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Report: InvestmentProperty.com.au Sold for $125,000

Elliot Silver
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10

According to an article today in the Sydney Morning Herald, the domain name InvestmentProperty.com.au was sold in an expired domain name auction for $125,000 (around $129,000USD). The auction was held on NetFleet, a domain name aftermarket and sales venue.

The report states that the buyer is an Australian property developer, and apparently the previous registrant did not realize the domain name had expired.

The sale of InvestmentProperty.com.au is reportedly the highest publicly reported .com.au price achieved, significantly higher than the previous high of $33,000 for Hardware.com.au. The article does cite other private sales that may have been higher, including Poker.com.au, Flowers.com.au, and CreditCards.com.au.

Oversee Lays Off 13% of Staff

Elliot Silver
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2

I just received an email from Oversee.net announcing “a staff reduction of 13 percent.” I am not sure if this number reflects those who have left the company in recent months or if this is a new round of layoffs, but I’ve reach out to ask. The company also stated that there are pending new hires.

It’s a bummer to see any company in the domain space letting go of staff, and I wish those people all the best.

Here are the details in an email I just received from the company:

“As part of its plan to address new growth opportunities, Oversee.net has realigned its work force resulting in a staff reduction of 13 percent. These moves, along with pending new hires, will allow the company to leverage core assets to innovate more effectively, improve competitive positioning and achieve growth

If you have questions or would like to talk with Scott Morrow, Co-President of Oversee, please let me know.”

ICANN Notice Emails from Registrars

Elliot Silver
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5

Tips on how to avoid a phishing attack or scam

Over the last week or two, I’ve received several emails from various domain registrars reminding me of ICANN’s requirement of keeping Whois information accurate. It’s important that you keep your information up to date, but it’s even more important to realize that some criminals use these mandatory emails as an opportunity for phishing attacks to steal account information.

Some of the subject lines from the emails are:

  • Action Required: Notice Regarding Your Domain Name(s) – Network Solutions
  • {MONIKER.COM} [Account xxxx] Action Required: Your Annual Whois Update Notification – Moniker
  • Important Notice Regarding Your Domain Name(s) – Go Daddy
  • Important Notice Regarding Your Domain Name(s) – Enom

If you receive an email from your domain registrar with a subject line like this, it’s probably a legitimate request, but here are a couple of ways to determine whether it’s real or not.

I think just about all registrars personalize these emails to you. They won’t say “Dear Customer” but they will say “Dear Elliot.” Please keep in mind that someone could specifically target individuals, so this is not the best indicator.

Most emails will have the names of domain names you own listed within the email. Again, this is not fail proof either because someone could do this manually and list a few of your domain names.

Finally, many registrars will list your account number within the email. This is likely the most difficult thing for a scammer to obtain since it’s more of an internal number than something someone could get elsewhere. It’s not fail proof either, as it’s possible for someone to find out this number if they’ve done business with you and had a domain name pushed from their account to yours.

Ultimately the best advice is to not click on the links in these emails. Visit the domain registrar’s website and there should generally be a link within your account or on the home page to ICANN’s update. If you keep your Whois information accurate, you should be fine.

Should You Buy the .Net or .Org to Protect the .Com?

Elliot Silver
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23

I am often asked whether it’s recommended that a person buy the .net and/or .org domain names when they purchase a .com domain name. In my opinion, the simple answer is yes if you are going to develop, but no if you aren’t.

While it’s nice for a publisher to own other extensions when he or she plans to develop the .com domain name, it’s not critical. I would imagine very few people confuse the .net or .org for the .com. The main reason I do recommend trying to get the .org and/or .net if it’s feasible and cost effective is to prevent someone else from competing, specifically if it’s a descriptive domain name.

For domain investors who are hand registering .com names as an investment they later plan to re-sell, I don’t think buying the .net and .org is necessary. If a person has a portfolio of 200 .com domain names, owning the .net and .org of those names is close to an extra $3,000 annually.

Unless you are going to develop and plan to protect your brand, I don’t think it’s necessary. It likely won’t add much value to a deal with your .com and will only serve to significantly increase your carrying costs.

Domain Gang Fools Geek.com

Elliot Silver
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16

It’s very likely that people who follow domain investing blogs and forums know that DomainGang.com is a satirical website with Onion-esque articles. Although there are occasionally articles that are factual, the majority seem to be written to get a chuckle from readers.

Yesterday, Domain Gang posted a humorous article entitled, Singapore domainer gets jail for .XXX domain registration, which was a fictious story about a person who bought a .XXX domain name and was arrested for violating a law in Singapore. To me at least, it seemed pretty obvious that it was a work of fiction rather than a factual story.

Apparently the journalists at Geek.com thought otherwise and posted their own article based on the Domain Gang story. In addition, a French website also picked up on the story and posted their own  article, and there were over 60 comments.    I guess they didn’t bother to check facts.

In this day and age, the first website to post an article generally gets most of the links and traffic. However, people, especially those who are journalists, really do need to check facts before posting an article. Congrats to Domain Gang on the

Gust.com: Domain Sold by Tucows Now Used for a Brand Relaunch

Elliot Silver
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4

AngelSoftFor a number of years, Gust.com was owned by Tucows  and based on its 2004 registration information, it appears that the domain name was a part of its Net Identity portfolio. These domain names, consisting of popular last names, are primarily used for vanity email addresses, although I am not sure how Gust.com was used.

In May of 2011, the domain name appears to have been sold to DNStination and it was registered at brand protection registrar, Mark Monitor. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.  Just recently, the Whois information for Gust.com changed again, and the domain name is now registered to Internet software firm, AngelSoft.

TechCrunch is now reporting that Gust.com is the new name for AngelSoft. According to the article, “Gust will serve as an investor relations platform that matches entrepreneurs to investors, while also providing search and filtering tools for investors that allow them to narrowly target startups that match their interests.”

Interesting usage for this descriptive domain name. If I learn anything more about the Tucows transaction, I will be sure to post it.

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