Yahoo: All .US Country Code Names Poor Quality!

A very interesting subject on the-web is that ALL .US extension domains are banned by the Yahoo feed under the title of Quality Block. Several pay-per-click parking firms who use the Yahoo PPC feed have confirmed that to be correct, and said yes, Yahoo thinks every single .us domain must be poor quality and thus are banned. Isn’t that an incredible wide-ranging assumption to make!

It’s been an issue for at least 2 or 3 years from what we understand. It appears both Yahoo and some of the parking firms who have been given our .us domains to monetize using the Yahoo feed in-effect keep it a secret and allegedly simply assumed we would not notice the fact we always get zero income from our dot-us country code domains.

It’s amazing there has been basically no discussion we have seen about this serious issue. It would seem like a major internet player like Yahoo allegedly hating its own country-code domain extension to such a degree as to ban them all from pay-per-click revenue should be major news and discussed at length in the media. Instead, it appears to be stonewalled with nothing but silence from most everyone, including the media, other domain blogs and the forums.

A Recently Discovered Quality Domaining Site

Just finished listening to the new DomainSherpa.com interview with well-known domainer Justin Godfrey. Just in case you are not familiar with DomainSherpa.com it’s a relatively new site operated by Michael Cyger. I have spoken to Michael and listened to his informative and educational series of interviews.

By the way, Michael has excellent interviewing skills. His interviews also benefit nicely from their length since they are 1-hour or longer which time allows Michael and his guest to cover a lot of information in that time (compared to much shorter Youtube videos).

It’s also quite interesting how the video interviews are of such good video quality from a basic service which most of us probably already have on our computers. After seeing how good the split-screen videos are I asked Michael about the technology thinking he must be using a top-quality video production system and was surprised the video quality is from Skype.

The most interesting part of the latest one-hour plus interview was how Justin Godrey purchased the domain name Snowmobilers.com for just $500. The name had an equally surprising low asking price of only $900 which Justin received in reply to his email. I doubt I would even bother try to get a better price as he did with that amazingly low initial asking price.

How is that possible when the name is likely worth so much (I would estimate at mid-5 figures or more). Justin was certainly lucky with that one. Why does that kind of luck never happen to me?

Learn How Many are Searching for Your Domain

If you have your domain names registered at Godaddy.com you have the unique ability to discover exactly how many people are looking up your Whois information on the Godaddy site. This is very cool.

I am starting to think it may even be worthwhile to use Godaddy more simply to take advantage of this powerful feature. Knowing how many people looked up your Whois information can have major benefits, not the least of which is it can indicate how many possible buyers you might have and you can rank your domains in value based on the number of Whois searches performed.

For example, say you have a low traffic and lightly searched term but suddenly you see several Whois lookups. That can indicate there may be a buyer for your domain or website out there, possibly an end-user who will likely pay a lot more vs a typical low-balling domainer. It’s hard to understand why this very cool and great Godaddy feature has not received more publicity, or other domain registrars apparently do not offer it.

This is how you can discover the number of Whois searches performed on your domains using Godaddy: Go to the Domain Manager, mouse-over the Tools tab at top and click-on Exportable Lists. Next click on Add New Export with a drop-down list. Select All My Domains and click Next.

Now you can select the data to export. Check-off exporting both Current and Previous Period Whois Searches, and click-on Next. Then select CSV file for use by opening your Excel spreadsheet program. Probably no need to compress the data so select “none”. Give the exportable list a Name and click-on Finish. After a few minutes GoDaddy will compile the list and email it to you.

Buy a domain name or order website hosting by going to the Godaddy banner below:

Importance of Owning Your Desired Domain

Domain names are extremely popular as far as owning a website with that name, and its potential use as a business presence, marketing venue, e-commerce site, blog, email address and for information and product marketing. Obviously, there is only one exact name which is truly your most desired domain name available or for-sale, making it unique.

