wwwhat a palaver & do you need a mistletoe domain name?

Mistletoe in basketJust been reviewing all the updates that need to be done to bring last year’s mistletoe websites into the 2010/11 season.

And finding out that I’d forgotten the site set-up – took me ages to work out why just revising  and uploading a library file  in Dreamweaver isn’t enough – it wants all the associated files ‘updated’ too, and then all of those re-saved and re-uploaded.  What a palaver.

Anyway, this brings me neatly to the somewhat anoraky subject of mistletoe website domain names – of which there are many, not all of them actually associated with mistletoe.   Many are, rather sadly, unused, except as parked sites with advertising; check out the stunningly unexciting www.mistletoe.org (not to be confused with my own www.mistletoe.org.uk) or the not quite there yet www.mistletoe.com.

The real ‘working’ mistletoe sites are mostly more specific – like www.teme-mistletoe.co.uk or www.tenbury-mistletoe.co.uk, both sites promoting fresh English mistletoe and grow-kits online.  Or www.intermistletoe.co.uk, another site selling English mistletoe.     Not forgetting the concisely-named www.mistle.co.uk, Nick Wheeldon’s Lincolnshire-based site selling grow-kits.  [There are similar sites over in North America too – a classic is www.morekissesmistletoe.com, which is now associated with www.mistletoe.com.]

Do you need a mistletoe domain name?

I was reminded of all these earlier today when I was approached, via the Teme mistletoe site, by someone selling www.mistletoe.co.uk – currently a parked site, bought as an investment.  He’s hoping to attract a buyer running a mistletoe ‘farm’ and was initially looking for about £1500.  I pointed out, gently I hope, that mistletoe isn’t really a big earner, and most mistletoe suppliers in the UK would think themselves lucky if they earned £100’s each season – so spending £1500 on a domain name would be unlikely.   And also, of course, that there aren’t really any ‘Mistletoe Farmers’ – it’s just a by-product of neglected apple orchards.  [Though not a lot of people seem to know that –  every season I have to field media requests for a ‘Mistletoe Farmer’ – and even when I explain they still want to interview/photograph/film/feature one – never quite grasping the naiveté of their request.  This inevitably leads, quite often, to the invention of one, just for the day…]

Anyway, if anyone reading this is interested in buying www.mistletoe.co.uk you’ll find all the details on Ebay (starting at £199) here, or  at the Sedo broker site here.

The main domain I’ve been based with over many years is www.mistletoe.org.uk, supplemented by the Teme Mistletoe websites and the oddly-named www.mistletoes-r-us.co.uk, which I’ve been using as a basic promotional site (though I’ve never liked the mistletoe-r-us name – can’t recall exactly why I created it!).   A lot of this is likely to change this season, as I’m reducing my involvement with Teme, planning a major revamp of the consultancy site and a new promotional site on mistletoe sales.

Early days yet – but the new promo site will be at www.buy.mistletoe.org.uk (live already, but not a lot there yet) and the new consultancy site will probably be at www.jonathanbriggs.co.uk /mistletoe – but all you’ll get there at present is “Ce nom de domaine n’est pas disponible” – which is French for don’t bother looking at this website yet.