About Domain Name

GoDaddy is paying $218 million for Neustar’s registry business

2020-05-07T15:21:00.002-07:00

Company discloses acquisition price for Neustar business.

GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) unveiled its acquisition price for Neustar along with GoDaddy’s first-quarter earnings today. It is paying $218 million for the business and expects the transaction to close “in the coming months.”

The domain name company announced the acquisition last month.

With Neustar, GoDaddy will now control both the wholesale and retail side of many domain names. Neustar operates .us, .co, and .biz, among other domain names.

Neustar is currently owned by a private equity consortium led by Golden Gate Capital, which scooped up the business in 2017. The registry business sale is a carveout of the marketing data, security, and intelligence company.

Source:DNW

Better together: Uni joins GoDaddy

2020-02-11T12:31:00.002-08:00

Uni has always been about catering to domain investors, domain lovers, and people who understand the value of the right name. We always aim to provide end-to-end solutions for the internet’s unique identifiers: domain names. Tools, technology, and tenacity have gotten us to the front of the line, and Uni will join GoDaddy. We couldn’t be more thrilled. Welcome to the future of domaining.

Why?

We’ve been tirelessly working away on our Market for years, making sure we’re building tools that make your life easier, tools that enable you to sell quicker, to sell on the go, with more exposure, with more data, more feedback and a process that works for all. We truly love domains, we love this industry, we love what we do, and we want to bring this technology to all, to reach the furthest parts of the world and make domains accessible for everyone.

The domain investor community is a strategic priority for GoDaddy, and with their commitment to bolstering their own in-house offerings, it makes sense for them to acquire a leading registrar which already serves the domain community. Uni was created for investors and by investors.
Put simply, it makes sense for us to join GoDaddy. Our technology, love of the craft, and desire to disrupt the industry paired with GoDaddy’s relentless commitment to exceptional service, their customers, and innovation—it’s a natural fit.

By combining Uni and GoDaddy, our customers will receive a complete end-to-end solution at incredible value. Together, GoDaddy and Uni will continue to innovate in the domain space, offer new solutions and help investors achieve their goals in a cost-effective way. The technology behind the market is second to none, we want to expose this technology to the wider audience at large.
Frank’s pretty thrilled too, in his own words:

“One of the mantras we repeat around the Uniregistry office is that we dream about building a company of permanence and value". When I started speaking with GoDaddy, it became clear how passionate we both are about our customers and this industry. I realized the best way to fulfill our mantras and dreams was to join with GoDaddy.”

He continues:

“I’m so proud of the team we’ve put together. It is incredibly rewarding to give them the opportunity to scale our solutions with GoDaddy's customers. The years ahead will truly be awesome!”
Frank Schilling, Founder, Uniregistry

Is anything changing at Uni?

Change is good for us, for the industry, and innovation is necessary. However, there will be no short-term changes at Uni. The Registrar you know and love will still be available at www.uniregistry.com. Teams and key contacts will remain and all systems will continue to function the way you’ve become accustomed to. The Market will continue selling domain names and it’ll be business as usual. As time rolls on we'll be looking at how the Uniregistry Market paired with GoDaddy's expertise can serve the greater investor community at large. We will email customers a couple of weeks before closing with additional details.
We will be integrating Uniregistry with Afternic DLS. Eligible domains at Uniregistry will support Fast Transfer and gain the benefits of an expanded potential buying audience and increased exposure.

Name Administration acquisition

In addition to the registrar and technology, GoDaddy is also acquiring the Name Administration portfolio of more than 350,000 domains.

“Frank is one of the smartest and savviest investors, and his portfolio shows that knowledge and acumen. We can’t wait to bring these to market for our customers with competitive prices,”
Paul Nicks, VP Aftermarket, GoDaddy.

This portfolio is one of the best portfolios on the planet and has a tremendous amount of domain names that customers are seeking. The plan is to incorporate these names into the aftermarket and price them in a way which allows the smaller businesses out there to get the name they really need to thrive in such a competitive space.

Read all about it over at GoDaddy.

You can read more about this over on the GoDaddy blog—check out the post on GoDaddy Garage here. And something from a man who needs no introduction.

“Uniregistry is unique in that domain investors built it from the ground up so their products and services have always catered to the domain investor community. This acquisition reinforces GoDaddy’s commitment to domain investors. Combining Uniregistry’s solutions and incredible knowledge with our platform will help investors succeed and advance future innovations for them. We can't wait to get started.”
Paul Nicks, VP Aftermarket, GoDaddy.

Closing out

Here’s to a bright future. A future in which we can innovate with our brightest and best minds to build a platform which truly caters to the domain investor. Our ideas are as lofty as the sky is high, but together we truly believe we’ll build something magical.
From us to you, as always, much love—we can’t wait to start this journey with you all.
Source:Uni

What is an Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)?

2020-02-06T12:48:00.000-08:00

Internationalized domain names (IDNs) are domain names that are written in languages or scripts which use Latin letters with diacritics (accents marks such as é or ü) or which do not use the Latin alphabet at all. IDNs allow native speakers of non-Latin based scripts to access the Internet in their own language.

Since Internet usage is rising around the world and the world is full of many different languages and scripts (and Chinese is the most spoken language!), IDNs offer a great way to connect with your target market no matter what they speak!

We support many domain extensions that offer IDNs in a variety of languages. To see a list and search for an IDN domain, visit our IDN page.
We also support several IDN extensions in a variety of languages. See a list of our IDN extensions.
Please note that IDNs are represented in punycode, which puts the IDN into the character set A-Z and 0-9, to connect with the domain name system (DNS).
Source:Dynadot

Top 100 Domain Name Sales of All Time

2020-01-31T09:28:00.001-08:00

Below you'll find a chart ranking the Top 100 Domain Sales of All Time. It is updated in real-time as new sales are reported so check back frequently. The list only includes all-cash sales of domain names, it doesn't include sales of websites, businesses or sales where there was an equity component.

During this period 761,815 sales $100+ were recorded totaling $1,822,142,719.

An additional 1,108,130 sales below $100 were recorded totaling $29,371,570.

