Contest! Make $50 by Selling Me Your Crappiest Domain Name

We all have crappy domain names in our portfolio. Maybe we were a bit buzzed when we registered them, had spelling problems, or there were other reasons for registering these crappy domain names.  Well, now’s your chance to make $50 from your most terrible .com domain name.

Here’s how it will work:

  • Everyone is entitled to submit just one horrible .com domain name they own
  • Submitted domain names must have been registered prior to February 1, 2011
  • On Friday morning (3/4), I will pick out the 5 worst domain names (in my opinion) and set up a poll
  • People can vote in the poll, which will close on Sunday night at around 10pm (one vote per IP)
  • I will then pay $50 via Paypal for the worst domain name, as voted by blog readers, and the winner will push the domain name to me.

So, look through your domain portfolios and select your absolute worst .com domain name and post it in the comment section (No trademark infringing names). If you post more than one bad domain name, you will be disqualified because I don’t want to have to sift through your bad names and pick the worst one!

When was the last time you made $50 from your crappiest domain name?

If you have any questions, post them here.

Domain Name for Radical Football, Founded by Mark Cuban, Has Interesting Provenance

RadicalFootball.comMark Cuban announced plans for a new company called Radical Football, which is expected to compete with college football’s BCS. I will spare you the company details since you’re probably not interested in that, but the domain name history for RadicalFootball.com is very interesting.

In 2007, a company called Maverick Media purchased RadicalFootball.com. Interestingly, it does not look like Maverick Media has anything to do with Mark Cuban, since Cuban’s basketball team is the Dallas Mavericks. It appears the domain name expired in 2008.

Regurgitated Domain News

I know Theo’s post on DomainGang this afternoon was probably made tongue in cheek, but I wanted to touch on the topic of “regurgitated” domain news since the DG article didn’t allow comments.

I can commiserate with Theo, because I know it can be  aggravating  to read an article on another website after writing an article on a similar topic, especially if it isn’t a “hot” topic and the author didn’t link back to the source. As a blogger, I often put a considerable amount of effort into researching and writing articles, and it can be annoying to see a similar article, especially if there are more comments on it than my original post!

That being said, I must say that I don’t spend a lot of time reading other blogs and websites. I check in on Domaining.com frequently, but I don’t have a lot of time to read other sites. I get Google News alerts related to domain names and companies in the industry, and if I see a news story covering domain names, I may write my analysis of it.  Similarly, I use the same sites as others, so if there’s a breaking news story that will impact my business, I will probably write my take on it.

In addition to Theo, I, too, wrote about Godaddy not providing Whois lookups on DomainTools. I was on vacation when Theo wrote his article and didn’t see it until today, and I saw Mark Fulton’s article just after I had written my article. I had it set to publish very soon after Mark’s, but I pushed mine back a couple of days because it wasn’t a breaking news story but was interesting enough to cover (and I didn’t want to purge an article I spent time writing). I also felt it was appropriate to publish because I wrote about a different aspect of the article, discussing the fact that Godaddy is essentially monetizing the Whois results pages.

Similar to the regular news world, there will always be more than one news outlet that finds a topic interesting to cover and to discuss. In my opinion, it’s a good thing to have multiple articles with various opinions about a similar topic…

except if I wrote about it first!

Oprah Launches Oprah Winfrey Network, Settles for OWN.TV, Doesn’t Own Own.com

Oprah Winfrey NetworkWith the new year now here, Oprah Winfrey has officially launched her brand new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), a television network created by the popular talk show host.

Winfrey’s company owns and operates OWN.TV, which currently forwards to Oprah’s website, Oprah.com/own. A message across the top of the website lets visitors know that Oprah’s regular website will return on Monday, so perhaps the new network will use OWN.TV as it’s primary url.

Unfortunately for Oprah, the network was either unable to acquire or not interested in acquiring Own.com, a domain name that has been owned by National A-1 Advertising for quite some time.

National A-1 operates one of the best portfolios of top descriptive domain names like Babies.com, Antiques.com, Free.com, Cash.com, Divorce.com, and many other great descriptive domain names.

Unfortunately for Oprah, the chosen acronym “OWN” has significant meaning as a generic/descriptive word, meaning that the domain name had tremendous value well before the OWN brand existed. Own.com is certainly a 7 figure domain name, if National A-1 was even willing to part with one of its key assets.

In my opinion, Own.com is a domain name that the network should make a significant effort to purchase, since it will probably want to have a premier web presence.

*** Update ***

Interestingly, on my way back to New York City today, I saw a HUGE Oprah billboard. It was promoting Oprah.com/OWN. I imagine that I am wrong and they don’t intend to use OWN.TV in marketing.

Top 10 Domain Tools Websites

I thought about this for a few days, and want to share my top ten domain tools and websites that are beneficial to my business. While this does include a few news websites, I consider them tools because the information provided is used to bolster my business.

These are in alphabetical order.

  • DNJournal.com (Weekly sales reports)
  • DNSalePrice.com
  • DomainBoardroom.com
  • Domaining.com (News Feeds)
  • DomainTools.com (Whois Lookups, Whois History, Reverse IP, Domain Monitor)
  • Escrow.com
  • Estibot
  • FreshDrop.net
  • GoDaddy (Bulk Domain Checker)
  • Google (Adwords Keyword Tool)

What are your favorite tools/websites?

Special Thanks to Domain Boardroom

A few years back, I was accepted as a member of Rick Schwartz’ private domain forum, and I felt that it was a huge accomplishment. Some of the most highly respected domain investors (who didn’t necessarily prefer to stay under the radar) were members, and it was a great place to learn and share.

After Rick’s Board closed a couple of years ago, a new private domain forum was started by Donna Mahony at DomainBoardroom.com. Today, it’s my favorite place to learn and share with  like minded  people, which includes well-known domain investors, SEOs, web designers, lawyers, marketers, webmasters, and other complementary professionals.

DBR is very lightly moderated, and it’s a place where some of the smartest minds involved with the domain industry meet and talk “shop” as well as socialize.

I am  privileged to be a member at Domain Boardroom, as I have learned a considerable amount from its members and met a number of people with whom I am friends and do business. There’s very little BS that’s often seen on the public forums, and it’s a great venue for learning. I appreciate all that Donna has done and continues to do daily, especially with her busy schedule caring for horses and other animals.

Because of some comments recently on a marketer’s blog about DBR (who is not a member), I wanted to show my appreciation with a public blog post.

I do hesitate to post this if only because I know it will invariably lead to additional membership requests, although I warn you that there is a strict membership policy (need to be trusted, known and vouched for by a few members, and a professional that gets along with the membership – which may be just as important as the other aspects of membership).

I was honored when Rick Schwartz accepted me among his peers on his private forum, and I am proud to be a contributing member of Domain Boardroom, which in my opinion, is the best place to learn and share in a supportive environment.