Domain Owl

The domain world is like both the sports world and the business world, where the big names make big news and the legal ramifications and business parameters change at any moment. But recently the doings of the domain bigwigs, as well as the business restrictions and legal shifts associated with domain name trading and purchase and auction sales, have caused long term market watchers to re-estimate the current market for name trade potential.

Monte Cahn suing Moniker/Oversee is an eye-opener, unless one considers the ramifications of pouring one’s hearts-blood into an enterprise during critical business cycles of the domain game and then having the rewards twisted out of all regard. The encomiums that followed Cahn’s exit of Moniker could hardly have been garnered by a self-serving coterie intent on cementing future lawsuit goodwill.

The big impact of the February Domainer Flu Outbreak (dubbed the Playboy mansion DotCom malaise by some) seemed to be the proof that domain industry news was in fact media worthy, but the mainstream media still does not absorb and reflect domain name industry news accurately or assess its importance and relevance efficiently. What is this opaque banner between the media and general public and the domain industry? Is it only visible when one is outside the domain world?

A full week after initial reports were coming down the domain blog pike, network news, even in local areas was slow and sloppy. The attempts to cover the story , even with competition of global tabloid saturation on every Hollywood street corner, was clumsy and often inaccurate. For those looking to expand their B2B media offerings, thinks about delivering a new pipeline to broadcast media sources unable to decipher the terms, importance, or relevance of domain news to their own lives and commercial enterprises.

Domain name professionals are still weighing the value of the dot-co market. Godaddy certainly has made the introduction of a dot-co domain name into the portfolio cost friendly. Godaddy continues to sponsor entry level domainers into the name game by providing discount coupon codes. These dotcom name purchase codes, the recent feature .co registration discount, and the .info cost reduction are mighty incentive when crafting a domain development plan or business agenda for monetizing a name. These savings can really add up to domain name holders with sizeable portfolios.

It’s unsettling to realize that the domain world has been around long enough to mystify and alienate would-be industry buyers and potential players in the domain space. The battles for real estate on the domain name corporate playground show testimony to the fact that this is valuable territory to acquire and own.  Changes continue apace in the online and domaining world.
Online security is no longer a buzzword but a vulture circling over the shoulder of every webmaster.

Denial of service attacks for the Barcelona DomainFest event and the subsequent cancellation resonate with the mobile phone hacking scandal in the UK and the “Hacktivism” website hack of the PBS website in the United States. Until forthright security measures for data, hosting, and website architecture layers are followed, hacking will continue as a fact of life,  as online malice spares none. There seems to be a measure of dissonance that cognitively persuades technology officers these threats are not real, and it is a salutory effect of the many hack reports that gives webmasters worldwide a chance to correct their online security and programming integrity omissions. Will they take the chance?

Some changes are long overdue. Rick Latona’s website actually looks like a website brokerage now and not a watch shopping cart. The doings of ICANN continue to amaze Internet passersby and dubious domainer onlookers. To see Frank Schilling offer parking services is not a surprise, but my expectation is that the parking market is long diminished (except for the Whypark engine). The reluctance of some domainers to develop websites that function as new media and communication portals, with provision for any level of visitor interaction, is a long standing weakness of many domainers.

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This week’s premiere domain industry activity is centered in Santa Monica, where Moniker auctions and event seminars showcase the hottest development in domaining. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is the next big show. With luck the seminars and videos will be up on Youtubes and blogs in no time. The domain industry is getting ready to mobilize to the .co universe.

But according to reports, security at gigs for domaining is getting stricter, and Elliott Silver reported today that even Frank Schilling couldn’t get in. Recent events at other domain trade shows have given rise to double checking at the gates, a sad commentary on the abuse of some domainers last year. But the domain industry babble is all about the Super Bowl Godaddy campaign and the identity of the Godaddy girl.

The hiring of Danica Patrick and NBC Biggest Loser Trainer Jillian Michaels have stirred the cup of controversy, which Bob Parsons of Godaddy likes to do himself. Whomever the Hollywood icon is, the sneak preview shows a likely suspect. Domainfest attendees will have a chance to educate the dot com entrepreneurs prowling the Playboy mansion later this week. The auctions taking place can be bid on by proxy or at Moniker online, or via a broker attending Domainfest.

‘Designing with Web Standards” By Jeffrey Zeldman, (2010)

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In working inside the domain world, people become independent business men (and women) without even knowing it. Internet individuals of every age and rank, teenagers, men and women acquire domain names and offer them for sale constantly, yet they seem to maintain a sort of naivete about the fact that what they are really doing is functioning as their own carnival barker-cum-insurance- salesman. This carries risks which the domainer (possibly unknowingly) is assuming.

Brokering your own domain name sale can have its challenges.  Escrow services have popped up online and established a benchmark many domainer trusts. These domain name escrow service companies work to form a break against the tide of aggression happening with entrepreneurs trying to vend their names to people who may not even speak their language but understand the value of the domain on offer or up for auction.

In observing a heated discussion today between two bidding domainers in a private auction, I realized the lava was being generated by the fact that the seller’s decision to vend the name had not been covered by a reliable domain name broker service. Somewhere in the bid process, confusion had arisen as to how the domain sale would actually be executed. Suddenly, the history of each bid and the goodwill of both bidders was attached to a wild insistence to doing things “their way”.

