Everything You've Ever Wanted to Wanted to Know About Realnames - Part Two

STEP 3 - Check desirability versus dilution
... GoTo.com, AltaVista, RealNames.

"Hey, there were 67,547 searches for 'stock.' Just buy the 'PennyGold Stocks' RealName, Ken."

That was my first thought at the time -- simply add the name of *MY* product to the generic term, "stocks."

1) Go to www.goto.com and look up the word. You'll see that bidders have pushed the price of this word up to $1.45 (as of December 13, 1999) -- see where it says, "(Cost to advertiser: $1.45)." The higher the price, the more "in demand" the word. (Try a search for "e-commerce" -- wait until you see what that costs!)

2) Another way? Go to AltaVista and search for "stocks." Look just above the start of the listings. You'll see that 2,256,780 Web pages contain the word "stocks."

So everything indicates that "stocks" is super-popular... all systems seem GO to buy the "PennyGold Stocks" RealName. But wait!

Time to think about your customer! Yes, remember her? Maybe someone who looks up "stocks" is not targeted enough to be interested in junior mining stocks. And, if "stocks" is so desirable, maybe many other companies already own RealNames with "stocks" in it?

As mentioned above, you'll find 60 stocks. This means that the results are spread over 6 pages. If you're not on the first page, forget it!

Note: RealNames says that each RealName is unique. But this is a bit misleading. While each RealName is unique, it's possible that hundreds could "own" a RealName with a generic word like "e-commerce" contained within it, reducing its value considerably.

So remember... while popularity is good, you have to balance it against dilution. Ideally, you'd like to use "generic word add-ons" that are popular but that have not yet been "diluted" by too many competitors at RealNames who are doing the same.

STEP 4 - Pick "Best Value" Words and Group Them
Finished the keyword STEPs (1-3)? Time to build a RealName!.

RealNames can include spaces, upper and lower case and special characters like ampersands... even non-English characters! Think about plurals, spacing variations and special characters.

It has a lot more potential than my original choice, "Penny Gold Penny Stocks." Here's the rationale for the new RealName.

First, I split the actual trademarked term, "PennyGold," into "Penny Gold." This is probably not kosher, since the real name for my product is "PennyGold." But I do it so that searches for "gold" and "gold stocks" (and even "stocks gold" -- order is not important) will find PennyGold.

The RealNames keyword analysts are very busy -- I figure that they'll miss this subtle move. After all, they did the first time!

Second, I kept "penny stocks" together since this is a common search phrase. And it targets pretty well for my product.

Third, I added "book" -- now, anyone searching for any word combo of "book" together with "stocks" or "penny stocks" or "gold" has a shot at finding me.

Fourth, "Mining Investment Advice" -- while PennyGold does not actually offer "advice," (it teaches investors to "do it themselves) the term "Investment Advice" is far more requested than "Investment Software." And adding the word "mining" boosts the yield of this RealName even more (see above).

Just look at all the possible ways that a search could find PennyGold if I buy this RealName.

Stocks
Penny Stocks
Gold Stocks
Investment Advice
Mining Stocks
Penny Stocks Book
Gold Investment
Stocks Investment

One important consideration before I submit my request... I review all the above phrases and decide if any company is likely to buy the straight-up, generic version.

And, yes indeed, I could easily see e*trade buying "stocks." When this happens, I will be as "you-know-whatted" as poor old Abe's Software whenever someone does a search for any of the above words/phrases with "stocks" in it. This will definitely kill its value.

If RealNames really *does* widen this "generic sale," my recommendation to entrepreneurs and small businesses would be to forget RealNames as a cost-effective way to build traffic. And to ask for a refund.

All in all, though, if I can get this RealName, I'd feel like I got my money's worth (our mission, right?). If the "investment advice" part is refused, then my RealName is totally dependent on "stocks" not being sold! Ugh.

STEP 5 - Write Your Description and Choose the Destination URL
So far, we've put all of our effort into creating the RealName. That's because the whole "RealName" concept keys on this. I expect, however, that as more and more companies use RealNames, the description will also be important.

Why? Well, when I first bought "the Penny Gold Penny Stocks" RealName, PennyGold was one of only two listings when you searched for "penny stocks." Now there are almost 20 -- and soon there'll be more.

