Monthly Archives: August 2007

Thu 30th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
eWEEK Chases Down Google-GoDaddy Story - Clint Boulton runs with Domain Name Wire speculation and digs for the facts. Citing Domain Name Wire’s speculation of a possible Google acquisition of GoDaddy, eWEEK writer Clint Boulton chased down Bob Parsons and a few analysts to vet the theory. In Boulton’s article, Google-GoDaddy Marriage on Tap?, Parsons alludes to an expanding relationship with Google: When asked whether Google and GoDaddy are working on expanding their existing relationship or discussing ... read more ...
Wed 29th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign: 138M Domains Registered, New Registration Hits Record - Latest Domain Name Industry Brief from VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN) shows continue growth in domain names. VeriSign has released its quarterly report on domain names and says there are now 138M registered domains across all top level domains (TLDs) — that’s 31% more than this time last year. The number of registrations in Q2 2007 hit an all time high with 14.5M new domain name registrations. Much of the growth is attributed to .cn, the country code domain (ccTLD) ... read more ...
Tue 28th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Names for Bootstrappers - A domain name overview for newbies. Last night I led a discussion for the web subgroup of Bootstrap Austin, an organization for people starting or running a bootstrapped business. I discussed finding the right domain name for their businesses without breaking the bank. Here’s the outline I provided. Rules to live by when selecting a domain • Never use a hyphen • Always a .com • If domain includes a digit, include the spelled out version as well ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Frank Schilling to Hold Domainer Town Hall Meeting during DOMAINfest - Schilling will lead session at January’s DOMAINfest conference in Hollywood, California. DOMAINfest announced that legendary domainer Frank Schilling will lead the first ever “Domainer Town Hall Meeting” at the DOMAINfest conference in Hollywood, California January 21-23, 2008. The DOMAINfest conference is presented by domain name parking company DomainSponsor. The conference will also include an auction in “an innovative new format”, according to conference ... read more ...
Mon 27th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Top Domain Name Stories of Aug 2007 - Here’s a review of the most popular stories this month on Domain Name Wire (ranked by page views). #1: CreditCards.com files for IPO – you heard it on Domain Name Wire first. CreditCards.com, the company, is going public at a valuation hundreds that of the domain’s price just a couple years ago. #2: Tucows Revenue Falls Short, Stock Tumbles – Tucows was one of several domain name related stocks to take a hit this month. #3: DomainSponsor Dumps Paychex – ... read more ...
Fri 24th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FloridaWeekly.com Stands Up to CyberBully - Domain name owner sues media company after receiving cease desist letter. Semoran LLC, which owns the web site and domain name FloridaWeekly.com, has filed a lawsuit against a Florida media company in response to that company’s request for the FloridaWeekly.com domain name. Semoran received a cease desist letter from MacFarlane Ferguson McMullen, which represents Florida Media Group, LLC. It appears that Florida Media Group recently launched a newspaper that ... read more ...
Wed 22nd August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Files Patent for “Domain Name Expiration Protection” - Registrar continues patent filing campaign. GoDaddy isn’t just the world’s biggest registrar. It might be the biggest filer of patents in the industry as well. Last November I wrote about the almost 50 patents pending for GoDaddy. The company didn’t stopped there. One of the more recent filings was January 24 of this year and was just published in May. The patent is a continuation-in-part of GoDaddy’s U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/811,677 filed ... read more ...
Tue 21st August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Parking Report for Aug 2007 - Summer doldrums are ending; are your domains ready for Fall traffic? Ah, summer. The weather is warm, the beaches packed, the kids out of school, and families on vacation. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Not if you count on internet traffic for a living. August is historically a poor month for domain name parking. But school is back in session at the end of this month and traffic will increase again. Take this downtime to make sure your domains are optimize and ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ICANN Corrects False Media Reports About .KP - Reports about imminent approval of North Korea country code domain name are misleading, says ICANN. A new country code domain for North Korea? Not really. Last week, media reports starting surfacing that ICANN would approve .KP as the country code domain for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) at the upcoming upcoming ICANN meeting in Los Angeles, California. In reality, .KP has always been assigned as the country code for North Korea. The ... read more ...
