Monthly Archives: January 2007

Wed 31st January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyMag.com Sells for $48,888 - Magazine-related domain name sells on Afternic for close to $50,000. The domain name MyMag.com sold on domain aftermarket Afternic for $48,888. The Whois record for the domain changed to an individual in England yesterday, indicating the sale is complete and domain transferred. The buyer is not the same entity that owns MyMags.com. The domain is currently parked. Although not as common is domains prefixed with ‘i’ and ‘e’, ‘my’ domains are popular. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Third Time is a Charm for Saddam.com - The domain name Saddam.com has sold for $16,551 at Sedo, after exchanging hands a couple times in the past year. Think it’s too late to buy domains and then quickly flip them? Here’s a good example that proves it’s not too late. Saddam.com sold on Sedo recently for $16,551. The domain name sold in May 2006 on Afternic for $2,001. It was then sold on eBay for $3,149 in September 2006. The sellers in the eBay transaction used a press release about Saddam ... read more ...
Tue 30th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Digging into GoDaddy’s Terms of Service - Taking a look at GoDaddy’s Terms of Service (TOS) It’s been a few days since GoDaddy became the center of controversy over its abrubt decision to change the DNS of one of its customer’s domains. We still haven’t heard from GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons (although he has since blogged about CBS accepting his company’s Super Bowl ad.) If we don’t hear from Parsons on his blog we can assume he has no good answers to what happened. On other domain related issues ... read more ...
Mon 29th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Part.com Snags $100,000 Bid - The domain name Part.com has received a $100,000 bid and is in auction at Sedo. The auction for Part.com, which will be one of the biggest sales of the year if successfully concluded, ends on January 31. Although the biggest deal on the docket for the week, there are some other great domain sales pending. First, an auction for Ringtones.cc closed at Sedo for $5,000. This will be one of the biggest .cc domain name sales ever. .CC is the country code domain name ... read more ...
Fri 26th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Faces PR Nightmare Over Domain Suspension - GoDaddy abrubtly suspends registration. GoDaddy chief Bob Parsons is a big supporter of free speech. He’s also a big supporter of privacy as a way to do this by promoting domain whois privacy services. That’s why the internet world was shocked today to learn that GoDaddy suspended a domain name, seclists.org, based on the content on that site. MySpace contacted GoDaddy to suspend the registration because the site had information about MySpace users including ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia, Fabulous Hook Up - Fabulous will list its domain name portfolio on BuyDomains, Afternic. At first glance, NameMedia and Fabulous seem like competitors. Both NameMedia’s BuyDomains and Fabulous offer a huge portfolio of premium domains for sale. But the two companies have inked an agreement to list Fabulous’ domain portfolio on both BuyDomains and Afternic (the latter was recently acquired by NameMedia). This makes sense. Premium domain names don’t really compete with each other ... read more ...
Thu 25th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MyDomain offers $4.99 .mobi domains - MyDomain.com is offering a coupon for a $4.99 .mobi domain registration. .Mobi is hot. The domain, designed for mobile devices, has seen lots of aftermarket activity since its release last year. The best known sale is Flowers.mobi, which sold for $200,000. More recently Sportsbook.mobi sold for $129,800. Domain registrar Dotster, through its MyDomain.com site, is offering a happy hour discount on .mobi domains. Dotster invented the “happy hour” discount marketing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MGM’s Battle for WarGames.com - MGM wants the domain WarGames.com. But it faces an uphill battle to win this war. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., better known as MGM, wants the domain WarGames.com. MGM owns the rights to the 1983 film WarGames and the company is gearing up to release a sequel. There’s one small problem: the domain WarGames.com was registered in 1998 by Rogers Cadenhead. What follows is an inside look at MGM’s UDRP attempt to grab the domain from Cadenhead. Domain Name ... read more ...
Wed 24th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Eric Schmidt Was Right - A perspective on why click fraud won’t ruin the domain name industry. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt learned an important lesson in July 2006. When asked at an economics conference if there was an economic answer to click fraud, Schmidt said “Let’s imagine for purposes of argument that click fraud were not policed by Google and it were rampant … eventually the price that the advertiser is willing to pay for the conversion will decline because the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Yahoo! Pay-Per-Click Rankings to Change in February - Paid listings will no longer by ranked solely on bid. Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) announced that the rankings of pay-per-click search ads on its network will change February 5. Prior to that date, ads are ranked according to the maximum bid per click selected by the advertiser. Beginning February 5, ads will be ranked by a combination of click bid and ad quality (read: click-through rate and relevance). The graphic below illustrates this change. The change is part of ... read more ...
Tue 23rd January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2007 Domain Name Wire Survey Opens - Participate for your chance to win a free domain name registration. Domain Name Wire announces the official launch of its 2007 Domain Name Wire Survey. This is the second annual survey undertaken by Domain Name Wire. Last year’s survey attracted respondents from over 80 countries. Many of these respondents are some of the biggest players in the industry, owning thousands of domain names. To participate in the survey, click here. The survey takes about 5 minutes ... read more ...
