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Guest Post: Mike Mann Helps Local Veterinarian Get His Domain Name Back

Elliot Silver
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I read a story on Facebook yesterday, and I asked if it could be posted on my blog because it’s a good story involving two domain industry veterans.

This is a guest post from  Donna Mahony (who operates  Domain Boardroom. Donna  shared a recent experience she had involving a domain name owned by Mike Mann, which had been previously owned by her veterinarian. I think it’s timely considering a UDRP decision and  discussion  that is ongoing on Mike Berkens’ blog.

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My nearly 14 year old dog, Max, was very ill last night. After speaking with my vet, Lane Kihlstrom, affectionately know as Doc Lane, we decided to wait and see how he was in the morning. He was tired and weak and nearly unresponsive.

Doc Lane is your typical country vet. A one man show with a mobile clinic. As he has done for me and many others so many times, he was at my door as quick as he could get here! After treating Max, who it seems had maybe eaten some poisonous weeds and loving on my other critters, Lane and I sat chatting (him on the floor with Max). He told me that in the midst of some turmoil last year he had forgotten to renew his domain name and asked if I could help him renew it. Super! He saves my dog, I save his domain!

Of course, it didn’t go that easily. The domain was now owned by Domain Asset Holdings, LLC, Mike Mann’s company. I know who Mike is, of course, but I doubted if he knew me.

We all get those sad tales from previous owners. We groan, sigh, roll our eyes. I hate getting them but always respond kindly and do the best I can for the previous owner. My stomach churned at being on the other end. I contacted Mike with my friends story.

Karma completed it’s circle. Mike responded quickly and he and I were able to make arrangements to have my friends domain returned home. Thank you, Mike.

Saturday Updates

Elliot Silver
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I don’t want to “jinx” things, but 2012 is off to a rocking start.  I don’t think the world economy is getting much better, but I do think consumer confidence is higher than before, and I also think domain investor confidence is growing.  I looked through my records from the last several years (since 2006), and I have never had a better February than this one.

– Economist and internet entrepreneur Thies Lindenthal is  definitely  on to something when it comes to the IDNX he developed in conjunction with Sedo. As the stock market continues to climb, it seems that people are spending more money on domain names. See next bullet for more details.

– I closed three end user sales this past week, one of which was for 3x my asking price (see next bullet for a tip). One sale was made as a result of an email I sent to the prospective buyer, another was an inquiry from the website, and the third  was an inbound price request from the Voodoo landing page. There is obviously something to be said about having a bright “for sale” notice on the top of parked pages. Lots of lowball offers that way, but it’s a great way to open a dialog and make some deals happen.

– I agree that priced domain names sell faster, as Afternic’s Jason Minor wrote, but when you have your domain names listed for sale and you receive an offer via a different means (email from the landing page), be sure to either quote your price in line with the BIN price or take down the BIN price before quoting. I got lucky recently and was able to sell a name for 3x it’s BIN price.

– The sale I made as a result of an inquiry from the website contact form will be detailed in a press release in a couple of weeks. It’s a site I haven’t updated in a while, and the timing was right because I realized I’d probably never be able to give it the attention it needs. When you see who bought it, you’ll see why I am excited for the buyer and think it’s a win/win.

– I got very lucky last Sunday. My wife looked down at her engagement ring, and the center stone was missing. She panicked as we looked around and couldn’t find it. I went back to the restaurant where we had lunch a half hour before, and I saw the diamond on the ground where we ate. I brought it back to the jeweler, and he fixed the ring for free. Apparently, my wife had broken off the top of one of the prongs. If you need a great jeweler, you should check out Jacob & Co.  and if you do, see Craig. The store is beautiful (especially the watches), and they treat you well, even if you are like me and aren’t a celebrity.

Hope you have a nice weekend.

Ever Wonder Who Blog “Trolls” Are?

