《Mike Carson Park.io Interview》
《迈克卡森 Park.IO访谈》
原文：http://www.domainsherpa.com/mike-carson-parkio-interview/
关键：Mike: 我有建站的需求，常常想获得一些.IO域名。于是我写了程序监控它们，然鹅常常被人捷足先登。
About the Interviewee
Mike Carson is the founder and programming guru behind Park.io, a domain name backordering service for .io, .ly and .my country code top-level domain names.
Carson is also the chief technology officer of WizeHive and a seasoned system architect and developer. He studied computer science at the College of Wooster and the University of Minnesota, and has been active with technology for the last 15 years both as a developer and well-respected blogger.
关于受访人
Mike Carson是 Park.io 背后的创始人和编程专家，是.io，.ly和.my国家代码顶级域名的域名回购服务。
Carson还是WizeHive的首席技术官，也是一位经验丰富的系统架构师和开发人员。他曾在伍斯特学院和明尼苏达大学学习计算机科学，在过去的 15 年里，他一直活跃于技术领域，既是开发人员，也是备受尊敬的博主。
On today’s DomainSherpa show, I interview the founder of a drop catching service that focuses on .IO, .LY and .ME top-level domains. Why do I think it’s worth your time as an investor? Because I picked up a .IO domain for $1,655 and in 30 days flipped it for $6,000. Stay tuned.
在今天的访谈中，我将与一个域名抢注服务商 Park.io 的创始人进行洽谈。Park.io 专注于 .IO 、 .LY 和 .ME 等国别后缀域名的抢注服务。为什么我认为这个访谈值得您试以投资人的身份投入时间来观看呢？因为我为支付 $1655 购买了域名 php.io ，在30天后，我以 $6000 转手卖出，获得200%的利润。
Michael Cyger：大家好。我的名字是Michael Cyger，我是 DomainSherpa.com 的出版商 – 该网站可以直接向专家学习如何成为成功的域名投资者或企业家。我不记得我是如何偶然发现我们今天要了解的投掷服务，但我拿起了一个 1655 美元的域名，我认为这个域名在名为 Flippa.com 的以技术为导向的市场上会卖得很好。
域名是 PHP.io，如果你对编程有所了解，你就会知道PHP是迄今为止互联网上最常见的服务器端语言。它被Facebook，WordPress，亚马逊使用，所以我在30天内以六千美元的价格翻转了这个域名，扣除经纪人费用后的利润约为3450美元或200%的初始投资也就不足为奇了。
我会让你知道我的秘密，尽管这样做让我很痛苦，因为当你开始去那里时，我可能再也不会在投掷服务上得到另一笔交易了。今天，我很高兴地欢迎 Park.io 创始人迈克·卡森。欢迎来到这个节目，迈克。
迈克·卡森：谢谢。谢谢你邀请我。
Michael：所以，Mike，我要请你分享你的屏幕，并引导我们完成 Park.io 服务，但我首先想更多地了解 Park.io 的背景。你为什么要建造 Park.io？
迈克：嗯，我一直在技术和发射场，所以我试图得到一些.IO域和我对此非常警惕。我看了又看，我甚至有一个剧本检查它，但还是有人打败了我，他们得到了我想要的域名。这真的很令人沮丧，所以我所做的就是我学到了更多关于它的知识。我想弄清楚，然后我想出更多关于它的信息，他们什么时候下降，他们什么时候下降，哪些下降，然后我进入了整个事情。
我开始围绕它编写脚本，它变得更具竞争力。我发现还有其他几个人也在做这件事，所以我们互相竞争，我的剧本不断改进，他们到了击败所有人的地步。所以，在那个时候，我想我不妨打开这个，因为没有其他的.IO 抢注服务在那里，所以我决定打开它。
迈克尔：对。那么，为什么.IO？首先，什么是.IO，对于任何不知道它是什么的人？
话筒：。IO代表印度洋，但对于黑客来说，它是输入输出。我的意思是基本上这就是它的意义所在。是的。呵呵。我们，黑客，把它看作是输入输出，很多科技公司，比如我一直在阅读黑客新闻，很多网站正在那里，很多其他正在启动网站的计算机程序员正在做。乔普。所以，是的，它代表印度洋，我认为它是由英国政府管理的，但是是的，它是投入产出。
Michael：好的，所以它是印度洋的国家代码顶级域名，也是底层的。
迈克：是的。
Michael：黑客喜欢它，你提到了Hacker News，我曾经经常在 News.Ycombinator.com 阅读Hacker News。当你说黑客时，你如何用一句话来描述黑客？
迈克：一句话。好吧，黑客只是一个喜欢解决问题和构建东西的人。我就是这么看的。
Michael：编程，对，比如通过网站提供服务或产品。
迈克：通常，不一定是这样。我的意思是电子产品。可能有电子黑客或其他类型的。
迈克尔：好的，太好了。很多黑客都看到了.IO和他们多年来一直对此产生亲和力。他们看到很多黑客朋友都在使用 .IO，所以他们想拿起一个.IO也是。
迈克：是的，现在它背后有一个意义。现在。IO背后有一种文化。当您看到 .IO域名，至少当我和其他人这样做时，就像我们在去之前就对它的内容有了更多的了解，这就是我认为很多价值也来自它的地方，它背后的整个动力和它背后的文化。
Michael：嗯，这是一个很好的观点，它背后的这种势头并不是由刚刚推出的新顶级域名创造的，就像数百个新的顶级域名一样。这是一个已经出去一段时间了。快速的旁注，您如何看待所有这些新的顶级域，例如.将于2015年推出的APP。商店。WEB – 你的名字？
迈克：是的，我真的不知道。就我个人而言，我认为他们需要取得成功。如果有一家成功的公司建立在这些领域之上，并且人们有榜样，或者它开始围绕TLD发展一种文化，那么我认为人们会因此而倾向于它。这就是为什么我认为.IO 域。它背后有一整套文化，所以它有价值。我认为，如果他们能做到这一点，我认为这需要由在这些顶级域名上构建产品的人来领导，那么他们就会有这样的价值。这是我的意见，但我知道的不多。我的意思是我只在域中工作了一年。
迈克尔：只有一年？
迈克：是的。
Michael：那是你第一次开始写这个剧本的时候，在你把它商业化并提供给其他人之前。你只做了大约一年。
迈克：是的。
Michael：你什么时候推出 Park.io 服务？
迈克：那是去年六月，去年六月底。
迈克尔：2014年6月。哇，好吧。以及您将尝试为人们提供哪些顶级域名。
迈克：现在，在 Park.io，我们这样做。IO， .LY，和.狮子座
迈克尔：好的，还有。我认为，LY 是列支敦士登或利比亚的国家代码顶级域名。
迈克：利比亚。
迈克尔：利比亚。和。ME 是另一个国家/地区的国家/地区代码顶级域名。
迈克：黑山，是的。
迈克尔：对。那么，为什么要使用国家代码顶级域名呢？是什么驱使你选择这三个人首先推出这项服务？
迈克：我的意思是，他们基本上都围绕着文化。所以。IO是一种域。它是输入输出。我们已经将 TLD 更改为表示输入输出，并且.LY 用于域黑客攻击。例如，Bold.ly 或 Local.ly 售价约为十万美元。因此，您可以创建这些很酷的黑客，但这并不意味着。利比亚并不像您可以围绕它进行的黑客攻击那么重要，与.我也是。我想这只是我感兴趣的东西，因为您可以使用周围的名称创建黑客。
而且，没有任何缺货服务。LY 或 .IO，所以我创建了它来为此提供服务。
迈克尔：很酷。因此，如果我今天去 Park.io，我想为其中一个.IO，我们将确切地看到它是如何工作的，您的服务费用是多少？
迈克：嗯，下订单不需要任何费用，只有当你得到域名时，你才需要付费。因此，如果您为域名进行抢注，而我们为您获取域名，并且您是唯一进行域名抢注的人，则需要支付 99 美元的费用。如果其他人也下了缺货订单，那么它将进入为期十天的公开拍卖。
Michael：十天的公开拍卖，任何报名参加 Park.io 的人都可以参加拍卖。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。好吧。如果我是唯一一个看到域名被拍卖并出价的人，我看到了 99 美元。这对你来说不是太多的利润，因为如果我去 Nic.io，我看到.IO，注册表。IO，它将花费我 60 英镑，总部设在美国，注册一个.IO域名，大约是90美元。
迈克：是的，如果只有一个，会有一小笔费用，但很多利润来自拍卖。
Michael：是的，所以基本上，如果有一个或多个竞标者，你会出去抢域名，然后你以常规的注册费抢夺它，然后你向任何想竞标的人开放。届时将确定市场价值。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：知道了。好吧。您通过服务在拍卖中出售的最昂贵的域名是什么，您的服务能够快速捕获然后出售？
迈克：SMTP.io。有几个人。我猜人们在看。所以，我们所做的是——好吧，当我说我们时，我只是指我。我一直这样做。我不知道。一旦你成为一个网站，你开始称自己为我们，但无论如何。当 Park.io 获得域时，我们会将 DNS 更改为重定向到 Park.io。所以，例如，SMTP.io。当我们得到这个时，我们重定向到拍卖页面，所以这就是很多人找到 Park.io 的方式。他们正在研究 SMTP.io，因为他们想在它掉落时注册它，当我们得到它时，他们看到了，所以他们去拍卖并开始竞标。
有相当多的公司想要 SMTP.io 最终SendGrid以6，385美元或类似的价格获得了它。
Michael：SMTP是一个技术缩写。它代表什么？
迈克：好问题。
迈克尔：来吧，迈克。你可以的。
迈克：邮件协议。
迈克尔：邮件传输协议。我也不知道S是什么，但是是的，如果您曾经设置过iPhone并想将其连接到邮件服务器，则需要输入pop服务器或SMTP服务器，这是技术上的。
迈克：是的。
