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Welcome to the The
Lowdown from
DN Journal - your source for notable news
and information from all corners of the global domain name
industry!
The Lowdown
is compiled by DN Journal
Editor & Publisher Ron Jackson. |

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Efty.com
Adds Brokerage Services to Their
Domain Sales Platform Through New
Partnership With Saw.com
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Efty.com
continues to add new service
options to their innovative domain
sales platform. As many of
you know, Efty brought
a unique software-as-a-service
business model to the aftermarket
when they launched back in 2013.
It allows customers to pay a
membership fee to use their
marketplace instead of paying
commissions on their sales. A
steady stream of improvements has
been fueling growth ever since.
Last summer we told you about
their partnership
with DAN.com that
gives Efty users seamless access
to DAN's frictionless,
cost-cutting escrow process,
speedy payouts, and seller
protection. This week, Efty
announced another key
partnership in which they are
teaming up with Saw.com
to bring brokerages services to
Efty users.
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Efty.com
Co-Founder and Head of Product Doron
Vermaat said the company is onboarding the first batch
of sellers in a closed beta with Saw.com, a brokerage whose
Co-Founders, Jeffrey
Gabriel and Amanda
Waltz, have had a hand in over $400 million in domain
sales over the many years they have been in the industry.
Vermaat
noted, "Efty
Investor subscribers that opt-in will be able to assign individual leads to
the Saw.com brokerage team and pay a competitive 15% commission (or $250.00
whichever is greater) upon the completion of a successful sale. After
setting a target and a floor price, you can forward new inquiries to the
Saw.com team with a click of a button and you can even assign
older leads for their team to revive. They
excel in following up consistently, qualifying buyers, and applying
customized strategies for individual buyer profiles."
Vermaat
added, "We’ll be sending out additional
invites for a selected number of Efty Investor users in the coming weeks. To
get on the list, drop us an email at ask@efty.com
with the subject line: Brokerage. If you have already requested an
invite but don’t have access yet, please stay tuned. We’re onboarding a
batch of sellers each day."

(L
to R): Saw.com Co-Founders Jeffrey Gabriel and Amanda Waltz
and Efty.com Co-Founder Doron Vermaat.
Saw.com's
Jeffrey Gabriel said, "Excited is the word that comes to mind
when thinking about this partnership. Only great things can happen when we
combine the industry-leading technology we have in Efty with our growing
team of well-trained, experienced Domain Brokers at Saw.com."
|
(Posted
February 26, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210226.htm
*****
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Bird.com,
Fish.com & Tattoo.com Sell for
a Total of Nearly $5 Million in
RightofTheDot's Live Online Domain
Auction
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RightOfTheDot.com
Founder Monte Cahn and
World Champion Auctioneer Wayne
Wheat were expecting big
things from the live online
domain auction they staged
this afternoon (Thursday, February
25, 2021) from a studio in College
Station, Texas. When the smoke
cleared at the end of the
four-hour event, Cahn, Wheat,
Wayne's energetic assistant, Lev,
and the auction support staff had delivered
in a big way. They put a
catalog of 108 top tier domains up
for sale and two of those smashed
the seven-figure barrier with a
third one hitting high six
figures.
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(Left to right):
World Champion Auctioneer Wayne Wheat, Wayne's assistant Lebbeus
Kemp and RightOfTheDot.com Founder Monte Cahn getting ready to start
today's live domain auction, a sale that would wind up being one of the most
successful the industry has seen in years.

