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Moniker Auction Ends This Afternoon

Elliot Silver
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Moniker’s end of year auction, currently running on Snapnames, is ending this afternoon at 3:15pm EST. I highlighted my favorite domain names from this auction a couple of weeks ago, so no need to re-hash those selections.

Listed below are the domain names that currently have bids, although some of the reserve prices have not been met. Most notably, CE.com has a $1,000,000 bid, although the reserve price is apparently higher than $1 million and the auction page states that the reserve has not been met.

If you have an interest in any of the domain names, now is the time to head over to Snapnames to place your bids (or at least set a reminder for later this afternoon).

Domain Name Reserve Price Current High Bid
paternitytest.com $5,001 – $10,000  $21,500
fyny.com No Reserve  $375
omib.com No Reserve  $351
qx.com $50,001 – $100,000  $82,500
apw.com $10,001 – $25,000  $12,999
mentality.com $5,001 – $10,000 $6,751
conp.com No Reserve  $375
ce.com $1MM – $5MM  $1,000,000
f.biz $10,001 – $25,000  $10,001
mock.com $10,001 – $25,000  $10,000
yogurtshops.com No Reserve  $300

Guest Post for Charity Offer

Elliot Silver
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I wrote about doing this before, and I’ve taken the public and private recommendations under consideration. I would like to offer the opportunity to publish a guest post on my blog in exchange for a $500 contribution to my favorite non-profit organization, The Ronald McDonald House of New York. So far this year, we’ve helped to raise nearly $8,000 for RMH.

Here are the details for this special offer:

1. The company will make a $500 contribution directly to RMH and not to me prior to posting the article.
2. The guest post must be related to domain names.
3. The article will be posted Monday – Friday (I can’t guarantee how long it will be the top post though).
4. I will personally pay Francois to sponsor the post on the top section of Domaining.com for 24 hours.
5. I will use Twitter and Facebook to help publicize the article.
6. The article will be clearly marked as a guest post, and it will mention that the company donated $500 for the right to have the post.
7. Guest post may be used to list domain names for sale, announce a new product, discuss a current product, show people how to use a product or service, general awareness for a company…etc, as long as it relates to domain names.
8. I make no promises that this will bring you business or lead to a sale. My main priority is to raise money for RMH while not disturbing the flow of the blog.
9. This will be on a first come, first served basis, although I reserve the right to do this more than once if I wish. Let me know via email or via comment if you want to participate.

I Disagree With Sedo’s Observation

Elliot Silver
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I read a press release from Sedo today about the company’s recently launched Internet Domain Name Index (IDNX), and I disagree with one of the observations that was made.

According to the press release:

“The bigger the better. The .com extension, which targets the entire world, has outperformed regional champions. Even successful country-code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) like .co.uk and .de have not kept pace with .com since 2008. This casts some doubt on the viability of new regional TLDs that have been proposed, such as .nyc (for New York City).“

My issue is that I don’t think a new gTLD, especially regional gTLDs like .NYC or .PARIS, will need to keep pace with .com to be viable. I happen to think that with a local marketing campaign, awareness efforts, and some development by local businesses, people in New York City will know about .NYC, and local businesses will purchase .NYC domain names.

As a result of these efforts, the gTLDs will be purchased locally, and while they certainly won’t sell at the same pace of .com, they will sell. From my perspective, they don’t have to sell nearly at the same clip as .com to be considered successful, let alone viable. With the right price structure and smart management, many niche gTLDs can be not only viable, but also profitable.

Antony Van Couvering is CEO at Top Level Domain Holdings, the company that operates gTLD consulting firm,  Minds & Machines, and he is also CEO of dotNYC, a group that hopes to win the rights to manage .NYC. I reached out to Antony Van Couvering for his feedback on the viability of niche gTLDs in light of the press release.

“Sedo makes some good points, about management, about “me-too” not working, and so on. Conceptually, though, it’s hard for people to escape the .com model in measuring success — that measure being naked volume of names under management. Obviously .com is successful, and its enormous volume makes it so, and I agree with Sedo that it will be along time, if ever, before it is surpassed on that score. But to say that “this casts some doubt on the viability of new regional TLDs” is like saying that Apple can never succeed because Microsoft is so entrenched, or that Armani is doomed because Wal-Mart is so big.

