NamePros Blog

James Iles · Mar 21, 2016

Two years ago, Berlin became the first city in the World to have its own TLD. The .BERLIN extension, designed to give Berliners an alternative to .DE and .COM, quickly gained popularity thanks in part to a five-day free domain name initiative. Three months after its launch, .BERLIN became...

James Iles · Mar 18, 2016

Today, a very interesting challenge has been proposed. Take a $500 initial investment and see how much money you can turn it into by January 1st, 2017 through domain sales only. The idea is fascinating. If you decide to take part, documenting participation in a public discussion may motivate you...

Kassey Lee · Mar 17, 2016

Short acronym domain names can represent Pinyin words that translate to Chinese characters. They are popular in China because they are short and easy to remember. However, there are certain challenges that limit the use of certain letters to stand for Pinyin words. In this post, I'd like to look...

James Iles · Mar 16, 2016

Our guest on this edition of Expert Exchange started his domain investing journey in 2005 with an initial investment of less than $1,000. Since then he has acquired some of the rarest domain names in existence, including XF.com and VE.com. He is also the owner of the oldest .COM domain name...

James Iles · Mar 15, 2016

This year's NamesCon live domain auction produced almost $1.5MM in sales, with 92 of the 131 live auction listings being sold. The largest sale was the $240,000 sale of Lawn.com, which was acquired by an Atlanta-based company who are already putting the name to good use. Billy Van Eaton...

James Iles · Mar 14, 2016

This year, I've spent more on domain names than I ever have before. By following what I read on the blogs, forums, and looking at the great data available on websites such as NameBio and Chaomi, I've decided to buy up quite a few domain names in a number of categories that I thought could be of...

James Iles · Mar 11, 2016

There have been many discussions surrounding a possible Chip crash this week, with some investors suggesting that four-letter Chinese premium .COMs will continue to decline in price, a move that could produce ripples throughout the rest of the Chinese domain investment market.

Although I...

Kassey Lee · Mar 10, 2016

Many Chinese companies use acronym domain names for their company websites. So, if you already have an acronym domain name, how do you translate it to potential company names? In this post, I’ll chart the translations of single letters A to Z into possible Chinese meanings that you can use as...

James Iles · Mar 9, 2016

It was once said that to be successful in the domain industry, you needed to register domain names very early on, circa 1990's.

Our guest today is proof that this is a false statement. James Booth (@BoothDomains) has been a full-time broker for less than a year, and he has already amassed...

James Iles · Mar 8, 2016

In this edition of Inside Interviews, we take a look at the $130,000 acquisition of Due.com by John Rampton. The domain name, which was acquired through auction platform Flippa.com last year, is now the base for an effective invoicing and time tracking service. Due.com has amassed an...

James Iles · Mar 4, 2016

Chinese escrow provider DN.com regularly posts pieces of information on NamePros regarding domain investments, but today they have surpassed themselves by producing a superb piece with advice from eight of China's most prominent domain investors. It's a must-read.

The discussion also reveals...

Kassey Lee · Mar 3, 2016

Pinyin is the use of Roman letters to represent Chinese characters. Many Chinese companies use Pinyin to create corporate domain names in Roman letters. Investing in Pinyin names can be profitable, but there are some pitfalls that can get in the way. In this blog post, I'll provide some tips on...

James Iles · Mar 2, 2016

In a recent tweet, investor George Kirikos revealed that he has found another multi-million dollar domain name sale that was recently revealed in an SEC filing.

The paperwork indicates that the domain name CancerInsurance.com was acquired in a seven-figure deal. The SEC filing shows...

Joe N · Mar 2, 2016

There are many websites offering great advice from successful people in the domain industry, with tons of tips for beginners. I haven’t had as much success as some seasoned domainers, but as a beginner, I think I'm in a unique position to help others like me learn the ropes. Here are some tips...

James Iles · Feb 29, 2016

I wanted to share with you the story of my first five-figure domain name sale, which came from a $69 purchase. This story isn't intended to be boastful in any way. I hope it will show that sometimes luck, along with taking a risk, can lead to a good return. This is by no means my usual method or...

sittingducks · Feb 27, 2016

Playing poker online in order to make money is similar to the art of domaining. Today I will introduce a couple of strategies from online poker and apply them to domaining, in hope that both novice and more advanced domainers can learn from them.

Look at the picture above. Two...

James Iles · Feb 27, 2016

This week's Top Topics from the domain name community contain a lot of very interesting opinions on a number of different subjects: new gTLDs, current investments, and the future of four-letter .COM domains are all covered.

