Another interesting online domain tool can be found at Exactfactor. They have developed an On-Line SEO tools that gives the websites owners the ability to automatically and easily check their websites keyword position. Instead of manually looking for the position of your website in the Search Engines, Exactfactor provides a simple and powerful online system that will give you details information and reports. It  can also help you to promote your website in the Search Engines and by that increase the traffic to your website.

Posted under Uncategorized

Written by Brent Oxley on October 20, 2008 – 10:45 am -
We have some very exciting, disturbing, shocking, and electrifying news for you!

HostGator Web Hosting is now offering UNLIMITED DISK SPACE, UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH, and UNLIMITED DOMAINS for less than ten bucks a month.

I should be telling you this is a limited time offer and to sign-up while supplies last, but I’m not going to. If you decide to wait a few months, the plan just might change to unlimited bazillion-trillion everything. If you happen to sign up before the unlimited bazillion-trillion plans are released, we’ll be happy to upgrade you free of charge. If you think this all sounds ridiculous, that’s because it is! The “new” unlimited plan is the same plan we were offering a year ago, but now we label it as unlimited.

I wanted to call the plans unlimited last time around. However, due to staffing constraints, we wouldn’t have been able to keep up with the expected growth. A year later, we are finally OVERSTAFFED and ready to change the plan. Up until now, I’ve been slowing sales down on purpose in order for our support to catch up. If history repeats itself, renaming the plan from essentially unlimited to actually “unlimited” will increase our sales by at least 30%.

It’s really that simple.

We change an unlimited plan to say “unlimited” and bam — sales increase 30%, if not more. Many people will argue that “overselling” is evil and that it’s the cause of poor hosting service. This is not the case when it’s managed correctly and the proper staffing is in place. When a hosting company hops on the overselling bandwagon, their sales usually increase exponentially. Since very few companies actually have the capacity to handle a major surge in growth, their quality of service is almost guaranteed to deteriorate.

The support problems HostGator has had in the past weren’t from “overselling.” The problems were actually a result of growing faster than we could hire and train employees.

In the last year, we have been spending more money on recruiting employees than we have on advertising! It has taken us years of hiring and training to get us to the point where we are now. We’ve gone from begging employees to work overtime to asking who wants to go home. HostGator will always have the occasional scheduling gap, but for now, we’re sending over a dozen employees home a day.

I’m very confident that we’ll be able to handle the surge in growth that we will see as a result of going “unlimited.” Greed is what kills most overselling hosting companies, not their plans.

In other news, we have changed the name of our Swamp Web Hosting Plan to the slightly more professional hosting plan called “Business Web Hosting Plan“. The Business plan now includes both a free dedicated IP address and a free Private SSL. We will be updating these plans very soon with some additional and very cool e-commerce features.

I’m not going to spill the beans just yet, but I will say it’s something I’ve never seen included on shared hosting before, and I believe it will redefine what a business hosting plan is.

Posted under Web Hosting

We came accross an interesting new domain tool. SpyFu is a competitive intelligence tool to evaluate and compare domains. It shows for selected domains the top organic and paid search keywords, estimations about the ad spends and also allows reverse look-ups by starting off with the keyword or keyword phrase and the top sites ranking in the organic and paid results at Google to drill down further from there…

The new SpyFu Kombat tool allows a visual and direct comparison of up to three domain names. The amount of paid keyword spends or organic rankings are visualized as a round circles, which varies in size, depending on the domains amount of activity in PPC and rankings. It also shows the amount of keyword overlaps between the selected domains visually.

Timely to the selected does VelocityScape demonstrate the features of SpyFu Kombat using the current presidential election campaigns by Barack Obama and John McCain in the United States.

The tool shows nicely how the promotional campaigns of the two presidential candidates differ. While the Republican candidate John McCain is spending large amounts of money for many keywords in the Paid Search category, compared to his opponent Barack Obama at least, the results are reversed in the organic search category, with Barack Obama’s website BarackObama.com ranking for a much larger amount of keywords than his opponent’s website JohnMcCain.com.

You can also see the development and change of those activities over time in a nice line graph for all compared domains next to each other for direct visual comparison. A line-graph statistic is also available for the budget estimation.

If you click on one of the circles or the area where the circles overlap, you get a list of the actual keyword phrases (full account only). Then you can click on each keyword phrase for more details, which is not limited to the selected domains anymore though, but shows the activity for the selected keyword phrase overall. Maybe the option to switch between a filter by the selected domain and no filter would be useful in some cases.

Posted under Domain Services

The top Sedo sales from October 20-29 included moneywatch.com for 125,000 USD, gmbh.de for 73,185 EUR, and faire-part.com for 46,501 EUR. View the full list after the jump.

