Monthly Archives: February 2010

Wed 10th February 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domain Parking Coming to .Tel - Domains that aren’t used for web sites to get Google ads. It was only a matter of time, right? .Tel registry Telnic announced that .tel domain name owners will soon by able to integrate Google Adsense into their domain names. That means they’ll be able to add Google’s pay-per-click ads to their .tel domain names through the .tel management interface. The net effect? You’ll be able to turn a .tel into a parked domain name full of ads. Technically, .tel users ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Success Story: Octane360 Takes Domain Monetization Beyond PPC - Company brings multiple revenue streams to domain names. In December I wrote about Octane360, a startup that promises to bring new monetization options to domain names. I’m happy to report that the company is delivering on its promise. The company’s bread-and-butter is monetizing long tail geo domain names, such as CityDermatologist.com or CityPlumbers.com. The company creates a small directory web site on each domain name. But unlike many other domain development ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
For GoDaddy, Last Place is Better than Middle of a Pack - Analyzing Super Bowl commercial results for the world’s biggest domain name registrar. Another year, another GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial media circus. And that’s just how the company likes it. This year was no different than past. The company created a stir. Big props to Morality in Media for sending out a x-rated news release on Christian Newswire telling parents to keep their kids away from GoDaddy’s commercials (while simultaneously telling parents to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW’s Guide to Surviving Domainer Mardi Gras - How to prepare for New Orleans. The second annual Domainer Mardi Gras kicks off tomorrow in New Orleans. I’ve attended 100% of these shows, which makes me an authority to write this survival guide. 1. Bring your patience. With inclement weather across the nation, getting to NOLA won’t be easy today and tomorrow. When you get to the city, be ready for some long lines for taxis and other services. It’s a busy weekend. 2. Check your expectations. Think Mardi ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Most Domain Owners Making Less than $20 RPM - Has domain name parking hit bottom? How much are your parked domain names earning? If you make $20 or more RPM (revenue per thousand visits), consider yourself lucky. The 5th Annual Domain Name Wire survey shows that 60% of domain name owners are making less than a $20 RPM, and a whopping 40% are making less than $10 per thousand visits. The good news? Those numbers are in line with last year. Perhaps domain parking revenue has bottomed out? 35% of respondents ... read more ...
Tue 9th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
WIPO Takes Away a Geo Domain; Hayward.com Putting It On Our Worst of 2010 List - Talk about a scary decision. Decision D2009-1493 A domainer just lost a domain he paid $20,000 to acquire and recently valued it at $100K. A three member WIPO panel took away,  what most of us would regard to be a Geo domain, Hayward.com and wwwhayward.com and awarded it to the trademark holder Hayward Industries. Hayward is a city in California with a population of 150,000 people. Here are the facts as laid out by the panel: “”The Whois records show that the domain name hayward.com was created ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WIPO Hands City Geo Domain Name to Pool Company - Hayward, California domain name given to pool company. Here’s a domain name dispute that should make geo domain owners’ blood boil. A three person World Intellectual Property Organization has awarded the domain name Hayward.com to pool company Hayward Industries. The domain name is owned by Chad Wright, a domain investor known for owning popular California city .coms. Hayward is a city in the San Francisco Bay area. Hayward Industries convinced the panel that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AT&T Should Sell Buzz.com to Google - Google launches Buzz. ATT owns Buzz.com. Google announced Google Buzz today. Immediately I thought of the domain name Buzz.com. A couple years ago I was working on a domain acquisition from ATT and, while searching whois, noticed that the company owned Buzz.com. The Buzz.com domain name has sat largely underutilized. Recently, a landing page for a closed-beta social networking service appeared on the site: About buzz.com: Want to know the best places to go or ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Al Gore, Steve Jobs, Digg, Others adult for .Com 25 Awards - Politicians and instrumental web companies nominated for awards. As part of a year long celebration of the 25th anniversary of .com, domain registry VeriSign today announced nominees for its “.com 25″. There are 75 nominees; a panel of judges will whittle it down to the “.com 25″. The public is invited to show support for nominees to help the judges. Winners will be announced at a gala in San Francisco this May, hosted by comedian Dana Carvey. Among the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Biking.com Domain Name Sells for $250,000 - Two weeks, two great recreational domain sales. Domain name brokerage NameMedia has sold the domain name Biking.com for $250,000. This comes just a week after selling Boating.com for the same amount. As you might have guessed, the buyer of both names is the same, Stein Holdings. That’s a half million bucks in a couple weeks, instantly putting the buyer on the map for recreational domains. Thanks to the Biking.com sale, NameMedia sold about $800,000 worth of ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
No Blockbusters during Sedo This Week, But Sold 10,000 Domains Last Quarter - Company releases 2009 market report. Sedo didn’t turn in any blockbuster domain sales over the past week, but you can forgive the company for a slower-than-normal week. After all, the company just released its 2009 domain market study (pdf), which contains a startling stat: Sedo sold 10,070 domain names last quarter. That’s more than the company sold in any one quarter for at least the past two years, and maybe more. (I have an inquiry into Sedo to find out ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Simple Math during Play in SnapNames Lawsuit - How much did customers overpay thanks to Halvarez? Last week I reported about how the judge in the California lawsuit against SnapNames questioned how much money was at issue. In order to qualify for class action status, at least $5 million must be at stake. In questioning the total number, the judge noted that the plaintiff in the case had lost a whopping $20. If ‘halvarez’ participated in 50,000 auctions at an average overpayment of $20, that would be only ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Survey: Domainers Bullish on Sales Prices - Domain owners think values are headed up. Are domain name aftermarket prices heading up? Domain owners are certainly optimistic. 61% of those surveyed in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey believe domain values will be higher in 2010 than last year. Only 12% think they’ll be lower. Compare that to last year, when only 32% thought prices would be higher in 2009 compared to 2008. Indeed, domainer sentiment on values saw a quick one year dip, followed by ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameBee.com Amps Up Domain Name Content Aggregation - Domain content aggregator adds more features. NameBee.com has added twitter, news, and forum posts to its domain information content aggregation site. Launched a year ago this month, NameBee.com has primarily focused on aggregating domain name blogs. The new features, released today, allow domainers to review and interact with more content outside the blogosphere: – Twitter Aggregation – Aggregates the most popular Twitter users in the domain name industry. ... read more ...