Mon 20th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DomainSponsor Dumps Paychex, Brings Payments Back Inhouse - Domain name parking company hits payment glitches with outsourced provider. Just a few months after outsourcing its publishers’ payments through Paychex, domain parking company DomainSponsor has brought its payments back in house. DomainSponsor had some glitches with the transition to Paychex. Some publishers received their past two payments made out to their contact person rather than the company name. This was only a problem if the contact was an employee of ... read more ...
Fri 17th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BusinessWeek Corrects “Cybersquatter” Reference - Here’s proof that reporters just need a little education. When BusinessWeek published an article titled “Does Success Hinge on a Domain Name?” on August 13, it referred to the man who owned the generic domain fave.com as a cybersquatter. The reporter Kerry Miller was probably told this term by someone she interviewed, or recalled the term from yesteryear. But as the domain industry is quick to point out, “cybersquatter” is a derogatory term that refers ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Uploading Graphics to Parked.com Pages - Here’s a how-to guide to customizing domain names. During this week’s Domain Roundtable conference, domain name parking company Parked.com announced that it now allows customers to upload their own graphics to parking pages. Studies show that having a relavant picture on the landing page can increase click-throughs by 14%-16%. I just finished testing this new upload functionality along with the company’s other customization tools. I’m currently earning ... read more ...
Thu 16th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Communicate.com Stock Plummets, Joins Tucows, Marchex - Communicate.com stock plummets on earnings release; third domain name company to take a hit in past two weeks. As of 11:30 AM CDT this morning, shares of Communicate.com (OTC: CMNN.ob) have dropped to $1.72, 22% lower than yesterday’s open. On Tuesday evening the company announced modest revenue growth for Q2 2007 compared to Q2 2006. Its first half loss was $247,952 ($0.01 per share) compared to net income of $42,621 ($0.00 per share) for the same period of 2006. Communicate.com ... read more ...
Wed 15th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AZ.com Gets $500k Bid Ahead of Auction, Rebate(s).com Sells for $1.0M - Final tally $3,643,128 worth was sold. 165 out of 450 names or 37% 47150.com $21,250 Ahora.com $31,000 AirbrushSupplies.com $2,000 AirIonizer.com $2,050 Albinos.com $31,500 Answer.net $15,000 AntiLock.com $1,400 AntiPiracy.com $10,100 AntiTobacco.com $2,100 Army.org $99,000 ArmyBrat.com $3,500 AZ.com $500,000 BakeryFoods.com $1,000 BakerySale.com $1,000 BankLocator.com $6,000 BcTours.com $2,778 Blackjack101.com $1,050 BridalRegistries.com $8,000 BrokerageAccounts.com $5,400 BudgetProperty.com $8,450 CaliforniaDoctor.com $5,000 CameraPhotos.com $1,000 CareerResource.com $7,500 CarManufacturers.com $5,000 CarpetInstallations.com $5,000 CasinoPokerOnline.com $1,000 Castillo.com $35,500 CelebrityCouple.com $3,300 CharlotteHousing.com $1,000 CheapGadgets.com $5,600 Chinaware.com $7,500 ChristianSoul.com $1,100 cMail.com $10,000 Cohabitant.com $2,050 CoinStores.com $6,900 CommercialPainter.com $4,000 CompanyManager.com $1,000 ConsumersGuide.com $66,750 Convulsion.com $2,500 CouchLand.com $1,000 CreditSurvival.com $1,250 CurlyFries.com $3,250 Customers.eu $1,000 DailyFeeds.com $4,600 DayTradingSchool.com $1,500 Defectors.com $2,200 Dine.mobi $5,000 DirectorySearch.com $7,000 DomainList.com $7,100 Dreaming.com $35,750 DropCatcher.com $14,500 DrPoker.com $3,000 DrugRefills.com $5,000 eDoll.com $1,350 EmptyJar.com $1,000 EscrowFee.com $3,050 EssentialVitamins.com $1,600 Event.com $165,000 FederalStudentLoans.com $50,750 FieldGoals.com $1,550 FigureSkater.com $8,000 FinancialCounseling.com $7,550 FineCars.com $30,000 FitnessDating.com $4,000 FoodConsultant.com $3,000 FoodContents.com $1,000 ForeignCurrencies.eu $1,000 ForexCalculator.com $2,050 Free-Credit-Report.com $28,250 FreeHealthInsurance.com $25,000 FreeNameSearch.com $2,500 FunDate.com $5,100 FuneralArrangements.com $9,500 GameRules.com $12,000 Gastronomy.com $15,000 GayDiscos.com $1,000 GirlsBags.com $1,100 GoodCar.com $3,700 GoodHotels.com $35,000 GreatBands.com $3,300 Growers.com $25,000 Hastily.com $1,000 HawaiiDoctors.com $3,000 HikerWorld.com $1,050 HippieClothing.com $3,500 HollywoodHousing.com $1,050 HorseMedication.com $1,100 Hot.tv $35,000 HotDestinations.com $3,400 HummerRentals.com $5,100 ImageBuilder.com $2,200 InternetHub.com $5,000 Invention.com $500,000 IpodNews.com $1,000 JacksonvilleHousing.com $1,000 JapaneseAutos.com $6,100 JayD.com $2,050 KidCrazy.com $1,250 LadyShaver.com $1,000 LaserPens.com $9,000 LatestPolls.com $2,150 LawRecords.com $1,800 LeaseTakeovers.com $1,000 LetsPlayPoker.com $2,250 LoanProperty.com $7,050 Locals.org $9,100 LocationMap.com $3,000 Loudon.com $6,200 LowestCost.com $25,000 LowPriceFlights.com $4,100 LuxuryGift.com $10,000 MackDaddy.com $4,300 MakeMoneyOnline.com $95,000 MathSites.com $1,600 MedicalClaimBilling.com $1,000 MedicalInjuryLawyer.com $2,450 messenger.eu $5,400 MusicReleases.com $5,000 NewYorkSource.com $2,000 p4.com $30,000 p6.com $27,000 Paper.info $5,000 PayRates.com $25,000 PersonalsSite.com $1,000 PhoneSmart.com $5,200 PhotographyGear.com $3,300 PictureConverter.com $1,050 Poker.in $60,000 PortlandHousing.com $2,050 PrisonGuard.com $8,000 r11.com $1,000 Rebate.com $1,000,000 RecordingStudios.com $25,000 SanfranciscoPersonals.com $1,000 SanjoseHousing.com $1,050 SecureLending.com $3,900 SecureProxies.com $3,500 SecureVoip.com $5,000 SeoHints.com $2,150 Shedding.com $4,300 SkiTrainers.com $1,300 Slightly.com $3,000 Southerner.com $6,100 SpaceDesigns.com $1,100 SpaHoliday.com $5,600 SpanishGold.com $6,800 SpokaneHousing.com $1,000 StockTradingAccount.com $1,000 StoreBargain.com $1,000 StreetTruck.com $4,000 Stronger.com $25,000 Suspects.com $10,500 TaxRefundLoans.com $7,600 UltraDisk.com $1,250 UniversityPersonals.com $4,300 UsedMotorcycle.com $39,000 VacantHouse.com $1,050 Vaccinated.com $3,000 VictorianPaintings.com $3,500 Voys.com $4,000 WebGeeks.com $20,000 WebSupport.com $20,000 WrestlingFans.com $6,300 xCode.com $5,000 YourDomainName.com $12,250 ... read more ...
Tue 14th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Roundtable Roundup - Domain Rountable enters its third day in Seattle. The Domain Roundtable conference continues today at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Seattle, Washington. Yesterday was a long day, with sessions running until 7PM, a dinner from 7-9, and then a charitable party lasting into the early morning. Many participants are from the east cost, which means they finished their day at about 5am eastern time this morning. Here are some tidbits from the show thus far that haven’t ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Parking Companies Announce New Features - The future of domain name parking was on display this evening at Domain Roundtable in Seattle. Domain name parking companies continue to innovate. Representatives of major domain name parking programs provided updates on their services and new features this evening in Seattle. Ron Sheridan of DomainSponsor announced that the company will roll out a one-click lander by the end of the year. DomainSponsor is also active with domain portfolio leasing, in which it prepays ... read more ...
