Through The Grapevine

Domain Name News Breaking: Buyers of DomainName.com Registrar Revealed Summary As DNN has learned the buyers of the DomainName.com registrar and customer base sold by DomainConsultant, are non other than Richard Lau of DomainManager.com and Richard Kirkendall of NameCheap.com. The two, also known as “The Richards” partnered up on the purchase and are planning to transform the company into a new brand. Richard Kirkendall told [...] Sedo Weekly Sales Report, Lead by Angels.com Summary Sedo reported their sales for last week. Highlights include the already reported angels.com sale at 200,000 USD, progress.nl as the top ccTLDs sale at 20,000 EUR (appx. $25,250 USD), and hostel.info leading the other category at 7,900 EUR (appx. $9,950 USD). See all of the reported sales after the jump. (c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com Advertisement Offer: [...] DomainName.com Registrar Sold by DomainConsultant Summary According to a post on DomainConsultant’s site, the registrar DomainName.com and related assets have been sold today. The buyer and final selling price have not been disclosed. At the same time the company announced an upcoming auction with an 8% commission and is now accepting domain submissions via email to mike (at) domainconsultant.com. Disclaimer: Adam [...] DomainName.com Registrar & Company to be Auctioned Today Summary [Update] The registrar has been sold. DomainConsultant.com, mostly known for their Domain Madness auctions so far have a special item that is being auctioned today – an entire domain registrar business. The business is an ICANN accredited company that has about 8,000 domains under management and uses “DomainName.com” as their brand. You can find a [...] MeetDomainers Manchester Live Auction Results Summary After the jump you will find the live auction results from thew MeetDomainers Event held in Manchester, UK by Daniel Dryzek‘s DDFund.eu and NameDrive. Highlight was the sale of QuadBikes.co.uk for £12,500 and BackLinks.co.uk for £3,000, but it is also worth mentioning the unusual auctioneer the event had – domainer and domain reporter Morgan Linton [...] Domaining - Expired Domain Names - Expiring Domain Names Premium Domains In Fort Lauderdale Summary I just received a note from Oversee talking about DOMAINfest Fort Lauderdale. They have created a pre-bidding system and provided a sample of their domains (which are extremely high quality). I’m not going to list them all here, so I’ve hand picked a few from their catalog: Dating.com Jeans.com Detox.com Relationship.com Therapists.com HardDrives.com BoardGames.com I’d be more than happy to own any of them! [...] PETA Wants Sex.com Summary PETA has announced their desire to acquire sex.com. Executive Vice President has written this letter to Dom Partners LLC stating: “Visitors to the newly revamped Sex.com site could watch our sexy Super Bowl ads like “Veggie Love” (about how a vegan diet can enhance your time between the sheets) or watch Alicia Silverstone’s naked testimonial—living proof [...] Godaddy Registers Its 40 Millionth Domain Summary Over the years I’ve seen registrars come and go. One registrar that I really admire, is Godaddy. Bob Parsons has led the industry for many years and the recent stats published by Godaddy are simply amazing. “GoDaddy now holds a near 50 percent market share of all active new domains registered in the world and [...] The Domains Are .Co Domains Worth More Than .Org Domains? Summary I couldn’t help but notice (especially when one of the readers pointed it out to me) that DuiAttorney.co sold for $44,500 in the Land Rush Auctions, which is more than I sold duiattorney.org for earlier this year. Several months ago I sold DuiAttorney.org through Sedo.com for $35,000 which at the time most thought was a [...] WOW: New Record Of $53K For AutoGlass.co Highlights Another $500K In Land Rush .Co Auctions Summary The .Co registry has send me a 4th round of results for the ongoing .Co domain name Land Rush Application auctions. (you can see previous results here, here and here) The results are this time around is another record; $514,000 in sales on just 90 domains. WOW AutoGlass.co lead the way selling for $53,000. Closely [...] MySpace Spends $25K on MySpace.Co, A Domain They Could Have Bought For $300 Summary Corporate America. They still have a lot to learn when it comes to domain names. A reader informed me that they were in the auction for MySpace.co and that the domain sold for $25,000. The whois record now confirms that Twentieth Century Fox, which is owned by NewsCorp, which also owns MySpace.com, is the new [...] Elliot's Blog Get