Seven Mile

Elliot blogs about the 3 letter .com realm.

http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/10/b-king-on-three-letter-com-sales/

***FS*** There are only 17,576 3 letters in .com ..  This piece probably explains which a have gotten scores of spam sales offers for my three letter and 3 number domains over the past few days.
Google reduces the importance of sub domains in it’s ranking system.

Excerpt: “As eBay and others have aggressively used subdomains to dominate branded AND unbranded search results, and Google has improved their sitelinks technology, any relevancy gain by treating subdomains as a separate site will be going away. Google is going to start  treating subdomains like subfolders, and limit the number of results from any site to just two.” http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007120823/google-changing-handling-of-sub-domains/#more-1905

***FS*** Enjoy getting google traffic.  Don’t rely on it as the primarily source for traffic for your website/business. The best traffic is the traffic tha Google wants to “buy”  and that traffic comes from generic type-in traffic producing domain names.

Microsoft introduces free Live.in email addresses to Indians.

http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007120817/microsoft-india-introduces-new-livein-e-mail-domain/

***FS***  I think many more folks would run email on their own proprietary domains (for email) if they understood how to go about it.  There is a knowlege gap where getting email or getting a domain is not simple enough for regular folks.  Domain values will have their next dramatic leg-up when an intermediary comes along that makes the registration, management and renewal of names and email easier for the average person…  and once that application “takes off” in a significant mainstream way. Perhaps a mechanism that allows anyone to get an email on anyone else’s name or pays a fee for each email account to the name-holder.

Josh: Elliot Silver takes some of Jay W’s advice…

.. and thanks him for it. Elliot bought an existing site that google didn’t include in it’s results.  By following Jay’s advice, his name was reincluded, now appears as the #1 listing, and he’s getting additional traffic.  Even the experts learn something from time-to-time. There’s alot of learning from each other going on in the domain/development realm. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/08/thank-you-jay/

More from Elliot:  Honesty and integrity critical when doing business in the domain realm.  To be fair it’s critical everywhere http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/08/domain-industry-lesson-1/

Sahar opens his blog wider,

..and hopes to spark discussions and learning in his new area call “Debates”. http://www.conceptualist.com/category/debates/

***FS***  Another great idea from Sahar

79.1 percent of marketers plan to increase their online budgets for 2008.

No surprise here, but good to see nonetheless.

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071207/FREE/71207006

ParkingWhois.com

Smart idea that’s in beta.  Tells you if a domain is parked or not, and where.  Problem is i tried 5 examples.  Two worked, and the other 3 said the domain is not parked,.. and it is.  It was a bit slow on a couple of the searches.  They need to make it more accurate or this service won’t get used.

Music business in Japan sees 1% rise in sales

…industry observers attribute this to mobile music downloads. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/7130596.stm

ConsumerReports.org

…Paid subscriptions, no ads.  3 million viewers who pay for web access. 4.5 million who buy the print vrsion. 208 million in revenue and operating margin of 28 million. http://www.news.com/Success-without-ads/2100-1038_3-6222063.html?tag=nefd.top

***FS***  Only 13% margins..  Sounds low for a publishing outfit. 

Ad company installs tracking capabilities at the ISP level.

SP’s hold alot of power.  With great ower comes great responsibility.. Without great responsibility, comes great regulation. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071209.wsniff1209/BNStory/Technology/home

“The Ultimate Domain Name Guide”

I think it’s from 2006.  It’s relevant today.

The headline is over the top.  That said, it’s a good overview, especially for people just getting started.  The writer, Sebastian Robinson, thinks that the right domain name is critical for your business. Excerpt: “Domain names have become more than just an address on the web. Today they can make or break a business.”

Josh says:  I don’t think a domain name can make a business. (Unless your business is buying and selling domains, or parking names that have type in traffic.)   But, i agree with the basic sentiment that having the right name / domain name is important, if not very important.  The writer is mistaken that the .XXX extension has been granted. http://www.micromart.co.uk/features/article/default.aspx?id=22516

Danno writes: 

  “”Watched a TV comercial this morning, advertising this website: http://www.discovernursing.com/

Johnson & Johnson ‘gets’ generic domain names. Maybe someone should invite the person in charge of their marketing to speak at domainfest about how generic domain names have added value to their business(s).”"

***FS***   So right Danno..  these folks have done a terrific job with Baby.com and all their names really.  They sooooo “get” it.  A few major corps have had marketing staff with great naming instincts.. I remember P&G had one of the biggest generic name portfolios back in the mid nineties.  They ultimately let many of those valuable names expire..  I scooped some of them up at the depth of the bust (ie. razorblades.com) .. They still own some of their big single word generics but many of their compound phrases expired.. I can only hypothesize that the individual who acquired their portfolio was let go or left to go to another company.

Everyone is Doing It

http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/07/everybodys-doing-it/

***FS*** Investing in domain names that is

Domain Valuations : Chris Stewart

Domain Value (DV)=Traffic Value (TV)+Brand Value
(BV)+Utility Value (UV)+Discretionary Value (DiV) : Part 1
http://marketforlemons.com/?p=5

Via.com sells for 157,000.

(scroll down.) http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=bf857a50211d7889c72645f54b38beb6&threadid=84867  Great name to build on.  Good price for buyer (fully valued for name-investor), esp if they are going to develop.  Via would be a good name  for a search engine or some kind of portal.  Lot of other possibilities.  Has meaning in multiple languages.

 From Danno:

AfternicDLS Member Sells UI.com for $275K (nice story)

http://afternicdlsblog.com/2007/12/07/afternic-success-story-uicom-sells-for-275k/

 ***FS***  Still sooo much untapped opportunity in the name business for those who care to try. 

iREIT leaves the ICA

(Scroll down at the link.)
http://dnjournal.com/newsletters/2007/november.htm

***FS***  It was really more Bob Martin who was behind iReit’s participation in the ICA..  with Bob gone it’s no surprise the group dropped out.

Sedo.com now shows that invest.com sold for $ 1,015,000.

http://www.greatdomains.com/auction/auction_history.php?language=us&auction_id=21998&tracked=&partnerid=32392  Josh says :  I think the buyer got a good deal. You can buy a parking spot in Central London for  $50,000 - $90,000 and in some cases you’ll pay considerable monthly fees on it.  And to go with your parking space, you can buy this 3 bedroom, 3 bedroom flat for $13,000,000. http://www.findaproperty.com/displayprop.aspx?edid=00&salerent=0&pid=059058&agentid=07711
Renewal fee each year on invest.com: $ 7.50 . Taxes and maintenance costs on your $13,000,000 flat in London: Priceless.

***FS***  Agree with J’man’s logic but as a wildcat investor (me) who has to front the 1mm,  the carrying charge is about 70k a year.. so I’d say the name’s fully valued from an invetor’s perspective.

Considerable controversy around the sale of Music.mobi.

Excerpt: “Constantine Giorgio Roussos thought he was the winner of Music.mobi in yesterday’s.mobi auction at Sedo. He bid $66,000. The auction ended and he received an automated invoice from Sedo. He then received a  “personal” e-mail from a Sedo employee (which also may have been automated). But then something happened. Sedo extended the auction due to a server slowdown in the final minutes of the auction.” The name was then sold to someone else who bid $616,000.  http://domainnamewire.com/2007/12/07/musicmobi-winner-vows-lawsuit-against-sedo/

***FS*** This is the classic fight over nothing.  Wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a publicity stunt.

Opportunity Cost of Lost Opportunities.

Interesting article by Elliot Silver.  Sometimes you “overpay” now, and benefit later.  Perhaps you never overpaid in the first place. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/12/07/opportunity-cost-of-lost-opportunities/

***FS***  Historically speaking, if the name was generic and got type-in-traffic, it was very hard to loose money in the domain biz..  the market has consistently caught up to your overpayment..  That won’t go on forever tho.

Light of Logic Creeping Through

New York Times David Pogue blasts companies that have chosen wierd and hard to remember company names.He points out plenty of hard to remember names. Trulia and Zillow are two better examples than “Fark” which is witty enough.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/technology/personaltech/06pogue-email.html?ex=1354683600&en=e08b6ea2e4dad1dd&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Danno Sends Related

Seussical-Sounding Web Site Names

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/06/the-dr-seuss-jumble-naming-web-sites/?hp 

***FS*** Nice to see people having that..  “hayyy… waita minute.  “  moment of logic setting in.  Most Web2 names are awful.

Eric Litman becomes Managing Director of WashingtonVC.

http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007120709/eric-litman-becomes-managing-director-of-washingtonvc/#more-1890

***FS***  Congrats Eric.

Where’s the money?

Excerpt: “”The venture (capital) industry is headed into a wall. All the best companies are being sold,” Deninger said. “For seven straight years, the number of companies going public has declined. That means the number of (prospective) buyers is also declining. Eventually, the VCs will have fewer companies that they can sell their companies to.”"  http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9830529-7.html?tag=nefd.blgs

***FS*** Blame SarbOx man ..  People are getting sloppy overpaying for nothing and the good stuff never sees the light of day..  Irony: Rules meant to protect investors only serve to make the rich richer and give said investors fewer opportunities.

Invest.com bid up to 431k at Auction

auction is still live. 4 hours to go, as of 10 a.m. EST. Friday, Dec 6, 07  Reserve is 200,000 - 499,999. http://www.greatdomains.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=us&auction_id=21998&tracked=&partnerid=32392

***FS***  Great name..  This is fully valued from a wildcat-return investor’s perspective.

Which domain extensions have increased in value the fastest. 

Between 2004 - 2007. http://www.domainbits.com/increase-value All the data:  http://www.domainbits.com/data

***FS***Summary:  Buy .com’s

Whizzbang: Where to buy domains.

http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/335/86/

***FS*** still find deals on SEDO.com,  Afternic.com and GreatDomains.com

Verisign states that 146 million domain names registered across all TLD’s.

