GoDaddy, on and off again supporter of SOPA, joined the other sites participating in the blackout today. The only issue is, where is it?

Can you see the blackout? I couldn’t see it at first. Then you can see at the very bottom left, in a cute little corner, a black box that says, “Go Daddy & many other Internet leaders oppose SOPA & PIPA.

Clicking on the link takes you to a support page with a brief explanation of their opposition that apparently only started when everybody else complained about it.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee when an uproar erupted on the Internet. An overwhelming majority of the Internet community voiced strong opposition to SOPA legislation. Go Daddy joined to oppose SOPA.

On Jan. 16, U.S. Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) stopped action on SOPA.

Companion legislation, known as PIPA, is still up for debate in the U.S. Senate. Go Daddy opposes current PIPA legislation, as do many other major technology companies and users.

Do you think Go Daddy has done enough to voice their opposition to SOPA? Or is it just the “me too” mentality to avoid losing more domains?

Now, you can put a claim into a .xxx domain, so long as you’re a member of the adult sponsored community. ICM is handling the process in various phases. Their “Sunrise A” and “Sunrise B” phases allowed trademarked companies to apply for the domains; reversely, companies were allowed to prevent their company from appearing on .xxx addresses as well.

As of November 8th, we’re now in the “Landrush” phase. Meaning, there are no trademark or pre-ownership rights requirements. Beyond being a member of the adult entertainment community, all bets are off. The Landrush phase will last until November 25th. Afterwards, on December 6th, the domain will be available to the general public.

The argument over the domain generally concerns the reasons behind its need. Many believe providing pornographic sites the option to have a .xxx domain, will provide internet users a distinct signal that there is adult material on the site. Others believe the domain won’t act as that great of a filter, specifically within search engines.

The real question is whether or not .xxx is a top-level domain which can actually take off and make a dent. Most top-level domains never gain the traction to necessitate use. Why use .me when .com has better credence?

According to a recent press release, over 80,000 applications for .xxx domain names were received. That’s just during the Sunrise phases, so the number is expected to exponentially increase going into Landrush.

Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, said this of the numbers, “We couldn’t be happier about the success of the Sunrise period. There is always a risk with a new TLD that you may build it and nobody will come. We are thrilled that over 80,000 applications came! In fact, the .XXX Sunrise period results far exceeds those of any other new sTLD, including .mobi, .asia and even that of .co that re-launched last year with a significant marketing campaign. We look forward with great anticipation to Landrush, opening next week and General Availability on December 6, which is when the fun really starts.”

All of the domain registration companies are accepting .xxx domains at this time: GoDaddy, name.com, register.com, and more.

It will be interesting to see what impact .XXX will have in the world of top-level domains. Will pornographic sites start to shift to the domain, simply for the prospect of having the “xxx” on the end? Will search engines tweak their results to compensate for the domain inclusion?

ICANN has managed internet domain names since 1998, but up until now had been closely tied to the US Department of Commerce. Going forward ICANN will…

…operate as a more independent entity. Other governments and the private sector will now have a greater say in how domains will be managed. The Commerce Department will continue to hold a seat on ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, but it’s influence will now be on par with that of other members of the organization.

Those other members are so excited that they, well, forgot how to speak in plain English. If this statement from Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is any indication of the future of ICANN, we can likely expect continued bureaucracy–just not all US biased:

ICANN will now commit to a “multi-stakeholder, private sector led, bottom-up policy development model for DNS technical coordination.”

Yeah, what she said.

Now we just need to wait and see what comes out of ICANN, now that there are not as many political pressures. For example, the proposed .xxx TLD for adult sites, was shot down after pressure on the US government by conservative advocacy groups. Could .xxx domains now be back on the table?

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Failed registrations and multiple registrations of the same .me domain name cast a pall over GoDaddy’s .me debut. The new domain, being sold for $19.99 per year with a required two-year purchase (privacy option extra), should end up a profitable venture for the company.

However it will be a bit of a joyless slog getting there. ]]> http://www.webpronews.com/domain-me-dotted-with-problems-2008-07/feed 6 http://www.webpronews.com/israelcom-bidding-starts-at-55-million-2008-05 http://www.webpronews.com/israelcom-bidding-starts-at-55-million-2008-05#comments Thu, 15 May 2008 23:54:59 +0000 WebProNews Staff http://www.webpronews.com/?p=45484 Moniker.com plans to part with a number of domain names at auction on May 23rd. One of the domains will be Israel.com, with the highest starting bid in the group.

A number of premium domain names hit the auction block next week. Moniker.com plans to sell a bunch of them, including the aforementioned big ticket domain, Israel.com.

Moniker disclosed a lengthy list of domains to be auctioned during the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Orlando. Several intriguing names reside on the list, though none will start with a higher bid than the Israel.com domain.

