Monthly Archives: April 2010

Wed 14th April 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Two End Users Buy 3 Letter Domain Names - Energy company and bank invest in better domain names. There’s little better than owning a nice, short domain name for your company. It’s part of the reason I sprung for DNW.com. Within the past couple weeks two different end users have purchased three letter domains of their own. First is Mack Energy Corp, which paid a hefty $99,000 for MEC.com. Mack Energy Corp. is an oil exploration company. Second is First Fidelity Bank, which has been using the sub-prime ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
No Landmark Deals, But Another Strong Sales Week during Sedo - Sales results for the past week. Sedo is reporting strong domain name sales over the past week, although it doesn’t have any of the six figure deals we’ve become spoiled accustomed too. The company reported about $850,000 USD in disclosed sales, not including smaller transactions. At the top of the list is Games1.com, sold to a casual games company for 39,000 EUR (about $53,000 USD). Also noteworthy is atelier.net at $30,000, which is currently pending transfer ... read more ...
Tue 13th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Latonas.com 2nd “Daily” Auction Starts Now - Latonas.com just announced that is just started its second “daily”auction today with 50 more owned domain names. The auction which started today at 4pm EST closes tomorrow April 14th at 4pm EST. According to its press release: “””After our initial auction last week we have been working overtime getting rid of bugs and ramping our system up. We are doing another auction with our personal inventory today all at a $1 reserve to ensure everything is working properly. This auction just started ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOM Partners Fires Back during Mike Mann in Sex.com Case - Creditor to Sex.com says Mike Mann proves its point. DOM Partners, a creditor and equity investor in Sex.com owner Escom, LLC, has filed a reply (pdf) to Mike Mann’s opposition to DOM’s motion to dismiss bankruptcy proceedings against Escom. In the reply, DOM Partners says that Mann’s opposition and declaration proves that he filed the bankruptcy case in bad faith to prevent a planned foreclosure auction of the Sex.com domain name. Petitioners acknowledge ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Domain Broker Tessa Holcomb Joins PPX International - Holcomb joins fast-growing PPX International. Domain broker Tessa Holcomb has left Sedo to join PPX International. PPX International works with large domain name owners to optimize their domain portfolios. It also offers cost-per-action domain parking solutions. PPX has entered into a cross-technology agreement with DomainManager.com, and Holcomb will report directly to DomainManager.com CEO Richard Lau. Holcomb will also take on the role of Director of Philanthropy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
5 Alternatives to Traditional Domain Name Parking - Parking revenue got you down? Here are 5 alternatives to try. Here are five alternatives to traditional pay-per-click domain parking. RootOrange – RootOrange will lease your domain name on a local basis to multiple parties. In theory, this leasing will provide you with a steady income stream that should top what you can achieve by using the domain at an international-only level. Check out DivorceLawyer.com for an example. Shopping Feeds – if you have a product ... read more ...
Mon 12th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
.Me First Name Auction Results Day One: Pretty Much Every Domain Sells For Under $1K - The first day of the five day .Me auctions for first and last name, Domains just closed with pretty much every domain selling for under $1K. There were a few exceptions. I saw Anthony.me at $1,600. Adam.me went for $1,300 Austin.me sold for $1,100 which is not only a first name but a name of a city. While the below is not a complete list of all the domains that sold it should give you a feel for how day 1 went. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
PondPumps.com Sells For $15K On Godaddy.com - In a Godaddy auction that just ended a hour ago, the domain name PondPumps.com sold for $15,671. I was in the auction until about $7K then dropped out. Its a nice product domain, but with less than 50 visitors a month (according to Godaddy) I think the domain sold closer to a retail price, rather wholesale, which is what we hope to buy at in a domain auction. We congratulate the buyer, and and send out a “what the hell were you thinking” to the domain holder that didn’t spend $8 to renew the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
For The First Time More American’s Would Give Up Their TV’s Than The Internet - According to a survey by Arbitron Inc. and Edison Media Research, for the first time ever, more Americans said they would sooner drop their TV connection than there Internet connection if they had to chose In the survey “The Infinite Dial 2010: Digital Platforms and the Future of Radio” 49% said they would drop television, and 48% percent said they’d give up their Internet connection in a survey included 1,753 Americans aged 12 and older. The Internet led all media as the “most essential” ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Here’s What No One Else Is Telling You About Taxes: This Year Is As Going To Be Good As Its Going To Get - While some other bloggers have give you some good information regarding your taxes, here is one issue no one else seems to be talking about. When it comes to taxes in the US, 2010 is going to be as good as it gets for those “rich” people making $250K or more if you file jointly and $200K if you file single. Barring Congressional intervention, 2011 income-tax rates for top earners will increase to 39.6% from 35%. The “Bush” tax cuts expire at the end of this year so the top rate returns to ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Subway Lawyer Misses Layup, Loses Domain Name - Subway doesn’t meet low burden of proof and loses domain dispute. When you see a UDRP case for the domain name MySubwayRewards.com, you assume that the sandwich chain will get a slam dunk. It should be an easy case, especially when the respondent uses the domain name to promote free gift cards to Subway. But that doesn’t mean the complainant gets away without making a basic case. That’s exactly what happened in the case of Doctor’s Associates Inc. v. Atomix. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
New Top Level Domain Trademark Frontrunning Battle Heats Up - .Eco trademark fight heats up, but pot is calling the kettle black. In June I wrote about how companies wanting to apply for new top level domain names were attempting to file trademarks on non-existent top level domain names. One of the examples I gave was .eco. At the time, Colored Planet Connextion appeared close to getting a trademark approved. Canadian company Big Room also filed an application for the .eco mark. While both of these groups want to launch a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Mac Poker Sites Face Off, But Could Have Bigger Problems Ahead - Company sues other company over trademark…while it has Apple’s trademark in its domain name. From The Las Vegas Sun comes news of a lawsuit filed by the owner of Macpokeronline.com against the owner of macpoker.com and macpoker.net. Best Odds Corp., owner of the macpokeronline.com, filed the suit claiming MacPoker.com and MacPoker.net infringe on its trademark for Mac Poker. A trademark for Mac Poker? Yep. Best Odds Corp has been working to get this approved ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Launches Domain Advertising Network - Large parking company starts direct-to-advertiser solution. Sedo, one of the largest domain name parking companies, has launched a new ad network to allow advertisers to place paid links directly on its inventory of six million domain names. The new service is called SedoDNA. SedoDNA cuts out one of the middle men (i.e. Google) for placing ads on domain names. Traditionally, companies create ads on Google or Yahoo, which are then syndicated to parking companies ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
.Tel and .Asia By The Numbers - A look at end of year numbers for .tel and .asia. With .tel recently going through its first annual renewal period, and Telnic’s official numbers for end-of-year 2009, I thought I’d compile some stats on the new top level domain. Total number of .Tel domains registered as of 12/31/09: 263,304 Top 10 registrars of .Tel domains: 1. Name.com LLC 25,344 2. Mesh Digital Limited (DomainMonster) 24,984 3. Key-Systems GmbH 19,581 4. OVH Sarl 13,699 5. EuroDNS SA 13,606 6. ... read more ...
Sun 11th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Next Big Auction: The .ME First and Last Names Start Closing Monday, Will Buyers Show Up? - The .ME personal domain auction, starts closing on NameJet.com, tomorrow April 12 and runs every day next week, ending on April 16th. In all there are 313, popular first and last names in the auction. As of time of publication some 24 hours before the first group of domain auctions end, there has been very little activity. The most bidded upon domain is James.me that has 13 bidders. Actually no other domain has more than 10 bidders. Also the current high bid prices, well they just aren’t that high. Adam.Me ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Tax Day is Looming for U.S. Domainers - Money due this Thursday. It’s coming — tax day for U.S. domainers is this Thursday, April 15. To add insult to injury, April 15 is also when your first quarter estimated tax payments are due. (For some reason, the second “quarterly” payment is due just two months later.) Here are some last minute notes as you finish up your taxes: 1. Don’t forget to deduct all of your domain-related expenses – Here are twelve to consider, including mobile phone expenses, ... read more ...