Rank	Domain	Price	Date	Venue
#1	voice.com	$30,000,000	2019-05-30	Private
#2	sex.com	$14,000,000	2005-01-01	Private
#3	sex.com	$13,000,000	2010-11-24	Sedo
#4	fund.com	$9,999,950	2008-03-11	Private
#5	porn.com	$9,500,000	2007-06-05	Moniker
#6	porno.com	$8,888,888	2015-02-04	Private
#7	fb.com	$8,500,000	2010-01-01	Private
#8	we.com	$8,000,000	2015-06-19	Private
#9	diamond.com	$7,500,000	2006-05-23	Private
#10	beer.com	$7,000,000	2004-01-01	Private
#11	z.com	$6,784,000	2014-12-03	Private
#12	slots.com	$5,500,000	2010-06-04	Moniker
#13	casino.com	$5,500,000	2003-11-01	Private
#14	toys.com	$5,100,000	2009-03-01	Private
#15	korea.com	$5,000,000	2000-01-01	Private
#16	asseenontv.com	$5,000,000	2000-01-01	Private
#17	clothes.com	$4,900,000	2008-05-01	Private
#18	ig.com	$4,700,000	2013-09-18	Igloo/Marcus Kocak
#19	yp.com	$3,850,000	2008-01-01	Private
#20	hg.com	$3,770,000	2016-11-27	Private
#21	mi.com	$3,600,000	2014-04-30	Private
#22	ice.com	$3,500,000	2018-07-06	Grit Brokerage
#23	shop.com	$3,500,000	2003-11-01	Private
#24	wine.com	$3,300,000	2003-09-01	Private
#25	altavista.com	$3,250,000	1999-04-01	Private
#26	software.com	$3,200,000	2005-12-01	Private
#27	whisky.com	$3,100,000	2014-03-12	Castello Brothers
#28	california.com	$3,000,000	2019-01-20	VIPBrokerage
#29	sex.xxx	$3,000,000	2014-06-11	ICM Registry
#30	candy.com	$3,000,000	2009-06-10	Private
#31	vodka.com	$3,000,000	2006-12-20	Sedo
#32	loans.com	$3,000,000	2000-01-01	Private
#33	wines.com	$2,900,000	2004-07-01	Private
#34	fly.com	$2,890,000	2017-04-04	Private
#35	creditcards.com	$2,750,000	2000-02-01	Private
#36	lotto.com	$2,680,000	2017-12-31	Private
#37	pizza.com	$2,605,000	2008-04-03	Sedo
#38	gambling.com	$2,500,000	2011-05-04	Sedo
#39	tom.com	$2,500,000	1999-12-01	Private
#40	investing.com	$2,450,000	2012-12-19	Private
#41	youxi.com	$2,430,000	2014-03-12	Private
#42	kk.com	$2,400,000	2013-11-20	SnapNames
#43	pharmacy.com	$2,300,000	2008-11-27	DigitalDNA
#44	coupons.com	$2,200,000	2000-01-01	Private
#45	autos.com	$2,200,000	1999-12-01	Private
#46	vivo.com	$2,100,000	2016-09-02	Private
#47	114.com	$2,100,000	2013-07-17	Private
#48	computer.com	$2,100,000	2007-12-05	T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
#49	zoom.com	$2,000,000	2018-12-14	MediaOptions
#50	eth.com	$2,000,000	2017-10-22	Sharjil Saleem
#51	freedom.com	$2,000,000	2017-05-21	Starfire Holdings
#52	express.com	$2,000,000	2000-03-01	Private
#53	telephone.com	$2,000,000	2000-01-01	Private
#54	england.com	$2,000,000	1999-12-01	Private
#55	37.com	$1,960,800	2014-03-19	Private
#56	savings.com	$1,900,000	2003-02-01	Private
#57	01.com	$1,820,000	2017-01-29	VIP Brokerage
#58	seniors.com	$1,800,000	2007-07-10	T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
#59	mortgage.com	$1,800,000	2000-03-01	Private
#60	fly.com	$1,760,000	2009-02-10	Sedo
#61	20.com	$1,750,000	2017-04-16	NameExperts
#62	dating.com	$1,750,000	2010-06-16	Moniker
#63	auction.com	$1,700,000	2009-03-27	Private
#64	datarecovery.com	$1,659,000	2008-03-05	Private
#65	branson.com	$1,600,000	2006-06-01	Private
#66	ticket.com	$1,525,000	2009-10-16	Afternic
#67	eko.com	$1,500,000	2019-10-20	Uniregistry
#68	russia.com	$1,500,000	2009-12-02	Sedo
#69	tandberg.com	$1,500,000	2007-02-13	Private
#70	cameras.com	$1,500,000	2006-11-07	T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
#71	marketingtoday.com	$1,500,000	2005-09-01	Private
#72	deposit.com	$1,500,000	2000-02-01	Private
#73	fly.com	$1,500,000	1999-11-01	Private
#74	vip.com	$1,400,000	2003-12-01	Private
#75	ebet.com	$1,350,000	2013-10-23	Private
#76	men.com	$1,320,000	2000-02-01	Private
#77	power.com	$1,261,000	2014-11-19	Scott Smith/ WebsiteProperties
#78	tm.com	$1,250,000	2019-11-14	VIP Brokerage
#79	jade.com	$1,250,000	2016-02-29	Private
#80	photo.com	$1,250,000	2010-05-06	Moniker
#81	vista.com	$1,250,000	2007-11-14	Private
#82	feedback.com	$1,230,000	2003-02-01	Private
#83	super.com	$1,200,000	2018-02-26	NameJet
#84	myworld.com	$1,200,000	2017-10-08	GetYourDomain
#85	la.com	$1,200,000	2016-05-08	Private
#86	mm.com	$1,200,000	2014-06-23	Sedo
#87	find.com	$1,200,000	2004-03-01	Private
#88	phone.com	$1,200,000	2003-02-01	Private
#89	scores.com	$1,180,000	2007-06-12	Moniker
#90	kredit.de	$1,169,175	2008-12-02	Sedo
#91	dxl.com	$1,150,000	2018-12-23	Pvt Sale
#92	chinese.com	$1,120,008	2007-07-31	Sedo
#93	flying.com	$1,100,000	2010-04-08	Private
#94	call.com	$1,100,000	2009-09-02	Sedo
#95	mercury.com	$1,100,000	2000-01-01	Private
#96	bingo.com	$1,100,000	1999-04-01	Private
#97	cruises.co.uk	$1,099,798	2008-02-12	Private
#98	cruise.co.uk	$1,099,798	2008-02-06	Private
#99	zip.com	$1,058,830	2010-10-28	SnapNames
#100	wallstreet.com	$1,030,000	2005-07-01	Private

Source:NameBio

What is DNS?

2020-01-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

The glue that holds the internet together

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The Domain Name System (or DNS) converts human readable domain names (like: www.google.com) into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses (like: 173.194.39.78).

Computers can only communicate using series of numbers, so DNS was developed as a sort of “phone book” that translates the domain you enter in your browser into a computer readable IP.

A Brief History of the DNS

Thirty years ago, when the Internet was still in its infancy when you wanted to visit a website you had to know the IP address of that site. That’s because computers are and were only able to communicate using numbers.

This is an IP address: 127.33.54.200.

It’s long, hard to remember, and we (humans, I presume) are not robots. We needed a way to translate computer-readable information into human-readable. And it had to be fast, lightweight, and scalable.
In the early 1980’s, Paul Mockapetris came up with a system that automatically mapped IP addresses to domain names.. and the DNS was born. This same system still serves as the backbone of the modern Internet, today.
And yet, only a small subset of the world knows that it exists, and an even smaller group understand what it does. The real problem is that the people that need to know how it works and could actually benefit from this knowledge… don’t take the time to learn.

How Does It Work

Before we get into how you can use the DNS, we need to understand how the system works. We already know that it maps IP addresses to domain names, but where is this information stored? On nameservers!
Nameservers store DNS records which are the actual file that says “this domain” maps to “this IP address”. So is there a room somewhere that has all the nameservers and DNS records for every site on the Internet? No… that would be ridiculous.
They are actually distributed all around the world. These nameservers are called the root nameservers and instead of storing every domain ever, they store the locations of the TLD (top level domains).
TLD’s are the two or three character like .com that end a domain name. Each TLD has their own set of nameservers that store the information that says who is authoritative for storing the DNS records for that domain.
The authoritative nameserver is typically the DNS provider or the DNS registrar (like GoDaddy that offers both DNS registration and hosting). And here we can find the DNS record that maps example.com to the IP address 127.66.122.88.

The Big Picture

Let’s put that all together. When you query a domain name your first step won’t actually be at the root name servers. Instead, your browser will ask your local resolving name server if they have the DNS records for that domain cached.
The resolving name server is typically your ISP (Internet Service Provider), and if it’s a popular website like youtube.com they will likely have the record in their cache. In this case, you would skip the rest of the DNS lookup process.
However, these records are only stored for a short period of time. Whenever you create a record, you have the option to set a TTL (Time to Live). TTL’s tell resolving name servers how long they can store the record information. TTL’s can range anywhere from 30 seconds to a week.
What if the record we are looking for isn’t cached? Then the resolving name server will ask the root name servers for the TLD for that domain, which will point you to the provider authoritative for hosting the records.
Okay, that was a lot of steps to go through just to find the IP address. Oh, and by the way, this process happens in just a couple milliseconds. A little perspective, you blink your eye in roughly 50 milliseconds. You can resolve most DNS queries in under 30.
Source:dnsmadeeasy

A startup changed its domain from .com to .top

2020-01-24T14:27:00.001-08:00

Some companies trade in longer .coms for shorter second level domains in other extensions.