Michael：所以，一些公司真的很想要它，SendGrid，一个作为服务提供商的大型软件，实际上选择了它。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：很好。所以，你实际上是自己写的剧本。你不仅仅是那个有这个想法的人。嘿，没有掉落服务。我将开始并聘请一个程序员来构建它。你是企业主，你是程序员。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：哇。
Mike：是的，我进入它的全部原因是因为我对它是如何工作的感兴趣，并找出最有效的方法来获得一个域名的瞬间。我认为你真正能做某事的唯一方法就是这样。我的意思是这只是我的意见，但我觉得如果我只是聘请一个程序员，他们就不会有热情来让它变得如此出色。我为这个脚本感到自豪，因为它工作得很好。所以，在前六个月，我在 6 月推出，到 12 月，我们已经 100% 得到了。百分之百是完美的。每一个.Park.io 上订购的IO域，这是我们得到的数百个订单。没有人能打败我们。
迈克尔：哇。
迈克：它变得如此好的原因是因为我真的很感兴趣，而且它很有竞争力。以前，几个月前，有人偶尔会打我。
迈克尔：是的，我可以证明这一点。我想我已经通过你的服务购买了四五个域名，每一个都被抓住了。在大多数情况下，我是唯一的竞标者，这可能并不能说明我的投资技巧，但后来你确实抓住了一些拍卖，我以更多的价格赢得了他们。所以，是的，我会证明这一点。你发现你的大多数客户，Park.io 的大多数注册用户都是投资者，还是你发现很多最终用户已经发现.IO，很多黑客都发现了.IO 并发现 Park.io 是那些即将到期的名字的最佳捕手？
迈克：我认为主要是域名投资者。这些是普通用户，因为老实说，这是一种获得折扣域名并以更多价格出售它们的方式。我知道很多用户甚至以99美元的价格获得它们，然后以数千美元的价格出售它们，但是每隔一段时间，就像我说的，我将域重定向到 Park.io，因此一些正在寻找该特定域的最终用户通过这种方式找到 Park.io。
迈克尔：是的。您是否跟踪您在 Drop.io 捕获的域名，因为投资者或用户想付钱给您以捕获它，然后跟踪它们以找出他们以后的销售价格？
Mike：我的意思是我在Flippa上很活跃，所以我经常看，而且我和一些用户保持联系，他们告诉我。实际上，在博客上，我发布了很多关于翻转它的人的成功故事。
迈克尔：很酷。范围有多大.IO域名通常在Flippa上？
迈克：嗯，它正在增加。我的意思是我认为，就像一年前一样，没有多少.Flippa上的IO域名现在变得越来越漂亮，但我仍然认为有很大的增长潜力。我的意思是我认为现在Flippa上最高的那些 – 我认为 SEO.io 去了11000。但是如果你看一些销售历史。IO域，有几个大概有3万到4万个，但后来大多是五到一万个。
迈克尔：所以，SEO.io 实际上是我的，但我不是通过你的服务购买的。他们肯定在升温。因此，从注册费到最高一万美元，您会说这是.现在的 IO。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：永远。IO，不像 CoffeeMug.io。这不会在Flippa上出售，对吧？
迈克：是的。我的意思是看起来是这样。我想对于那些现在愿意出售的人来说。如果你想持有，我敢打赌你以后可以得到一些东西，但现在看来，正在销售的东西正在围绕这一点。
迈克尔：是的。那.LY 和 .我的域名？你看到那些在Flippa上以几千美元的价格出售的人吗？
话筒：。LY肯定有很多兴趣。我不认为他们现在有嗡嗡声.IO确实如此，但我认为它们仍然卖得很好。我的意思是我见过很多，我个人卖了一些很好。但。我看不出我对.LY 和 .IO，但也许是因为我没有那么多好的，或者我没有看到那么多好的在 Flippa 上销售，但我现在只是没有看到像对其他人那样多的兴趣。
Michael：你提到黑客对.乔普。这就是你看到的实际支付零售市场价格的人吗？IO 和 .今天是LYs？想要将它们发展成企业的人。
迈克：是的。是的，我想是的。我的意思是很多人看到了它背后的文化，所以他们想在其中推出他们的产品。
迈克尔：很酷。好吧，让我们这样做。让我们转到对话，开始屏幕共享，然后我将在您引导我们完成 Park.io 服务时进行屏幕截图。
迈克：好的，当然，听起来不错。你能看到吗？
迈克尔：我可以。是的，完美。
迈克：好的。所以，是的，当您来到 Park.io 时，我们会显示下周将删除的域列表。
Michael：嘿，Mike，在我们进入之前，让我澄清一下地址栏中的URL是 Park.io.dev 的。那是您的开发服务器。如果人们访问 Park.io，他们将看到您的主页，其中描述了该服务。如果他们想访问该应用程序，那就 App.Park.io 了。所以，这是两个网址。Park.io 然后 App.Park.io。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：好的。当有人去那里时，无论他们是否登录，这都是他们在应用程序主页上看到的。
Mike：是的，它显示了下周删除的域列表，从今晚删除的域开始。然后有不同的选项卡，所以它以 .IO 域，但您可以切换到 .LY 或 .狮子座因此，如果您想购买域名，只需单击它。
迈克尔：我们开始了。我只是为你紧张了一秒钟。
迈克：有一些开发的东西。因此，首先，您必须注册，因此您只需创建一个用户名和密码，然后同意我们的服务条款。您应该单击以阅读这些内容。
迈克尔：我同意什么，迈克？它只是说我要买我说我要买的东西或其他东西。
迈克：是的。是的，我猜。
迈克尔：好的，去阅读服务条款。然后，当您来到这里并找到要购买的域名时，请单击它或单击视图。
迈克：是的，然后你点击抢注域名。而且您必须输入信用卡。现在，除非我们为您获取域名，否则不会向您收费，但您必须输入它才能保护域名。因此，您将在此处输入您的姓名，电子邮件地址，然后这只是一个测试卡号。因此，您只需单击以抢注域名，然后它就会进入您的订单。因此，它就在那里，然后当您登录时，您可以在订单选项卡中单击此处以查看订单状态。在这里，您可以查看订单。
Michael：这个什么时候真正掉落，你的剧本会试图抓住它？
Mike：嗯，这是我的开发服务，所以这个可能已经更新了，但它今天会下降。大概是今天。
迈克尔：知道了。
迈克：所以，你会在今晚或明天晚些时候检查一下，看看我们是否为你准备好了。
Michael：好的，如果你也能抓住它，你的系统会发送一封电子邮件。
迈克：是的，一旦我们更新订单，它就会发送电子邮件。
Michael：Mike，我有没有办法知道其他人是否已经对域名进行了抢注？
迈克：不，没有。
迈克尔：你为什么要这样做？
迈克：其实我也不知道。我想这只是方式。是的，我不知道。
Michael：在某个时候，你刚刚决定，嘿，你必须对这些域名有一个好主意，如果你不能发现这些域名，那么其他人应该受益，而不必去拍卖。
Mike：我想也许我担心的一个问题是，也许有人会看到域名即将下降，如果他们没有看到任何其他域名抢注，但他们想要它，他们可能不会试图自己抢注并自己获取它。
迈克尔：哦，对了。好。好的，让我们再次单击顶部的域链接。所以，基本上有一些子标签可以让你查看下一个，我想你说，十天在每个标签上删除域名。
Mike：是的，所以你可以在这里翻阅，看看下周会掉落的所有不同域名。
迈克尔：好的。因此，请在此处查看此页面，.IO 将在 2 月 2 日下降。你认为其中哪一个，到这次采访播出时，这些域名已经下降了，但是你认为这些域名中的哪一个在Flippa上卖得很好，卖得超过99美元，假设只有一个人出价？
迈克：嗯，就我个人而言，我认为索尼克听起来不错。直觉可能听起来不错，但我的意思是这背后没有科学依据。这只是基于我的销售经验.IO 域，还可以查看已推出的产品。我的意思是，这与它的品牌性以及它听起来的真实程度以及它背后的含义有关。
Michael：所以，你实际上会在.IO扩展，而我在Flippa上出售的几个域名是简短的描述，例如用于搜索引擎优化的SEO或用于软件语言的PHP。你是否推荐一种投资方式而不是另一种投资方式，因为我知道你自己也做过一些投资？
迈克：嗯，就像我说的，我对这一切有点陌生，但我卖了很多.IO域和我在.IO域，我实际上编写了这个评估的程序。IO域，我认为它运行良好。我计划将其作为 Park.io 服务启动，因此您可以键入.IO 域，它将对其进行评估，并且特定于 .呵呵。我认为它在我见过的任何东西中做了最准确的评估，互联网上的任何其他服务。IO 域。
迈克尔：是的，很有趣。
Mike：当我为出售域名定价或考虑购买域名时，我会为自己使用它。我看一看。
迈克尔：好吧，我需要访问那个脚本，迈克，所以是的，让我们把它弄起来。
迈克：好的。
Michael：好的，这就是域部分。我们谈到了订单部分。什么是拍卖部分？
Mike：所以，是的，如果不止一个人缺货，然后他们去参加为期十天的公开拍卖，任何人都可以竞标，这就是域名的去向。所以，有一个拍卖清单。如果您访问 Park.io 网站，您将看到当前拍卖的列表。如果您注册我们的电子邮件通讯，每周您都会收到一封电子邮件，其中包含当前正在进行的拍卖。
迈克尔：知道了。现在，我真的很喜欢你的时事通讯，迈克，但我不认为它们每周都会来。您正在发送的那些手动通讯还是每周自动发送？
迈克：它们是自动化的。
迈克尔：好吧，我需要检查我的垃圾邮件文件夹。所以，这是一个拍卖的例子。如果我点击它，我可以看到当前的出价，我可以看到出价的数量，然后我可以自己出价。
迈克：是的。
Michael：这是一个很好、简单的系统。我喜欢您为简单起见而构建它的事实，并且它在我的手机上的外观和操作将与在网站上相同。很多时候，网站里堆满了一大堆东西，然后你必须去移动版本才能获得简单性，但你在这方面做得很好。
迈克：谢谢。
Michael：因此，我在NameJet和其他服务上注意到，您实际上必须在拍卖中出价才能成为之后举行的私人拍卖的一部分。如果有多个出价，您为什么决定将其设为公开拍卖？
迈克：这些都是好问题，但我对很多问题没有很好的答案，因为我提出了这个问题。启动网站背后的很多想法是，你只是把一些有用的东西放在那里，然后，根据反馈和事情的进展，你可以改变事情，所以我只是把它按原样提出来，到目前为止它似乎工作正常。
迈克尔：好的，太好了。如果人们确实注册了您的服务并成为客户并购买了域名并为您提供了反馈，那么提供反馈的最佳方式是什么？
迈克：嗯，你可以给 [email protected] 或 [email protected] 发电子邮件。
Michael：你做了我从互动中注意到的所有支持。
迈克：是的。
Michael：实际上这真的很快。
迈克：谢谢。
Michael：对于有另一份工作的人，我要问你。所以，我想问你的最后一件事是，一旦我在你的服务上赢得了一个域名，我该如何设置名称服务器，设置转发，获取授权代码 – 投资者和企业家通常需要访问和使用域名的东西？
