Neustar, who oversee the .biz and .US domain name registries, has launched a new website at DotYou.biz to promote the forthcoming release of newer alternative tld’s (top level domains). Their choice of the .BIZ web address makes good use of the business-centric focus that .biz represents.

Raleigh, NC was voted the #1 city in America by Businessweek. Factors included green space, cultural amenities, and school performance. Raleigh.info is a premium web address currently available through the Menius Enterprises, Inc. domain name portfolio and the PremiumDomains.US website.

Update: The www.Methadone.US website, which launched earlier this year, exceeded its own monthly record for consumer traffic in August with that month seeing the largest number of visitors since the site’s inception. The largest single day for unique site visitors also occurred in August.

Some of the domain terms derive from other well known business sectors like finance and real estate. Recently addressed here was the frequent overuse of the term premium domains. Below are some other domain catch phrases with a short definition (or description) of what they mean.

• domain name portfolio (a collection of domain names being held or utilized as a financial investment, or active business)
• domain name collection (generally carries the same connotation as domain name portfolio)
• domain investor (anyone who acquires domain names for investment purposes)
• domainer (similar to domain investor but broader to also include domain enthusiasts)
• premium domain (a rare, top quality domain name that commands higher prices due to its superior characteristics)
• generic domain name (typically a one to three word category defining web address like travel, dogs, sports cars, rock music)
• geo domain or geodomain (a pure city, state, country, or location web address such as Detroit, California, Canada, Niagra Falls)
• geo-targeted domains (refer to the combination of a geographical location paired with a generic word such as Boston+Hotels)
• domain parking (pointing a domain name to a search results landing page that contains revenue generating clickable ads)
• domain monetization (general phrase to describe any means by which a domain name is used to generate income)
• domain marketplace (an online brokerage or warehouse of domain names for sale or for lease)
• domain auction (a live in-person event or online auction interface in which participants bid against each other to buy domain names for sale)
• domain name broker (similar to a real estate broker in that the individual sells or buys domains on behalf of a client, and/or facilitates domain name transactions)
• luxury domains (similar in definition to premium domains and suggestive of high quality and high value web addresses)

Often, these ill-fitting domains are difficult to remember, and wind up being an impediment to the company’s marketing efforts and financial bottom line.

While listening to the Dennis Miller radio show this week, Dennis finished a segment with an on-air advertisement for the tax relief company, Tax Masters. After discussing the company’s services, he reminded listeners of the Tax Masters’ website. You would intuitively assume that their website would be “TaxMasters.com” or perhaps “TaxMasters.biz”.

Instead, Dennis launched into an explanation that the Tax Masters’ web address is www.txmstr.com …

“that’s TaxMasters with no vowels, txmstr (spelled out!) dot com … with no vowels.”

Naturally, I searched on tld variations for the phrase “Tax Masters” and they were all registered by other entities some of them tax relief professionals. Tax Masters apparently spend a large sum on advertising. Their ads can be seen on television and the internet, as well as being heard on the radio. What a hurdle they have erected for their customers. Not only do they not have the corresponding domain name of their company, but the awkward singular abbreviation they have chosen (txmstr.com) does not even match their plural name, Tax Masters.

If they were going to commit to an abbreviation, should it not be txmstrs, with an “s” on the end to represent the plurality in their company name? The end result of decisions like this is that Tax Masters make it more difficult to connect with both current clients and in particular, prospective clients.

Chances are that many potential customers are trying to remember Tax Masters‘ abbreviated web address, but wind up on a competitor’s website. Some decisions are needlessly costly. And hard to undo later. Haphazard domain selection creates a long term drag on marketing effectiveness.

Your domain name is your invitation to the world … and an open door for customers. Fill the doorway with garbage, or block it with debris, and those customers will simply walk on by.

The company have taken an active stance against pirating of their UFC programming and have been very diligent in protecting the UFC brand and trademark including related terms like “The Ultimate Fighter” in reference to their successful reality TV series.

Ron Jackson’s DNJournal publishes known weekly domain name sales. In reviewing Ron’s recent sales list, I observed that UltimateFighting.ca was just acquired via private sale for $5000 USD.

The UFC have been hugely successful in Canada. UFC President, Dana White, has gone on record many times with the company’s appreciation for Canadian fans. Their foray into Canada has been bolstered by rapid ticket sellouts for UFC events held in Canada. 

