Monte Cahn steps Down

From time to time people matter in new media, and news of key staff exiting the building have been heard everywhere. Reverberations being felt through the world of domainers as Monte Cahn of Moniker is leaving the inheritor organization “Oversee) as of the end December this year. Cahn has been the called the “hardest working guy in domains”.

Tweeting birds say Monte is a big time person in the industry and “was” Moniker. More twitters claim that Cahn invented big time domain name auctions and has personally sold most of the $1,000,000 plus domains there. We’re sure he’ll be back somewhere, it’s not uncommon for the acquiring company (Oversee.net), who bought Moniker, to keep management on, and then after the initial term of employment they go their separate ways.

But does Cahn plan to exit domaining altogether? His quote on the matter asks that question:

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to all those that have worked with me at Moniker, SnapNames and Oversee and helped build an industry-leading brand and company.  I know that their successes as individuals and as a company will continue for years to come,” said Cahn.

“I also want to express my thanks to our loyal customers and business partners who believed in and contributed to the domain name industry.  It has been a real pleasure serving the industry for the past 15 years.””

CoolText Now Rendering Faster

Total necessity domainer tool Cooltext.com is now rendering faster than ever. Legacy Cooltext.com users may have put up with the queued rendering delays (brief as they always were), but now logo makers and quick site developers can catch that image so much faster. Buttons are now possible to match custom themes and templates. This graphics generator makes buttons and logos, and also provides a template.

If you use Cooltext.com as much as I do, you know that the instant font changes can make a so-so logo idea and domain name colored font image acquire texture, a back shadow, and shading with dimension with the touch of a button. FREE. Keeping images on the back burner is possible because the Cooltext graphics generator allows image downloads of your latest creations.

The best feature? Group collaborations can test out their ideas before coming to a decision on a logo. Get your graphics going at CoolText.com.

Entrepreneur Magazine Slips Up

Blog worthy blog applications don’t reach millions of downloads an hour by accident. WordPress has thousands of sites just for free template downloads, because so many people use WordPress it has created a WordPress accessory traffic market. Many online domainers can feel confident they can easily develop a name from a WordPress typo or other related site, just due to the constant global end user churn in WordPress blog site development.

Anyone using the blog engines and CMS managers knows that pretty sites are a result of design, templates, plugins, taste, content and more. To illustrate the case with one clueless website client is an eye opener. Scores of Joomla users (like myself) are very happy with the results we get. No mention in the article of the Joomla polls, sponsor tools, banner and ad plug and play, or news flash and other nifty publishing tools are made.

The article lists Posterous.com as a leading CMS which I had never heard of and never used. WordPress and TypePad were listed as thought they were competitors of equal rank, a fact every blogger knows is false. WordPress is global because it is plug and play and very SEO capable. Drupal is a horribly unwieldy and the best successor to Joomla, DotNetNuke, is not even mentioned. To say that Joomla is on a “power par” with Drupal is laughingly uninformed. Except this is Entrepreneur magazine.

more at

http://www.domainowl.com/entrepreneur-magazine-slips-up/

Domain Market Update

The recent six figure domain sales have given rise to the hopes of many a aftermarket domainer in these troubled economic times. Whereas some domainers may see a shrinking buyer’s market, other experts disagree. Noted domain bloggers have been consistently commenting on the healthy resale market and auction robustness catching the domainer headlines of late.

The legitimate monetary revenues derived from domaining have not shrunk so much as sharply diversified into more competitive markets. Domain development and domain resale via auction sales seem as healthy as they were in pre-recession late 2008. Furthermore, shifts in the domain marketplace, such as the closing of Bido and the auction privileges extended by certain registrars to some auction sites, symbolize not the expiration but the maturation of the domain market.

Domain sales across all TLD’s can still be savored, but the bonanza market of the initial land grab is past over with. Career domainers with specialized long game interests and savvy marketing skills can promote their chosen domain sale with an optimum chance of ultimate domain profit from resale. Choosing development options, hosting accounts, parking page and template versiosn as well as direct domain marketing to possible buyers brings the steady domain money home.

Google Courted by Would-Be Speedy Cities

The final phase of Google Fiber Town is approaching. As the March 26 deadline for applications for the key enhancement of the high speed fiber installation has past, the process has advanced another block, and interested parties are watching closely.

