A Biker's Domain

Enom still "Domain Cherry Picking" Customer Accounts?

2008-02-05T17:26:00.000-05:00

What Grace period?

Well, it appears that Enom hasn't yet learned that "Domain Cherry Picking" doesn't earn them any points with their best customers. In fact some are so angry about this activity on the part of Enom, that they believe the best answer is a move to another registrar such as Moniker or Fabulous. "It's a slap in the face" says a long time enom reseller.

The process of "Domain Cherry Picking" is described as when a Registrar picks more valuable domain names from a client's renewal list ahead of earlier expired names, when moving names to eRGP. They then charge a renewal fee of $160 or sometimes higher. This of course makes it more likely the name will NOT be redeemed by the current owner and instead submitted to the Registrar's auction for even bigger profits.

It's been documented that Enom has gone so far as to pull some names over 7 days ahead of names with earlier expiration dates. Of course a Registrar can determine what names might be best Cherry Picked by placing it's own advertisements on them upon expiration and monitoring revenue. The Registrars have amended their terms of service (TOS) over the years to not only allow them the right to this practice, but to also keep the clients whois details on the name while they serve up ads that might put the client at risk.

Both of these actions are clear conflicts of interest between the Registrar and it's clients.

Originally the "Registration Grace Period" (RGP) was put in place to give the Registrar customer a buffer against the risk of losing a name after expiration. That Grace period has been under attack by the Registrars who see a better way to higher profits thru name auctions or keeping the names themselves called "Warehousing". More and more Registrars are continuing to shorten the Grace Period on one hand telling customers they have 30 days, but at a later time pointing to their (TOS) that offers NO assured Grace Period at all. None!

This practice by Enom and other Registrars becomes confusing to Domainers with large portfolios using 3rd party management software, and it appears that may be the Registrar's intent. The objective of course is to shift value from the domainer (the Registrar's client) to the Registrar itself.

Alright I'll write!

2008-02-05T15:31:00.001-05:00

Several of my domainer fans (both of them) have been badgering me to write more often. I don't think it has much to do with their appreciation of my chosen topics, but rather more so they can sit back and watch when the flame wars heat up and the .commie clique from Ricks descends down upon me once more.

Hey, I can take it. I'm old and take naps and forget who called me what very soon after having read it anway. Heck, I've been in this game for much longer than most of them, so what do they know huh? How long you ask? Long enough to have coined terms like .commie, alt extensions, domain front running, domain cherry picking, and long enough to have decided to NOT reg Stocks.com and Bonds.com etc etc at $0 cost. The first time I think I heard the term Domainer was in a Wallstreet room where the first dessemination of stock market news was being regularly fed over the Internet. We did it. There was talk of the undesirables laying claim to some URLs and planning actual commercial uses for them. God no! Were we concerned? Not much, because that would mean graphics, and that would just "slow down the Net". Couldn't work, and "they" wouldn't let just one person control those generic names for long anyway.

I'm still wondering when "they" are gonna jump in and take back all those names. Maybe it's not gonna really happen? Maybe Google and Microsoft/Yahoo are just gonna squeeze them so hard with the coming recession, that they'll just have to start thinking about developing and adding real content. Sounds to me like it'll be back to the future with US small business finally looking to get a significant website and buying brandables rather than type-in names. We'll see.

Network Solutions - Frontrunning Old News

2008-01-08T18:28:00.000-05:00

Network Solutions has instituted a 4 day lock on all domain names searched on their site. Big surprise?

The other "insiders" and industry news pundits finally picked up on the domain "Front Running" issue, and boy did they push out the headlines. The Domain State forum saw a ton of traffic.What gets me about all this is that it's "old news". We've watched other registrars doing "Front Running" for years now.

In fact, I'm the one who took the term from the stockmarket and first applied it to the practice involving domains.Back in 05 while watching some of my whois name searches get picked up and regged by some of the "accredited" registrars, I decided to seed some names and sit back and watch them take the bait. They did. I then notified ICANNt that these guys had evidently learned of a nasty trick called "Front Running" and were running it on their own clients. As usual ICANNt ignored the warning.

Spring forward to mid 2006 and my phone conversation with Jay at Name Intelligence (Domaintools) where I asked if he was aware of the problem of "Front Running" on domains? I pointed out some examples having been "run" by Chesterton Holdings of Oversee/NameKing/DomainSponsor? Jays take was somewhat skeptical and he seemed content with the idea that so many names were being tasted, that it was just coincidence.

It took another year of free and expanded reign by the "Front Runners" before Domainers started to make more of a fuss. In mid 07 Jay put out a piece in his blog referring to the fuss about "Front Running" as just "Hype". I posted a comment to this article and even included an archive shot of an example Front Run domain I had pointed out to him as proof back when. No reply.

ICANNt finally takes up the issue way late of course,( http://www.icann.org/committees/security/sac022.pdf ) and I'm pleased they have picked up on my term for the practice, but they still were in denial "What appears to a prospective registrant as an intentional act may prove to be a coincidence". This even after receiving documentation from me, as noted in the report.The bottom line that I see in this whole ordeal is that ICANNt has proved yet again that they do NOT represent Domainers or the Publics interest, and do nothing to protect that interest. They seem to function mainly as a taxing authority without providing representation for those paying the tax. They pass out accredations to registrars, and rarely withdraw one no matter what the proof provided of wrongdoing or fraud by the registrar. (See Registerfly)

I believe that those jumping all over Network Solutions for taking steps to protect their market share, need to focus their anger on the real problem.

ICANNt failed again.

Dallas Cowboys Lose 2 in a Row

2007-10-20T10:09:00.000-04:00

Not many Dallas fans know that their beloved Cowboys were thrown for TWO big loses last weekend. One of which was their failed attempt to beat the Patriots, and the other (which could end up as more costly) was the loss of their own brand on the Internet.

The Cowboys managed to fumble the deal for Cowboys.com at a domain name auction in Florida. Get this, after securing the winning bid of $275k (other domains at the auction went as high as $2.2 million each) Dallas begged out after claiming they thought they'd won the name for a bid of $275. That's right folks, they (said) they thought they had won the name for less than it costs for a family to attend one of their games.

The domain was promptly put back into play and sold for $370k in overtime.

Neustar Keeps .US Registry

2007-10-19T16:03:00.001-04:00

The Department of Commerce has announced the extended award of the registry contract for the United States Country Code Top Level Domain ( .US ) to Neustar Inc. This action has disappointed some of the largest holders and supporters of the extension who were calling for a takeover by the Alliance Registry created by a partnership pf GoDaddy and Afilias. Many of those with vested interests in the .US ccTLD believe that Neustar has mismanaged the extension and has done almost nothing to promote it's use. They say they have little hope that Neustar will change it's ways going forward.

Tombstone Link:

http://www2.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NOAA/AGAMD/Awards/DG133508CN0002Ln1.html

EcomXpo Experience

2007-10-12T13:06:00.000-04:00

Just back, but then again I never left in the first place. The EcomXpo is 100% virtual and I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this type of trade show in the future. Just think, you can talk with sponsors at their booths and exchange cards and immediately see presentations of their products and services. Traveling to the next booth is done in the blink of an eye saving a lot of time and allowing you to see a lot more of what you came for. You can see and converse with other attendees and take in several seminars and panel discussions. Now this is without all the cost and time associated with flights, hotels, taxis, meals etc. etc.

It appears to be quite popular as well. Checking some of the stats for this show, there were some 3513 companies represented by attendees. A number of the giants were there such as Google and Microsoft and lots of affiliate related organizations such as ADtech, Linkshare, Doubleclick, Digital River etc. I especially liked the services offered by http://www.yudu.com/us/ and http://wink.com/ take a look.

Over in the education hall the top 5 presentations were; 30 Tips for Web Writing, Future-proofing Your SEO Strategy, Social Networking and Affiliate Marketing, Fast and Easy Affiliate Income, and Word of Mouth Marketing in Five Easy Steps.

