Could FB.CO be The Next Facebook Domain Name Acquisition Confirmation?

Elliot Silver
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6

Facebook .CO Domain Registry

Earlier this afternoon, I speculated that FB.com could possibly be used by Facebook for the expected launch of the Facebook mail client/platform next week.  About an hour ago, Andrew Allemann published an article that confirmed Facebook was the buyer of FB.com after a Whois update.

I am now going to take a guess that Facebook may have acquired or worked out a deal for  FB.CO from the .CO Registry. This is more of guess than was the FB.com purchase since the Whois still maintains the default “Restricted and Reserved names .COInternet”, but here’s why I am speculating:

If you visit FB.CO right now, you’ll see a MediaTemple server default page. If you visit many other 2 letter .CO domain names, they don’t resolve to anything. Strange that this appears to be pending set up but the other names don’t have any DNS settings at all.

Just before the O.CO acquisition for $350,00 by Overstock was announced, I had been looking at one letter .CO domain names to see if I noticed anything. As I recall, the e.CO domain name had a page announcing the upcoming auction, but just about every other domain name didn’t resolve… except for O.CO.  That name had a Media Temple server default page.

So… will Facebook or the .CO Registry have an announcement about FB.CO on Monday?  If Facebook did acquire FB.CO in addition to FB.com, did they do it for protective measures or to do something different?  Monday is going to be a very interesting day,

Go Ahead… Ask Your Domain Questions

Elliot Silver
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As a result of having a blog, I receive ALOT of emails asking every kind of domain related question you can probably imagine. Some questions are simple and require just a one word reply, while others are more complicated and thought provoking.

I haven’t always had time to answer all the questions that come in, especially when they require a more complicated answer or when I just don’t know the answer. I enjoy being able to help people, and it sucks to not be able to assist sometimes.

With that in mind, I decided to launch DomainQuestions.com, a new website where people can post questions and answers related to anything in the domain industry. Since many of the people who email me aren’t familiar with the domain industry, I felt that they wouldn’t necessarily want to join a forum, and they could easily sign up to post a question on DomainQuestions.com.

I intend to send people who ask me questions to this website to post them. On the site, I will do my best to answer the questions, and I hope others will contribute as well. I also plan to reach out to friends and colleagues when I see a question that I can’t (or shouldn’t answer).

One of the nice things is that I will have a place to send people when questions that were asked in the past are asked in the future. This will allow people to continue to post answers to older questions as well as newer questions. I am hoping this will become a domain knowledgebase, and I hope you will contribute or participate.

I am excited about DomainQuestions.com, and I hope to see you there.

Should Poker Companies Shift .NET to .CO?

Elliot Silver
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28


If you watched the World Series of Poker (or any professional poker tournament on television for that matter), you’ve probably seen all the big poker companies imploring wannabe poker players to visit their .NET websites instead of the flagship .COM sites.

I believe it’s due to US law regarding poker and gaming websites, where American citizens aren’t allowed to play poker online with real money. As a result, they aren’t allowed to market/advertise this “illegal” activity (this is all my thought and not necessarily fact). As a result, the poker companies promote the a .NET version of its brand which offers practice poker for fake money as well as tips and educational material.

The hope is that the players will realize the real action is found at the corresponding .COM and they’ll visit that website in the future. I would imagine they probably also don’t mind that some people only really pay attention to what comes before the extension, like Poker Stars or Full Tilt Poker, and they will directly navigate to the .COM instead.

Now that the .CO Registry has successfully launched and sold over 600,000 domain names, I am wondering if it would be a good idea for these poker parlors to ditch the .NET and switch to .CO. The advantage is that people are familiar with “CO” as an abbreviation for company, and because of it’s close proximity to .COM, it would align better with the .COM.

Of course, it could cause some type-in confusion, but that’s probably not a bad thing for the poker companies.

Domain Tax Strategy: Sell Domain Names This Year

Elliot Silver
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2

When possible, I generally like to defer big end of the year sales to the following year for tax purposes. I am not a tax expert or even a fake tax expert, but I liked the idea of not having to pay taxes on a sale until the following year, so I always just assumed it was better to move a large November/December deal to January.

I read an article posted on Sedo and written by noted CPA and domain tax expert Sandra Brooks, author of the Domain Tax Guide (affiliate link). One very interesting nugget stands out from the article that was surprising to me, and it may change the closing date of a sale I have pending.

According to Brooks,

“Your best strategy may be to presume that the rates will go up, especially if you are in a higher tax bracket. You should lean toward selling domains now versus next year if the terms otherwise make sense. You may also want to defer deductions as they will become more valuable if the tax rates increase.”

As with all tax guidance and advice, it’s always best to speak with your own accountant who knows your business and financial situation. Because of seeing this article, it will give me something to ask my accountant, since I would have just assumed it would be smarter to close the sale in January.

Choosing a Domain Name to Develop

Elliot Silver
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14

Most domain investors have contemplated development at one point or another. Some people move forward with development projects and others opt to simply be a domain investor instead of trying their luck at development.  Here are a few things to consider:

1) Cost of development and  maintenance. Programming, security updates, and design work can be expensive. Weigh these costs against the realistic  profitability  expectation to see if it’s worth it.

2) Time commitment. Many websites aren’t (or shouldn’t be) “set it and forget it.” Think about how much time it will take to update the site (content, upgrades, inventory…etc) and determine if you’ll be able to commit that amount of time.

3) Advertising, marketing, and SEO budget. Even if you have a great website on a category defining domain name, you will still need to spend money advertising your new site and doing SEO work to get traffic. Think about whether you’ll be able to afford to do this – either with your own time or funds.

4) Add value to the domain name. If you develop the domain name, is it likely going to make an impact in search rankings? Will a potential buyer just scrap your website upon domain acquisition? It’s likely that your development won’t hurt the domain name, but if it doesn’t really enhance its value by more than you’re paying to develop it, you might want to reconsider.

5) Interesting topic. If the development topic isn’t of interest to you and you have no interest in learning more about it or dedicating time to it, you might want to pass. It’s not fun to have to research a topic you have no interest in … like tropical birds in my case.

There are a lot of considerations to make before devoting your time and your money to building a website. Sometimes we see huge sales like Diapers.com / Soap.com and we think we can easily take a big domain name, build it out, and sell it for a great ROI. The truth is that most of us won’t be able to do it.

Think about these things before you throw your good money after “bad.”

Advertise to Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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12

I get a lot of inquiries about advertising on my blog, and I’ve been very lucky when it comes to advertiser renewals. As a result, I don’t often have openings on my blog for advertisers. I wish I could add more space for advertising, but I don’t think that would be fair to readers or other advertisers.

With that being said, I want to make a recommendation to domain companies who are looking to advertise to domain investors and others who are interested in Internet business, entrepreneurship, ecommerce, and other related types of articles.

Advertising space looks to be available on two blogs I read whenever they are updated – DotWeekly.com and DomainShane.com.  Both Jamie and Shane have been writing very insightful articles, which take a considerable amount of time. They are able to offer a different perspective on things, and the information they share is invaluable.

As anyone who has built a website or who writes frequently knows, it isn’t easy to write for a living. Not only is it time consuming, but it can be frustrating and/or draining when people post rude commentary that is critical for the sake of making themselves feel better or simply to put someone else down.

To those of you who have emailed me in the past to advertise your services or products but I wasn’t able to accommodate you, I ask you to consider advertising on sites like Jamie’s and/or Shane’s. They put a considerable amount of effort into their articles, and I bet you’ll see a good return on your advertising investment.

Have a great weekend.

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