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The Lowdown
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June 2008 Archive
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Here's the The Lowdown
from DNJournal.com! Updated daily to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name
industry!
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Compiled by Ron Jackson
(DN Journal Editor/Publisher)
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Subscribe to our
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Final
preparations are underway for the 2008
GeoDomain Expo that gets underway at the W Hotel
City Center in Chicago a week from Thursday
(July 10). It's shaping up as a major |
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event as ticket sales have
already surpassed those of the 2007
show in San Francisco. Associated
Cities and the Kelsey Group are joining forces
to stage the event. AC Executive Director Patrick
Carleton provides a preview of what is in store in an interview
on the AC website. We also previewed the conference in our
May newsletter
and you can check out the show schedule here. |
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The GeoExpo,
which has a focus on domain development, also has one of
the lowest registration fees on the domain conference
circuit - just $695. A member at GeoDomainer.com,
Scott Roberts, will be going for even less than
that - $0 to be exact. Scott was the lucky winner in the
social networking site's free ticket contest.
Roberts needed more than luck to win the contest. All
entrants had to submit an essay on their goals in the
domain industry and how they felt being able to attend the
GeoDomain Expo would help them in accomplishing those
goals. Congrats Scott. I'm looking forward to meeting you
at the show!
(Posted
June
30, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-30-08-2.htm |
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GoDaddy.com
today abruptly changed their corporate policy
and banned all company employees from participating in
online domain auctions operated by GoDaddy's TDNAM.com |
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division and also prohibited
employees from taking part in company purchasing, sales
& back orders. The move came in response to complaints
from TDNAM bidders about GoDaddy VP Adam Dicker
winning auctions they were involved in (the company
allowed employee bidding at the time). The protests
started in a thread about DN |
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Journal's weekly
domain sales column at the NamePros.com
forum and quickly spread to domain news outlets and blogs
like DomainNameWire.com
and TheDomains.com,
then spilled over to broader Internet news outlets like Slashdot.com. |
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We think it
was wise for GoDaddy to act promptly and decisively on
this issue and they made the right call. It will be
interesting now to see how another registrar, Tucows.com,
resolves (or does not resolve) another highly publicized
imbroglio with one of their customers who has accused them
of unethical behavior. TheDomains.com author
and attorney Michael Berkens won 23 domains in
Tucows auctions, only to have them taken back by the
company when they claimed that had put them up for sale
accidentally (that issue is the hot topic in the same
thread we linked to in the paragraph above leading to
TheDomains.com). Berkens was not the Lone Ranger. All
told, 25 winning bidders had a total of 260 domains taken
from them.
(Posted
June
30, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-30-08.htm |
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As
you would expect the big buzz going around the
industry today is centered on ICANN's decision
yesterday to open the door to an unlimited number of
domain extensions next year. |
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We gave our initial take on
that move in this column yesterday.
Since then articles have come out in several mainstream
media publications that had called us for a comment on
what the flood of new TLDs would mean to the domain
industry and Internet users in general. Those included the
New
York Times (article written by Doreen
Carvajal and Brad Stone) and the Los
Angeles Times (written by Joseph Menn).
As I told Joseph Menn at the
L.A. Times, "Downtown real estate in Los Angeles
doesn't get any less valuable because someone's building
out in Oxnard." Many new TLDs have been
released in the past and none of them have had any
impact at all on the usage and value of the original .com,
.net and .org extensions. Every time a new
one comes out, hopeful speculators say "this time
it's different" even though it has never turned
out that way. Some are saying it again, but I fail
to |
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see how simply putting more
unfamiliar extensions out there at once than ever before
is going to change the key dynamic that has plagued
new extensions - lack of public recognition that they
even exist. |
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Billions,
probably trillions, of dollars have been spent branding
the original extensions (especially .com) in the minds of
Internet users. To them .com means the Internet. It
would take a similar spectacular outlay of marketing
dollars, and more importantly, actual usage of these
new TLDs by major content providers, for them to break
through the clutter. The cost would be so astronomical it
would make the six-figure fees ICANN plans to charge
operators of the new TLDs look like pocket change.
Studies have
shown that few people visit more than 15-20 websites. Most
of the established content providers they visit are
already found on .com. Do people really think those .com
content providers are going to abandon the dominating .com
brand and relocate on a newly minted obscure extension
that will be just one of hundreds of other newly minted
obscure extensions?