I was so impressed by the show's platform, that I contacted the author Inxpo to see what it would take to do something like this for the financial industry.

Called it right!

2007-10-12T03:09:00.000-04:00

Amanda Beard and Bob Parsons (CEO GoDaddy)

It's fun to be the first with news and our scoop about Amanda Beard as the new GoDaddy Girl was a kick. I wonder if she'll be wearing that GoDaddy swimsuit in her next olympic swimming competition? I expect Bob will be taking her to the big Motorcycle rallys and she'll be riding her bike to boot.

New GoDaddy Girl - Amanda Beard

2007-09-26T11:08:00.000-04:00

Scoop! Amanda Beard is the new GoDaddy Girl, and Bob Parsons is expected to announce it next week. You heard it here first folks. Bob has been spreading around some clues to the insiders, but with this post, the secret is out.

Amanda Ray Beard was born on October 29, 1981 in Irvine, California and is an American Olympic swimmer and model.

What's more important to me is that she loves motorcycles and rides one herself.

Front Page News!

2007-08-17T10:50:00.000-04:00

I guess when you've made it to the front page of the newspaper, it's all downhill from here right?

From our regional paper (Valley News) today about my messing around with the Weblo virtual geo site. I think Rick (the Domain King himself) said he had thrown in around $20k into that thing. I know Duke (editor of DNjournal) has played around with it too a bit. Anyway, here's how the article starts: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

NEWS: He Owns This Town, And That One, Too

Canaan -- First things first: There would be no interview in person. Daniel Stager -- retired financial analyst, motorcycling enthusiast, mayor of the Internet incarnations of two Upper Valley towns -- frankly didn't see the need.

I wanted to go out to a movie today, but I'm a little concerned about the Paparazzi. Disquise time for sure.

Mr. Personal Domain Name Owner

2007-08-07T11:30:00.000-04:00

Finally an audio tribute saluting the true heros of the Internet. Check out the link
Click here

Sturgis Rally & GoDaddy

2007-08-07T11:25:00.001-04:00

The GoDaddy Chopper will be at the Sturgis Rally this year. Bob Parsons likes his biz on the wild side. Good for him!

Net Neutrality

2006-12-30T07:03:00.000-05:00

Some of us older folks remember when television was free. Then the powers that be (read rich corporations) brought out "cable" television and sold the idea to everyone on the premise that if you paid a subscription, you wouldn't be bothered with all those stinkin commercials. Sounded fair enough right? So we bot into it. Of course here we sit now paying for cable WITH commercials.

Now comes the attack on the neutrality of the internet. The rich corporations now want to provide high speed content only from those that agree to pay them a special fee. Those not willing to pay the piper, will be stuck in the slow lane, and possibly eliminated if Comcast et al get their way. Heck they think they own the net anyway. Watch the video to get the message, and then go to www.savetheinternet.com and sign the petition.

Do you read me? Language problems.

2006-12-25T05:35:00.000-05:00

Just a funny little clip that I think reflects a bit of the current feelings being experienced daily by domainers attempting to expand their domain portfolios into foreign language keywords and/or foreign country code top level domains (ccTLDs)

Must careful be in alien lands!

2006-12-23T06:33:00.000-05:00

Many domainers, frustrated in the search for keyword strings in .com, have instead invested in foreign domains in top level extensions (TLDs) and/or country code top level domains (ccTLDs). I do see the future potential for this strategy and have even dipped my own toe in the water sometime back with a couple like Motocicletas.org (spanish for Motorcycles).

The risk of course is messing up on the translations from english to whatever and finding that Bablefish or Google language tools just might not be cutting it. Imagine the horror that these brands experienced upon launching some very expensive advertising campaigns without the necessary translation due diligence.

Here's a few examples where ad campaigns went astray.

The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the Wax Tadpole". General Motors had a fiasco in trying to market the Nova car in Central and South America. "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go". Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese. Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux." Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick." Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea." Last but not least, when American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

I won't be regging anymore foreign language domains without the review of a professional translator.

GoDaddy's Scary Holiday Card

2006-12-21T06:04:00.000-05:00

I guess I'm not done messing with Parsons at GoDaddy yet. I really think he was trying to be nice by sending me one of those email holiday cards. Problem is that I think GoDaddy took the "spirit" of the season literally and included Zombies walking around and dancing. Then again maybe they were trying to save money by covering both Halloween and Christmas with one effort. Don't you think they should have the music playing from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" instead? Anyway, if you want to experience the "joy" first hand, here's a link to the card.

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/holiday/winter/2006_playmovie.asp?isc=gdh1225&se=%2B

Rumor - GoDaddy's Parsons ex KGB?

2006-12-18T09:08:00.000-05:00

As Bob Parsons GoDaddy CEO

As ex KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko

Rumor has it that ex KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was NOT poisoned as reported widely by the press, and is still alive and kicking as his alter ego Bob Parsons, well known CEO of the registrar GoDaddy.

Attempts to contact Mr. Parsons to inquire as to his health were not immediately returned. A spokesman for GoDaddy claimed the rumors to be false, and replied that "Bob was off some place rolling over rocks with Mad Max". He also replied that they "were sure that the boss came from someplace remote, but that it definately wasn't from Russia. Heck, he doesn't even have an accent".

Spooky marketing idea for Cory

2006-12-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

I've got an theme idea that might be fun for a young webmaster. The planning should start early in 2007 and be ready for some serious marketing during the prime Halloween season.

Started doing some related domain studies to see what was still out there and started cracking up. Some very funny stuff possible.

Hoping I can get my son Cory into it. He's been taking computer classes after school on Tuesdays all on his own. I think he could have fun with this, make a few bucks, and get him involved with the Web. We'll see.

The Airplane-Treadmill Conundrum

2006-12-14T06:59:00.000-05:00

Imagine a plane is sitting on a massive conveyor belt, as wide and as long as a runway. The conveyer belt is designed to exactly match the speed of the wheels, moving in the opposite direction. Can the plane take off?

Laconia Motorcycle Week Domain

2006-12-13T20:25:00.000-05:00

Scored today with a domain caught using snapnames. Picked up Laconia.info and made it through the private auction. Of course besides being a town in New Hampshire, it's home to the oldest of the original BIG 3 US Bike/Motorcycle Rallys. The other two being Daytona Beach Florida (Bike Week), and Sturgis South Dakota.

I now have ownership of both Sturgis.us, www.Sturgis.info , Laconia.us and now Laconia.info. I'm going to have to work on picking up Daytona Beach even though I do have a few variations.

Domain Taste Testing

2006-12-13T17:44:00.000-05:00

The great band "QUEEN"

Well, I'm trying a bit of domain news monitoring, checking Overture, Wordtracker movers and shakers, Alexa, etc. Picked up a few that would go into the 4 1/2 day domain tasting project if we had that running. We expect to have it cranked up around the first of the year. Anyway, regged these to test traffic:

www.airplanetreadmill.com www.playthegamelyrics.com by Queen, and last but not least, www.chinesenewyear2008.com lol. I'll let ya know how they do in the stats.

Testing the Latest Video Web 2.0 Prog

2006-12-09T08:34:00.000-05:00

Well, in the continued review of all new things that might be incorporated into our web projects, I set up a little video website to hold some of my favorites. I'll continue to add to the archive and make it available to friends and family. I regged a couple names that might hold some appreciation value, but I chalked them up to amusement anyway. They are in2vdo.com and in2vdos.com with the former used as the url frame on the magnify it platform. I've even added it as a permanent link on my blog template here to the right. On in2vdo you can watch, review, register for updates, search other videos, and even add one yourself if you think others would like it. Of course I can delete any stuff you put up that I think stinks ;-) Click on the link on my homepage here and see what you think. Enjoy!

Has the .mobi boat sailed without me?

