Citing New Afilias Survey Retail Trade Magazine Says Consumers Have No Clue What New gTLDs Are

The article says that only 21% of UK adults and 22% of US adults are aware of ICANN's plans to release hundreds of new TLDs. While the website hints that those are scary numbers, I'm actually a little surprised they are that high at this stage of the game. While mainstream outlets have reported  on the impending arrival of new TLDs, the program in still mostly "inside baseball" that is really being closely followed only by domain and  internet business professionals. There is not much reason for the man on the street to take particular notice of them, especially since none have been released yet and full scale marketing is still months or years away. 

While awareness can still be raised, gaining trust - while it can be done over time - is a lot tougher hurdle to clear. The article said "the research revealed that 73% of UK adults would

prefer to visit traditional Web addresses...in the US, 61% of adults would prefer to use a “heritage” gTLD." That's a lot of people who indicate they might stay away simply because a website was based on an unfamiliar extension. If I was going to use a new extension in my business, that is a statistic that would worry me a lot more than how many are aware of the program today. It's going to take a lot of convincing to reverse that perception of new TLDs. Afilias Senior Vice President and CMO Roland LaPlante said, “Some of the world’s best-known companies will roll out a dot Brand extension, but our research shows consumers are unaware that these changes are coming and would avoid the new gTLDs due to their unfamiliarity. However, the new gTLDs offer consumers great benefits, such as reducing the risk of purchasing counterfeit goods online. Our research demonstrates that businesses need to seriously consider the ways that they will integrate the new gTLDs into their online strategies and how they will educate consumers about their benefits."

Roland LaPlante Afilias Senior VP & CMO

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DomainBoardRoom.com Celebrates Its 6th Birthday This Weekend - Members Set to Party at Upcoming Funfest   

I want to congratulate founder Donna Mahony and the members of  DomainBoardRoom.com on the highly regarded private domain forum's 6th birthday - an occasion that will officially arrive on Sunday (March 31, 2013). Dozens of the most experienced people in the domain business will tell you that DBR is their favorite place to hang out online. 

While the big public forums - DNForum.com and NamePros.com - have far more members and also provide tremendous value to their members,  their open door approach  doesn't allow the kind of intimate, noise-free environment, where everyone is a known quantity, that is treasured by Domain Board Room's devotees.

Some mistakenly view private forums as being "elitist" in some way - but they are just the opposite from that. DBR lives up to its slogan - "Where egos stand aside to share knowledge, ideas and opinions." If you have always conducted yourself in a professional manner, you will likely find yourself more than welcome at DBR 

Birthday image from Bigstock

with one or more current members happy to recommend you. Once you arrive there you will find yourself in a friendly room free of the kind of flame wars, personal attacks and anonymous trolls that can drive productive people away from other venues. 

Donna was certainly the right person to create an oasis of this kind. When I arrived in this industry 11 years ago, Donna was already on the scene and, in those early days at DNForum.com, she was one of the first people to welcome me. Today, just as she did back then, Donna remains someone who is always willing to help others learn the ropes and help veterans connect in a productive, professional (and fun) environment.  

DomainBoardRoom.com Founder Donna Mahony (at right) with friends and fellow DBR
members Brian Null (left) and Vincent DiAngelus at the 2012 Domain Board Room Funfest at Dana Point, California.

This year's four-day Domain Board Room Funfest will conclude May 6 with a Sunday night wrap dinner at the Salt Creek Grille in Dana Point. For more information on the gathering, check out the Funfest page on Facebook. 

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HealthInsurance.net Sold For $525,000 - Plus .PW  Opens to the Public

We have learned that HealthInsurance.net was sold in a previously unannounced 2011 transaction for $525,000. John Mcknight and William Foster of Adaptive Insurance Services, LLC sold the well developed website to an undisclosed buyer (the WhoIs record currently shows Moniker Privacy Services contact information). The website, that 

operates as the Health Insurance Network, allows users to enter their zip code to get policy quotes from leading insurance providers in their area.  

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Industry Veteran Opens New Forum Dedicated to Domain Leasing + Howard Neu Celebrates an Anniversary and It's Also a Special Day for the Water School

 In January I wrote about the increasing interest in domain leasing. Recently Rick Schwartz has been leading the charge with his new JointVentures.com project, but many others have also gotten onboard. The latest is industry veteran Gordon Martin (well-known for well over a decade for the services he has provided at DropWizard.com). In fact, more than 10 years ago, Martin had begun developing his LeasingDomains.com domain, but he found the idea was still "before its time" back then.

It looks like leasing's time may have finally come though. As Schwartz noted on his blog a few weeks ago, Martin recently completed a lease on an unnamed .com domain that could be worth over $800,000 to him over the term of the contract. With that deal in hand Martin, with assistance from Bill Roy, has just opened a new public forum at LeasingDomains.com.

