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Header Banner Now Available

Elliot Silver
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Six One Five DesignHave you ever seen a note like this on a web designer’s website? This was just the note that my designer added to his site yesterday as a result of an abundance of business (we should all be so lucky!). In light of this good news for SixOneFive, the banner spot in my header is now available for a monthly lease (commitment may be required).

If your company is interested in reaching domain investors, Internet entrepreneurs, web developers, and other Internet media professionals – in arguably the most visible location on my blog – please drop me a note. The banner isn’t “cheap” but it is a cost effective way to reach potential customers and clients.

The banner will be available on a first come, first served basis.

Here’s what Mike from SixOneFive (who previously had the banner) had to say about advertising on Elliot’s Blog:

This banner is responsible for over 60% of my past and current workload.   Not only did it lead to projects, but it also resulted in long-term clientele, which is hard to come by these days.   I actually had to create a “Booked” graphic specifically for traffic from Elliot’s Blog!

Newspaper Companies Understand Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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Classified VenturesThis might come as a surprise to you because it was certainly a surprise to me, but some of the leading newspaper companies do understand the value of generic domain names. Newspaper publishing companies including A.H. Belo Corporation, Gannett Company. Inc., Tribune Company, The McClatchy Company, and The Washington Post Company own a joint venture called Classified Ventures, LLC, which owns and operates several leading brands.

You ever hear of Classified Ventures?   I didn’t think so. I hadn’t heard of them either until last night. However, we all know companies that are under the Classified Ventures umbrella, and at least two of them operate on the absolute best possible category killer domain names for their verticals, hands down. In addition, CV owns some great brand supporting domain names that are either smaller stand-alone portals or forward to the main website.

Let’s take a look at some Classified Ventures domain names/websites:

  • Cars.com
  • Apartments.com
  • Apartment.com
  • Apts.com
  • PickupTruck.com
  • PickupTrucks.com
  • MovingVan.com
  • Roommate.net

    • So the next time someone tells you that newspaper companies just don’t understand domain names (myself included), you can tell that person he is wrong! I bet he will be as surprised as I was.

    Miami Dolphins File UDRP for Dolphins.com

    Elliot Silver
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    Miami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins football team has filed a UDRP for the domain name Dolphins.com, which is parked and currently shows NFL football-related PPC advertisements, including an image of a football stadium. In addition to advertisements for “Miami Dolphins Tickets,” there are also ads for figurines and “Swimming with Dolphins Retreats.”

    According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing (2006 Annual Report) filed by Marchex (NASDAQ: MCHX), the publicly traded company owns Dolphins.com (as of 2006). Further, in the same filing, Marchex listed MDNH, Inc. as a subsidiary, and Dolphins.com is currently registered to dnsadmin@mdnhinc.com. MDNHINC.com is registered to MDNH, Inc.

    This is a high value domain name, both because of its generic nature (animal domain names are always in demand) and because of the NFL team with the same name. This is going to be an interesting case to watch with these two heavyweights going at it, especially because of the potential impact of losing the domain name could be on Marchex’s bottom line. IMO, this is easily a six figure domain name.

    Dolphins.com screenshot

    New Header, Sections & Enhancements

    Elliot Silver
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    Elliot's Blog LogoA few people have asked today – and the answer is yes, my blog has a new header. I didn’t think the old header was utilizing its space as well as possible, and the new header allowed me to easily add two new sections – a Domain Names for Sale section and an Expiring Domain Names section, which are both self-explanatory.

    I haven’t decided whether I am going to accept outside submissions for the sale section yet. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t like brokering domain names for others and only do so on rare occasions. If the demand is there, I may begin accepting domain name listings.

    My designer was able to make a couple of enhancements to the structure of the blog as well, which will help with search engine optimization (I hope). Literally a half hour after he made a couple of changes to the site structure, I received a Google Alert with about 10 posts that had just been indexed from months ago. I don’t know if it was coincidental or if the change had anything to do with the indexing, but either way, it is going to help in the long-run.

    As always, if you have any suggestions, please drop me a note and I will see what I can do.

    Domain Name Security Offerings

    Elliot Silver
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    With domain theft in the news again, it’s time to take a quick look at some security offerings of popular domain name registrars. The security measures below may not be the only security features offered by registrars, so if I missed something, please let me know:

    Name.com – NameSafe VIP service offering a security USB key fobs for accounts. Domain owners who have the keyfob need to use it in order to log in to their account, preventing anyone without the security key from accessing account-level actions (such as a domain transfer). Name.com is the first ICANN accredited registrar to offer this type of security service. Cost: $19.95 per account per year.

    Moniker – MaxLock is an added layer of protection customers can purchase to safeguard their domain names at Moniker. With MaxLock, the customer provides Moniker with a government-issued form of identification (passport, license, military ID…etc) and two security questions, which cannot be retrieved online. Any account or domain changes must be completed through the Moniker security team. Cost: $19.95 per domain name per year or $124.99 per portfolio per year.

    Fabulous – Challenge/Response security and the Fabulous Security Key are both security offerings of Fabulous. Challenge/Response is a security feature that allows the account owner to supply answers to a preset list of questions, in order to verify the identity of the user before being granted account access. The security key is a USB device that provides additional levels of security to sensitive areas of a domain owner’s account.

    Message from ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom

    Elliot Silver
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    ICANN LogoNewly appointed ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom posted a message today on the ICANN website with updates on a few key topics. Beckstrom discusses IDNs, DNSSEC, New gTLDs, and the future of ICANN and the Internet (albeit briefly).

    Regarding the new gTLDs, Beckstrom notes the original memorandum of understanding with the US Government from 1998, which stated, “Oversight of the policy for determining the circumstances under which new top level domains would be added to the root system.” New gTLDs are definitely going to be introduced, and I hope ICANN is prepared to handle everything associated with new companies entering the registry business.

    In the message, Beckstrom cites a letter from the chief of the Zulu tribe who intends to move forward with the .Zulu extension. It’s great that this could open the Internet to groups who want to manage gTLDs, but I can’t   imagine enough companies wanting .Zulu domain names to run a viable business on .Zulu. Hopefully there will be plenty of measures in place in the event that a registry fails. I digress because it’s not really the point, but there are a whole host of issues to consider.

    Anyhow, I applaud the openness Beckstrom is showing, and I hope to see it continue.

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