Q&A with Max Ralli, of DomainsBot

Max Ralli, of DomainsBot recently contacted us to tell us how much he loves Domaining Blog. He also told us about some new labs that his company DomainsBot recently conducted and we thought that it would be a great idea to ask him to partake in a Q&A, being that his company DomainsBot is a leading domain name technology company that has developed a lot of great tools for registrars and the domaining community alike.

Here is what Max Ralli of DomainsBot had to say:

Q: db – What is your full name, where are you from and how did you first come to be involved in domaining?

A: MR – My name is Max Ralli, I’m 24 and I’m from Rome, Italy. I started my first internet business in 2000. I was 18 at that time and the internet had just started to spread in Italy. I immediately understood I could take advantage of this new and powerful tool, and I did it; starting a company that provided information on expired and expiring domain names.


Q: db – What was your first domain name related project and how did it influence you to stay involved with domaining throughout the years?

A: MR – Everything started during the spring of year 2000: I was in high school, and with a lot of spare time. I had just discovered the internet with my best friend, Daniel; we spent most of the Spring and the Summer playing with this new amazing toy that seemed to give our business dreams a chance to turn into reality. It was up to us; we just needed to find an industry to play in. Eventually we discovered the domain name industry. It took less than a month to learn more about it and to realize our first website, called LocalWhois. We had a small office in my house basement, no technical skills and no money. But we had a dream, and we were ready to do anything to realize it.

LocalWhois used to sell memberships to access daily lists of domain names that were due to expire. LocalWhois is still there, we just changed its name to a more easy-to-remember one: ExpiredDomains.com. Our main goal with this website is to a complete suite of web-based domain tools and services based on those used by the professionals to uncover the best expired and expiring domains. The hardest part has been to find an effective way to make them easy to understand and use for the beginner, and at the same time useful and irreplaceable for the expert user.


Q: db – How did your current project, DomainsBot, originally come to be?

A: MR – The idea came up while we were attending our first ICANN meeting: it was set in Rome, an opportunity we couldn’t miss! During the meeting we met people who run the domain name companies we always admired and that, at the same time, we always considered so far away from us. We realized we wanted to become a part of this industry, and we found out how in April 2004, when we discussed over a cup of coffee the basics of our new project: a project able to solve the every domain is taken syndrome. We understood we couldn’t do this alone, so we teamed up with PhatSoft, a young and hungry software development company, and started to plan the new DomainsBot, featuring FirstImpact, a powerful name suggestion technology. We also understood that we were young and inexperienced, and we needed somebody who could give the company a value you can’t buy at stores: business and life experience. This time too, we did things the right way, and we approached Mr. Antony Van Couvering, the founder and former CEO of a successful company later sold to Verisign: NameEngine.


Q: db – How many people are currently employed by DomainsBot and what roles do they play in the company?

A: MR – At the beginning, it was just Daniel and I. Then, we got more people in: Antony Van Couvering, who brought in the company his decennial entrepreneurial experience (he started and sold three Internet domain name companies, and founded the International Association of Top Level Domains); Emiliano Pasqualetti, an experienced business management engineer who now works as COO; the three guys forming Phatsoft, that brought an immense technological value in the company by writing all the code behind our technologies and services. I also called in different well known people that brought added value in their field of competence: Cameron Powell, who formerly worked at SnapNames, Jason Brightman, who took care of our image through his artistic skills – he is the designer of famous magazines including King Magazine, XXL and Vampirella. There are many more: while I can’t mention everybody here, I know it’s thanks to everybody’s contribution we got here!


Q: db - How much time and energy actually goes into producing cutting edge domaining tools and technologies? What kind of thought process do you go through before you actually begin a new project?

A: MR – The whole process of developing new domain technologies and services always takes a lot of time and efforts. When you start developing something new, you must have a clear idea of where the market is heading, and of its needing. We usually get this by keeping in touch with the key players in the industry, with our clients, and with our users. Once a project starts, it’s important to focus on a specific goal, and concentrate on it the multiple phases and activities of the people involved.


Q: db – What other domain name related technology and domain name tools has DomainsBot developed and what registrars are currently using your technology and domain name tools?

A: MR – Besides our name suggestion, we developed different services based on our main technology. The first one is the DomainsBot Splitter, an advanced tool that takes any domain list and splits it into single words. (Is the phrase "domainsnow" really "domains now" or "domain snow" or "do mains now"?). The second available service is DomainsBot Aftermarket, a service that can be used by aftermarket websites to let their users take advantage of our technology to search their domain database, and finding not only domains that match their input, but also their concept. Several large registrars are now successfully using one or more products of our suite, including GoDaddy, Tucows, BulkRegister and eNom.


Q: db – What exactly can a domainer do with your technology and tools and how will using DomainsBot technology and tools benefit them?

A: MR – Domainers can take advantage of our technology to find great domain names that match the concept they are looking for. We make our name suggestion technology available for free at our retail website, DomainsBot.com. We packed the site with additional tools to help people brainstorm about their domain, including the chance to refine the synonyms our technology use to generate new domains. The same service is empowered by our aftermarket technology to find any expired, expiring and for sale domain that match the user’s original concept.


Q: db – Is there any fee to use the DomainsBot tools? If so, how much?

