Monthly Archives: August 2008

Sun 17th August 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Next Big Money Drop Domain: GoPlay.com - GoPlay.com is in auction at NameJet.com and is currently priced at $13,100 with 16 hours to go. There are 173 bidders. What is your prediction for the final price? Mine is $30K Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
Sat 16th August 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
If You Can Make This Kind Of Money, Why Not Sponsor a Registry? - Without a doubt the .me launch, from a purely economic point of view,  has been a huge success. I added all the winning bid prices from the closed auctions and add all the current high bids on the active auctions and came up to a total of around $2 million. $2 Million dollars for the registry, not including its profit on the 50,000 or so .me domains that were registered in the first days (the last report on the number of registrations I have seen). At $19.95 per year, retail, this extension obviously ... read more ...
Fri 15th August 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Google Online Ad Revenue to Grow 27% this Year - According to a report by EMarketer online ad revenue for Google will increase 27% in 2008 to $7.6 billion,  nearly twice the estimated growth rate for the next fastest gainer, Microsoft, which will grow 14% to $1.6 billion. The research firm predicts 8% growth for Yahoo, bringing that company’s total U.S. online advertising revenues to $3.6 billion. AOL is expected to post a 12.5% revenue decline in 2008 to $1.2 billion, eMarketer says. Overall U.S. online advertising spending will rise 17% in ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
GoDaddy has Over 20% of Cert Market - Go Daddy now holds a 20.5 percent share of the SSL market, according to a leading industry analyst firm. Go Daddy began offering SSL Certs only a little more than four years ago. Unlike other leading SSL providers, Go Daddy achieved the milestone through pure organic growth, meaning it was not artificially cultivated with mergers or acquisitions. SSL Certs (Secure Sockets Layer Certificates) are critical when it comes to protecting sensitive information online. “Our market share has grown so ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Some Adult Silent Auctions Extended to Today during SnapNames.com - Yesterday as it was reported by several sources snapnames went down for a short period of time right at the close of silent adult auction. Therefore several domains that had late bids have been extended until today and will close at 3:15pm EST, 12:15pm PST, so if you want to bid on any of these there still is time to do so. Here are the domains from the silent adult auction that have been extended: asianfemales.com flings.com kidnap.com naughtybookmarks.com tites.com wetbooty.com whitewoman.com Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Hero.com Wins Reverse Hijacking WIPO Decision - John Berryhill won on behalf of his client a reverse highjacking finding in a recent WIPO case. The case bought by a Swiss company which is a “”large manufacturer of consumer foods, which it markets under the trademark and business name HERO. The Complainant was founded in Switzerland in the late 19th century. Its mark and trade name were derived from the prefixes of the names of its two original founders. From the 1980s, the Complainant expanded its business into various countries of Europe, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Update: Domain Parking Still Converting - Here’s more proof that domain parking converts for advertisers. About a month ago I wrote about how the domain channel at Google was converting well for me, even though a number of advertisers would tell you otherwise. Now that I have a month more of data for my ad campaign at Google, the parking channel is still performing very well. In fact, it’s performing just as well as my ads that show up on Google and the Google search network. Content is also performing ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Old Media’s Dirty Secret: Impression Fraud - Click fraud is an issue because it’s measurable. What about fraud with dead tree media? There’s a lot of focus on click fraud. Click fraud is admittedly a problem with online ads, especially on content networks where individuals can profit. But companies that avoid advertising online because of click fraud are fooling themselves. If they advertise in old media a.k.a dead tree media, they’re getting taken to the cleaners every day. Consider advertising in ... read more ...
