Congratulations to Domain Investor/Developer/Blogger Elliot Silver and His Wife Karen on Their Lovely New Arrival

Our friend Elliot Silver has enjoyed multiple successes in the domain business but none of them have made him anywhere near as happy as the life changing personal event that the popular blogger/domain investor-developer and his wife Karen are currently celebrating. Their first child, the lovely Hailey Sloane Silver, arrived Thursday morning (March 29, 2012) at a little after 6am. Karen and Hailey are both doing very well and are expected to be home for the weekend.

In addition to congratulations and the traditional cigar, Elliot deserves a special pat on the back from everyone who loves domains. Despite his excitement over the impending arrival of his new daughter, Elliott had the foresight to register HaileySilver.com last week. We would rank that right up there with giving your child a loving home and a college education! :-) 

Hailey Sloane Silver

Having a special one of our own, Diana and I can tell Elliot and Karen that daughters are a wonderful gift from God and we couldn't be happier for them. I remember an old quote of unknown origin that said "A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart."  I'm sure Hailey will make their life richer than they could have ever imagined and we're looking forward to hearing about the expanded Silver family's exploits in the years ahead. 

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Google Partners With Florida to Offer Businesses Free Websites For One Year, Low Monthly Fee After That

Google and its Florida partners have even scheduled live seminars around the state to show business owners, in person, how to get their enterprises online. They will be held in Miami April 3rd and 4th, 2012 and in Tampa on April 5th (details are here). 

There's not a lot of profit there for Google, but it is probably a safe bet that their primary goal is, once they have these businesses online, getting them to buy advertising for their sites on Google. As for you, as a domain seller, it's hard to compete with free - but once these SMBs finally get online and become better educated about how much a good domain can boost their business, some are bound to look for better names on the aftermarket. (Thanks to John Picchietti for the tip on this program.)

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Domain Attorney Paul Keating Makes An Offer You Can't Refuse + IDNTools Retools & Escrow.com Reveals a New Look

If you were looking for another good reason to attend the 2012 Domaining Europe conference in Valencia, Spain next month (the show runs April 26-28 at the Sorolla Palace Hotel) show organizers just announced one today. Noted domain industry attorney Paul Keating of Law.es is supporting the 4th annual event by offering free consultations during the conference. Paul has offices in Barcelona and London but handles domain matters worldwide for a clientele that includes some of the industry's top portfolio owners, developers, registrars and popular service providers like DomainTools.com. If you would like to meet with Paul in Valencia just send an email to his office ([email protected]) to set up an appointment.

Show founder Dietmar Stefitz also announced a free consulting offer for Domaining Europe attendees from Alvaro Añon  of Soho.cl who will provide a Usability, UX and Persuasion analysis of your website. 

Registration for Domaining Europe 2012 is currently open. The cost is €600. In addition to many of Europe's top domain investors and company representatives, several leading domainers and brokers from the U.S. will be there. I'll also be going to Spain to cover the show for you.

Attorney Paul Keating, Law.es

New Free Resource from Francois Carrillo Puts Extensive Domain Information at Your Fingertips

A few weeks ago Francois Carrillo launched a new website at Dofo.com (short for "domain information") and he has been adding features to this very useful  new free resource ever 

since (with still more coming in the weeks ahead). 

Over the weekend I took a close look at the current iteration of Dofo.com and came away very impressed with what Francois has done with the latest addition to his diverse portfolio of domain industry sites that includes the popular news headline aggregation site Domaining.com. 

Dofo.com makes a broad array of information about any domain in one convenient location. Entering a domain name in the Dofo search box brings up  a screen with two frames. The one on the left offers a menu of various kinds of information that can be called up in the main frame on the right. The first thing you see in the main frame is a page from DomainTools.com that provides the WhoIs information for the domain - usually the first thing you want to know when you start researching a name (if you prefer, you can change the WhoIs information source to iWhois.com or Whois.net in from the Config link on Dofo's home page). 

Screenshot from Dofo.com after entering "Domaining.com" in the search box

In the search box two icons appear next to the name you enter that allow you to toggle back and forth between the WhoIs information and a live view of the domain's current home page. The menu below the search box lets you dig deeper. The first tab - Metrics - lets you call up in the main frame an appraisal price from Valuate.com or Estibot.com (you can select your preferred valuation tool from  the home page Config link), or traffic estimates from Alexa.com or Compete.com.

The next tab - History - presents six sub-tabs starting with historical screenshots from Screenshots.com and Archive.org that show you what has appeared on the domain over a long period of time. Those sub-tabs are followed by four more for historical WhoIs, Registrars, Name Servers and Hosting information from DomainTools.

The Similar tab follows, offering three tools for finding domain names that are similar to the one you entered; one from ZFBot.com, and two from DomainTools - a  typo search or a domain suggestions page. 

Next up - the Search Engine tab lets you find Backlinks, Indexed results and Cached pages, as well as Trend information (gauging interest in the site over time) - all from Google. An Email tab follows letting you call up MX server information from ReverseMX.com or do a check to see if mail accounts from the domain's IP address have been blacklisted (done through a search at Network-Tools.com whose results are displayed in the main frame).

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Ron Jackson Going Bald? If  Gregg McNair Has His Way It Will Happen Next Month at a Water School Fundraiser in Spain

Help! Gregg "The Mad Barber" McNair  has his hair clippers out again and I am the one he has in his sites this time! 

I should have know better than to under estimate McNair and Lau, who just turned the heat up to the boiling point with a news release I just received. I learned that another heavy hitter has joined their cause and I am starting to worry that my "luxurious locks" could be in serious jeopardy now. Their release is below:

Ron has set a minimum price on his hair of $50,000 and Jan and Frank have answered the call with $10,000 each so we are well on the way to raising a good amount for the Water School's life saving work in Africa. After Frank quickly responded with a pledge to match Jan's we have begun earnestly looking for others to support the WaterShave Jackson event in Spain.

You may recall Vern Jurovich, Jeff Gabriel and Bill Lozada were shaved by Gregg for the Water School after receiving pledges in excess of $30,000 during the DOMAINfest Global conference in February. At that meeting, Ron, who is also a fervent Water School supporter, was challenged by Jan to go under Gregg's blade and we fully expect that "friendly persuasion" from the domain community will convince him to "support" our new initiative. Perhaps the best known and liked person in our industry, Ron commands respect from all who know him and we invite everyone to support Ron in this endeavor to help save the lives of kids in Africa.

Richard Lau said, “The Water School program is 100% tax deductible, 100% sustainable and 100% of any donation goes to the field in Africa. I urge all my colleagues to rally behind Ron and help change the course of thousands of kids’ lives. Any amount, even $50 will make a difference and you can donate online at WaterShave.org."

Sincerely,
Gregg McNair and Richard Lau on behalf of The Water School.

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New Escrow.com-DomainTools Partnership Speeds Up Sales Transactions + Keynote Speaker Named for Next Month's Domaining Europe Conference in Spain

Two pillars of the domain industry, Escrow.com and DomainTools announced a new partnership today that will speed up domain sales transactions handled through Escrow.com. 

By integrating the DomainTools API suite  throughout the escrow process, Escrow.com can automatically verify that domain ownership has been transferred before they release funds to the seller. That assures that valuable domain name transactions cannot be gamed by buyers or sellers with ill intent.  

Escrow.com's  Chief Technology Officer, Jason Whitlow, noted, "Prior to partnering with DomainTools and leveraging their API suite, the process of verifying DNS, registrar and Whois record information was manual and time consuming. By automating that process with comprehensive, accurate data from DomainTools, Escrow.com is now able to verify data more quickly while providing a quicker, more seamless experience for customers."

DomainTools first announced their API services in July 2011. Nearly every piece of data available on DomainTools.com is available for use by integrating DomainTools’ standards-compliant interface via the DomainTools API page.

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Clements Brothers Launch New Domain Name Auction House and Brokerage Service

Two domain industry veterans who also happen to be brothers, David Clements and Toby Clements, have joined forces to launch a new domain name auction house and brokerage 

service called Brannans.com. The name pays tribute to Sam Brannan, a 19th century San Francisco publicist, merchant and publisher whom historians credit with helping to trigger the California Gold Rush that started in 1848.

The name seems appropriate since the Clements brothers have long been part of a modern day gold rush in which domain prospectors pan for valuable pieces of Internet real estate.  

David Clements (left) and Toby Clements

One thing that they say sets them apart from the crowd is a focus on selling domain names as brand building tools for business end users. Founder and CEO David Clements said, "End-user marketing and sales is about building relationships with business owners and their key decision makers. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, businesses with less than 500 employees account for 99% of the independent enterprises in the US. When domainers refer to the term end-users, they really mean these businesses and to sell to them you’ve got to build rapport first. Only then can you educate them on the value of using a relatively new asset class for branding and marketing."

David added that he and Toby will also work with all of the other auction houses and brokers in the industry to give sellers the maximum possible exposure for their domains. David noted, "Our first priority is to speak to domain investors. If you own or manage a large portfolio and we haven’t met or spoken or emailed in the past two months, please reach out to me at your earliest convenience. I’d love to help you sell some domains at our upcoming first auction and I can also talk to you further about our targeted business brokerage division."

That first auction David referred to is a week-long online event scheduled for April 2, 2012. The deadline for auction submissions is March 28, 2012. You can find submission guidelines as well as a form for submitting your domains here. 

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Brazilian Company Using UDRP as a Burglary Tool in an Attempted Generic Domain Name Theft?

OK, this reverse domain hijacking trend is getting out of hand. Not that it comes as a surprise. I've said for years that, with the high value of generic .com domain names, more and more people, including over-reaching corporations with no right to generic names, would attempt to steal them through the UDRP process rather than pay for assets that belong to someone else. 

The latest to attempt this flimflam is a Brazilian company that operates SaveMe.com.br.  Though the company was only established in 2010, it decided it should own the generic SaveMe.com domain, even though it was registered in 1996, 14 years before this unknown company even existed! SaveMe.com.br obviously knew they had no right to the name because they repeatedly tried to buy it from  the owner. When he would not sell his property to them for the price they wanted to pay, they decided to try this backdoor attempt to make off with the name through an unwarranted UDRP.

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New Domain Monetization Options Continue to Grow with Latest Advance at DomainPower.com

Promising new ways to monetize domain names continues to be a major trend in 2012. Our current Cover Story examines how TrafficMedia is doing it by reducing much of the time and expense involved in domain development, a path Protrada.com is also on with their launch of DevName.com last week. In our Cover Story, I noted that DomainPower.com was also about to announce a major upgrade to their platform and they have just done so.

DomainPower's new initiative is a proprietary Monetization Decision Engine (MDE) that they say is capable of increasing revenues by up to 70%. The MDE routes domain traffic among 31 different monetization partners in an effort to maximize revenue opportunities for platform users.

DomainPower General Manager Paolo DiVincenzo said, "When we spoke with our users in late 2011, it became abundantly clear that the main thing they were concerned with was maximum revenue on their domains. We've integrated some of the biggest parking platforms and advertising networks in the space, which combined with the MDE, are producing some of the highest payouts in the industry.”

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Domain Pioneer Zappy Zapolin Filming New Documentary - Project With Deepak Chopra Due Out This Summer

Mike "Zappy" Zapolin (who, along with his partners at Internet Real Estate Group, was featured in our September 2005 Cover Story) has been involved in the development and sale of some of the best generic domain names on the Internet, including Music.com, Beer.com, Computer.com, CreditCards.com, Diamond.com, Silver.com and many more. The serial entrepreneur and creator of the Harvard Business School elective "eBusiness" is now expanding into yet another field - documentary filmmaking. 

Zappy and famous doctor/author/speaker Deepak Chopra have joined forces with producer Kurt Engfehr (who co-produced Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 911) to put together what they promise will be a highly controversial film - The Reality of Truth - a documentary examining perception and reality that is due for release this summer.  

Zapolin and Chopra (who both have key on-screen 

Mike "Zappy" Zapolin (left) & Deepak Chopra

roles in the film) maintain that "there is an expanding shift in consciousness taking place right now, and people are looking for a new understanding of life. The "film not only identifies the perception problem plaguing society today, but also analyzes specific techniques to break though to a new reality—one that is more peaceful, tolerant and, when looked at properly, amusing."

Zapolin said, “Transcendence is the key to taking off the filters that separate and blind us, so that we can see things as they actually exist. There are many techniques people use to transcend—meditation, prayer, dance, music, even psychedelics—and for this film we set out to explore the effectiveness of these different techniques.”