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Even
Devo could make a comeback
with their own vanity TLD (.devo) under
ICANN's new extension plan. |
Yes, a handful may
make it, but I would be extremely surprised if the
vast majority of them don't wind up in the already
over-crowded new TLD graveyard. David
Castello of Castello
Cities Internet Network has dubbed the
proposed new extensions vTLDs
("vanity" TLDs), which I think is an
appropriate moniker (no offense to Monte Cahn's
fine company). Some may be interesting for novelty
use, but without unprecedented marketing muscle
put behind them, few are likely to amount to much
more than that. |
Many different opinions
abound on the topic (one of the many good discussions can
be found at the DomainState
forum) and none of us can say for sure what will happen in
the future - but now that so many of us are on the record
it will be interesting to look back five years from now
and see who came closest to getting it right. We'll have
more on this topic in our free monthly
newsletter that will be emailed to subscribers
this weekend.
(Posted
June
27, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-27-08.htm |
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I've
spent most of today fielding calls from a wide
variety of mainstream media outlets, including ABC
News and the New York Times, about
what impact ICANN's decision
to allow |
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New
Internet real estate
is expected to start coming off the
ICANN assembly line in 2009 or 2010 |
an unlimited number of new
extensions will have on the Internet and those of us
in the domain industry. As expected, the ICANN board voted
to proceed with the plan today just before closing their
32nd International meeting in Paris, France.
I told the reporters that I don't expect this move to have a major impact
on our industry or on which extensions most people will
choose to build their websites on over the next
decade. I believe that because we already have historical
examples of how little new extensions have impacted the
use and popularity of the three original global
extensions, .com, .net, .org (and the
country code extensions assigned to each nation like Germany's
.de and Great Britain's |
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.co.uk). The two
oldest examples of new global TLDs were introduced in 2001
(.info) and 2002 (.biz) and despite their
long time in the marketplace, neither has affected values
or usage of the extensions that came before them.
There are many newer examples
that have fared much worse, not even moving the needle on
the recognition meter. .Travel for instance has
been a complete flop even though it incorporates one of
the very best keywords on the web. .Pro has also
failed to make a ripple despite featuring a word with a
very positive connotation. It does take time to build
recognition though, which is why I think the elder
statesmen of new extensions - .info and .biz - are the
most instructive examples of the long term prospects for a
wave of new TLDs.. |
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At the end of
May, according to figures compiled by Denic.de,
just under 5 million .info domains had been
registered and just under 2 million .biz. (compared
to over 76 million .coms, the extension that an
overwhelming majority of the most commonly used websites
are built on) .Info was
able to inflate its numbers by offering extremely low or
even free registrations. Both extensions were boosted by
speculators who bought up the best keywords. I don't
think that will happen to the same degree when a flood of
new extensions hits the market for a couple of reasons; 1)
It would be prohibitively expensive to buy up keywords
across a large number of new extensions and 2) there is
little incentive to buy them up in the first place
because, beyond the absolute upper tier of keywords,
neither .info or .biz has had a lot of success in the
aftermarket.
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I expect that a flood
of new extensions will create some confusion in
the market place, but not confusion over what the
long proven .com, .net and .org extensions stand
for. Putting new extensions out there is the easy
part. Burning them into people's consciousness is
a much taller order as .info and .biz, after seven
years of trying, are well aware.
Some
of the new extensions will probably offer some
interesting niche or novelty plays that could be
modestly profitable for speculators (just as .info
and .biz have been for those who chose names very
carefully) but overall I don't expect any of them
to offer much of a departure from the .info and
.biz scripts we have already seen. If anything the
sheer volume of new extensions is likely to dilute
the impact that any single one of them might have
on the existing order of things. |
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As usual, the
primary beneficiaries will be ICANN who will charge hefty
fees to operate a new extension and possibly registrars
who will have more products to peddle. Individual
registrants will have more extensions to choose from, but
they will face the same dilemma they face today. You can
get good keywords for less in extensions that aren't
widely used - but you also get less recognition (and thus
a greater likelihood of errors) when people search for
your website or type your email address. Like most other
things in life you get what you pay for.
(Posted
June
26, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-26-08.htm |
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Popular
drop catching service SnapNames.com
is offering a new array of domain lists that make it
easier to ferret out the expired names you want to zero in
on. In addition to essential |
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lists like Exclusive
and Expiring Names, Soon To Be Deleted
and Most Active Auctions, SnapNames has
added new lists focused on Geo Domains, Top
Categories and Five Exclusive Expiring
Domain Lists from their top registrar |
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partners. In addition ten new
data fields have been added to every SnapNames list that
provide information on Bidder Counts, Word Counts, Length,
Categories and more. You can download
the lists you want here. There is also a link
on that page that allows you to set up email alerts
detailing auctions that are ending soon.
