Labor Day Recap: Vinyl Wall Art Is Now My Top Search Term
Nice to have a day off! Good luck to people being affected by Gustav today and the upcoming days. Being in Houston, what has happened to New Orleans could just as easily have happened to us.
Back on June 21st, I revisited trends from previous posts to see how they were doing. Well, I’m doing it again. I won’t bore you with a recap of every post, but there are a few I wanted to go over starting with the most important one:
Aug 11th - Vinyl Wall Art
I never would have expected it, but the vinyl wall art post has become my most popular post of all time in just under 3 weeks. Not because domainers love it or are linking to it, but because of loads of organic traffic. Vinyl wall art is my number one search term now, even higher than domain related keywords (geodomains is second, in case you were curious). I suppose that’s kind of embarrassing for a domaining blog to admit.
But I think this shows how hot this trend really is. And to give you an idea of what people are typing to find vinyl wall art (at least the ones that got to my site):
- vinyl wall art
- vinyl wall designs
- vinyl art
- vinyl wall
- vinyl sticker wall art
- uk vinyl wall art
- big wall art
- vinyl people wall art
- vinyl wall art home
- how to make vinyl wall stickers
- vinyl wall art blog
- vinyl wall looks real
- vinyl for wall art
And these are directly related to my suggesting that ’80s vinyl wall decals were going to be a big subniche:
- nes vinyl wall
- star wars vinyl wall decals
- star wars wall vinyl
- wall decal big nickelodeon commercial
- ghostbuster wall art (yea, for real)
- mario vinyl wall art
- andy warhol wall decal (Hate to say it, but I told ya so!)
Yea, people really typed those in to get to my blog. Perhaps I should change my focus? hehe…
If TrendDomaining.com is ranking real high for these keywords and people are clicking on them, then the supply is not meeting the demand. Hint hint.
Aug 14th - Olympics
I said that Michael Phelps could do for swimming what Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods did for basketball and golf, respectively.
Of course, it’s too early to tell. But this NY Times report proves this trend is on the right track. From the article: “I don’t want this sport to be an every-four-years sport,” said Phelps. “In between the four years, there’s really not as much exposure as I’d like.”
Aug 7th - Oil Bubble
Well, on August 7th crude oil was about $118 a barrel. Yesterday, August 31st, it was at $120. Not a burst. But it’s still almost $30 lower than it’s high in July. The price of gasoline has gone down, but it doesn’t seem to reflect the huge drop in crude these past 2 months. That’s because these crude oil barrels are futures; the current price of crude is for Octobers gasoline. So don’t fret, the bubble is bursting, even if the price of gas doesn’t reflect it completely; it should come October. Yes I said “should.” Hurricane Gustav or many other things may have a say in it.
Either way, speculators are moving on to something different. Soon we should start seeing reports of money being pumped into alternative energy like never before.
July 7th - Home Servers and Movies-on-demand Boxes
Of course, not long after I wrote this post, news of a Netflix box hit Yahoo. Genius. Blockbuster announced their kiosk business model, which is identical to Redbox and too little too late. It’s just not enough. Netflix gets it, Blockbuster doesn’t.
Vudu has a sleak new box, but it’s still not comparable to what Netflix has.
I feel that eventually every (fortunate) home will have either a home server, movie box or both.
June 30th - Bamboo
I still think bamboo will be one of the biggest trends of the upcoming decade. It just has so many answers for the world.
Though not a site of authority, here is a post that claims bamboo clothing is the next big eco-trend. Here is another company putting it all in on bamboo clothing.
Bamboo is helping computers go green with ASUS finally rolling out it’s bamboo notebooks, Dell’s Hybrid and SimpleTech releasing these nifty external drives.
Since the post, I was able to pick up a couple decent bamboo names:
- BambooRoofing,com
- ShopBamboo,com
Grab bamboo domains now while they’re cheap.
Fantasy Football Is Not The Only Fantasy In Town
Fantasy Football (FF) is not new, after all I started playing it in 1997 when I took a rookie named Corey Dillon and everyone thought I was crazy. That marked the beginning of my years of total ownage in this mouse-potato game. In the past few years it has grown absolutely huge, and there is plenty of money involved both online and offline. Offline FF is fun. It’s like herding wet cats, but it’s fun.
Justin over at NameBio is hosting a league this year. I’m excited to participate and look forward to some good times.
But this post isn’t entirely about FF, as everyone is familiar with it by now.
To round out the big four of sports, fantasy basketball and hockey are played, but not hugely popular. Fantasy baseball is more widespread, but is still not even close to touching football. I don’t see these three becoming any more or less popular anytime soon.
