Domain News

John Motson, the domainer behind DnXpert.com and the ebook Domaining Manifesto has concocted a new domain auction site with a twist that should get people talking. The recipe?  Take 1 high value domain, mix in a little Bido.com-type buzz, a dash of Million Dollar Home Page ingenuity and a dash of  entrepreneurial spirit and you get MysteryDomainAuction.com .

Motson’s Mystery Domain Auction is auctioning off one mystery domain name valued at $10,000 over the course of 100 days.  The mystery domain will be revealed on day 50.  Bidding starts at .01 and Motson has a goal to reach a total take of $1,00,000.

$1 million for a $10,000 domain ?  You heard me right.  The trick here is that the domain will sell to 1 person for $10,000 whatever the final price is on the last day, but everyone else having paid in their bids prior in an all-pay auction format means that the total sum will be $1 million before Motson even reaches a bid of $150.  Pretty smart.

The accumulating auction process is explained on the sites FAQ page:

. . .the auction bid amount is incremented by $0.01 every time a new bid is placed (*). Because this is an all pay auction, the bids accumulate into a bulk total which by the time bidding reaches $147 will have passed $1,000,000.

Below is a projection of the minimum value accumulated as a result of bids reaching various amounts.
High bid Minimum accumulated value
$0.10 -> $0.55
$1 -> $50.50
$10 -> $5005
$20 -&gt $20,010
$30 -> $45,015
$40 -> $80,020
$50 -> $125,025
$147 -> $1,080,523

Each bidder also receives a link on the site in the “past bids” section .  We tossed in .64 and by the time we got this written up the auction was at .85 .  By the looks of it the links can be used for any sort of promotion and current links appear to be targeted to just about anything except adult sites.  This is a great idea and John’s creativity will likely be greatly rewarded.  I predict a slew of copy-cats coming on the heels of this as well. Hopefully for John 100 days is a long enough lead on any potential competitors.

Good luck bidders !  Check it out at MysteryDomainAuciton.com

UPDATE : Just realized, if the auction reaches that $147 mark that means over 14,000 bids will have come in for the mystery name.  He’s got a long way to go.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

NameDrive is introducing 6 new innovative templates.

Original post by Adam Strong

Some of the more outspoken veterans of the domain name business like to think of themselves as early adopters, likely because of their early awareness and insight into the power of domain names.  However, for most domainers this early adoption of one particular form of naming has not carried over to early adoption in other emerging internet media.

Sahar Sarid wrote about  “Your name = Your brand“, citing examples of several domain name industry veterans who did or did not own their name in .com   While domain names remain a powerful vehicle for controlling personal branding, the growth in social media is also increasing the importance of other forms of naming.  As we pointed out earlier, user names on social media platforms are already being compared to domain names. If protecting your personal name is important in .com, it should be just as important to protect your name on the new social media sites.According to InsideFacebook, Facebook is growing by 600,000 new members per day , many domainers I know are just now hopping on board.  It’s taken time for many domainers to get involved in Linkedin, myspace, meebo or any number of other social networks as well.  Another perfect example, last year was really the year that the whole blogging thing sunk in with domainers.  A majority of the blogs you read today in the domain space (with the exception of dnjournal and domainnamewire) were created last post 2007.  Add DNN to that list.

Like other domainers,  I stepped in to these new arenas slowly as well.  A joiner rather than a leader maybe.  I wasn’t really interested in YASMN (yet another social media network) or more work writing at first, but now I’m beginning to see value in personal branding on these sites. Plus, why miss the boat again? Domainers should know better. They aren’t necessarily active in the internet or community other than the domain space maybe, but they should be able to recognize online opportunities.

It might be argued that these  emerging social media sites don’t have the commercial applications and domainers can’t really get anything out of them.  However, if you are an early adopter, your concern isn’t necessarily always about what is possible now, but rather what could be possible in the future and growing with the new technology.  Early adopters take risks and “buy-in” before the masses and often before a commercial application is apparent. Sound like domains a little?  In the case of these services, the “buy-in” is simple and best of all free. There really is no excuse.   Early adopters should recognize the importance of securing “your” name on these sites at the bare minimum.