Domain Price Translation/Other Type

 .COM   
 moneywatch.com 125,000 USD  
faire-part.com 46,501 EUR “participate” in French 
viager.com 16,000 EUR “Life” in French 
lismu.com 15,000 EUR website 
supertext.com 14,775 USD  
tasers.com 7,600 USD  
2555.com 5,600 USD  
3669.com 5,600 USD  
harlot.com 4,400 USD  
adstoday.com 4,250 USD  
tanky.com 3,500 USD  
wctw.com 3,000 USD  
juegosok.com 2,850 USD website 
comparethefare.com 2,500 USD website 
olge.com 2,480 USD  
apptime.com 2,388 USD  
educagames.com 2,000 USD  
recyclerewards.com 2,000 USD  
bitpop.com 2,000 EUR  
   
   
ccTLDs   
gmbh.de 73,185 EUR website 
livechat.de 15,000 EUR  
bandes-annonces.fr 6,500 EUR “Movie Trailers” in French 
esports.asia 3,500 EUR  
icasino.asia 3,500 EUR  
imobile.asia 3,500 EUR  
katharina.de 3,300 EUR  
serverraum.at 2,500 EUR “Server Room” in German 
adr.ch 2,000 EUR  
txm.co.uk 2,000 USD  
tiefkühlkost.de 1,950 EUR “Frozen Meals” in German 
einbrecher.de 1,600 EUR “Burglar” in German 
l24.nl 1,600 EUR  
sportoutlet.de 1,500 EUR  
carbontrust.com.cn 1,500 GBP  
milkshakes.co.uk 1,500 GBP  
dehon.be 1,250 EUR  
dial.in 1,150 USD  
mulberry.us 1,110 USD  
apo2day.de 1,020 EUR  
plus.ws 1,000 USD  
gphone.de 1,000 EUR  
gelbepreise.de 1,000 EUR “Yellow Prices” in German 
immigrationuk.co.uk 988 GBP  
   
Other   
telefonbuch-deutschland.info 4,200 EUR “Germany Phonebook” in German 
jeudepoker.net 3,200 EUR “Game of Poker” in French 
vf.org 3,100 EUR  
movietheater.org 2,550 USD website 
definition.net 2,150 EUR  
geschenk.net 2,100 EUR  
opendata.net 2,030 USD  
ppl.net 2,000 USD  GreatDomains
onhost.net 2,000 USD  
meetingroom.net 1,945 USD  
alex.info 1,500 USD  
foi.net 1,500 USD “Faith” in French 
glamourmodels.net 1,150 USD website 
nbra.org 1,100 USD  
esdc.org 750 EUR

Posted under Domain Sales

NameJet.com announced in an email to customers tonight that several auctions that occured on October 26th will be re-done with an ending date of October 30th.  The company issued the statement and blames technological problems relating to daylight savings time rules and server settings for auctions closing AFTER the closing times.

Typically, when auctions are re-ran, it is because server loads have caused interruptions preventing users from being able to bid.  In this case it looks like the auctions went too long and more bids may have come in after the hammer fell.

Daylight-savings time ends on November 2nd, so it is unclear how this problem may have affected the auctions on October 26th.  According to the email, customers who won domains at auction will have those names taken back, refunds given and the names auctioned again.

The full email sent to email customers follows after the jump.

Posted under Domain Services

Tucows (AMEX:TCX, TSX: TC) has just announced the launch of their YummyNames site, which lists domains from their portfolio of names for sale online. The company has before sold individual and groups of names directly and via various brokers and is now formalizing some of their offering under a new brand.

“YummyNames, the public face of our domain portfolio service group, provides an additional means by which to realize the value of our domain portfolio assets to drive continued growth for the Company,” said Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows.

There are “ten thousands of names” listed on the site; Tucows’ portfolio is estimated to contain more than 70,000 domain names. Sample names listed for sale are countryrock.com, divorced.com, lemons.com, listener.com, mygarden.com, thepub.com, tool.com and veggies.com. While the site stats that “These premium domains are priced starting at $500 USD”, it appears that none of the names has actually listed a fixed price at this point. Names are being offered for purchase or lease. The site lists previous clients such as: Bell Mobility, CanWest Global Communications, EMI Music, General Motors, Grand & Toy, Harlequin Enterprises, Johnson & Johnson,  Microsoft, Nestle and RBC Royal Bank.

The Tucows domain portfolio mostly consists of names that were not renewed by registrants, as well as domain names that were purchased as part of the Netidentity acquisition. Some of the names now listed on the YummyNames website were part of those names that were accidentally auctioned off on AfterNIC in June of this year when the auctions were canceled after they had received pre-bids their conclusion.

Tucows joins a growing list of companies shedding the bulky portfolios and liquidating their domain name assets. Fabulous began selling off their expiring names through Namejet earlier this month, LiveCurrent announced the sale of domain assets yesterday, ppc company Oversee.net has sold portions of their portfolio recently, and domainer Rick Schwartz, who typically is not a liquidator put some of his domains up for sale sold a good chunk of his inventory at the last TRAFFIC auction as well.

Posted under Domain Registrars

ICANN requested CRAI to perform economic research pursuant to two resolutions of the ICANN Board of Directors: 1) the 18 October 2006 resolution of ICANN’s Board of Directors seeking more information relating to the registry and registrar marketplace; and, 2) the 26 June 2008 resolution of ICANN’s Board, directing the development and completion of a detailed implementation plan for the new gTLD Policy.

