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The
Lowdown
Sept.
2013 Archive |
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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. |
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Verisign
Research Says Small Businesses Still Prefer
Websites to Social Media - Meanwhile Sedo
Study Sheds Light on Prospects for New gTLDs
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A
couple of new studies
are out with findings that should be of
interest to all domain investors. In one,
released today, Verisign
engaged Merrill Research to canvas more
than 1,000 businesses scattered around
the globe to see how they view the
importance of having their own website
vs. other popular marketing platforms like
social media.
The study
(.PDF file) found that 72% percent
of participants reported having a website
to represent their businesses as their
primary online presence. Social media,
which some predicted might one day make
domains irrelevant, was a distant
second at 13%. |
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65%
of small businesses with an online presence said
they elected to create a company website because
it makes their company look more credible,
and 60% said that a website is
critical for a small company’s success.
Overall, 82% of small businesses with an
online presence would recommend
investment in a website to other small companies
in their industry. A
few more interesting tidbits from the research:
•
The
preferred domain extension for small business is
.com:
In the U.S., nine out of 10 (89%) of
small businesses with an online presence prefer
a .com domain name for their company website.
Globally, that number is 61% (ccTLDs
are commonly used in many other countries).
•
Small businesses have not
caught up with the mobile trend: Globally,
only 21% of small businesses with a
website have a mobile version of their website.•
•
Small businesses are missing
out on inexpensive opportunities to claim their
brand online: Overall, two-thirds of
respondents said their small businesses are
using a branded email address. Nine out
of ten (92%) of these small businesses
say they feel that branded email makes their
business look more credible, yet the 63% without
branded email (i.e., [email protected])
didn’t know it was an option for their company
even if they do not have a website.
The
latter point indicates there is still a lot
of room for growth in domain registrations,
whether it be for email addresses only, or for
fully developed websites. Clearly,
domains are not about to diminish in importance
any time soon. The report was accompanied by an infographic
that you can see here (also in .PDF
format).
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In
another study issued today, Sedo
unveiled some new research they did into
the prospects for new gTLDs. The
report, Advertising and Marketing Industry gTLD Awareness Report
(.PDF file), found overall awareness of
ICANN's new gTLD program is lacking
in the advertising and marketing industry,
but, conversely, the study indicated
new web addresses will ultimately be successful. |
More
than 360 individuals responsible for the
advertising or marketing programs at their
companies, or who work at advertising or
marketing firms, were surveyed in August 2013,
revealing that:
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54%
were unaware that new gTLDs will be
introduced this year.
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62%
felt that the introduction of these new web
addresses would make the internet more
confusing to navigate.
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Even
so, 64% believed that the use and
adoption of new gTLDs would be ultimately
successful, despite the initial
confusion they may cause.
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35%
said that the main advantage of new gTLDs
would be an increased ability to secure a
memorable website address, while 28%
said that they would be persuaded to
purchase one of these new web addresses for
this reason.
There
is much more information in the report including
how the respondent ranked the individual new
gTLDs chances for success. They
deemed .app the
most likely to be successful, followed by .inc
and .shop. You can read
the full report here.
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(Posted September
30, 2013)
To refer others
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post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130930.htm
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Registrar
InterNetX
Lures New Resellers With Free
Professional Domain Management Software
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One
of the first issues
people run into when they get into the
domain business is keeping track of and
managing the growing number of domains in
their portfolios. Many start out, as I
did, using a spreadsheet like Excel,
but when the number of names you have
starts running into the hundreds or
thousands, you are likely to find that you
need dedicated domain management
software with a lot more horsepower
under the hood. |
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InterNetX's
AutoDNS
3.0 program is one of the most
robust ones out there and it is now
possible to get it at no charge if
you are also ready to do what many other
domain investors have done - become a reseller
of domain registration services. |
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Many
of the biggest registrars, including Go Daddy,
eNom and InterNetX offer turnkey
reseller programs that can instantly put you
in the registration business. That can help you
create a new revenue stream in addition
to the commission you make on new domain
registrations. When someone buys a domain from
you can ask them to create a new account at your
registration site so you can immediately
push the domain to them. If they keep the name
with your service, as many will do, you will
then make recurring revenue from their
renewals year in and year out.
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Internet
image from Bigstock |
InterNetX,
who already has over 25,000
resellers (and 3.6 million domain
under management) knows that people
interested in becoming resellers are also
very likely to need professional domain
management software, so they are using the
free
AutoDNS 3.0 Standard offer as
a powerful incentive to give their
reseller program a try.
In
addition to the software new resellers get
the InterNetX redirector, WhoisProxy,
and Whois Privacy Service. The
company thinks the redirector is an
especially useful solution to several
problems. For example, |
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if
a website changes domains or is being
restructured, a 301 redirect to the new
pages can be implemented to avoid website
visitors reaching a 404 error page (this
solution is also recommended by leading
search engines). Domains, subdomains
and email addresses can all be easily
redirected with just a few clicks. |
Many
AutoDNS 3.0 features are also available on the
go thanks to a mobile app that allows
InterNetX customers to manage their domain
portfolio 24/7
wherever they are. If you are thinking about
becoming a reseller, this is one of the
platforms worth checking out.