Mon 13th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Name Panel Addresses Revenue Multiples, Potential Market Bubble - A group of domain industry experts spoke about industry trends at Domain Roundtable in Seattle today. Mike “Zappy” Zapolin, Sahar Sarid, Frank Schilling, and Adam Strong headlined a roundtable at the Domain Roundtable today in Seattle. They addressed topics from revenue multiples to the potential of a domain name market bubble. Strong posed a question about multiples. He asked if any of the others would sell a domain for 5x-10x earnings. Schilling called Strong ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Roundtable Kicks Off in Seattle - Third annual Domain Roundtable runs through Wednesday, August 15. The third annual Domain Roundtable event kicked off at the Sheraton hotel in downtown Seattle last night. More than 150 domainers and service providers joined together for drinks, dinner, and to listen to a keynote from Mike “Zappy” Zapolin of Internet Real Estate Group. After registering, attendees were handed an nTag, an electronic networking device. When meeting another attendee, the nTags ... read more ...
Sat 11th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Sex.com (The Book) Is Worth a Wait - Kieren McCarthy’s entertaining chronicle about the Sex.com theft is an engaging read. Sex.com – the domain name – is perhaps the most valuable domain name in the world. Each day, thousands of people type the domain into their browser, creating a cyber mint for its owner. Sex.com – the book – is the gripping tale of the biggest theft the domain name world has ever seen. If you’ve followed the domain name industry for more than a year then you probably ... read more ...
Fri 10th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CreditCards.com Files for IPO - CreditCards.com has filed to raise up to $115M in an initial public offering. Earlier this morning, CreditCards.com, an online credit card portal that built its business around a valuable domain name, filed to raise up to $115M in an initial public offering. Although the exact valuation of the company is not yet known, the company’s S-1 filing with the SEC validates my previous assumption that the 2006 purchase of the company was north of $100M. In October ... read more ...
Thu 9th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New York Domain Name Bill to Become Law - Law creates a civil penalty for registering person’s name with intent to sell it to them. In May 2006, Domain Name Wire reported that New York state senator Betty Little, R-Queensbury, was working on a bill to make cybersquatting on a person’s name illegal in the state (see New York wants to regulate domain names). The bill has now become law and will go into effect later this year. On the surface this isn’t a big deal. After all, registering a famous person’s ... read more ...
Tue 7th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows Revenues Falls Short, Stock Tumbles - Shares of domain name company Tucows are down over 15% in early trading after announcing earnings. Domain name company Tucows reported lower than expected revenue growth for the second quarter of 2007. Its shares (AMEX: TCX) are down $.20 to $1.01 USD on the news as of this morning. “We delivered solid financial performance in the second quarter, which benefited from the sale of a block of 2,500 domain names from our portfolio,” said Elliot Noss, President and ... read more ...
Mon 6th August 2007
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
$200,000 Sofa.com Domain Name Stolen by Employee - $200k sale of Sofa.com in 2005 was unauthorized by employer. The Sheboygan Press is reporting that a Sheboygan man was charged with selling his employer’s domain name for $200,000 and using corporate credit cards to finance international trips with a stripper girlfriend, according to complaint filed today in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The domain in question is Sofa.com, which DNJournal reported sold for $200,000 in December 2005. The complaint alleges that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Silent Auction Kicks Off - Auction features over 2,000 domain names. Moniker’s second Internext Expo domain name auction, geared toward adult webmasters, pulled in close to $700,000 in sales during the live auction. The silent auction has started and ends Thursday. Over 2,000 domains are available for purchase in the silent auction. The auction isn’t limited to adult domains. I picked up some steals in the last Internext silent auction, including ExhibitBooths.com and CarAdapters.com. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Parking Empire offers a CPA module for Domainers - Leonard Holmes of ParkQuick provides a domain name parking update. It had to happen. The developers of CPA Empire are now offering a CPA-based program just for domainers. Parking Empire is essentially a spin-off of CPA Empire. The company originally monetized email campaigns, and has been moving into more web-based services. There have been accusations of spamming, most recently from MySpace. I’m not overly impressed with the quality of the offers at either ... read more ...