Monthly Archives: October 2006

Tue 31st October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Was final week’s domain auction a success? - With over $4.5M in domain sales at last week’s TRAFFIC auction, should it be deemed a success? $4.5M is a lot of dough. 1/3 of the total sales came from one domain, Cameras.com for $1.5M. (See a complete list of sales from the auction here. See video of the Cameras.com auction here. But was last week’s auction a success? A number of premium generic domains failed to sell. Perhaps the reserve prices were too high, or perhaps the buyers at the auction were ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Video of Cameras.com auction - Want to know what it’s like being in a room full of domain investors during a $1M+ auction? Video from the Moniker/TRAFFIC conference has surfaced, showing the last couple bids of the cameras.com auction. The auction ended at $1.5M, making it one of the most expensive domains ever sold. Cameras.com stole the show, coming in $1.3M higher than the next domain, Flower.mobi. For a complete list of domains that sold in the auction, click here. ... read more ...
Mon 30th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Advocacy groups convene opposite general net governance - As certain countries ask for the internet to be pryed from U.S. control, advocacy groups argue this may diminish free speech. Just this month the U.S. Department of Commerce loosened its grip on ICANN, allowing for a review in 18 months to determine if the entity should become free of U.S. oversight. But apparently that isn’t enough for some of the world’s repressive countries, whose dictators feel freedom of speech on the internet is undermining their stability. ... read more ...
Fri 27th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Cameras.com sells for $1.5M, over $4.5M in domain sales during TRAFFIC auction - The live auction at TRAFFIC has concluded with over $4.5M in domain sales. The list speaks for itself, so I’ll just post it without commentary. Please note that this is an unofficial list that David compiled. He did a fantastic job but the room was loud and the action fast, so there may be a couple that are a bit off. Many thanks to David for recording the auction! cameras.com 1,500,000 Flowers.mobi 200,000 Forclosures.com 150,000 Mortgage.net 149,000 vb.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Flowers.mobi sells for $200,000 -

Just in from TRAFFIC…Rick Schwartz bought Flowers.mobi for $200,000…

This is one of a improved .mobi domains. Think about it…need to buy flowers fast from my dungeon phone.