2006-12-09T07:19:00.000-05:00

Well, another lesson learned. I sat there and watched as the new .mobi sponsored Top Level Domain (TLD) was proposed and thought "no way". I watched as it was approved by ICANN and thought "what are they thinking". There I was with all my experience and databases and programs and watched as the new extension was released. I ran some checks for the heck of it and found tons of the better keywords, and 3 letter or 3 number domains available, and I continued to hold back. As a supporter of the "One Web" idealogy, I was and still am against it's use. The fundamentals didn't make sense. It was more of a tech format than a domain. After all, any existing site on any existing TLD or ccTLD extension could just add pages as a sub-domain as easy as mobi.mysite.com or mysite.com/mobi. Why the heck would anyone need to buy a .mobi extension?

Well, it came down to my old lessons learned through the financial business. While I stick to my guns on true fundamental based valuations, the market runs away from me based on technical values and momentum. A stock or an extension doesn't make sense at all, but someone yells fire, and everyone one piles in driving demand and reducing supply.

That's what happened folks. I continued to sit there and lose good money because the stupid extension doesn't make any sense. While those who went with the hype, and added to it, made some good money. For example, the mobi registry has some strong backers, however small their investments, by no other than the great Google herself and several phone suppliers etc. The registry held back what they call "premium names" for later release. They didput up a small list of "premium" names for auction at the last T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in October for continued hype value. Not a complete surprise, the conference founders bid up flowers.mobi to $200k adding to the fever.

I don't know how long they can keep the hype going or if they can really gain acceptance by the public down the line, but for the first couple months, .mobi investments have proved to be winners. One of my friends from the forums (Think) jumped in a bit and has made a killing. But I see all these n00bs that are regging garbage like submarine.mobi with no clue whatsoever, and I doubt any amount of hype or even fundamental acceptance is going to save them from losing money.

I did register a few as defensive mobi regs, (to cover coms and website plans I have in progress) and will probably add maybe up to a dozen more for the same reasons, but as for speculation, I think the boat has already sailed.

Google buys YouTube

2006-12-09T07:08:00.000-05:00

Not exactly new news, but part of the reason that you'll start to see more videos on my blog. It's due to the ease of use in adding videos from either youtube.com or Google's original Google Videos. The purchase price was $1.6 billion. That's right folks. The founders of that site made a fortune in very short time. It's just another example of the popularity of what they refer to as web 2.0 platforms, where people can create and add their own content. It will be interesting to see how Google monetizes this venture. My interest in these web 2.0 setups is tied to our plans for the Cartel, and it's grass roots army.

The Last Domain Name Left?

2006-12-09T06:35:00.000-05:00

HA HA

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Milford & Company Theme Song

2006-12-05T07:49:00.000-05:00

AC/DC: Back In Black

New virtual world allows users to buy states

2006-09-30T03:09:00.000-04:00

The guys from Myspace have created another cash cow. This one is called "Weblo".

They're called virtual worlds and they are becoming a tour-de-force in the physical world.

“Virtual worlds are getting huge. Second Life has three-quarters of a million subscribers. You have these 3-D environments and they've also figured out how to make money off of them. Most of are free when you start, but if you want to really get involved and buy and sell things, within these worlds then you pay a little bit of money and it makes the experience all the more real,” Lance Ulanoff of PC Magazine said.

Launched this week, Weblo, is a virtual space modeled after the actual planet earth, only everything from web domain names to entire states are for sale.

“For example, if you bought the state of New York, which is about $26,000, you collect tax revenue from every single person purchasing any property in New York state as well as all the ad revenues we make from New York,” Rocky Mirza of Weblo said.

A new virtual world is modeled after the actual planet earth, and members buy and sell real estate with real money. Of course the Cartel has been working on a similar idea using real domains for about 3 years now

Congress approves Internet gambling ban bill

2006-09-30T02:59:00.000-04:00

Most forms of Internet gambling would be banned under a bill that received final U.S. congressional approval early Saturday. The House of Representatives and Senate approved the measure and sent it to President George W. Bush to sign into law.

The bill, a compromise between earlier versions passed by the two chambers, would make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites. Democrats had accused Republicans of pushing the bill to placate its conservative base, particularly the religious right, before the November 7 congressional elections.

Chock one up for the moral majority. Maybe they can take another shot at prohibition, and everyone knows rock and roll music is the devil.

Domain Warehousing & Pocketdomain et al

2006-09-30T02:54:00.000-04:00

It's not so much PocketDomain specifically that domainers are upset about, but more to the idea of what they represent to them. In order to compete in the drop game today for alt extensions, you're going to have to buy in to multiple credentials. As far as .com and .net go, fagedaboudit.

It was clear to me (after setting up intial registrar drop catching programs) that the number of catches were pretty closely tied to the number of threads employed, and much less about coding. Looking at this again 6 months ago, it still appears to bear that out. It's not the numbers of credentials owned, but the number deployed. If Snap, Pool or Enom really choose to deploy their armies of credentials on the few prime infos at stake, I'm quite confident that PocketDomain's take would be pretty much reflected in their number of threads used. It's a small world and pretty easy to guess who the players are in setting stuff up most times.

Some domainers feel that they shouldn't have to jump into the credential race to participate. They are under the wrong impression that the DoC works for them, ICANNT answers to the DoC, the registries to ICANNT and the registrars to the registries. They don't feel that they should have to become a registrar themselves to participate in the domain catching biz or be "heard" or "represented" by ICANNT.

ICANNT has got to love the accredation race, and the way they get to dance around and avoid their own mission statements set up in the public's interest. They are on a quest to accumulate ever increasing independent power, accredation fees and registration taxes. A budget of $33 million this year as a "non-profit" for what?

Instead of creating ANY service value to the general public or domainers, ICANNT spends it's time selling/printing meaningless accredations. They distance themselves (often literally) from addressing any issues or concerns of the public in private meetings behind closed doors. They set up cozy deals with who they consider "stakeholders" like Verisign at the expense of the public/domainers. ICANNT pulls the wool over our eyes by having the registrars agree to abide by rules or policies intended to protect the public/domainers "if adopted". What good does that do us if ICANNT never adopts any of these rules because they aren't introduced by the "stakeholders" (read registrars again)

For example, the policy against warehousing is on the books, but has never been "adopted" by ICANNT. Heck if they adopted something like that it might cut down the accredation fees they get. Why would they want that? For the benefit of the public/domainers? Sure, right!

The whole domain industry self regulation is rife with fraud and corruption. The DoC in their meetings make it clear that they aren't going to step in, because they're getting pressure from the world community to lessen their control. So the DoC sacrifices the public's/domainer's interests in order to keep ahold of the strings. ICANNT knows this and is pushing to take the control over and run da woild privately, as a "Non-profit".

Back to PocketDomain. They merely present a face to the public/domainers of what appeared to be the latest example of the lack of transparency by these registrars and the industry.
__________________
ICANNT "Domain Registrants (read US) are NOT stakeholders and therefor NOT entitled to representation OR consideration." They tax us 25 cents per name. Tell Them "NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!"

PocketDomain et al

2006-09-30T02:38:00.000-04:00

For the last 6 months an upstart in Domain land has been causing a bit of an outcry for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)to actually take some action to reign in registrar warehousing.

Registrar warehousing is the term Domainers apply to the practice of holding expired domains or catching domain drops for their own accounts instead of making those domains available for the public use again.

The issue has been debated recently on the DomainState forum.

Carlton had this to say.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by stocdoctor
... Back to PocketDomain. They merely present a face to the public/domainers of what appeared to be the latest example of the lack of transparency by these registrars and the industry.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

.info Registrar accreditation should require that if you are listed on the Afilias "Register a domain name" page - that your listed registration company have an actual active website for registering domain names. John Doe public thinks he is going to a public registration co. named Alfena, or PocketDomain.com (with no seeming discernible identity), only to land on the site of a competitor listed alongside them called enom. Certainly appears like a misrepresentation to everyday people. It's confusing.

