Domain Name Wire

Acura Chooses .Com for Mobile Web Site

Andrew — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:08:55 +0000

Car company isn’t using its .mobi domain name.

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Luxury car manufacturer Acura owns Acura.mobi, but it isn’t using it for its new mobile web site. Instead, an announcement in the company’s most recent email newsletter directs mobile phone users to go to Acura.com.

Unfortunately, typing acura.com on my Treo didn’t bring me to the mobile site, which actually resides at acura.com/mobile/.

Once you get past the point that Acura, just like American Airlines*, has chosen to stick with .com for its mobile site, the next question is if anyone will actually use it.

Logging onto American Airlines’ mobile web site makes sense. Travel plans change when you’re on the road, and it’s nice to get flight updates. But Acura’s mobile web site appears to focus mostly on finding a dealer in your area. Navigate to the mobile site, enter your zip code, and then call a dealer. That’s about all I can think you’d want to do on a mobile car web site: Find a dealer to call.

Some things make sense for the mobile web. Others don’t.

*In American Airlines case, it doesn’t own AA.mobi. Acura owns Acura.mobi, but apparently the web team either doesn’t know this or doesn’t care.

Website Magazine Ranks “Domain Registrars”

Andrew — Tue, 13 May 2008 14:24:25 +0000

Website Magazine knows web sites. Not domains.

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Website Magazine is a great free resource for domainers looking to develop their domains. But don’t turn to the publication for good advice on domain names.

In the May edition, the magazine profiles “Website Magazine’s Ranking of Domain Registrars” based on traffic to the registrars’ web sites. The problem is how the magazine defines “domain registrar”.

For example, Sedo is ranked #3.

Sedo is a great aftermarket and a well known domain name parking service, but I don’t think it qualifies as a domain registrar. Another case in point: BuyDomains.com is ranked #16. Again, they sell a lot of domains but they certainly aren’t a domain registrar.

Website Magazine is also publishing a three part story about buying and selling domains on eBay. Its teaser reads “…many Web professionals are turning to eBay to buy and sell domains.” Hmmm.

However, I must say the first part in the series is fairly good. It discusses the “delusional” prices people want for their domains, and suggests it’s merely a ploy to get traffic to their domains.

As for my first-in-several-years attempt to sell a domain on eBay, I don’t have any bids yet but 7 people are watching the auction for Headcase.com. Hopefully they’ll jump in at the last second.

TRAFFIC Does Disney

Andrew — Mon, 12 May 2008 16:26:09 +0000

Domain name conference lands at Disney World next week.

The domain industry descends on Disney World next week as the popular T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domain conference arrives May 20. This should be an exciting show, in part because many of the industry’s top companies (Moniker, Parked.com, etc) have offices in Florida. It doesn’t hurt that the show is at Disney and is hosted at the top resort in the park.

I will be at the show and on a couple panels. Additionally, I’ll be disclosing the final results from the Third Annual Domain Name Wire Survey. This will include:

-Biggest issues facing the domain market in 2008
-ICANN satisfaction
-Best domain conference
-Most influential person in the domain name industry
-Most important domain news story of last year
-A recap of other survey results and what it means for you — what you should be doing in 2008

On Wednesday, May 21 I’ll join Phil Corwin and Nat Cohen to discuss the Snowe Bill and other attacks on the domain industry. I’m going to share stories of my interviews with “non-domainers” and what they think about the domain industry. Our image may be our biggest enemy. What can we do about it?

On Thursday, May 22 I’ll participate in a panel “If parked pages are deemed “Non use” how will domain owners develop their domains in mass?” I’m excited to share some of my strategies for rapidly developing domain names…without technical skills.

Of course Moniker will be hosting its famous live domain auction. They’ll have a low/no-reserve auction on opening night and then the big show on Friday afternoon. The list of domains up for auction is stellar. I’m hopeful this will be a successful auction.

I believe there are still tickets available for $1,995. If you are attending the conference, please make a point to say hello next week.

Sedo Announces 2008 SedoPro Partner Forum

Andrew — Mon, 12 May 2008 13:58:24 +0000

Domain parking and sales company announces location of next SedoPro event.