Speaking of auctions ending
soon, the SnapNames Live/Moniker Paris
Domainer Meeting extended
online auction will be closing tomorrow
(Thursday June 26) at 10am (U.S. Eastern time). In
addition to domains that were exclusive to the silent
auction, some first tier domains that did not sell in the
live auction have been moved over to the online sale,
including Jackpot.com, Hotels.eu and others.
Sedo's latest monthly GreatDomains
premium auction also ends tomorrow at approximately 2pm
U.S. Eastern time. The top names in that auction include Pasta.com,
Brochures.com and Eco.org. You can review
the full
list here.
(Posted
June
25, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-25-08.htm |
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We've
just posted a photo
review of last week's DomainerMeeting
conference in Paris, France. I was unable to make
the trip as my wife had to undergo knee surgery the day
before the event began but I arranged to have show
organizers send us some photos so we could give you an
inside look at the action. A special thank you goes to Xavier
Buck and Freddy Schiwek from EuroDNS.com
and Melanie Delannoy for
providing the pictures. |
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The National
Arbitration Forum reported today that the
number of UDRP cases they handle continues to
increase, though the rate of
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growth slowed last year. NAF
heard 1,805 cases in 2007, a 9% rise over
the 1,658 cases handled in 2006, which was a 21%
jump over 2005.
The NAF also
announced decisions in three high profile UDRP cases
involving YouTube.net, CTV.com, and AmericanGirl.net.
The complainant (YouTube.com) won in the
YouTube.net case while the domain owners prevailed in the
CTV.com and AmericanGirl.net cases. A key passage in the
CTV.com ruling said "The Panel determined that the
three letters which constitute the essence of the disputed
domain name are generic initials used by many parties
to identify many goods and services. The Panel found
Respondent to be in the domain name warehousing business,
specializing in three character domains. Respondent’s
use of CTV.com to attract Internet traffic is a
legitimate business interest, especially in this case
where none of the advertisements are related to
Complainant’s television operations. More details on all
three cases are available here.
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MyID.ca will
conclude their third
auction of premium .ca (Canadian
ccTLD) domain names Thursday (June 26).
Domains currently on the block include Single.ca,
Lesbian.ca, Interviews.ca, Tulips.ca,
Beautiful.ca and Tshirts.ca. New
bidders can join the auction if they complete the
authentication process by Noon EDT on June 26.
MyID's
second .ca auction that ended June 12 drew
five-figure winning bids on Interview.ca ($30,000),
Bond.ca ($19,100) and Gamble.ca
($15,000). |
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(Posted
June
24, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can
use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-24-08.htm |
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ICANN's
32nd International public meeting is currently
underway in Paris where it will continue through
Thursday (June 26). You can review the complete agenda
on the ICANN |
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website. Several sessions
have been devoted to issues surrounding a plan ICANN is
considering that would create an unlimited number of new
global extensions. My opinion is that we already
have enough global extensions including some that are
under utilized - .info and .biz - despite
being available for several years now. It seems to me it
would be wiser to let those extensions get on their feet
before flooding the market with dozens, hundreds or even
thousands of new extensions. |
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The fact that .info and .biz
have had relatively low adoption rates compared to the
original gTLDs, .com, .net and .org,
tells me that there is not enough public demand or
recognition of new extensions to roll more out at this
point in time (even a few more, let alone hundreds
more).
I can only see a flood of new
gTLDs creating a lot of confusion among Internet
users, with few benefits to anyone other than ICANN (who
would reportedly charge anywhere from $39,000 to $390,000
for the rights to operate a new TLD) and perhaps some
registrars. An interesting conversation on this topic,
initiated by blogger Michael Berkens, is currently
underway at TheDomains.com.
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While we are on the
topic of domain extensions and confusion, I have
to comment on an item in a newsletter I got this
morning from domain registrar Encirca.com.
It said "EnCirca introduces |
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28 new extensions
for you to register, such as us.com, eu.com,
de.com, and uk.com..."
These are NOT new extensions but because of
this kind of misleading marketing I have had
readers argue vociferously with me that they are.
These are .com domains period - nothing at
all new about them. What Encirca and many other
registrars are selling are sub-domains of
names like us.com and eu.com that are marketed by CentralNic.