I love watching the Chinese domain market because it is full of surprises. Recently, I read a news story that a Chinese startup changed its domain from .com to .top. That challenges the conventional wisdom of .com being the ultimate upgrade.

Cryptocurrency exchange DCPPlus was founded in 2017 (apparently in Hong Kong) and it operated from the brand-matching domain DCPPlus.com. The exchange handles multiple digital currencies including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Recently, its name was shortened to simply DCP. To accompany the name change, the founders acquired DCP.top for reportedly 100,000 yuan (about $15,000) on December 6, 2019.
DCP.top has gone live and DCPPlus.com forwards visitors to the new site. Why not upgrade to DCP.com? Well, this is not possible because DCP.com is already being used by the American M&A firm District Capital Partners.
This reminds me of the company Supply whose founders pitched successfully in Shark Tank and received a $300,000 investment last year. The company then changed its domain from GetSupply.com to Supply.co. Why the change? Founder Patrick Coddou later tweeted “it will forever be worth it to not be called Get Supply anymore”. In other words, GetSupply.com misled consumers to believe the company’s name was actually “Get Supply”.
In these two cases, we can see that the founders consider the name part of a domain more important than its extension. In choosing a domain, its name is considered first, followed by its extension – and the name must match the brand.
Of course, the ultimate upgrade remains the exact match .com. Carrot founder Trevor Mauch told Domain Name Wire that people referred to his company as “On Carrot” when his company used the domain OnCarrot.com. He upgraded to Carrot.com.
Source:domainnamewire

Will Chinese IDN domains become widely used?

2020-01-19T12:32:00.002-08:00

So far, Chinese IDN top level domains have struggled.

Just a few days ago the Internet Society of China announced the formation of a working group to promote the use of Chinese domains. Is it the trigger we need to see Chinese IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) flourish?
As the organization is supported by the Ministry of Information Industry, this also suggests a strong desire from the Chinese government to see the widespread use of Chinese domains. The working group aims to resolve technical issues so that Chinese domains can work nicely with browsers, email systems, search engines, and other aspects of the internet. It will also promote innovation and application of Chinese domains to enable their popular use.

Let’s look at the current situation. Below is a list of Chinese IDN top level domains with registrations of more than 1,000. The data is taken from Namestat.org.

Ranking	Extension	Domains Registered
23	.网址 (web address)	176,133
60	.公司 (company)	37,364
66	.手机 (mobile phone)	32,741
80	.商标 (trademark)	27,498
81	.在线 (online)	27,375
104	.商城 (mall)	21,700
140	.我爱你 (i love you)	15,979
297	.网店 (web shop)	4,706
356	.中文网 (Chinese web)	2,917
372	.集团 (group)	2,560
383	.信息 (information)	2,349
387	.购物 (shopping)	2,310
410	.企业 (corporation)	1,794
447	.移动 (mobile)	1,046

As you can see, the numbers are quite dismal. For example, No. 1 .网址 (web address) was launched in 2014. It peaked at 380,000 domains and then remained stagnant at about 200,000. Currently, it sits at 176,000. No. 2 .公司 (company) was also launched in 2014. It grew to 53,000 and has remained stagnant over the years. Currently, it sits at 37,000.
Apart from these new extensions, there is also a Chinese IDN extension which has been available since 2006: .中国 (.china). For many years, this IDN extension never exceeded 500,000 registrations. Then, it suddenly shot up to 1.9 million in 2018 then down to 1.8 million last year. The cause of this surge is unknown and so further observation is required.
Consumers may prefer Chinese content on corporate websites but do not necessarily demand the corresponding domains to be in Chinese characters. This is evident in the 2019 Top 100 Chinese Internet Companies Report where none of the leading companies use a Chinese IDN as their corporate domain.
So, Chinese IDN domains are still tiny when compared with mainstream extensions .com and .cn. Their impacts are yet to be felt.
Source:domainnamewire

.Org updates: deadline extended, state regulators ask for time to weigh in

2020-01-19T12:23:00.001-08:00

ICANN and Public Interest Registry have mutually agreed to extend the time that ICANN has to answers to its questions about the sale of .org to Ethos Capital by 30 days. ICANN also says that it will be asking more questions.

review Public Interest Registry’s (PIR)
Separately, The National Association of State Charities Officials has written to ICANN (pdf) to ask it to allow time for regulators to review the transaction.
The association’s members include attorneys general, Secretary of State offices and other groups in charge of preventing the misuse of charitable assets.
Source:domainnamewire

What is a Subdomain? And How to Create One?

2020-01-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

What is a subdomain?’ you may ask. Well, the most popular definition is ‘a subset of a larger domain name’. But that doesn’t sound very much like English, does it?
Let’s make it easier to grasp with an example. First, a standard domain name:

As you can see, a normal domain name has a couple of components to it. The two most significant ones are:

TLD — Top Level Domain — which is also commonly referred to as a domain extension. This part is your familiar .com, .net, .org or whatever else your domain extension is.
SLD — Second Level Domain — which is the part you get to choose when registering your new domain name, and is your unique domain name identifier.

Now, here’s the answer to your question, ‘What is a subdomain?’

At face value, it’s very similar. The core difference with it is the one additional word to the left of the domain’s SLD (in our example, blog). That additional part is your subdomain identifier.
So, a subdomain is sort of a domain name that’s part of a larger domain name. Or, as some people like to call it, a subdomain is a child domain of a larger parent domain.
Two questions with that: Why and how?
Let’s start with the former:

Why You May Need a Subdomain

‘What is a subdomain?’ is one thing, but why would you need one?
The most common scenario in which a subdomain is used is to organize or divide web content into sections. Meaning subdomains are great when you want to build a separate catalog of content to serve a different purpose from what’s on your main domain.
In practice, creating a new subdomain usually involves launching a new website on that subdomain — a website that’s more or less separate from your main site (the one under your main domain).
Here are some popular examples of what subdomains are used for:

Launching a separate ecommerce store that’s not within your main website. For example, ‘Joe’s Winery’ may want to make their store available under store.joeswinery.com, while their main website remains at joeswinery.com.
Launching a blog at blog.YOURDOMAIN.com.
Launching a forum for your customers or audience to interact with each other at forum.YOURDOMAIN.com.
Creating an additional language version of your website at es.YOURDOMAIN.com.
Creating subsections of your website for different segments of visitors based on their location. For example, if you try visiting Craigslist while in Philadelphia, you will be automatically redirected to philadelphia.craigslist.org.

These are just some of the possibilities, and this distinct nature of subdomains makes them perfect for creating new websites that appear as though their addresses are original.
The idea is to use subdomains only when you have enough content to populate each of them. Or, alternatively, when you have content or parts of your business that deserve a space of their own — for example, Nike has a whole separate section devoted to careers at jobs.nike.com.
Overall, using subdomains in situations such as the above makes things clearer for the visitor. For instance, they’ll know that store.YOURDOMAIN.com is where they can purchase your products.
Lastly, when you no longer need the subdomain, you can just shut it down with a couple of clicks and redirect all traffic to your primary domain.

How to Create a Subdomain

Once you have a standard domain name registered, there are two parts to the process of creating a new subdomain:

Coming up with a subdomain that you want to create.
Enabling it and then redirecting it to a new website of yours (or to a third party).

No. 1 is the simpler stage. Basically, all you need to do is come up with a short subdomain that fits your purpose.
In general, the subdomain can consist of any number of alphanumeric characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9) and hyphens (permitted if surrounded by other characters or digits), with no spaces. But this varies with different domain registrars, so it’s best to double check with yours.
Alternatively, you can go for one of the popular subdomains, such as the ones mentioned above: Store, blog, languages (such as es), locations (such as philadelphia), forum, events, community, help, news and jobs.
No. 2 can be a bit more tricky. That’s because to carry the process through, you not only need to enable the subdomain itself, but also point it somewhere on the web. That somewhere can be:

a section of your existing website
a completely new website of yours
a third-party website or URL.

