Verisign Price Increase Takes Effect Tomorrow, July 1, 2010

Elliot Silver
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I want to give you a friendly reminder that the Verisign price increase of 7% for .com domain names and 10% for .net domain names will go into effect tomorrow, July 1, 2010. I’ve known about it for a while but haven’t started taking any action until the last couple of days.

As a result of Verisign increasing the prices of domain registrations, commercial domain registrars will also have to increase the prices consumers pay for domains. I emailed several domain registrars to ask what the new prices will be and most were reluctant to provide those numbers, so unfortunately, I can’t give you more information on this, but you can figure it will be around 7% for .com domain names.

I’ve heard that one factor that plays a part in Google’s algorithm is the amount of time remaining on a domain name’s registration. Apparently, a website with a domain name that is registered for a longer period of time may rank higher than another similar website, with all things being equal. With the price increase about to happen, I’ve been extending the registration for several years on some of my key websites. Sure, it’s only a few dollars that I am saving, but I am going to have to pay the fee at some point, so why not now.

Some companies like Name.com are offering specials for domain transfers (the company is currently offering $6.99 domain transfers).   Additionally, the company is also offering $5.99 .COM & .NET registrations for today only when you purchase a domain name using the promo code “NEVERAGAIN.”

If you know of other special offers feel free to post them to let others know.

Compete Traffic Numbers & Fusible Report – LOL

Elliot Silver
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According to a post on the anonymously written* Fusible blog, “Elliot’s Blog experienced a big drop in traffic, going from over 46,000 unique visitors in March to under 21,000 visitors in April. Other blogs experienced significant falls in traffic – with Mike Berken’s popular TheDomains.com blog showing a difference of 20,000 visitors.”

As I was writing a reply in the comment section of the Fusible blog , my blog’s hosting/server manager wrote me an email:

“Here are the server stats if you want to dispute Fusible’s incorrect post saying you’ve gone down in your traffic:

April Total Visits To Your Blog – 64,684″

I also added that for my blog at least, Compete is way off… I checked in Google Analytics and Stat Counter, and the # of visitors in April was up a grand total of 226 visitors (according to Google) and up 951 visitors (according to Stat Counter), which is virtually identical and a negligible difference.

As you can see from the aforementioned traffic numbers directly from my server, Fusible is incorrect in stating that “the results aren’t that far off.” Likewise, Mike Berkens’ commented about the traffic report as well. In any case, I am just writing this to clarify my blog’s traffic stats, and as my advertisers know, I am happy to share my traffic numbers with them.

*BTW, I only say “anonymously written” because there is little information about the writers on the website (other than the fact that it’s a husband and wife team), and the blog’s domain name is privately registered.

Saturday Afternoon (Hangover) Updates

Elliot Silver
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Good afternoon and happy Saturday! Here are some updates for this fine weekend.

  • I don’t own any .tv domain names, but if you do buy this type of domain name, you might want to check out Latonas.com. There is an auction of top .tv domain names right now, including England.tv, Breasts.tv, Government.tv, and more.
  • Ever notice when you go out and tell people what you do, there will be someone who mentions how they had the chance to buy great generic domain names back in the day but for some reason didn’t?
  • I was at a party last night and met an original domain investor. He was the original registrant of Today.com, Shop.com, Office.com,   Information.com, and a bunch of other names that he sold several years ago. I was a bit leery of his story as a few other people have mentioned similar things to me in the past that turned out to be false, but when he mentioned that he still owns VO.com, Insurance.net, Hospital.net and Broker.net, the info matched up. He doesn’t consider himself a domain investor.
  • You know it’s a late night when you get home well past midnight and you start receiving your typical morning email notices like drop lists, domain transfer status updates, and Asia-based emails before you go to bed.
  • Some of my new domain acquisitions this month include GolfPros.com, HorseSupply.com, HorseStable.com, and NewYorkCityDogRuns.com (hand registered and developed).
  • As I previously mentioned, I have been working with WhyPark to help increase the revenue on TropicalBirds.com. My biggest regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. The site went from making around $1-2/day with Adsense to a projection of over $160 in May (over $5/day). It’s only been up for a 2.5 months or so, but as the site continues to optimize, revenue has been increasing.