Now, I have no
problem with the CentralNic business model (they
do not make any claims to be providing new
extensions), but I do have a problem with
registrars leading the public to believe they are
getting something they are |
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not. I've had too
many excited newbies ask me how much their domains
in these "new" extensions are worth.
They think they have discovered great keywords in
valuable new extensions and are quite distressed
when I have to tell them otherwise. Those that
bought with resale in mind will be sorely
disappointed because there is virtually no
aftermarket interest in sub-domains, aside from
the occasional rare bolt of lightning from a blue
sky. We will actually be reporting one of those in
our next weekly sales column (a name sold at
Sedo), but that doesn't change the fact that you
will almost certainly go broke investing in
sub-domains if you are buying them for PPC or
resale purposes. |
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One
other note today - if you drop by Michael
Berkens's site mentioned in our first item above,
check out another
hot topic - whether or not employees
of aftermarket auction houses should be allowed to
bid against their company's own customers. This
discussion was triggered by a thread at the NamePros.com
forum about aftermarket sales reported by DN
Journal that |
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Andrew Allemann followed
up on Sunday by posting some additional background
information on auction house policies at DomainNameWire.com. His post, like Michael's, has drawn dozens
of reader comments on practices that many consider
to be unethical.
I think the auction
venues would be better served if they prohibited
their employees from bidding in the company's
auctions (as many, including Sedo.com, SnapNames.com
and Bido.com currently do). You can see
by reading the blog |
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and
forum posts that a large percentage of bidders
will, rightly or wrongly, question the fairness of
auctions where company employees are free to bid
against them. Since this is an important issue
with domain buyers I think that, at the very
least, every auction venue should prominently and
clearly post their policy on employee bidding so
their customers can choose for themselves whether
to play by those ground rules or take their
business elsewhere.
(Posted
June
23, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can
use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-23-08.htm |
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The
first DomainerMeeting
conference ended in Paris, France today
with another Moniker
live domain auction closing the schedule. The auction
produced $361,000 in sales with more |
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than a third of the total
generated by a single domain, Aftermarket.com, that
went for $125,000. Five other domains hit five
figures; Rainbows.com and Domain.pl (Poland's
country code) at $45,000 each, PhoneAccessories.com
at $25,000, Loans.dk (Denmark's
country code) at $15,000 and Motorbikes.net
at $10,000. Three others; OUX.com ($9,500),
Bavarian.com ($9,000) and Next.org ($9,000)
just missed the five-figure mark.
There were some steals in the
auction as well, most notably Muslim.info at just $400
(as a point of reference, Christian.info sold for
for $35,000 in June of last year). Michael
Berkens has posted a complete
list of auction results on his blog. An
accompanying silent auction associated with the show will
continue to Thursday (June 26). Moniker's next live
auction will be held July 12 at the GeoDomain
Expo in Chicago. |
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(Posted
June
20, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-20-08.htm |
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The
Internet
Commerce Association (ICA) announced
today that, in cooperation with EuroDNS, it will
establish a sister organization in Europe. Internet
Commerce Association-Europe (ICA-EU) will be
headquartered in Luxembourg to better represent its
members with |
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the EU Parliament and
agencies located in Brussels, the European Court
located in Luxembourg, and the separate governments of the
nations of Europe. The announcement was made on the
opening day of the DomainerMeeting
conference currently underway in Paris, France.
The
ICA is a non-profit trade association headquartered in Washington,
DC. The organization seeks to preserve the
entrepreneurial environment of the Internet that has made
it such an innovative and high-growth arena for commerce
in the U.S., Europe and worldwide.
Domain owner's internet
investments are being challenged by a number of |
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competing interests
that would like to confiscate valuable domain names by
changing the laws and policies that govern trademark
disputes in the European Union and the U.S.,
as well as the process established by ICANN for the
resolution of domain name disputes.
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Some governments are
also advocating policies that would threaten the
owners of valuable geo-domains, while others seek
to censor internet content including domain name
content. Domainers often invest large sums of
money to purchase and develop their domains and
require a stable |
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Jeremiah
Johnston (Sedo.com)
ICA President |
and fair legal and
policy environment to protect those investments.
ICA and ICA-EU will coordinate their activities to
explain and promote the interests of their members
to national governments, the EU, ICANN, and all
other relevant policy-making bodies.
With
its headquarters in Europe, ICA-EU will be able to
better represent the interests of European
domainers to the ccTLD managers and
national governments of the continent. The
establishment of ICA-EU also emphasizes that the
Internet is a global platform for communications
and commerce and that domainers must adopt an
international approach in promoting and protecting
their shared interests.
