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When it comes to sex in advertising, Godaddy certainly has experience in the matter. Theyve had several commercials run durring the superbowl and all exploited sex to help sell domains and hosting. Can you blame them? Clearly its helped them to the top of the Domain world.

Many people write about how offended they are. They talk about the practice of exploiting women and sex in advertising is wrong. The truth is, the old marketing philosophy of "Sex Sells" has never been more true then today. I personally dont have problems with using sex in advertising.

What I do have a problem with is the quality of commercial Godaddy continues to put out. If your going to spend a fortune in putting your commercial on durring the superbowl, the least you can do is get some clever writers and some better production quality. Is that too much to ask for Bob?

Durring the broadcast of Superbowl 43, 30 second advertisements were going for three million dollars. When it came time to create a new campaign for Jack in the Box, they decided to drive traffic to the internet. The idea was reasonably simple. Create a commercial where Jack gets hit by a Bus and then have people go to a website/blog where videos about Jacks condition get updated.

If your going to Spend 3 million dollars just on the commercial, shouldnt you spend a few extra thousand to make sure the website doesnt crash when the commercial is aired?

Well, thats exactly what happened. Upon airing the commercial, the website was unavailable. Most people couldnt access the site until well after the game had ended. Out of those who tried to access it durring the superbowl, I wonder how many will try again later?

This was an interesting morning. It would seem that both Google and Enom have dropped the ball so to speak. Early in the day all Google search results, when clicked, would advise you that the website you were trying to vew was unsafe. This was ammusing, but if you knew where you wanted to go, easy to bypass.

Enom’s mistake is a little more frustrating. Apparently it seems as if all of Enoms DNS servers, crashed. Causing all domain names that are with Enom, to subsequently pull up nothing. Sites like NamePros and NameJet were and are still currently affected by this problem.

Proving the Domain Drop Market is anything but dead - FlashCards.com expired and finnished its auction run on NameJet today. It started the day at around 10,000 but shot up when two big hitters collided. It ended at a whopping $40,200.

Escrow.com has been a steady and safe mode of payment for me in the past. In my opinion they have only one flaw in their service, which is not securing the Domain from the seller. Today I recieved a phone call from Escrow that troubled me even more.

I was due a small escrow transaction of about $700. I was simply waiting for the ACH to hit my account. This morning I recieved a phone call from Escrow, explaining that on accident, instead of depositing the funds into my account, they had withdrawn them.

In their almost 10 years of business, this has never happened (claims Escrow.com). However, it frightened me that his happened. Fortunately, I was prepared in a case like this, the account that I send and recieve money in, ususally has a balance of less than $100 (in the event something like this happens). Meaning, more than likely the "check" will bounce and i’ll be stuck with a few minor fees.

Escrow insists they will "Make it Right", but I’m not sure I will ever be comfortable using them in the future.

Justin

The idea of preselling a domain name before you’ve even acquired it, is certainly not a new idea. I know several Domainers who have done this (including myself, once). Its a challenge and a risk, but clearly there is a reward if you are successful.

There are also major problems when you are not. In the simplest form you can agree in principle to sell a domain name, then once acquired, the buyer changes their mind. At this point your stuck with a domain you thought was already sold and desperately looking to offload.

An issue was brought up on NamePros forum regarding a new form of this method. The issue revolved around the domain name DMG.com. This domain was dropped and captured by SnapNames. One of the bidders prior to the auction completing, contacted out a potential end-user offering to sell. If this has been "right", he would have learned how much the end-user would pay and could have bid anywhere up to that point.

However, this concept failed miserably. He alerted a Trademark holder to the auction and they have threatened litigation to obtain the domain. Now whoever does win the domain will more than likely be facing immediate legal action, potentially losing this domain name or even just being out the legal fees of defending themselves.

Despite the ethical questions (and there are many), Preselling domain names is a questionable practice that can be very damaging to other domainers. I recommend avoiding this strategy.

Justin

Starting in Christmas, yours truely will be in Europe. I will make my first stop in London. (Should be there for about a week) then heading to Athens on the first. I’ll be working my way back to London via the EURAIL with stops in Italy, France, and Spain.

Mostly backpacking with my girlfriend and family I will do my best to keep everyone udpated via this blog. If any of you European domainers care to meet up in the major cities, perhaps giving us a little tour? I’ll try to be available.

Justin

Its not a a well known sector of domaining, but several domain investors had taken advantage of the struggelling dollar over this past year. Buying domains in Euros and Pounds, and enjoy a steap discount with the currency exchanges.

For instance, earlier this year 1 Pound was the equivalent of $2 U.S. dollars (USD). Since the sliding world economy is finaly catching up to that of the US - the Pound fell against the dollar to a 6-year low. Meaning that at todays exchange rates, 1 Pound was only worth about $1.49 USD.

Even the Euro is struggeling now against the dollar and at todays rate, 1 Euro is worth $1.25 USD. Much lower then it had been earlier this year. As the dollar continues to gain each day, the question looms, will the dollar in coming months be more valuable then the Euro or the Pound? Will US Domainers be able to take advantage and start buying domain names from International owners?….

Time will tell…

Within two hours one of our LLL.com’s is closing on Sedo. QBZ.com has been in our possession for the past couple years, and we determined it was time to put it on the auction block. Currently it is at $4,625 with 2 hours left at auction:

http://sedo.com/auction/auction_detail.php?language=us&auction_id=44573&tracked=&partnerid=

This domain name first appealed to us because of its potential acronyms, despite the fact that it starts with a Q and ends with a Z.

• Quarterback Zone
• Qoute By Zip
• Quality Business Zone

If you had any interested in acquiring an LLL.com - now is a great oppertunity at Sedo for such a good price. Good luck to all you bidders!

Justin

The Auction for BikeHelmets.com closed today at NameJet for $50,200. This was another domain name that came from DomainHighway.com - a private seller. We’ve seen a string of huge sales followed up with re-auctions as the original bidder ends up backing out of the sale.

We’ll see in the next few weeks if this domain ends up changing hands if it does, it will be fantastic sale for the owner.