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(Posted September
27, 2013)
To refer others
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post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130927.htm
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Never
Ending Parade of Scammers & Domain Name
Hijackers Prompts Rick Schwartz to Expand
HallOfShame.com
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A
couple of weeks ago
I told
you about Rick Schwartz's
new HallOfShame.com
website that is shining a light on would
be domain thieves who have been found guilty
of reverse domain hijacking
attempts. The
rogue's gallery at the site is
growing on an almost daily basis with Jet
Go Australia Holdings the latest
to join the line up. They
earned their black eye with a
failed attempt to steal the domain JetGo.com
from industry legend Frank
Schilling. With
Frank's accomplished |
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domain
attorney John Berryhill repeatedly
beating back attempted hijackings it's a
wonder that so many foolish people keep
trying. Clearly they are not doing
their homework (or are being poorly
served by their own attorneys who
should know better) when they try to use
the UDRP
process to steal domains they are not
entitled to from people who have a record
of always defending their assets. |
In
an attempt to get attorneys for complainants who
file baseless claims to think twice, Schwartz, the co-founder
of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference, announced
today that he would be adding an Attorney's
section to HallOfShame.com, naming the
attorneys and firms who have filed cases that
UDRP panelists have determined to be reverse
domain name hijacking attempts. The
expansion comes of the heels of Schwartz's
introduction of a new Scammers
section to the site earlier this week. In
introducing that expansion Schwartz said, "There
are some bad players in our space. Some
are fake bidders. Some are domain name
hijackers. Some just don't complete their
transactions. Some are spammers that lie and
fake you out. So we are going to EXPOSE the low-lifes
of our industry as well as Reverse Domain Name
hijackers with a new special section on
HallOfShame.com."
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Rick
Schwartz |
The
first company Schwartz placed
in the HallOfShame.com
Scammers section is a Canadian outfit that
operates at WebNameSolution.com.
They were quickly followed
by Domain Registry of America, a
slimy operation many of your are already
familiar with. They have been around for
years and gained infamy with their
stock in trade - sending out what appear
to be domain renewal notices to people who
do not have domains registered with
them. They hope recipients will overlook
the easy to miss disclaimers in their
letters and think they are coming from
their own registrar. If the recipient
falls for it they will be sending back
authorization to have their domains
transferred to Domain Registry of America
while paying an exorbitant renewal
price in the process - talk about
adding insult to injury. |
There
are so many ways to make money legitimately
in this industry it is a shame that so many feel
the only way they can do it is to cut corners
and rely deception, misrepresentation and, in
some cases, outright fraud. By shining a light
on those kinds of operators,
Schwartz hopes HallOfShame.com will help others
avoid being victimized.
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(Posted September
26, 2013)
To refer others
to the
post above only you
can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130926.htm
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Companies
& Organizations in the News: Marchex,
Archeo, DomainTools & Southern California
Domainers
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Last
November
we told you about Marchex's
decision to spin their massive domain
portfolio off into a different company
called Archeo.
Marchex is a public company and the plan
was for Archeo to go public on its own as
well. On Thursday Marchex announced
it has decided not to try taking
Archeo public at this time after all.
Instead Archeo will remain an independent
division of Marchex. Marchex
CEO and Chairman Russell Horowitz
said, "Archeo has tremendous asset
value and we will continue to consider
various strategic options. In the
meantime, this decision frees |
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up
valuable resources and allows us to direct
Archeo's positive cash flow to both build
Marchex's balance sheet and fund Archeo's
growth initiatives." As
we told you earlier
this month, Archeo recently
launched the Archeo
Domains Marketplace where
businesses, brokers and individuals can
make purchase offers on the more than 200,000
domains in the comany's vast portfolio (a
collection built on Marchex's $164
million purchase of legendary investor
Yun Ye's portfolio in 2005).
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Elsewhere,
domain-name research and monitoring
pioneer DomainTools
announced the addition of two key
members to their executive team
Thursday. Bruce Roberts comes
on board as Vice President of
Technology and Jeff Day takes
over as Vice President of Marketing
and Product. The DomainTools
announcement said, "Both
Executives bring deep enterprise
software experience in
growth-company environments, and add
critical leadership acumen as
DomainTools invests heavily to meet
increasing demand from clients in
the Cyber Security and Brand
Protection markets." |
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Roberts
is a 20-year veteran in engineering
and systems development, with a
Ph.D. in Applied and Engineering
Physics from Cornell University.
Before DomainTools, he was Chief
Technology Officer at Rouxbe
Global Food Group. Roberts has
held lead architect and management
roles at HP and Opsware
and played a key role in developing
the early sites for ESPN.com
and NBA.com
Day
was the founder and CEO for Enodo
Software, a cloud-based big data
analytics technology for Marketing
Performance Management. Over the
last 15 years he has lead marketing
organizations and product management
at companies such as Apptio, HP,
PolyServe, Sun
Microsystems and Intel.
