ABCsearch CEO explains why his company invested in a category-killer domain name.

On Friday Domain Name Wire reported that ABCsearch had purchased Advertise.com and was rebranding. I asked ABCsearch CEO Daniel Yomtobian why his company made such a bold move. The answer is music to the ears of domain owners who have been preaching the value of a quality, category-killer domain name over the past decade. Yomtobian definitely “gets it”.

Last year while ABCSearch was experiencing explosive growth, I knew that, very soon, the company would have to do something bold to ensure our future success. There were two problems with the ABC brand. First, ABCSearch is a known and trusted business-to-business brand, but is not well known outside of industry circles. Second, our business model did not easily lend itself to implementing the array of advertising initiatives—including an innovative display/banner network, a new SEM bid management platform, and special technology services tailored to local business—that were ready to roll out. Earlier this year, I decided to acquire a domain name robust enough to reach everyone in the online advertising community.

Our new name, Advertise.com, said it all. Luckily, it had not been developed yet and was available. It did not come cheap though, but in the long run it will pay off. It is the perfect brand name to attract new customers and make them feel comfortable if they had not heard of us—which translates into a much higher customer acquisition rate. This brand allows us to sell any kind of digital media under the sun. It will provide the online advertising community with a valuable new tool to maximize the return on their ad spend. This is a transformational move for us, built on ABCSearch’s established network of publishers and advertising partners. Advertise.com will realize my vision of giving the online advertising community easy-to-use, effective, and affordable ad campaigns all under one roof.

IPLT20.com experiences problems during heavy traffic season.

Live Current Media (OTCbb: LIVC.ob) just can’t seem to do anything right.

Not only is it liquidating many of its prized domain names to make ends meet, but its prized cricket web site IPLT20.com is having problems at precisely the wrong moment. (Live Current’s deal with Indian Premier League is part of the reason it’s having to liquidate domain names; the contract requires the company to cough up about $50M over 10 years. Its cricket partners have been cutting it a break on payments.)

According to Om Malik at GigaOm, the IPLT20.com web site has been on the rocks over the weekend. Malik was excited last week when he wrote that cricket fans could watch live action on IPLT20.com, but then on Saturday called the results an Epic Fail. Saturday morning Malik tweeted “IPLt20.com is epic fail. can’t access the page for some odd reason. are you having the same problems?”

Now isn’t the time for web site problems. The IPLT20.com web site recorded 50.2 million page views, 10 million visits, and 5 million unique visitors over the course of the 6-week season last year according to Malik’s post. This year the web site is expected to register 400 million page views, 45 million visits and 10 million unique visitors during the season.

Company to rebrand as Advertise.com.

Second-tier pay-per-click search network ABCsearch purchased the domain name Advertise.com earlier this year and will announce a rebranding on Tuesday at Ad:Tech digital marketing event in San Francisco. The company will hold a party to commemorate the new brand Tuesday night.

The new domain name is obviously a step up, both in terms of memorability as well as instant credibility for people who aren’t familiar with the company.

Scott Painter of Los Angeles sold the domain name in January for an undisclosed price. According to Painter’s LinkedIn profile, he founded a media buying company in 2001 called Advertise.com.

There was a rumor last year that the domain name had sold for $900,000, but analysis of historical whois records proves that this was unfounded.

Both Painter and ABCsearch refused to comment and said the purchase price is subject to a non-disclosure agreement.

ABCsearch is a subsidiary of Internext Media Corp. It employs about 30 people in its Sherman Oaks, California headquarters. According to the company, it serves about 6 billion searches per month across its advertising network.

Texas artist getting surprise attention thanks to singer by the same name.

An artist in Kerrville, Texas is getting some unexpected attention thanks to her name: Susan Boyle.

Susan K. Boyle, the artist, owns the web site SusanBoyle.com, where she displays her paintings. Ever since Susan Boyle, the singer, became an international phenomenon, the hit counter on the artist’s web site has been spinning.

(The singer doesn’t own any of the common U.K. domain names of her name.)

A crude analysis by Domain Name Wire, covering 15 minutes between 2:45 and 3:00 CDT today, estimates that SusanBoyle.com is getting 1,800 type-in web visitors per hour. Here are the hit counter graphics:

2:45

3:00

The web site SusanBoyle.com hasn’t been updated since 2007 and lists her as a resident of Sierra Vista, Airzona. I contacted an art gallery there and a representative said she had moved to Kerrville, Texas. A man who answered the phone at her Kerrville residence said she was unavailable. I’ll update the story if I hear back.

In an email to Domain Name Wire, Susan K. Boyle wrote:

I’ve had the susanboyle.com website for about three years. The average annual hits for my website have been around 3,000. I haven’t really been checking the counter, but after I got your note I looked. It’s OVER 60,000, that’s about 51,000 more than I might have expected. Clearly, this IS the SusanBoyleTheSinger effect. I can only hope there are one or two art lovers/buyers among them.

Actress files with National Arbitration Forum to get SigourneyWeaver.com.

Actress Sigourney Weaver, star of the Alien movie series (photo), has filed for arbitration to get the domain name SigourneyWeaver.com. The case will be handled by an arbitration panel from National Arbitration Forum under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy.

The domain name was originally registered in 1999, but changed hands in 2004 or 2005 to the current owner. The whois record for the domain name states ‘THIS DOMAIN NAME IS FOR SALE’. It is currently parked with a GoDaddy holding page showing ads for “Sigourney Weaver Pics”, movies, and television shows.

It will be interesting to see if the domain owner responds to the complaint. I’m surprised that the domain isn’t being monetized at a domain parking service since the owner is clearly trying to profit from holding and selling the domain name.