A recent check of Sedo showed some interesting domain name sales which illustrate just how global the domain name market has become.

• Sound.ch for $7450 (.ch is the country code for Swtizerland)
• Cafe.de for $19,050 (.de is the country code for Germany)
• Pocketbook.eu for $11,993 (.eu is the county code for the European Union)
• BudgetAir.in for $20,000 (.in is the country code for India)
• Falcon.co.uk for $9183 (.co.uk is the country code for the United Kingdom)
• Finanzblick.de for $7574 (.de is the country code for Germany)
• Gezocht.nl for $24,500 (.nl is the country code for the Netherlands)
• SEO.es for $7620 (.es is the country code for Spain)
• Tech.TV for $5000 (.tv is the country code for Tuvalu, but branded for “TV”)

A recent Moniker .US domain auction produced the purchase of Flights.US for $11, 770. Another recent Moniker brokered sale was Slots.ca for $206,906 (.ca is the country code for Canada).

Also in the news was the sale of SydneyHotels.com for $100,000 by owner Rick Schwartz to a company with a network of travel focused domain names & websites. This same company own the LondonHotels.biz website among many others.

Here is an update on the growth of America’s official country code, the .US web address. Between February 2009 and the end of June 2010 (roughly 1 year and 5 months), the .US web address added 338,764 new registrations for a current total of 1,724,961 .US domain names in play. This was a remarkable 24.4% increase in registrations.

Related domain names of interest:

SydneyHotels.biz | Kolhapur.in | WestHollywood.US | ChicagoIllinois.TV

Domain Sales, Internet Domains .us, cctld, global domain names

Another article is just out confirming that real estate sales are picking up in select markets. The New York Daily News reported that buyers have returned to New York City and are snatching up prime Manhattan apartments.

In response to price cuts, tax incentives, and great mortgage rates, buyers are going after high end residential real estate. Pamela Liebman, CEO of The Corcoran Group, is quoted as saying that positive, market-friendly conditions are motivating buyers.

In May through June of this year, Manhattan residential real estate logged 3600 sales. This was a 47% increase in property sales over the same time period in 2009.

The article identified oversized, three bedroom apartments as one of the hottest items on the Manhattan real estate market.

Liebman, of Corcoran, was also quoted by NY Daily News as reporting that bidding wars had returned to the New York City marketplace. Aggressive buyers drove up bidding as Manhattan real estate inventory began to move … with more than 50% of Corcoran agents getting caught in the middle of a price war.

Premium domain names of interest, include:

• NewYorkCity.biz
• Condos.biz
• Manhattan.mobi
• ManhattanRealEstate.US
• ManhattanApartments.US
• ManhattanCondos.US

.BIZ Domain Names, .US Domain Names manhattan, manhattan domain names, manhattan real estate

Pockets of depressed real estate are beginning to pick up in some areas. Florida experienced an over-building of luxury condos in the last decade which created quite a surplus in the major Florida markets like Miami, Tampa, Orlando, and other famous hot spots.

However, as prices have steadily come down, condo buying has increased considerably as prudent buyers knew that the time was right to buy in. The Herald Tribune posted a recent article examining condo trends in the Sarasota, Florida area.

According to them, condo sales in the Sarasota area rose a massive 71% in May 2010 compared to one year ago in May of 2009. The piece reported that 384 condos sold in comparison to just 225 in May of 2009. Additionally, the median sale price increased 3% to almost $153,000.

I do not have a convenient method of checking publicly listed sales of real estate domain names. I recently sold a .biz real estate domain, and also just acquired one in the .info space.

Real estate domains are perfect web portals for both home buyers and sellers of various properties. I visit LuxuryRealEstate.com, MLS.biz, and Collett.biz as well as Homes.com and consider these excellent examples of workable domain names paired with well-designed web sites. Two premium domains I have been developing are Condos.biz and Estates.biz.

Internet Domains condo domain names, real estate domain names

There are many venues for selling domain names. Sedo and AfternicDLS are two of the best known online brokerages.

In the early days of the domain game was a site called GreatDomains.com. That site became overwhelmed with low quality domain names, fell out of favor, and was eventually acquired by Sedo some years later for a marginal sum. They now use that site for primarily moving dotcom inventory.

