Monthly Archives: March 2008

iReit unloading portfolio

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Internet REIT (aka iReit) is in the process of unloading aspects of their portfolio. You’ll notice an influx of good quality domain names currently being uploaded to the Afternic and BuyDomains platforms. Some of these names are single words and others are long tailed domains with poor TLDs. The list of domains being put for sale are well over 100,000.

The list began to initially post on Friday, with only a few domainers even realizing it. For those quick, there were some great deals to jump in on. Many great keywords were available at just $500. Even better were several fantastic LLL.nets and LLL.orgs that were posted also for just $500. The 3 letter .net and .orgs have since been pulled and pricing corrections have already begun on those. Currently, they are unavailable, but expect them to be listed soon enough.

With the announcement that Dark Deep Blue (Parent company of Fabulous) is planning to list several hundred thousand domain names through Godaddy’s retail platform, it may suggest that both companies are seeing major drops in revenue and are cleaning house and changing monetization strategies. With both entering heavily into the retail sales game, there very well may be some great deals to have as both companies need to accurately price out several hundred thousand domains between the two of them, and this is no easy challenge.

On Friday, I managed to pickup Overwhelm.com for $500 and am currently waiting for the push from iReit. In my opinion, I got a heck of a deal. I will continue to monitor domains uploaded by iReit to the Afternic platform, and list some of the ones I think are good buys.

Justin

The Circular World of Domains

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This evening, I received a private message on one of the forums, asking if I’d be interesting in buying some high end domain names. The thing that was amusing to me, was one of the domain names offered, was a domain name that I had actually owned at one point. As a matter of fact, it was my first big break in domaining. I was able to acquire a quality LLL.com for VERY cheap, and sell it for nearly $20,000 and that was more than 2 years ago. That one domain really got me going in this industry and it holds a special place in my heart. It even helped inspire NameBio itself!

What does this experience tell me?  Domaining is still a small time enterprise. I know quite a few people who consider it their profession but what it boils down to is that there is still plenty of room to grow, and in the end, things have a funny way of coming back to you.

I know some of you are going to ask “Well, did you buy it?” The answer is of course no. I don’t buy domain names at prices I couldn’t resell at.

Typos of Large Companies still drawing major attention

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Ending today at NameJet is the domain name DisneyChanle.com – a clear typo of (DisneyChannel.com) What amazes me is that with these large companies still garnish as much attention (for typo domains) as they do. Interestingly enough, this domain name is a double typo. Its missing an “n” and the “e” is in the wrong place – so why is this domain already at $2,900 with a few hours still left at auction?

With Parking revenue on a clear downword spiral, larger companies defending their marks, could you hope to make enough on this domain name before it could be taken away? On this domain, at this price, Im just not sure I see it.

Justin

Leatherheads.com – the Stupidity continues (part 2)

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Earlier in the day, I reported that Universal Studios allowed the domain name, Leatherheads.com to expire just days before the release of their full feature movie. As I watched television earlier this evening, I came across one of their commercials. As it went through, I was curious to know where they had actually decided to host the movie site but as the commerical ended, I hadn’t seen one.

Thanks to the miracle of DVR, I went back slowly to examine the end of the commercial credits and there it was. Carefully hidden away so you could barely make it out, the domain name the site was hosted on: LeatherheadsMovie.com

At this point in the story, you must be asking yourself, who in Gods name is running Universal Studios Internet marketing? Why would you use LeatherheadsMovie.com, when you’ve owned Leatherheads.com for 10 years? Stupidity at its finest.

Justin

No Surprises, Verisign Announces .com and .net price increases

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 Verisign Raising Prices on Domains

When Verisign reached a contract arrangement with ICANN and the US Department of Commerce back at the end of 2006, the contract extension had provisions that allowed for a raise in the wholesale price of .com and .net 4 out of the 6 years. In October of 2008, it would be the 2nd year in a row in which Verisign bumps wholesale pricing of the .com and .net a max of 7% per year. This means we can expect pricing increases each year for atleast the next 3 more years.

Shocked? Surprised? If you did your homework when the contract was signed back in 2006 you shouldnt be, anyone who paid attention knew this was coming. Registrars will be paying about $6.86 per year on .com.

Justin

HomeTools.com – $6,000 – Why?

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 HomeTools.com

HomeTools.com sold on NameJet today for a staggering $6,000. When I noticed it going up and up today I had to ask myself, Why? Am I just plane missing something about this domain name? It has practically no backlinks, gets no traffic by any of my indications. The keywords themselves seem to be akward. I dont think Ive ever used the phrase “Home Tools”.  Even the phrase “Home Tools” only appears on google about 670,000 times. The .net is parked on a coming soon page and the .org Im not even sure qualifies as a developed site.

So, whats the deal? Is it the spirit of competition thats driving these prices up? Or is the high bidder out of his/her mind? (On a side note, the winning bidders handle on NameJet, is “fool”). If I’ve missed something, please don’t hesitate to correct me, I am genuinely curious why this domain sold for so much.

Justin

Whats stopping Domainers from Developing?

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Thanks in large part to new technology and fantastic new CMS’s (Content Management System), developing a functional and attractive site is getting to be rather easy. Even for those like me who have hardly any development background. There is software out there like WordPress and Joomla. I came across an article that walks a domainer through the development process, using WordPress. If you’ve been thinking about it, why not give it a try. (2 Article links below)

http://www.dotweekly.com/install-wp-blog/ 

http://www.themelab.com/2008/03/26/put-your-dormant-domains-to-use-with-wordpress/

NamePros Gets Skinned

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Today at approximately 11:30 PST, NamePros.com appears to have a new sponsor, RickLatona.com. The site has been “skinned” which is where a theme is added to the forum. Congrats to both NamePros and Rick Latona, this is probably going to pan out nicely. I Just wish the skin burned my eyes a little less.

Justin

Studio Blunders Internet Marketing

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Universal Studios is releasing the movie – Leatherheads (Starring George Clooney) to the big screen on April 4th. With all of the print and television marketing they are doing right now, someone dropped the ball and failed to renew the domain name LeatherHeads.com.

The domain lapsed on March 21st, and is now resolving to the very popular Network Solutions expired page. Also interesting to note Universal Studios has held the domain at least as far back as 2001. This means that they had this movie either on the back burner or pending development for at least 7 years, and they wait till 2 weeks before the launch of their movie to allow the domain name to expire and potential traffic to be redirected. It doesn’t get much more idiotic then that.

Justin

Side Note: Appologies for anyone who followed the old link on Domaining.com – the original post was causing some errors with WordPress.