Peace Corps Domain Name Expires

Elliot Silver
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PeaceCorps.comIt looks like the Peace Corps has accidentally allowed one of its important domain names to expire. Although the Peace Corps uses PeaceCorps.gov for its website (and most likely it’s email addresses as well), the PeaceCorps.com domain name expired within the last week and it is pending renewal.

If a visitor goes to PeaceCorps.com right now, a Network Solutions landing page will appear, and there is a message in the top right corner stating, “peacecorps.com expired on 01/06/2014 and is pending renewal or deletion.” The organization should be able to renew the domain name to reactivate it as it was before.

Should the domain name not be renewed in the next few weeks, it will most likely be

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Bevii – Bad Execution at UNC

Elliot Silver
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BeviiI read an interesting story today about a guerrilla marketing campaign that went wrong. According to The Daily Tar Heel, a UNC student attempted to promote his new social media website, Bevii, and he “emailed approximately 17,000 students Tuesday under the pretense of an Alert Carolina message.” He reportedly had hand registered the AlertCarolina.com domain name to send the email.

Obviously this was problematic, but for more reasons than you might think. The student presumably made many people nervous when they received the email because it does look like a warning about a campus shooting. According to the article, the Bevii website is now

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Company Rebrands as Revenue.com

Elliot Silver
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Revenue.comYesterday afternoon, a press release published in the Wall Street Journal announced that a company called VIRURL, Inc. has smartly rebranded itself as Revenue.com. In the video I embedded below, company CO-Founder and CEO Francisco Diaz-Mitoma explains what the company does. The video hasn’t been updated to reflect the name change, and you can hear and see how the original brand name might be confusing to some.

According to the press release, this advertising company’s mission is “giving publishers the needed tools to earn more ad revenue,” and Revenue.com would help them get that message out there. Perhaps it’s just me, but a name like Revenue.com sounds like it would be a financial or accounting companny rather than an advertising company. Based on its mission, it will probably be a good fit.

The Revenue.com domain name has been owned by

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Merlin Kauffman Launches Soothe

Elliot Silver
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SootheIt’s great seeing some of the entrepreneurial people in the domain space starting new ventures. I want to share news about a new venture that was recently started by Merlin Kauffman. Soothe is “an online and mobile app that connects people who want to book same-day in-home massages with the best hand-picked massage therapists.” Wisely, Soothe can be found at Soothe.com.

Merlin privately  acquired  the Soothe.com domain name in May of this year, and the business was launched soon thereafter. The purchase price for the domain name was not released, but I am sure it was expensive.

According to its website, “Soothe is now the largest massage provider in Los Angeles, and has plans to be in every major city in the USA within 24 months.” That is some incredible growth to go from a startup without revenue to its current positioning. In addition to its massage service offerings, the company also has a line of massage products under the Soothe brand. One of the nice things about the Soothe name is that it is a meaningful descriptive term, and it’s also a great brand.

Congratulations to Merlin on his company’s rapid growth, and I wish him all the best as he builds Soothe. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Merlin making more news soon.

Go Daddy Social Media Team and Graphic Designers Working Overtime

Elliot Silver
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In conjunction with the new Go Daddy advertising campaign called “It’s Go Time,” the company has initiated an excellent social media campaign. GoDaddy’s social media team has been responding to tweets mentioning the Go Daddy brand and ad campaign, and the company has been publishing amusing graphics customized for each reply.

Have a look at some of the replies featuring new “Go Daddy Guy,” Jean-Claude Van Damme, including one that was sent to me this morning. The social media team and graphic designers are working overtime, and it’s pretty ingenious:

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Andrew Hazen’s Bobblehead Company: “Sales Near $10M”

Elliot Silver
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I’ve written about Andrew Hazen’s successful business ventures a few times before. I’ve met Andrew a few times at domain industry events, and I’ve been following him on Twitter. He is an attorney and a successful Internet entrepreneur.

This morning, Newday, a Long Island publication, reported on another one of Andrew’s startup companies, AllBobbleheads.com. According to the article, the “Hicksville firm’s bobblehead sales near $10M.” This is pretty substantial revenue and growth, especially considering how the company started.

There are at least two domain investors who have grown strong businesses in the bobblehead business. Warren Royal founded Bobbleheads.com after acquiring the domain name via auction, and he has also done quite well with his company. I don’t have any idea what his sales numbers are, but every time I speak with him, it seems like his business is growing.

I guess a good lesson to learn is that while an exact match domain name can be extraordinarily beneficial to an entrepreneur with a good business plan, an experienced entrepreneur with a good business plan can use a non-EMD and find considerable success, too.

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