Source: I Squatted Your EU

First Coast News covers domain flipping and the story of Natalie Williams a Jacksonville, Florida resident who has gone from a single income family on welfare to owning a home and 2 cars by flipping domains, pulling in as much as $2500 a month. Sure there are guys pulling in millions on domains, but this story shows one of probably thousands of work-at-home stories that are proliferating behind the scenes in the domain world right now. Text version of story can be seen following this link.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

Source: Domain Name News

CBS has agreed to purchase CNET Networks for $1.8 Billion, making it one of the 10 most popular internet companies in the world with over 54 million unique visitors per month.

CNET; a leading provider of entertainment, news and information sites; currently controls a number of popular destinations including CNET.com, ZDNet.com, BNET.com, GameSpot.com, GameFAQs.com, TV.com, mp3.com, UrbanBaby.com, CHOW.com, Search.com, MySimon.com and TechRepublic.com.

The deal was unanimously approved by CNET’s board and is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter. [via News.com, DirectNavigation, and Yahoo]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

Source: Domain Name News

Ask.com has acquired several major reference websites including Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com in its purchase of the Lexico Publishing Group LLC. This news comes 10 months after Answers.com agreed to buy the same company for $100 million in a deal that fell through.

The terms of the acquisition have yet to be disclosed. [via TheDomains.com]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

Source: Domain Name News

This article continues immediately on from the first 4 parts that may be viewed via the following links. Part 1 - Google and trhe domain industry (index.php/20080506422/MyBlog/Google/Yahoo-and-the-domain-industry-Part-1.html) Part 2 - Google andthe quality myth (index.php/20080507423/MyBlog/Part-2-Google-and-the-quality-myth.html) Part 3 - Smartpricing traffic (index.php/20080512427/MyBlog/Part-3-Smartpricing-traffic.html) Part 4 - Google, TV and Analytics (index.php/20080514428/MyBlog/Part-4.html) My theory...

Edwin Hayward of MemorableDomains.co.uk just wrapped up three days of exhibiting at the InternetWorld in the UK and has written a summary of his experiences exhibiting at the show as a domain reseller of top .co.uk generic domain names. The company, as mentioned in a previous article, was exhibiting at the show and featured some of their top domain names for sale including Britain.co.uk, Maps.co.uk and SearchEngine.co.uk.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Visit our Calendar of Domain Industry Events.

Source: Domain Name News

Domainers Must Adapt…Again

It’s a funny thing how domainers always expect their stank to rise…and continue rising. Funny because if you’ve been in this business long enough you’ve likely weathered, or not, a few industry tempests and cycles. We’re hardened sailors who have seen tough squalls and lived to tell the tale.

Truth is, over time things have ‘changed’ much more than domainers care for - there is no question. There is nary an old domainer, no matter the age, without a gray hair or two from our career. So part of the expectation may be wishful thinking, part of it denial, part of it realistic business outlooks and goals.

If there is one thing to be said about domainers, besides they like to party and are generally ADD, is that ‘growth’ is always on the brain. Each acquisition is an attempt at growth – we feel if we stop buying, we stop growing. We have ‘fear of non-growth’, thus the long-held belief that domaining is an addiction. I’ll drink to that.

So as we struggle to make our way through floundering economics and currencies, regulation and litigation, registrars and beyond, domainers should look at their past cycle performance and adjust, adapt and grow. The past is prologue.

For example, the current propensity is to pull back on domain purchases – all while it converts to a buyer’s market. A smart domainer looks for the peaks and valleys in the cycle and anticipates each quarter-step forward. After all, we made our sweet creamy butter via ‘anticipation’ and ‘risk’.

But the real question at these moments becomes a matter of faith – if you believe domains (dot coms, in this case) are the future global standard, then now is the time to expand, anticipate, grow baby!

Alternately, if you are skeptical, low on funding or already well seated in the space, then now may be the time to lay low and, if at all possible, not sell. Truth is domainer-to-domainer sales are not the future and never were - too much perpetuating money, too much depreciation as domains go from holder to holder. Eventually, the risk outweighs the return.

The future lies in end-user sales, the Holy Grail of domaining, with the emphasis on ‘quality’ – irreplaceable domains, in other words. Names that have no alternate, no opposite, they are a singular brand or product or service. They are marketing machines by their birthright; they are one of a kind.

In the recourse, there is little individual domainers can do to affect the overall outcome beyond supporting the community, the industry as a whole. No, for holders, it is a matter of fittest-type survival in turbulent terrain.

My advice, far more dependent on your current financial state, it is to reassess, find your bearings – domainers are often brilliantly scattered-brained as they chase one name only to lose an equally good name to lapsed registration. DOH!

For all of us, as a sum of its parts, it is best to pool together – surround the wagons in no uncertain terms. Yet as an ‘individual-based’ industry, that seems less likely as fewer and fewer of its inhabitants attend to its overall health.

If for some reason the industry dies, it is no doubt for a lack of community, of unity and fraternity. It is as if the founding fathers decided they had enough land and wealth and need not go to Philadelphia to declare anything against Britain. In fact, by not going, they reasoned, they were declaring true ‘independence’ – I am my own island. That’s the collective spirit d-town!

So here we sit, between a rock and a really hard place, like a Republican having to vote for Grandpa McCain, waiting for the world to decide if it needs Internet addresses for the long term while the industry splinters and flails at its own lack of commonality.