The exact steps tend to be different depending on your domain registrar and/or web host. One thing’s for certain, though: Things are going to be much easier if you’re with the same company for both your domain name and hosting (we talk about that here). This is because you can usually do all the setting up within a single user panel, whereas when you have your domain and hosting handled by separate companies you need to go through the required motions with each.
Here are some links that point to specific how-tos based on where you have your domain name registered:

Namecheap → click here
GoDaddy → click here
Enom→ click here
OVH→ click here
1and1→ click here
SiteGround→ click here
HostGator→ click here

Lastly, here are some FAQs around the topic of subdomains:

FAQs Related to ‘What Is a Subdomain?’

‘What’s the difference between a subdomain and a domain name?’

A domain name is your website’s main address on the internet (e.g. YOURDOMAIN.com).
A subdomain is a ‘child domain’ name that’s under the ‘parent domain’ name (e.g. blog.YOURDOMAIN.com). You can’t have a subdomain without a main domain name above it.

‘Do I need to buy a domain name to be able to set a subdomain?’

Yes. You can only create a subdomain under a standard domain name that you already own.

‘How many subdomains can I create for my main domain name?’

This depends on your domain registrar. With GoDaddy, for example, you can create up to 100 subdomains per domain name.

‘Do I need to pay for new subdomains?’

Most commonly, no, but this depends on your domain registrar.

‘Can I create a separate, new website on a subdomain?’

Yes. This is actually the most common scenario.

‘Can I point a subdomain to an individual piece of content on my current website?’

Yes. This is potentially a great way to put a spotlight on your most important pieces of content.

Is ‘www’ a subdomain?

Technically, yes. But it’s a special type of subdomain that usually points to the exact same website as the main domain name. For example, www.aboutDN.com is the same as aboutDN.com.

So there you have it! That’s our answer to what a subdomain is and how to create one. If you need anything clarified, don’t hesitate to hit us up in the comments. Also, if you want to learn more about domain names, check out our other posts in this series.
Source:winningwp

How To Make Money With Domain Names

2020-01-06T14:38:00.000-08:00

Domain names are hot commodities in today's tech-centric world. The $16 million sale of 'insure.com' to Quinstreet in 2009 may have set the world record, but even lengthier domain names are routinely sold for hundreds of dollars every day. The result is a unique opportunity for investors to invest in domain names that can be sold for a profit in the future.

Building a Solid Domain Portfolio

Building a high-quality domain portfolio can take months or years to accomplish. Often, the key is looking forward to what domains may become popular in the future and hedging through numbers by purchasing hundreds of domains. Others choose to purchase a few already high profile domains and sit on them hoping that they appreciate in value.

Generic Names

Words that describe a product or service, including new and emerging products, can be a great investment. But it's very important to avoid any copyright or trademark issues that could result in domain forfeiture.

Geographic Names

Names of cities or countries, including up-and-coming locations, can be great investments over time that can be sold to web developers looking to build out community portals or other businesses centered on those communities.

Business Names

Generic business names such as dentist or chiropractor, can be great investments when combined with geographic names.

Timely Names

Timely names can be great investments when combined with events occurring in that year, such as 2022OlympicPlayers.com.

Buying and Selling Domain Names

There are many different ways to buy and sell domain names. Many standard domain registrars, such as GoDaddy.com, will facilitate sales via auction. Meanwhile, specialized websites, such as Sedo, are designed exclusively to buy and sell domain names. Finally, parking domains with a for sale page is a great way to draw targeted interest from potential buyers.

Set Price

Setting a specific price is the preferred method for domain sellers that have a large portfolio of domains and aren't in a rush to sell them.

Auction

Auction

Auctions are a great way to sell higher profile domain names where there is a lot of interest, since they typically result in the highest possible price.

Make an Offer

Make an offer

Make an offer sales are well-suited for niche domains that may not have a lot of interest and/or where the exact value of the domain isn't well known.

Risks of Investing in Domains

Risks of Investing in Domains

There are many risks that would-be domain investors should carefully consider before buying and selling. The three largest risks are liquidity, subjectivity and legality, but there are also many other ranging from misleading appraisals to faulty escrow payments. Would-be buyers should carefully consider these risks before investing in domain names.

Liquidity

Most stocks and bonds can be bought and sold with ease through a broker, but domain names can be much harder to sell. Finding the right buyer is often a matter of listing a sale for several months or even years, which means that investors should have a lengthy time horizon and the ability to stomach a loss.

Subjectivity

Stocks can be valued by the discounted value of future cash flows, while bonds can be valued by their coupon payments and interest rates. Domains are a much more subjective valuation that can be very difficult to pinpoint. And so-called domain appraisers are well known for issuing lofty valuations that can be hard to realize.

Legality

Domain names can be a sticky business from a legal standpoint. Choosing names that are too close to a trademarked name can result in a lawsuit and a court order to forfeit the domain name for free. In other cases, stolen domain names can be sold before the buyer has the ability to discover that they're not the true owner.

The Bottom Line

Like any investment, domain names come with their own set of risks. However, for diligent investors who consider the risks and returns thoroughly, domain names can become an investment that yields high returns, and a unique way to diversify his/her portfolio of investments.

source:investopedia

A Beginner’s Guide to Successful Domaining

2019-12-26T10:59:00.000-08:00

Buying and selling of domains are volatile in nature yet it is a huge business in the marketplace. You will only need Google to dig deep into information of ‘domaining’ to view a sea of information on the subject.

So what’s the deal with domaining? Why is it so popular? You have probably heard stories about people selling domain names for thousands of dollars. Some of these stories are true.

Domain Sales

Here are few high profiles recorded domain sales from the past decade –

Insurance.com — an insurance quotation site — sold for $35.6 million in 2010
PrivateJet.com — a private jet booking service — sold for $30.1 million in 2012
Hotels.com — a hotel deals site — sold for $11 million in 2001
FB.com — sold (to Facebook) for $8.5 million in 2010
Beer.com — (now parked and unused!) sold for $7 million in 2004
iCloud.com sold (to Apple) for $6 million in 2011
IG.com — a stock trading site — sold for $4.7 million in 2013
Whisky.com — an information site — sold for $3.1 million in 2014

Domain Statistics

We have jotted down some statistics from one of the most popular auction website called Flippa

More than 400,000 users have registered on Flippa to buy or sell domains
A bid is placed on a Flippa auction every minute
There have been $711,532 in domain sales over the last 7 days
Flippa has sold $122,039,671 in domains since launch in 2009. That’s right — a whopping $122 million US has changed hands in domain sales on this one auction site in the past five years

So now you can understand how domainers live their lives. Buying and selling domains for their livelihood has been many roles of many domainers.

Type of Domainers

There are two types of domainers in the industry –

People who purchase domains with the intention of on-selling them immediately for profits.
People who purchase domains with the intention of developing them and then onselling them for profits. Generally known as Domain Flipping.

Kalena Jordan, one of the well known first search engine optimization expert in Australia says “As an Internet marketer, I have amassed quite a large collection of domains over the years, (currently numbering around 50 active domains), almost all of them relating to new business ideas or for branding or marketing of existing businesses. However, most of these purchased domains sit unused and unloved in registrar limbo, while I try to find the time to do something with them. Most of them are on auto-renew, but sometimes I’ll simply lose interest or forget and let the domain quietly expire.

Unfortunately, this approach is never going to be profitable. If I was ever going to make a living from domaining, I would have to shift gears and embrace one of the domainer categories above. For me, domain flipping would be the obvious choice.”

Domain Flipping

To be successful in the domain flipping business you should be opportunistic and persistent. You need to have the ability to spot a high resell potential and which will also give you return on investment.