You'll also be able to see the gradual movement within the five-letter...

James Iles · Feb 26, 2016

Mike Mann has just announced his latest domain name sale. The founder of DomainMarket.com has confirmed the sale via Twitter, telling his followers that the domain name Estera.com had just been sold for $41,000 after Mike purchased the name on May 11th 2012 for just $176.

The domain...

Kassey Lee · Feb 25, 2016

In response to many requests for me to translate numbers into Chinese meanings, I've created a chart in this post as a quick guide for you to see some of the possible Chinese meanings for numbers from 0 to 99, as well as 00 to 09. These meanings can help you evaluate domains to purchase for the...

AndrewRice · Feb 24, 2016

Buying brandable domain names is a great way to make money in the domain industry. Brandable names are often sold to startups because they are, you guessed it, brandable. In other words, they work well as brand names for companies to use and build brands on. Since brandable domains often sell...

James Iles · Feb 23, 2016

Building a brand on a memorable, one-word domain name is something that many of us strive to do. Our guest this week has managed to create a network of at least twelve websites, all hosted on some of the best .COM and .NET domain names around.

Yigal Ben Efraim is the founder and CEO of STANDS4...

James Iles · Feb 22, 2016

By now, you've most likely heard about the news that Tesla have bought Tesla.com. On February 18th, DomainNameWire broke the news of Tesla Motors' new acquisition, and that afternoon we were able to speak with Stu Grossman, the seller of Tesla.com, about why he finally sold the domain...

James Iles · Feb 19, 2016

The big news in the domain industry this week was Tesla's acquisition of Tesla.com. After using TeslaMotors.com since 2003, the billion-dollar brand has purchased Tesla.com from a Californian individual. If you missed it, I spoke with the seller of Tesla.com yesterday.

In this week's Top...

Kassey Lee · Feb 18, 2016

Gamifying domaining is a great way to have fun while investing in this industry. Over the years, I have begun to treat domain drop catching almost like a game. Drop catching is a cheap form of entertainment that may net me a big sum one day. Lately, my drop catching focus is four-character...

James Iles · Feb 18, 2016

It was recently confirmed that the domain name Tesla.com has been sold to Tesla Motors, after being owned by a Mr. Stuart Grossman of California for a very long period of time. In the past, Mr. Grossman has defended the name in a UDRP against Tesla Industries, but as of today, the domain...

James Iles · Feb 16, 2016

Vroom is a car brand that is making waves in the automotive industry by working to make the car buying process easier. It's website, on the domain name Vroom.com, has become one of the largest online car stores in the United States. Customers and investors love the brand, with over $168 million...

James Iles · Feb 16, 2016

In the domain name industry, we are very lucky to have such a wide variety of websites and resources to help us keep track of what is happening and to help us all profit from that. Fortunately, many of these resources are free to use.

I wanted to share with you my 10 best free resources for...

James Iles · Feb 12, 2016

Last Monday saw the arrival of Chinese New Year, and whilst sales may have slowed slightly in light of the celebrations, the domain community have been extremely active in a number of different discussions. In this week's Top Topics, we discover the reason why not all Chips are created...

Edward · Feb 11, 2016

This year’s NamesCon was the largest ever. Over the past three years, the domain name industry event has evolved from a conventional domain conference into a four-day powerhouse of entertainment and networking.

NamesCon attendance has doubled in its three years of existence, from 600 in 2014...

James Iles · Feb 10, 2016

This week, I had the great pleasure of interviewing a successful domain investor and developer: @Braden Pollock. As the founder of Legal Brand Marketing, Braden has created a national brand with thousands of clients.

As a domainer, he has made many profitable domain sales including the...

James Iles · Feb 9, 2016

Just under a year ago, Swedish entrepreneur Jonas Bonde acquired the $76,000 domain name Car.info in one of the largest .INFO domain name sales of all time. As the name suggests, Jonas and his team are building a data website for cars. It looks to be a big project, but Jonas is no stranger...

James Iles · Feb 8, 2016

In the past few months, I've bought more domain names than I have in the past two years. These have been through marketplaces, via private deals and of course on NamePros. Throughout all of these deals, there are a few rules that I try to follow to minimize the risks involved with acquiring new...

James Iles · Feb 5, 2016

In this week's Top Topics, there are a couple of notable discussions surrounding four-letter .COM domain names. We all saw the rise of this category last year - could this year yield yet more increases in four-letter .COM values? Elsewhere, Shane Bellone has shared his views after his first year...

