A look at domain name blogs I read frequently.
Earlier this year I published a list of blogs that I subscribe to. That list has changed somewhat over the year because some blogs have disappeared and others emerged.
I generally subscribe to a domain blog’s RSS feed if I find it insightful. A rehash of news articles does little for me. Analysis or an interesting angle is important. I also require a blog to be around for more than a few months before I subscribe, because I don’t want to “invest” in a blog that disappears. Most blogs go inactive within 6 months or so of launching.
Of course there are a number of other good domain blogs out there, and I don’t mean to disrespect them. This is just a list of what I currently subscribe to.
Conceptualist – Sahar Sarid took a hiatus late this year, but recently started blogging again. This haitus may have been good. For a while Conceptualist became a sales pitch for Bido, but with Bido currently back in development Sarid is again blogging about domain names in general. That’s a good thing.
Domain Name News – Adam Strong, Frank Michlick, and Chad Kettner do a good job rounding up the latest news stories and provide good analysis (not to mention scooping some good stories). After they picked up the domain DNN.com earlier this year, I got envious and bought DNW.com.
Elliot’s Blog – Elliot Silver chronicles his experiences buying and selling domains and building out his network of geo domain sites. Elliot has another thing going for him — he’s an all around nice guy who doesn’t hesitate to lend a hand.
Is It Me or is Everyone Else Stupid? – Julia MacKenzie writes about domains with sharp wit and doesn’t hesitate to ruffle feathers. She provides good analysis of all things domaining and seems to get the inside track on events before they happen. Now if she’d only answer the question I posed on her site last week: why does the initial registration record for her blog show Google’s Matt Cutts?
Predictive Domaining – this blog provides ideas for looking into the future and hand registering domain names before the keywords become popular.
SimplyGeo – Steven Morales started blogging furiously about geo domains but has slowed down considerably. It’s hard to keep it up when you get called away on military missions. Morales has served in Iraq and is heading back there in 2009.
TheDomains – Michael Berkens writes about trademark infringement, registrar wrong-doing, and opines on the domain industry and economy at large.
Whizzbangsblog.com – Australian Michael Gilmour dishes up his analytical view of the domain world. Gilmour runs domain parking optimization company ParkLogic.
Of course, to discover new domain blogs I visit Domaining.com.
M. Menius says
I hit most of the blogs mentioned. Another good comprehensive list of blogs/headlines is DNHeadlines.com.
My favorite two are DomainNameWire.com and TheDomains.com. The news and views at both sites are fresh. For the most part, I don’t detect any strong personal bias or agenda at work against non-com domain extensions.
The community of domain enthusiasts is pretty diverse so it’s nice that top bloggers can initiate meaningful discussion that incorporates the majority of domainers in general.
Patrick McDermott says
“Julia MacKenzie writes about domains with sharp wit and…seems to get the inside track on events before they happen.”
“…why does the initial registration record for her blog show Google’s Matt Cutts?”
Maybe that’s where the “inside track” info
comes from.
Black Hat Domainer says
How about some really underground (but legal) tricks on domaining? http://www.blackhatdomainer.com
Julia says
Hi Andrew.
As interesting as it might be if Matt Cutts wrote my blog, unfortunately this is far from the reality. The lesser interesting story is that it’s just me.. Sorry 🙁
The reasoning was just a little (ahem) red herring (ahem) fun (ahem) mistake [legal disclamimer] I left when I first registered the domain.
Register “accidental mistake” 😉 details, do domaintools whois check, change details.. All in the space of 10minutes.
Allow amateur sleuths to reverse check my whois some time later and allow them their 5 minutes of conspiracy theorum.
Aside from that, Merry Christmas and thanks for subscribing, I too am an avid reader of DNW.
Adam says
what’s a RSS Reader?
Andrew says
@ Julia – yes, I wouldn’t get Matt enough credit to think that he was actually writing the blog in your writing style…more curiosity if you knew him and got inside info from him.
RegFeeNames.com says
There are some good reads on there Andrew!
Some more I would mention are DNKitchen.com – Patrick who has only been in the industry for a few months has done well!
Also Im going to say check out my blog also but its not really that much of a blog compare to domain lists.
Happy Holidays!
Regards,
Robbie