Mike：是的，一旦您成功获得域名，您就可以转到“订单”选项卡，现在您拥有它，订单将显示为绿色，并且那里将有付款日期和总计。当您单击以查看它时，此处将提供用于更新DNS的不同选项。因此，您可以更新名称服务器。还有其他一些选择。我的意思是，其中很多都是面向域名投资者的，比如如果你想验证它，你可以设置一个 TXT 记录，或者你可以进行 URL 重定向。然后，如果您想转移到另一个注册商，您可以获取转移授权代码。
迈克尔：太好了。如果我不想转移它，因为你们的服务非常简单易用，我真的可以续订域名并将它们保留 Park.io 吗？
迈克：是的，我们将提供它。就像我说的，我们刚刚在六月份推出了这个，所以还没有真正出现。它不会再过五六个月出现，但是是的，我将为此提供一些选择。
迈克尔：太好了。知道定价是多少吗？如果我花了 99 美元来抢它，续订会是什么？
迈克：我还不确定。我仍然需要弄清楚，但不会更多。
迈克尔：好的。如果我购买了一个域名，然后我想将其推送给新的所有者，因为我，比方说，卖掉了它，有没有办法在 Park.io 上做到这一点？
迈克：是的，现在你可以给我发电子邮件，我可以处理它。
迈克尔：[email protected]。
迈克：是的。
Michael：太棒了，当我这样做时，这很容易，所以我很感激。我假设如果有足够多的人问你，你会想办法做到这一点。
迈克：是的。是的，基本上。
迈克尔：很酷。好吧，网站上还有什么您认为我们应该看看的吗？
迈克：我不这么认为。我的意思是博客。有一些有趣的故事。只是要指出，电子邮件通讯。您必须转到 Park.io 网页并滚动到底部并在此处输入您的电子邮件，这将为您注册每周发布的时事通讯。它有拍卖的更新，也有博客和其他东西的不同更新。
今天展会的三个赞助商的快速休息：
首先，您是否厌倦了在购买或续订域名时被追加销售和交叉销售？然后尝试从头开始构建的最新注册商，具有漂亮的界面、有竞争力的价格和 24/7 全天候支持。Uniregistry.com 会让你大吃一惊。正确的域名可以改变你的生活：Uniregistry.com。
其次，如果您是域名投资者，您是否有独特的法律需求，需要域名技术知识和行业经验？这就是为什么你需要Wiley Rein的David Weslow。如果您看过David的DomainSherpa采访，您就会知道他可以清楚地解释问题，并帮助您处理买卖协议，域名盗窃案件，UDRP诉讼，甚至网站条款和条件。大卫·韦斯洛（David Weslow）是呼吁互联网法律问题的律师。在 DavidWeslow.com 亲眼看看。
最后，如果您从私人方购买域名并想知道他们还拥有什么，那么您应该使用 DomainIQ.com 工具。查看他们的整个投资组合，按Estibot价值过滤，成为更好的投资者。每月 49.95 次查询 250 美元。访问 DomainIQ.com/portfolio 了解更多信息。
迈克尔：很酷。好吧，我将回去重新订阅它，因为我认为我过去得到了它，但后来它没有规律地出现。
迈克：好的。
Michael：好的，所以你可以继续关闭屏幕共享，这样我再见。棒。好的，所以我们浏览了服务和细节，所以每个人都知道它是如何工作的。迈克，在我们做教程之前，你提到过你实际上想抓住.IO自己，然后使用它们，正是通过优化脚本，你决定嘿，我也可以把它提供给其他人。几个。在过去的一年里，你在写这个剧本时抓住了IO吗？
迈克：我不知道。数百。
迈克尔：几百个？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：哇。您是否出售了其中的大部分，或者您如何处理它们？
迈克：我还有很多。我也卖了很多。所以，是的，我边走边卖，但是是的，这很有趣。这很有趣，因为它一开始只是一种爱好，这是一种爱好，但突然之间，就像在写剧本的几个月内，我有点像垄断市场，就像放弃了一样。IO域，并且达到这样的程度，以至于人们开始抱怨他们认为这不公平。他们向登记处抱怨，说他们认为这不公平，比如涉及一些作弊或其他什么，但我的意思是这一切都是先到先得。只是脚本的设计速度非常快。但无论如何，这就是 Nic.io 最终制作自己的抢注服务的原因。
迈克尔：那么，让我问你这个问题。因此，Nic.io 是 的注册表。IO 顶级域。您可以去那里查看他们的网站，看看他们最近刚刚提供了投递服务。迈克，我相信这项服务的运作方式是我可以支付50美元。假设我喜欢 SMTP.io，SendGrid刚刚通过您的服务以六千美元的价格获得的域名。假设我真的很喜欢这样，我想在到期时排在第一位，我想抓住它。我可以注册您的服务。好吧，不，我实际上甚至无法注册您的服务来获取它，因为您的域名只是肯定会在未来十天内过期的域名。
但是如果我去 Nic.io，我可以支付50美元，他们会监控它，当它到期时，我将是第一个排队的人，但它可能永远不会过期。这也是你的理解吗？
迈克：是的，你必须预付60英镑。
迈克尔：60磅。
迈克：是的，这是两年的延期交货，是的，你可能永远得不到它，但你必须为此付出代价。
迈克尔：是的，这似乎很高。60磅。90美元的东西可能永远不会过期。
迈克：是的。
Michael：至少在 Pool.com，在我意识到那里有一个完整的投资世界之前，我曾经抢过域名，只是从我自己的创业活动中，至少在那里我可以转移到另一个域名，如果它没有被拿起，我可以以其他方式使用它。我相信也有时间限制，但是是的，这很有趣。所以，他们创造了它。我假设如果一个域名即将到期，而我在 Nic.io 时进行了抢注，因为他们拥有游戏，他们可能会击败您的投掷服务。
迈克：是的，这是有保证的。这很有趣，因为这种情况刚刚发生，所以我不得不弄清楚该怎么做，所以我一直在做的是我一直通过他们的服务进行缺货，然后通过 Park.io，或者只是定期下降的订单，然后他们仍然可以以同样的方式订购。
Michael：他们会像你在 Park.io 那样，在 Nic.io 接受不止一个缺货吗？
迈克：没有。
迈克尔：不，只有一个。
迈克：先到先得，是的。
迈克尔：知道了。好吧。因此，您已经抢注了大量出色的域名。实际上，我发现您在Flippa上出售域名，因为我正在跟踪。IO，因为我正在销售一些.IO，然后我意识到嘿，这就是我一直在发电子邮件的人。而且你有很多伟大的.在Flippa上列出出售的IO，有人可以去那里查看您的个人资料。它向公众开放。
你有很多两个字母.IO。你通常认为这些值多少钱？
迈克：嗯，去年 ES.io 最近以3万美元的价格出售，但我的意思是，我个人不会以低于两千美元的价格出售其中之一，那是那些字母最差的人。但我的意思是我收集它们。我爱他们。我的意思是对我来说，只是它们太短了。它是一个两个字母的TLD和两个字母，因此它尽可能短.COM，总共四个字符。我不知道。
Michael：你收集它很有趣，因为它们不像.COM那样便宜，对吧？ .COM，你每年只为它们支付大约十美元，而.IO是最便宜的注册商之一，每年收费36美元。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：Nic.io，如果你直接和他们在一起，每年会向你收取90美元。现在，我知道他们有批量折扣，但它们仍然很贵。
迈克：是的，但我的意思是他们确实弥补了这一点。的销售情况为 .IO非常好。尽管它们很昂贵，但我认为它很容易收回成本。
迈克尔：是的。所以，你说.IO市场正在升温。你认为它有降温的潜力吗？你认为黑客会厌倦.IO在某个时候停止使用它们？
迈克：嗯，我的意思是任何事情都可能发生。在互联网上，事情会发生变化，所以我不认为它会很快发生变化，所以我认为会提前出现一些警告信号。现在它正在上升，所以我认为趋势将继续上升，直到它开始下降，但我认为会提前出现警告信号。但是，是的，我的意思是事情会发生变化。谁知道互联网会是什么样子？
迈克尔：你认为其中一个警告信号是什么？
迈克：嗯，我想到了几个。我的意思是，在黑客新闻上，如果你不再看到.IO服务以这样的频率列出，如果频率下降或在Flippa上，如果销售下降，甚至只是个人，如果你开始获得更少的报价和东西。所以，我认为会有很多警告信号，我不认为这会在一夜之间发生。这可能需要数年时间才能实现。
迈克尔：是的。你现在用自己的服务来捕捉和购买.IO域？
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：是的。如果您与我竞标并且我在系统上，您是否认为这是利益冲突？
迈克：嗯，我们不出价。我只会在我真正想要的域名时这样做，我不会在 Park.io 上列出它，因为这在一开始就出现了，当我推出它时，我决定我不会在自己的拍卖中出价。所以，我不竞标 Park.io 拍卖，但如果有一个我真正想要的域名，我只是不会在 Park.io 上列出它。
迈克尔：知道了。好吧。我正在查看 ICANN 的认可注册商，因为我想弄清楚 Park.io 是否是经认可的注册商，但事实证明，您不需要获得 ICANN 的认可即可获得国家/地区代码顶级域名的认可。这是对的吗？
迈克：是的。
Michael：是的，所以这是经营企业的好方法，当你不必与ICANN的官僚机构打交道时。
迈克：是的。是的，我猜。我已经研究了 ICANN 的认证，因为我考虑过进入.COM或其他什么，但我不知道。我只想坚持我现在感兴趣的事情。
迈克尔：是的。嘿，迈克，我不可能想出像 Park.io 这样的想法，然后继续找Elance或 Freelancer.com，并尝试雇用某人来编程你所做的工作。事实上，你已经编写了脚本，然后随着时间的推移对其进行了优化，并真正磨练以使其尽可能快和尽可能有效，这是 Park.io 系统所独有的。您是如何获得如此多的编程经验的？是什么允许您创建此服务？
Mike：嗯，我的意思是我一直对编程感兴趣。我从小就开始编程，所以基本上是我对编程的兴趣促使我做了很多，所以我获得了这项技能。所以，我认为如果你对这些东西感兴趣，那么你就会做得更好。
迈克尔：是的，这是你的全职工作吗？
迈克：没有。Park.io？
迈克尔：是的。
迈克：不，这是一个侧面。
迈克尔：请问你的全职工作是什么？
迈克：是的，我共同创立了 WizeHive.com。它是一种软件即服务业务。
Michael：WizeHive提供了什么？
Mike：它基本上就像一个在线数据库解决方案平台，您可以在其中获取大量数据并根据这些数据做出决策。所以，是的，它进展得很顺利。在过去的六年左右的时间里，我一直在研究它，所以它做得很好。
迈克尔：哇。你在WizeHive上有很多客户吗？它比 Park.io 大吗？
迈克：是的。是的，当然。
Michael：据我所知，你在WizeHive的角色是首席技术官。
迈克：是的。
