Thought Convergence

Movember Tally: Over $3,000 Raised

Now that the calendar has turned to December, Movember is officially over for 2011. Ammar Kubba, CEO of Thought Convergence, was a moustache-growing Movember participant, which helped “raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

In total, Ammar’s commitment helped raise over $3,000 for the campaign: http://www.mobro.co/kubba  (it’s not too late to contribute to this non-profit organization).

As you can see, Ammar grew a pretty solid ‘stache in a month. I am sure he (and his girlfriend) will be happy when it’s shaved. Kudos to Ammar for getting involved in such a positive cause and sticking to it.

Ammar Kubba: Newest Spokesman for .XXX Domain Registry

MovemberAfter seeing the perfectly manicured adult film star-esque mustache currently being rocked by Ammar Kubba in support of Movember, the ICM Registry has hired Kubba to be its newest .XXX domain name spokesman / spokesmodel.

Kubba will be working alongside Ron Jeremy, as the two primary male .XXX spokesmen. Said Kubba, “I take my work very seriously, much like my mustache. It’s an honor to team up with Ron Jeremy, someone whom I have admired for a very, very long time.” Kubba continued to tell a story about the first time he learned about Ron Jeremy, but unfortunately, I can’t publish it on this blog.

Charitably, all earnings from Kubba’s spokesman position will be donated to the Movember foundation, which is helping to “raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.” To date, Kubba has helped to raise over $2,300 for the organization. To donate to this great cause, visit  http://mobro.co/Kubba

Ironically, the first event Kubba and Jeremy will be appearing at is a prostate cancer screening event sponsored by .XXX. (Kubba and Jeremy will not be doing the screenings).

Important Disclaimers: No animals were harmed by Ammar Kubba in creating the mustache. Neither Ammar Kubba nor the ICM Registry approved the contents of this article. Ron Jeremy may or may not be a spokesman for .XXX. The entirety of this article was fabricated, except for the mustache part.

Movember Day 14 Update

In case you didn’t read the original post about Ammar Kubba’s Movember fundraising effort, I wanted to post an update. As of November 14, Ammar’s moustache has helped to raise $1,815 for the Movember organization, which raises money and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

From the photo on the left, it appears that Ammar’s moustache growth is very close to over taking his entire face. I understand that if Ammar is able to grow out his facial hair enough, he will attempt to transfer it to his follically-challenged head.

Alternatively, at the end of the month, Ammar is considering a donation of his moustache to another great organization, Locks of Love, which is a “non-profit organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children.”

If you would like to contribute to this great effort, you can learn more here:  http://mobro.co/Kubba

Ammar Kubba Growing ‘Stache for Movember, Raising Funds for Prostate Cancer Awareness

I’d be surprised if you haven’t heard of “Movember” yet. According to Movember.com, “During November each year, Movember is responsible for the sprouting of moustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. With their Mo’s, these men raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

Donations to the non-profit Movember Foundation are tax deductible in the United States. The organization partners with Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

In the domain industry, there is at least one participant, and I am supporting his efforts with a donation. Ammar Kubba is CEO of Thought Convergence, TrafficZ, DomainTools, Aftermarket.com, LeaseThis.com and Idea.net. He’s also now a proud  moustache wearer.

Interestingly, the Movember Foundation is using a .CO url shortener to make it easier for people to donate to participants. If you’d like to join me and support Ammar, you can make your donation here: http://mobro.co/Kubba

TrafficZ Clarifies Yahoo “Revenue Cap” Notice

In light of yesterday’s article regarding the monetization change at Yahoo impacting .CO, .TV, .US, .INFO, and .BIZ domain names (referred to as a “revenue cap”), I want to share an update on that I received from TrafficZ this evening.

Craig Rowe of WhyPark posted something similar in the comment section of yesterday’s article relating to how WhyPark and Parked are dealing with this situation.

The full update is posted below:

“We’ve received a lot of feedback and questions on the notice that we sent out yesterday. As such, we’d like to offer some additional clarification with respect to the recent Yahoo! revenue cap implementation. Specifically, Yahoo! is just one of many advertising partners that TrafficZ works with to monetize your domains and traffic. And although Yahoo! may have imposed a cap on certain TLDs, TrafficZ will continue to monetize all high quality domains and traffic through our multiple advertising partners, regardless of TLD, revenue and/or volume.

Furthermore, TrafficZ clients with exceptional .INFO, .US, .TV, .BIZ and/or .CO domains should submit them to our account team for further review. Where appropriate, TrafficZ will work with Yahoo! to have revenue cap limits raised or removed from qualified domains, regardless of TLD.

As always, we strive to keep you informed and provide you with the best domain monetization service possible. Please feel free to contact us if you have additional questions or concerns, support@TrafficZ.com.”

Trafficz: Yahoo Imposes “Revenue Cap” on Certain TLDs

I received an interesting email from Trafficz  this evening that I want to pass along to you regarding a recently imposed “revenue cap” on certain domain extensions, including .CO, .US, and .TV. If you park at a company that uses a Yahoo feed, it may impact your ability to monetize certain domain names.

According to the email sent to Trafficz clients:

“We would like to inform you that Yahoo!, our primary upstream provider, has recently imposed a revenue cap on certain TLDs. The affected TLDs include:

.biz
.co
.info
.tv
.us

The new, conservative revenue cap was rolled out early this morning and will be imposed on a per domain, per day basis. Specifically, if a particular domain in one of the above-referenced TLDs exceeds the revenue cap on any given day, Yahoo! listings will cease to be displayed on that domain for the following three days, at which point they will resume displaying as normal.This change was made across the board and will affect all Yahoo! partners.”

As a result of this new change, it seems that if your “revenue cap” is exceeded, you will stop earning revenue since the ads won’t be displayed for three days. I’ve never heard of a change like this, but it would seem to indicate that perhaps domain owners should consider parking domain names with these extensions at a company with a Google feed (or monetize them in another way, like development).

I didn’t hear anything from Parked, but since I believe they also use a Yahoo feed, this may apply to names in those TLDs parked there as well.

The only reasons I could guess for this change is that Yahoo thinks the traffic quality is poor, there is more click fraud on those particular TLDs, or the traffic is foreign and doesn’t convert as well. I really have no idea though.

Recent Posts

Squadhelp Rebrands as Atom with Atom.com

5
Squadhelp announced a complete rebrand this morning. The company is now known as Atom, and it acquired the Atom.com domain name in advance of...

Nissan Going after Nissan.ai

3
Nissan is an automaker that uses NissanUSA.com for its website here in the US. The reason it uses an off-brand domain name is because...

Using AI For Background Image

9
I acquired a domain name last week, and once it transferred to GoDaddy, I set up a custom landing page using Carrd. Instead of...

It’s All About the Time You Put into It

2
A few years ago, my wife jokingly described my daily work lifestyle as leisurely. In some ways, I thought of that as a badge...

D3 to Host Invite-Only Dominion Conference

0
D3 is a relatively new entrant to the domain space, but it has a team with considerable domain industry expertise. In announcing its $5...