Thanks to those of you who posted a comment yesterday with something you’ve learned in the last year. As promised, I put a list together with the names of people who commented and sorted it alphabetically. I visited Random.org and used the random number generator to choose a number.

The number that was drawn corresponds to Karl B. Hensel. I will email you via the email address corresponding to your comment to confirm your desired payment method.

Again, thanks for the comments and looking forward to more sharing in 2013.

I saw the latest infographic created by LoveLogo.com and posted on HybridDomainer.com. It’s neat to see all that data in graphic form, especially since I don’t know how to get that information on my own.

I want to give a big thank you to you for commenting on my blog as often as you do. Your comments make my blog more interesting for others to read as well as for myself. I appreciate that it has become a place to share and learn, and I want to do something special for Christmas.

As a way to say “thank you,” I am going to give someone $100 tomorrow afternoon. Here’s how to participate:

• 1) Post a comment on this blog post sharing one thing you learned about domain investing in the last year. It can be anything from a specific acquisition tactic to a new tool you found particularly helpful. Anything that you’ve learned that has helped your business. Only one comment per person please or all comments on this post will be deleted.
• 2) Tomorrow evening at 3pm eastern, I will take the names of everyone who commented and paste them in an Excel spreadsheet. They will then be sorted in alphabetical order and assigned the matching number in the spreadsheet.
• 3) I will visit Random.org and use the “True Random Number Generator” to pick one number. The person whose name that matches that number will get $100 from me.

Thank you again for reading my blog!

I have quite a bit to be thankful for this year, but I will keep it simple. I want to thank YOU for coming to my blog, reading, and as you frequently do, participating in the discussion.

Your comments are almost always insightful, frequently helpful, and often entertaining. You take the time to help others, to offer your opinions, and to have solid discussions about topics that are important to all of us in the domain industry.

It’s Thanksgiving in the US today, and I want to give thanks to you for visiting my blog daily and helping to make it a better resource for others. Thank you!

Hope you’re having a nice weekend. I’m still in the midst of the move to Massachusetts, living in New Hampshire temporarily until our house is ready and we close on it. Dealing with a home sale and home purchase has made me realize just how much more easy it is to transact in the domain space.

Here are some things I’ve found interesting over the last few days and a few tips. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

• Check out this article on TechCrunch involving a company that recently endured a domain name theft. According to TC, the story “involves crisis management, blackmail, investigative research, payoffs, a clever thief, and points to potential problems with the domain name registry system that could affect anyone with a website.”

• If you live in the northeast of the US and are expecting the storm named Sandy during the next couple of days, here’s a quick tip. Place your NameJet and/or Snapnames backorders in advance in case you lose power. You may also want to bid in advance (if you generally bid manually) and allow the auction houses to place proxy bids on your behalf.

• People keep asking if I am concerned about Google’s EMD update. The short answer is “no.” I don’t think the update targeted EMDs in general, but it did target EMDs that were used for minimal websites hoping to take advantage of the keywords. I think targeted EMD .com domain names still hold considerable value, and any weakness in aftermarket sales is related to the economy rather than Google changes.

• If you don’t have a mastery of a particular language, I would recommend not registering domain names in that language unless you have an expert helping you. I’ve seen many confusing registrations that make no sense, and it’s likely due to language issues. I don’t register Spanish or French domain names because I know that my knowledge of those languages is severely limited.

• An acquaintance emailed me this past week with a screenshot sent by one of his customers. Apparently, his website was blocked as “mature content” although he specializes in gourmet food sales. One other thing I saw was that Google briefly listed DNForum as “may be compromised.” You should always check for abnormal traffic patterns that may indicate a problem. Customers may not always make management aware of issues, especially if they don’t have a business relationship.

• When it comes to evaluating others’ domain names on various forums and blogs, I think constructive criticism is far more effective than other type of negative comment. I’ve grown thick skin, but I don’t think other contributors should be subjected to rudeness simply for sharing. Maybe I’ve forgotten this a bit along the way, but I will try to do a better job of being constructive.

Hailey was born on March 29th, and I can’t believe she is 6 months old today. Being able to work from home with her around is a huge advantage of working for myself as a domain investor. I’ve been able to capture precious moments as they happen, and it’s such a good feeling.

You already know I am a big fan of Ronald McDonald House. Today, the organization is having its annual Block Party (73rd between 1st and York on the Upper East Side of Manhattan). We are headed over there early this afternoon, so if you happen to be in the area before 5:30pm, come check it out and say hello. I know that spending time there is going to motivate me to raise the additional $5,000. Want to help?

Here are some Saturday updates:

• Fantastic series about some of the women who work in the domain industry on Hybrid Domainer. It’s a five part series, and Ray did a solid job reaching out to many of the ladies who work in the domain industry. Highly recommend reading it when you have a chance. If there is a future post, I recommend interviewing Marcia Lynn Walker, Brenda Jones, Christie Kelly, NameMedia’s superstars, Charlotte Gilbert, Tasha Kidd, Andee Hill, Jacqueline Daly, Lisa Box, Susan Prosser, Monica Gordon, Crystal Peterson, and Sonia Doubet.

• Someone asked about a “sell now assurance” from a domain company, and I don’t believe anyone has ever offered something like that before. Have you heard of any company doing that? Seems like it would be a great concept from a seller’s perspective.

• Earlier this week, Domain Advisors announced that the company is brokering Music.com. This is one of the best available domain names, and I would not be surprised to see a deal over $5m for it. The company is also brokering Music.net.

• At the gym yesterday, I received a phone call from someone who was told I am a domain broker. Firstly, if it was you who called, sorry I was short with you – I was in the middle of a run. Secondly, I am not a domain broker, but there are many great domain brokers who can help sell domain names.

• I’ve been spending a bit of time on DomainNameSales.com reviewing the recent price quotes. Although most of the prices are unsurprisingly at end user levels, there seem to be some reasonable prices to be had. One advantage of buying a name there is you know there is interest from other parties for a potential deal. In fact, some of the listings show how much traffic and how many inquiries a domain name has received. It’s some good insight you might not find elsewhere.

I want to share a few updates this evening. I hope you’re enjoying the last few hours of your weekend. Summer is slowly coming to an end, and I would expect to see a pick up in business in a few weeks.

• I want to start off by congratulating Morgan and Daina on their wedding this weekend. It’s great to see two people so committed to each other getting married, and I wish them lots of happiness and good fortune personally and professionally.

• Always do your due diligence when closing a domain acquisition! This thread doesn’t look good, and I hope the buyer gets his money back, but the circumstances of a large company selling a domain name on a domain forum would have seemed fishy to me.

• The infographic that Ray shared is very neat. One of the most interesting things is that Mike Berkens’ blog and my blog are now separated by just 8 websites out of millions online (22,278) vs. 22,286).

• Speaking of that infographic, I really respect what the team at LoveLogo.com is doing to get their name out there. Instead of pestering blog owners to try and get people to post press releases, they are creating very cool graphics that blog owners want to share. I am thinking about having an infographic created for DogWalker.com, and when I decide to do it, I will almost certainly use them.

• If someone wants to organize a $100/team fantasy football league for other domain investors, let me know and I will post about it and participate. I have a bunch of non-business related things going on and don’t want to be a fantasy football commissioner… I will gladly participate though (might as well just give away $100, but that’s another story).