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Atom.com Brings Expert Review Process in House

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For as long as I’ve known the platform, Atom.com has relied on an “Expert Review Process” to evaluate domain names submitted by prospective sellers. This process, led by a group of experienced Atom sellers, helped accelerate the onboarding of domain names if they received enough positive votes.

That review system is now coming to an end, with Atom shifting to an in-house review process for all submitted domains. The company announced the change in a message to sellers, which I’ve included below.

Google Change Should Reinforce .com Dominance

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Google has operated its search engine on many different domain names. Of course, Google.com is the company’s primary domain name and the one that is most commonly referenced. Google also operates its search platform on many different local domain names throughout the world. Canadians might visit Google.ca, French citizens might navigate to Google.fr, and Danish citizens might find themselves on Google.dk.

These individual ccTLD domain names that Google operates may be some of the most well known and highly trafficked websites in their respective countries. In fact, each time someone visits Google.ccTLD, it has been a tacit reminder of ccTLD identity for citizens of those countries.

Don’t Delay Registering Trending Domain Names

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I regularly see people discuss the possibility of domain registrar front running. In fact, I’ve written about this topic before. By and large, I can’t imagine any reputable domain registrars doing this today for many reasons.

Front-running accusations often stem from someone searching for a domain name at a registrar, seeing that it’s available, choosing not to register it, and later finding it has been registered when they check again. Whois privacy complicates this because the actual registrant may not be shown. In fact, with some Whois privacy services, it can look like the domain name is owned by the registrar itself. In addition, default registrar landing pages can also muddy the waters.

ICA Webinar on Transfer Lock Changes

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Transfer lock policies can differ at each domain registrar. Depending on the situation and domain name status, some locks are required by ICANN and others are suggested by the organization.

Some registrars are more lenient with transfer locks that aren’t required by ICANN and others are more rigid. Some registrars will lock a domain name for 60 days after a Whois or account change and others will allow that lock to be lifted when requested. Most registrars will lock domain names after an inbound transfer, but some will lift it situationally. All newly registered domain names are required to be locked for 60 days after registrations.

Domain Count is an Important Metric

I have been using DomainLeads.com on a regular basis since it was introduced last year. I use the tool to see how many domain names are registered and developed for specific keywords. I find it to be helpful when buying and pricing my domain names.

I think the primary focus of the tool is on the TLDs developed figure. If I am looking to buy a domain name and see there are a dozen or more websites developed in different extensions with that keyword, it is probably a desireable domain name. Not only is there a good chance one of those other websites will benefit from upgrading to the matching .com, but there is probably a good chance a startup or other business would benefit from buying the .com for a startup or rebrand. This is probably obvious.

Spaceship Seller Hub Beta Opens Next Week

Spaceship CEO Richard Kirkendall recently announced the company’s domain name sales platform would soon open to beta testers. With his post, Richard also offered a sneak peak at the back-end control panel for the platform, and a look at the domain names that had leads allowed people to get a look at the landing pages.

This morning, Richard announced the Spaceship Seller Hub would open for beta testers next Tuesday (April 15):

Recent Posts

Atom.com Brings Expert Review Process in House

1
For as long as I’ve known the platform, Atom.com has relied on an “Expert Review Process” to evaluate domain names submitted by prospective sellers....

Google Change Should Reinforce .com Dominance

0
Google has operated its search engine on many different domain names. Of course, Google.com is the company’s primary domain name and the one that...

Don’t Delay Registering Trending Domain Names

4
I regularly see people discuss the possibility of domain registrar front running. In fact, I've written about this topic before. By and large, I...

ICA Webinar on Transfer Lock Changes

4
Transfer lock policies can differ at each domain registrar. Depending on the situation and domain name status, some locks are required by ICANN and...

Domain Count is an Important Metric

1
I have been using DomainLeads.com on a regular basis since it was introduced last year. I use the tool to see how many domain...