Perhaps these "set-ups" are not illegal, but the participants in these invisible drop-catch mechanisms are operating between the lines. The problem really does begin with ICANN as it is up to them to make a determination as to what registrar accreditation really means and to define clearly for the public what constitutes a true violation. ICANN have an accreditation agreement full of loopholes in which impotent language allows about near anything.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.7.9 Registrar shall abide by any ICANN adopted specifications or policies prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If ICANN are not willing to stand by this, then why inject this statement. Needless ambiguity in a contract! And if catching domains for "private clients" is allowable, then who is insuring that this is actually occurring ... and not just warehousing disguised. ICANN and Afilias bear directly responsibility. One can only deduce that Afilias really doesn't care who their listed registrars are as long as Afilias receive money for the registrar credentials. Am I wrong?

First Wiki

2006-08-28T10:42:00.000-04:00

The Cartel is going to be making a lot of changes this 2nd year. We're going to clarify our development plans to focus on website styles that can be worked on via community collaboration. First that means expanding out Cartel numbers and then including ways that the Public can participate. The whole idea is social involvement on content creation. Community being most important and then content. As the post title says, we are working on our first wiki. CityWiki.com We've messed around with a model, and will have a support forum to aid Cartel members in content sources and ideas. More on this later--

Sturgis.info Link directory progress

2006-07-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

It's been way too long since I posted to this blog. A lot of major exciting stuff happening and I'm going to be jumping back in here regularly starting today. First, I've got STURGIS.info the City link directory moved over to the new server, and will be going thru it fixing broken links and adding a ton of stuff. Hope it won't take long, cause the Sturgis Rally is next month and people are hitting the site already.

Virtual Real Estate is Booming

2006-05-24T16:39:00.000-04:00

Forbes article 5-23-06 by Rachel Rosmarin Interview with Marc Ofstrofsky (pic at right) Pres of Ireit

The housing bubble may be leaking air, but virtual real estate is booming.
Internet domain names, a once-hot market left for dead after the tech market crashed in 2000, are in play again. The difference: This time around, investors aren't merely squatting on addresses they think will be in demand in hopes of reselling them; they are selling advertising on the sites themselves.
Advertising on so-called "parked" sites may have generated $400 million in sales last year, estimates Susquehanna Financial Group, which figures the business could hit $1 billion by 2007. The under-the-radar business is helping drive up the prices for Internet real estate: Domain name sales generated $29 million in 2005, according to market research firm Zetetic.
Here's how it works: Web site entrepreneurs scoop up unclaimed domains with generic but potentially useful names--or misspellings of already-claimed names--for $6 to $8 a pop. They then load them up with ads from Google or Yahoo!, sit back and collect pennies per click.
Someone hunting for tickets to Avenue Q on Broadway or in Las Vegas, for instance, might type http://www.shows.com/ into their Web browser. But instead of getting information about tickets, those Web surfers get a site full of links that eventually connect them to text-based advertising. The domain name is owned by Internet REIT, a Houston-based domain name aggregator that has racked up 400,000 Web addresses.
This is Internet REIT President Marc Ostrofsky's second stab at making money off Web real estate. In 1999, he famously sold the domain name Business.com for $7.5 million in cash and shares to eCompanies.com.
Ostrofsky's company, which recently received funding from Perot Investments and Starbucks boss Howard Schultz's firm Maveron, isn't the only company hoping to cash in on traffic trends. Last month, startup Demand Media surfaced with 150,000 names and $120 million in investments led by Richard Rosenblatt. Rosenblatt was formerly the chairman of Intermix Media, the company that owned MySpace before it was acquired by News Corp. for $580 million last year.
Ostrofsky and Internet REIT Chief Executive Bob Martin talked with Forbes.com about why "domainers" have gotten a bad rap, and whether buying up Web site names for the sole purpose of selling ad space is similar to investing in highway-adjacent land and filling it with billboards.
Forbes.com: Who are your competitors? Other domain name owners or domain name registrars?
Marc Ostrofsky: Everyone who owns a domain is in the market, and a few hundred serious players are called domainers. However, the number of registrars who buy up the names they sell is increasing. There's no law against a registrar grabbing domains that don't get renewed. Some companies have built up a huge portfolio this way--and since they are the registrar, they have access to statistics about those domains as well. That's a huge competitive advantage over the open market.
But, the way those registrars typically make money is by pointing those sites straight to Google or Yahoo! They sit back and collect. What we do is work on those domains to find technical ways of enhancing each one's income stream, such as building up content and directing traffic.
Are you "cyber-squatters"?
MO: Let me defining cyber-squatting, since I've been called a cyber-squatter. A cyber-squatter is someone who owns a name that is trademarked, copywritten or otherwise [intellectual property]-protected by another firm. But as an industry, we typically only buy generic names like "cars," "shoes," or "mutualfunds." I wouldn't ever own "Fidelitymutualfunds.com."
I do own a lot of names. This is like when California opened up its land rush, and some people got 50 parcels of land and some got one. I went and got 50. It is really relevant to real estate and not to IP law, and courts have ruled that way.
Bob Martin: Our analogy is that Home Depot will locate its stores next to large Wal-Mart Stores. They do that because Wal-Mart gets a lot of traffic, and people might also stop in at the Home Depot. Taking advantage of traffic patterns is a fully vetted economic model. The analogy in Internet real estate is that certain terms that are not trademarked--for example, a misspelling of "bankruptcy," or "African-American"--are valuable, because they get inherent traffic. Some of it might be accidental, and some might be people who want to go type in that word or phase.
You make money when people who are looking for content go to one of your URLs and find advertising instead. Do you hear criticism about this business model?
BM: We have not. 10% to 20% of traffic to our site arrives through direct navigation--either intentional or accidental. Our objective is to help them get to where they're going in a more efficient manner, so its profitable for the advertisers. The ads help the Web users go to where they really want to go.
MO: If you go to Google and search for "E-Tickets" you're going to get a listing of ten ads. If you go to our site, Etickets.com, you're going to see that same listing, but presented in a slightly different way. Are people criticizing Google for the way they make money? It is the same way we make money. We're supplying some of that traffic to Google. My business model finds it is better to point people to Google than it is to put up my own site. Google ads direct searchers to a site that actually sells tickets.
BM: 300 to 400 people a day type in "Etickets.com." Would it be a better user experience if they typed in "Etickets.com" and got a blank page with nothing, or is it better to have the ads redirecting them?
MO: There are three ways people get to Google and Google makes money. You go to Google directly, you go to a link that connects you to Google, or you go to a domain name that connects you to Google. All three are part of the Google ecosystem of making money.
Putting a billboard on a piece of raw land so that people drive by and see it isn't inappropriate. It is a business model used all over the world, and it isn't right or wrong.
Your ecosystem relies on search portals like Yahoo! and Google. Is there anything that could threaten those relationships?
BM: Like any company in any market that has a lot of supplier power, there's a lot of risk. It is the 800-pound gorilla. This industry was born out of the roots of organizations that weren't run in the most honest or ethical way. In our relationships with Google and Yahoo!, we try to be a very professional corporation with real corporate governance. Google, Yahoo!, [IAC/InterActiveCorp's] Ask.com and Microsoft--they see this as a valuable channel, and they understand the importance of it. They want to capture our traffic on their platform.
Could they one day come in and decide that the 10% to 15% of revenues that they're getting from parked domains would be even better if they owned the domains? We think that's a real possibility. But they're more likely going to buy firms like ours than start over, because the names that we own already amount to 2% of the dot-com market.
This industry will grow and then consolidate, like long-distance telephone service companies. It will deregulate, there will be a lot of players, they'll slowly come back together, and then there will be a few big ones around that consolidate the traffic. As long as you've got eyeballs, you've got a marketplace.
Is there still room for other ad networks to profit from your type of Web traffic?
MO: At a recent trade show I attended, there were at least 50 different advertising networks. These guys would go up to a Web site and say, "You have 1,000 viewers a month. We would like to put ads on your Web site and count you as part of our network." They then aggregate 500 of those Web sites and go sell information about the demographics of their traffic so they can place ads on those networks. Those guys don't even know we exist as an industry. Those advertisers are right next to us, and they don't even know we're there. Yet just our little company has 50 million unique visitors a month--it'll get attention.
What types of domain names are hot right now?
BM: There are three categories of domains. One category is your generic mutalfunds.com, bands.com or shows.com. Those are consistent performers growing at or above Internet growth rates. Ten percent more people are coming on the Internet every year, and usage is increasing by 20% a year.
Another category is words that are faddish, or traffic that is faddish. HurricaneKatrina.com was timely and popping, but now those types are going through a massive decline.
MO: Another example of this is the word "ringtones." It is worth millions right now, but five years ago, it wasn't worth 50 bucks. If you see a trend or something that you see coming out that the next guy doesn't--spend ten bucks and buy up that name.
BM: The third category is names that are nonsense right now. We own Aelf.com Things like that will sometimes get some traffic, but the area of the market with the highest speculation and overheating are on names that are three or four words long.
MO: The success of a name is directly proportional to how much you're willing to spend. If you're going to put $10 million behind a name, I can give you almost any name and it will become known by a certain number of people. But if you've got a generic name, you're one step ahead. That's why Business.com sold for $7.5 million. You've got instant brand recognition. Every person that goes directly to the site is one less $2 click that the owner would have to pay to get the traffic.

