Archive for the ‘Expired Domains’ Category
.com and .net registry provides added detail about NXD traffic.
VeriSign has enhanced its DomainScore tool to provide more insight into the traffic unregistered domains receive.
DomainScore provides a relative score for the amount of traffic an unregistered domain name receives. But this so-called “NXD” traffic doesn’t qualify the type of traffic very well. That’s part of the reason people complain that they register a domain with a high score based on VeriSign’s data and don’t get any traffic.
The latest update includes time-of-day and location information about unregistered domain traffic.
The column chart above is an example of the traffic insight you can get. Lots of requests but few unique requests? That should be a warning sign. When the traffic comes in may have to do with the type of site.
The geo location data is helpful for a number of reasons. One obvious one: if you’re going to park the domain, you probably want traffic from the U.S. rather than China because it monetizes better.
VeriSign has also enhanced the user interface and historic data for its DomainView tool.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- VeriSign Releases Domain Traffic Treasure Trove to the Public
- GoDaddy releases traffic data
- VeriSign releases DomainCountdown for expired domains
Guy mistakenly thinks I’m associated with expired domain spam.
DomainTools has an occasional feature on its blog about people mistakenly thinking the company is associated with other web sites. Someone searches for a company, finds the whois record on DomainTools’ site, and thinks DomainTools is the company they were searching for. So it sends a support email to Domain Tools asking for support from that company.
I had my own little case of mistaken identity a few weeks ago.
My cell phone rang and I picked it up with my standard “This is Andrew”. The conversation went something like this:
Caller: Hi Andrew, how are you doing?
Me: Fine.
Caller: I’m not interested in your marketing opinions research.
Me: Huh?
Caller: The marketing opinions stuff you keep emailing me about.
Me: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Caller: Suuuuure, you don’t.
Me: No, really. Who is this?
Caller: I’m the guy you keep spamming about this domain name. Sometimes I like to track down spammers and call them to harass them like they harass me.
Me: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Caller: You are Andrew Allemann, right?
Me: Yes, that’s me. But I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Caller: Someone is sending spam emails from you trying to get me to buy the domain MarketingOpinions.com. So if it’s no you, someone has hacked in to your email.
[At this point I become genuinely concerned, and start looking through my sent box to make sure I haven't been hacked.]
Me: Well, which email address is it being sent from?
Caller: something@jbupholstry.com.
[Now I'm really confused. How has he tied this email address to me? Or was someone just putting my name in the message?]
Me: That’s not my email address.
Caller: Well listen, I like to call up spammers, but you genuinely sound like you don’t know what’s going on.
Me: Can you send me a copy of the email so I can look in to it?
The guy sends me the email. Here it is:
From: Alex < @JBUPHOLSTERY.COM>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:03:23 -0700 (MST)
Subject: ***SPAM*** marketingopinions.com
Preferred Domain Availability Notification:
marketingopinions.com will be listed for auction in a few days. This domain might be useful for you, since you own a domain similar to this domain.
To confirm interest in owning this domain, fill out the simple form here: marketingopinions.com
Sincerely,Alexander
5016 Spedale Ct. #265
Spring Hill, TN 37174
If you do not want more of these messages, please click the link above and follow instructions at the bottom of the page
I was about half in love with her by the time we sat down. That’s the thing about girls. Every time they do something pretty… you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are. J. D. Salinger
Yeah, my name is nowhere on the email or the email address. How on earth was I being associated with this expired domain spamming operation?
I tried Googling the mailing address in the email. First result is this post on Domain Name Wire.
I had a bit of a chuckle. This guy who called me thinks he is some big cybersleuth who can track down spammers. Instead, he Googled the email he got, found my post but didn’t read it, looked me up in whois, and called to harass me.
All in a day’s work as a blogger…
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Company knew it would lose Network Solutions’ expired domain inventory when it bought SnapNames.
Shortly after Oversee.net acquired expired domain platform SnapNames in 2007, Network Solutions pulled its inventory from the service in order to team up with Demand Media on competitor NameJet.
A commonly held assumption is that Oversee.net had overlooked a change-in-control term (or underestimated the risk of it) when it did its due diligence on acquiring SnapNames. In fact, I gave Oversee.net’s due diligence team a “domain dunce” award in 2009.
But perhaps I should give myself a domain dunce award on this one. Because that assumption was wrong.
In testimony related to the Monte Cahn lawsuit against Oversee.net, former Oversee CEO Jeff Kupietzky explains that Oversee.net was fully aware of Network Solutions exiting before it concluded the deal:
Lawyer: Well, you’d already been burned on the SnapNames transaction at that point in time, hadn’t you?
Kupietzky: I wouldn’t necessarily characterize it that way.
Lawyer: Well, you’d already lost the Network Solutions account?
Kupietzky: The Network Solutions was not a diligence thing. And just to be clear, because I testified about this earlier, Mr. Ng made a decision knowing that they were going to pull, to carry on the transaction even though the transaction had a term component that would have allowed him not to.