The point is often made that that not all success is monetary, and .cat and other “public service” TLDs are brought into evidence. Even from a financial point of view, however, a small TLD can do very well. If .CPA is sold to certified public accountants at $200/yr, it doesn’t take many to join before that’s a great business, especially with a better cost structure than incumbent registries have.

In the United States, .com is habitual (which is not the case in the rest of the world). New gTLDs in general will break that habit, because people will begin to ask themselves, “what’s the extension.” Once that happens, people will begin to examine the extension on its merits, instead of just relying on .com as a universal. Once any one of these new gTLDs, because of great marketing, a compelling bundled application, or some method, challenges the “habit” of Americans to just type .com after a name, the game is wide open, and people will begin to look at the meaning and use of .com instead of just its ubiquity.“

I welcome your thoughts on this topic.

Using Escrow.com as a Negotiation Tactic

Elliot Silver
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When you’re negotiating to purchase something in person, and you’re just a bit away from reaching an agreed upon price, some buyers will show the seller a pile of cash as a means of closing a deal. For instance, if the owner of a collectible wants $15,000 and you’re only willing to pay $10,000, you may pull the neat stack of $100 bills and put it on the table in front of him, telling him to “take it or leave it.”

The owner will look at the pile of cash and realize that it’s the most you (the buyer) will pay, and he needs to decide whether or not he’d rather have his collectible or the money. Once you’ve set your final offer down, you need to hold firm and walk away if you’re rejected, otherwise it will seem like you have a weak constitution and the buyer will get the better deal if you keep upping your offer.

When you are negotiating to purchase a domain name, you can’t really pull out a stack of hundreds and say “take it or leave it.” You can say it’s your final offer, but for the seller, there isn’t the lure of seeing a pile of money in front of his or her face to contemplate. However, you can use Escrow.com (or another escrow service if you prefer) to encourage the seller to make the deal.

If you think you’re very close to a deal in a negotiation, but you’re just percentage points away from making the deal, you might want to try this sales closing tactic. Tell the seller it’s your final offer and let him or her know that you’re not going any higher. Set up the deal at Escrow.com and let them know you’re doing that. You should also be clear about the fees (I like to cover them in this situation).

The seller will receive an email from Escrow.com letting them know about the transaction, and this tends to get them to realize you’ve made your final offer and if they want to make a deal on the domain name, this is it. They will receive a couple of reminder emails if they haven’t signed in to agree to the deal,and that’s something that will also remind them of the finality of your offer.

I used this tactic once and it worked. In fact, the seller and I kidded around about it after and he said it was a pretty good maneuver on my part to get him to close the deal because he really wasn’t sure about it until he received the email from Escrow.com.

Yes, Escrow.com is an advertiser, but so is Sedo, and if you happen to like their escrow service or Afternic, or Moniker, be my guest. I happen to think Escrow.com has wider brand recognition because of the company’s partnerships, and that could make it easier to close the deal, but that’s your decision.

Afternic Sales Report: Iron Workers Union Buys IronWorkers.com

Elliot Silver
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In this week’s sales report from Afternic, Ironworkers.com was sold by Tucows for $17,000, in the largest sale of the week. Based on the new Whois information for Ironworkers.com, it appears the domain name was purchased by the Ironworkers Union, which also owns Ironworkers.org. I think it’s a pretty fair price for both parties.

In total, Afternic sold $1,080,850 worth of domain names last week, including both public and private domain sales. On a personal note, I was able to close a deal on CollegeMascots.com via Afternic.com (IREIT is now working with Afternic). The domain name had been owned by Internet REIT and after an unsuccessful negotiation last year, we were able to work out a deal yesterday.

Here are all of the public domain sales from last week:

ironworkers.com $17,000.00
swingtown.com $12,000.00
babytown.com $9,000.00
travelseeker.com $8,088.00
steerclear.com $8,000.00
eventup.com $8,000.00
ContentAgency.com $7,500.00
danceday.com $7,333.00
hibernian.com $6,000.00
ipca.com $6,000.00
gnee.com $5,888.00
telefonanbieter.com $5,125.00
srmg.net $5,000.00
innovationtoday.com $4,988.00
sipo.com $4,800.00

Read More

NameMedia Currently Hiring

Elliot Silver
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NameMedia in WalthamAfter posting my article about domain industry job openings, I received an email from my contact at NameMedia informing me that the company has a number of job listings that I didn’t include in my article. Since there are several opportunities at the company (includes Afternic, Buy Domains, and SmartName), I thought I would post an article in case people are interested.

