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Feature Stories Archive

How Domain Industry People Are Helping Break the Cycle of Poverty and Bringing Hope Where It's Needed Most

The domain industry is fortunate to have a lot of people who go out of their way to help others, so it is especially gratifying to see one of their own dreams be realized. At the beginning of this year, that happened for industry veteran Shaun Wilkinson, whose vision of opening a sorely needed high school for children in Mombasa, Kenya became a reality.

Shaun, who first entered the industry with Sedo in 2007, began this quest almost 15 years ago when he went to continue to serve as a volunteer teacher at a struggling new primary school there. After helping the school get established, he set his sites on creating a secondary school where those kids could afford to continue their education and better their lives as well of those of their families. With some help from his domain industry friends, the dream has now come true. Full Story Here

Social Centric Agenda and Soaring 2024 Attendance Has Made the ICA Annual Meeting a Can't Miss Event

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) returned to Las Vegas for their 2024 Annual Meeting where they were welcomed January 17-20 by a crowd that grew 50% over last year. With their latest conference, the ICA has firmly established their event as one of the most important ones on the industry's global conference calendar. Among the many things it has going for it is that attending the meeting and supporting the ICA is in your own best interests as it enables them to continue the invaluable work they do to protect domain owner's rights. There is more to it than that though. If you didn't attend the Annual Meetings you are no doubt wondering what makes this conference different from all of the rest? We'll tell you what is in their secret sauce.
Full Story Here

Opening night reception at the
2024 ICA Annual Meeting in Las Vegas

The Domain King's Sweetest Deal: How the Sale of GreenRabbit.com Wound Up Putting Over $11 Million in Rick Schwartz's Pocket

On Monday October 1, 2023 the Performance Food Group (PFG) acquired fresh and frozen foods delivery company GreenRabbit.com for an undisclosed price. Whatever the amount was, PFG, a company that has assets valued at $7.8 billion could easily afford it. There is a fascinating domain back story behind this deal. GreenRabbit.com was a new brand adopted by the owners of Candy.com in 2021 when their business services had expanded far beyond the category they had become a power in after acquiring the Candy.com domain from Rick Schwartz back in 2009.

Being the savvy businessman that he is, Rick, widely known as the Domain King, crafted the Candy.com deal to give him not only $3 million in cash, but also equity in the company that acquired the domain. So, when GreenRabbit was acquired, 14 years after he sold Candy.com, Rick, who had picked up $1.7 million from a share sale three years ago, collected another $6.8 million, bringing his total take from the domain to over $11 million! Full Story Here

Rick Schwartz

Hilco Digital Assets Doubles Firepower with Braden Pollock Joining Andrew Miller at HDA as a Strategic Partner and Stakeholder

15 months ago domain consultant and ATM Holdings Founder a new division - Hilco Digital Assets (HDA). The new enterprise hit the ground running, quickly establishing itself as a powerful force in the premium domain space with moves that included a $10 million investment in SquadHelp.com. That funding and Miller's advice helped SquadHelp build and launch their new Ultra Premium Domain Marketplace.

HDA just doubled their firepower with another big move in welcoming another one of the industry's most highly respected figures, Braden Pollock, on board as a strategic partner and stakeholder. Braden is a long-time investor in both domain names and promising startups. He also owns a world class domain portfolio that HDA will now exclusively represent. Pollock in turn will help put deals together that he and HDA can jointly invest in. Full Story Here

Braden Pollock

Michael Castello Closes $1.5 Million Sale of Room.com to Cap 26-Year Saga from Hand Registration to 7-Figure Sale

Regular readers may remember a 2019 DN Journal Cover Story in which domain industry pioneer Michael Castello gave us the inside story of how he got a $1.5 million contract to sell a domain he co-owned with friend and nationally syndicated radio icon Walt "Baby" Love. The deal for Room.com, a name wisely purchased to upgrade from GetRoom.com, allowed the buyer to pay for the domain under a five-year installment plan. That company just sent in a check for $250,000 to close the deal.