Google has become the courted object of many town’s desire. All across America, the cities identified as potential guinea pig test cities for the primary launch of a high speed network through an entire geomap have been vying for favor. The advantage for residents and businesses, home businesses and internet service related vendors for products and consumer spending to maximize value and opportunity is a test case the world will b watching.

How does this affect domain names? The geological place names and related domains for the selected town or city that gets the high speed internet fiver trial will instantly become huge attractions enabled to reach global traffic by the nature of the physical location alone.  Startup enterprises in the selected region will have enhanced telephony capacity for any type of Internet venture or online presence.

Google, a $23 billion enterprise, has announced it plans to provide an undetermined number of communities of between 50,000 and 500,000 people with ultra-high-speed broadband network s  The implementation is considered an experiment in next generation applications. The focus cities will become test beds for high speed fiber enabled communities, measuring growth when potential is infinite due to the residents using fiber-optic cable.

Blogging is a Job Skill

Managing a blog is like managing a business. For many bloggers, blogging is a business. Authoring content, designing the site, administering ads and dealing with Google ad search engines, as well as other site enhancement products, all these are the dynamics of the modern online business. The attributes and skills that come from editing a blog and managing a blog domain website can be very welcome additions to any resume.

more at domainowl.com

Paypal Suspends Personal Accts India

PayPal, an eBay company, has suspended personal payments to and from India and transfers to local banks in the country. Domainers using Indian talent to produce SEO or content products may be stalled making payments or getting paid for services. PayPal is used in India by many to receive payment for services such as software development and freelance writing.

Customers can still make commercial payments to India, but merchants cannot withdraw funds in rupees at local Indian banks, it added. This will convolute many existing partnerships and vendor arrangements with domainers and their clients. But Paypal cites the difficulty resolving payment issues and identity problems with an Indian originating vendor or client.

The India Paypal personal banking services online and between Indian merchant branches function online in a critical capacity for international commerce. Paypal operations for personal accounts using Paypal have been suspended while the company works with its “business partners and other stakeholders to address questions they have about the service.” 

PayPal said it is trying to resolve the situation as quickly as possible and that it was sorry for the inconvenience that it may cause its customers in India and around the world. A number of bloggers and Web sites have reported that the company has reversed and returned payments to senders.

PayPal executives in the region were not available for comment on specific reasons why the service was discontinued. Allegations of international identity theft and questionable transactions will cause Paypal to review banking traffic between Indian members and clients, as well as other global banking transaction originators.

The move by PayPal may be linked to new Indian government rules aimed at preventing money laundering, according to an analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity. Last November, the Indian government introduced rules requiring financial institutions and other intermediaries to verify the identity of clients carrying out international money transfers.

PayPal’s user agreement says it does not guarantee any user’s identity because verifying identity of an indian individual is virtually impossible with current Paypal resources.  PayPal does reserve the right to validate customers’ identities, including asking for documents.

PayPal is used in India by many to receive payment for services such as software development and freelance writing. But the exchange of international services in Russia and China may depend on these issues.

Estibot 2.0 Greets Domainers Online

The much used Estibot has grown into a 2.0 utility, with free registration and valuatin of up to 5 domains eligible t new users. The enhanced interface and sophisticated presentation of tools at Estibot now offers domainers more capsule estimations of domain value. A new algorhythm governs the domain name appraisals. Premium at-charge upgrades allow better utility for bigger portfolio lists. Exportable reports and Alexa and SERP and PPC estimation make a new reference to Estibot 2.0 valuation a necessary sales tool for all current domains.

Domainfest a Party Hit

If the conventions and trade shows popped for domainers had political parties, Domainfest had one Los Angeles motto: party hearty! The connections and contacts wove through a dizzying amount of clubs and gigs while talking domains all the way, naturally.  The Playboy Mansion trip remains a standout for all concerned.
 Says one domainer whose site is GamingWizz.com, (code named :Soroosch), “Most of the observations I noticed were that the state of the domain world is still where it’s at!  I feel domainers are happy with what they started with…but are now looking to enhance what good they’ve accomplished thus far – whether that means development or figuring out other monetizing techniques.”

Namepros Dead

Domain industry forum NamePros.com is down again, and whispers throughout the domain community wonder if the portal is closed forever. It’s not the first time this popular but troubled NamePros.com site has crashed. Will it come back from the dead?

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