12 million in the last quarter. http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2007/dailyposts/12-05-07.htm Josh

***FS***  Most of the 12mm new names were discovered through tasting ..  and (very very important) only 5-10% of all 146mm names are worth anything whatsoever.. to any more than one distinctive entity.  That means there are just 7 - 14 million investment grade names available to the world.. How many do you own?

Alvaro Albarracin goes on a .mobi speculation shopping spree.

http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/06/alvaro-albarracin-breaks-dotmobi-sales-record/

MUSIC.MOBI = USD 616K
GAMES.MOBI = USD 401K
SPORTS.MOBI = USD 101K
MOVIES.MOBI = USD 82K
PHOTOS.MOBI = USD 51K
VIDEOS.MOBI = USD 51K

Alvaro says “I am not planning on developing these names,  I am planing on selling these sometime in the near  future.” .. 

***FS***Sell Alvaro ..  run like the wind and sell.  This man will be joining Dr. Van Neeste in the land of irrelevance shortly

Pubcon coverage.  Domaining.

Effective Domain name strategies  http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015575.html

***FS***  These are good beginnings..  bet that a handful of folks had the light-bulb domaining moment.. 

Domains and trademarks.

Clark Walton, Esq. - Domain Name Law http://www.seroundtable.com/archives/015574.html

***FS***  Synopsis of presentation provides interesting insight into lawyer’s thinking, tactics.. Most domainers I know don’t run from lawyers.. They have lawyers too  :)  In 7 years I’ve found that you are more likely to be challenged by an over-reaching lawyer on a legitimate registration that you are to be backed into a corner over a name you really shouldn’t own.

Bruce Clay’s take on Richard Rosenblatt’s keynote

http://www.bruceclay.com/blog/archives/2007/12/keynote_address.html

***FS***  I like Richard Rosenblatt..  He’s a one in ten million character..  One of the most charismatic people I have ever drank Patron with / met.

Pubcon coverage links above via Sahar.

http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/06/pubcon-coverage-effective-domaining-strategies/

***FS***  Thanks Sahar!

Domain industry events listed.  Til May 2008.

http://www.domainnews.com/industry-events/

***FS***Nice summary to bookmark on DomainNews.com

Domain Truffles.

Josh says: Michael Berkens talks about domains as commodities and collectibles.  As well, he highlights the notion of quality by briefly discussing buying oil paintings at a flea market as compared to going to Art Basel in Miami, where 500 million dollars worth of art is expected to sell in just 4 days. He likes truffles, too.  Btw, Michael, it was a dog and not a pig that found the giant truffle that recently sold at auction in Macau. http://www.thedomains.com/2007/12/05/domain-truffles-2/

***FS***Berkens is an attorney turned domainer..  He has great insight into the value proposition that meaningful generic names represent.  Love the truffle analogy Mike.

Moniker Pubcon auction results.

Monte continues to move auctions outside of the  domain investment community.  That’s a good thing. http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=84850
GrandPa.com - $55,000
FamilyServices.com - $45,000
MortgageRates.org — $17,000
BlindDating.com — $14,000
ComputerDiscounts.com - $10,000
More sales results of other names here: http://www.domainnamenews.com/events/moniker-pubcon-2007-auction-results/1328#more-1328

Tips for finding brandable domain names. 

by Bill Eisenmann.
Excerpt: “”Not everyone is looking for keyword rich, generic domain names. Many Internet startups are looking for a simple, catchy name or phrase to build their online identity around. Brandable, web 2.0 style domain names have gained popularity in recent years mostly due to the explosion of social-networking sites. http://availabledomainnames.com/2007/tips-for-finding-brandable-domain-names/

***FS***  Everybody wants traffic..  Everybody..  Whether they say it or not..  whether they know it or not..  nobody wakes up in the morning, says “I want to start a website that nobody will visit”.  Nothing happens on the Internet without traffic.  Generic keyword style domain names get a primer-level of organic type in traffic for nothing more than the keyword weight or gravity of the name itself.  Those are the “catchy”, “brandable” and “cool-sounding” names which constitute the 5-10% of all names registered which are worth anything at all..  Those are the names you want.

Domain Tools Auction

Jay responds to auction criticisms, reduces after auction pricing reduction for names that don’t sell to 10% reduction from previously stated 20% reduction, and drops his commission to 9 % from 10%. http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/12/auction-rules/

Joshsays: Read the post for more details and other info.  One of the things that Jay says is they they will do alot of pre auction promotion, to generate interest.  Thing is, the cut off date for name submissions is Christmas eve, and the auction is on January 3rd.  ?. Jay retains exclusive rights to sell the domain for 60 days after the auction.

***FS***  It’s his sandbox..  and he needs some kind of tool to discourage off-block sales after auction close.  Understand the sellers POV too tho.

Facebook bows to pressure about Beacon Ads.

Allows users to turn them off completely.  How many will turn it off?  Choice. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9051119&intsrc=hm_ts_head
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/12/05/2114247.shtml

***FS***  Josh Quitner was unfairly silenced on this..  It’s Facebook who deserved the slap-down IMO.  http://valleywag.com/tech/media/facebooks-foolish-foes-330424.php

Nokia to continue to invest in online services

.. to add value to their phones. http://www.news.com/Nokia-sets-eyes-on-Internet-to-support-handsets/2100-1039_3-6221589.html?tag=nefd.top

***FS***  Nokia is in trouble long-term..  They don’t have the software..  Anyone can make hardware.

Nice list.. missing the founders of Domainstate.com and also I think Paul Sloan/ Josh Quitner (writer and former editor) of Business 2.0 should have made this list..  Their coverage of the disruptive technology embodied in the name-biz helped to shine the light on the industry for other ”legitimate web” participants to see - and their stories provided the founding spark for more than one of today’s market participants.

List here:  http://logistiklabs.blogspot.com/2007/12/20-most-influential-people-in-domain.html

As a quick aside..  Josh Quittner recently wrote a hard hitting critique of the flimsy business model and dishonest culture at Facebook, only to be publicly dressed down by Time Inc.  I am continually struck that the tech-community acts like such a fawning sycophant as it relates to Facebook.  They treat this co. like the last girl at the bar on a Friday night.  We need more Josh Quittners to tell us to give our heads a shake and to take our collective tongues out of Facebook’s caboose long enough to see what it is we’re taking home…

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/internet/0,1000000097,39291329,00.htm

This is the kind of direction we need to see more of..  It’s an unhealthy and unsafe dynamic when brand holders can beat you up because you told the world “their brand stinks” via a website which incorporates their brand-name.  Taken to it’s illogical conclusion, we’d have to invent codewords to talk about the products and services we dislike. 

“”There is a certain inevitability” that more and more of the sites will be allowed, according to Wilbers. Companies will have to go along with it, he said, because there are too many sites and alternate sub-domains to police their branding effectively.

“Whether they like it or not, the internet is being used for such purposes,”"

Ya gotta love Free-speech.  Power to the people..  What the Internet is all about.

http://www.namestrategy.com/domains/bubble-20-video-talks-about-domain-names.html 

  Hilarious actually..  linked on Joe Davidosn’s blog..  and as joe points out,  I get a mini supporting role.

Domains Down Under 

Melbourne.com sells for 700k.
Brisbane.com sells for 100k.
http://dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm
These are excellent geographical names..  I like cities with “i” in front of them too.  Less organic traffic but cheaper and more brandable
Other notable sales:
TheNightBeforeChristmas.com  $2,600
BabyBoomers.net  $5,000
LuxuryHomes.org  $1,775
Cannabis.co.uk  $9,743

Dun and Bradstreet buy AllBusiness.com website for 55 million.

http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/company-structures-ownership/4974051-1.html 

***FS*** Everyone’s moving to a greater online presence… rating agencies included.  Really good for name holders..  Like a slowly moving tide floating our boats.  It’s subtle ..  but everyone feels it.

Micahel Berkens launches TheDomains.com blog, and announces Domain Parking Stock Index.

http://www.thedomains.com/2007/12/04/domain-parking-stock-index/ The index is at the right side of his main page, and updates at 6 p.m. daily.Here: > http://www.thedomains.com/ (Via Sahar.)

***FS***  Awesome that Michael is doing this.. really good for the domain space..  Isn’t it time you started a blog Mr. or Ms. Domainer?  You don’t have to publish everyday but I’m sure you could add a great deal to the space with your thoughts.

Mint.com gets some buzz.

Attempts to take on quicken for financial management tools with free online tools. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/121/easy-money.html

***FS***  I like this domain a LOT!  If I owned it.. I’d sell numismatics and those cheesy limited edition replicas of stuff..  Honorable nod to those who like those cheesy limited edition replicas of stuff

Microsoft issues security alert related to third level domain names.
3rd level, meaning: go.Microsoft.com ) http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/945713.mspx 

***FS***  I have a great deal of difficulty “trusting” anything Microsoft does relating to browsing security,  because
A) They control the browser
B) They manipulate error searches in their browser to plumb incorrectly typed traffic seeking other websites toward their own Internet media portals 
C) They turn around and sue cybersquatters for the same type of traffic theft.
I will do a complete 180 on MSFT when they stop harvesting error searches in their browser..  Stealing is stealing whether it happens on the right or left of the dot

Domain Tools announces next online auction.

http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/12/new-auction-alert  (Jays readers submit comments and reactions at the link above.)

***FS***  Good deals at Jay’s auction..  daddy says buy, but some of the new innovations could make things pricier and tough for sellers.

