NEW YORK, NY – Every once in a while I see a real stand-out domain in the new gTLD space and that's what happened last night when I came across an organization called HARNESS, with its address (Harness.space) being utilized in a great way, and to an audience likely to not care much what-in-the-world the ending dot is; it’s the organization that matters, and its purpose. While passionate lovers of this organizations' mission won’t care either way what the new dot address … [Read more...]
CBS News Offers Readers ‘Bad Advice’ in 6 Best Practices for Choosing a Domain
NEW YORK, NY – Usually when you read an article in Google News, you expect it to give you some good advice, especially when it is a reputable news website. That’s not what happened today when Google News led me to question whether or not I was even on a real news website. Rather than focusing so much on cleaning up Facebook and Twitter, maybe Google should check their own inclusion practices. The article is on CBS News Detroit and it is called “6 Best Practices for Choosing … [Read more...]
If I Had Just Started With Domain Names Today, I Don’t Think I Would Make It
NEW YORK, NY – When I started in this industry it was the year 2000. The Internet looked very different than it does today, and people were just starting to get acquainted with Google. Search engine optimization was a lot easier to do with most people not having even heard of the term “SEO”. Back then, as a website owner, you were able to take advantage of certain techniques which could easily put you ahead of the majority. Compared to today, there was little competition … [Read more...]
How to Become a ‘Rockstar Domainer’ by Developing Your Own Domain Assets
NEW YORK – Unless you have been living in a cave for the last few years, you’ve caught wind that parking your domain names is potentially the worst thing you can do to monetize them. Today, you need to DEVELOP your domain names into real web services to earn realistic profits from them, but development is not always easy, especially if you do not know how to do any of it yourself, as it can be VERY EXPENSIVE. Development involves an ‘idea’, planning, design, development, … [Read more...]
Final Day for NameJet, Right of the Dot, NamesCon 2018 Online Auction
NEW YORK, NY – Good deals and little time is left for the NamesCon, NameJet, and Right of the Dot live auction which began in Las Vegas. Most if not all auctions end within a few hours from now which puts both the East and West coast of the United States in the game to grab some deals by this afternoon. There are a good number of domains that are still showing no reserve and have no bids, so this is an opportunity to grab some names which there will be little fighting … [Read more...]
The Abandoned Wasteland DNForum.com is for Sale; Here’s Why It Still Has Value
NEW YORK – If you have not yet heard, and I am sure that you have, once popular domain name forum, DNForum.com, The Place to Talk Domains is for sale. Ownership says they’ll have it sold this week and I would not be at all surprised to see that happen, because even if no-one at all bids on it, I did. That's right, I put in a small [worst case scenario] offer for the website, and if I wanted to steal it for the best absolute price, I wouldn’t be drawing even more attention … [Read more...]
Will People Use Alternative Domain Names Like They Do Toll Free Phone Numbers?
NEW YORK - Much like .com domain names, 1-800 toll free phone numbers with meaning in their letters such as 1-800-FLOWERS, are hard to come by these days – or even impossible to obtain, based on limited supply. Although it is indeed possible to get a 1-800 phone number today, if you’re looking for a vanity number, such as one with clear meaning in its letters, you’re much more likely to get it using an alternative such as 888. This is very much what we are seeing today … [Read more...]
From the Floor: Premium .COM ‘Dreamers’ May Find Reality of Ownership, Closer
NEW YORK, NY – If ever you considered getting that “big name” in a .com extension, there may never be a better time than right now. The domain auctions are, for the most part, a ‘wholesale market’, so most people expect auction prices to be, well - better than average. However, most would not expect the “super-great” deals we all saw at NamesCon this year (2018), which were potentially better than any year past. And talk about “Great”... its .com version (Great.com) sold for … [Read more...]
Quick Look Inside NamesCon in Las Vegas
NEW YORK - Here are a few shots from inside NamesCon Global 2018 which is in its second day. Tomorrow will be the big event when the live auction takes place from 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM Pacific. The live auction is hosted by NameJet and Monte Cahn's RightOfTheDot, with a long list of names consisting of both legacy domains such as .com, .net, .org as well as many new gTLDs such as .club, .tickets and others. To look over the domains being sold visit the NameJet list; there are … [Read more...]
It’s Here: NamesCon Officially Starts Tomorrow at the Tropicana in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, NV – The long anticipated NamesCon event begins tomorrow with its 11:00 am - 11:45 am "Welcome to NamesCon" photo and session. Domain enthusiasts from around the world have begun rolling in since this morning, myself included. The event is taking place at the Tropicana, which is one of the first hotels on the Las Vegas strip located on the east corner of Tropicana Boulevard. Known as the largest Domain Name Conference in the United States (maybe the world), … [Read more...]
Winners and Losers; A Look at “Digital” Domains; Prices Over Last 10 Years
NEW YORK – With each passing day we are living and working in more of a 'digital' world. One of my latest companies is called "Cars Digital Inc." It is a digital advertising agency which focuses on lead generation specifically for car dealers. That's why today we are looking at domain name price changes over time for all URLs that changed hands at least twice over the past 10 years (22,065 publicly, those on record at NameBio) that also included the word "Digital". Thanks … [Read more...]
After 18 Years of UDRP, ICA Says, Time for Discussion, Re-evaluation, Improvements
NEW YORK – Back in 1999, ICANN adopted the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”) and its related Rules (the "UDRP Rules") for the resolution of certain limited kinds of domain name disputes between registrants and third parties, i.e. abusive registration of domain names, otherwise known as “cybersquatting”, which is the practice of registering a domain name in bad faith. The ICA, (“The Internet Commerce Association”) believes that although the UDRP process has largely … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Releases Weekly Domain Name Sales List 01/15/2018 – 01/21/2018
NEW YORK, NY – Just 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 CryptoWorld.com at $194,888.00 US, the top ccTLD as Pens.de at 23,740 EUR ($29,199.01 US)and the top other as VR.berlin at 5,990 EUR ($7,367.04 US). Here is the entire list for Sedo.com sales from 01/15/2018 – 01/21/2018. Domain … [Read more...]
Does the Domain Industry Suffer From Own Versions of Trumpted “Fake News” Stories?
NEW YORK, NY – You may have heard the news that a tremendous transaction recently took place. According to TNT Names, Donuts recently sold www.home.loans for $500,000.00. Wow, I missed the boat for sure. I just let Find.cars drop, crash and burn and lost $10,000.00 to count my chips and walk-away. I probably could have sold it for half-a-million dollars in CASH, or could I? What a mistake that was. Or was it? Considering the fact that this deal reflects the largest … [Read more...]
Winners and Losers; A Look at 3 Letter (LLL) Domain Investments Over Last 10 Years
NEW YORK – Three letter .com domain names are pretty solid investments. They are often referred to as “liquid domains” – those which can be converted into cash quickly. Thanks to NameBio, it’s easy to see that the majority of three letter domain names which have changed hands at least twice in the last 10 years, (publicly, those available at NameBio), have made their traders profits. Although there are some losses on record here, the majority, 68% (194) of all 286 … [Read more...]