Domain Owl

OK, so you’re getting on the plane and they bump you to first class, and you find yourself sitting next to the game changer of all time in the finance/media/Internet industry. Now is the time for thinking on your feet and getting lightning to strike. One problem: You forget to get through all those domain industry books sitting on your shelf in the office. How can you talk about the Internet unless yo are up to speed on the latest workings?

You better word up, or you’ll get tossed back to coach. You’re going to need some talking points. You couldn’t get a meeting with this person if you tried, and it’s by slim chance they are flying commercial.

If you can package your good idea for a website app, domain, and service into an elevator pitch delivery over fluffy pillows and extended armrests, you could talking angel investor or IPO after hitting the altitude. Here is a quick cheat sheet to reference to make sure you don’t miss $25,000 to $250,000 of investment capital by using the wrong word. Get your terms straight in 5 minutes of cribbing in the cab.

1. Domain Parking

Domain names were originally only purchased if an individual or a company had an idea for a website or a company. This was a natural response to the birth of the Internet. Seekers of copyright protection and preservation of trademark rights hunted their domain names right away, mostly in the dotcom markets. Many lawsuits resulted from this. Trespassers on another person or company’s domain name was called squatting, and domain squatters made a lot of profit before the laws and legalities got ironed out.

Some feared there was a finite limit to what domains could be offered. But as it happened, facility with the Internet and currency markets prompted exploitation of a domain name as an investment. Web hosting companies that furnish web space online for website quickly got into the act. They offer partnership and bonus incentives that allow the registrar or web host to position their own ads and content on a parking page. This offends website purists, who think all domains should resolve to a site.

2. The URL

The URL is the actual website address, the Uniform Resource Locator, tells browsers where to go to find the pertinent files. These files are online at the web hosting company. The content of thee files is organized by a webmaster. The files are composed of HTML and PhP scripts. HTML 5 is the emerging published standard of global web authoring.

3. Domain TLD’s

The suffix that comes after the domain name text and the period or country code delimitor. These started out as a very limited domain name offering model and was usually restricted to businesses doing business in the same countries as the ccTLD, or country code TLD. many Internet speculators transformed extant country TLDS for promotional and marketing reasons, having bought the rights to do so from the countries and governments. The most important value is usually assigned for any domain name to the TLD, the top level domain. But emerging markets in other codes, such as .co, .me, .mobi, and others sparked splinter markets in domaining.

4. Dot X-X-X

This issue of the adult porn domain subTLD as a Top Level Domain is a big issue in the world of domaining. While some investors believe it will be the same kind of market, other speculators question the viability of a intersection of domaining with the adult pornography r adult commerce markets. Adult sites are generally moneymakers for the webmasters, but the ethics and moral fiber of such caliber of industry partners makes some domainers squeamish.

5. ICANN

ICANN is the big bad boogeyman of the domain industry. Formed in the early stages of 1994-1996-1998 and operating in varying stages of effectiveness and actual authority, ICANN has grown to be a problematic and overly bureaucratic thorn in the sides of many domain namers. This body is made up of officials who govern discussions of commerce online that become legal global domain business practices. The domaining body of investors, traders, and businesses dealing in domain sales and hosting operate in accord with this body.

6. GoDaddy

Robert (Bob) Parsons is either a harmless blowhard, a brilliant media icon for domaining, or the General manager of the FORD/GM/American Motors of the Internet. Overly complicated, possible profitable, originators of countless schemes, programs, and ad campaigns, Godaddy is a domain industry emblem of how public relations, self-promotion, and Internet commerce merge. GoDaddy currently leads the market in domains sales, a hefty percentage of which are renewals and coupon code actuated.

7. WIPO

In the new climate if increasingly strident legal attacks for trademark rights and copyright preservation,WIPO is setting the arbitration standard for disputed domain names. The complex branding. marketing and promotion practices worldwide now play an important role in evaluating whether an individual or company has exploited the legally registered copyright or trademark of another legal party.

8. UDRP

This is also the way that disputed domain cases are handed, via an UDRP lawsuits. The WIPO arbitration is generally where the court will award the final word on the verdict.

9. SEO

Search Engine Optimization is the most hyped, over used term in the English language. When monetizing a domain, a owner or webmaster will attach dollar values to web traffic. These are measured via clicks, clicks into the website, or hits from links on other websites. SEO value heightens a domains name’s value. Domain value estimation sites litter the web, but very few of them actually cement a domain’s value.

10. SEDO

The ranking domain auction house, SEDO is an index of where a domain stands. SEDO operates as a main clearinghouse for domains under every TLD. Few TLDs are exotic and sold elsewhere online. ICANN licenses some registrars to sell CTLD’s exclusively. Domains sell as a droplisted (expired) name, or from negotiations from an active domain auction, or an offer to buy or sell domains.