Author Archives: DomainNameWire

About DomainNameWire

Domain Name Wire is a blog that deals with the domain name sector. The blog covers a range of domain related topics ranging from issues concerning expiring domains, monetization, domain registries and registrars, ICANN, policy, law etc. The blog began in March, 2005, after Mr. Allemann had dropped out of meetings to become involved in domain portfolio company, iREIT. The project began as a hobby to keep him involved in the domaining business, and then became his full-time business.

Thu 28th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Off to ad:tech Conference Next Week in NYC - I’ll be at the ad:tech conference next week. One of the reasons I chose to work with Directi’s media businesses was that it would allow me to further expand my horizon beyond domain names. Case in point: next week I’ll be at ad:tech in New York City. I’m fairly versed in web advertising, having been involved in some way or another over the past decade. But I’ve yet to attend ad:tech, and look forward to learning more and seeing the latest in online advertising. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo Switches to JavaScript for Domain Parking - Company moves to JavaScript for domain parking. Sedo is changing its domain name parking platform over to JavaScript, which is says should lead to higher earnings per click and RPM. By switching to JavaScript, non-human traffic such as bots and scripts will no longer be counted in statistics. This means most Sedo customers will see reported visitor counts drop, which will thereby push up RPM (revenue per thousand) assuming valid clicks. But the company says that ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Creditors Ready to Receive First $10 Million from Sex.com Sale - Court approves deal, holds back some of proceeds. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Central California has handed down an order (pdf) approving the sale of Sex.com to Clover Holdings Limited for $13 million. Upon completion of the sale, Sex.com owner Escom will pay creditor Washington Technology Associates $6,312,593 and creditor DOM Partners $3,772,545. That comes out to $10,085,138. Domain broker Sedo also gets its cut of the pie, which presumably is somewhere shy ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
RSVP Now for Austin Domainer Weekend - RSVP today for next month’s domainer weekend in Austin, Texas. It’s time to make your plans to join us in Austin for the Austin Domainer Weekend, November 12-13. You can view the invite and RSVP here. Here’s a rough schedule of events: Friday, November 12 8 pm to 10 pm – Dinner at Iron Cactus Mexican Grill and Margarita Bar 10 pm to ? – Night out on world famous 6th Street Saturday, November 13 2 hours before kickoff – tailgate or pre-game party at Austin ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Epik Will Be OK, and Current Customers Will Win Big Tomorrow - Epik customers will get a free upgrade to full eCommerce stores. You might think that today would be a dark day for Epik.com customers after a number of Epik Product Portals were de-indexed from Google. But after talking to Epik founder Rob Monster moments ago, it’s not the nightmare scenario you might imagine. First things first, here’s what happened: a number of Epik-produced “Product Portals”, which include affiliate and CPC links to products, were de-indexed ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Embattled ICANN Ombudsman Leaving - Frank Fowlie to leave ICANN role. ICANN Ombudsman Frank Fowlie has announced he will leave his post no later than January 31 of next year. In a statement posted to the ICANN web site today, Fowlie said “After six years with ICANN, I have logged 794 days in travel status, or about two years and five months away from home. It’s time for me to spend a bit more time at home with my wonderful wife.” The statement is vague about whether Fowlie is leaving on his own ... read more ...