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One
other note today - one of the
largest local domainer's
groups in the U.S. - Southern
California Domainers
- has annonced their next
meetup. The event will take
place next Thursday
evening, Sept. 26, 2013 at
the Settebello Pizzeria
Napoletana restaurant at 13455
Maxella Avenue in Marina
Del Rey, California (the
seaside city that is also home
to ICANN).
Organizer
Jason Thompson said
"We've had a number of
formal gatherings in the past
and it has been very
educational. This time around
I want to take the formal
out of it and gather the
group together to network
among each other. Some of us
are great networkers and some
of us need a little help.
September's meetup will be
purely about sharing a few
drinks, stories and really
connecting with one another on
a business and personal scale.
We haven't had a meetup in a
year, so this will be the
perfect way for everyone to
catch up." |
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(Posted September
20, 2013)
To refer others
to the
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can use this URL:
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130920.htm
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Blockbuster
Acquisition: GoDaddy Buys Afternic and SmartName
From NameMedia - NameMedia Keeps BuyDomains
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In
one of the most significant
acquisitions in domain industry history GoDaddy
has purchased two major business units
from NameMedia
- domain aftermarket sales platform Afternic
and domain monetization company SmartName,
as well as
NameFind,
a new service NameMedia recently rolled
out for helping entrepreneurs brainstorm a
brand name for their business. The
price paid for the three services was not
disclosed. GoDaddy
will continue to operate the acquired
brands under their current names.
Meanwhile, NameMedia will keep its
well-known sales platform, BuyDomains,
as well as a huge portfolio of domain
names, a number of which they have developed
into active businesses. The
news first came this morning in letters to
Afternic and SmartName customers from
NameMedia CEO Kelly Conlin. Less
than an half hour later we received the
official release from Godaddy that, in
reference to the key Afternic acquisition,
said, "The
move creates an unprecedented level of
domain name |
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aftermarket
inventory from one source and a
frictionless marketplace – enabling
buyers to purchase registered domain names
offered for sale quickly and easily." |
GoDaddy
also said the impending arrival of hundreds of new
gTLDs also played a major role in the acquisition
noting, "The move bolsters ICANN’s upcoming
Top Level Domains (TLD) program by fueling a more
diverse aftermarket. Afternic’s Domain
Listing Service (DLS) displays domain names at
more than 100 different registrars – including
18 of the top 20. This gives new TLDs
registries and resellers the best chance and
easiest way to showcase their aftermarket
domain names. As an example, instead of choosing
a single registrar to sell an already registered
name like Pizza.NYC – the name can be offered across
the entire DLS network – giving the seller
the most exposure and customers the best
experience."
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Blake
Irving
GoDaddy CEO |
GoDaddy CEO Blake Irving said,
"Having
the right domain name is vital, no
matter your venture. GoDaddy is
working to bring the ‘domain
aftermarket’ together with new
registrations and make both super-simple
to access. Our customers need an easy way
to buy the name they want, regardless of
whether it’s new or has been registered
previously. This acquisition forms a
registrar-led process that creates faster
and more trusted transactions across the
board.”
GoDaddy
plans to incorporate the DLS into its
domain search results and add its
aftermarket domain name inventory to the
DLS in the coming months. GoDaddy Vice
President and General Manager Mike
McLaughlin added, "The success of
the new TLDs and the aftermarket relies on
a tight-knit group of diverse registrars
and Afternic has done tremendous work to
bring everyone together." |
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Godaddy
also noted "Afternic’s
Fast Transfer network completes the
transaction instantly, and will
leverage the full security of GoDaddy’s
world-class architecture, without
requiring days for a domain name to
transfer or having to negotiate confusing
industry regulations."
Afternic
SVP of Business Development Bob
Mountain, who will remain Afternic’s
Chief Revenue Officer, said, "GoDaddy's
adoption and endorsement of Afternic as
the standard for Fast Transfer will accelerate
the growth of the domain aftermarket
across the entire industry. Registrars
around the world are realizing that the
aftermarket presents a significant opportunity
for revenue growth. GoDaddy's acquisition and
investment in Afternic is a win for
registrars, domain owners, and customers,
and will provide the necessary scale to
grow the aftermarket for years to
come."
Several
of GoDaddy's industry partners reacted
favorably to the news. Tucows CEO Elliot
Noss said, "This is a terrific
move by GoDaddy and a real milestone
for the domain industry. Making it
easier for customers to find, buy and
manage aftermarket domain names is
important. That is why GoDaddy, Tucows and
other large registrars are working
together for the industry and for
customers."