According to Flippa, domain sales in the fields of finance, business, home, entertainment/gaming, social media, and family-related niches seem to outperform the rest of the market. In terms of domain niches, forums sell well but struggle to make traffic and conversions, while review sites, gaming, business, hobbies, and tech are consistently popular. Internet Marketing sites tend to be short-term earners, with low sale prices, but often high turnover.

But as we have always told, it is highly unlikely you will make a profit from simply purchasing domain names in bulk and reselling them.

Sure, domainers in Type 1 from above will occasionally make a quick turnaround. But when you ask a domainer as to which sales have been the most profitable and hence he or she will tell you it is the developed domain that acquires high value.

An undeveloped domain is similar to any unrenovated or unfurnished house. Because it is difficult for buyers to comprehend what it would be like to use it for themselves. To achieve a good buy on your domain, you need to invest the time in revamping. It should include developing it to the point where it has –

reliable hosting
analytics tracking
attractive design
quality content
good search engine placement
consistent traffic
trusted link profile
revenue generation if possible (e.g. via Google AdSense)

Although integrating all these in your domain is a cumbersome process, but all these factors will certainly make your domain appealing to potential purchasers and help you achieve on best return on your original investment. This is where the concept of domain flipping is getting used. What you are doing is essentially flipping a domain name with the potential into the viable business model.

Apart from these gold rush hours, you would have also heard stories about big brands losing their domains to squatters or random people. The domain business goes both the ways. It is useful for the persistent web-savvy individual and also the otherwise. It becomes very difficult once you get drowned in this infested marketplace.

How Do You Get Started with This Tricky Business?

Useful Domain-Related Resources

Flippa Domain Selling Guide (PDF)
Flippa Domain Buying Guide (PDF)

Domain Auction Sites/After-markets:

Sites/Blogs About Domaining:

Domain Forums:

Domain Research:

Domain Valuations:

What do you think? Do you think you want to be a domainer? Here we have listed few final words about domaining business by anonymous people.

“Make sure your price expectations are realistic”
“Don’t release the money until your new domain has been moved to your hosting account”
“If you haven’t developed it within 6 months, offload it”
“Always use a broker!”
Source:medium.com

How are new gTLDs doing in China?

2019-12-24T11:16:00.002-08:00

Kassey Lee examines the market for new domains in China.

More than 1,000 new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) were released five years ago. How are they doing in China? Let’s look at the best-selling ones as they relate to China.

A bit of personal preference. I don’t like to call them “new gTLDs” because they are actually no longer new and the term “gTLD” is not easy to understand. So, I just call them niche extensions because many of them have specific uses — such as .club, .app, and .news.

When it comes to researching niche extensions, I use Namestat.org. Its home page provides several categories useful to investors: Top 10, Top 20, and Top 50. For this article, I’ve picked the Top 10 category and listed the best-selling extensions below.

Ranking	Extension	Total Domains	China Only
1	.icu	4,152,307	3,660,320
2	.top	3,348,847	895,604
3	.xyz	2,379,173	755,200
4	.site	1,727,536	456,675
5	.vip	1,302,939	381,847
6	.online	1,245,226	224,491
7	.club	1,213,987	451,678
8	.wang (net)	943,145	936,994
9	.live	703,269	–
10	.shop	636,764	230,032

Note that the “China Only” column indicates domains where country of registration can be clearly identified. Because domains can be placed in privacy or their information blocked due to General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), their country of registration then cannot be known. The extreme case happens to .live where the vast majority of .live domains are under privacy (97%), making it not possible to determine whether the domains are registered in China or not.

The Top 10 list shows that China is very active in the niche extensions. One explanation I have read is that many Chinese investors see themselves as being too late to make it big in the well-established areas of .com and .cn. They wanted to start in a new investment area and the niche extensions offered them such opportunity when they were released a few years ago. Of course, low-price and aggressive promotion by registries/registrars also help.

In the list, there are several extensions that are well understood in China. “top”, “vip”, “club”, and “shop” are simple English words that most Chinese consumers should have no problem understanding their meanings. For example, “vip” is a popular term that is already incorporated in many domains such as VIP.com and VIPKids.com. Obviously, .wang domains are 99% registered in China because it is actually a Pinyin word meaning “net” and it’s a common name. What really puzzles me is the .icu extension. The term is supposed to mean “I see you” but I doubt it is widely understood in China.

Surprisingly, some of the niche extensions in the list have done much better than established extensions in China. For example, .icu has 3.7 million registrations, which is more than three times the 1.1 million .net registrations in China. However, none of the niche extensions are included in the annual “Statistical Report on the Internet Development in China” by CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), which has been tracking domains since 1996. This may suggest their real use in website development is not significant enough to prompt CNNIC to include them.

Therefore, if you plan to sell domains in these niche extensions to China, be prepared that there may not be many corporate buyers ready for them and most activities may be limited to trading among investors.

Source:domainnamewire.com

Frank Schilling wins cybersquatting dispute

2019-12-24T11:10:00.000-08:00

Indian insurance company falls short in UDRP.

Frank Schilling’s Name Administration has successfully defended the domain name CareHealthInsurance.com in a UDRP.
The three-person World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel determined that the Complainant, Religare Health Insurance Company Limited in India, did not show that Name Administration registered the domain name in bad faith. The Complainant had a high bar to overcome because care, health, and insurance are terms common

ly used together.
Obviously, the juxtaposition of the words is odd. But the panel noted that the Complainant had a high bar to show that its name had taken on secondary meaning, especially since it operates in India and Name Administration is in Grand Cayman.
The health insurance company says it launched its first product in 2012, which is before Name Administration acquired the name. But it says it didn’t register similar domain names, such as carehealthinsurance.in and carehealthinsurance.co.in, until 2018. Both of those domains resolve to registrar holding pages.
One of the panelists determined that this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking.
John Berryhill represented Name Administration. Saikrishna & Associates represented Religare Health Insurance.
Source:domainnamewire.com

Register Domain Names Before Filing for TM!

2019-12-24T10:56:00.001-08:00

In my article about checking for trademarks, Jackie asked, “Why do you prefer trademarkia.com over trademark247.com?” The simple reason is that I had not used the other website before but found Trademarkia.com to be effective enough to continue using it. Essentially, it gave me the information I was seeking and I did not have a need to search around to find something else.

This morning, I visited Trademark247.com to see if it offered anything that would add more value to me. One thing I noticed on that website is a link to recent trademark filings. I am not sure if Trademarkia has that information, but I have not seen it before.
When looking at that section, I was curious to see if these trademark applicants were registering their domain names before filing for their trademarks. In the case of generic trademarks – ie single word or common two word phrases, it looks like the matching domain names were all registered long before the trademark filing. Interestingly, the matching domain names for the few uncommon terms I looked up were registered within the last few days and have a “for sale” landing page.
It is not surprising that someone or some people are registering domain names that match trademark filings. I don’t think it’s the nice thing to do – and I think it gives domain investors a bad name – but it is what it is.

The surprising thing is that people were not grabbing their matching domain names before filing for their trademarks. I would have thought that would be the first thing someone would do! My brand naming process would be to list brand names I like, search to see if the domain name is available to register or buy, secure the domain name, and then seek out an attorney to file the trademark. Maybe that’s just my mindset because of being a domain investor, but I would have thought others would be more mindful of domain name availability.
Trademark applicants should definitely seek out their ideal domain name before filing for a trademark. It would seem that there are people monitoring new trademarks, and the matching domain name could be registered once the trademark application becomes public.
Source:domaininvesting.com

Flipping Domain Names For Profit: How To Make Money Buying And Selling Domain Names

2019-12-22T10:40:00.000-08:00

Flipping Domain Names For Profit

How To Make Money Buying And Selling Domain Names

Flipping domain names for profit may not be your Ideal small business on your mind, however when done right, making money through the sell of domain names can be a very lucrative business.

