Wow We Actually Bought Domains At DomainFest: Our Take, Our Suggestions & How About That “Other” Auction - Having had a good nights sleep, after much drinking and partying at the Mansion, enjoying a wonderful lunch at the Ivy restaurant on an absolutely beautiful day here in LA, after reading your comments to my post on the Live auction results, and many other blogs, I’m ready to share my thoughts on yesterday auction.
I was pretty active in the auctions, selling 1 name in the live, 1 in the silent and buying 2 names in the silent and 5 in the live, so my perspective is both as an observer and as ... read more ...
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Sat 31st January 2009
Fri 30th January 2009
DomainFest Live Auction Nets Only $665K - The Moniker.com live auction from the DomainFest show just concluded, with just 62 domains out of 200 domains selling for a total of $665,000.
We will have further thoughts and analysis tomorrow, however first impressions was a surprising lack of interest in .me domains compared to just the New York Traffic show just a few months ago.
.travel domains as expected garnered little interest.
This auction was in stark contrast of the low/no reserve auction of just a few days ago, where almost 60% of the ... read more ...
GoDaddy.com Purchases Second Super Bowl Commercial -
Company to air two commercials during Sunday’s Super Bowl.
One of the last remaining advertising spots in Sunday’s Super Bowl was snapped up by domain name registrar GoDaddy. The commercial will air near the two minute warning in the fourth quarter of the game.
GoDaddy, a perennial Super Bowl advertiser, asked the public to select which of two commercials to run during the company’s first quarter 30 second spot. The company settled on a Danica Patrick spot ... read more ...
Fly.com Appreciates 20% in 10 Years -
Sale of $1.8 million not that great of a return.
The big domain name news today is the sale of Fly.com for $1.8 million to Travelzoo (NASDAQ: TZOO). That’s a big number, especially in today’s economy. But it’s not a great return for the seller.
It was almost 10 years ago that the domain name reportedly changed hands for $1.5 million. So in about 10 years the domain name appreciated less than 2% per year. Of course, 10 years ago the dot.com bubble was at ... read more ...
Why a Live Domain Auction Bombed (and Why I’m Not Surprised) -
Domain name auction pulls in under $700,000, but mid range domains continue to sell.
Yesterday’s DOMAINfest Global live domain name auction wasn’t pretty. With under $700,000 in domains sold, it may have set a low point for a general Moniker live domain auction. The mood in the room was somber as domain after domain was passed.
But the news wasn’t what was going on in the room, but what was going on outside the room. I ran into a couple people that usually ... read more ...
Thu 29th January 2009
Google: We’re Committed to Domain Channel -
Google’s Hal Bailey discusses domain parking at DOMAINfest.
In what can only be described as an awkward session, Google Adsense for Domains’ Hal Bailey discussed the future of the domain channel at DOMAINfest Global today in Los Angeles.
The good news for domainers is that Bailey said the company is committed to the domain channel and believes it adds value to domainers. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) will not exit the domain channel “any time soon”, he said. He ... read more ...
DOMAINfest Attendance Tops 600 -
DOMAINfest draws crowd despite downturn.
Official attendance at DOMAINfest Global 2009 has topped 600, solidifying its position as the largest domain name industry conference. There are over 30 sponsors and 20 exhibitors.
Yesterday evening most conference goers headed out to Universal Studios for an exclusive event. They were treated to studio tours, dinner, and drinks. Even better, DOMAINfest reserved two of the rides exclusively for attendees (no waiting in line). ... read more ...
Wed 28th January 2009
DomainFest Low/No Reserve Auction Nets $128K - The no/low reserve auction at Domainfest grossed $128,650 in sales.
Here are the offical results from Moniker.com:
eat.net $15,000
spearguns.com $14,000
sanfranciscorestaurant. $7,500
bikes.net $7,000
consultations.com $7,000
autoinsurancepolicy.com ... read more ...
Yahoo Loses $300 Million In 4th Quarter - Yahoo reported a 4th quarter loss of $303 million compared to a profit of $202 Million in the 4th quarter of 2007.
