Please help me decode this article about gTLDs.

I like reading opinions that are opposite mine. They help me either reinforce my opinions or consider the other side of the story. So when I came across an opinion piece by Naseem Javed this morning in E-Commerce Times that was in favor of new top level domains from ICANN, I eagerly started reading it.

I quickly became lost as I tried to decode Javed’s marketing speak and sentences that make little sense to me. I like to think I’m an intelligent guy, but I just feel stupid after reading this article. Can you help me decode it? Here are some of Javed’s points:

It offers the fastest and cheapest mechanism to create a new layer of cyber-brand with global visibility. It also comes with protection — upon approval the applicant will exclusively acquire a one-of-a-kind intellectual asset of a cyber name identity and play on global e-commerce. Based on rules of trademarking, the name identity will not be confused with someone else’s name brand and equally will be protected from any one else using that name brand. The application process under trademark rules, will not grant confusingly similar suffixes “bank” or “banking” and the same suffix will be 100 percent owned and controlled by its owner, eliminating cyber-squatting by others. What ICANN is doing is like creating a wheel, while businesses will have to think in terms of bicycles and cars.

Huh? Is he suggesting that new top level domains will be immune from global and country trademarks? Is he suggesting that all businesses should pay $185,000 to create their own top level domain? And what’s this about being “100 percent owned and controlled by its owner”? Even though new TLD contracts have presumed renewal clauses, they are in no way owned by the registry.

Based on study by ABC Namebank, there will be some 100,000 business names worldwide that will have to respond, by evaluating, modifying and applying to create new interactions, they will need all this re-branding to further energize new cyber-branding platforms.

In English, please? “Create new interactions”? “Energize new cyber-branding platforms”?

The new tool offers a clear savings of 95 percent of the time and 95 percent of traditional advertising cost to create a global cyber presence.

All that’s “clear” to me is I’m confused.

Embracing global naming and language realities ICANN further softens the issues and create open harmony among nations.

That’s not a sentence, but I like harmony.

If someone wouldn’t mind reading the article and helping me understand what Javed is saying, I’d appreciate it.

A new domain buying inquiry makes the rounds.

Michael over at Coin Network has received several domain inquiries lately with an interesting twist. The buyer says his or her first name is the domain name they want to buy. Here’s an example:

Hello,

My name is Latroy Beneters and Im interested in buying your domain www.latroy.com Are you are interested in selling it? If you are, do you have any idea how much you want for it? If you don’t, let me know and I will make you an offer instead and we can take it from there.

Many thanks for your time,

Latroy Beneters

Lest you think this may actually be a legitimate offer from a person named Latroy, Michael has received several similar e-mails. They all follow the same pattern, simply substituting a different name like this (my example; not one of Michael’s names):

Hello,

My name is Brazil Thomas and Im interested in buying your domain
www.brazil.com Are you are interested in selling it? If you are, do you have
any idea how much you want for it? If you don’t, let me know and I will make
you an offer instead and we can take it from there.

Many thanks for your time,

Brazil Thomas

The e-mails come from fictitiouslastname@gmail.com.

I suspect the inquirer really wants to by the domain, but is trying to go the sympathetic/not-a-domainer route. Even so, I recommend not responding. Anyone who uses a fictitious name is not worthy doing business with.

Web site tops Great Domains auction.

The web site FindaDate.com has sold for $31,000 in Sedo’s Great Domains domain name auction that ended earlier today. Here are other tentative sales results that I was able to collect:

Starship.com – $22,500 – this seems like a lot of money for this domain. But it does have a Compete.com rank inside 500,000 as a parked domain. It currently shows ads for Star Wars items, but earlier this decade it was used by an education company.