Upon checking the whois (registrant information) for UltimateFighting.ca, I discovered that parent company, Zuffa LLC, is indeed the new registrant of the domain name. The domain is already forwarding to their primary website.

Once again, we see companies recognizing the accretive value of domain names and the importance of strengthening their brand & reach through continual portfolio expansion.

A new political documentary by filmmaker Ray Griggs is out October 15, 2010 entitled “I Want Your Money.” It is an examination of the differences that exist between America’s two primary political parties and their views on the role and size of government.

The website for I Want Your Money is being promoted on IWantYourMoney.net as well as also being located on the .com version.

In this instance, the producers were able to secure an exact domain name match for the title of the movie. This is always a best case scenario when trying to market one’s product on the internet. Similar to having a domain name like Hotels.com if one’s business is in the hotel industry.

Many movie web adresses remain active long after the movie’s theatre run has completed since movies can have a long shelf life in the overseas market and for several years as a DVD release. 

• 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

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.

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.

These figures were released April 26, 2010 by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Even the ever popular Sunday edition of local papers dropped a sharp 6.5 percent.

USA Today, once the most popular paper in the country, is reported to have lost 13.6% of its circulation. That’s enormous. My theory is that developed premium city domain names in leading web addresses will eventually replace the traditional local newspaper. The logic, familiarity, and instant public recognition built into a pure city domain name creates the ideal portal for local news.

Local newspaper ad revenue is reported to have also slipped further although the degree of loss appears to be slowing over time.

Interestingly, the Audit Bureau report stated The Wall Street Journal is the only paper among the top 25 that actually experienced an increase in readership! It’s circulation increased .5% allowing it to surpass USA Today as the nation’s most read paper.

What this means is nearly self-evident. The news delivery model has experienced an unprecedented sea change, and traditional hardcopy news organizations found themselves on the wrong side of a new internet equation. Many of them continued to brand under an old moniker that was illogical, and yesteryear.

Want to see it done right? Visit Boston.com! They’re receiving over 3 million visitors per month and in excess of 20 million monthly visits (source: Compete.com). Try competing with that.

What about the #3 circulation, The New York Times, you ask? The answer: A staggering 8.5% loss of circulation in their weekday readership. No matter how it’s sliced, times are changing. The question is … what will these news organizations have to do to reinvent themselves? I believe they must look to the Boston.com example. Therein lies about 75% of the answer.

More on this topic …

Huge Newspaper Investor Pulls Out, Way Out!

More Shocking Newspaper Decline

Newspapers in America Being Led to the Exit

Raleigh.com is one of many stunning geo domain names owned by Boulevards New Media. Boulevards have a massive stable of top-of-the-line city domains including Detroit.com, StLouis.com, Indianapolis.com, and Memphis.com to name a few. Raleigh is North Carolina’s second most populated city. It is the state capital, and home to Research Triangle Park and NC State University. Raleigh has been ranked as one of the fastest growing cities in America.

The current auction reserve on Raleigh.com is set at $1 million to $5 million dollars. This premium domain name is certainly an incredible portal for the Raleigh, North Carolina area and presents a once in a lifetime opportunity for the appropriate buyer to acquire a top domain.

Raleigh.info is owned by me. Raleigh.US is registered to Sigmund Solares, and Raleigh.biz was acquired by a South Korean registrant named Song Dongil.

Coming in on top as number 1 was New York City. Number 2 was London. Number 3 was Paris. And number 4 was Tokyo. Los Angeles made the top 10 list as did Berlin and Beijing.

Geo domain names have been of interest to a majority of domainers since the introduction of the internet and domain names in general. New York City (and Manhattan) are two geo domains that have been on my radar for a number of years due to their huge population, unrivaled luxury real estate market, and role as the economic center of the country.

The CNN report pointed out that several rising Asian cities have begun to garner increased economic relevance and political influence. But, they have not yet arrived as locations where the world’s wealthiest would have a first or second home.

The value (and price) of a geo domain name is not easy to calculate, and is heavily dependent on a variety of inter-related variables. Some of these include city proper population (within the city limits), surrounding urban population (larger metro/suburb area), city relevance as a center of business, importance of the city as a vacation destination, current growth rate, and projected importance in the state/region.

Root Orange’s technology allows local businesses to lease a localized version of a domain name. When someone types in the domain name, the user is delivered to the business who has leased the domain in their own respective home city.

