BOCA RATON – Not sure why it has taken Google so long to realize and implement a sites various version into webmaster tools, but they have finally sent out a notification letting users know they have done so. It’s been one of the most annoying things; to have to enter each individual version of your sites URL into webmaster tools. For example, www, non www, http://, https, etc. This should go without having to designate as it just creates extra meaningless work when adding … [Read more...]
Near $200,000 Missing from “Ordinary” Domain Sales Market, So Far This Year
NEW YORK – There is an old saying “Follow the Money”, popularized by the 1976 drama-documentary motion picture “All the President's Men” which was about the Watergate scandal (I’ve yet to see the movie, but plan to). However, in this case, I prefer not to follow the money, because it looks like it's disappearing into a region of space-time; one exhibiting strong gravitational effects that nothing - not even particles and electromagnetic radiation such as light can escape … [Read more...]
A Domain Resellers Best Benefit Might Be In Domain “Savings”, Not Sales “Revenue”
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...]
Might Be Good Time to Revisit That .Org Portfolio; Which to Hold, Which to Grab
NEW YORK, NY – According to industry news website DNJournal.com, the registry behind .org domain names, Public Interest Registry, or otherwise known as PIR, has got itself a new CEO. Although personally I had never come across the name before, DNJournal describes incoming Chief Executive Officer Jon Nevett as a well-known and widely respected domain industry veteran - and this domain enthusiast has no reason to doubt it, especially since Nevett is one of the founders of … [Read more...]
Google Say’s Don’t Buy Domains for Past Rankings; Knows When They Change Hands
NEW YORK, NY – In an article that came out in Search Engine Roundtable the other day, long-time search marketing expert Barry Schwartz points out that a Google employee named Aaseesh, tasked with monitoring Google’s Webmaster Central Help Forum, posted a comment which suggests that Google zaps a domains ranking juice, not only when the domain expires (which most have already suspected), but also when the domain merely changes hands or is sold. This adds a new layer of … [Read more...]
Domains and Divorce, Are You Prepared for Your Domain Assets to Come Under Fire?
WEST PALM BEACH, FL – This is a very personal post today with thoughts you might find surprising, however, one thing that readers of my site will always get is honesty, good, bad, or ugly; you’re going to have the opportunity to read through the details of my experience on the web – with whatever it may be – and those who read these articles have come to expect and respect my honesty and thoughts where sharing my real world experience on the Internet and within circles of … [Read more...]
Uniregistry Moves to Rebrand as “UNI”, Without Ownership of UNI.com???
NEW YORK, NY - If you had not heard yet - domain registry, parking and portfolio management company “Uniregistry” has launched a re-branding effort changing its popular brand name from “Uniregistry” to simply “UNI”. Two things immediately came to mind upon seeing this news. Does the company own the UNI.com domain name? The answer: Surprisingly it does not. The domain name UNI.com has been registered since 1993 and is currently owned by an Italian company which according … [Read more...]
Did DuckDuckGo Just Acquire Premium Domain “Duck.com” from Google?
NEW YORK, NY – Popular privacy search engine DuckDuckGo.com, might just be quacking all the way to the bank with its latest [potential] acquisition, Duck.com, according to name server and domain registrar details pointed out by domain industry website DotWeekly.com. It is important to note that this is just speculation at this time, but knowing that the privacy based search provider has been eyeing the domain for some time, specifically saying that it creates confusion … [Read more...]
Industry Event, NamesCon 2019, Comes to Tropicana Las Vegas, Saturday, January 26
NEW YORK, NY – In another month or so, just after the holidays, domain name professionals, enthusiasts and others in the Internet industry will begin getting ready for another round of the world’s largest domain name conference, NamesCon 2019 in Las Vegas. This year it will again be hosted at the Tropicana Las Vegas, on Las Vegas Boulevard, right where the busy area of the strip begins, but word in and around the Industry is that this will be the final year of the venue being … [Read more...]
Will .COM Domains Get More Expensive with Expiration of “Cooperative Agreement”?
LONG ISLAND, NY – The “Cooperative Agreement” between NTIA (The National Telecommunications and Information Administration ) and Verisign includes a price-cap on .com domain names, however, this agreement must be renewed by November 30, 2018. This means that sometime very soon the price you pay for all of your .com domain registrations and their renewals may be raised, and there is no telling how much this increase might be. The NTIA, an agency of the U.S. Department of … [Read more...]
Three Letter Blockbuster Domain Sale, ICE.com Trades Hands for $3.5 Million
NEW YORK, NY - According to a press release, the three letter Internet domain name ICE.com has been sold via a private, confidential transaction in the amount of $3.5 million. The sale is expected to be the largest publicly disclosed domain name sold in 2018. The sale was handled by two domain and Internet business brokerage firms Brannan’s and Grit Brokerage and the purchase price and value was defined in a statement as a long-term benefit at the cost of a single … [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...]
Top 100 .com Domain Name Sales of 2016 Verses 2017 Suggests Market Stabilization
NEW YORK, NY - Last year about this time (June) I compared the highest valued .com sales of 2015 to 2016 which were publicly available at that time via NameBio.com (the list changed slightly today effectively creating a $2M difference and 30% decline rather than 35% indicated at that time[provided that 2015 remained unchanged]). It's also important to note that 2015 contained two blockbuster sales for $8M each. Today, comparing numbers for 2016 to 2017, from what data is … [Read more...]
gTLD Madness: Five Years Later and Where Are We Now? T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Panel Debate
NEW YORK - By the time I started visiting domain conferences in person, unfortunately, what I feel was the greatest domain conference of all time, Howard Neu and Rick Schwartz’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C., had seen its last days. I wish it weren’t so. I think the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences were the best respected domain conferences in history; I can only wish that Howard and Rick, for whatever reason, will team up again and bring it back one day, because everything else, in my opinion, … [Read more...]
Will Internet Remain Safe Place to Invest and Conduct Business in Years to Come?
NEW YORK – Back in 2016, the ICA, (The Internet Commerce Association) asked me a very important question; they asked what I thought would be some of the biggest challenges the domain industry would face in the coming years. While some might answer that question with suggestions about the difficulties new gTLDs may bring toward branding, or monetization strategies with domain parking from declining CPCs, my answer was likely very - very different than most domainers. This … [Read more...]