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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.

Bounced Emails & Non-Working Phone Numbers

Elliot Silver
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FailureSome of the best domain names I have ever purchased came after receiving a notice with the subject “Delivery Status Notification (Failure)” meaning that it was not received by the intended recipient. This tells me that inquiries from others went unreceived as well, and acquisition attempts probably ended there (or a phone call, which generally goes to a non-working phone number). Without having received many offers, a domain owner may be more inclined to sell his domain name to me if I can just get in touch and make a fair offer.

There are many ways to get in touch with a domain owner when the email and phone numbers don’t work. A few ways to do this (although some might not be cost effective) include the following:

  • Find another contact at the company that owns the domain name.
  • Emails to random accounts @ the domain name (info, sales, webmaster…etc)
  • Google search for the company name or the previous owner’s name to find an email, phone number, or address.
  • See the Wayback Machine archive of a previous website to find an alternate contact number or email.
  • Visit the last known physical mailing address, although this might not be worth doing if it’s a significant distance from you.
  • Hire a private investigator to find the previous owner.

Depending on how badly you want the domain name or how much it is needed for a business will determine the effort you might want to undertake to acquire the domain name. As always, just make sure your offer is at least reasonable enough to get a reply when you do get in touch with the owner. The owner may not have received a significant amount of offers over the years, but unless he lives under a rock, he probably has some idea of the value of his domain name.

Snapnames Summer Stimulus Auction Ending

Elliot Silver
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The Snapnames Summer Stimulus Low & No Reserve auction is ending today, and there are many auctions with very low reserves still available for bidding. As previously announced, Snapnames and Moniker will be running monthly theme auctions on the Snapnames platform. This is the first auction of the summer.

Some names that I like that are open for bidding include:

DegreePrograms.com

Pumped.com

Defeated.com

WirelessModem.com

ComputerHackers.com

DiscountRates.com

FurnitureRepair.com

Vacationing.com

HomeFitness.com

EnglandVacations.com

Castello Brothers to Keynote at Domain Convergence

Elliot Silver
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David & Michael CastelloThe Castello Brothers (Michael and David Castello) of the Castello Cities Internet Network will give the keynote address and host an interactive session at the 2009 Domain Convergence Conference in Toronto, Canada August 13-14.

The Castello Brothers’ keynote address will be The Future of Domaining – Building Your Brand. In addition, they will be hosting a special interactive session where audience members can submit their domain development and monetization ideas and strategies in advance for candid review and feedback during the session. “David and I are looking forward to speaking and sharing ideas with fellow domainers at the 2009 Domain Convergence Conference,” said Michael Castello, CEO of the Castello Cities Internet Network. “Some of the world’s most successful and innovative domainers are in Canada and this year’s Domain Convergence will surely be a vibrant and creative conference.”Domain Convergence

The 2009 Domain Convergence Conference is Canada’s premier annual meeting of domain name owners, developers, investors and entrepreneurs. This year it will be held August 13 and 14 at the Radisson Admiral Harbourfront Hotel in Toronto. The Early Bird admission rate of $649 (Canadian) expires on July 25th.

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