Monthly Archives: August 2010

Wed 11th August 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Should Domainers Invest In Their Own Top Level Domain? - A new opportunity for domain investors is on the horizon. Domain investing is about to enter whole new era with the launch of new top level domain names. Regardless of if they like the idea of new TLDs or not, a number of domainers are evaluating starting their own top level domain names. Consider it diversification or hedging their bets. I caught up with Antony Van Couvering of Minds + Machines to get a run down of what you need to think about if you want to participate. It ... read more ...
Tue 10th August 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Namejet.com Allowing BackOrders & Bidding On NameJet.Me - We often criticize the drop services for allowing bidding on well know famous trademarked domain names. Today’s I found that NameJet.com is taking backorders on a domain which is pretty amazing, and kind of amusing. NameJet.com is allowing people to backorder, the soon to be dropped domain, NameJet.Me. If Namejet.com is successful in acquiring the dropped domain it will go to auction where it will sell to the high bidder. Interesting, yet quite embarrassing for the service don’t you think? Google+Michael ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Top 50 Most Backordered Domains In The .CO In Landrush Auction For This Week - The following are the .Co domains that had the most land rush application and are in auction and closing between August 16th and August 19th, in order of the number of landrush applications, from most to least. The number besides the domain is how the domain ranked overall in the number of land rush applications.  For this week Chi.co is the domain with the most land rush application which will close this week and was the 7th most land rushed domain: Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Is This The Future Of PPC? DomainAdvertising.com Rolls Out Its New “Image Based Technology” PPC Program & Doubles Revenue On 20% Of Domains - Domain Advertising has launched a new product which may well be the future of PPC. The new product rolled out by DomainAdvertising.com, for domain parking, uses new contextual algorithms and image based technology. The product combines a premium tier 1 advertising network, thousands of hand-mapped images, along with  hundreds of people responsible for optimizing site. The results: 20% of the domains using the new Domain Advertising technology doubled its previous PPC  revenue. “When the system ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Aftermarket.com Gearing Up for Launch - TCI is working on relaunching its aftermarket business. Thought Convergence, parent company of TrafficZ, is working on a formal launch of its domain name marketplace Aftermarket.com. Thought Convergence started using the Aftermarket.com domain name this time two years ago. Since then it has used it primarily as a service for its own and third party event auctions. The company bought the domain name for $125,000 at a Moniker auction in 2008. You’ll find very little ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
It’s Showtime! Sedo Sells Showtimes.com for $250,000 - Domain broker has another big week. Domain name brokerage Sedo has completed the sale of Showtimes.com for a quarter million dollars to lead its sales list for the week. The domain name appears to have been sold by Hollywood.com, which previously forwarded the domain name to its web site. The new buyer is using a whois privacy service to protect its identity. Sedo’s next highest sale is one I wrote about last night, with e.co going for $81,000. Another big sale ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are Niche Domain Stores The Wave of a Future? - New topical online domain stores try a different tact to sell domain names. Most online domain name marketplaces are generic in nature, letting customers search or navigate to the category of their choosing. Does it make sense to have online marketplaces specific to a particular category, too? A handful of entrepreneurs and domainers think so. Last week David Bleaman sent me information about YellowShow.com, a site where small businesses can purchase their geo-targeted ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
AntiCybersquatting Lawsuit Filed Against ChicagoRestaurant.com - Shunned by UDRP, former domain owner takes his case to court. After losing a UDRP case for the domain name ChicagoRestaurant.com, Chicago Restaurant Entertainment Guide, Inc., has filed an in rem lawsuit against the domain name alleging cybersquatting. Before you yell “that’s a generic!”, you should know that this domain name was allegedly stolen. The plaintiff had registered the domain and kept the whois email in the name of a technology service provider. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Verdict: $35.6 Million Insurance.com Acquisition Wasn’t Just The Domain Name - Quinstreet is clear about what it acquired when it bought Insurance.com. It wasn’t just a domain name. I just finished listening to Quinstreet’s investor conference call from last night, in which the company reported it paid $35.6 million in total consideration for Insurance.com. Now the big question, as others are debating right now: How much of this was for the domain name? Was this a domain name purchase at $35.6 million? The answer to the second question ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
VeriSign Gets Patent Related to Internationalized Domain Names - Patent is for method of registering and using IDNs. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted U.S. patent number 7,774,432 to VeriSign for Registering and using multilingual domain names. The patent application was a continuation of a 2001 application that was abandoned, and a provisional application from 2000. This particular application was filed in 2007. The abstract for the patent sums it up: A method, system, and computer-readable medium are described ... read more ...
