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.CO Registry: “We Are Almost At 70% Renewals for Year One”

Elliot Silver
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30

Last week, I posted a video of an interview with .CO Registry  Chief Operating Officer,  Nicolai Bezsonoff. In the interview, Bezsonoff stated that first year renewals are “fantastic,” although he didn’t quantify this.

In the comment section of that post, .CO Registry VP Lori Anne Wardi posted an update about the renewal rate, stating that .CO is “almost at 70% renewals for year one.” Compared to other renewal #s with which I am familiar, this does seem to be quite strong, especially considering most domain registrars didn’t offer much in the way of concessions in renewal pricing or coupons.

With over one million domain names registered in its first year, a 70% renewal rate is very strong, especially considering that it’s month 14 of .CO, so we’re not just talking about the best keyword .CO domain names that were purchased in the first days of .CO availability.

I think this shows the viability of .CO domain names and it also shows that there is considerable money to be made on the registry side of the business when new gTLDs are introduced to the public.

Q3 Estimated Taxes Due This Week

Elliot Silver
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1

Here’s a reminder for those of you who are based in the United States and have to pay estimated quarterly taxes: Your Q3 2011 payment (for June 1 – August 31) is due to the Internal Revenue Service on Thursday, September 15, 2011.

According to the IRS, “if payment is mailed, the date of the U.S. postmark is considered the date of payment,” so you have a few days before you need to stick your check in the mail.

Hopefully, you’re having a great 2011.

Sedo CEO: “Addition of a New gTLD Will Not Affect Prices in the Secondary Domain Market”

Elliot Silver
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8

SedoBecause Sedo is a sales platform that serves as a venue for domain names of all extensions, and because of the breadth of its sales, I think company CEO (and co-founder) Tim Schumacher is well positioned to opine on the impact gTLDs may have on the value of domain names.

So does Tim think gTLDs are going to change or devalue the price of existing domain names? According to Schumacher, “the answer here is simple: No. The addition of a new gTLD will not affect prices in the secondary domain market.”  Schumacher continued,  “for example, the introduction of a number of new gTLDs in 2001 (.aero, .biz, .coop, .info, .museum, .name, and .pro) highlight how some extensions flourish, while other do not.   I’d imagine many of people would not have even realized that some of these TLDs were launched.   The inconvenient truth for any new gTLD is that, in 2001, you needed a .com to start a business (or a country-specific equivalent) and that rule still applies ten years later.”

I’ve been hearing quite a bit of buzz about .XXX domain names, and Schumacher commented on that extension as well. Said Schumacher, “while the .xxx extension is receiving much media attention of late, without a mandate to force adult content to the extension, it’s simply another new extension that brands should be aware of.”

One thing that will be interesting is to see whether Sedo has any restrictions on selling .XXX domain names. Sedo has an adult domain name section, and I am curious about whether they will push all .XXX domain names there since they currently look to the left of the dot for cues.

9/11 Memorial: Out Enjoying New York City

Elliot Silver
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0

There’s no place I would rather be than in New York City today.

Domain Name Apps (iPhone & iPad)

Elliot Silver
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7

I was browsing through the Apple App Store this morning to see what domain name related apps you can purchase for your iPhone and/or iPad. There were more than I expected.

If you’ve used any of the apps listed below in ABC order, let others know what you think of them. I have an iPad but haven’t downloaded any of these apps yet.

  • Deep Whois (free)
  • DN Forum Mobile ($4.99)
  • Domain Scout (free)
  • Domainster Instant Domain Search and Suggestion ($.99)
  • Domain Pro (free)
  • Domain Storm by Network Solutions (free)
  • DomainTools Whois, Thumbnail, Availability (free)
  • Domain Tracker ($.99)
  • GoDaddy Mobile Domain Manager (free)
  • iDomain Monitor ($2.99)
  • Instant Domain Checker (free)
  • Name.com (free)
  • NameDrive

Did I miss any apps that you’d recommend to others? If so, what purpose do they serve and how much are they?

Guest Post: Jacqueline Daly on Dynadot’s Website Re-Design

Elliot Silver
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14

DynadotYou may have noticed that Dynadot’s website recently underwent a major overhaul. The following is a guest post from Jacqueline Daly, Marketing Manager for Dynadot, to discuss the changes.

Change and innovation are concepts that domain investors know very well. The industry as a whole is a constantly evolving landscape that our customers have to be aware of and adapt to. At Dynadot we are no stranger to innovation as it takes place behind the scenes on a daily basis. In order for us to maintain our commitment to innovation we thought it was time for our site to reflect the state-of-the-art technology that drives us.

In the process of redesigning our site, we focused on two things: making our site easier to navigate and having a site that conveys our core strengths and values. From our analytics and customer feedback we discovered that people would occasionally get lost on our site, especially on our homepage. With our new design, our goal was to make the most important parts of our site easy to find. Dynadot’s greatest strengths are making state-of-the-art technology look simple and providing friendly, personalized customer service when our customers need help.

Not only are we updating the aesthetics of our site we are also revolutionizing the user experience. The next step in this project is a new control panel that will be cleaner, faster, and more robust than our current control panel. We’ve been working close with some of our power users to develop a control panel that caters to our clients’ needs. Our new control panel will still have all of the capabilities of our current control panel; it will also include new features such as widgets so you can personalize your experience with the features you use most often. We want it to be the fastest, smartest, and easiest control panel in the industry. On top of the new control panel we will be launching new mobile applications as well as a desktop client. So stay tuned! The innovation is just getting started!

A special thanks to Elliot for giving us the opportunity to connect with you! As a thank you (for reading this far =p), take 15% off your next order to celebrate the launch of our new site. Use code: BACKinBLACK

*1 coupon per account. Excludes prepay orders. Offer expires 9/16/11 23:59 PDT

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