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Larry Fischer and Leland Hardy Featured in New York Daily News Article

Elliot Silver
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I woke up to a Google News alert this morning with the title “Three Businessmen Quick to Jump on City Domain Names.” I nervously awaited as the site opened, fearing a negative article about owning city .com domain names.

The article interviewed and discussed Leland Hardy who owns NewYork.com, Larry Fischer who owns Queens.com with Ari Goldberger, and Kevin Cahill who owns StatenIsland.com. Although there isn’t anything really groundbreaking in the article, it was interesting to note that Cahill became a real estate agent as a result of owning StatenIsland.com, and he said he’s made $100,000 from the site.

It’s always interesting to see articles like this appear in the general news.

Blocking Farmville on Facebook

Elliot Silver
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I recently posted a comment on my Facebook wall about blocking those annoying Farmville posts that seem to frequently appear on my wall, and judging by the messages sent by friends on and off Facebook, I thought I would share how I did it in case you don’t know.

When someone posts something (whether it’s Farmville, a Facebook game, comment, or other Facebook app), if you hover over the upper right side of their post, a “hide” button appears. When you click the hide button, it gives the option to hide the person or the app they used. When I clicked the comment related to Farmville, it allowed me to block all Farmville comments from anyone that uses it.

Another friend pointed out that if you want to unhide a friend that you hid previously, go to the bottom of your wall feed and click on the edit options button.

I know this isn’t related to domain names, but I am sure there are plenty of people who would like this information. I am glad I learned how to do this, otherwise the next step would be to block these people.

WristletPurses.com Vs. WristletPurse.com

Elliot Silver
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I was bidding on two domain names this week on Snapnames – WristletPurses.com Vs. WristletPurse.com.   Both domain names had relatively little bidding until the final day. WristletPurse.com ended a couple of days ago and WristletPurses.com ended today.

Neither domain name was especially interesting to me, but it’s a product (and a plural) so I figured they’d probably be worth a couple hundred dollars or more to someone.   I locked in both bids, and I wasn’t surprised when I was outbid on WristletPurse.com. I was very surprised when I saw the final price was $1,450.

With the singular auction done, I figured I didn’t have a chance at the plural, so I left for the airport without even looking at my Snapnames account. I logged onto the Wifi network on Delta, and I was even more surprised to see that I was the winning bidder on WristletPurses.com for under $100.

Doing some quick research, here’s a brief comparison of the two terms:

Wristlet Purse – 33,600 Google results (lots of advertisers)
Wristlet Purses – 40,300 Google results (lots of advertisers)

Wristlet Purse – 3,300 Google exact match monthly searches (US)
Wristlet Purses – 720 Google exact match monthly searches (US)

Clearly, people are searching more for the singular but in my opinion, it doesn’t really justify such a huge price differential. When I see a name sell for over $1,000, I know there has to be a pretty good reason. However, I don’t understand the reason for such disparity between the two domain names.

What are your thoughts on the price differential for these domain names?

Sex.com Sale To Be a No Reserve Auction

Elliot Silver
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As I previously reported, Sex.com will be up for auction at the law offices of Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP, 156 West 56th Street, New York, New York on March 18, 2010 at 11 am. The auction is a result of a foreclosure, a few years after the 2006 sale, which was reported (but never confirmed) to be in the ballpark of $14 million.

At the time of my initial article, neither the auction house nor the law firm representing the lender would confirm the opening price/minimum bid for the auction, although it was stated that a $1,000,000 certified check would be required to bid.  

I was just informed by Richard Maltz of Maltz Auctions that there will be no reserve price for the Sex.com auction. Registered bidders will be permitted to bid online or in person at the Windels Marx Lane & Mittendorf, LLP offices. In addition, Maltz added, “the secured party does reserve the right to bid under the law.”

Without a reserve price set, I would expect several bidders to participate in this landmark auction. Full auction details, including the terms and conditions (pdf) of the auction are available on the Maltz Auctions website.

Domain Registration Contest: Win $150!

Elliot Silver
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IDN Domain Contest

IDN Tools and ElliotsBlog.com are co-sponsoring a IDN domain contest beginning today and ending in two weeks from today. All you have to do to win is register the IDN domain name with the highest footprint (explained below) and you will win $150. The second place winner will receive $100, and the third place winner will receive $50.

The domain’s footprint = average CPC x Google exact match search term (as determined by Google Adwords Keyword Tool as of 9 a.m. on the contest end date). Here is an example of how the highest footprint will be determined: ฟรี.com (Free.com in Thai).   The broad global monthly search volume is 7,480,000; and the exact global monthly search volume is 2,900 x $0.43 (CPC) = 1,247 (footprint).

Here are the contest rules:

  • All submissions are FREE
  • Submissions must be made in the comments section of this post announcing the contest
  • Dot com submissions only
  • IDN name submissions only (must have a real punycode equivalent)
  • Fresh hand registered submissions only (no use of Snapnames or a drop catcher, handreg must have been made during the contest period)
  • Contest ends at 9 a.m. (EST) on Thursday, March 25th – All submissions must be time stamped by this time or they will not count.
  • No trademark names

*Rules subject to interpretation by consensus of Me (Elliot) and the IDNTools team (Gary Males and Aaron Krawitz).   The top 3 domain names with the highest footprint will be the winners. Although someone can submit as many entries as they would like, a person is only eligible for one prize. In the event of a tie, the prize will be split between the co-winners.

To determine the CPC, visit the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and use the dropdown “Choose Columns to Display” you can display CPC easily without having an Adwords account.   You can also see the Google Exact Match Global search volume by using the Keyword Tool.

Welcome Name.com!

Elliot Silver
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As you may have already noticed, I am happy to announce that Name.com has made an advertising commitment on my blog. I’ve heard a number of positive things about Name.com, especially working with the company, and now I have the chance to do so.

Name.com offers a number of great products and services for domain investors, some of which have been previously mentioned and discussed on my blog.

– NameSafe – This third-factor authentication works with two different styles of fobs (keychain and credit card style) as well as a host of mobile phones (m.verisign.com). For customers who want an extra level of protection for their account, this third-factor authentication option provides the needed level of account security. I use a keyfob for my Paypal account, and I think it’s a great security feature.

– Geo Domains Search – Long tail geodomain names are popular among local businesses because of their generic nature. What city doesn’t have a City Locksmith or City Pizza?   Probably none. Personally, I think larger city keyword domain names make very good directory websites – similar to Name Administration’s MontrealRestaurants.com. This tool allows you to easily find unregistered geodomain names and long tail geodomain names in a variety of extensions. A quick search of available city .com names in Argentina shows presidenciaroquesaenzpena.com is available to register (Presidencia Roque Saenz Pena is a city of over 75,000).

– Domain Suggestion Tool – This is a great tool for IDN investors, as Name.com integrated Google’s translation tool into it. They also have the “Google Keyword Suggestion” tab that uses Google’s Adwords api/keyword suggestion tool to suggest domains based on popular search terms. The DST   shows real search data for keyword terms that are entered.

– Web Hosting – Name.com just launched web hosting services within the past 6 months.

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