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5 Domain Name Thoughts

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Here are some things I’ve been thinking about lately.

Man with thought bubble

It must be difficult for expired domain name research tools to compete with ExpiredDomains.net. It’s hard to beat free with such a solid feature set.

There’s a new domain name generator out that you might want to check out, called NameBounce. I tried it and got some good results. My favorite name generator is still LeanDomainSearch, and it appears to have gotten an upgrade recently.

Sedo’s auction board isn’t as active as GoDaddy and NameJet, but it’s worth stopping in from time-to-time. Right now Jet.biz has 16 bids and is $650. GV.biz has 17 bids and is EUR 355. Someone placed a $4,200 bid on FreeSlots.casino; I suspect that was pushed to auction after an offer.

Speaking of Sedo, I’d like to give them props for continuing to publish sales data. It’s very helpful for the industry.

For everyone who blasts GoDaddy’s appraisals, I challenge them to sort an expired domain list by the GoValues. Each value might not be perfect, but you’ll notice a marked drop in quality as you go down the list.

I sold another domain through Afternic today and I’m thinking it’s time for me to switch to buy now landers. I waste lots of time responding to inquiries with prices. I like how easy buy now is.

April’s Top Stories

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Here’s what happened in domain names last month.

These are the top five stories on Domain Name Wire last month ranked by pageviews.

1. Clothing company tries to reverse hijack domain name – A European clothing brand filed a “factually misleading” cybersquatting case.

2. When you buy a dead person’s domain name – This group had to change its domain name after the founder died and the domain expired.

3. Time is running out to reject unlimited .Org (and other) prices – You’re out of time to comment on .info and .org but .biz is still open.

4. Sheryl Sandberg loses cybersquatting claim over LeanIn.com domain name – Her foundation uses the domain name LeanIn.org and wanted to get LeanIn.com.

5. The .App “junk drop” is coming – The first year anniversary for .app has arrived and you can expect a lot of domain names to expire.

Podcasts:

#234 (listen) – Find out how Drew Wash’s domain development challenge worked out.
#233 (listen) – Learn how to sell with Brian Harbin.
#232 (listen) – Understand .Inc’s high-cost business model.
#231 (listen) – Hear why Trevor Mauch spent $600,000 on Carrot.com.
#230 (listen) – Learn Joshua Schoen’s domain acquisition strategy.

Should GoDaddy allow investors to list domains in the expired auction stream?

by — Domain Sales 11 Comments

It would be great for domain sellers but has some downsides.

There was an interesting discussion on Twitter over the weekend about auctioning domain names on GoDaddy.

The question is if GoDaddy should include non-expired domain auctions in the same way and feed as expired domain auctions. Should it do what NameJet does by allowing third parties to list inventory and have it show up just like an expired domain?

This would obviously be good for domainers that wish to liquidate their domains. Expired domain auctions at GoDaddy get a lot of views and sell for pretty good prices. I’d love to get some of my names shown on that channel.

There are some downsides, however.

1. When I buy domains through GoDaddy expired auctions, the fact that the domain is expiring has value in and of itself. There’s a higher chance that an expired domain hasn’t been marketed to end users than a domain an investor is trying to offload. Mixing in non-expiring domains means I have to do more homework.

2. Allowing third-party listings creates incentives for shill bidding. We know what happened at NameJet with this.

3. Expired domains have a guaranteed push, at least if they’re at GoDaddy. (This could be enacted for third-party listings, too.)

If GoDaddy ever decides to allow third-party inventory in its expiring auctions, they need to maintain the same structure: $12 opening bid, no reserve, and closeouts. Sellers would need to take the risk.

February’s top domain name stories

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Here’s a look at the top stories on Domain Name Wire last month, as ranked by views.

1. How I almost lost a domain name this week – Even professional domain owners can let something slip through the cracks. Here’s what happened and how to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

2. Speaker hit for reverse domain name hijacking – Based on a twitter conversation with the Complainant, he got some bad legal advice.

3. Calm.com domain name is paying dividends – Here’s how a great domain name is helping a $1 billion valuation company.

4. Be careful about this expired domain name metric – Dig into this metric before buying a domain name based on it.

5. Blockchain.io domain owner fights back against Blockchain.com – Paymium responds to domain name dispute.

Also check out last month’s podcasts. Click the link to listen or subscribe on your podcast app.

#225: Rick Schwartz
#224: Blockchain and Domain Names
#223: The Email Episode
#222: NamesCon Recap

Web.com acquires Tucows’ half of NameJet

by — Expired Domains 0 Comments

Deal is a sign of the times in the expired domain business.

Web.com is now the sole owner of domain name auction site NameJet after acquiring Tucows’ (NASDAQ: TCX) interest in the business.

NameJet was created as a partnership between Enom and Network Solutions (now part of Web.com) in 2007 at a time when SnapNames was dominating the direct-transfer expired domain business. The deal meant that Network Solutions’ expired domain inventory would move to the new NameJet platform, delivering a blow to SnapNames. Oversee.net had just acquired SnapNames but knew about Network Solutions leaving the platform before completing the acquisition.

In 2014, Web.com acquired Snapnames from KeyDrive for $7.4 million. That meant that Web.com owned all of Snapnames and half of its competitor NameJet.

SnapNames and NameJet later combined forces on grabbing pending delete domains, which are domains that make it through the deletion cycle and are deleted by the registry.

Tucows acquired Enom last year and Enom’s half ownership in NameJet was a sort of “gift with purchase”. After the acquisition closed, Tucows shifted its expired domain name inventory from GoDaddy to NameJet, only to switch back to GoDaddy later in the year.

This was a big indication that GoDaddy was far better at monetizing Tucows’ expiring domain names than NameJet.

Today’s news makes sense. In fact, it probably makes sense to merge the SnapNames and NameJet platforms.

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.