Mon 9th August 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
A New Domain Name Record? Quinstreet Acquisition of Insurance.com: $36.5 Million Dollars - Quinstreet (QNST) just announced today during its conference call that total consideration it paid for acquiring the domain name Insurance.com was $36.5 Million dollars. $36.5 MILLION Dollars. It does not appear from the conference call that Quinstreet acquired or even wanted to acquire the business that was formerly under Insurance.com, making this sound like pretty much a straight domain sale. However “total consideration” can have more than just cash attached to it, like stock and option and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
QuinStreet Reports Earnings: Financial Vertical Up; Education Down - QuinStreet reported earnings after the market closed today and for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2010, the Company reported total revenue of $88.5 million, an increase of 31% over the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, the Company reported total revenue of $334.8 million, an increase of 29% over fiscal 2009. Revenue for the Financial Services client vertical was $38.7 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, an increase of 76% as compared to the same quarter ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Mashable.com Lists 100+ Tech Conferences Coming Up In 2010 But Not One Domain Show - Mashable.com just posted 100+ tech shows upcoming in 2010, but unfortunately not one upcoming domain show was included in the lengthy list. If we are going to expand the domain industry we are going to have to get some of our major shows and conferences to be recognized. How are we ever going to get the coverage you ask? Well maybe some of the show organizers just have to let sources like Mashable know about our shows: “”Every week, Mashable puts together a calendar of upcoming social media ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
e.Co Transfer Complete, .Co Landrush Auctions Begin - Big .co sale finally completed; landrush auctions begin. e.Co, which was auctioned for $81,000 in a charity auction in June, has finally changed hands. Although the whois for the domain name still shows CO Internet, the buyer has informed me that the domain name was transferred to his registrar account today and that he paid for the domain weeks ago. It will be interesting to see what the buyers have planned. In other .co news, the landrush auctions began today. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
FTC Settles with Con Artists in Domain Name Renewal Scam - FTC settles lawsuit over domain name renewal scam. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has settled with a group in Canada that it says posed as domain name registrars and duped thousands of people and companies into paying bogus bills by leading them to believe they would lose their Web site addresses unless they paid. We in the domain name industry often refer to this as the “domain name renewal scam”. The FTC charged Toronto-based Internet Listing Service back ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Demand Media S-1 Discloses Details of NameJet Deals with Tucows, Others - IPO filing discloses financial deals for expired domain names. Demand Media’s S-1 filing last Friday revealed a bit about the company’s expired domain deals, although it doesn’t refer to its partners directly by name. NameJet has deals with Network Solutions (with whom it co-owns NameJet) and Tucows. It probably has deals with other companies as well. Here’s one of the statements (dollars are in thousands): On February 9, 2009, the Company entered into an ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Are we going to DOMAINfest NYC Next Week? - DOMAINfest gears up for Manhattan. Are you heading to DOMAINfest in New York City next week? If so, leave a comment on this post to help with networking. The “Power Networking Day” will take place August 18 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Admission is still available for $175. I have a feeling this will be one of the larger domain name events of the year. The agenda has shaped up nicely. For the first time in a long time at a domain event, there ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
NameDrive’s NDX Market Gears Up for Auction of 3 Character ccTLDs - Domain marketplace gets ready for another three character auction. Fresh on the heels of a three character .eu domain name auction in which all 771 domain names sold, NameDrive’s NDX Market is getting ready for a follow on auction. Starting tomorrow, NDX Market will run an auction for 300 three character country code domain names. The domain names will be in these country codes: .AT, .BE, .CH, .CO.UK, .DE, .ES, .FR, .NL, .PL, .SE. The auction will run until approximately ... read more ...
