Updates

Just got back home after a weekend away, and I want to share some Sunday updates with you. Hope it’s been a good weekend for you.

– .XXX was approved last week by ICANN, and there have been a number of articles in the mainstream media written about the extension. It’s interesting to read some of the comments written by readers. I personally don’t see an easy/smooth adoption, but what do I know.

– Andrew Allemann wrote a guest post on TechCrunch about the approval of .XXX. TC publisher (Michael Arrington) has roots in the domain business, but he invited Andrew to write the article, and I always think it’s good when well-written and spoken domain investors are given a platform in a more mainstream publication. Take a look when you get a chance.

– I really hope this domain privacy dispute is squashed soon. I think it’s good that the information is out there, but it’s tough to read some of the personal insults that have been made by commenters.

– Unfortunately, there’s been silence from the one source that really matters to me at this point, which of course is Oversee. The company spokesman acknowledged that there was a policy violation (which led to an employee being placed on “administrative leave”), but there was no follow-up statement about how the company will prevent such  occurrences  from happening again in the future.

– I want to say thank you again to those of you where were able to donate money to the Ronald McDonald House in our effort to raise $5,000. We’re almost there – thank you!

– I have a general request for you to consider. Take it easy in your comments and interactions with others over the next few days. A shaky economy, the disaster in Japan, and the uncertainty in the Middle East and Africa have a lot of people on edge right now. Let’s try to be good to each other and limit the vitriol and negativity. If you can cut someone a bit of slack, now’s the time to be generous. You don’t know what burdens others are shouldering right now.

I am headed back home after a mini vacation, and I want to thank everyone who wrote and called for the good wishes. I’ve been feeling significantly better over the  past few days, and I have only a cough and some congestion remaining.

It’s good to know the LA Department of Health is looking into what may have made some people sick.  I am going back to my doctor’s office tomorrow for a couple of tests to see if they are able to determine what I had. My doctor initially diagnosed me with an upper respiratory illness, and I was given a Z-pack.

I’ve fielded a number of phone calls from news outlets (because of the mentions in DN Journal), and although I understand why they are  picking up on the story, I think everyone really needs to reserve judgment about how it may have happened until the Health Department issues its findings. It seems like a “juicy” story, but people should not jump to any conclusions.

There seems to be a myth out there that if you post a keyword in the name section of the comments along with your url, you’ll get a valuable back link from my website. Not only does Google look at the fact that ALL comments have “no follow” in them, but the company also knows that these are non-authoritative  comments.

To be perfectly blunt, you will get absolutely no SEO benefits from the practice of posting a keyword phrase with a url in my blog’s comment section.

When I visit other sites, It’s annoying to see people’s names appear as “The BEST Detox diet!” If it annoys me on other sites, it must annoy others as well.

My Akismet spam filter catches a lot of spammers who do this, but sometimes they get through since they are “real” comments.  I am just giving everyone a head’s up that I may remove the urls in any comment I wish. Of course I own the site and could do that anyway, but I wanted to give advance notice to be fair.

I will not alter the actual comments in any way, but I may remove the url.

With the year coming to a close, I thought it would be a good time to make some predictions for the upcoming year.

– There will be a significant number of .CO drops around renewal time. I’ve seen a lot of really bad .CO domain names for sale (people emailing me telling me they need to sell urgently), and I am sure people will drop many of these bad purchases. Good keyword .CO domain names will increase in value by the end of 2011, spurred on by SMB adoption. I believe there will be at least 5 6-figure .CO domain sales.

– Monte Cahn will be back in the domain space in some way, although it probably won’t be for a large or well known company. Monte is one of the smartest guys in the industry, and I am sure his expertise is in high demand. I can imagine him starting up another company.

– There will be at least 10 publicly reported 7-figure domain sales during the course of the year. From my perspective, there are many people looking for liquidity, and there are also many people who have been getting liquid for the last year. Some of the people and companies who have significant cash reserves will look to reinvest, and high value, descriptive domain names will be a good option.

What predictions would you like to make for 2011?

I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas (or a great weekend if you aren’t celebrating). I hope you enjoy some time off and you’re spending the holiday with your family and friends.

If you are traveling anywhere, I hope you have safe travels and good weather.

Here’s to happiness, good health, and lots of cheer as 2010 winds down!