Although I’ve heard Google doesn’t allow publishers to provide Adsense stats, I wanted to give an update on FuelAssistance.com, the site that was built for me by my friend Bradley at Site Graduate. I launched the site a few weeks ago, and I blogged about it in a “5 With… Bradley Epstein.”

So far, the site has done very well.  With the exception of the 2 days around when I posted a link to it from my blog (which received much more traffic than normal), search engine traffic has grown from 0 to around 22%, mostly from MSN, but also from Yahoo and Google.  People are using the following keywords to successfully find the site (among others), “fuel assistance,” “home energy assistance program,” “free weatherize home,” “weatherize,” “federal fuel assistance,” “ma. low income financial assistance,” and “fuelassistance.com.”

Revenue is also up quite dramatically, although the site was making less than $.15 per day as a parked page. Once the site achieves a higher ranking in Google, which can be attributed to SEO activities of Site Graduate and link building, I think traffic will grow even more.  Also, the revenue per click seems to be much higher than it was when it was parked, which is a nice surprise, as sometimes the opposite happens.

Because of the success of FuelAssistance.com, I  decided to work with SG on another geodomain that I own, BerkeleyHeights.com (Berkeley Heights, NJ). At the moment, the site gets very little traffic - just under 1 unique per day, and it makes just a few dollars per month.  I did some keyword research, and I found that quite a few people were searching for various things in Berkeley Heights.

Since Berkeley Heights is a community of about 15,000 people and is 30 minutes from Manhattan, I felt this name would be perfect for a mini site. IMO, it’s not big enough for a full site like I’ve done with Burbank and Lowell, but it’s perfect to capture low-hanging fruit traffic. The site isn’t fully developed yet, so if you are interested, you can watch it as it grows.

In addition to the mini-site and SEO work that Site Graduate will do, I also plan to add my own content based on some keyword research that I do.  This will keep the site growing, which is something the search engines like to see. Ultimately, I plan to sell this geodomain, but I think the traffic and revenue will be a major contributor to its value.

If you have a site developed by Site Graduate and want to share some of the results, feel free to leave a comment for others to see. I am trying to determine which of my domain names will be next for them to develop - perhaps SaveTheDates.com.

Skip Hoagland and his team have announced the launch of Portland.com, a geowebste geared toward resident and visitors of Portland, Oregon. Portland.com is a part of GeoDomains New Media family of Companies, which includes other great geowebsites such as Atlanta.com, BuenosAires.com, HiltonHead.com, and MyrtleBeach.com.

Press Release:

Nov 17, 2008 – Portland.com today announced the launch of their newly redesigned website that provides information to visitors and residents of Portland, Oregon.  After one month of development and content building, new site offers thousands of additional pages and features.

For visitors to Portland, the new site offers information about attractions, lodging and things to do along with reviews and ratings.   “We want to provide as much information as possible to the tourist to Portland, whether they are traveling for leisure,  visiting family and friends, or for those seeking information for business travel,” said Jeremia Froyland, the Operations and Marketing Director for Portland.com.

“We believe that we owe it to the community and visitor’s to be the one-stop site for any and all information on Portland, Oregon,” Froyland noted. “With the re-launch of Portland.com, we have integrated a myriad of features that make finding information about Portland as easy as possible.  From events to business listings to community interaction, we believe we have put a world of knowledge at a visitor’s fingertips.â€

In addition to providing information for tourists and visitors, the new site offers many local and community features that provide information to residents of the “City of Roses.† Technical & Operations Director Josh Stauffer noted “We have filled the site with useful information about real estate, neighborhoods, community events and you can now find thousands of business that are located in Portland.  With many of the business listings we have not only built in features that allow ratings and reviews, but we also have uploaded descriptions, maps, hours of operation and several other features that provide a great experience for visitors to Portland.com.â€

As part of the site’s effort to build and enhance the community, they are also offering free event listings, free business listings, free classified ads and the ability to post and submit your press releases for free.  Stauffer continued “We want to build and support this great city as much as we possibly can.â€

Froyland added “Additionally we are very big on supporting the GeoDomain (domains that are geo-specific in nature) industry through our continued support and promotion of Associated Geos, which is a network of city, state and country sites.  By providing visitors to all of our sites with useful, helpful information, each member of Associated Geos is helping build the new frontier for local and visitor information online.

About Portland.com

http://www.Portland.com offers information for residents and visitors of Portland, Oregon on their website.  With information about hotels, real estate, news, attractions and businesses, they cater to online users who seek any information about Portland, Oregon.

About a year ago, I bought a new limited edition Hermes tie to mark the opening of their Wall Street store. The tie has bulls on the wide section and bears on the thin section, and it is lime green. Tonight I was feeling under the weather and didn’t go out, so I spent some time on eBay.

To my surprise, I saw the exact tie that I purchased on sale for $1,900. I also saw another similar tie in red selling for $250 (with 13 hours remaining), and the seller mentioned that he’s seen this tie selling for over $1,000.

So my question is this, do I try to sell the tie or keep it? I don’t need the money right now, but I also don’t need a $1,000 tie

It seems that everyone in the domain business is becoming a domain broker. I suppose being a domain broker sounds good - you get to sell other people’s domain names without having to take on any of the risk of buying the domain names. You make a commission if the name sells, but don’t lose a dime if it doesn’t. Brokers also aren’t generally exposed to the legal risk of domain ownership. I know several top domain brokers in the business who I wouldn’t hesitate to use, and I think you should ask some important questions before you commit to a broker:

I’ve seen a number of people mass emailing domain names they are “brokering.” The funny thing is that on one occasion, the domain owner didn’t even know his name was being brokered. The person inquired about a domain name, received the price, and then attempted to “broker” that name for the price + profit. If he found a buyer, he would have purchased the domain name. If not, well, he has little risk. The owner found out about it, but was more or less blase because it was someone that was trying to sell his name. Personally, I would never allow someone to claim to represent me without my prior knowledge and approval.

An issue you need to be cognizant of is that brokers don’t usually have any legal risk with the actual domain name. If they contact potential end users who decide that the name infringes on their brand, the broker could be the cause of a lawsuit or UDRP. They have no risk if they try to pitch McDonald.com to McDonalds (for example), so why not try to get the most money from the wealthiest potential buyer.

You should also discuss where the broker will be selling your domain name. Anyone can put a domain name for sale on a forum or a blog. However, if your broker has an active domain website or a well-subscribed to newsletter, that would be more beneficial. Whatever the case, you and your domain broker should devise a strategy specifically for selling your domain name.

There are a lot of people who claim to be domain brokers, but only a few who I would personally use. Before you commit to a domain broker, make sure you check his credentials to make sure he is legit. You will want to use a professional domain broker and not just a person who can’t afford good domain names on his own and just wants a cut of your domain sale. There are some great domain brokers out there, and it pays to use their services.

In a pretty remarkable auction that just concluded minutes ago on NameJet, 2 letter .com domain, ZL.com sold for under $50,000.  While the value of LL.com domain names has been declining recently for a couple of reasons, I was surprised the result of this auction was so tepid.  Initially, I believed the name would sell for no less than $75,000.

I believe the general economy is putting a damper on the value of these domain names, and I think there may be a bit more risk to owning them, as there are generally a number of companies who can claim the rights to a short acronym, as was the case with LH.com, which is still pending in the US legal system.

If you are bullish on LL.com domain names, now is a good time to buy.