Michael：所以你卷起袖子，实际上你在日常工作中做编码和架构，就像你在 Park.io 上所做的那样。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：很酷。我试图了解WizeHive是什么，我不确定记者是否无法理解你在2009年提供的内容，或者你的企业自2009年以来是否真的改变了模式。2009年，TechCrunch表示，你是一个群组消息传递和任务管理应用程序，就像Yammer或 Present.ly 一样。然后，在 2013 年，我读到您配置和部署基于云的产品，帮助公司组织、自动化和简化其业务活动。
迈克：是的。
迈克尔：这两种描述之间似乎有所不同。
迈克：是的，我们已经调整了一点，因为我们发现这样做似乎更感兴趣，更有用。利用我们所拥有的协作理念，并利用它来更多地关注和协作数据，并使其更多地关注数据和背后的流程。
迈克尔：是的，很酷。了解您作为首席技术官的背景以及您对域名及其价值的理解，我认识的大多数域名投资者都很乐意与像您这样的技术专家和程序员合作。对于不是技术人员，但拥有出色域名和出色商业理念的投资者，他们想要开发一个或多个域名，您有什么建议？
迈克：是的，我不知道。这对我来说有点难说，因为我来自事情的另一边，但我想我的建议是要么找到一个他们可以合作的技术性更强的人，一个他们信任和可以合作的人，并以这种方式与他们合作作为平衡， 提供不同的技能，或者它可能适用于您可以进行一些招聘的地方。只需聘请开发人员并尝试以这种方式工作。我想这将是我的建议。
Michael：Hacker News到处都是程序员，他们在那里评估事物，但很难结识新朋友。您是否会建议域名持有者参加某个聚会，以尝试在黑客社区中结识更多人？投资者如何认识像你这样的人？
迈克：这是个好问题。我在网上认识了很多人。例如，你。所以，我认为试着在黑客闲逛的地方闲逛，与他们开始对话，然后找出答案。甚至只是去Hacker News并参与那里的讨论，感受那里的不同人，并接触那里的不同人。
迈克尔：很酷。因此，WizeHive似乎是一个出色的应用程序，并且似乎 Park.io 是一个出色的应用程序。看来你在这里打了一千个，迈克。您是否曾经开发过没有起飞的应用程序？
迈克：是的。是的，很多时候。
Michael：你随手记得的是什么？
迈克：嗯，我做了一个网站，你可以像电子邮件一样输入，然后我们会手写。你会支付一小笔费用，然后我们会手写一封信并邮寄给某人。所以，我试着和一个朋友一起做了一段时间，但并没有真正奏效。我的意思是，我们有一些关于它的嗡嗡声，就像Pee-wee Herman在推特上说的那样。
Michael：你为这项服务选择了什么域名？
迈克：实际上我们使用的是 Letters.io。
迈克尔：Letters.io。
迈克：是的，但从那以后我让它过期了。
迈克尔：看，这太好了。你必须喜欢把闪光放在一个信封里，让人们把它散布到各个地方。这是问题所在吗？你太好了。
迈克：我不知道。我不知道这有什么问题，但我认为尝试一堆东西是个好主意，如果它不起作用，不要坚持太久。我试着给事情三个月的时间。如果你在三个月后没有看到牵引力，那就放下它，继续下一件事。
迈克尔：三个月。这似乎不是很多时间。
迈克：是的，我猜。我不知道。
迈克尔：尝试很多事情就是你所说的。
迈克：我想是的。也许如果有什么东西让我感觉更强烈，我会尝试更长的时间。
迈克尔：是的。您如何确定您提供的一项新服务（让我们称之为它）是否获得牵引力？比如你是如何确定 Park.io 是你会保留的，还是你决定关闭 Letter.io？
迈克：是的，这是一个很好的问题。好吧，基本上是我什至没有推出 Park.io。我把它放了上去，然后突然我有一个订单。我有一个订单，甚至没有告诉任何人，所以这是一个迹象，突然人们下订单说这是一项需要的服务。然后，如果人们愿意为您的服务付费，那么您就知道这是某种东西。始终如一地，月复一月，如果他们愿意这样做，那么我认为你有一个想法，它提供了一些有价值的东西。
迈克尔：是的，很好的建议。您拥有的哪个域名是您只是喜欢并希望您有时间开发的？
迈克：很多。我有很多想法，我很想发展。我认为这是我遇到的一个问题;是我真的很想继续下一件事这么多次。我喜欢 Auction.io 和我在 Park.io 上所做的拍卖工作，我认为拥有一个 API 对 Auction.io 来说真的很酷。拍卖平台或API，人们可以使用API在自己的网站上轻松拍卖物品。
迈克尔：是的，那会很酷。他们安装一个插件，比如一个连接到你的架构的WordPress插件，他们检查他们想要的东西，比如它有一个现在买的价格，或者它有这个功能或那个功能，突然它上线了。那真是太棒了。你应该这样做。
好的，如果你对迈克还有其他问题，请把它们发布在关于域夏尔巴的视频下面的评论中，我会请他回来回答尽可能多的问题。我鼓励你，正在观看这次采访的人，从你的电脑后面走出来，接触这个行业的人，你认为对你有益的其他行业的人。就像迈克说的，如果你想找到一个可以成为你想出去推出的新业务的对手的人，你必须开始结识新朋友并建立联系。
您所要做的就是首先发表一条评论，感谢迈克，或者感谢您讲述您的故事并描述您的服务。无论您想发布什么，只需从发表评论开始。我将是第一个向迈克表示感谢的人。
迈克·卡森，感谢您参加域夏尔巴秀，分享您的投掷服务、Park.io 的相互作用，并感谢您成为其他人的域夏尔巴人。
迈克：是的，谢谢你邀请我参加这个节目。
迈克尔：谢谢大家的收看。我们下次再见。
Michael Cyger: Hey everyone. My name is Michael Cyger, and I’m the Publisher of DomainSherpa.com – the website where you can learn how to become a successful domain name investor or entrepreneur directly from the experts. I cannot remember how I stumbled across the drop-catching service we are going to learn about today, but I picked up a domain name for 1655 dollars that I thought would do well selling on the mostly technology-oriented marketplace called Flippa.com.
The domain name was PHP.io, and if you know anything about programming, you know that PHP is by far the most common server side language on the Internet. It used by Facebook, by WordPress, by Amazon, so it is not surprising that I flipped that domain name for six thousand dollars in 30 days and a profit, after broker’s fees, of about 3450 bucks or 200 percent over my initial investment.
And I am going to let you in on my secret, even though it pains me to do so because I will likely never get another deal on the drop-catching service again when you start going there. Today I am pleased to welcome the Founder of Park.io, Mike Carson. Welcome to the show, Mike.
Mike Carson: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
Michael: So, I am going to ask you, Mike, to share your screen and walk us through the Park.io service, but I first want to understand a little bit more about the background of Park.io. Why did you build Park.io?
Mike: Well, I have always been into technology and launching sites, and so I tried to get some .IO domains and I was really vigilant around it. And I was watching it and watching it, and I even had a script checking it, but still somebody else beat me and they got the domain that I wanted. And it is really frustrating, and so what I did is I just learned more about it. I wanted to figure it out, and then I figured out more about it, when they drop, what time they drop, which ones are dropping, and then I got into the whole thing.
I started writing scripts around it and it got more competitive. I figured out there was a couple other people out there who were also doing it, and so we were competing with each other and my scripts improved and improved, and they got to a point where they were beating everyone. And so, at that point, I thought I might as well open this up because there were no other .IO backorder services out there, so I decided to open it.