However without one time charges and write off’s in the 4th quarter related to restructuring and layoff’s, Yahoo would have made $238 million, or 17 cents per share, from $205.7 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.
Revenue dipped 1% to $1.81 billion, though Yahoo said it would have risen 3 percent if not for currency fluctuations. After subtracting the company’s advertising ... read more ...
Steve Wozniak Discusses Domain Names and Woz.com -
Apple co-founder proud of his three character domain Woz.com.
Steve Wozniak delighted a crowd of 500 domain industry professionals this afternoon at DOMAINfest in Los Angeles. Wozniak dished out stories of the early days at Apple and his philosophy on business. But the crowd was most engaged when he talked about domain names.
Wozniak, known as “The Woz”, is somewhat of a domainer himself. He owns Woz.com, and recounts the story of how he almost didn’t register ... read more ...
Internet REIT Gets New CEO -
Snyder out, Hurtte in at Internet REIT.
Internet REIT, a media company that has acquired hundreds of thousands of domain names over the past few years, has a new CEO.
Bob Hurtte joined the company from Gurwitch Products, LLC, the worldwide distributor of the Laura Mercier brand of cosmetics. Hurtte was Chief Operationg Officer at Gurwitch Products. Prior to Gurwitch Products, Hurtte was an accountant with Ernst Young, LLP.
Former CEO Craig Synder came from competitor ... read more ...
Kupietzky Calls for Domain Industry Transparency -
Oversee.net president discusses state of the domain name industry; seeks transparency and cooperation.
Oversee.net president Jeff Kupietzky kicked off the first full day of DOMAINfest Global this morning with a parody of a Barack Obama speech (see video below). It was a light-hearted way to discuss the difficulties and opportunities the domain name industry faces. His underlying message was that we’re in tough times, but these tough times will breed opportunity. ... read more ...
Panel: Taking Domains Offshore is a False Hope -
Legal panel at DOMAINfest Global says think twice before moving your domain names or forming your business offshore.
Derek Newman
Tuesday afternoon at DOMAINfest Global in Los Angeles, a panel of lawyers suggested that moving domain names to offshore registrars or forming your domain company offshore may not be the panacea it seems. In fact, Derek Newman of Newman Newman said you may actually be hurting yourself by setting up an offshore corporation to hold your ... read more ...
Only One Statistic Matters for Domain Parking -
RPC, RPM, etc. mean nothing when comparing parking services.
I came in to the “Domain Monetization 101 201″ session at DOMAINfest today near the end. But I caught a couple questions, one of which was “what three statistics should I look at most for my parked domains?”
I was surprised when the first couple answers had to do with revenue per click, revenue per thousand (RPM), etc. A couple years ago I thought that too, but I now know it’s not the case.
Thankfully, ... read more ...
Tue 27th January 2009
TDNAM.com Doing a TradeMark Deal Again: Up Today MyFaceBook.com - Just checking out the most active auctions over at TDNAM and I see as the second most active domain MyFaceBook.com.
With over 8 days to go the domain is already at $1,605.
Not surprisingly, the domain has monster traffic.
According to TDNAM the domain has over 84,000 monthly visitors and compete.com has it doing over 20,000 visitors.
A clear trademark violation that can only bring more heat on the industry, the auction should be stopped by Godaddy rather than allowed to sell for a big number.
Once ... read more ...
Off To DomainFest - Well like many of you i’m at DomainFest for the week.
If your coming to the show, safe travels.
One word of warning, as I got here yesterday, baby its cold outside, at night.
You can catch me speaking at 9:45 Wednesday morning, at a session called:
I also will be part of a bloggers group in the exhibit hall, from 5-6:30 with some great guys:
Corner #4: Industry Bloggers’ View of How Our Industry is Evolving
Experts: Mike Berkens (TheDomains.com), Michael Gilmour (WhizzBangsBlog.com), ... read more ...
Top.com Tops $100,000 during Auction -
Domain has met reserve and will sell for six figures.