Above: The exact
moment when Wheat brought the hammer down on a $2.5 million sale
of Bird.com in the biggest deal of the day. Cahn brought his lucky
cowbell to celebrate the auction's big moments and he had reason to ring
it often this afternoon.
Just a few minutes
later, Cahn was ringing the cowbell again as Wheat yelled SOLD to
close another seven-figure sale, this one for Fish.com at $1.6
million! That wasn't the end of the fireworks either - after ringing up
a series of smaller sales, lightning struck again with Tattoo.com
going for $750,000. It was equally stunning to learn that the same,
as yet unidentified, buyer bought all three of the most expensive
domains, laying out $4.85 million to acquire three true gems.
As of this writing
we haven't yet seen a complete list of the auction results we can tell you a
companion online
auction will continue running until March 4. It includes
all of the domains not sold today, plus approximately 500 additional
domains that were not among those hand picked for today's live event.
Congratulations to
Monte, Wayne and their entire support crew on producing a landmark event
that will go a long way to further underscoring the value of top tier
domains - the beachfront property of Internet real estate.
|
(Posted
February 25, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210225.htm
*****
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Free
2021 Global Domain Report from
InterNetX and Sedo Offers
Outstanding Analysis of the
Latest Industry Trends
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Two
industry giants,
popular registrar InterNetX
and aftermarket powerhouse Sedo
have joined forces to release a 2021
Global Domain Report
that provides an extraordinarily detailed
analysis of every aspect of
the domain sales business over the
past year. The 76-page
report is something everyone
who buys and sells domains will
benefit from reading and the two
companies have made sure it will
be available to all by
releasing it free of
charge.
When
you follow the link
to the report you'll
just need to provide your name and
email address to have a
confirmation link sent to you that
will allow you to download the
full .PDF document. Once you start
reading be sure you've set some
time aside because there is a treasure
trove of valuable information
you will want to go through.
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In
addition to breakdowns of the voluminous sales data InterNetX and
Sedo have at their disposal, there is commentary from a wide variety of
industry veterans on how they are seeing things play out in a market
that has been booming despite the global pandemic (I was among those who commented
for the report).
The
document begins with a look back at 2020, including a timeline
detailing some of the year's most important events and developments. That is
followed by Central Facts and Figures, including the top individual
domain sales, how the most popular TLDs ranked by market share and many
other key metrics that slice and dice the data in every conceivable way.
Next is an Insights section that shows you what share of the market
individual countries have, how top gTLDs rank and which ones are
rising most quickly. You'll also learn what the most frequently
registered keywords are, what the most successful geo TLDs are
and how various industry players have coped with Covid-19.
For
in-depth details on the domain registration business, also check out the
InterNetX Perspective and for everything you wanted to know about what
is happening in the aftermarket don't miss the Sedo Perspective. In
an industry that is always looking forward you might think they saved
the best for last - the Forecasts section, in which a broad cross
section of industry leaders tells you what they expect to see happen as
2021 continues to play out. They say forewarned is forearmed, so get a
copy now so will have the information you need to succeed this year.
|
(Posted
February 24, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210224.htm
*****
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RightOfTheDot
Ready to Rock the Domain Sales
House with Live Online Auction
Thursday
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Last
month
I told
you about a major new live
online domain auction that RightOfTheDot.com
Founder Monte Cahn was
putting together with World
Champion Auctioneer Wayne Wheat.
Well, the time for the big event
that will originate from a studio
in College Station, Texas
is now here.
The
first names in a rich catalog of
top tier domains will start
hitting the block at 12 Noon
U.S. Central Time Thursday,
February 25 (1pm in the Eastern
U.S. and 10am in the Pacific Time
Zone). Over 600 domains
have been submitted for the sale
but the live event will be limited
to the cream of the crop, approximately
100 domains hand picked by
Monte (the guy who basically
invented live domain auctions
almost 20 years ago) and Wayne
(who is the most experienced and
talented domain auctioneer in the
world). Names not selected for the
live show will all be available in
a companion online auction
that will continue to March 4.
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RightOfTheDot
Founder Monte Cahn (left) and
World Champion Auctioneer Wayne Wheat
will run the February 25th auction.
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Among
the domains that have been submitted are Publishing.com, Names.com,
Bird.com, Fish.com, Greece.com, Restaurants.com
and Quarantine.com, to name just a few. You can check out the entire
catalog here, along with special auction notes and reserve
guidance. There may still be a few last-minute additions as well.
Bidders
are urged to register early
to avoid any delay in getting verified for bids over $2000 and missing out on the first lots to be offered. Bidders wishing to bid over $2000 will need to provide a
scanned photo ID like a State-issued Driver's License.
In addition to being streamed from the rotd.hibid.com website, ROTD will also be streaming via
YouTube Live at this link: https://youtu.be/pDd2xnMheqI.
|
(Posted
February 23, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210223.htm
*****
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ICA
Experts Demolish Nine Persistent
Myths About Domain Investors and
the Aftermarket in a New Must Read
Article
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The
business of domain investing
has been around for almost 30
years now and as much as the
industry has changed, one thing never
seems to change. When someone
can't get a great domain
name cheap it is always
domain investors who are to blame!
Of course, you never hear that
said about real estate investors
who bought up all of the
beachfront property and prime
locations that later spawned
booming commercial and residential
development. In fact it is
just
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the
opposite for them -
they were smart, visionary
investors who spotted
opportunities that everyone else
missed! For some reason, the same
people who praise real estate
investors believe that if domain
investors (many of whom started
putting their money at risk back
in the 90s) had just left the good
domains sitting there, they
would still be available
for people to get for a $10
registration fee in 2021,
or, at most, whatever amount they
deem a "reasonable
price" to be)!
Despite
being utterly illogical, the myths
about domain investors and the
domain aftermarket (also referred
to as the secondary market) have
only grown over the years.
However, now two of the most
knowledgeable people in this
business, Internet
Commerce Association Legal
Counsel Zak Muscovitch and ICA
Board Member Nat Cohen, who
is also one of the most successful
investors in industry history,
have had enough of the
unwarranted character assassination.
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Zak
Muscovitch (left)
and Nat Cohen
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Zak
and Nat have risen to the defense of domain investors countless times
before in their roles with the ICA, the non-profit organization that fights
for domain registrant's rise, but this time they poured their energy into an
extraordinary in-depth article - Busting
Domain Name Secondary Market Myths, published on CircleID
Thursday, that should put an end to the double standard domain
investors are held to. In the article, they debunk these nine prominent
myths about domain investors, one by one:
1. Myth: Domainers are the Secondary Market
2. Myth: Domainers Provide No Value to the Domain Name Ecosystem
3. Myth: Domain Name Investing is Easy
4. Myth: Domainers Control the Price of Domain Names
5. Myth: All the Good Domain Names are Taken by Domainers
6. Myth: If Domainers Didn't Own Domain Names, They Would be Available from the Registry
7. Myth: Raising Registration Fees Would Free Up Domain Names for the Rest of Us
8. Myth: Domain Name Investors are Cybersquatters
9. Myth: Domain Name Should be "Use it or Lose it"
The term "must read
article" gets thrown around a lot and while this one truly fits the
description, it is much more than that. Yes, every single person who
buys and sells domains should read it, but you should also bookmark
it and share it with everyone you encounter in your business
dealings who doesn't understand that the secondary domain market operates in
the same way that secondary markets for almost all valuable goods
operate. Buyers and sellers come together and transactions are made when the
two sides arrive at a mutually agreeable price. If either side
doesn't like what is being offered, a deal doesn't happen - just like
everywhere else in the business world. However, the fact is thousands of
deals are closed in the domain aftermarket every single month
and both sides go away happy to get what they needed when the deal was done
(otherwise the transaction never would have happened in the first
place).
It's time to trade fiction
about the domain market for the facts and thanks to Zak and Nat,
those are available to all in a single comprehensive
document that we can all call on whenever the occasion calls for
it.
|
(Posted
February 19, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210219.htm
*****
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VIPBrokerage
Closes Multi-Million Dollar Sale
of Christmas.com in One of 20
Biggest Domain Sales Ever
Reported
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Christmas
was over
7 weeks ago but, at least as
far as the domain industry is
concerned, the biggest
holiday-related news of the year
being just came out today (in the
article you are reading now). We
have learned that Mark Thomas
at VIPBrokerage.com
completed a $3.15 million
sale of Christmas.com
in November when the buyer exercised
a purchase option that was part of
a four-year lease to own
agreement.
The
name went to the Buffalo, New York
based Gordon Companies, a
firm founded in 1977 that has been
a long-time leader
in importing, wholesaling
and retailing
|