NameMedia
CEO Kelly
Conlin added, "Afternic and GoDaddy
share a vision for creating a unified
domain aftermarket. By operating
Afternic with the interests of the
registrars and their customers first and
foremost, this transaction not only
fulfills this vision, but reinforces that
registrars are the very best place to find
all available domain names.” Conlin,
in addition to continuing in his currrent
role, will become a strategic advisor to
the Afternic management team following the
acquisition. GoDaddy
plans to keep the Afternic staff in the Boston
area. |
Bob
Mountain
Afternic SVP of Business Development
NameMedia
CEO Kelly Conlin
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(Posted September
19, 2013)
To refer others
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http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130919.htm
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DomainNameSales
Rolls Out New Services Designed to Turbocharge
Sales - Beefed Up Brokerage Team and Buy It Now
Option Among Improvements
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DomainNameSales.com
(DNS), the aftermarket domain sales
platform founded by Frank Schilling,
is continuing to add new services
to a site that has been a disruptive
force ever since it opened to the public
last year (DomainNameSales itself has
actually been in operation since 2001 but
it was previously limited to servicing
Frank's own portfolio). The
biggest change has been an expansion of
the DNS brokerage team that now allows the
company to have brokers personally
follow up on otherwise dormant
purchase inquiries. In a letter to client,
Schilling wrote, "We have grown our
brokerage team to 14 people, (who
speak 10 languages) and are
available 7am – 7pm Central time.
We are very proud to announce an
enhancement, which has been the secret
to our success, and now can become the
secret to yours too: follow up." Schilling
noted, "You now have the ability to
select our brokerage team to revive
interest in your inquiries that have
not been active for 30 days. By opting
in you can still keep self-brokering
your new leads or choose us to take
care of it all." Of
course, as the old saying goes, there's no
such |
Frank
Schilling
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thing
as a free lunch, something Schilling also
addressed, writing, "We are also
testing new exciting features, which we
will be releasing in the coming weeks. As
we endeavor to keep standards high and
provide you with these innovative
features we will be raising our
commission rate for full-service to 12.5%
across the board." As most of you
know this rate is still well below what
many other platforms charge (a 20%
rate is not uncommon, especially on
multiple listing service platforms). You
can learn more about the DNS brokerage
offerings here: http://domainnamesales.com/brokerage.
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Buy
Now image from Bigstock |
Another
addition the DNS platform is the
option to offer a Buy
It Now price. This
allows you to set prices for
your names without the need to
negotiate and display landing
pages geared strictly toward the
sale of your names.
DNS
Director of Sales Dan Adamson
said, "To ensure that these
transactions go smoothly we are
providing the expertise of our
in-house transfer specialists.
Transactions will be cleared through
Escrow.com
and we are adding other sales
channels, partners and registrars
imminently. Any sale completed with
‘buy it now’ will be subject to
a 10% commission through
DomainNameSales.com."
Adamson
added, "To learn more about
this new functionality please refer
to our new developers
blog. There you can ask |
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questions and receive guidance on
all the new functionality within the
improved DNS platform. DNS clients
can start using Buy It Now for their
names by clicking here."
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In
another domain brokerage
news note, well-known
brokerage firm MediaOptions
has added a new broker to
their team with Neal
Resnick coming on board
there. Resnick has a
long track record that
includes consulting and
developing B2B and advertising
relationships with CareerBuilder.com
and domain investor
relationships at GoDaddy.com.
MediaOptions CEO Andrew
Rosener said, “Neal’s
talent and background will
particularly strengthen our
relationships with businesses
and startups who seek us out
during their domain name
search. Given Neal’s
extensive knowledge and
tenacious work ethic, we feel
we have a tremendous new
resource that will help us
to support our continued
growth.” |
Neal
Resnick |
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(Posted September
17, 2013)
To refer others
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http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130917.htm
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German
Domain Investor/Developers Christoph Grueneberg
& Thomas Mueller Acquire Sale.co.uk Domain
to Expand the Business They Created at Sale.de
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Many
of our readers
(on both sides of the Atlantic) are
familiar with German domain
investor/developer/entrepreneurs
Christoph Grueneberg and Thomas
Mueller. Among other things, the
dynamic duo (who are frequent visitors to
U.S. domain conferences and will be at the
next
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference on Fort
Lauderdale Beach next month) have
staged the most popular German language
domain conference - Domainvermarkter-Forum
- with 8 shows in the past 7 years. What
you may not know about Christoph and
Thomas is that they also own one of the biggest
and best portfolios of generic .de
domains. totaling over 50,000 in
all (.de is Germany's ccTLD and is the
most popular country code extension in the
world). They have also developed some of
their best properties into ecommerce
sites, including their flagship, Sale.de,
a business based on a domain they paid €47,600
for in 2007 ($63,308 at today's
exchange rate). Now
that their German shopping portal, a
search engine that finds the latest
bargains, coupons and discounts, has
proven successful they are ready to expand
the concept into new markets. Toward that
end Grueneberg and Mueller have just acquired
Sale.co.uk for Ł37,500 ($59,526
at today's exchange rate), giving them the
perfect platform to introduce their brand
to Great Britain. Grueneberg
told me, "we want to thank Sedo
Brokers Marc Stepken and Brian
Michitti for arranging this purchase." |
Thomas
Mueller (left) & Christoph
Grueneberg
at the 2012 Domainvermarkter-Forum they
staged in Dusselfdorf, Germany last
year. |
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Grueneberg
and Mueller are already looking beyond
Great Britain for further growth. Grueneberg
noted, "We worked hard on the
software for Sale.de in the past few years.