Wed 27th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
TRAFFIC Extended Auction Ends Thursday - Extended domain name auction ends tomorrow. The extended TRAFFIC conference domain name auction run by Latonas.com ends Thursday at 11:15 EDT. So far four domain names have received bids: Pisos.co (apartments/flats in Spanish) at $15,000, Coche.co (cars in Spanish) at $9,950, Piso.co at $9,950, and AutoReply.com at $1,500. The extended auction also includes two domain names that appeared sold in the live domain name auction, Shock.com and BVI.com/.co. Latonas believes ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Settlement with Nelson Brady Saves Oversee.net from Legal Hassles - Brady requested a number of documents related to Oversee.net’s operations. As far as lawsuits go, Oversee.net’s suit against former employee and shill bidder Nelson Brady was somewhat unique. After all, you had someone who admitted much of the wrongdoing that was alleged. Yet getting money out of Brady wasn’t going to be easy for Oversee.net. Brady was going to make Oversee jump through some hoops. For example, Brady subpoenaed Bank of America for “all ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Sex.com Sale Still On, But Mike Mann Accused of “Self-Dealing” - Nuthin’ But Net objects to how money will be split. Now that Escom, LLC has a $13 million buyer for its domain name Sex.com, the bickering over money can begin. The $13 million sale of Sex.com is still on, pending court approval. But creditor Nothin’ But Net has filed a motion (pdf) asking for some of the proceeds to be set aside while it argues how much each party should get. Nuthin’ But Net (NBN) doesn’t want the key creditors to get penalty interest. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Oversee.net Starts New Technology Blog - Blog chronicles engineering challenges of large online networks. What’s it like building technology for a business that sees over 300 million unique visitors each month? A new blog will help shed some light. Oversee.net’s engineering team has just started a new blog called Regularly Expressed. In one of the first blog posts, Oversee.net Director of Technology and Program Management for Monetization Terrence Lui discusses the traffic the company deals with: “…Oversee.net ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Crowns New $250,000 Commercial, Announces 2 Super Bowl Commercials - Over $600,000 in prizes awarded for TV commercials, plus Super Bowl plans GoDaddy has selected a winner in its second user-submitted TV commercial contest. Separately, it announced today that it will run two commercials in the next SuperBowl. The $250,000 top prize goes to Wayside Creations, which created a spot called “Russell’s Notebook“. It features a high school nerd who keeps giving his class notes to bullies. Then he gets the idea that he should create ... read more ...
Tue 26th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Join us in Austin Nov 12-13 - Domainer weekend quickly approaching You did save the date, right? The Austin Domainers’ Weekend will take place November 12 and 13th right here in the Live Music Capital of the World. We’re still finalizing event locations (thanks to Lisa Box of Oversee.net for her help!) but here’s what you have to look forward to: Friday, November 12 -Dinner at a fun downtown location -Drinks and entertainment on 6th Street Saturday, November 13 -Tailgate party or pregame ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
SnapNames Settles Class Action and Case Against Nelson Brady - Oversee.net settles with former employee and class action. SnapNames has resolved two outstanding lawsuits related to its bidding scandal. First, the company has resolved its claims with former employee Nelson Brady. Brady was the sole employee who drove up bids on SnapNames. The settlement will not be made public, but SnapNames parent company Oversee.net said the “financial penalty is appropriate considering the seriousness of the improper activity.” I had ... read more ...
Mon 25th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Single Biggest Threat to Domain Industry is Professionalism - If the domain name industry wants respect from the mainstream, it needs to be more professional. The single biggest threat to the domain name industry isn’t Google’s smart pricing. It isn’t VeriSign raising .com prices 7%. It isn’t the trademark lobby. And it’s not ICANN. It’s professionalism. Or a lack thereof. Like many industries, the domain name industry started as a group of wildcatters from diverse backgrounds. It has grown into much more; a ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Janna Bullock Plays Whack-a-Mole with Domain Names - NYC socialite struggles to control domain names. New York real estate developer and socialite Janna Bullock has filed another cybersquatting lawsuit to recover domain names she says are similar to her name. Bullock filed the case against BullockJanna.com and Bullock-Janna.com in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia. Her official web site is JannaBullock.com. According to the complaint (pdf), Bullock brought a similar action against several domain names ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Conroy Disses .XXX - Controversial Australian Senator urges further review of .xxx top level domain name. Australian Senator and Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy has written a letter to ICANN denouncing plans to introduce a .xxx top level domain name. In the letter (pdf), Conroy argues against the introduction of .xxx because “of the lack of identified public benefit”. Conroy says the the board should consult the Governmental Advisory ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Another Strange UDRP Decision: MovieInsider.com - Panelist’s decision doesn’t add up. A recent National Arbitration Forum decision for MovieInsider.com has me scratching my head. Is it another case of a cut-and-paste panelist? You decide. The complainant owns TheMovieInsider.com and successfully won MovieInsider.com. The complainant argued (in panelist’s words): Complainant claims that it has used the THEMOVIEINSIDER.COM mark since July 2, 1999. Complainant registered the themovieinsider.com domain name ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
WSJ: Go Daddy No Longer for Sale - World’s largest domain name registrar supposedly no longer for sale. The Wall Street Journal, which originally reported that domain name registrar GoDaddy was for sale, is now saying the company is off the market. The Journal reports that the sales process was cut off last week. A number of private equity companies were in the mix, and the story suggests a sale price of $1.5 billion to $2.0 billion was possible. So Bob Parsons will continue to control the company. ... read more ...
