Is Godaddy Spurning DomainTools on Whois Lookups to Sell Domain Names?

Elliot Silver
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9

I’ve noticed something when performing Whois lookups at DomainTools for domain names registered at Godaddy, and I believe it is a fairly recent change. Instead of providing the full registrant information, there is a link to the Whois lookup page at Godaddy.

Interestingly, however, when you do a Whois lookup of a Godaddy-registered domain name at iWhois.com, the full Whois information is available.

When you visit the linked page on the Godaddy website, you are first met with the available domain names with the same term in other top level domain name extensions. Below this are available alternative domain names that can be hand registered, and further below this are premium domain names that can cost in the thousands of dollars.

There is also a link to Godaddy’s Domain Buy Service to help you acquire the domain name that is being looked up.  Finally, below all of this, you can see the domain registrant information.

Although this is a bit annoying for me when using DomainTools to lookup domain names, it is probably a shrewd financial move by Godaddy.

Standard Whois Lookup at DomainTools:

Whois Lookup at DomainTools for name registered at Godaddy

Whois Lookup at iWhois.com for name registered at Godaddy

Top 10 Domain Tools Websites

Elliot Silver
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30

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?

Leverage the .CO Godaddy Super Bowl Commercial to Sell Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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12

Godaddy Super Bowl CommercialAccording to a post on the .CO Registry’s blog, Godaddy will use at least one of its Super Bowl commercials to inform consumers about .CO on the massive stage that is the Super Bowl. Each year, millions of people across the world watch the Super Bowl, and advertising on it was one of the primary ways Godaddy first became a household name.

One can assume that when the Godaddy Super Bowl commercial mentioning (or featuring) .CO domain names airs, a lot of people will be interested in learning more about .CO domain names. They will visit Godaddy.com, and they will search for their favorite .CO domain names, hoping to register them.

Since there are now over 600,000 .CO domain names registered, I would imagine most people will find their coveted .CO domain names previously registered by others. Many of these domain names are probably owned by domain investors, and some of those names may actually be for sale, although consumers most likely wouldn’t know that or wouldn’t know to look.

It might be a very smart idea for you to list your .CO domain names for sale on Godaddy’s sales platform, where your name may be seen if a visitor searches for it or for something similar. The sales commission rate is very high at 30%, but when you consider the potential exposure, it’s not so bad.

Update: WikiLeaks.org Not Online, Neither is WikiLeaks.com

Elliot Silver
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8

First it appeared that Godaddy (or Wikia, Inc.) was monetizing WikiLeaks.com traffic that was intended for WikiLeaks.org website by placing sponsored links on the standard coming soon landing page.

Next, it appeared that Godaddy had taken down all of the sponsored links on the WikiLeaks.com landing page, perhaps in response to complaints about it monetizing the traffic. Some people still felt this wasn’t the right thing to do and thought that Godaddy should not have WikiLeaks.com resolve at all.

Now, the day after the DNS was removed from WikiLeaks.org, effectively taking it offline (until it moved offshore to WikiLeaks.ch), it appears that WikiLeaks.com has nothing on its website. The current WikiLeaks.com website says “Sorry this site is not currently available.”

WikiLeaks.com Update: GoDaddy Does The Right Thing

Elliot Silver
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25

I wrote an article last Sunday  about the WikiLeaks.com domain name. It’s owned by a company called Wikia, Inc. and it recently had a coming soon landing page with pay per click advertising links. Every time someone clicked on one of the Sponsored Links, Godaddy would earn some revenue (and possibly Wikia, too, if they were parking the domain name with Godaddy).

Apparently someone at Wikia, Inc. or Godaddy decided to change this landing page, and there are no more PPC links showing.

Bob Parsons is known to be a proud patriotic American. He is also a very, very wealthy man, and as the owner of one of the largest and most generous companies in the state of Arizona (maybe even the US), I don’t think the money that was being generated was substantial to Godaddy’s bottom line.

Kudos to Parsons, Godaddy, and/or Wikia for opting to not monetize traffic that was looking for the WikiLeaks.org website, which has certainly damaged the reputation of the US and others in the world.

Who Makes Money from WikiLeaks?

Elliot Silver
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14

WikiLeaks.org is a website that publishes leaked (usually confidential) documents and memos from governments and companies. These documents are often embarrassing  to those behind the documents, and the website receives a lot of interest shortly before and after it releases documents. It’s been in the news quite a bit lately, and is almost always referred to as “WikiLeaks” without the domain extension.

I don’t know much about the organization behind WikiLeaks.org, so I can’t say how (or if) they generate revenue, but it looks like at least one company makes some money as a result of WikiLeaks, and the company is based in the United States.

A company called Wikia,  Inc. from San Francisco owns the “typo” WikiLeaks.com, and the domain name is not developed. However, there are pay per click (PPC) links on the landing page, which appears to be monetized by its registrar, US-based Godaddy. You can see the “Sponsored Links” on the left hand side of the page.

At its peak, Compete.com reported that WikiLeaks.com received over 230,000 visits in July of 2010. It also appears to be close to the 100,000 visit mark last month, and will almost certainly increase as WikiLeaks.org release new confidential documents.

Of course, this traffic pales in comparison to the actual WikiLeaks.org website, but the traffic is still substantial. I wonder how much Godaddy is earning from this typo traffic.

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