Related: Domain Wire comments about the auction at this link below, and others add their views to the DW comments section. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/12/05/domaintools-announces-next-auction/

Josh points out:  Auction will be January 3rd, 2008.  Imo, that might be too close to New Years/the holidays, especially since no names have been submitted at this point.  Though, word does travel fast, if Jay ends up with good names.  Fact is, some folks who go away for Christmas, don’t start getting back to the nuts and bolts of work until Jan 5/7 or so. If your name doesn’t sell at the auction, Jay has an exclusive to sell your names for 60 days after the auction, and the price will drop 20%. Imo, 60 days is too long.  No exclusive or 15-20 days sounds about right to me.  The forced price drop of 20% after the auction is a bit of a disincentive for people to bid at the auction, especially if there are no bids or low bids on a particular certain name.  I’m sure some folks will increase their asking/reserve price by 20%, before they submit their names. Alot of folks say they liked Jay’s software at the last auction, kudos to that.  Imo, Jay might want to consider tweaking some of the other aspects mentioned above.  Or not, it’s his thing.

***FS***  Good that Jay’s pushing the envelope with new stuff..  But you’re right some of the dates might run too long.

1 in 20 businesses can’t remember their own domain names.

http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/article/13/11/2007/website_domain_name.html

***FS***  …And we see them every day in the expirng name lists..  A virtual boulevard of broken dreams.  It’s sad that people don’t take more pride of ownership in their rights to domains.  One man’s trash is another’s treasure I suppose. Referenced the piece in the past but worth repeating.

Inside Domaining rounds up 30 different top searched words from 2007

http://InsideDomaining.blogspot.com/
Including:  Nascar, David Beckham, Design, HDTV, Games, Travel, YouTube.

***FS***  I am a regular visitor to http://50.lycos.com have been visiting that site since Fritz Holznagel ran the show and the colors were orange (woner whatever happened to that guy?).  Suggest you bookmark the site..  The ‘archives’ are the thinking domainer’s treasure-trove. Spend 3 full days in there and get a one year masters in popular keywords and user psychology.
 

People are spending multiple $ millions on virtual gifts.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/12/04/virtual.gifts.ap/index.html

***FS*** We’re all helping to fuel this boom..  Best sold over domain names.

Bruce Schneier, “internet security guru”, answers questions,.. many questions.

Good read.
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/04/bruce-schneier-blazes-through-your-questions/
Excerpt:
Q: Assuming we are both still here in 50 years, what do you believe will be the most incredible, fantastic, mind-blowing advance in computers/technology at that time?

A: Moore’s Law predicts that in fifty years, computers will be a billion times more powerful than they are today. I don’t think anyone has any idea of the fantastic emergent properties you get from a billion-times increase in computing power. (I recently wrote about what security would look like in ten years, and that was hard enough.) But I can guarantee that it will be incredible, fantastic, and mind-blowing.

***FS***  The internet has been around in it’s commercial form for almost exactly 13 years ..  13 years folks.  I got Netscape/Mosaic at Comdex in 1994 .. opened my Winsock (dialup) and promptly visited the handful of sites that existed.  It took me all of 20 minutes to find my first porn online.  Today porn can be found in 5 seconds..  That’s 23,900% improvement.. The only constant since those early days is the domain name.. In 50 years they may have computers that sleep with you and smoke a cigarette for you afterward,  but you will still find those ‘types’ of websites at unique locations identified by a domain name.  Domain names.. get em while they’re hot..  and still cheap.

Tia Wood asks:

“”Frank, after looking at a thread at DNF titled “Why Domains cost what they do…Your Reasoning?”, I don’t feel anyone has hit the nail on the head. To me, why domains cost the what they do has largely to do with reverse branding: the ability to reverse brand a word for a company instead of a company for a word. The same goes for branding words for individuals or organizations, etc. But the value lies within reverse brandability, correct? Which brings in a higher quality of consistent and valuable traffic. What’s your take on it?”"

***FS*** I often hear secondary-market domain sales and names referred to as “powerful” or “expensive”. Not all domains are powerful of course..  And why exactly are the powerful ones considered powerful?  Well..  As I’ve explained previously if you buy a good, meaningful, generic domain which garners some measure of organic type-in traffic for nothing more than the keyword weight of the name itself;  you essentially have a storefront with guaranteed visitors coming into your door and strolling past the merchandise.  Typing in a domain isn’t necessarily like a good storefront in a high traffic location,  it’s more like the gift shop at the end of a theme park ride that you have to pass through to leave the ride.  Only these visitors aren’t looking for the street..  they have self qualified the topic they seek by typing that particular domain name. In the real world you have to pay to lease the space, put in lease-hold improvements, etc, etc.  On the Internet, window-dressing is cheap..  the storefront and improvements which bring the visitors in “are the name”.

People often tell me domains are “”soooo expensive”"… They ask:  ”Why would I pay $10,000 or $20,000 or $50,000 for a great name when I can make up another name for less?!?” 

   Well if you buy a name like the one described above with organic,  generic-intent type-in type-in traffic; 10, 20 or 50 thousand dollars is not a lot of money.  Years ago I worked in marketing consumer electronics and we purchased full page magazine ad-space in “gamer” magazines for $15,000 for the month..  That’s one side of one page, for one-month… and that didn’t include artwork.  It was just to build nebulous concepts like “mind-share” with the gaming public.  You can’t put mindshare in the bank folks.  Had we bought a great domain for $15,000 (and we could have gotten gaming.com or games.com for $15000 back then) we would have gotten millions of yearly visitors forever;  for nothing more than the price of the renewal fees.

   The other dynamic at-play is scarcity.  With 100 million domain names registered how can they be seen as scarce? Well most registered domain-names are either “terrible” in quality or are specific to a certain branded product or service.  On any given day, a random slice of the name-space expires for non-payment. 15,000, 20,000, 25000 names expire each day.  I have watched these expiring name lists every day, for the better part of a decade.  These lists are a virtual “boulevard of broken dreams” ..  names which people bought with great hope, only to allow them to slip away after they had some emotional change of heart or after they forgot to renew them. 90-95% of these expiring names are complete and total crap.  You could make-up better names in the unregistered available pool.

The remaining 5-10% are names which could have some traffic or some value to more than one person.  Names which could be called meaningful, powerful or generic. That’s 5-10 million domain names globally.  It doesn’t take a mathematician to determine that there are just not enough great names to go around.  It’s not possible for every person or company to have even one “good” registration.  That shortage of supply and global demand keeps prices high…  and will for years to come.  In fact if the examples above show anything, it’s that great domain names are “still” cheap.

Half the planet has cell phone plans. 

3.3 billion of them. How long before half of those people have full browsing on their phones? Pretty quick, i imagine. http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=media&storyID=nL29172095

***FS***  edge, bluetooth, .mobi, gsm123..  this all bullshit.  I’m an early adopter of almost all useful things tech and I predict mobile browsing (in the lean forward shopping “sell people stuff” sense) goes absolutely no-where,  “Nooooo!! - Whhheere!!”  unless it’s iphone Safari style full browser style browsing..  AND ‘until’ battery life or power consumption gets WAYYY better.. Incidentally I’ve stopped using a Blackberry and am back to a regular flip-phone.  “A fool and his money are early on mobile” ..  Wait for the standard to establish itself (to provide a certain foundation), wait for the invariable bust from overbuilding..  then pick up the pieces on the cheap after.
 

.ASIA/ IP Issues

1. CNN: “The .Asia rollout shows in many ways how the Wild
West days are dwindling for cyber-squatters — known as
“domainers” — to mine high-value names.”

***FS***  Yawn..  Buy .asisa to flip and make money ..  don’t build your house there.  If .asia is a winner ‘in asia’,  then IDN’s are doomed..  if IDN’s win then ascii asia is doomed.

2. “To brand owners it can be a bit of a nuisance as they
have to keep registering to protect their brand name,” say
Lam of IP Mirror.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/BUSINESS/11/28/digital.dotasia/

Josh opines on Trademarks (#2 above)

“”Comments like this often fail to communicate the bigger picture.  Imo, Brand owners that own generic word/public domain word trademarks like Apple, Amazon, Sun, Love, etc, should have no monopoly on the many possible uses of those words in public discourse and in non-confusing /non competitive trademarks or service marks or copyrights. I’ll go one step further and question the ethics of granting famous trademark status on any single words in the public domain.  Much has changed over the last 10-15 years with respect to the use of language and words because of the Net.  Many things need to be re-examined now, and in the future, including whether famous trademark status and it’s enormous power on single words in the public domain should continue.

What’s much more of a “nuisance” than certain brand owners thinking they have to register their single word public domain trademarks in every single TLD, is the sheer audacity they have to think that they own and should control that word that originated in the public domain, and be given special rights that supercede the use of that word by the general public or those that want to use that word in non-competing and non confusing trademarks or servicemarks or copyrights.

In other words,.. and in my opinion,.. when a new TLD opens like .asia, trademark holders of single words that are obviously in the public domain should Not be given special privileges to register those domain names before anyone else from the general public.

On a different but related tangent,.. if someone hypothetically registered the domain name Love.com, in 2000, and chose to simply put the word Love on their webpage or not activate the site. And in 2007 someone created a bar of soap and trademarked the word Love for that bar of soap,.. it is absurd and unreasonable that the trademark holder for the word Love, that is related to the bar of soap, should have any power to wrestle away the domain name from the current owner of love.com because they have a trademark related to a bar of soap.  Trademarks should not trump use of words in the public domain, or domain names of those same words that may be idle/not in use.”"

Down Under

Aussie domain investors have a night out with the Fab crew.

http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/331/1/

***FS***  I wish Australia was closer

Related:

.Au registrations pass the million domain mark. http://www.dnxpert.com/2007/11/30/registrations-of-au-domains-surge-past-the-1-million-mark/
 

Memorial

Elliot deals with a personal tragedy.  A good reminder about what’s important. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/11/29/life-lesson/

***FS*** Heartfelt condolence to you sir.  It’s important to take stock in our lives and be greateful for each day.
 

Team.com sells for $ USD 300,000.

http://insidedomaining.blogspot.com/2007/11/teamcom-scores-6-figure-domain-sale.html

***FS***  Das alotta money mang..  But not for that name.  I think it’s probably fair value..  I could actually picture myself purchasing that name and I’m pretty cheap.  There are not many 4 letter.com names that are meaningful..  I purchased Note.com for $115,000 in New York recently..  That name seemed high at the time,  now I feel like I’m in-the-money.  That’s the domain biz in a nutshell..  Overpay for anything good and eventually it looks cheap.
 