Michael: Right. And so, why .IO? First of all, what is .IO, for anybody that does not know what it is?
Mike: .IO stands I guess for Indian Ocean, but for hackers it is input-output. I mean basically that is what it is about. It is .IO. We, hackers, see it as input-output, and a lot of tech companies, like I read Hacker News all the time and a lot of the sites that are going up there, a lot of the other computer programmers who are launching sites are doing .IOs. So, yeah, it stands for Indian Ocean and I think it is run by the British Government, but yeah, it is input-output.
Michael: Okay, so it is a country code top-level domain for the Indian Ocean and underlying whatever.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: And hackers like it, and you mentioned Hacker News, and I used to read Hacker News pretty regularly at News.Ycombinator.com. When you say hackers, how do you describe hackers in a sentence?
Mike: In a sentence. Well, hacker is just somebody who loves to figure things out and build things. That is how I see it.
Michael: Programming things, right, like services or offerings through a website.
Mike: Usually, it does not have to be. I mean electronics. There could be electronics hackers or other types.
Michael: Okay, great. And a lot of the hackers see the .IO and they have just, over the years, sort of affinitized towards that. They see a lot of their hacker friends using .IO, so then they want to pick up a .IO as well.
Mike: Yeah, and now there is a meaning behind it. Now .IO has a culture behind it. And when you see a .IO domain name, at least when I do and other people, it is like we know a little bit more about what it is about before we even go to it, and that is where I think a lot of the value is coming from it too, this whole momentum behind it and the culture behind it.
Michael: Well, that is a great point, and this momentum behind it was not created by a new top-level domain that has just been launched, like the hundreds of new top-level domains. This is one that has been out for a while. A quick side note, what do you think about all these new top-level domains, like .APP, which is going to be launched in 2015, .STORE, .WEB – you name it?
Mike: Yeah, I do not really know. Personally, what I think is they need to have success. If there is a successful company built on these domains and people have role model or it starts to develop a culture around the TLD, then I think people will gravitate towards that for that reason. That is why I think .IO domains. There is a whole culture behind it, and so there is value from that. And I think if they can do that, which I think needs to be led by people building products on those TLDs, then they will have value that way. That is my opinion, but I do not know that much. I mean I have only been in domains for like one year.
Michael: For just one year?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: That is when you first started writing this script, before you commercialized it and offered it to others. You have only been doing this for about one year.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: When did you launch the Park.io service?
Mike: It was just last June, the end of June of last year.
Michael: June 2014. Wow, okay. And what top-level domains will you try and drop-catch for people.
Mike: Right now, on Park.io, we do .IO, .LY, and .ME.
Michael: Okay, and .LY is the country code top-level domain for Lichtenstein, I think, or Libya.
Mike: Libya.
Michael: Libya. And .ME is the country code top-level domain for another country.
Mike: Montenegro, yeah.
Michael: Right. So, why country code top-level domains? What drove you to these three to first launch the service?
Mike: I mean they are all around basically the culture. So, .IO is kind of a domain. It is input-output. We have kind of changed the TLD to mean input-out, and .LY is used for domain hacks. For example, Bold.ly or Local.ly sold for like one hundred thousand dollars. So, you can create these cool hacks and it does not really mean. Libya is kind of not as important as the hacks that you can make around it, and the same with .ME too. I guess it is just the things that I am interested in because you can create the hacks with the names around it.
And also, there were not any backorder services for .LY or .IO, so I created it to provide a service for that.
Michael: Cool. So, if I go to Park.io today and I want to create a backorder for one of the .IOs, and we will see exactly how it works, how much does your service cost?
