'Net Features : Domain

Demand Media Prepares for New gTLDs

Allison Howen — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 17:03:00 GMT

Demand Media, the digital media company that powers popular sites like Livestrong.com and eHow.com, is preparing for this year's release of the new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) with its recent acquisition of the Denver-based domain registrar Name.com.

Name.com was founded in 2003 and customers have since registered nearly 1.5 million domains, as well as used the company’s tools and services to grow their online presence. Furthermore, Demand Media’s eNom subsidiary has more than 13.5 million domain names on its platform registered by more than 8,800 resellers and partners.

“Name.com will provide a direct channel for us to reach consumers and small businesses as they develop and manage their online identities,” said Richard Rosenblatt, chairman and CEO, Demand Media. “This becomes even more valuable as over one thousand new domain extensions are expected to become available for registration in the years ahead.”

ICANN initiated the process for launching new gTLDs in 2011, and received more than 1,900 applications for new domain strings. Once released, the new gTLDs will increase domain name choices to include memorable or descriptive strings, such as .blog, .nyc, .ninja or .hotel, as well as help businesses better organize their Web pages.

“Our strategy is to provide an end-to-end solution for all things domains whether you are looking to consume or distribute names and services,” said Taryn Naidu, executive vice president of Registrar Services. “Name.com brings innovation, creativity and a deep commitment to their customers – factors which we believe are essential in the environment of new gTLDs.”

Make Money Selling Unwanted Domains

Michael Garrity — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 18:00:00 GMT

Don’t you just hate when you have a bunch of extra domains laying around, just taking up space and cluttering thing up?

Heart Internet, a U.K.-based Web hosting provider, totally agrees with you, that’s why it is adding a new feature to its control panel that makes it easy for customers to sell their unwanted domains, which certainly beats just letting them hang around until they expire. It’s also a nice way to maybe make a little back on one’s initial domain investment, as domain names on the secondary marketplace are more likely to be purchased for a premium price by people searching for specific domains related to their brands.

Shoppers can see the domains up for purchase in their search results, and the system will allow them to buy the name at a price determined by its current owner. All they have to do is add it to their cart, and then the seller will be notified of the sale (and then paid, of course).

Basically, it’s giving sellers an opportunity to make money on domains they don’t even want anymore, and helping others buy up domains they want for their brands without having to fight for them once they expire and return to the general marketplace. Plus, it will likely offer lower service charges for domain sales, meaning sellers can make even more money on the deal. It’s a win-win situation.

Heart customers will be able to sell .com, .net, .org, .co, .me, .biz and .info domains that they have registered, renewed or transferred since May 31 of 2012. They can also provide a brokerage service for the people who buy their domains.

ICANN Completes Bulk Transfer of Domains to NamesBeyond

Michael Garrity — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:30:00 GMT

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has ordered a bulk transfer of domains from two de-accredited registrars to the still accredited NamesBeyond.

The two registrars that were de-accredited were Planet Online and Name For Name. The first was the result of a compliance action taken by ICANN, while the latter happened following the termination of Name For Name’s registry-registrar agreement with Verisign.

ICANN selected NamesBeyond to gain the domain names after a competitive selection process based on its own De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure; after it was decided that NamesBeyond would be given Planet Online’s domains, it was also selected to take Name for Name’s, as the company only had five of them.

NamesBeyond will be able to deny transfers for the first 60 days at its discretion.

Registrants will not have to face any fees for the bulk transfer, but their terms will not by extended by a year. They also must contact NamesBeyond if their registration is set to expire soon and they’d like to maintain it.

Unfortunately, since neither Planet Online nor Name For Name participated in the bulk transfer, they also didn’t forward billing information to NamesBeyond, so all registrants must provide their new registrar with updated billing information, unless they’d like to just transfer their names to a different registrar altogether.

Need Help Picking a Killer Domain Name?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 18:22:00 GMT

Let’s be honest – picking a domain name is hard. It always seems like most of the good ones are already taken (for obvious reasons). But this is why we love domain name suggestion services, such as DomainsBot, which can help wade through the sea of bad names to find the one that is best for your business.

Starting today, DomainsBot is offering the new Domain Suggestion Developer API, a copy-and-paste JQuery plugin and client code for the representational state transfer (REST) API. The client code is available in C#, PHP, or Java.

The widget provides a self-service experience for small and medium-sized hosting companies or domain resellsers, allowing them to put it right on their website, where visitors can use it to track down their perfect domain name without leaving the provider’s site.

“We designed the widget to allow anyone with a basic understanding of HTML to implement our domain suggestion within minutes,” says the DomainsBot VP of Product Development, Francesco Simoneschi.

So far, DomainsBot has been able to report a 15 percent increase in domain name sales for those partners using the suggestion tool, with over 1.5 million of their suggestions being registered in the last year.

The API and widget are available for free, and can be found here.

