Iraq.com is up for sale, current bid over $500,000.

The domain name Iraq.com is up for auction at domain name aftermarket Sedo, and is currently bid up to the equivalent of $560,000 USD. Eight bidders have staked a claim, but the reserve price hasn’t been met. On the plus side, you don’t have to set foot in Iraq to own a piece of the country by buying this domain. Unfortunately, buying Iraq.com doesn’t come with any oil rights.

The domain is owned by KuwaitNET Internet Services. That’s ironic, given that it was Iraq that invaded Kuwait last decade. Just because Kuwait is a smaller country doesn’t mean it can’t “own” Iraq. Ownership of the domain has changed hands frequently over the past several years.

Iraq.com currently points to a parked page, but previously hosted a web site about the embattled country.

If your pocket book isn’t that big, perhaps you’d like to buy a piece of Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe.com is also for sale at Sedo and is currently priced at $96,500. The reserve hasn’t been met, but the domain has attracted five bidders. The domain points to a parked page. It is owned by John Quail of Great Britain.

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa. It is best known to the world for being under the iron grip of a ruthless president, Robert Mugabe.

Hmmm. Iraq or Zimbabwe? Neither make great purchases for tour operators these days.

Domain parking service’s payments delayed from upstream providers.

Publisher payments for Moniker’s TrafficClub domain name parking service will be delayed due to questions about click fraud. According to a notice on the TrafficClub site, the service’s upstream providers are delaying payment:

Payments: With the increase of click fraud, we are receiving payment delays from our upstream providers. This is an industry wide issue that all companies are experiencing from time to time. We apologize for the inconvenience and we are working hard to resume our normal payment cycle and get payments released to customers ASAP.

Almost all TrafficClub traffic is currently monetized through Skenzo, so Skenzo’s payments to TrafficClub must be delayed. It’s not clear if Skeno’s delays are due to that company’s upstream ad provider witholding payment. [Update 9-23-07: According to Skenzo, their payments to TrafficClub have not been delayed. According to Divyank Turakhia, President & Director of Skenzo, "The post on TrafficClub's website about us delaying payments to them is incorrect. Someone from our team is reaching out to them to get this statement rectified." I should note that the TrafficClub web site does not say specifically that Skenzo is delaying payments. However, almost all user accounts are solely monetized through Skenzo. My understanding is that some accounts within TrafficClub may have other ad providers. Please see Skenzo's comments below as well. I'm sure we'll get more details soon.]

Fraud is a big issue that domain name parking services are wrestling with. I’ve talked to a number of parking companies, especially new ones, that say 9 out of 10 account applications they receive are not activated due to suspected fraud. When a fraudster is kicked off another network, he simply finds another network to join. This creates a number of ‘false positives’, whereby a legitimate domain parker is not accepted to a network because he may be a fraud. One parking company confided to me, “If the application to our service includes broken English, we usually assume it’s a fraudulant account.”

Domain may be on auction block at TRAFFIC East Auction. This is bad news for the domain industry.

Rick Schwartz, the face behind the domain industry’s popular T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences, sent an email this morning saying that Computer.com will be featured in the next Moniker auction at TRAFFIC East in Miami next month:

The auction will have some GREAT domains and we are hoping for another record setting event. One domain that may get some interest is Computer.com that is owned by TigerDirect.com. No doubt one of the very finest domains.

At first blush, this sounds great. A premium domain that could fetch several million dollars is on the block.

But this is actually bad news for the domain industry.

A year ago tomorrow, Domain Name Wire first reported that Internet Real Estate Group sold Computer.com to TigerDirect, a subsidiary of Systemax (NYSE: SYX). So why, just a year later, would TigerDirect look to sell the domain? Is it not realizing the value it expected from thousands of type-in visitors? Is the domain not that valuable to TigerDirect, a company facing fierce competition for sales of computers and electronic goods? TigerDirect is a classic example of the end user, the very entity that domainers are trying to convince should buy these premium domains.

Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems. Perhaps TigerDirect just feels that the domain is more valuable to a computer manufacturer or another computer retailer. Or perhaps the domain has a reserve that captures 5-10 years of the value the company currently gets from the domain.

So while other people are excited that this domain is on the auction block, I’ll quietly wonder if this is bad news.

Salesforce.com, known for its CRM application, changes brand to Force.com with domain purchase.

Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is now branding itself as simply “Force.com” with the acquisition of the domain name. According to a search of Whois history at DomainTools, the domain was transferred to Salesforce.com between July 24 and July 26 of this year. The seller was Gordon Force of San Jose, California.

The branding change was necessary because the company has expanded beyond simply sales management. Salesforce.com wanted to change the name sooner, but had difficulty buying the domain name. According to an article in eWeek:

It turns out that much of the company’s consternation over the years with name changes—really a branding effort to focus customers on Salesforce.com’s emerging platform capabilities—was the result of legal wrangling over the use of the Force.com domain name.

Apparently Salesforce was in negotiations for the Force.com domain with a California man who had used the dot-com designation for his company, which was named for his surname, according to media reports. It’s not clear how much Salesforce paid for the right to Force.com, but the ownership of Force.com has enabled Salesforce, finally, to settle on a brand with continuity.

Domain aftermarket simplifies home page, targeting featured listings and auctions.

Domain name aftermarket Afternic, a Name Media site, has simplified its home page design. The new design is simplified and focuses on featured listings and domain auctions that are ending soon. The site draws users’ attention to the benefits of Afternic, and drives them toward registering or signing in to their account.

The previous design had up to five sets of domain listings: Featured, Closing Soon (auctions), Sold domains, Showcase Domains, and Recent Listings. Unfortunately, it appears that access to recent sales has been removed (or buried within the site).

It’s refreshing to see a domain company move toward a simple design and user interface. For example, GoDaddy made its account navigation better late last year, but ordering a domain through the company still requires an advanced degree. (In fact, The Consumerist was kind enough to create a how-to guide for navigating GoDaddy’s purchase process.)

In other Afternic news, the company recently announced a partnership with domain registrar Register.com.

To read about Afternic’s DLS service, please see AfternicDLS: 10x More Likely to Sell.

Above: Afternic’s home page gets a facelift