Monthly Archives: September 2008

Mon 15th September 2008
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Tries Paper Domain Renewal Notices - GoDaddy is sending snail mail domain renewal notices Over the weekend I received a snail mail from GoDaddy. Yeah, one of those things you get in the metal box with a flag on it. Big bright orange letters on the outside read “RENEWAL NOTICE!”: This is the first time I recall receiving snail mail from GoDaddy. At first I assumed GoDaddy was trying paper mailers to improve domain renewal rates. But all of the domain names listed in the renewal letter are set ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Economic Turmoil: What it Means for Domains - Credit markets, home prices, and stock markets are down. What does it mean for your domain portfolio? Here are some of the headlines on CNNMoney.com right now: “Gas prices surge nearly 5 cents” “Industrial output dives more than forecast” “AIG pummeled 51%” “What to do if your broker fails” “Worst far from over” “Lehman files for bankruptcy” Ouch. So what does this mean for domain owners? If you look at domain names as an asset class (and ... read more ...
Sun 14th September 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Esitibot Announces New Tools - Estibot.com announced today a new tool, “Available Domain Finder – “PLUS”” According to Esibot, this tool works much like the Long Tail tool, but this time it searches for terms that have your keyword at the end of the term. It will also perform a 100% accurate domain availability check so there is no need to verify availability. It will output only the available domain names, along with the keywords and keyword statistics. At the end of the page you will find copiable text lists of ... read more ...
Fri 12th September 2008
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Virgina Supreme Court KO’s Anti-Spam Law - The Virginia Supreme Court overturned the state’s “anti-spam” law, enacted in 2003, to prevent the sending of masses of unwanted e-mail, because it violated the First Amendment right to freedom of speech. The ruling, comes from the criminal prosecution of Jeremy Jaynes of Raleigh, N.C, who has been characterized as one of the world’s top 10 most prolific spammers. Mr. Jaynes who was the first person ever tried and under the law, was convicted in 2004, of sending tens of thousands of e-mails ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Name Conspiracy Theories - Everyone’s got them. But not all of them are true. Spend much time on domain name forums or at trade shows and you’ll hear a lot of conspiracy theories: auction tampering, domain renewal notices “lost” on purpose, etc. I hear more than my fair share. Every week I get a few tips from people that turn out to be completely false. Sometimes I spend a couple hours investigating; other times I can dismiss them within a few minutes. For example, there was ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Here Comes Ike - Storm heads to Houston, home to many fellow domainers. Well, here it comes. Hurricane Ike will make landfall tonight or tomorrow morning, and its rain and wind is already being felt in Texas. Here in Austin it looks like we’ll escape most of it since it has tracked further to the north than expected. A few days ago we expected the storm to hit us as a Hurricane – even though we’re so far from the coast. I’ve lived in Austin 13 years and have never seen ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Market More Stable than Stock Market - Shane! let me briefly explain why Domains are set to provide much better returns over the next 3 to 10 years. Bear in mind, after 10 years my analysis may no longer apply. Ok, its partly social-psychology at play here, why domain names are going to be extremely valuable to investors that are “ALREADY IN” the domain market now. Even if you have not been accumulating domains over the last 5 years, there is still an aftermarket window of opportunity for about the next 3 to 5 years, ... read more ...