Pay.com should be of interest to someone in the financial world. Three-letter domains have been bought up for years, and an actual word possesses even more value. It’s an instant branding boost to whoever buys it.

Some of the million-dollar and up domains include yachts.com, AffiliateProgram.com, and Portfolios.com. Moniker CEO Monte Cahn expects to see these domains in the $1 million to $5 million range.

Another domain, Partner.com, could draw much more interest than its $250,000 to $500,000 range. We think interest in this could come from several sectors, like legal, insurance, and financial companies.

If the show’s fortunes were as strong as they have been in prior years, we think Idol.com would be a lock to draw interest from Fox and American Idol. Many of the domains may be found on Moniker’s site.

Google needs content. Without it, there are no search results, and no multi-billion dollar contextual ads feeding the bottom line (which they will talk about today after the market closes.)

Sometimes a site publisher picks up a new domain and needs to make sure visitors, and search engines, don’t get lost with the move. The Google Webmaster Central blog discussed that topic, starting with the essential 301 redirect.

Using 301 redirects serve as a way to get people and crawlers to the new domain. It also serves a higher purpose: helping webmasters avoid potential duplicate content penalties to their rankings within search results.

It’s a work-intensive process, but can be automated as shown on Wikipedia.

Google included in its suggestions the idea that a change for rebranding or redesign purposes might be accomplished best in two phases: site move first, redesign second.

"This manages the amount of change your users see at any stage in the process, and can make the process seem smoother. Keeping the variables to a minimum also makes it easier to troubleshoot unexpected behavior," Google’s Ríona MacNamara said.

Part of your online identity, for a start.

Have you registered a domain in your own name? If not, have you checked whether someone else has? And if they have, do you know what they’re doing with your name?

Naked Conversations author and FastCompany TV presenter Shel Israel knows what’s happened to his name which someone else snapped up to register as a domain.

Now ShelIsrael.com is up there as a parody site. Uncomfortable though that site may be for Shel, it could have been a lot worse.

Do yourself a favour – check your name online. If a top-level domain is available – that includes .com, .net, .org, .eu, .co.uk, etc – go ahead and grab it.

Even if you do nothing with it, the fact that you have registered it legally prevents anyone else from doing so.

You can use the WhoIs search feature. Or a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy, the company I use.

But do it now, before someone else does who may have intent other than just parody.

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Front running happens when someone observes domain searches being made by another person, and registers that domain out from under the searcher. It’s a long-rumored practice that infuriates legitimate domain searchers.

In addressing their regular practice of front running domains, Network Solutions told CircleID they are trying to thwart the domain tasters who try to take advantage of the five-day test period for domains.

"We are trying to take an arrow out of the quiver of the tasters," Jonathon Nevett, Vice President of Policy at Network Solutions, said at CircleID. "Due to no fault of registrars, Front Runners purchase search data from Internet Service Providers and/or registries and then taste those names."

If one searches for a domain at Network Solutions, but doesn’t purchase it immediately, Network Solutions puts it on reserve. During the next four days, it can only be purchased from Network Solutions before being released back to the registry.

Network Solutions charges $34.99 for a standard registration. Over a decade ago, that was the going rate. Today, numerous registrars offer far more competitive pricing.

This has caused much of the criticism about the Network Solutions policy. People who search for the domain on Network Solutions and go elsewhere to buy it find they cannot.

Waiting for it to expire at Network Solutions could allow someone else who is willing to pay the going rate to grab it first. People who are waiting for ICANN to resolve the situation probably won’t get satisfaction from that group.

Domain Name News noted a study by ICANN found the practice isn’t expressly prohibited by the terms of ICANN’s registrar agreements.

"Some folks may not agree with our approach, but we are trying to prevent this malicious activity from impacting our customers," Nevett said.

That may be the case, but it’s Network Solutions benefiting handsomely from the arrangement.

Moderator:

• Brett Tabke

Speakers:

• Mark Klein, Director of Business Development, Sedo
• Jeff Libert, CEO, DirectoryCompany.com
• Tom Murphy, Vice President Business Development, NameMedia
• Monte Cahn, CEO, Moniker.com

After a short round of introductions by Brett, the discussion begins with Mark kicking it off.

First up is Mark Klein, the director of Business Development, Sedo. In terms of background, Mark says it is all about descriptive "direct navigation." With this,people type in a domain name in the search bar instead of Google for it. Apparently, almost 10% of Pay Per Click traffic also is traffic due to direct navigation. Next, he pulls out a Comscore study.

Why should marketers purchase domain names?

• Brand
• Brings in traffic. As for example, pc.com, loans.com
• Vertical ex: baby.com

In the case of Baby.com, it already was a well-implemented advertising site. Established domains add a lot of credibility. This also brings out better organic search engine result placement.

Why should campaigns have specific domains?

• I have a headache.com is a great example

Mark goes on to showcase some slides about the work they do at Sedo.