“Mr. Ng” refers to Oversee.net founder Lawrence Ng.
Network Solutions has some of the best expiring domain inventory because it is the oldest registrar. The inventory instantly made NameJet a force to be reckoned with in the expired domain business. It was a big blow to SnapNames.
If losing Network Solutions wasn’t priced in to the transaction, then I’m surprised Oversee.net went through with the deal. But I don’t want to make any more assumptions about that.
Of course the most painful due diligence failure in the transaction was Nelson Brady’s insider bidding.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- NameJet Launches, Collaboration Between eNom, Network Solutions
- Network Solutions to Launch Domain Name Auction Service?
- 2009 Domain Dunce Award: SnapNames Due Diligence
These good domains are currently in pre-release.
I was just looking through some “old” domains currently available for pre-release backordering at NameJet. Here are some worth backordering. I haven’t checked any of these domains for trademarks, though. You should carefully consider trademark issues before buying any domain.
Squiggles.com – registered 14 years ago and every other major TLD is registered. A great brandable name. There are a few products with this name, though, so don’t park it if you win it.
DGMS.com – a nice acronym domain registered since 1994. As with any acronym, be careful about parking.
BrainTech.com – great brandable.
LocalFocus.com – perfect for today’s “focus” on local.
NetSol.net – you shouldn’t register this one. Network Solutions should. And since it’s registered at Network Solutions currently…
WashingtonGolf.com – great state golf domain
HSDG.com – good acronym and has a DMOZ listing
LeasedLabor.com – short term labor market and/or contract gig domain (hint: LeaseLabor.com is currently available for registration)
CherryhillNJ.com – townships’ official site is Cherryhill-NJ.com
HealthTek.com – nice brandable. Double check trademarks.
MemoryEtc.com – good domain for burgeoning memory training market
CreativeOnline.com – remember, “online” is the most common keyword sold in GoDaddy’s marketplace
TennisWeek.com – start an online pub about Tennis
NetAsset.com – financial or web services domain
InnovativeCuisine.com – perfect for foodies
FiveStarFood.com – another good foodie domain
CanineCuisine.com – for all the k-9 foodies
MegaSites.com – forget mini sites. Start a service offering mega sites.
LandscapeCompany.com – name says it all
FloridaLighting.com – ditto
VancouverHouses.com – I like homes better, but still a good one in a hot real estate market
BumperBowling.com – own the market
CommerceCenter.com – many uses
WallVisions.com – good for art or projection services
YourHospital.com – perfect for medical services directory, social network, or patient services site
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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When domains change hands or expire, “for sale” listings remain.
[Update: I received a message from GoDaddy saying a solution is in the works and should be complete within a couple weeks.] In October I wrote about how domain name marketplaces still struggle with “orphan listings”. These are domains listed for sale that have either expired or were listed by their previous owner.
A couple people have recently relayed to me issues related to orphan listings and how this has become a bigger issue with listings being syndicated to GoDaddy.
In one case exactly like the one I described in October, a customer tried to hand register a domain on GoDaddy.com that had already expired. The domain was still listed on GoDaddy Auctions, though. GoDaddy.com said the domain wasn’t available for registration but could be purchased on GoDaddy Auctions. The user ended up having to use the GoDaddy app to register the domain. (GoDaddy doesn’t show auction listings in the registration path to mobile users.)
I discovered another person on NamePros who won an expired domain backorder and promptly listed the domain for sale on GoDaddy Premium Listings. He was surprised what he saw when he searched for the domain on GoDaddy. Instead of showing his Premium listing, the site showed an old Sedo “buy now” listing from the previous owner.
I know there are domains I own that still show up for sale on Sedo that were listed by previous owners. This can cause a whole slew of problems. I keep waiting for the day that someone files a UDRP on one and claims I listed it for sale on Sedo…when it was really someone else.
There are solutions, at least when it comes to fixed priced domains. Both Afternic and Sedo have mechanisms in place to monitor domains listed with instant transfer capabilities. But that doesn’t cover all domains, as was the case here.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Domain Marketplaces Still Grapple with Orphaned Listings
- My Sales Results from One Year of Go Daddy Premium Listings
- GoDaddy Premium Listings Back Up to 30%
Goldberger featured in TV news story about MiamiPolice.com.
Domain name attorney Ari Goldberger of ESQwire.com was featured in an NBC Miami story last week about MiamiPolice.com.
The Miami Police let the domain name expire a couple years ago and it was picked up by someone who now parks the domain with DomainSponsor. While I’m not sure why NBC Miami just did this story now (slow news week for the holidays?), it’s good to see Goldberger was interviewed for the story.
It turns out the Miami Police only owned the domain for a short time and never really used it, favoring their official web site Miami-Police.org. So they decided it wasn’t worth the $35 to renew the domain name.