The Future for Domainers

2006-02-05T04:23:00.000-05:00

The future for Domainers

My take anyway ;-)

The future will be focused on the keyword rather than the extension. Contents reign as King will be acknowledged with the pure ad based ppc pages going poof. The search bar will replace the address bar. Major TM or Popular site Typos will mostly be eliminated as an error and a "did you mean" message will offer the real destination. PPC will go almost exclusively to PPR. ccTLDs (like .US) will take a big bite out of .com as geographical consumer targeting evolves. US metro areas will all provide free WIFI (were most of the Net revenue originates from anyway) and advertising revenue will (via all media types) be Local (location) focused to bring in the majority of the industry Ad budget from the 60% of American small biz that is yet to participate in any significant way.

Cards.biz Sells for $11,750

2005-11-19T06:40:00.000-05:00

Got a kick out of seeing this article on www.domainingblog.com with the title "Cards.biz Sells for $11,750 to Make it the Highest Reported Dot Biz Sale of the Year-To-Date". It's just another domain that I sold to a friend cheap to send funds to the ex-wife. I've sold so many on the low down like this one just to see them resold at 20 times the price and then end up on Ron's www.DNjournal.com top sales charts. By the way, Ron had once told me that he wouldn't be in the business if I hadn't bot the first 20 domain names he had for sale. I'm glad I did too, as he's one of the stars in the industry now. Actually, if it wasn't for my ex-wife, I wouldn't have the title of the biggest seller of alternative extension domains (.info, .biz, .us, .ws etc) in the market. I guess that's something huh? But you can't eat the crown.

Read All About It!

2005-11-17T19:55:00.000-05:00

There will be a story in the November issue of Business 2.0 (out on the 28th) titled "Master$ Of Their Domain$" and the slug line "Forget condos and strip malls. Domain names, the real estate of the Web, have been delivering far greater returns. How some of the savviest speculators on the Net are making millions from their URL portfolios."

Should make interesting reading. Ron from our industry trade publication "DNjournal.com" had this to say about the upcoming article "I think it will draw a tremendous amount of attention from investors because it talks about this previously unknown industry where tens of millions of dollars are changing hands every year. The writer (Paul Sloan) details how the whole PPC system works (complete with a diagram) that makes it very easy for non-domainers to grasp. A lot of mainstream business people will be slapping their foreheads when this comes out, going "how did we miss this!"

I think we haven't seen much in the way of covergae of this industry from the main investment publications for a couple of reasons. First, the domainers make their living thru advertising that might otherwise go to those same publications, so why would they want to draw attention to a competitor? Second, the investment industry has yet to slap these new types of investment into packages that they can then resell to the general investing public thru a hedgefund or some other traditional vehicle. With public companies now spending hundreds of $millions on domain portfolios and the introduction of venture capital firms, this could all change very quickly.

Video Domains - ( Let Me Entertain You )

2005-11-13T06:37:00.000-05:00

Axel F. "Biker Frog"

I picked up a few domains focused on the BIG time trend towards using videos in websites and blogs. With more and more people having high speed access, combined with the success of devices like the Ipod or cellphones (with the ability to download and play short clips) it's a move that can't be ignored. Axel (above on the top left) became a quick star over in the UK and headed over to the US back in September. Watch the video HERE for a kick. Too close to a cartoon clip of a biker being chased by the "man" for me to not have to smile. Think you will too. I see that some top blogs that incorporate video from news tv do very well, such as www.CrooksandLiars.com that gets 200,000 views each day. I've also seen a few of my parked names picking up traffic, such as www.SkaterVideos.com We'll see if I can move in quick enough to take advantage of this stuff. Could be fun too.

Typosquatters

2005-11-10T04:42:00.000-05:00

There was discussion today on the forums about LaPorte Holdings (NameKing) letting a large number of typo versions of trademarked domains expire and drop. Several Domainers that do this kind-of typosquatting were talking about being "amazed" that the company would let these "valuable" names go, and their scramble to bid at the auctions on them. The company was hit by a court order to pay out 6 $figures in a TM settlement, and a post said that a notice was put out by Enom that the registrar arm of LaPorte would not be acting as a drop catcher for "Club Drop" anymore. Appears that domainers that had names with them are also having problems getting access to transfer.

Actually I'm glad to see some of these slimeballs get hit with these court actions. Typosquatters give the rest of us honest Domainers a bad name. I've posted my feelings about this in the forum threads involving the squatters and even added a suggestion to the advisory board (I'm a member) that a seperate forum be created for those dealing in this type of stuff, and that a notice be attached that the majority of the Domainers on the main forum do NOT condone typosquatting. In the past I've been absolutely hammered by the typo crowd (mostly foreigners) who don't like me calling it for what it is. Outright theft.

It also amazes me that the registrars, drop catchers and auction houses that trade in these Trademarked names are allowed to continue and profit. How is it that a Domainer that pays Snapnames, Pool, or Enom large amounts of money ($thousands) per trademark typo name can get hit by a court action and fined, when the service that sold him the name goes unscathed? These companies know they are basically selling the means (tools) by which these thiefs operate to steal from the real trademark owner.

Spain's Domain

2005-11-09T06:11:00.000-05:00

.ES
Spain's Domain

Well, I'm having a bit of fun watching the ruckus as the registry for the .ES country code top level domain (ccTLD) opens up the extension for anyone to reg. As expected, the landrush is frustrating the heck out of the participants (I'm not in yet) even though us old hands warned them about all the pitfalls. You know it's got to be rigged every way but Friday. I'm sure Bribes are common, and fraud of course just like in the .info rollouts. Heck, I'd be interested in participating if I felt the thing wasn't "fixed". I see some of the guys reporting that their credit cards have been hit for big bucks for "pre-reg" fees way over and above what they had ok'd. Reminds me of the $thousands I lost to unscrupulous registrars (mostly foreign) in the previous extension landrushes. Some registrars are probably just taking large $fees and probably won't bother to even submit 1 name. Happened in the .info release. Well, I'm going to submit for only 2 names tomorrow directly thru the registry just to see what happens. Best check their time difference. Bets that I won't get the names? Will let you know.

The "David" Contest

2005-11-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

I see the GoDaddy products discount code "David" pop up on threads all over the various forums now. I know where it first came from and what inspired it. So I thought I'd post a little contest on Adam's www.DNforum.com and RJ's www.NamePros.com just to see if anybody else has a clue or even cares for that matter. I offered a reward in the currency of each forum to the first poster with the right answer. I doub't they could even call GoDaddy and find out the right answer. If they don't get it pretty soon, I'm gonna reveal the answer in this here blog. Not that it's really a big deal, but sometimes NOT getting the final answer drives some of us domainers even crazier than we already are.

Edited to add: The answer was that the "David" code came from the first GoDaddy radio show, and was inspired by the host "David Lawrence". Heck, if you were to listen to the archives of that first show, you'd even get to hear my voice asking GoDaddy's CEO Bob Parsons some pointed questions.