The Real Value of Domain Names

Michael Garrity — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:00:00 GMT

Have you ever wondered just how much that prized domain name of yours is really worth? Well, you may never have to wonder again thanks to Sedo.

The domain name marketplace and monetization platform recently launched a new feature that provides "quantitative analysis" of domains listed for sale in its marketplace, providing buyers with insights into the value of any domain name.

The feature, Domain Value Indicators, offers up statistics on each individual domain name, and even data on how these values compare to other domains listed on the site to put it into context for both buyers and sellers. These statistics are meant to help users make informed decisions before they purchase a domain name, and it also gives sellers an idea of how to set domain prices by giving them the most important value determinants.

Domain name prices will be determined based on the following values:

- Global monthly searches: How many times the domain’s keywords are searched for across the world each month

- Regional monthly searches: How many times the domain’s keywords are searched for based on the regional domain extension each month

- Estimated keyword cost-per-click: The revenue earned when a user clicks on an ad associated with the domain’s keywords

- Registration years for the name among TLDs: The year it was registered as a .com, .net or other generic top-level domain (gTLD)

- Registration of keywords among most popular extensions: How often the domain’s keywords are registered among the TLDs, each weighted by popularity (e.g. .com is worth more than .net)

Domain Value Indicators is based on Sedo’s historical transaction data, and will make use of automated pricing tools and the expertise of its international brokerage team to provide the most accurate assessment of each domain name’s value. This new feature appears on all offer pages.

Ho, Ho, Ho-sting Holiday Savings

Allison Howen — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 19:30:00 GMT

On the 12th day of Christmas Brain Host gave to me: 25 percent off of my hosting fee.

Tis’ the season of savings, so Website Magazine will be sharing a few holiday-themed offers from Web companies with our audience throughout the next few weeks.

In celebration of the 12 days of Christmas, Brain Host is offering 12 days of savings from Dec. 14 – 25. Starting today and running through Christmas, new customers can receive 25 percent off of a one-year hosting plan when they sign up through the holiday special promotion.

"A website is a fun gift to give someone special this Christmas," says Corey Hammond, Brain Host's Chief Development Officer. "Or you could always use the deal to treat yourself to a little present instead!"

Brain Hosts’ packages include unlimited bandwidth and storage space, 24/7 US-based customer support, free traffic and SEO packages and a point-and-click website builder – which allows users, regardless of technical skill level, to quickly create websites.

And remember, stay tuned to Website Magazine for more holiday savings information!

Go Daddy Registers 50 Million Domain Names

Michael Garrity — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Despite tough economic times around the world, the Internet continues to grow. As proof, Go Daddy, arguably the best-recognized domain registrar on the Web, hit a milestone last weekend when it registered their 50 millionth domain name.

It shouldn't be too surprising that Go Daddy was the first registrar to reach this mark, as the company's statistics show that it has either registered, renewed or transferred over one domain name every second of every day for the last few years. Currently, it is registering 2.5 times more domains per month now than five years ago.

Some experts in the industry are predicting that by the year 2015, there will be over two network connections for every person on the planet, and that almost 3 billion people around the world will be considered "Internet users."

Initially, Go Daddy was created to help business owners and individuals create and secure an online presence, quickly garnering a lot of attention because of its famous Super Bowl commercials. However, the company's 24/7 customer support services and feature-heavy cloud-based products helped secure its position even after the Super Bowl advertising hangover wore off. Now, it is also the world's largest provider of Web hosting and new SSL Certificates, as well as operating the largest domain name aftermarket, where names are auctioned, sold or purchased, on the Internet.

"For all the marketing we do, it's the word-of-mouth; a customer's personal endorsement that works as Go Daddy's most effective advertisement," says Bob Parsons, Go Daddy Founder and CEO.

The historic 50 millionth domain name was registered to Kranthi Kumar Kukkala of India for the domain DBAkit.com

"I am really happy to go with the Go Daddy and congratulate the company on its 50 millionth domain name registration," says Kukkala. "I like Go Daddy for domain and Web hosting providers because of its customer service, reliability and user-friendly set-up that work for any kind of computer user."

gFlip Enters the Domain Game

Michael Garrity — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 18:00:00 GMT

Owning a domain name and listing a website online can get pretty expensive, especially when you factor in both listing and success fees, but today sees the rise of a new website marketplace, gFlip, that promises to list your site for free.

gFlip will "allow their users to list and sell there [sic] websites completely free of charge," according to a press release from the company. "Where as [sic] other website marketplaces charge their users fees for using there [sic] services."

This means that you can now list your website on gFlip totally free, and they don't charge success fees, which are the fees charged when a property sells successfully on a website marketplace. gFlip is now the world's first completely free website marketplace.

On average, domain name listings will typically run from about $10-$25 a year to list, although some expert searching can find prices both lower and higher.