For example, let’s use the domain name “DivorceLawyer.com” and the city of Los Angeles, CA. When someone in Los Angeles visits DivorceLawyer.com, they will be delivered to the website of the Los Angeles law firm who leased the domain name for the Los Angeles area.

Currently, Root Orange are leasing DivorceLawyer.com in Los Angeles for $899/month. To lease DivorceLawyer.com for Phoenix, Arizona would cost $289/month, and only $129/month for Fresno, California. Lease pricing is based in part on the size of the city/region and its corresponding population number.

The advantages are obvious in that a particular attorney can capture all of the traffic for DivorceLawyer.com in his or her city.

Root Orange are currently leasing city spots for the premium domain name, Attorney.com. Attorneys across the country can have this domain name redirect visitors to their legal website if they lease the rights to Attorney.com in their city. Pretty interesting approach to the monetization of a premium domain. And of course, a more affordable means of capturing high-quality traffic without having to invest in a multi-million dollar premium domain.

I am happy to say that both company sites are very professional in appearance. Both are a definite plus to the domain name industry.

Rick Latona of Latona’s Domain Brokerage & Auction House is a go-getter, energetic, and someone who makes things happen through sheer will and creativity.

Sahar Sarid, Jeff Bhavnanie, and Jarred Cohen are the primary driving forces behind Bido and they too have created an impressive auction format full of features.

The domain name industry is inextricably linked to internet growth and the mass migration of businesses to the net. While the story of domain name expansion is both interesting and exciting, many chapters have yet to be written.

The domain aftermarket has many players, some new and some old. I have used most all of them for both buying and selling premium domain names in various extensions. It is gratifying to see the industry mature, and to witness the continual influence that good domain names have on start-ups and business expansion.

Bido have been in operation for a number of months and are continually reassessing and improving their technology and approach. Latona’s is brand new and preparing to launch within the next few days.

If you are a buyer or seller of domain names, check out these two companies. Chances are you will be hearing about them for a long time to come.

The USA faces a number of challenges in order to get the economy rolling again. Internet growth will somewhat coincide with the larger economy’s movement. And internet growth is the central mechanism pushing the adoption and use of domain names as business portals.

Two of the most prominent drags on economic recovery have been: 1. lack of job creation, and 2. a pervasive fear that massive commercial real estate defaults would re-ignite another financial crisis and meltdown.

On the positive side, recent news points to indications that the feared commercial real estate meltdown may actually be more manageable than was predicted. The Wall Street Journal has published an article quoting Morgan Stanley analysts who suggest that commercial real estate concerns are now …

only a moderate headwind for the economy,

Another article by Reuters further supports this contention quoting a top Federal Reserve official who says …

Community and regional banks can probably manage their exposure to souring commercial real estate loans.

These sentiments suggest that some of Wall Street’s apprehension is being replaced by a more clear view of America’s financial health. However, the last ingredient in a full recovery is the much needed expansion of America’s manufacturing base.

Jobs, jobs, jobs is indeed the cliche’ of the day. But more than that, they are the true driving force behind a robust economy. To some extent, domain name utilization and further internet assimilation will likely move forward regardless of the immediate job situation.

Many companies have survived this economic recession, and they will be preparing themselves to push their products and services out to the online global consumer. That means having a quality internet presence … which will be part of strategy 101 for 2010 and beyond.

Novices should be informed that there is not one, singular market that represents all domain transactions. Most people are aware of Sedo and Afternic sales as well as those documented in Ron Jackson’s DNJournal. However, many sales are undisclosed and never become publicly known due to privacy & non disclosure agreements.

There are reasons why domain sales privacy is fundamental to good business. A buyer does not want others in the marketplace to know what he has paid, or can pay, for future acquisitions. And a seller does not want others to know the level of proceeds received from a sale because that seller often reinvests those proceeds into more purchases.

Publicly disclosed sales information can weaken future negotiations for both buyers and sellers. So “smart money” typically operate outside the public’s radar and prefer to keep quiet their most strategic moves and acquisitions.

This phenomenon greatly impacts public perception of domain sales and creates the somewhat false impression that all aftermarket sales are known. They are not.

Many people try to extrapolate domain trends from known sales data, but they are always operating somewhat in the dark since so many total domain name sales are never made public.