Fri 22nd October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Offers.com Scores $7 Million Investment - Austin company scores big investment. It’s always nice when you see someone who “gets” domain names that also understands affiliate marketing and web site development. One of those people is Austinite Steve Schaffer, who created Offers.com. Offers.com just closed on a $7 million growth equity investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity, LLLP. It’s a minority investment, which should give you some idea of the value Schaffer has created from Offers.com. The ... read more ...
Thu 21st October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN
Live Current Management Thrown Out in Shareholder Revolt - CEO and Board of Directors sent packing. The Chief Executive Officer and Board of Directors of Live Current Media has been tossed to the curb following a coup organized by the company’s former president. CEO Geoffrey Hampson formerly resigned his employment with Live Current Media following the vote. While at the helm of Live Current Hampson entered into a disastrous agreement with Indian Premier League cricket and an equally disastrous acquisition of Auctomatic. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sex.com Will Be The Most Expensive Domain Name Ever Sold - In my book, $13 million is the top sale of all time. When the Central California Bankruptcy Court approves the sale of Sex.com for $13 million cash later this month, it will be the most expensive all-cash domain name ever sold and publicly disclosed. Some may debate this. Some may say Insure.com at $16 million was higher. Or Insurance.com at $35.6 million. But I disagree. These purchases had to do with the existing organic traffic and search rankings of the properties. ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
50% of Ad Traffic Shifted to Microsoft By End of Week - The great migration to Microsoft has begun. This is a critical week in the transition of pay-per-click advertising traffic in the Yahoo-Microsoft alliance. As of yesterday morning Yahoo had shifted more than 30% of ad serving to Microsoft AdCenter instead of its own search marketing ad console. By the end of the week the company expects to have shifted 50%-60%. There’s no doubt that some smaller advertisers won’t make the transition over to Microsoft. But ... read more ...
Wed 20th October 2010
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
DNW’s Takeaways from TRAFFIC Miami - Biggest TRAFFIC conference in years concludes in South Beach. TRAFFIC Miami drew to a close this morning with a presentation and domain trading session organized by Epik. Here are my takeaways and random tidbits from the conference: -Attendance came in below expectations. Although I was unable to get a full tally, attendance was somewhere south of 300. Still, this is one of the biggest TRAFFIC conferences in years, and credit is due to Rick and Howard for making ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
Sedo and Afternic Report Domain Name Sales - A sales update from the top two domain name marketplaces. I’m a bit behind since I’ve been a TRAFFIC Miami all week, but I do have some sales to report courtesy of Sedo and Afternic. Sedo’s top sale was Cursos.com for $150,000. Cursos means “courses” in Spanish. The company also had some good ccTLD and other sales. The top five .com sales for the week are: cursos.com 150000 USD liveup.com 11500 USD prova.com 10000 USD zelte.com 9900 EUR treatacne.com 8000 USD Top ... read more ...
 
Written by DomainNameWire in EN and tagged
BizFilings Loses Domain Dispute When Dates Don’t Add Up - Online business formation company loses arbitration case. Business Filings Incorporated, which offers business filing services at BizFilings.com, has lost a domain name dispute over BizFiling.com (singular version). The company registered BizFilings.com back in 1996, but for many years used the brand “Business Filings Incorporated” on its web site. It filed an intent-to-use trademark in 2000 for BizFilings, which was refused a couple years later. Then in 2008 ... read more ...