Finally we achieved a stable and
market-ready version, so now we will
expand in new markets step by step."
Christoph
and Thomas have expanded their range of
events for domain investors as well. On October
9, 2013 they will host Domainvermarkter
Stammtisch, a networking tour
of Berlin in a luxury bus complete
with gourmet food and drinks!
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By the
way, Grueneberg and Mueller's
purchase of Sale.co.uk won't be the
only big Sedo sale in our weekly
domain sales report this
week (that will be out Wednesday
evening as usual). On his Facebook
page this morning, Sedo Senior
Broker Dave Evanson reported
that he has closed the $160,000
sale of Intranet.com. |
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(Posted September
16, 2013)
To refer others
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http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130916.htm
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Oversee.net
Throws Party to Celebrate DomainSponsor Director
of Sales Sam Tseng's 10th Anniversary With the
Company
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There
are very few people
in the domain industry that have spent
ten years with the same company
and, now that I think about it,
there are not even many companies that
have been around long enough to celebrate
a 10th anniversary! It takes a very
special kind of person to not only
survive but thrive in the
constantly changing environment that
domain industry managers have to navigate. Oversee.net's
Sam Tseng, the Director of Sales for
the company's domain monetization unit, DomainSponsor,
is one of those special people and
when he passed the 10-year mark with the
Los Angeles based firm this week
the company made sure Sam got the
recognition he deserved by throwing a big special
anniversary party for him last night
(September 12). |
Sam
Tseng, DomainSponsor Director of Sales,
at Oversee's 2006 Domainfest conference in
Barcelona. |
Oversee
Consultant Corinne Forti filled me in on
the big event noting, "It
was a great reunion as present and former
Overseers attended the party to congratulate
Sam. Those who could not attend sent video
messages, sharing their experiences with him."
"Lawrence
Ng, co-founder of Oversee.net, hired
Sam in 2003 as a Media Buyer and Sam was
one of the company's first ten employees.
At that time only a handful of businesses
understood and operated to monetize domains.
People were just discovering the power of the
Internet. It seems hard to believe now!"
Sam
Tseng with the loves of his life.
Those
of you who have been in this business for the
past ten years know that by 2004 domain
monetization (parking) was really blossoming
with DomainSponsor helping to pioneer the field
with improved
optimization techniques, top notch customer
service provided by representatives that many of
us got to know face to face, plus fast payouts,
all of which made them a major force in the
industry. Even so, at that time the growth
curve was just beginning - Corinne reminded me
of a DNJournal report from that year noting that
Google had 180,000 advertisers worldwide.
Five years later they had 262,000 in California
alone.
Sam
Tseng, Oversee's Michael Song and
legendary domain investor Frank Schilling
circa 2005.
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Ms.
Forti recalled, "Sam’s
career at the company took off and
he was promoted to Account Manager at DomainSponsor.
He worked with clients around the world
and the team in Los |
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Angeles.
His travels took him to all parts of the
globe-- from Hong Kong to Hawaii
and from Singapore to Spain.
He took on responsibilities as Senior
Account Manager, Team Lead and Manager of
Publisher Sales."
Dwayne
Walker, the Senior Vice President of
Advertising and Domain Services,
Oversee.net, said, “Sam is one of
those rare individuals who
understands all aspects of the
domain business. He’s always been
completely dedicated to the success of his
clients. Thank you, Sam, for your outstanding
contributions to DomainSponsor and our
overall Oversee.net business!”
Today
alternate forms of monetization are being
developed and new technologies are being
implemented for publishers. Competition
has never been tougher. Yet Sam stays
on top of every industry twist and turn to
lead the sales team at DomainSponsor with
quiet resolve and determination. |
Sam
Tseng has been flying the
DomainSponsor banner for 10 years! |
Corinne
said it best when she told me, "If you are
in the domain business, you know Sam for his
deep knowledge, straight talk and commitment to
his customers. In this case, some things
should just stay the same!" Amen to
that.
|
|
(Posted September
13, 2013)
To refer others
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|
.ME
& Marlers Team Up in Non-Profit Effort To
Teach Kids Programming & Create Tech Jobs in
Rural America
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The
.ME
Registry
has teamed up with domain investor/developer
Bruce Marler and his wife Tiffany in
a non-profit partnership designed to
boost
the technological capacity of rural
communities and spur the creation of new
tech jobs. The Marlers got the ambitious
project rolling by setting up Parkland
Meetup and Parkland
Programmers, two
community-based special interest groups in
Farmington, Missouri, designed to
create a knowledge worker community
there. When .ME heard about the effort
they got onboard to provide free .ME
domains to program participants. |
Bruce
& Tiffany Marler |
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.ME
Marketing Director Natasa Djukanovic
said, “We are all very proud to be
involved with this project. The .ME team
is heavily invested in online business
growth and childhood tech
education. We
are pleased to have the opportunity to
work with a group that values and promotes
both of these areas."