As a domain investor and developer, it is useful to maintain one’s own independent website for organizing your domain name portfolio. Buyers of all kinds need a clean, well-organized platform for searching through hundreds (or thousands) of domain names for sale. Organization and clean presentation are important customer service keys.

The downside of a large brokerage like AfternicDLS, BuyDomains, or Sedo is the sheer volume of domain names that they carry. A very large percentage of their inventory are non-premium domain names.

If you offer a true premium domain name inventory, then you will want to separate your domain name collection from the mass of low quality domains available at the large online brokerages. I prefer to post domains for sale at both AfternicDLS and Sedo (which are generally excellent venues) while also maintaining a premium domain collection on a personal website. Below are several means of viewing the Menius Enterprises portfolio of premium domain names with PremiumDomains.US being the most comprehensive.

• PremiumDomains.US
• PremiumDomains.biz
• Sedo (a portion of our collection listed there)
• AfternicDLS (a portion of our collection listed there)
• DomainBusiness.US (showcases some top premium domains)
• This blog (our domain names for sale page showcasing many premium domains)

Domain Names For Sale domain name portfolio, premium domains

There are several new articles (CBS news, CNN) listing metro areas which appear to be “recession proof” and are continuing to experience substantial population growth.

A study by MetroMonitor looked at several growth indicators such as employment, home prices, and foreclosure rates. The researchers ranked and listed the Top 21 cities that produced the best statistical figures.

The ultimate standout was the booming Dallas-Fort Worth metro area that added more residents in the past decade than any other city. Fueling the growth there is a very positive business climate in which there is no corporate income tax and regulations are minimal.

The state of Texas was very well represented with 6 cities making the Top 21 list. The highest ranking cities meeting the recession-proof criteria were (in alphabetical order):

Albany, NY
Augusta, GA
Austin, TX
Baton Rouge, LA
Buffalo, NY
Columbia, SC
Dallas, TX
Des Moines, IA
El Paso, TX
Honolulu, HI
Houston, TX
Jackson, MS
Little Rock, AR
Madison, WI
McAllen, TX
Oklahoma City, OK
Omaha, NE
Rochester, NY
San Antonio, TX
Tulsa, OK
Washington, D.C.

The MetroMonitor study includes a wealth of information on various cities’ standings along a number of economic indicators.

Premium domain names of interest related to the above cities include:

• AugustaGeorgia.US
• AustinRealEstate.biz
• Columbia.info
• DallasTexas.biz
• ElPaso.biz
• HonoluluHawaii.biz
• HoustonAttorneys.US
• LittleRockRealEstate.info
• OklahomaCity.biz
• OmahaNebraska.US
• SanAntonioRealEstate.info
• TulsaHotels.info
• WashingtonDCRealEstate.info

Geodomains geo domain, geodomain

Estates.biz is a new acquisition that pairs well with Condos.biz. The Estates.biz website was created on the newly updated DevHub website development platform.

Real estate is no doubt one of the largest industries in the world. It remains perpetually exciting and relevant because owning a home represents, for most people, the single greatest financial investment of their lifetime.

Luxury estates in particular are of interest to many people as they provide not only browsing entertainment, but also a sense of awe and inspiration. PremiumDomains.biz recently wrote about world renowned architect, John B. Scholz, whose luxury home creations are literal works of art (see article here).

Estates.biz was a relatively short project taking roughly two days. This is in sharp contrast to Charlotte.US or Detroit.US which took approximately five weeks each of full time development. Those sites are highly customized and cover a broad range of content whereas Estates.biz is obviously a singular focus on the high-end luxury home market.

• To browse high quality real estate domain names, visit this link.

.BIZ Domain Names luxury estates, luxury homes, mansions

Domainers approach management of their portfolios from different perspectives. The size of one’s portfolio, monetization methods selected, and development goals can all affect how one might choose to manage their domain collection.

An initial benefit is to consolidate all of your domains with one registrar. I have found this very helpful since monitoring domains across many different host registrars is cumbersome and a big time waster. You wind up with too many passwords and must learn several different user interfaces when using multiple registrars.

You are also likely to lose track of a domain name when utilizing many registrars simultaneously. I have consolidated the bulk of my portfolio at GoDaddy. Some like Moniker while others use Enom. Each of these registrars have positive and negative qualities so it boils down to personal choice depending on which features are most important to you.