A Man's Blog is His Domain?

2005-11-06T12:10:00.000-05:00

It's all foreign to me. Here I am posting to my "Blogger" blog and yet, this week (on the sly), I checked out their competitor "Movable Type" (MT). I was motivated by the Cartel's interest in a blog model for our Locations niche as well as for the possible use in my Bankruptcy case studies for the suits.

Why not just stay with "Blogger" you say? Well, I was concerned with not having the use of what they call trackbacks on rss feeds. You see, those trackback things are rumored to aid in search engine optimization by placing a link on the site where an article originates. Well, things didn't go too smooth. Heck, I came out of pocket again just to try to make setting things up as easy as possible. Nothing doin. I even went thru a partner of MT for hosting, that supposedly provided experience and the install of the commercial setup. What I wanted (naive) was to pay my fees for the hosting and install and be ready to start posting away with research/content I'd amassed. What I got instead was what looked like some kind of challenge game for coders. I wasn't ready to give up on it even after 3 days (and nights) straight of just trying to get a template working. With the lack of sleep, I was starting to get a bit ticked. Even with years of experience with website addresses and the like, I can definately admit I'm still "Lo Tech". Heck, I even turned it over to Weenie and she messed with it the last night, only to leave me a note in the morning saying she could only get some basics done. That's it, I give up. I'll be calling the host tomorrow and telling them if they still want me as a long term client, they will need to set the prog up and install ALL of the plugins or whatever they call them. Then I'll just remove what I don't want and go from there. Seems to me that all these things should be "drag and drop" wysiwyg and people like me should never ever see (let alone need to learn) a single piece of code. Well, I'm back to my "Blogger" and who knows, maybe they'll implement the trackback thing at some point and I'll be happy.

Back In Black Lyrics by AC/DC

2005-11-05T09:41:00.000-05:00

Back in black
I hit the sack
I've been too long I'm glad to be back
Yes, I'm let loose
From the noose
That's kept me hanging about
I've been looking at the sky
'Cause it's gettin' me high
Forget the hearse 'cause I never die
I got nine lives
Cat's eyes
Abusin' every one of them and running wild

CHORUS:
'Cause I'm back
Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm back
Yes, I'm back
Well, I'm back, back
I'm back in black
Yes, I'm back in black

Back in the back
Of a Cadillac
Number one with a bullet, I'm a power pack
I'm in a bang
With a gang
They've got to catch me if they want me to hang
Cause I'm back on the track
And I'm beatin' the flack
Nobody's gonna get me on another rap
So look at me now
I'm just makin' my play
Don't try to push your luck, just get out of my way
CHORUS

Music.us with a bullet!

2005-11-05T05:19:00.000-05:00

One of my compadres (Costa) over at http://www.USforum.us is working on a new business model and hoping to help make a name out of the .us extension. He plans on a social networking / community for bands/artists/users, close to myspace.com but on a more professional and ecommerce driven note. He already has put together 6 million pages of content and the site will launch in December 2005, planning to be the most visited .us site to date. Already, music.us gets 3 million page views a month and this is growing WITHOUT memberships. I was pleasantly surprised to also see that Google shows at least 10,400 backlinks already for the site and it’s not even done. Nice looking site too, check it out! http://www.music.us/ “Costa” is Contantinos Roussos of Los Angeles. Now with the success of that site following the great http://del.icio.us/ it has to speak well for the potential success of a Cartel partner’s (Mr. Blonde) upcoming site Business.us and who knows, could even inspire me to lofty levels with Bikers.us.

Fans rant sites rankle

2005-11-05T03:37:00.000-05:00

“Fans' rant sites rankle as many as they amuse”

Found a story today (by Terry Hutchens of IndyStar.com) talking about a company that has set up a site selling domains that call for the dismissal of several college football coaches. At redshirted.com, Nebraska followers can buy the FireBillCallahan.com domain for $250, while a similar url for Iowa's Kirk Ferentz is running $150. For $100 you could have addresses for Virginia's Al Groh, Washington State's Bill Doba or Kansas' Mark Mangino. The hatchet already has fallen on former Indiana coach Gerry DiNardo, but you still may purchase that domain for $100. Or, for the bargain basement price of $50, you could own FireTerryHoeppner.com.

This is not an entirely new idea, Google any current coach, and odds are you'll come across ones just like http://www.firetiller.com/ -- where disgruntled Purdue fans go to bash Joe Tiller. There are also numerous domains for sites named YankeesSuck.com or RepublicansSuck.com etc. but I found the idea unique in that these “fire” domains actually call for an action. A step up perhaps or would a step down be more descriptive of the trend? Those that don’t agree with the suggested firings, tend to get pretty upset about these sites, but Former Notre Dame coach Bob Davie said he doesn't understand the fuss. "If you're in this profession and you let something like that bother you, you're too thin-skinned,'' Davie said. "I look at it more of being an entertainment thing and almost like a tongue-in-cheek thing sometimes.'' Supporters of the current coaches are now taking steps to buy these names as a defensive move (similar to the corporations). Firejimtressel.com was founded in support of the Ohio State coach. Open the site, and it reads, "Fire Jim Tressel? Are you NUTS? This domain is parked to keep it out of the hands of folks who shouldn't be trusted with kitchen utensils, let alone Web sites."

The names come with the one-time purchase fee and only cost around $10 per year to maintain. Cheaper than getting a megaphone for the game and more likely you’ll actually be heard too.

Free yearly renewals on some of the best .info domains?

2005-11-01T04:26:00.000-05:00

It's come to my attention that a group of People/Companies holding some of the best (and most valuable) .info domains have NOT had to pay a renewal fee for years, and the registry says "may not have to pay for 5 or more years into the future". Plenty of them out there just like Mortgages.infoThese tier 1 infos were taken with false sunrise claims back in the landrush, are known as fraudulent by the registry, and are continually renewed for free. The crooks continue to have the full use of them to display whatever.When questioned about the theft, some of these people readily admit to the action. When the registry (Afilias) is questioned about it, and about their inaction over the years in the face of it, they respond that they "don't handle registrant issues, as they only work for the registrars". In fact the only phone lines provided to the registry "are provided only for the use of the registrars". Registrars holding the registrations do NOT respond to emails. Nor does ICANNt for that matter. Who is it that represents the registrants (domainers) in this industry we fund again?

What's wrong? dot com

2005-10-29T04:15:00.000-04:00

Behind a lot of it.

I was reading the news this morning as I always do cause I have alerts set up and delivered to my email box throughout the day. (self-imposed torture) It's incredible how so many things that are just wrong are going on today at the hands of profiteers. Profiteers being way too nice of a term for them, these acts not only just hurt the American people, it kills them. Not to mention so many others around the world. These scondrels are so blantant about it all as well, and have so many that voted for them fooled into thinking they represent them. I read about Halliburton (Cheney's company) subsidiaries double billing for soldiers meals in Iraq or charging $100 per bag of laundry. In addition to $Billions in Iraq contracts handed to them from Bush, they now will be profiting hugely from no bid contracts in the Katrina recovery. The new bankruptcy law (republican sponsored) that takes affect in October will no doubt crush the Katrina victins even further if that's possible. I have a Niece and a Nephew who are in the military and were sent to Louisiana shortly after Katrina and reported back that they were given orders to NOT take action to help. At least they're not in Iraq right now getting killed to support Bush's war profiteers. New Jersey is chasing down gas stations that go against the law and sell regular gas marked as premium and raise their prices 4 or 5 times during the same day. Ton's of bad stuff.

That led me to think of regging another domain (sheesh!) to maybe serve as a blog to just dump every article documenting whats wrong with stuff. It's these whims that drive me nuts (or entertain if I'm in a good mood to start). Anyway, I looked up WhatsWrong.com and of course I'm too late and it was regged 5 years ago in December, 2000. Going for a backup, I also tried JustWrong.com and that one was regged a year earlier in November, 1999. There was some recurring realization that came from this exercise though. Domains that end in .com and have meaning were all taken several years ago, so get on with development and quit wasting time checking whois records.

