Thanks to Patrick and Ray

Elliot Silver
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Last week, I noted that the Domaining.com domain sale netted over $20,000 in its  inaugural  edition. The beneficiaries of the sale were domain bloggers who helped spread the word about the sale with articles and newsletters, and the 10% sales commission was divided amongst those people.

In total, each of the 22 bloggers who accepted the payment received $95 for their efforts. Over the weekend, Francois deposited the commission payments into each of the bloggers’ eCop.com accounts.

I want to give a big “Thank You” to Patrick from ScienceFiction.com and Ray from HybridDomainer.com  who each donated their share of the commission to my fundraising effort for the Ronald McDonald House, helping children with cancer in their families. The fundraising total is around $500 year to date, I am confident I will be able to help raise $10,000 this year.

THANK YOU!

Escrow.com: $1 Billion+ in Transactions

Elliot Silver
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I just saw a press release from Escrow.com announcing that it recently “surpassed 1 billion dollars in secured transactions.” Wow… that is an impressive number, which I think can be attributed to its top quality customer service and the level of trust in its brand. When it comes to larger transactions with buyers or sellers I don’t know, I almost exclusively use Escrow.com to complete these transactions.

According to the press release, 2011 was a banner year for the company. Due to the volume of business, Escrow.com increased its staffing numbers by 40%, and the company moved to a larger facility to accomodate the additional staff. When you call, you almost always get to speak with a customer service representative within seconds, and the company is very responsive to emails.

Escrow.com does a lot more than domain name transactions, but it would be interesting to learn what percentage of that $1 billion+ was comprised of domain sales.

Press Release below:

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Tucows CEO Elliot Noss Discusses SOPA on Canadian Radio

Elliot Silver
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If you’ve been following the SOPA legislation discussion, you know today is a pretty big day on the Internet. A number of companies and organization are blacking out their websites, and others are showing messages on their websites to inform visitors about the repercussions of SOPA should it pass into law.

Tucows is a Canada-based, publicly traded domain registrar,  hosting company, and much more, and its CEO Elliot Noss was interviewed about SOPA on CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning in Toronto this morning. I thought it might be of interest to you, so the interview is embedded below.

.Com & .Net Prices Increasing Tomorrow

Elliot Silver
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As you should be aware by now, the price of .com and .net domain names will increase tomorrow, January 15, 2012. While some registrars are passing the exact price increase percentage along to clients, others use this as an opportunity to raise prices even higher.

Here are the price increase details from Verisign, the company that operates the .com and .net domain registries:  “Verisign announced that as of Jan. 15, 2012, the registry fee for .com domain names will increase from $7.34 to $7.85 and that the registry fee for .net domain names will increase from $4.65 to $5.11.” Keep in mind these are the wholesale prices and not the retail prices we pay.

If you have .com and .net domain names to renew in the near future, or if you want to renew some of your better domain names at the current lower price, you should take steps to do that ASAP today. Come tomorrow, prices will be increased across the board.

Marijuana.com Deal Made Possible By Escrow.com Domain Name Holding Transaction

Elliot Silver
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8

At the end of November 2011, I learned that Marijuana.com had been purchased by WeedMaps Media, Inc., an entity of the publicly traded  General Cannabis, Inc. The reported acquisition price was $4.20 million.

At the beginning of the year, additional details emerged about the transaction, and Mike Berkens reported  (via George Kirikos) that there was more to the transaction. According to Berkens, “the down payment was only $125,000. The balance is payable under a promissory note for $4,125,000. The promissory note calls for 69 payments of 60,658.55 each starting on January 18, 2012.”

This morning, I learned a bit more about the transaction, and the news will benefit other domain owners who wish to purchase a domain name and pay over an extended period of time.

The Marijuana.com deal was consummated using the Domain Name Holding transaction at Escrow.com.  This escrow service is designed for high dollar transactions (generally $75,000 and higher),  where the buyer and seller agree  to hold the domain name or names in escrow while the buyer makes  scheduled payments. This type of transaction had been available before in private, but now it is publicly available.

The minimum term to do a deal like this is three months, and payments can be made for up to 5 years, although it could possibly be lengthened by speaking directly with Escrow.com.

I asked Justin Hartfield, co-founder of WeedMaps, why his company chose to use Escrow.com for the deal, and he said, “they were one of the few escrow companies that offered domain holding at a reasonable price. They are also one of the largest and local to our company — just down the street.” Escrow.com is the recommended escrow service for large Ebay transactions and Cars.com purchases.

To set up a sale or acquisition with Escrow.com using a Domain Name Holding transaction, you can select  Domain Name Holding as they type of transaction and then select the holding period. After Escrow.com has signed contracts and secured the first payment with the escrow fee, they request control of the domain.  All domain names are held in the company’s secure account at Go Daddy with privacy for the entire term.

In my business, there have been many times where a domain name is priced beyond the means of a buyer. Offering payment terms is a tool for domain owners to help close a deal, and with a respected company like Escrow.com offering the service, it might help you close a deal.

Breaking: Namecheap to Double Donation to EFF if 25,000 Transfers Are Made Today

Elliot Silver
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I just posted an article about the success of Namecheap’s  Move Your Domain Day,   announcing that as  of 1:30pm EST,  over 10,500 domain name  transfers were initiated to the company. As of this update, the number of transfers is now well over 11,000, and I just received some news from Namecheap CEO Rick Kirkendall.

According to Kirkendall, “We are ecstatic at the response we have received from the internet community. The internet is speaking and we’re proud to facilitate that and at the same time help a wonderful organization such as EFF in their fight against SOPA. That being said, if we hit 25k transfers today, we’ll double our donation to EFF.”

The company has now pledged to donate $50,000+ to the Electronic Frontier Foundation  if they receive 25,000 or more domain transfers today. Broken down, the company will donate $2.00 per domain transfer if over 25,000 transfers are made before the end of the day today using transfer code  SOPASucks.

As I predicted before, I think they will do it. Spread the news. EFF needs the financial support.

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