Thu 11th September 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Moniker Updates TRAFFIC Auction List - Moniker sent out another prelimilary list tonight of domains selected for the Live and Silent Auction from the TRAFFIC show. You can download the list here copy-of-auction_inventory_tnyc08-2 Once again the list is not final and does not reflect which domains have been chosen for the Live Auction. Moniker did list these in the e-mail as the “featured” domains: Ad.com Adware.comAdware.net AffiliateProgram.com Ankle.com Arizona.info Ask.Me Asset.com AutoBody.com BabySitting.com BankStatements.com Bilingual.com BirthdayPresents.com Blonde.comBlond.compackage Bond.com Buy.Me CancerResearch.com Clarinet.com Conferences.com CreditScores.com CTR.com Date.Me Deposits.com DiscountDrugstore.com DomainName.com FinancialAid.com HomeRun.com Kiss.Me LoanCalculator.com Love.Me Male.org Marry.Me Men.net Mermaids.com MovieRentals.com PartyBoat.com Pay.com PokerTours.com PromQueen.com Property.net Recruiter.com Searching.com ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo.com Announces Online Auction On The Same Day of TRAFFIC Auction: Good Idea? - Add Sedo.com to the list of domain auctions held during the TRAFFIC New York show. However,  this auction isn’t going to be held at the show but online. The online auction announce today by Sedo.com, starts on September 18th and ends on September 25th, the same day the live Moniker auction is held at the TRAFFIC conference. With several other auctions already slated for the conference is it wise for Sedo.com to add another? With may of the worlds top domainers attending the New York show and remote ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Microsoft Mobile IE 6: Less Reason to Use .Mobi? - According to reports Microsoft is getting to release Internet Explorer 6 for Windows Mobile sometime this year. The biggest benefit of the IE6 for Mobile is the full IE 6 rendering engine, meaning that any page that renders properly in IE 6 on the PC should do look just fine on Windows Mobile. Explorer 6 mobile also promises flash support. Tim McDonough, a senior director in Microsoft’s Windows Mobile unit, said “The market today is really at ‘Can I see a page?’ Very quickly we’re getting ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Yahoo to Get Makeover - Yahoo is preparing a makeover of several popular sections of its Web site, including its home page, over the next few months. This will be Yahoo’s first major redesign of its home page since May 2006. According to Yahoo the changes will enable Yahoo users to plant more mini applications, “widgets” on personalized versions of the home page, said Ash Patel, executive vice president of the company’s audience product division. In a demonstration, Patel showed how Yahoo users subscribing to the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
mobiSiteGalore Creates Mobile Web Sites Fast - Online site builder makes creating .mobi-compliant web sites easy. Any premium .mobi domain name owners worried about creating their .mobi web sites by the compliance deadline need not worry — they can make them in about 10 minutes with a free online tool. I initially didn’t pay much attention to mobiSiteGalore, an online web site builder that builds mobi compliant web sites. But this week I saw an announcement that it now lets you create mobile web sites by ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Moniker Drops .Com to $7.29 Ahead of Registry Fee Hikes - Moniker joins other registrars in “renew before the increase” promotions. Domain registrar Moniker has just cut the new registration and renewal price on .com domain names to $7.29 until the end of the month. Moniker joins other registrars in offering promotions prior to a wholesale price increase that goes into effect October 1. The current wholesale price of .com domains, including the ICANN fee, is $6.62. The price jumps to $7.06 on October 1. eNom is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
We Get It Award: Wisconsin Lt. Governor - Wisconsin Lt. Governor registers .com domain to forward to government site. Wisconsin Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton just launched a new web site to help Wisconsin residents save money. The actual web site is ltgov.wisconsin.gov/issues_view.asp?issueid=30locid=126. Try marketing that domain! So Lawton went out and registered a .com domain to forward to it: GuideforPennyPinchers.com. Now this domain isn’t going to get blind type-in traffic other than from people ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Drops .Net and .Org Prices - Seesaw price changes head in a good direction. A week after increasing .net and .org domain registration prices, GoDaddy has dropped the price. This is the third price change in recent weeks. First, prices went up to $13.19 each. Then they shot up another $2.00 to $15.19. Now they are $11.19 each including fees. It’s clear that GoDaddy is testing pricing to see its effect on volume. My guess is the increase to $15.19 dropped new registrations and add-on sales ... read more ...