Fired.com – 20,600 – bidding fired up for this one
Cheetahs.com – 10,009
Forgive.com – 9,999
0y.com 6346
upw.com 5998
zzj.com 4099 - the investor price for second and third tier three letter domains appears to be set between $3,000-$5,000 in this auction
fgz.com 3600
transporting.com 3550
fzf.com 3100 eur
institutions.com 2499
lll.co.uk 2401 GBP
circumcisions.com 1800
adverbs.com 1800 - could be good for a marketing company
officeadmin.com 1750 EUR
r4.net 1653
grievances.com 1328 - good union name
violence.org 1250 - good non-profit domain name
eie.net 1100
fol.net 1000
nuke.co.uk 997 GBP
bomb.co.uk 900 GBP
storming.com 750

Sedo has a number of interesting auctions ongoing. Top.com is at 40,000 EUR but hasn’t met its reserve. Anwalt.com has met its reserve at 20,000 EUR and Fortus.com has done the same at $20,000. GirlClothes.com is at $7,500 and BeautyPortal24.net, a web site is currently 5,000 EUR.

Here are a dozen expenses domainers should consider when filing taxes.

It’s 1099 season, when domain parking companies send a flurry of 1099s to U.S. unincorporated taxpayers informing them how much they paid them in 2008.

Although it’s not fun paying the associated federal income taxes (and self-employment tax), here are some expenses you can likely deduct from your revenue this year if you have proper documentation. Don’t leave any stone unturned.

1. Domain conferences – don’t forget to add up the cost of admission, hotel, airfare, and ground transportation. Mileage to the airport in your personal car may be deductible, too.

2. Annual domain registrations

3. Internet access – if you use your home internet access for business, you can expense a portion of it.

4. Home office – have a room (or area) in your house that you use almost exclusively for domaining? Talk to your accountant about taking a home office deduction (which may include a portion of your utilities). There are depreciation consequences for taking this deduction.

5. Mobile phone – a lot of domain transactions take place on the phone. If you use your mobile phone for business, you may be able to expense a portion of it.

6. Domain software – don’t forget to expense purchases of software related to your domains. Depending on the cost, you may choose to amortize it.

7. Domain services – subscribe to DomainTools, keyword finders, or other recurring services? Don’t forget to tally them up. Magazine subscriptions related to your business count, too.

8. Web hosting – My web hosting bill is about $400 a month. You certainly don’t want to miss that.

9. Advertising – if you paid to promote your domains on Google Adwords or bought ads on great domain sites like Domain Name Wire, you can deduct this expense.

10. Meals and Entertainment – did you go to a business lunch with someone? 50% of these expenses can be deducted.

11. Legal expenses – hopefully you didn’t face a UDRP challenge this year. But don’t overlook your legal expenses.

12. Office supplies – even if you don’t have an “office” per se, you may use various supplies in running your domain business. Think paper, printer ink, envelopes, etc.

Note: Of course you should discuss any expense with your tax accountant before including it on your tax return.

With just hours remaining, several good domain names have met their reserves.

Sedo’s January Great Domains auction concludes at noon EST today. With just hours to go, several high quality domains have met their reserve prices and should go much higher in the final hours.

I’m surprised to see that Fired.com had such a low reserve. The domain has met the reserve and is at $10,100. The owner had been asking much more, but there’s still time for the domain to attract more bids. As you may recall, Fired.com was subject to a no-brainer UDRP last year, and the case won my “Domainer Dunce” award for 2008.

FindaDate.com, an active dating web site, is up to $13,166 with 11 bids. Myopia.com, which means “short sightedness”, has met its reserve at $4,999. I expect Adverbs.com to go much higher from its current $651, especially with 16 bids placed already.

A number of three character domains have met their reserves and are between $3,000-$5,000, including fqz.com, jgf.com, mrq.com, mwx.com, fzf.com, vzj.com, and vxx.com.

Gaps.com has scored 60 bids and is up to $9,800. Storming.com, at $460, should go up before the hammer goes down. And Starship.com, which got off to a bang thanks to having no reserve, has attracted a staggering 87 bids up to $5,300.

Forgive.com is gaining momentum at $5,800 and Cheetahs.com is running fast at $2,850.

A certain blogger should consider picking up Koz.net ($510) and Koz.com ($6,600), because people have a tough time spelling his nickname correctly.