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Saturday Update: Kentucky Derby Special

Elliot Silver
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7

Today is the Kentucky Derby, the annual horse race watched by millions. I am going to be attending my first Kentucky Derby party in a few hours, with none other than David Castello and apparently a few other geodomainers. I’m not a horse racing fan, so I may have to stop off at the OTB (off track betting) place down the street and put some money on a horse.

Anyhow, here are a few updates:

  • Uncle Mo, the favorite to win the Kentucky Derby, is not running today due to an injury. Want to learn more about Uncle Mo or buy some Uncle Mo gear? He has a website – UncleMo.com.
  • Here’s one tip to help with your SEO. Try to get one back link to your website a day, and try to add one new article every day or two. If writing is tough for you, use a site like Textbroker. Backlinks may not be easy to get, but it’s easier if you have compelling content on your site, and fresh articles can help with that.
  • Great post by Shane Cultra today about turning $69 into $80,000. Check it out when you have a few minutes.
  • I don’t know about you, but every time I think about the Monte / Oversee situation, it really upsets me. I use to think that any time I had any issue at Moniker, I could send Monte an instant message, email, or make a call, and the issue would be resolved. Bari is great, but things aren’t the same.
  • You know what I find strange? When someone offers $1,500 for a 3 letter .com domain name via Sedo. Does someone really think a person would list their name at Sedo and not have a clue about domain valuations. Sure, the rare cheap 3 letter .com sale happens, but it’s usually made when a buyer approaches an uninformed seller and gets a great deal, but it doesn’t happen on a domain aftermarket platform. Those types of offers are just irritating and get canceled immediately. No point in negotiating with a lowballer.

The Problems With Personal Branding

Elliot Silver
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12

There is a definite draw for people to build up a personal brand around their names – either first or last name. Earning name recognition or associating a person’s recognition with a business, gaining personal merit/achievement, and the hope for having ones’ name associated with a successful enterprise are very attractive motivations for naming a business after oneself.

When deciding on how to brand your business or website, it is important to take some things into account before you jump into a personal branding strategy (similar to what I did with my blog and what several others have done as well).  If you wish to start a blog and decide to use a personally branded domain name, your readers will likely come to expect regular input from you. While there are definite upsides to building a personal relationship with readers, there are some catches.

For one, it leaves very little room for breaks. Since most people will have grown accustomed to your regular input, there is a chance that they may not stick around if you decide to take some time off. Some readers may only be going to your blog to read what you have to say, so even hiring a “guest blogger” to take over for a bit would still drive them away. If you aren’t writing your own posts, the content could reflect poorly upon you.

Another big consideration is if you decide to sell off your business to move on to bigger and better things. Imagine selling a blog with your name on it to someone who will produce content you can’t control. Furthermore, visitors may know that you aren’t running the site any longer, and they may not be interested in returning. This is something a buyer would consider when making an acquisition, and the offer may be less than if it were on a descriptive or branded domain name.

Investing in a less personal branding approach may work better in the long run for some people. By creating a slightly less intimate connection to a person or family, you are making your domain name more versatile for future growth and use, whether that is by you or by another entity who acquires it.

Donald Trump Not Official Candidate; Yet ImpeachTrump.com Already Registered

Elliot Silver
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6

Anyone who watches the news in the US knows that real estate tycoon Donald Trump is considering a run for President. Although “The Donald” has not officially declared his candidacy yet, there are plenty of people anticipating that this will happen, and they’ve been buying Trump related domain names.

For instance, here are a number of registered presidential election domain names not owned by Mr. Trump:

  • VoteTrump.com
  • ElectTheDonald.com
  • VoteForTrump.com
  • Trump12.com
  • PresidentTrump.com
  • TrumpPalin.com
  • TrumpRomney.com
  • RomneyTrump.com

It does seem that Mr. Trump is preparing for a presidential run, at least in terms of his domain names. ElectTrump.com is registered to The Trump Organization. The domain name was created by someone in New Jersey in October of 2010. It appears that The Trump Organization acquired the domain name sometime between December of 2010 and February of 2011.  In addition, The Trump Organization also owns Trump2012.com.

