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...]
Call for Donuts to Release Proof of Original “Record Breaking” gTLD Sale in Late 2017
NEW YORK – With another ‘out of the ordinary’ new Generic Domain Name sale publicly announced by Donuts Inc. for Vacation.Rentals (reportedly acquired for $500,300.00 in an all-cash deal) this becomes their second earth-shattering alternative-dot transaction in the last twelve months of which many will agree, appears to be sent straight from the heavens above. In fact, all of their employees should vacate the Kirkland, Washington premises immediately and purchase lottery … [Read more...]
The Birth of ICANN: “The Green Paper”
NEW YORK - In 1997, the United States government under then President Clinton began processes to remove its control over the Domain Name System by creating research and dialog on how control of domain names and IP addresses should be handled in the future - by a non-profit organization in the private sector. This resulted in a document which has become known as "The Green Paper" originally named "A Proposal to Improve the Technical Management of Internet Names and … [Read more...]
Is Dominion Registries Having Trouble Selling Their New Alternative Dots?
NEW YORK - According to a press release by Dominion Registries, a division of Dominion Enterprises, the company is removing a long list of previously implemented registrant eligibility verification restrictions for its new gTLD industry-specific domain extensions which consist of .AUTOS, .BOATS, .HOMES, .MOTORCYCLES and .YACHTS. The changes will be made this year, beginning first with .BOATS, which is now available to anyone at all, for just about any reason, defined … [Read more...]
Clever: Radix Bolsters New gTLD Adoption Through Sponsored Startups, Buzz, Goodies
NEW YORK - They say that 'money talks and bullshit walks' (at least that is what my father used to say) and no-one likely knows this better than domain registry Radix, who maintains and operates several new catchy gTLD domain endings such as .tech and .online. Since 2016, Radix has been helping startup companies by putting a little money where their mouth is and providing new startups sponsorship covering sometimes as much as 100% of their expenses for exhibit booth fees and … [Read more...]
An Unbiased New gTLD Case Study is Coming; Not Sponsored, Supported or in Anyway Influenced by Any Registry
NEW YORK - I'll have an interesting new gTLD case study coming in the next few days to a week or so. It’s going to be great, because I think it’s going to work. I think the position of the website in Google is going to improve greatly by doing nothing else but changing the URL to a new keyword rich gTLD. If I'm wrong I will have wasted another $150 on gTLDs, but either way I will learn and so will you. Now if you follow my updates you will be aware that I am usually more … [Read more...]
Who Is and Who Isn’t: ICANN’s Registry Agreement Termination Information List
NEW YORK - In light of another three to be cut, let's take a look at Who's pulling out, of the WhoIs, entirely. The following is a list of new gTLD operators who have decided that running their own dots is not something they wish to pursue and have notified ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, of their intent to cancel and withdraw their Registry Operator Agreements. For supporting documentation you can visit ICANN's Registry Agreement … [Read more...]
Donuts’ .Dating Registry to Benefit from Niche Dating Site Using Trump Politics
NEW YORK, NY - A niche dating website business is out there promoting the .dating URL (https://trump.dating) while suggesting trump supporters make ideal candidates for long lasting relationships. The site belongs to a group called Friends Worldwide, Inc. which has utilized niche sites such as singlesoldiers.org, countrymatch.com and this new one https://trump.dating to build its membership. From what I could find online the network could use the temporary additional … [Read more...]
Remove Other TLDs from Equation and NamesCon 2018 Still Reflects ‘Great’ Year
NEW YORK, NY - This morning I wanted to look at the live auction results for NamesCon over the last three years, what's on record at NameBio, which is here. That list showed that not only was there a slight rebound in total domain sales this year, but that the 2018 live auction netted the largest dollar amount total over the three year period. It also showed that the percentage of transactions for .com domains grew over the period with 56% being .com in 2016, 63% in 2017, … [Read more...]
This Take Action Social Movement Platform Just Might Launch gTLDs into “Dot Space”
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...]
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...]
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...]
RegistrarStats.com to Shut Down Due to Dwindling Interest? What Say You?
NEW YORK, NY – I received an email the other day about RegistrarStats.com being shut down next month in February (the 19th) and I took special interest in that email notification as I had just used the site the day before to point out some gTLD stats. I never realized that the site was owned by Donuts Inc., but seeing the email notification, it’s pretty obvious. Donuts is a company that has applied for hundreds of new gTLDs and is somehow affording to pay-for and renew at … [Read more...]
Why I Told My “New gTLD” Project to “Suck It” – Will Rebrand with King of all URLs
NEW YORK, NY - It takes a lot for a guy like me to give-up on a project or otherwise throw-in-the-towel, especially when I am not even sure how hard I really tried to begin with, but I like to be two steps ahead, and I like to work smart, not hard. That’s why I told Uniregistry to keep the Find.cars URL domain - forget it, let it expire, I’ll just re-brand as FindCarsforSale.com. Here’s my thought process and how it all went down; hill. Two years ago, when .cars domains … [Read more...]
New gTLD Domain Sales from Major Marketplaces; What’s Developed?
NEW YORK, NY – Another list is being published today; this one is for new gTLD domain names which have been recorded at NameBio. All off these transactions have taken place over the last five years and this list ONLY contains the sales which are listed at NameBio - there are many hand registered and private or unrecorded domain sales which will not be here. Note: I only examined 100 domains max from each extension, highest dollar amounts first. Here is what I looked … [Read more...]
Near 16,000 Bets Placed on Newer “.Art” gTLD Domain Name So Far This Year
NEW YORK, NY - On May 10th, 2017 during general availability I registered two .art domain names; the cost? That is simple: $24.57. The reason? That’s not as clear as I only have a handful of gTLDS. I guess I was trying to do what most domainers do when they happen to remember a new domain name is being released and it also happens to be general availability time - get the jump on others and grab some good ones to resell in the future. The two domains I registered were … [Read more...]
Verisign Releases 2017 Second Quarter Industry Brief on Domain Name Market
NEW YORK, NY – In an endless sea of opinions (I admit, including my own) it is great to look at meaningful data when it comes to where our industry is going as far as growth, innovation and trends. If you would like to read-over the Verisign’s 2017 Second Quarter Industry report, it is online here (PDF). Some key takeaways: .com registrations are up to 129.2 million. .net and .org are still major players, but in number of registrations, far behind ccTLDs such as … [Read more...]
List of 424 New gTLD Domain Names Which Changed Hands This Year (NameBio)
NEW YORK, NY - I hate to sound like I am complaining, because no-one asked me to look into this, but I am pretty confident I just inspected the longest list of broken, junk, parked, meaningless web sites I've seen in a single sitting. Long, grueling, and very unrewarding we'll call it - as I've learned not much more than I already suspected before, which is that most of these new gTLD domains seem like hypothetical, wishful-thinking lotto tickets that will likely be bets that … [Read more...]