We connected with Michael to get an update on his history with the domain from first registration to its eventual seven-figure sale, a history that stretches back 26 years. "Back in the mid 1990's, during one of our recording sessions, Walt asked if I could get him involved in domain names," Michael recalled. I asked him how much he wanted to spend, and he said, "How about $3,000?" Our arrangement was that I would find and register the names, and we would split their sales or website businesses 50/50. He handed me his credit card, and I registered 30 generic domain names, including Room.com." Full Story Here

Michael Castello

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

London Domain Name Summit Organizers Detail What They Liked About the August Show and Announce Plans to Go Bigger Next Year

Welcome to the 10th edition of our annual State of the Industry Cover Story. Every January since 2005 we have assembled a distinguished panel of experts drawn from every corner of the industry- including domain investors, developers, top corporate leaders and attorneys - to give us their thoughts on the key trends of the past year and what they saw coming our way in the new year ahead.

This year we have put together our biggest panel ever, 17 of the industry' best and brightest, and split them into two groups of eight each - one comprised of investors & developers and one of corporate leaders. We will the extra spot with an attorney who has a foot firmly planted on each side of the line.

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

A lot goes into getting a new domain conference off the ground - especially when you are staging it in one of the world's most expensive cities - but the London Domain Name Summit planted a seed with their debut event last year and went into their second show in August 2023 hoping to take it to another level. A couple of weeks after the latest show ended at the London Hilton Metropole Hotel, we circled back around to LDNS Founder Helmuts Meskonis to get his thoughts on how, given time to reflect, he thought his second time at bat went.

For further insight, we also connected with it.com Founder Andrey Insarov whose financial backing as Title Sponsor was critical in helping the new show get off the ground (it.com also sponsored the inaugural event in 2022). Insarov, whose company is also sponsoring the new Domain Days Dubai conference coming up November 1 & 2, sees these new events as key elements in expanding the industry's reach around the world. Full Story Here

NameBlock Tackles Domain Name Abuse With an Innovative New Approach to an Age Old Problem

When a group of successful domain industry entrepreneurs announced a new enterprise called NameBlock at the 2023 NamesCon Global conference we were a bit concerned to hear them describe it as "A Marketplace for Domain Name Blocking." We all love domain names because they give us a unique identity on the Internet and the ability to immediately connect with people all over the world. The last thing we want to see is anything that would disrupt that extraordinary process.

That initial trepidation quickly turned into appreciation as we learned that NameBlock is an innovative new tool that actually helps insure that web users DO connect with you rather than some bad actor trading on your name. As a side benefit, we also learned the service can also be a source of new revenue for registrars, registries, brokers, attorneys and other industry professionals. Full Story Here

Seeing Double: NamesCon Global's 2023 Twin Show Concept Earns Kudos

By Ron Jackson

The 2023 NamesCon Global conference held at the downtown Omni Hotel in Austin, Texas May 31 through June 3 was the 10th edition of the domain industry's biggest event but this one was unique as it was the first time NamesCon's parent company ran NamesCon concurrently with a Cloudfest USA conference. The result was a bigger crowd with over 1,200 attendees that brought the two related fields closer together in a venue that never felt over-crowded. That's because each conference had their own stages and special events so they didn't directly cross paths outside of two big social events where everyone came together.

The experiment worked so it will likely be the new standard for future events. At the conclusion of NamesCon, Soeren von Varchmin, Chairman of the Advisory Board for Cloudfest/Namescon, announced that NamesCon Global will be held at the Omni in Austin again next year, running June 5-8, 2024. Full Story Here

How SquadHelp Plans to Become the World's #1 Branding Destination With $10 Million Boost from Hilco Digital Assets

By Ron Jackson

When Hilco Digital Assets (HDA) Managing Director (and pioneering premium domain broker) Andrew Miller contacted us to let us know Hilco was making a $10 million strategic investment in SquadHelp.com we knew it was time to take a much closer look at what the innovative naming, branding and domain sales powerhouse, founded by CEO Darpan Munjal, was doing now. What we found was an amazing suite of services and tools (many powered by the latest advances in AI) designed to help Munjal reach his goal of establishing SquadHelp at the world's #1 branding destination.

The HDA investment includes the formation of a joint venture partnership to launch a unique new curated marketplace for top-tier premium domains. Miller, armed with decades of experience in the high end sales arena, is joining the Squadhelp Board of Directors to help make that and the rest of Munjal's visionary plans a reality.

Full Story Here

Darpan Munjal
Founder & CEO, SquadHelp

Giant Panda Goes Public With Promising New Approach to Domain Monetization

By Ron Jackson

Major industry events, like the 2022 NamesCon Global conference in Austin, give new companies a chance to make a big splash by launching in a location where domain pros from around the world have gathered in one place. Giant Panda took full advantage of that opportunity in Austin where attendees were eager to learn what this company would be bringing to the table. The curiosity level was especially high because GP's CEO and majority owner is serial entrepreneur Rick Latona, an industry veteran who has been successfully tilling the domain fields for over 20 years. However, the thing that really pegged the needle on the curiosity meter was hearing that Giant Panda is a domain monetization company.