Kassey Lee · Feb 4, 2016

I am honored and surprised that so many domainers are embracing me as a Chinese domain expert. Many are amazed that I can explain the meanings of Chinese domain names with ease and speed. Some even want me to appraise their domain names for China. Let me teach you how I am able to quickly answer...

Omar Negron · Feb 3, 2016

I have been domaining for awhile now. Buying and selling domain names can certainly be fun. It's a thrill when you scan a list for hours to find 1-2 domain names that show "promise" and then you're able to acquire them through an auction or you successfully drop catch them straight into your...

James Iles · Feb 3, 2016

In December, we brought you news of China's first ever domain name conference in Shenzhen. Along with reports of the event itself, we showed you the impressive results of the premium domain name auction. The data available to us at the time showed that the auction produced a total of...

James Iles · Feb 2, 2016

This time last year, the majority of six-number (6N) .COM domain names were available for registration. Even up until September of 2015, investors were acquiring thousands per day; the news broke here that a Chinese investor had registered 33,000 6N .COM's over a two day spree.

However...

James Iles · Jan 29, 2016

In the run up to Chinese New Year on February 8th, you may think that the Chinese domain market is slowing down. This is true for some domains, but the 6N .COM category shows no signs of slowing down at the moment. As members have noticed this week, the 6N .COM category's average price has...

James Iles · Jan 28, 2016

Up until recently, a company called Drawbridge had been using the domain hack drawbrid.ge to host their main website. This week, it has been confirmed that they have acquired the domain name Drawbridge.com in a private transaction.

The company, which allows brands to have "seamless...

Kassey Lee · Jan 28, 2016

Recently, I was asked about the readability and reliability of Google Translate. As China plays a significant role in the domain industry, there is increasing interest to read Chinese domain news, which is often written in Chinese. Many investors turn to Google Translate to translate...

James Iles · Jan 26, 2016

Today, we have the great pleasure in bringing you an interview we conducted with Jason Calacanis. For those of you who don't know about him, Jason is a very successful angel investor and the creator of some of the Internet's most valuable websites.

Some of @jason calacanis's achievements...

James Iles · Jan 25, 2016

If you have been monitoring the Chinese domain market recently, you'll have noticed a drop in the volume of sales in comparison with December. This article, written by Travis from DomainShane.com, has some excellent infographics to show an obvious decrease.

What causes this...

James Iles · Jan 23, 2016

Today, the news from China is that the domain name Xian.com has sold for "a mid seven figure CNY fee," which equates to a six figure dollar value of anywhere between $450,000 and $910,000. The news, first reported on eName.cn, suggests that single Pinyin words may be the new trend among...

James Iles · Jan 22, 2016

Welcome to this week's Top Topics. "China will block the .COM extension" is a bold prediction from a member in one of NamePros.com's most active discussions this week. Elsewhere, DN.com released some very interesting information regarding triple Pinyin domain names, and one member shared the...

Kassey Lee · Jan 21, 2016

Numeric domain names are very popular in China. One of the primary reasons for their popularity is that they have no intrinsic meaning, and therefore meaning can be added to them. Once a meaning is attached to a numeric domain name, it becomes easy for consumers to remember, and that's why many...

James Iles · Jan 21, 2016

NamesCon 2016 was an excellent place to learn about the domain industry with plenty of speeches, live events, and networking opportunities to keep you busy for four days. However, for those who weren't able to attend NamesCon in person, NamePros.com provided live coverage of some of the major...

James Iles · Jan 20, 2016

With the influx of buyers from China acquiring short domain names in many different extensions, we sometimes forget about keywords and new gTLDs. In this week's New Names, we take a look at some of the recent purchases of NamePros members.

This week, we have two new gTLD entries, two keyword...

James Iles · Jan 19, 2016

In 2012, one company made a big investment in their future by acquiring two six figure domain names in a short amount of time. ViSalus, lead by CEO Ryan Blair, bought Challenge.com for $500,000 and VI.com for $325,000, and both domain name sales were reported in an October edition of...

James Iles · Jan 18, 2016

Last week, 19 year old Erwan Kina (@ErwanKina) made an announcement that his investment group will be acquiring over $20 million worth of domain names in 2016, with their focus being on buying short .COM domains. Why are they putting so much money into domain names this year? Who are these...

James Iles · Jan 15, 2016

In this week's Top Topics, we ask the community which domain name they would buy if they won the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot. The replies were interesting and varied, as you'll see below. The news also broke this week that our very own @Eric Lyon became a father, and the owner of 20.com...

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