Mike: Well, it does not cost anything to place an order and you are only charged if you get the domain. So, if you place a backorder for a domain and we get the domain for you, and you are the only person that placed the backorder, it is a 99-dollar fee. If another person places a backorder also, then it goes into a ten-day public auction.
Michael: Ten-day public auction and anybody who is signed up for Park.io can participate in that auction.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. All right. And I have see 99 dollars if I am the only one that sees the domain name going to auction and places a bid. That is not too much of a profit for you because if I go to Nic.io and I see .IO, the registry for .IO, it is going to cost me 60 pounds, based in the United States, to register a .IO domain name, which is about 90 dollars.
Mike: Yeah, there is a small fee if it is only one, but a lot of the profit comes from the auctions.
Michael: Right, and so basically you are going to go out and grab the domain name if there is one or more bidders, and then you grab it for regular registration fee and then you are opening up to whoever wants to bid on it. The market value will be determined at that point.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Got it. All right. What is the most expensive domain that you have sold in auction through your service, that your service was able to catch quickly and then sell?
Mike: It was SMTP.io. There were a few people. I guess people were watching. So, what we do is – well, when I say we, I just mean me. I do that all the time. I do not know. Once you become a website, you start referring to yourself as we, but anyway. When Park.io gets a domain, we change the DNS to redirect to Park.io. So, for example, SMTP.io. When we got that, we redirected to the auction page, and so that is how a lot of people find Park.io. They are looking at SMTP.io because they wanted to register it when it was dropping, and when we got it, they saw, and so they go to the auction and start bidding on it.
There was quite a few companies that wanted SMTP.io and it ended up SendGrid had got it for 6,385 dollars or something like that.
Michael: And SMTP is a technical acronym. What does it stand for?
Mike: Good question.
Michael: Come on, Mike. You can do it.
Mike: Something mail protocol.
Michael: Mail transfer protocol. I do not know what the S is either, but yeah, if you ever setup your iPhone and you want to connect it to your mail server, you need to enter in either pop servers or SMTP servers, something technical.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So, some companies really wanted it and SendGrid, a large software as a service provider, actually picked up.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Nice. And so, you actually wrote the script yourself. You are not just the guy that had this idea. Hey, there are no drop-catching services. I am going to start on and go hire a programmer to build it. You are the business owner and you are the programmer.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Wow.
Mike: Yeah, the whole reason I got into it was because I was interested in how it all worked and figuring out the most efficient way to get a domain the instant that it drops. And I think the only way you can really do something is that way. I mean this is just my opinion, but I feel like if I just hired a programmer, they would not have the enthusiasm behind it to make it as good as it is. I am proud of this script because it works so well. So, for the first six months, I launched in June and through December, we had got one hundred percent. One hundred percent of it is perfect. Every single .IO domain that was ordered on Park.io, and this was hundreds of orders, we got. Nobody could beat us.
Michael: Wow.
Mike: And the reason it got so good is because I was just really interested and also it is competitive. Before, months before, there was somebody who every once in a while would beat me.
Michael: Yeah, I can attest to that. I think I have purchased four or five domain names through your service and every single one has been caught. In most cases, I was the only bidder, which probably does not say much about my investing skills, but then some of them that you did catch go to auction and I won them for more. So, yeah, I will attest to that. Do you find that most of your customers, most of the registered users of Park.io are investors, or do you find a lot of end users who have discovered .IO, a lot of hackers who have discovered .IO and figured out that Park.io is the best catcher of those expiring names?
Mike: I think it is mostly domain investors. Those are the regular users because honestly it is a way to get discount domains and sell them for more. And I know a lot of users even get them for 99 dollars and then sell them for thousands, but every once in a while, like I said, I redirect the domain to Park.io, so some end users who are looking for that specific domain find Park.io through that way.
Michael: Yeah. Do you track domains that you catch at Drop.io because an investor or user wanted to pay you to catch it, and then track them to find out what they sell for later on?
Mike: I mean I am active on Flippa, so I watch that a lot, and also I keep in touch with some of the users and they tell me. Actually on the blog I post a lot of success stories about people who have flipped it.
Michael: Cool. What is the range that great .IO domains typically go for on Flippa?
Mike: Well, it is increasing. I mean I think, just like one year ago, there were not many .IO domains on Flippa and now it is getting pretty, but I still think there is a lot of potential for growth. I mean I think right now the highest ones on Flippa are going for – I think SEO.io went for 11 thousand. But if you look at some of the sales history of .IO domains, there have been a few for like 30 to 40 thousand, but then it is mostly like five to ten thousand.
Michael: So, SEO.io was actually mine, but I did not buy it through your service. They are definitely heating up. So, anywhere from registration fee, up to ten thousand dollars you would say is the range for .IOs right now.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: For good .IOs, not like CoffeeMug.io. That is not going to sell on Flippa, right?
Mike: Yeah. I mean it seems that way. I guess for people who are willing to sell right now. If you want to hold, I bet you can get something later on, but it seems right now the things that are selling are going for around that.
Michael: Yeah. What about the .LY and .ME domain names? Do you see those picking up and gaining steam and selling for a few thousand dollars on Flippa as well?
Mike: .LY definitely has a lot of interest. I do not think they have the buzz right now that .IO does, but still they are selling pretty well I think. I mean I have seen a lot and I have personally sold some pretty well. But .ME I do not see as much interest as I have with the .LY and .IO, but maybe it is because I do not have as many good ones or I have not seen as many good ones sell on Flippa, but I just do not see as much interest now as I do for the other ones.
Michael: And you mentioned that hackers were interested in .IOs. Is that who you see actually paying the retail market price for the .IOs and the .LYs today? People that want to develop them out into businesses.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean a lot of people see the culture behind it, and so they want to launch their product inside of that.
Michael: Cool. All right, let’s do this. Let’s flip to conversation, start screen sharing, and then I am going to do a screen capture as you walk us through the Park.io service.
Mike: Okay, sure, sounds good. Can you see it?
Michael: I can. Yeah, perfect.
Mike: Okay. So, yeah, when you come to Park.io, we show a list of the domains that are dropping in the next week.
Michael: Hey Mike, before we get into that, let me clarify the URL in the address bar is Park.io.dev. That is your development server. If people go to Park.io, they will see your homepage, which describes the service. And if they want to get access to the application, it is at App.Park.io. So, those are the two URLs. Park.io and then App.Park.io.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Okay. And when somebody goes there, regardless of whether they are signed in or not, this is what they see on the app homepage.
Mike: Yeah, it shows a list of the domains dropping in the next week, starting with the ones that are dropping tonight. And then there are different tabs, so it starts with .IO domains, but you can switch to .LY or .ME. So, if you want to buy a domain, you just click on it.
Michael: There we go. I just got nervous for a second there for you.
Mike: There are some development things. So, first, you have to sign up, so you just create a username and password, and then agree to our terms of service. You should click to read those.
Michael: What am I agreeing to there, Mike? It just says that I am going to buy what I say I am going to buy or something.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I guess.
Michael: All right, go read the terms of service. And then, when you come here and you find a domain name that you want to buy, you click on it or click the view.
Mike: Yeah, and then you click on backorder domain. And you have to enter a credit card. Now, you are not going to be charged unless we get the domain for you, but you have to enter it just to secure the domain. So, you will type in your name here, email address, and then this is just a test card number. So, then you just click to backorder the domain, and then it goes into your orders. So, it is there, and then when you are logged in, you can click up here in the orders tab to see the status of your order. And over here you can view the order.
Michael: And when does this one actually drop that your script would try and grab it?
Mike: Well, this is my development service, so this one might have been renewed, but it would have dropped today. Probably today.
Michael: Got you.
Mike: So, you would check later tonight or tomorrow to see if we got that for you.
Michael: Okay, and your system will send an email if you are able to grab it as well.
Mike: Yeah, it will send an email once we update the order.
Michael: Is there any way for me to know if somebody else has already placed a backorder on a domain name, Mike?
Mike: No, there is not.
Michael: And why do you do that?
Mike: I do not know actually. I guess this is just the way. Yeah, I do not know.
Michael: At some point you just decided that hey, you have got to have a good idea for these domain names, and if you cannot spot the ones, then somebody else should benefit with not necessarily having to go to auction.
Mike: I guess maybe one of my concern was that maybe somebody would see the domain about to drop, and if they did not see any other backorders, but they wanted it, they may not try to backorder it themselves and get it themselves.
Michael: Oh, right. Okay. All right, so let’s click on that domain link at the top again. So, basically there are sub-tabs that allow you to look at the next, I think you said, ten days of dropping domain names on each of those tabs.
Mike: Yeah, so you can page through here and look at all of the different domains that are dropping in the next week.
