Queen of the Hill: Andee Hill Leaves Escrow.com to Launch New Service at EscrowHill.com

(Posted November 25, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131125.htm

Reflections on HA's First Live Domain Auction + Mann Goes Behind the Mike &  New Video from bree (featuring David Castello) Has Band on Verge of Major Breakout

HA promoted the auction heavily and they knew going in that they have wage a long term educational campaign to spread awareness of the intrinsic value in great domains. The sale drew plenty of mainstream media attention too. Forbes published a lengthy piece by Deborah Jacobs about it today.  While I don't agree with most of her characterizations and conclusions (and the Wikipedia all time top 20 domain sales chart she cited  is riddled with errors - including website sales like VacationRentals.com being counted as domain sales and sales that never even happened, like Israel.com, being ranked) it is still good to see mainstream press taking an interest in domain names. They too should become better educated as time goes on. 

Remember that the mainstream press thought the party was over with the .com bust in 2000, but a few billion dollars worth of domains have been sold since then and many millions worth are still being sold every week. We also saw a very significant jump in market activity in the last quarter (3Q-2013). If HA stays the course, I think they will be well rewarded in the years ahead, particularly if they can reach the right end users who make blockbuster sales happen.

Michael Mann

Elsewhere - hold on to your hats - the venerable Domain Masters internet radio program at WebmasterRadio.fm is going to be revived next month with outspoken Domain Hall of Famer Michael Mann behind the mike! The show, which originated with Monte Cahn as host (followed by Victor Pitts) has been on hiatus since March. Mann announced on his Facebook page today that the show is coming back with him handling the hosting chores. If you follow his posts there, you know Michael doesn't leave much unsaid, both personally and professionally. He is not only one of the most successful domain investors of all time (having sold BuyDomains.com to Name Media) he is also one of the most colorful - making him a perfect choice to host the show. I know I'll be tuned in for the first broadcast (the time and date has not yet been announced).

Last, but certainly not least, if you follow this column regularly you know all about how another Domain Hall of Famer, David Castello, has returned to the music business as the manager and hard rocking drummer in a rapidly rising Nashville-based trio named for red hot lead singer and guitarist bree. I've been following their adventure from the start and they just took another huge step forward with the release of a stunning new video for "I'm the Boss", a standout cut from bree's debut album, All American Girl.  The video, directed by Casey Culver and shot at the Joy Mansion in Nashville, debuted at a premiere party Wednesday night at Music City's Club No. 308. It's as good a video as I've seen from any artist, new or old. So, if you love great rock and roll, there is no better way to start your weekend than clicking the play button on the video below!

Capture from bree's "I'm the Boss" video.

(Posted November 22, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131122.htm

Veteran British Domain Investor Edwin Hayward Sounds Off on Nominet's Decision to Offer New .UK Domains 

As anyone would expect, .co.uk owners immediately took up arms (with one of England's most senior industry veterana, Edwin Hayward, among those at the forefront of the protest). Nominet backed off and began revising their strategy. After moving to a second set of proposed rules, then a third, Nominet finally announced on Wednesday (Nov. 20, 2013) that .uk domains are coming next year but with a substantially different set of rules than were first proposed. Current .co.uk owners will retain rights to their names in .uk for five years and the price for a .uk will be the same as it has been for .co.uk.

Edwin Hayward	To see if the changes are enough to mollify Nominet's critics, I called on Mr. Hayward to find out what he thought about Nominet's new plan for .uk. "There's so much "support" material alongside the summaries that Nominet has put out that I've barely scratched the surface, including the full text of many responses to the last consultation, as well as third party case studies and summaries," Hayward noted. "That said, I feel that - if you pre-suppose a need for .uk to go ahead at all - then the final revision Nominet has decided on is significantly better than the V2 consultation, which in turn was significantly better than the proposal in the V1 consultation round."   Hayward continued, "Given that the "right of refusal" is now set at 5 years, this will give companies and domain investors plenty of time to evaluate the take-up of .uk and choose to
exercise their option to acquire the matching .uk at a timing of their convenience. It will also potentially save eligible businesses a significant amount of money that might otherwise need to be spent on "warehousing" names until it's clear whether they want to use them or not."

"The difference between the V2 period (6 months) and the final five year period represents up to 4.5 years worth of reg fees, i.e. a total of approximately £19/domain ($30/domain) saved on a wholesale basis vs. V2, and significantly more on a retail basis. (That figure is a maximum, and assumes that the option to register the domain is taken up on the very last day of the 5 year period)."

Hayward added, "While the following is speculation on my part, it's also long enough for Nominet to see if the security concerns (phishing, misdirected emails etc.) materialize to any great extent and if so, I presume they might still have the option of extending that 5 year period to keep the domain names in question out of general availability and so preclude any such security issues from occurring. I have no indication that they would choose to do so, but the timing is sufficiently long so as to afford Nominet the flexibility of a real evaluation of the new extension "in situ" in the real world."