So your description must "get the click." It must entice the reader to click to your site. And it should contain your most important keywords, just in case this ever becomes important in the ranking algorithm. So the strategy should be the same as outlined in MYSS! for the Yahoo! description.

And here's a second strong reason to "get the click." The more clicks you do get, the higher you'll rank. RealNames gives you 1 point for every click you get, and 5 points for every *EXACT* matched entry. The more points you get, the higher you'll rank (they do these calculations every 20 days, not in real-time).

Bottom line? Plan your description as carefully as your META tags, using the same principles (see MYSS! for details).

When you buy your RealName, you'll also specify a URL to which it will point. Remember, the destination URL does not have to be your Home Page. For example, if you want to promote your e-zine, send visitors directly to the relevant page.

1) Just buy it (guess I should say "subscribe it") and see what happens. If the name is refused, you cannot get your $100 back -- it's their special "*NO* Money Back Guarantee!. But their keyword analysts will work with you to arrange a satisfactory name. Have backups ready.

Here's where to subscribe to your name... RealNames. Just hit "SUBSCRIBE" and follow the instructions (review all their policy links for the most up-to-date info). Keyword analysts will review your application and notify you of the final approval of your RealName via email within 72 hours. If they reject it, they'll contact you and work with you to find a satisfactory alternative.

Note: After you're set up, you'll be able to login to a customer section where you can...

edit your description and the destination URL (sorry, you can't change the RealName itself). For example, during a special promotion or competition, or after a new product release, you may wish to point Internet Keywords to a different page.

2) Phone 1-888-869-9946 (6am through 6pm PST) or e-mail them at names@realnames.com -- see what they say. They're easy to reach by phone (I've talked to them several times while preparing this article), and they're very helpful.

Note: My recommendation is to buy one word and see what you can negotiate. Any serious business will treat a paying customer with more respect. They must be bombed with "lowballers" trying to get all kinds of RealNames accepted without paying a penny first. I'd be interested to hear your experiences here.

RealNames asks their keyword analysts to evaluate submissions according to one prime directive.

"An Internet Keyword request will not be
approved if the use of that Internet Keyword
would be inconsistent with user expectation.

This prime directive ensures that three
general criteria are applied:

o	no intellectual property infringement

o	no cybersquatting (the purchase of
Internet Keywords with the intention of
reselling them for a profit)

o	no intentional misdirection of users by
providing Website content which is
inconsistent with the generally accepted
meaning of the requested Internet Keyword."

One more thing... your RealName cannot have more than 80 characters, composed of your company or product name and no more than two keyword concepts.

Given the above restrictions, there's a fair chance that they'll turn down my first choice.

Why? Because it contains more than two keyword concepts. Also, the "advice" part is slightly off-target.

Note: In the "good old days," many people stuffed their RealName like a turkey. So you may come across the occasional super-long RealName (less and less, as they come up for renewal). Those days are gone. Still, two keywords will, if well chosen, give you good value.

Rationale: PG is both a book and software. So I could reasonably say that the name is appropriate and that there are really only two keyword concepts. Of course, it's arguable.

Rationale: The "Stocks" and "Stock" covers me for both singular and plural search. Do a search in RealName for "stock" or "gold stock" and you won't find PennyGold, although you will find PG for "penny stock."

Still can't come up with a RealName that makes them happy? Bottom line is this. If RealNames nickels and dimes you down to the point where it's not worth $100, you have two choices.

1) Forget all about it, if you have not yet bought. After all, it has to be worth the $100 and the time that you've put into this.

2) Buy just a single word, the best that they will allow, and see if it drives any sales to you.

STEP 7 - Happy? Do it all over again!
Things going well? Repeat the process. Get a little adventurous! For example.

I can't *really* use words like "quote" and "market" and "exchange" for PennyGold, because that would be a bit misleading. Still, I could make it "un-misleading."

GoTo.com shows that the "quote" and "broker" frequently combine with "stocks" or "stock". And, as of this writing, few companies turns up when you search for "stock broker" on RealNames! And not *too* many for "stock quotes," either.