Sun 8th August 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
UPDATED: DotMedia.com Sells 14, 3 Number .Com’s For $152K, That They Just Bought Last Month - Anyone who still thinks there is no money to be made in the domain business unless you acquired the domain names years ago, needs to look no further than Dotmedia.com, a company run by a 22 year old in China. His first sale was flipping,  iblog.net,  a domain he picked up for $10 for $500. Fast forward a couple of years later to July of this year, when he acquired the following 14 NNN.com domains which he just sold at a nice profit, for $152K in a single sales transaction. The domains sold were: 426.com  ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Peace and Love, But No Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - Company fails to get generic PeaceandLove.com domain name. GS Enterprises LLC has failed in an attempt to get the generic domain name PeaceAndLove.com through UDRP. But the panelist’s line of thinking, and failure to consider reverse domain name hijacking, is troubling. Thierry Ehrmann registered the domain name all the way back in 1997, and GS Enterprises’ trademark for “Peace Love” wasn’t registered by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office until 2007. ... read more ...
Sat 7th August 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
What’s The Most Famous Domain You Used To Own? - Over the years many of us have sold hundreds even thousands of domain names, some of which have went on to become major or quite famous sites. The question for a sleep Saturday morning in the dead of August is which domain did you used to own which has become a major or famous site? This is not what is your best or highest sale, dollar figures are irreverent. Its what domain did you used to own that is now a major or famous site. For myself that’s an easy one, MyFlorida.com. It’s now the “Official ... read more ...
Fri 6th August 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Demand Media: We Were Founded In 2006 & We Have Had A Net Loss In Every Year: Total Loss To Date $52 Million - From the S-1 application Demand Media filed today is this little gem, that none of us would be too proud of saying if it was our own business: “”We were founded in 2006 and have a limited operating history.” “We have had a net loss in every year since inception.” “As of June 30, 2010, we had an accumulated deficit of approximately $52 million and we may incur net operating losses in the future.” “Moreover, we anticipate that our cash flows from operating activities in the near term ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Demand Media Files For Its IPO Today - Demand Media Filed its S-1, notice to the Securities and Exchange Commission,  which is basically their prospectus to go public. For the domain industry it would be far better for the IPO to go well than not. However, in 2009,  Demand reported $22 million in losses on $198 million in revenues. In the first six months of 2010,Demand’s net loss was only $6 million, on revenues of $108 million. 44% of its revenues in the first half of 2010 ($47.7 million) came from its domain registration business, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Show: No Way Zuccarini Domains Will Be Auctioned Off At Our Show - DomainNameWire.com has been writing about the receiver in charge of Zuccarini’s domains wanting to auction off the remainder of Zuccarini domains at the TRAFFIC South Beach show. While Zuccarini and the Receiver are fighting it out, the TRAFFIC show organizers have a clear message concerning auctioning off these domains at their event; No Way. No How. Not going to happen. The show Organizers say they were NEVER going to allow these domains to be auctioned off at a show under the TRAFFIC banner, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICM Registry “Very Happy” With ICANN’s Board Resolutions & Expects Quick Approval For .XXX - After I read DomainNameWire.com coverage of the ICANN resolution on the .XXX Extension and the very negative comments that followed the post,  I reached out to Stuart Lawley, CEO of the ICM registry. In Andrew’s post here stated: “”It may not be a quick process, and a new can of worms will be opened allowing for another comment period on the actual registry contract.” However Mr Lawley, who I reached as he was attending the Internext Adult Internet show in Hollywood Florida, was “very  ... read more ...