We’re going to look more closely at Twitter.com as another example. Unlike Facebook where there can be dozens of Adam Strongs, Twitter accounts are based on unique user-names, so there’s only one @adamstrong available.  Sound familiar?  Many of the best generic word user names have been snatched up already and personal names are going rapidly as well.   Don’t worry though if you haven’t signed up yet either, you aren’t alone. It’s really no surprise at this point but the majority of the top 100 global haven’t secured or aren’t using a Twitter user name that reflects their brand, with many of their names locked up or “squitted” (squitted is the term that is being used for people who are “squatting” on Twitter user names)  by someone else.

DNN searched to see what domainers were on Twitter using the names that Sahar pointed out in his previous post.  I used this list to make the comparison easy. I know many domainers reading this may be on Twitter already, but I also knew already that many more below were not.

Why aren’t the thought leaders in the domain space also early adopters in other emerging internet media? Many domainers have yet to adopt these new formats even to protect their own personal names. If domainers were truly early adpoters, you’d think that more than 50% of the names below would have been secured by the matching domainer.

@FrankSchilling - Not taken
@sevenmile (the name of schillings blog) - Not taken

@RickSchwartz - A realtor named Rick Schwartz grabbed it

@KevinHam -  Taken but not in use. May be squitted

@SaharSarid  - Not taken

@ChristHartnett - Not taken

@LawrenceNg - Taken but not in use. May be squitted

@LarryFischer - Not taken

@AdamStrong - yeah it’s mine.

@AriGoldberger - not taken

@JayWesterdal - surprisingly Not Taken

@AdamDicker - Taken by “The” Adam Dicker, but not in use

@BobParsons - Squitted

@ChadFolkening - Not taken

@ColinYu - Not taken

@MikeMann - Taken, but not by the former Buydomains owner

@ChrisChena - Not taken

@AmmarKubba - Not taken

@ColinPape - Used by “the” Colin Pape

@IsabelWang -  Used by “the” Isabel Wang . she’s not really a domainer though per se

What about some of the major domain companies ?

@snapnames - taken, not in use

@moniker - taken, not in use

@oversee - not taken

@domainsponsor - not taken

@fabulous - controlled by an individual not Fabulous.com

@godaddy - taken, not in use

@enom - not taken

@namedrive - controlled by Namedrive.com but not really being used

@namemedia - Not taken

@buydomains -  Buydomains controls not actively posting

@namecheap - Definitely using Twitter to the fullest potential

Here’s a list of some other domainers/companies I know who are on Twitter.
Forgive me if I leave you out
@frankmichlick - Frank Michlick
@dotsauce - Mark Fulton
@joedavison - Joe Davison
@domainbuyer - Ron James
@ronsheridan - Ron Sheridan
@donnamahoney- Donna Mahoney

@domainnamenews - DNN.com
@domainnamewire - Looks like Andrew jumped on board today
@dnjournal Ron Jackson got on board today too
@namedotcom - Name.com

There’s a good amount of domainers on Facebook and Linkedin as well and even a few groups for domainers on both sites.  It might be worth taking a look and getting involved in  these  social media platforms.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

NameDrive is introducing 6 new innovative templates.

Original post by Adam Strong

Some of the more outspoken veterans of the domain name business like to think of themselves as early adopters, likely because of their early awareness and insight into the power of domain names.  However, for most domainers this early adoption of one particular form of naming has not carried over to early adoption in other emerging internet media.

Sahar Sarid wrote about  “Your name = Your brand“, citing examples of several domain name industry veterans who did or did not own their name in .com   While domain names remain a powerful vehicle for controlling personal branding, the growth in social media is also increasing the importance of other forms of naming.  As we pointed out earlier, user names on social media platforms are already being compared to domain names. If protecting your personal name is important in .com, it should be just as important to protect your name on the new social media sites.According to InsideFacebook, Facebook is growing by 600,000 new members per day , many domainers I know are just now hopping on board.  It’s taken time for many domainers to get involved in Linkedin, myspace, meebo or any number of other social networks as well.  Another perfect example, last year was really the year that the whole blogging thing sunk in with domainers.  A majority of the blogs you read today in the domain space (with the exception of dnjournal and domainnamewire) were created last post 2007.  Add DNN to that list.