It also has to be said that flipping domain names for profit are not your average business model. It is most definitely not your get rich quick scheme either.

If you want to make money selling domain names, you will have to do market research and due diligence way before you buy your domain.

Buying the rights to an internet domain name that someone else wants allows you to charge them either for licensing or purchase. Even sites that others don’t want right away can be an opportunity for advertisement.

This can be a risky business, but the right domain name can create a substantial return on investment.

In this post, I share with you a step by step to the dos and don’ts for flipping domain names for profit

A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO FLIPPING DOMAIN NAMES FOR PROFIT

Step 1: Know Your Budget

Just like any other business that you would normally start up, flipping domain names for profit demands that you must first know your budget.

Buying and selling Domain names is like a supply and demand business, you got to know where to sell and the right time to sell or hold on to your domain.

In order to start a profitable business, take some time out to do financial calculations. It is always best to start off by investing a small amount of money and then move on to making a bigger investment once you are set in the field.

Step 2: Choose a Profitable Niche

Selecting a profitable niche is very important when it comes to domain flipping. Having adequate knowledge in searching domain names is critical. It will help you with fishing as well as parking domain names. Carving out a niche for yourself will enable you to seek out prospective buyers actively who would be interested in the domain names you are offering.

Step 3: Find Hot Keywords

Before you park any domain names, you must focus on finding hot keywords that buyers would be interested in. The best way to make sure you get a good return on your investment is to pick a domain name with acceptable traffic, somewhere around 10,000 searches a month. You can do this conveniently by using tools like Google Keyword Planner or Niche Finder Software.

When looking for hot keywords, here is a general guide that might come in handy.

Generic names are a great find because they can be used to describe new and upcoming products and services, but you must also look into copyright and trademark issues beforehand.

Business names combined with geographic names like chiropractor Los Angeles can be sold conveniently.

Timely names pertaining to major events like Wimbledon and the Olympics have great potential to become best sellers.
Geographic names related to countries and cities can be sold to web developers looking to start new communities, businesses or portals.

Step 4: Focus on Local Domain Names

It is mind boggling how local search engine optimization has grown from a tiny market to a mammoth industry within a span of ten years or so. This is also one of the reasons why focusing majorly on local names is profitable.

From doctors to pizza parlours to salons, everyone wants to see their business thrive on the first page of Google Search results with the help of target keywords.

The best way to pick winning local domain names is to search for them at places like GoDaddy and Namecheap.

Step 5: Find an Existing Domain Name

Yes, buying existing domain names can be profitable too. Existing domains with a potential for profit can be found using Sedo. Make sure you pick domain names that have good traffic, backlinks and Google PageRank under 17 characters.

Also, steer clear of existing domain names containing special characters or numbers because they are not likely to be sold.

Step 6: Find Relevant Domain Names Related to Your Keywords

Picking domain names by typing in relevant keywords on Namecheap has become increasingly popular. If you want to buy and sell domain names professionally, try using Millionaire Society.

Once you have found the domain name of your choice, you can log onto Alexa.com to gain more insight regarding the domain name.

Step 7: Consider Other Alternatives.

Many top-level domains, or TLDs, out there have the potential of being sold at top dollar rates. Gone are the days when domain names with .COM.ORG and .NET were known as top-level domains. Newer domain names with .US and .IO are also worth their weight in gold.

All you have to do is conduct thorough research in order to find all the good domain names you can park.

Step 8: Buy a New Domain

Even though generic domain names are usually taken, there may be some unregistered domain names. You’re lucky if you can find such a domain name; waste no time and get it registered with the best domain registrar company because that will enable you to sell your domain name to the interested party easily.

GoDaddy, Namecheap, Flippa.com and Datarace hosting are the best sites for finding new domain names that are still unregistered.

Step 9: Buy Domains with Page Rank

Keyword relevancy is not the only thing that matters when it comes to SEO. However, domain names that were previously used by other businesses usually have a lot of backlinks and a decent ranking on PageRank.

Even though such domain names are usually about to expire, they are still worth a lot of money if they have a good number of backlinks and a ranking of five or more.

Step 10: Build a Solid Domain Portfolio

Building a solid domain portfolio is not a piece of cake; it may take you several months or years to achieve this goal but it will definitely be worth it in the end.

When you are in the fishing phase, look at the potential of the domain name. Another common strategy used by seasoned domain flippers is to get hold of some high profile domain names and sit on them until they soar in terms of value.

Step 11: Use Different Sales Strategies

You can apply many strategies when it comes to flipping domains successfully. The three most common strategies are set to price, auction, and make an offer.

You can set a particular price for domain names you have to offer when you are not in a rush to sell them. Those who have a huge portfolio usually adopt this strategy.

GoDaddy and Namecheap follow the auction strategy and you can too. Sell your domain to the buyer with the highest bid.
When you have a niche domain, you can make offers to various prospective buyers who may be interested in buying.

Another point of concern is to flip websites and not domains only. This is because many times a domain is worth far more with an established website than on its own.

Building a website has great potential because it has SEO value, potential and much more to offer to its prospective buyer.

Step 12: Never Sell Right Away

Domain flipping is not always about making quick cash. Sometimes you have to spend days in research before you make a profitable sale. Remember, it is better to wait for several months or years in order to sell a domain name for a greater profit than settle for normal profit. Think of domain flipping as more of an investment.

Step 13: Be Aware of the Risk Involved.

Flipping domain names for profit is not entirely free of risk. There are three types of risks associated with domain flipping in terms of legality, liquidity, and subjectivity.

Domain names can sometimes cause legal issues. This usually happens because some names are too similar to already trademarked names, which is why you need to think twice before picking domain names.

From the liquidity point of view, you may have to wait for a couple of months or even years before you can make a profitable sale.

Subjectivity refers to the fact that it is hard to realize the value of a domain name as compared to stocks. It is not easy to pinpoint the exact value of a domain name.

Now that you know all the details about buying and selling domains, we hope you start off your very own domain flipping business with ease.

All you have to remember is to begin by learning all the tricks of the trade and invest a small amount of money before you decide to go pro.

Source:gradecmedia.com

Best Domain Names Marketplaces For Your Domain Flipping Business

2019-12-21T13:44:00.000-08:00

The online auction house is open, and if you’re lucky or just plain smart, you registered some good domain names back in the day. A good domain name can be worth over $10,000 to over $100,0 to the right buyer. Of course, there are also those names that no one will ever be able to afford, like CarInsurance.com, which is currently still on the market for $49.7 million. That’s some prime online real estate.
If you want some extra cash or you’re thinking about starting a domain flipping business, selling your domain names could be the right way to go. Most domain names appreciate over time, and many .COM domains are worth more today than when they were first purchased.
Let’s jump right in and find out some more about the best domain marketplaces on the web.

Best Places to Sell Your Domain Name

Some sites offer better auction tools, pricing, and advertising for sellers, so it’s a better choice to sell with these marketplaces instead.
Here is a look at the best places to sell your domain name currently.

Flippa

Flippa has been a popular domain selling marketplace and exchange. It’s probably the most well known in the world because of its marketplace for online businesses as well. You can sell apps, SaaS, websites, and Amazona FBA on Flippa, too. The site boasts over 200 million dollars in sales since it opened many years ago.
There are some caveats to joining this large marketplace. If you want to be a seller, you’ll have to pay a small listing fee of $15 per month no matter what you’re trying to sell on the marketplace. In addition, Flippa charges between 5 and 15 percent commission for every successful sale that you make through the site. The percentage depends on the total sale amount. If you want a big audience, Flippa is the best way to go, but you may not like paying all of these fees.

