It was after a billiards tournament that DiGirolamo met a fellow player who needed a $15,000 loan.
DiGirolamo chuckles now as he remembers the conversation about the loan. He never asked, for example, what the man needed the money for. In fact, what is amazing is how trusting DiGirolamo seemed to be, taking a pool cue stick and the domain name rights as collateral.
After the loan wasn’t paid, DiGirolamo established his own 45.com website for his business. That’s where he attracted attention.
Soon after he established the website, he began to receive hard-to-believe offers to buy the name.”Someone contacted me and offered $180,000,” he said. “Then I got an offer of $210,000.”
DiGirolamo realized he must have something valuable. Two-digit Web names are a limited commodity. For those with a mystical sense, two-digit names also carry a reputation for luck.
DiGirolamo made a promise to himself — he would not sell the 45.com domain for anything less than $250,000.
via Wayne man makes killing on domain name : page all – NorthJersey.com.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Perhaps the biggest growth driver for the company has been domain names.
“We were able to secure the trust of many in the domain community and have provided a lot of focus on the industry ever since,” said Abbey.
Over 50% of the transactions completed at Escrow.com to date have been domain name deals. That percentage has been higher in the last few years.
Escrow.com is responding to market demand by adding services for more complex transactions. For example, it supports a lot of payment plan deals.
It’s also running a beta of a system that includes brokers in the process. For example, a broker may connect a domain buyer to a seller. The broker sets up the transaction at Escrow.com and indicates his commission. When the deal is finalized, Escrow.com sends the commission to the broker and the rest of the proceeds to the seller.
via A look at Escrow.com’s $1 billion milestone and new broker tool – Domain Name Wire.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
I didn’t hear back from him for a few weeks and sent a follow up email. Unfortunately, he opted to buy a different domain name.
Although you often hear stories about huge offers materializing from smaller offers, this is a case where the opposite is true. I turned down a solid offer with the hopes of making more, and it didn’t work out.
via Think Twice About Not Accepting First Offer | Elliot’s Blog.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Still, too close and no reverse hijacking.
“The Panel notes that the Respondent’s use of the Website to host various sponsored links can constitute a bona fide offering of services capable of giving rise to rights or legitimate interests for the purposes of the Policy, particularly where the Disputed Domain Name is used in a descriptive (and not trade mark) sense, to describe the sponsored links hosted”
“Given the wide meaning of the word “libertad” (“freedom”) and the consequent versatility of its application, the Panel finds it difficult to accept any argument that the Disputed Domain Name is not descriptive of the various sponsored links hosted on the Website, particularly in the context of employment, which is the subject matter to which numerous links on the Website relate.”
“The Panel also notes the absence of any evidence of use of the Disputed Domain Name or the Website in a trade mark sense, given that the Website content appears, at least as at the date of this decision, to be automatically generated (with different sponsored links appearing with each refreshed view of the Website) rather than predetermined by the Respondent.”
“The Panel accordingly finds that the Complainant has not satisfied paragraph 4(a)(ii) of the Policy in respect of the Disputed Domain Name.”
via Telepathy Beats Back UDRP On Libertad.com But Doesn’t Find Reverse Hijacking Or Latches After 12 Years | The Domains.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Stocker isn’t waiting around for a UDRP panel to determine the domain’s fate. He has sent a notice (pdf) to My Vault Services demanding that they withdraw the complaint. If not, he’s going to seek restitution including legal fees.
Sometimes complainants look at UDRP as a relatively safe crapshoot to go after a domain. If they lose, what’s the big deal? They’re just out a few thousand dollars.
But this isn’t always the case. I know of one domain investor who filed a lawsuit for declaratory judgment after merely receiving a cease and desist letter.
via MyVault.com: Inside a UDRP – Domain Name Wire.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Sorry, internet: it’s time to place your custody in safer hands.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Californian body effectively responsible for all internet domains, is no longer a fit and proper parent. On behalf of all of us who ever use the internet, I call for adoption papers urgently to be drawn up before our collective child is further damaged by a self-regarding body whose arrogance, conflicts of interest, greed and mismanagement would be laughable were ICANN not a monopoly.
via It’s time to place the web in safer hands – David Rowan – The Kernel.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
What this means
What the two-page letter that no one will read tomorrow says is that ICANN is organizationally misconfigured to deal with the demands of 22, let alone 1,022 Internet registries.
It also demonstrates that the first instinct of the organization is to hide from this fact, even to the extent that it will willfully ignore serious flaws in its systems, and flagrant breaches of contract.
That is why the dot-jobs case study could kill ICANN.
via The case study that could kill ICANN | News and analysis from .nxt.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
I had noticed, especially when I have names on Namejet , that my site will suddenly get 300 or 400 uniques that day and many will click ads. Why anyone would click ads is beyond me but the correlation from name coming close to an end date and a huge surge in traffic have been going hand in hand. Do I control it? Absolutely not. Am I doing anything but list that name at auction? No. But Sedo and it’s advertisers didn’t like it. And they closed my account.
via Why Sedo Temporarily Closed My Account Because I Had Names At Auction : Domain Shane.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Marijuana.com deal was consummated using the Domain Name Holding transaction at Escrow.com. This escrow service is designed for high dollar transactions (generally $75,000 and higher), where the buyer and seller agree to hold the domain name or names in escrow while the buyer makes scheduled payments. This type of transaction had been available before in private, but now it is publicly available.
via Marijuana.com Deal Made Possible By Escrow.com Domain Name Holding Transaction | Elliot’s Blog.
Saturday, January 21, 2012
“It’s just a huge waste of money. Firms have already spent a fortune on registering all the variations of their names and brands under the present system to stop cyber squatters from undermining their brands.
“At a time when everyone’s budgets are tight, spending potentially large sums of money purely as a defensive tactic just makes no sense.”
via Lawyer: Kellogg et al have nothing to gain and everything to lose from expansion of internet top level domains.