Jeremiah
Johnston, ICA President, said “This is a big
step for ICA as it reaches out to fulfill
its |
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worldwide
mission. EuroDNS has been actively involved with
multiple European governments and ccTLD managers
effecting legislative and policy issues over the
last several years. ICA is happy |
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to
have EuroDNS assuming a leadership role in
the establishment of ICA-Europe. We hope
that ICA-Europe is the first of what will
eventually be many sister organizations.
There has already been interest expressed
from Latin America in forming a
regional organization there.”
Xavier
Buck, EuroDNS CEO, said “EuroDNS is
excited to help expand ICA into Europe. We
saw what ICA achieved to foster a better
legislative climate for domainers in the US
and we are delighted to play our part to
bring the same to Europe. All of us want to
see the Internet remain a place where entrepreneurs
can thrive and we
really think EuroDNS can be of great
help." ICA-EU expects to begin
operations by early fall when it will also
launch its website in multiple European
languages. |
EuroDNS
CEO Xavier Buck |
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(Posted
June
19, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only
you can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-19-08.htm |
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New
domain auction site Bido.com
is set to open the bidding on its first auction this
afternoon (Wed. June 18) at 1pm U.S. Eastern
time. The first domain going under the hammer will
be |
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DiscountImages.com.
In Bido's unique format, just one domain will be
auctioned each day and bidding always starts at $1
with no reserve. Another interesting twist is a
section with comments from experienced domainers
about the name currently up for bid. Most of the
speculation we saw before the Bido launch was that
only positive comments |
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would be allowed about
the names being sold, but both positive and negative
assessments of the debut domain, DiscountImages.com
have been posted on the site, so it looks like Bido
plans to let the chips fall where they may.
While Bido is gearing
up for their maiden voyage, Sedo's GreatDomains.com
is set to open their latest monthly premium domain
auction tomorrow (June 19) at 2pm Eastern time. The
roster for this week-long event includes Brochures.com,
Pasta.com and Eco.org among others.
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The first DomainerMeeting
conference also opens tomorrow in Paris,
France. I had planned to go but had to
reverse course because my wife will be
undergoing knee surgery today in Tampa.
It's a fairly simple procedure (repair some
torn cartilage) but she will be on crutches
for a few |
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Eric
Rice - DNCartoons.com |
weeks so I need
to be here to help her get around. With a
little luck she will be ready to go for next
month's GeoDomain Expo in Chicago
(which we previewed in our latest
newsletter).
Eric Rice,
who was the subject of our February
2007 Cover Story, has come up
with an interesting new concept at DNCartoons.com.
As its name implies the site will feature
cartoons about the domain business, but
Rice's new venture will also have a blog and
newsletter that Rice said will offer high
quality domains for sale at reasonable
prices. The former BulkRegister.com
General Manager (prior to the registrar's
sale to Enom) is an experienced domain
broker with a solid record of success so his
newsletter should be well worth signing up
for. |
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Below
is an exclusive preview cartoon from
DNCartoons.
(Posted
June
18, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-18-08.htm |
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The
biggest .org domain sale ever reported to us
has just been completed by Michael Berkens of MostWantedDomains.com.
The buyer paid $151,400 to get Sexe.org
("sex" in |
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French) from Berkens. The
previous .org high water mark was the $150,349 paid
for Date.org in December 2006. Only three other
reported .org sales have reached the six-figure mark; Loan.org
at $105,500, University.org at $100,000
and Coffee.org, also at $100,000. Berkens,
an attorney who is one of the pioneer domainers, has a
blog at TheDomains.com
where readers are currently discussing this landmark sale. |
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Sexe.org is
the second biggest non .com global TLD sale reported so
far this year (only Porn.net at $400,000 was
higher).
(Posted
June
17, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-17-08.htm |
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Verisign
has just released their latest quarterly Domain
Name Industry Brief covering the first three
months of 2008. The operator of the .com and .net
registries said it added 14 million
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domain names in 1Q-2008 as
the total number of registered domain names in all TLDs
worldwide crossed the 162 million mark. That is a 26%
jump over the same quarter last year and a 6%
increase over the previous quarter (4Q-2007).
The Verisign report said ccTLDs
were becoming increasingly important as Internet usage
soars in emerging regions around the globe. With more than |
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63 million ccTLD
registrations now in place, the growth in country code
extensions surpassed the overall growth rate, jumping 33%
over the same quarter in 2007 and 9% over the
previous quarter. Verisign said "The ccTLD growth was driven by a few ccTLDs that experienced remarkable double
digit growth quarter over quarter, including .pl
(Poland), .cn (China), .es (Spain), .ru (Russian
Federation) and .fr (France)."