Maker Monikers

Maker Monikers is a newer marketplace making a name for itself by turning domain name owners into sellers and affiliates. Do you have unused domain names that you’re looking to sell but haven’t been able to auction off yet? You can list your domain and make money while it’s listed for sale using Maker Monikers. It’s simple to set up since it’s free to join, and the company doesn’t even charge that high of a sales fee. It’s capped at just 10% of your final selling price.
There are some rules for selling with Maker Monikers, however. For one, you can’t sell with them unless your listing price is between $50 and $500. Your domain name also has to be a .com, .co, or .io. The best part is Maker Monikers won’t charge you any type of monthly subscription or listing fees, and you can actually make money if people visit your domain and use Maker Monikers’ services.

GoDaddy

GoDaddy became a household name in the Dot Com era because it was so easy to buy domain names through their site. Now they have popularized an easy-to-use auction house that attracts all kinds of buyers, including small business owners and entrepreneurs who have money to throw around. GoDaddy Auctions is one of the best places to advertise and sell your domains simply because of the traffic that it attracts every day.
However, there is a small membership fee of $4.99 per year that’s necessary to sell on the GoDaddy marketplace. You can bid and purchase domain names while also listing your domains if you opt in for membership. There are a few different ways to auction off your domain through GoDaddy, including:
– Setting up a 7-day public auction
– Creating a BIN auction or Buy It Now auction
– Negotiating with buyers directly
GoDaddy does have a considerable commission if you do sell your domain name, too. While it depends on the total sales price, if the domain you sell was priced below $5,000 then you’ll have to pay a 20% commission fee or $15 minimum.
If you have a good domain name that appeals to business owners or just want to auction it off quickly, GoDaddy is a great choice because the site will advertise for you and give your listing more exposure.

Sedo

Perhaps you want a similar marketplace to GoDaddy without such high fees. Sedo is the next best thing. You can buy and sell on the Sedo marketplace. They offer services for sellers and buyers including free transfer services, free parking, and free registration. You can also list your domains for free on the marketplace, but you will pay a commission upon completing the sale.
The type of commission depends on the total sales price of the domain name. For example, parked and BIN domains have a 10%sales commission, while buy now or make an offer domain sales have a higher commission of 15% when you make a sale. A simple domain auction sale also has a 15% commission. The highest you’ll pay is 20% for SedoMLS partners only.
Sedo works for those who want to pay nothing upfront and sell to a wide range of buyers who are looking for domains every day.

NamePros

If you’re a savvy domain shopper, then you likely know about NamePros. This forum was designed to help members buy and sell domain names directly to each other. The forums are open and free to everyone. There are over 1 million members on the forums with over 1 million threads and over 6 million posts. As you can see, it’s a pretty popular place to sell domain names, but it’s also a great place to learn about what’s trending in the Dot Com trade.
You can create listings on NamePros to easily sell your domain name to members. However, the forum limits your sales to two active listings at one time. You’ll need to get a supporter or business account to upgrade and sell more listings at once. Supporter accounts have a $5/month subscription, while business accounts pay $10 per month or $99 per year.
The best part about NamePros is that there isn’t a commission. You simply find a buyer and sell to them directly through the forum.

NameCheap

For those who have registered a lot of domains in their day, you already know about NameCheap’s services. For years, this website was the king of domain registration simply because of how cheap they offered the service. In addition to its registration service, NameCheap also offers the option to list your names for sale. The site doesn’t charge anything to list your domains either. You can sell your domains at a fixed price and find buyers who are looking to purchase on NameCheap. Just like the name says, it’s pretty cheap to buy and sell with this registrar.

Efty

You can set up your own domain marketplace in just a few minutes using Efty’s tools. This is an amazing option if you have many domain names to sell or know a lot of clients who also want to get rid of their domain names. You can manage your entire domain portfolio using Efty’s tools.
With the marketplace website option, you’ll set up your own minisite with a theme, logo, and text so it looks like a professional domain auction house. Efty doesn’t offer this service for free, however. You’ll pay a $4 minimum fee per month to use this service, and the cost depends on how many domains you want to sell on your marketplace. There aren’t any other fees, however, so it’s perfect if you have the time and over 10 decent domain names that you want to auction off.

eBay

Everyone knows eBay as the online auction website. You can buy and sell just about anything on this site. The domain auction house on eBay is a little bit of a small pond, but it’s easy to list your domain for auction or sell for a fixed price. Buyers don’t pay any fee to purchase a domain, and sellers can list their first 50 listings for free with a free account. If you decide to sell more domain names, such as 50 or more, then you’ll want to sign up for a business account which costs $19.95 per month.
In addition, eBay charges a 10% commision on the final price. The amount is removed automatically. You should also read up on selling domains through eBay as it’s not always risk-free. You may find some unscrupulous buyers who don’t adhere to the rules of the sale. That’s why it’s important to check their profile, read reviews, and direct message with buyers before finishing the sale.

Afternic

Afternic is a popular site and marketplace for buying and selling domain names. You can register an account for free and list your domain for sale in a few minutes. The great part about Afternic is that you’re selling across all over their networks. You’ll receive free advertising on over 50 networks or more, depending on whether you sign up for premium listing services.
The site does have a pretty hefty commission for anything you sell, however. You’ll be charged 20% in commission for site selling between $0 and $5000. You’ll pay $1,000 plus 15% of your sale price over $5,000 if you sell between $5,001 and $25,000. The commission price goes up to $4,000 for any sell price over $25,000, and you’ll pay a 10% commission over any sales price above $25,000.
You may want to use Afternic if you have a premium domain name and don’t mind the commission rates because you’ll get more exposure through advertising networks.

BrandBucket

Some auction houses have a different approach to selling domain names. BrandBucket has a made a name for itself by being very particular about the domains that they list and advertise on their auction house. In fact, if you’re a seller, your domain name will have to be approved for sale first. This is because the website only focuses on domain names that are unique and have “premium domain name” status. These often sell for more, and that’s what BrandBucket is looking for.
If you have a high-quality domain name that does get selected, BrandBucket will list your domain and advertise for you. However, you’ll have to get through the manual approval process first, and if you do sell, there’s also the 30% commission fee charged by BB to conduct the sale. This is a little bit higher than other domain auction houses that you’ll find. You should only use this option if you have a premium domain name and limited time to advertise it yourself.

SnapNames

The SnapNames marketplace has been around for a few years. It’s another domain name registration service that has risen to popularity as a newer auction house. The company has over 30 million domain names listed, and most of the site visitors are sellers. You’ll find all kinds of names for sale on this website, which is why it is so popular within the Dot Com buyer crowd.
There are a few different options to sell on this marketplace, including
– The Domain Brokerage
– Showcase Auctions
– Live Auction Events
It’s free to create an account, and you can set up an auction on your own. However, “domain experts” at SnapNames will decide which option is best for your domain name from the above listings.

Above.com

Above.com calls itself a domain investor platform. The company is a great example of using technology to help domain sellers and investors optimize their revenue streams. You can list any of your domain names on the site, and if sold, you’ll pay a 10% commission on the sale price. The site works as a registrar, marketplace, and brokerage service. If you use their straightforward tools, you’ll find a few buyers, but you’ll likely need to share your listing on social media to get any action.

Cax

Cax is a very straightforward marketplace that’s not trying to take away from anyone’s bottom line. You can head to the website and see all of the listings right on the homepage. You can select any listing to start directly negotiating with the seller. The best part about this website is that it’s simple to use, and they don’t charge hefty listing fees or commissions.
In fact, Cax has partnered up with Domaining.com to offer listings at just 5% sales commission. While you won’t get a whole lot of exposure, you can set up your domain on Cax.com and then share it on social media or advertise it yourself.
Source: domainflippingguide.org

How to Redirect Your Domain Name

2019-12-17T08:50:00.000-08:00

What is a Website Redirect?