Like other domainers,  I stepped in to these new arenas slowly as well.  A joiner rather than a leader maybe.  I wasn’t really interested in YASMN (yet another social media network) or more work writing at first, but now I’m beginning to see value in personal branding on these sites. Plus, why miss the boat again? Domainers should know better. They aren’t necessarily active in the internet or community other than the domain space maybe, but they should be able to recognize online opportunities.

It might be argued that these  emerging social media sites don’t have the commercial applications and domainers can’t really get anything out of them.  However, if you are an early adopter, your concern isn’t necessarily always about what is possible now, but rather what could be possible in the future and growing with the new technology.  Early adopters take risks and “buy-in” before the masses and often before a commercial application is apparent. Sound like domains a little?  In the case of these services, the “buy-in” is simple and best of all free. There really is no excuse.   Early adopters should recognize the importance of securing “your” name on these sites at the bare minimum.

We’re going to look more closely at Twitter.com as another example. Unlike Facebook where there can be dozens of Adam Strongs, Twitter accounts are based on unique user-names, so there’s only one @adamstrong available.  Sound familiar?  Many of the best generic word user names have been snatched up already and personal names are going rapidly as well.   Don’t worry though if you haven’t signed up yet either, you aren’t alone. It’s really no surprise at this point but the majority of the top 100 global haven’t secured or aren’t using a Twitter user name that reflects their brand, with many of their names locked up or “squitted” (squitted is the term that is being used for people who are “squatting” on Twitter user names)  by someone else.

DNN searched to see what domainers were on Twitter using the names that Sahar pointed out in his previous post.  I used this list to make the comparison easy. I know many domainers reading this may be on Twitter already, but I also knew already that many more below were not.

Why aren’t the thought leaders in the domain space also early adopters in other emerging internet media? Many domainers have yet to adopt these new formats even to protect their own personal names. If domainers were truly early adpoters, you’d think that more than 50% of the names below would have been secured by the matching domainer.

@FrankSchilling - Not taken
@sevenmile (the name of schillings blog) - Not taken

@RickSchwartz - A realtor named Rick Schwartz grabbed it

@KevinHam -  Taken but not in use. May be squitted

@SaharSarid  - Not taken

@ChristHartnett - Not taken

@LawrenceNg - Taken but not in use. May be squitted

@LarryFischer - Not taken

@AdamStrong - yeah it’s mine.

@AriGoldberger - not taken

@JayWesterdal - surprisingly Not Taken

@AdamDicker - Taken by “The” Adam Dicker, but not really in use

@BobParsons - Squitted

@ChadFolkening - Not taken

@ColinYu - Not taken

@MikeMann - Taken, but not by the former Buydomains owner

@ChrisChena - Not taken

@AmmarKubba - Not taken

@ColinPape - Used by “the” Colin Pape

@IsabelWang -  Used by “the” Isabel Wang . she’s not really a domainer though per se

What about some of the major domain companies ?

@snapnames - taken, not in use

@moniker - taken, not in use

@oversee - not taken

@domainsponsor - not taken

@fabulous - controlled by an individual not Fabulous.com

@godaddy - taken, not in use

@enom - not taken

@namedrive - controlled by Namedrive.com but not really being used

@namemedia - Not taken

@buydomains -  Buydomains controls not actively posting

@namecheap - Definitely using Twitter to the fullest potential

Here’s a list of some other domainers/companies I know who are on Twitter.
Forgive me if I leave you out
@frankmichlick - Frank Michlick
@dotsauce - Mark Fulton
@joedavison - Joe Davison
@domainbuyer - Ron James
@ronsheridan - Ron Sheridan
@donnamahoney- Donna Mahoney

@domainnamenews - DNN.com
@domainnamewire - Looks like Andrew jumped on board today
@dnjournal Ron Jackson got on board today too
@foap - Jothan Frakes
@namecheap - Namecheap has been giving away domains and hooking up users of Twitter to their domain accounts for updates.
@namedotcom - Name.com

There’s a good amount of domainers on Facebook and Linkedin as well and even a few groups for domainers on both sites.  It might be worth taking a look and getting involved in  these  social media platforms.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

NameDrive is introducing 6 new innovative templates.