Michael: Okay. So, look over this page right here, the .IO ones that are dropping on February 2nd. Which one of these do you think, and these will already have dropped by the time this interview airs, but which one of these domain names do you think would sell well on Flippa, sell for more than the 99 dollars assuming there was only one person that put in a bid?
Mike: Well, personally, I think Sonic sounds like a nice one. Intuitive probably sounds good, but I mean there is no science behind this. It is just based on my experience from selling .IO domains and also seeing products that are launched. I mean it has to do with like the brandability of it and just how it sounds really and what it means behind it.
Michael: So, you will actually buy brandables in the .IO extension, whereas a couple of the domains that I have sold on Flippa were short descriptives like SEO for search engine optimization or PHP for the software language. Do you recommend one way of investing over another, because I know you have done some investment yourself?
Mike: Well, like I said, I am kind of new to all of this, but I have sold a lot of .IO domains and I have done a lot with .IO domains, and I actually wrote this program that appraised .IO domains, and I think it works pretty well. I am planning to launch this as a service for Park.io, so you can type in a .IO domain and it will appraise it, and it is specific to .IO. I think it does the most accurate appraisal out of anything I have seen, any other services on the Internet for .IO domains.
Michael: Yeah, interesting.
Mike: And I use this for myself when I am pricing a domain for sale or when I am considering to buy a domain. I look at it to see.
Michael: All right, I need access to that script, Mike, so yeah, let’s get it up.
Mike: Okay.
Michael: All right, so that is the domain section. We talked about the orders section. What is the auction section?
Mike: So, yeah, this is where domains go if more than one person backordered them, and then they go to a ten-day public auction and anybody can bid on them. So, there is a list of auctions. If you go to the Park.io site, you will see a list of the current auctions. And if you sign up for our email newsletter, every week you get an email with the auctions that are currently going on.
Michael: Got you. Now, I actually enjoy your newsletters, Mike, but I do not think that they come every week. Are those manual newsletters you are sending out or are they automated to go out every week?
Mike: They are automated.
Michael: All right, I need to check my spam folder then. So, this is an example auction. If I click on it, I can see the current bid, I can see the number of bids, and then I can put in a bid myself.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: It is a nice, simple system. I love the fact that you have built this for simplicity and it is going to look and operate the same on my phone as it does on the website. A lot of times the website is cluttered with a whole bunch of stuff, and then you have to go to the mobile version to get access to the simplicity, but you have done a nice job on this.
Mike: Thanks.
Michael: And so, I notice on NameJet and other services that you actually have to have a bid in the auction in order to be a part of the private auction, which takes place after. Why did you decide to make it an open auction if there is more than one bid?
Mike: These are good questions, but I do not have good answers for a lot of them because I put it up. A lot of the idea behind launching a site is you just put something up there that works and then, based on feedback and how things go, you can change things, and so I just put this up as it was and it seems to work okay so far.
Michael: Okay, great. And if people do sign up for your service and become customers and buy domains and have feedback for you, what is the best way to provide that feedback?
Mike: Well, you can email [email protected] or [email protected].
Michael: And you do all of the support I have noticed from my interaction.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Which has been really fast actually.
Mike: Thanks.
Michael: For somebody that has another job, which I am going to ask you about. So, the last thing that I want to ask you about is once I win a domain name on your service, how do I go about setting the name server, setting a forward, getting the authorization code – the things that investors and entrepreneurs typically need to gain access and use the domain name?
Mike: Yeah, once you successfully get a domain name, then you can go to the orders tab and the order will show up as green now that you have it and it will have the paid date and total there. And when you click to view it, inside here will be different options for updating the DNS. So, you can update the name servers. There are some other options. I mean a lot of it is really geared towards domain investors, like you can set a TXT record if you want to verify it or you can a URL redirect. And then also if you want to transfer to another registrar, you can get the transfer authorization code.
Michael: Great. And if I do not want to transfer it, because your service is so simple and easy to use, can I actually renew domain names and keep them on Park.io?
Mike: Yeah, we are going to make that available. Like I said, we just launched this in June, so that has not really come up yet. It will not come up for another five or six months, but yeah, I am going to make some options available for that.
Michael: Great. Any idea what the pricing is going to be? If it costs me 99 dollars to grab it, what will a renewal be?
Mike: I am not sure yet. I still have to figure that out, but it will not be any more than that.
Michael: Okay. And if I buy a domain name and then I want to push it to a new owner because I, let’s say, sold it, is there a way to do that on Park.io?
Mike: Yeah, right now you can just email me and I can take care of it.
Michael: [email protected].
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Awesome, and it was very easy when I did that, so I appreciate that. I assume that if enough people ask you, you will create a way to do that.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, basically.
Michael: Very cool. All right, is there anything else on the website that you think we should take a look at?
Mike: I do not think so. I mean the blog. There are some interesting stories. And just to point out, the email newsletter. You have to go to the Park.io webpage and scroll to the bottom and enter your email here, and this will sign you up for the newsletter that comes out every week. And it has updates on auctions and also different updates from the blog and stuff.
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Michael: Cool. All right, I am going to go back and re-subscribe to that, because I thought I got it in the past, but then it did not show up with regularity.
Mike: Okay.
Michael: All right, so you can go ahead and turn off screen sharing, so I see you again. Awesome. All right, so we walked through the service and details, so everybody gets an idea of how that works. You had mentioned before we did the tutorial, Mike, that you actually wanted to grab .IOs yourself and then use them, and it is through optimizing the script that you decided hey, I can make it available to other people as well. How many .IOs did you grab in the past year plus in writing this script?
Mike: I do not know. Hundreds.
Michael: Hundreds?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Wow. And have you sold most of those, or what do you do with them?
Mike: I have a lot of them still. I have sold a lot of them also. So, yeah, I am selling them as I go, but yeah, it has been fun. It is interesting because it started out just as a hobby, and it is kind of a hobby, but then suddenly like within a few months of writing the script, I had kind of like cornered the market, like dropping .IO domains, and to such a level that people started complaining that they did not think it was fair. They were complaining to the registry and said that they did not think it was fair, like there was some cheating involved or something, but I mean it was all first come, first serve. It was just that the script was designed in a way that was really fast. But anyway, that is what made Nic.io eventually make their own backorder service.
Michael: So, let me ask you about that. So, Nic.io is the registry for the .IO top-level domain. You can go there and look at their site and see that they have recently just offered a drop-catching service. I believe the way the service works, Mike, is that I can pay 50 dollars. Let’s say I like SMTP.io, the domain that SendGrid just picked up through your service for six thousand dollars. Let’s say I really like that and I want to be first in line when that expires and I want to catch it. I could sign up for your service. Well, no, I actually cannot even sign up for your service to grab that because yours is only domains that are definitely set to expire in the next ten days.
But if I go to Nic.io, I can pay 50 dollars and they will monitor it and I will be the first in line when it does expire, but it may never expire. Is that your understanding as well?
Mike: Yeah, you have to pay upfront 60 pounds.
Michael: 60 pounds.
Mike: Yeah, and that is for a two-year backorder, which yeah, you may never get it, but you have to pay for it.
Michael: Yeah, that seems really high. 60 pounds. 90 dollars for something that may never expire.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: At least at Pool.com, where I used to grab domain names before I even realized there was a whole investing world out there, just from my own entrepreneurial activities, at least there I could transfer to another domain and if it did not get picked up, I could use it some other way. There was a time limit I believe on it as well, but yeah, that is interesting. So, they created that. I assume that if a domain name is expiring and I put in the backorder at Nic.io, because they own the game, they will probably beat out your drop-catching service.
Mike: Yeah, it is guaranteed. It is interesting because that just happens, so I have had to figure out what to do, and so what I have been doing is I have been backordering myself through their service and then putting it through Park.io, or just orders that drop regularly, then they can still be ordered in the same way.
Michael: And will they take more than one backorder at Nic.io, like you do at Park.io?
Mike: No.
Michael: No, just one.
Mike: First come, first serve, yeah.
Michael: Got you. All right. So, you have backordered a ton of great domain names. Actually I discovered you were on Flippa, selling domain names because I was tracking .IOs because I was selling some of the .IOs and then I realized hey, this is the guy that I have been emailing with. And you have got a ton of great .IOs listed for sale on Flippa and somebody can go look at your profile there. It is open to the public.
You have got a lot of two-letter .IOs. How much do you generally think those are worth?
Mike: Well, ES.io recently sold, last year, for 30 thousand dollars, but I mean I, personally, will not sell one of them for less than two thousand dollars, and that is for the ones with the worst letters or something. But I mean I collect them. I love them. I mean for me, it is just that they are so short. It is a two-letter TLD and two letters, so it is as short as the shortest .COM possible, four characters in total. I do not know.
