LONG ISLAND, NY – The “Cooperative Agreement” between NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration ) and Verisign includes a price-cap on .com domain names, however, this agreement must be renewed by November 30, 2018. This means that sometime very soon the price you pay for all of your .com domain registrations and their renewals may be raised, and there is no telling how much this increase might be. The NTIA, an agency of the U.S. Department … [Read more...]
SHOCKER: Two More “Dot Brands” Throw in the Sponge on Future of Alternative URLs
NEW YORK, NY – According to DNW.com, another two dot brands are letting go of their sweet dreams of running their very own .BRAND URL. The two companies are “Blanco GmbH” and “SPIEGEL-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG”. I’ve never heard of these companies before, but surely these special URLs such as “.blanco” and “.spiegel” would have made them both Uber famous and internationally known. Nonetheless, they have notified ICANN that they are throwing in the towel on … [Read more...]
EVIL: Will Google Do Away with Domain Name and Extension Entirely Anyway?
NEW YORK, NY – Our best friends at Google are quietly scheming behind the scenes to through yet another curve ball misconstrued as a benefit to all web users, especially us domain name owners, brokers, investors and enthusiasts. They’re always up to something neat aren’t they? According to Wired.com, Google has been working, at least since 2014, on replacing the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) we use as web addresses with something a little less complicated. After all, … [Read more...]
Internet Isn’t for Sharing: More Disastrous EU Legislation Coming Down the Pike
ORLANDO, FL – The European Union has become a bigger threat to the Internet ‘as we know it’ then nearly anything I’ve seen in the past, including Net Neutrality. Even Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales say that the web could not have developed as it has if these new EU rules were in play 25 years ago. For instance, recently Europe created the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which we all know has had wide reaching effects on the … [Read more...]
Why You’ll See Me at the MERGE Digital Asset Conference Again This Year
NEW YORK, NY – I’m happy to report that I will again be visiting beautiful and sunny Orlando Florida this September 14-19 for the Merge Domain Conference, rightfully dubbed the “Merge Digital Asset Conference”. MERGE serves as a five day multi-conference event focused on Digital Assets, Domains, Hosting, E-Commerce, Content Management, Security, Intellectual Property, Stock Photography, UX, Design, Blockchain and Crypo-Currencies and more. To me it’s just another … [Read more...]
Premium .Green Domain Names Acquired by YELLOW PAGES GOES GREEN®
Innovator in digital telephone directory listings and advocate for staunch environmentalism, announces acquisition of new gTld Internet domain names. NEW YORK - Yellow Pages Directory Inc., which operates its Yellow Pages Goes Green ("YPGG"), an environmentally-conscious "Green" telephone directory, has announced the acquisition of Internet domain names "YellowPages.green" and "WhitePages.green" as a part of their ongoing effort to support "a greener Internet", and build … [Read more...]
California.com Puts GEO Domains Back on the Map with “Mid-Seven Figure” Sale
NEW YORK, NY – According to Industry news site DNW.com, and a press release, the Iconic US State Name, California.com has been acquired, along with a group of related domain names, in the mid seven figure range. Not bad for a parked domain name. What is truly amazing about this sale, and near-every business broker will spin their head around about, is that the sale is for an asset by itself, a possible business at a great address, with NO BUILT IN REVENUE OR … [Read more...]
Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Purchase an Ngtld Domain Simply for Search Rankings
NEW YORK, NY – Many who read this site will be familiar with the out-of-the ordinary sales of a few new gTLDs recently, one of which was Vacation Dot Rentals. I stumbled onto an old post about it over at Ricks Blog [I enjoy Rick's ramblings and story telling as I am sure many others do: The post was called "Fake site on a Fake GTLD Sale? The tale of “No Results Found” at Vacation.Rentals" - I'm sure you all read it.] I wanted to see where the site was ranking today … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Weekly Domain Sales List Includes .App at $14k, .Me at $8,500
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 Ivypay.com at $22,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Hola.me at $8,500 and the top other as Host.app at 12,000 EUR ($14,020.20 USD). Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/16/2018 – 07/22/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Three Letter Blockbuster Domain Sale, ICE.com Trades Hands for $3.5 Million
NEW YORK, NY - According to a press release, the three letter Internet domain name ICE.com has been sold via a private, confidential transaction in the amount of $3.5 million. The sale is expected to be the largest publicly disclosed domain name sold in 2018. The sale was handled by two domain and Internet business brokerage firms Brannan’s and Grit Brokerage and the purchase price and value was defined in a statement as a long-term benefit at the cost of a single … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 07/09/2018 – 07/15/2018
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 BTCExchange.com at $55,000 USD, the top ccTLD as Park.co.us at 22,500 GBP ($29,508.19 US) and the top other as KYG.org at $8,800 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/09/2018 – 07/15/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Another .Brand Discovers Imaginary Land-Grab on Non-Existing Planet in Universe
NEW YORK, NY – According to Domain industry site, Domain Name Wire, as well as an uncovered letter to ICANN, the company brand VistaPrint, a product customization conglomerate, has terminated its .brand URL “responsibility” with ICANN for the .Vista domain. Apparently someone at parent company Cimpress N.V. has decided that rather than opportunity knocking, managing a .brand URL is much more a financial liability and expense than a benefit; that it accompanies a strategy … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Moves NBX.com at $130K, Reward.net at $10K in Latest Sales Report
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 nbx.com at $130,000 USD, the top ccTLD as feel-the-flow.de at 12,500 EUR ($14,654.16 US) and the top other as Reward.net at $10,000 USD. Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 07/02/2018 – 07/08/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
The 472 Domain Names That Couldn’t Stop The Inevitable Collapse of ‘Toys R Us’
NEW YORK, NY - Toys R Us is a brand we’ve all grown up with. The company was originally founded by Charles P. Lazarus (October 5, 1923 - March 22, 2018), the son of a local entrepreneur who wished to someday mimic his father’s work with his own enterprise. Those dreams became a reality in 1948 when young Charles, 25, opened his first children’s furniture store called “Children’s Bargain Town” in Washington, D.C. After years of early success, Lazarus added toys and changed … [Read more...]
