For the record, I disagree that “now is the right time”. Of course, I don’t know if there are financial issues/reasons behind the sale. However, if there were no issues, I’d hold onto it given the environment.

For those people who are “strapped for cash” and need to sell, feel free to get in contact and I’ll take those little gems off your hands. In a strange coincidence…. while typing this post I was sent a portfolio of 400+ domains looking for a new home.

What do you think about wealth.com? Should they auction it off?

• biggestlooser – $8,000
  rebate – $60,000
  tonightshow – $15,000
  sexvideo – $17,000

All these names are available at assetize.com, a site for buying and selling accounts including Facebook, Twitter, GMail and Wordpress. People seem to be buying accounts; one recent sale for a Twitter account called m*r with 7,851 followers apparently sold for US$1,250.00.

What do you think about this practice? Is it “socialsquatting”, the result of a free and open market? Is there really any value to having that niche keyword on a social media site?

To be honest, I really didn’t think this would be as big as it was. Within minutes I had people sending me friend invites…. some were people I’d known on forums and others were fellow bloggers.

I’d be interested to know your views on this. Did you register a name? Are you even on facebook?

The names that were up for sale Thursday belong to Craig Harrison, an entrepreneur from Fort Collins, Colorado.  Many end in realestatelistings.com, representing states, cities and suburbs in the United States and overseas. Harrison thought the auction would attract upscale buyers, picking San Francisco for its proximity to Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Seattle. Unfortunately, the event at Fairmont did not go to plan.

“I had to have the courage to keep spending the money,” said Harrison, who remembers sitting at his computer for four days and using three or four credit cards. He spent about $35,000.

Perhaps the names weren’t as valuable as they seemed. “Had we had premium names, like toys.com, there would have been an auction,” J.P. King said as waiters in the Fairmont cleared trays piled with sandwiches from the empty room.

Source: SFGate.

For more details, check out this article in Kikabink News.

I just received this email about the May auction and I have to say, I was not impressed. If you want domainers to buy at auction, are you really going to open up your email with this sentence:

“With a new wave of college graduates entering the workforce, now is the perfect time to acquire a quality domain name to drive traffic to your online business.”

Does that make you want to buy domains at their auction? No – it makes me stop and think “What logic is behind this?”. Now call me harsh (and maybe it was because I haven’t had my morning coffee yet, but get real. Its May, and depending on where you live on this planet, you probably don’t call it college and their graduation might not happen mid-year. But what the hell does this have to do with getting me to buy your domains anyway?

Purely out of frustration (and a little bit of domainer OCD) I went over to their website anyway and checked out what they had to offer. My take is… if you like 3 letter domains, dive right in. I don’t (can’t fathom paying £3,150 for mje.com) but that’s just my preference.

The auction is run by Sedo, so you can buy at Sedo directly or on the GreatDomains site (same thing). Here are a few good ones.

• shirts.net – Sedo or GreatDomains
• bellyring.com – Sedo or GreatDomains
• babyclothing.com – Sedo or GreatDomains
• permit.net – Sedo or GreatDomains
• end.net – Sedo or GreatDomains

Let me know how you go.

I know what you are thinking…. how could he do this? It’s betrayal of the highest order! But you know what? I’ve discovered something…. the usual people are continuing to post drivel (some think its “ohhhh so controversial”) many others appear to actually believe the world is coming to an end.

Its the GFC! No, its not KFC, its got a G in it… no its not the Georgia Football Club either… its the Global Financial Crisis. Global, being stuff outside America? Think of it as all the ccTLD’s, but not .us! Got it now? Good.

This week I went on a bit of an auction binge and purchased a few great names including roses.us. Why? Because people are selling them!

That’s right, its time for the rest of the world to sweep up some quality domain names. With €1 Euro being worth more than US$1.35 – now is the time (although so was mid 2008 when €1 was worth US$1.59).

Here at the Domainer Income Corporate World HQ, I’m sitting by this lake pondering all those opportunities that arise in a recession.

For example, people buy more lottery tickets, they actively seek out cheaper goods. Its not that people arent buying, its just that how some people make those purchases has changed. They might buy less expensive items and expect a greater, faster  ROI. All of this creates opportunity.

Crisis? Recession? Meltdown? Not in my part of the world.

I’ve been closely watching a few of them and its coming down to the wire. Here are a few interesting names across multiple price ranges, that I’ve hand picked.

zeel.com – $775.00
saskatoon.net – $660.00
prot.com – $525.00
superhero.net – $485.00
joystick.net – $550.00
orlandohotelrooms.com – $485.00
helicoptersforsale.com – $450.00
imply.com – $1,380.00
entrepreneurs.info – $375.00
epick.com – $375.00
flowerstands.com – $375.00
n81.com – $535.00
adulttelevision.com – $665.00
assaulted.com – $640.00
bar.biz – $375.00
born.info – $375.00
clicknews.com – $2,460.00
contactlenscleaner.com – $375.00
cutlery.info – $350.00
deliveryboy.com – $1,280.00
duty.net – $640.00
forecast.info – $350.00
franchiseopportunity.net – $350.00
inaugurations.com – $350.00
internetbroadbandphone.com – $350.00
gotrich.com – $1,950.00
investigations.info – $325.00
laptopbatteries.info – $325.00
millionaire.org – $6,140.00
squatter.com – $3,400.00
terrorist.org – $1,230.00

With names as low as $325 there are definitely a few bargains. Let me know how you go.

This wasn’t a pro-active step on the part of Directi or Snapnames; I had contacted Snapnames after winning the auction requesting their assistance to get the credentials. When I logged into Directi I noticed that auto-renew was conveniently turned OFF.

Here are the lessons I learned (again) from this experience:

1. Keep track of the domains you win at auction.
2. Ensure you are sent the credentials – if you don’t get them, follow up with the auction/backordering company.
3. Have your default DNS settings (at the auction company) point to your favorite parking company.
4. Add the domain name to your parking company a few days after you win the auction.
5. When you get the credentials, transfer the domain to your favorite registrar – that way you dont have domains spread everywhere.

Points 3 and 4 will ensure that when the transfer happens, you start earning $$$ immediately. The domain I won had traffic and was directed to my favorite parking company. Unfortunately I did not add it to my portfolio! As such, the parking company has made 4 months of revenue from it. This makes me wonder; what is the % of names pointing to a parking company that don’t have an owner? Must be a nice little earner for the parking company!

I eneded up transferring the name to NameCheap. While doing that, I tested out a few coupons. Here are the ones that work today:

SWITCH2NC – $6.99 transfers
7TULIPS – $6.99 transfers

Happy Easter!

I’ve always maintained that now is a great time to buy domains. Those that are focused on the short term (or need cash to pay off their mortgages) are selling or simply not renewing. Those with cash (who are buying), have less competitors in auctions because some people don’t want to spend.

Here is an example of a name that went for more than $2,300 this morning over at NameJet. It was InternetMarketing.org. To be honest, I was in the auction but decided to sleep in on Sunday. The drop times are not that attractive to those outside the USA.

After I got up and had a coffee, I decided to have a look over at Snapnames and found some great domains with low starting prices. Check them out:

• tuition.com – $60 min bid
• corporateevents.com – $79 min bid
• rentalpackages.com – $79 min bid
  
• punishable.com – $79 min bid
  
• socialiser.com – $59 min bid
• letteropener.com – $79 min bid
• ferriswheel.com – $79 min bid

My favorite is of course tuition.com, followed by ferriswheel.com. Tuition is highly searched on, just think of all the college students! People are addicted to going on FerrisWheels, so having FerrisWheel.com might be a good novelty / niche site.