A simple process to add privacy to your whois records while retaining full control.

If you don’t like your personal contact information being exposed in whois records, you don’t need to pay a lot of money to a whois privacy or whois proxy service to protect your identity. You can do it yourself. Here’s how.

1. Get a post office box. You can get a box at either the U.S. postal service or places like UPS Store. I’m sure their are equivalents in whatever country you live in. This will allow you to replace your home address with a postal address.

2. Sign up with Google Voice. A Google Voice number can replace your personal phone number in whois, and you’ll even receive an email with a transcript of any voice messages should you receive them. You can also forward the Google Voice number to your existing phone number.

3. Create an email account. You can either create a mail account on one of your existing hosting accounts that is designed only to catch whois spam or sign up for a free email account. The only major free email service I recommend is Gmail since if offers two factor authentication for logins.

Optional:

Create a limited liability company. If you don’t want people to see your name, you can set up a limited liability company and replace your name with the company name. This is pretty easy and typically costs a few hundred dollars depending on the state you file it in.

Most states offer online search access so people can find out who’s behind an LLC. If you use your domain name for something that must remain private — perhaps a political site or something else — you can use a contact agent to file LLC papers for you and then you’ll remain off the public record.

Advertisers no longer have to show ASCII URLs in their ads.

A couple weeks ago I missed an announcement from Google AdWords that it now supports internationalized domain names (IDN) for display and destination URLs on Google ads.

This means advertisers will no longer have to show a non-ASCII ad followed by an ASCII domain name.

AdWords clients can enter unicode characters for the URLs and Google will verify that it works correctly in both unicode and punycode.

The display URL will only show up only in cases where the language matches that of the user’s Google interface, otherwise it will render in punycode.

(Hat tip: Patrick C)

by Michael Twist

Michael Twist is a Top-Level Domain specialist with AusRegistry International. You can read more from AusRegistry about new TLDs at www.beyondcom.info.

So, you’ve heard about ICANN’s new Top-Level Domain (TLD) Program and you’re thinking about the best way to get involved so you can gain a slice of the of the $5 billion dollar domain name industry.

You might be an entrepreneur out to make your next million, a brand looking to make a statement of leadership in the digital space, a city keen to deliver a clear digital identity online or maybe something cool I’ve never even heard of!

Regardless of your intention, what you might be missing is a real insight into the ways in which you can activate the new Top-Level Domain opportunity to introduce a business never before seen in the domain name space.

As someone who has been following the program closely for a few years now, below are five key tips that will hopefully get your brain working in overdrive:

1. Act now: The clock is ticking on this limited opportunity. The application window will open on 12 January and we’ll start to see new Top-Level Domains in operation from 2013. If companies and entrepreneurs miss the application window (12 January 2012 to 12 April 2012), it may be a long time before they have the same opportunity again.

2. Think different: This opportunity isn’t all about trying to be the next .com. The real value lies within the formation of market or vertical centric generic TLDs that will offer value to a specific target audience. Let’s take a .music TLD as an example of a generic Top-Level Domain that could be launched specifically for the music industry. Such a namespace is not intended to be a competitor to .com, however it will still hold significant value to the music industry given it will be directly tied to the subject matter as well as the global music community. The logical step regarding perceived value is the opportunity to demand a higher price per domain, driving profit up even if overall registration volumes don’t break world records.

So think very carefully about your audience, as I firmly believe that the most successful new Top-Level Domain applicants will be those that are able to identify a consumer group that is willing to pay more per domain for the privilege of an authoritative, trusted and relevant domain name. In this game, an audience of “everyone” is a very risky move to make.

3. Commercialise your .brand TLD: .brand TLDs don’t just have to be an online branding exercise to improve message recall and online efficiency. There are huge opportunities available for .brand applicants to activate the namespace and drive return on investment. Imagine eBay securing .eBay and selling a slice of that space to its audience of 94 million registered users at two dollars per vanity domain name fee? Think michaeltwist.ebay and you’ve got the basis of a solid revenue generation model.