Other sports that have joined the fun are golf, soccer, wrestling and auto racing. But they haven’t shown continuous growth.
There are a few that have been steadily growing, such as cricket, tennis, rugby and fishing, as shown in this Google Trends report. Sure, they won’t reach anything close to FF’s height, but you don’t need to work with the top dog to make money.
Though FF has spawned fantasy games in other sports, you will find the biggest uphill trend in non-sport fantasy games.
Do you cheer when a bill is passed? Then perhaps Fantasy Congress is the game for you. Yea, you read that right.
Movie junkie (like me)? Then join the Fantasy Mogul league.
When an athlete commits a crime, are you always saying “I KNEW it was a matter of time before he got caught firing off a gun at a nightclub” ? Well, then this sports criminal fantasy league is for you.
Celebrity hound? Well there’s plenty out there for you, such as this.
Everyone loves music. So obviously there would be a league for that too.
Expect a growing trend of non-sport fantasy leagues. Spouses of FF gamers will want to offset the craziness with something of their own. I can see this trend getting bigger and bigger.
So, (most) domainers don’t have the skills to create fantasy leagues from scratch. The thing to sell here is information. Fantasy gamers eat it up. They aren’t satisfied with getting info from just one site, they go from site to site digesting everything they can. They want to win and are willing to do an awful lot to make sure that they do, including spending money. They will pay for information. They will buy guides and excel spreadsheets. All you need to do is get ranked by Google.
With that said, the corresponding domain names should work as well. Most of this would be generic keywords, so trademarks shouldn’t be a problem. Try formats like:
- XXXXFantasy.com
- XXXXFantasyLeague(s).com
- XXXXFantasyGuide(s).com
- XXXXFantasyHelp.com
- XXXXFantasyDraft.com
- XXXXFantasyCheatsheet(s).com
- XXXXFantasyTips.com
- XXXXFantasyPicks.com
- XXXXFantasyGame.com
- XXXXDraft.com
- XXXXDraftHelp.com
- XXXXGuide(s).com
- XXXXFAQ.com
- XXXXLeague(s).com
Know what I want to see? A Domain Name Fantasy League. I know I’m not the first, because someone has already registered all the best appropriate domains and they’re all parked. I was still able to register a couple: DomainingLeague.com and DNFantasyGame.com.
Instead of predicting stats, you can predict domain sales. The more accurate you are, the more points you win. Why has someone not done this yet? Domainers love to predict sales. They love to speculate on how much a domain is worth. Sports are seasonal. Not domaining; this is year-round. You can make the seasons as long as you want.
Someone will have the time and resources to do this, and it will be a hit.
You heard it here first.
Olympics Provide Some Obvious, Some Not-So-Obvious Domaining Opportunities
The Olympics are trodding along, complete with heroes, villains and controversy. As you know, the location for the Olympics is chosen many years in advance. For instance, the 2016 summer Olympics may be held in Chicago (it’s a finalist). Domain Name Wire has reported on a domain name dispute related to Chicago’s Olympics.
I wanted to talk about trends related to the Olympics and how you can take advantage of them. There are plenty of domaining opportunities here while still avoiding the trademarks. The most obvious and easy way to find domains is to find out where the Olympics are being hosted.
- 2010 Vancouver, Canada
- 2012 London, England
- 2014 Sochi, Russia
The 2016 Olympics has not been awarded yet, but Chicago is the U.S.’s official nomination for the games and is considered one of the top candidates.
Though it’s not entirely too late to cash in on these, it’s much easier looking even farther ahead. The best time to register the names is REAL early on when there are whispers and rumors. Cities like Sion, Salzburg and PyeongChang have tried for many years to get awarded an Olympics, and have actually come real close on several occasions. It’s safe to say they will be chosen to host an Olympics in the (relative) near future.
Your best chance is with a rumored city as soon as it has become a rumor. Cities whose names have been thrown around are Sarajevo, Poprad and Jaca. Sure it’s a big risk to register Jaca2016.com, Jaca2018.com (taken!) and Jaca2020.com. I guess you just need to weigh your personal risk versus reward.
So these are the long term investment/risk, but they can really pay off for you if you have the patience. But let’s look a little deeper.
For as long as anyone can remember, the Olympics have been a time of truce and world peace. Some say the main reason the Olympics were started by the Greeks was to give warring clans a breather. Is that true? Who knows. It’s just interesting. The point is that there is an unofficial, but historical, truce between nations during the Olympics.
