Sedo Premium Auction Featuring Code.co.uk

Quick update on the Code.co.uk domain sale.

I’ve received offers from eight businesses, and now decided to list the domain at auction as part of Sedo’s next Premium Auction Event.

The domain got top billing in Sedo’s auction mailshot, so look forward to seeing how much interest the auction gets. Bidding opens Thursday 21st October and ends on 28 October at 5pm GMT.

Full background on the sale here and at Gary Taylor’s blog.

Backlinks.in, the Bulk Backlink Checker

We built a bulk backlink checker for internal use back when none of the public backlink tools – Majestic SEO, Linkscape etc – did bulk lookups. Now that’s changed, our tool is public.

What bugs me about most backlink checkers is that you can only paste in a clean list of domains. I typically want to copy ‘n’ paste a whole page, extract any domains from the text then see at a glance which ones have backlinks.

Is the backlink data accurate? Nope. But good enough is good enough for most uses: picking 1-2 domains for closer inspection out of a list of 100s or 1000s.

Backlinks.in is merely a ready reckoner. It queries SEOMoz Linkscape Open Site Explorer and returns an estimate of how many unique backlinks a site has. If/when the data sucks, you know who to blame!

Try it yourself at www.Backlinks.in.

Be sure to check out SEO Gadget’s own Linkscape-powered Anchor Text Tool, too.

Code.co.uk for Sale

Update: Code.co.uk is now in the Sedo Premium Domain Auction. Bidding opens on 21st October & ends 28 October at 5pm GMT.

Looking for an awesome domain for your voucher code site?

I acquired some high-quality one-word domains, including Code.co.uk, as part of a larger deal earlier this year.

After much thought, I’ve decided to focus on another project in 2011 & sell Code.co.uk.

Code.co.uk is currently for sale via Sedo.

 

 

 

Premium Domains for Voucher Code Sites

Obviously Code.co.uk is enormously desirable as the domain for a voucher code site. The domain is memorable and meaningful, and keyword domain offer an ‘unfair advantage’ over competitors for branding, SEO, PPC & mobile media (more on that in another post).

I’m expecting plenty of interest for a couple of reasons.

#1. Every Good Voucher Domain Has Gone

They’re either in-use for an existing site or owned by domainers. Off the top of my head…

#2. Companies Called “Code… Ltd”

Companies House lists a couple of hundred Ltd companies called “Code… Ltd”. Around 170 have websites.

I’ve had two six offers so far, and at least one is from a business in this camp.

Guide Price

Sedo value Code.co.uk at an estimated £18,000 (contact me if you’d like a copy of the appraisal). Recent sale prices for voucher code domains include…

DiscountVouchers.com £100,000 Acorn Domains (Oct 2010)
VoucherCode.com £22,500 Affiliates4U.com (2010)
PromoCodes.co.uk $30,500 Nokta Domains
(June 2010)
CouponNetwork.com $59,000 Nokta Domains, (2010)
FreeCoupon.com $60,000 Private Sale (2008)
CouponCode.net $20,054 Snapnames.com (2008)
Coupons.info $17,600 Sedo (June 2010)
Vouchers.eu $14,751 Sedo (2009)

How To Bid

Code.co.uk is currently for sale via Sedo. You’ll also find a link to the sale at:

www.code.co.uk

I’ll be accepting offers until 15 October at 12 noon, when the best offer will be accepted subject to reserve being met. Of course, I reserve the right to end the sale early if I get a suitable offer earlier.

Bid early, bid often. Any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or via my contact form.

CardCube: 1999 Called, They Want Their Startup Back

Two years ago, I speculated that the credit crunch would kill pointless web 2.0 startups

(See: “Dude, Where’s My Revenue Model“).

What I didn’t see coming was a comeback for crap late 90s startup ideas.

Take CardCube. CardCube is billed as “an e-card surprise with a difference”.

Unfortunately, their billboard ads suck sufficiently that I had no idea what “the difference” was:


Upon reading their T&Cs, it turns out that “the difference” is…

#1. They Charge For Their Lame E-Cards

You have to pay £1.50 for a service that everyone else offers free. Neat niche!

Due to the unique nature of Card Cubes SMS sending, before you send this greeting you agree that you are over 16 years of age, understand that sending this e-Greeting will cost £1.50 billed to you’re mobile phone and have the billpayers permission to send this e-Greeting.

#2. CardCube Can Sell Your Personal Data

Agree to their T&Cs, and expect to be inundated with postal mail, junk SMS & emails for products you have zero interest in.

We may pass your personal details to other companies whom we think may wish to contact you about other products and services.

You consent to us and people to whom we pass your personal details to contact you by post, email, SMS and phone.

#3. You Can’t Link to CardCube.com

…if you’re a user, or you’ll be breaking their user contract.

You may not link our website to any other website without our prior written consent. If we give any such consent we can revoke it at any time.

Enjoy your e-card surprise with a difference!

Typosquatting: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Join ‘Em

Certain words & phrases will forever evoke 1995.

“Cyberspace”, “information superhighway” and “typosquatting” for starters.

One of them is making a comeback. No prizes for guessing which one.

If you’ve not yet registered the .CO versions of your key domains, now would be a good time.

Else you can expect to receive emails like this from cowboys like Central American SEO Ltd:



Here to help? Aw, you guys!

Contact Central American SEO Ltd

I’m going to be straight around to see you next time I happen to be passing through, er, beautiful Belize City…

Central American SEO Ltd.
Suite 102, Blake Building
Ground Floor, Corner Ayer and Hutson
Belize City
BZ
186171
Tel: +11.501249187
Email: itreallymatters@live.com < -- Spambots step this way

I figure: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

So who wants to buy my brand new domain: CentralAmericanSEO.com?

Offers to the usual address.

Search Marketing Talk: Go Join Already

Remember ThreadWatch?

Pre-Twitter, it was the daily destination for most SEOs & many webmasters for gossip, rumours & distration.

For younger readers: imagine a kind of Shangri-La where SEOs frollicked freely amongst Google employees.

Search quality engineers offered a discreet nod to go easy on the hypenated keyword domains, while the idea of a 140 character cap on intelligent conversation was still but a glint in Biz Stone’s eye.

I digress – owner Aaron Wall closed Threadwatch three years ago around the time that many of those conversations started to move to the 423,461 SEO blogs* that scientists estimate now exist.

But, fortunately, I’m not the only one who still misses Threadwatch, as Rob Kerry (née Evil Green Monkey) has half-inched the format and launched Search Marketing Talk.

The format is similar and a few of the usual suspects are popping up, too.

On a related note – Experienced People is a new forum about buying and selling websites.

The forum is run by Clinton Lee, AKA FruitMedley at SitePoint. Clinton is the man responsible for one of my all-time favourite articles on the art and science of buying websites: The Ultimate Website Valuation Guide.

Hope to see you at both sites.

* A made up statistic, obviously, but order of magnitude correct, surely?.