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 27th July 2014
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Actress Blake Lively Launches New Lifestyle Brand on a .US - Actress Blake Lively launched her new lifestyle website on a .US rather than say going the Blake.Luxury route or Lively.social. The Gossip Girl star is going with the name Preserve.Us. The Huffington Post covered the launch and the feedback from all over the Twitterverse, Blake Lively’s new lifestyle brand Preserve launched this week and it’s fair to say that the Internet felt every emotion possible about the star’s new venture. On Tuesday, the actress and style icon debuted her lifestyle-driven ... read more ...
Sat 26th July 2014
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e-Commerce might be a sizzle, though section and trebuchet stays a steak - e-Commerce is certainly one of the largest trends to affect business and culture over the past 25 years. In 2013 Amazon did $74.45 billion in revenue, but when compared to Walmart that number looks small. The Arkansas based retailer is close to half a trillion in sales. Find more statistics at Statista Barbara Thau wrote an article on Forbes that broke down a recent shopping preference study. The study conducted by A.T. Kearney, showed that people prefer brick and mortar shopping hands down. The ... read more ...
 
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Exclusive – Interview with a Buyer of Digital.com, Richard Kershaw - Digital.com sold in the Heritage Auction for $325,000 and with the buyer’s premium the total price to the buyer came to $373,750. After the auction we communicated with the gentleman who purchased the domain name, Richard Kershaw. We decided to ask Richard a few questions about what he does, why he purchased the name and how high he would have bid if there was a bidding war ? TheDomains.com: What business are you in? Richard: I own two internet businesses, both based in London: #1. Wish.co.uk, ... read more ...
Fri 25th July 2014
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It’s All About Branding - Domaining 6.0 So here we are in 2012 and things have changed again. Google algorithms change like the wind leaving SEO guys trying to figure out how to game the system keyword rich domains are selling but at a much lower rate and non-.com’s at a much lower prices. Sales are brisk but the average prices have come down. Look at the DnJournal.com year to date sales chart. I mean really go check it out now and come back. I’ll wait. So we are half way through the year and you will see just one domain ... read more ...
 
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Minds + Machines Issues 350K Shares To Employee during 9P Stock trade At 11.50P - According to a regulatory filing, Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM:MMX), the publicly quoted owner and operator of Internet top-level domains, announces that it has issued 350,000 new Ordinary Shares following exercise by an employee of 350,000 share options at an exercise price of 9p per share. The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the existing Ordinary Shares and application will be made for the new Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM which is expected to occur on or ... read more ...
 
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.Broadway Resolved as 2 of 3 Apps are Withdrawn - Another new gTLD string has apparently been resolved, .Broadway The surviving applicant is Celebrate Broadway, Inc which is a Minds + Machines backed applicant. Those withdrawing their applications are broadwayacrossamerica.com and Donuts. We do not have any information regarding how the contention set was settle or what the terms were. We only know there were three applications for .Broadway and now there is one. Congrats ... read more ...
 
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Is The U.S. Lagging Behind China in Domain Savvy ? - Kathy Nielsen did an article for Wired that took a look at the U.S. lagging behind China when it comes to gTLD awareness. From the article: The IDN movement is significant in China, which has 21.97% of the world’s Internet users, compared to just 9.58% of the world’s Internet users coming from the U.S. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last year, Fadi Chehade, CEO of the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet’s governing body, predicted that ... read more ...
Thu 24th July 2014
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Verisign Goes Rogue: New gTLD’s: “Registration Numbers on Par With .Co” & .Net is Like One - During ts earnings call today Verisign (VRSN) brushed away the new gTLD’s saying “Gross registrations for new gTLD’s are at 1.6 million which puts them on Par with .Co” Ouch Verisign’s Representative went further to say that no one should build a conclusion on the new gTLD program until we go through a re-billing cycle (which we happen to Agree with) “I think what you saw in the second quarter is a lot of confusion in domains including new gTLD’s in both the singular and plural of the ... read more ...
 
