It looks like the Peace Corps has accidentally allowed one of its important domain names to expire. Although the Peace Corps uses PeaceCorps.gov for its website (and most likely it's email addresses as well), the PeaceCorps.com domain name expired within the last week and it is pending renewal.

If a visitor goes to PeaceCorps.com right now, a Network Solutions landing page will appear, and there is a message in the top right corner stating, "peacecorps.com expired on 01/06/2014 and is pending renewal or deletion." The organization should be able to renew the domain name to reactivate it as it was before.

Should the domain name not be renewed in the next few weeks, it will most likely be (more…) → Read More

On July 30, 2010, PeoplesBank.com expired, and it now appears to be coming up for auction on NameJet. The previous registrant was Maine Bank and Trust, located at 6 Atlantis Way in Lewiston, Maine. According to some research I did, TDBank is (or was) located in that space, which jives up with the @banknorth.com email address used by the registrant, since Banknorth is now known as TD Bank (they were known as TD Banknorth for a while).

I've done some research, and it appears that the ownership of this domain name is about as confusing as the history of bank mergers, acquisitions, takeovers, and other activities that faced many local banks. Maine Bank and Trust owned this domain name (and is still listed as registrant). Similarly, Maine Bank and Trust also owned MaineBank.com back in 2001. If you visit MaineBank.com now, you'll see a message that says Maine Bank & Trust is now People's United Bank, and you are forwarded to Peoples.com.

The strange thing to me is that People's United Bank and TD Bank do not appear to be → Read More

I don't really keep tabs on drop auctions, unless I am bidding on them. I also don't generally place a bid on a domain in auction to watch it, even if there are many other bidders involved. However, Mike's post, which has little to do with drop auctions, should make us more aware of what's dropping.

With PPC down, companies are less cavalier about spending significant money on dropping domain names because they simply won't be able to maximize the value with a parked page. For domain investors that develop or that buy and then target end users to re-sell, this is a big opportunity. Names that were selling for 4 figures are now selling for 3 figures, and there is less competition - especially for longer tail keywords. Some can even be picked up for registration fee after the auction ends.

In addition to the PPC slide, domain tasting has been virtually killed. This is causing more domain names to drop than ever before, allowing domain investors with a sharp eye to get deals. IMO, there are many great domain names that would be → Read More

I've been looking at dropping auctions more regularly on NameJet and SnapNames, and I frequently come across generic typo domain names that are enticing. They seem generic enough that they would avoid any type of trademark violation, and they could potentially get traffic based on some analytics I've done. These are typically misspelled words where one letter is replaced with a letter that's next to the correct letter on the keyboard.

Today I found a typo domain name that I was considering, and I went to the website to see if I could find some analytic information - like Compete.com traffic. When I got there, I saw that it was a porn site, and it got me concerned. I know that a domain owner may not be liable for what a previous owner did, but that wouldn't necessarily stop a company from filing suit under the assumption that you had something to do with its prior usage.

Now if you are sued for misuse on a high value domain name, that's another story and a cost of doing business in most cases. However, if you are sued because of → Read More