ClosingAuctions.com – New Service to Follow Domain Auctions

Elliot Silver
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Francois Carrillo, founder of Domaining.com, recently launched ClosingAuctions.com, a website that allows visitors to track domain auctions from several top aftermarket websites, as the auctions are set to close. Visitors to Domaining.com and to the ClosingAuctions.com website can currently follow along with auctions from Sedo, GoDaddy, BargainDomains.com, Afternic, Auctionpus.com, and Latonas.com.

Once Francois is able to integrate Namejet and Snapnames auctions into his platform, I think the service will be even more beneficial to domain investors. According to Francois, he is in the process of working with both companies to onboard them, although it seems like Snapnames will happen more quickly. With thousands of daily pageviews to Domaining.com, it’s a good opportunity for these companies to get added exposure to their closing auctions.

Aside from its top placement on Domaining.com where domain investors can have a glance at upcoming ending auctions, another advantage of ClosingAuctions.com is that it offers information about the keyword(s) and search terms at a glance, including CPC, Estibot valuation, monthly searches, and # of Google results.

One of the most impressive things to me is that Francois has been able to create a large network of inter-related websites in the domain investment space. In addition to the aforementioned websites, Francois’ company also owns Valuate.com, Catchy.com, a popular Domaining.com newsletter.com, and a host of other projects that are in their infancy. When you think about it, I think it’s pretty neat to see what Francois has done in just a couple of years.

TheDomains.com & ElliotsBlog.com Separated by 7 Websites in Alexa

Elliot Silver
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I generally don’t pay much attention to Alexa rankings. I write articles of interest based on what I am doing and what I see in the domain industry, and I figure people will visit if they want. I know Alexa tends to be skewed towards Internet and tech focused websites, so as much as some people use it as a means of gauging traffic, I don’t pay much attention to it.

Yesterday evening I checked out the Alexa ranking for my website and was pretty surprised to see it below 25,000. I’ve seen an uptick in traffic, but the last time I checked it was in the 30s. I wanted to check a few other domain blogs that I read to see if they’re also seeing a “better” Alexa ranking, and I was very surprised when I checked the Alexa ranking of Mike Berkens’ Blog.

Out of millions of websites tracked by Alexa, Mike’s blog (23,128) and my blog (23,121) were separated by a grand total of 7 websites. I cross checked the Compete score, and we are separated by around 200 websites. This seems pretty minuscule in the whole scheme of things, and it’s always fun to be in the good company of Mike (and Judi).

Register.com Selects IDN Newsletter as the Exclusive Broker for its IDN Portfolio

Elliot Silver
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I just received an email from my friend Aaron Krawitz announcing a newly established relationship between domain registrar Register.com and the IDN domain experts at IDNNewsletter.com. Register.com selected IDN Newsletter to broker its in-house portfolio of IDN domain names. I think this represents a new revenue opportunity for Register.com and it says a lot about the knowledge of the IDN Newsletter team of Aaron and Gary Males.

It’s nice to hear about mutually beneficial partnerships like this, and I wish both companies all the best.   Today’s news release follows:

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As you might expect, Register.com has a vault full of premium names in its in-house portfolio.   The company is one of the oldest and most storied registrars with over 13 years in the domain and web services industry.   Register.com’s vault includes troves of premium IDNs that the registrar maintained until the IDN market began to mature.

Now, Register.com has decided to open the vault and sell a select portion of its IDNs to the general public.   As such, it chose IDNNewsletter.com as the exclusive domain brokerage platform for this sale.   IDNNewsletter is run by Gary Males and Aaron Krawitz, the duo who also founded IDNTools, IDNBlog and IDNDemystified.

Krawitz said “it is an honor to have been given access to Register.com’s IDN vault, and we doubled our efforts, hiring multiple sets of native speakers and consulting with our colleagues as we vetted and priced these names.”   Males added that “IDNNewsletter is serious about catering to our many newsletter subscribers and there are some tremendous bargains that you will be seeing in the coming weeks.”

Among the blockbuster names that will be up for sale are ラブ.com (“Love” in Japanese) and ×›×™×£.com (“Fun” in Hebrew”)

The highly anticipated IDNNewsletter / Register.com launch is planned for the first week of May and will be exclusively going out to IDNNewsletter subscribers.

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