.Com & .Net Prices Increasing Tomorrow

Elliot Silver
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11

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.

Namecheap Hits 25,000 Transfers Today

Elliot Silver
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0

As I mentioned earlier this week, Namecheap sponsored  Move Your Domain Day, and the company pledged to donate $1.00 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) for every transfer initiated to the company today.

By early this afternoon, the company surpassed 10,000 transfers, and Namecheap CEO Rick Kirkendall doubled down on his offer, in news that broke on this blog. Kirkendall promised that    “if we hit 25k transfers today, we’ll double our donation to EFF.” This was followed up with an article on the Namecheap blog confirming the offer.

Late this evening, it appears the company has surpassed the 25,000 transfer mark, and per Kirkendall’s revised offer, Namecheap will now donate $2.00 for every domain transfer. This means the company will donate at least $50,000 to the EFF.

Based on the all of the Twitter activity, tech news blog posts, and consumer action, it’s quite clear that the Internet community is rallying against SOPA in a big way.

It remains to be seen if action will be taken against other public supporters of SOPA, listed on a pdf on the House Judiciary Committee website. Companies like the NFL, Disney, ESPN, Time Warner, Mastercard, Visa, and others are all listed a supporters of SOPA. It’s quite interesting to watch this unfold, and I hope this action sends a message to our elected officials.

Why I Am Not Transferring Domain Names from Go Daddy

Elliot Silver
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33

I am entirely opposed to SOPA, and I’ve made my opinion known to people who are able to do something about it. I know that Go Daddy was originally in favor of SOPA, and then didn’t support SOPA, and the company is now supposedly firmly opposed to SOPA.

A number of  influential  people and companies have called for a boycott of GoDaddy. They feel that they should not support a company that supports a bill that can harm the Internet. Several companies have been giving special offers to transfer domain names today (like Namecheap).

That being said, I am a client of Godaddy’s (among many other registrars), and I am not planning to move my 100+/- domain names to another registrar.

From a financial perspective, I can think of many other things to do with $1,000 than spend that money transferring domain names. For $1,000, I can have a site redesigned, pay for an advertising campaign for some of my websites, can buy a nice domain name in the aftermarket, make a donation to a politician while letting him or her know I oppose SOPA, or just spend it on an expensive dinner and bottles of vintage wine. Whichever I choose, it’s better than wasting it on unnecessary domain transfers.

I also don’t believe that transferring domain names away from GoDaddy will do anything at this point. They’ve heard their customers and Internet community loud and clear. Whether they really are opposed to SOPA or are just saying they are opposed to SOPA because of the outcry is really a moot point for me.

I don’t feel badly at all for Godaddy. They made a terrible decision in my opinion and are doing what they can to rectify that decision. My account representative at Godaddy has always been helpful to me, and I don’t think spending my money on domain transfers from Godaddy is going to stop SOPA or make it more difficult for SOPA to pass.

I think Godaddy would be well served to start campaigning to their elected officials on why they now think SOPA is bad. That’s the least they can and should do to show that they now mean what they said.

I might not have the need to pinch pennies, but I am not going to wastefully spend my hard earned money to prove a point that has already been clearly proven.

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

Elliot Silver
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4

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.

Over 10,500 Domain Names Transfered to Namecheap Today

Elliot Silver
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8

Namecheap’s  Move Your Domain Day  is  almost half way over, and it looks like it has been a resounding success so far, especially considering the amount of marketing dollars the company has spent (not much in my opinion) on this campaign.

As of 1:30pm EST today, Namecheap has raised $10,635 for the  Electronic Frontier Foundation, according to the counter on the company’s home page. This translates to 10,635 domain names transferred to Namecheap using the special offer code  SOPASucks.

By the end of the business day in California, I would not be surprised at all to see over 25,000 domain names transferred to Namecheap. I would also imagine other companies are beneficiaries of this campaign to transfer domain names away from Go Daddy.

When you think about it, the number of domain names being transferred is a drop in the bucket considering the tens of millions of domain names registered at Go Daddy. However, this action sends a very strong message to the company and its new investors.

Done Deal: Web.com Completes Network Solutions Acquisition

Elliot Silver
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23

Web.com put out a press release this evening announcing that the deal to acquire Network Solutions has been approved and finalized. The deal, valued at approximately $576 million ($405 million in cash and 18 million shares of Web.com common stock), was originally announced in August, and it comes on the heels of Web.com’s acquisiton of Register.com in June of 2010.

This acquisition triples Web.com’s customer base, and it will allow the company to offer cross-sells and up-sells to customers. In total, there are now about 3 million “subscribers.”  According to David Brown, chairman and chief executive officer of Web.com. “This transaction more than doubles our revenue, triples the size of our customer base, and provides the expanded scale to invest greater resources in growth and branding initiatives.”

I am interested in learning more about the branding initiatives that were mentioned by Brown. Register.com and Network Solutions have built solid brand names over the last 15+ years, and they have arguably more consumer recognition than Web.com.

Do you think the company should re-brand under one unified name, or do you think it makes more sense to operate under different identities?

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