Fabulous Down?
We have been trying to register a few gems for nearly 90min with no success. Seem to be getting a “No Connection to the Registry” after a purchase request has been made. What doesn’t make sense is that you are able to get through to check availability through the registry (VeriSign)

Got a note into my rep and support in general but being as they are in Australia, could be a while before it is back up. This could be a big snafu before it is all said and done. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Will try and keep you updated.

Parts of this article have been republished from our comment on a TheDomains.com post.

Negative Comments Abound
Read an article recently in the blog of one of the domain industry’s true icons, Michael Berkens, that highlighted the negativity and mean-spirited reactions many of the leading personalities get, from within the domainer community, when they make a mistake or stumble publicly. This negativity comes from anonymous posters or prolific bloggers who seem to have an axe to grind that obviously comes from somewhere else. Can’t imagine the time and energy it takes to attack someone you most likely have only met in acticles you have read online. Don’t get the wrong impression. Some of our favorite domaining pastimes include: gloating, poking fun of, regret(my primary reaction), brash predictions, bold statements of facts(!?!) and general hyperbole, but you need to use your better judgement.

Tall Figures Make Easy Targets
Domaining is still a small community and there are very few pillars with the heft to be torn down. Those pillars are confronted with an inordinate amount of the criticism and vitriol from the masses, mainly because they have so few targets to aim at. Because of that, they take lumps many of us hacks deserve instead.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutly
Let’s not forget though, that those same reasons also make their opinions and statements that much louder and hold that much more weigh among us well. When those same pillars make a statement, they come off as statements of fact (Hmm, maybe it is how they are presented to us minions? More humility might help) rather than opinions or advice. And who doesn’t like the whole David and Goliath story? Taking down or attacking a giant. Unfortunately that comes with great success in a growing dynamic industry.

Take It Inside, Leave it Pretty on the Outside
We should all have little appetite for negativity and be more interested in what the most successful domainers have to say because it is usually solid, sage advice needed to improve our own position and portfolio. There is too much growth to do before we can start to point fingers. We also need those voices to continue to be credible and sound for the sake of our fragile industry and egos. There are too many “haters” attacking us from outside the industry, for us to be doing it from within. There will always be room for dissenting voices and contrary opinions as long as those thoughts are based on solid fundamentals and well though out opinion. Picking apart a single statement or incident, just make you look petty.

Here We Go Again!
Domainers have been fighting the negative stereotypes of “Cyber Squatter” and “Spammer/Scammer” since the beginning. We came across another example of why the public continues to lump us in with the worst elements of our industry

The Voice of Capitol Hill
In this example, a Washington DC reporter, is falling down on the job and providing lazy, inaccurate definitions of cyber-squatting to incorporate the entire domain investing industry. The Hill is a federal government rag read by many of the folks on Capitol Hill (including lawmakers). In fact Senators and Representatives frequently write articles and position statements for them.

Barbarians at the Gate
Unless you have been in a cave, you know that a publicity hungry couple snuck their way into a White House function with the President, causing great embarrassment for the Secret Service and the Homeland Security Department. The couple, Tareq and Michaele Salahi, tried a few different entrances before being let in to the reception for the Indian Prime Minister. While there they hob-knobbed with government and corporate elite and took pictures with both President Obama and Veep Biden among others. Although they are protesting, they will likely face serious charges for their actions.

Tareq Salahi’s Domain Is Registered
In the aftermath of the scandal, huge publicity ensued. It was revealed that the couple were likely candidates for TVs “The Real Housewives of DC” and had camera crews following them on the night this happened. Amid the CNN and Today Show appearances, someone registered TareqSalahi.com.(whois)

Where “Hip” and “Government” Meet
In an effort to stay hip and relevant, and to take advantage of their readership’s appetite for this story, they wrote an article outlining the registration and tied it into cybersquatting.

… “cyber-squatting,” the practice of buying a domain name that someone else may want (for example, www.sarahpalin2012.com) and selling it back to them at a higher price.

We understand that registering the name of someone famous, without their permission, and using it to profit off their fame or notoriety is a little suspect. The problem is in the way “cyber-squatting” defined.

What is Cybersquatting?
According to US law (Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act) Cybersquatting, is registering, trading, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit off a TRADEMARK belonging to someone else. Their definition of buying a domain name that someone else may want and selling it to them at a higher price is called investing/speculating. Just substitute “domain name” with “Stock”, “Land”, “Coins”, “Artwork, etc…” In those industries, it is also illegal to trade in items that do not belong to you. The authors broad brush strokes to define an illegal and negative act (cyber-squatting) disparages an entire legitimate industry, simply because they wanted it to fit in nicely with the way the story was being written.

