Monthly Archives: August 2009

Wed 26th August 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Breaking News: .Cm “Go Live” Postponed; Again - Well, in what now seems to be now an “official continuing saga”, the .cm registry has postponed for a second time, the ‘Go Live’ registration period, which was to begin at 8pm EST tonight. Once again the delay seems to be due to “technical issues”. Once again the postponement was announced just minutes before the “Go Live” was to go live. (thanks to our friends at Moniker.com for passing this information on to us) I don’t know about you, but for me this is becoming quite scary. It ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Cm Live Registrations Start At 8PM EST Tonight - The .CM registry has announced that the “Go Live” registrations for .cm domains opens at 8PM EST tonight. This means,  you will be able to register any available .cm domain for registration fees. Many of the top domain registrars will start accepting live registrations for .cm domains. Moniker.com for example is charging $119 a year, for a live registration, with a one year minimum, while domains on pre-order were priced at NameJet.com/Enom for $350 for a 2 year minimum term.  Enom.com will ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NameJet: .CM Pre-Orders Yield 11,000 Registrations: 4,500 Domains Going To Auction - According to NameJet.com, the central clearing house for all .CM Pre-orders, they received over 36,000 Pre-orders for .CM domains. Out of the 36,000 Pre-orders, 15,500 were for  unique domain names. 11,000 domains only had one pre-order and will be processed today and tomorrow and will go be awarded for the registration fee of $350, for a two year registration. These domains show a status of “Single Pre-Order” on the .CM Pre-Order page in the customer’s NameJet account. NameJet.com says that ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
$300K Coming Into The Market To Buy .Ae Domains? - According to a press release from today, a Dubai based company, “Unicapital Middle East”, has  $300,000 allocated for domain name purchases. The company is allocating another $700K for project development and promotion. It has just launched a portal for the region at 99.ae. It is not clear from the press release if the $300K is going to be spent on .Ae domains or on top level TLD’s but the rest of the press release goes on to talk about all the investment opportunities  the exist in the UAE ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Registration for MeetDomainers 2009 in Poland is now open! Partial Auction List Announced - The Second annual “MeetDomainers” show, a “Truly European Meeting of Domain Investors”, will be held at Warsaw Marriott Hotel, September 25-27. MeetDomainers is an international meeting of people who love to do business and love domain names. It is dedicated to entrepreneurs and domain investors who want to share their knowledge and experience with each other. English-Polish Polish-English simultaneous translation will be provided at the Meeting. “This meeting will be a great networking ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Circuit City’s 800.com Domain Sells for Big Bucks during Auction - 800.com domain sells at bankruptcy auction. The liquidation of Circuit City’s assets has resulted in a big sale of the 800.com domain name. Although the final auction price is not yet known, Domain Name Wire has learned that starting bids quickly escalated to $250,000. According to court documents, the auction was to be held on August 18 at the New York offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher Flom, LLP (Filing, large pdf). The auction was run in part by StreamBank, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Adsense as a Platform and What it Means for Publishers - Google Adsense shows off its platform. Google Adsense is not an ad network. It’s an advertising platform, and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is taking steps to open it up. Adsense is taking its next step to opening up the platform by allowing other display advertising companies to place ads on Adsense Publishers’ sites. For example, Google may be able to offer you a $1 CPM on display ads on your site, while another ad network can offer $2. The other ad network’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
An Easy Way to Find End Users to Buy Your Domain Names - A dead simple way to find qualified end users to buy your domains. End users, end users, end users. Everyone in the domain name industry wants to be focus on selling domains to the “end user”. This is essentially anyone other than a domain investor. But finding these elusive end users can be a challenge. Fortunately, the easiest way to find them is sitting right under your nose: people who have registered your .com domains in other TLDs. I recently scanned ... read more ...
Tue 25th August 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Show Coming To Vegas In January, The Weekend Before DomainFest: You Like? - The TRAFFIC show organizers just announced that TRAFFIC Las Vegas will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel on January 21 through 23. According to the organizers: “The show will feature as many as seven full meals, three cocktail parties, great seminars, big name speakers, and the best night-time parties.” What this means is that TRAFFIC Vegas will be held in Vegas, the weekend before DomainFest.com. (DomainFest starts on the following Tuesday) Personally I like this move and plan on attending both ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Buys Arab Online Community Site Maktoob.com For $75-$85 Million - According to various reports this morning, Yahoo has agreed to purchase, the arab community site Maktoob.com, which has 16.5 million users in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Yahoo said, while there are more than 320 million Arabic speakers worldwide, less than 1% of online content is in Arabic.  Online advertising is growing sharply in the region, and ad spending is expected to grow 35% to 40% in the Middle East this year. “This acquisition will ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DomainFest Early Bird Registration Opens; Schedule Announced - DomainSponsor, the domain monetization business of Oversee.net and organizer of DOMAINfest,  opened early bird registration today and published a preliminary agenda for DOMAINfest Global 2010 which will be held at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, Calif. from January 26-28, 2010. The entire property has been reserved exclusively for this conference. Registration, which includes all sessions, meals and official parties, is offered at an early bird discounted rate of $895 through September ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
USU.com Saved, But Panel Doesn’t Consider Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Software company fails to snag USU.com domain. But where’s the beef? A three person panel at WIPO has ruled in favor of the current registrant of USU.com in a domain dispute. However, in a brief opinion, it failed to consider the issue of reverse domain name hijacking. The domain name arbitration case was brought by software company USU AG of Germany, which was represented by Hössle Kudlek Partner, Patentanwälte, Germany. The respondent was represented ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo’s Auto Categorization Tool Hits a Home Run - Categorization tools saves time and increases odds of sale. Sedo announced its new auto categorization tool last week. The most painful part of adding domains to Sedo (or Afternic, for that matter) is taking the time to categorize them. But since categorized domains are more likely to sell, this is an important step. Sedo’s expansion to over 2,000 categories means more targeted searches, but more of a headache submitting domains — if it weren’t for it’s ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Expiration Comments to ICANN Working Group - My comments on expired domains. As I wrote last week, ICANN is seeking feedback on the domain expiration process. Here’s the feedback I just submitted. The deadline for submitting feedback is September 10… I believe most registrars do an effective job informing customers of upcoming expirations. For example, Go Daddy sends multiple expiration notices by email and even postal mail. Most registrars continue to send these expiration notices after a domain expires. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW’s 10 Step Guide to Transferring Domain Names to GoDaddy - Your step-by-step guide to transferring a domain name to GoDaddy. A couple weeks ago I had to transfer a domain name to GoDaddy as part of sale. The buyer was supposed transfer the domain to his account at GoDaddy from mine at Moniker, but he through up his hands in frustration. Given that the buyer is an IT manager at a technology company, I decided to take another look at GoDaddy’s transfer-in process. No wonder he was frustrated — the user interface and ... read more ...