CRAI’s report makes certain recommendations regarding the relationship between registries and registrars. In particular, the CRAI report makes two proposals that might apply to the implementation of the new gTLD program.

First, CRAI proposes that, for single organization TLDs, that organization be permitted to operate both the registry and the registrar that sells second-level domain name subscriptions.

Second, CRAI proposes that a registry may own a registrar so long as the wholly-owned registrar does not sell second-level domain names subscriptions in the TLDs operated by the registrar.

ICANN would like to solicit public comment on these proposals, which if implemented, would have an immediate effect on applications under the new gTLD program.

Comments on the CRAI report are welcome via email to crai-report@icann.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . An archive of all comments received will be publicly posted at http://forum.icann.org/lists/crai-report/ .

NOTE: CRA International (CRAI) is a highly respected economic consulting firm. ICANN asked CRAI to consider issues associated with certain competitive aspects at the registry and registrar level, including registry-registrar separation, for the purpose of helping guide the discussions related to the new TLD program.

CRAI does not speak for ICANN, and ICANN has not adopted this report. ICANN’s Board, Management and Staff have not taken a position regarding this report. ICANN hopes that the community will benefit from the report and welcomes comments on the report.

Posted under Domain Services

New resource will help firms protect their brand online.

Nominet, the .UK domain registry, announced this week that it has launched a new web site designed to give businesses and consumers advice about how to protect their domain names and mitigate the risks posed by cyber-squatters and domain tasters.

The company claims that the new online resource, developed in consultation with .uk registrars, features information about the renewals process for brand managers and others in charge of domain name management in their organisations.

“This highlights the importance of rigorous domain name management processes to ensure that firms do not let their registrations lapse in the first place”, argued Nominet’s director of communications and marketing, Phil Kingsland.

“This resource brings together all the information you need to remember – why you need to renew your domain registration, when you need to do it and how to go about doing it,” he said.”There are a number of steps and reminder notices that will go out from your registrar and Nominet, so hopefully you won’t forget, but … despite this some people still don’t remember.”

Posted under Domain Services

Advanced services offering is designed to provide customers with managed backup for dedicated server data.

The Planet, a privately held dedicated hosting company, today launched its Alpha Managed Backup, as an advanced services offering, to provide a fully customizable solution.

The company states that the new advanced services offering is designed to provide customers with managed backup for dedicated server data. The product is the fourth solution to be added to the Alpha Advanced Services portfolio, which includes Alpha Server Monitoring, Alpha Server Security and Alpha Server Administration, it adds.

The company articulates that with the new solution, customers can leave the management of data backup and restores to its team of dedicated hosting professionals and daily backups are continuously monitored, with issues or failures automatically corrected. It also says that customers are also alerted when they near the limits of their existing storage space. The company claims that alpha managed backup stores customer data on, fault-tolerant storage platform, backed by its infrastructure and SAS 70 Type II data centers.

Todd Mitchell, General Manager for advanced services of The Planet noted, ”There’s an almost-daily report of data loss at companies around the world, which can easily lead to a loss of revenue, as well as significant reputation damage. With Alpha Managed Backup, customers gain peace of mind by leaving the management of their data protection to a team of seasoned professionals. Our dedicated Advanced Services team ensures that customer servers are consistently backed up, safeguarding against critical data loss.”

Posted under Web Hosting

The company expands action plan to keep child pornography and child sexual abuse images out of .INFO domains.

Afilias, a provider of registry services, today announced that it has become a member of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), in preparation for IWF Awareness Day on October 24, 2008. The company claims that this will increase its ability to be proactive in eliminating child pornography and sexual abuse content from the .INFO domain. 

The company explains that IWF is an Internet hotline for the public and internet industry to report potentially illegal online content, specifically online child sexual abuse images, hosted anywhere in the world. It also explains that IWF helps the internet community in combating abuse through its alert service, which notifies service providers and hosting companies to potentially illegal content on their systems, as well as provides unique data to law enforcement and relevant authorities in the UK and abroad.

”Afilias has focused on discovering methods, at the domain name registry level, to create a safer Internet environment in the .INFO domain,” said Hal Lubsen, President and CEO of Afilias. ”This year, we have been working with law enforcement and our registrars to get malicious sites shut down.  Joining the IWF provides us with new information, including alerts about potential child pornography and sexual abuse images hosted on .INFO sites. This, combined with our new .INFO Domain Anti-Abuse Policy, provides a proactive and comprehensive security plan to protect .INFO users.”

Peter Robbins OBE, QPM, IWF Chief Executive said ‘We are delighted to welcome Afilias as a member of the Internet Watch Foundation. As the first generic top-level domain registry to join in our efforts, Afilias and .INFO are demonstrating their commitment and responsibility amongst the international Internet community by contributing to work tackling websites that distribute sexually abusive images of children.”

Posted under Uncategorized