My favorite web host, midPhase, has increased its storage allotment.

As the owner of over 500 domain names and more than 50 web sites, I require a dependable web host. Domain name owners need webhosting that allows for unlimited domain names to be hosted for the same price. This allows domainers to create a number of mini sites that monetize quickly–without setting up an expensive hosting account for each domain. Domainers also need great support.

A while back I discovered midPhase, and it has quickly become my favorite web host. In addition to hosting unlimited domains for $11.95 per month, midPhase has incredible support. My average response time to support tickets is under 15 minutes. If you’ve ever had a site outage and waited a day or two for a support reponse, you know the pain and suffering that causes. (Up)time is money in this business.

midPhase just sweetened its Pro-PHASE package:

15,000 MB (was 7,000 MB)
Host Unlimited Domain Names
1 Free Domain 4 Life
Unmetered Bandwidth
$11.95 per month

I highly recommend using midPhase for your webhosting needs.

Domain registrar GoDaddy made Business 2.0′s 2006 Smart List.

The list is in the January/February issue of Business 2.0. The magazine selected GoDaddy as the winner of the “Smartest Ad Campaign”:

“Cynics scoffed when the then-unknown Web hosting provider agreed to pay $4.8 million to air a 30-second spot twice during the Super Bowl. GoDaddy’s ad, a spoof of Janet Jackson’s “wadrobe malfunction,” ran during the first quarter, but Fox pulled it before it could appear again in the fourth. As news of the controversy mushroomed, traffic to GoDaddy.com soared; by April the company had passed Network Solutions to become the Web’s leading domain-name registrar.”

I think GoDaddy would have surpassed Network Solutions even without the ad. That said, it was a brilliant marketing move. But enough is enough.

Pool.com has auctioned off expired domain Vegans.com for $73,000.

This news comes courtesy of DNJournal, and just a day after I wrote about how Pool’s independent drop service was becoming irrelevant. I stand behind my statements, but Pool deserves a pat on the back for this catch! Incidently, Vegans.com was previously registered through registrar Joker.com, which does not have an exclusive drop arrangement with any of the domain catching services.

Other sales of note during the past week:
-Dirtbikes.com $75,000
-Book-Clubs.com/Book-Clubs.net $12,792 (high price for hyphenated domain)
-Supplements.net $14,000 (high price for .net)
-ThingsToRemember.com $21,750 (expiring name auction for a trademarked term, could see legal troubles)

An interesting WIPO decision suggests that acceptance into a company’s affiliate program while using a confusing similar domain might prove that the trademark holder recognizes the affiliate’s rights to the domain.

Out-Law picked up on the case of Skyp.com, a domain similar to internet telephony company Skype. A WIPO decision brought by Skype against the owner of Skyp.com found in favor of the respondent. Normally this would be a no-brainer decision in favor of the trademark holder. But two issues came into play here. The first is that the registrant of Skyp.com registered the domain prior to Skype launching. No biggie there; that’s a common finding. The second is that Skype accepted the respondent into its affiliate program using the Skyp.com URL. The abitrator found that Skype’s acceptance of the Skyp.com domain owner into its affiliate program suggests that Skype recognized the respondent’s rights to the domain.

It is unclear how the aribrator would have ruled absent the registration occuring prior to Skype’s launch. But this is an unusual case that could have ramifications going forward. Expect affiliate program managers to start screening applicants’ domain names with greater scrutiny.

(On a side note, I recall an issue during the internet bubble in which one company accepted an affiliate into its program that was using a URL similar to a competitor. This still happens frequently).

Joining the likes of most major registrars, Enom is now auctioning off expired domains previously owned by its customers.

Network Solutions kicked off this “exclusive drop” idea when it signed an exclusive deal with SnapNames. Others quickly followed. Now it’s almost impossible to get a good expiring domain unless it’s through an exclusive drop arrangement.

As I’ve discussed in the past, this makes independent drop services like Pool a relic of the past. SnapNames quickly moved to sign exclusive deals with major registrars while Pool sat on the side. NameWinner signed an exclusive deal with Dotster (its corporate parent) and GoDaddy auctions its expiring domains through TDNAM. Enom was fighting an uphill battle before it decided to join the club. But will Enom be successful with this new plan? Network Solutions has the majority of good domains that might expire because it has been around the longest and has the least savvy customers. Enom has some of the most savvy customers in the business. Will smart customers let good domains drop?