They also filmed a panel discussion with Dr. John Hagelin, PhD and Fred Travis, faculty members of the Maharishi University of Management, and Dr. Norman Rosenthal, author of New York Times Bestseller Transcendence. The panel was held in Fairfield, Iowa, where thousands of people in the transcendental meditation community meditate together each day. You can watch a trailer for The Reality of Truth on the official documentary website and also follow the project's progress on the film's Facebook page. 

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ICANN's 43rd Public Meeting Opens In Costa Rica With a Warning from Outgoing CEO Rod Beckstrom

The 43rd ICANN public meeting got underway today in San Jose, Costa Rica where it will continue through Friday (March 16, 2012). The meeting opened with outgoing President and CEO Rod Beckstrom (who will leave the post July 1) warning the Board of Directors that they needed to make some major changes if the organization wants to maintain its role as administrator of the domain name system. 

"It is also important that new and occasionally dissenting voices from outside this world and this industry be given a shot at a seat in our boardroom. As the Internet’s global users become more diverse in their backgrounds, so too must our board.”

"The government may cancel any solicitation that does not meet the requirements. Accordingly, we are canceling this RFP because we received no proposals that met the requirements requested by the global community," the statement said, leaving ICANN's proposal in the unacceptable pile.

NTIA did extend ICANN's current IANA contract until September 30, 2012 but that leaves the organization just six months to gets its house in order before NTIA issues a new RFP (on a date that NTIA has not yet specified). The Internet Commerce Association's Legal Counsel, Phil Corwin, has more details on this exceptionally important IANA contract issue in an article he posted at InternetCommerce.org today.

Prior to Rod Beckstrom’s address, Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla told the meeting, “the Internet should not be viewed a threat, but as hope, a world of hope. Costa Rica is committed to bridging the digital gap to provide broadband access to 100% of our educational institutions and make it available to all people."

President Chinchilla said her country fully supports ICANN programs including the controversial new gTLD program and IPv6 adoption.  

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Total Number of Domains Registered Soars 10% in Past Year + Mountain Rises at NameMedia 

Domain registrations continue to rocket. The latest quarterly Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief covering the fourth quarter of 2011 reports that the number of domains registered worldwide across all TLDs totaled more than 225 million at the end of 2011. More than 20.4 million domains were added since the end of 2010, an impressive 10% year over year jump. 

So much for those who say domains aren't as important as they used to be! Social media is all well and good but apparently plenty of people realize that you are much better off owning your own identity and presence on the web than handing those invaluable assets over to a third party like Facebook or Google. Those are certainly great marketing tools, but I wouldn't advise turning the keys to the ranch over to them or anyone else. 

Nearly 6 million domains were added in the final quarter of 2011 alone. The vast majority of people who register domains also keep them. Verisign, who administers the .com and .net extensions, said 73.5% of .com/.net domains were up for renewal were renewed in 4Q-2011. 

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New Solutions Make Domain Development Much Easier - DevName Launches Latest Option 

In their launch announcement DevName said, "Devname does all the hard work behind the scenes to produce quality, socially activated, content rich and revenue generating websites. Recent announcements by Google about underdeveloped names no longer being indexed have delivered a timely warning to domain developers. DevName websites deliver increased traffic and are search engine friendly to ensure continual ranking and a higher valuation when a domain name owner wants to sell the asset." 

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South Florida Domainers Set to Reconvene March 22 + The Davy Jones Connection to the Domain Industry

One of the biggest and most active local domain groups in the U.S., the South Florida Domainers, just announced their first meeting of the new year. It will be held Thursday 

evening, March 22 in Deerfield Beach at JB's On the Beach, starting at 7pm. Mike Ward, who is hosting the event along with Rick Waters and Stu Maloff, said highlights will included speakers and a live domain auction. Moniker/SnapNames and domain attorney Karen Bernstein are providing sponsor support to help insure a special evening for attendees. As most of you know, Key Systems just acquired Moniker and SnapNames from Oversee.net, so guests will have an opportunity to learn more about what the ownership change means for customers of those two well-known companies.

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Morgan Linton Launches Innovative Website Appraisal Platform at Appraiso.com - Expects New Valuation Tool to Make Sites Easier to Buy and Sell

Morgan Linton, his fiancée and business partner Daina Burnes and a private developer they have been working with are in a celebratory mood today. After countless hours of work and a significant financial investment, the trio has launched Appraiso.com, a platform Linton says is "the first Intelligent Website Appraisal system." 