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Verisign also singled
out India as another example of exploding
growth outside the U.S. The country has 41
million Internet users (ranking 8th in the
world), yet that number represents just 4%
of India's population, leaving enormous room for
further expansion. At the end of the fi rst quarter of 2008, there were
1.2 million domain name registrations in India across all
TLDs, a 46% jump from one year ago and 12%
higher than the previous quarter. Of these registrations, approximately
685,000 are .com and .net domains and
410,000 are .in domains,
representing India's country code. |
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(Posted
June
16, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can
use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-16-08.htm |
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I'm
currently traveling on a brief vacation so have
been getting online just once a day before leaving the
hotel in the morning. Several things have arrived in my
inbox since I posted |
|
yesterday morning. NameMedia
announced
a deal with Tucows that, effective
immediately, makes NameMedia's popular Afternic.com
the exclusive platform for expired domain auctions
involving names registered with Tucows. That will add over
100,000 domains a month to Afternic's already
massive inventory of aftermarket and expiring
domains. |
|
|
|
The
inventory list for the SnapNames
Live domain auction a week from today (Friday,
June 20) at the DomainerMeeting
conference in Paris has been released. Gems
like Aftermarket.com, Hotels.eu, Holland.net
and Golfing.org dot the list. Meanwhile, SnapNames' sister company, |
|
Moniker.com
is reminding domain
owners that Wednesday (June 18) is the
deadline for submitting names in bulk for the live
auction at the Internext
Expo coming up August 8 in Hollywood,
Florida. Limited submissions will be accepted
through June 25 then only one-word premium domains
through July 2. |
If you are planning to go to
the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
New York conference Sept. 23-26, you
can save $500 off the standard admission if you register
by Sunday (June 15) when the early bird rate will
expire.
|
Another conference I am
looking forward to is the GeoDomain
Expo in Chicago July 10-12. GeoDomainer.com
is giving away a free ticket to that event in
a contest currently underway at their site. To
enter, you will need to sign up for a free
membership at GeoDomainer.com, then visit the Groups
section and click on the GeoDomainer Contest
link for full contest details. |
|
|
(Posted
June
13, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can
use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-13-08.htm |
|
|
The
Recall Media Group has announced that their new
one-a-day online domain auction platform, Bido.com,
will launch Wednesday (June 18) at 1pm (U.S.
Eastern time). A Bido |
|
launch party had been held at
the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West conference in Las Vegas in
February but the first auctions were delayed as their
system was fine-tuned. Auctions will all start with a $1
minimum bid and no reserve which should generate
some excitement.
The first name to go on the
block Wednesday will be DiscountImages.com. The
rest of the opening week lineup includes GolfIowa.com, |
|
|
RYY.com, GoldAuction.com,
SpywareHelp.com, DomainTalk.com, VacantRoom.com
and CerealBox.com.
(Posted
June
12, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-12-08.htm |
|
More
good news for the Internet and domain owners.
According to a recently released study by leading market
research firm IDC
titled U.S. Internet Advertising 2008-2012
Forecast and Analysis, overall Internet
advertising revenue will double from $25.5
billion in 2007 to $51.1 billion in 2012.
During that period, Internet advertising will grow about
eight times faster than advertising at large. |
|
|
The report forecasts that
the Internet will zoom from being the number 5 medium
all the way to the number 2 medium in just five years.
It will surpass newspapers, cable TV, and be bigger than
broadcast TV as well. Only direct marketing will remain
ahead of Internet advertising if the study is correct.
Video advertising will play
an increasingly big role in Internet advertising in the
years ahead as its revenue is expected to grow by a
factor of seven from $500 million in 2007 |
|
to $3.8 billion in
2012, a compound annual growth rate of 49.4%.
Brand advertisers are expected to shift significant
amounts of money into video commercials, primarily from
broadcast television.
Karsten Weide,
program director of Digital Media and Entertainment,
said "What will help drive this trend is that
consumers are starting to realize that, as opposed to
TV, Internet video lets them watch what they want, when
they want, and increasingly, where they want."