Martin said the new forum is not a competitor to a public joint venture group that Schwartz recently started on LinkedIn. Martin noted 

For lease image from Bigstock

that, with Rick's focus on high .com domains as lease candidates, that group "will represent the cream and we will represent the rest along with the ccTLDs and the DIY crowd. LeasingDomains.com is a chat board and industry resource center. Aside from domainers I want to start attracting end users to the forum." The doors have just opened so, if you are interested you can check it out by registering here.

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Extent of Procter & Gamble's UDRP Deceit Growing as More Facts Come to Light - Elsewhere 3 Industry Leaders Offer Good News 

As Procter & Gamble's reputation sinks into an even deeper hole I couldn't help thinking about the brilliant title Weird Al Yankovic came up with for his parody of Michael Jackson's album Bad. Who could forget Al's classic - Even Worse? Turns out Procter & Gamble has a lot in common with Weird Al, only difference is the tracks they laid down in a deceit-riddled UDRP filing aimed at stealing the domain Swash.com from Marchex aren't funny.  I noted earlier this week that a WIPO panel found P&G guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, in part because they grossly inflated (lied) about sales numbers for a defunct product they once made called

Swash. John Berryhill, the noted attorney who won the case for Marchex, filled in some more details on the extent of P&G's deception (yes, it gets even worse) in the commentary section of a post about the case at Michael Berkens's popular blog, TheDomains.com.

Berryhill noted, "The entire premise of the UDRP proceeding was stunningly dishonest. They want the domain name for something else entirely, and concocted an utter work of fiction in order to attempt to steal it." Berryhill lays out the facts that prove his points - P&G wasn't interested in the domain because of a failed product they once marketed, they wanted it for a new offering. Unfortunately they didn't want to pay a fair and reasonable market price for it, for some bizarre reason, believing it would be smarter to try to steal it. Next time you look up the phrase "penny wise and pound foolish" on the web, odds are you will see the P&G logo illustrating the concept. 

Just writing about the P&G debacle makes me feel like I need to take a shower, but fortunately there is also some good news to pass along today. A well respected long time veteran industry executive, Joe Alagna, has joined registrar  101domain.com as Vice President of Channel Development. Alagna goes to 101Domain after more than 10 years as CentralNic's General Manager for North American Markets. Alagna said, "101domain was one of my first resellers when I entered the domain name business...I'm coming into this company knowing a good bit about their culture and knowing that we're going to be a great fit for each other. 101domain is well positioned to take advantage of new gTLDs and is already a leader in international domain name registrations. They have the ability to assist clients in registering what will soon be over 3,000 domain name extensions around the world. There is no one that even comes close to this capability and we are going to leverage that to our advantage."

Joe Alagna VP, Channel Development 101domain.com

Congrats to Joe who is one of the very best of this industry's good guys. 

Two others who fit that description, lead gen whiz Braden Pollock and uber entrepreneur Morgan Linton, have been selected to speak about domains at LeadsCon Las Vegas, a major conference coming up next week (March 19-20) at the Mirage Hotel. LeadsCon showcases top companies, strategies, and technologies across vertical media, marketing, and customer acquisition.

Braden Pollock (LegalBrandMarketing.com), at left, and Morgan Linton (FashionMetric.com)  will be featured speakers at the LeadsCon Las Vegas conference next week.

Pollock will lead a session titled “Domainers: The Untapped Traffic Source?” that will feature Linton,  Frans Van Hulle, the CEO and Co-Founder of ReviMedia, and Chad French, the President & Founder of Peerfly. 

Pollock will also be a panelist on another session - "Legal Leads: Understanding the Growing World of Attorney Marketing." Their presence in Las Vegas will help spread the word how valuable domain names are in generating new leads for business. 

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Procter & Gamble Not Too Big to Fail -  Reverse Domain Hijacking Attempt Tarnishes Famous Name

If there was a Dumbest UDRP Filing of the Year Award consumer products giant Procter & Gamble would probably have the 2013 dishonor sewed up and we are not even through the first quarter of the year yet. In a stunning decision handed down by a WIPO panel today (first reported by Andrew Allemann at DomainNameWire) P&G was found guilty of a reverse domain name hijacking attempt after they tried to steal the domain Swash.com from its rightful owner - Marchex Sales, Inc.

It was not a "stunning" decision in the sense that the ruling was a surprise, it was stunning because of the wildly false claims in the filing from P&G's attorneys - Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL - that resulted in the case blowing up in P&G's face (whether P&G gave their attorneys phony information or the attorneys, who signed off on the document, came up with the zany numbers, is unknown).  In any case, credit Marchex's attorney, John Berryhill, long recognized as one of the very best in the business, for spotting the bogus P&G claims. The most embarrassing had to be the one where P&G said their Swash product had done $40 million in sales over the past four	uh-oh! image from Bigstock
years. That surprised me because I have never heard of Swash. Apparently no one else has either because when Berryhill called them on it, P&G admitted the sales were actually a miniscule $60,000! This, of course, did not boost P&G's credibility with the WIPO panel, nor did the fact that Marchex has owned the domain for far longer than P&G has even had a product called Swash - strike two on P&G.

