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...]
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...]
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...]
In Wake of France Domain Theft, Geo .COM Name Space Owners Question Future?
NEW YORK - If you had not yet heard, the mega GEO domain “France.com” was recently ‘acquired’ by the European Country of France. Acquired can be a tricky word as the domain asset was, in this case, acquired through what I call an ‘unprecedented theft’ while readers commented that this event is likely the ‘biggest story in domaining during the last 20 years’, and I tend to agree; surprising there isn’t more Internet chatter on the subject. Coincidently, I’ve also noticed some … [Read more...]
Insane: France Seizes Geographic Domain Name France.com with Help from Web.com
NEW YORK - An unprecedented theft has occurred in the domain space as the European Country of France has stolen the Internet domain name France.com from its owner, who according to a lawsuit filed this month in California "has lawfully owned and used the domain name in commerce since 1994." Although Networks Solutions (Web.com) is not party to the lawsuit, it seems they would be guilty of gross misconduct in my opinion and should also be sued for transferring the … [Read more...]
If You Didn’t Already Know, Facebook.com Was Sold for Just $200,000 in 2005
NEW YORK, NY – Way back in 2005, the huge social networking website known today as ‘Facebook’ began getting serious and received its first financial investment from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Shortly thereafter, the dorm room social project which began as TheFacebook.com, recognized the need for a shorter and better domain name, dropping the word “The” and becoming simply Facebook.com – the cost was $200,000.00. When asked in 2009 by a TechCrunch interviewer, what he … [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...]
Battle to Take-down Backpage.com Ends in Seizure, Criminal Indictments of Ownership
NEW YORK – A long-time battle to remove Backpage.com from the Internet has ended with the indictments of ownership and government seizure of its domain Backpage.com, which hosted a popular online classifieds site similar to Craigslist which allegedly was used heavily by escorts and massage providers far-bending the envelope between casual encounters, prostitution and human trafficking, according to investigators. Since 2010, Backpage.com has come under fire for its alleged … [Read more...]
GDPR: The Entering of a New Era; User Data Privacy and Protection; Are You Ready?
NEW YORK, NY – The clock is counting down on a new set of rules to be enforced this May, which will affect not only UK based businesses, but all businesses operating in the digital realm, in the event they handle user data from UK based residents, to near any extent. There is a lot of preparation going on right now, and has been over the last year, in anticipation of these new rules. Some businesses may even disappear altogether. I for one, actually shut-down and sold-off … [Read more...]
Internet Veteran, Nat Cohen Discusses His Experience and the ICA with NamePros
NEW YORK, NY – Nat Cohen, an Internet entrepreneur who began his 20+ year journey in domain investing back in 1997, sat with popular domain name forum NamePros.com in a video interview conducted by domaining community speaker and moderator Braden Pollack which took place at the industry’s largest event, NamesCon in Las Vegas this past January. Worth mentioning, over 1,400 people from all around the globe gathered at this year’s event. In the interview, Nat goes into great … [Read more...]
Liking, No, Loving Uniregistry Domain Marketplace, Brokers, Little Bit More
NEW YORK, NY – The wonderful power of the Internet; when things go wrong it allows a venue to vent, warn, enlighten, even bitch and moan some, if and when deemed necessary. Yet, when things go right, you get to openly commend, educate, share, etc.. Today I have the delightful opportunity to share my positive experience with Uniregistry and their relentless domain brokers there, as I believe in giving credit where credit is due. If you have been reading my updates you're … [Read more...]
Publication with Intent to Deceive; Where Does the Wild Wild West Draw the Line?
NEW YORK, NY - First of all, I am the last one that wants to create more rules and regulations for the Internet. As a publisher of both print and digital assets, I value greatly the right to free speech and the freedom of expression, but a problem is brewing out there and it is brewing right before us. It's a pretty serious problem and one that reveals itself as a combination of fake news and what I would consider publication with intent to deceive. Let me explain... We … [Read more...]