Take a Stand
Anyone who follows the domain industry is familiar with these types of stories and the damage these false shorthand definitions can do to our industry’s reputation. We need to speak up and not let the status quo stand. We also need to take a hard line against cybersquatters from within the industry and do some of our own house cleaning. We will not be taken seriously until we are seen as one of the loudest opponents to this practice. Our end-user sales depend on it!

So Oprah has announced an end to her talk show. The Billion Dollar hostess/media mogul is setting her sights on a cable network. Wonder why she has not sewn up the online assets yet? Seems shortsighted but this is typical in main-stream business. Looks like some folks have some money to be made. Here is a nice little tidbit of domain interest.

From New York Times: After her broadcast talk show winds down, Ms. Winfrey will concentrate on her coming cable channel, OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. OWN will have its premiere in January 2011, according to a person with knowledge of Ms. Winfrey’s decision who insisted on anonymity.

Although it does look like she has secured TheOprahWinfreyNetwork.com and OprahWinfreyNetwork.com (Very long–I had to retype the first one three times to get it right) She might want to get on her online strategy and extend and improve her brand!
***********
Domain Name: OWN.COM
Registrant:
National A-1 Advertising
700 Chestnut st
Philadelphia, PA 19106
US
***********
Domain Name: OWNNETWORK.COM
Registrant:
This domain is for sale
Michael Readman (mike_readman@yahoo.com)
2-14 Millhill Lane
Huntsbury
Christchurch
NA,8002
NZ
Tel. +001.6433375905

Creation Date: 22-Nov-2006
Expiration Date: [strong]22-Nov-2009[/strong]
*********
Dont think this is her..mainly based on the expiry date…

Domain Name: OWNETWORK.COM
Registrar: ARSYS INTERNET, S.L. D/B/A NICLINE.COM
Registrant: (pnshelton@yahoo.com)
c/ Ferran Valls i Taberner, 4
Barcelona BARCELONA
08006 ES
+34 933152323

Updated Date: 05-dec-2008
Creation Date: 04-dec-2001
Expiration Date: 4-dec-2009

Admin Note: We simply swapped out the collectable in this Wall Street Journal story with “domain” and “generic” with very little else to show how another market seem to be mirroring the domain industry. Found it striking. We would love to hear your comments and thoughts.

When is a generic domain worth a million dollars?
When it’s a commerce driven. generic domain, one of only a handful. It recently sold for nearly $1.3 million at auction—and this isn’t the first time a domain has cracked the million-dollar price barrier.

It follows the sale earlier this year of a high-end collection of rare domains that fetched $1.1 million at auction. At the same time, popular keyword domains driven by advertising interests are selling for $1,700 apiece, sight unseen, in decent, though not perfect.

Today’s domain market is largely defined by high-end investors grabbing the rarest of domains that infrequently come up for sale; vanity buyers snapping up vanity domains; and speculators bidding up prices for domains whose grades they suspect are too low, in the hopes of securing a higher grade and selling them for more money. Yet ordinary collectible domains—the popular keywords that are nice but not great—have fallen in value by as much as 30% over the past year, say domain dealers and auction-house executives.

“It’s easier to sell a $100,000 domain today than a $1,000 domain,” says John Albanese, founder of Certified Acceptance Corp., based in Bedminster, N.J., which verifies graded domains.

Behind the trend are collectors like Robert Beckwitt, a 51-year-old New York money manager. He renewed his fascination with collectible domains a few years ago because domains were cheap. Today, his interest in high-grade domains reflects an investor’s mindset.

“This is my way of diversifying away from stocks and bonds and the U.S. dollar,” he says. In recent years Mr. Beckwitt has snapped up some of the finest examples of domains available, such as the highest-graded Staffing.com. Over the summer he grabbed for an undisclosed sum the finest-known attorney domain. “It wasn’t cheap,” he says. “But I love the potential of these domains.”

Before the economic crisis, the domain market was defined by rapidly rising prices for all manner of domains and widespread demand from seasoned collectors, casual hobbyists and investors. Now, casual hobbyists and low-end collectors are largely sitting on the sidelines, victims of the economy.

The domains at the focus of today’s activity have generally held their value or are rising, either because of their advertising value or because of their rarity. A September auction of rare, generics established world-record prices for ccTLD domains, among them the generic domain that sold for nearly $1.3 million, including commissions—well in excess of presale estimates of about $250,000, says Ira Goldberg, co-owner of Beverly Hills,Calif -based Goldberg Domains & Collectibles, which ran the auction.

