Daily Poll

I am often on the lookout for domain industry news or news that will impact my business and the business of other domain investors. I am also sent quite a bit of news and/or stories that may be of interest to readers once I disseminate it.

Sometimes when I learn about something that may be newsworthy (a domain name sale, company or service launch, domain investor or company doing something noteworthy…etc), I have concerns about the veracity of the news or have concerns about the person or company. Oftentimes, it would either not be possible to have these concerns alleviated or would take more time than I have to give to have my concerns allayed.

With that being said, I am curious what readers think about these types of situations. Should I report the news as I have read it and leave it up to readers to determine whether they believe the news or not? Should I write about the news and mention my concerns about the veracity of the story or mention that I can not say for certain if the story is legit or authentic? Should I simply avoid writing about topics I can not prove or have doubts about?

I think this is an important topic, so please vote and consider sharing your thoughts in the comment section:

The long anticipated GDPR implementation date is this coming Friday. The Whois system changes that are coming as a result of GDPR are probably going to have a pretty big impact on the domain investment space.

I speculated that GDPR might benefit some domain investors, but I think it will likely cause many more hassles and annoyances than be helpful to investors.

In a post I published earlier this morning, I shared the ways I have been preparing for the implementation GDPR regulations.

Are you ready for the GDPR implementation that might impact the domain investment space?

GoDaddy updated its logo recently. Compared to the most recent iteration, the logo change is pretty drastic. The “GoDaddy guy” is gone, and the black typeface has changed to green. The font style remains the same, but it is still a pretty big change in the whole scheme of things.

Today’s daily poll asks, do you like GoDaddy’s new logo?

There are quite a few exceptional domain name lawyers who assist domain owners with a variety of needs – from contracts to disputes to escrow and more. I would think most attorneys who specialize in the domain industry have a background in intellectual property, and the domain name business is a very small niche when looking at the IP legal space as a whole.

A domain investor does not need to use a domain industry lawyer for most daily needs. An IP attorney can certainly draft a purchase or sale agreement and can offer counsel on a whole host of other issues. However, I would personally only want to use a domain industry attorney for dispute responses and other issues that need a nuanced understanding.

Today’s daily poll asks if you have used a domain industry lawyer before:

Generally speaking, I am a fan of leasing domain names. A lease provides a monthly or annual income on a domain name my company owns. The usage of the domain name can make it either more valuable for a future sale if the lease doesn’t work out – and it can make the domain name more valuable to the company leasing it.

I have offered lease deals on a few domain names. Several have not worked out over the long term, but I was happy to give the other party a shot at building a business on the domain name, and I was also happy to collect the monthly payments.

In the past, I wrote about some benefits to domain name leasing as well as some downsides to domain name leasing. I think it is important to consider both aspects before offering or agreeing to a lease.

Have you leased one of your domain names before?

Daryl Lopes, formerly a domain broker at Uniregistry, made a bold prediction about new gTLD domain names via Twitter:

I am a firm believer in GTLDS. One day, a single GTLD domain name will sell for over $1 M. #gtlds #domains #domainnames #onemilliondollars

— Darryl Lopes (@DarrylLopes) May 15, 2018

When Michael Berkens of TheDomains.com asked him when he thought it would happen, Daryl predicted it would happen within a year from today:

A year from today.

— Darryl Lopes (@DarrylLopes) May 15, 2018

There have been 3 six figure new gTLD domain name sales reported publicly this year. The.Club, Home.Loans, and Vacation.Rentals all sold for between $300,000 – $500,300. A seven figure sale would be a serious jump. Do you think Daryl’s prediction is accurate and a new gTLD domain name will sell for 7 figures within the next year? I presume Daryl means a cash deal paid all at once rather than some sort of payment plan or non-cash deal.