(Posted
June
11, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-11-08.htm |
|
Andrew
Miller and Mike "Zappy" Zapolin are
featured in a very interesting new article - "Realtors
of the Web" - that has just been published by Israel's
Globes Magazine. A |
|
translated copy of the
article has been posted at the dynamic duo's website InternetRealEstate.com
(Andrew and Zappy were also featured in a DN
Journal Cover Story in September 2005). The
article's sub-heading said "Mike Zapolin and Andrew Miller were two brokers on the grey track on
Wall Street, but they then realized the potential of the internet, bought a few domain names for pennies and sold them for millions of dollars to become the
realtor barons of the net." |
Mike
Zapolin (left) and Andrew Miller
Internet Real Estate Group |
|
Their
company owns some amazing domains, including Music.com,
Software.com, Phone.com, Chocolate.com
and Podcast.com. Today they are into developing
their properties. Before they shifted into that mode
they sold several blockbusters including CreditCards.com,
Computer.com and Beer.com.
(Posted
June
10, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-10-08.htm |
|
Rob
Monster is on the move again - teaming up
this time with the Castello Brothers,
Michael and David and their company Castello
Cities Internet Networks, Inc. (CCIN)
to |
|
develop their Traveler.com
domain into a global travel portal. Rob's companies, Monster
Venture Partners (MVP) and DomainStrategies.com,
have recently entered a number of joint development
projects with owners of top tier generic domain names,
including HealthCare.com, WiFi.com, Patents.com
and others.
CCIN CEO Michael
Castello said, ""We first made our mark developing intuitive Geo-specific travel sites such as
PalmSprings.com, Acapulco.com and Nashville.com while
Traveler.com was the 800- pound gorilla waiting quietly in the
wings. CCIN's partnership with Rob Monster and Domain Strategies will unlock the global potential of Traveler.com to become the ultimate travel portal and make that vision a
reality." |
|
|
Rob Monster, Managing Director of
MVP and Chairman of Domain Strategies, will serve the new company
that has been formed to build Traveler.com as Chairman of the Board. A search for a CEO is under way. The company headquarters is expected to be in
Seattle, which is already a global hub for online travel innovation, including firms such as
Expedia, Yapta, and Farecast.
|
Rob
Monster |
Monster said "The Castello Brothers have assembled one of the highest quality domain portfolios that are still privately held. I am very much looking forward to partnering with David and Michael to develop the Traveler.com domain into a world class company.
From our industry due diligence, we believe that there is a large opportunity to create a travel industry portal that is both user-centric and global. A number of the building block technologies and strategic partners have already been identified. We expect to bring the ingredients together quickly in a manner similar to other MVP-backed domain development ventures." |
|
(Posted
June
9, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-09-08.htm |
|
|
Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer predicted Thursday that
"in 10 years all media will be
delivered via the Internet. Despite the steady demise of
so many traditional media outlets and the |
|
ongoing expansion of the
Internet that is hard for an old media junky like me to
imagine - but if Ballmer is right, or even close to
being right, the future of domain names as media
properties truly is boundless.
In a meeting with Washington
Post editors Ballmer said "In the
next 10 years, the whole world of media, communications
and advertising are going to be turned upside down
- my opinion. Here are the premises I have. Number one,
there will be no media consumption left in 10 years that
is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no
newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper
form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic
form." That is one big WOW! there. Right or
wrong it certainly sets your mental wheels
turning.
If you are planning to
develop some of your |
Microsoft
CEO Steve Ballmer |
|
domains into media outlets
(or own quality domains that would make good media
outlets for buyers), click the link to the Washington
Post above and see what Ballmer has to say about
your future. As I have said many times before, we
are all incredibly fortunate to be in the business we
are in and positioned in the way that we are positioned
today.
(Posted
June
6, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-06-08.htm |
|
The
.ME
land rush begins tomorrow (June 6). In
case you haven't heard, .me, which is Montenegro's
country code, is now being marketed globally as a
general purpose extension |
|
|
(much like ccTLDs .ws
and .cc before it). Montenegro signed a deal with
an independent company that is operating the new .me
registry and touting the domains as being
perfect for personal use. Their slogan is .Me is
about You!
To take part in the land
rush you need to apply for the names you want with one
of the accredited
.me registrars. In the land rush period
different parties may submit applications for the same
domain name. At the end of the land rush June 26,
if there is only one |
|
application for a domain
name, the domain name will be awarded to that applicant.
If two or more parties apply for a domain name, those
parties will enter an auction to determine who
wins the domain name. Open registration of .me domain
will begin July 17. .Me will be pricey. The
registry requires a two-year initial registration and
most registrars are charging around $50 a year
during land rush and $25 a year when open
registration begins.
|
Another time
sensitive note today. The extended early bird
registration period for next month's GeoDomain
Expo in Chicago ends Sunday
(June 8). Starting Monday the price will
jump from $595 to $695 |
|
...and last but not least, SnapNames.com
will continue to be the exclusive auction source for
expired domains from Register.com. The two
companies announced renewal of their contract today.