Educated by Harvard Business School Professors For Free Summary Harvard Business School (HBS) is one of the premier business schools in the world. Leaders from companies and organizations throughout the world come to HBS to learn from some of the smartest professors on a variety of topics – everything from Finance, Marketing, Negotiations, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and many more. Although it can be difficult to [...] Related posts: [Special Blog Advertising Opportunity to Help The Water School][1] During the Traffic conference, I learned quite a bit about... [Francois Makes Business Decision, Lazy Domain Investors Go Nuts][2] Apparently Francois Carrillo of Domaining.com decided to add tech blog... [Raise Money to Help The Water School as Domainers Climb Kilimanjaro][3] I just received an email from Rick Latona announcing that... [1]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/special-blog- advertising-opportunity-for-non-profi-47 4626 "Permanent Link: Special Blog Advertising Opportunity to Help The Water School" [2]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/francois-make s-business-decision-lazy-domain-investor s-go-nuts-8712 "Permanent Link: Francois Makes Business Decision, Lazy Domain Investors Go Nuts" [3]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/raise-money-t o-help-water-school-as-domainers-climb-k ilimanjaro-37731 "Permanent Link: Raise Money to Help The Water School as Domainers Climb Kilimanjaro" Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Due Diligence Before Buying a Domain Name Summary If you’re a domain investor, it’s likely that you’ve either been offered a stolen domain name or seen one advertised for sale, whether you knew it was stolen or not. Buying a stolen domain name can cost the buyer quite a bit of money (once the name is recovered) and it could hurt his reputation [...] Related posts: 1. [Importance of Due Diligence When Buying a Domain Name][1] When you have secured a deal to purchase a domain... 2. [Hijacking Domain Names for $200][2] Sahar shows us why it is of utmost importance to... 3. [Use a Payment Plan When Buying Domain Names to Lower Your Risk][3] Here’s an idea I had a while back and have... [1]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/importance-of -due-diligence-when-buying-a-domain-name -3251 "Permanent Link: Importance of Due Diligence When Buying a Domain Name" [2]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/hijacking-dom ain-names-for-200 "Permanent Link: Hijacking Domain Names for $200" [3]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/use-payment-t erms-when-buying-domain-names-to-lower-y our-risk-81221 "Permanent Link: Use a Payment Plan When Buying Domain Names to Lower Your Risk" Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. Hump Day Light Humor Summary When I was in graduate school earning a degree in Direct Marketing, my thought about an ideal first job was to work for Lester Wunderman, the person considered the father of direct marketing (he didn’t go by “Direct Marketing King” although he could have). As it worked out, when I graduated in 2004, I was [...] Related posts: 1. [Auction Note Humor][1] I took a quick glance at the just-released preliminary list... 2. [Citibank Gets It!][2] Shortly after graduate school, I worked at Wunderman, the direct... 3. [WashingtonVC Startup Receives $6m Investment][3] Just received a note from Mike Mann announcing that Yield... [1]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/auction-note- humor "Permanent Link: Auction Note Humor" [2]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/citibank-gets -it "Permanent Link: Citibank Gets It!" [3]: http://www.elliotsblog.com/washingtonvc- startup-receives-6m-investment "Permanent Link: WashingtonVC Startup Receives $6m Investment" Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. David Carter Development – Choosing Which Names To Develop Summary Every now and again, usually when I have a spare few hours, I scan my domain name list to find a likely candidate for some development. Sometimes, that development will involve creating a small site with an occasional affiliate link, some Adsense and perhaps even some promotion of a business that’s local to me. Usually [...] Keeping It Real, Keeping It Simple Summary I was in discussion today about the subject of development and in particular over-development. It’s too easy when developing a domain, to get sidetracked into areas that you really shouldn’t be concerned with. I’ve been there and done it too many times myself in the past. Here’s what typically happens. The initial enthusiasm for the [...]