The story reads:
Police spokesman Delrish Moss underscored that not having miamipolice.com does not affect police services at all, and that a small purchase here and a small purchase there adds up in times of severe budget crunches.
That’s the government at work.
The video is embedded below.
(As a side note, does anyone think the reporter in this story resembles ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom?)
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- Rick and Howard Pulling Out All the Stops for TRAFFIC Miami
- TRAFFIC Awards Results Live from Miami
- Defensive Domains Registered for Miami Casino Fight
.Com and .net registry released more data on expiring domain names.
VeriSign has just released a beta of DomainCountdown, a source of data on expiring domain names.
DomainCountdown provides a wealth of information about domain names in pending delete status, and some of them are quite fascinating.
The baseline data for each domain has to do with NXD data — basically queries to non-existent/non-resolving domain names. VeriSign is in a unique position to capture this data.
But beyond that DomainCountdown also has some spectacular data about how the domain name was used previously.
Here are some data points I find particularly compelling:
What kind of web site was on the domain? Think e-commerce site, blog, parked, redirect, etc.
Did the web site have a shopping cart enabled?
Did the site have some sort of login?
Were there ads on the web site?
How often profanity found on the domain during the previous 3 month? VeriSign calls this “Brand Safety”, and it’s certainly something a brand should think about when buying an expiring domain.
VeriSign monitors Domain Name Wire so feel free to post feedback on the tool in the comments below, or send feedback to domaincountdown (at) verisign.com.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- VeriSign Releases Domain Traffic Treasure Trove to the Public
- Dynadot Offers VeriSign’s Expired Domain Data Treasure Trove
- FreshDrop Analyzes the Numbers on Expired Domains
Expired domain catching starts at $15.
In October I wrote about Protrada, which is like a dashboard for domain name buyers to find and purchase domain names. It works with a lot of major expired domain services including NameJet, SnapNames, and GoDaddy, and isn’t limited to expired domains.
Now the service has its own integrated backordering system for domains that go through the complete deletion process and are dropped by the registry.
The service is effectively an auction system exclusive to Protrada customers. Bids start at $15, so if Protrada manages to snag a domain you’ve backordered and you’re the only one to have it on your list you’ll pay just $15. Bidding increments are $5.
As with any true drop catching solution, its success rate will be determined by Protrada’s technology and its number of registry connections.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- ProTrada is the Domain Buyer’s Dashboard
- New Wall Street Journal article to cover domain drop catching
- Are Expired Domain Companies Selling You Out?
Bad things happen to former government owned domain names.
I just finished reading a story form The Ottawa Citizen about how Canada’s 100th anniversary of flight web site expired and (at least briefly) showed ads for escorts.
For the Canadian government it got the worst possible outcome. The domain name wasn’t just a parked domain; someone actively tried to take advantage of its prior use. The new owner apparently left a notice on the page:
“To previous domain owner: We bought this domain after expiration so it’s not our fault that you lost it. We put old content for this domain only to avoid losing good quality of it from SEO point of view. If it’s a problem for you contact us ASAP!”
The page now resolves to a simple parked page. But either way it’s embarrassing for the government with all of those links from respectable sites linking to the expired domain.
I came across a similar situation a couple months ago. The City of Austin let a domain name expire but still had time to redeem it. It had promoted this domain in print and web communications. When I notified the city’s tech department about the situation, the response was “oh yeah, we’re rebranding to a new domain name.”
That’s great, but for $10 a year you may as well renew and forward the old one.
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
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Related posts:
- iPad2.com Is Registered. So Is iPad25.com.
- Chicago forgets to pay domain name bill
- Governments to get first dibs on .travel domain names
Tool helps domain investors win domain auctions at lower prices.
Last week at TRAFFIC I had a chance to sit down with the team behind ProTrada, a (beta) system for buying domain names across multiple platforms.
The idea is simple: find the best domain names available on exchanges and expired domain sites and get them for the lowest possible price.
The basic features of ProTrada are nothing new; it’s how they’re all brought together that makes this a killer application. ProTrada has married domain searching with bid management. Big scale domainers have their own internal tools for doing this. ProTrada has brought it to the masses at $49/month.
There are a bunch of features, but at its simplest form this is how I think most users will benefit:
1. Use filters to find high quality expiring or auctioning domains.
2. Use bid management tools to place automated bids toward the end of the auction.
ProTrada is integrated with all of the major domain marketplaces including Go Daddy, Sedo, Afternic, SnapNames, NameJet, Pool and eBay.
In addition to helping domainers improve their business, ProTrada is preaching domains as an investment to the masses. This can only mean a good thing for the industry.
[ProTrada is an advertiser on Domain Name Wire. I am not being compensated for this post. There is a waitlist for advertising on DNW so I do not let advertising affect product reviews.]
© DomainNameWire.com 2011.
Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.
Related posts:
- Survey: Domain Name Marketplaces
- .Pro domain names attract buyers
- Domain Marketplaces Still Grapple with Orphaned Listings
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