Mon 8th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Godaddy’s Ads Bomb According To USA TODAY Ad Meter - As you all know Godaddy.com ran 2 ads during the SuperBowl. According to USA Today’s Ad Meter which tracks viewers opinions of all the ads on the big game,  Godaddy’s commercial’s fumbled the ball. Out of the 63 commercials  USA Today tracks, the Godaddy.com ad featuring Danica Patrick getting a message, ranked 63rd while its other commercial ranked 60th Ouch Compare that to Google’s ad which ranks 43rd or Flo.TV which ranked 36th. Cars.com gets the 12th spot, Monster.com ranked 10th and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Domainer’s Mardi Gras Domain Auction List Released - The auction for the Domainer’s Mardi Gras which will be held in New Orleans starting this Thursday February 11, actually starts Tomorrow Tuesday February 9, 2010 and will be conducted on SnapNames.com The auction closes on Tuesday February 16th, 2010 at 3:15pm EST in accordance with SnapNames.com normal closing rules. Here is a list of the domain names to be auctioned off and reserve prices as usual are stated in ranges (we will publish our top picks a week from today) 173.info $201 ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Get Your Own URL Shortener with YOURLS - Brand yourself with customized URL shortener. It has always bothered me that URL shorteners are taking over the web. As many people have pointed out, your entire linking history is subject to the lifeline of a third party service. And with many URL shorteners operating on questionable country code domain names, the risks are prevalent. This weekend I set out to get my own URL shortener. After all, I plunked down five figures for my short domain name DNW.com, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
CNN en Espanol: News Network Wants CNN.es Domain Name - News network wants Spanish domain name. Cable News Network, aka CNN, wants to get its hands on the CNN.es domain name. There’s just one problem: it was registered back in 2005. So the company has filed a domain dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization to try to get the domain name. At the time of writing CNN.es doesn’t resolve to a web site. But the domain’s owner appears to be based in the United Kingdom if his email address is any any indication. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Rated Best Domain Registrar (Again) - Go Daddy pulls in top honors in this year’s Domain Name Wire survey. Getting buzz from Super Bowl commercials isn’t the only thing domain name registrar Go Daddy does well. For the fifth year in a row, the registrar has been rated best registrar in Domain Name Wire’s annual survey. This year 41% of those survey said Go Daddy was the best domain name registrar. Here are the top five vote-getters: 1. GoDaddy 41% 2. Moniker 16% 3. Fabulous 11% 4. eNom 5% 5. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verizon Settles Trademark Domain Name Case - Communications company settles lawsuit over typosquatting. Verizon has reached a tentative settlement with 2Cool Guys, LLC, Warren Weitzman, and Arnold Trebach over alleged trademark infringement from domain name typos. The communications company filed the complaint in October, alleging that the defendants parked typos of its popular Verizon trademark in order to earn pay-per-click revenue. The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed, but two of the three ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Survey: Price, Security Most Important When Choosing Domain Registrar - A look at selling points for domain name registrars. Price and security are the most important characteristics customers consider when choosing a domain name registrar, according to a survey of over 500 people in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. 171 respondents selected the security of their domain names at the registrar as the most important factor, while 153 said price was the primary concern. However, when the weighted average of all factors shows that ... read more ...
Sun 7th February 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Domainer Mardi Gras Just Got a Whole Lot More Exciting - Mardi Gras plus Saints celebration makes New Orleans the place to be this week. Last month I interviewed Domainer Mardi Gras Executive Directory Michael Ward about this year’s conference. After the interview, he sent an email to me about how important it was that people reserved their hotel rooms early. Here’s what he wrote: The hotel is already fully booked and they plan on selling out any rooms that I give back to them. We ran into this problem last year ... read more ...
Sat 6th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Sued For Trademark Infringement Over The Use Of The Term “Gadget” & Why That’s Good News - Firefly Digital , a Web site design, development and hosting company, filed a federal lawsuit against Google last week, alleging the Internet search engine giant infringed on two of its registered trademarks. The trademarks are for its “Website Gadget,” a content management system, and “Gadget,” a user-friendly application that works with its “Website Gadget.” The company received a state trademark for “Website Gadget” in 2002 and federal trademarks for both in 2009. In the lawsuit, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
The Problem With Having Too Many Domains in an Auction - For online domain auctions, less is more. Two “extended” domain name auctions concluded this week. The results were underwhelming. In the Rick Latona auction, only 9 of 600 domain names sold. The Moniker extended auction sold 79 of about 2,000 domains. So what’s the problem? Too many domains, and especially too many poorly priced domain names. I won’t profess to be an expert at picking which domain names will sell. But I assume auction houses apply some ... read more ...
Fri 5th February 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
DomainFest Extended Auction Nets $248K on SnapNames.com - The DomainFest extended auction closes yesterday on SnapNames.com with almost $248,000 in sales. There was a $127,000 bid on KZ.com but that bid was taken down as it was believed to be fraudulent. Some of the domains were highly contested as the auction that started with an original closing at 3:15pm went past 4:30,  including on stockreports.com and homeschoolprograms.com. Now that we have the results of both extended auctions we switched the Poll over so you can vote on what you think was the ... read more ...