Facebook begins to bow to the pressure

But still doesn’t allow a complete opt out of their ad system. http://valleywag.com/tech/online-advertising/facebook-caves-to-beacon-critics-328280.php and here: http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9826664-36.html

***FS***  I don’t use Facebook.  Millions do..  I think it’s a sideshow that will soon blow away or blow over. Nobody goes on about Myspace like they used to either..  These co’s get valued like fireworks in full explosion. Investors willing to pay anything for that one glorious moment,  which passes shortly.
 

Some bad names chosen for these companies.

e.g. :  qliktech.com  http://croydonian.blogspot.com/2007/11/shortage-of-sensible-domain-names-is.html

***FS*** Don’t buy names like these…  Need not say more
 

100 Great Domain Blog Posts

http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2007/domainer-required-reading-100-great-blog-posts/

***FS*** 1 or 2 from me..  I must be slipping ..  Which is a good thing..  It’s great to see a space becoming so vibrant and viral with domain chatter..  This is a great industry.  It’s wonderful to see more folks discussing it openly and learning tricks and tips from each other.

Thomas Price asks:

  “”…how do you know when an unregistered domain is good enough to be registered? I find domains all the time that I think are great domains, but if I registered every domain I found, I would be bankrupt by the time it came around to renewing them. I’ve got a list of over 500 unregistered domains that I think are great domains - while only a few of them are great names for “type-in-traffic”, almost all of them are “two or three stackers” in advertisemnets on Google. (The term comes from Jay Westerdal)

I think all of these unregistered domains could developed into profitable websites, but how do I know when to stop registering, and start developing? (How to cut loose of what I think may underperforming names in my porfolio).. I’ve always had a few domains that really outperformed the others, including on single domain that averaged over $500 a day in clickthroughs (until Google caught wind of it and torpedoed my organic search ratings.) I still have several GREAT performimg domains, and am always looking for that next star performer.”"”

***FS*** A bunch of great questions here.. There are different philosophies for buying names and many right ways to do things in the domain business.. A few days ago on the linkfest I blogged about how Stephen Webb was turning trafficless lemons  into lemonade with his “We Are *City* ” .com names.  This type of story emboldens every theme-name holder from the good (”e” names, “i” names, “my” names) to the horrifically bad (hotb2b name, names) ..  In the end you need to use a little pop culture, instinct and search volumes as guide posts.

Firstly if the names you are interested in are sitting there available in late 2007,  then it’s doubtful that they have any material traffic. Somebody would have scooped them up by now via tasting or via the expiring name drop (if they were formerly owned).  So what you are speaking of are names which “look cool”,  which ”could” get traffic, or which are “easy to remember”, or which would be “easier than other names” to build traffic to.

I would caution you against taking the Google or Overture search-term popularity tool results too literally.  Some of the worst names are procured using these tools.  If the name ranks highly in Google or Overture,  and it got any merchantable traffic at all (high search count names typically get some traffic), then it would already have been registered through the drop (if old) or through domain tasting (if newly invented term)..  There are the odd stragglers which may have been missed,  but unless tasting stops,  it will be very difficult for the available-pool to replenish with ‘new vernacular’ traffic names.

The Overture tool may say that “psychic reading free” gets 12,000 searches a month but may not serve results in order..  the correct order for the domain name would be freepsychicreadings.com (plural) ..  that’s where the organic type-in traffic component of those 12,000 monthly searches lies in domain-form.  Had you bought the wrong order or the singular tense, you will get less or no traffic.  Building traffic via search engine optimization or making money via paid search keyword arbitrage are similar..  The correct tense,  the most appealing order will convince the human visitor to click.

   You would be much more successful (draw more clicks) arbitraging traffic under the bidded keyphrase “psychic free reading” if you you used the domain freepsychicreading.com.. Yahoo groups less popular keyword orders together for paid-search purposes..  so if you take their suggestion too literally as a domain procurement tool,  you’ll buy the wrong order.  My advice is to watch more MTV,  see what the correct phrases are..  use pop-culture, television and magazine covers as guideposts to steer you in the right direction relating to conceptual names.

You’ll buy better names and make more money selling them that way. 

Lastly,  If you have names you’ve been carrying for years and they get no traffic and they get no whois lookups (whois lookups are useful for determining sales potential because they tell you how often others tried to see if the name was available to register) then you should dump those names.. I never let any names expire,  but I have friends who try to explore for unregistered names similar to those they are considering deleting..  If they find that all related names are registered,  then they keep their name for another year.  If they find other names available and ‘their’ name gets no traffic or whois-lookups,  then they release the registration. 

Hope this helps.

New Logo Suggested

Domainer’s Gazette kindly offers so possible alternative logos for me http://www.domainersgazette.com/an-alternative-logo-font-for-frank-schillings-blog/ .

***FS***  I’m sincerely flattered ..  kind of like my folksy craigs-list style font.  But change is good.

Typo Partnerships 

Whizzbang hypothetically plays with fire around TM infringing domain names. http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/329/1/

***FS*** Many trademark holders are terrible domain managers, suing or UDRPing for a name only to loose it to benign neglect or to poorly execute (using the traffic poorly) after winning the name from other registrants.  Maybe domainers will go to work for mark holders,  but doubtful the markholders will trust unrelated registrants to look after their names through some kind of syndicated honor system..  although I had Michael’s same thought a few years back.

Domains Worth More than Traffic Flow 

Elliot cautions against using revenue multiples when buying a name. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/11/28/why-you-shouldnt-use-revenue-multiples/

***FS***  I agree with Elliot..  certain B-Factor can skew name values, well above traffic value.  Mortgages.org gets 1 unique a day..  what’s that worth in traffic

Marchex

Russell Horowitz and Bill Day from Marchex to present keynote address at The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media 2007 (ILM: 07) Conference at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, CA. http://www.marchex.com/press/20071126.html Josh says:  I never get tired of local.
And when i do get tired of it, and need a nap,.. i nap locally.

***FS***  I like Marchex’ portfolio of names..  have seen the before after effect of their growth..  these folks are “doing stuff” .. and Russ is super clever..  still not crazy about the zip codes..  well selfishly I am because I own zip code com/nets ..  but beyond that am not sure..  Looking forward to seeing the fully executed play though.

Domain Auctions

Incidentally, nap.com goes up for sale today as part of a group of name for sale at Great Domains. Starts at 2pm EST. There’s some other good names in the group as well. http://www.greatdomains.com/search/searchresult.php4?auctionevent=Greatdomains

***FS***I like asia.net, fattuesday.com, hangover.com, warlock.com, onlinecasino.net “and” nap.com

Domain News claims Google ranks ccTLD domains higher

when the searcher is in that country. http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007112906/benefits-of-an-international-top-level-domain/#more-1808

***FS***  That’s a simple logical algorithmic parlor trick..  I’d be shaking my head incredulous if Google “wasn’t” doing that.

100 year .com domain registrations.  

From August 2007.  http://www.smartinfo.com.hk/en/newsinformation.php?id=57  Josh asks:  “”Unless something’s changed with ICANN, i don’t think this is a true 100 year registration at the registry.  I could be wrong. ?”"

***FS*** Correct!  Verisign Global Registry Services (keeper of .com/net) will only allow a registrar to renew 10 years out.  The other 90 years is a contractual promise from your registrar to you and is only as good as that registrar and it’s long term solvency.  Stay away from deals beyond 10 years.

Internet War

About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems, and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report. The report said China is at the forefront of the cyber war. It said China has been blamed for attacks in the United States, India, and Germany. China has repeatedly denied such claims. http://www.news.com/World-faces-cyber-cold-war-threat%2C-report-says/2100-7349_3-6220619.html?tag=nefd.top 

***FS***War is fought over resources..  which get paid for with money..  so ultimately war is (almost) always about money (when not about money it’s about religion/beliefs).. That obvious statement out of the way, I think the Internet is already changing our World as good/bad new travels to all people..  no matter where they are and allows them to make decisions more rapidly..  In the final analysis it is harder to suppress the truth “with” free information and the Internet enables that flow of free information.

Canadian student maps brain

Plans to use the way the brain works to power a search engine for images. http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1891450207;fp;16;fpid;1.

***FS***  Now this is a crazy good idea..  Wonder what images I would generate if I ate ice-cream wayyyyy too fast :)  Wonder if I could broadcast those images across thousands of domain names..  Better yet,  What if I didn’t eat ice cream too fast,  and just started thinking about images for each of my names..  I could pre-populate images across all my names in a few weeks using the power of thought alone!  Hope this kid hurries up..  I’m not getting any younger.

Guy.com

Sells for 1 million. 3 letter .com’s with good/great useable meaning are rare. Another compelling week for reported sales. .Net and .Org are the steady climbers. From:  DN journal weekly domain sale reports.http://dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm 

***FS***  I remember men.com selling for 1mm couple of years back.. Men.com is 100X better than Guy.com ..  There’s the domain biz in a nutshell.

Classmates.com filing for IPO.

http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007112804/classmatescom-filing-for-ipo/ 

***FS***  50 million signups and 3 million paid users like the name or don’t care what it’s called. Many folks aren’t crazy about it (the name).

Revenue domains. 

What should you pay?  : Whizzbang.  http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/328/1/  Gilmour keeps ‘em coming. Here he gives rough
estimates as to what he thinks revenue domains are worth, purely based on the rev, and not the potential brand value of the name.  He wades into potentially TM infringing names territory and different types of non infringing generics.

