49 Cent .Info Domains – Get In Quick

Some people love .info domains, especially for their SEO factor on places like Bing.

Right now Godaddy have a deal on their checkout page that gives you .info domains for just 49 cents! No coupon required. Here is how to get the offer.

In order to get the deal, just type in a .com domain you want to register, go through the checkout process and there you will see the “On Sale!” info offer.

Feel free to post a comment if this works for you! Let us know how much you saved.

Godaddys Biggest Mistake Ever

For many years we have been supporters of Bob Parsons, having watched Godaddy evolve. In fact, his “16 Rules of Success” is framed on our office wall. Unfortunately all that business experience has now fallen by the wayside.

Earlier today we discovered a video clip whereby CEO Bob Parsons took a trip “to Zimbabwe and hunt problem elephant“. Caution: The video is very graphic and may offend some viewers.

After watching the video we decided that we could not support an organisation that engages in such practises and have commenced moving our domain name portfolio to other registrars.

Media Coverage

It seems that over the course of the day, the mainstream media has picked up this story with coverage in:

1. LA Times – Bob Parsons under fire for Zimbabwe elephant-hunting video

2. TMZ – ‘GoDaddy.com’ Elephant Killer — PETA Is Extorting Me

3. PETA – In this letter, awarded Parsons the “first-ever Scummiest CEO of the Year Award”.

Is The Elephant Endangered?

The IFAW lists the African elephant as “Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) and by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). It is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora except for populations in those countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia) which were reclassified to Appendix II.”

Note that Zimbabwe “reclassified” the African Elephant. Of course, this is the country run by President (some would say Dictator) Robert Mugabe.

Where Do I Move My Domains?

Godaddys competitors have also publicly denounced Parsons actions and are giving away domains at below their cost. Earlier this evening we received an email from NameCheap titled “Transfer for $4.99 and Help Save the Elephants”.

“Transfer your domains to Namecheap for $4.99 for the next 24 hours through 11:59pm EST on 3/31/11 (limit 10 per user, valid for all com/net/org domains). On top of that, we’ll donate $1 for each transfer to Save The Elephants. Use coupon code BYEBYEGD and let’s help the Elephants together!”

What Do You Think?

Are you moving your portfolio away from Godaddy? Is this really about “protecting crops” or just an excuse to travel to another (perhaps “less regulated”) part of the world and shoot high powered weapons at large animals?

Have your say, post a comment below and let us know.

Unprecedented com/net/org Pricing For 48 Hours

It takes a pretty exceptional deal for us to promote anything. However, given this deal, we just had no option. We simply couldn’t keep it from you, so lets make it quick.

com/net/org transfers to Namecheap are $3.99 for 48 hours. The Offer begins Sunday, February 6th, at 12AM EST/5AM GMT and ends Monday, Febraury 7th at 12AM EST/5AM GMT.

The coupon code is BYEBYEGD and yes, that is an affiliate link.

I know we have saved you a truckload of $$$$. Post a comment and let us know how it goes.

New Godaddy Phishing Attempt – .Info Bulk Orders

There is a new phishing email doing the rounds, masquerading as a Godaddy email. I received it this morning and have since notified Godaddy.

There are a few things that are interesting about this email:

1.It uses the actual Godaddy graphics on the Godaddy web server, so it looks real.

2. In the body of the message it says “Dear <your email address”.

3. It was sent to an email address on my server that doesn’t exist (normally I’d throw away those “catch all” emails, but not in this case).

4. The fake email was (spoofed) from sales at godaddy.com with a subject of “GoDaddy.com Order Confirmation”. So if you have a lot of automatic email rules that archive off these types of notices, it may find its way into your inbox, and you may never notice it.

5. FYI: The links go through to “dextersss-com-ua.1gb.ua/zzx.htm” – the webserver is live, but the site is currently producing a 404.

6. For the techo’s, SpamAssassin gave it a score of 17.223.

I only initially picked up on it because I didn’t recall ordering 300 .INFO domains. If that had of arrived during a bulk ordering process, I may have not noticed.

Given the fact it’s a bulk registration. Could this be a targetted email especially for domain investors? The average person isn’t going to register 300 domains! Of course, the other side of that thought process is that phishing emails are designed to be “clicked on”, so if a member of public sees it, they will probably freak out first, click it and then inadvertently hand over their credentials (login id and password).

What do you think? Have you received this email?

Godaddy Registers Its 40 Millionth Domain

Over the years I’ve seen registrars come and go. One registrar that I really admire, is Godaddy. Bob Parsons has led the industry for many years and the recent stats published by Godaddy are simply amazing.

“GoDaddy now holds a near 50 percent market share of all active new domains registered in the world and is more than three times the size of its closest competitor.”