Register.com CEO Larry Kutscher said “SnapNames
was
the
first company to offer an organized aftermarket platform
for buying and selling domain names. It consistently
provides excellent service to its partners and customers
and has a great reputation for transparency and
performance. Because of
these factors, we wanted to continue that productive
relationship.”
(Posted
June
5, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-05-08.htm |
|
MyID.ca
will be running another premium .ca (Canadian
ccTLD) online domain auction starting tomorrow (June 5)
and running through June 12. The names scheduled to go
on the block |
|
include VP.ca, Gamble.ca,
Diplomas.ca, Bond.ca and Investigations.ca
to name just a few of the more than 100 domains on the
auction list. You can see the entire auction inventory here.
In an auction that ended
May 29 MyID.ca received strong winning biddings for CV.ca
($53,000), Income.ca ($25,299), Diploma.ca
($17,352), Pharmacies.ca ($15,100), Eyeglasses.ca
($10,999) and many others. MyID.ca has another
auction scheduled to begin June 19 and they eventually
intend to run weekly sales, all of which will feature
.ca domains exclusively. |
|
|
(Posted
June
4, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-04-08.htm |
|
By
now many of you have heard about an impromptu
speech that Dr. Kevin Ham (the subject of our May
Cover Story) made at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
West conference in Las Vegas on |
|
|
February 19, 2008. I wrote
about it in our Lowdown section the following
morning as well as in the May Cover Story.
The speech, on the real meaning of success, drew
a standing ovation and as word about it spread
people who were not fortunate enough to be there started
asking how they could get a copy of the talk. An
anonymous donor paid to have a few DVD copies pressed up
and distributed at no charge but the supply was quickly
exhausted.
I'm happy to report that
the video has now been posted online at Kevin's company
site, Reinvent.com, so anyone that wishes to do
so can see this moving speech. The
video is here. Watching it will be time well
spent. |
|
(Posted
June
3, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-03-08.htm |
|
This
was an interesting weekend - a nice mix of
work and recreation for a change (usually it is only
work). After getting our preview
of the upcoming Domainer Meeting conference in Paris |
|
(June 19-20) posted
Friday night I was able to put the finishing touches on
our comprehensive
review of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East
conference in Orlando and get it published
Saturday night (though the article is done we are going
to add a Photo Gallery to the piece tomorrow as
we have dozens of great additional shots from the show
that are too good to leave sight unseen). While you are
waiting for our Photo Gallery check out the cool new T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Speakers Wall on the conference's web site
that has pictures of virtually every person who has ever
spoken at a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference!
On Sunday, Parked.com's
Monte White took my wife, daughter and I to the Tampa
Bay Rays - Chicago White Sox game at Tropicana
Field in St. Petersburg (Parked.com has a
block of four Rays season tickets). We had a great time,
especially since the Rays won in dramatic fashion with a
home run in the bottom of the 10th from the last man in
the batting order - Gabe Gross. Before he hit it
out, Monte, who was once a radio play-by-play man, told
me that despite being at the bottom of the line-up,
Gross had a lot of "pop" in his bat and he
proved to be right when Gross delivered that round tripper
(the former Auburn quarterback also had a two-run
triple earlier in the game). Staffers at Parked.com and
DN Journal have a lot of the same favorite local pastimes
as we are both based in the Tampa Bay area.
The work week got off to a weird
start with reports in several publications this morning
saying that Israel.com had been sold over the
weekend for over $5 million. Those reports turned out to
be false but even now some sites are still
perpetuating the erroneous "sale" news by
quoting the original site, Haaretz.com,
that originated the bogus story.
Domain sales (this time
real ones) were also the |
Above:
Nat Cohen (Telepathy.com). I just sent this pic to Rick
Schwartz to fill in one of the few holes in his new T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Speaker's Wall photo
page.
Monte
White (Parked.com) took us
out to the ball game Sunday afternoon. |
|
topic of a four-minute report
on National Public Radio's Morning Edition
today. The piece covered what is happening in the
domain aftermarket, focusing on Moniker's live
auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East. You can listen to that
report here. |
|
(Posted
June
2, 2008) To
refer others to the post above only you can use
this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2008/dailyposts/06-02-08.htm |
|
If
you've been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive!
|
|
We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]
with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
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