***FS***  I remember Rick Schwartz offering $8 per unique per month back in the early days ..  or maybe it was per week..  Anyway,  what a long way we’ve come.  Expect other investors to start paying closer attention to this stuff after the Name Media IPO.

Dell vs. Florida Registrars.

http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/11/dell-vs-florida-registrars/  Josh says: Domain tasting or testing is not inherently a bad thing.  It depends on how it’s used.  Example: If you are setting up a blog or a start up company and are trying to figure out what name to use, you might brainstorm 50-100 different names, or more.  Considering how blisteringly fast names are being registered, I don’t see anything inherently wrong with registering those names ASAP, and then deleting those you don’t want during the 5 day taste/test period.  Having a small charge for doing so seems reasonable to me.  There’s a difference between the bathwater and the baby.

***FS*** I’m inclined to agree …  this is a different issue though..  second hand chatter alleges kiting obvious marks between registrars, large scale tasting and keeping deliberate TM’s without screening.. etc.  Haven’t read the whole complaint,  but this is a big action.  Here’s to hoping for a peaceful and amicable settlement that makes the space better.

Elliot offers up to $50,000 for a US city .com domain;

population should be 50,000 or higher.   (”city”.com,  nothing else.)

http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/11/27/wanted-us-city-com-domain-name/

***FS*** It wasn’t that long ago that one could have probably got a name like this for much less.  Is this a bubble price, or reflective of the importance of the Geo space?  Josh says the latter.  (It’s worth noting that he’s a big fan of geo and thinks geo is very compelling.) I’m a big Geo fan too..  but some of this is just related to inflation..  We live in a world awash in US Dollars. Some of that “money supply”/liquidity phenomenon is making itself felt in in the domain business,  although it’s a lot less than in other sectors.

WeAreSanDiego.com sold to San Diego Union-Tribune.

Seller is Stephen Webb. http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007112723/san-diego-union-tribune-purchases-wearesandiegocom/ Some folks mocked Stephen Webb when he recently launched IamDomainNames.com.  He’s now leasing IamSeattle.com to the Seattle Space Needle folks. He just may have struck a likeable little vein here. Congrats to Stephen!  As an aside..  I see the day when the flurry of derals like this (domainers selling names to traditional media) is so thick and wide that it no longer can be reported in detail like this.
 

Brookstone.com offers realtime 3d store walkthrus.

(Uses Kinset.) http://kinset.com/brookstone.php  Many web spaces/sites in the future may be realtime 3D.  The smart ones will continue to offer 2D as well as 3D.  The viewer will decide what they are in the mood for.  Currently, most realtime 3d on the web still has that cartoonish look. In 2-5 years, full blown photo realistic/cinema realistic 3D will be here on off the shelf desktops and laptops. 

Josh says: ”"I’ve been waiting for this for over 20 years.  I’m old.”"    ***FS*** You and me both bub.

Valleywag: Scripps to sell Shopzilla.

They paid 525 million.  They want 525 million. http://valleywag.com/tech/shopzilla/scripps-to-sell-its-search-engine-327209.php 

***FS*** I go to So Cal with my family at Christmas and Scrips has educational institutions and charitable stuff going on all-over San Diego.  It’s a good thing Scripps has a lot of money ..  they bought a bag of smoke when they bought Shopzilla and they are now trying to find another party to hold that bag.  You should have bought domain names folks because:

A) You would have an asset with burn-down value

B) You would have made money on that asset

C)  That asset would pay you dividends without the moving parts of thousands of staff  ..  and.. *drum-roll* 

D)  You probably wouldn’t be Selling that kind of asset.  I should really charge for this info…  sheesh.

RentYourSoul.com

Start up company guy wants to rent your soul for a week.  Swears he’s not the devil.  Will give you 10 bucks and donate 10 bucks to a charity of your choice, selected from his list. http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9824150-7.html?tag=nefd.only 

***FS***  Anything that gets people giving is a good thing.  I read this story and donated $1000 online to World Vision.  You should give too..  Because if you read this far down my linkfest, you’re probably a serious domainer and are making a pretty good living..  You’re blessed..  Count yourself lucky and pay something forward today.

Godaddy

Go Daddy asks how to improve their signature auctions:  Elliot puts his mind to work and posts up a three point plan. http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/11/27/godaddy-tell-us-how-to-improve-signature-auctions/
 

Domain Speculation Pointers.

http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/11/26/domain-speculation-pointers/

***FS*** Elliot goes into depth.  Focus of this article is brand spanking new registrations. I thought all good names were already taken? :)  Everything but new vernacular is gon gone gone. Then again..  reading the 1950’s era popular Mechanics at a family member’s house shows how much language changes..  and how much it stay’s the same.  Fad’s come and go, trends stay with us and big generic words/phrases will be with us forever.  It’s your job Mr. Domainer to understand the difference. That’s where the money comes from.
 

Total Names Registered

There are more than 96 million “active” domain names on
the Net. http://www.domainnews.com/general/2007112714/domain-counts-and-ip-statistics/

***FS***  all but 5-7% are total crap or only have value to a sole distinctive entity.  That’s why domains are scarce.  Rubber hits the road here
 

Domain Gospel

Sahar points to Domink Mueller evangelizing to non domainers about domain names.  http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/11/26/economic-101-the-domain-version/

***FS*** Sometimes when I evangelize the space it can be self serving in the sense that the more folks who know about the space the more it helps my portfolio..  But if you look at it honestly..  pumping the space doesn’t help individual names that much..  There is something instinctively rewarding about being altruistic, helping another person, giving back and making a friend.
 

Diamonds Domains are Forever

Sahar compares the marketing of diamonds to the potential marketing of domains. http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/11/26/a-domain-or/

***FS***  This is a great analogy..  grading of domains is subtle.. little one character diffeences can amount to millions of dollars in price swings per name, just like diamonds.  Difference is that we don’t ‘need’ diamonds so much..  A bad economy and we’re going lower quality stones or CZ..  Own some of the 5-7 million domains that mean anything whatsoever and it’s a totally different ballgame.  We “need” those.
 

Sell!!

Affiliate.us gets 120,000 Euro bid at sedo auction. Has met it’s reserve. Zimbabwe.com at 130,000.  Has met it’s reserve. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/11/26/affiliateus-gets-eur-120000-bid/

***FS*** Be interesting to see if the Affiliate.us bidder is legit. Sell all day long at that dollar.  Zimbabwe.com is fair value.. IMO  ..  might still have some headroom but not for wildcat returns.

I Thought I bought This Name

Holiday domains.  SaintNick.com up for auction on Nov 29/07. http://www.domainnamenews.com/domain-sales/tis-the-season-to-buy-a-holiday-domain-name/1314

***FS***  Really!.. verno?
 

Country Code Domains

.BB redelegated to Barbados gov. Had been under management with the local office of Cable and Wireless. http://www.domainnews.com/icann/2007112622/icann-voted-to-redelegate-bb-to-the-government-of-barbados/

***FS***  Two consecutive characters might be easier to type, but they look funny and doesn’t sound right for the Country…  I live in Cayman where the Country code is .KY and so many people confuse us with Kentucky USA.  I think if country codes sounded like the Country (.CAY .BAR) they would sell way better, more people would use them.

China Rising

ICANN release 6 week IDNwili Report of user stats. Includes % share of use based on language. Highest is Chinese at 40.76 % share. http://blog.icann.org/?p=239

***FS*** A billion Chinese can’t be wrong

Do Evil.

Google stock share hits 666, and Sahar has some fun. http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/11/26/do-evil/

***FS***  Saw this yesterday..  had lots of fun with it..  What are the odds that it closes at exactly that to the penny anyway?  Would have been even weirder with 66 cents.
 

G-Storage

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119612660573504716.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news

***FS***  Throw enough stuff at the wall and something’s bound to stick.
 

‘Real’ Human People

Dotster offers live SEO consultations with “real” humans. http://www.domaininformer.com/news/news/071127Dotster.html

***FS***  Aaron Wall should offer “Extreme-VIP”  SEO  phone consultations at $20 a minute  ..  nice sideline
 

Cartoonist pokes Facebook.

http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004355.html

***FS***  This is just funny.  Sometimes when the masses are ‘unsure’ or ‘listless’, those masses can be easily led astray..  true in life..  true for Facebook.

Seed Money 

Sendori gets more funding from First Round Capital, Baseline Ventures and Maples Investments. Compelling model that Sendori. http://www.personalbee.com/261/23600663

Domain Wire Mag

New issue online. (PDF) This issue contains an overview of the Domain Name System, an update on the Internet Governance Forum and everything you always wanted to know about Internationalised Domain Names. (Plus more.)https://www.centr.org/main/domainwire/3656-CTR.html Published by Centr.org: Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries

Dave Zan

Warns about inadvertently using parked pages when you’ve just bought a new domain name and it auto points to the parked pages of the company you registered the name with because you are using their nameservers by default. http://davezan.com/2007/domain-registrar-parking-pages-2-reasons-not-to-use-themSame goes with using free DNS with certain companies like mydomain.com.  If you point your new name at
mydomain.com servers, but haven’t set up the domain in your account with them, it will default to a parked page.

Gift Ideas for Domainers 

Different gift ideas to give domainers for the holidays. http://domainnamewire.com/2007/11/25/a-domainers-christmas-list/

Practical Domain Stuff

How Bodog lost, and then won by getting it’s traffic to come to it’s new domain name. http://www.domainersgazette.com/how-bodogcom-lost-and-eventually-won/

Thank-you God!!

