The semi-final matches of the 2018 World Cup are coming up this week. Belgium will play France and Croatia will play England. With the United States not participating in the 2018 World Cup, I have been supporting countries based on my own experiences in those countries.

I have been fortunate to spend time in all four countries. In Belgium, I enjoyed a bar in Brussels called Au Bon Vieux Temps (where I drank bottles of Westvleteren 12 in a bar unlike any other). I also thought Brugges was beautiful. I loved spending time in Dubrovnik’s old city, and Le Meridian in Lav was spectacular – especially the pool and beach. Paris is one of my favorite cities to visit (I once ran into Matt Overman on the street), although our trip to Reims was probably my most memorable experience there. London is the only city I have visited in England, but I have enjoyed all of my trips there.

If I were forced to choose one team to support, I would say Croatia. I may be biased because we spent half of our honeymoon there, but the country was beautiful and the people we met were all nice. I also know how supportive of their country the people are, and I can only imagine the intense passion they have for their football team.

Who are you rooting for to win the World Cup?

SexEducation.com recently sold via NameJet for $18,900. George Kirikos noted on Twitter that the sale price declined by 84.25% since it sold at the 2006 TRAFFIC domain name auction for $120,000. That auction resulted in $4.5 million worth of domain name sales, according to an article written by Andrew Allemann shortly after its conclusion.

In looking through the sale list, there were some exceptional buys, and I am sure some of the buyers made quite a bit of money by reselling domain names they purchased during the auction. I thought it would be interesting to see what readers think was the best deal from that auction. I had a look through the list of sales, and I shared what I think are the top 10 sales (no, the $200,000 Flowers.mobi sale did not make the list). I invite you to vote for the best deal of the auction. If you think I missed the top deal, you are welcome to share in the comment section.

I wrote about this in the past, but I am curious to know whether people consider one word .com domain names to be considered “brandable.” In the past, I considered made up terms and words to be brandable domain names. The thinking was that someone could build a unique brand name on a made up term. On the other hand, one word .com domain names can become a brand and might be considered “brandable” domain names.

For today’s daily poll, I would be interested to know whether readers consider one word .com domain names as “brandable” domain names.

I buy domain names in just about every way possible with the exception of forums. I buy my best inventory privately, but I would say I primarily focus on domain auctions to bolster my inventory.

Where do you primarily buy your domain names (ie where do you mostly buy domain names):

Morgan Linton recently wrote about .IO domain names being purchased by domain investors. ccTLD domain name extensions like .IO aren’t really in my wheelhouse and I don’t own any nor have I ever owned any.

Based on what Morgan wrote and what I have seen in sales reports for the last couple/few years, domain investors have been buying .IO domain names. I have also seen many startups use .IO domain names for their websites, and this adoption is likely fueling the interest in the extension.

For today’s daily poll, I would be curious to know how many readers own .IO domain names. I also added a couple of other options for people who previously owned .IO domain names or plan to buy .IO domain names in the future.

I am able to get a fairly reasonable idea of where people who visit DomainInvesting.com live based on the demographic data I can access in Google Analytics. With VPNs, traveling, and other ISP related issues, this is imperfect. In addition, this data is for everyone who visits my blog rather than the “regulars” who visit more often. I am interested in knowing where participants come from rather than simply where people who might find this site via Google live.

My family lives near Boston, Massachusetts. How about you? I invite you to be more specific in the comment section if you would like.