For as long as I can recall, the minimum and opening bid for domain names in expiry auction at GoDaddy Auctions has been $12 + the renewal fee. The minimum bid amount has changed to $25 for domain names entering into auction at GoDaddy Auctions. The change was announced in a blog post on GoDaddy's […]

NamesCon Global emailed past attendees this afternoon to announce that registration is now open for next year's conference. NamesCon Global will be held June 5-8, 2024 at the Omni Austin Hotel Downtown in Austin, Texas. Tickets can be purchased via EventBrite. NamesCon is currently offering a "Super Early Bird Special" for those who purchase a [...

Nearly two and a half years ago, WooCommerce acquired the Woo.com domain name for an undisclosed price. Since that time, the company has continued operating under the WooCommerce brand, and the shorter Woo.com domain name has been used as a forwarder. WooCommerce is owned by Automattic, the company that operates the WordPress platform. As of [̷...

A UDRP was filed against the generic one word Playhouse.com domain name at the World Intellectual Property Organization. The sole panelist, Robert A. Badgley, found in favor of the domain registrant and also ruled that this was Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH). The decision was published this morning on the WIPO website. Zak Muscovitch represen...

I had to be a soccer dad on Friday afternoon, and I missed the close of the Accelerator.com expiry auction at GoDaddy Auctions. When I returned, I saw the domain name had sold for $145,050, according to NameBio. When I clicked the auction page link, however, I saw a message that said "Auction cancelled," which […]

I learned there was a round of layoffs this week involving GoDaddy's Domains, Registrars, and Investors (DRI) Group. This is the team that interacts with domain investors and partner domain registrars. I do not know the scope of the layoff, nor do I know if employees who work directly with domain investors were impacted by […]

Many people confuse domain squatting with domain investing. Some use the "squatter" term pejoratively, but others simply refer to people who hold portfolios of domain names as domain squatters. They're not trying to be rude, but they don't understand the difference between the perfectly legal business of investing in generic domain names vs. the bu...

This morning, domain name parking service provider ParkingCrew announced a new user interface was launched in beta. The company made it clear that the UI is still under development, and it is not the final version that will ultimately be released. Instead, the company is seeking user input to optimize the utility of its UI […]

In July, Rick Schwartz announced that he reached a deal to sell the LUV.com domain name for seven figures. The announcement was made on Rick's private Twitter/X account, and he shared the value of the deal. Using DomainTools' Domain Monitor tool, I was able to see the domain name status changed as it was unlocked […]

At the end of July, I wrote about Spaceship surpassing 100,000 domain names under management (DUM). The registrar continues to grow, and its Founder Richard Kirkendall announced it has more than 200,000 domain names under management: In a few short months, Spaceship has surpassed 200k domains under management. We have had 63,000 domains transferred...

Squadhelp CEO Darpan Munjal shared a series of tweets about the growth of the platform. Darpan shared that revenue last month was higher than any other month and 60% higher than the prior month. Like other growing companies, Squadhelp continues to reinvest proceeds into the platform and marketing of the platform: We achieved record platform […...

If you're seeking engagement on Twitter in the domain name space, the best thing you can do is tell people you're looking to buy a domain name and ask people to share their names. For a greater response, make the request somewhat vague, and there will be a stampede of domain name investors in your […]

I do not know Nick Huber, but I see he has a large following on Twitter and frequently offers advice to startup founders and entrepreneurs. Over the weekend, Nick shared some advice about domain names: If youre looking for an available domain to start a business, youre doing it wrong. You need to buy a […]

Trademarkia is a website I use occasionally to perform trademark-related searches. This morning, I noticed a job listing the company posted on LinkedIn that could be of interest to someone with domain registrar expertise. Trademarkia posted a job listing for a Lead Developer for ICANN Domain Registrar Integration. From what I gather, Trademarkia is...

It's here! The Ultra-Premium Marketplace is live We've partnered with @HilcoDigital to curate an incredible collection of domains. More additions coming soon! Check it out https://t.co/uG1Ingr7xI If you own top-tier domains, now is the time to submit your very best pic.twitter.com/QlhiqrDU8u Squadhelp (@squadhelp) September 20, 2023 The Ultra P...