It’s a Miracle: Straight-Shooter on Forbes Gives Real Advice on Exact Match Domains
NEW YORK, NY – Nowadays, I read some much down-right bad advice and marketing hype spun-off as news that I actually feel it necessary when someone knows what in-the-world they’re talking about and actually offers ‘real’ advice to business owners. For instance, I came across an article in Forbes by columnist Michael Gargiulo, someone who obviously knows what he is talking about and is looking to give small business owners not just real advice, but real good advice. What a … [Read more...]
Single Word nGTLD Domain Names That Have Expired Within Last 24 Hours
NEW YORK, NY - Here is a list of single word English dictionary nGTLD domain names that have dropped (expired) within the last 24 hours (according to ExpiredDomains.net). One thing I do not understand is why a new domain registry would charge premium fees on domains that someone has already decided to let expire. For instance, love.xyz is $1,299.00 at Godaddy. If registries want to off-set their registry losses as much as possible, they would allow buyers to register these … [Read more...]
Top 100 .com Domain Name Sales of 2016 Verses 2017 Suggests Market Stabilization
NEW YORK, NY - Last year about this time (June) I compared the highest valued .com sales of 2015 to 2016 which were publicly available at that time via NameBio.com (the list changed slightly today effectively creating a $2M difference and 30% decline rather than 35% indicated at that time[provided that 2015 remained unchanged]). It's also important to note that 2015 contained two blockbuster sales for $8M each. Today, comparing numbers for 2016 to 2017, from what data is … [Read more...]
Donuts Acquisition of BudURL Makes Good Use of New Top Level Domain Names
NEW YORK, NY – Donuts Inc, the company behind hundreds of new domain name extensions has acquired a link shortening service formally known as BudURL, and rebranded it as BL.INK. The service had been around for ten years and was founded by Andy Meadows. The acquisition took place sometime in 2017 according to a company press release, yet Donuts had been operating it in “stealth mode” quietly building in key features which will enhance the services ability to customize URLs … [Read more...]
Solution for Domainers Who Develop, Have Traffic, Experiencing Revenue Declines
NEW YORK, NY - Anyone who develops website properties can tell you that the best website business you can possibly have is one that isn’t completely dependent on search engines and has a true following. However, there are two factors at play here; one, being, if your site is only receiving traffic from search engines, Google in particular can put a very real-hurtin’ on you in a minute; the other, point two, is that if your site doesn’t have direct advertiser relationships … [Read more...]
ICANN Should Create Penalty for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) Rulings
NEW YORK - Just as a crime with no penalty deters no criminal, a charge of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking serves only as a baseless accusation with no clear consequence. It will not deter any nefarious company from trying to lay claim on someone else’s rightfully owned asset. ICANN needs to place some sort of consequence on this practice otherwise what complainants have to gain from using this tactic is far more then what they have to lose and this practice will just … [Read more...]
Sass illustrates Significant Disadvantage; Match Game: Brandable Vs Keywords
NEW YORK, NY - .CLUB Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Sass gave a keynote speech at NamesCon Europe 2018 and did what appeared to be a fantastic job of illustrating, through various different examples, just how bad it is when coming up with your own word (one which has no meaning) when choosing your domain name. Sass accomplished this by showing domain names made up of unknown words on screen and had attendees guess, by multiple choice, what they believed the businesses did that … [Read more...]
Uh Oh: 400,000 Less gTLD Registrations First Quarter of 2018, Vs Previous Quarter
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...]