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Verisign Reports: 128.9 Million .Com/.Net Domains; 57.2% Profit Margin & $1.5 Billion In a Bank - VeriSign, Inc. (VRSN), the registry for .Com and .Net reported its financial results for the second quarter of 2014 after the market closed today and lets face it .com and net growth are basically stalled. VeriSign, Inc. reported revenue of $250 million for the second quarter of 2014, up 4.6% from the same quarter in 2013. Verisign reported net income of $100 million and diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.71 for the second quarter of 2014, compared to net income of $87 million and diluted ... read more ...
 
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Heritage Auctions Led by Digital.com sells $773,876 in domain names - Heritage Auction Results total $773,876 which includes the Buyers Premium of 15 % The Heritage auction wrapped up today and the big sellers were Digital.com and Cute.com. Digital sold for $325,000 and with the buyers premium the total comes to $373,750. Cute.com sold for $200,000 and the buyers premium brought the total to $230,000. 16 lots sold. There was one auction (CapCollection.com) that started at $2, I found that funny. It is clear the crowd was .com only as Baby.club was the only non .com ... read more ...
 
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Of The 9,025 .Voting Domains Registered Over 97% Registered To Co. With Ties To The Registry? - One company is responsible for registering over 97% of the 9,025 .Voting new gTLD domain names. We reported earlier today that .Voting had 9,025 domain names registered after the first day of general availability However we see that 8,811 of the 9,025 domain names were registered by the domain name registrar, Registry Gate GmbH” which seems to be a member of the Key Drive family of registrars. All of the domain names registered at Registry Gate were registered to the same registrant: Registrant ... read more ...
 
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This Weeks New gTLD 1st Day Totals: .Voting 9,025; .Kaufen 4,325; Consulting 3,852; Media 3,438 - Yesterday a bunch of new gTLD’s went into general availability (GA)  meaning domain names can be registered live on a first come first serve basis. All total include any Sunrise registrations and any Landrush/Early Access Program (EAP) registration which took place before GA: .Voting 9.025 .Kaufen which is German for the word “Buy” had 4,325 .Consulting  3,852 .Media 3,438 .Pictures 1,548 .Lease .538 We noted yesterday that .Pictures was the 4th of very similar domains to launch including ... read more ...
 
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Sedo Transactions Total $1M; 52% Are BIN & Open.TV Sells For $25K - Over the past week, 506 transactions took place on Sedo’s marketplace and via SedoMLS, totaling $1m. 52% of total sales were the result of Buy Now listings. Highlights of public sales are: · Top .coms: gca.com at 90,000 USD · Top ccTLD: open.tv at 25,000 EUR · Top “other” TLD: matrix.org at 7,999 USD The top sales of the week were already reported by blogs in the industry GCA.com for $90K and Logics.com at $50K So we will highlight Open.TV which sold for $25K. Here are the reportable sales:     ... read more ...
 
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You Want To illegally download calm in a UK ? You will get some letters though no penalty - The MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) must be wondering what the heck is going on across the pond in the UK. After years of trying to find the right solution to dealing with piracy, they are going to send citizens letters that are the equivalent to telling your dog who just pooped on the carpet, Bad Dog ! If someone is a consistent downloader of pirated content, they will receive up to four letters telling them that what they are doing ... read more ...
 
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Flippa giving divided a special couple to redeem 1 FREE Domain listing! - Flippa has certainly ramped up its domain only auctions since Kevin Fink came on board and jump started things there. There is a special promo running good for one week, that he just released, From now through month’s end, when you list a domain on Flippa, you’ll be given a special link to redeem 1 FREE Domain listing! Here’s how it works: go and sell any domain name. When you pay for your first listing, you’ll receive — in your listing confirmation email — a special link. Click on ... read more ...
 