Image
from Bigstock
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Christmas related merchandise. The
company has over 350 employees and occupies over 400,000
square feet of warehouse and distribution space. Gordon has also become a
leader in Christmas ecommerce after spending the past 15 years
building partnerships with some of the largest marketplaces in the U.S., as
well as boutique vendors and retailers.

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This is
the second time in the past two years that VIPBrokerage has
breeched the $3 million barrier with a domain sale. They previously
did it with a $3 million sale of California.com in 2019
that wound up being the third biggest sale reported that year. Just
last week, they posted another solid sale (Arizona.com
at $350,000) that will assure them of two (and
likely the top two) spots on our next bi-weekly Top
20 Sales Chart that will come out Wednesday evening
(February 17). At the same time, we will update our Year-To-Date
Top 100 Sales Chart where Christmas.com will take over the
top spot |
currently
occupied by GoBet.com at $850,000. (Sales are charted based on when
they were first publicly reported, as long as the transaction
happened within the past 12 months. If older than that they are placed
on the Top 100 Chart in our Domain
Sales Archive for the year in which the sale occurred).
Also on Wednesday evening, Christmas.com will go into the #18 position
on our list of the Top
20 Cash Domain Sales ever reported. Congratulations to Mark on
another landmark sale for his company. |
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While the $3.15 million sale of
Christmas.com will put that name at the top of our YTD Top Domain
Sales Chart, strong contenders for the crown are always out there. One
of the strongest emerged when GeoCentric
Media CEO Fred Mercaldo announced
the company has acquired the exclusive brokerage rights for NewYork.com.
While New York falls into the geodomain category, it is much
more than that. America's largest city is also the nation's capital of
finance, travel/tourism, entertainment, fashion and many other
fields.
Gaining
representation of that name
alone would be a |