I would set up a "landing page" with specific content that is appropriate for these RealNames, so that they would not object. The content would be relevant to the RealName, would be original and valuable to the visitor, and would lead into a click to the main PennyGold Web site.

Keep experimenting. As long as RealNames gives you a chance to earn a good return on each RealName, keep using them. If they want your money but don't want to provide the benefit, read the next issue of the EDGE.

Note: Want to see a smart company in action? See all the RealNames that Barnes & Nobles have bought. Study them and you'll find some smart strategies.

The Bottom Line -- the Long Term
"How do I get my money's worth?" Here's the wrap up.

1) Pick the right words (related to your product, high popularity, low RN dilution, and unlikely to be "sold out").

4) Experiment and negotiate to get the best RealName possible. Remember, you're a customer now!

5) Start with just one RealNames... your very best effort. If it goes well, grow the program.

First, estimate the traffic that your RealName will bring you. Then multiply by your Conversion Rate and Profit-Per-Sale. Does this produce at least $500 of profit? (What's the point of losing money?)

Here are the GoTo stats for the SPECIFIC words in the above RealName (the nonspecific will have too many RealName competitors and the visitors will tend to be less targeted -- so I ignore these, even though they will bring some business).

According to WebSnapShot, AltaVista does roughly two-and-a-half times the number of searches as GoTo.com.

According to DoubleClick, AltaVista generates 35 million searches per day. And according to RealNames, AltaVista generates 2 million clicks per day on that link that says "Click here for a list of Internet Keywords related to ...".

So when someone looks up "penny stocks," there is a 5.7% chance (2/35) that the searcher clicks on the RealNames link that will then expose PennyGold to that person.

Let's assume that the average user only clicks on one RealName after arriving there via AltaVista. That means you should divide the 5.7% by the number of other companies who dilute you, allowing also whether you appear prominently or not in the results.

Allowing for the number of competitors for each of the above words in my RealName, I'll estimate that my new RealName will have an average 1-in-5 chance of being clicked AFTER the searcher gets to the RealNames listing by clicking on that link at the top of the AltaVista results page.

That results in 162 visitors per month. If you convert 1% of visitors into sales, and if you average $100 per sale, your $100 investment at RealNames will return $162 per month, almost $2,000 for the year. Not bad at all!

This is rough, of course -- but it's a starting point. Yes, you'll actually get some extra traffic from other sources. But AltaVista will be, by far, the #1 source. And don't forget that other companies will compete by adding similar generic words onto their names AFTER you buy your RealName, reducing your expected return.

So, allowing everything else to cancel each other out... all in all, this little calculation is a pretty good estimate.

The sale of "generic" words is disturbing. It may be good business for them, but you have to judge whether it makes sense to buy words that are likely to get sold, decreasing (or totally eliminating) the value of your RealName.

Also, if the Search Engine partners *all* decide to return *exact* matches only, RN becomes worthless -- so watch AltaVista.

Remember this -- no one looks for *you*, unless you're Microsoft. When you buy a RealName, you're really buying the "generic add-ons." If the engines don't deliver on that, and if not enough people use an RN-equipped browser.

Over time, more and more companies will buy RealNames. So more and more results will turn up for a word like "penny stocks," diluting the value of your RealName because of the lower chances of getting the actual click to your site.

With all these trends, the time will come when RN may simply not be worth it for "the little guy."

Three different RealNames support staff all said that the way to use RealNames is for searchers to find the exact match... that buying RealNames with "generic words added onto your company name" is the wrong way to go.

Since that's the only way to go for entrepreneurs and small businesses, I can't help but think about poor Abe's Software all over again. Be careful... don't depend on a generic word that is likely to get sold.

Did you find this article useful and interesting? Would you like to read similar articles by Ken Evoy? Issue #3 was on the Open Directory and Issue #5 is on GoTo.com.

Well, unfortunately you can not subscribe to the newsletter. It is only sent out to customers of Dr. Evoy's excellent book on ecommerce selling, "Make Your Site Sell!". This is one book I can't recommend highly enough and it only costs $24.95 Canadian Dollars (Approx. US$17.).

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Everything You've Ever Wanted to Wanted to Know About Realnames - Part Two

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