The
Marlers noted that
while Farmington, Missouri, may be an an unexpected
place for a tech hub with its
population of less than 20,000, the
culture is ripe for advancement. Bruce
Marler said, "“We
knew that there
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were
talented people here doing amazing work,
but that their work wasn’t being
maximized for profitability because there
was little collaboration between
professionals. The
Parkland Meetup, a social networking and
professional development group, was
designed to address that challenge,
creating a venue to connect business
owners, entrepreneurs, and workers with
tech skills.”
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Once
the professionals came together for the
first few events, it became clear that
there was also a need to create a stronger
knowledge base and venue for young
people to explore technology and learn
critical thinking.
Tiffany Marley said, "Professionals
told us |
|
that
one of the hardest challenges they faced
was finding skilled and engaged workers.
While we knew we could make inroads with
the current workforce, we decided that the
greatest long-term impact would come from current
students – our workforce of the
future.”
From that idea Parkland Programmers
was born. |
|
The
first cohort of student programmers surpassed
all enrollment expectations with more than 40
student participants. The first course is
teaching programming skills to children
between ages 8-12. The students are meeting on
Saturday mornings and working with Scratch,
a programming tool created by Massachusetts
Institute of Technology.
|
Natasa
Djukanovic, .ME Registry |
“Our
goal is to allow any child, rich or
poor, to have the same opportunity to
learn what programming is and to see what
is possible, we want them to create
things,” Bruce Marler said. “I really
see this giving opportunities to kids
that otherwise would have never known they
existed.”
Ms.
Djukanovic noted, “The .ME Registry is
proud to support this kind of enthusiastic
energy in America, just as we’re
doing in Montenegro."
(Montenegro is the nation that administers
the .ME TLD). Both
programs are operating in conjunction with
the Farmington Regional Community
Foundation, a 501(c)3 foundation which
will serve as the nonprofit partner to
accept donations of money and equipment on
behalf of the programs.
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The
next Parkland Meetup is scheduled
for September 19, 2013. For
more information on Parkland Meetup
or Parkland Programmers, you can
visit http://parkland.me.
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|
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|
(Posted September
12, 2013)
To refer others
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|
|
$100
Million Deal to Buy Directi in the Works - Marc
Ostrofsky's New Book Hits Store Shelves &
Domainer's Choice Awards to Resurface in 2014
|
Several
items to touch on today.
For starters, rapidly growing domain and
hosting services company Endurance
International has reached a tentative
deal to buy India's largest
registrar, Directi,
for between $100 million and $110
million according to a report at |
DomainIncite.com
today. Endurance is already known for such
brands as Domain.com
and HostGator.com,
so Directi would fit nicely in their
increasingly impressive portfolio.
Endurance hopes to raise up to $400
million in a NASDAQ IPO with a
about a quarter of those funds going to a
Directi buy. Since the funding isn't in
place yet, the deal has not yet been
finalized. As
part of the deal Endurance would help
bankroll Directi division Radix
Registry's attempt to win up to 26
auctions for contested new gTLD strings
to the tune of $62 million. That
would give them entree to the new
gTLD |
|
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registration
business if the deal goes through. Directi
was founded in 1998 by Bhavin Turakhia
and his brother Divyank who was
profiled in a 2008
DNJournal Cover Story. At that
time some thought the private company
could be worth up to $300 million, so
Endurance may be getting a bargain if all
goes as planned. |
|
|
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Elsewhere,
domain industry pioneer Marc
Ostrofsky's second book, Word
of Mouse, hit store
shelves today. As I told you
in a preview
last month, Ostrofsky's publisher, Simon
& Schuster, wanted a sequel after
Marc's first book (released in 2011) - Get
Rich Click! - became a New
York Times Best Seller.
Sub-titled
101+ Trends in How we Buy, Sell, Live,
Learn, Work and Play!, Word of
Mouse provides the successful
serial entrepreneur's advice to consumers
and marketers who want to better
understand how to leverage technology.
Ostrofsky, well-known for selling Business.com
in a $7.5 million transaction, has
a knack for demystifying and simplifying all
things tech.
In
the course of promoting his two books,
Marc has taken the opportunity to explain
the value of a good domain name
to Main Street businesses, making his
success the industry's success as well. |
|
|
One other
note - while I was away on vacation last
week, Donna Mahony of DomainBoardroom.com
announced that the private forum is
bringing back the Domainer's
Choice Awards as an
independent event in 2014.