Image
from Bigstock
|
feather
in anyone's cap but what makes it all the
more remarkable is that, at GeoCentric Media, it becomes part of an unparalleled
portfolio that includes 14 major .com city/geo domains. This is
the full roster: |
• NewYork.com
• LosAngeles.com
• SanFrancisco.com
• Seattle.com
• SanDiego.com
• Philadelphia.com
• Detroit.com |
• StLouis.com
• Indianapolis.com
• Denver.com
• Minneapolis.com
• Raleigh.com
• DistrictOfColumbia.com
• Scottsdale.com |
You can get more details on the
portfolio and the individual domains within in it here. |
|
|
(Posted
February 15, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210215.htm
*****
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Arizona.com
Changes Hands For 6 Figures in a
Rare Sale of a U.S. State .Com
Domain
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With
only 50 States
in the United States it is
very rare to see a State .Com
domain name change hands in a
publicly reported sale. The
last time was a little over two
years ago (in January 2019) when Mark
Thomas at VIPBrokerage.com
reported closing a $3 million
deal for California.com in
what wound up being the 3rd
biggest domain sale reported that
year).
Now
another one has come to light
- and once again VIPBrokerage.com
was part of the deal - a
transaction that closed in
November. This time the marquee
name is Arizona.com
with the new owner paying $350,000
to acquire the dazzling domain.
Thomas represented the seller in
the transaction while another
widely-known veteran broker,
John Mauriello at DomainAssets.com,
represented the buyer.
|

Image
from Bigstock
|
While
the WhoIs record has privacy enabled, a new website at Arizona.com shows it
being used to advertise homes for sale or rent in cities across the state.
The About section on the site lists the operator as as a company based in
Houston, Texas, L.
Custen Realty, Inc. d/b/a Realty Arizona.
The
company's business model looks to be based on forming exclusive
relationships with real estate agents in each city to help them attract
more buyers. A statement on the site notes, "Arizona.com
is an innovative mobile and online real estate resource built around
connecting clients with Premium Exclusive Agents...Offering updates on homes
and rentals newly reaching the market, data on home price history and cost,
and insights showing what to expect when living in a neighborhood –
including local crime rates, school quality, and commute times –
Arizona.com achieves further insight. With lifetime relationships in mind,
Arizona.com builds bonds between agents, property managers, and mortgage
lenders to provide the solutions and professional guidance needed while
searching for a home."
With
respect to the selling price of the domain, there is obviously a big
difference between the $3 million paid for California.com
and the $350,000 for Arizona.com. However, there are also major differences
between the states. California, with 37.7 million residents has six
times the population of Arizona (6.4 million). The price paid for
California.com was a little over eight times what was paid for
Arizona.com. Of course, a lot more goes into valuation than just
population. California has more major cities where services can be
monetized, is a huge tourist destination, has more geographic diversity, a
broader range of jobs, etc. On the other hand Arizona is experiencing
spectacular growth and, like California, it is a very popular place with
tourists (it is, after all, the Grand Canyon State)! However
you value them, both domains are unique assets that give their
owner's endless revenue opportunities and I highly doubt that anyone
who is currently fortunate enough to own one regrets their investment.
|
(Posted
February 8, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210208.htm
*****
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Major
Commitments From ParkingCrew and
MediaOptions Fuel Continued Growth
of the Internet Commerce
Association
|
There
is strength in numbers
and the numbers continue to
increase for the Internet
Commerce Association.
That is true in both rapidly
growing membership numbers and the
number of industry leaders
making major financial
commitments to the non-profit
organization that is dedicated to
protecting domain owner's rights.
The latest to step forward in a
big way are popular domain
monetization platform ParkingCrew.com
and premier domain brokerage firm MediaOptions.com.
|

