Use Your Domain as a Better Vanity URL for Social Media Sites

Eight Clever Things You Can Do with Your Underused Personal Domain NameI was lucky enough to snag the vanity URL I wanted for Facebook, but if you didn’t, or would just prefer the simplicity of a domain name, you can set up your custom domain to forward to your Facebook, Twitter, or other social media page.

via Lifehacker: Eight Clever Things You Can Do with Your Underused Personal Domain Name.

For example, after reviewing Whois policy and its implementation, the team determined that it has not kept pace with the real world (citing the introduction of Internationalized Domain Names and the emergence of privacy and proxy services). Further, the team finds that ICANN has neglected to respond to the needs of law enforcement communities “both in the accuracy of Whois data and in response times for access and action,” and also finds that the current implementation of Whois services does not help to build consumer trust. (See the team’s report [PDF, 1.04 MB] for a full explanation of their findings).

via ICANN To Reduce “Unreachable” Whois Registrations By 50% In 1 Year?.

You can file with the USPTO all you want, but it doesn’t mean you have a TM on the name just because you “filed”, or will be given the TM for it. Many companies file for the TM thinking this will scare off competitors, but if they haven’t used the TM phrase publicly, they’re not going to get the TM issued to them.

However, promoting the phrase publicly with the “TM” mark is the first move you need to make to secure your timeline of usage of the TM phrsae in commerce. Like I said, I’m not an atty, but I’ve won three TM contests in the last 25 years using this process as advised by my atty back in the 80′s.

via CAN YOU LOSE YOUR MOST VALUABLE DOMAIN TO A COMPETITOR’S TM FILING? WE ANSWER ANDREW ALLEMANN | Successclick, Domain Monetization.

It’s a potentially huge problem for Twitter — with growth still on the uptick, more and more people look at Twitter as a crucial source for real-time news and insight into other people’s lives. Squatters, be they inadvertent or not, have the potential to mar brands and personal reputations, and Twitter will have to keep their collective guards up if they want people and companies to keep up all that sharing.

via LeVar Burton Snags @ReadingRainbow Twitter Handle To Push New Reading App | TechCrunch.

Bill Karamouzis has already hit three home runs in his domaining career. He sold his first two companies in 2005, each for well over seven figures. When it came time to launch his third company, Hallpass Media, he took the lessons he had learned from his past ventures and ran his new business based on a simple formula:

Premium domains + Content + SEO = Business successIt worked.

He sold Hallpass Media in 2011 for millions of dollars.

In this interview, conducted live at the TRAFFIC conference in Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida, in October 2011, Bill Karamouzis recalls the strategy and tactics that led him to his latest successful business exit.

via DomainSherpa | Blog | Another Company, Another Multimillion Dollar Sale – With Bill Karamouzis.

The Hello Bar is a neat toolbar that you can easily add to the top of your website or blog, and it can be used to let visitors know the website is for sale. You can choose any color or font combination and add a link to a destination url of your choice. Many people traditionally use it to direct visitors to certain articles or make special announcements, and I think it’s a great tool to sell a website.

via Use the Hello Bar to Sell a Website | Elliot’s Blog.

According to DomainTools.com, a provider of domain name research and whois information, the number of .com domains under management by the registry has eclipsed 100 million domains. In a statement issued earlier today DomainTools claims that through their research they “calculated the current total of domains managed by Verisign to be over 100.2 million”

via 100 Million .Com Domains Registered | Domain Name News DNN.

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.

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.

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.