Marijuana Forum Domain?

2005-10-29T04:12:00.000-04:00

I came across a post in the "Websites for Sale" thread on DNforum where a fellow Domainer has his www.Cannabis.com website posted looking for offers. It's listed on Ebay as well now. He has current offers of over $250k and is looking for $500k+. Now that's a nice piece of change. He states that the site averages about 7500 visitors per day and grosses between $7k and $10k per month. Now if that's correct (he provides stats pages) then owning and running just that one site could be a very profitable job/career/pasttime. Much of the value is in the Domain of course as some success could be expected of someone using the same name for type-in url bar traffic and covering the same or similar topics that are on the site for sale here, or on several other sites covering marijuana. The content appears to include a VB forum in large part covering the various topics. How tough would it be to create a new website that covers the same theme and maybe make a couple $k after a while? Not that I have the background or intimate knowledge of the subject. I do own a Domain that would seem to have some potential for such a site though that I picked up in a drop a couple years back. It's www.MarijuanaForum.com and as you can see, I haven't done anything with it to date. With some hosting, a VB forum license (around $100 a year), some thought and research, and some time spent at promotion it might come to be. $2k a month in revenues might make that site worth around $75K me thinks. I wonder if my son would have an interest?

.US Domain extension prognostication

2005-10-23T04:10:00.000-04:00

Lips courtesy of a forum friend "Prosperous"

Why I think the .US ccTLD Domain will drive the next frontier for the Internet.

I don't receive or read any newspapers. I check them online. I don't get the local news via my satellite tv connection. I check the local news online. The main hardware store is a round trip 1 hour drive, and I don't want to spend the $ on gas to find out they don't have what I wanted. I'd rather check out their inventory online. I don't have much belief in the future for the yellow pages directory and their high cost ads that provide little information. Nor do I believe in the status quo for the other media (TV and Radio) and their earning trends bear that out. (Can you say XM radio?) The Internet is eating their lunch a snack bar at a time. Google didn't get into local search just for the hype. Local search IS minimal now. but it won't BE minimal. A $ spent on a local TV commercial NOW does give small business pwners more bang for the buck now, but it WON"T in the future. That move forward is a big deal for the NET and what people do now to find information locally will not be the same thing they do in the future. The .US extension is afterall best used as a geographical qualifier. I see Rapid-City.US/hardware as having a lot of potential as an address.. I'm telling you these gas engines will be the new thing. They have that horse of yours beat hands down, and I'm telling you that you WILL change your mind along with everone else. The .US domain extension can be that engine.

Domain portfolio cleanup

2005-10-20T04:07:00.000-04:00

I've cleaned up my desk -- see pic -- and it's time to get focused. I have way too many domains and I definately should take a different action than I have to date in dealing with names to let go. My routine was to just wait till the expiration date or just after and make a decision whether to drop the domains or renew. Now with the latest moves by many registrars to cut back the grace periods (the time afforded registrants after the expiration of a domain to renew) from the lofty levels of 42 days in the past, now down to 18 days by GoDaddy and others, I'm being pushed to look at this stuff earlier if I don't want to lose them. I hear Domainsite and other registrars that participated in the free info promo last year are sending the delete button on the expiration date now and providing NO grace period at all. Even worse, the rumor is that Enom is hitting the delete button BEFORE the domains expire and Netsol is marking ALL domain extensions as "expired" a day in advance of when they actually expire. The reason for a lot of this is the cherry picking of names by the registrars from their own customer's accounts and the sale at auction at higher amounts. Nothing done about it by ICANN or the registries as they don't appear to care about the registrants who are feeding this whole thing, but rather consider the registrar as their customer.

Besides, I should be running in advance of expirations to identify possible sales, so I could make a buck to help cover renewals. Kills me when I see names I let go getting picked up in the auctions at Snapnames etc. Like I said, I need to get focused anyways. So lining up all my names according to expiration date and selecting keepers that more fit my development plans will be the goal.

We'll see how it goes today.

US ccTLD Domain Future Bright

2005-10-16T04:05:00.000-04:00

My feeling is that the demand for the .US country code top level domain (ccTLD) and resulting price increase will come from a few different factions. *The continual rise in .com values will be reflected in prices paid by the cheap seats crowd for alternatives. Kindof a high tide lifts all ships thing. *Foreign corporations (all sizes) will increase their use of the .us extension enabling them to "buy" their way in cheaply to hopefully some level of acceptance during the coming push for isolationism by Americans. Globalism will continue of course, but Americans have a bad taste LEFT over from the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts etc.*Increasing development focus and shift from drop catching by domainers, and an overall increase in development by the public.*Local search will have a big impact on small business website development. Less url-bar type-ins and increased search savvy techniques by the masses. The local hair salon cannot afford the com domain but would settle for the .us address, creating a ground up or grass roots movement.As for current .us domain sales levels, I would suggest that we not be so quick to judge a market based on "reported" sales to date. As we've seen lately in disclosures by Deal Jam and others in the com arena, there are also unreported .US sales that would turn a few heads. Four figure .us sales were going on right after the introduction years ago now and I know of quite a few five figure sales following those. There are reasons for non-disclosure including running silent when you're on the buy side. Sometimes the news gets out. A personal .us purchase by one of my partners recently was rumored bid to mid 5 figures before being pulled from an ebay auction. He bot Business.us and I'm sure Duke (DNjournal.com) will have some notes on that one this week. Doc

Hurry up and buy your town on the Web!

2005-10-14T03:59:00.000-04:00

Local search -- Part Two

Like I said, search will go local. That means even higher demand for website addresses (Domains) for the small businesses in town that didn't think they could benefit from or need a website. As the population becomes more tech savvy, (meaning the old computer avoiders convert or die off) I think it will become common place to use search to research purchases from local vendors. I mean have you checked out the gas prices lately? It's a 1/2 hour drive (and the gas cost) for me each way to hit the "local" music store just to find out that they didn't have that C/D that my son wanted anyway. Would have been nice to go online to that shop, punched in the Title and not wasted the trip.

The BIG guys (Google, Yahoo, Amazon etc.) see this stuff and are pouring tons of money into local search and new methods of bringing the World Wide Web to your town. The picture at the top of this article was from the A9.com website http://maps.a9.com/?mapMode=m&mapBvr=&ypLoc=Boston%2C+MA&mapFrom=&mapTo= where they'll even show you a street level image of the local shop in some areas. They're expanding too.

In addition to the demand of Domains from local business, there will be the continuing demand for Domains that actually include the name of your town. That's due to the idea that someone who is transferring to your town, may start his/her search by typing in the name of the town in the search bar, and then using the links on one of the sites to view that house for sale next door to you. Or, with the public becoming more savvy on search, he/she might type in something such as "Homes for Sale in Minneapolis MN" and bring up results including a website address such as http://www.minneapolis-minnesota.us/ Of course the purchasing of these location Domains already started a couple years ago, and you'd be hard pressed to find one available now at the cost of a new reg fee. There are a small number for sale to speculators or end users now in the secondary markets though that appear to be at reasonable prices. For the time being anyway.

Location, Location, Location! -- Domains!

2005-10-07T03:55:00.000-04:00

Pic: My window on the world and lunch at Howard Johnson's NY Times Square
from: A9.com

Local search Part 1 -- Where's the menu?

I really believe that a good part of the future for search and the advertising revenues will come from small businesses. That means 'Local" search, like you looking up the phone number for the pizza place 6 blocks away, or going online to check out their menu again for the millionth time because it's not on the fridge where it's suppose to be. Why use that dumb yellow book that is so bulky and the ads hard to read? They don't have the menu in there anyway. Instead, you can go online, type in your own address or zipcode, and the keyword "pizza" and boom there you have every pizza joint within a selected distance from where you are sitting right now. Not only do you have an address listing with a phone number, you have a map pointing out their location, directions on how to get there if you forgot, and in a number of locations you can click on a Satellite image and see the frickin place right there. Still more, you can zoom in and see the delivery guy's truck parked outside. That's all fun, but you wanted the menu. That means that you'd have to go to the trouble of clicking the link to the Pizza shop itself right on the screen there. Someday soon I'm sure you won't even have to bother calling them. You'll just select what you want there on the screen, and tell them to deliver it and hurry up.

