Author Archives: The Domains

About The Domains

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 5K domain names . Michael is also a Director of RightoftheDot.com which is a consultant in the new gTLD space and a broker of super premium domains. Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest this year.

Sun 19th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
GoDaddy Expands WordPress Offerings with Managed Hosting - GoDaddy Expands WordPress Offerings with Managed Hosting Go Daddy unveiled a new WordPress offering that they announced on Thursday. From the press release they put out: GoDaddy Managed WordPress automatically updates accounts to the latest version of WordPress and ensures that a website’s plug-ins aren’t vulnerable to security attacks or wasting resources, causing a website to perform poorly. In addition to protecting WordPress, GoDaddy offers layers of added security including firewalls, malware ... read more ...
Sat 18th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Juan Diego Calle of .CO: Want to Control Your Brand Experience? Look to Top-Level Domains - Tech Cocktail did a piece on Juan Diego Calle from .CO Registry. In the video Juan talks about his start in the Internet in 1999, that his first business went bankrupt, he talks about how he got started with .CO in 2009. He talks about building a community and the ROI on getting early adopters with credibility. He also calls .com a wasteland. From the article: With the gradual release of new top-level domains (TLDs), 2014 is going to be a big year for the Internet. It’s all very exciting for Juan ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Top 5 Reasons That Domainers Are Resisting The New Gtlds - Slam Strategy is an Internet strategy firm out of Australia that works with businesses and helping them with their online presence. They are out with an article today on the new gtlds and the top 5 reasons why domainers resist new gtlds. In the opening paragraph the author did note he is an avid reader of the domains, he was inspired to write the current article based on comments from right here on thedomains.com. From the article: Top 5 reasons domainers don’t want new Gtlds Invested interest ... read more ...
Fri 17th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Removed 350 Million Bad Ads in 2013 - Google is out with their bad ads advertising report for 2013. On their blog they reported: Stopping more bad ads from fewer bad sources We removed more than 350 million bad ads from our systems in 2013.  To put that in perspective, if someone looked at each of these for one second, it would take them more than ten years to see them all.  This was a significant increase from approximately 220 million ads removed in 2012.  This trend has been consistent in the last several years and we attribute ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Search Marketers Playing A Virtual Game of Ping Pong - MediaPost took at look at how cost per click rates seem to be bouncing up and down.  Depending on which search engine clients advertised on, resulted in very different pricing and pricing trends. From the article: Marketers in the Americas supported by Covario spent 9% more in Q4 2013 on campaigns, and 17% sequentially. Global CPC prices rose 10% compared with the year-ago quarter, but fell sequentially among the agency’s clients, mostly multinational high-tech brands. Several factors forced CPCs ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bitcoin, Porn and Basketball - Porn.com and the Sacramento Kings are into Bitcoin Two Bitcoin related stories over the last day, the first from The Next Web, “Porn.com’s marketing director: ‘I definitely believe that porn will be Bitcoin’s killer app” From the article: In December, porn.com started accepting Bitcoin for its premium services, and the virtual currency quickly came to account for 10 percent of sales. At the start of January, a post on Reddit’s Bitcoin subforum boosted the figure to 50 percent, before ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
The Business Side and The Potential Bad Side of The Internet of Things - Yes, two Internet of Things posts in one day. This post will look at two stories that have emerged over the last day and a half. One being that Google acquired Nest and the other that The Internet of Things is already getting hacked. MediaPost covered why Google wanted Nest, in their article “The Internet of Things is out of the Nest” Observers yesterday were pondering why Google “wants a $3.2 billion thermostat?” as Lex’s Robert Armstrong asked Financial Times reporter Joseph Cotterill ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
HKIRC Launches .hk LOCK Better insurance for .hk websites as a Internet becomes reduction secure - The Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited, rolled out a new product for registrants of .hk domains (Hong Kong). It looks like the pricing for the service will be HK$2,000 a year or approximately $258 per domain. HKIRC Launches .hk LOCK Better protection for .hk websites as the Internet becomes less secure HONG KONG, 15 January 2014 – Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited (HKIRC) today announced the launch of .hk LOCK, a new security measure for .hk domain name owners. ... read more ...
Thu 16th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Registry Tells ICANN They Should Finish Off Last Resort Auctions In Six Months - Uniregistry told ICANN in its comment filed on the subject,  that one year was too short of a period. Google Registry also makes a very good point that under the proposed ICANN Last Result Auction rules, there is a  30 days prohibition, once the date of a Last Resort auction is scheduled, from the parties to the auction to communicate. In the case  of applicants that have a many strings in contention like Google, if they are in an auction for March for one string, lets say against Amazon, Donuts, ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Bing: It’s a parable that keyword abounding domains urge hunt engine ranking - Search Engine Journal is out with a piece about the myth of keyword rich domains and their correlation to improving search engine rankings. From the article: Duane Forrester, Sr. Product Manager of Bing, claims it’s a myth that keyword rich domain names improve search engine rankings in a post published yesterday on the Bing Webmaster Blog. This came about after Forrester attended Namescon and overheard people discussing how keyword rich or exact match domain names can make or break your site. ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
What is a Internet Of Things ? Paradigm Changing or Hype ? - A couple weeks back Mike did a story on IOT.com and its $2.8 million price tag. Some people have left comments or emailed asking more about what exactly the Internet of Things (IOT) really is. Pocket-Lint did a piece on IOT yesterday that is a good read for those interested in learning more.  From the article: What is Internet of Things? The Internet of Things (IoT, for short) is a phrase for when everyday objects are connected to the internet and participating together on a system, though it also ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Verisign: .Com Registrations Blow Past 112 Million Mark For The 1st Time - Verisign is reporting that the number of .Com domain names in the active zone file exceeded the 112,000,000 Mark for the first time. The number of .com domain name registrations in the active zone crossed the 112 Million number today January 16th, 2014 The number of .net domain names in the active zone file is down slightly but still well over the 15 million domain name mark.   Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Go Daddy/Afternic Weekly Sales Led by Fia.org - Go Daddy/Afternic Weekly Domain Sales: 1-6-14 to 1-12-14 Fia.org was the top sale for the week at Go Daddy/Afternic selling for $18,000. Undie.com and Connectup.com were the top two .com sales. Total sales for the week were $1,723, 709 Lcloud.com selling for $13,700 is the second such 1 letter cloud.com sale in the last few months. In November Fcloud.com sold on NameJet for $10,000. .com Sales    Price undie.com    $15,000 connectup.com    $15,000 lcloud.com    $13,700 3dprintingmagazine.com   ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
ICANN Infographic on Protecting Your Trademark -