According to a press release I received a moment ago, Right of the Dot is auctioning "Web3" domain names in partnership with Unstoppable Domains. The virtually-held live auction will take place on October 11, 2023 at 1pm ET. Bidding is now open on Bid.ROTD.com. At the time of publication, there are 124 lots listed in […]

GoDaddy is set to introduce a Lease to Own purchase option for buyers of aftermarket domain names listed for sale via Afternic. This option has been one of the unique points of differentiation for sellers on Dan.com, a company acquired by GoDaddy last year. While I offer LTO on most of my domain names I […]

One of the most prominent military news stories kicking off the week is related to misdirected emails as a result of a common typographical error involving domain names. The country of Mali has the .ML ccTLD extension while the US Military operates on the .MIL domain extension. Here's an excerpt from the Financial Times article […]

I consider the number of registrations for a particular SLD (phrase to the left of the dot) to be one of the more important "signs of life" for a domain name. When I am evaluating domain names to buy in the aftermarket or at auction, I pay closer attention to those that have many other […]

One of the most helpful offerings from Dan.com is the easy to use Lease to Own (LTO) purchase option. Domain name buyers who do not want to spend the money to acquire a domain name at the time of the sale can opt to pay for it over a period of time when offered by […]

I wrote about GoDaddy's ChatGPT plugin, which is available to OpenAI subscribers within the confines of the ChatGT platform. At the present time, users must be ChatGPT subscribers and they must be on the ChatGPT website in order to use the GoDaddy plugin. It is my assumption that GoDaddy and other registrars already or will […]

Intellectual Property Attorney Gerald Levine was honored today with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Internet Commerce Association. Mr. Levine is a noted attorney who is an expert in law related to domain names and intellectual property. Not only does Mr. Levine represent domain registrants and serve as a UDRP Panelist, but he also wrote […...

I've read quite a bit about Squadhelp and its domain name marketplace. I like what I can see they are doing, and I enjoy reading the insights shared on Twitter by CEO Darpan Munjal. I also trust Hilco Digital's Andrew Miller, and if his company is backing Squadhelp, I like their chances of continued growth. […]

It is apparent that GoDaddy has been in the process of revamping its domain name appraisal tool. This became most obvious when expiry auctions in GoDaddy Auctions were missing their estimated values. Recently, domain investor Bob Hawkes noticed what appeared to be a change in the appraisal tool: I have not seen formal announcement, but […]

The 2023 edition of NamesCon Global is coming up in just over a month from now. The annual domain industry conference is being held at the Omni Hotel Downtown in Austin, Texas from May 31 – June 3. I received an email from conference organizers this morning announcing the entire conference agenda has been released […]

The largest domain name sale of the day yesterday was AirPlay.com. The domain name sold for $202,000 in an expiry auction at GoDaddy Auctions. I wasn't following the auction closely, but NameBio reported the auction result this morning: Yesterday saw $473k in #DomainName sales including: $202,000 AirPlaycom $10,000 iWebToolcom $5,650 EZto $5,450 Gr...

Last week, Hilco Digital's Andrew Miller shared that he and Larry Fischer brokered the sale of the Chat.com domain name. Andrew mentioned that it was "the most significant domain asset transaction in our combined 50+ years investing in and advising on premium domain names." Big News! In 2021, my close friend larry fischer, @domainnames, and […...

Squadhelp has become a leading brand naming marketplace, connecting business owners and entrepreneurs with domain names listed for sales on its platform. Led by its CEO Darpan Munjal, Squadhelp has been innovating while sharing a great deal of helpful search and sales data and insights to customers and prospects. This afternoon on Twitter, Hilco Di...

If you are a Uniregistry customer, you most likely received an email explaining the upcoming migration of the Uniregistry Market and parking platform to Afternic. The subject of the email I received was "Important notice – ACTION RECOMMENDED to move your Market & Parking accounts to Afternic within 6 weeks". Andrew Allemann wrote about th...

