Geographic Domain Names

Poll: Will NorthDakota.com Sell in Auction?

About a week ago, I noticed that NorthDakota.com was coming up for auction in Sedo’s Great Domains auction. It caught my eye because US state .com domain names do not come on the market all that often, and I think the reserve price range of $50,000 – $99,999 seems pretty reasonable for this domain name. It also caught my attention because I remembered that Ron Jackson wrote an article about its acquisition.

The auction just started and there have not been any bids placed yet. I am curious if readers think the domain name will sell:


VisitQatar.com Subject of UDRP (Updated)

A UDRP was filed at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) against the geographic tourism VisitQatar.com domain name. The UDRP is WIPO Case D2019-1758. I think this is going to be an interesting UDRP proceeding to observe.

Texas.com Acquired by Brent Oxley

Over the weekend, I noticed a registrant change in my DomainTools Whois Monitor alert email related to Texas.com. The domain name, which had been registered under Whois privacy proxy since 2015, is now registered to Brent Oxley. Brent founded and sold HostGator, and he now owns a portfolio of exceptional domain names as investments. Brent also lives in the state of Texas.

I reached out to Brent to confirm the acquisition and see if he could share the sale price. Here’s what Brent told me via email:

Malibu.com Gets a High Bid of $518k but Remains Unsold

Malibu.com was up for auction last week with a minimum opening bid of $250,000. At the conclusion of yesterday’s auction, the domain name had a high bid of $518,000, as reported by Joshua Schoen on Twitter:

The auction was managed and promoted by Millitzer Capital, so I reached out to Tom Millitzer to learn if the domain name was sold at auction. According to Mr. Millitzer, the owner of the domain name had the ability to accept or reject the high bid in the auction, and the owner decided to not accept the $518,000 bid.

Here is a comment I received from Mr. Millitzer about the Malibu.com domain name auction:

.NYC Running “Best of Boroughs” Contest with $25k in Prizes

Neustar, the company that operates the .NYC registry, is running a contest to help promote its .NYC extension locally. The contest is dubbed the “Best of Boroughs,” and it will award five prizes in the amount of $5,000 each. There will be one winner chosen from each of New York City’s five boroughs (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, The Bronx, and Staten Island).

The contest is for people and organizations who use a .NYC domain name for their website. Here’s how the contest is described:

Best of the Boroughs in a citywide contest that celebrates the local businesses, organizations and community individuals that make our city, and each borough, a unique place to live. These individuals love the City so much it’s in their web address.

Entrants across NYC will submit applications on what makes their .nyc business, website, store, organization or idea the best of their borough. There will be one winner chosen from each of the five boroughs and named the Best of Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens or Staten Island, depending on the borough in which they reside.

The contest is open to “any business or entity with a working .nyc website in use prior to 9/4/2018.” I am sure there are

How I Evaluate GeoKeyword Domain Names

I own a fair amount of geographic keyword domain names. I don’t know how many I have right now, but I would guess the number is around 30+/-. I have only sold a few of them in the last few years, but I want to share some thoughts I consider before purchasing them (typically in auction or hand registrations).

Most of the geographic keyword domain names I own have the following attributes:

  • .com
  • Medium to large US city
  • Keyword is relevant to city
  • The keyword industry is large enough that there are many prospective buyers
  • Solid keyword sales history

One of the more important aspects is the relevance to the city. Buying snow related domain names might be good for northeastern US cities, but they would not be good for Florida cities. This is probably common sense, but it is something that needs to be considered at the outset.

When evaluating domain names,

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