You probably realize the high value of owning a good domain and you surely don’t want someone else using “your desired domain name” and getting visitors looking for the domain keywords, the exact search term, or its URL, which visitors could have gone to your website, right? Why in the world permit another potential buyer to acquire your most desired available domain-name of interest and allow competitors to get site visitors going to their site, which visits you could have received instead?

There are a number of businesses and people with interest in also buying and developing your most desired domain, with some potential domain name users being quite well known both on-the-web and in the offline world too, including individuals and small, mid-size and large business owners in various businesses.

For a real-time internet-search to see “your desired domain name” and its search-engine and web-page popularity of the exact search-term, please do a Google search and search on the keywords (wrapped in quotes for exact search-term results) of your desired domain name (using spaces between words), consisting of your desired domain name (but without entering the domain name extension, i.e. .com .org etc).

As a side-note, it’s sometimes interesting to view the Google results when you combine the words without any spaces between the keywords. The results will be much lower vs using spaces but nevertheless it may be informative, especially if the number of search returns for the words without spaces are considerable.

Read about your most desired domain name

DomainKing About Best & Worst Name Extension

Just read a really interesting interview with Domain King Rick Schwartz on the Frager Factor blog, in which Rick was very candid and offered great advice. as always. For example, in the interview, Rick said: “.net is the worst extension on the planet. It’s an orphan……. I think .org is the number 2 extension (behind .com) in the universe…….. and it has its own identity.”

We could not agree more with Rick’s remarks about .com (#1 of course by far in most categories) and .org (by far #2 overall), with .org sometimes as good or even better vs .com, at least in a few categories, i.e. health & wellness), with the normally poor choice .net domain name extension far behind.

Fairly recently we have noticed an obvious and strong trend with potential domain hand registrations in a few categories of interest to me that .com and .org domains are almost always already taken. However, the other popular domain name extensions, such as .net .info .biz and .us for example, are often unregistered and available for new registrations.

Dot-com is most always the #1 domain extension (with our personal second choice being dot-org) and there are other extensions including country-codes such as dot-us as alternatives to .com and .org in value and importance. It is important to note how frequently .com and .org are already taken (especially in several important categories).

Assuming the-domain is available for-sale or new registration, a domain which has a .com or .org extension usually will receive far-and-away the most natural and typein traffic and is typically the most valuable as a result of natural traffic going mostly to .org and .com. As an educated guess, we estimate dot-com and dot-org domain names and websites get at least 95% of all typein traffic vs all the other tld’s.

A big reason .com and .org are so valuable is the billions of dollars of marketing and branding money which has gone into the extensions over many years, including vast numbers of ongoing media and TV commercials.

There are also other major reasons dot-com and dot-org are by far the best possible top level domain extensions. For example, when a web-surfer goes online looking for a product, service, business or name they will typically be thinking about dot-com or dot-org as part of the keyword term and type the keyword name plus .com or .org into their internet-browser, but rarely other extensions (exceptions being certain popular country codes, like Germany and its popular dot-de for example).

With that said, search engines do not necessarily play favorites so any extension with a targeted keyword name and a keyword targeted site, with relevant content, incoming links and search optimization done can achieve a high search-engine ranking.

Nevertheless, .org and .com enjoy a huge advantage over the others in that they can easily get natural and typein traffic by virtue of having targeted keyword quality, plus the com/org tld extension and thus do not need to rely almost completely and exclusively on SEO work as the others do.

Any reviews or comments you have about domain names and their extensions would be most appreciated, which feedback we could also add to our site since we are looking for domaining personal feedback to expand the blog. You can visit our Internet Entrepreneur website by clicking-on the domain-king picture below. Thank you.

Domain Name News & Domain Blog Aggregator

Keep up-to-date with the latest and best domaining news & blog headlines. DomainingRoulette.com is a 24X7 Real-Time Domain Name News Feed and Blog Aggregator, offering live late-breaking domain name news from the international domain and website community.

There is no membership requirement, no account required, no login, no need for personal information, no advertising and no spams.

By visiting DomainingRoulette.com you can quickly view and read the most current headlines and blog articles. As far as we know, DomainingRoulette.com is the only domain name blog and news aggregator without any advertising on its pages. That way the visitor experience is a good one and is unblurred by distracting or confusing marketing and advertising.

Domaining Bloggers are also wanted. Please Submit Your RSS Feed now…

Non-US Address Results in WIPO Loss Protection!

The FirstQuote.com WIPO Case Decision (domain kept) and its significant issues & deciding factors:

In our view, the most significant aspect of this case and perhaps in every other case ever presented to WIPO is this statement extracted from the case below: Moreover, the Respondent is based in Hong Kong, SAR of China, while protection of the Complainant’s 1STQUOTE-Marks and the Complainant’s business are limited to the United States of America.

That certainly is an incredibly powerful reason to have your domains registered at a non-USA address!

More… the respondent denies the complainant’s contentions. Respondent alleges that the phrase “First Quote” is the featured tagline for thousands of insurance, financial and legal websites and can be heard in numerous ads from agencies asking to “come in today for your first quote”. Upon the Respondent’s allegations, the disputed domain name is comprised of a generic term, which may be used in hundreds of ways, and the Complainant is attempting to leverage the domain name from its owner by using the UDRP forum to reverse hijack the domain.

The Respondent further states that there are 10 active trademarks for FIRST QUOTE in the US, that there is no proof that the Complainant is the sole owner of and creator of the phrase “first quote” and that the disputed domain name was first registered on January 15, 1997, 6 years prior to the Complainant’s claim of “first use” of the 1STQUOTE-trademarks and even before the Complainant was established, which also shows that the phrase had already been popular before complainant tried to claim it.

The Respondent further argues that he never intended to act in bad faith. Furthermore, according to the Respondent’s allegations, the Complainant has no website, brand, domain name, or anything else associated with “first quote” (rather than 1STQUOTE), and the Complainant does not even own the domain name <1stquote.com>. The Respondent also requests the Complainant should be fined for Reverse Domain Hijacking.

With regard to the Respondent’s bad faith registration and use, the Complainant contends that the Respondent registered the disputed domain name with actual or at least constructive notice of the Complainant’s 1STQUOTE-Marks and was using the disputed domain name in bad faith primarily to intentionally attract for financial gain Internet users to the Respondent’s web site by misleading and confusing Internet users who are searching for the Complainant’s website but, merely, misspell or mistype the brand name of the Complainant’s 1STQUOTE on-line application processing service. Respondent has denied these assertions and provided evidence of substantial third parties’ use of the term “first quote”, including the provision of services similar to those of the Complainant.

It seems to be more likely than not to this Panel, the Respondent acquired the disputed domain name, as he contends because of its meaning and because of the substantial third party use of the underlying words, and not with a view to the Complainant and its 1STQUOTE-Marks. The Complainant’s 1STQUOTE-Marks are not used identically in the disputed domain name but with a different spelling, and they enjoy less than average distinction, if any distinction at all, as they are made up of two generic words which are commonly used together.

Moreover, the Respondent is based in Hong Kong, SAR of China, while protection of the Complainant’s 1STQUOTE-Marks and the Complainant’s business are limited to the United States of America.As a result, on the balance of evidence, the Complainant has failed in this Panel’s assessment to prove that the disputed domain name was registered in bad faith, i.e. with the Complainant in mind.

We would appreciate any comments you have about trademarks and WIPO cases – which feedback we could also add to our web site since we are actively looking for personal feedback about trademark issues to expand the web site, which site you can visit by going to Internet Intellectual Property now, or clicking-on the image below. Thank you.

Chinese CC Domain Registrations Decline by 39%

Noticed on the newly redesigned igoldrush.com web site registrations of Chinese country code (.CN) domain names has declined a very high 39%. That is not too surprising in view of the loss of domain registrars who were once selling .cn names (before recent strict Chinese government domain restrictions were put imto effect), plus some other issues.

We owned ony one dot-cn domain, a name which we owned for many years. However, what with the comparatively high yearly renewal fees and its low traffic the Chnese domain- name was not worth renewing again this year.

I always wondered why Chinese people would actually type-in an English word followed by the .cn extension? I believe English use by the public is not nearly as common in China vs Europe and many other nations of the world. Can anyone confirm that with some statistics or opinons?

Is It Still Possible to Register Domains with Value?

Is it possible to freshly register domain names of value (which may not necessarily make you rich) but have some value, and can make you at least a bit of money?

Rarely a week passes where we do not stumble upon at least a few unreg’d names which I am sure would get natural traffic plus search traffic too. We can’t possibly register them all (there are simply too many good ones) but when we do register the available domains there are often typein visitors to the temporary webpage right away.

Anyone else run across good targeted keyword unregistered domains lately?

How GoDaddy Captured a 50% Market Share

I just read about how GoDaddy recently achieved a 50% domain market share, which internet people are saying is an amazing accomplishment. I am far from being surprised about that.

My reasons to expect their great success are (A) GoDaddy.com has a strong combination of excellent marketing skills, (B) very large ad budget, including substantial money for high price Super Bowl ads, (C) very diverse and extensive offering of additional products and services for sale, (D) including various web hosting products/services, and something you may not think much about but important to small domain buyers and small business owners is their overall (E) good 24X7 support with short on-hold wait times, often no hold time, all combined with a (F) powerful upselling program.

I am sure GoDaddy will soon go well beyond capturing a 50% market share, with the next big level being my prediction GD will eventually capture a 75% market share and dominate the space. hmmmm…..does GoDaddy have stock we can invest in?

Newly Developed Family Child Center Website

This week we completed a new small web site about child-care and family child care centers. Getting good and responsible child care for your kids is very important to both the children and parents.

By the way, we need more content for this new website. Do you have anything to contribute about child care, kids, rasing kids, children’s entertainmen, etc, (possibly family experience with childcare) that we could publish on the site for everyone’s benefit?

A content contribution would be greatly appreciated. If you choose to contribute some general knowledge to the site it does not need to be professionally written. Either long or short is ok. You name may be used or not published if you wish.

You can review the new site by clicking-on the image:

Getting a Trademark Hassle which takes Forever

I finally got my federal trademark application approved by the USPTO. A very long and tedious trademark process which required lots of work, hassle, time and fees, taking nearly 2 years from start to finish.

During the ordeal I even had to deal with a lawfirm who filed a Trademark Trail & Review Board opposition lawsuit against my use on the B.S. grounds it was similar to a clients domain name (which involved different words and also not even a registered mark). Lots of other stuff happened too which I won’t go into at this time.

Here is the long chain of events copied from the uspto.gov website:

2009-11-20 – Law Office Registration Review Completed

2009-11-19 – Allowed for Registration – Principal Register (SOU accepted)

2009-11-16 – Statement of use processing complete

2009-11-15 – Amendment to Use filed

2009-11-15 – TEAS Statement of Use Received

2009-06-09 – Extension 1 granted

2009-05-21 – Extension 1 filed

2009-06-09 – Case Assigned To Intent To Use Paralegal

2009-05-21 – TEAS Extension Received

2008-11-25 – Noa Mailed – SOU Required From Applicant

2008-10-15 – TTAB Release Case To Trademarks

2008-10-15 – Opposition terminated for Proceeding

2008-10-15 – Opposition dismissed for Proceeding

2008-07-10 – Opposition instituted for Proceeding

2008-07-10 – Opposition papers filed

2008-06-10 – Published for opposition

2008-05-21 – Notice of publication

2008-05-05 – Law Office Publication Review Completed

2008-05-02 – Approved for Pub – Principal Register (Initial exam)

2008-05-02 – Previous allowance count withdrawn

2008-04-28 – Withdrawn From Pub – Og Review Query

2008-04-15 – Law Office Publication Review Completed

2008-04-15 – Assigned To LIE

2008-04-09 – Approved for Pub – Principal Register (Initial exam)

