CircleID Discusses gTLD Auctions, May Benefit Right of The Dot

Elliot Silver
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There’s an interesting article that was posted on CircleID today by Christa Taylor entitled, “gTLD Contention Set Auctions: Private Auction Alternatives.” The article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of running private auctions vs. the ICANN auctions for gTLDs, and it compares and contrasts the companies that are operating the auctions.

The most interesting aspect of the article for me was conclusion, which may benefit domain industry veterans Mike Berkens and Monte Cahn. Earlier this month, Right of the Dot announced they will be teaming up with Escrow.com on a new auction offering.

According to the conclusion from the CircleID article:

“For applicants with a few TLD’s, the Right of the Dot private auction services is the best fit. They provide a friendly, cost-effective yet customized approach that is likely going to be well-received and agreed to by all participants in the contention set. Additionally, auction costs are minimal and all funds are held in escrow. Finally, Right of the Dot are accomplished domain professionals who specialize within the domain industry.”

Congratulations to Mike and Monte on this.

Vote: Mike or Frank

Elliot Silver
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Yesterday afternoon, I posted the opposing gTLD viewpoints of Frank Schilling and Mike Mann. Each of these successful domain investors has a strong opinion on how gTLDs will impact domain investors and the market in general.

From my perspective, the opinions of Mike and  Frank are reflective of the opinions shared by others in the space. It doesn’t seem like there are many people who haven’t already formulated their own opinions about gTLDs.

I think it will be interesting to get a general consensus about whether you share Frank’s opinion or Mike’s. Please vote in the poll below to participate, and feel free to comment here or on one of yesterday’s posts.

I want to thank Mike and Frank again for sharing their time and insight with all of us.

I will try to share my personal projections on gTLDs tomorrow, but I have a lot to do. It’s actually a pretty nice little Saturday, we’re going to go to Home Depot. Yeah, buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring, stuff like that. Maybe Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I don’t know, I don’t know if we’ll have enough time.


Mike Mann on gTLDs

Elliot Silver
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Mike Mann is unquestionably one of the most successful people in the domain industry, having sold BuyDomains for  reportedly  many millions of dollars, and he acquired domain names such as Phone.com, SEO.com, and many more. Mike also founded DomainMarket.com, which sells millions of dollars worth of domain names annually, and he is likely headed for a similar type of exit sometime down the road.

Mike has been “vocal” with his bearish feelings about new gTLD domain names on various blogs and in personal meetings with him. I reached out to him with a bunch of questions and want to share some of his thoughts on gTLDs and if he believes there’s money to be made by domain investors.

If you have other questions about gTLDs that you’d like Mike to answer, I would bet he’ll be happy to answer them. My questions are bolded below.

Will companies adopt descriptive keyword gTLDs and re-brand websites?

Only for the best ideas and dictionary words where they cant get .Com

How long will it take consumers to understand what gTLDs are?

They wont on average, might land there by accident

What is the path to success for a gTLD operator?

Only a small pct will be profitable unless they are mixed with other services or free like from Amazon or Google. If they get some good sites that get well indexed in Google they may get some traction, or maybe with press, etc. But on average short the hype.

How do registrars and registries sell their names?

The hard way, same way we sell .Com, landers, brokers, hustlers.

Will brand gTLDs help make consumers aware of the right of the dot?

No

Will you be investing in registries and/or acquire various domain names in different TLD?

No way, flight to .Com quality investing

How can domain investors make money when it comes to gTLDs?

Buy the short fund

Do you think marketing dollars spent on gTLDs will be good for the domain industry as a whole?

Short term but no

Will land rush opportunities bring more people and capital into the domain investment space?

Short term

What will happen to the money domain investors spend on gTLDs?

They will lose most of it

gTLDs: “Governments Appear to Have Become Quite Relaxed About Sex”

Elliot Silver
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The Tech Europe Blog in the Wall Street Journal posted an article by Ben Rooney about the lack of governmental objection to sex-related gTLD applications. Referring to the GAC early warning list published by ICANN, the article discusses how TLDs such as .porn, .sex, and other adult themed TLDs did not receive a single objection from a government.

Stephane Van Gelder, Registry Relations and Strategy Director at NetNames, expressed surprise about the lack of  objections. “There have been none on any sex-related gTLD [string]. Frankly I am a bit surprised. Governments appear to have become quite relaxed about sex,” said Van Gelder.

Although I am also surprised at the lack of objections, I would imagine the introduction of .XXX domain names by the ICM Registry may have made governments less objectionable this time around. Since there’s already a .XXX domain extension available, what difference does it make to governments if there’s a .porn or .sex, too?

In addition, perhaps some governments didn’t even bother submitting objections for whatever reason. Out of the 1,930 applications, there were only 145 TLD strings that received objections.

I don’t think that governments have become “relaxed about sex,” but I do think the proverbial genie has already been let out of the bottle when it comes to adult gTLD extensions.

eNom Gives Customers an Introduction to New TLDs

Elliot Silver
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Making the general public aware of new TLDs is going to be crucial for gTLD registries to become profitable. For many of these companies, educating consumers starts at the registrar level, as small business owners may opt to register a shorter gTLD as opposed to a longer tail, hyphenated, abbreviated, or some other type of .com domain name that is available to registrants today.

eNom has been one of the more active domain registrars promoting new gTLDs to its customers. The company has taken steps to make them aware of the new TLDs that are expected to be introduced in the next year or so. The company has a prominent link to its new TLD section on the top menu in yellow.

Yesterday, eNom posted a video called “An Introduction to New TLDs,” which explains what they are and why a small business would want one. eNom’s founder, Paul Stahura, is Co-Founder and CEO of Donuts, a company that applied for 307 new TLD. My assumption is that Donuts and eNom will work together to sell gTLD domain names to eNom clients, and the first step is educating them.

It’s always interesting to see how domain industry companies market their products to clients. The introduction of gTLD domain names is going to shake things up and will be fun to follow.

Sell Your “gTLD” Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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People love it when they have the opportunity to sell their domain names, and I am going to give you that opportunity today. I welcome you to list your non-.com “gTLD” domain names for sale in the comment section. Be sure to include your price and your contact information.

You’ll notice that I have gTLD in quotes. The reason is that I am offering up the space for you to sell domain names like .CO, .ME, .TV, .and XXX. While some are actually ccTLD domain names, people use them as if they were gTLDs.

When you list your domain names for sale here, keep a couple of things in mind. First, most of the people who read this post are domain investors rather than end user buyers, so price your domain names accordingly. Second, keep your list brief. Although I am not a buyer of these types of domain names, if I was reading the names to buy and saw a list of 10 or 20+ names, I would likely skip over the list and move on to the next one.

Just as a small disclaimer, I am not going to get involved in any of the transactions. I recommend using Escrow.com to complete your sales to ensure a safe transaction.

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