Both Junior and Senior headed to New Orleans

2005-09-24T03:50:00.000-04:00

I hear they have been there a few times now and have their favorite hole. Speaking of, Mrs. Junior Bush has been interviewed on TV and twice now referred to the "trouble" caused by Hurricane "Corrina". No clue huh? It's "Katrina" Duh!

It's been a while - so gonna do a test

2005-07-07T03:47:00.000-04:00

I'm going to try just a little text with a link to my STURGIS site to see what happens when I ping it.

Enom, GoDaddy, cherry picking names?

2005-06-07T03:39:00.000-04:00

eNom HQ

I talked to GoDaddy and Enom recently and they use the term "Mock redemption" pretty frequently now with their move toward exclusive drops.We domainers are familiar with the term "Redemption", but here's a new twist.At Enom, when some names expire, we expect that they go to the "expired list" where we can select them for renewal. It now appears that some names once expired don't ever make it to that list. Even worse, some of those names when selected to renew are returned with a "This name cannot be renewed" message, and will NOT go to your cart. Worse still, they will pick and choose some names (say that expired 4-3-05) to forward to "mock redemption" leaving names with earlier expiration dates (say 4-1-05) still in the expired list. What a surprise when it's found that the names they chose to move to "mock redemption" are some of the more valuable .coms.The problem is compounded when they pay the fee to renew and all whois services show the expiration dates as 4-3-06 including the whois link at the bottom of the redemption list page on Enom itself. Enom does NOT send the owner (their customer) an email telling them they have done this.I'm also wondering how Enom etc. can list those names as in "redemption" when they are really in "mock redemption"? Further, how can several customer support people at Enom state varying expiration grace periods and the powers that be, may decide to end the grace period on certain cherry picked names at their discretion and in difference to the rest of the expired names?The warnings about the possibility of registrars confusing the order and pushing certain names to redemption instead of other names of the same expiry date to charge the higher redmption fee ($160) or get control of the names (for their move to exclusive drop services) has been warned about before. In the case of Enom, it certainly looks to be happening. Otherwise, how did they decide which names to put through "mock redemption" earlier than the other expired names?What angers me is that I have been a huge customer for Enom, and have had to use domain portfolio software from independent providers to manage thousands of names. When Enom does NOT place some names in the expired list for my renewal and instead picks certain names themselves to renew through this "mock redemption" all my services indicate that these names are still under my email address and renewed. So far all they say is that "yes it doesn't seem right, but that's the policy they have now". Policy? Thank God they haven't gone so far as to set a "policy" that they can just steal the names BEFORE they expire. Maybe that's next.

Mr. Pink -- Capiche?

2005-05-30T03:33:00.000-04:00

Well, now something new has started in the alternative secondary market. It's kindof a secret for now, but people will start to learn about it one way or the other. Just depends on what end of the gun they're facing. Think strong arm Capiche?

The Domainer Rebellion has Started!

2005-05-17T03:21:00.000-04:00

I've had a signature line on my forum posts for some time now that said "Some day Domainers will have a voice in their Industry". Well will wonders never cease, it has begun. Of course the current powers that be (ICANN, The Registries, and The Registrars) have no clue. Domainers have long suffered at the hands of these profit takers, but now, things are slowly turning around.

Of course it eventually had to happen. It was clear that if the Domainers could ever stop competing with each other and form some kind of union or coop, they would at least have their voice. Since they are the source of funding for the industry, they would eventually wield the choice.

All I can say for now is watchout you registrar pigs, lest ye be boycott.

Can you say "Anti-Pool" or "Cartel"?

To Hyphen or Not to Hyphen

2005-05-07T03:18:00.000-04:00

I don't think the 2 (or more) word CityState names work in any extension except the .com. Domainers seem brainwashed into thinking that hyphens are bad in all extensions just because they usually mess up any url bar type-ins that a choice of the .com would otherwise receive. That is the opposite case in the alternative extensions, where you aren't looking for url bar type-in traffic anyways. Instead, you're looking for search bar type-ins for traffic. In that case, the use of hyphens is actually a benefit. It helps with SEO in a few ways. Sometimes it helps save a click by avoiding the "did you mean" response by Google, it's many times easier to read by the readers, several search engines handle the parsing of the two (or more) words much easier, and backward links using the url carry more impact on page rank etc.

The main motivator, if you're not Bill Gates, the keywords are usually less scarce and cheaper to boot.
Doc

Domain catching not for me anymore?

2005-05-02T03:09:00.000-04:00

Maybe a new occupation like air conditioning installation? Had to try the name out on the truck.
It just represents my current desires to avoid the Domain Drop Catching biz for a while and get into something more constructive like the air conditioning biz. Nah! I will shift my focus to website development though. Not that I couldn't be successful chasing names. After looking at the numbers from last year, I was one of the most active in the game. Maybe I'm burnt out? The thing is that it takes a ton of work, what with monitoring the zones and watching the drop services and keeping up the maintenance on backorders, and competing in auctions. What a pain huh? Well, my back took it better than my chair. The thing broke down on me and I had to exchange it for another new one. The old one wasn't but a few months old and warrantied for 10 years. lol That should tell you something about the intensity of sitting in front of a screen for 18 hours a day, over and over and over again.
OK that's it, nap time.
Doc

A Big Wheel? Not yet!

2005-04-24T03:00:00.000-04:00

Other than to remember that I'm not a "Big Wheel" yet, I've added this picture so you guys can see the type of wheels I have going on the Harley. I've learned over the years that those skinny 21 inch wheels/tires you see on the softtails, or a lot of the custom choppers may look cool, but they aren't too functional for long (and even short) rides. You hit a pot hole hard and you dent the rim in. You ride down an old road and the black repair squiggle lines (worms) take that wheel where they want it to go rather than you. Groves? Fagedaboudit! The 16 inch solids do the trick for this old biker.

Don't worry, I know what looks very cool too. I'll upload a pic of my custom bike project "Fat Train" as soon as I'm done messing with it.
Doc

A Genesis

2005-04-21T02:50:00.000-04:00

First Post --A Genesis - or a beginning of clear space on my Desk.

With this first post, I'd like to thank Adam Dicker and his crew for motivating a low-tech like me. It will give me a little experience with blogs as I've had none before. (I've owned and sold premium blog domains, but never actually written in one) So, here goes nothin as they say.

I'm thinking this might be a good way to release some energy about various domain related issues, without gumming up the works of the forums. Hopefully, it will also help me clean up my desk which is currently covered with thousands of those little yellow sticky notes so I can someday (theory) convert a few of the "to do" ideas into reality. Better to stick them on this blog huh? Then with the abilities of the archive I can look back someday and find out what the heck I was thinking.

Just regged another couple domains (PostitBlog.com and PostitBlogs.com) cause I thought those were kinda cool. Sometimes I just do a few of those "on a whim" domains. Sometimes, someone actually wants to buy them later. (Will wonders never cease?) Usually I just keep renewing them until I realize it was a dumb idea. That has taken up to 3 years sometimes. DUH!

Today, I have to force myself to look at several hundred domains that need to be sold and the proceeds delivered to the ex-wife. Divorced as we are, I still resent what seems to be her forced partnership in this little business. Oh well. I'm going to be sorting the names for sale by extension and labeling them "Court ordered Sale Part 1 or Part 2 etc". My friends on the forums have been very supportive and know the real pain it is sometimes to lose names that you really wanted to keep.

Well, maybe that's enough for the first post. I have no idea how this is going to come out, or the length of this post on the blog site, but we'll find out huh?

Stay tuned for the next "Post it"
Doc