The second speaker of the discussion is Monte Cahn,the CEO of Moniker.com. He begins by telling the audience what his company does etc. currently, the handle over 2.7 million domains.

How do domains generate profit?

Pay per click, cpa, affiliate sites, search revenue, and selling domains

Yearly advertising is estimated to increase by billions

Domains generate about 15% of Google/Yahoo’s total revenue

The current trend shows an upward rise of people who own many domains. About 15 people last year had about 1,00,000 domains. Currently, 138 million domain names are registered all over the world (Wow!). The second quarter has seen a 31% rise. Of all these domains, 88% are live while 76% get renewed. Germany is No.2 with its .de.

What makes a good domain name?

• Natural and generic brand
• Easy to remember
• Clear, concise and descriptive
• Commercially and profit-oriented
• Industry segment
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Existing type in traffic

Check whether a domain is blacklisted. Take advantage of the way-back machine in order to check whether the domain has content on it in that is beyond the past aka archive.org

Mistypes

Make your friends, colleagues and family members type your company name and find out misspellings. These, you should register too.

How do you generate revenue

• Domain traffic (direct navigation)
• Domain sales
• Domain development

Creating your profile

• Keep an eye on after market
• Watch domains drop

Mark Klein takes the example of asthma.com. This company has medicine for asthma. We should also be watching over other languages. For example, Spanish is growing at a big rate.

Next, is Jeff Libert, the CEO of DirectoryCompany.com. Jeff has a few questions about domain name portal and also of Webmaster World.

1. Creative domain acquisition finance.

   Letting pay per click revenue pay the costs

   Your revenue is not their revenue

2. Acqusition of underperforming (parked) domains

   Purchase cheap, fix it and use the new found income to pay for the domains

   Auctions: You can find some great steals

3. Auction sniping
4. Bottom fish at particular resellers

   Jeff says he has personally been a bottom feeder

5. Diversify revenue stream

   This is where you test different services

6. Macroeconomic adjustments (foreclosures, debt, etc)

   The market is dicey. Currently, debt and foreclosure domains are doing well

7. Track the buzz in the forms and emerging buying opportunities

   If people are crabbing about income, This might be an opportune moment to purchase domains.

8. Dailychanges.com and observe domaining trends

   Domain tools has some nifty tools.

   Dailychanges is helpful for research/intelligence

   Watch what the big guys are doing and keep track of the trends that they are showing.

9. Intelligent proactive acquisition vs waiting for domains to drop

   Connect with owners who are dropping domains to find out whether you cant just buy it

   This way It becomes easier instead of fighting with the big guys once it’s open

10. Business owners purchase keyword traffic domains
11. Domainers set their focus on the value of converted leads from KW domains
12. Domain parking experimentation: images, rotating companies, etc.
13. Specialization, tasting, patent, and informed domaining.

After this, he cites some domains that he recently purchased. Nevertheless, he says there are still some worth purchasing.

Next up to speak is Tom Murphy, the Vice President Business Development of NameMedia. Tom will discuss the state of Aftermarket and effective domaining strategies.

Basics

• Buy domains (whether in primary or secondary market)
• Focus on areas you know ow feel will increase in value
• Sell domains
• Reap in profits as you see fit
• Maximizing the revenue from your portfolio
• Test

Drivers of valuations

• Incoming traffic
• Popularity
• Vertical
• Comparable sales
• Language, etc.

Many players have entered the after market sales.

Buying domains

The question Tom hears the most is what to buy if someone had $5,000 or $50,000. Tom’s answer is to treat domain names like stocks and mix it up.

Selling domains

• People should always have domains for sale
• Parked domains sell five times better then those that are non-parked

Important Points:

Domain Purchase Potholes

• Trademark Violations?
• Understanding market values
• Domain statistics- Are they inflated?
• You may have to stealth acquire to avoid inflation
• Financing cost
• Does owner have control and rights to domain name
• Bad Guys (protect yourself by using a domain escrow service)

IMAGE SOURCE: Andy Beal

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The Washington Post said the lawsuit was unsealed recently after being filed in October. Dell believes the three registrars and a host of shell companies made millions off web traffic misdirected by wrongly spelled domains.

Unlike similar lawsuits, Dell’s action has a couple of unique points. The report cited Dell’s accusation that the companies engaged in a round-robin of domain tasting, passing domains from one company to the next, in a rapid succession that enabled them to keep performing domains available indefinitely without ever paying for them.

The other point comes from Dell’s contention that the actions of the defendants amounted to counterfeiting. University of Miami professor Michael Froomkin, publisher of ICANN Watch, said in the report this charge was a first in domain squatting cases.

A successful counterfeiting charge would entitle Dell to claim damages of up to a million dollars per violation, a substantial increase over the federal limit of $100,000 per domain infringement.

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