A geo-targeted domain name in the mobile extension (.mobi) sells for $4380 on Sedo. The domain is MiamiRealEstate.mobi. The whois shows the new owner as the .com owner of the generic phrase “Miami Real Estate”.

Obtaining the mobile web address is a terrific idea and a good match for the .com version. Miami real estate will rebound in due time. Owning quality, premium domain names that fit this high interest phrase will attract homebuyers and act as an effective marketing & promotion tool.

Also available are: MiamiRealEstate.biz and MiamiRealEstate.info 

.BIZ Domain Names .biz, miami, real estate

The Sedo auction of single letter and single number .biz domain names is closing. It appears that the majority of domains will be sold in the $7000 – $60,000 range with e.biz coming in near the top at $66,001, 1.biz going for $32,003, m.biz closing for $15,611, and d.biz at $26,110.

These domain names will make great brandable, easy-to-remember web portals for general business purposes. Acquiring a very short domain name is rare and typically expensive.

The Neustar Registry, who oversee the .biz web space, have been in need of some creative marketing to draw greater attention to the .biz web address. It is not clear if this recent auction will achieve significant promotion for the .biz extension. I will be watching registration numbers over the next month to determine if a spike of interest was indeed created.

In any event, .biz continues to be adopted gradually by businesses around the world. While not hot in the aftermarket yet like .com, the address is very logical and a very good fit for the variety of businesses, corporations, and organizations establishing and/or reinforcing their presence online.

.BIZ Domain Names .biz, Sedo

Newspapers in America, especially local ones, have enjoyed a monopoly for many years. But their revenues have fallen off dramatically as news fans have migrated to the internet for superior interactive news. I currently access all news through the internet, TV, and radio.

A recent study (the story) surveying 118 newspapers in the U.S and Canada indicated that 55% of newspapers are considering charging a subscription for accessing their news stories. Of that 55%, 22% are forecasted to begin charging you a fee by the end of the year.

Will you pay? The newspapers are stuck … not sure what direction to go in. Many of them failed to recognize how important, and powerful, the internet would become. This was primarily the result of a century old dominance that went unchallenged.

The gamble is that those who charge, even a modest fee, are likely to experience an even greater loss of customers (and revenue) when readers simply switch to some other free news source for the same stories.

News quality, integrity, and trustworthiness have declined in many of the familiar major news media organizations.

This sped the decline when newspaper editors and owners began pre-empting hard news with their political opinion and biased rhetoric. So not only did traditional newspapers miss out on the new technology of the future, but they offended their readers by inserting personal opinion where facts and hard news used to reside.

The Wall Street Journal, owned by News Corp., is said to have the best chance with the online fee-based subscription model. They reportedly have 1 million online subscribers already. However, the New York Times abandoned their fee-based system in 2007 when they were unable to maintain a sufficient number of subscribers to make the service profitable.

Local is very important in internet news as well as having a familiar portal like a geodomain name destination. Traditional newspapers often do not own a marketable city domain name to funnel local & international visitors to their news site. I predict that this will change dramatically in the next few years. Logical domains with a strong local identity are natural brands.

We shall see what happens with the online fee-based news model. A number of news outlets will rise to prominence when they go in the opposite direction. They stand to capture a huge number of online news readers who simply will not pay for news that is available for free elsewhere.

Also look for geodomain city sites to gain traction, and attention, in a new business model that keeps overhead costs low and which will win out by delivering quality, distinctive local news.

Internet Domains newspapers

I have been experimenting with DevHub which is a free website builder for non-technical web developers. DevHub is user friendly and allows you to easily drop content sections into a webpage.

Most of the content sections are monetized. Several of my favorites are hotel booking, the local business directory, and the ability to sell products and select which ones you want to include on your site (like computers, ipods, luggage, etc.).

Working with DevHub is a positive experience in that the web design interface downloads to your browser, is drag and drop, and displays the results of your design choices almost instantly.

The revenue split is likely no better than typical PPC earnings, but that is not a priority for me. My primary goal at this point is to give several of my geodomain sites some shape & structure and content that would be of use to site visitors. If you are a geodomain developer, I believe the DevHub content options work quite well for city and state locality-based domain names.

So far, I have four sites built on DevHub. They are …

• www.Bentonville.US
• www.NewportNews.US
• www.Norfolk.US
• www.Lubbock.US

I’ll be adding a few others and comparing the different design layouts to determine which one or two seem to have the most appeal to users.

.US Domain Names, Site Development

The front page of domain sales site, Sedo.com, lists Jets.com as having just recently sold for $375,000. To my knowledge, details of this sale have not yet been disclosed to the public. First reaction is that the name was likely purchased by either an airline company or the New York Jets professional football team.

The Whois details do not yet reflect the new registrant owner and still show Sedo’s escrow service contact details.