Another commonly accepted norm is to keep your domains on auto renew so that you don’t accidentally lose a domain. Some registrars do not send renewal reminder notices and you do not want to depend on that as your only means of monitoring a needed domain name renewal.

Many domainers are happy with one PPC provider. It’s fairly convenient to load your portfolio into one parking company, like Parked.com for example, but often another parking provider will provide a higher rate of return for certain domains. So diversifying your portfolio across different parking companies may be a technique that you want to try if you are really focused on maximizing PPC income.

Aim for volume discount in your registration fees as your portfolio grows. A registrar knows that your portfolio will be a repeat and steady source of income for them. Never pay retail registration fees. As a portfolio owner, you will likely also be buying other services from the same registrar, and you may direct new business to them if you are satisfied with their services. The larger your portfolio, the better the price consideration you will receive.

In regard to website development, a whole other article is actually merited. Website development of multiple domain names is a complex issue … particularly when you are embarking on a creative endeavor with some level of complexity involved.

I have had numerous websites with different hosting providers and none of them have gone without a hitch. Suffice it to say that the consolidation concept makes much sense and offers huge advantages to you as a developer. When it comes to development, I am a “jack of all trades”, but an expert at none. When you have limited time, learning different development platforms and software becomes a huge time and energy drain. Simplicity rules, and especially simplicity with reliability.

In 2008-2009, I discovered the beauty of Wordpress. That has become a popular development platform for good reason. It is not without occasional headaches, but is certainly preferred by some who would rather not learn html or other code writing skills.

In 2009, I learned about DevHub. After testing their platform, I commited fully to DevHub for developing various domains in my portfolio. I started simple and have continued to refine my sites over months as time allowed. The advantage is that I can edit my sites from any PC and have easy, quick access to multiple sites all contained within one development platform. Also, a module developed for one site can be replicated on another site fairly easily since you are working within one common platform.

Now for the downside. If an online platform goes down or experiences a major hiccup, your entire portfolio of develop sites goes down. Scary as hell when you have invested hundreds of hours in website development. For example, DevHub recently upgraded their entire online system and moved their hosting to a new provider. The repercussions were initially catastrophic. Thankfully, DevHub are commited to building a loyal customer base and went to work for several weeks sorting through & correcting a myriad of unexpected problems that their upgrade introduced.

The lesson here is to make sure you are hooked up with some high integrity, well-funded professionals who really value what they are doing. Anything less than that and you should run in the opposite direction. I am sticking with DevHub at this time because their upgraded system really is the cream of the crop. I am sure that they will more thoroughly test run their next upgrade.

Lastly, a portfolio owner needs to consider the sales venues they might utilize for listing domain names for sale. And, also how one might assemble their portfolio online to display to potential buyers and business partners. I have an html-coded windows hosted site (PremiumDomains.biz), a linux hosted site built on Noah’s Classifieds (PremiumDomains.US), and a page dedicated on this blog (Domain Names For Sale) profiling some premium domains from the Menius Enterprises domain name portfolio.

Murphy’s Law is a constant. Might as well accept this. Advanced planning and preparation are the portfolio owner’s best defense. Organizational skills and back-up of one’s work can also not be overstated.

Internet Domains domain portfolio, registrar

The airline, Air France, currently hold the number one spot on Google for ”France flights” with their AirFrance.US website. The AirFrance.US website drew approximately 184,238 unique visitors for the month of April 2010 (source: compete.com).

The company cover 183 destinations in 98 countries, have 417 aircraft, and conduct 1700 flights daily. That’s quite an active airline. Air France, including affiliates, employ 74,320 people.

They have done an excellent job of utilizing various country codes from around the globe, and have secured nearly all of the world’s country code web addresses for their brand. In addition to offering direct ticket sales on their site for international flights, Air France provide for the booking of hotel accomodations as well.

Interestingly, the AirFrance.biz website acts as a company portal, in conjunction with Royal Dutch Airlines, for travel agents affiliated with the two companies. Another .biz domain name, AFKL.biz (Air France/KLM), delivers agents to the same portal.

.BIZ Domain Names, .US Domain Names air france, airline