Sadly, we’re nothing more than street vendors to the larger world – “I got great .com, I got excellent two word .net, I got .mobi - big discount only for you, my friend! You buy!”

In that case, perhaps the best advice is to head out to the countryside, get some friends to hide you in a hole in their yard, put an air tube running up to the surface a la Saddam. And don’t forget, you’re going to need some Grecian Formula for those new grays.

But you better hurry - sky is falling…again!

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

Source: Domain Name News

.COM Sales

taz.com 		40,000	USD GreatDomains
chianti.com		28,500	USD GreatDomains
posse.com 		24,500	USD
diw.com 		12,500	USD
ylc.com 		10,100	USD
textr.com 		8,750	USD
yachtshop.com 		7,600	USD
wzb.com 		7,100	USD GreatDomains
gonk.com 		7,000	USD
motionsports.com	6,700	USD
vko.com 		6,100	EUR
zoyo.com 		6,000	EUR
gimena.com 		5,900	EUR
lale.com 		5,403	USD
marginal.com 		5,100	USD
cux.com 		5,100	EUR GreatDomains
eventmanager.com 	5,000	USD
overstockmall.com 	4,999	USD GreatDomains
gotdirt.com 		4,600	USD
bangbangbang.com	4,500	USD
depositosbancarios.com	4,500	EUR (banking deposits in Spanish)
urgently.com 		4,150	USD GreatDomains
discussed.com 		4,050	USD GreatDomains
nofa.com 		3,720	USD
organic-food.com 	2,800	USD
stopcalling.com 	2,800	USD
polarweiss.com 		2,750	EUR
mylifeid.com 		2,700	USD
frenchtutor.com	 	2,600	USD
zoth.com 		2,550	USD
yy1.com 		2,550	USD
colitel.com		2,500	EUR
hightop.com 		2,500	USD GreatDomains
personalenergy.com 	2,370	USD
efectosjavascript.com 	2,300	USD
cuzo.com 		2,050	EUR
idiaper.com 		2,000	USD

Other Sales

nightlife.net 		20,000	USD
newyorkbiz.com 		18,000	EUR
versa.net 		9,100	USD
anuncios.mobi		7,400	USD (classifieds in Spanish)
thc.mobi		3,700	USD
chef.pro 		3,650	USD
negocios.org 		3,600	USD (business in Spanish)
sharkdiving.net 	2,288	USD
hho.net 		2,251	USD
glo.net 		2,151	USD
neptune.org 		1,547	EUR
shopwindow.info 	1,300	EUR
comuni.net 		1,225	USD
insurancehome.org 	1,200	USD
parier.info 		1,150	EUR
sorteo.org 		1,100	GBP (lottery in Spanish)
nhl.info 		1,001	EUR
joggen.info 		1,000	EUR (to jog in German)
mylifeid.net 		900	USD
yournetwork.org 	825	USD
sportbiker.net 		670	USD

ccTLD Sales

e-friends.pl 		25,000	EUR
ferienhaus-miete.de 	8,000	EUR (summer home rentals)
schnellkredit.de 	6,000	EUR (fast credit in German)
eigentumswohnung.eu 	4,500	EUR (condominium in German)
beton.eu 		3,300	EUR (concrete in German)
leap.in 		3,000	USD
portfolio.be 		3,000	EUR
internetjournal.de 	2,325	EUR
fulltillpoker.de 	1,750	EUR
pflegeberatung.de 	1,650	EUR (support consultation in German)
die-welle.de 		1,600	EUR (the wave in German)
13.tv 			1,550	USD
tischfussball.at 	1,500	EUR (table soccer in German)
bombon.es 		1,500	EUR
ecoogler.es 		1,400	EUR
firma.es 		1,320	EUR
fehlermeldungen.de 	1,300	EUR (error messages in German)
123moto.fr 		1,250	EUR
spassbad.de 		1,100	EUR
xav.ca 			1,050	USD
dominatrix.us 		1,050	USD
linx.at 		1,000	EUR
bmo.eu 			1,000	EUR
inhaltsangaben.de 	1,000	EUR (table of contents in German)
batteriemoto.fr 	800	EUR (battery motor bike in French)
mountain.es 		800	EUR
paddypower.es 		800	EUR

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

Source: Domain Name News

This series of articles continues directly on from one another. I would encourage you to read the prior articles before this one. Part 1 - Google and trhe domain industry (index.php/20080506422/MyBlog/Google/Yahoo-and-the-domain-industry-Part-1.html) Part 2 - Google andthe quality myth (index.php/20080507423/MyBlog/Part-2-Google-and-the-quality-myth.html) Part 3 - Smartpricing traffic (index.php/20080512427/MyBlog/Part-3-Smartpricing-traffic.html) So if Google has created the perfect...

This series of articles continues directly on from one another. I would encourage you to read the prior articles before this one. Part 1 - Google and trhe domain industry (index.php/20080506422/MyBlog/Google/Yahoo-and-the-domain-industry-Part-1.html) Part 2 - Google andthe quality myth (index.php/20080507423/MyBlog/Part-2-Google-and-the-quality-myth.html) Part 3 - Smartpricing traffic (index.php/20080512427/MyBlog/Part-3-Smartpricing-traffic.html) So if Google has created the perfect...