Suresh Raghavan Interviews Me

In the third series of interviews, Suresh Raghavan (Founder of NicheJobs.COM), interviews me. It was a pleasure talking with Suresh and glad to share my experiences related to .in domains.  Without further delay, here is the summary of the talk:

  • I introduce myself to the viewers and how I got into domaining.
  • I talk about my website domainmarket.in and the two sections with it.
  • Discuss  about my portfolio & what domains I tend to register.
  • Some facts about LLL.IN and LLLL.IN and the rise of LLLL.IN .
  • Summary of Make In India and Digital India.
  • Pricing strategies and negotiating.
  • Evaluating if sales can be publicize.
  • Development plans for bikes.in and the developed domain bob.in .
  • What registry changes can increase the scope of.in .
  • Future of .in domains.
  • Suresh ends with advice to newbies looking to get into .in domains.

Enjoy the video and please subscribe to the Suresh’s channel on youtube.

Sample Size and Sampling

Another off-beat post and the reason I bring this post up is to show that a small sample size is sufficient for most needs. You might have heard during elections that there are tons of opinion polls about the election result. Also, notice that every poll has small print at the bottom giving the margin of error. Usually it is between 3-5%. So how do they arrive at this number?

It is simply the power of sampling, and by just taking a survey of around 1,000-2,000 people, a margin of error of ~3% can be reached. Without kicking around the bush, the general way to calculate margin of error in sampling is by this formula:


E \equiv \frac{1}{\sqrt{n}}

The above is NOT an exact formula for margin of error but an approximate one. In the above formula, n is the sample size and if we plug in 1000 for n, we get around 3.16% . Basically, I’m trying to explain that as n being just 1,000 , would not give a large margin of error.

Of course, opinion polls cannot always predict the outcome of an election because of several factors (even if you account for margin of error):

  • Selection bias: Usually folks being surveyed may be of the same demographics and hence not representative of the whole population.
  • Lying on the survey: People lie on the polls.
  • Do not vote: Some do not vote on election day.
  • Change mind: Some will change their mind on election day.
  • Method of sampling: There are many ways to sample, and each method has its own set of pros and cons. You can check the Wikipedia page for more details.

So, how is this related to domains or .in domains in general? Well, it all boils down to the number of reported .IN sales over the years, as you are aware, fewer sales are made public and thus difficult to gauge the trend of value of the domain. If you look at the sales page I maintain here; there are about 1,000 sales in there. This might seem small at first compared to .COM and others ccTLDs, but these are good enough sample size to gauge a pattern/approximate value.

Suresh Interviews Paul Singh (Indy)

In the second interview, Suresh interviews Paul Singh, fondly know as Indy to friends. Indy needs no introduction; he is the person behind price.com and proud owner of several keywords .in  and probably the undisputed king of keywords .in domains.

Here is the summary of the interview:

  • Indy introduces himself & gives a glimpse of his enterprising mind when he tried to create an online food ordering system in the late 90s (Way ahead of the times !!)
  • A bit about Indy got into domaining with a yuuge sale
  • Indy talks about price.com
  • How & why Indy moved to .ins in 2007
  • What strategy Indy follows for pricing
  • Indy speaks about the Gaadi.in INDRP
  • Finally Indy’s prediction for .in domains in the coming years.
  • Suresh gives us an example of how prime location in virtual world is as important as the physical world.

Please subscribe to the channel and spread the video. Thank you !!

Evaluating Different Kinds of LLLL.IN Names — Part 2

In the second part of the series, I intend to pick a few types of LLLL.INs and delve into detail. The first part of the series is here.

Let’s look at CVCV, VCVC and ABAB types of .IN names here. As you are aware CVCV are highly sought after type in the LLL.IN space. The reasons for this is because of alternating consonants and vowels which lend itself to be easily pronounceable, and hence brandable. Similarly, VCVC are also pronounceable. While there is a strong CVCV.IN buyout, we don’t have a VCVC buyout, yet. You can see the available names here. I’m not sure what the reason is, but I would like to theorize that this could be because CVCV.COMs are highly valued domains and the general trend of what could be good for .COM is also deemed effectual for .IN might apply here.

The total number of different CVCV combinations: Doing the maths, we get 21 x 5 x 21 x 5 = 11,025 different combinations of CVCV names. Download the combination here.

The total number of different VCVC combinations: Doing the maths, we get 5 x 21 x 5 x 21= 11,025 different combinations of VCVC names. Download the combination here.

ABAB is an interesting pattern. Not all of them are easily pronounceable
but because of the brandable potential and rarity, these are all registered.

The total number of different ABAB names: Doing the maths, we get 26 x 25 = 650 different combinations of ABAB names. Download the combination here.

Now, a domain can be both a CVCV and ABAB, for example, DODO or PAPA, etc. Similarly, there are VCVC and ABAB names like OTOT, EMEM, etc.

The total number of CVCV and ABAB names: Doing the maths, we get 21 x 5 = 105 different combinations of names that are both CVCV and ABAB. Download the combination here.

The total number of VCVC and ABAB names: Doing the maths, we get 5 x 21 = 105 different combinations of names that are both VCVC and ABAB. Download the combination here.

Check out the Venn diagram for the above the types — CVCV, VCVC, and ABAB here:

Intersection of CVCV, VCVC and ABAB type of LLLL.IN domains

 

If You Are a .in Domainer , Why Should You Blog ?

This blog had its first post in 2011, and now it is 2016 and I have managed to score about 30 posts before this one. I admit to some extended pauses in blogging, but the good news is that my most recent attempt at resuming blogging has me posting about 25 blogs so far. What I’ve realized about blogging is that it’s hard to be disciplined enough to blog on a regular basis. There are other factors influencing this as well:

  • What do I blog about? This is the hardest part when it comes to blogging, especially regarding the .IN domain space, which is a ccTLD. There simply isn’t much happening in such a short time span; so thinking up a topic to write about takes a lot of creativity.
  • How large is the audience? When I first started blogging there were not a lot of .IN domainers out there, so the largest audience I would possibly reach was about 10 to 20 enthusiastic followers of my niche extension. It has since improved so the audience size has grown substantially, which makes getting feedback and encouragement a lot easier.

There are a few other factors, like setting up the blog, getting a reliable host, beautiful templates, the appropriate plugins, etc., but now that it’s 2016 these are no longer issues. If I’m missing something, please let me know.

Now that I’ve discussed the hindrances of blogging in the .IN domain space, what are some of the positives?

The most important factor is that you can spread awareness about the extension. This is vital if you have invested in .IN domains. The Indian registry, which didn’t promote .IN until a few months ago, has now started doing social media campaigns, although this isn’t enough. As responsible .IN domainers, we can control our own destiny blogging on a regular basis to give .IN ccTLDs more name and brand recognition among the other extensions.

Other benefits:

  1. Earn money blogging: The easiest way to earn money by blogging is to put up ads.
  2. Improve writing skills: Not everyone is a good writer, so writing blogs helps us think more clearly so that we can enhance our written communication skills, which will serve us well when working at a job.
  3. Make friends in the industry: The domaining industry is still quite small, so it is possible to know a lot of them. Blogging can help you make more friends and/or acquaintances.

Please do not think of me as being patronizing in this post. I’m just trying to encourage more .IN domainers to start blogging. I would also appreciate it if you would leave feedback as to what you think and any suggestions as to how I can improve.