That’s a whole lotta top level domains.

[Updated with comment from Demand Media and from investor call] Demand Media, parent company of eNom, announced today that it has invested $18 million into new top level domain names.

It’s not clear if this is for application fees only:

In April 2012, Demand Media invested $18 million in pursuit of its generic Top Level Domain (“gTLD”) initiative, which it believes represents a complementary strategic growth opportunity for its Registrar services.

Given that this refers only to the month of April, when Demand Media would have completed its applications, it’s possible that this is for application fees and related expenses only. That’s a whole lot of top level domains.

Kristen Moore, VP, Corporate Marketing & Communications at Demand Media, tells Domain Name Wire: “As the ICANN application process is not yet completed, we aren’t commenting on the specifics of any applications beyond the size of our investment and our enthusiasm for the opportunity at this time.”

On the investor conference call today, the company said it has committed $18 million in “support” of the program. It has signed two partners that will use its backend system. It also said it “may become a registry in our own right”, e.g. apply for domains itself. Its CFO said it “funded” $18 million in April, which still leads us back to application fees.

Interestingly, by the spirit of the rules, Demand Media shouldn’t be eligible to apply for new TLDs due to multiple UDRP losses. But there are plenty of technicalities to get around that.

Companies still fall victim to anti-cybersquatting rule for new TLD applicants.

The latest (but certainly not final) version of the new top level domain name guidebook still includes a provision that, at least by the spirit of the clause, would prevent Go Daddy and Demand Media (NYSE: DMD) from applying for new top level domain names.

Section 1.2.1 of the May 20 release (large pdf) includes a laundry list of reasons why an applicant would be barred from registering a top level domain name, including if they have been “involved in of a pattern of adverse, final decisions indicating that the applicant or individual named in the application was engaged in cybersquatting.”

The guidebook defines this as three adverse decisions (including UDRP) including one in the past four years.

Both Go Daddy and Demand Media (which owns eNom) would be barred under this provision as they have multiple UDRP losses. Demand Media is clearly concerned about this provision.

That said, I still think there are loopholes that would allow these entities to apply.

Demand Media results shed light on revenue sharing, eNom results.

Earlier this week Demand Media reported fourth quarter results. The company eked out a small profit in the quarter, but expects to return to losses going forward.

You can read the complete details here, but here are some interesting numbers:

Revenue Sharing: In Q4 its network of customer web sites (which would include parked pages) generated 3.866 million billion page views with an RPM of $3.11. But the company reported that its RPM excluding traffic acquisition costs (ex-TAC) was $2.25.

The company says “Revenue ex-TAC is defined by the Company as GAAP revenue less traffic acquisition costs (TAC). TAC comprises the portion of Content & Media GAAP revenue shared with the Company’s network customers.”

So according to this definition, of the $3.11 generated per thousand page views, only $.86 was shared with publishers. This seems very low, but I’ve contacted Demand Media for an explanation and will update accordingly.

Changes in RPM: The gross RPM on customer web sites was down 22% compared to Q4 2009. The RPM on Demand Media’s owned and operated network was up 36%. Of course, a lot of Demand’s owned and operated revenue comes from actual web sites such as eHow.

eNom Growing: Registrar revenue for 2010 was $100M, up 10% compared to 2009. Including all of Demand Media’s registrars (eNom is the biggest), it had 11 million domains under management a the end of 2010. That’s up from 9.1 million at the end of 2009.

Company sets flotation price range.

A large domain name company is getting ready to go public. Will you get in on the action?

Demand Media, which owns eNom, has set an expected price per share of $14-$16. It plans to sell 4.5 million shares while existing shareholders hope to offload 3 million shares.

The company also released preliminary, unaudited numbers for Q4 2010. In the last quarter of the year it grossed between $71.5 million and $73.5 million, a 31% increase over the same quarter in 2009. Demand Media credits the growth primarily to increased content revenue due to both more pageviews and a higher RPM. Increased domain name registrations also helped, but to a lesser extent.

So, do you plan to buy shares in Demand Media’s IPO?

Afternic “turns on” its two new partners, giving domain name owners access to a powerful sales network.

Yesterday I wrote about my success with Go Daddy Premium Listings. The only downside to the service is that your domain names have to be at Go Daddy. But there’s good news for domainers who want to get similar reach for domains that are currently at Moniker and eNom — those two registrars are now active with Afternic’s Premium listing service.

What This Means

If you have your domain names at eNom/eNomCentral/BulkRegister or Moniker, you can now get them listed for sale within the registration path at four of the top 10 domain registrars. In addition to these two new registrars your domains will be listed for sale at Network Solutions, Register.com, and Name.com directly within the registration process. Customers can immediately purchase your domain name through the shopping cart and your domain will be transferred to them without any direct involvement with you.

The domains will also be listed on other registrar and partner sites but without the registration path/instant fulfillment capabilities.

How it Works

All of your interaction for listing the domain names occurs in your Afternic account. After logging in you simply add your domain names and select the “Premium” promotion level. You will also need to add a “Buy It Now” price for the domain names.

Afternic then runs some checks including ownership and content (Afternic doesn’t sell adult, gambling, and trademark domain names), after which you “opt in” the domains.

Once opted in, you won’t be able to make changes to your whois information or push the domain name to another account without first opting the domain name out. You can still list your domains for sale on other web sites, but if you sell it elsewhere you should remove the listing from Afternic.

What to Expect

A select group of large domainers have been able to use the Premium Listing level at Afternic for the past year. They’ve told me the results were remarkable. Your success will depend on a couple factors:

-How good your domain names are. They don’t need to be “premium”; they just need to be domain names that someone might want to register for their own business.

-How you price your domains. This sales channel works great with small and medium size businesses. Keep in mind the typical Afternic sale is around $1,200. I suggest pricing your domains in the $600-$2,500 range for best results. The commission is 20% (net 15% if you park the domains with Afternic) with a $120 minimum.