Domainer gives thanks for being given the opportunity work in the domain business. http://www.domainersgazette.com/a-domainer-gives-thanks/  ***FS***  I give thanks each and every day

Retail

Online sales on Black Friday jump again. http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=0a7476befc9215a5b98237ef145cd9be&threadid=84502

Online Retail

Cyber Monday/today is post-Thanksgiving web shopping sales day.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/23/news/companies/cybermonday.moneymag/index.htm?cnn=yes

The Real World..  and the Web

Web research drives brick and mortar purchases http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/23/web-research-drives-more-real-world-purchases/index.html

Picking up Chix..  It’s Marketing Baby

What marketers can learn from pick up artists and peacocking  http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/11/25/things-internet-marketers-can-learn-from-the-pickup-artist/  via Sahar:  (check out his pic of Roselyn Sanchez) Sahar: “In addition , I love women, the pursuit, challenge, understanding. As mystery says: “You should always appreciate beauty but never be distracted by it”. http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/11/25/shoemoney-things-internet-marketers-can-learn-from-the-pickup-artist/

TechCrunch on Facebook

Big Brother Facebook: Does anybody care? http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/25/big-brother-facebook-does-anyone-care/

Sahar

Sahar thinks a domain kiosk idea should be worked on now, not later. http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/11/24/frank-schilling-innovating-distribution-reach-and-retail-name-liquidity/

…..   If you read this far..  you’re more up to date on paid search and domain names than 99.99% of the population. 

   Post title comes courtesy of some European banker friends of mine… They sound like Henry Kissinger when they talk   It was the thought that rushed through my head after reading the domain related story linked below. It’s an IPO color piece re: Name Media’s offering. I enjoy reading domain related stories viewed through fresh eyes:

http://www.xconomy.com/2007/11/26/let-your-fingers-do-the-crossing-direct-navigation-companies-heat-up/

Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land gets the crispest quote of the piece:

“”There are an amazing number of people who simply guess that if they want a particular product, such as ‘running shoes,’ they need only put those words together and slap a dot-com on the end to find something relevant,” … “Sometimes that works, where they get to good, solid, editorially-driven sites making use of a generic name. Sometimes, they end up at a page full of ads.” Either way, Sullivan figures, they’re getting something useful.”"

It amazes me too Danny.

Also nice succinct quote by author:

“”Click-through rates for ads on direct navigation sites are higher than those for ads on search-result pages. Even more importantly, the “conversion” rate—that is, the percentage of click-throughs that result in actual purchases—is, for some reason, almost twice as high at direct-navigation sites (4.23 percent) as it is at conventional search sites (2.30 percent), according to a three-month study conducted in 2005 by WebSideStory.  Aggregated over thousands of visitors, an advantage like that adds up to real money, which explains why advertisers who use keyword-based programs like Google’s AdWords and AdSense are, for the most part, happy to have their ads show up on parked domains.”"

From your lips to God’s ears baby.

1. Teen Millionaire (whateverlife.com)
   http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/52250/teen-millionaire

    2.  Slippery Slope: Google Owns a Search Engine Optimization Company
   http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2007/nov/16prt.html

Via TechCrunch Uk.

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2007/11/22/rumour-news-corp-to-buy-linkedin/

   Quote: “”LinkedIn is also on an upward growth path which makes it a good acquisition target. It has more than 16 million registered users globally, spanning 150 industries in more than 400 economic regions and in the last year it experienced 189% growth.”"

Rupert Murdoch’s conglomerate seems to buy trajectory and 6-10 year growth projections as opposed to intrinsic value.  I don’t think these folks are going to be in the market for buckets of domain names until the web/tech market burns down (again) and the only thing left standing are one or two search utilities and domain names.  It will be a while till I dream of Rupert.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/11/19/internetcapacity/index.php

Be good to know who commissioned the study, as their may be an agenda.

If the potential for brown-outs is real, no doubt that measures must be taken to make sure this doesn’t happen.

J man writes

“”sent from gmail account.

(tucows mail problems again.  they are going to lose customers if this keeps up.  they probably already have.  I should be moved to another email provider by early next week.) please confirm ya got this. Cheers, mate. / j”"

***FS***  Last year they had some big problems with IBM and their data center  ..I’ve heard the mail thing from another person and have personally had some problems getting products rolled out..  I think they’ve had a lot of staff turnover in the last year and some of the brain-drain has caught up to them.  I still think highly of Tucows.  They are a great company.. They have a bunch of really great seasoned core people who are terrific at what they do…  But this mail thing and other issues are just not like them.

http://blog.snipperoo.com/2007/11/death-of-the-do.html

  Summary:  A guy who could have bought billions of dollars worth of domain real estate by applying his foresight (but didn’t) now declares “domain names dead” and hypothesizes that we will abandon domain names in favor of Rube Goldberg inspired Universal Search Locators (USLs) which will take over as the foundational elements of the web.. 

While I could actually see some variant of this trying to marginalize domains in the next 50 years,  in the end I think the obstacles are so many and the challenges so daunting that nothing could actually “do away” with the usefulness of domain names.  Consider:

—You would need to have Google agree on a global standard with Microsoft, Yahoo, Sina, Baidu and all other competing search services so that the experience of USL’s is uniform. You wouldn’t want to type Snipperoo at Baidu and get to Widgettown instead.

 —Even if you got everybody to agree on a standard you wouldn’t have mail because email runs on domain names.  This chap would surely argue that we could all abandon our email in favor of search engine messengers.. but those would have to run on a globally universal standard too.

— After clearing the initial hurdles above, you’d just have to convince every existing site owner to adopt your new platform and abandon their trillions on global collective branding in domains (think of every business card, bus bench, billboard, TV commercial, directory you’d have to change)

— You’d have to persuade governments of the world to cast away their national heritage embodied in (CCtlds)

— You’d have to convince Verisign to roll over and play dead.. or just buy them.. ditto with PIR (.org) and Affilias..

— Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, and Safari would have to give up their browsers because we wouldn’t need them.

It’s funny to read posts like this because search engines actually search for domain names.. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Without a name there is nothing to search for  

In fact it would be easier to just buy all the available domain names from large name holders around the world..  a few billion would roll up 60% of the most visited sites on the net.

Quote: “”The idea here is that as your content is broken up and thown out into the four corners of the web, that is where you come to reside. You no longer have a central address, you only exist where you end up. If you are good, you end up in some very powerful places. If you are bad - well, we all know what happens on the web if you are bad.”"

Those “Places” will need to have a unique location of course..  There is no such thing as a “place” without a unique location..  and on the Internet you need a Domain name to have a unique location – unless you want to start typing-in IP numbers that is.

This guy needs to lay of the over the counter cold medication.  Sahar calls bullshit too..  Next.

More questioning of Facebook Ads.  Legal issues.

http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9817421-36.html

AOL and IAC vets establish  LaunchBox Digital –founded by Julius Genachowski, former chief of business operations at IAC; Sean Greene, founder of The Away Network; and former AOL Chief Technology Officer John McKinley–will offer start-ups up to $1 million in financing.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/launchbox_dc

Josh says: “”One thing they’re doing is filling in the lower funding gap, as some VC’s won’t invest less than 5-10 million.   1 million potentially goes alot further now than 5 million did in 2000. As well, this isn’t 1999/2000.  Whether we are in a short term bubble or not, more and more web startups will be coming online for the foreseeable future.  Some will succeed, some will fail.  They will keep coming.”"

The death of e-mail.  by Chad Lorenz

http://www.slate.com/id/2177969/fr/flyout

Ten years later, e-mail is looking obsolete. According to a 2005 Pew study, almost half of Web-using teenagers prefer to chat with friends via instant messaging rather than e-mail. Last year, comScore reported that teen e-mail use was down 8 percent, compared with a 6 percent increase
in e-mailing for users of all ages. As mobile phones and sites like Twitter and Facebook have become more popular, those old Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts increasingly lie dormant.

***FS*** Hotmail, Yahoomail are probably slowing down because those platforms (YHOO and MSFT) are pushing their proprietary messenger services over harder to control mail.. Mail allows for outsiders (spammers) to more easily contact those clients within the MSFT/YHOO walled garden.  I think the death of eamil is wayyyyyyy over-rated..  Nobody in their right mind running a business would direct users to an instant messenger in order to conduct commerce.. Well - tech-savy drug dealers on roller skates in central park might.  But real businesses have a website..  and an email account which matches that site..  When those kids grow up and enter the workforce, they’ll get an email account which they’ll check religiously..  Next.

Yahoo and Google plan to turn their e-mail systems and personalized home page services into social networks.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/inbox-20-yahoo-and-google-to-turn-e-mail-into-a-social-network/index.html?ex=1352696400&en=b7f0d6a896f23bec&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Josh sends link and says:  For most people, email is important.  For many people, it is vital/mission critical.  I’m a strong proponent of people getting their own email address under their own domain name.  Gives you alot of control and potential more secure email.  And yes, there is a trend away from using mail.  I guess, at 42, i’m a bit of a dinosaur.

***FS*** Email is the language of business and commerce.  Nobody selling products or services directs you to their Facebook or Twitter Messenger.  Nobody sane anyway..

> Frank,
> We met and spoke briefly in the elevator at the TRAFFIC conference in
> Miami last month. Wanted to send you some information about a new public
> company that I just launched on the London AIM exchange. I thought it
> might be of interest to you and your readers.
>
> Hecta Media is a company whose purpose is to acquire and make investments
> in domain portfolios and developed niche content websites. I am the CEO;
> we raised approximately $9.5 million and went public today on the London
> AIM exchange:
> http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=hcta.l.
>
> I’d be happy to send you our 1st day of trading announcement if you’d like
> to take a look. If there’s any additional information I can provide, feel
> free to email or call me.
>
> Best regards,
> Clark Landry, CEO

***FS*** You never know who you’ll meet in an elevator Charles..  I met Larry King once in an elevator at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills (Regent Beverly).  I think you were very clever to list on a London exchange.  Most domain portfolios derive a fairly large quantity of their traffic volume from International traffic..  and those same portfolios undermonetize that traffic (that vast majority of my revenues come from North American Market traffic even though less than 50% of my visitors come from there).  That latent value, coupled with the fact that London is quickly becoming the financial center for new public offerings leads me to believe that you made a shrewd move. Good luck as march down the acquisition path sir.. I hope you buy some good ones.

http://www.nysun.com/article/66382

Quote here: “”Governor Spitzer of New York announced yesterday that his state will start collecting taxes on Internet sales made in New York, even if the etailer has no physical presence in the State. Whose to blame for this? It’s the affiliate programs. NY is saying that these affiliates are the equivalent of having an instate salesperson. Many domainers make their living from these affiliate programs. It is quite possible that the affiliate programs might be shut down or limited, especially in states that this law is enacted.”"