Thu 14th August 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
MediaPost: How New TLD’s Can Effect SEO - An interesting post in MediaPost talks about how the new TLD’s may become a nightmare for trademark holders but also will be a boon for sites trying to get their SEO rank increased. “”””Search Engines and the Domainrush If and when it does happen, look for an immediate impact on search engine marketing. Search engines love keyword-enriched domain names, since finding exact keywords in domains proves to be an extremely strong indicator of a Web site’s relevance to a search query. By ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Dell Trademarks a tenure “cloud computing” - Dell a member of CADNA has apparently trademarked the term “Cloud Computing” a very generic term referring to the next generation of computing. It will be interesing to see what they intend to do with their new trademark as it concerns domain names. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Hit with Another Suit For Fraud From PPC Program: Is this Final Straw For Domain Parking? - According to a report in Media Post Today, Google has been hit with a fraud lawsuit from its parked domain program, which serves pay-per-click ads on Web pages for a third time this summer. This newest case, a potential class-action lawsuit, filed this week in federal district court in Chicago, was brought by a container company,  JIT Packaging. The case joins a putative class-action lawsuit filed in San Jose, Calif. last month by Hal Levitte, an attorney who took out search ads, and one brought ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Moniker Silent Adult Auction Ends Today - Today, Moniker.com is holding a  silent auction for adult domains as part of the Internext adult show held in Hollywood Florida last week The silent auction is being held on SnapNames.com platform. Unlike the silent auctions moniker.com has held on its own platform in the past which had staggered closing times spread over 6+ hours, all the domains in this silent auction will close at the same time, 3:15pm EST, 12:15pm PST, unless extended under snapnames.com normal rules. All of the live domains ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC, TrafficZ Offer Two Nights Hotel Free - Promo worth $600 in hotel fees. TrafficZ and TRAFFIC are offering 2 free nights at the Marriott for next month’s TRAFFIC conference if you register for the conference by August 20. To take advantage of this offer, register for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York by visiting TargetedTraffic.com and reserve your hotel room from the link provided on the site. Once you have received a hotel confirmation number, email the confirmation, along with your name, to RSVP@TrafficZ.com. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Guest Article: How Do we Become a UDRP Arbitration Panelist? - A look at the qualifications of UDRP arbitration panelists. [Editor’s note: a few weeks ago a couple readers, who were distraught by a recent domain dispute that seemed to be decided unfairly, asked what it takes to be a UDRP panelist who decides domain disputes. I asked Enrico Schaefer, an attorney with Traverse Legal, PLC, to write an article about the UDRP arbitration qualification process.] Domain name disputes are important matters for both trademark holders ... read more ...
Wed 13th August 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Moniker Live Auction “Headliners” - The TRAFFIC folks sent out an e-mail tonight giving us a “sneak peak” of the domains to be auctioned off at the live Moniker.com auction, saying these are the “Headliners”. SocialSecurity.com Stock.com Bond.com Policy.com Mutual.com asset.com recruiter.com mermaids.com waterfall.com NYBanking.com TeenCenter.com PromQueen.com Fees.com JF.com Adware.com Adware.net RebuildNewOrleans.org (ICA Donation) QR.com Ad.com Cleaning.com Sax.com VideoDownloads.com PeoplesRepublicOfChina.com OrganicFood.net WineLists.com BirthdayPresents.com Homosexual.org Carbohydrate.net Caribbean.info WirelessSecurityCamera.com Debbie.net WeatherCenter.tv StockInvestments.com BuilderPermits.com Forget.com Fired.com FilmPreview.com Must.com Santa.net Carolyn.com Doug.com Susan.com Marilyn.com RaggedyAnn.com 666.mobi children.mobi europe.mobi stores.mobi ppp.mobi Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Spent $36 Million Not to Get Bought Out - According to a SEC filing, Yahoo shelled out $36 million in the first half of 2008 to the outside advisers that helped the company avoid getting bought out by Microsoft Corp. and the proxy threat from activist investor Carl Icahn. Yahoo hired investment banks Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Moelis Co., and the law firm Skadden Arps Slate Meagher Flom, after Microsoft made its initial $44.6 billion offer. Yahoo’s $36 million tab, amounts to about 5 percent of the $673 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