Many collectors also see high-end domains as a viable asset class at a time when they’re dismayed by stocks, bonds and other investments amid worries about the economy and the long-term direction of the dollar. Historically, high-end domains have fared well as an asset.

“Though I think of myself as a collector, I’m really an investor,” says the 68-year-old Mr. Friend. “I’ve realized I have very little control over investments in stocks and real estate. But with domains I can know all there is to know about the investment I’m going to make.” He has recently started building a collection of netbook and computer domains.

Many domain buyers these days are hoping for a quicker score through the “Twitter” strategy. They’re buying high-quality graded domains and promoting the twitter out of them in order to resubmit to them to a appraisal service for a higher grade. They choose domains, in part, based on how they look compared to similar domains of the same grade. Many times they’re right, and the domains are ultimately awarded a higher grade.

Though there are huge risks with this strategy—including the potential that a domain is downgraded or loses its grade altogether—a successful regrading “can add thousands of dollars to a domain’s value,” says Scott Travers, a New York domain dealer and author of numerous domain guides.

“I’m getting calls several times an hour from people who want to play the crack-out game,” Mr. Travers says. “If you’re really careful about what you’re buying, there’s tremendous upside and little downside.”

Define the Crime
Can we confirm what we believe Nelson was doing? Was he shill bidding to drive up the revenue for SnapNames or was he using a bidding system to get great deals on valuable/traffic names? There seems to be a question on that. If it was shill bidding, (and that is what this was in my opinion) the problem is going to be more criminal than financial. I would take the money offered by Snap and run!!!

Calculating Losses
In civil court, the systems bends over backwards to determine a victims “true loss.” Because the winners freely offered higher bids (even as a result of a shill bid) they have granted some legitimacy to the end value paid…hurting themselves (as victims) in regards to damages. It is because of this kind of buying that trust in an auction house is of paramount importance. That is what SnapNames is trying to buy with these settlements, some semblance of that trust, not settle damages, but to stay in the auction business.

What are the Consequences?
Criminal actions can be filed and those responsible (All of them, not just Brady is it is broader) will go to jail/pay fines. Also, a class action can be filed and some restitution may be paid to the bidders but I don’t think everyone will be made whole…and it might be significantly lower that the current offer from SnapNames.

Settlement Offer
I think SnapNames’ initial reaction was pretty generous. That assumes the level of involvement is restricted to a rogue employee–a high-ranking one but employee none the less. A bunker mentality of “Public Acknowledgement, Discovery, Lengthy Analysis and Allowing the Criminal System to do it’s work ” prior to a settlement offer, might have been able to save them some money. Also, not sure this strategy would have hurt their auction business any more that has been done. Being a sucker for the good in people, I like to take them at their word.

Just got word from Microsoft that they will no longer be renewing (or registering) domain names for free as a part of their “Office Live” product. The site will still be free but we will now have to pony up for the renewals at $14.95 a pop. We knew the promotion had to stop at some point but didn’t want to admit it. It has been quite a bargain.

Quite a Bargain Indeed
We were able to sign up very soon after it launched and got our name and site in March of 2006. Since that time, we have had a continuous site with multiple updates and regular traffic and never paid a penny. In addition to the domain and website, you were also allowed to create and manage 5 email accounts. We never made it into a commerce or ad bearing site and not sure how all that would have looked/been done but over all, we have been very happy for the duration.

Nothing is Perfect
There were some issues that bothered us about having the name with Office Live, but nothing drastic enough to make us want to pay for it. The email had to be set up via MSN, you were not able to manage the DNS to allow for POP or STMP access, therefore relegating it to a secondary contact source. The website was also limited to 5 pages and the tools used to update the site were quirky and buggy and sometimes required you to edit the posts multiple times to show up properly. It was never intended to be “blog” software and that may have had to do with some of the issues.

Where is the Domain Registered?
Up until a few years ago when Microsoft became an ICANN registrar, they let Melbourne IT, out of Australia handle those registrations. Domainers will recognize that this is the same company that handled all the domain registrations ($1.99 Small Business Promo!) for Yahoo! Interesting that these competitors chose the same supplier for .com, .net and other domains but that is the way things are these days. The Office Live registrations are handled differently that a standard one. According to Microsoft, you own the name, but you have to make special arrangements with Melbourne to get the name into a separate account before you can transfer. Big pain but what did you expect for free.

Party’s Over, Now What?
We have a few more months of registration left before I have to act. We will be transferring the name to GoDaddy for less than $7 and starting a new blog with as much content as we can harvest from the previous site as possible. We are looking forward to the added flexibility we will have with genuine blog software and hope to be much more active on it moving forward.

Here is the email we received from Microsoft with the sad news.