Elliot Silver
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Have you ever wondered who the anonymous people are that write hateful comments on blogs and websites around the Internet? While I’ve been able to identify a few based on IP addresses and other sources, I’ve never really had the desire to actually track them down personally or even let them know I know who they are. I guess it’s better to know who my “enemies” are without them knowing I know… ya know?

There are plenty of people that seem to find enjoyment out of putting others down. I am lucky I don’t get many trolling comments, but it’s an issue that many websites face. I guess these people live miserable lives, and they feel the need to make someone else feel miserable, too. I don’t really know why they do it, but I will leave the “psychologizing” up to my psychologist wife!

Anyway, I saw this BBC video and it was interesting.They track down an alleged Internet “troll.”

.CO Gets (Free) NASCAR Exposure

Elliot Silver
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Brandt is an agriculture company that “helps farmers mitigate risk.” The company recently changed its website url to Brandt.CO, and it appears that they are using their NASCAR sponsorship to get the word out. As you can see, the new url is prominently located on the hood of the #31 car, driven by  Justin Allgaier (photo from Brandt racing website).

Last year, the car’s hood only said “Brandt Professional Agriculture” and this year, the Brandt.CO url sits in front of the “Professional Agriculture” tagline. Now if only the racing team would ditch the long, hyphenated brandt-inc-racing.com domain name for its website, the company would be better off.

Interestingly, Brandt.com is owned by a French company that does not appear to offer similar products or services. Hopefully, NASCAR fans will note the url change and not visit the other site. Wonder if the .CO url will be prominent on t-shirts, hats, and other branded NASCAR paraphernalia. In my opinion, it’s doubtful that the .CO Registry had anything to do with the placement (confirmed).

Someone also posted an article about this on Namepros.

Comcast Announces Streampix But Doesn’t Own Matching Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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Apparently Comcast has Netflix in its sight, as the company announced it will be launching a new streaming video service to compete with Netflix. Unfortunately for Comcast, it appears that they do not own the matching domain name, which I believe will be problematic, especially in the short term.

According to the Media Decoder blog on the New York Times website,

“Called Streampix, the service will give Comcast’s 22.3 million Xfinity cable subscribers access to 75,000 television shows and movies via cellphones, tablets and laptops.

The service is the result of a handful of licensing agreements Comcast has struck with media companies like Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers and its own NBCUniversal.“

As you are undoubtedly aware, Netflix is a huge advertiser, spending a ton of money on banner advertising as well as direct mail and other marketing campaigns. Netflix has established itself as the leading popular video service, and the company makes it very easy for consumers to access videos online at Netflix.com as well as by mail, when you add movies to your queue on Netflix.com.

Whois records show that Streampix.com was registered back in 2003, and it’s currently owned by a Canadian company called Norpix. The company’s “flagship product,” which “has become the ultimate Digital Video Recording software” is known as Streampix. Judging by the domain name’s expiration date of 2019, it doesn’t appear that the company has plans to relinquish this name any time soon.

Undoubtedly, if consumers are intrigued by a new service provider called Streampix, they will visit Streampix.com. Luckily for Comcast, the domain name does not appear resolve at the moment. However, NorPix does appear to have a trademark  in Canada for StreamPix, granted it’s for digital recording software and not streaming videos, and it is in Canada.

**Update**

I received an email from the CEO of Norpix, Luc Nocente, who commented:

“I was shocked and surprised at the actions taken by Comcast regarding the name Streampix.  Norpix has a  trademark protection on the word Streampix in Canada and the US since around 1999.  We do a great percentage of our business in the US market and this is a blatant violation of our rights.  I intend to take legal actions against Comcast.  We feel this is going to create confusion and damage our business in the US market.“

Which Presidential Candidate Has More Klout?

Elliot Silver
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I think Klout is pretty cool, although I don’t know of a beneficial application for it in the domain investment space. Anyway, I wanted to see how the presidential candidates (and former candidates) compared when it comes to Klout.

Here are the results in order:

1...1,0841,0851,086...1,555Page 1,085 of 1,555