Of course, that did not  escape Mr. Berryhill's notice either. You have about as much chance of slipping stuff with that kind of stench past John as you do of winning the Powerball lottery playing 13-13-13-13-13-13 (note to P&G and their attorneys: each ball has a different number so don't try this - it won't work either). 

Shame image from Bigstock

While there is no financial penalty for being branded a reverse domain name hijacker, odds are future Procter & Gamble UDRP filings (and they make a lot of them) are going to be given extra scrutiny by WIPO panelists (who may also want to wear a clothespin on their nose when reading P&G filings).  Of course P&G, though they lost the case, did win a nifty consolation prize - a permanent place on Rick Schwartz's Reverse Domain Hijacking Wall of Shame (an honor that is about as sought after as being poked in the eye with a sharp stick). Now, if you'll excuse me, while continuing to shake my head in wonderment, I need to go pour some bottles of Tide down the drain. Who knows what is really in that stuff. I know what the label says but, all of the sudden, I'm not sure I can take P&G's word for it.

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Five Great Australian Domains Go on the Market - Our Rule Book Goes Out the Window 

Robertson added, "The domain name auction.com.au, commercially developed, could be one of the biggest online sales platforms in Australia. Once these domains are sold, I doubt if they will be offered for sale again. They are too important - you rarely get an opportunity to acquire Internet assets of this type." 

That's true and that's why our rule book got overruled this time. 

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Go Daddy Scores Some Brownie Points With Aspiring New gTLD Registry Operators at Arizona Confab

That puts Go Daddy in the catbird seat and today they started paving the way to cash in on that position but hosting most of the major new gTLD applicants for a Registry Days conference at the company's Arizona headquarters. A Go Daddy spokesman said more than half of the more than 1,900 new gTLD strings that have been applied for had representatives at the meeting. 

While the operators all feel the need to romance Go Daddy, the giant registrar did its best to make the aspiring registry operators feel appreciated too. As a gesture of good will, Go Daddy announced it was withdrawing its applications to run two new gTLDs of its own - .home and .casa - a move meant to assure their new gTLD registry partners that they won't be competing with them. The only new gTLD Go Daddy is going after now is their own .godaddy extension for internal use.

.Com Image from Bigstock

In another move, that is far more symbolic than substantive, Go Daddy announced they will also be taking the .com off their logo, signifying their support for new extensions by not promoting just one in their logo. The reality is very few well-known companies have .com as part of the logo as it is simply not needed. Since virtually all major corporations own and use .com for their websites, every one expects that is where they will find the company's website (that's why you won't see Go Daddy moving off their .com site any time soon). In a nutshell, that is the GIANT hurdle that new gTLDs have to get over - a hurdle that no other previous new gTLD have fully cleared.

That's not to say that none will make money - some will. Finding the right niche can be very profitable and there is certainly a place for other extensions. Go Daddy is obviously looking forward to having a lot of new inventory to offer on their site. Odds are they will rake in more profits than most of the new registry operators themselves. It is completely understandable that Go Daddy will want to give the new gTLDs a big push - like everyone else, they are in business to make money.  

Still, some of the wishful thinking coming out of today's meeting strikes me as being based on something other than reality. Go Daddy CEO Blake Irving was quoted as saying, "As the world is moving away from a .com world, we are changing our logo to remove the .com and make it just Godaddy."  I have seen no evidence that the world is moving away from .com. On the contrary, the world's most popular extension continues to dominate the competition by any standard and .com commands a dramatically higher market share and prices than anything else on the aftermarket - evidence of how very highly valued the TLD remains.

You could put 100,000 new gTLDs out there instead of 2,000 and I still don't think there is any  reason to believe  that any of  them (or all of them collectively) will be able to reverse the massive public recognition and acceptance that  .com enjoys as a result of the world's commercial Internet users having spent billions of dollars over the past 30 years reinforcing the .com brand in the public's mind, making it synonymous with the Internet itself. No new gTLD nor all of them put together, has that kind of marketing budget. That said, I am hopeful that people will make money from new gTLDs. A lot of capital is certainly flowing into the space and those who find or put themselves in the right position (as Go Daddy and some  other sellers of the "picks	Money bag image from Bigstock
and shovels" are) will rake some of that money in. However, until the new gTLDs arrive and we have some real data to consider, I wouldn't put much stock in hyperbole when deciding what to buy.

I've seen a lot of prospectors in previous new gTLDs get badly burned after a lot of pie in the sky promises never panned out. If you have been around for awhile you have heard it all before (many times before) and the world is still spinning in the same direction. 

Yes, big changes are coming and change almost always brings new opportunities - so it's probably going to be a good time to be in the game - the challenge will be to identify the opportunities that are real and not just yet another mirage.

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SXSW Interactive Festival to Address New gTLDs With Presentation from Sedo's Jeremiah Johnston

The massive 2013 SXSW Interactive Festival  that gets underway Friday (March 8) in Austin, Texas is going to shine a light on new gTLDs. On Monday, March 11 (the next to last 

Jeremiah Johnston
Sedo Legal Counsel 

day of the five-day festival) Sedo.com Legal Counsel Jeremiah Johnston will headline a session called New Domains Have Landed: Now What!? Jeremiah will deliver his presentation at 5:30pm (CST) in Room 616AB at the Hilton Austin Downtown.  

The SXSW program notes, "Hundreds, maybe up to a thousand, new domain endings will soon join the ones we’re accustomed to like .com, .net and .org. Last summer we learned which companies were seeking which new extensions as this massive change continues inching closer to reality... With nearly 2,000 applications, the most sought-after endings include .app, .home, .art, and .shop. Which are relevant for you? How is the battle playing out between Google (100+ applications) and Amazon (75)? When we find out who gains control of each new extension, what are the implications?"

"With ICANN announcing new developments every week, this presentation will dissect the latest news to help you better manage your online presence. Learn how to adjust your domain strategy based these developments and how working with new Top Level Domains (TLDs) will be different from registering domains in the past."

Johnston, who has been with Sedo since 2004 (including five years as Chief Operating Officer and head of marketing until 2011) is well versed on the subject of new gTLDs. With more than twelve years of experience leading internet-related companies and an academic background that focused on the international reach of intellectual property and e-commerce, Johnston has helped Sedo identify opportunities and risks while always keeping an eye on the horizon - a horizon that is now being dominated by new gTLDs.

Jeremiah also represents Sedo as a founding member of the Internet Commerce Association, sits on the ICA Board of Directors and currently serves as the association's president, working to shape the future of domain names in the regulatory and political space. 

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World Accelerator Adds Teacher.com, Couple.com & Scandal.com to Their New Development Platform 

"Organizations like GE, P&G and LEGO have been showing how crowdstorming can be used to drive everything from corporate strategy to new product development. Leading ad agencies are using crowdstorming to find great ideas and help brands engage with their customers and startups like Quirky, Springwise and Threadless are building disruptive new businesses using crowdstorming," Millin said.

If you would like to learn more about the criteria World Accelerator uses to pair development teams with great domains and the application rules, you can find that information on their online application form. 

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Great Value, Beautiful Location and Timely Agenda Has Domaining Spain 2013 Set Up for Another Sellout 

The conveniently located Hotel Sorolla Palace (at right) in Valencia, Spain, next door 
to the city's Convention Center (at left) will host Domaining Spain 2013 next month. 

The combination of great value, a beautiful location and an all-star line up of speakers including Xavier Buck, Natasa Djukanovic, Jennie–Marie Larson, Paul Keating and show moderator Braden Pollock, to name just a few, is likely to draw a record breaking crowd again this year (last year's show was a sell out). 

Dietmar and Jodi have also put together an agenda that will cover the hottest topics and biggest issues currently facing the industry, including new gTLDs. The impending arrival of new gTLDs has sparked a lot of trademark concerns so Domaining Spain is bringing in Vicky Folens and Hans Seeuws to talk about ICANN's Trademark Clearinghouse on opening day, Thursday, April 25. They will be followed by a new TLD panel featuring Gregg McNair, Xavier Buck and Tim Switzer, who will discuss the pros and cons of investing in new TLDs. After another full day of business Friday, April 26, there will be a Gala Dinner sponsored by Internet.bs that will be especially memorable because that is the night Jodi Chamberlain is going to allow Gregg McNair to shave	Domaining Spain 2013 Promoters  Jodi Chamberlain and Dietmar Stefitz.
her head if her goal of raising $50,000 for The Water School is met. Industry donors have already contributed $17,000 to the effort through pledges made at the fundraising effort's website at WaterShave.org. With the date rapidly approaching now, I'm sure many others will step up to make sure Jodi's mane remains in Spain when she heads home! The conference will close Saturday, April 27 with a special social networking day that will include a visit to the Roman Theatre and Museums of Sagunt, followed by a paella luncheon (Spain's national dish) at Puerto de Sagunto Beach. Where else in Europe (or on the planet for that matter) can you get three days filled with so much fun, food, great networking and valuable business sessions for just €600? If you want to take advantage of the opportunity, registration is open now.

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