NEW YORK, NY – In early 2005 I became a reseller for Wild West Domains Inc., a subsidiary of the GoDaddy, signing up for their Reseller opportunity, and at that time, their “Super Reseller” opportunity. The difference between the two was that the Super Reseller provided the ability to “resell” the “reseller” opportunity and put companies underneath you, earning a small portion of your acquired re-sellers sales, sort of like a sub-affiliate or MLM (multi-level-marketing) … [Read more...]
Attorney Suggests UDRP Process as “Clear Cut”, “Quick” and “Relatively Inexpensive”
NEW YORK, NY – If you’ve been keeping a watchful eye on UDRP cases lately, you’ve likely noticed some real over-reaching land grabs in action, especially those based on three character acronyms, and like me, have been watching is disappointment. I’ve always said that one of the greatest challenges in the domain space in coming years will be growing regulation and corporate theft by those who seek to own the assets of others; assets they did not have foresight to acquire … [Read more...]
Pay-One-Price Domain Names? Imagine Registering Your Domain Name “Forever”
NEW YORK, NY - During the 63rd International Public Meeting of global domain industry regulator, ICANN (between October 20-25, 2018) in Barcelona, Epik’s Rob Monster discusses “Forever Domains”, a registration service made available by Seattle-based Epik which allows a domain registrant to not 'lease' a domain by the year, or the generally available maximum of 10 years, but to "own" a domain name, indefinitely. The interview was conducted by Filip Borcov of Website Builder … [Read more...]
Gargiulo Reiterates Necessity for .COM in New Forbes Domain and Branding Article
NEW YORK, NY - Michael Gargiulo, owner of VPN.com, a group of virtual private network consultants, is also part of what Forbes Magazine calls its “Forbes Technology Council”, an invitation only community for senior technology executives. Gargiulo, who I have begun to follow for his ‘straight-shooter’ domain advice, writes periodically for Forbes Magazine and certainly believes in the value of a great domain name, indicated by his decision in 2017 to purchase VPN.com for … [Read more...]
SHOCKER: Two More “Dot Brands” Throw in the Sponge on Future of Alternative URLs
NEW YORK, NY – According to DNW.com, another two dot brands are letting go of their sweet dreams of running their very own .BRAND URL. The two companies are “Blanco GmbH” and “SPIEGEL-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG”. I’ve never heard of these companies before, but surely these special URLs such as “.blanco” and “.spiegel” would have made them both Uber famous and internationally known. Nonetheless, they have notified ICANN that they are throwing in the towel on … [Read more...]
Another .Brand Discovers Imaginary Land-Grab on Non-Existing Planet in Universe
NEW YORK, NY – According to Domain industry site, Domain Name Wire, as well as an uncovered letter to ICANN, the company brand VistaPrint, a product customization conglomerate, has terminated its .brand URL “responsibility” with ICANN for the .Vista domain. Apparently someone at parent company Cimpress N.V. has decided that rather than opportunity knocking, managing a .brand URL is much more a financial liability and expense than a benefit; that it accompanies a strategy … [Read more...]
The 472 Domain Names That Couldn’t Stop The Inevitable Collapse of ‘Toys R Us’
NEW YORK, NY - Toys R Us is a brand we’ve all grown up with. The company was originally founded by Charles P. Lazarus (October 5, 1923 - March 22, 2018), the son of a local entrepreneur who wished to someday mimic his father’s work with his own enterprise. Those dreams became a reality in 1948 when young Charles, 25, opened his first children’s furniture store called “Children’s Bargain Town” in Washington, D.C. After years of early success, Lazarus added toys and changed … [Read more...]
Google to Combine Paid Search Ads with Content; Who Needs Organic Anyway?
NEW YORK – Google loves ads, especially when ads are just as relevant and helpful as organic search results. Think about it like this; if you owned Google, imagine a day where your search engine results were just as accurate, relevant and helpful as any of the other organic search results. You could literally have an entire page of results, which were all paid for through your auction system, and users wouldn’t think anything of it. People would just continue to “Google” … [Read more...]
Rand Fishkin: If I Could Go Back to 1991 and Get Any Name, I Would Grab Porn.com
NEW YORK – Rand Fiskin, the original founder of Moz.com, has gone out on his own new venture called “Spark Toro”, using the domain name, SparkToro.com. Lucky him, he’s fairly accurate when he said it is a decent name you can easily remember, proven to me by the fact that I did not need to go look it up (again); I did in fact remember it a day later as I write this article, but in full disclosure, I typed it in Google’s search box yesterday while watching the video and I … [Read more...]
You ‘Need Not’ Register A Domain to Keep Your Company ‘Tag Line’ or Slogan Safe
NEW YORK, NY – You might not need to bother registering a domain name to keep your brands tag line or slogan safe from violators – at least, that must be the general consensus within the industry as nearly none of the 200 company slogans and tag lines I’ve examined have done so. To my surprise, just a few have thought that registering their catchy phrase in a .com name is worthwhile. Below are a few of the companies which have their tag lines and trademark terms registered … [Read more...]
Why I Told My “New gTLD” Project to “Suck It” – Will Rebrand with King of all URLs
NEW YORK, NY - It takes a lot for a guy like me to give-up on a project or otherwise throw-in-the-towel, especially when I am not even sure how hard I really tried to begin with, but I like to be two steps ahead, and I like to work smart, not hard. That’s why I told Uniregistry to keep the Find.cars URL domain - forget it, let it expire, I’ll just re-brand as FindCarsforSale.com. Here’s my thought process and how it all went down; hill. Two years ago, when .cars domains … [Read more...]
Twitter Verification Requests Get Processed by High Tech Associates in Philippines
NEW YORK, NY – Recently I submitted a request to verify my Twitter account through the online form Twitter makes available for those who want to request verification. Verification isn’t available to all users but those who are either public figures, journalists, celebrities and some media outlets will often be the types of accounts Twitter will verify, depending on the circumstances. Verified users have that cool little blue badge next to their names so Twitter users … [Read more...]
Name Summit Digital Branding Conference; Entrepreneurs, Experts, Domain Enthusiasts
NEW YORK, NY – “NameSummit – The Digital Branding Conference” is just one week away. There will be over 40 speakers, including entrepreneurs, experts and digital branding superstars ready to engage with attendees. Expert panels will discuss leading trends in branding, influence marketing, social media and showcase the continuing evolution of domain names as an important part of powerful branding and advertising campaigns. Below is the updated line-up of experts; an … [Read more...]
Name Summit Conference in New York City Shaping Up to Be “Very Big Event”
Agenda includes long list of Industry Veterans; Live Domain Auction for WallStreet.com; Event Ending with Undisclosed "Presentation for Exclusive Asset Sale" yet to be revealed!! NEW YORK, NY – A few days ago I spoke via telephone (yes, that clunky old device still in use) with some of the people at NameSummit to discuss interesting developments for the upcoming event in New York City which is just weeks away. If you have not yet booked your tickets and stay to New York … [Read more...]
McDonald’s Terminates Plans for Branded gTLDs; Requests ICANN Not Delegate String
NEW YORK, NY – According to a letter written to ICANN on May 2, 2017, the McDonald’s globally branded empire has indicated it has lost interest in running and maintaining its own gTLD domains, (.McDonalds and .MCD), by terminating its registry agreement. McDonald’s is one of the world’s most visited restaurants, serves over 117 countries feeding millions of customers every day. In its top five markets (U.S., France, the U.K., Germany and Canada) nearly 75% of the … [Read more...]