"Perhaps conscious of the levels of criticism leveled against them during the lengthy consultation process, Nominet have clearly put a huge amount of effort into communicating not just the final decision, but the logic and rationale behind it, and the supporting evidence used in reaching that decision. I commend this effort." (Editor's note: This paper (.pdf file) sets out Nominet's logic for proceeding with a .uk rollout and this FAQ page on Nominet's site will answer the most frequently asked questions about it). 

In closing, Hayward said, "Overall, I believe that the status quo would still have served UK business interests better but, given that a decision had been taken to proceed with launching .uk, the final proposal is pretty close to the best case scenario for such a launch. As such, I'd give it a cautious thumbs up. It's certainly very nice to see the cloud of uncertainty that was hanging over the UK namespace dissipate, that's for sure!"  

(Posted November 21, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131121.htm

Oversee.net Offers a Cure for Mundane Weekends With Their Latest Developed Website - WanderWe.com 

Many also know that Oversee owns a massive domain portfolio containing hundreds of thousands of names. However, you may not know how focused Oversee had become on developing some of their assets into new web-based businesses (LowFares.com being one of the prime examples).

	While LowFares.com was built on the kind of category-defining generic name domainers love, Oversee is also creating new brands with more fanciful names. The latest example is a slick new weekend getaway site they just launched at WanderWe.com.
In WanderWe, Oversee said they have created the only online travel site completely focused on the 2–4 day getaway market. I make a lot of those kinds of trips myself, so I can certainly see the appeal in a site specializing in that area.  I also like that in addition to making it possible for weekend travelers to book all aspects of their weekend getaway including hotel, activities and tours in one place, WanderWe offers suggestions for great getaways in popular locales.  Those currently include Oversee's home base - California - as well as the Northeastern U.S. and the Washington, DC area. You can bet the geographic options will continue to grow as the concept catches on. WanderWe currently has platforms optimized for both desktop computers and tablets. They have also launched a marketing campaign that takes an entertaining approach that feels just right for the  weekend getaway crowd. You can see what I mean in video below called "The Cure for Mundane Weekends": A scene from WanderWe.com's  "Cure for Mundane Weekends" video.

(Posted November 19, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131119.htm

Final Countdown Underway for Landmark Heritage Auctions Domain Sale Coming Up Thursday

"Additionally, we have a plan on how to “ramp up” domain sales – and this auction is a good first effort at determining which type of domains have the best response from buyers," Meystedt said. "We’re also testing out which PR and marketing efforts yield the best results. A successful first auction will help all of us – it will continue to pique the interest of our affluent client base, and it will only bring additional people, money and interest into our domain industry."

Auction image from Bigstock	Heritage Auctions knows that "Rome wasn't built in a day" so Meystedt said they are committed to a long term effort to build up the domain market. That has included sending an educational piece to HA's clientele of affluent investors and potential buyers.  "That piece is the key," Meystedt noted. "Everyone knows what a domain name is, but I’d guess a majority of the recipients have no idea there is a thriving domain name aftermarket that exists.  We are educating these people on historical sales and the state of the domain industry.  I do understand that this effort may take time, and in the event that this first auction isn’t a smashing success, we plan to keep moving
forward and continue to educate investors and high net worth individuals on the benefits of domain name ownership."

Meystedt added, "In addition to investors, we’re making sure the executives at major companies learn about our domain initiative. Heritage Auctions has a lot of key contacts with many corporations, and we’ll be leveraging our network to put the right names in front of decision makers." Domain owners have always felt the key to unlocking the full value of domains was to connect them with the right end users. If HA's auctions are successful, that door may be fully opened for the first time.

(Posted November 18, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131118.htm

Paul Goldstone Assembles All-Star Team Led By CEO Ken Hansen to Launch New  CO.COM Registry - Gregg McNair Also Onboard as Chairman

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Why ParkingCrew Parent Team Internet, EMail.biz's Anshul Goyal, Fred Mercaldo & Elliot Silver Have Reason to Celebrate + Plans for Domainers Meetup in Seattle

Shortly before Team Internet was celebrating in Germany, Indian entrepreneur Anshul Goyal was doing the same in New Delhi after his company, EMail.biz (a service we profiled when it launched late last year), won the 2013 ABP Brand Excellence Award in the IT Portal Category. ABP is a prominent Indian news organization whose Brand Excellence Awards "give recognition to those brands and marketers who have achieved extraordinary success from innovative and effective marketing practices."

Email.biz Founder Anshul Goyal (2nd from left) receiving the 2013 ABP Brand Excellence 
Award in the IT Portal Category during a ceremony in New Delhi. India.

In covering the event The Telegraph wrote, "the award was given in recognition of the pioneering work of Email.biz for their conceptualization and successful execution of their email service which has garnered a record number of registered users, 1,48,718, in a short span of time. The who's who of the Indian IT industry were present at this event hosted by World Brand Congress, in partnership with CMO Asia and CMO Council USA."