Original post by Adam Strong

In writing a previous post equating user names on social media sites to domain names, it raised my curiousity what big brands were up to on Twitter.  It’s understandable in the early 1990’s, as the internet was slowly emerging, brand managers and/or executives couldn’t see the potential for a brand like McDonalds to be on the internet.  Could you imagine a global brand not owning their .com today?

So do these brands stay ahead of the curve now?  The answer is No, not really. DNN took the Top 100 global brands from Business Week and checked Twitter to see which companies were actively using the 2 year old micro-blogging service to further their brand.  The results are indeed similar to the early days of domains, most brands don’t get it.  The chart follows after the jump.

The Results (chart can be seen at the bottom of this post)

58 global brands have no active presence on Twitter.

9 brands appear to have some sort of presence  with @MTV appearing to be the most active. It’s unclear if @pepsi and @canon are controlled by the respective companies.

27 of the associated brand user names are controlled by an individual, most likely not associated with the brand. Several like @adidas and @levis appear to be for sale. The user with @goldmansachs even admits to squatting it.  Will Twitter take these names back automatically?  Will the auto manufacturer automatically get the acronym @BMW when they request it. Can’t a user with those initials registered and use it since they were first ?

8 more of the associated user names are Twitter protected. Most of these seem to be in use by individuals as well, but it isn’t 100% clear.

In summary, only 9% of the top 100 brands are embracing this new social media platform. These are huge global brands and Twitter is a free service. What’s the excuse?  We didn’t even scratch the surface of all the other brands that likely aren’t early adopters as well. Think about all the sports teams, smaller brands, celebrities and others who have yet to register.

With $20 million in backing and millions of messages and users per month, Twitter seems like a safe bet to use for your brand. If this is truly comparable to domain names, now might be the time for executives at some of these top 100 brands to wake up. Twitter might also be smart to make some policy decisions quickly before that happens.

BusinessWeek’s Top 100 Brands on Twitter

INDV = individual owns
NP = No brand presence

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

NameDrive is introducing 6 new innovative templates.

Original post by Adam Strong

In writing a previous post equating user names on social media sites to domain names, it raised my curiousity what big brands were up to on Twitter.  It’s understandable in the early 1990’s, as the internet was slowly emerging, brand managers and/or executives couldn’t see the potential for a brand like McDonalds to be on the internet.  Could you imagine a global brand not owning their .com today?

So do these brands stay ahead of the curve now?  The answer is No, not really. DNN took the Top 100 global brands from Business Week and checked Twitter to see which companies were actively using the 2 year old micro-blogging service to further their brand.  The results are indeed similar to the early days of domains, most brands don’t get it.  The chart follows after the jump.

The Results (chart can be seen at the bottom of this post)

58 global brands have no active presence on Twitter.

9 brands appear to have some sort of presence  with @MTV appearing to be the most active. It’s unclear if @pepsi and @canon are controlled by the respective companies.

27 of the associated brand user names are controlled by an individual, most likely not associated with the brand. Several like @adidas and @levis appear to be for sale. The user with @goldmansachs even admits to squatting it.  Will Twitter take these names back automatically?  Will the auto manufacturer automatically get the acronym @BMW when they request it. Can’t a user with those initials registered and use it since they were first ?

8 more of the associated user names are Twitter protected. Most of these seem to be in use by individuals as well, but it isn’t 100% clear.

In summary, only 9% of the top 100 brands are embracing this new social media platform. These are huge global brands and Twitter is a free service. What’s the excuse?  We didn’t even scratch the surface of all the other brands that likely aren’t early adopters as well. Think about all the sports teams, smaller brands, celebrities and others who have yet to register.

With $20 million in backing and millions of messages and users per month, Twitter seems like a safe bet to use for your brand. If this is truly comparable to domain names, now might be the time for executives at some of these top 100 brands to wake up. Twitter might also be smart to make some policy decisions quickly before that happens.