MerchantAccount.com Up For Sale - Talk about a great domain name, MerchantAccount.com a “category killer” premium domain name is up for sale. According to the press release announcing the sale “When merchants are searching online to set up a new account or to change their merchant processing provider, Merchant Account is one of the most searched terms in the business that results in new applications. The purchase of this domain could be paramount to taking a merchant processing business to the next level through search engine/online ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
ITWorld: Typosquatting for Corporate Espionage - It seems that security wonks are finally catching up to the dangers of “typo” domains. If an article in ITWorld is any indication, security pros haven’t seen typosquatting as a big threat to businesses. They view it as a marketing/legal problem of someone profiting off the company’s trademark. The only security issue they see is phishing. But as the article points out, typo domains get their fair share of typo’d emails, too. Well, duh. This is something ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows to Compete with GoDaddy’s Wild West Domains - Company to create “reseller in a box” program. Wholesale domain registrar Tucows is launching a new program for resellers that will allow them to open a domain registration store in a matter of minutes. Tucows reseller program, dubbed OpenSRS, has traditionally been geared to technically savvy companies wanting to add new services to their offerings. A technical integration was required. On the company’s earnings conference call yesterday, CEO Elliot Noss ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Tucows: Domain Parking May Have Hit Bottom - Tucows’ says domain parking revenue is down, but it may be on the rebound. Tucows, a wholesale domain registrar and owner of 150,000 domains, saw its revenue from domain parking drop 12% in just one quarter, but CEO Elliot Noss says it may have hit bottom. “In terms of where’s the bottom, we’ve started to see a little bit of a pickup now so we may have hit the bottom,” said Noss on an earnings conference call Tuesday evening. Tucows direct navigation ... read more ...
Tue 12th August 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Tucows Reports For Quarter Ending Jun 30: Parking Revenues Down - Tucows reported its financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2008 today. Net income per share fell to $.02 for the six months ending June 30, 2008 against $.05 per share profit for the first six months of last year. Elliot Noss, President and CEO of Tucows. is quoted as saying: “Our portfolio of high value domain names continued to make an impressive contribution. We note that the second quarter of 2007 included a large $3 million bulk sale of domain names.” As you will recall ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
US Federal Deficit Passes $100 Billion for Just July - Nothing to do with domains, but it is important to note that the US budget deficit for July 2008 was a staggering $102.8 Billion dollars, almost triple from July 2007 deficit of $36.4. So far this year, the budget deficit totals $371.4 billion, more than double last year’s deficit through the same time period of $157.4 billion The Bush administration recently revised its forecast for this year’s deficit, lowering it from an estimate of $410 billion, down to $389 billion. However, the Congressional ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
The iTax; Coming Soon to a State Near You? - With iTunes downloads topping 5 billion, some states have begun to levy sales tax on digital downloads. Call it the iTax. In 2008 alone, at least nine states have considered digital download taxes, and at least five of those states have enacted them into law. Nebraska’s governor signed a digital download tax bill into law in April, and a similar measure was adopted in Tennessee in June. As CNET News reported a few months ago, Indiana, South Dakota, and Utah also passed sales tax on digital downloads ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
How Lucky Can You Get: 4 Shows on TV Using Our Domains - Wow How lucky can you get. Right now there are 4 shows on TV using one of our domains (domains acquired way before the shows were announced. Right now finishing up its first summer run is Wipeout on ABC, a game show which did very well in the ratings.  We own Wipeout.com On USA network another new show is finishing up its first season, In Plain Sight.  We own inplainsight.com Coming on the air in a few weeks on Fox is another game show, hole in the wall, which we own holeinthewall.com Finally we ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
AdWeek: Advertisers Against Yahoo-Google Deal - According to an article in AdWeek within the next month, the Department of Justice will decide whether to block the deal Google struck with Yahoo to serve ads on some of its search results pages. The companies are set to implement the deal in early October. The DOJ has asked a broad range of executives for input into what the deal will mean for the ad industry. Microsoft, is urging agencies to come out against the agreement. “We’re concerned about the Yahoo! deal,” said Rob Norman, CEO of WPP-owned ... read more ...