Monthly Archives: November 2010

Wed 24th November 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Queen Cancels Holiday Party, But Go Daddy Goes All In - Domain registrar to continue tradition of big holiday parties. The latest issue of Bloomberg Businessweek has a story titled “The End of the Office Holiday Party” that prominently features domain name registrar Go Daddy. The article starts off by mentioning that Queen Elizabeth II canceled this year’s Christmas Party, saying it wouldn’t be right to throw a lavish party while asking everyone else to cut back. But there’s one company that’s not cutting back, ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
2 Things for Domain Investors To Be Thankful for this Thanksgiving - Keep your chin up. The year will finish strong. This year has been one of ups and downs for domain name investors, but I have reason to be thankful as we move past Thanksgiving into the final month of the year. 1. The Yahoo-Bing transition is complete and revenue is stabilizing. True, not all Yahoo advertisers made the move to Microsoft. But with the holidays here even more advertisers will pay attention to advertising on Bing. In the long run this partnership ... read more ...
Tue 23rd November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Cost Per Clicks Up 13% On Google; 4% On Yahoo: Conversion Rates adult 29%: How’s That Working Out For You - I just read an article on MediaPost, on the Holiday Shopping Report for Q4 2010 and got all excited over all the extra money we will be making off of our PPC pages. “On average, consumers spent 20.7% year-over-year in the first half of Q4 2010 and conversion rates rose 28.7%, compared with the same time period in the previous year” The report also said that the cost per click (CPC) continues to rise. “On Google, CPCs are up nearly 13% year-on-year, compared with a 4% uptick on Yahoo and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Clothing.Net Hits $40K Reserve, Marathon.net Sells For $15K & Credit.asia Sells For $7,500 - A couple a interesting auctions concluded today and another couple just started on Sedo. Marathon.net sold for $15K and a there was a rare .asia sale with Credit.Asia Selling for $7,500. The auction for the domain name Clothing.Net just started and has already hit the reserve price of $40K with over 6 days to go. The auction for the domain, TVS.org just also started and has already met reserve at $20K with also over 6 days to go Seems like a LOT of money for a LLL.org, especially with the list only ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Michael Berkens Sells MyRecovery.com for $40k with Help of Afternic - MyRecovery.com trades hands, buyer has big plans. The top reported sale coming out of Afternic this week is for MyRecovery.com at a healthy $40,000. The seller? Worldwide Media, Inc, run by blogger and domainer Michael Berkens. The buyer has already uploaded a placeholder in anticipation of his 2011 launch of the site. It reads: Inside myRecovery you will find comprehensive on-line programs, services, and solutions to alcoholism and drug dependency based on the ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Beem.com Sells for $136k, BlackFridaySales.com for $90k - Beem.com and BlackFridaySales.com sell for big bucks. Sedo has sold the domain name Beem.com for $136,000. The domain name is still pending transfer and the buyer’s identity is not yet known. The company also brokered the sale of BlackFridaySales.com to Frank Schilling’s Name Administration for $90,000. The domain name was sold by RegistrarAds, an affiliate of domain name registrar Dotster. Schilling already owned BlackFriday.net, so he probably had a good ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Go Daddy Gets Social Networking Portal Patent - Domain registrar gets patent for social networking dashboard. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. patent number 7840690 to The Go Daddy Group for “Internet portal for managing social websites”. The patent appears to be related to the company’s SmartSpace web service, which aggregates multiple social networks into a single dashboard. In the application, Go Daddy says that it has found a problem with current methods of aggregating social network ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Zuccarini Case Against NameJet, NetSol, et al Moved to Virginia - Court transfers lawsuit to Virginia. In a move that may have been expected by some observers, John Zuccarini’s lawsuit against NameJet, Network Solutions, eNom, and VeriSign has been transferred to the Eastern District of Virginia. The case stems from some of John Zuccarini’s domain names that were transferred to a receiver after a cybersquatting judgment against him. The receiver let some of the domain names expire and they were subsequently auctioned off on ... read more ...