Linton, who owns Los Angeles-based domain name investment firm Linton Investments LLC, observed that unlike the physical real estate market, the virtual real estate world of websites

has not has a standard for determining how much a website is worth. He and his partners set out to change that with Appraiso.com, a software platform that Linton said will finally allow domain investors to accurately assess the value of a developed domain based on real business metrics. 

Users simply enter the domain name, monthly revenue, profit, and traffic. The dynamic algorithm then takes the data and outputs a combination of the domain value plus the added value attributed to the website characteristics.

"The algorithm is dynamic, reflecting current market value of web-property and it continues to learn over-time" Linton said. "Along with estimating value, Appraiso can recognize whether the metrics reported in a website sale are deceptive. This feature addresses growing concerns amongst website buyers  

Morgan Linton & Daina Burnes
Appraiso.com

using platforms like Flippa and eBay who have been hesitant to buy due to rampant scams that can be difficult to identify. “We surveyed website buyers around the world and the #1 request they made after a reliable appraisal system was a way to detect scams, so we built it!” 

"We are very confident this is going to really change the way people buy and sell websites and clearly establish the incredible value that development can provide to digital real estate," Linton added. Apparently Morgan isn't the only one sold on his new creation. "We already have two API deals in the works that will add Appraiso to two of the top platforms in the domaining world. Also, while in beta, the system helped a user close a major deal on a portfolio of web properties he had been trying to sell for year," Linton added.

Linton believes the timing for Appraiso couldn't be better. "Last year, the leading website marketplace on the Internet, Flippa, sold over $31 million in developed domain names compared to $21 million in 2010. Now in 2012 it’s clear the virtual real estate boom isn’t declining, it’s just getting started." An inexpensive valuation tool like Appraiso.com (they offer one free appraisal per day and, for heavier users, a variety of packages starting at $10 a month) is likely to add more fuel to that fire.

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Oversee.net Makes Another Change at the Top - One Co-CEO is Elevated While the Other Exits 

Just before the 2012 DOMAINfest Global conference got underway in late January, the show organizers, Oversee.net, announced that Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow, who had been  

serving as the company's Co-Presidents since June 2011, had been appointed Co-CEOs, filling a role that had been held by Jeff Kupietzky before he left the company. Today Oversee announced that Morrow has decided to leave the company to pursue other interests and that Ms. Domeyer has been promoted to sole CEO.

Historically having Co-CEOs hasn't worked well for most companies that have tried the unusual arrangement. Morrow and Ms. Domeyer were asked about that at a press breakfast during DOMAINfest Global and both said they worked well together and had complementary skills that made them an effective tandem. Even so,  less than five weeks after they were appointed Co-CEOs, the experiment has ended and Oversee once again has a single captain in charge of the ship. 

Oversee.net CEO Debra Domeyer 
and former Co-CEO Scott Morrow

I think that Debra, who, along with Scott, was featured in our annual State of the Industry Cover Story in January, is an excellent choice to lead Oversee through a period of rapid change that has also included the divestment of their Moniker and SnapNames divisions a few weeks ago (they retained their widely-used DomainSponsor.com monetization unit). She is bright, extremely personable and one of the best listeners you will find in any executive suite (that is a valuable skill that should never be under-estimated).

Our congratulations to Debra and we wish her all the best in her new role.

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Do You Run a Popular Advertiser Supported Website? A Flood of Money May be Coming Your Way

It is no secret that more and more advertisers are chasing eyeballs that have moved to the web by spending a bigger percentage of their ad budgets online, but you may not be aware of just how large the tsunami coming our way is likely to be. Gavin O'Malley shed some light on that subject with some interesting stats he shared in an article at Online Media Daily this week. 

What does that translate to in cash? BA/Kelsey predicts total SMB ad spending in the U.S. will reach $40.2 billion by 2015, a huge increase from the $22.4 billion logged in 2010. That works out to a double digit compound annual growth rate of 12% - a figure few sectors of the economy could hope to measure up to. 

While those eye-popping figures are a forecast for three years out, the race has already begun. BIA/Kelsey said respondents to their SMB surveys indicated that 26% of all SMB ad spending will go to digital and online media this year. If you haven't developed one of your favorite domains, how much more incentive do you need?

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