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Domain Madness Details

Elliot Silver
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Domain MadnessDomain Consultant has released the official schedule for their Domain Madness auction (and contest), which begins on March 19th and runs through the 31st. For those who aren’t college basketball fans, the theme of the domain auction is derived from “March Madness,” which is the NCAA College Basketball tournament that takes place every March. There is a bracket of 65 teams, and the games are played knock-out style.

The Domain Madness Contest is free to enter and involves picking which names in the auction will or won’t sell. Points are assigned for each correct choice, and the entrant with the most points will win the $1,000 grand prize.

Below is the official schedule for Domain Madness: March 19th: – Catalog Announced – Contest Voting Opens March 26th: – Contest Voting/Entries Closed – Auction Opens: Pre-Bidding March 31st – 2pm CST: Pre-bidding Closes – 2:15-4:00pm CST – Live Auction Finale Begins For more auction and contest information, visit the Domain Consultant website.

Help a Good Cause Choose a Good Domain

Elliot Silver
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A friend sent me information about a contest being run by New York City Alliance Against Sex Assault to help them choose a new domain name for their website, which currently resides on nycagainstrape.org. The reason they are looking to change their domain name is outlined on the contest website:

The URL change comes as a response to the need identified in a number of projects: (Project ENVISION, the Adult Health Map) to discuss sexual violence in a way that makes it easier for more people to talk about it. The Alliance is against sexual violence, but what does the world without sexual violence look like and how do we explain it? That’s where we need YOUR help.

I think this is a smart idea because their current domain name is very specific, and a broader name could encourage a wider audience to visit and participate in their programs. The organization’s mission is to build the capacity of communities, organizations, and institutions to advance the right to live free from sexual violence and reduce the harm it causes individuals, families, and society.

If you have an idea for a good domain name, please submit your idea to: Contest@nycagainstrape.org. If you own a great domain name that would be of interest, perhaps you could donate it in exchange for a charitable gift deduction. Otherwise, feel free to submit domain names that are available for them to register.

One word of advice to the NYCAASA – if you see a domain name you like that’s unregistered, spend the $10 and reserve it before discussing it.   While most people wouldn’t do something to undermine an organization’s efforts, it would be in your best interest to secure all potential domain names (that are unregistered) before deciding.

DNJournal: GeoDomain Expo To Be Canceled

Elliot Silver
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According to a DNJournal source, the GeoDomain Expo, put on annually by Associated Cities, will be canceled. This is disappointing, but its understandable given the difficult market conditions.   I’ve been debating internally whether to make the cross-country trip, as it’s close to Burbank but it’s probably a bit too far to do both.

Once I receive official confirmation about the cancellation, I will let you know, but generally Ron is on point with this type of information.

The Way to a Domainers’ Brain…

Elliot Silver
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The way to a domain investor’s brain is through his liver.   Thanks for the wine, Gordon!

Liquidating Your Domain Names

Elliot Silver
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Say that you need to cash out your domain investments ASAP. Perhaps you need to pay some bills, and you can’t afford to hold on to some of your domain names any more. Where do you turn? Right now, I don’t think there are any absolute reliable options, but I do think Bido is going to change this.

If you put your domain name up for sale on a domain forum, it’s unlikely to sell unless it’s a great name and you price it under market value. What happens is that you list your name, and if it’s not snapped up in the first several minutes, others will pass it over, and eventually it will end up on page 5 – the annals of the domain forum. You then have to lower your price, and wait and hope that someone sees it the second time around. This is no way to liquidate a domain name because it isn’t quick and you aren’t guaranteed to sell it for what the market will yield.

When you put a domain name for sale on a site like Sedo or Afternic, you are   competing with hundreds of thousands of other domain names, and a quick sale is very unlikely. It’s difficult (or expensive) to stand out on one of the leading aftermarket sales sites. These sites may be good for selling a domain name, but I don’t think they’re the right venue for a quick liquidation sale.

Auctions are also good spots to sell domain names, but they aren’t close to a sure bet, and   you’ll end up locking up your domain name for weeks due to auction house exclusivity. Domain brokers can be great, too – but again, you have to work with exclusivity, and competition from other listings.

So after all of this, I really think Bido is going to be a great place to sell your names quickly. People have been commenting that the sales are far from stellar. I disagree. The names for the most part have been far from stellar, so the sales prices are in line with expectations.

Yesterday, ZJP.com sold for $4,055.   I believe this is in line with what other 3 letter domain names are selling for now, and it shows that the market will set the price if the starting price is below market value, which is true with Bido’s $1 auction starts. Especially at this time, you can’t expect to get end user prices by selling to domain investors.

Domainers watch Bido and observe the auctions – whether the domains are great quality or poor quality.   Domainers can bring liquidity to the marketplace, and if you need cash, selling to a domain investor is usually the quickest way to make a sale.   Bido offers a great platform for domain investors to get liquidity.   I would imagine they will open up for more auctions soon, and that should make it easier for people to sell their names.

ComWired: Helping Domainers & Developers

Elliot Silver
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Sean Stafford is at it again. Every few months, it seems that Sean is building something helpful to domainers, and I think his new service, ComWired.com can help domainers and domain developers.

The DNS service is billed as a way to split up a domain name’s traffic depending on where the traffic originates.   For example, if you have a parked domain name that receives traffic from the US, Mexico, Japan, China and Russia, you can choose where to send traffic from each country, depending on where you find that it can be monetized better.   This is a neat concept for domain investors, but it can similarly work for domain developers, too.

Portland.com is the online guide to Portland, Oregon. Being from New Hampshire, when I hear Portland.com, I immediately think of Portland, Maine. Knowing the brains behind Portland.com, I am sure they analyzed their traffic to know that its looking for information about Portland, Oregon rather than Maine, however, I am sure there is some traffic looking for information about Portland, Maine.

With help from ComWired.com, the owners can detect where the traffic is coming from, and if it’s coming from New England cities, hypothetically, they can send it to Portland.com/Maine, which would theoretically have a site all about the city in Maine. All other traffic can be sent to the main (ha ha) site where they would find information about Portland, Oregon. This could also be effective for country based geodomains.

I should add ComWired.com can only split up traffic by country at the moment, but they expect to be able to split it by city in a few short weeks.   For now, the service is free to use, although that will probably change in the future.

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