Domain Industry News

Credit Cards Now Accepted at Payoneer Escrow

payoneer-escrowA couple of months ago, I published an interview with Scott Reynolds, President of Payoneer Escrow. From speaking with Scott and Brandon Abbey, it was made clear to me that the company was going to make changes to its platform to help domain investors transact securely.

This morning, I was informed by Brandon Abbey that Payoneer Escrow is now “accepting credit card payments for transactions up to $2000.” This is a good idea because I find that some people that buy domain names from me aren’t all that familiar with wire transfers or are inconvenienced by having to send a wire transfer from their bank. Accepting credit cards makes it easier and quicker for those people to transact, and when there are less hurdles to completing a deal, it’s better for both parties.

One other update that was made at Payoneer Escrow is

In Memory of Lonnie Borck

lonnieI am terribly saddened to have learned about the sudden passing of Lonnie Borck. Lonnie was just 47 years old, and he leaves behind his wife and 5 children, who he cared for and loved dearly.

For as well regarded as Lonnie is in the domain investing community, he will be remembered more for being a caring husband, father, son, and friend. As I wrote when I interviewed Lonnie in 2007, he was a true “mentsch.”

Lonnie was very active in his local Baltimore Hatzolah (volunteer Emergency Medical Service), and he saved many lives. Lonnie was always doing what he could to help others in his community. One of the last emails I received from Lonnie was a fundraising plea to help the family of a friend who had recently died of cancer. Lonnie was always looking out for others.

I have known Lonnie for nearly ten years. There was

Rick Schwartz Sold Teem.com

Earlier today, George Kirikos tweeted about a $13.5 million round of funding for a company called Teem, that had previously been known as EventBoard:

George also mentioned that the company acquired the Teem.com domain name from well-known domain investor, Rick Schwartz:

teem-comOn Rick’s DomainKing.com website, he mentioned the sale of Teem.com, stating “Soon I will be announcing another deal for Teem.com, in which there is a cash and an equity component.”

I reached out to Rick to see if he could comment on the deal, and he said he

New ICANN Domain Transfer Policy Effective on December 1

ICANN LogoDid you know there is a new domain name transfer and registrant change policy that is being implemented by ICANN on December 1, 2016? You can read the full transfer policy on ICANN’s website.

In addition,  OpenSRS published a blog post about the policy change. Here is how the company stated that these changes will impact its customers:

Any changes to first name, last name, organization or email address fields for the owner of any gTLD domain name will now start a trade process
The process involves obtaining explicit confirmation from current and new registrants before a change can be completed
After a change of registrant has been completed, previous and new registrant need to receive notifications about the change, with no option of reversing the change
After a change of registrant has been completed, the domain is by default locked for transfers to a new registrar for the following 60 days

I believe this change is going to impact many of us who regularly buy and sell domain names.

One of the most obvious ways this will impact my business is

ICANN Comments on Contract Expiration

There has been a ton of political and mainstream discussion about the expiring IANA contract between ICANN and the US government. Despite some last minute efforts to thwart the transition, the contract has officially expired. I am not into political discussion and debate, so I stayed away from writing about this topic.

I am on ICANN’s news distribution list (you should also  sign up for ICANN news), and I want to share the news release ICANN sent out this morning announcing the transition of the stewardship of IANA functions. You can also read it directly on the ICANN website. Personally, I don’t think Internet users (or domain investors)  will see any changes with this transition.

Here is ICANN’s email from this morning:

Gregg McNair Launches Premium Traffic Limited

ptlMonetizing my domain name traffic has never been a major revenue driver for my companies, but it is a big driver of revenue in the domain business. In fact, according to Dr. Gregg McNair, “In ten years monetization revenues have never been higher and they continue to grow.”

I received a press release over the weekend that was timed to coincide with the DomainFest Asia conference being held in Hong Kong. In the release, the launch of Premium Traffic Limited (PTL) was announced. According to the press release, there have been a number of different brands within the McNair Monetization Group, and those brands have all been consolidated into one unit called Premium Traffic Limited. I was told that this move has been in the works for over a year.

Gregg shared a bit of insight into the company. “Being ahead of the competition in technical development and traffic quality are our two primary advantages,” he shared via email. In addition to timing the news with DomainFest Asia, the company also made the announcement in advance of scheduled product launches. “New monetization products are due for release this calendar year so we had to do something about brand confusion,” Gregg told me. Finally, the company rolled up all of its units under one brand for scalability. “The scalability of the platforms now enables greater processing hence the more open offering than ever before,” Gregg also shared.

In addition to

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