Donna was
involved in organizing the original
Domainer's Choice Awards dinner that was
held in 2008 in conjunction with
the DOMAINfest Global conference
that was staged in Hollywood,
California that
year. After a six-year absence
the event will return at a time and
location still to be announced (most
likely in Southern California). |
The
Castello Brothers (Michael and
David) with Donna Mahony at the 2008
Domainer's Choice Awards ceremony in Hollywood,
California where Michael and David won
the Domain Ambassador Award. |
|
|
(Posted September
10, 2013)
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|
|
200,000
Domains in Massive Marchex Portfolio Now
Available on New Sales Platform at
ArcheoDomains.com
|
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One
of the most storied domain portfolios
in industry history is now up for sale
at ArcheoDomains.com
where buyers can choose from more than 200,000
names - most of them high quality generic
.coms. The portfolio was originally
assembled by legendary domain investor Yun
Ye who sold it to Marchex in
2005 for $164 million. Last year
the public company spun
the portfolio off into a separate
division, |
|
|
Archeo
Inc. Until now, those interested in
buying a Marchex domain had no easy way to
do so as the company was not focused on
aftermarket sales and had no
publicly accessible platform where
buyers could make offers. |
With
the launch of the Archeo Domains Marketplace
businesses, brokers and individuals now have direct
access to 200,000+ domains that are presented in
21 categories, ranging from Business & Finance to Technology and Travel in a responsive,
mobile-friendly design. Examples of some of the
names for sales include Jerseys.com,
CaliforniaWines.com, HollywoodMovies.com,
Destination.com, Futbol.com, Refinancing.com,
PetShop.com, Debts.com, uTicket.com, and
LiveWell.com. There are no fixed prices,
but potential buyers can make inquiries and
offers through the system.
|
|
Rod
Diefendorf
Archeo COO |
Archeo's Chief Operating Officer,
Rod Diefendorf, said, "The launch of the Archeo Domains Marketplace is an exciting step toward
unlocking the true value of our
portfolio. We have thousands of top names and are excited to finally
showcase these online while providing visitors with useful information through a simple and intuitive search interface.”
While the platform will offer only Marchex/Archeo
domains for the time being, Diefendorf
told me in a phone call Monday that the
Archeo Marketplace will eventually be
opened to other sellers. Diefendorf
also noted that the
development of tools and technology
enabling businesses to further promote and
grow their brand will also be a key part
of the platform. |
Diefendorf
added,
"Archeo’s dedicated sales team, averaging
10 years experience each in the domain industry, will directly administer and manage the Marketplace. Archeo will also be working directly with some of the industry’s leading brokers to help their customers find and purchase specific names from Archeo’s portfolio. Some of Archeo’s current broker partners include
Igloo,
Names Plus Marketing and
Domain
Holdings.
|
Igloo.com
CEO & Co-Founder Tessa Holcomb
said, ""The Archeo domain portfolio has been well-known, over the years, for its
quality as well as its comparative
inaccessibility. I think I can speak on behalf of most of the industry when I say how excited Igloo.com is to see Archeo launch its marketplace to finally
unveil one of the top portfolios in the
space. We are delighted to partner with Archeo in making these premium names available to our clients." In addition to selling domains from its own portfolio, Archeo plans to
expand its services, ranging from data intelligence to third-party sales and other related domain support services. Complementing the Archeo Domains Marketplace, Archeo’s team manages select
fully developed websites and plans to continue the development of designated domains into digital brand properties, such as
Saving.com and
50States.com. Archeo also operates an
advertising marketplace, featuring an online and mobile advertising |
Tessa
Holcomb
CEO & Co-Founder, Igloo.com |
|
network that the company can further leverage in promoting its own developed websites, as well as those of customer sites. |
|
|
(Posted September
10, 2013)
To refer others
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http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130910.htm
|
|
Rick
Schwartz's Hall of Shame - The New York Times
Does Domains & Jim Grace Joins Team Internet
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Over
the next couple of days
I want to bring you up to date on some
significant news and information that came out
while I was away on vacation last week. A good
place to start is with Rick Schwartz's
new website at HallOfShame.com,
devoted to exposing companies and
individuals that have been found guilty of
reverse domain name hijacking in UDRP
proceedings.
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Shining
a light on those who have attempted to steal
domains in this way has been a
personal crusade for the pioneering domain
investor who is also co-founder of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Domain Conference. Schwartz has
consistently chronicled reverse domain
name hijacking cases on his popular
blog, naming names and
insuring that their misdeeds will
remain in public view via a simple
Google search. With his aptly named new
Hall of Shame website that has
already been shown much indexing love by
Google, he has turned up the heat
considerably on those who resort to common
thievery when they want to take
intellectual property assets that
rightfully belong to someone else without
paying for them.
Some
of the best known names in global
commerce, including Proctor &
Gamble, Jaguar and Land
Rover are among those who have
been |
Rick
Schwartz |
|
found
guilty of reverse domain name
hijacking attempts. Kudos to
Schwartz for giving them the
attention they deserve. You
can help
spread the word and protect your own
livelihood by sharing links to his site on
Facebook, Twitter, your own
blogs and other social media
outlets. |
|
|
|
Schwartz's
move is a timely one. With the advent of new
gTLDs, domain names are going to be
getting more and more exposure in mainstream
media. The latest example was a story in
the New York Times last week
called "Planting
Your Flag on a Patch of the Web."
