Escrow.com is escrow service of choice for over half of domain investors.

Escrow.com has once again been selected by domain investors as the top domain name escrow service.

In the seventh annual Domain Name Wire Survey, 60% of the more than 1,000 survey respondents said Escrow.com was best.

Here are the top 5 escrow services, as rated by survey respondents in January:

1. Escrow.com 60%
2. Sedo 11%
3. eCop 9%
4. Moniker 9%
5. EscrowDNS 6%

Earlier this year Escrow.com announced that it had completed $1 billion in transactions since it was founded.

Here’s a cost comparison of the various Escrow services in the top 5:

$5,000 domain sale
Escrow.com $162.50
Sedo $150.00
eCop $100.00
Moniker $149.00
EscrowDNS $350.00

$75,000 domain sale
Escrow.com $667.50
Sedo $2,250
eCop $1,500
Moniker $697.50
EscrowDNS $750.00

DNForum is rated “top domain forum”.

DNForum once again finds itself on top of the Domain Name Wire annual survey for “best forum”.

54% of people who voted for a top forum selected DNForum as best, and then there was a big drop off from there.

There’s a virtual three way tie for the second most popular forum. NamePros received the second highest vote total. Nipping at its heals is the private forum DomainBoardroom, and DomainState is just a couple votes shy of DomainBoardroom. When rounded, all three forums got 11% of the vote each.

UK domainer forum AcornDomains received 5% of the vote. There were also a lot of write-ins for internationalized domain forum IDNForums.com, Canadian forum DNC.ca, and Polish forum DI.pl.

See more survey results here.

Fewer people turn out to this year’s event but it remains the industry’s biggest conference.

About 600 people attended last week’s DOMAINfest conference in Santa Monica. While down from previous years’ 700 attendees, it still makes it the largest conference in the domain name industry.

Here’s why I think attendance was down by about a hundred…

1. Still sick from last year.

Hey, the memories of last year’s sickness that afflicted 100+ people is still strong. Even though it could have happened at any event, I’m sure it left a sour taste in some people’s mouths.

Attendance effect: -20

2. Wait…no Playboy party?

Some people just can’t get enough of the Playboy Mansion. Although this year’s conference still had Playmates, it may not have been enough to make up for not getting to puke into a portable toilet at Hugh’s house.

Attendance effect: -25

3. Where’s Monte?

OK, I’ll bring it up because other people have. And because it certainly had some effect.

Attendance effect: -15

4. Domain parking still falling (despite some new faces here)

There are some new faces at the conference. In fact, a lot of them. But falling revenues certainly takes out a chunk of would-be attendees.

Attendance effect: -39

5. Some blogger from New York thought it would be OK to leave his 8-month-pregnant wife to go to DOMAINfest in California. He was mistaken.

Attendance affect: -1

OK, in all seriousness, the one observation I heard over and over at the conference was: man, there are a lot of new faces here. One person told me “while I usually don’t know about a third of the people at a domain conference, this year I don’t know 70% of them”.

This is a good thing. More people are being brought into the fold.

A look back at last week’s DOMAINfest conference.

Before heading to DOMAINfest I posed six questions that would be answered by the end of the week. Here are the answers.

1. How will Oversee.net’s new leadership present itself?

Just before the conference began, Oversee.net announced that co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow had been promoted to co-CEOs.

I haven’t seen many “co-CEO” type situations end favorably, but they seem to be handling it well so far.

Most people I talked to at the conference were positive about the new leadership. Domeyer will be more visible to domainers since she handles the domain monetization side of the business. Morrow covers the vertical markets properties.

The new leadership gives Oversee a “fresh start” after a rough few years.

2. Will Oversee.net address Moniker?

Yep. KeyDrive, which owns NameDrive and Key-Systems, announced that it acquired both Moniker and SnapNames. That leaves a lot of of questions up in the air, but I think this is a good thing. Oversee had been trying to get rid of these properties for at least a year. It’s good to have them in the hands of a company that wants to invest in them. More on that in a future article.

3. Will the new parties make up for the (lack of) Playboy Mansion?

I think both parties were good. But I’ll let others chime in here.

4. How many people will be there?

About 600 people were expected to attend. More on that in a future article.

5. Can DOMAINfest successfully include topics outside the typical domainer realm?

Confession time – I didn’t really go to any of the sessions. But they were well attended, with 200-400 people in many of the sessions. I’d say it was another step toward bridging the domainer and internet marketing communities. These are two communities that historically haven’t understood much about each other.

6. What big company announcements will be made?

Sedo announced a big deal with GoDaddy, but KeyDrive probably grabbed the most attention with its acquisition.

…

Now, a bigger question: where do Oversee.net and DOMAINfest go from here? They have emerged a smaller, leaner company after the sale of Moniker and SnapNames. Now they have a vertical markets division and DomainSponsor. They’re a smaller part of the domainer lifecycle and have only about 100 employees, down from 200 just a few years ago.

Is DomainSponsor alone enough to justify holding a large conference each year? Will it team up with KeyDrive for future domain auctions at its conferences?

Will the conference eventually morph to a point where it no longer makes sense to put “domain” in the title?

Coming soon: Domain/Affiliate/LeadGen/SEOfest, presented by Oversee.net.

A preview of the week ahead in Santa Monica.

The largest domain name conference, DOMAINfest, takes place in Santa Monica this week. There’s a lot to look for in the 2012 edition. Here are six questions that will be answered before the end of the week.

1. How will Oversee.net’s new leadership present itself?

Oversee.net branded itself largely with former CEO Jeff Kupietzky. Now Oversee.net has new leadership with co-presidents Debra Domeyer and Scott Morrow. Domeyer attended TRAFFIC last Fall, but for most people this conference will be the first introduction to the pair.

2. Will Oversee.net address Moniker?

It’s one of the industry’s worst kept secrets that Oversee.net has been shopping around Moniker. Also this month we saw the departure of some of Moniker’s longtime account managers. As a Moniker customer, I received no notice of the account manager changes.

Will Oversee continue to be silent about Moniker? Or will it address the changes head on to instill confidence. Confidence, after all, is one of the most important things people consider when selecting a registrar.

3. Will the new parties make up for the (lack of) Playboy Mansion?

There’s no trip to the Playboy Mansion this year. After over 100 people got sick last year I think that’s probably OK with most people.

But there will still be a Playboy element. .Co is sponsoring a party at Petersen Automotive Museum that will include some playmates as well as the star of the GoDaddy .co Super Bowl commercial Natalia Velez.

The final night party will be at House of Blue and includes “edgy, sexy and interactive entertainment”. It will be interesting.

4. How many people will be there?

DOMAINfest has attracted 700 people in recent years. That’s about the peak I could imagine if it’s mostly domainers. But the show is shifting — just like the company — and is attracting more from the lead gen, affiliate, and SEO spaces.

5. Can DOMAINfest successfully include topics outside the typical domainer realm?

This year you’ll hear a lot more about lead gen, SEO, and affiliate marketing at the show. It will be interesting to see how this shift is managed.

6. What big company announcements will be made?

Domain companies tend to make big announcements during domain conferences. Already this morning Sedo announced a deal with GoDaddy. What big deals and announcements will we hear this week?

There you have it. Six big questions that we’ll know the answer to by the end of the week.

See you in Santa Monica.