A: MR – We commit to make all of our products free to use on our website. There’s a fee to use our services for commercial purpose. You can learn more about this in our partners area.


Q: db – Do you have any new domaining related technology and/or tools in the works at this time?

A: MR – Yes, we are working on several different things. You can take a sneak peek in our labs section. A couple of really interesting projects which are not available to the public yet include a domain categorizer which take advantage of our technology to semantically understand and therefore categorize domain names. Another tool is the DomainsBot zonefile search, which lets you search the entire database of registered domains for a concept (i.e. you type in Apple and it will tell you all the domains actually registered that contain the concept behind it – therefore it will also return domains containing Macintosh, iPod, etc).


Q: db – DomainsBot recently did a couple of studies on domain names. Can you please tell us more about that and what you discovered as a result of these studies?

A: MR – We delivered statistics about the secondary market domains that help domainers to identify the “hottest” value driver and to have a better comprehension about domain trends. We show how semantic keywords affect value with a predictable trend and how the “nouns” are the most valuable kind of keyword especially for composed domains.


Q: db – Does DomainsBot currently have any studies in the works that domainers should be on the lookout for?

A: MR - The next study will be about “categorized domains”. We will use our domain categorizer (still in development) to understand the categories that sell best in the domain aftermarket.


Q: db – Now we know that you develop domain name technology and tools for domainers and registrars but are you actually a domainer yourself? How often do you actually participate in other aspects of domaining and what aspects of domaining are you directly involved in?

A: MR – I started as a domainer, and then moved to the “other side” to start developing services for domainers. I love the domaining world, and I read a lot about this, trying to keep increasing my understanding of the market. Unfortunately, I can’t make enough time during the day to actively play in it!


Q: db – How many domain names do you currently hold and what would you say your most prized would be at this time? How much has your portfolio been speculated to be worth?

A: MR – For the reasons above, I do not own a lot of domain names. We as a company registered all domains that match our company name and trademarks, and a few generic domain-related domains. We haven’t sold any yet since we decided not to enter the secondary market as a player, but as a service provider.


Q: db – In your opinion, what is it that you believe makes a domain name valuable?

A: MR – There are several factors that make a domain valuable. They mostly depend by what is the use you expect to make from a domain. If you are buying a domain for reselling or monetization purpose, I would definitely suggest to get names with search engine placement and a good stream of converting traffic (with a CTR of at least 15%). The .com extension is not mandatory in this case. If you are buying a domain to develop a website, I would definitely get a .com name, which is easy to remember, semantically close to the concept you are developing the website for, not composed of more than 3 keywords, and without dashes and numbers.


Q: db – What tips could you give to the rest of the domaining community that you believe makes one a successful domainer?

A: MR – Be smart and learn everything you can about the developments in the industry. In order to be successful – in everything – you must keep moving, learning more and taking advantage of the innovations as they are introduced in the market. This doesn’t only apply to registering domains, but also in finding new ways to monetize, promote and eventually develop them.


Q: db - Where do you see domaining heading in the future? In what ways do you think it will be different from now?

A: MR – I think the domains will play a large role in the overall online advertising, an industry that is experiencing an astonishing growth rate. The community started using them for this purpose by showing advertising links related to the domain concept. While I do not criticize or praise this practice, I anyway think this is a very primitive way to monetize out of domain names, and not only it doesn’t add value to the domain name itself and the whole market, but creates confusion in the internet user as it finds advertisement while looking for content. I therefore believe the market will evolve this concept to a contextual adv and website-like parked domains, with content instead and associated to advertisement. This will bring several advantages to both advertisers, domainers and internet users. Specifically, the value I see for domainers is in increasing the CTR, adding value to the parked website which will not only be based on PPC income but also in a growing user portfolio and an higher returning visitor rate, and giving it a potential higher resell value. I understand this may not be easy when you have thousands of domains, I’m therefore convinced this must be automatic.


Q: db – Do you have anymore projects in the works that the domaining community should be on the lookout for?

A: MR – Yes, of course. This is our job, after all! But, as of today, I cannot disclose much detail about them. We love to be seen as innovators in the industry, and we will always try to match the expectations this commit us to.


Q: db – Do you have anybody that you would like to thank for helping you get to where you are today?

A: MR - Definitely, when we decided to create the new DomainsBot, we also understood that we were young and inexperienced, and we needed somebody who could give the company a value you can’t buy at stores: business and life experience. That’s why we approached Mr. Antony Van Couvering, the founder and former CEO of a successful company later sold to Verisign: NameEngine. In September Antony visited us in Rome, and he was amazed by our technology, our company philosophy and our enthusiasm. My first impression when I saw him in the airport? Gosh, this is the first time I work with somebody who’s older than 23! It took a minute for him to understand he wanted to be the person in charge of helping us turn our dreams into reality. He taught us how to manage a company, how to organize it, and how to plan – and reach – milestones. Today, I can say he played, and he’s playing, a fundamental role in the company growth. I would also like to thank our first customers, including GoDaddy and Tucows, for the trust they had in our products and for having helped us getting here.

We'd like to thank Max for taking the time to participate in this interview and we strongly suggest that everybody takes a deeper look at all of the tools that DomainsBot has available as the technology is excellent.

CLICK HERE and get an edge on your competition with their expired domain name service.


The DomainsBot Team



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