This is absolutely hilarious, but it’s true: You can buy a Seth Godin action figure now! The marketing guru figure produced by Archie McPhee costs under $9 and, according to Seth, all proceeds go to the Acumen Fund. I bet you won’t get a marketing guru (complete with marketing secrets) for less than that ever again.
Stupid, yes. But this marketing gag is just as brilliant, and who knows, maybe they can really raise some money for the Acumen Fund.
Too bad that it didn’t come out before Christmas… 
DomainTools.com has released the list of domains it will auction off in an online domain auction starting Dec 31, 2007. The auction will run through Jan 03, 2008 and all lots will close one after another, just like it would be the case in a live auction. According to Jay Westerdal, it will take about 1.5 hours for all lots to close if there will be no delays. The preliminary list contains about 170 domains, most of which are two-word generic .com domains.
Domains on the list are, for example, MarketingService.com, Untrue.com, MoneyTV.com, HollywoodHousing.com ($1,000 reserve) and LightSabers.com. Overall, the domains are not as valuable as names you would find in a live auction, but the reserve prices look fair to me.
To bid in the auction you need a (free) DomainTools.com account and put a credit card on file. Details can be found on Jay’s blog.
** UPDATE (January 01, 2008) **
Jay wrote on his blog yesterday that they decided to extend the auction until January 10, because a lot of people were worried about the holidays and buyers being on vacation.
Published December 21, 2007
in Café.
There haven’t been many new posts on my blog lately, so I thought I should take year’s end as a chance to let you know about my thoughts on where this blog is heading.
First of all, I should say that I quit brokering domains in November. Therefore, I’ve been in the process of changing focus in the past few weeks and I didn’t have as much time making posts as before. I will continue to blog about domain names and I even want to take the blog to its next level, but I will also change some things about it. For example, I’m interested in quite a few more topics than just domaining. That’s why I’m going to write articles on a broader range of topics next year, reorganize the categories, make the blog better to use. I’m especially interested in economics, marketing and basically everything Internet-related. These are additional topics I’m going to discuss instead of exclusively covering the domain industry, although the blog’s main focus will certainly remain on the domain name market.
I have also been offered the chance to publish guest posts on few domain blogs recently. I took my time to think about this possibility for a while and I finally decided to give it a try and write guest posts for other domain blogs and friends on a regular basis, see if their readers find my posts worthwhile. So, you might see some domain articles and comments from me on other blogs every now and then. I hope that this way I will be able to reach a wider audience than through one blog only.
Now that we’re approaching year end, I would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Successful New Year 2008! Personally, I’m going to take this year’s remaining days off. I hope you will stick with me, as I’m already having some articles in the making that I’m going to put out in January. See you next year!
DomainTools‘ registrant search service has been critizied quite a lot since its launch, because many domainers think it compromises their privacy. Now, Jay Westerdal posted on his blog that DomainTools is giving away free registrant searches if you make a search on your own domains. This way you don’t have to pay to see which information other people can acquire about you or your company.
Jay writes:
In response to some of critics that want to know what is available about themselves we have opened up the report system so that anyone can order a report on their own identify. If you have not used the Registrant Search system yet, it is a system that allows you to see all domains owned by a registrant.
(…)
We think this is just one step towards a more balanced Registrant Search tool. If people can order a report on you, then you should have the right to know what they can possibly order. Transparency should go both ways.
Overall, I think it is nice by DomainTools to offer these domain registration reports for free, but I still understand the concerns of domain owners. Especially owners of high-value generic domains rightfully fear that other people might use the information against them. Therefore, I strongly believe that it would be a good idea for owners of valuable domains or owners of big domain portfolios to use privacy protection for your domain names in order to make it impossible for others to find out what you own, or to make it harder for people to find out who owns that sought-after domain they want to get their hands on.
Nice Guy Finishes First: How Frank Schilling Won the Domain Race After Starting at the Back of the Pack
If there is any man in the domain business who truly needs no introduction, it’s Frank Schilling. By now just about everyone has heard the name, read the blog and marveled at the numbers. He owns hundreds of thousands of high quality generic .com domains and annual revenues for his closely held Cayman Islands company, Name Administration, Inc. are estimated to be in the $20 million range. Despite enjoying a level of success that would turn most people’s heads, Schilling, now 38, remains unchanged and is universally regarded as one of the nicest people in this (or any other) business. These are all things you have likely heard before, but to borrow a line from Paul Harvey, now it’s time to tell “the rest of the story.”
Another well-written DN Journal cover story by Ron Jackson. So, click here to read the rest of the story.
Don’t Lose Your Ass By Failing to Properly Monetize Your Domains
Domains that are worth over $100,000 are essentially unique, branded small businesses. You can choose to ignore them and leave them idle, or place an enormous amount of resources on each, or somewhere in between. In any case they are ongoing business concerns which should be respected and managed accordingly.
Pretty good guest post on Domain Name News by private equity group WashingtonVC’s Michael Mann. As chairman and founder of WashingtonVC, Michael, who has also been the founder of BuyDomains, knows a lot about the domain industry and about the monetization of domain name traffic. In this post, he explains why you’re leaving money on the table if you own generic domains but don’t develop them. Must read!
Become the Next Domain Name Multi-Millionaire - Learn the Domain Secrets of the Experts
Jeff of Domain Bits compiled this article with experts’ advice on how to become a successful domainer. The people interviewed are, i.a., Frank Schilling, Andrew Alleman, Sahar Sarid, Peter Askew, Michael Gilmour, Elliot Silver, Mark Fulton, W. H. Abdelgawad, Shawn Hartley and Anthony Noe. All in all, Jeff’s post includes some good advice for beginners.
Rudy Hernandez compiled a list of the domain industry’s top 20 most influential people. Good week end read, and lots of smart people on the list:
Vinton Cerf
Rick Schwartz
Ron Jackson
Monte Cahn
Kevin Ham
Jon Postel
Frank Schilling
Adam Dicker
Russell C. Horowitz
Yun Ye
Tim Schumacher
Tim Berners-Lee
John Berryhill
Chris Chena
Bob Parsons
Craig Nine
Sahar Sarid
Ron James
Rick Latona
Click here to get to the list with details and photos of the people on the list.
How to Choose the Best Domain for Search Engine Visibility
Gone are the days when you’ll want to buy, and use, domains such as www.keywordA-keywordB-keywordC.com. This looks spammy, and it is spammy. Search engines dislike those domains every bit as much as users do.
Useful article at Search Engine Watch by Mark Jackson with tips on how to pick domains that will help you rank higher in search engines. He looks into factors such as domain age, history of domain, keywords in domain and ends the article with a case in point.
P&O Ferries hires domain management firm
P&O Ferries has signed an agreement with web domain name management firm NetNames for it to control its use and acquisition of URLs.
NetNames will manage what P&O calls “a substantial” portfolio of domain names including the flagship POFerries.com site and specific URLs such as SailToSpain.co.uk.
(…)
P&O chief information officer Andrew Reeves said: “As we continue to grow our online business, domain names are becoming a key part of our marketing strategy.
“It is imperative that we have a proactive solution to centralise our domain names as a strategic marketing tool and protect our brand from online threats.”
Good to see another corporate end user who got it and now tries to make the most of his domain portfolio.
Business should fund domain name police, says expert
A technology law expert has called on the business world to set up a policing outfit to tackle cybersquatters. The call came as Dell raised the stakes in the fight against domain hoarders, demanding compensation of $1 million per name in a lawsuit.
Frank has commented on this article already. No need for me to detail my opinion too, because it’s the same.
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