Familiar face joins startup domain name monetization company.
A new monetization service for owners of premium domain names has hired domain consultant and writer Frank Michlick as Chief Technology Officer, Domain Name Wire has learned.
Left of the Dot Media enables domain owners to sell subdomains (i.e. third level domain names) on their existing domains. The company is currently working on Villa.com. For example, a villa owner in Orlando could register orlando.villa.com. Left of the Dot creates a website on the subdomain and provides tools for the villa owner to change and maintain the site while the owner of Villa.com gets a cut of the revenue for each subdomain sold. Another example is Beef.com, where a rancher in Wisconsin could register wisconsin.beef.com.
The company debuted at TRAFFIC’s Test Track in Vancouver and received funding as a result.
Michlick is best known as a founder and contributing writer to Domain Name News. He also founded DomainCocoon, which provides services for domain name management, custom registrar creation, and ICANN & ccTLD accreditation consulting. Prior to that he worked at Tucows.
Left of the Dot is currently in a closed beta and is working on creating three more generic domains in the same manner as Villa.com and Beef.com. Company representatives will be at DOMAINfest in Santa Monica February 1-3.
Congrats to Frank and Left of the Dot! I really like the idea behind it.
Left of the dot should purchase Plans.com from Francios. Tons of potential to the left with that domain!
Thank you for the congratulations and the suggestion, @Jamie.
No problem Frank. I remember writing about Plans.com awhile back http://www.dotweekly.com/hidden-gem-for-sale-domain-name-plans-com and mainly expressing the sub-domain potential on many popular search terms that relate to plans.
If this “blogger gets a real job” keeps up.. there won’t be any blogs left. LOL
First Chef Patrick, then Andrew, now you…
Congratulations Frank!!
@Alex: Thank you.
@Jamie: It seems it hasn’t stopped Andrew from taking care of DNW, I’ll try to follow his example.
Re: plans.com – right now we already have a few domain names in the pipe, but we’ll consider that one.
Ah ah good idea Jamie … LOL
You’ll get your commission if it sells!
I also own other premiums who may better fit for this idea to lease subdomains (how is it possible I never thought about it ?).
…
Frank I wish you all the best!
Frank… Welcome aboard!
@Francois … Will you be at DomainFest? If so, we will walk you through the model and how it works. Plans.com could work (25,000 right-locked active domains that end in http://www.____plans.com exist today)… but I agree, you probably have some even better. The best fit are single word, category-owning concepts (professions, geos, etc.)
Congratulations Frank. Another feather in your cap… are you going to have time to sleep?
Thank you Shaun. Sleep? What’s that… Luckily enough I’m not working alone on any of my ventures 🙂
It’s very exciting news, I’ve always wanted to have something like this work for my generic domain many many years ago, but back then there was a subdomain patent troll that put a damper on plans. Looking forward to giving LOTDM a try!
I tested a subdomain on Villa .com
The concept is great, but the underlying software application to create/develop the subdomain websites still needs a lot of work.
As an agent, creating more than one villa property listing and then having a search facility for users is not yet possible.
With no indication of what or when improvements will be made, surely they shouldn’t be charging for the service yet?
@myVilla:
Sorry to hear about the problems you experienced with our service. As you mention, it is still under development.
We’d love to discuss what you’re looking for directly and can certainly provide you with more information on our development schedule. Please feel free to contact me directly at frank (at) leftofthedot.com .
Just to follow-up, I submitted a generic name to LOTDM for consideration (it also has well over 20000 right-lock active domains that end in my domain) and haven’t heard back yet. I figure they must be overwhelmed with submissions right now or might be preparing for DomainFest. Either way, it’s a very good concept and I hope it works out for Frank and everyone involved.
S.W.,
We definitely have received a lot of inquiries, and we are in the process of following up with all of the inquiries. There are a number of factors that go into the names we selectively work with, feel free to contact me directly at john [at] leftofthedot.com or 604-454-7935 and we will talk about your name in greater detail.