You may have heard about the recent trouble between Georgia and Russia, amazingly just 25 miles from the 2014 Olympic host city of Sochi. I’m not hear to argue whether who instigated the war or not or who is in the right and who is in the wrong. Many people are quite upset at Russia’s reaction (again, whether it was justified or not isn’t the point here). So much so that there are whispers that Sochi may lose its 2014 Olympics. This is a big deal, and an opportunity for domainers. if this becomes a reality, a new city will need to be chosen. And instead of having to wait until 2020 for your domains to reach peak value, you ‘only’ have to wait six years for 2014.
So who could replace Sochi? The two other cities that were up against Sochi were Salzberg, Austria and PyeongChang, South Korea. If anything, they would be the top two choices to replace Sochi.
But like I said, this would be a huge deal. Real low possibility. High Risk. Huge reward.
Moving onward.
The location of the Olympics isn’t the only source for domaining. Unless you live in a cave, you’ve heard or seen Michael Phelps win a gold medal or two. He now has 13 medals, 11 of which are gold; the most of any Olympian in history. Some are calling him the greatest ever.
Athletes like Michael Phelps come along every once in a while, and they can do miracles for their sports, gender and/or heritage, such as:
- Michael Jordan, for basketball. Sure there were others. But he put it on the map like no other.
- Tiger Woods, for golfers.
- Babe Ruth, for baseball.
- Billie Jean King, for female athletes.
- Secretariat, for horseracing. Yea I know he’s just a horse. But he wasn’t. He inspired a nation.
- Jackie Robinson, for African-Americans and those who saw no barriers.
- Jessie Owens, for ALL Americans and doing it in Hitler’s homeland.
- Lance Armstrong, for bicycling and those who have to overcome illness.
- Pele, for soccer.
- Muhammad Ali, for boxing.
These athletes inspired millions. Kids grew up wanting to slam like the Sultan of Swat, be like Mike and dance on a field like Pele. I don’t care if you hate soccer, pull up some video of Pele and tell me you are not awed and inspired.
These athletes change the sports they play. They change the attitudes of the people. They inspire others to be great, and bring hope to those in need when times are down.
If Michael Phelps is being lumped in with these greats, it bodes well for swimming. Kids that love to swim are watching him in awe right now. They want to be the next Michael Phelps, as will millions of others.
The sport of swimming is being given a gift. All those inspired by Phelps will want to take lessons with their new goggles and swim trunks… or build a pool in their backyard.
Everything related to swimming should increase in popularity over the next few years.
And so should the related domains.
Special atheletes can do this for their sport.
Sports Expansion Teams Open Window For New Domain Niche’s
Ever since the 1990’s, professional sports leagues have been expanding at amazing rates. Since 1990, Major League Baseball has added 4 teams, the NFL 5 teams and the NBA 3 teams. But the real explosions have been the NLL (National Lacrosse League) with 14 teams, the MLS (Major League Soccer) with 8 teams and the NHL with 9 teams.
Expansion teams provide a load of potential as far as domain names are concerned, as long as you avoid the trademarks. In 2009, the MLS is expanding with the Seattle Sounders FC. Registering seattlesounders.info is not a wise decision. However, seattlesoccertickets.com will work and potentially be a steal.
Cities love to rally around their sports franchises, even if they suck or are part of an insignificant league. Recent examples (within 10 years) would be the NHL’s Minnesota Wild, MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks and even the NFL’s Houston Texans. These cities (and states) love their teams. The Texans have been horrible ever since they came into the league, but they are a merchandising gold mine here in Houston.
Upcoming expansion teams:
- 2008 MLS - San Jose Earthquakes
- 2009 MLS - Seattle Sounders FC
- 2009 NLL - Boston Blazers
- 2010 MLS - Philadelphia (unnamed)
I put these cities along with some keywords into the Domain Research Tool and I came up with the following available domains:
sanjosesoccertickets.com
sanjosesoccerclub.com
sanjosesoccerteam.com
sanjosesoccercamp.com
sanjosesoccerlessons.com
seattlesoccertickets.com
seattlesoccerteam.com
seattlesoccercamp.com
seattlesoccerlessons.com
bostonlacrossetickets.com
bostonlacrosseclub.com
bostonlacrosseteam.com
bostonlacrossecamp.com
bostonlacrosselessons.com
philadelphiasoccertickets.com
philadelphiasoccerteam.com
philadelphiasoccerlessons.com
phillysoccertickets.com
phillysoccerclub.com
phillysoccerteam.com
Every single one of these domains can be monetized. These keywords are about to get big in these cities and now is the time to snap them up.