I don’t know whether the company bought these two domain names or if it acquired them via legal means (cease and desist letter for instance), but it now owns these two prime domain assets.

Ironically, despite the fact that Mr. Trump has not even declared his candidacy yet, it appears that at least one person is betting he will win and do a poor job. ImpeachTrump.com was already registered by someone in California in January of this year. Talk about putting the cart in front of the horse!

Mike Mann Sells Business.CO for $80k

Elliot Silver
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97

The third largest .CO domain sale has been recorded by Mike Mann. According to Mann, his sales team sold Business.CO for $80,000. The buyer for this domain name has not been disclosed, and the Whois record has not changed as of yet.

This sale will rank in DNJournal’s top 20 publicly reported domain sales for 2011, and it will also rank as the #2 country code domain sale for 2011, trailing Deals.com.au.

The only two higher publicly reported .CO domain sales that I can recall are O.CO, which was purchased by Overstock for $350,000, and E.CO, which was purchased for $81,500 by B52 Media. The later of the two domain names is on the market again for a cool half million dollars.

After FacebookOfSex.com Lawsuit, Did FriendFinder Acquire BookOfSex.com?

Elliot Silver
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4

Friend Finder LogoHere’s an interesting story with a couple of twists and turns, and I think you’ll find it interesting.

In the middle of April, Mike Berkens reported that “Facebook filed suit against FriendFinder and its subsidiaries over it’s site FacebookOfSex.com, claiming it’s too similar to its own trademarked name.” Obviously, Facebook was opposed to the usage of the “Facebook” branding in a non-Facebook owned or endorsed website. At the present time, that site appears to be deactivated.

FriendFinder also apparently has issues with Facebook’s usage of the term “friend finder.” They believe this infringes on their own brand. This is going to be an interesting legal fight.

Now here’s where things become more interesting to me. From my research, it appears that FriendFinder has acquired BookOFSex.com. The domain name is currently registered to someone with an @FFN.com email address, and FFN.com is owned by  FriendFinder Networks. IMO, this is a pretty strong domain name.

Coincidentally, the domain name was sold by Mike Berkens’ Most Wanted Domains.

No Joke: Harvard Lampoon Files UDRP for Lampoon.com

Elliot Silver
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5

Here’s a recently filed UDRP that is a bit frustrating to see as a professional domain investor.

Harvard Lampoon, a “humor publication” produced by college students at the esteemed Harvard University, has filed a UDRP for the seemingly descriptive domain name, Lampoon.com. The domain name is owned by Reflex Publishing, a company that holds one of the finest portfolios of descriptive/generic domain names.

Lampoon.com currently resolves to a standard Reflex Publishing PPC page with a wide variety of links. From what I can tell, it does not appear that Reflex is targeting or tailoring the links to capitalize on traffic from people looking for the Harvard Lampoon. Additionally, with the “CyberFinder.com” title (found on most Reflex Publishing landing pages), I can’t believe anyone with a brain would confuse this with the Harvard Lampoon website.

Aside from the term “lampoon” being a descriptive word, and in addition to the Harvard Lampoon publication, there’s also the National Lampoon, Chicago Lampoon, and of course the beloved National Lampoon’s Vacation, a great movie starring Chevy Chase. I don’t see how anyone would think they have rights to this domain name. It would almost be like Bank of America asserting it has rights to Bank.com (although Harvard does have a mark for the term Lampoon – see below).

Reflex Publishing appears to have owned Lampoon.com since at the very least 2005 and likely 1998 (records only go through 2005 for this one). Since the Harvard Lampoon has been around since the 1800s, what the heck has the organization been doing for the last several years if it thinks it has more rights to this domain name than Reflex? Why did they wait at least 6 years and maybe as long as 13 years to take action?

Yes, Harvard Lampoon has at least 2 live marks for Lampoon according to the USPTO, but I don’t see what took it so long to try and exercise its rights via UDRP. I wonder if the doctrine of laches would be applicable in this situation.

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