If you're willing to shell out a little cash for a more proven website marketplace, however, there are other options out there. These sites all work the same as gFlip, where sellers register (and, in these cases, pay for) a listing and then set a minimum fee. Buyers then come in and bid on the domain, auction-style. There are other buying and selling options available that are specific to each site, but this is the standard method.

Here are three of the most popular website marketplaces:

Sedo
Sedo is one of the most highly-recommended domain name hosting sites on the Web. It is also one of the only companies out there that offers multi-lingual domain specialists who are fluent in over 20 different language. They charge a $69 retainer fee for hiring a Sedo Domain Broker to buy a domain, and take a 15% commission fee of the gross purchase price of a successful sale.

Afternic
This is another proven domain listing site who promise 5% cash back on your domains and offer what they claim are the lowest sales commissions in the industry. They also partner with over twenty other sites around the world, which means you have a much larger buying audience.

Flippa
Flippa is probably the most recognizable name on this list. While Flippa does charge success fees, they also have the option of allowing sellers to play a flat fee when first listing a property, but this is only worth it if you can be confident that your domain will sell at a high value. Like the others, Flippa is auction-based, although it, too, has the option of making private transactions.

State of the Word Address (Recap)

Allison Howen — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 12:00:00 GMT

WordPress founder, Matt Mullenweg, has given the “State of the Word” address, which focused on the growth that the open source web software company saw in 2011.

WordPress now powers 14.7 percent of the top million websites in the world, up from last year’s 8.5 percent. Additional data shows that WordPress is powering 22 out of every 100 new active domains in the U.S.

Mullenweg also included information in his speech about a WordPress survey that was recently conducted.

More than 18,000 people from all over the world responded to the survey. Their responses showed that 6,800 of them were responsible for over 170,000 websites, and received a median hourly rate of $50— making the unstable economy easier to deal with for independent developers and site administrators.

Other topics touched on during the speech included information about the future of WordPress, such as capabilities for new browsers with HTML5 and CSS as well as a look at WordPress 3.3.

View the speech in its entirety and find out more information about the future for the popular platform.

.CO is Exceeding Expectations after One Year

Allison Howen — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 02:00:00 GMT

On the heels of .co’s first anniversary, it has proven a very successful year for the young domain extension.

A year after .co’s global launch, more than 1 million domain names have been registered, and the first time renewal rate is exceeding expectations, which is currently at 66 percent— and that is without counting late renewals yet.

Typically first year domains have a renewal rate in the low to mid 60 percent range, however .co’s renewal rate is expected to be around 68 to 69 percent when all is said and done.

Companies that have joined the .co bandwagon include Google, Amazon, Twitter and Overstock, as well as entrepreneurs from more than 200 countries.

Currently the U.S. has the most .co domain names registered with almost 52 percent, followed by the U.K. at 13.7 percent, and Canada rounds out the top three with just over 4 percent.

During the next year, .co claims that it will focus on enhancing the registrar marketing portal, expanding the global reseller network, launching new marketing campaigns and making tracking progress easier with reports and charts.

Report Shows Growth for .org Domain

Allison Howen — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:30:00 GMT

“The Dashboard”, a bi-annual domain name report by the Public Interest Registry, has showed strong growth for the world’s third largest generic top-level domain — .org.

According to the report, .org grew by 10.1 percent compared to the same time last year, with growth also driving the total domains for .org to more than 9 million registrations.

Additional facts from the report include that new .org registration increased by 14.6 percent and the average blended rate of renewal was 75.8 percent during the first half of 2011.

"Yet again, we're seeing significant growth of the .org domain as Web users worldwide continue to see the value in using a trusted, secure domain to educate, mobilize and empower their communities," says Brian Cute, CEO of .org, The Public Interest Registry. "By June 2011, the .org domain reached 9.2 million domains under management, a monumental figure compared to the 3.9 million in 2005. These numbers are clear indicators that .org is well-positioned to take advantage of the Internet growth that we continue to see occur."

Further research shows that .org websites also prove to be dependable. In a separate study commissioned by the Public Interest Registry, 81 percent of participants claim that they would choose an organizations website over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn for trustworthy information.

Web.com Buys Network Solutions

Allison Howen — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 01:00:00 GMT

Web.com (WWWW), a provider of online marketing services for small businesses, has bought Network Solutions, a top domain provider, for $560 million.

The deal offered Network Solutions $405 million in cash and 18 million shares of stock.

If the rumored price of what Go Daddy sold for is any indication ($2.25 billion), it seems that Web.com was on the better end of the bargaining for this deal.

As a result of Web.com’s new acquisition, trading shares have increased 24 percent, making the deal valued around $600 million.

Web.com’s domain growth continues with the attainment of Network Solutions, which is currently the fourth largest registrar. Web.com also already owns Registrar.com, which is the tenth largest registrar.

But although Web.com has gained more than 6,000 domains with the purchase of Network Solutions, Go Daddy still remains the largest domain provider with more than 30 percent of the domain market share and more than 40,000 domains.