Mon 22nd November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
From A $2K Domain Purchase in May 2009 To $8 Million In Funding: SmartDate.com - The domain name SmartDate.com sold according to DNjournal.com in May 2009 for $2,000 on Sedo.com. Today comes the news via TechCrunch that the now Paris-based online dating site, raised $5 million in new Series A funding. Back in March 2010 the company got a $2.2 million dollar cash investment which came after a $400K angel investment earlier. So from a $2,000 domain sale in May 2009 the company has now raised close to $8 Million dollars in just about 1 1/2 years. Just something to think about when ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
SmartName Starts Rolling Out New Landing Pages & Revenue Goes Up - Pretty much every domainer is familiar with Smartname.com landing pages, which often feature a picture of a women on the page with a lot of links and topics on the page. Here is a what a typical SmartName.com landing page looks like here and here and here. Over the last week or so, SmartName. Com has been rolling out some new landing pages with a whole different look and feel. Here are a few new looking SmartNames.com landing pages you can check out: Cancerchat.com Cookout.net CoolCandles.com FlowerSeed.com According ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
NameJet .Pro Auction Fails To Impress - The NameJet.com registry owned .Pro domain name auction came to a close yesterday with most domains not even hitting reserve. Domains that I have on my report as selling include SSL.pro which seems to lead the pack at only $2,600, Ask.pro was a close second at $2,400, Tea.pro sold for $1,700 and the bargain of the auction (IMHO) Dui.pro sold for a meager $1,100. Other domains such as Dog.pro which also got a $1,100 bid did not hit reserve, nor did such domains as Eco.pro, Eye.pro, Hip.pro and Run.pro ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Fox Loses Free Speech Trademark Battle with DISH Network - Fox may be back on the error, but DISH can keep its Fox domain names. Dish Network and News Corporation’s Fox Networks may have settled their contract dispute, but there was still an outstanding issue over some domain names. In this battle, DISH Network won. After Fox pulled some of its channels from DISH Network this fall, DISH registered a number of domain names to bring attention to the issue: foxshakedowndish.com weofferedfoxafairdeal.com foxrefused.com jointhefightagainstfox.com Fox ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Rupert Murdoch Buys TheDaily.com and The-Daily.com Domain Names - Domain name purchases come in advance of new make-for-tablet newspaper. Earlier today news hit the web that News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch is working on a new iNewspaper called “The Daily”. The Daily will be designed for tablets such as the iPad. This caught one Domain Name Wire reader off guard, as he recalls previously visiting TheDaily.com from ASSIST Information Services. As it turns out, ASSIST sold the domain name to Murdoch’s company a while back ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
156 .Co Landrush Auctions to be ReRun - Some domain names applied for under landrush will be auctioned next year in open auction. The .co registry ran approximately 2,500 landrush auctions for .co domain names during its relaunch this year. But 156 of the auctions didn’t close for one reason or another, and these domain names will be auctioned again in the first quarter of 2011 at Pool.com. The 156 domains will be auctioned in an open format, meaning that even if you didn’t submit a landrush application ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Schilling Beats New York Times in Landmark UDRP - Frank Schilling beats media behemoth; panel decision could be important. Frank Schilling’s Name Administration has won a case against the New York Times Company over the domain name DealBook.com. But it’s more than a victory; the National Arbitration Forum panel also addressed an issue that most other panels have dismissed: doctrine of laches. As described by the panel, “Laches is an equitable doctrine that may provide a defense when an adverse party has unreasonably ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Now You Can Friend DNW on Facebook, Too - Another way to stay up-to-date with the latest from Domain Name Wire. I get a lot of traffic from Twitter, yet some readers have told me they don’t use the microblogging service. They prefer to get updates from Facebook. Your wish is granted. Now you can get Domain Name Wire updates, including both the latest blog posts as well as links and thoughts on other industry announcements, at facebook.com/DomainNameWire. If you already follow Domain Name Wire on twitter ... read more ...
Sun 21st November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Sedo Blacklists Generic’s While Holding Auctions For Trademark Infringing Terms - Sedo has a blacklist of domains. Sedo even uses the email address of Blacklist at Sedo.de to send these notices out: Here is what one of these messages look like: Dear Mr. Admin, We are writing to inform you that Sedo has received a complaint of potential trademark infringement regarding the use of the following domain names in conjunction with Sedo services: kkk.es Due to the famous nature of the trademark contained in the domain at issue, Sedo is forced to remove your domain from the domain marketplace ... read more ...
