The Internet Commerce Association has had a busy 2008. Their efforts have not gone unnoticed, and are appreciated by domain owners with portfolios of all sizes. I am proud to support the ICA, and I urge all domain owners to join as members.
The ICA released their 2008 Annual Report today, and it’s important for domain owners to read the report so they can see just how much the ICA has been doing this past year.
ICA Releases Annual Report
Looking to Buy a Premium Shop/Store Domain
I am looking to buy a shop/store domain name. For me to buy it, the domain must meet ALL requirements listed below. If it doesn’t meet every requirement below, I won’t even consider it, so please submit names that only meet the requirements below. I plan to build a site around this name in the coming year, so while I am open to a variety of domain names, my requirements are for specific reasons:
Requirements:
- Must be a .com
- Must end in Store.com or Shop.com
- Must have been registered pre-2003 and show that date (no drop catches)
- The .net, .org, and .info for this name must be registered and owned by someone else
- Must make grammatical sense – ie CurtainShop.com or CameraStore.com rather than CamerasStore.com or CandiesStore.com which make no sense
- Must make logical sense – ie ShoeShop.com or CarpetStore.com rather than PrettyStore.com or BankStore.com which make no sense
- No hyphens
- Price must be under $25,000
Again, I have no need for lesser quality domain names for this, so please don’t submit anything that doesn’t meet ALL requirements. If your name is great and is above $25,000 – congrats on getting a great name, but it’s not for me for this project.
Thanks!
I reserve the right to post all domain names submitted and/or not post domain names I don’t wish to post.
Lowell.com is Re-Launched
I want to let you know that I just re-launched Lowell.com this morning. If anyone has any time, it would be great if you could point out some 404s or other errors you may find. I know Shopping, Sports News and Business News aren’t working yet, but can anyone find any other errors?
Thanks in advance!
Google Takes on Parking Companies
On their Adsense blog this morning, Google announced a new way for domain owners to monetize undeveloped domain names. “Adsense for Domains” is now available for some domain owners, and it can be found in the Adsense Setup tab in the Adsense account. Essentially, domain owners can load their domain names into the Google back-end, provide keyword hints, choose link and text colors, and change over their DNS to Google specified servers. It all seems pretty easy.
There are going to be differences between what parking companies offer and what Google will offer, and some of which can be gleaned from the quick start guide. For starters, domain owners will not have the luxury of adding graphics to their landing pages. Additionally, it is doubtful that Google can offer the same extraordinary level of customer support that is given by most parking companies.
The bottom line on all of this will most certainly be the bottom line to domain owners’ bank accounts. By getting rid of the middle man, Google should be able to pay more than parking companies, which would be very problematic for parking companies. Unfortunately, if Google becomes THE parking company, they could make their own rules, lower payouts and ultimately harm domain owners in the long run. This is an interesting development that will have long lasting repercussions on the domain industry.
Nashua Telegraph Gets It
Leave it to the parent company of my hometown newspaper, The Nashua Telegraph, to really get the importance of domain names. I just noticed that they own and operate NH.com, the guide to New Hampshire. Unfortunately, they can’t buy Nashua.com, as it’s owned by publicly traded Nashua Corporation and they won’t sell it (well, I offered 6 figures to their CFO over the phone and he said they wouldn’t sell).
Nevertheless, The Telegraph and its parent company own the premier online portal for New Hampshire. NH.com is easy to remember, easy to navigate to, and it just makes sense for a New Hampshire-based publishing company to own. When publishing companies like The Tribune Company are filing for bankruptcy and other newspaper publishers are distressed, The Telegraph and its parent company will be rewarded for thinking ahead.
I bought Lowell.com and Burbank.com not only because they will become the leading guides to these cities, but I can also expand to providing news. They might not consider these sites competition now, but in a few years, who knows.. Some newspaper companies thought ahead, and others didn’t (ironically, the Burbank newspaper is owned by The Tribune Company).
Clearing Out Some Keyword Domains
Sold a bunch – sale over.