False Narrative: The Never Ending Battle to Steal Your ‘Free and Open Internet’
NEW YORK - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is suggesting that Facebook pay news organizations for the stories posted on its platform. How typical. Rather than news organizations having to innovate to keep up and remain relevant, competitive and profitable, just steal from others innovation. There has been a lot of buzz lately about fake news stories being found on Facebook and Google and traditional media is passing the blame onto these websites for allowing people to share and … [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...]
The “Super Secret” to Appraising Your .com Domain Name for 2018 and Beyond
NEW YORK, NY - There have been many changes over the last five years when it comes to Internet domain names. I will say that this pertains to the average domain (web address), not so much a super-premium domain name, but your average .com two or three word domain name. For the most part, pricing has gone down, for whatever reason. Some changes you may have noticed such as: The EMD Penalty: Where Google will not simply rank the domain at the top of search for its exact … [Read more...]
Should You Support Net Neutrality? Yes or No? Internet Content Discrimination
Layman Terms: Net Neutrality rules prevent "Internet Content Discrimination" NEW YORK, NY - There are probably many people out there who hear about this Net Neutrality debate and do not know which way to lean on the issue, or they are simply not sure if they would be better off supporting it, or if they would be getting duped if they didn't. I wanted to details some very simple examples of what the Internet would be like with no Net Neutrality, which we do … [Read more...]
‘Toys R Us’ Should Shut Retail Operation, Rebrand as “Toys.com” Before Too Late
NEW YORK, NY – Year after year Toy giant and massive retailer “Toys R Us” finds itself in a difficult situation fast becoming worse. According to Bloomberg, the company is about to file Bankruptcy and it could come as soon as today. Toys R Us has been trying to keep up with online retailers such as Amazon and discount stores such as Wal-Mart whom have already out-maneuvered them by far building large bustling online operations, something Toys R Us has been struggling to … [Read more...]
Search Engine Optimization (“SEO”) for “CEOs” – ln Layman’s Terms
NEW YORK, NY - About twelve years ago when “search engine optimization” was beginning to get popular, a competing news publisher invited me to lunch at his restaurant to brainstorm about collaborating. It never materialized, but while there and after getting to know each other for a little while, he then turned to me, changed his posture in his chair a bit, sort of gathered his thoughts, and asked me straight out, “sell me on search engine optimization”, “what is it” and “how … [Read more...]
191 Online Tools to Run Your Domain, Development and Online Business
NEW YORK, NY – There are a lot of tools out there which make running your online business more efficient, reliable, secure and productive. Listed below are some of the services I use or have used in the past. They are all great services and are the ones I use currently, or have used in the past (My collection of goodies). If I have used an online tool and it makes my work easier, it's here. Domain Names (32) https://www.godaddy.com (Domain Registration [The King]) … [Read more...]
Iowa Man, 43, Faces Life in Prison for Armed Robbery of Domain Name, Kidnapping
IOWA - According to British technology news website “The Register” a 43 year-old man broke into a house in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, last month armed with a gun and a fearless intent to hijack a “valuable” Internet domain name. The incident took place in the middle of the afternoon (about 1PM) on June 21st, 2017. Domain name theft has been something all too common in the digital world, but until now, has been, for the most part, a crime carried out over the Internet, in forums, … [Read more...]
Behind The Scenes: Sometimes Good Stuff Is Happening That You Should Know About
NEW YORK, NY - Imagine if you had your super premium domain name stolen from you, legally, and there was absolutely nothing you could do about it - and nothing you could have done to prevent it, because you never actually did anything wrong in the first place? Holy Smokes; Sounds Terrible Right? Here is the Scenario. You register a domain name for a unique word or phrase which is not currently in use. There are no current sites using the word, no trademarks on the term, and … [Read more...]
Best Thing Domain Owner, Investor Can Learn Is “Website Development”
NEW YORK, NY - There are a lot of good courses and books out there that will teach you how to buy, sell and/or choose the right domain names to invest in, or how to choose names which have great resale value or those domain names which will stand the test of time, as far as valuation, but one of the greatest things a domain investor or enthusiast can learn is domain name development. The ability to build your own domain name into a full-fledged website could very well be … [Read more...]