Approximately three years ago, the Dallas Cowboys missed a golden opportunity to acquire Cowboys.com in a competitive live auction. It was evident that the Cowboys’ bidding representative was naive and grossly uninformed about the value of generic domain names. This was illustrated when the rep bid something like $275 not realizing that the bid was actually $275,000. The Cowboys backed out of their bid, and bluntly put, had no idea what they were doing.

The Dallas Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones, just completed the construction of a new Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas with a one billion dollar plus price tag. To have acquired the definitive best domain name, Cowboys.com, would have been a very intelligent investment in the future of the Cowboys’ franchise.

Similarly, Jets.com would be a terrific acquisition for the New York Jets NFL football team. I’m looking forward to learning who the buyer is.

.COM Domains

1. Casino.mobi – is purchased by Infomeda Ltd. for $135,000 in a sale that was handled by Moniker. Infomeda will use the site as an online gaming portal.

2. O.biz – is awarded by the Neustar registry to online retailer, Overstock.com, after they successfully applyed via the RFP process. Overstock will use O.biz as a website dedicated to selling bulk merchandise to businesses and customers.

3. USPS.mobi – is awarded to the United States Postal Service in a UDRP decided by the National Arbitration Forum.

4. Hotel-Reservation.com – was sold for approximately $208,000 USD in a deal that was brokered by Sedo. A substantial sum for a hyphenated domain name which demonstrates just how lucrative the online hotel booking market is.

5. The parent company of BuyDomains, NameMedia, won in their defense of a UDRP filed on the domain name “lincs.com”. Not only did NameMedia win the case, but the NAF arbitration panelist (Carol Stoner, Esq.) found SpinSix guilty of reverse domain name hijacking. Shameful. Reverse Domain Name Hijacking is a brand of dishonor for any company trying to ”steal” domain names to which they are obviously not entitled. Kudos to panelist, Carol Stoner, for making a keen assessment & judgement in this case.

6. .BIZ one character domains will be auctioned off and awarded to high bidders via Sedo from September 23 – 30. This marks the first time in history that a generic top level domain has released its single character names.

7. DNJournal reported the sale of Christian.com for $600,000 USD.

8. Call.com was purchased for $1.1 million USD by a Boris Kreiman as reported by DomainNameWire.

.BIZ Domain Names, .MOBI Domain Names .biz, .mobi

The .BIZ web address is presently at 2,015,168 total registrations worldwide. Neustar Registry Services, who oversee the .biz top level domain, will be auctioning off the majority of numerals 1-9 (as in 9.biz) and a majority of the single letter domains (A through Z) in an online auction which will begin September 23 and last through September 30.

The selected auction house is Sedo, and details of the .BIZ auction are located at Sedo.biz. Sedo will soon be accepting bids online for those with a qualifying Sedo account and who have passed a basic standard certification. Having previously purchased (or sold) domain names through Sedo will allow a potential bidder to meet the standard certification requirement.

.BIZ has grown year over year since its original release in 2002 despite dismal marketing by the Neustar registry. Even without notable registry promotional support, .BIZ has been adopted by a wide variety of businesses across the internet. It now ranks as the 10th leading web address in the world including all country code and top level domains. .COM is currently the leading internet extension worldwide in terms of total registrations.

Several blogs have written about whether the single number/letter .biz auction will significantly boost global interest in the internet’s official business web address. It’s difficult to say with any certainty what effect the .biz auction will have on public perception. .BIZ has actually grown from the grass roots up in a gradual but steady adoption which has increased every year since 2002.

I am a fan of the .biz web address and see it as an incredibly logical web space that will only continue to grow with time. I also predict a considerable rise in business registration & use as more companies discover .biz as a viable, and more affordable alternative, to .com and country code domains.

.BIZ Domain Names .biz, Sedo

Key West, Florida is a beautiful & popular vacation destination at the southernmost tip of the United States. Key West is known for a tropical climate, white sandy beaches, and tons of personality.

The domain name, KeyWestFlorida.US, is for sale from the PremiumDomains.US portfolio and offered in a no reserve auction at Bido.com on Tuesday, September 22.

Key West receives a large amount of tourism and provides visitors with incredible cuisine, water sports, moonlight cruises, and a relaxing atmosphere which turns first time vacationers into instant Key West fans.

Premium geodomains carry a certain cachet as pure generic domain names, but also possess a special appeal for the residents, businesses, and visitors to the geo destination contained in the domain name. Certain local businesses can use a geodomain as a targeted geo-portal for their company’s products and services.

Examples include: hotel & travel, real estate professionals, local attorneys, apartment complexes, insurance sales, auto dealerships, and various organizations based out of the geo destination.

To visit the auction: go here

.US Domain Names .us, bido, florida, key west