Sat 20th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
Overstock Sued By 7 California DA’s “For At Least $15 Million” For Misleading Consumers - Overstock.com has been in the domain news quite a bit recently for its acquisition of o.Co as well as considering changing all of its non-US sites to o.Co. Overstock was back in the news yesterday, but the news was not good. A group of 7 district attorneys in Northern California filed a 33-page complaint in Alameda County Superior Court late Wednesday, arguing that Overstock.com should pay a minimum of $15 million in fines and restitution for “routinely and systematically” making untrue and ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
AllThingsD: Is Google Going To Buy Groupon.com For $3-$4 BILLION Dollars? - According to AllThingsD.com, Google is in negotiations to buy Groupon.com and is offering “well above what Yahoo offered earlier this year for the company”. Yahoo according to AllThingsD, Groupon “turned down a bid from Yahoo in the $2Billion – $3 Billion dollar range earlier this year”. “Groupon, whose revenues are reportedly upward of $50 million a month” Other possibly buyers for the company according to the story are Microsoft, Amazon eBay, and Facebook Groupon.com was just started ... read more ...
Fri 19th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN
1st Rule Of Dealing With Domain Offers Is: People Lie - Its great to see my friend and neighbor Sahar blogging again on Conceptualist.com, and today he raised a huge issue of importance to every domainer, misrepresentation of buyers. In his post today, Sahar talks about a domain name that Facebook may have purchased on the cheap based on the buyer misrepresenting himself. We generally receive 10-15 offers a day, everyday so several thousand a year, and here is the 1st general rule of thumb. Buyer’s lie. Yes people on the Internet often lie. Yes the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Quick Poll: What Was The Best Buy From The Sedo .Me Auction - The .me registry auctioned off its owned domain names today on Sedo.com generating some $400,000 in sales. Now its time for you to weigh in on how which domains you thought were the best buy. You get to chose 2 this time out of our list of 20 domains. If you think a different .me that sold was better than one’s we selected you can pick “something else” and if you don’t like any you can selected “none were best buys” In any event you can vote on the right (you can pick 2 but at the same ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Live Current Nixes Karate.com Deal, Changes Course on Perfume.com - Changes in Karate.com and Perfume.com plans. Live Current Media is making some changes. First, back in August the company terminated a venture with Rob Monster’s Domain Strategies, Inc. to co-develop the Karate.com domain name. The agreement was originally inked on May 15, 2009. The two parties decided to discontinue the venture and the domain name was returned to Live Current. Second, Live Current’s new management is changing course on the company’s Perfume.com ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DOMAINfest Announces Keynote and Improves on Winning Formula - Biggest domain name conference tweaks formula and adds famous author to agenda. The biggest annual conference geared to domain name investors is less than three months away. DOMAINfest Global 2011 will take place February 1-4 in Santa Monica, California. Last year’s event brought together over 600 internet and domain name professionals. Yesterday DOMAINfest organizer DomainSponsor announced a fireside chat/keynote with Ben Mezrich, Author of “The Accidental Billionaires: ... read more ...
Thu 18th November 2010
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo .Me Domain Auction Nets $400K In Sales: Here Are The Results - The auction for the registry owned .me domains ended on Sedo.com today with the auction ringing up $400K in sales. The auction was lead by Like.me a killer domain. The 2nd highest priced domain, I simply don’t get which was contacts.me at $15,600. Contact.me I get Contacts.me I don’t get at all. We wound up picking up 4 domains. Congrats to all winners. Here is the UNOFFICIAL list of the 110 .me domains that sold for $2K or more (there were others that sold under $2K): Like.me    26,500 contacts.me   ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Like.Me Sells For $26,500 On Sedo - The premium .me registry owned domain auction is winding down on Sedo.com, but the domain name Like.Me just sold for $26,500. With the “like” button all across the Internet thanks to Facebook it isn’t surprising that this domain wound up being the highest priced domain. There are 2 trademarks registered on the term “like me” including one by likeme, Inc. We will be back with the full results once the last auction closes. Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...