The piece by Thomas J. Fitzgerald
is an informative primer for business
owners who are looking to establish or
improve their online presence. Fitzgerald
details why a good domain name has to be
part of that strategy. Veteran industry
executive Bill Sweetman of NameNinja.com
is among those whom Fitzgerald called on
in researching his article. (Thanks to Scott
Ross for the link to this piece). |
Elsewhere,
Team
Internet made an excellent addition
to their management team by bringing popular
industry veteran Jim Grace on board as
Director of Business Development. CEO Nico
Zeifang told us, "Jim
will add tremendous value not just to our domain
parking product ParkingCrew.com but
also to our advertising platform DNTX.com.
COO Stefan Wiegard and I have known Jim
for close to ten years so when we heard news
about his availability it was our number one
priority to get him on board with us. He is
not just a domain industry veteran but also very
well understands the advertiser side of the
business." Grace
was at the company's Munich, Germany
headquarters last week
getting to know the rest of the team members and
joining them for a day of hiking in the Alps
(quite a change from Jim's usual environment
near sea level in his home town - Los Angeles). 
Jim
Grace, standing at center (in the black
Parking Crew T-Shirt)
during a Team Internet hiking trip in the
Alps last week. Grace
said, "I am very excited to join Team
Internet and be able to work on both the Parking
Crew and DNTX platforms. They have
seen tremendous growth and have a great
team, which I am happy to be a part of. I am
looking forward to working more closely with
Nico, Stefan, Mario, Axel and Timon. Between the
six of us, we have over 60 years of
experience in monetization." Tomorrow
I'll have some more catch up stories for you in
additional to our usual breaking news.
|
|
(Posted September
9, 2013)
To refer others
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http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2013/dailyposts/20130909-2.htm
|
|
Two-Letter
.Com Domain Sold for $4.7 Million in the Year's
Largest Domain Sale to Date - Deal Handled
by Veteran Brokers Tessa Holcomb and Marcus
Kocak
|
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I
just returned from vacation
and this is the kind of news I like to come back
to.
Veteran domain brokers Tessa
Holcomb and Marcus Kocak teamed
up to negotiate the year's biggest domain
sale to date, acquiring IG.com
on behalf of the London, England
based IG
Group for $4.7 million.
The multi-million dollar exchange
of funds was handled by Escrow.com.
We will officially chart the sale in our
next weekly
domain sales report that will
be out Wednesday evening (Sept. 11). At
$4.7 million, the IG.com sale is more than
double the price paid for the previous
leader - 114.com, a
domain that was sold for $2.1 million
in July.
Mr.
Kocak, a Danish businessman and former
Director of Domain Acquisitions at NetNames,
and Ms. Holcomb, CEO &
Co-Founder of Igloo.com
(domain name sales and acquisitions
experts), told me they worked together
complete the acquisition of IG.com last
March but due to a non disclosure
agreement the price could not be revealed
until the IG Group published it in the
company's annual report. |
Foam
finger image from Bigstock |
|
|
Tessa
Holcomb
CEO & Co-Founder, Igloo.com |
The
previous owner of IG.com was iG,
who operates Brazil’s
third-largest search portal. They are now
using IG.com.br
(Brazil's ccTLD) as the company's primary
domain. André
Chaves, iG CEO and Executive Board
Member of BRZtech
said, “Although we initially had
alternate plans for the IG.com domain
name, we were extremely satisfied with the
final sales price that Mr. Kocak and
Ms. Holcomb were able to broker while
ensuring we felt comfortable with the
process throughout the negotiation.” Ms.
Holcomb added, “In line with our sales
efforts, Igloo.com understands the range
of unique elements required to
achieve the results our clients are
looking for when looking to secure a
third-party-owned property. We are happy
to help set a higher standard of what is
possible when connecting a premium domain
with the right end user.” |
|
|
(Posted September
9, 2013)
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|
|
3C.com
Sold for $140,000 in Deal Co-Brokered by
SuccessClick and DomainGuardians |
|
I'm on
vacation this week
so we there won't be a
domain sales report
Wednesday (instead I will bring you completely
up to date on all sales reported since our last
column August 28 with a double length report on
Wednesday, Sept. 11). I am keeping up with email
while I am away though, so I wanted to jump on
here today and let you know about a significant
two-character .com sale that has just been
completed (and will be charted in next week's
report).
SuccessClick™ teamed up with
DomainGuardians™ to sell
3C.com for $140,000 -
the biggest 2-character domain sale of the
year to date. As most
of you know, both brokerage firms are led by
well-known industry veterans, SuccessClick's
Stephen Douglas and
DomainGuardians co-founder Mike
Robertson.
Most Americans consider our Labor Day
holiday (which was Monday, Sept. 2) to
be the unofficial end of summer and sales like
this are a great way to get people in a back to
work to frame of mind. We've seen domain sales
steadily picking up steam in 2013 and all
indications are
the rally will continue in these
closing months of the year. |
|
(Posted September
3, 2013)
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|
|
If
you've been out of the loop lately, catch up in the Lowdown
Archive!
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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).
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