Mon 24th August 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Yahoo Is Revamping Its Search Pages - Yahoo announced today that it was working to develop a new search page design that  “will deliver contextual results that are more relevant to users’ queries.” Larry Cornett, Vice President for Yahoo of Search Products and Design, said the redesigned page, which is still being tested, “will help people find things they most want by providing them with a “Web of objects” instead a list of Web pages. For example, a query for “how to make sushi” will return organic search results and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ThePirateBay.Org ISP Ordered To “Shut It Down” - In the latest twist of a story we have been following for a while, the ISP which serves as the main backbone for the filing sharing site, (Black Internet) ThePirateBay.org was ordered today to stop servicing the site today or face penalties. According to various news sources as of 9:30 a.m. PT, ThePirateBay.org appeared to be mostly inaccessible. Although other ISP’s carry the site, Black Internet was its main backbone. In other ThePirateBay.org news today,  the official,  Swedish government ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Paul Sloan’s Frank Schilling Interview is Worth a Read - Take 10 minutes to read Frank Schilling’s latest interview. Paul Sloan’s latest interview of Frank Schilling has been posted at Sloan’s new “Playing the Angles” web site. Although the interview was posted last Friday, Sloan (and sidekick David Carter) sent out a message announcing the site launch today. As always, Schilling exudes humbleness while espousing prophecy. That’s what makes Schilling different from a lot of horn tooters in the domain industry. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Too Hot: Hotcam.com Domain Case was Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Case is too hot for arbitration. Video equipment company HotCam, Ltd. has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking in an arbitration case over the domain name Hotcam.com. HotCam, Ltd. filed the case with National Arbitration Forum, citing the company’s Great Britain trademark as grounds for transfer. The company filed for the trademark in 2000 and claimed to have been founded in London in 1998, but didn’t provide a specific date or any proof of its ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameMedia Sells over $800,000 in Domain Names Last Week - NameMedia has stronger-than-usual sales week. NameMedia continues to show its sales prowess, turning in over $800,000 in sales over the past week. This is especially impressive when you consider that the sales chart isn’t top heavy — the top sale was $15,000. NameMedia sells domain names through BuyDomains and Afternic. Here are the company’s stats for the past week: .Com sales: $719,743 .Com domains sold: 435 Median .com sale price: $1,210 Non-.com sales: ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Farsi.com Domain Name Sells for $75,000 - Farsi.com sells for $75,000 through domain brokerage. An entire language has been sold for $75,000. Well, an entire language as a domain name. Sedo has brokered the sale of Farsi.com for $75,000. The domain was first registered in 1995. As of now, it’s not clear who the buyer is. Although Farsi.com will certainly grab the headlines, it wasn’t Sedo’s top sale this past week. Brax.com topped the charts at $80,000. Other notable .com domain sales include ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
7,000 Domains Won Through UDRP Have Expired - Expired domain names show disconnect between corporate functions. Corporation Service Company (CSC), a brand protection company, released a study today about the expenses incurred by brand holders to get domain names through UDRP. The study suggests companies have spent $220 million getting domains back through UDRP, and that it would have only cost $1.1 million had they proactively registered the domains. But what I found more interesting is how many domains won ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Mardi Gras Set for Feb Return - Popular conference making its return. Building on the success (and fun) of its first year, Domainer Mardi Gras is making a return in 2010. The event will be held at the New Orleans Marriott February 11th – 13th, 2010. Fat Tuesday is February 16. The event is now an independent event. Parked will be a headline sponsor. Compared to last year, you’ll spot two key differences off the top: the hotel is closer to the action and the entire event is cheaper. Although ... read more ...
Sun 23rd August 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Fails to Deal With Warehousing & Registrars Conduct In Its “Expired Domain Policy Review” - ICANN announced this week,  the opening of  the comment period for the “Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group”, seeking opinions certain matters from the registrant point of view, but failed to follow its own staff recommendation that it should address warehousing by registrars. What ICANN called for comments on this week were: “””Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their expired domain names; Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration ... read more ...
Sat 22nd August 2009
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Moniker’s “Bidders Contract” Looks Strong To Me - I was looking back at the events of this week concerning the ad.com disputes, I realized that I had never read the “bidders contract” that I have signed many times at TRAFFIC and DomainFest shows, with Moniker.com I know your thinking “how could Mike, being an attorney, never read the contract? Well if you have ever been to a TRAFFIC or DomainFest show, you would see that most bidder sign up and get their paddles right before the auction. Typically, there is a lunch before the auction, then ... read more ...