DNForum is one of the most popular domain name forums on the Internet. It’s a must read for any serious domainer.

History

DNForum was started by Dan Gessler, a teenager in Virginia, USA. In 2002, the website was averaging around 12,000 banner views a day and around 750 unique visitors a day.

Dan sold in the forum, reportedly for a few thousand dollars, to Greg Ricks from Texas. In a controversial move, Greg introduced paid memberships. The result was an increase in revenue with many of the DNF faithful staying on board.

In 2003 the forum was purchased by Adam Dicker, who still maintains it today under the name DotComGod.

Source: WebhostingTalk

Advantages:

* You can work offline without an internet connection.
* Very fast.
* Automatically extracts domain names from drop catching lists.
* You can export data to the clipboard or text formats such as csv.

Cost: US$199 with free updates.

Location: OVTMatcher

Many ISP’s resell clickstream data to Internet marketing companies. The price per user, per month has been reported as US$0.40 cents.

Sources: Seeking Alpha and Clickstream data mart

In 2005 he joined DNForum and is a regular contributor and Exclusive Lifetime member.

In 2007, Petros created OVT Matcher, a domaining tool that allows you to scan huge lists of domain names for the Overture scores in January, February and March 2007.

While at University studying Computing and Management (before the web took off), he recalls using gopher and downloading shareware via FTP from sites such as simtel20 at White Sands Missile Range and from archie.au in Australia. In 1993 he saw Mosaic released, which later became Netscape.

In 1994 Simon registered the domain name (inform.com.au) while working for a company in developing a proprietary graphical online service, similar to that of Compuserve. Back then there was no Melbourne IT, ICANN didn’t exist and there were no industry bodies such as auDA. The registration was done in part, by calling up Robert Elz at Melbourne University. This was because “inform” was a dictionary word, and under “Roberts rules”, couldn’t be registered. After calling, emailing, printing and faxing paperwork, the domain was eventually registered.

In 1995, Simon had an idea about creating a national ISP. This led him to acquire the domain name isp.com.au along with a contract to operate as an ISP using the infrastructure of Labtam (who later became Access One and then OzEmail). ISP became one of Australia’s first ISP’s with points of presence in every state and territory.

In early 1997 he built a niche search engine and portal around one of his domains which he later sold in 2002 for an undisclosed amount. After taking a few years off, Simon wrote a best selling book in the category of Internet safety and became a regular contributor to Australian Personal Computing magazine.

Since then, Simon has worked for many large regional and global companies in the areas of Information Security, Fraud Prevention and Operational Risk. He has also managed large portfolios of domain names on behalf of these companies.

After spending many years developing his own strategies and proprietary tools for domaining, Simon co-founded Domainer Income in 2007.

Timeline

•    2002 – Executive VP of High Impact Sites Inc.
•    2003 – Purchased DNForum from Greg Ricks.
•    2006 – Joined iREIT as Executive VP and a member of the Board of Advisors.
•    2007 – Appointed as “VP Domain Aftermarket” at Godaddy.

Some typo domains can generate a lot of type-in traffic but they may not be a good long term investment. Depending on the domain name, there could be several issues ranging from potential trademark and legal issues, through to national security issues.

The concept is that you anticipate what domains are going to become popular and register them first. To watch trends successfully, you need good sources and a very creative mind.

The most effective way to start trend watching is to pick a few niches that you are comfortable with. Then subscribe to a few blogs, press release sites and other intelligence sources, then read, read and read! Watch for new standards, technologies, and emerging products. Once you hear of a current trend, quickly buy up relevant domains. Remember that not all trends will pan out and it is important to diversify your holdings so that you are not focusing too heavily on one trend.

When it comes to trend watching, you need to be very careful about the possibility of infringing on trademarks. If you think a domain name could have trademark implications, then don’t register it.