Elsewhere, Fred Mercaldo of CitiesPlanet.com is celebrating his company's acquisition of developed website Burbank.com from Elliot Silver of Silver Internet Ventures, LLC (Elliot is also the author of the DomainInvesting.com blog).  The price was not disclosed but Mercaldo said, “This six figure purchase will be the first of a series of upcoming announcements in the fourth quarter, as many other large deals are in the works. Our partnership with Tallwave is thriving, and we anticipate launching a completely new software platform for all of our City.com brands by year's end.” One other note today, DomainSherpa.com Founder Michael Cyger asked us to let you know that he is organizing an informal Meetup for domain investors in the Seattle area that will be held one evening in early 2014.	Fred Mercaldo CitiesPlanet.com Founder
Seattle image from Bigstock Cyger noted, "Seattle is bustling with activity and it's time we organized a get together to help people meet. Based in Seattle, in addition to domain name investors and entrepreneurs, are companies including Marchex, Donuts, NameJet, DomainTools, GoDaddy, Enom and many others." At this point Michael is just asking people interested in attending to sign up for his meetup newsletter at DNSeattle.com so he can get a count, then pick a location and finalize a date.

(Posted November 14, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131114.htm

Go Daddy Founder Bob Parsons Gives Away $1 Million - Here's Why the Money Went to Help Military Veterans 

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Calling All  Military Veterans Now Serving in the Domain Industry - We Want to Recognize You on Veteran's Day

So, I wanted to repeat the call this weekend in a post of its own. We want all of you to know we are thankful for your service and I know our readers would enjoy reading about where and how you  spent your time in uniform. In addition to the info requested above, if you want to include any of the following, we would also welcome your rank and/or job specialty and a photo of you in uniform (photos can be attached to your email in .jpg or .gif format). 

I will list the text information for everyone who responds and will also select a few photos to include with the post. I'll need responses by 7pm (U.S. Eastern time) Sunday night, November 10 to allow time to assemble the information for Monday's post. Whether or not you are willing to "volunteer" for our roll call we salute you and thank you for your service!

(Posted November 9, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131109.htm

Castello Brothers Sell LagunaBeach.com -  KK.com Goes for $2.4 Million - Ward.com Acquired for Just $2,999!

CCIN's Kate Buckley brokered the deal and she will be working with LB Interactive to ensure a seamless transition. The Castellos have several other well-developed geos including PalmSprings.com and Nashville.com. Last year they signed a Nashville.com development deal with DevDigital that has taken that site to new heights.

A statement from LB Interactive made it clear they will be giving LagunaBeach.com a major makeover as well. It said, " Over the next few weeks we will be working closely with CCIN to ensure a smooth transition before introducing a completely new look featuring state-of-the-art technologies that will transform LagunaBeach.com into one of the world’s most impressive city sites – providing a wealth of information about Laguna Beach for our visitors and residents as well as generating maximum revenue for our advertisers."

Earlier today Moniker/SnapNames brokers John Mauriello and Kevin Kopas reported on Facebook that they had completed a blockbuster $2.4 million sale of KK.com. That deal will rank as the second highest domain sale reported so far this year when it is added to our YTD Top 100 Chart upon its next weekly update Wednesday. 2013's top  domain sale to date was also a two-letter .com - IG.com which sold for $4.7 million.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, several readers sent us messages yesterday when our latest weekly domain sales report showed Sedo selling Ward.com for just $2,999. The
common refrain was "Surely that is a mistake!" It certainly looked like one. In addition to being a one-word .com, Ward is one of the 100 most popular surnames in America (#66 to be exact according to one popular source). One would expect it to sell for many times the price it did. None the less, Sedo confirmed that the seller listed it for $2,999 with a Buy It Now option that a lucky buyer quickly pounced on. The domain has already been received in Sedo's transfer account, so it looks like those	Celebration photo from Bigstock
"too good to be true" stories may not always turn out to be fiction. This could  encourage more people to go through Sedo’s BIN listings frequently and thoroughly. Update: "To good to be true" wins again! According to a reliable source Ward.com had been stolen from the owner - hence the cheap Buy It Now price on Sedo. Though Sedo held it briefly in their transfer account (according to the WhoIs record) it has now been returned to the rightful owner. So,  this story has a sad ending for the buyer who thought they were going to get the bargain of a lifetime, but a happy one for the real domain owner.

(Posted November 7, 2013) To refer others to the post above only you can use this URL: http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20131107.htm

Veteran Domain Industry Executive Taryn Naidu Lands on the Right Side of Demand Media Makeover

The new company's name - Rightside - is a reference to the right side of the dot in domain names where top level domains reside (like .com and a newly arriving wave of new gTLDs). Naidu noted, "Rightside will play a leading role in the historic launch of new generic Top Level Domains and the name represents a new way to navigate the Internet, while establishing the new company as the one to guide users in the right direction. It’s everything to the right of the dot – and beyond."

Naidu added “Rightside’s mission will be to help millions of businesses and consumers define and present themselves online. We’re able to deliver on this through our distribution network of more than 20,000 active partners, one of the leading domain services technology platforms, a large number of applications for new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), and a deep bench of industry talent. It’s an exciting time for us, as new gTLDs start going live this year and our path to becoming an independent public company as a leader in our industry progresses.”  

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Scintillating Schwartz-Schilling New gTLD Debate Video Now Complete With Part Two Online + Attention Domain Industry Military Veterans - Uncle Ron Wants You!

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