4. No language barrier: For the first time in history, new Top-Level Domains are available in non-Latin scripts and with 60% of the world’s population residing in countries where the native language is based on a script other than Latin, you could be one of the first to capitalise on this latest shift in domain name technology. Imagine what the Chinese equivalent for .com could be worth to the thriving Chinese community?

5. Seek advice: The new Top-Level Domain program is not for the novice – there are few people who can run a slice of the Internet alone – so start with the idea and seek advice from an industry expert who understands the application process, policy and technological infrastructure required to make the most of the new Top-Level Domain opportunity.

The five tips explained above are just a starting point for a much larger analysis of your idea and associated business case.

by Heather DelCarpini

[Sedo just released its Q2 market study today. In this guest post, Sedo marketing manager Heather DelCarpini explains where the domain name aftermarket is heading.]

Sedo’s Market Study for Q2 2011 reveals the strongest quarter in over a year, after excluding the record-breaking sale of sex.com for $13m in Q4 2010. Median prices for all gTLDs increased across the board, with some notable .com sales in the form of datacenter.com ($352,000), consolidation.com ($200,000), and Sedo’s third-highest sale of all time, gambling.com ($2.5 million).

In spite of the number of domains sold remaining consistent with the previous quarter, Sedo’s Domain Marketplace reached a total sales value in dollars of close to $25m, an increase over the first quarter of the year, during Q2. In other words, although sales volume was virtually identical, there was a notable increase in sales prices, revealing the strength of the domain market for both domain sellers and investors alike.

Although we might take for granted the fact that .com will remain the strongest contender for investment opportunities or business needs—accounting for 52% of all Q2 2011 sales—it is also noteworthy that new TLDs such as .co have jumped into the top ten. Though only a 2% market share, .co has become an invaluable substitute for .com and other generic top-level domains, and seems poised to increase its market share over the coming quarters. In addition, ICANN’s recent approval of the new gTLD handbook means that newer domain extensions will no doubt make an appearance in future Market Studies.

The marketplace has also shown an increase in fixed price, Buy Now sales, signaling a change in the way that many end-users approach domain purchases. Though Offer-Counteroffer and

Marketplace Auctions remain at the top, 15% of all sales take place as Buy Now purchases. Coupled with the fact that most domain sales take place in the 2- to 3-figure range, it seems clear that potential buyers are moving toward faster purchases from sellers listing domains with Buy Now prices.

Above all, the Q2 Market Study shows a significant increase in median sales prices for all gTLD sales. During 2010, the median .com sales price ranged between $510 and $650; in Q2 2011, the median was $700. Similarly, .net, .org, .biz, and .info all saw higher medians than the previous quarter. In terms of average sales prices this quarter, .com domains were going for $3,114, an increase of more than six hundred dollars on the previous quarter.

For both sellers and buyers, Sedo’s Market Study for Q2 2011 holds good news: sales prices are up, but so are Buy Now sales. The domain market remains strong, while prices have stayed in a range that most businesses or end-users can afford.

Here are some end user domain purchases through Afternic over the past week.

Acumen Brands, a niche etailer, bought FatChance.com for $26,000.

Renewable energy development Community Energy Inc. bought CommunitySolar.com for $10,000

EducationDynamics, which helps colleges and universities recruit students, bought ChristianEducation.com for $8,500.

CPI Corp, which provides professional photography services principally in Sears and Wal-Mart stores, bought PhotoOpps.com $2,388

Crowd funding site WebTalk.org, which is currently in pre-launch, bought Webtalk.net for $2,542. It still doesn’t own the .com version.

Education company Benchmark Learning bought CareerGenius.com for $3,188.

Someone also bought DotFilm.com for $1,000. The whois still shows BuyDomains, but I’m curious if someone plans to apply for a .film top level domain name and filed this case.

Here are some other notable domain purchases from Afternic over the past week:

justgames.com $15,000.00
paintballgame.com $8,088.00
mediacentral.com $7,500.00
kasperle.com $7,288.00
xinying.com $6,850.00
cashforcoins.com $6,500.00
CompostingWorms.com $5,750.00
rayo.org $5,600.00
bancalavoro.com $5,106.00
5axis.com $5,000.00
rentalcards.com $5,000.00