NEW YORK – New gTLD proponents will be less than excited to learn that according to the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief, new gTLD domain registrations, despite there being more awareness :) and more names available for registration, such extensions experienced a decline of 400,000 registrations or loss of 2% within the first Quarter of 2018 (Q1) when compared to the last Quarter of 2017 (Q4). Verisign creates these industry briefs to include quarter-over-quarter … [Read more...]
Rand Fishkin: If I Could Go Back to 1991 and Get Any Name, I Would Grab Porn.com
NEW YORK – Rand Fiskin, the original founder of Moz.com, has gone out on his own new venture called “Spark Toro”, using the domain name, SparkToro.com. Lucky him, he’s fairly accurate when he said it is a decent name you can easily remember, proven to me by the fact that I did not need to go look it up (again); I did in fact remember it a day later as I write this article, but in full disclosure, I typed it in Google’s search box yesterday while watching the video and I … [Read more...]
gTLD Madness: Five Years Later and Where Are We Now? T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Panel Debate
NEW YORK - By the time I started visiting domain conferences in person, unfortunately, what I feel was the greatest domain conference of all time, Howard Neu and Rick Schwartz’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C., had seen its last days. I wish it weren’t so. I think the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences were the best respected domain conferences in history; I can only wish that Howard and Rick, for whatever reason, will team up again and bring it back one day, because everything else, in my opinion, … [Read more...]
Internet Sales Tax Law Could Change This June; Decision on South Dakota v. Wayfair
NEW YORK - The U.S. Supreme Court will make a critical decision in the coming weeks that could give states the right to tax small businesses on the Internet. What is being decided is whether or not a decision from 1992 should be upheld in a new case, which prevents States form being able to tax, audit or regulate businesses and individuals that do not reside in their state (Ex: online businesses, who are located elsewhere but do transact business in a state). If the … [Read more...]
Founding Chair of ICANN: New gTLDs Will Make Lawyers, Registrars, Registries Rich
NEW YORK – This past week, another new gTLD domain name bit-the-dust when Richemont, the company behind Cartier jewelry and Mont Blanc pens, terminated its fifth dot-brand gTLD. Reading over some backscatter comments on the issue I was enlightened with the below video, from Esther Dyson, former Chairman of the ICANN Board and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who held back very little while she reminded people that she is clearly on record with her negative thoughts and … [Read more...]
Google Finally Taking Action Against Callers Claiming They Are from Search Giant
NEW YORK - If you run a small business, especially a brick and mortar business with a physical address you are likely being solicited, potentially multiple times per day, by different companies often over robocalls from companies who claim they are Google. Often these calls are regarding your Google listing or Google Maps placement which is being reported to you as being inaccurate and out of date. To unsuspecting businesses this can be alarming and tricky to detect as … [Read more...]
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Affected Country List; May 25 2018
NEW YORK - On May 25 2018, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires a change to Domain Name Whois services. When a Whois search is conducted on a domain registered in the European Economic Area (EEA), the results will only show domain technical information, Registrant Country and State/Province. This impacts customers in the EEA as well as customers in countries that mirror languages and currencies of GDPR impacted regions. The countries which are affected by GDPR … [Read more...]
Shortcut to GDPR Preparation for Sites and Services That Do Not Target EU Users
NEW YORK - As you are probably well aware due to the number of emails you are receiving, by next Friday, May 25th, 2018, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) will go into full effect. You should be preparing to update your Privacy Policy even if your site does not target EU users. I wanted to share what I have learned so far as I prepare to update some of my United States websites. I urge you to seek out your own advice and council on what to do to bring your … [Read more...]
Overstock.com Marketing Expenses Sour $40M After Google Algorithm Changes
NEW YORK – It sort of makes you cringe just hearing the title. According to BuzzFeed.com, the retailing giant Overstock told investors during an earnings call that the company has experienced serious difficulties with a Google Algorithm update it was hit with last year, calling it "very disruptive" to its business; the SEO Community called it "Fred". Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne said that sales and marketing expenses grew 105% to $77.2 million this quarter from $37.6 … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 05/08/2018 – 05/14/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as IXA.com at 25,000 EUR ($29,609.62 US), the top ccTLD as NX.de at 33,320 EUR ($39,465.81 US) and the top other as BroadwayTickets.nyc at $25,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 05/08/2018 – 05/14/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 05/01/2018 – 05/07/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Much like the previous list, this one is also a little late due to the holiday weekend. Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as EasternUnion.com at $18,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Weltkirche.de at 7,999 EUR ($9,575.11 US) and the top other as Jiami.org at 4,999 EUR ($5,984.00 US). Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 05/01/2018 - … [Read more...]
More Bad News for Monetization with AdSense; Introducing Lazy-Loaded Ads
NEW YORK – According to a discussion from users over at Webmaster World, it has been found that Google is now utilizing ‘lazy-load’ technology to only load AdSense ads when they are in a user’s actual device view-point. Not only have I personally noticed continual drops recently, but a frustrated colleague who has been monitoring his website decline in AdSense revenue called me up yesterday and pointed out this forum thread detailing the find - which I finally had time to … [Read more...]
Will Internet Remain Safe Place to Invest and Conduct Business in Years to Come?
NEW YORK – Back in 2016, the ICA, (The Internet Commerce Association) asked me a very important question; they asked what I thought would be some of the biggest challenges the domain industry would face in the coming years. While some might answer that question with suggestions about the difficulties new gTLDs may bring toward branding, or monetization strategies with domain parking from declining CPCs, my answer was likely very - very different than most domainers. This … [Read more...]
A Look at the Top 100 “.IO” Domain Names Sold in During Past 12 Months (2017-2018)
NEW YORK - Today I purchased two domain names in the '.io' extension - which continues to do well (and I only have a few; less than 10). I registered Heaters.io and Injured.io and I will see what happens with those. They seem like great domains and for Reg fee, there is little to loose. I'm not too sure why the IO tld has done so well recently (it's been around since 1997), but I don't fully understand cryptocurrency either, and that continues to dominate much of the … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 04/23/2018 – 04/29/2018
NEW YORK, NY – This list is a little late, but as these Sedo lists are a big hit with readers, it's not worth missing it. Recently released is Sedo’s weekly sales list, a weekly list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as MicroMobility.com at $50,000 USD, the top ccTLD as App.co at 20,000 USD and the top other as My.bio at 49,900 EUR ($59,767.63 US). Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 04/23/2018 – … [Read more...]