Calzone: Domain Industry Calendar Website Launched

I want to share some news I received about Calzone.org, a  cloud-based calendar for the domain name industry. Based on the press release I received, Calzone will be primarily focused on tracking the dates for various new gTLD milestones.  Calzone was created by Tom Barrett, President of EnCirca, Inc.

With all of the new gTLDs expected to be released in the next few years, this sounds like it’s going to be a helpful tool. Even though the calendar was primarily created for business owners and trademark interests, I think it will benefit domain investors, too.

Here is some more information about how Calzone can be used:

“Once it launches, Users can browse the public calendar at www.Calzone.org or subscribe to receive updates to their smartphone, tablet or PC via any online calendar, including Facebook, Google, Microsoft Outlook, Windows Live and Yahoo. Subscribers may also utilize filters so that users can choose to track individual TLDs or subsets by category, such as Food & Drink, by launch phase, such as Sunrise Period, or even by IDN language script, such as Russian or Chinese.

The Calzone calendar will publish each new TLDs’ Start-up Plan, including the start date and duration of the Sunrise Period for trademark owners and other launch phases. After the launch phases have concluded, TLD Operators can then continue to publish on-going news and events via the Calzone calendar to continue recruitment of new resellers and further engage their target customers.”

I think Calzone would be more useful to me if it also had other domain industry dates in the calendar. It would be helpful if Calzone tracked the different domain name conferences as well as other events throughout the world. For instance, it would be great to look at the June 2014 calendar and see what domain industry events are happening in Europe. Even if the conferences and events aren’t 100% specific to domain investors, I would still benefit from it and probably use it more regularly.

Calzone is currently in beta, and people who are interested in signing up may do so now.

Condolences to the Family of Ren Warmuz

Ren WarmuzI want to extend my condolences to the friends and family of Ren Warmuz. According to a Facebook post this morning from Ren’s brother David Warmuz, Ren passed away at the age of 45. Ren had been battling Metastatic Colorectal Cancer for a little over a year, and his battle with the disease was chronicled on MCRC4.com, a blog Ren set up to discuss his illness and treatment. Despite the fact that there isn’t a cure for this type of cancer, Ren was determined to fight it, and he was able to live for a year after his diagnosis, despite being given only two months to live by his doctors.

Ren and his brother David founded Trellian, the company that owns and operates Above.com. Ren was active in the domain investment space, and he left behind many good friends and family.

Although I didn’t know Ren very well, I know that he is thought of highly by his colleagues and clients, and he was well respected by those who knew him. Ren will be missed.

My condolences go out to the Warmuz family and to those who knew Ren.

Photo courtesy of  MCRC4.com

Escrow.com Domain Holding Service Growing More Popular


 

I think the Domain Holding Service offered by Escrow.com is an excellent tool that can help close deals. The way it works is that buyer and seller agree on a price and a payment plan, and Escrow.com holds the domain name in escrow as the buyer pays using the agreed upon payment schedule. Having this option gives an additional tool to a domain owner when a buyer is enthralled with a domain name but can’t afford the asking price.

According to a tweet from Escrow.com embedded above, it looks like it’s becoming very popular. I reached out to Escrow.com CEO Brandon Abbey to ask

Announcing DomainInvesting.com

As you can tell, I made a big change on my blog late last night and rebranded it as DomainInvesting.com. In addition to this major change, I also changed the color scheme and made a few changes to the design of the website. I am very excited about the changes, and I’d like to get your honest feedback about it in the comment section below. Keep in mind, the design may be a bit of a work in progress.

I think you can appreciate the reasons I moved from a personal brand to DomainInvesting.com. The primary reasons I made the change are as follows:

“Coach” Brandon Abbey Gives Escrow.com Post Game Press Conference

Escrow.com has made it to the second round of the    “Small Business, Big Game” contest being held by Intuit. The overall winner of the contest will win a free commercial that will air during the Super Bowl. This would be huge for one of the best companies in the domain space, and I want to help support the company’s effort, especially since they are always there to support the domain industry.

Escrow.com CEO Brandon Abbey and the Escrow.com team posted a fun video today that I want to share with you. In the video,  “Coach” Brandon Abbey delivers an “after game” press conference to discuss how Escrow.com helps keep transactions safe and secure.

Check out the video and be sure to vote for Escrow.com (you can vote every day).

Steve Banfield Named SVP & GM, Registrar Services at Enom & Name.com

 

When I do business with a company, I like to know the chain of command in case I run into issues that aren’t resolved at the account management level. I don’t like to escalate issues unnecessarily, but it’s good to know who to contact when a situation requires it.

I saw a tweet from eNom this morning announcing that Demand Media named Steve Banfield Senior Vice President and General Manager of Registrar Services. In this role, Banfield is essentially the senior management staff at eNom and Name.com, the domain registrar it acquired in either December of 2012 or January of 2013. I believe Banfield was hired back in August.

Banfield is a tech industry veteran who has an MBA from Harvard. Here’s more information about his background (from his LinkedIn profile):