I happened to come across a domain industry company’s Better Business Bureau rating and thought it might be interesting to see the ratings for various companies in the domain industry.

Since some companies have multiple lines of business and offerings, the ratings can be based on on-domain name components.  I believe that ratings can vary depending on the length of time the company has been in business and possibly whether it is a member of the BBB.  You can read all of the factors that go into a company rating on the BBB website.

This is a random assortment of domain industry companies:

• Dynadot – A+
• Moniker  – B+
• DomainTools – A-
• Google – A
• Yahoo – A+
• Escrow.com  – A+
• Go Daddy  – A+
• Snapnames  – A+
• NameMedia  – A+
• Sedo  – A+
• NameJet  – A-
• Name.com  – A+
• Enom – A+
• Web.com – A+
• BuyDomains  – A
• Domain Capital – A
• ICANN – C+

I am sure I missed some domain name related companies, so feel free to post them below. Do you think the BBB is still looked at by consumers as much as before with ratings from companies like Yelp?

Klout, a social media analytics and ranking start up, recently added “Domainname” as a featured topic category. It doesn’t seem like Klout is giving this topic to many domain investors, but it appears that domain investing will soon be a viable and searchable topic on Klout.

When you click the “domainname” topic link, an error message of sorts pops up stating, “Sorry, we don’t have enough data to create a page for this topic yet. We’re continuing to grow, so please check back later!”

I would assume this new topic will eventually turn into “Domain Names” or “Domain Investing” as it’s of similar nature to SEO, both of which should be considered offshoots of the popular Technology topic. Since there are a few Domain Industry lists on Klout, I would assume that more domain name investors will have this topic added to their profiles.

I think it’s a good start and would suggest that the topic title be changed to one of the aforementioned titles.

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!

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: