We Do Search Engine Optimization.

Monopoly isn’t just a boardgame for kids, its a great business to be in! ICANN, the international regulator of domain names gave Verisign complete control over all .com names. In addition, ICANN continues to introduce new domain name extensions, that all companies are essentially forced to purchase so they can maintain their brand.

New extensions including .me, .co and .xxx have been released and have only caused confusion in the marketplace. The consumer needs less distraction, not more, and introducing new TLD’s is just confusing.
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Domain aftermarket site ClubDrop.com, reported that last year was a banner one for domain name auctions. “Our volume has been simply incredible as has the number of premium and super-premium domain names we’ve been able to obtain for our clients,” said ClubDrop.

Below are the Top 10 largest aftermarket domain transactions according to sales reported to the Domain Name Journal and other sources:
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Back when I began my internet aspirations in 1998 I saw the heavy wheeling and dealing at during the height of the dot-com era. When I hung my shingle on the roadside of the information superhighway, toys.com was 100x bigger than Toys R Us and Yahoo was a 130B company.

Domain names rapidly changed hands and seemingly had no limit on their valuation.

I remember coming across Company.com and seeing the unique under construction page:
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Enom has been called the domain name registrar with fantom coupon codes. There is a field to enter a discount code in their shopping cart, but finding actual working codes is more difficult than keeping an ice cube from melting in Palm Springs.

However, we have found some Enom promo codes to share with you that work for the PDQ reseller domain name system. This system is branded as Registry Rocket and allows you to take full control of all your registrations.

Enom Upgrade Promo Code: IRUP2010

Enom Renewal Promo Code: IRREN2010

These discounts will only work with the Enom Instant Reseller program, and provides a free upgrade of existing PDQ accounts. PDQ is branded as the Registry Rocket system, which provides an instant reseller store front where you can sell domain names and customize the price of all names.

Currently The Registryrocket system allows you to sell the following extensions: .COM, .ORG, .NET, .BIZ , .INFO, .CC, .TV, .WS, .NU, .BZ, .US

To use coupon codes on Enom.com you will need to first become an Enom member where you can receive 50% discounts on all domain name registrations.

Finding a great domain name is hard, we compiled a list of websites that help you find the perfect domain name. We generally recommend not using hyphens in domain names, instead use different extensions or nonstandard spellings. For example, see sites like flippa, wordze, woothemes, and many other quality websites that have bizzare domain names.

Here is a list of 75 great resources to help you in your quest of finding the perfect domain name for your new project.

Domain Name Generators

• MakeWords
• Company Name Generator
• Domain Generator
• Wordoid
• DomainTyper
• Dot-o-mator
• Surf7

Search by Keyword

• Shoutdomains
• Wordoid
• Bustaname
• AptDomain
• Namestation
• Dot-o-mator
• Nxdom
• DomainExposer
• Nameboy
• DomainFellow
• DomainIt
• Suggest.name
• DomainsBot
• Name.com
• SnapItNow
• Who.is
• AptDomain
• DomainWhiz
• Keyword-Rich Domain Suggestion
• DomainTools
• Randomainer
• NameTumbler
• DomainWhiz
• Domain Name Soup
• iWebTool
• Domain Name Tool

Type To Find

• Squurl
• Domize
• Keyword Mutation Detection
• Domai.nr
• DomainTyper
• Instant Domain Search
• AjaxWhois
• DomJax
• DomainBot.ca
• Ajax Domain Search
• Namecheap Bulk Search

Brand Name Generator

• Brand Name Generator
• Noscope
• hack/
• NOEMATA
• Wordoid

Search by Availability

• Available Domain Names
• 123Finder
• Scoratic
• DropWatch
• Domain Pigeon
• SaveSpell
• JustDropped*
• Domain Name Soup
• StuckDomains

Domain Name Forums

• DNForum
• Namepros
• WebHostingTalk
• Webmaster Talk
• v7n Forums

Domain Auctions

• Flippa
• GoDaddy Auctions
• Namejet
• Sedo
• Afternic
• Snapnames
• Choice Bits
• eBay

Other

• UD.com Namecheck
• PickyDomains*
• Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus
• whois information

* Sites require a membership or payment

Did we miss any? Feel free to add your favorite domain name research websites in the comments.

I just received this email in my inbox, a thinly veiled attempt at sucking money out of me to register .asia domain names. Be watchful of notices to register domains to protect your trademark and intellectual property in International areas. The most common I have seen are Chinese .cn domains and .cm domain names.

If you receive an unsolicited email like this is may be a scam. The best thing to do is contact your web developer, web service provider or domain name registrar to verify the legitimacy of the demands.

Before registering any domain name with an exotic extension, make sure you contact your webmaster or local accredited domain name registrar such as NetworkSolutions, Godaddy, or Enom.com

This is the email I received:

Dear CEO & Principal

We are a domain name registration and dispute organization in Asia, which mainly deal with the global companies’ domain name registration and internet Intellectual property right protection in Asia. Currently, we have a pretty important issue needing to confirm with your company.

On Aug 10, 2009, we received an application formally. One company named “FJS Holdings Ltd” wanted to applied for the internet keyword “Netpaths” and some domain names through our body.

Now we are handling with the registration of these domain names and find that the keyword of these domain names and internet keyword is identical with your company’s. So we have to confirm with you at two points:
1. If your company consign FJS Holdings to register these domain names and internet keyword, we will send application form to them and help them finish the registration at once.
2. If your company have nothing to do with FJS Holdings, they maybe have other purposes to register these domain names and internet keyword.

In order to deal with this issue better, please contact us by email or telephone ASAP.

Best Regards,
Tim Hu
Auditing Department
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Tel: +852-2297-9279
Fax: +852-2297-9209
Email: Tim@eworld.hk
Email: Tim@eworlddnr.hk
Website:

http://www.eworld.hk

Tim

Google is still using the domain name as a primary ranking factor. With a good domain name, rankings are nearly guaranteed.

Below is an example of a niche retail site, but if you want to rank for “Keyword Keyword” all you need to do is purchase www.KeywordKeyword.com and you will have no problems getting to the first page.

In this example, if you do a search for beach towels several sites show up in the Google SERP’s

http://www.google.com/search?q=beach+towels

The #9 result is a single page redirect site, that doesn’t mention the keyword phrase ANYWHERE on the page!

The site ranks for the fairly competitive keyword phrase “beach towels” while breaking every search engine optimization rule available. With some simple SEO this site could rank #1, and beat out target.com

All they did was spend a few thousand dollars on a premium domain name, and the rankings come with no effort.

Note to all SEO’s and entrepreneurs: invest the extra money on your domain name and you will be duly rewarded, premium domain names will increase in value like real estate.

Global toy conglomerate TOYS R US have purchased the Toys.com domain for the reported 5.1 million dollars, making it the biggest sale of 2009 so far, as well as one of the ten biggest sales ever reported.

The only problem was that this destroyed the SEO for the existing domain, causing Toys R Us to loose a ranking for the keyword ‘toys”

Now, instead of holding position #1 and #4 they only have one.

Corporate IT simply redirected the new domain name to the
Toys’R'Us home page. Toys.com no longer had its own site so Google delisted
it. They will still receive type-in traffic, but all the extra traffic from the additional Google ranking has disappeared.

Normally I recommend focusing your energy on one website and trying to build a single site into a dominant entity. However, for a large corporation with a limitless website that has the potential to rank for multiples of competitive keywords, using multiple websites can be an effective strategy.

This is the worst however. Toys’R'Us has registered the typo
domain ToyRUs.com (missing the first ‘s’) but has not
forward it to ToysRUS.com. This is a huge blunder, and is causing this mega retailer tons of sales.

Toys R Us needs to contract out their search engine optimization or they will keep loosing ground to amazon.com.

.FAIL

Something is very fishy with the .me domain name registration system. Individuals who have signed up and paid for .me names are not receiving them. Multiple people have even been approved and charged for the same domain name!

Most of the really good names were registered by Afilias. There are super shady registrations where it appears that Afilias pre-registered all the good domains April 29, 2008. Afilias got a deal on all the premium .me names they wanted.

What is even more shady are the trademark dates. Trademarks were done in the year 1900, signed and sealed the same day. Very interesting. A company that was founded in 2000 received trademarks 100 years before their incorporation, and the Afilias.com trademarks were approved faster than any other trademark in history.

Domain registration for bite.me
registered: 4/29/08
trademarked applied: 1/1/1900
trademarked registered: 1/1/1900

Domain registration for mobile.me
registered: 4/29/08
trademarked applied: 1/1/1900
trademarked registered: 1/1/1900

Here is an available name: Do.me

do.me domain name available

but do.me is not available for registration on enom.com

Gogaddy has the same problems with the .me registration

It seems that the .me registrar wants to use their auction system to sell names themselves at an increased price. Most domain names in the .me auction start at $75 but have gone for a lot more topping out at $3605 for lastminute.me

Boy lots of people have been experiencing problems with the failed .me domain name registrations.

Godaddy has been accused of bidding against its own customers in their tdnam.com domain name auctions.
Domain name auctions are a huge business, which generate millions of dollars for expired domains.

The 3 large players in the expired domains business

1. NameJet.com
2. SnapNames.com
3. Pool.com

TDNAM is the GoDaddy acronym for The Domain Name AfterMarket, and does not provide the same level of service as the 3 main services.

A GoDaddy Vice President has been caught bidding against customers in their own domain name auctions. The employee Adam Dicker isn’t just any GoDaddy employee; he’s head of the GoDaddy subsidiary that controls the auctions. Dicker won some of the domains he bid for, and pushed up the bid price on auctions he didn’t win.

The conflict of interest is unethical, and possibly illegal according to ICANN domain name auction regulations. However, Godaddy loves controversy and I’m sure this is just part of their marketing plan. How many more links have they gained as a result of their controversial domain marketing plans?

See the news on the Nodaddy forum with comments from disgruntled godaddy customers. Nodaddy provides Godaddy reviews and rates Godaddy services.

Slashdot has a large commentary of the godaddy VP bidding on their company auctions.