A few domain name news stories for Wednesday.

With a holiday week, there are a lot of stories I haven’t gotten to, so let’s get caught up…

When Ron Jackson started writing DNJournal, he was smart enough to decide to focus on feature stories rather than “breaking news”. After all, it lets him work at his pace. He’d rather have people like me cover the breaking news while he focuses on features. And that’s a good thing, because he’s really good at it. Witness his latest feature, a story about Rick Latona. It’s an interesting read, and it puts into context how Latona runs his businesses…

Speaking of Rick Latona, he has launched Vino.com. He made a smart move by avoiding the typical wine e-business and opting to run a wine-of-the-month club instead. You might notice some design similarities between Vino.com and Latonas.com.

The WhyPark charity auction has contributed nearly $3,600 to a yet-unnamed charity. The bidder who bought EquityFirm.com for $775 will get to choose the charity.

Charity domain name auction underway.

The WhyPark charity auction is now live, and I can think of a couple good reasons to participate.

First is that all auction proceeds go to charity. For me, December is a month of giving. Although I donate to charities throughout the year, my wife and I are sure to make our big donations before the end of the year. In this auction, the person who places the single highest bid in the entire auction gets to choose the charity that will receive all proceeds.

Second, you get to try out a brand new domain name auction platform at Latonas.com. It’s in beta, so go easy on it. (For some reason, many domainers don’t understand what “beta” means, so Rick took a risk by putting this out there.) But my first impressions are very positive. It looks upscale and each domain gets its own page that includes stats.

The auction ends this Thursday Friday (U.S. time).

Here are a couple news notes from Domainer Mardi Gras and WhyPark.

Domainer Mardi Gras special ends today: Domainer Mardi Gras is giving away a 500 GB external hard drive to anyone who signs up to attend by midnight tonight. Registration rates are as low as $595 if you also stay at the conference hotel. This is the lowest fee you’ll ever see for attending an industry-wide domain conference. It’s a lot of fun, too. I recommend taking advantage of this offer if you’re sitting on the fence about attending Domainer Mardi Gras 2010.

WhyPark announces auction details: WhyPark is teaming up with Rick Latona Auctions to test out the latter’s Latonas.com auction platform for WhyPark’s upcoming charity domain name auction. Not only is the auction for a good cause, but I’m excited to see what Latona has developed. His company has used Proxibid.com for its previous auctions, but the system has serious limitations.

To learn more about the auction, listen to the DNW Radio interview with WhyPark founder Craig Rowe.

Our first ever episode of DNW Radio.

About a month ago I announced I was working on DNW Radio, a radio show that will feature domain industry leaders. Better late than never, here’s the first episode.

You may recall that I’m not a huge fan of using video when you can get something across in text. The same thing goes for audio, but that’s why the solution I’m using for DNW Radio is perfect: not only can you stream the audio, you can also read a transcript. If you want to download the podcast and play it in the car, you can. If you want to stream it in the background while you’re bidding in auctions, go for it. And if you’d rather just read the transcript, that’s an option, too.

WhyPark founder Craig Rowe was kind enough to be our guinea pig on DNW Radio. In this episode, he talks about how WhyPark got started, the acquisition by Parked.com, and new features the company is working on. GeoDomain owners will be especially interested in what he has to say.

Please keep in mind that DNW Radio is a work in progress. I’m working on getting the right mix on audio, length, etc. If you’d like to add this show to your web site, feel free to click the link in the widget below. You are free to redistribute the audio. However, the transcript is copyrighted.

Stay tuned.

Domain company organizing online auction for charity.

Domain parking alternative WhyPark is hosting a charity domain name auction with a twist — the single highest bidder gets to pick which charity receives the proceeds.

The five day auction will run December 7th and end December 11th and contain about 50 domain names. When the auction is over, the one person who placed the highest winning bid across all auctions will get to choose the charity to receive the proceeds of all domains sold in the auction.

As an added incentive to submit domains to the auction, selected domains will include a logo and link back to whomever submitted the domain. WhyPark requests that people submit domains that they feel are worth at least $250-$500; not domains that you plan to let expire next time around.

Details and the submission form can be found at WhyPark.com/auction.