Wed 10th September 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
TechWorld: Generic Domains Not Important Anymore - Various sources are quoting John Dunn, editor of Techworld, who thinks domains are no longer important. Domains do not make ‘a lot of difference now’ because most internet use is driven by searches for brand names. “There was a time where it was driven by generic terms, but now people use search,” he explained. “Buying a generic domain name is no longer a useful marketing tool for businesses” When considering what domain name to buy, the only advice was to make sure it is not too long ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Tucows Hits Another 52 Week Low - Tucows.com hit another 52 week low today at $.40 a share, before closing at $.42. The previous low was $.45. The stock traded 590,000 shares about 8x its average volume of less than 75,000 shares. No news was released by Tucows.com but the downward spiral continues. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Yahoo Traffic Takes a Dump - According to ComScore, Yahoo’s August web search traffic fell 10% from August 2007. Google saw a 13% gain. So what happens to Yahoo? There is a thought that Google may walk away from a big legal fight with the US governement and abandon the ad plan with Yahoo, if the Government challenges it. After all if the government goes after Google for the Yahoo deal, it may challenge Google as a monopoly, bringing up other issues. Then comes the EU. If the Yahoo-Google deal doesn’t go then is Microsoft ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Wall Street: Yahoo’s Outlook - Sanford C. Bernstein a wall street brokage, cut its price target on Yahoo, saying that the company’s future prospects look bleak, especially if the proposed search advertising deal with Google is not completed before the end of 2008. It is increasingly likely that the deal will be delayed by regulators, given that the U.S. Justice Department has recently hired Sandy Litvack, its former antitrust chief. Bernstein, cut its price target to $24 from $26. Bernstein added that Yahoo’s stand alone valuation ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Lehman Cuts Google Price and Earnings Target - Lehman Brothers cut its price target on Googleto $600 from $620, and lowered its revenue and earnings estimates on the company for the second half of 2008 and 2009 based on the strong U.S. dollar. Google shares have lost more than 39 percent this year. For 2008, Lehman expects earnings of $19.21 a share on revenue of $15.93 billion, down from its earlier forecast of $19.46 a share on revenue of $16.15 billion. The brokerage lowered its 2009 earnings forecast to $22.41 a share on revenue of $19.71 ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
SearchEngineWatch: Its Worth Buying a Good Domain Name - In a very interesting post today by Mark Jackson over at SearchEngineWatch.com, he discusses a client who hired him to do SEO work for his site.  Mr. Jackson tells the story of how he tried to convience his client it was worth spending $20K on a domain rich in keywords associated with the clients business rather than go with the $7 Godaddy avaliable domain. He points out that when companies buy PPC advertising the cost of a geat domain can be recouped in short order. The post goes on to discuss ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rick Latona Auctions Teams adult With Domain Capital - Latona inks agreement with Domain Capital to provide financing. Rick Latona has partnered with Domain Capital to provide financing for domains purchased through his newsletter and Rick Latona Auctions, LLC (which will be holding a live auction at this month’s TRAFFIC show). Additionally, Latona is paying 10% of the down payment on domains he sells when financed through Domain Capital. In a press release, Latona noted that Domain Capital typically requires a 40% ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How To Value City Domain Names - Mike! If you don’t mind me saying, I have to disagree with the metrics you have used to value a geo-domain or any domain for that matter. Let me explain why I think all these prior BR(Before Rick) valuation models are fundamentally flawed. Fair enough, when after market domaining started, we naturally had to use some measure to value domains and to be fair, natural-type in traffic is what a lot of domainers seem to have been using, because in a growing industry that is still highly ... read more ...
Tue 9th September 2008
Written by The Domains in EN
Rick’s Resignation from a ICA: My Take - As you have read,  Rick Schwartz resigned as board member of the ICA. Rick was not only a founding member of the board, but one of the first to actively promote the ICA to the domainer community. From my perceptive Rick grew frustrated with the lack of response from  the ICA to issues that concern domainers. Over the past months since the Snowe bill, Rick and I have approached the ICA on several issues of import to domainers. Tucows reclaiming domains it had auctioned off, after the auction ended. Registrars ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
WSJ: US Hires Attorney to Look during Google-Yahoo Deal - According to a report in the Wall Street Journal , the Department of Justice “has quietly hired one of the nation’s best-known litigators, former Walt Disney Co. vice chairman Sanford Litvack, for a possible antitrust challenge to Google Inc.’s growing power in advertising.”” The Journal states that the hiring of Mr. Litvack’s “is the strongest signal yet that the U.S. is preparing to take court action against Google and its search-advertising deal with Yahoo.” The Journal specultes ... read more ...