Afternic Users Can Now Use Non-PPC Landers

Elliot Silver
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Afternic emailed its customers yesterday to let them know they could now more easily set up landing pages without pay per click (PPC) links on them. These types of “for sale” landing pages make it more obvious that a particular domain name is for sale rather than having a smaller “for sale” notice on them. These landing pages give visitors the option to call a toll free number to speak with an Afternic sales representative, or they can fill out an inquiry form. The asking price is not listed on the landing page.

An example of the landing page Afternic customers can implement on their domain names can be seen below:

Prior to yesterday’s news, customer were able to forward their domain names to this type of landing page, but it took more effort setting up forwarding for each domain name. This nameserver change option will allow users to set this up in bulk.

Commenting on this change, Afternic’s Alan Shiflett shared the following information with me:

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Heritage Auctions Selling Company-Owned Coin Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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Heritage AuctionsCryptocurrency domain names have been quite popular of late. Domain names related to cryptocurrency continue to sell for high prices at marketplaces and auction venues. Many sold domain names are very specific to cryptocurrency (ie they have “crypto,” “bitcoin,” or some other crypto-related keyword in them). Other domain names are less specific and have been somewhat repurposed to make sense in the crypto space.

Coin related domain names have also become popular because of cryptocurrency. NameBio has nearly 1,000 publicly-shared domain name sales archived with the word “coin” in the last five years. I would imagine many of these have been sold to cryptocurrency companies or people speculating on cryptocurrency domain names. Because of the increased value and demand for these kinds of domain names, companies have been listing domain names for sale that were bought for reasons not related to cryptocurrency. For instance, Token.com and Tokens.com were recently sold for substantial sums of money to companies in the crypto space.

This afternoon, Aron Meystedt announced that Heritage Auctions has listed some of its corporate-owned domain names that could be used in the cryptocurrency space. The company bought them for its own marketing purposes, but the opportunity to cash in was too great to keep the domain names on the sideline. Here’s what Aron told me about these domain names and why the company is selling:

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Domain Names in Auction Should be Removed from Marketplaces

Elliot Silver
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It is annoying and perhaps a bit disheartening to add a domain name I won in an auction to one of my marketplace accounts and learn that it can’t be added yet because it is listed for sale in another person’s account. This happens when the former owner let the domain name expire or put it up for auction and did not remove the domain name from the account post-auction.

The annoyance comes from having to email the marketplace and ask them to remove a domain name from someone’s account so I can add it to mine. I need to wait for the marketplace to remove the domain name and then I need to remember to go back and re-add it to my account when they get around to it. The disheartening part is seeing a name listed for sale for $2,500 when I paid $1,500 for it at auction. I understand that timing is everything with domain names, but if a name didn’t sell for $2,500 when it was publicly listed for sale, it could mean that it will be more challenging to see a worthwhile ROI on my investment.

I am not entirely sure what marketplaces like Sedo and Afternic can do to scrub their listings of domain names in auction. Once a domain name is in a private auction, the domain name is no longer visible to non-bidders (including third party marketplaces). Sometimes a

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Diamond.com Changes Hands

Elliot Silver
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It looks like one of the most valuable domain names has changed hands. Diamond.com recently had a registrant change, and it appears as if the domain name was sold. In 2006, Diamond.com reportedly sold for $7.5 million. According to NameBio, the $7.5 million sale is the eight largest public domain name sale of all time.

Prior to the recent Whois change approximately a week ago, the domain name had been owned by a Montreal-based company. It appears to be the same entity that has owned it since the sale in 2006. The domain name is now registered to a different entity located in Toronto called Gonumerical Ltd.

When you visit Diamond.com, you can see a very limited “coming soon” page, so it is not clear how the domain name will be used going forward. I did a Google search to learn more about Gonumerical Ltd., and I found a press release about a

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It’s Silly to Buy Something That is Much Harder to Sell

Elliot Silver
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Making a living as a domain name investor is not as easy as it may seem to be from the outside. Serious domain investors spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) on their domain name investments. Those who are most successful know what to buy and how much they can afford to spend, but even with that knowledge, it can take a considerable amount of time to profitably sell these domain names.

Buying domain names that have value has become more challenging with more competition vying for similar types of domain names. In addition, it has become far more expensive. The cost to buy good to great domain names has gone up considerably. This is a challenge faced by everyone still building their domain name portfolios, including veteran domain name investors.

This has also made it even more difficult for people who are new to the business of domain name investing or for those who have a small bankroll. As a result of the increased competition and pricing for good .com domain names, many people seem

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Dax.com Sold via Sedo for $500,000

Elliot Silver
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According to a tweet from Sedo’s Frank Tillmanns, the Dax.com domain name was sold for $500,000. I believe Frank brokered the domain name with Hao Shen, the Country Manager for China at Sedo.

The Whois record for Dax.com is currently private, and the domain name is registered at Uniregistry. Using DomainTools’ Whois history tool, it does not look like the Whois information has changed yet. It is possible the buyer is keeping Dax.com at Uniregistry for the time being, although I do not see an archived record with Sedo’s escrow service listed. It is unclear who the buyer is at this point since the domain name is not yet resolving.

NameBio does

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