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An Example of Why People Still CyberSquat - Why do people still cybersquat ? That was a question posed a couple of weeks back on Namepros, and while I am not advocating it any way, I am going to give an example of how it still pays off in 2014. PluralSight.in sold on Wednesday for $16,000. The domain was registered in July of 2013, by a gentleman in China who just listed himself as Jeff. No last name, just Jeff. Well just Jeff regged pluralsight.in which has several live trademarks, some before the name was registered and others registered ... read more ...
Wed 23rd July 2014
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3rd Reverse Domain Name Hijacking of The Day: Sin Spirits LLC Guilty On SinVodka.com - Sin Spirits LLC represented by George M. Dipp, Texas has been found Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) making it the third RDNH ruling of the day which must be a record, on the domain name SinVodka.com Respondent registered the disputed domain name on November 9, 1997 as evidenced by the Whois records. Complainant makes four attempts to negotiate a purchase of the disputed domain name at Domainsales and Sedo.com on May 6, May 10, May 12 and May 27, 2014, but does not agree to the price ... read more ...
 
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Citybankonline.com Guilty Of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking - CITY BANK (not CitiBank) whose site is CityBankOnline.com and CityBankTexas.com, represented by Kristi Dent of Cox Smith Matthews Incorporated, Texas, USA was just found guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). The domain in question was CityBank.com. The three member panel UDRP panel of Fernando Triana, Esq, James A. Carmodym, and Dennis A. Foster, Esq said on the issue of RDNH: “”In the present case, the disputed domain name was registered in 1995, with a business model based on pay-per-click ... read more ...
 
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Neustar Reports: Revenue adult 8%; Income Decreases 6% - Neustar, Inc. (NSR), today announced results for the quarter ended June 30, 2014, and reaffirmed its guidance for 2014. Results for Second Quarter 2014 Compared to Second Quarter 2013 Revenue increased 8% to $237.5 million Revenue from Marketing Services increased 19% to $35.0 million Revenue from Security Services increased 28% to $34.4 million Net income decreased 15% to $36.8 million Net income per share decreased 6% to $0.61 Non-GAAP Results for Second Quarter 2014 Compared ... read more ...
 
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Sunrise/Early Access Program Domains Taken in .Pictures: Fox, HBO & Some Good Generics - We published a post earlier today that included .Pictures that went into general availability today. We thought we would take a look at some of the more interesting Sunrise and Early Access Program (EAP) registrations for .Pictures keeping in mind some of these had a premium registration and renewal rate in addition to the EAP cost: 20thcenturyfox.pictures 21cf.pictures 21stcenturyfox.pictures action.pictures airconditioning.pictures alaska.pictures amazon.pictures aquatimer.pictures avatar.pictures avp.pictures aws.pictures band.pictures big.pictures bklyn.pictures bluesky.pictures book.pictures bretmichaels.pictures cam4.pictures camera.pictures cheapmonday.pictures chevron.pictures chicago.pictures chicco.pictures chiccousa.pictures class.pictures concert.pictures cos.pictures crop.pictures davinci.pictures direct.pictures domaintest.pictures donuts.pictures engagement.pictures engineeredformen.pictures eyelight.pictures film.pcitures find.pictures flickr.pictures framed.pictures fxx.pictures galapagosislands.pictures hbo.pictures holidaycheck.pictures hooters.pictures hostpoint.pictures iac.pictures icap.pictures imax.pictures imax.pictures immo.pictures immobilien.pictures ingenieur.pictures intuit.pictures istock.pictures iwcportugieser.pictures iwcportugieser.pictures jewish.pictures jewish.pictures katjes.pictures kid.pictures kids.pictures kindle.pictures laureusworldsportsacademy.pictures lavazza.pictures lifetouch.pictures lol.pictures london.pictures m4m.pictures marathon.pictures markhopkins.pictures markxvii.pictures maternity.pictures meme.pictures merck.pictures michael.pictures mint.pictures models.pictures monki.pictures newborn.pictures nic.pictures nikon.pictures otherstories.pictures pair.pictures personal.pictures photographer.pictures photographer.pictures photography.pictures portofino.pictures portrait.pictures prime.pictures prints.pictures race.pictures resize.pictures royaltyfree.pictures sainsburys.pictures sanibel.pictures seashell.pictures selfies.pictures send.pictures senior.pictures share.pictures shop.pictures sky.pictures slideshow.pictures smugmug.pictures social.pictures socialmedia.pictures southby.pictures southbysouthwest.pictures spiritofsport.pictures spiritofsportaward.pictures spitfire.pictures spitfire.pictures sportforgood.pictures sportforgoodfoundation.pictures sports.pictures star.pictures stockimages.pictures surface.pictures swimsuit.pictures sxsw.pictures tags.pictures taking.pictures team.pictures topgun.pictures toronto.pictures tour-eiffel.pictures toureiffel.pictures triathlon.pictures triathlon.pictures trip.pictures true.pictures tuxedo.pictures tweet.pictures twentiethcenturyfox.pictures ultrasound.pictures upload.pictures vine.pictures viral.pictures watchever.pictures weather.pictures windowsphone.pictures worldsportsawards.pictures yachtclub.pictures zabars.pictures Michael ... read more ...
 