“Over the next twenty-five years, I see the Internet growing exponentially,” said Parsons. “Think about it, whether you are communicating, learning or conducting business, being on the Internet is where it’s all happening. I’d say if you aren’t online with your business, you really aren’t in the game.”

Congrats Bob.

Godaddy Girl Crashes In NASCAR – Video

Danica Patrick was involved in a 12-car crash in Daytona. The accident wasn’t her fault; it occurred after Colin Braun and Josh Wise clashed.

Skysports reports that Patrick said after the race “It’s important to have realistic expectations”. “There’s going to be spikes in performance, I don’t doubt that. But there’s also going to be tough days. And [Saturday], I would say, was more of a tough day.”

Fresh List Of TDNAM & Godaddy Coupons

I was just paying for an auction I’d won at tdnam and went in search of some coupons. Here is a list of what works right now and what discount it got me. Hopefully it can save you some $$$ and time.

1. gdbb776 – .com domain went from $10.69 to $7.50.
2. best3 – .com went from $10.69 to $7.49 – *the one I used*
3. RRTV3
4. hash3
5. chill3
6. MTECH330
7. emma35
8. emma30
9. emma3

Some of the codes from MTECH330 onwards displayed a message stating “Our $6.95 .com promotion has ended and has been replaced with the current $7.49 .com promotion”.

For the benefit of others, please post what worked for you. I was using TDNAM and not the usual Godaddy registration/renewal cart. As such I’d be interested to see how much it saved you. Thanks.

Cry Baby Domainers Locate Godaddys Warehouse

To the left is a secret photo taken inside a leading domainers office. The photo was taken after a recent blog post which alleged that GoDaddy is warehousing domains.

If you look at clause 9 in the ICANN Registrar Agreement it states “Registrar shall abide by any ICANN-adopted policy prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.” As ICANN does not have any adopted policies in this regard, it can’t actually enforce anything.

So, welcome to the world of commercial reality where companies set up subsidiaries to hold their assets. In the case of Godaddy, its been alleged that Standard Tactics LLC performs this activity.

DomainerIncome has recently learned that a rogue group of blonde domainers is heading down to New Mexico to find the actual warehouse belonging to Standard Tactics LLC. Best of luck with the trip.

$6.99 Transfers At Namecheap

I just wanted to let you know about a few really good discount coupons that have come my way:

Namecheap

• For the next 72 hours only, transfer most domains for just $6.99 with coupon code: TRANSCHEAP.
• For the next 48 hrs get $8.88 Renewals and Registrations with coupon code: OCTNEWS.

Godaddy

• $7.39 .com registrations with the coupon code: DNF2

Given some of the issues I’ve been experiencing of late with other registrars, I’m thinking that now might be the time to start transferring names across.

If you know about any others please post a comment.

Exclusive: TDNAM Explains 7-Day Grace Period

Ever purchased a domain name using Godaddys TDNAM auction site, only to wait 7 days until it was transferred to you?

This happened again to me last week. I won an auction for a .us domain name. Now, I wouldn’t normally buy a .us domain. This is in fact my first, however it was a single English word AND was also being used as the name of a product line. How could I not buy it? So what happened?

Date Won:      9/8/2008 12:28:00 PM
Yours On:      *9/16/2008 12:00:00 AM

The domain name I won was parked at Godaddy when I purchased it. I must admit, I was quite irritated by the fact that I have to wait 7 days while the parking revenue, from a domain that I purchased, went to Godaddy. As I type this; 6 days later its still parked at Godaddy.

The 7-day grace period has been discussed in many forums, but without an explanation from Godaddy. As such, I asked Godaddy for an official view on this particular issue. While I’m not going to name specific individuals, Godaddy was both highly professional and very responsive.

Here is their unedited view, in full:

“When a domain name expires, the original registrant has a 42 day grace period to renew or redeem the domain.

If the customer has not renewed the domain name 26 days after expiration, the domain is sent to auction through TDNAM.  The auction for the domain runs from the 26th day to the 36th day of the domain’s expiration.

As the original domain registrant has 42 days to renew or redeem the domain, there is a 7 day grace period from the end of the auction (day 36) to the day the domain is no longer available to the original registrant.  While there is a chance for the domain to be renewed by the original registrant, many auctioned domains bid upon are awarded through TDNAM.

When a TDNAM bidder enters an auction for an expired domain, TDNAM states on the bid page (as part of the terms and conditions) the original registrant still has the opportunity to redeem the domain name.”

There you go. It’s pretty self explanatory. If I was to summarize it, I’d say that buy the time a domain expires, Godaddy has a buyer and cash in the bank from a) parking revenue and b) the auction process.

While it might irritate people having to wait 7 days, when you take the time to understand it, it makes good business sense. That’s Bob Parsons for you – which is why I have his 16 Rules for Success poster on my wall.