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.

Would like to give a credit to Brad Evers of idAssets.com to pointing this out.

Who Is Minding the Store?
In an otherwise typical and generic story about the success and strategy of a large company, MediaPost is able to provide TWO lessons in the online business and publishing enviorment.

The story is about Aldi Grocery Stores. A large chain based out of Germany but with hundreds, if not thousands of stores in the US and elsewhere around the globe. This “Top Story” listed here to the detriment of themselves and their subject.

Two Lessons, Two Disappointments
The primary graphic shows an image of the Aldis.com parked page rather than the company. So dissapointing on two counts.

1) The fact that the publisher/editor did not reveiw the contents of the article (this includes graphics!) Another blemish for online professionals who want to be taken seriously in an environment of casual standards.

2) The lack of foresight by Aldi to not properly protect their online brand. True, they do own their name Aldi.com but they have to understand that the “familiar term” used by their customers is “Aldi’s”. Aldis.com ranks around 1 MM Million sites by Alexa, and recieves 33K exact searches in Google a month. What waste!

It Gets Better

FYI, they also don’t own Adlis.de in their native country tld…

Here is the Graphic in case it has been corrected. (hopefully)

Thought we would test out a new catagory of domains to see if we get a good response on it being useful. These are the domains that expire tomorrow that have valid (for the most part) Alexa rankings. The numbers equate to the number of visitors that site has i.e. is a site has a rank of 200,000 then 1 in 200,000 of internet users is visiting the site …Very High Number FYI. Enjoy and let us know your thoughts and if we should keep posting them. Admin@FreshAvails.com
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DOMAIN / ALEXA RANKING
BerserkFactor.com 378,091
AussiePeter.com 552,628
Onatoko.com 569,439
CloakDirect.com 902,730
Maiyam.com 964,096
ChicagoConstruction.com 1,034,165
BiosWebHost.com 1,041,331
XxxPerformers.com 1,098,846
NewRealestAteSales.com 1,165,782
IHwan.com 1,228,179
STaif.com 1,352,467
KeepPrivacy.com 1,378,036
BerserkDirect.com 1,406,096
WebPrxy.com 1,532,539
HomeHacker.com 1,627,545
BerserkInternet.com 1,787,557
BeratedNow.com 1,792,754
PaysVendomois.com 1,873,822
ShockWhat.com 2,013,752
MyFyi.com 2,017,692
TechCloak.com 2,161,050
YouTubeVideoLarim.com 2,190,859
AdsNumbers.com 2,230,727
WowCheatSite.com 2,248,695
Eomm.com 2,301,421
BerserkEpisode.com 2,432,078
AnonymousWebBrowse.com 2,440,093
BerserkGateway.com 2,465,501
WowUnblock.com 2,550,484
DropOfLine.com 2,738,304
NaughtyProxy.com 2,851,762
BerserkProxy.com 2,948,363
HostBypass.com 3,161,033
ContactListing.com 3,173,612
BlacktopDreams.com 3,352,600
JvMotivator.com 3,419,890
JiZhangW.com 3,467,518
MareAndolaPerDiz.com 3,496,402
WowGamesOnline.com 3,560,365
RockHyraxCampingSafaris.com 3,734,015
Weoz.com 3,783,433
Forex1000.com 3,805,044
BrAutoClass.com 3,817,885
HotGamer.com 3,833,737
WowPlayWorld.com 3,885,083
YourMegaSearch.com 3,973,061
JoyIndo.com 4,001,204
MathTrainer.com 4,043,426
GpaBoon.com 4,050,269
SlatonBakery.com 4,096,331

We have put it off long enough and are making updates on Twitter. Follow us, FreshAvails to get the latest and greatest on when we update lists and other breaking news. Cheers.