Michael: It is funny that you collect it because they are not as cheap to collect as like a .COM, right? .COM, you are only paying around ten dollars per year for them, whereas .IO, one of the cheapest registrars is charging 36 dollars per year.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: And Nic.io, if you have it directly with them, will charge you 90 dollars per year. Now, I know they have volume discounts, but still they are pretty expensive.
Mike: Yeah, but I mean they do make up for it. The sales for .IOs are pretty good. Even though they are expensive, I think it easily pays for itself.
Michael: Yeah. So, you said the .IO market was heating up. Do you think that it has a potential to cool off? Do you think hackers will become tired of .IO at some point and stop using them?
Mike: Well, I mean anything can happen. On the Internet things change, and so I do not think it is something that would change fast, so I think there would be some warning signs ahead of time. Right now it is going up, so I think the trend will just continue going up until it starts going down, but I think there will be warning signs ahead of time. But yeah, I mean things change. Who knows what the Internet is going to be like?
Michael: What do you think one of the warning signs would be?
Mike: Well, there are a couple that come to my mind. I mean, on Hacker News, if you stop seeing .IO services listed there with such frequency, if the frequency goes down or on Flippa, if the sales go down, or even just personally, if you start getting less offers and stuff. So, I think there would be plenty of warning signs ahead of time, and I do not think it would be something that would happen overnight. It would take years probably for it to happen.
Michael: Yeah. Do you use your own service right now to catch and buy .IO domains?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: You do. Do you consider it a conflict of interest if you are bidding against me and I am on the system?
Mike: Well, we do not bid. I will only do it if there is a domain I really want, and I will not list it on Park.io, because that came up right at the beginning, when I launched it and I decided I am not going to bid in my own auction. So, I do not bid on the Park.io auctions, but if there is a domain that I really want, I just will not list it on Park.io.
Michael: Got you. All right. I was looking through ICANN’s accredited registrars because I wanted to figure out if Park.io was an accredited registrar, but it actually turns out you do not need to be accredited by ICANN for country code top-level domains. Is that correct?
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah, so that is a great way to run a business, when you do not have to deal with the bureaucracy of ICANN.
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, I guess. I have looked into the ICANN accreditation because I have thought about getting into .COM or something, but I do not know. I just want to stick with the things that I am interested in right now.
Michael: Yeah. Hey Mike, there is no way I could come up with an idea like Park.io and then go on to Elance or Freelancer.com and try and hire somebody to program what you have done. The fact that you have written the script and then you have optimized it over time and really honed down to make it as quick as possible and as effective as possible is something that is unique to the Park.io system. How have you gained so much experience in programming? What has allowed you to create this service?
Mike: Well, I mean I have always been interested in programming. I have been programming since I was a kid, and so basically it is my interest in programming that has just led me to do it a lot, and so I gained that skill. So, I think if you have an interest in that stuff, then you get better at it.
Michael: Yeah, and is this your full-time job?
Mike: No. Park.io?
Michael: Yeah.
Mike: No, it is a side.
Michael: May I ask what your full-time job is?
Mike: Yeah, I Co-Founded WizeHive.com. It is a software as a service business.
Michael: And what does WizeHive provide?
Mike: It is basically like an online database solution platform, where you can intake a lot of data and make decisions based on this data. And so, yeah, it has been going pretty well. I have been working on it for the last six years or so, so it is doing well.
Michael: Wow. And do you have a lot of customers on WizeHive? Is it bigger than Park.io?
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Michael: And your role at WizeHive I understand is Chief Technology Officer.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: So you roll up your sleeves and you actually do coding and architecture in your day job as you do on Park.io.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: Cool. I tried to understand what WizeHive was myself and I am not sure if journalists could not understand what you were offering back in 2009 or if your business has actually changed the model since 2009. In 2009, TechCrunch said that you were a group messaging and task management app, like Yammer or Present.ly. And then, in 2013, I read that you configure and deploy cloud-based products that help companies organize, automate, and streamline their business activities.
Mike: Yeah.
Michael: It seems like a difference between those two descriptions.
Mike: Yeah, we have pivoted a little bit because we found that there was more of an interest and more usefulness it seemed like in doing it. Taking what we had, the collaboration idea, and using that to focus and collaborating around data more and making it more about the data and the processes behind that.
Michael: Yeah, cool. Knowing your background as a CTO and your understanding of domain names and their value, most domain investors I know would love to work with somebody like you, a technologist, a programmer. What advice do you have an investors who are not technical, but have great domain names and a great business idea and they want to develop one or more of their domains out?
Mike: Yeah, I do not know. That is a little hard for me to say because I am coming from the other side of things, but I guess my advice would be to either find somebody that is more technical that they could partner with and somebody that they trust and can work with, and work with them that way as a balance, offering different sets of skills, or it may work where you could do some hiring. Just hire a developer and try to work that way. I guess that would be my suggestion.
Michael: And Hacker News is full of programmers that get on there and evaluate things, but it is tough to meet new people. Is there a certain meet-up that you would recommend that domainers go to, to try and meet more people in the hacker community? How can investors meet people like you?
Mike: It is a good question. I have met so many people just online. For example, you. And so, I think just try to hang out where hackers hang out and start up conversations with them, and just find out. Even just going on Hacker News and participating in the discussions there, and getting a feel for the different people there and reaching out to different ones there.
Michael: Cool. So, it seems like WizeHive is a fantastic application and it seems that Park.io is a fantastic application. It seems like you are batting a thousand here, Mike. Have you ever developed an application that did not take off?
Mike: Yeah. Yeah, a lot of times.
Michael: What is one that you remember offhand?
Mike: Well, I made this one website where you could type in like an email message and then we would handwrite. You would pay a small fee and then we would handwrite a letter and mail it out to somebody. So, I tried doing that with a friend for a little while and that did not really work. I mean we got some buzz around it, like Pee-wee Herman tweeted about it.
Michael: What was the domain you picked for that service?
Mike: Actually we were using Letters.io.
Michael: Letters.io.
Mike: Yeah, but since then I let it expire.
Michael: See, it is too nice. You have got to like put glitter in an envelope for people to spread it all over the place. Is that the problem? You were too nice.
Mike: I do not know. I do not know what the problem was with that, but I think it is a good idea to try a bunch of things, and if it does not work, do not stick with it too long. I try to give things three months. And if you are not seeing the traction after three months, then just drop it and move on to the next thing.
Michael: Three months. That does not seem like very much time.
Mike: Yeah, I guess. I do not know.
Michael: Try a lot of things is what you are saying.
Mike: I guess so. Maybe if there were something that I felt more strongly about, I would try longer.
Michael: Yeah. And how do you determine if a new service, let’s call it, that you are offering is getting traction? Like how did you determine that Park.io was one that you would keep versus Letter.io that you decided to close down?
Mike: Yeah, that is a good question. Well, basically what it was is I did not even launch Park.io. I put it up and then suddenly I had an order. I had an order without even telling anyone about it, and so that was a sign right there that suddenly people are placing orders that this was a service that was needed. And then if people are willing to pay you for your service, then you know that it is something. Consistently, month after month, if they are willing to do that, then I think that you have an idea that it is offering something of value.
Michael: Yeah, good advice. What is one domain that you own that you just love and wish you had time to develop?
Mike: A lot. There is a lot of ideas I have, and I would love to develop. I think that is a problem I have; is I just really want to move on to the next thing so many times. I like Auction.io and my work that I have done with auction stuff on Park.io, I think it would be really cool on Auction.io to have an API. A platform or an API for auctions, where people could easily auction things themselves on their own websites using an API.
Michael: Yeah, that would be cool. They install a plugin, like a WordPress plugin that hooks into your architecture, and they check off the things that they want, like it has got a buy it now price or it has got this functionality or that feature, and suddenly it is live. That would be awesome. You should do that one.
All right, if you have additional questions for Mike, please post them in the comments below this video on Domain Sherpa and I will ask him to come back and answer as many as he can. I encourage you, the person who is watching this interview, to get out from behind your computer, reach out to people in the industry, in other industries that you think would be beneficial to you. Just like Mike said, you have got to start meeting people and making connections if you want to find maybe somebody that can be your counterpart on a new business that you would like to get out and launch.
All you have to do is start by posting a comment that says thanks Mike or I appreciate you telling your story and describing your service. Whatever you feel like posting, just start by posting a comment. I am going to be the first to say thanks to Mike.
Mike Carson, thank you for coming on the Domain Sherpa Show, sharing the interworkings of your drop-catching service, Park.io, and thanks for being a Domain Sherpa for others.
Mike: Yeah, thanks for having me on the show.
Michael: Thank you all for watching. We’ll see you next time.