2008-04-09 – Examiner’s Amendment Entered

2008-04-09 – Notification Of Examiners Amendment E-Mailed

2008-04-09 – Examiners amendment e-mailed

2008-04-09 – Examiners Amendment -Written

2008-03-31 – Assigned To Examiner

2008-01-06 – Notice Of Design Search Code And Pseudo Mark Mailed

2008-01-05 – New Application Entered In Tram

Pros & Cons of using a Foreign Domain Registrar

Domain name registrar and parking provider Fabulous is a top-notch choice and industry leader with excellent prices, benefits and great support. However, the liability avoidance reason mentioned by Rick at Rick Latona’s site for using a non-US based registrar such as Fabulous.com seems to be a double-edge sword in that I have been told by a well known domain attorney that it could be a big negative. The reason it can become a major issue is apparently due to the dispute rules the plaintiff can file a lawsuit either where the registrant lives *or* where the registrar is located. If they know you are in the US and the registrar is in Australia (in the case of Fabulous.com) and they are a large corporation they may have a law firm or business presence (possibly an office) in AU where they could file suit there instead of in the US thus making you travel all the way down-under to AU for court appearances and also a need for you to hire an AU IP Attorney at high cost.

Jets.com was a great bargain at only $375,000

To someone who may not be experienced with domain name values the internet domain name Jets.com recently selling for 375k must seem like a ton of money. If it was purchased to try and take advantage of the New York Jets football team as was once commonly believed (until the actual buyer became known) and maybe to run some sports advertising on it and make a few bucks from running PPC ads (and taking a chance on a big trademark lawsuit or WIPO case), then I agree that 375k is a lot to pay.

However, the name was purchased by an end-user firm who rents jets and other airplanes according to what I see on the website today. Since jets both rent and sell for big and small fortunes the price was incredbly low. I believe just one sale or a few 25-hour rentals of a corporate jet would probably recover the domain purchase price in profit or commissions. After the first few transactions take place from the website traffic (and its typeins) it will be all gravy for a lifetime for the lucky owner and and 100% profit with every future airplane transaction. So the price was in actuality a tremendous bargain.

The new jets.com web site offers these prices: U.S. 2009 Pricing: 25 HOURS CARD MEMBERSHIP. Aircraft Price. Hawker 400 XP $114,500; Hawker 800 $125,000; Hawker 1000 $149,000; Gulfstream III $189,000; Citation X $189,000; Challenger 601/604 $199,000; Gulfstream IV $279,000.

This is what Yahoo! Answers says about the costs of jets: “Best Answer – Chosen by Voters: (buying and owning a jet) is very expensive considering all the FAA rules on rebuilding engines every so many hours whether they need it or not and a pilot is gonna cost you in excess of $100,000.00 per year and then you have the hangar charges which are like $3,000 a month, and then jet fuel which was $3.79 a gallon and then the insurance is expensive . There is an old saying at my rolls royce dealership – if you need to ask the price or the gas mileage you can’t afford it and I have found over the years how true !!!!! Byy the way cheap starter jets can be bought used for like $300,000.00 and up whereas the new ones like a 4 seater are probably going to run 1.5 million dollars or higher to start.”

Next Big Thing in Your Cell Phone, PC & The Web

Regarding the next big thing on the near horizon, in my opinion I feel that Live Apps are going to be a real big wave.

I thought I would post about Live Apps and Apple Computer. There are also several other large live app corporate players in addition to Apple.

There are already over 100,000 Live Apps with more than 65,000 worldwide Live App developers and programmers.

Apple now owns Appstore.com which domain registration information appears to have changed last month (it seems the domain name was previously owned by SalesForce.com)

Click for AppStore.com Domain Name Whois

Click for Live App Store Google results

Click for Apps Store Google results

Click for App Store Google (an amazing 34 million search results)

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