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Snapnames & Moniker: Changes Coming

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According to an email that was sent to Moniker and Snapnames clients on Saturday afternoon, some big changes will be coming based on feedback received from clients. The updates and upgrades will be made on Monday, September 27, 2010.

Some of the changes described in the email include:

  • You can now register and search for domain names more quickly while keeping up-to-date on upcoming opportunities for buying and selling domain names at auctions.This includes a more streamlined navigation as well as look and feel.
  • The company opened, and will continue to add to, a resource center to provide you information and tips. This includes articles, videos and interviews.
  • Account Management: Moniker Domain Management and SnapNames Auction activities can now be found in the “My Account” area of each site.
  • Their support portal now includes an expanded knowledge base where you can submit and track your questions across all of your Oversee.net accounts. The portal is available and monitored 365 days a year.

You can have a look at the SnapNames video of changes made in the account area of the sites, and/or you can view the Moniker video of changes made in the account area of the sites.

Domain/IP Lawyer Launches Website on TrademarkAttorneys.com

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New York City-based intellectual property lawyer Brett Lewis (better known by many as a domain lawyer), from the law firm of Lewis & Hand, has launched a new website on the generic domain name TrademarkAttorneys.com.

The website has started out as a blog, and it will eventually grow into a full-fledged trademark law website. The recently launched website is currently ranked No.2 on Bing and Yahoo, and it is on the second page of Google for the competitive keywords. It’s an advantage of owning a keyword domain name that would have been much more difficult had Lewis tried to rank highly using his law firm’s corporate domain name.

The domain name was purchased for an undisclosed sum a few months ago from well-known domain investor, Rob Grant. This was a name that had been previously up for auction, and I thought it would be a great buy for someone in that field.

When asked about his motivations for building the site, Lewis replied, “we’re excited to own the name and to be developing a blog.   The TrademarkAttorneys.com blog will have a heavy focus on domains, and hopefully can be a resource for the domaining community.”

Once Lewis’ site ranks in the top of Google for his key terms, he will save significant money on pay per click advertising. As with any domain investment, it’s a significant short term expense, but will certainly pay off over time.

Get Back in Touch With Previous Inquirers

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I recently saw a good reported sale of a domain name I had inquired about a couple of years ago. I made an offer via email and the domain owner told me it wasn’t for sale. I have no idea whether it wasn’t really for sale at the time or whether my offer hadn’t piqued his interest.

The sales price looks reasonable, and it wasn’t that many thousands of dollars from my offer. Had the previous owner given me that price when I first inquired, I am almost certain I would have bought it, since my opening offers are generally not the most I will pay for a given name, and it was certainly in the ballpark.

The moral of the story is that if you receive an offer that makes you want to sell the domain name, you might consider getting in touch with the people who previously inquired about the domain name. Even if you set a price higher than the high offer, you can possible make more money. Circumstances may have changed and it may bring back interest in that particular domain name for someone who had previously inquired.

At worst, you waste a day or two waiting for a reply. At best, you can generate some incremental revenue or create a private bidding war between two interested parties.

Zoosk or Zooks? Who Cares – The Company Owns Both

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Zooks

I was watching some late night television the other night when I saw a commercial for Zoosk.com… or was it Zooks.com? It’s actually Zoosk, and the company did two things I consider smart when it comes to domain names and its website.

The company recognized that some consumers confuse Zoosk and Zooks, and both domain names were purchased. It appears that they bought the Zooks.com domain name from a Harley Davidson dealership called Big Barn Harley-Davidson. Interestingly, it was registered to a company called Media Market in Idaho in between the Harley dealership and this dating website, and I previously wrote about Media Market appearing to make domain acquisitions on behalf of large companies.

The second smart move I noticed was that on the typo Zooks.com domain name, they actually have a small portal built to promote the Zoosk brand and to direct visitors to the correct website. In fact, the Zooks.com mini portal mentions, “Zooks is a common misspelling of Zoosk.”

According to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool, “Zooks” gets nearly 15,000 exact match searches globally each month. By having a website on Zooks.com, the company is ranked #2 on Google for this search, just behind the correct Zoosk.com website. With the top results known to get the majority of traffic from searchers, owning this position as a result of building the mini portal instead of a 301 redirect was brilliant. The company now owns the top 3 results, and it also has sitelinks on the first.

Smart moves for Zoosk!

eNom Names Won on NameJet Subject to 42 Day Auction Lock

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As a domain seller, the quicker I can move inventory, (usually) the better. When I win an auction at NameJet, I try to find an end user or domain investor buyer as quickly as possible. I’ve never encountered an issue with this until last week.

I recently bought a domain name at auction on Namejet. I was informed the domain name would be moved to my eNom account, and I quickly scouted out buyers. I reached a deal to sell the domain name a few days later, and upon trying to push the name to another account, I learned that there was an “auction lock” on the domain name.

I inquired about the lock, and at first, technical support wasn’t very helpful. I asked why I could transfer a name I bought on NameJet that was registered at Network Solutions a few weeks prior, and the person tried to explain that it had something to do with pre-release and pending delete status differences, although I learned that explanation was incorrect.

According to Laurie Krick from Enom/NameJet, all domain names that end up at eNom will have a 45 day correction: 42 day lock on them. Owners can change the DNS to use the domain names within this period of time, but they can’t be pushed to another account or transferred out of eNom.

This lock is something I did not know about, but I will take it into consideration when bidding on NameJet domain names going forward, as it adds 45 days correction: 42 days to when I can flip names.

Update: it is 42 days, not 45 days

WarStrategy.com – For Sale

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Domain Name for Sale: WarStrategy.com
Buy it Now Price: $4,500.00

Creation Date: July, 2001
Domain Registrar: eNom

I really like this domain name and think it would be the perfect site for either a MMO gaming website or a portal for war strategy games. Incidentally, Name Administration owns the longer tail WarStrategyGames.com.

Both WarStrategy.net and WarStrategy.org are registered by others. I have not changed the DNS since buying it a couple of months ago, so I don’t know if there’s any traffic. I should probably change it though, so perhaps by the time you read this the DNS will already be changed.

This will be listed for sale in a couple other places, so the first one to post “sold” will get it.

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