Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
ccTLD
Boom Fuels Interest in Canada's .ca Extension & Back
in the States T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu Gets
on the Development Bandwagon
In
a complete reversal of form from just two years ago,
ccTLDs now routinely leave non .com gTLDs
in the dust in our weekly reports on domain sales. The latest
report, released today, is typical. There
are five ccTLDs on the all extension Top 20 chart and
there were a dozen five-figure country code sales
reported. Not one non .com gTLD made the chart and only
three reported non .com gTLD sales reached five figures.
Average prices paid for names on our Year-To-Date
Top 100ccTLD Chart are approximately
double the average price paid for domains on the Top
100 Global Contenders Chart (our nickname for non
.com gTLDs).
While Germany
(.de) and Great Britain (.co.uk) have
traditionally dominated ccTLD sales, we're seeing
increasing interest and activity in many other
extensions. One example is our northern neighbor, Canada,
and its .ca extension. .Ca growth is spurring the
development of more tools and services aimed at those
interested in .ca investing and development.
Jeff
Behrendt dropped me a note to let me know about a new
.ca drop catching service his company has rolled out with
partner Hubbard
Media at Dropping.ca.
Every Wednesday at 2:00pm., the Canadian Internet
Registration Authority (CIRA) releases expired domains
that have not been renewed. This is known as the
"TBR" (short for "To Be
Released"). Behrendt said, "Dropping.ca can help
you obtain these TBR domains with a high-touch service
combined with an easy to use interface." You can find
out more about the TBR and Dropping.ca here.
If you want to sign up at Dropping.ca, you can visit this
link.
Jeff
Behrendt (Dropping.ca) speaking at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs
conference in Amsterdam last June.
While
he was writing, Behrendt also filled me in on the Domain
Owners Association of Canada (DOAC), a new
organization that represents stakeholders in
Canada's domain community - not just domain
registrants, but also domain registrars, hosting
companies, the tech community, online ad agencies,
webmasters and more. "Its mission is to
promote internet business and investment in
Canada," Behrendt said. "Its goals
include promoting the use of dot ca domains,
increasing the number of dot ca domains
registered, protecting the rights of dot ca domain
owners, and most controversially, lifting the dot
ca presence requirements.
Behrendt
said The first directors were just elected and
they are: Harold Simpkins (Emall.ca), Peter
Maxymych (Emall.ca), Rick Silver
(N49.ca), Frank Michlick (DomainNameNews.com),
Jeffrey Behrendt
(Dropping.ca), and Larry
Franschman (Evote.ca). You can find out more
about the association on their website http://www.doac.ca/.
Membership is free and you can sign
up here.
Back
on this side of the border, I keep hearing more
about veteran domain owners who are undertaking
development projects. One of the latest is T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founder Howard Neu
who, in conjunction
with the Rodan
Media Group, has just launched InvestingFunds.com
and MalpracticeAttorneys.com.
The
Rodan Media Group is headed by Donnie Goodwin,
a former Paine Webber investment banker who
also operates a law practice specializing in
bankruptcy and helping investors gain a fresh
start on their march to financial independence.
InvestingFunds.com is the first site in a planned Fidelity
Funding Network, a group of websites
that will cover economic news and events.
InvestingFunds.com features user
commentary pages so visitors can add their
viewpoints about the present state of the economy,
from stocks to domain investment, retirement
planning to international trade. The website also
includes economic analysis from Steve Forbes
and New York real estate mogul Barbara
Corcoran.
Rodan
Co-Founder Danny Pryor said the next
Fidelity Funding Network site to go online will be
BestDomainsWebsite.com, which will
Howard
Neu has gotten on the
development bandwagon with domains
developed by the Rodan Media Group
list
premium domains for sale in a non-auction
platform. Pryor said, "Domain investors and
prospectors will have the opportunity to view the
domains for sale, view the search metrics related
to keywords in the domain name, itself, and view a
screen shot of the domain."
MalpracticeAttorneys.com
is a separate project that includes a blog (with some
posts personally written by Neu, who is also an attorney)
and a directory of the nation's malpractice attorneys.
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).