Sat 10th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UPDATE: Mystery Solved: Frank Schilling’s .TV Domains Are In Redemption - Last week we wrote a post about the .TV domains that Frank Schilling registered after the big .TV price change. We noted at the time that we believed the domains were no longer owned by Frank and he was somehow allowed to simply not complete the purchase or was able to hand them back. Many of you doubted this theory and claimed he just placed the domains under privacy. If you look at the whois on these domains today, its clear that Frank no longer owns these domains as they are now in redemption: Domain ... read more ...
Fri 9th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Its Official, Speed Counts In Google’s Rankings - According to a post on Google’s Blog today, the long rumored move to consider site speed in page ranking is officially in full effect. We talked about this back in November of last year and now it seems Google has made it official. Site speed will be a factor in site ranking “””You may have heard that here at Google we’re obsessed with speed, in our products and on the web. As part of that effort, today we’re including a new signal in our search ranking algorithms: site speed. Site ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Latonas.com New Daily Auction Looks Like A HUGE Winner: $70K In Bids Already: Here Are Our Picks - Latonas.com, first daily auction starts closing in just about an hour at 10am EST,and already there is around $40K in bids. The auction’s closings are staggered almost over 4 hours. Today’s auction features 120 domains and here are our picks: ePayments.com a really nice domain is already at over $15K while its brother, e-Payments.com is almost $3K making it a nice combo for $18K. BasicAccounting.com is a nice pick up and its under $1K. Gymnasiums.com is a nice one word domain at around $2,500. There ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Chef Patrick Starts Cooking For Moniker.com - Patrick Ruddell who writes the very popular domain blog, ChefPatrick.com, has been hired by Moniker.com as a “Domain Sales Specialist”. Patrick will be brokering domain sales for Moniker.com as well as getting more end user domains into their live and online auctions. Nice to see Moniker hiring a domainer to fill the position. For all of his loyal readers, the Chef will continue to blog, continue to release his domain sales newsletter and will still be doing the DnCruise in October The Chef is ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
MIA.com Saved in Arbitration, But Who’s This Lazy Panelist? - MIA panelist is MIA. The owner of MIA.com has successfully defended her domain name from an attack by Mosaic International, LLC. But the panelist in the case seemed more eager to submit an answer and get his check than to pay attention to the issues. Mosaic International has a line of hair accessories and appliances marketed under the MIA brand. It started using the brand in 2004 and filed a trademark application for MIA in 2007. The owner of MIA.com registered ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
How to Lock Down Your Domains during Go Daddy - How to protect your domains from theft. Continuing on a theme of security related posts this week, I reached out to Director of Go Daddy Domain Services Camille Ede to find out what its customers can do to prevent domain theft. Specifically, I wanted to know more about the company’s Protected Registration and added protections for customers with Executive Accounts. Ede’s response was very thorough, so I’m publishing it in full here: “Go Daddy offers Protected ... read more ...
Thu 8th April 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Quick Poll: What Was The Best Buy From The Sedo .TV Auction? - We just put up a poll for your pick of what the best buy from the .TV Sedo auction was. This time you can vote for 2 on the right hand side. Any comments or other nominations you can place below. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo .TV Auction Ends With $800K In Sales: Our Winners & Losers - The Sedo .TV auction just ended after about 2 1/2 hours of extended bidding when loans.TV  sold for around $14K. Business.TV lead the pack and broke the six figure mark selling for just over $100K. Learn.TV sold for $40K+ Job.tv and jobs.tv sold for $20k+ each. The big losers were the Geo’s, with Japan.TV and Germany.TV selling for just around 10k each. Another surprise for me was that the single digit domains; 2.tv, 3.tv, 4.tv, 5.tv sold for just in the mid-four figures. The single character ... read more ...