I used to participate in domain drops religiously. Now, I might scan the lists just every so often. Drop-catching is a skill. And requires the use of good judgement!

I was dumbstruck the other day as I hopped from one drop registrar to another searching on a few select keywords. I saw huge, massive, enormous lists of expiring domains for some of the worst keyword combinations ever. My first reaction was “WHAT ARE PEOPLE THINKING”? I could not believe that people had chosen these domains to register at one time or another. That they were being dropped was really no surprise.

But then I paused to think about all the new, budding domain enthusiasts who have just discovered the domain industry within the last 1-2 years. “Domain fever” is what it’s called. I had it once, and recovered … thankfully.

The other consideration is that you, the veteran domainer, probably have much more knowledge than you realize based on years of trial & error, research, analysis, and actual business experience. I take for granted how much I know, and have stored away in my aging memory banks. Sometimes speaking to young people, their relative inexperience comes through immediately and causes me to pause. Which makes me feel a little old.

Back to the topic. If you are new to domaining, then you are likely excited about the many possibilities you have read about in the domain world. I will suggest to you that you not get in a hurry. Commit yourself first to learning about the industry. Learn to crawl before you walk. And then examine your options. There is no undiscovered pot of gold out in the middle of the desert waiting for you.

DO NOT go wild hand-registering large numbers of domains with your credit card. You will regret this. Be selective in your choices. With time & self-education, you will be much better able to invest your money, and not throw it away on an ocean of bad domain names. It is better to have one true quality domain name than 20 domains with no viable future.

Protect your money, protect your investment. With knowledge & good decisions. Build your domain empire –> one domain at a time!

Humor domain registration

PremiumDomains.US is now offering financing for buyers of our premium domain names. The service is available for most domains priced above $2500.

A typical arrangement is 20% to 40% down (of the final purchase price) with the balance owed broken into equal monthly installments of either 12 months or 24 months. For ultra premium domains, a term of up to 48 months may be available.

Financing is a great option for buyers as it allows them to effectively begin utilizing a better domain name for their business while laying out a smaller, more manageable up front sum. Paying the remaining balance over 1 to 2 years leaves the buyer with a cost effective means of acquiring a good quality domain name, and better managing their monthly cash flow.

Example: A $7500 domain purchase at 20% down and 24 monthly payments on the balance due would equate to a $1500 down payment and 24 monthly payments of $250.00. For some buyers, this can be a good option for keeping their existing credit line free for running the business and covering other operational expenses.

Also must mention a rumor that WordPress (famous blog software developer) have acquired the two letter dotcom domain, WP.com. This domain only recently began resolving to the WordPress.com website. No word as of yet about a high dollar purchase, but you can be sure this domain (if purchased by WordPress) did not come cheap. As is often the case, a potential purchase may be private and subject to a non-disclosure agreement. I will post any information on the WP.com situation as information comes available.

Update: Indeed, Automattic Inc. (known for WordPress) purchased the WP.com domain name from Yahoo. Price still unknown.

Internet Domains domain financing, domain purchase

We are well into the American finance “bad news cycle” that took hold last fall. Despite justified worries, we have acclimated somewhat to the collapse of well known companies & banking institutions. Sadly, many job losses have occurred. That’s old news. But all of this … seems to have gotten the attention of consumers and American families. If people are now more frugal, all the better.

The internet and domain name industry, however, have simply been resilient. Declines in PPC emerged, but the internet and all that it offers is as strong as ever. What a cliche’ to suggest “the internet is the future”. But, it’s a reality that appears more true with every passing day.

I look around at the businesses that have slowed down. Many of them are sitting still waiting for signs of economic life again in order to resume business as usual. Others are remaking themselves in preparation for new business and the new economy that will emerge from this recession. We don’t know what it will look like exactly. But if history is any indicator, the American economic engine, and insatiable appetite, will rise again. I am certain of this.

New home loans have picked up. School enrollment has picked up. Banks are reporting earnings surprises. Some are wanting to return bailout monies. At this point, jobs are the main missing ingredient in the new equation. And it will be no easy task to get the unemployed working again on a large scale. I suspect it will happen though, and especially if people are willing to work for a little less on their road to a new career.

