The NameSummit conference, which was held for the first time last August, has been scheduled for November 5th and 6th. The conference, which is being organized by Steven Kaziyev and attorney Jason Schaeffer of ESQwire.com, will be held at the Westin Times Square hotel in New York City. This year’s conference was originally scheduled for the first week in August, but it was rescheduled to November after receiving feedback from attendees who preferred a conference in the Fall rather than during the Summer.

NameSummit was well received last year, as you can read in the DNJournal recap article. The conference featured an array of speakers covering domain investing, law, branding, social media, and other topics that would be of interest to domain investors.

Following the inaugural NameSummit conference last year, Steven and Jason hosted a Real Estate Summit event in New York City with a bit of a different format than NameSummit. Jason explained that they are going to use some of what they learned hosting the real estate event to make NameSummit better than last year: → Read More

When it comes to privately buying or selling domain names, I would say that I am a stickler for contracts. Even when I do private deals with people I know and trust, I almost always use a purchase agreement. In the event something unexpected happens in the short term or over a longer period of time, I want to make sure everything is outlined and agreed to in writing.

I understand why a purchase agreement can be burdensome. It might be silly to agree to buy a name for $50 on NamePros and ask the seller to sign a 4 page contract. Purchase agreements can also be expensive to have drafted for a business, and a boilerplate agreement may not suffice.

That said, I would be interested in knowing other people’s habits when it comes to purchase agreements. Feel free to share thoughts in addition to voting below.

In a press release sent out this morning, CentralNic announced that it will acquire KeyDrive, the company that operates the Key Systems group and Moniker. The acquisition price is reported as “an initial consideration of $35.8m,” so I am not sure if that means additional consideration will be paid at a later date or if that is the total amount.

Of particular interest to US-based domain investors is the Moniker acquisition. Moniker, which was founded by Monte Cahn, was once one of the most popular domain registrars amongst domain investors. The company also ran successful domain auctions, particularly those held during the TRAFFIC conference. Moniker has had a difficult go of things over the last 5+ years or so, which has been chronicled by Andrew Allemann over the years.. It will be worth watching to see what CentralNic does with this once popular domain registrar brand.

The press release with full details is below (you will note that the press release refers to a merger but the email subject says it is an acquisition): → Read More

I read the well deserved platitudes towards Laurie Kirk after she announced her retirement this past week. One of the reasons Laurie is so appreciated is because she became the NameJet point person for so many people. If there was any technical or other issue, Laurie has been the person to contact. I know if I contacted her, she would fix the issue, get me an answer about something, or put me in touch with someone who could take care of the issue.

Every company in the domain industry should have a point person to contact. This has to be a tough job, but I think it is very helpful to customers and promotes goodwill within the domain industry.

One thing I have noticed is that people tend to fire away on domain forums if something goes wrong (or if they think something is going wrong) rather than trying to resolve an issue privately. Perhaps this is because of historical problems with companies, distrust, language issues, or a → Read More

If you read or watch the news, one domain name is likely to stand out in the reporting: DCLeaks.com. For those who haven’t been following the news reports, here’s information from the Wikipedia entry about DC Leaks:

“DCLeaks (also known as DC Leaks) is a website that was established in June 2016. Since its creation, it has been responsible for publishing leaks of emails belonging to multiple prominent figures in the United States government and military. Cybersecurity research firms say the site is a front for the Russian cyber-espionage group Fancy Bear. On July 13th, 2018, an indictment was made against 12 Russian GRU military officers; it alleges that DC Leaks is part of a Russian military operation.”

Interestingly, it looks like DCLeaks.com is now owned by BuyDomains, and the company has it listed for sale. The asking price of DCLeaks.com is $3,288. The company currently has it parked, where it is showing politics-related PPC links. It would be very interesting to know how much traffic the domain name gets with its notoriety – and how much money the domain name earns from PPC advertising.

I looked at NameBio, and I do not see any → Read More

GoDaddy posted a job opening, and the new hire will likely have an impact on the domain name business. GoDaddy is looking to hire a Director of Product Management for its Domains Aftermarket. I believe this covers everything from GoDaddy Auctions to Afternic to the company’s NameFind domain name portfolio. As such, the new hire will play a role in developing and managing products and services used by domain investors.

Here’s an excerpt from the job listing, which covers the primary role of the position: → Read More