BusinessWeek’s Top 100 Brands on Twitter

INDV = individual owns
NP = No brand presence

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

NameDrive is introducing 6 new innovative templates.

Original post by Adam Strong

In the spring of 2007, Steve Poland wrote the article “Twitter Usernames Are Like Domains in 1995″. As the popularity of the microblogging service grows, more and more evidence of the similarities seem to be recognizable.  Poland points out

Twitter usernames are one-of-a-kind — and I kind of feel like this is 1995 and someone just told me, “Hey, you know, domains are one-of-a-kind — they’re going to worth money someday; people will be selling them to each other. In particular, the generic domains are going to be worth a lot.”

Twitter has been around since the spring of 2006 and has been growing in popularity.  It didn’t take long for the increase in popularity to create the  bi-product of value associated with user names.   However, as the demand for a unique identifier (user name) that is simple or targeted increases, so do the problems and complications.   Generic user names have been quickly reserved, but many trademarked terms have also been reserved.  Sound familiar ?

This is no new phenomena.  Other services have seen the best user names reserved immediately. Think about Blogger, Gmail, Hotmail or any number of other services that have free accounts. Even as far back as the early AOL-days, prime user names were claimed quickly. The difference now is that these social media sites are larger and much more public facing and are becoming a communication tool.  As these communication tools become more important the allocation of the unique identifiers (user names), also becomes more important.

Poland writes a more recent experience with his Twitter user name that shows a perfect example of  how similar social media user names can be to domain names. His latest post reveals that Twitter took back his user name  presumably handed it over to the “rightful owner”.  Sound familiar ?   Poland signed up on Twitter as @celtics and presumably Twitter has now handed it over to the Boston Celtics basketball team.   He writes an open letter to Twitter founder Evan Williams pointing out the obvious:  Twitter needs a better policy on handling user name issues.

“How does that make anyone feel comfortable investing in services/business on top of your platform, when it could all disappear at any moment for them?”

He also suggests in a follow up post that maybe it’s time for Twitter to create “premium” accounts where user names are reserved in a similar fashion to domain names.

This is the perfect opportunity for Twitter to start with Premium accounts. Charging whatever the price may be — $3/mo or $3/yr for example. The user then locks in their Twitter username and similar rules that govern domains are applied. First come, first served — and of course an arbitrator if there’s a trademark conflict.

Twitter’s current policy states “We reserve the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those usernames.”   That policy seems pretty open-ended.

Social media sites and emerging communication models should consider a much more specific policy on user names and other unique identifiers early on.  It’s been proven, if we look to the domain name comparison,  that unique identifiers become more and more valuable as the service gains popularity.  As internet penetration increased, great domain names became more and more valuable.  It’s pretty simple.  Social media sites need to draft carefully thought out terms of service statements which give users clear guidelines. Social Media Blog writes “My hope is that social media publishers realize that the space is maturing, and starting to become a more legitimate and important form of identity.”

Is it too late for Twitter to implement this with many popular user names already in use?  If you look at the history of the domain names space, a similar problem occured.  The creation of the UDRP policy was reactive as well.  As problems with cybersquatting and other disputes over name rights became more prevalent,  a policy for handling these disputes was needed.

If user names are like domains and the history of domain names is an indicator of the future, I imagine Poland’s article will be one of many more yet to come.  As other user names are “taken back” and given to their “rightful owners” this issue will be more prevalent.  The time for Twitter and others to come up with a solid policy on user names is now.

Just like domain name owners, social media users don’t want the hassle and uncertainty of having to wonder whether their name will be taken away.  Surely, the social media companies don’t want to be in the middle of the disputes either.  Refering to the history of domain names as an example, it would be a safe wager that lawsuits and arbitration over user names is right around the corner.  It would be best for these social media companies to get ahead of the issue as soon as possible and make the user names even more like domain names by providing some level of security and stability to their users.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

DomainFest Global: January 28th to 30th in Hollywood Calinfornia. Register by December 31st and save $100.

Original post by Adam Strong

Domain Name News received word today that the DomainFest Global conference farewell party will be a fundraising event held at the legendary Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.