Full Story Here

It's a Celebration! Above.com is Presenting NamesCon Global 2022 to Mark Trellian's 25th Anniversary

By Ron Jackson

As party of parent company Trellian's 25th Anniversary celebration, people-oriented Above.com leader David Warmuz decided there was no better way to mark the landmark occasion than becoming the title sponsor of the industry's first face-to-face domain conference in over two-and-a-half years.

A lot has happened since that last real world conference in January 2020, leaving us all with a lot to catch up on when we return to Austin, Texas August 31 through September 3. That being the case, the Above team will be entertaining attendees at both the opening and closing events of NamesCon Global 2022. Trellian's 25th is also a good time to re-visit one of our favorite Cover Stories that is all about the enterprising brothers, David and Ren Warmuz, who founded the company back in 1997. Full Story Here

How Fast Growing Saw.com Cuts Domain Sales & Acquisition Obstacles Down to Size

By Ron Jackson

Two-and-a-half years have passed since we flew from Florida up to New England to interview star domain brokers Jeff Gabriel and Amanda Waltz for a video cover story about the new company they were about to launch at Saw.com. Since then they made exactly the kind of major impact on the brokerage and consulting business that you would expect two people with their track records to make.

To find out more about how far they have taken Saw.com since launch, we connected with them again to get an in-depth account of what they accomplished in their first 30 months. We came away with a lot of fascinating previously unrevealed details about how they closed some of their biggest transactions despite towering obstacles that threatened to kill the deals. Full Story Here

Jeff Gabriel & Amanda Waltz
Saw.com Founders

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

New gTLDS Past, Present & Future: Industry Expert Karn Jajoo Opines on the Evolution of Domain Names and What It Means for the Domain Industry

By Karn Jajoo

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

Introduction: Nine years have passed since the first big round of new gTLDs rolled out in 2012, with the first new extensions delegated the next year. That landmark event pushed the number of TLDs on the Internet past the 1,000 mark. Ever since, many who missed the first round have been making plans to apply for their own TLD when round two arrives. ICANN has not yet set a timeline for when that will happen but recent development indicate it is not that far off.

With a second round of new gTLDs in the works, we thought this would be a good time to get an expert's opinion on how things have played out for new extensions to date and, with more competition on the way, their prospects for the future. Radix Senior Manager Karn Jajoo provided what we were looking for and we are pleased to present his perspective here. Radix (a DNJournal advertiser) was one of the main players in round one and, with a stable of ten TLDs, they have been one of the most financially successful new gTLD registry operators. Full Story Here

Karn Jajoo
Radix Senior Manager

New Sedo CEO Michael Robrock Recounts His 20-Year Rise from College Kid to Leader of a Domain Industry Giant

By Ron Jackson

Ever since Michael Robrock was named the new CEO at domain sales and monetization giant Sedo in September 2020, we have been looking forward to connecting with him for an in-depth interview. Robrock is only the 4th person to hold that position since the industry giant was founded over two decades ago. Since Robrock (and Sedo's Managing Directors) will determine the direction of a company that almost every professional domain buyer and seller has utilized at one time or another, there is widespread interest in his plans.

Robrock had already compiled a long and successful track record in domain investing, monetization and affiliate marketing when he first joined Sedo as Chief Operating Officer in August 2019. He made his mark there very quickly, ascending to CEO just a year later. As you would expect, the past few months have been very busy ones for him as Sedo went through the final quarter of one of the most turbulent years the world has ever seen. Now, Robrock, in his own words, recounts a 20-year journey that took the former Munich college kid to the top of one of the best-known companies in the global domain space. Full Story Here

Sedo CEO Michael Robrock (left) with
Sedo Managing Director Hakan Ali

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

Foxes in the Henhouse: Why Michael Castello is Concerned About the Domain Industry's Future

By Michael Castello (with Ron Jackson)

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

Castello Cities Internet Network (CCIN) CEO, President and Co-Founder Michael Castello, has been actively involved in computer technology since 1986 and the Internet ever since the World Wide Web became publicly available in 1991. Since then he has become one of the most successful domain investor/developers in industry history. Castello has always been a visionary, so when we asked him to comment for our 2020 State of the Industry Cover Story (SOI) in January, we weren't surprised to get back a much broader overview of long-term domain industry challenges than the immediate ones the annual SOI article focuses on.