Will the economy of the next five years lead to more internet entrepreneurs? I believe it will. As I have said many times, everything is migrating to the internet. All of the industries, new & old, are shifting in this direction. Consequently, we may see a very substantial move toward new careers being based on the internet, the new frontier. New opportunities.

Domain names have not stalled. They are anything but obsolete. Not quite commonplace yet in the greater public’s awareness, but sort of a dim blip on the radar that keeps getting brighter & brighter. Most certainly a part of the complex internet machinery on which everyone is relying day after day.

For the consumer, it’s ultimately about the internet destination. What they find there. And whether it’s of use to them, or satisfies an important need. For the content provider, it’s about delivering a first class internet experience. There’s one chance to dazzle, and to capture a new customer. Only one 1st opportunity to make a lasting impact which might lead to years of customer loyalty and years of profits. The domain name is the vehicle that delivers the customer to their destination. It’s part of the sizzle.

more on –> The Future of Domaining

Internet Domains economy

There have been a number of UDRP filings and even court injunctions related to a celebrity wanting a domain name which matches their known Hollywood name.

The latest is Sigourney Weaver who has filed with the National Arbitration Forum in a quest to obtain the .com version of her name (as reported by Domain Name Wire).

My personal opinion is that in most cases a celebrity’s name is their trademark and should, within limits, enjoy the same protection as any other well-established trademark. When someone registers a celebrity’s domain name and then monetizes it in clear relation to the celebrity’s craft, then that points to deliberate exploitation.

In these types of cases, I believe the registrant should lose the domain because there is bad faith intent to profit from the good will of a trademark belonging to someone else.

In the case of Sigourney Weaver, one could understand another individual with the same name having a clear right to the domain. For example, maybe another Sigourney Weaver working as a realtor might want to have a real estate sales site on SigourneyWeaver.com. Nothing at all wrong with that.

Ultimately, a celebrity’s name is their brand, and it acquires value with time, hard work, and success. Their brand should receive some protection from obvious cybersquatting. Of course, I can think of many exceptions whereby untalented people have an extended 15 minutes of fame, or infamy. This is a slippery slope so the issue is anything but black & white.

Conversely, I am against supposed celebrities over-stepping the boundaries of trademark protection. Remember the director Spike Lee suing Viacom in an attempt to stop SpikeTV from using the word “Spike”. Please! And Donald Trump trying to trademark “You’re fired”. That’s probably going too far.

There are some fair use exceptions like pure fan sites. However, if you’re a true fan of someone who has spent a lifetime building a successful career around their name, it seems more fair to give them the domain name than to keep it for oneself. That’s my opinion only.

Internet Domains

PremiumDomains.US is now including a powerful real estate website (view example) with the purchase of a real estate domain name.

I have become a bit of a WordPress junkie, and am impressed with the quality & variety of design templates available for WordPress users.

Being a domain investor and part-time website developer, I have always enjoyed seeing a great domain name paired with a nicely designed, functional website. Website development can be tedious and time consuming. But WordPress (with its built-in database & numerous tools/features) reduces the workload considerably.

Here is a list of the domain names currently available for purchase that will provide the free real estate website. PremiumDomains.US focus on acquiring business-oriented premium domains in a variety of extensions.

I would like to eventually provide a number of website choices that cover all of the various business-centric domain name categories. Specifically, a geodomain website package would be dynamite.

I have not yet seen a well-designed geodomain website that offers ease of use, abundant high-quality content, and which does not require extensive coding. The new real estate website I am offering is a big first step toward the kind of user-friendly interface I would like to provide my domain name customers. Stay tuned! Thanks for visiting.

.US Domain Names website

Edwin Hayward is a long time domain investor who specializes in the .co.uk (United Kingdom country code) domain space. He just published a nicely designed study to test the hypothesis that generic domain names perform better than non-generic domains in eliciting user click-throughs when viewing identical ads triggered from identical keywords.

He used Google Adwords which allowed for multiple comparisons between domain names via their click-through rates (CTR) & other measures. The domains used for the study were:

• ElectricBicycles.co.uk (matching generic)
• YourBikes.co.uk (somewhat generic)
• InAHurry.co.uk (non-generic)

Achieving a good click-through rate means that advertisers are successfully reaching consumers in search of their products and services. This is monumentally important.

Edwin wrote in his conclusions –>

A generic domain name outperforms a non-generic name by delivering a higher CTR and an even higher number of total clicks.

More specifically, he found that the generic domain received 45% more clicks than the somewhat generic competitor. Most impressive, the generic domain achieved 105% more clicks than the non-generic domain.

Experienced domainers have known this for a long time, but Edwin has now provided some statistical evidence to support this very important distinction. Generic domain names have always commanded a premium above the ocean of inferior domain alternatives, and for good reason.

I hope to see more compelling examples of Edwin’s work as the larger business community discovers the powerful advantage of generics in capturing consumer attention.

Fact: Targeted generic domain names outperform other domains in eliciting consumer interest and consumer behavior.

Internet Domains advertising, generic domain names

Everyone knows about Results.com going for $500,000 via Sedo. But there continue to be interesting sales at all price levels. Some recent four figure + sales include …

• CountryMusic.biz – $2800 at Sedo
• Agua.info (water is Spanish) - $8300 at Afternic
• Trading.info – $10,476 at Sedo
• Sport.US – $5101 at Sedo auction
• VegasSlotCasino.info – $6022 at Sedo
• OnlinePokerGames.US – $5715 at Sedo
• MMS.US – $2750 at Sedo
• DE.TV – $14,957 at Sedo
• FilmMakers.TV – $10,000 private sale reported DNJournal
• UV.TV – $13,650 at Sedo
• Newcastle.TV – $3495 at Sedo
• VIP.mobi – $10,099 at Sedo
• MovieTickets.mobi – $3600 at Sedo
• Shoes.mobi – $4600 at Sedo
• FurnitureDepot.com – $5275 at Afternic
• SinglesBars.com – $3401 at Sedo/Great Domains
• GovernmentGrant.net – $3000 at Sedo
• Trips.net – $4600 at Sedo Auction
• InternetPoker.org – $6000 at Sedo Acution
• GolfShops.org – $3100 at AfternicDLS
• CTP.biz – $1950 at Sedo

An interesting experiment is to recheck a domain two months post-sale to see how the domain name is being utilized. I find a pretty equal distribution between being parked for advertiser revenue, in some stage of content development (sometimes a fully completed website), possibly redirected to another existing website, or occasionally not resolving at all or resolving to a domain name for sale page.

Side note: It appears that domain registrations continue to rise in a majority of domain name spaces. In just a little over a month, total registrations have gone from …

• .BIZ (2,008,779 to 2,044,714)
• .US (1,385,171 to 1,611,327)
• .COM (79,243,372 to 80,382,080)

Domain Sales, Internet Domains

Andrew Allemann, editor of Domain Name Wire, is the owner of the geodomain, KansasCity.US. Kansas City is a major metro destination with a surrounding population of approximately 2 million people.

Sprint Nextel Corporation have their world headquarters based in Kansas City. Other major companies operating out of Kansas City include Applebee’s, Hallmark Cards, H&R Block, Russell Stover Candies, Bayer, and many others.

Andrew’s Kansas City geodomain is in the official United States web address, dotUS. He recently developed a minisite for Kansas City which contains information on travel, sports, attractions, shopping, and real estate. Minisites are scaled down versions of a full featured website, and they present an affordable first step for getting an undeveloped domain name up and running.

Andrew selected a minisite developer, Minisites.com, after having perused the field of web development companies working in this area. He writes about KansasCity.US and minisite development in his blog piece entitled, “Minisites.com Delivers: KansasCity.us“.

The .com version of this domain name is owned by McClatchy Interactive who are the third largest newspaper publisher in America. McClatchy, among others, have been struggling with declining newspaper revenues as a result of internet users choosing to go online for their news & information.

No doubt, geodomain websites and domain names are the future of media. So Andrew’s acquisition of KansasCity.US represents a Class A business decision. ccTLD’s are gaining increasing global recognition. And nothing is more impressive than having a huge metropolitan city or exotic travel destination.

Readers will be interested to know that Andrew is also the owner of SanFrancisco.US. Well known domain investor Rick Schwartz purchased Nashville.US in recent years, and Miami.US was auctioned off earlier this year via online domain broker, Sedo.com. This writer is the owner of Charlotte.US, the largest city in North Carolina (currently my home state).

.US Domain Names geodomain, kansas city