  ***FS*** eBusiness makes location history ..The real winner here are the Mailboxes etc operators in New Jersey.

   Whizzbang warns about problems with Enom’s auto renewal system. Sounds serious to me.

 http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/317/1/

Quote: “”Auto-renewal will not always work and the reason has to do with your payment method. Most people pay with a credit card that requires them to enter a CVV number (last three digits on the back of your credit card) for payments. Enom is not allowed to store the CVV therefore on an almost random basis the credit card will be declined by the card provider. Sometimes they let it go through without the CVV and sometimes they don’t… The only solution to this problem is to go into Enom each month and re-enter your CVV into your preferences EVERY month. The result of having to do this is that auto-renew is meaningless for retail accounts. “”"

***FS*** All you Enom registrants can all thank Michael Gilmour for saving your businesses. Here’s to hoping Enom comes up with a work-around for this major doosey.

http://www.wrevenue.com/2007/11/14/dabbling-in-domaining/

   Quote:  “”I was at a dinner party the other night when a friend started asking me if I knew anything about domaining. Here was a guy that works in a “real job” and knows nothing about Internet marketing, but he told me that he registered 10 domain names and had listed them on Sedo. When did mainstream folks start speculating in domain names? In any case, I was impressed that he managed to do what he did, even though he hasn’t yet made any money at it.”"

***FS*** Love reading slice of life stuff like this on other blogs because it gives a real temperature of the potential of the market and an indication of future name market direction.

    Type in traffic will never go away, but the plumbing on the Internet is gradually changing…  Consider that domain tasting has added millions of kept domain registrations since late 2004..  That bled tons of traffic away from error search in the browser…

Then this morning it seems that the .cm (Cameroonian wild-card has expanded into .et (Ethiopia) …

http://domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=eb86cbb1dbe947c91815aad99cf43bef&threadid=84165

I read that as this email whistled in relating to the Verizon DNS hijack:

“”The Verizon DNS hi-jack also works with non-existent third level domains.

I’ll have a screenshot later, but someone called me up to report that addresses like: Webmail.google.com resolve to a Verizon search page.

So, they are skimming a lot more traffic (every non-configured www.example.com), than thought.”"

As a domain owner how much of your type-in traffic goes missing as a result of skimming in the browser to the right of the dot? Consider all the ways you can loose traffic:

— Browser manufacturer skimming when users mistype YouDomainName.dom (look at the ‘d‘ and ‘c‘ on you keyboard

— CC Tld error takeover .ET (.NET) , .CM (COM), .CO (COM)

— Sitefinder style error hijack by your ISP such as Charter, Earthlink or Verizon ..  and this latest entrant.

My estimate is that 8-15%of your intended traffic gets taken over by everything across this spectrum (and that excludes cybersquatting and typosquatting)..  People are bad spellers and lazy typists.. There is just no incentive to help people get to their desired location when there’s money to be made be steering them awry.  8-15% of ‘your’ traffic may not seem like much, but extrapolate that over global Internet traffic and you’ll see why the incentive to continue the theft and marginalization within this racket is so large.

Take this shaping - this marginalization of the user experience to its illogical conclusion and the balance of power on the Web - and the Web itself fundamentally changes. DNS and ICANN will become less relevant.. The governing of the Internet will turn to the Telcos of the world…  to the browser manufacturers, to Google, to Microsoft. To CCTld operators with under developed and conveniently typable domain extensions.

   What could stop this?  Hardware could do it.  A .com key on the keyboard such as the one in my iphone Safari browser..  That’s a giant leap in the right direction!…  What could make it worse?…  You know we’re doomed when the big error search marginalizers listed above, start to race each other to buy cheap Chinese keyboard manufacturers around the world to protect the milk in the error search cow; or exploit it in new ways by moving the “c” key closer to the “d” or making the “o” key half the size of all others on the keyboard 

Perhaps one day a smart attorney or firm will build a racketeering case against one or more of the operators in this space.. Until then the thieving continues, and everyone who owns a domain name or operates a website will work 8-15% harder than they need to, in order to subsidize those stealing from them.

 Danno writes:

“”Hi Frank,

I thought you might find this site’s concept interesting. I just ran across it about an hour ago. The 3 minute video is worth watching. I am not promoting this or anything and I do not know anyone involved with it. Just thought it seem like a very interesting advertising/publishers platform / Idea. 

http://www.rubiconproject.com/

Best as always,
Dan (Danno)”"

***FS*** A platform for managing scores of different advertisers and campains “and” page-space across a website or “network” of websites?!? ..  This is what every domainer needs..  Thanks for sending..  Think about how this could pare back your IT overhead in terms of managing ROI on different adspace within different verticals of domains. Or if you’re not already employing IT folks for this..  think how starting such a program could grow your revenue. If you are a domainer out of growth (acquisition) mode and have decided to turn to development in order to offset or increase PPC revenues,  then you owe it to yourself to check-out this software out and tell me if it’s any good *JK* .. I do all this right now but my IT folks do it manually.

Dominik Mueller sends story:

   “”Imagine an advertising world where… spending on interactive, one-to-one advertising formats surpasses traditional, one-to-many advertising vehicles, and a significant share of ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges. Advertisers know who viewed and acted on an ad, and pay based on real impact rather than estimated “impressions.” Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers. User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.

Based on IBM global surveys of more than 2,400 consumers and 80 advertising experts, we see four change drivers shifting control within the industry.”

Press release:
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/22570.wss

Complete report:
http://www-03.ibm.com/industries/media/doc/content/resource/business/2898468111.html

Newspapers having to close down due to readers and advertising dollars migrating to the Internet, time spent watching TV decreases while time spent on the Internet increases… Clear signs of a changing business and advertising world. Nothing new to domainers and online marketers, but the fact that this report has been published by IBM should help spread the message.”"

   See my post yesterday for my thoughts on how this will play out for name owners

  Quote: “Although he (Simon Fuller) is best known for his association with the Spice Girls and managing David Beckham, Fuller created the Pop Idol format and its hugely successful US spin-off American Idol.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/nov/11/mediabusiness.google

LookSmart’s FindArticles.com sells for 20.5 million in cash to CNET. http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/071107/20071107006248.html?.v=1

But wait you say..  what does that have to do with domain-names? CNET bought a developed website after all!..  Would they have paid 20mm if the name was a .net, org, biz or info?  Would they have bought it if the domain name had a dash? How much less would they have paid?.. 

“Development” is very quickly becoming a lower priced commodity..  Need proof..  Look what Scott Day of Digimedia has just done:

www.PeopleFinder.com

   www.FindPeople.com

   www.AreaCode.com

Consider Scott’s sites through the optic of this CNET deal.. These were formerly just parked domain names..  A simple partnership with content provider Intelius, a smattering of elbow grease and *presto* ..  Tens of millions in Market Capitalization have been unlocked.. This is the Internet equivalent of marrying of chocolate and peanut butter.   Only there is lots of Chocolate (duplicatable content) on the Internet.. Sticky peanut butter (powerful generic, type-in traffic producing domain names) is a lot more scarce.

Quote: “”When a major network turned down Marshall Herskovitz and Ed Zwick’s pilot, they took “Quarterlife” to the Internet…”"

   Something big happened today while everybody was looking the other way.. http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1573861&vid=187641 This 3 minute clip is must-see TV for every domainer.. Think about your own shows and your ability to drive traffic to those shows using your “other” names.

Exciting times.

Related:  INTEL chip to speed high-definition video via Internet:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7085480.stm

1.   Google opens up ad space on 1,700 FM and AM stations to adword users. (Audio ads.)

http://valleywag.com/tech/feuds/google-counters-facebook-with-am-radio-319982.php

***FS*** Traditional radio is dead ..  Like the ‘maps at gas stations’ idea from yesterday better.

2.   Rumour: Digg close to a $300 million dollar sale.

“”Whoosh, that was fast. Digg recently signed a $100 million dollar multi year ad deal with Microsoft. Web 2.oh? is dead.  Long live Web2.dough.”"

***FS*** Of Course that deal is Priced 1/3 lower and falling ..  (the dollar).

http://valleywag.com/tech/rumormonger/digg-close-to-a-300-million-sale-320145.php

3.    Facebook :I’ll spam my friends, but I want a piece of the action.  written by Nicholas Carlson.

http://valleywag.com/tech/facebook/ill-spam-my-friends-but-i-want-a-piece-of-the-action-319421.php

Facebook ad system ridiculed. Some unsolicited advice to Facebook from Josh:  “Users of your website always come first.  Advertisers come second. To be clear, i’m not inherently opposed to advertising on certain websites or developing revenue streams.  But, don’t alienate the people who are sending your page view stats thru the roof.”

***FS***  I think Facebook is ultimately a doomed company..  When I invest I don’t want to keep my eye on my monitor to see when the music stops and sentiment reverses.  One day sentiment will reverse on this co..  and if you buy the company the day before that happens you will loose money.  Lots of folks will get rich along the way so probably not a concern for them ..  and I get that “the platform” has some value..  But this is exactly ‘not’ the kind of co I’d invest in.  I buy value.