While many in the industry were pleased with their 2019 results and optimistic about 2020, Castello, though inherently an optimist himself, was troubled by recent developments, especially the rise of powerful monopolies that he feels are threatening not just domain investor/developers, but all entrepreneurs who hope to find success on the Internet. We published an excerpt from his thoughts in the SOI story, but felt his reservations about where we may be headed should be shared in their entirety. Full Story Here

Michael Castello
CCIN CEO & President

Marketing Domains in the Midst of the Covid-19 Pandemic

By Namrata Arya

Editor's Note: The Covid-19 pandemic has forced individual investors and all kinds of enterprises to re-think how they do business. Our June 2020 Cover Story examined how the domain aftermarket has been impacted by the pandemic. On another industry front, the registry operators and registrars that sell new domain registrations are dealing with issues of their own. In times of uncertainty spending typically declines, so marketing executives have to show potential registrants why a new domain can be their best friend in times like these. To see how one company is meeting that challenge, we connected with Namrata Arya, Head of Digital Marketing at Radix, who was kind enough to give us her perspective on the job.

As a marketer, if I could describe 2020 in two words; it would be unpredictable and volatile. While resilience is one of the crucial skills to master in marketing, it is truly being tested in 2020. At the same time, it’s obvious that a business’s ability to adapt quickly will determine how it will emerge on the other side of this unfortunate situation.

Back in December 2019, when we were charting out our annual digital marketing plan for the current year, we didn’t in the least bit expect it to become obsolete in a span of a few months.

In March, we were back to square one trying to make sense of the situation and how to adjust our messaging and create a plan that is valuable for our partners and businesses globally.

At Radix, we decided to take the situation head-on; right from diving into past data to overhauling our promotional messaging within a matter of a few weeks.

Full Story Here.

Namrata Arya
Head of Digital Marketing
Radix

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

NamesCon Global 2020: The Complete Conference Recap with Photos from Every Session

By Ron Jackson

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

The NamesCon Global 2020 conference is now history. The 7th annual edition of the industry's marquee event was held January 29 - February 1 at the Omni Hotel in Austin, Texas. It was the show's first time in Austin after the first six editions were staged in Las Vegas.

While the conference was underway we posted daily photos and highlights in our Lowdown section, but with the show's busy day/night schedule we didn't have time to write about all of NamesCon's dozens of business sessions. So, after the show ended, we set about putting together this complete conference recap that has photos from every one of the week's business sessions, along with the session topics and speaker's names. We also added new, previously unseen photos from the Exhibit Hall that are sprinkled throughout the report. We hope you will enjoy this look back at a very big week in the Lone Star State's capital city. It's the next best thing to having been there yourself!

Full Story Here

NamesCon CEO Soeren
von Varchmin (right)
and DNJournal's
Ron Jackson

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

New Public Interest Registry CEO Jon Nevett Seeks to Position .ORG as the Best TLD, Period

By Ron Jackson

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

In the early days of domain investing, when there was only a handful of extensions to choose from, there was an ongoing debate about what was the best alternative to .com - .net or .org? I liked the .org more because it had a clearly defined, positive identity of its own and a high level of trust because of the kinds of registrants that used it most, non-profits and organizations that had an altruistic orientation. There were also many examples of solid aftermarket sales for .org domains.

That being the case, I've always paid attention to developments at Public Interest Registry (the non-profit behind .org). A big one occurred in December when PIR named a new CEO, domain industry veteran Jon Nevett. Jon is a co-founder of Donuts, the world's biggest operator of new gTLD registries, and he served as the company's Executive VP for 8 years. Prior to that, Jon spent more than five years as Senior Vice President at Network Solutions, the very first domain name registrar. Now that Nevett is bringing his storehouse of knowledge to PIR and .org I connected with him to see what attracted him to PIR and .org and what he has planned as the organization's new leader. Full Story Here

Jon Nevett
CEO
Public Interest Registry

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

NamesCon's Soeren von Varchmin & Helga Neumer Reveal What's in Store for Revamped Global Event in Austin

By Ron Jackson

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

A New Year always represents an opportunity for a fresh start in one's personal life or business enterprise. It's a time when many of us resolve to take a different approach that will help us reach our ultimate goals. The start of a new decade - this century's version of The Twenties - makes this moment seem like an especially auspicious point in time to plow new ground.

It is obvious that the organizers of the NamesCon Global 2020 conference coming up January 29 - February 1 in Austin, Texas, have decided to seize the opportunity. In addition to moving the industry's marquee event from Las Vegas to Austin, one of America's fastest growing and most energetic entrepreneurial cities, the conference itself has been re-imagined as The Domain Economic Forum. To find out exactly what that will mean for those going to Austin, we connected with NamesCon CEO Soeren von Varchmin and the Head of NamesCon Operations, Helga Neumer, to get the details. Soeren got the ball rolling by explaining how they concept for a broader "domain economic forum" came about.
Full Story Here

Soeren von Varchmin
NamesCon CEO

The Amazing Ascent of Whisky.com: How Michael Castello Turned a Free Domain Into a $3.1 Million Sale - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/february.htm#sthash.jnkq2io9.dpuf

Quality Trumps Quantity: Lessons Learned from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West 2014 - See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/may-june.htm#sthash.TGjujBZO.dpuf

Fasten Your Seatbelts! New CEO Matthias Conrad Is Getting Ready to Step on the Accelerator at Sedo

By Ron Jackson

- See more at: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2014/january.htm#sthash.YJo3bmZs.dpuf

2019 began with a historic change at the top of the management team at domain industry powerhouse Sedo, a pioneering company known for its global domain sales platform and monetization services. In the 20 years since Sedo was founded in 1999, only two people had served as the company's CEO before Matthias Conrad made it three on January 1. The European corporation that owns Sedo, United Internet, didn't have to look far to find someone they felt comfortable entrusting Sedo's legacy and future growth to. Conrad was already part of the United "family" having served as a VP at their hosting and cloud services giant, 1&1 IONOS, for over seven years.

In the more that 16 years we have been covering Sedo, we've seen a strong culture of transparency and teamwork develop there under the direction of their popular previous CEOs. Sedo was the first to begin sharing sales data with us so we could launch our popular weekly domain sales report and to this day we have found their management team to be among the most accessible and responsive in the industry. We met Conrad for the first time at the 2019 NamesCon conference in Las Vegas and took that opportunity to sit down with him to learn more about his personal management style and what he has planned for a company that almost everyone in the business will interact with at one time or another.
Full Story Here

Matthias Conrad
Sedo CEO

Red Alert: Encrypt Your Website Now or Expect to Lose Traffic When Google Updates Its Chrome Browser in July

By Ron Jackson

Many of our readers not only invest in domains as assets in their own right but also develop websites on one or more of their favorite names. For those who operate any kind of site, Google is planning to enact a major change in July (yes this July - 2018) that could cause your site to lose a significant amount of traffic if you are not prepared for it.

Google's Chrome is the most widely used web browser and they will be releasing a new version 68 in July. In that version the company plans to mark all websites that do not have an SSL certificate as Not Secure. That notice will scare a lot of people away from your website even if it poses no danger to anyone. So, if you haven't done it yet, getting an SSL certificate (which provides your site with a secure, encrypted connection) should be very high on your To Do list.

The kind of SSL certificate to buy (there are many options) and how to get one installed can be confusing. Fortunately, a well-known veteran from our industry is now with the world's largest distributor of SSL certificates, The SSL Store, so we paid a visit to their offices to find out what all of us who run websites need to do to be ready for what is coming in July.
Full Story Here

(L to R): Michael Ward, Bill Grueninger & Kyle Grueninger from The SSL Store.

Domain Development: Chris Sheridan Details Why the Weebly Way Keeps Gaining Ground

By Ron Jackson

When I entered the domain business back in 2002 there were three ways to make money with domains - 1) sell (or lease) them, 2) park them and hope to make pay per click (PPC) revenue from type-in traffic or 3) develop them into full-blown websites that could produce revenue in a number of ways depending on the business model (e-commerce, direct advertising or paid subscriptions being among the many options). The problem with the latter option is that, especially for the technologically challenged, it has just been too hard to do.

One thing about technology though - it keeps marching on - and new solutions have hit the market that have made domain development much easier than it used to be. Platforms like WordPress, Weebly, Wix and Squarespace are among the enticing website building options domain owners now have to choose from. From a domain investor's standpoint, Weebly has an ace in the hole in industry veteran Chris Sheridan, who has played a leading role in both the domain and website building worlds. Full Story Here

Lumis.com Co-Founders Show the Domain World is Still a Land of Opportunity

By Ron Jackson

The domain industry has always been one of constant change. So much so that opportunities come and go, often it seems, in the blink of an eye. Some think the heyday of the entire business has come and gone but newcomers are continually proving there is still plenty of opportunity out there, but it isn't necessarily located where it used to be.

For most of our readers the business has been all about buying and reselling or monetizing domains from their own portfolio, but that very highly competitive space isn't the only way to fly. Lumis.com, a successful new domain brokerage and digital asset consulting company, is a case in point.

Lumis was founded just last year by three guys who all entered the domain business less than three years ago. One of them has already helped complete a $2 million domain sale (Freedom.com - the second biggest sale of the year to date).
Full Story Here

An Inside Look at Sedo's Strategy for Promoting and Marketing New gTLDs and Accelerating Aftermarket Sales

By Ron Jackson

Ever since new gTLDs began rolling out in January 2014, we've heard criticism that they have not been marketed vigorously enough - leaving many in the general public unaware of their existence. Some have pointed the finger at ICANN and industry trade groups, some at new registry operators and some at registrars and even the registrants who aren’t developing the names they register or promoting the ones they have built out.

Part of the problem may just be perception. Unlike, say, parking companies who market directly to domain investors, the marketing that is being done on behalf of new gTLDs has largely been aimed outward, making those efforts less visible to a lot of us than ones focused inward on the domain community. You need look no further than industry giant Sedo to see what I mean. Known for a decade and a half for their aftermarket and monetization platforms, Sedo has also been at the forefront of new gTLD marketing efforts. We talked with their Chief Marketing Officer, Christian Voss, about why they have taken that effort on their shoulders and their strategy for boosting new gTLD awareness. Full Story Here

Sedo CEO Tobias Flaitz &
CMO Christian Voss (right)

That's a Wrap! Wall to Wall Photos & Highlights from DomainFest 2014 in Hollywood

By Corinne Forti

The 2014 DomainFest conference wrapped up its three-day run at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California April 2, 2014. This year's event marked a return to Tinseltown where it ran from 2007-2009 before moving out to the beach for a four-year run in Santa Monica. In another move aimed at keeping things fresh, DomainFest also hopped from its usual mid-winter spot on the calendar to its first foray in spring.

The agenda also had a different look with new gTLDs getting a bigger place in the spotlight now that they have begun arriving en masse. One thing remained the same though - the great networking opportunities that attendees consistently name as the most important reason they go to industry conferences. If something unique is thrown into the social mix, like this year's private concert by Stone Temple Pilots, so much the better!

Full Story Here

Sedo Revisited: How the Pioneering Domain Company Has Kept Pace Through a Decade of Constant Change

By Ron Jackson

In recent years the original founders of industry pioneer Sedo have made a profitable exit, selling their shares in transactions that resulted in the domain sales and monetization powerhouse becoming a subsidiary of German corporate giant United Internet. In the nearly 10 years since we first profiled Sedo much has changed there but one thing remains the same - the company continues to play a leading role in an industry where the tides are always shifting. Many other companies that failed to adapt have come and gone but Sedo is now well into their second decade, determined to make the next 10 years even better.

To get a complete overview of today's Sedo, we connected with several members of the company's leadership team to find out how see Sedo has changed (and what has remained the same) and to get an update on the company's latest service offerings, as well as what they have in the pipeline. Our conversations started with CEO Tobias Flaitz who took over leadership of the Cologne, Germany based company 18 months ago. Click here for Full Story

Sedo's home office building
in Cologne, Germany

Someone Filed a UDRP Against Me - Now What?

Editor's Note: If you find yourself asking the question in our headline, this guest article by veteran Internet legal counsel Brett Lewis of Lewis & Lin LLC is for you!

By Brett Lewis, Lewis & Lin LLC

Being on the receiving end of a UDRP Complaint can be unnerving and worrisome for some clients, while others receive it as a declaration of war. Many factors will influence whether a domain name registrant chooses to fight back and file a response, including the value of the domain name, the registrant’s ability to fund a defense, and the odds of successfully defending the domain name.

Although the odds are generally stacked against registrants statistically, statistics can be misleading. Many times respondents should expect to lose, because they are engaged in conduct that runs afoul of the dictates of the UDRP and governing law. However, the odds for respondents in contested proceedings are far better – perhaps in part because the Respondents are represented by counsel, and in part because the domain names in question are worth defending. Click here for Full Story

Cyber law image from Bigstock




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