Domain Name Wire Jason Davis Strikes Again with Recruiter.com Summary Jobs domain pro merges one of his companies with Recruiter.com. Jason Davis has struck another large domain name deal by merging his RecruitingBlogs.com with Recruiter.com. Although technically a merger, Recruiter.com’s domain name was its main contribution to the puzzle. Recruiter.com owner Ashley Saddul will join the merged entity as CTO and founder. I first talked [...] Juniper Networks Loses Case for Juniper.tv Summary $15B company loses UDRP case. Juniper Networks has lost a domain name arbitration case to get the domain juniper.tv. Despite having a market cap of nearly $15 billion, the arbitrator noted that it’s entirely plausible that the registrant of the domain name hadn’t heard of the company because it’s a business-to-business company. Also working against [...] The Truth About NameMedia, Afternic, and BuyDomains Summary Here’s why NameMedia sells more of its own domains than clients’ domains. Every once in a while I feel like going on a rant. So here goes. There’s been a lot of talk on both my blog and others about NameMedia, which operates BuyDomains and AfternicDLS. NameMedia owns its own portfolio of domains which it [...] Want to Bid on Sex.com? Deposit $1 Million. Summary If an auction occurs, expect to put your money where your mouth is. We might never see an auction for Sex.com. But if we do, expect to put up a significant deposit if you wish to bid. Court documents show that the bankruptcy sales procedure for Sex.com will include three phases. In the first phase [...] World Trademark Review Conducting Survey About New TLDs Summary Survey seeks opinions on new top level domain names. World Trademark Review is currently running a survey to understand attitudes and plans around the launch of new top level domain names. The survey is targeted to three groups: In-house trademark lawyers, private practice trademark lawyers, and marketing, web, and communications professionals. Each group receives slightly [...] Domainer News - Daily updates from the Domain Industry Changes to .NL Policy announced by SIDN Summary SIDN have announced the outcomes of the 2008 Domain Name Debate including the recently introduced new rules for non-Dutch registrants on the use of a Dutch domicile address that was implemented back in October. Changes include a reduction in the amount of Whois data made available, ability to reserve a .NL domain name and dropping [...] Dark Blue Sea finally accepts the revised Photon offer for the shares Summary Dark Blue Sea has recently accepted the revised Photon Group offer of 35 cent per share.So,in the absence of a higher offer,Dark Blue Sea and Photon will close the deal on Monday 14 December 2009. Tim Hughes,Photon’s Executive Chairman said : “We believe that this revised recommended offer provides certainly to DBS shareholders,staff and customers.We urge [...] Three Registrars Lose ICANN Accreditation Summary 30 November 2009 On Wednesday, 25 November 2009, ICANN terminated its accreditation agreement with three registrars — Hosting365 Inc., OOO “Russian Registrar” and R.B. Data Net LTD for failure to comply with the requirements of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). The RAA is the contract between ICANN and registrars [...] ICANN Seeks Expressions of Interest for Bulk Transfer of Names Summary As the result of the Notices of Termination issued on November 25, 2009 to registrars OOO Russia (IANA ID 1238) and Hosting365 Inc. (IANA ID 956), ICANN is seeking expressions of interest from ICANN-accredited registrars that might wish to assume sponsorship of the gTLD names that were previously managed by these registrars. This request for [...] Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid Mountain Village At Dusk (Part I) Summary In life, some things you do will work, and some will not. Failure though is not an option when you continue to expand your horizons. Bido Is Closing Down (And Yes, The Site Is For Sale) Summary As you have probably heard by now, Bido [is][2] [closing][3] [down][4] (more story links at NameBee, Domaining.com). In short, it just did not work for us. I should add, this does not mean we couldn’t have made it work in six months or a year or two, just that we were tired of trying so hard, and decided to move on. Surprisingly, within minutes after our announcement, offers to buy the site and technology have been pouring in (current offers range is in six figures US$). If there is someone who wants to give it a shot, we welcome it with open arms. Contact Jarred Cohen (Jarred@Bido.com) if you are interested and can close fast. We will run a sale process for the next seven days and expect to make a decision by next Tuesday. We thank all our supporters over the last two years. It was a blast while it lasted and we truly enjoyed every minute of it. Morgan, Craig, Cole, Mike, Adam, Victor, Frank, and the thousands of others I cannot mention by name here who have been part of our story - thank you! [2]: http://morganlinton.com/bido-throws-in-t he-towel/ [3]: http://domainnamewire.com/2010/05/04/dom ain-auction-site-bido-closing-down/ [4]: http://domaingang.com/editorial/nothing- funny-about-bido-closing-down/ Best, Sahar Deals On Bido, Right This Moment Summary When I first started domaining I literally had to go through tens of thousands of domain names to find what to buy. Today, it is much easier. The few below are some of the better deals on Bido right this moment. You snooze - and someone else wins. [onsiteanalysis.com][2] [2]: http://www.bido.com/Auction?name=onsitea nalysis.com [iCrown.com][3] [3]: http://www.bido.com/Auction?name=icrown. com [AssaultGames.com][4] [4]: http://www.bido.com/Auction?name=assault games.com [scentedbodylotions.com][5] [5]: http://www.bido.com/Auction?name=scented bodylotions.com Have a great weekend, Sahar Bido: Minimum Bid Now $38 Summary Quick update on pricing change at Bido. Starting today, new inventory’s minimum price is US $38, replacing the minimum before which was US $28. We continue to experiment in order to find the best format for both buyers and sellers. A side note to our sellers: We have buyers wanting revenue producing domains. If you have any, even if low producers, list with Bido. A side note to our buyers: A tough economy provides a great opportunity to buy great inventory at a fraction of what it used to go for. It happened in 2001, and it is happening again today. Best, Sahar