Attendees from the DOMAINfest Global conference will join with Hollywood celebrities and star athletes at the charity event benefiting AutismSpeaks.  The party will also feature a live sports memorabilia auction by Bang The Gavel.  More details will likely be forthcoming on the official DomainFest Global website.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Help plan DomainConvergence 2009, participate in the survey.

Original post by Adam Strong

Poker website DoylesRoom.com released a statement to customers today (PDF) informing them that the site would begin blocking access from several States starting October 30th.  Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, Washington and of course Kentucky were listed as the States that whose IP addresses would be blocked from accessing the poker client from DoylesRoom.com

According to a previous article about Doyles the site was shut-down following the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. They relaunched later using a new software ran by Microgaming Networks. Microgaming’s site confirms in a press release that Doyle’s began using their services in 2007.  It is likely that all sites that use Microgaming software will also begin blocking access from these States. A cached page on onlinepoker.org shows that Eurolinx Poker has also made this announcement.

The release follows on the heels of the Kentucky domain name hearings.  DoylesRoom.com was one of the domain names that was listed in the 141 domains that were ordered to be seized by Kentucky.  During the hearings, an argument was presented that these sites could begin blocking access from specific IP addresses to prevent access from users in Kentucky and other states.  Judge Thomas Wingate ordered that the domain seizure be upheld unless representatives from these sites could demonstrate access from Kentucky residents was being prohibited.  By adding Kentucky and 12 additional states to the list of banned IPs, it appears that Microgaming is playing it as safe as possible.

According to PokerPages, yesterday Merge Poker Network became one of the first poker providers to begin blocking access from Kentucky.

Thanks to a DNN.com reader for tipping us off on these developments.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

Original post by Adam Strong

Fast on the heels of the recent Enom phishing scam, another phishing attack attempting to con domain name registrants into providing their customer information is under way. Network Solutions (NSI) domain customers are the target this time.  The spam email messages being sent out warn the user of their domain expiring.  Current reports show that the domain name com42.asia is being used and disguises itself as a site that looks identical to NetworkSolutions.com.  As the public and internet providers become aware of the abuses, both the Enom and NSI phishing attackers are adapting to these reports by changing the domain name addresses they use.  See full phishing email after the link.

Dear Network Solutions Customer,

We recently notified you that the registration period for your Network
Solutions domain name had expired. As a benefit of having previously
registered a domain name(s) with Network Solutions, you are eligible to
receive a percentage of the net proceeds that were generated from the
renewal and transfer of the domain name you chose not to renew. Since you
have chosen not to renew the domain name listed below during the
applicable grace period, we were successful in securing a backorder for
this domain name on your behalf and it has been transferred to another
party in accordance with the Service Agreement.

Renew your domain now - http://www.networksolutions.com.com42.asia

You must click on the following link, enter your domain name, and confirm
your contact information in order to claim these funds. If your contact
information is not correct, you must enter Account Manager and make the
appropriate changes prior to clicking “submit” from the confirmation
screen. If you do not do this, you will be confirming inaccurate
information and will not receive any payment. Checks will only be made
payable and mailed to the Account Holder of record.

Sincerely,

Network Solutions® Customer Support

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

Original post by Adam Strong

Rick Schwartz DomainKing Bobble Head

Conference attendees at the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference received one of 250 Rick Schwartz DomainKing bobbleheads. The other 250 bobbleheads of the batch are available for sale at bobbleheads.com, which is operated by domainer Warren Royal.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

Rick Schwartz DomainKing Bobble Head

Conference attendees at the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference received one of 250 Rick Schwartz DomainKing bobbleheads. The other 250 bobbleheads of the batch are available for sale at bobbleheads.com, which is operated by domainer Warren Royal.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

Domainer Mike Ambrose continued to draw attention to his name cleaning.com with the help of his lovely assistant.

The names listed by him and his partner at no reserve in the Moniker Premium Live Auction, which is scheduled to start in 30 minutes at no reserve are: Cleaning.com (website), Trumpet.com, Clarinet.com, Sax.com, and MusicStudio.com (website) - bids for these names will be starting at no reserve.

Disclaimer: An advertiser with DNN.com is selling the five .com names mentioned in this article.