|


Adam
Wagner
Account Manager, ParkingCrew


Andrew
Rosener
CEO, MedaOptions |
In
their case, I should say "step forward in a bigger way"
because both companies were already ICA
members. However, having seen the great work the
organization has done first hand, ParkingCrew and MediaOptions
decided to take their memberships, literally, to the next level.
ParkingCrew.com
became the ICA's 4th Platinum Level Member this week (joining Sedo,
GoDaddy and NameBright.com in contributing $25,000 or
more annually). ParkingCrew will be adding top level talent
as well as money to the ICA effort. ICA Executive Director Kamila
Sekiewicz told us, "We are excited to have Parking Crew, a
monetization leader, step up to the platinum level and nominate the
company's Account Manager, Adam
Wagner, to ICA's board. Their support manifests the
company's commitment to their customers and to ICA's
advocacy, and Adam's broad and diverse domain industry experience
will help broaden ICA's scope.
Meanwhile, MediaOptions.com
became one of the ICA's five Gold Level Members (joining DigiMedia,
DomainCapital.com, Premium Traffic Limited (PTL) and Telepathy
with an annual contribution in the $10,000-$25,000 range). Ms.
Sekiewicz noted, "We are thankful for MediaOptions CEO Drew
Rosener's support at the gold level, which attests to his leadership
not only in handling many of the highest-profile domain name
transactions but also through his commitment to the ICA. We want to
express our gratitude to all ICA members who upgraded their
memberships, confirming their commitment to ICA's mission"
To
make sure membership
is
affordable for everyone involved in the domain
industry, the ICA maintains six membership levels, starting with the
basic Member level at $25 a month and the Individual Member level at
$50 a month. The highest tiers of support are Platinum, Gold, Silver
and Bronze with those members making annual contributions that range
from $1,000 to $25,000 or more annually. Every member,
regardless of the level to choose to join at, is instrumental in
giving the ICA the kind of strength it needs to successfully defend
the rights of domain registrants against the frequent and ongoing
attempts we've all seen to undermine them.
The
ICA, founded in 2006, has shown dramatic growth in recent years with
more people getting behind the effort every day. In fact, in the
middle of writing this, I got a group email from the ICA |
letting
me know that Bobbleheads.com
Founder Warren Royal had just joined the organization as its
newest Bronze Level member. Warren has been a force on the Internet
since 1990 and was profiled in a DNJournal
Cover Story back in 2008. He is a good example of the
caliber of people who have pitched in to help the ICA help the domain
industry continue to grow and prosper. If you are not already a
member, this would be a great time to join
the team. Working together we can take this
industry to new heights in 2021! |
|
(Posted
February 5, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210205.htm
*****
|
Photos & Highlights from
the South Asia Track at the 2021
NamesCon Online Conference
|
The
2021
NamesCon Online conference
completed its 3-day run Friday
(January 29) but we still have
some unfinished business to
get today - the photos and
highlights from the South
Asia Track that featured more
than a dozen business sessions
spread over two days. I didn't
have a chance to collect those for
you during the conference because
the South Asia sessions ran during
what were the overnight hours
in the U.S. However, thanks to
NamesCon Online making replays
of all of the conference
sessions available to registrants
through February 28, I was
able to watch the South Asia sessions over the weekend so
I can give you a recap of the
great content that was provided on
that track.
|