End of the Free Road

Domain Suspension
The following letter was submitted to the Comments section of the ICANN forum to address the lopsided Uniform Rapid Suspension System (URSS) system developed by TM holders without input from domain owners and their interests.

Trademark Abuse
We do not advocate or support TM infringment and suggest stiff penalties for flagrant abuse by a registrant, but this policy goes too far in allowing a complaintant TM holder to shut down a domain without evidence or proper due process. This recommendation only applies to the new gTLDs being proposed but the danger (and recommendation by the IRT) is to extend it reach to current gTLD .com, .net etc.

Why should I care?
This issue may affect anyone who registers a name with a close relation to a standing TM, regardless of infringment. We suggest you read the recommendations and make your public comments by July 6th to ensure that your voice is heard. Thank you.

Link to the ICANN Forum IRT discussion: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#irt-report

Our Comments

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the IRT recommendations. My concerns are with the URSS and it’s potential for abuse and incorrect application. The complexity of trademark infringement cannot be determined by the simple registration of a domain name. All parties have a right to pursue a name and business opportunities that have a legitimate and non-infringing purpose.

Last Names, First Names, Nicknames, Geographies, Generic Terms (and the list goes on and on) represent marks that are TMed but also have alternate rights/uses. It is the CONTENT and CONTEXT with how that name is used that enables a determination of infringement, NOT the use of the name itself. The onus is on the TM holder to prove infringement and if so proven, exacting a stiff penalty from the abuser. That is why it is called defending and protecting your mark, rather than imposing your mark. It need not be difficult, but it should require a minimum of evidence.

Please reconsider how the URSS is applied, and err on the side of caution rather than alarm. The policy should protect the rights of all, not just companies with lawyers who file preemptively–without PROVEN cause. Also abuse by those who file frivolously should be addressed and dealt with harshly to dissuade. Thank you.

Sincerely,

FreshAvails.com

So it has been a few months after the end of domain tasting as we know it, and we thought it was about time to look back and evaluate the affect this has had on the names that have become available and the state of dropped names in general.

The End of All You Can Eat
The practice of domain tasting all but ended on April 1st of this year after ICANN implemented a rule that capped refunds to registrars who added and then deleted domains during the 5 day Add Grace Period (AGP) to 10% of their total registration volume. Tens of millions of domains were being registered, tested (or tasted as it is known) for traffic and appeal and then dropped before the end of the AGP. This primarily affected the .com and .net TLDs.

Big Players Take Big Bites
The service was dominated by just a few players because it required a high level of liquid capital. The domains actually had to be paid for and then, if dropped, a refund would be issued. Some of the big tasters we registering tens of thousands of names a day, and keeping only a fraction. Just about every name that was dropped was tasted at least once before if fell to the available pool. This had the effect of “shutting out” the little guy from getting a chance to pick these up.

New Recipe for Success
After the widespread tasting of domains was curtailed, a new era of great available domains was soon to follow. Here at FreshAvails.com, we always felt there were and are many gems out there ready for registration, it just required digging and proper analysis to discover them. This change though, was going to make it easier. We welcomed the new opportunity with open …mouths!?!?

Portion Control
What has the effect been to domain availability? After reviewing and filtering 50K or so names a day and a few million since tasting stopped, we can say the outcome has been markedly better. We can only for .com names, but have found the lists we create for our clients are about the same in terms of quality, but 20% or so longer. Where measured, exact search averages in Google are up and the number of domains with Alexa ranking histories has increased as well. One of the downsides of the new policy is that we no longer see good names that were once registered, become available later. We always check our candidate domains for availability, even days and weeks after the fact, and sometimes they would become available, not so much anymore.

Well Fed and Happy
The vast majority of quality drops are still being captured buy the drop catching companies, but a few more of the gems are sneaking through. Overall, it has been a positive experience for us at FreshAvails.com AND our own portfolios. We invite you to review our lists and judge for yourself. If you like what you see, why not join our Sneak Peek Program and get your hands on the freshest avails we have. Cheers and as always, Happy Hunting.

A Weakness for the Available
This site was born out of our own desire to find and reg names, so we can understand those afflicted with our same sickness. For those of you not addicted, read our post on the thrill of the hand reg posted a few weeks ago, you can understand what why we are how we are.

A Few New Ones in the Old Portfolio
We had been posting a few of our hand regs on the site but have failed to do so in a few months. A new updated set of names can be found here We hope to show you a little behind our reasons for regging them and see if it jibe with your thoughts. We do not claim to be perfect and are aware that our customers likely get better names than we do. We just love the possibilities each name provides.

Hope you enjoy them and share some of yours with us as well. Cheers and as always Happy Hunting.