The domain name Top.com has met its reserve at Sedo and is currently at EUR 101,000 ($133,000 USD). 38 bids have been placed. The auction ends January 29 at 7 am EST.
The auction should give a confidence boost to the domain industry heading into this week’s DOMAINfest live domain auctions.
Although Top.com is the top auction (sorry, I couldn’t help myself) at Sedo right now, there are several other noteworthy ... read more ...
Test Driving GoDaddy Marketplace -
GoDaddy Marketplace is simple, but what effect will it have on the market?
As Domain Name Wire reported earlier this month, GoDaddy is launching an online marketplace to buy and sell goods. It is now live, and over the weekend I had a chance to test drive GoDaddy’s new “marketplace”, which operates similar to eBay stores or Amazon. The process to buy something was relatively simple, and you’ll be happy to hear that there are no upsell/cross-sell pages during ... read more ...
ICA Still Strong, But Challenges Remain -
What Michael Collins’ departure means for Internet Commerce Association.
When Michael Collins resigned as Executive Director of Internet Commerce Association last week, I re-read his resignation letter a few times. What did it say about ICA? What is the future of the organization?
It’s clear that Collins didn’t leave solely to focus on a new venture. There were financial considerations at ICA. Collins wrote, “The entire world is going through economic ... read more ...
Mon 26th January 2009
Is it a Buyers Market For Domains? - An article in econsultancy.com, today claims that its a buyers market for domains.
Citing what it calls “the economic downturn and a growing overall trend of declining revenue for parked‘ domains” the article concludes that its a great time t buy a domain from even major players like BuyDomains.com
The article cites a report in In December, DomainNameWire that BuyDomains was offering year-end deals on many of the domains.
The article then goes on to quote the DNJournal to say: “The PPC ... read more ...
DOMAINfest Hotel’s Domain is Expired -
Don’t try to lookup hotel information at RenaissanceHollywood.com — it’s expired.
[Update: the hotel has renewed the domain name and it is now resolving.] A few minutes ago I was looking up information about the hotel for this week’s DOMAINfest Conference in Hollywood. I googled “renaissance hollywood” and the first result was for www.renaissancehollywood.com. I clicked through the result and was surprised to see this:
Yes, that’s a Network Solutions ... read more ...
DNW’s Practical Guide to DOMAINfest 2009 -
What to wear and what to see.
DOMAINfest 2009 kicks off tomorrow evening in Hollywood, California. The lineup is solid and this looks to be a great event. Here’s my “practical” guide to attending the show.
When to Arrive
If you’re new to domaining, or even intermediate, you should try to arrive Tuesday at noon. Tuesday is “bootcamp” day, and includes several excellent sessions. I’ll be speaking at 1:30.
Everyone else should arrive by Tuesday evening ... read more ...
dotMobi Details 1 and 2 Character Domain Allocation Process -
Short .mobi domains are “free”, if you develop them.
As Domain Name Wire reported in November, dotMobi has the green light to allocate one and two character .mobi domain names. The company explained the process for acquiring these domain names on its blog over the weekend.
First, you’ll need to complete a very short form to express your interest. This form requires basic contact information and a short description of what you want to do with the domain name ... read more ...
Why .eBay and .IBM Make No Sense -
Marketing potential of brand-name top level domains seems limited.
I’ve had a question about the proposed new top level domains for a long time. And no one has provided me with a good answer. Hopefully someone reading this can provide one.
A handful of people have suggested new top level domains are an excellent global branding opportunity for brands such as eBay and IBM. Instead of promoting eBay.com or IBM.com, they can promote their own top level domains .ebay ... read more ...
Sun 25th January 2009
Recession, What Recession: Buyers Flock To NameJet.com: Our Sales Report - This past week saw more activity at NameJet.com, not only in the terms of numbers of domains which sold but also in terms of price and quality of domain.
Is the quality of the domains a sign of things to come in 2009 as people allow quality domains to expire with greater frequency?
We bid on several of these buy only wound up with one.
Congrats to all buyers
Here are some of the more notable sales from NameJet.com that were on my radar, which totaled $157,000 in sales:
Domain Name ... read more ...