More to come…

Via: domainnamewire.com

 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Dot.com is still king - Dot.com is still king, but should you invest in other domain names? Today at TRAFFIC a panel of domain-industry experts came out decidedly in favor of investment in dot-coms, rather than other extensions, when asked where a new investor should put their money. They didn’t dismiss .net or .info or other extensions outright by any means. Following are several comments from the panelists, edited for clarity: Brian Taff, vice president of corporate development, NameMedia ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How profitable are your domain names? - A panel at TRAFFIC discusses how valuable your domains are and the domain name aftermarket. A big topic at the Traffic conference is how domain investors should place a value on their portfolio. And if you want to sell, what kind of buyer do you want? Not all buyers are alike. Some are investor groups, for instance, while others are small or midsize businesses seeking to acquire a domain to build their business. A small-business owner may be willing to pay a much ... read more ...
Thu 26th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Pay-per-click and domain parking - A session today at the TRAFFIC conference in Florida explores PPC and if domainers can count on this revenue source in the years to come. Domain investors are heavily dependent on pay-per-click advertising revenue, so they often walk around with a feeling of insecurity. They wonder if that critical revenue stream might disappear – or decline — if advertisers decided they didn’t want their paid-search ads, primarily placed through Web giants Google and Yahoo, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNForum hacked - DNForum, the largest internet forum about domain names, has been hacked. The hack job appears to be the work of the same group or individual that hacked SnapNames in January 2006. If you typed DNForum.com into your browser earlier this morning you saw a screen with an Iranian flag and a reference to DNJournal2005@yahoo.com (see screenshot below). The SnapNames hack incident had a similar screen including the same e-mail address. Hack attempts are unfortunately nothing ... read more ...
Wed 25th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Internet Traffic Association - Internet Traffic Association discussed at Traffic conference. Several major companies in the domain-name industry formally announced today the creation of the Internet Traffic Association, a non-profit trade group representing domain investors. Bob Martin of Internet REIT and Frank Schilling of Name Administration have spearheaded the formation of the organization, which seeks to give domain investors their first strong voice in Congress and at ICANN, the group that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Deal or no deal? - Here’s an update from the TRAFFIC conference in Florida, courtesy of David Kesmodel. To sell or not sell — it’s a question facing many owners of domain names amid the biggest boom the little-understood industry has ever seen. And it was a hot topic today at Traffic, the domain show in Hollywood Beach, Fla. At a panel discussion titled “Deal or no deal?” panelists ranging from veteran domain investor Rick Schwartz to Wall Street securities analyst Jordan ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain name sales draft withdrawal - DNJournal isn’t publishing its sales chart this week, but I’ve got your back. Are you one of those people that visits DNJournal on Tuesday nights and starts hitting the refresh button until the new sales chart is released? Then you’re probably experiencing withdrawal this week. DNJournal editor Ron Jackson is in Florida for the TRAFFIC conference and isn’t publishing this week. But fear not. I can at least whet your appetite with some known sales. I don’t ... read more ...
Tue 24th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RevenueDirect launches upgrade - Domain parking company RevenueDirect has launched a series of upgrades. RevenueDirect is Dotster’s parking solution and is one of the lesser-known domain monetization companies. The company just announced a number of upgrades to its system: -Advanced optimization – specify keywords and let the system optimize based on user behavior -Reporting – highly customizable, or set up reports to be emailed to you at a certain interval -Domain management – track your ... read more ...
Mon 23rd October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SPN.com sells for $95,000 EUR - SPN.com has sold at Sedo for approximately $120,000 USD at today’s exchange rates. This is one of the most expensive three character domain sales ever. Three character .com domains have a wide value range, from about $2,000 on the low end to hundreds of thousands on the high end. For example, POS.com sold for $250,000 and Ant.com sold for $241,200. Both of these domains have good letters with a number of different acronyms. Domains that contain z, q, k, j, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo auctions go live - The much anticipated Sedo auctions went live today. Sedo’s new auction format went live today. The auctions augment Sedo’s one-on-one negotiating interface. The first batch of domains at auction include domains that people have received offers on and a batch of premium domains. These premium domains have a low starting price but a reserve. Sedo refers to the former as “marketplace auctions” and the latter as “brokerage initiated auctions”. For example, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Premium Domains - Premium domain marketplace separates the gems from the trash. Tired of sifting through listings on Sedo and Afternic trying to find good domains worthy of an offer? Then check out PremiumDomains.com. Premium Domains is the brainchild of Francois Carrillo at Cybertonic. Premium Domains lists only the best of the best. The site doesn’t actually sell the domains, but accepts offers on domains which it forwards to the domain owners (or refers you to Sedo or BuyDomains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New York Times essay on Oversee.net - The New York Times has an article about Oversee.net, parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor. David Kesmodel brought this to my attention on his blog. The New York Times just ran an article about Oversee.net. Oversee is the parent company of domain parking company DomainSponsor. The company’s revenue now eclipses $100M per year. On a related note, DomainSponsor is rolling out new features at this week’s TRAFFIC conference. The company says that ... read more ...
Fri 20th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Asia moves forward - ICANN has approved .asia. Domain.asia appears to be on the horizon, as ICANN gave approval to DotAsia Organization Ltd.’s application for .asia at its board meeting yesterday: Whereas, on 4 December 5, 2005, the board authorized the President and General Counsel to enter into negotiations relating to proposed commercial and technical terms for the .ASIA sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) with the applicant, DotAsia Organisation Limited, Whereas, on 18 July, 2006, ... read more ...
Thu 19th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Submit your domains for Afternic Themed Promotions - Afternic is now accepting domain submissions for its November themed promotion. Beginning a couple months ago Afternic started offering “themed promotions” in which it offers domains within a certain category. Each domain in the promotion also has an asking price. This is nice as a buyer because you don’t have to make offers that are never responded to. (My pet peave is when I submit an offer on a domain with a minimum of, say, $500, and get a message back ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker auction agreement generates cheer (UPDATED) - A few stipulations in Moniker’s broker agreement for next week’s TRAFFIC auction have raised questions in the domain name community. [Updated 10/19 4:15PM CT: I had a chance to talk to Moniker CEO Monte Cahn and get clarification on a number of items in the agreement. See below for comments.]Moniker’s live domain auction at TRAFFIC next week will be the biggest live domain auction ever. In addition to domains previously announced and premium .mobi domains, ... read more ...
Wed 18th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Coverage of TRAFFIC Conference - David Kesmodel will be covering the TRAFFIC conference for Domain Name Wire next week. The buzz about next week’s TRAFFIC conference in Florida is growing. Moniker has announced a superb line up of domains for the auction and the lineup looks great. I’m happy to report that David Kesmodel will be reporting back to Domain Name Wire about the events at next week’s conference, allowing me to keep you up-to-date. (I’ll be at home taking care of my newborn). If ... read more ...
Tue 17th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo auctions entrance subsequent week - Sedo’s highly anticipated auction system will launch on October 23. Sedo’s auction system goes live next week and new details are available. As I suggested last week, the auction system will work similar to Afternic. When you receive a good offer on a domain you can trigger the reserve. This will send the domain into an auction that lasts up to 7 days. You can trigger the reserve up to 5 days after the initial offer is made. Auction domains will receive prominent ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Kansas county lets domain name lapse - Reno County in Kansas didn’t renew its domain name, creating headaches for its operations. It’s a good thing Reno County is a small county. (The rural Kansas county had about 65,000 residents in 2000.) If it were larger, you can imagine the difficulties from it failing to renew its domain name, RenoGov.com. Over the weekend it had to quickly switch its web site and all of its email addresses to RenoGov.org. RenoGov.com was registered at Register.com and the ... read more ...
Mon 16th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
dotMobi to auction domains during TRAFFIC conference - dotMobi announced that 10 generic .mobi domains will be auctioned at this month’s TRAFFIC conference. Over 150,000 .mobi domain have now been registered. But dotMobi, registry for the new domain, held back a number of high-value, generic .mobi domains that it intends to sell at a premium price. The registry just announced that 10 of these premium domains will be auctioned during the upcoming TRAFFIC conference. The TRAFFIC conference already has a number of steller ... read more ...
Thu 12th October 2006
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eNom adds confidence codes to .net and .com transfers - eNom, the world’s second biggest registrar, is adding security codes for transfers of .net and .com domains. If you have ever transferred a .biz, .info, or .org domain you are familiar with security codes (alternatively called domain secrets, authorization codes…). This adds an added layer of protection when domains are transferred from your account. Typical transfer authorization only requires someone to have access to the email address of the registrant. Once ... read more ...