With the US unemployment rate close to 10%, or  maybe more than 10% if you count the people who are out of work, it’s good to see a company like NameMedia hiring. If you are a part time domain investor who does this as a hobby and you have the skill set for one of these positions, you should consider sending in your resume and applying.

The positions are all based out of NameMedia’s Waltham, Massachusetts office. You can find all job openings now and in the future on the NameMedia careers page. Here are the current job listings and some information about each.

Director of Marketing:  

NameMedia is looking for a dynamic Director of Marketing to lead the marketing effort for the company’s product and services. This person will be motivated, creative and results orientated and will enjoy having a hands-on role in developing the strategy and driving the execution of all aspects of a world-class marketing organization—from driving customer leads through innovative SEO, SEM, email and social media, to developing presentations and collateral that support the company’s business development program.

The successful candidate will work across the organization, including sales, technology, product management, business development and senior management to deliver a marketing program that propels the company’s growth.

This is a great opportunity for an emerging leader to have a direct impact on the bottom line of a fast-growing business.   The right candidate must be willing to do what it takes every single day to successfully execute against all goals.

Director of User Experience:

The NameMedia team is looking for a dynamic, highly motivated Director of User Experience. This person will be responsible for managing a team of creative professionals who are tasked with crafting the experience of software and services that enable consumers and businesses to acquire, monetize and divest their premium domain names.

This individual will be a senior member of the user experience team who works collaboratively with product management, engineering and business stakeholders to define the product experience – including interactive design, information architecture and navigation. The candidate will be expected to create an aesthetic design, which is appropriate for the market and fitting for the brand.  This person will also be involved during the planning and research phases and expected to leverage a user-centered process to iterate design comps with stakeholders directly. All projects should result in an intuitive, simplistic experience appropriate for the desired environmental setting.

We’re looking for someone who is passionate, innovative and can drive similar qualities into their team to maintain an up-beat creative atmosphere.

ETL Engineer:

NameMedia is building a brand new BI platform which includes a data warehouse, analytic and reporting systems. The data volumes are high and the functionality requirements are complex. The tools/technologies used are mostly from the open source domain.

The person in this role will be involved in building and supporting ETL for the new BI platform, and addressing other data processing needs across the organization. Hadoop and related technologies are being used for high volume data processing, and this person will be involved in that also.

Java Engineer:

  • Develop cutting-edge, JAVA based 24 x7 web applications
  • Working on our core API’s and system components you will be involved in the full life cycle development process and focused on server side  API development
  • Gathering requirements, coding and development, support and maintenance
  • Working with a dynamic team

QA Engineer:

Namemedia is looking for QA star to assist in delivering high-quality, high-visibility, high-traffic customer facing web sites and company-internal 24 x 7 web applications. The successful candidate will have a passion for designing, building and executing automated and manual tests against Java and Web applications. The individual will work with the team to identify and implement best practices to ensure the software performs as expected and will be an integral part of all team deliverables. This is a fast paced, high energy environment.

Lead Java Engineer:

We are currently seeking a talented Lead developer to join their growing team and be responsible for partner integrations. We need a creative problem solver who can take initiative and deliver solutions without too much direction. The incumbent will be proactive and enjoy putting their own stamp on projects. We are seeking someone that has solid experience in software design methodologies, focusing on web-based JAVA programming.

This is a Lead developer role, however, we are particularly interested in someone with web-based software architecture experience. The right candidate will have experience leading development efforts and researching and developing cutting edge technologies to accomplish your mission.

The Lead Java developer is a key position that is instrumental to building a High-Profile, High-traffic 24 x 7 web application. The Lead plays a key role in the success of our Company.

Account Manager:

The Account Manager position is responsible for successfully selling our monetization services and managing existing accounts. Our world-renowned parking platform  (SmartName.com) monetizes some of the world’s largest and best domain name portfolios. Our Account Managers earn competitive wages and have fantastic benefits.

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