’t want to deal with them. It might take longer to grow but the upside potential is still huge – after all how many businesses can you start with an $8 name and a hosting account?

As a domainer, there’s nothing I want more than for Madison Avenue to start “getting it”.

People overlook the importance of a good domain name. They underestimate their value.  Having the right name is more important than ever in this crowded marketplace. It can become a company’s most important asset and in many cases the name is their entire brand.

After receiving the unsolicited offer, I realized that if I wanted to sell my domain for what I thought it was worth, I needed to proactively market it.

I purchased MountainMaven.com because it was an easy to remember, two-word name that was also search engine friendly and a top-level .com (TLD). The name Mountain Maven just rolls off your tongue and has a nice aural rhythm and meter to it. I own a couple of hundred more just like it.

Mountain Maven would make a perfect marketing campaign microsite for a corporate giant like Eastern Mountain Sports or Columbia Sports Wear. And how much do you think it’d be worth if National Geographic or the Discovery Channel decided to create a TV series around green mountain living or extreme snowboarding lifestyles? It’d also make a great corporate blog for a large ski company like Elan, K2, or Atomic (or Jake Burton). The possibilities are endless.

I’ve been doing a lot of research for my employer over the last few weeks, trying to create unique product and company names (and the domains to go with them).  It’s hard…really hard, and its time consuming, too.  But there are still a lot of good domain names out there if you know how to look.

My process is pretty much the same as other people searching for a good domain name. I fire up Google and start doing keyword searches based on a broad idea and then I start building out possible domain names from there. I also use keyword tools to create an initial seed list.

For me, it’s kind of like being in a John Nash-like state of mind. Just like in the movie, A Beautiful Mind, I make mental notes of all the keywords I see while searching Google, MSN and Yahoo and I start putting them in different order, saying the name aloud in my head. Once I get one that has a nice ring to it, I type the name directly into the address bar, add a .com to the end, and see if it’s available.

If it’s a parked page with no content, I do a whois search to see how long it’s been registered and when it is going to expire. If it is going to expire within a year, I put the expiration date on my calendar and keep an eye on it. I’ve purchased several domains this way. The user simply lost interest or forgot that they owned it.

If it’s been registered for six years or more by the same person, I move on…that person obviously knows its value. Using a tool like DomainTools.com will tell you who owns it, how long they’ve owned it, when it is going to expire, and how many times it’s changed owners (along with other interesting data about the domain beyond the scope of this post).

Here are the minimum requirements I look for when purchasing a brand new domain name (purchasing existing names will be covered in another post.):

1. It has to be a (.com). Dot com is the assumed extension when people think about a domain name or type one in a browser. Dot com is still king and will be for a very, very long time.
2. Needs to be two English language words. Sometimes three if it is really good, but the shorter the better.
3. The name needs to have a nice sound and meter. It needs to be easy and pleasant to say out loud.
4. Those two or three words need to identify a business opportunity that I can develop a website around.
5. It would make a nice microsite for a marketing campaign.
6. A subject matter that people would actually spend money on. (e.g. A visitor to this domain might buy snowboarding accessories.)
7. Search engine friendly keywords  (This domain only qualifies if it becomes the name of a television series or a popular ad campaign…are you listening, Budweiser Coors?)
8. No misspellings. (e.g. MountainMavin)
9. No dashes or hyphens. (e.g. Mountain-Maven)
10. No abbreviations. (e.g. MtnMaven)
11. No prefixes. (e.g. MyMountainMaven or iMountainMavin)
12. No numbers. (e.g. 1MoutainMaven)
13. Make sure the name doesn’t have a sordid past. Did the previous owner drop it for a reason? It’s not impossible to build back trust, but you want to make sure past bad press and comments don’t show up when people search for your new name.

Smart companies scour the blogosphere searching for references to their own brand (for better or for worse), and the fact that I mention them by name here in this post is by design. With any luck, one of these smart companies will find this post and make an offer for my domain closer to the $5000 figure I had floating in my head.

At the end of the day, though, a domain name is only worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it.  I think this one is worth more than a hundred bucks, though. Guess I should start developing it.