Mon 22nd January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Understanding Domain Name UDRP - A primer on domain name arbitration. Later this week Domain Name Wire will cover the pending spat between Rogers Cadenhead and MGM regarding his domain name, WarGames.com. I have procured a copy of MGM’s original complaint and Cadenhead’s response. Before going into the details of the case later this week, let’s review what a UDRP is. UDRP stands for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. All registrars in the .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, and .org ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BuyDomains Approaches 1 Million Domains - BuyDomains now has 800,000 domain names for sale. In the arms race of acquiring domain names, BuyDomains might be at the top of the pack. BuyDomains, part of NameMedia, has added 200,000 domains to its portfolio over the past year. According to a recent marketing push by the company, BuyDomains has 800,000 domains for sale. Although its not clear if they own all of these (or are just selling them), I believe this to be the case. That makes NameMedia the largest ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer’s Magazine Interview - Jerry Nolte tells domainers about Domainer’s Magazine, the new print publication for the domain name industry. Domainer’s Magazine will debut at the upcoming DOMAINfest conference. I recently asked magazine founder Jerry Nolte about the magazine. DNW: Who is behind Domainer’s Magazine? Why did you decide to launch a print magazine for the domain industry — and why now? How long have you been planning this venture? Nolte: My business partners and I have ... read more ...
Fri 19th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Speakers Announced - DOMAINfest announced a great speaker lineup for this month’s conference. Michael Arrington, editor and founder of the web 2.0 blog, TechCrunch, will top the list of the biggest industry names to speak at the first DOMAINfest Global. Prior to founding TechCrunch, Michael’s background in the domain industry is immense, having founded Pool.com and later consulted for domain industry giants like VeriSign and SnapNames. Selected DOMAINfest attendees will be able ... read more ...
Thu 18th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Auction Sells $2M in Domains - Live auction at Internext Conference in Las Vegas sells nearly $2M in domain names. The holy grail of domain name sales is reaching the end user, not other domain investors. And that’s exactly what Moniker did at this week’s Internext conference in Las Vegas. I should note that the end user group Moniker reached was the adult entertainment business. Because this is a family-friendly site, I’m not going to list some of the sales. But top honors go to Shemale.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net Grabs $60M Line of Credit - Domain name company gets line of credit for acquisitions and working capital. Oversee.net, parent company of domain name parking company DomainSponsor, has arranged a $60M line of credit. The revolving line of credit will was arranged by Banc of America Securities LLC. Bank of America, N.A. will serve as administrative agent. A syndicate of lenders and financial institutions is participating in the facility with Bank of America, including Comerica Bank, California ... read more ...
Wed 17th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Microsoft Readies Contextual Advertising Network - Beta program shows ads primarily on MSN network sites, could be extended to parked domain names. Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) continues to test its contextual advertising network and is inviting many current MSN Adcenter advertisers to join its beta. The program will work similarly to Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Adwords and Adsense programs. Advertisers in Microsoft’s pay-per-click network will be able to advertise on relevant content sites. Advertisers can set different ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ZDNet Article Refers to Domain Investors as “Scalpers”, “Cybersquatters” - Article puts words into mouth of domain name buyer, hits new low in biased reporting. An article by ZDNet writer Steven Deare about the sale of Tennis.com.au suggests that the seller of the generic domain name is a “scalper” and cybersquatter. The opening to the article reads: “Tennis Australia has admitted it paid a “hefty fee” to a scalper of the domain name kind in order to obtain the Web address it wanted as part of a rebranding campaign.” But as ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Names as a Competitive Advantage - From Vodka.com to Rum.com, end users understand the value of generic domain names for competitive advantage. When Russian Standard Vodka purchased Vodka.com for $3M last year, lay people gasped at such an outrageous sum. But domainers simply thought, “now there’s a company that gets it”. Russian Standard understands that owning the domain name will give it a competitive advantage in the crowded vodka space and will give the brand instant international credibility. ClickZ ... read more ...
Tue 16th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Marchex Stock Tumbles on Downgrade - Direct navigation company Marchex has been downgraded by JMP Securities analyst William Morrison. Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX) is the largest publicly traded direct navigation firm. The company’s stock was downgraded by JMP Securities analyst William Morrison, who cited weaknesses in the company’s direct navigation business. Morrison sees the weaknesses continuing through the first half of 2008. This isn’t an indication that direct navigation as a business is weak, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Back Up Your Computer - There’s a reason advertisers pay a lot for data recovery clicks — losing your data is a pain. There’s a reason domains like BackupandRecovery.com, MailBackup.com, and SafeBackup.com all sold for a couple thousand dollars over the past few months. There’s a reason advertisers pay several dollars per click for data recovery services. When it happens to you — a hard drive failure, that is — you’re willing to pay just about anything to get your data back. This ... read more ...
Mon 15th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Steals of 2006 - Savvy buyers found bargains in 2006. I just reviewed all of the publicly disclosed sales from domain aftermarket Afternic in 2006. Domain values are in the eye of the beholder, but I found some domains that seem like bargains. I would have gladly put up the money to buy these domains: IPOWeekly.com – $99 – a great financial domain for initial public offerings. The domain currently does not resolve. Tofu.cc – $100 – a .cc bargain? I only say that because ... read more ...
Fri 12th January 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Dell Sues Cybersquatters - d3ell.com, de3LL.com, d4ell.com, among the domains allegedly cybersquatted. Dell Inc (NASDAQ: DELL), the computer maker, has filed a lawsuit against three individuals for allegedly cybersquatting typos of Dell.com. The three people named in the suit, Alf Temme, Lars Crispin Temme, and Kim Temme, allegedly forwarded the domain names through a LinkShare affiliate link to land at Dell.com. By doing so, the three profited whenever someone purchased an item on Dell’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Adds Traffic Graphics to Domain Auctions - Sedo has added graphics next to auction domains to indicate levels of traffic. The new graphics show a relative level of traffic for each domain by showing one to three bars in a column graph. A mouseover of the graphic shows the actual traffic level as calculated by Sedo. In the example above, ChessShop.eu is not parked at Sedo, so there’s no traffic graphic. UKSprite.com received over 6,000 visitors in the past thirty days, so it has three bars. Rootube.com ... read more ...