|
(If
you missed our reports on the Keynote,
Breakout and Americas
Tracks, you can review
day 1 highlights here, day 2 highlights here
and the day 3 highlights here).
Above:
The South Asia Track opened
with Moderator Divya Shukla (Community
Manager, Urban Skill), at left,
interviewing veteran Indian domain
investor Deepak Daftari.
Deepak, who has
closed multiple 6-figure domains
sales, is known worldwide for his
domain industry expertise and
insight. That is why I also called
on Deepak to be a member of the
panel of experts featured in DNJournal.com's
17th annual State
of the Industry Cover Story
as well as have him join Morgan
Linton and Jochen Kieler
for my State of the Industry:
Domain Investors panel discussion
on the Keynote Track at NamesCon
Online Friday (if you registered for
the show, a replay can be viewed on
the NamesCon.Online website). Below:
The next session tackled the topic -
What Makes a Great Brandable
Domain? It featured
DomainKhan.com Founder and NamesCon
Moderator Jay Paudyal (at
left) speaking with Darpan Marjal,
the Founder & CEO at SquadHelp.com.
After completing over 30,000 naming
projects with early-stage startups
as well as world-renowned
corporations like Nestle, Dell,
and Philips, the Squadhelp
team has acquired a great deal of
insight into what end users are
looking for in a great brand name -
making Darpan the man to go to on
this subject.
Above:
South Asia is one of the
domain industry's fastest growing
regions and for those who didn't
know what has been fueling the
ongoing boom, the members of
this panel had the answers. They
are (clockwise from top left) Khan
Mohammad Nakib (founder
of the domain and hosting community
named Domain Bangladesh - DAB, Khan
is also Head of Operations for one
of the country's best known ITeS
service providers), Moderator Divya
Shukla, Manish Lunja (CEO
& Founder, BrandPros.com, Inc.
and Angel Investor) and Riz Memon
(CEO, EmpireNames.com). Below:
The growth in South Asia is
attracting a steady flow of
newcomers to the industry so
NamesCon presented this timely panel
discussion - Newcomers Story:
The Beginning - in
which the speakers detailed how they
were able to establish a successful
foothold in the business. Clockwise
from top left are Moderator Hitesh
Wadwha (Co-Founder, DN School),
Internet entrepreneur Bibek
Adhikari, Utsav Suri (Manager,
Naukri.com), Sunil Kapoor
(Founder, DomainKapoor.com) and new
domainer Ankur Singh.
Above:
With respect to top level domains,
two that have caught people's
attention with their steady rate of
growth and adoption are .io
and .org, so this panel,
titled The Curious Case of .io
and .org examined
some of the factors behind the
surge. Clockwise from top left are Aran
Bansul (CEO, ServerGuy.com), Aishwin
Vikhona (Founder, I
LoveDomains.com) and Mark Ghoriafi
(Founder, Mr. Premium.com), who has
posted a string of record breaking .io
sales in recent months, including Domain.io
at $50,000. Below:
As day one of the South Asia track
wound down, this panel provided some
great advice on how to avoid
Five Deadly Domaining Traps
(what not
to do for beginners or intermediate
level domainers). The panel
featured, clockwise from top left), Ritesh
Singh (Owner, Fivty), Moderator
Divya Shukla and Vinod
Reghunathan (veteran Internet
entrepreneur
and founder of DomainCompany.io).
Below:
Day one ended on an entertaining
musical note with Domaining
Rap in which Abhishek
Talwar (CEO, Delvelogic) and Jay
Paudyal (Founder,
DomainKhan.com) laid down one rap
after another with clever domain
related lyrics. If you want to have
some fun, definitely put this one on
your replay list!
Above:
The second day on NamesCon Online's South
Asia Track started with
welcoming comments from Moderator Hitesh
Wadwha (Founder, Domainofy.com). Below:
The business sessions then began
with a Fireside Chat with
Michael Gilmour. Jay
Paudyal interviewed Michael (at
right), the Founder of ParkLogic.com
who is a globally renowned domain
monetization expert as well as a
domain developer, pilot, and
novelist! With his extraordinary experience
in the industry Michael has been
called on to speak at almost every
major conference held around the
world for the past two decades!
Above:
Day two continued with a session
on Outbound Marketing for
Domains that featured
20-year domain industry veteran
Vipin Khetarpal (Founder/CEO,
Datameter Technologies Pvt Ltd),
at left, with Moderator Hitesh
Wadwha.
Below:
Next up, day one speaker Deepak
Daftari (at left) returned for
a session with Moderator Jay
Paudyal titled Domaining:
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow.
Deepak and Jay took a deep dive
into the history of domaining,
what is happening in the region
and globally and what the future
may hold as we move forward and
look for new opportunities along
the way.
In
the next session Riz Memon
(Founder, Empire Names) gave an
excellent presentation on
Targeting Prospects Using Social
Media Ads. In it, Riz detailed
how you can run social media ads to
sell domains using LinkedIn,
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Below:
In the final business session of the
NamesCon Online South Asia Track,
four experts returned to appraise
names submitted by attendees who
wanted to know What's My
Domain Worth? In a fun and
informative session the experts
debated the merits of the names
being considered and explained what
they based their opinions on. The
panelists were (clockwise from top
left), Manish Lunja, Deepak
Daftari, Aishwin Vikohna
and Jay Paudyal. It
was a perfect way to close out two
days on the South Asia Track and
send viewers home with a lot
of new information to incorporate
into their own domaining
enterprises.
Above:
Top notch Moderators Jay Paudyal
(left) and Hitesh Wadwha officially
brought the curtain down on the South
Asia Track with their closing
comments and thank yous to
everyone who help make the 2021
event a reality. Of course, the year
is still young and we will be seeing
much more of the South Asia experts
as 2021 continues to unfold.
Hopefully, with new Covid-19
vaccines being distributed, that
will happen in person before
this year is out!
|
(Posted
February 1, 2021) To refer
others to the post above
only (and not the full
Lowdown column) you can use this
URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210201.htm
*****
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Closing
Day Photos & Highlights from
the 2021 NamesCon Online
Conference Friday, January 29
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The
2021
NamesCon Online conference
completed its 3-day run Friday
(January 29) with another full
slate of business sessions on
multiple tracks (you can get the
day 1 highlights here
and the day 2 highlights here).
Once the Friday work day was done attendees
from more than 50 countries
headed to a three-hour online Domain
Social that capped a
successful week for the ambitious
show. Normally at this time every
year, people from the global
domain industry come together in
person for the annual
NamesCon Global conference,
but
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Covid-19
forced NamesCon to adapt to a
new world and they have done that
very well indeed.
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Above: The closing
day on the Keynote Track began at 11am US Eastern time with a panel
discussion about the innovative DAN.com
ecosystem titled Uniting and Pushing the Domain Industry Forward.
Domain buyers need to be able find domains that meet their needs and sellers
need better selling tools, so the founders of the DAN.com platform set about
building value-added partnerships and using the latest technology to knock
down the barriers to connection between buyers and sellers. The
panelists included (clockwise from top left), DAN.com CEO Reza Sardeha,
Efty.com Co-Founder Doron Vermaat, MediaOptions.com CEO Andrew
Rosener and DNWE.com Co-Founder Josh Reason.