ICANN expelled a pdf and an infographic for brands looking to strengthen their trademark.

icanninfographic

Via: thedomains.com

Wed 15th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Google Unveils Publisher Plugin For Publishers to Monetize With Adsense - The Next Web reported that Google has come out with a WordPress plugin Here’s what Google says you can do with the plugin: Google AdSense: Earn money by placing ads on your website. The plugin links your WordPress site to your AdSense account and makes it easier to place ads on your site — without needing to manually modify any HTML code. Google Webmaster Tools: Webmaster Tools provides you with detailed reports about your pages’ visibility on Google. The plugin allows you to verify your site ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Jodee Rich Keynote: We Are Not Selling Domain Names, We Are Selling Domain Identities - Jodee Rich just finished off one of the Keynote Speeches from this mornings Namescon session and had some interesting comments. I also had the chance to chat with Jodee last night at dinner for a couple of hours and he is definitely an out of the box thinker. Mr. Rich’s company applied to operate the .CEO and .Best new gTLD. Mr. Rich’s company also operates People Browser, a social network platform that is adaptable to a endless amount of verticals as well as Kred which looks to be a Klout type ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Porch.com Featured on Tech Crunch was Privately Purchased from Mrs. Jello in 2012 - Porch.com was featured yesterday in Tech Crunch the company inked a deal with Lowe’s. The company is a start up that aggregates data about home improvement projects all around the country. The domain was formerly owned by the late Domain Hall of Famer, Igal Lichtman. The domain changed hands in October of 2012 from Mrs. Jello LLC to Matt Erlichman the  CEO and founder. Oddly the name is now registered to Scott Austin the Chief Product Officer. Its odd the name would not be in the name of the ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
After 46 Years Pro Football Weekly Shuts Down & The Domain ProFootballWeekly.com Is At Auction - Back in 1967 Pro Football Weekly started as a sports magazine, that covered the National Football League (NFL). It was owned by Pro Football Weekly LLC and headquartered in Riverwoods, Illinois. The magazine was published 32 times a year, including every week of the NFL season, and issued four supplementary publications the Pro Football Weekly Preview, the Fantasy Football Guide, the Draft Preview, and the Pro Prospects Preview. The magazine closed in 2013 due to years of losses. Now the domain ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN
Two Seattle Men Looking To Get High on Domains - USA Today posted a story today about two Seattle men looking to cash in on Marijuana and domains. From the article: The longtime friends started buying pot-related URLs about a year and a half ago, as Washington state residents considered legalizing recreational marijuana. They now own more than 200 pot-related domain names. With medical marijuana legal in 20 states, and recreational marijuana legal in Washington and Colorado, Brooks and Dixon said they see a financial opportunity in purchasing domain ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Why Would A Guy Making Millions in Just 8 Months Want to Sell ? - Business Insider did not one but two articles on Scott DeLong and his ViralNova.com. ViralNova makes it bacon with click bait. DeLong started a site that in just 8 months gets 100 million visitors. From the article: Most people dream of getting rich instantly. That’s why the lottery is so popular. One man, Scott DeLong, found a way to do it. Eight months ago, he founded ViralNova.com. It’s a media company that uses click-baity headlines to draw in readers. The content is perfect for Facebook ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
LIU.com Sells For $155K on NameJet.com - The domain name LIU.com just sold for $155,688 on Namejet.com The auction was basically between 2 bidders from the reserve price which seemed to be around $133K. The last few days have seen some nice domain name sales at Namejet.com Jhao.com sold for $50,000 Liang.com Sold For $45,000 Juggs.com sold for $41,600 Google+Michael Berkens ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Uniregistry Wants ICANN To Slow Down The Last Resort Auction Schedule - Uniregistry, Corp. (“Uniregistry”), an applicant for 52 top-level domains has gone against many other new gTLD applicants in asking ICANN to slow down the new gTLD Last Resort Auction Schedule. In its comments to ICANN on the new gTLD Last Resort ICANN auction rules Uniregistry says it “is disappointed that ICANN changed the “5-TLD-per-month” cap from its initial proposal.” “On the current draft schedule, Uniregistry has three months in which it will have seven TLD applications go ... read more ...
Tue 14th January 2014
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo’s Transactions Total Over $2.5 Million In Domains On Just 572 Domains - Sedo just released its weekly report for the week of January 6th, 2014- January 13, 2014. In all just 572 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $2.5 Million Dollars. All sales were let by JCT.com which sold for $98,000 which sold to Junction Investments, Inc of San Fransisco. In a very nice .biz sale the domain llc.biz sold for $23,520 The highly brandable domain name BigBen.com sold for $50,000 and the buyer Kugo, Inc,. has nothing to do with the London tourist ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Net Neutrality Ruled Unenforceable - Net Neutrality looks like it could be in danger of being defeated. From NPR: In a landmark ruling Tuesday, a federal appeals court has struck down key parts of the Federal Communications Commission’s open-Internet rules, effectively ruling that the federal government cannot enforce net neutrality. Put more simply, it can’t require that Internet service providers treat all traffic equally. In a , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the agency’s rules had no basis in federal ... read more ...
 
Written by The Domains in EN and tagged
Sedo Tops Domain Industry Sales Charts in 2013 - Sedo put out a press release today looking back at their 2013 as related to domain sales. Sedo Tops Domain Industry Sales Charts in 2013 Leading Marketplace Books Nearly Twice as Many Top 100 Sales as Nearest Competitor and Four Times More Non-.Com Sales Sedo, the world’s largest domain marketplace and monetization provider, maintained its market leading position in 2013, according to the Top 100 Domain Sales Chart as published by the domain industry publication, DN Journal.  With 34 of the top ... read more ...