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Boost Part 2: The Roller Coaster of Domain Investing

Elliot Silver
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A month ago, I shared the results of my first month with Afternic “Boost” enabled on my account. Technically, the Boost features were previously enabled for everyone, so it was the first month where people could either pay a higher commission rate on Afternic sales or opt out of the Boost program.

The first month of Boost was fairly strong for my Afternic-listed portfolio. I had 4 BIN sales and 1 LTO sale. I also had a DBS sale on a domain name I had delisted due to the Boost commission increase. I don’t keep track of this, but 5 sales on the platform in a single month was probably one of the best months I’ve had in terms of domain names sold. Because I delisted most of my higher value names above $2k, the revenue total was inconsequential.

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SEC Filing: Roofs.com Sold for $303,000

Elliot Silver
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I was looking through recent SEC filings, and I learned about a six figure domain name sale that reportedly transacted last year. A company called Cuentas reported that it acquired the Roofs.com domain name for $303,000 in May of 2023. The Annual Report filing also reported the subsequent sale of the domain name for $301,000 in October of 2023:

“On May 18, 2023, the Company purchased the domain www.roofs.com in consideration of $303. On October 24, 2023 the Company entered into a sale agreement with a third party according to which, the Company sold its rights in the domain for $301.”

Notably, those amounts are “(USD in thousands).”

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ICA Extends Nomination Deadline for 2 Industry Awards

Elliot Silver
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The ICA is seeking nominations for two domain industry awards, and the nomination deadline has been extended to this coming Sunday (11/3). All members of the domain name community are invited to submit a nomination. ICA members will vote on the award winner from the list of nominees.

The two awards are the Lonnie Borck Memorial Award and a new one for 2025 – The Trailblazer Award. Both awards will be bestowed upon the winners at the annual ICA member meeting in January.

Here’s a description of each award:

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Why I Am Not Testing More Services

Elliot Silver
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A colleague emailed to ask me why I am not working with a specific landing page service he has been using. I neither have enough domain names to really give a company a fair shot, nor do I have the desire to set up many accounts at different platforms, giving access to private data to many companies.

The first issue is the primary issue. If I set up an account at a new landing page or parking service and only test 50 domain names, there’s a pretty good chance there will be very minimal impact – either positive or negative. Is that the fault of the service provider? No, of course not. I can’t pass judgment on the performance of a company with a limited number of domain names for a limited amount of time. If the service sucks or is bonkers, I won’t know if it’s the service, the names, seasonality, or a multitude of other factors beyond their control. It would be silly to test out a whole bunch of services when I can’t really determine why a test went well or went poorly.

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Managing Your Own Landers Can be Difficult

Elliot Silver
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One of my favorite aspects of the business of domain investing is negotiating my own deals with prospective buyers. In order to generate some of my inbound leads, I operate a variety of my own landing pages and inquiry forms, supplemented by Efty landing pages.

There is a downside to operating my own landing pages and inquiry forms. I am fully responsible for all technical aspects of the landing pages – from their design to their resolution and functionality. This is something I do with the help of a developer, but a great deal of the management is on me.

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Com Laude Hosting DotBrand Webinar with ICANN’s Andee Hill

Elliot Silver
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The second application round for new gTLD applications seems to be gearing up. ICANN has slowly been releasing new information about applying for a TLD in the 2nd round of applications. According to ICANN’s website, the next round of applications is expected to commence in April of 2026.

I couldn’t even take a guess at how many new TLD strings will be applied for, but I suspect a good portion of them will be brand-related TLDs. Some brands that weren’t created when the first round of applications started in 2012 as well as those that may have missed out will likely have an interest in applying for a brand matching TLD.

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