Above:
The next session was the last of the three State of the Industry panels
I hosted at NamesCon Online. After talking to Corporate leaders Wednesday and
some of the world's best Domain Brokers Thursday, I got together Friday
with three successful Domain Investor/Developers to see how they navigated
the Covid-19 crisis in 2020 and get their forecast and advice on where you
will find good opportunities in 2021 (the series was an expansion of the 17th
annual State of
the Industry Cover Story we published last week). I was pleased to
be able get insight from friends representing three different continents.
Clockwise from top left are Ron Jackson (DNJournal.com), and, in the
U.S. corner, Morgan Linton (Bold Metrics Inc. and MorganLinton.com),
from India, and a star on NamesCon's South Asia Track, Deepak Daftari
(eSiksha.com)
and representing Europe, Munich-based industry veteran Jochen Kieler (SuperSource.de).
If you are a show registrant and missed this, or any of the other NamesCon
sessions live, replays are (or soon will be) available to you to watch
at your convenience.

Above: The
Future of Domain Monetization was the topic of the first afternoon
conference. Everyone is familiar with the traditional
parked page that has been utilized for so long now, but this panel of
experts discussed what is in store for the future of domain monetization,
covering how it will differ form today and changes that could be beneficial
for domain investors. Clockwise from top left, the panel included moderator Christa
Taylor (dotTBA.com), Michael Gilmour (ParkLogic.com), Adam
Wagner (ParkingCrew.com), David Warmuz (CEO, Trellian/Above.com)
and Matt Wegrzyn (Bodis.com).

Above:
Domain investors and major corporations often hold hundreds, or even thousands
of domains in their portfolios. That can create a management headache but
there are solutions that moderator Bill Sweetman (Name Ninja), at right
above, discussed in the next session with Nisha Parkash (Online
Compliance and Brand Protection Manager, Sky Limited) titled You're
Doing it All Wrong: Lessons Learned from Managing a Large Corporate Domain
Portfolio.

Above: People always
want to know what their domains are worth, so when a session is titled What's
My Domain Worth?, a big audience is sure to gather, especially when
the people doing the appraisals are of the caliber featured on this panel.
Clockwise from top left are Josh Schoen (Co-Founder, DNWE.com), Keith
DeBoer (Brandable Insider podcast), Kate Buckley (BuckleyMedia.com),
Ammar Kubba (afterTHOUGHT.com) and Braden Pollock
(LegalBrandMarketing.com).

Above: The show's
final Keynote Track session Friday afternoon was a great Fireside Chat
With Tucows CEO Elliot Noss, sub-titled, How Do We Make The
Internet Better From Here?. Asking the questions was, at right above, Christian
Dawson (Executive Director, i2Coalition). The session's synopsis will tell
you why you should check out the replay on this one if you missed it live. It
noted, "Tucows was started in 1993 and back
then they weren’t even in the domains business - pretty much nobody
was!...CEO Elliot Noss, has coached his organization through many shifts over
the year, and knows something about surviving and thriving through change.
He believes that current events have made the DNS industry the canary in a
coal mine for the whole Internet and that we have a unique role to
play in the coming decade as platforms, not countries, will be “making
law” whether we like it or not."
As has been the case
every day at NamesCon Online, additional sessions on the Breakout Track
ran concurrently with the Keynote Track throughout the day. I had to miss the
first two while I was onstage doing my State of the Industry Panel but will
catch those in the replays. In the first, Yogi Solanki (Founder,
Outbound Domains) covered Outbound Objection Handling. In the
second, Darpan Munjal (Founder & CEO, Squadhelp.com) presented Data
Driven Domaining: Insights & Trends for Brandable Domains.

