Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Video
from Local Comedian Drives New Traffic to Chicago.com,
Afilias Offers Cash Prizes to the Best .Info Developers
& Our Thoughts on the Demise of AEIOU.com
Yesterday
I told you aboutprogress
being made by a number of domain owners who are developing
full scale business websites. There is more on that front
today. Associated
Cities Co-Founder Josh Metnick dropped
me a note today to let me know about a new twist at his
marquee property - Chicago.com,
that is driving a lot of new traffic to the site.
Chicago.com enlisted popular local comedian Vinnie
Rapponi to do a special video for the site's home
page extolling some of the Windy City's most
beloved restaurants and hotspots. With the success of this
new feature, Metnick said he expects video to be a big
part of Chicago.com's evolution.
Comedian
Vinnie Rapponi is drawing a crowd to Chicago.com
If
you happen to have a developed .info
website, you may want to enter the 2009 .Info
Awardscontest
that the .info registry, Afilias, currently
has underway. A 6-person panel of judges was
chosen today to select the best submitted .info
website with the winner to be awarded a cool $7,500!
The runner-up will get $5,000 and the third
place finisher pockets $3,000.
The
panel will review all eligible sites submitted for
consideration based on five criteria: presentation
of content, functionality of the website, design,
usability, and originality. Their scores will
determine a shortlist of the top ten submissions,
which will be published
at www.info-award.info
on November 2nd. From November
2-6, the public will be invited to vote on
the sites selected by the judges. Public votes
will be combined with the judges scores to select
the top three Award winners. If you want to enter
you will have to hurry, the deadline for submissions
is 11:59 p.m. (U.S. Eastern time) Friday,
October 23.
Those who
have been trying out mini-site development
lost a key service provider yesterday when
Rick Latona's AEIOU.comannounced
they were exiting the business. Latona,
who runs many other domain related
companies, decided his time could be
better spent on enterprises
other than
the low margin mass development business.
Some have speculated that Latona's move
indicates that mini-site services in
general are already becoming passé.
I think it is much too early to write the
sector off though, especially if you are
willing to apply some elbow grease
yourself to keep an initial mini-site
moving forward with fresh content.
Any site will quickly
die on the vine if a few pages are thrown
on the web and never changed. I haven't used any
of the minisite services yet but if I do in the
future I would go in with a plan to let the
service do the basic site and then start building
on the foundation they provide. If you find a
service whose design work you like, that alone
could save you a ton of time en route to a fully
developed site and, time being money, that
alone could represent a good return on your
investment.
If you are looking
for a good .de domain (German ccTLD)
to build on, you may be able to land one later
this week when DENIC (operators of the .de
registry) opens the extension up to one, two and
three character domains Friday (Oct. 23) at
9am Central European Time.
Sedo is
already working with registrar partners to
let you enter pre-bids on domains
you want through 12 Noon U.S. Eastern
Time Thursday (Oct. 22). When the
registration period opens Friday, Sedo’s
registrar partners will place bids on your
behalf if you win the domain in
their
Pre-Auction.
If they are unable to register the domain
right away, their brokerage team will use
your winning bid to try to buy the domain
from the successful registrant. You can
get all of the details on the process here.
Speaking
of Sedo, we just published our comprehensive
review of the 2009SedoPro Partner Forum
conference that was held at the Waldorf
Astoria's Casa Marina Resort
in Key West, Florida
October 7-9. The article contains
many previously unpublished photos
and meeting details that we didn't
have time to bring you in the
daily updates from the conference
that were posted in this column.
This
was the 4th annual event in the
Partner Forum series which
alternates each year between the United
States and Europe.
We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