This angst could have been avoided by stating as Terms of Sale a named broker service acting as name agent. Otherwise, the tension of a bid/offer scenario is reduced to a clammy sandwich of broken promises, dying away email communications, and eroding forum threads, which might have formed the basis of a profitable domain sale. The world is full of domainers who have been caught up in the bonfire of anxiety, exhilaration, excitement and pure greed a bidding frenzy whips up.

Both bidders wanted to use their own version of a buyer’s contract, which of course didn’t meet with the approval of the seller. The actual excitement of the name and who would win it was mired down in discussions of “Tastes Great/ Less Filling” variety vis a vis online business contracts. The seller was suddenly caught in the crossfire of dissenting opinions due to his own lack of foresight in covering his bases.

How did the sale pan out? It didn’t.

As the discussion wound down so did the eagerness of both domainers to get the name. The seller had lost a good opportunity and squandered the good faith of both customers. The deer in the headlights was the seller, whose paying customers had moved on to greener pastures. The domain name was the unfortunate roadkill meeting its ugly demise by the side of information superhighway.

All this pain and suffering could have been avoided if the seller had just involved a listing and brokering service that would have wrapped up every question in  neat set of FAQs. When domains are at issue, good faith and the Internet part company when dollars cross the international dateline. Always cover your bets where a domain registration or name sale is concerned. Always respect the rights of the other (domaining) party in the the transaction. Translated: Nobody “has” to do anything.

Ethical domainers do business this way. (Hint: Don’t look to PayPal to police your four-figure domain sales. ) The benefit of a growing “rap sheet” of successful domain sales at any escrow service is the enlistment of those same escrow services on your behalf in times of trouble. Your good behavior will serve you in good stead when some upstart tries to steal your domain or hijack your site. “Free rent” is a negligible concept where hosting and bandwidth costs are concerned.

Yes, escrow services charge a fee. But so do most non-banking institution ATMs and that hasn’t stopped people from using them. A slice of the action is a small price to pay for delivery of the big bid. If you’ve got online real estate, trust the professionals to turn over the big amounts and rest easy that all is copacetic. Escrow services for domain names transfer the worry of a big dollar domain sale to the heavy hitters who pave the way for a legitimate and legal domain name sale payday.

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If you are like me you started out in the domain world with very few instructional courses or any type of formal teaching associated with the domains, reselling, webmaster site origination, but the domain world today chases every industry and every happening. People check online immediately the minute they hear of something new and interesting. The domain name and website url have become reactionary statements to culture and news events.

Today I read about an auction in which the domain name 3DTVs.com was offered at auction for a reserve of $100,000.The opening bid range for this domain at Moniker is actually between $100,001 and $250,000. That is a lot of money and a lot of potential value for the right customer. The transparent use such an url would have for electronic vendors and online brands in 3DTVs is massive.  The roads to get to a quarter-million-dollar domain, and the decisions involved, are part of the excitement of domaining.

I can remember a time when just trying to explain to someone what a domain was took a half an hour, and explaining how a domain auction worked even more time. And even then, trying to illustrate how a name like 3DTVs.com might explode into a stunning portal would make people look at me like I was crazy. Just assigning a monetized value to a domain like that takes courage. The future is wide open for LCD, HDTV, and 3DTV televisions.

Technology domains have always been an exciting niche of the domain marketplace because they showcase the Internet both as a launchpad and pathway for marketing and promotion at once. The user base of the Internet has learned to follow the dots and click links and see what there is to see. Configuration of a site plan, seeding of trackback links online and nouveau introspections into web journalism turn up something new every day.

The tools for launching a website online and building value are all available and at the webmaster’s fingertips. Web design, content, images and applications make website production a snap. Keyword density, SEO priming, and content originality allow anyone a place at the domaining table. If you can write you can post. If you can copy and paste you can insert images and align tables. If you can send email you can bolster a network of site fans.

Domain development and domain name portfolio investment have a business model for every budget however modest. Online domain services, link marketing, seo optimization, microtools, and sponsor offers come much more smoothly than in the dark days of only .com, .net and .org. Link exchanges, RSS feeds, article directory websites and more illustrate the variety of approaches a domainer webmaster can take to realize value on a domain.

Today more than ever before Internet users want destination websites that give them the  information they need, entertain them in new ways, and provide ideas and concepts for business and creative project development. The new owner of a premium domain name like 3DTVs.com will have a kaleidoscope of choices for web development in front of them.

The pioneer days of domaining, with its tumbleweeds, dusty main streets and ill-informed communication between domain owner and site programmer are over. Exciting new technologies online guard content with licensing search tools, index meta tags and data tables, and release time content explosion overnight that lead back to the target domain site.

I like to think hobby domainers today have replaced the fallout bunker building tradition of the 1950’s. People tinker with their domains at night and on the weekends, and brag about them during social visits. But the domain promotion activities of social networking and link building can be a productive way to replace hours of bored site clicking. The Internet can consume a lot of time, and time is the most precious element of all.

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