Daily Poll: Is Apple’s Use of a .Apple Domain Name a Big Moment?

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September 21, 2018

Apple is using one of its .Apple domain names to market its newest line of iPhones. I am sure some people, especially those with a vested interest in the new gTLD program, will look at this as a big moment in the short history of the new extensions. I am also sure that others will brush it off and say that it doesn’t really matter.

I want to gauge what readers think about this news. Is it a big moment in history, not important at all, or somewhere in the middle? Cast your vote now and feel free to share your rationale:

Apple Marketing New iPhones on a .Apple Domain Name

By

Elliot Silver

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September 21, 2018

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Apple is now using its .Apple domain name extension in a meaningful way.

According to an article written by Benjamin Mayo in 9to5Mac, Apple is using Experience.Apple as a marketing tool for its new line of iPhones, the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. From the article:

“Apple is using its own top-level domain in a major way for the first time. Visit http://experience.apple/iphone/ on a mobile device to see the new microsite for iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max.”

A Google search for “site:.Apple” shows just two other .Apple domain names indexed: Newsroom.Apple and Nic.Apple. The newsroom url forwards to a page within Apple.com, and it is primarily used as a link sharing url. The Nic url also forwards to a page within Apple’s .com website that discusses the .Apple TLD policies.

Surprisingly, the company

Valley National Bank Acquires Valley.com

By

Elliot Silver

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September 20, 2018

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Valley National Bancorp is a publicly traded financial institution (VLY on the New York Stock Exchange) with a market capitalization of nearly $4 Billion. The company operates Valley National Bank, a consumer facing bank that uses the three word ValleyNationalBank.com domain name for its website. Based on current Whois records, the bank appears to have recently acquired the high value Valley.com domain name.

After seeing the registrant information change to Valley National Bank on the Valley.com Whois records (courtesy of the Domain Monitor Alert tool from DomainTools), I visited the domain name to see if the bank is using it yet. The domain name is not yet being used by the bank, and I was forwarded to an offer form hosted on the Lumis Domain Brokerage website. In looking through my email records, I see that Lumis was brokering the sale of Valley.com. When I had inquired about the price in January of this year, I was told it would cost “mid six figures.”

I reached out to Hobi Michalec and Slade Michalec,

Turn Commerce Business Model is Smart

By

Elliot Silver

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September 20, 2018

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Turn Commerce is a company operated by Jeff and Andrew Reberry. The company operates several interconnected business units within the domain name ecosystem, including Huge Domains, DropCatch.com, and NameBright. The company’s corporate website also mentions NameBee and PremiumDomains.com as two additional business units. As an outside observer and customer, I think the Turn Commerce business model is smart.

Huge Domains is a business that owns a portfolio of hundreds of thousands of domain names. With GDPR in force, as well as privacy and other issues surrounding public Whois records, it is impossible to gauge how many domain names are owned by Huge Domains. The description on the company’s homepage cites 350,000 domain names. DomainIQ says the company has 962,600 registered domain names on its hugedomainsdns.com nameservers. Whatever the case may be, the company has a lot of domain names under management.

The primary business model of Huge Domains seems to be selling domain names. When you visit a domain name owned by the company, you are forwarded to a page within HugeDomains.com attempting to sell that domain name. There doesn’t appear to be third party advertising. The company offers two ways to buy a domain name – either a straight out purchase or a monthly payment plan. Observationally, it appears that the asking prices are quite reasonable, with many that I observed being in the low to mid 4 figure range. They’re not inexpensive, but they are affordable.

Huge Domains accepts credit card payments for their domain names, making the sale or lease process speedy. It seems

Daily Poll: Do You Own a 3 Letter .com Domain Name?

By

Elliot Silver

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September 19, 2018

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Yesterday, I wrote an article about the launch of the 3 letter .com wholesale marketplace, LXME. The marketplace platform was founded by Giuseppe Graziano, and it targets domain investors looking to buy or sell three letter .com domain names at wholesale pricing.

I have owned and sold several three letter .com domain names, including SHS, RER, KJP, PJP, and a few I can’t remember. At the present time, I only own one – Hoy.com. I thought it might be interesting to see how many readers currently own three letter .com domain names:

LXME Platform for LLL.com Domains is Now Open

By

Elliot Silver

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September 18, 2018

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Giuseppe Graziano just announced that his LXME domain name sales platform is out of beta and open to the domain investor “public.” From what I can see in the introduction email Giuseppe sent, LXME is a platform for domain investors to buy and sell three letter .com (LLL.com) domain names at investment pricing rather than end user prices. Giuseppe seems to have made it clear that this is not a marketplace for people to list domain names to sell to end users at end user pricing. It is targeting domain name investors who seek to buy and sell at wholesale pricing.

I was not part of the beta testing and have not signed up for a buyer or seller account, so I am not familiar with the platform. The email I received did not mention anything about listing costs or commission fees, so you will need to reach out directly to Giuseppe to inquire about that and learn about how to use the platform.

Because I don’t know anything about the platform or how it works, I will share the introductory email I received from Giuseppe a few moments ago:

DomainInvesting.com

Daily Poll: Is Apple’s Use of a .Apple Domain Name a Big Moment?

Apple Marketing New iPhones on a .Apple Domain Name

Valley National Bank Acquires Valley.com

Turn Commerce Business Model is Smart

Daily Poll: Do You Own a 3 Letter .com Domain Name?

LXME Platform for LLL.com Domains is Now Open

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