Above: Action on the
Breakout Track continued with the final chapter in Drew Walsh's 3-day Development
Series: Go All in With Full Development. Drew, who runs MovingSites.com,
has been a domain investor since 2001. He buys premium domain names with the
sole purpose of developing them. He works to extract the value of the
domain as a business rather than selling them. Drew also does a weekly live
stream called Domain to Profit where he works to help others develop
domains.

Above: Next up,
the topic turned to Blockchain Domains & the Decentralized Web.
This session covered how blockchains provide a new
platform for domain registries. The panelists, clockwise from top left,
were Brad Kam (Unstoppable Domains), Andrew Rosener (MediaOptions.com)
and Julia Szyndzielorz (Senior Public Relations Manager, Opera).
Below:
In the next session, James Tuplin (Co-Founder, Bodis.com) answered
the question, Can You Ever Have Too Many Domains? Building
& Maintaining a Profitable Portfolio. In this one James focused
on how to build a revenue-generating portfolio of domains that attract web
traffic.


Above: Domain
investors are always looking for places to market their domains. This session
tells you about what could be a marriage made in heaven if you approach it in
a professional way. LinkedIn & Domain Sales featured,
clockwise from top left, Tessa Holcomb (Founder, DomainAdvisors.com), Jeff
Garbutt (Founder, Prime Loyalty) and Morgan Linton (COO,
Bold Metrics Inc.).
Below: In the show's
final session on the Breakout Track, united-domains AG CTO & Board Member Tobias
Sattler (who is also Editor-in-chief at
MyNext.Events and Founder of Domain Name Basics), delivered a timely
talk on the COVID-19 Impact on Domain Names. Here, Tobias (at
right) is introduced by energetic Breakout Track host Peter Schwinge.


Above: In addition
to the Keynote, Breakout, Americas, and South Asia Tracks, many attendees were
able to set up or participate in many other meetings that were held throughout
the show in the Workshop Rooms. One of the best attended Friday was an Internet
Commerce Association discussion about UDRP Issues.
Handling that, clockwise from top left, were ICA Executive Director Kamila
Sekiewicz, attorney Jason Schaeffer (ESQwire.com) ICA General
Counsel Zak Muscovitch and ICA Board Member Nat Cohen
(Telepathy).

With business now
done at NamesCon Online 2021, it was time to say goodbye to the
hundreds of registrants who logged in from around the world. Ecstatic to have
produced another outstanding conference in the face of so many
Covid-releated obstacles, NamesCon CEO Soeren von Varchmin (top right),
and (clockwise after Soeren), Moderators Bill Sweetman, Christian
Dawson and Christa Taylor, were all on hand to provide a heartfelt
farewell for now. We couldn't help noticing that Bill apparently took the
occasion to adopt a new stage name- DJ HotDomains! It was obvious that
Soeren noticed it and wondered if his eyes might be deceiving him! Hey, we are
in a business that is all about the name, so if it works for
Name Ninja Bill, more power to him. Congrats to Soeren and the entire NameCon
team on a job well done and thank you for the incredible value
you delivered for attendees this week.
Of course, after
every NamesCon there are always a lot of people who don't want to go home,
and just because this one was online, it was no exception. A three-hour
special edition of Arif Mirza's The
Domain Social was held immediately after the conference on Zoom
and when I dropped in the number of attendees was already in triple digits
and steadily growing.

Arif Mirza
(above) with help from Jothan Frakes (below) - both snapped at today's
social - have been hosting The Domain Social every Friday (along with some on
other special occasions) and it has helped a lot of people stay connected
through the pandemic. It is open to all and you can get email notices
that will alert you to every upcoming event by signing
up here.

One final note, the
show is over but our coverage is not. NamesCon's outstanding South
Asia Track ran in what were the overnight hours in the U.S. when
most of us were sleeping. So, as I did in covering the first
NamesCon Online event in September, I will sit down and experience
the full South Asia track via the replays so I can put together a separate
post detailing those sessions. That will appear in this column one day next
week. In the
meanwhile, everyone stay safe and put all of the great tips you got
this week to good use in 2021!
|
(Posted
January 29, 2021) To refer others to the
post above only (and not the full Lowdown column) you can use this URL:
https://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2021/dailyposts/20210129.htm
*****
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