I received an email from Uni (formerly Uniregistry) that I initially thought was a Whois verification email and almost ignored. It was, in fact, a somewhat important email informing me that one of my domain names is going to be transferred to 1API if I don't take action sooner. Here's an excerpt from the email […]

Someone reached out to me on Twitter seeking advice for selling domain names. In a short tweet thread, I shared a few thoughts and resources that a new domain investor could use to learn about domain investing. I shared the tweet thread below so others can see, and I welcome visitors to share some good […]

Early this morning, Andy Booth tweeted about AI.com, asking if the domain name was acquired by ChatGPT. Andy presumably asked because the AI.com domain name is now forwarding to the ChatGPT website, a popular AI chatbot. Was https://t.co/s0wSPMb5dP bought by ChatGPT? Andy Booth (@360) February 15, 2023 AI.com had long been owned by Future […...

Last week, GoDaddy layoffs impacted 8% of its workforce around the world. I am sure there are quite a few experienced people seeking new job opportunities. In fact, several talented people I have met at GoDaddy were, unfortunately, laid off by the company. While checking out LinkedIn, I saw that Markmonitor, a corporate brand protection […]

Amazon has registered four new .Amazon domain names, according to a Registrant Monitor alert email I received from DomainTools this morning. The four domain names Amazon registered are: My.Amazon Home.Amazon Go.Amazon www.Amazon These four domain names were registered at Com Laude, a corporate domain name registrar. None of these domain names resol...

In some unfortunate domain industry news this evening, GoDaddy announced a round of layoffs that will impact "about 8%" of its global workforce. The news was shared today in a press release entitled, "A message from GoDaddy CEO Aman Bhutani." The content of the press release was an email that was reportedly sent to GoDaddy […]...

Last night, I saw that WIPO had posted an update regarding the Fox.org UDRP. Fox.org is a domain name registered in 1996, and I think "Fox" is a pretty generic term. The decision was listed as "Transfer," which meant the complainant, Fox Media LLC, had prevailed. I hoped it was an error, but unfortunately, that […]

Jordan Fried is the owner of some exceptional domain names. A few of the domain names he owns include NFT.com, PuertoRico.com, and Fried.com. This afternoon, Jordan posted an insightful Twitter thread offering some learnings from his domain name acquisitions. I think he offers some very good advice to people who are in the market to […]

I have been writing articles on my blog since 2007. I have been fortunate to have the advertising support of many domain industry companies over the years, and I appreciate that. By accepting advertising revenue, I have felt obligated to publish articles on a daily basis. I usually take the weekends off from my blog, […]

As the year winds down, I have been thinking about what to expect for the upcoming year. I am hopeful that it will be a good year, but I would not be surprised if the business of domain investing is more challenging than the past several years. It seems like economists and pundits believe we […]

Less than a week remains in 2022. This is generally a quiet week in terms of domain name sales, so I tend to spend my working time on some end of year tasks. Here's what I am working on this week… Throughout the past year, I have won many domain names in auctions that ended […]

Earlier this month when OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot was trending, I discussed some of the ways artificial intelligence (AI) could be used for domain investing. I cited a number of domain investors who shared the output of their ChatGPT queries on Twitter. One area that wasn't touched upon was how AI could be used to help […]

I am a highly competitive person. Whether I am playing a tennis match against a friend or playing a board game with my family, I always want to win. This competitive drive often shows itself when I am negotiating to buy or sell a domain name. Like when I am playing boys against girls soccer […]

This morning in my DomainTools Domain Monitor alert email, I saw that Text.com transferred from Namecheap to GoDaddy under Whois privacy. Text.com had been owned by Brent Oxley, and while he confirmed the sale, he could not comment further. There's a brand new website on Text.com, but the Whois record and landing page didn't shed […]...

A couple of years ago, I moved many of my inventory-quality domain names off parked pages in favor of for sale landing pages. I would guess less than 10% of my domain names utilize pages with PPC links on them. I was looking at my revenue report and noticed several previously-sold domain names continue to […]