A website redirect will take one website URL and point it to another. When anyone types in or clicks on that original URL they’ll be taken to the new page or website.
Even if you don’t need to implement a redirect now, it’s probably something you’ll need to do eventually. Knowing how to implement a redirect will a valuable skill moving forward.
You can implement redirects on a URL or page-by-page basis.
There are a few different types of redirects you’ll want to be aware of. As you’ll see below, the 301 redirect is the most common and useful, but there are some other redirects available as well.

1. 301 Redirect

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect. This is the most commonly used and powerful redirect as it passes on nearly all of the link juice of the existing domain. This type of redirect takes place on both a browser and server level. In time, the search engines will index this redirect.

2. 302 Redirect

A 302 redirect is used when you want to temporarily redirect a URL, but you have the intention of moving back to the old URL. For example, you’re redesigning your site, but want to direct users to a different domain while you finish building your site.
302 redirects aren’t used very often. If you’re considering using a 302 redirect, think carefully: you might be better off just utilizing a 301 redirect.

3. Meta Refresh

A meta refresh isn’t used very often. But, you’ve still probably seen this type of redirect before on page loading screens.
Have you ever landed on a page and been greeted with a message that says, “The original URL has moved, you’re now being redirected. Click here if you’re not redirected in 5 seconds”? Then you’ve experienced a meta refresh.
This type of redirect does pass on a little link juice, but not as much as a 301 redirect.

Reasons Why You’d Implement a Website Redirect

Now that you’re familiar with the types of redirects you can implement, it’s time to go into the reasons you’ll want to redirect a URL in the first place.
Here are some common scenarios where you’d want to redirect one website to another.

1. Redirect a Subdirectory to a Page on Your Site

Maybe when you created your site you decided to create your blog page on a subdomain of your site. So, instead of your blog URL being “mysite.com/blog”, it’s been “blog.mysite.com.”. Only now you’ve decided that it makes sense to switch your blog off of the original subdomain structure.
In this case, you’ll want to implement a redirect.
The same goes for any other reason you’ve created a site or section of your site on the subdomain, and now you want to switch up the URL structure.

2. Redirect Duplicate Content to the Original Page

Having duplicate content across your site can really mess with your rankings. If you have a large site, then the chances are high you have some pages with duplicate content. When you have more than one version of the same page it makes it hard for Google to figure out which page to rank.
You can avoid common duplicate content issues by redirecting the duplicate piece of content to the original. This will not only reduce confusion with your visitors, but it should improve your search engine rankings as well.

3. Redirect Multiple Domains to a Single Domain

It’s common practice to buy up multiple domain names related to your main URL in order to protect your online brand.
But, instead of just buying these domains and letting them sit there you can redirect them to your main website. Whether they’re common misspellings of your existing domain name, other domain name extensions, or something else entirely, they’re worth redirecting back to your main site.

4. Redirect Your Old Domain to Your New One

Did you originally build out your site on a domain that wasn’t your first choice, only to buy your dream domain later on?
It happens more than you think. Maybe you went through a massive rebrand and changing your domain name was necessary.
Whatever the reason, you need to implement a redirect of your old domain to your new domain. Now, migrating an entire site is more intensive than a simple redirect, but it’s a good starting place.

5. Redirect an Old URL to a New URL

Sometimes you’ll have to change the URL of existing pages and posts. Maybe you’re cleaning up your existing URL structure, or you moved some pages around and the old URL no longer makes sense.
If this sounds like you, then you’ll want to implement a 301 redirect from the old URL to the new one. This is especially true if your older posts are already indexed in the search engines, or you have links out anywhere online.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many reasons you’ll want to redirect a website, and a few different website redirects you can use. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of their value and why it’s something you’ll need to learn, eventually.
Source: hostgator

Judge dismisses harassment suit against Uniregistry

2019-12-04T09:25:00.001-08:00

Judge rules that plaintiff waited too long to file lawsuit.

A U.S. Federal District judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought against Uniregistry and one of its former employees for sexual harassment by granting the defendant’s motion for summary judgment.
The former employee sued (pdf) the company and one of its former employees in July 2018, claiming sexual harassment and retaliation.

But judge Josephine Staton agreed (pdf) with the defendants that her lawsuit was time-barred.
There are strict time requirements for filing such as case, including a 90-day window after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission closes an investigation. The time limits are in place, in part, to ensure that potential witnesses to the activities are available and the parties have the best recollection of events.
In this case, some of the witnesses of the alleged harassment had left Uniregistry before Uniregistry was aware of the plaintiff’s claims.
Source: domainnamewire

What is a Domain Name?

2019-12-03T10:23:00.004-08:00

What is a Domain Name?

New computer users often confuse domain names with universal resource locators, or URLs, and Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses. This confusion is understandable. It is worth learning the differences between them because these terms are ubiquitous. It is also helpful to be able to use terms correctly when communicating to technicians or other people within a professional organization.
This naming convention is analogous to a physical address system. People find web pages in a manner similar to the way that they use maps to find physical locations. If the Internet is like a phone book, and a web page is like a physical building, the URL would be the precise street address of that building. The IP address would be like the car that travels to its destination. There are also other useful metaphors for understanding this relationship.

Domain Names and URLs

The universal resource locator, or URL, is an entire set of directions, and it contains extremely detailed information. The domain name is one of the pieces inside of a URL. It is also the most easily recognized part of the entire address.
When computer users type a web address directly into the field at the top of their browser window, it initiates a process of locating the page requested. To do so, the instructions contained inside the URL, including the domain name, must correctly point to that location. The IP address is a numerical code that makes this possible.

Domain Names and IP Addresses

An Internet Protocol, or IP, address is different than a domain name. The IP address is an actual set of numerical instructions. It communicates exact information about the address in a way that is useful to the computer but makes no sense to humans. The domain name functions as a link to the IP address. Links do not contain actual information, but they do point to the place where the IP address information resides. It is convenient to think of IP addresses as the actual code and the domain name as a nickname for that code. A typical IP address looks like a string of numbers. It could be 232.17.43.22, for example. However, humans cannot understand or use that code. To summarize, the domain name is a part of the URL, which points to the IP address.

What's in a Domain Name?

Domain names function on the Internet in a manner similar to a physical address in the physical world. Each part of the domain name provides specific information. These pieces of information enable web browsers to locate the web page. The naming system is closely regulated in order to prevent confusion or duplicate addresses. As demand increased exponentially, a new Internet Protocol version, or IPv6, was created to expand the amount of domain names available.

How do Domains Work?

Domain names work because they provide computer users with a short name that is easy to remember. Users enter web addresses into the URL field at the top of their browser's page from left to right. The domain name itself is read from right to left according to the naming hierarchy discussed below. This link provides directions to the network, which ultimately results in a successful page load at the client end of the transaction.
The common fictitious domain name, www.example.com, is comprised of three essential parts:

.com - This is the top-level domain.
.example. - This is a sub-domain.
www. - This is a sub-domain prefix for the World Wide Web. The original use of this prefix was partly accidental, and pronunciation difficulties raised interest in creating viable alternatives.

Many servers use a three-letter naming convention for top-level domains, and they are separated from sub-domains by a dot. The significance of the top-level domain is the most important for new users to grasp. It identifies the highest part of the naming system used on the Internet. This naming system was originally created to identify countries and organizations as well as categories.
The most common categories are easily recognized by new computer users, and they include:

.com
.org
.edu
.net
.mil

A significant expansion of the top-level domains occurred, and they now include:

.biz
.museum
.info
.name

Country codes are also easily recognizable to new users because the abbreviations are the same ones used for other purposes. The organization of the domain name hierarchy and the ability to reserve them for only one purpose has already undergone several modifications. Discussions and debates concerning the availability and affordability of domain names can be expected to continue.
Sub-domains are organized to the left of the top-level domain, and this is the part of the domain system that is most recognizable to humans. It is common to see several levels of sub-domains, and some countries developed specific conventions of organization to communicate information within their internal naming systems.
Source:whatismyipaddress