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When you buy a dead person’s domain name

by — Expired Domains 4 Comments

I’m sure we’ve all done it…we just don’t know it.

Picture of clock with words "expired domains"

A Domain Name Wire reader sent a story about a gambling addiction group that had to change its domain name. Its founder passed away and the group’s original domain name expired. No one in the organization caught this until it was too late to renew the domain.

The original domain, BettorsAnonymous(.)org, went through the full deletion cycle and was picked up at DropCatch at the drop. The buyer appears to be in Malta.

So the organization changed its domain name to bettors-anonymous.org with a hyphen.

I wonder how many times I’ve acquired an expired domain name under similar circumstances. My most interesting story is when I acquired an expired domain while the previous owner was in prison. That made for some tough conversations when he got out of prison.

Some high-profile names have expired due to the owner’s death. Carrot.com was auctioned at GoDaddy after the owner died but was rescued.

 

Big news: Enom switches from NameJet to GoDaddy for expired domains

by — Expired Domains 28 Comments

GoDaddy adds coveted Enom inventory to its expired domain name auctions.

Picture of expired parking meter.

Enom has moved its expired domain inventory to GoDaddy Auctions.

GoDaddy Auctions has another domain name registrar on its expired domain platform and this one is a doozy: Enom.

This morning I noticed many Enom domain names flowing through GoDaddy Auctions’ expiry stream.

The move is not surprising. Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX), which acquired Enom in 2017, already sends its non-Enom inventory to GoDaddy. For its Tucows domains, it essentially did a bake-off between GoDaddy Auctions and NameJet to figure out which one produced the most revenue. GoDaddy won.

The Enom acquisition came with a 50% ownership interest in NameJet and Tucows kept Enom’s expired domains on NameJet while sending its other domains to GoDaddy. But Tucows sold its stake in NameJet to Web.com late last year.

At the time of the acquisition I wrote:

The big question is if Enom domains will remain on NameJet and for how long. This was obviously part of the negotiation and ultimate purchase price. If Enom leaves the platform for GoDaddy at some point in the future, it will further degrade NameJet’s role in the marketplace.

We now have the answer.

So is this a win for domain investors? Yes and no.

On the plus side, they no longer have to manage domains at Enom. All domains they win will be added to their GoDaddy accounts.

Also, GoDaddy Auctions start at $12 (plus renewal, so about $20 total) whereas NameJet auctions start at $69.

But auctions at GoDaddy can be quite rich. Domain investors might end up paying more for domains there than if they same names ran through NameJet.

Also, I worry when there aren’t two strong competitors in a market. NameJet is getting weaker. Its valuable inventory is now mostly Web.com’s registrars Network Solutions and Register.com.

The .App “junk drop” is coming

by — Expired Domains 13 Comments

Expired domains are coming as first anniversary nears.

Image of trash with "The Junk Drop" written on it

In terms of domain name registration volume, .App has been a big success for Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL). The company’s .app top level domain name has nearly 400,000 domains in the zone after 11 months of general availability.

The one year anniversary of general availability is May 8, and that means the inevitable “junk drop” is coming.

The term refers to all the speculative (and sometimes defensive) domain name registrations that registrants drop one year after a top level domain launches. With so many domains coming up for renewal on the anniversary, domains under management inevitably drops.

It will be over a month after the anniversary before we get a clear picture of renewals and drops because of the grace period.

There doesn’t seem to be much of an aftermarket for .app domain names despite high registration volumes. Namebio shows a total of 15 public sales. I received multiple offers for Voicemail.app but none resulted in a sale.

 

GoDaddy fires employee for bidding in domain name auctions

by — Expired Domains 4 Comments

Employee set up an account under a different name in order to participate in domain auctions.

GoDaddy logoGoDaddy has terminated an employee after the company discovered that he was bidding in GoDaddy domain name auctions.

The company investigated the employee and two others after receiving an allegation of wrongdoing. In a blog post, Aftermarket GM Paul Nicks wrote:

This employee created an account not associated with his legal name, and participated in auctions and expiry auctions as a bidder, which is a conflict of interest and a direct violation of our policy.  To be clear, our investigation uncovered NO evidence that this employee used any confidential customer information for personal gain, or that he conducted shill-bidding on auctions.

While we believe the employee did not have malicious motivations, GoDaddy does not tolerate such violations of our Code of Conduct. Indeed, many provisions of our Code of Conduct are there specifically to protect our platform. We are very clear that no employee may participate in any auction that involves bidding against our customers. Employees are able to purchase buy now and closeout domains.

GoDaddy is re-educating its employees about its rules and said it is reviewing its platform to find ways to add transparency.

It appears that the activities were limited to one employee. GoDaddy came under fire in 2008 after its then-VP Adam Dicker participated in domain auctions. At the time, GoDaddy didn’t have a policy against employees bidding in auctions.

Sedo improves expired domain auction search

by — Expired Domains 0 Comments

Buyers can now search by SEO and Google metrics.

Screenshot of Sedo's expired domains page

Domain name marketplace Sedo has improved the searchability of expiring domain inventory and given it its own home: expiringdomains.sedo.com.

Users can now search and sort by four Majestic SEO data points, Google search volume and Google CPC. Other filters include domain length, showing only .com domains, and excluding domains with hyphens, numbers or IDN.

It’s a big improvement and it’s good to see Sedo improve discoverability of these names. It’s still a far cry from what you can get through a service like ExpiredDomains.net, but Sedo’s expired domain feed is not integrated with that service right now.

Sedo’s expired domain inventory comes from 1&1, a registrar under the same corporate umbrella as Sedo. Bids start at $79.