LONG ISLAND, NY – Ten or twenty years ago, if you wanted to find information a search engine such as Yahoo would allow you to simply type-in what you were looking for, and countless websites would appear with information related to your search. Sometimes, ugly websites would appear that had keyword-stuffed their pages with the search string, but often you would be able to find what you were looking for within a few clicks around; and your answer was always on a website or web … [Read more...]
Sedo.com Weekly Domain Name Sales List 04/17/2017 – 04/23/2017
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 NativeMedia.com at $18,000.00 US, the top ccTLD as Aercap.ru at 5,000 EUR and the top “other” TLD as Sparkpea.net at 4,500 GBP. Here is the entire list from Sedo sales from 04/17/2017 – 04/23/2017. Domain … [Read more...]
Google to Become Judge, Jury and Executioner on Ad Placement
NEW YORK, NY - There are a number of domainers out there that live and die by the sword – that is, the ad placement sword, where they cut and slice up deep rich (or some even thin) content pages with just the right mix of ads, images and content to keep users entertained while the clicks keep coming in. This is how the developer-focused domainer drives revenue on their blogs and net properties, especially since domain parking revenue dried up. That last thing domainers … [Read more...]
Major Security Vulnerability Due to IDN Domains; Don’t Get Phished Out of Business
NEW YORK, NY - This is the most dangerous and convincing phishing trick I have ever seen before. It’s so amazingly horrible it will fool even the smartest computer users and it’s an issue that all browser companies should be fixing immediately. Browsers should be updated to prevent these Unicode domains from being translated. Once again our friends at WordFence are keeping all of us safe with critical information on this phishing trick and helping build awareness about … [Read more...]
Google Will Pay $22M in Class Action Involving Ads on Parked Domains
NEW YORK, NY – I received an email this morning alerting me that I may be a member of class action suit where Google Inc. will pay $22,500,000.00 in a class action settlement sometime after July 27th of this year. The case is named in the email notification as “In Re Google AdWords Litigation, No. 5:08-cv-03369-EJD” The suit alleged Google failed to disclose to millions of advertisers participating in Google’s AdWords program that it placed ads on sites without developed … [Read more...]
Corporate Giant with New gTLD Explains What, How and Why It Chose New Domain
NEW YORK, NY - Canon Inc., a multinational corporation headquartered in Japan, is one of hundreds of global corporations which have applied to operate their very own domain extension on the Internet. These new web addresses, specifically, this one, .cannon, will serve as one of potentially several official sites for the Corporation for ensuring users are on the actual Cannon site as it is an internet address only Cannon will be permitted to use. Other more common addresses … [Read more...]
Category Killer Domain Shoes.com Acquired in $9M Transaction by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
NEW YORK, NY - According to domain name industry news publication DNJournal.com, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., owned subsidiary ShoeBuy, has acquired the Internet domain name Shoes.com in a $9,000,000.00 transaction which included the domain name from a bankruptcy of now defunct operator “Shoes.com Technologies”. A spokesperson for ShoeBuy told Footwear News that the move was part of the company’s larger digital goals. We plan to maximize Shoes.com as the gold standard of category … [Read more...]
Is There a Limit to Your gTLD Stupidity Meter? At $185k a-Pop, Who Cares Right?
NEW YORK, NY - There are a lot of cool looking domain name extensions hitting the market and making the rounds these days – so many in fact it is getting hard to keep up with them all. I mostly like the short ones which at least somewhat represent the Internet such as “.web”, “.site”, “.link”, etc. But who in their right mind would want to register and own a .motorcycles domain name? Could it be any longer? I mean, nine times out of ten the beginning word (what's left of the … [Read more...]
Review.info Sells for $6k on Sedo.com Weekly Domain Name Sales List 04/03/2017 – 04/09/2017
NEW YORK, NY - Today, Sedo released its weekly sales list, a list of public transactions above $2,000. This weeks highlights included the top .com sold as Susen.com at $36,000.00 US, the top ccTLD as blackjack-vegas.de at 53,052.50 US and the top “other” TLD as review.info at 6,000.00 US. It is interesting to see a .info domain name sell for three times what its Estibot value shows it should be ($2,000.00). I like .info domains a lot - always have. It seems that every now … [Read more...]
Making Their Mark: “Big Brands” Invest Hundreds of Millions on .Dot Alternatives
NEW YORK, NY - Regardless of what your position is on new gTLD domains "Big Brands" are buying in hook, line and sinker while ICANN is raking in hundreds of millions of dollars on new gTLD fees. Each new application cost its applicant $185,000.00 and with it, an annual maintenance fee of $24,000.00 (yearly recurring). This doesn't include potentially hundreds of generic domains that were applied for and went to auction (I didn't count each one [Full statistics here] … [Read more...]
Audio Arguments for ‘Calculated Theft’ Attempt of HeidiPowell.com Domain
NEW YORK, NY - For those who are unaware of the backstory behind the failed cyber-squatting attempt by Arizona Heidi in her effort to steal the online identity of the original Heidi Powell, the effort continues via opening of an old bankruptcy case to acquire the domain name HeidiPowell.com. UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON AT SEATTLE before Honorable Marc Barreca, Chapter 7, Hearing Date: March 22, 2017, Hearing Time: 10:00 a.m. Even if … [Read more...]
Basically: How to Make a Good Website from a Domain Name; Layman’s Terms
NEW YORK, NY - Sometimes a simple explanation of how to do something can go a very long way. That is what we are doing this evening, we're going over how the heck to build a website from a simple domain name address. The basics; in layman's terms. First. The first thing you want to do with your project is to pick a good domain name. You want to pick a domain name with keywords related to whatever it is that you are building. For instance, if you were building a … [Read more...]
New gTLD Success Will Be Measured Only by Use; Not Sales, Not Registrations
NEW YORK, NY - This week a new gTLD sale made the news, not because of its great keyword, but due to its high price and its ending extension. The domain name casino.online recently sold for over $200,000.00 at SEDO. This might seem like a domainers dream-sale turning a lucky registrant into an instant success, but it was far from a general availability registration; it was actually a domain name reserved by the registry. So basically, it was, for the most part, a planned … [Read more...]
The Disappearing Act of the Web’s Best Web Directories; Where Are They Going?
NEW YORK, NY – Last week, news began to circulate the search optimization-spear that DMOZ.org, one of the oldest and most trusted web directories ever online, was discontinued forever (as of Mar 17, 2017). DMOZ was considered such an incredible resource, that Google itself mirrored it at directory.google.com, as did thousands of other sites across the net. However, Google discontinued the mirror on July 20, 2011, less than a year prior to announcing its “Google Penguin” … [Read more...]
Episode 128 of Domain Name Wire Features Internet Commerce Board Member
NEW YORK, NY - This week, listening to the Domain Name Wire podcast (Episode #128), not only will you find out all about what’s happening in the domain space recently, but you’ll also have the opportunity to listen to a board member, Zak Muscovitch, discuss what exactly the Internet Commerce Association is and why it exists. “For the Interest of Domain Name Investors and Domain Name Owners” That’s basically what the ICA is, according to Muscovitch. DNW host Andrew … [Read more...]