  Michael points out the benefit of ‘gluing’ the two companies together.

http://www.whizzbangsblog.com/content/view/314/1/

***FS***  I think this would be a tough matchup because the cultures at these two companies run completely counter to each other.

http://domainnamewire.com/2007/11/07/domain-parking-services-range-in-complexity/ 

Josh sends note: “”Andrew likes the simplicity and payouts at Parked.com.  He’d like more stats info.  Alot of people like Parked.com, and for good reasons.  However, Parked.com should provide better stats, and not just 5 days worth. If they don’t do it, and soon, someone else will provide a very similar platform and revshare as them and offer comprehensive stats, and some people will likely migrate away from parked.com.  I think what this boils down to is why isn’t parked.com providing the same level of comprehensive stats as Sedo? At some point, some parking company is literally going to offer the best of everything at their platform, including high payouts and as much transparency as possible.   At that point it will be much more difficult to convince people to switch away from them.  All that said, it’s important to note that some/many people use multiple parking companies. Come on, Frank,  FranksParkingEmporium.com.  With Ted and Edna’s (Second City) organ music in the background.  :)”"

***FS***I look at this comparison and it’s really a story of back-end providers..  Yahoo (Parked) vs Google (Sedo). Different kinds of traffic perform differently in these markets..  It depends on the nature of your names and the Country your users are visiting from..  I suggest you experiment with both to see what I mean.  Based on what domainers are doing,  both these houses are probably giving away good shares of their strong revenue share..  “Full transparency” is tough because many parking co’s don’t get the transparency they’d like from the upstream paid-search marketplace..  It has to be recreated in some cases.

  … This graphical illustration neatly sums up the hierarchy  … What flavor do you want your trademark violations, Calico or Tabby? Trademark intent Internet-traffic comes to domain names even if those domain names do not exist..  Think about what happens in your browser’s address-bar as you and millions like you type invalid domain names and search strings.  Think about where the traffic flows…  It always goes somewhere whether the name is ‘active’ or not.

 Dr. John Berryhill takes us on a brief turn down memory lane and posits on the potential ‘tit for tat’ relating to the hijacking of user intent:

 “”Recall that when Sitefinder was operating, there was a BIND patch (put out by Vixie?) that would detect Verisign’s synthesized DNS results and “re-fix” them as NXDOMAIN.

So, you now have the stage set for a genuine tug-of-war over DNS results.

Move 1:  Verisign turns Sitefinder back on thus “trumping” Verizon.

Move 2:  Verizon counters by looking at DNS results coming back with Sitefinder IP addresses, and “takes back” those addresses, re-pointing to
Verizon Superpages.

Moves 3 and 4 can go in a couple of directions.  You also have to take into account the browser people, and their take/reaction to all of this.

For example,

Move 3:  MS patches IE to detect either Verizon or Verisign shenanigans, and points the browser to MSN Live Search.  Mozilla does the same thing, and points Firefox to Google.

Move 4:  Everyone decides that as long as DNS result tinkering is “fair game”, they all configure their systems to screw over domain registrants doing PPC the old-fashioned way.

Move 5:  “The Internet” becomes Compuserve circa 1996.

The somewhat amusing collateral upshot is that Verizon and Verisign - as Internet advertising service providers - finally get to square off on whose trademark is confusingly similar to whose (if anyone is keeping score on my “bold predictions”).”"

***FS*** This Verizon thing is just bad.  A common-carrier - a modern utility really.. placed in a position of great power, with great responsibility, taking over user intent and hijacking the browsing experience on a wholesale level for financial ends.  This type of unfair competition sets a poor example for others in similar positions of authority to follow.

   It’s nice to see DS focussing harder on their core business… Some examples:

Traffic by Country - View a geographical breakdown of visitors

Traffic by Language - View an effective visitor browser language breakdown

Traffic by Referrer - View top referrers

Top Keywords List - View your top revenue-generating keywords

Josh asks:  It’s taken them this long to offer these kinds of stats??  Molasses, i say, molasses. However, better late than never.  But will it be enough to satisfy fired up domain owners whos’ frustrations have been building for years?  Let’s see some revenue transparency.

http://domainnamewire.com/2007/11/06/domainsponsor-improves-statistics-account-management/

   ICANN sets up new IP address for one of it’s thirteen root servers.  A daylight savings like call to IT folks everywhere.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/06/icann_rolls_out_new_root_name_server_address/

Dr. JB adds:

“”I particularly like Verizon’s page for i-want-neiman-marcus.com.

Neiman Marcus is going to clear all of the NM typos out of the registry, and then Verizon is going to serve ads on them for more than 1/3 of all US broadband users.

There is something of a race condition that happens if Verizon’s server load is high, or if for some other reason it doesn’t respond quickly enough. Instead of serving a Verizon search page, the browser will fall over to whatever the default search page is for that browser.  In image 4, the browser fell over to MSN Live Search for www.mcirosoft.com.  What’s funny is that Microsoft’s own parking page doesn’t serve up “microsoft” as the top link for that typo.

The paid links all seem to come from Yahoo, making Verizon/Yahoo the top TM typo monetizers in the country.”"

   Elliot Silver writes:  “”Hi Frank, Did you hear about Yahoo’s new social networking site Kickstart? Check it out when you have a chance…. if you can find it :-)”"

***FS*** Find it indeed.. I like Yahoo, but these folks really need some help with naming.. They own Flickr.com but don’t think to acquire the more logical, generic and often mistyped “Flicker.com”. They decide to lay the foundations for their new social networking site on kickstart.yahoo.com as opposed to the more logical Kickstart.com.  I think this is part of an internal naming culture that runs to the top at Yahoo.  I used to love Launch.com … The brand was seared into my mind..  Then they abandoned the years of branding and switched to music.yahoo.com..   It felt different.. Then they blocked foreign IPs from viewing videos (I’m in the US Centric Cayman Islands), so today I watch music videos on Youtube.com

   I believe you can run multiple domain names in tandem with each other, without confusing your audience and for the overall betterment of “the brand”. (ie. Activate launch.yahoo.com, music.yahoo.com, musicvideos.yahoo.com, videos.yahoo.com and point them to the stand-alone “Launch.com .. a Yahoo property” .. That way when Launch.com (it’s own brand and identity) gets big you can spin it off as a seperate publically traded company with its own currency..  extracting value for all Yahoo shareholders (thank-you Barry Diller).

   What would be really cool is if Jerry Yang played the role of Willy Wonka…  invited a bunch of domainers and spirited outsiders to Yahoo through some “Charlie and the Chocolate factory” like contest..  and then the winner who in Jerry’s judgement had the ‘heart’ and ‘passion’ to coax Yahoo’s naming/marketing culture into previously unexplored directions got to be “Charlie”, who with the help of Brad Garlinghouse would swoop up all salient domain names for Yahoo, adding billions to Yahoo’s market-cap. They could make it a reality show..  It would be bigger than “The Apprentice“..   Note to Jerry: I hereby give you a free irrevocable license to this concept should you choose to explore 

http://www.techsoapbox.com:80/even-microsoft-doesnt-value-facebook-at-15-billion-use-your-damn-brain/

***FS***  More quarterbacking on this deal … Ahmed is a sharp guy.

Geeky stuff … Cnet blog post by Michael Horowitz about domain name forwarding. (Direct navigation.)  If anybody knows about the power of a great domain name it’s CNET  (News.com, Seach.com, Com.com) .. 

These names drive huge huge traffic for CNET..  Com.com triggers a huge flood of error traffic in older Microsoft browsers that forward slow resolving DNS lookups for any domain name over to Domain.com.com ..  CNET activated this wildcard a year or two ago and experienced a significant surge in traffic. 

The domain names this company owns are what sets it apart from any other tech news websites. Honorable nod to some of the authoring there.

http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13554_1-9800302-33.html?tag=nefd.blgs

Danno sends link:

""NameMedia Nabs Shutterbug Site Photo.net
http://www.bizjournals.com/masshightech/stories/2007/10/15/daily23.html

Dan""

Danno sends spicy headline and link:

""FYI…July 17

http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39167861,00.htm?r=1

Best,
Dan"""

***FS*** The way I see it Microsoft / IE have two choices.  They can clean up their act (browser) and stop gaming people’s navigational intent via BS takeovers of your/my traffic to their "Live" property (this basically goes to improving the usefulness of their browser) .. or they can gradually perish as people like you,  I, Firefox, Opera, Safari and others work against them to undermine their position.  Nobody would work against them if they were delivering a better product or running a clean show.  If they choose the latter,  I expect even more nefariousness and acts of dsesperation as they go down at an accelerated pace.  Serious serious prediction.

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single8692

Quote: "By combining its huge audience, dynamic ad creation capabilities and deep knowledge of user interests, Yahoo! has developed a true innovation that will benefit agencies and its clients, especially companies with a large number of offers to present to many audience segments."

Something else domainers should be doing..  Harvesting click-in, click-out and IP data, session and user-agent info across all their names..  Log everything, sort it out later.

So you saw my MRTG chart yesterday and worry that yours looks different? It could have to do with the make-up of your portfolio..

A colleague of mine who runs a very large adult domain name portfolio sent this MRTG slide of same, illustrating a slightly different pattern for his adult traffic.. Notice the strong Fridays and large numbers of people looking for mature content on the weekends. This traffic doesn’t swoon as much on non-working days and doesn’t spike as high mid-week. Naughty pictures are bandwidth intensive so he’s using more through-put as well.

This gent points out that Sundays are stronger than Saturdays at the moment, but most of his visitors are male, so that will change when football season kicks in Superbowl Sunday is one of the slowest days of the year.

Fascinating stuff watching patterns of human behavior play out across millions of visits, to hundreds of thousands of small websites.  There’s so much you can do with domain names. Pretty cool.