Sedo has announced the location of its next SedoPro Partner Forum. This year’s event will take place in Côte d’Azur in the South of France October 26-28. Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea on Cap Ferrat only a few miles away from Nice, Cannes, and Monaco, the event will be staged at the five star Hotel Royal Riviera. Sedo plans a variety of events including sailing on 44’ luxury racing yachts.

I attended last year’s event at Mohonk Mountain House in New York. It was by far one of the best planned and run events I’ve attended. In fact, it may be one of the most enjoyable vacations I’ve been on in a long time. It doesn’t hurt that Sedo picks up most of the tab for its customers. (It’s not just about fun; the forum includes educational and networking sessions too).

The event is invite-only for SedoPro members. SedoPro is the company’s parking program for large domain portfolio owners earning at least $200 a month or parking 200 domain names. [If you are interested in getting an endorsement code for SedoPro, drop me an email at editor (at) domainnamewire.com.]

More details are available at SedoProPartnerForum.com.

Update: Selling Domain Names on eBay

Andrew — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:16:32 +0000

Is it worth trying to sell domain names on eBay? An experiment with Headcase.com.

Everyone knows that eBay’s domain name auctions are full of junk. I personally don’t spend any time looking for domains there.

But recently there have been some high profile domain auctions on the site. There are also new tools to sift through the junky domains and find winners.

I’ve decided to give eBay another shot, but this time as a seller. And with a good domain, not some piece of junk. My experience listing the domain — Headcase.com — reminds me why eBay isn’t set up to be a domain seller.

First, listing a domain on eBay takes a long time. eBay has a “quick listing” feature with fewer options, but it still takes longer to list a domain than it does on “made for domain sales” sites such as Sedo and Afternic.

Second, eBay now requires you to accept PayPal for your transaction. Everyone knows that PayPal offers little protection to domain sellers.

Third, the fees. I tried to make Headcase.com a reserve auction. Imagine my surprise when I saw a $50 reserve auction fee before hitting submit! Yikes. eBay charges 1% of your reserve price when you list a reserve auction. I opted to start the auction at $4,900. I’ll be disappointed if it sells for that little, but I’ll just have to take the risk.

Will the domain attract attention? We’ll know in about a week.

dotMobi Buys Mowser From Guy Who Doesn’t Believe in Mobile Web

Andrew — Fri, 09 May 2008 16:05:13 +0000

Registry for .mobi buys big-screen-to-mobile technology.

.mobi registry dotMobi has purchased the intellectual property of Mowser, a defunct startup. Mowser essentially converts regular web pages into mobile friendly web pages.

James Pearce, dotMobi Vice President of Technology, said, “When Mowser’s founders decided to make the assets available, dotMobi was first in line to acquire them. The work Russell and Mike put into making Mowser a ‘best of breed’ product is well-known throughout the industry. Being able to add that technology into dotMobi’s product line is exciting because it will exponentially stimulate mobile content growth.”

If only Mowser’s founder was so gung ho about the mobile web. When shutting down the company, he wrote:

I don’t actually believe in the “Mobile Web” anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to.

.Org Domain Name Prices to Jump 10%

Andrew — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:30:04 +0000

Public Interest Registry to raise wholesale prices of .org domain names.

Public Interest Registry, the registry for .org domain names, has notified ICANN that it is increasing wholesale prices 10%. The annual wholesale price for .org domain name registrations will be $6.75, slightly below the $6.86 rate that .com domains will jump to later this year.

The rational for the price increase? None. At least none that was disclosed to ICANN. The rational is purely for profits, and you can’t blame Public Interest Registry for that. If you’re allowed to increase prices in a monopoly, why not?

In fact, when .biz registry NeuStar raised prices last year, it’s reason for the price hike was that “everyone else was doing it“.

Because of the thin margins on domain registrations, you can expect your favorite domain registrar to pass the costs on to you.

Look for Afilias to jack up prices on .info and NeuStar to add another hike to .biz. NeuStar can raise prices 10% to $7.06 this year.