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Original post by Frank Michlick

According to a press release going out tomorrow, Oversee.net’s public registrar Moniker has launched the DomainMaxLock Service. The new domain locking service is now available at an introductory rate of $34.99 per Domain Name Year which will later increase to $59.95.

The security measures put in place on a “MaxLock” domain are:

• Provide a government I.D. number for verification of your identity.
• Set-up custom security questions and answers, further safeguarding your domain assets.
• Provide special verification instructions and artifacts to ensure that your unique business or ownership interests are protected.
• When you request that your domains be unlocked, our security team works directly with you to verify all of the above off-line.

This is most likely just the start of a new suite of security related services we will be seeing in the Domain Name Market. Fabulous introduced additional security questions in addition to their “Executive Lock” and GoDaddy filed a patent for a system that automatically rejects domain transfers and launched their Deadbolt Transfer Protection for an annual fee of $24.99.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

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Original post by Frank Michlick

Historically the mainstream media has covered the domain name space more than once in a negative light. Admittedly it’s much too easy and wagging a finger at someone is often more entertaining. The most recent piece by Andrew Siff of WNBC falls in to this category of negative coverage, but also crosses in to the realm of completely absurd and irresponsible.

Here’s 5 things I caught.

#1 - Journalist interviews journalist.
Kyle Monson of PC Magazine is interviewed in the story as an expert in the domain name business. Really ? Ok maybe he knows a bit about the space from past coverage and journalist are supposedly unbiased right ? :)  . . .

#2 - The story talks about speculators who registered domains in the 90s “in the hopes that they’d be valuable” . Monson then says “they’re called typosquatters or cybersquatter”.

Of course, this always the part where we hear the negativity . . . we’re all pretty used to the name by now. No matter what anyone says if you buy more than one domain, the media portrayal will be that you are a cybersquatter.

To be clear though: Typosquatting is a form of cybersquatting, but buying and speculating on domain names more often than not has nothing to do with cybersquatting or typosquatting.

#3 - “No one owns more sites than Godaddy.com . . . Godaddy has 30 million web names”.
This is the part that becomes irresponsible. Godaddy doesn’t OWN 30 million domain names.

#4 - “What do you do if the name of your dream website is already taken ? Well, you can always buy it back”
This makes it sound like someone has unfairly taken away something from someone doesn’t it ?

#5 - Monson says “The trick to getting it back from these guys is “bid low”. They’re paying $10 a year for this thing and they’re just tyring to turn a profit. ”

This advice is again misguided. Sure, some domain investors have to turn a profit and flip names fast, but the majority of domainers that own the more desirable domains are already turning a profit on their ppc revenue. They typically don’t have to or even want to sell. More likely than not, they won’t even answer an inquiry on a domain.

These highly desirable names, or as the story calls them “your dream website”, are taken for a reason. There really are few ideas someone else hasn’t thought of before and with domain names it’s the same thing. Any interested party looking to acquire “their dream website” should realize that they probably aren’t the first to inquire and if they want it bad enough they should be serious about their offer rather than playing a game.

My advice if you want a domain bad enough . . .hire a domain expert or domain buyers broker who knows the business.

Watch the video by clicking the image below

Web domain taken? Sowhatsleft.com?

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

Domain Name News is pleased to announce our new domain name for Domain Name News. DNN.com of course!

From the beginning we’ve branded and used the DNN name. We knew we would have to do this. Acronyms are big in this business. Shorthand on chat and domainer forums have given rise to DNW, DNJ, DNF, NP, DBR, TTF, DS and DS, TZ, ND, DZ, HF, NJ, TDNAM, SN, and SN, BD, NM, DM, DDC, DDN and a host of others I’m probably forgetting (feel free to remind me in the comments). Our initials have the added bonus that the “sound” of DNN rings similar to media titans such as CNN or TNN. The fact that we provide a “media/news” service as well, makes the DNN.com name an even better fit.

As domain investors, we believe a good domain is an important part of an online strategy, but as content producers we also know that the real success of a business depends on the quality of the product not just on the name. We move forward with a shorter and easier to find domain, and continue to provide our readers with unique and fresh news and views from the domain name business.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong