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information Here's How 5 Thanksgiving .COM Domains Are Being Used

In recent years, the Thanksgiving festivities have moved online somewhat. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals readily available across the Internet, and many people searching for recipe and gift ideas in advance of their Thanksgiving celebrations, the festivities have developed a...
 
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security How To Avoid Domain Theft - Part 1: Understanding Hackers

When you own online assets, security is particularly important. Think about it: what would happen if every web account you own was suddenly under someone else's control? Most people don't realize just how catastrophic that would be until it's too late.

Recently, the number of domainers...
 
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information Weekly Sales Trends and Patterns - Sedo 11/24 Edition

This post will delve into the Sedo weekly sales report that was released on November 24, 2015. We will take a deeper look into certain themes and trends that many invest in on NamePros.

The top sale for the week was Aflam.com at $34,000. Not far behind, Mike Berkens continued to work his...
 
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interviews Inside Interview: The £100,000 Claims.co.uk Purchase

In this week's Inside Interview, I speak with John Quail, the owner of Claims.co.uk - a personal injury claims website that helps people to connect with solicitors in order to pursue compensation claims.

The domain name was acquired by John for £100,000, but this wasn't his first domain...
 
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information Domain Theft Can Be Stopped. Here's how.

With recent reports from NamePros members of domain names being stolen and accounts being hacked, I wanted to share the methods of activating two-factor authentication at a number of registrars and services that you may be using. This is a vital step that I think you should be taking...
 
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domains Real Domains, Real Brandable Sales

If I’m buying brandable domain names for resale then I need to know what’s selling and study the sale prices. That’s why I read the weekly list of the top 20 brandable domain sales by Doron Vermaat (@dv82). It’s also why I track brandable sales daily and post them weekly on Doron’s blog...
 
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sales Breaking: 73.com Sells

Overnight there has been a change in ownership for the domain name 73.com. The domain has been sold by a Chinese investor, and the updated WhoIs details show that the new owner is another investor from China. The new owner also has many other high-value domain names including WJ.com and HN.com...
 
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various Top Topics: 360° Trend; Rebranding to ngTLD's; LLLL .org Buyout; PayPal Chargebacks...

The most popular discussions this week include end users embracing new gTLD’s by rebranding from their .com to generic strings, the Chinese premium LLLL.org buyout that occurred earlier this week, 360° domains and what they are, buyouts of certain Chinese premium 5L.com patterns, and how to...
 
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interviews Successful Chinese Domainer Gives Advice to Investors

A very good contact of mine in China has just shared an interesting piece of news with me. As you'll know, the Chinese domain market has taken off rapidly within the past six months in particular, and whilst Western investors are struggling to understand what's happening, it seems that many...
 
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information Weekly Sales Trends and Patterns - Sedo 11/16 Edition

This post will delve into the Sedo weekly sales report that was released on November 16, 2015. We will take a deeper look into certain themes and trends that many invest in on NamePros.

The top sale for the week was ICT.com at $40,617.

There were 6 new gTLD sales: IAC.pub sold for...
 
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domains Five Companies Still Using a Two-Letter .COM Domain Name

As China continues its buyout of high value domain names, we're seeing higher and higher sales numbers, with four-letter .COM domains currently considered the hottest property among many investors.

At the top of the tree, however, is the two-letter .COM domain names. Chinese investors now own...
 
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opinion Whatever You Do, Don't Forget the End User

This time last year, I would have never considered buying six-, seven- or even eight- number domain names. I wouldn't have considered buying a four-letter .COM with a "z" or a "q" in it either. I wouldn't have even considered buying four letter .NET domain names.

Yes, the domain industry is...
 
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various Top Topics: Domain Pump and Dump; Trademark Infringement; LLL .com Prices...

The most popular discussions this week include a theory on the current Chinese domain market being part of a larger pump and dump scheme, the pricing of non/premium LLL.com domain names, speculating on numeric .com’s that are 10+ digits, Western LLL.com pricing, and what are the steps after...
 
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interviews Inside Interview: Behind the Acquisition of TN.Com With Tuft & Needle

What is it like to buy a two-letter .COM domain name? For years, this category of domains has been seen as one of the rarest, most exclusive types of domains available. With just 676 two-letter .COM names in existence, they can be difficult to buy.

With China's recent spending-spree on...
 
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domains How I Blew $50,000 on My Journey for the Perfect Domain Name

Here's another interesting story from Medium.com posted in August by Zalmi Duchman, founder of The Fresh Diet, which is an online meal delivery service established in 2005 whose clientele have included Mila Kunis and Sara Michelle Gellar.

After initially naming his company ZoneAtHome (largely...
 
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various Top Topics: Market Activity Trends; New gTLD's Performance; LLLL .net Buyout...

The most popular discussions this week include analyzing domain name trends and market activity for wise investment decisions, setting realistic and achievable investment goals for the New Year, the poor performance of the promising new gTLD’s since their release, and witnessing history in the...
 
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domains Breaking: $90 Million Domain Sale Revealed

When I logged on to Twitter this morning, I was met with a tweet from domain investor George Kirikos claiming to have uncovered one of the most expensive domain transactions in history.

Edit: Article updated for accuracy. The domain deal is for $90,000,000 payable until 2040. Not $65...
 
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domains Why Is China Investing in Domain Names? Here's the Answer

Have you ever wondered why Chinese investors have turned to buying domain names? Over the past couple of years, we've seen the market for two-letter .com, three-letter .com, four-letter .com, two-number .com, three-number.com, four-number .com, and five-number .com heating up with prices...
 
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interviews Inside Interview: The £600,000 Domain That's Worth Its Weight in Gold

Rob Halliday-Stein is a British entrepreneur and founder of BullionByPost, a highly popular platform that helps regular people buy gold and silver as investments. He is now the owner of the most expensive .CO.UK domain name ever sold: Gold.co.uk, which sold for £600,000 (currently equates...
 
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information How Do You Sell Domains to Chinese Investors?

With Chinese investors becoming the focal point of the entire domain industry, it stands to reason that at some point you'll probably be doing business with someone from China, Hong Kong, or Singapore. The Chinese culture has many different standards and protocols to abide by when conducting...
 
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various Top Topics: 14,000 New LLLL .net's; .BIZ Value; 6N Registrations...

The most popular discussions this week include a recent two-day promotion for discounted .net registrations that resulted in 14,000 new LLLL.net’s, the current and future value of .biz domain names, 6N .com’s having 500,000 reported registrations without the number 4, and methods of acquiring...
 
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information Clutter Finally Acquires Clutter.com

Back in May of this year, Elliot Silver posted a story about Clutter - an innovative storage service that had just raised $2 million in funding. I came across the company again on Crunchbase earlier this week after they had successfully raised a further $9 million in Series A Funding...
 
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domains Are Your Brandables Profitable?

There’s a saying in real estate: You make your money on the buy, not on the sale. The same is true for domain names, but selecting solid brandables can be tricky. We need information to inform our opinions and develop our skills. So here are some tips for making savvy purchases that can increase...
 
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domains Five Famous Faces Who Don't Own Their .COM - Part 3

In the third part of my series of famous faces who don't own their own .COM domain, I'll explore five more celebrities including two actors, a politician, a TV show host and a businessman. It's always interesting to see how some of the world's successful people are overlooking vital online...
 
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advice How Safe Are Your Domain Names?

Whether you are the king of domains and sitting on countless super valuable domains or someone just starting out who spent days scraping through dropping lists to buy a handful of domains you found that others may have overlooked, our portfolios are special to us. They are a part of who we are...
 
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humor "We Bought Our Domain for a Box of Chocolates." The Story of BreakTheBubble.Com

Medium.com is a great place to discover stories from startups - these stories are often insightful, motivational, interesting or sometimes just fascinating. I stumbled across one such story today, entitled "We Bought Our Domain for a Box of Chocolates."

The domain name in question is...
 
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opinion What Should You Invest In If You Missed Out On Four-Letter .COMs?

The majority of you will know that four letter .COM domain names have rapidly risen in value over the past year, and particular. Letters which were deemed to be poor investments a couple of years ago are now sought after by Chinese investors and those hoping to cash in on China's insatiable...
 
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various Top Topics: Making $100,000 Per Year; LLL Buyouts; Defining "Premium"...

The most popular discussions this week include numerical dot com domains with 7, 8, and 9 digits; defining what a “premium” domain name consists of; an LLL buyout in various ccTLD’s and gTLD’s; the likelihood of breaking $100,000 a year through domain name speculation; and a recent buyout of all...
 
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opinion Exclusive: XA.com Sold For $850,000

Earlier in the week, I wrote about XA.com's probable sale, and it can now be confirmed thanks to James Booth (@BoothDomains).

The new owner of XA.com is Kyar Kyin Yang of the Philippines, and as James Booth is currently based in the Philippines, he spoke to Mr Yang about the domain...
 
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sales Another Two Letter .COM Changed Hands

Today sees yet another two letter .com domain name change hands.

However, contrary to the recent trend of domain names moving to Chinese investors, this one has gone from China to a company in the Philippines.

The domain name is XA.com and has today completed its registrar move from eNom.com...
 
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development Domain Development: Getting Paid for Leads You Generate

After publishing my article on how to set up a lead generation website, I received a couple of messages asking one very important thing: How do you get paid for the leads you generate? I shall endeavour to answer that question in this week’s edition of the Domain Development series.

Let’s...
 
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various Top Topics: Owning Premium Domains; Industry Norms; Misspelled Domains...

The most popular discussions this week include Alphabet Inc. purchasing the alphabet in dot com; what the industry standard is or should be regarding escrow fees; owning your first name, last name, or variant thereof in dot com; investors that purchase misspelled domains; and the steps one...
 
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interviews Inside Interview: Behind the Million Dollar PX.com Purchase

This week's Inside Interview is with Frans van Hulle, the CEO and Co-founder of ReviMedia - a company that has a long history of producing high-quality lead generation websites on premium domain names. In August 2015, it was announced that the company had acquired the domain name PX.com...
 
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information Five More Famous Faces Who Haven't Acquired Their Own Name

After last week's list of famous people who don't own the .COM of their name, I started researching and found so many who seemingly aren't interested in their own online identity.

From my research, it looks as though it may come down to who is advising the star in question - many management...
 
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opinion What I've Bought in the Past 12 Months and Why

I've often read posts from Elliot Silver and other bloggers about their recent acquisitions, and I have always found it fascinating to see what others are buying. I've endeavored to create a similar post below, and I hope that you get some interest from it.

My domain sales and acquisitions are...
 
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development Domain Development: How to Create Your Own Content

Welcome to the sixth in my Domain Development series which will hopefully teach you how to create your own websites for your domain portfolio without having to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. Today we cover content.

Content is vital for a successful website, and well written content is...
 
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domains What GoDaddy Won't Tell You

Go Daddy’s people are standing by via phone and Internet chat, but there’s a few things you aren't going to hear from GoDaddy’s finest.


WHO SAID DISCO(UNT) IS DEAD?

Okay, so the days of using 99 cent coupons to register HomemadeMiniPickles.com for your grandmother‘s secret recipe...
 
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various Top Topics: Adam Dicker's Response; Domain Portfolio Management; 9N .com Domains...

The most popular discussions this week include a few tricks to ease domain name portfolio management using Excel functions, 9N .com domain name buyouts in certain patterns, Adam Dicker addressing concerns from previous customers and employees, the cheapest registrars for domain transfers, and is...
 
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interviews Inside Interview: Behind the $250,000 Purchase of StockPhoto.com

This week's Inside Interview puts the spotlight on Jon Yau's $250,000 purchase of StockPhoto.com. This purchase was completed using Flippa, and it is the largest domain sale on the marketplace's website (according to NameBio).

In the eleven questions below, Jon (@Stockphoto.com) provides...
 
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sales Mike Mann Sells Aux.com for $100,000 and Mike Berkens Sells QJS.com for $150,000

Mike Mann has announced the six-figure sale of AUX.com today.

The sale, which was announced a short time ago on Twitter and Facebook is the 8th highest three letter .COM sale this year, and it ties 62nd on DNJournal's Year to Date Sales.

Aux.com is a domain that Mann has owned for quite a...
 
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sales Weekly Sales Trends and Patterns - Sedo 10/6 Edition

This post will delve into the Sedo weekly sales report that was released on October 6, 2015. We will take a deeper look into certain themes and trends that many invest in on NamePros.

The top sale for the week was PassITon.com at $64,000.

There were 5 new gtld sales...
 
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domains Investing in LLLL.com – A Starter Guide

How do you make one million dollars in six months? You might recall the story of Ken O’Brien. Ken did not own a single LLLL domain until he bought Adam Dicker‘s portfolio last May. Since then, Ken started working with me to learn about the LLLL market, and he acquired a thousand more...
 

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information 5 Celebrities Who Haven't Acquired Their Own .COM

Today, I'll be delving into the world of celebrities to discover the famous people who don't own their proper name as .COM domain names. If you've achieved a certain level of fame, I believe that acquiring your .COM name should be fairly important. Even if there's no intention in using the name...
 
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various Top Topics: 4's In Numeric Domains; Best ngTLD's; Domaining History...

The most popular discussions this week include the dreaded (but sometimes good) number “4” in numeric domain names; momumental and historic investments made by Kevin Ham, FMA, and Marchex; the best new gTLD’s to invest in; and how many times have you visited ABC.XYZ since Google started to use...
 
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opinion Why Attend a Domain Conference?

Having just gotten back from THE Domain Conference in Florida this week, I thought it would be good to share some reasons why I think being at a conference is so important. I think in business it is always smart to think strategically about any investment. Going to a conference is an investment...
 
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auctions An Auction Battle for a 9N .com?

The auction just wrapped up on DropCatch for 888828888.com. The domain has been registered a couple times going back to 2011. It was dropped and registered again, and then dropped again. Each time it has been a Chinese registrant.

DropCatch caught the domain name and there was a back and forth...
 
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sales Weekly Sales Trends and Patterns - Sedo 9/29 Edition

This post will delve into the Sedo weekly sales report that was released on September 29, 2015 to take a deeper look into certain themes and trends that many invest in on NamePros.

The top sale for the week was actually a .de and not a .com: Pionier.de sold for 19,500 Euros or...
 
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domains There's No Money In Brandable Domaining

Some people in the domaining industry (I’m talkin’ well-known professionals) say that there’s no money in brandables. And here’s why:
  • They have no Exact Match Domain search results.
  • There’s no Pay-Per-Click demand or competition.
  • Buyers can make up their own name; supply is...
 
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various Top Topics: Chinese Investors; Pricing and Selling Hand-Registrations; GoDaddy Scammers...

The most popular discussions this week include the potential of scammers running rampant on GoDaddy’s auction platform due to their relaxed Terms of Service, what other domain extensions Chinese investors are eyeing, a surprising comeback for .MOBI, suggestions on how to improve Flippa, and tips...
 
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sales Reported Domain Sales on Twitter This Week Including Mike Mann's $35,000 Percipio.com

Twitter is an excellent place to find out the latest sales figures from some of the elites in the domain industry. This week, Mike Mann and Mike Berkens' Most Wanted Domains both reported five-figure sales on Twitter.

Earlier in the week, Mike Mann reported the sale of...
 
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