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5 Domains That Have Hit Reserve and Will Sell At HA.com - The Heritage Auction domain name live auction is tomorrow at 2PM EST with live online bidding. The Ha.com, prebidding system is open until 10pm tonight. The auction features some great domains including Bitcoins.com and Bitcoin.club and you can read more about the auction here As of publication 5 domain names have hit reserve and will sell: SFD.com has hit reserve at $20,000 FRR.com has hit reserve and has a high bid of $26,000 CoinSource.com current high bid $2,000 Raretimepiecescom has a high bid ... read more ...
 
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MapsWithME.com With over 4 Million Users Re-Brands as Maps.Me - The .Me registry announced today in a blog post, that MapsWithME.com has rebranded as MAPS.ME The company is the creator of an App which boasts over 4 million users. The App is available for iOS, Android and BlackBerry. This startup uses OpenStreetMap data to provide access to highly detailed offline maps of, virtually, every country in the world. In addition to having the entire world at your fingertips the app offers plenty of other features that make your travel light (and carefree), like the ... read more ...
 
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gTLD’s: Now It Gets Interesting: .Pics, .Pictures, Photo, .Photos - Tomorrow the new gTLD .Pictures launches into general availability  status meaning it can be registered on a first come first served basis. We have been chatting about plural and singular new gTLD’s for a while as well as vertical competition but with the launch of this new domain name extension we can actually start to see what the effect of these different but similar strings have on the new gTLD program. .Photos .Photos was the first of the five to launch on February 26th an is a Donuts extension. .Photos ... read more ...
 
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Dealhunter A/S of Denmark Guilty Of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking On DealHunter.com - A three member UDRP panel has found Dealhunter A/S of Frederiksberg, Denmark, represented by Aumento, Denmark guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name DealHunter.com The domain holder was represented by Ari Goldberger and Jason Schaeffer of ESQwire.com The domain name was registered in 1998. The Complainant was incorporated in 2007 and first registered its domain name dealhunter.dk domain name in 2010. The company didn’t even file for the trademark DEALHUNTER until 2013. The ... read more ...
 
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.Moe Ends 1st Day Of General Avalibility With 1K Domains & Only Has 199,998,930 To Go - The .Moe registry predicted that .Moe would get 200 Million domain name registrations in short order, blowing past .Com registration which are at over 113,500,000 registrations. Well after the first day .Moe is well on its way after racking up 1,070 registrations after Sunrise, Landrush and on the 1st day of General Availability (GA). .Moe is only short of its 200,0000,000 goal by 199,998,930. At Name.com the price of a .Moe domain registration is $19.95 If your curious as to what people are registering ... read more ...