Mild Form of Pontiac Fever at -Fest

Speculations about the flu strain visited upon hapless visitors to last week’s February 1-3rd Domainfest are becoming clearer. Los Angeles County Health Department actions to survey the participants were the topic of an article in the New York Times, which angled on the Playboy Mansion as a source for the illness. Pontiac fever is an unofficial diagnosis. High profile domain  industry blogs have chronicled the strange illness  outbreak from initial recovery stages. International Domainfest guests carried the symptoms home abroad as well.

Many domainers suspect the illness was actually a bacterial infection, although the manner it is discussed uses the term  “flu”. The Playboy mansion has a lagoon, fog mist and the type of warm air conditioning said to allow such bacteria to flourish. There is no detail if the assault allegedly taking place on the bus home from the Playboy Mansion had anything to do with the outbreak. So far the Los Angeles Times has been mum on the topic. Antibiotics are urged as the supposed 5 day burnout of this illness requires prescription aid.

The Times sketches the illness as Pontiac fever, (or walking pneumonia), a milder form of Legionelleosis, named for the original Legionnaires Disease. Sources say as many as 93 participants fell ill, some requiring antibiotics and suffering more harsh symptoms than others. (Vulnerability to any strain of flu or virus can be affected by fatigue, body chemistry, and length of exposure to infection source). The Los Angeles Center for Disease control is involved in a survey both for issues of environmental health and traveller health.

DomainSponsor, a unit of Oversee, has been active in collaborating with agencies to get proper data regarding attendees where it needs to be and released a statement Friday urging domainers to cooperate with the CDC.

“DomainSponsor, the organizer of the DOMAINfest Global conference, and its parent company, Oversee.net, have been made aware that several people in attendance at DOMAINfest and various evening events during the week became ill during the conference or after it concluded.

There has been significant speculation about this situation, but as of now, not many actual facts are known.  Only medical authorities are qualified to identify this illness and investigate its ultimate source, so toward the improvement and protection of everyone’s health, it’s important not to speculate or make unfounded assumptions.  Of course, should you have a concern about your health, please seek the advice of a doctor.

The health and safety of DOMAINfest attendees is our first priority, and thankfully, most attendees and staff did not become ill, and those that did appear now to be feeling better.  Even so, in order to accurately identify the health concern and prevent its further possible communication, we have consulted with Los Angeles County health authorities and at their request have provided them a comprehensive list of places we know gatherings were held (either organized by DOMAINfest or by others) during each day and night.  We also have notified our vendors and service providers of the situation, and have encouraged them to cooperate with authorities and take any steps they believe necessary.

Medical authorities have further requested, and Oversee has provided, a list of all attendees and their e-mail addresses.  You may already have received a link to a survey asking for more information.  It is important that ALL attendees complete the survey, whether you were ill or not.  This will help authorities narrow down the range of possible causes and sources.  Only health authorities will have access to this data—neither Oversee nor any other party will be able to see it, so please do your part to help.

Oversee will continue to work with health authorities, though at this stage, work is best left in their hands.  If there’s more we’re in a position to share about the situation, we will do so.

DOMAINfest was a great event—our best ever with more than 700 attendees—and it’s regrettable that this has cast a shadow over an otherwise good week.  We’re very encouraged that most everyone is in improving health (including those on our staff), and look forward to seeing many of you in Barcelona in June.”

Bill Clinton Addresses ICANN March 2011

Remember back in the day when the Internet was in full swing and no TLD seemed out of bounds? This year’s March ICANN meeting in Silicon Valley/San Francisco gives domainers a sprinkling of that same flavor when Former United States President William Jefferson Clinton gives the keynote address for the domain namers gathered there.  Clinton formed ICANN back in 1998, when the World Wide Web needed strong controls, formal structure, and organized oversight. Domaining partners sponsoring the upcoming  event will shoulder the fee, which will not be insubstantial. Predictions of  the opening line of the address go something like, “Ask not what your domain can do for you, but what can you do for your domain”. The deep pockets of the players and the global reach of the talent has raised eyebrows, making one domainer comment, “Bob Parsons could probably get the Queen”.

Google Wants Your TV Names

There is a burgeoning hybrid opportunity for Google and TV domain names. The possibilities for names that Google can use, or that customers of home televisions with Google search capacity can see, opens up a new range for end users for websites, portals, and TV calendar listings. Names with “TV”,3D, set, “watch”, screen, home, channel, and other tech keywords are in demand.

Video plays a new role in ever more congruent SEO to domain name partnerships and value building online. Sites with “best of’ lists and video links will be fun home entertainment, family fun instead of programmed network shows stuffed with commercials. Websites composed of programmed TV viewing that families or niche watchers want can win the SEO wars. Nostalgia TV and cable viewing from video uploads and film segments has already made Hulu.com and Guba.com popular sites.

How does this change the business model for site development? Movie content makes search engine optimization the new driving force for website development. Articles and links to other TV based sites can also bring up the searchability quotient for these names and the sites behind them. Fansites becomes destination viewing with the new Google home TV site model. Your email list can start the home viewing wave and help get the word out.

This gives the SEO campaign for any TV name new legs. Given that entertainment is already a huge market for domainers and name auctions, and even deleting names and drop list auctions, domain developers should have at least one television name in the launch works with Google home-TV potential. Do fans want to blog or chat the shows while they watch? You bet they do. This is social TV networking.

Site managers and webmasters can formulate affiliate strategy to reach the home consumer. As home television and computer driven apps converge, a website with video and Google SEO matrices plugged in, wins. Because home viewers can surf your YouTube channel and maybe move on to your site if the spirit moves them. The webmaster without YouTube sinks in the SERP.

Chrome TV-searched visits to your site could be the elusive end user your sites has been waiting for. Google-owned YouTube connected sites will have a little more depth in the Google SEO than random video sites. All those domainers holding TV names and HDTV names and 3D names, as well as the Dot-TV extension of any relevant television or big screen tech name, there is a new focus for your end users and resale customer buyers.

Pool Skim for Sunday September 26th

Many exotic noms churning the shark infested bidding waters at Pool.com. Foaming at the top of the froth are the likely numericals. The domains 100 ItalianRecipes.com and 100MovieQuotes are born traffic magnets. the likely follow-up name 100quotes.com has quizzical potential. 123bids.com could be the store portal of tomorrow. 12monthcarlease.com could have a domainer in the driver’s seat.

The march of the 1800 number names commences tomorrow at Pool.com. The name set includes 1800files.com and many others. 1800chase.com, 800carkey.com, and 1800golfbag.com as well as 1800nyctaxi.com make geo and niche ideas come to mind. 1dollarbiz.com gives a lot of bang for the buck. The domain name 1roomlife.com could be a minicam video hit.

The nom url 1stopkid.com makes a domain shortstop out of a parenting search. And the sport name 2010-football.com could be a hyphenate traffic touchdown. The shorty domain 2-cp.com could also be a high scorer. The name 20dollargolf.com could be a gift site or a geo locator. Many, many 247 names on the pool.com list wave. Such as 247livemd.com. The domain 2cool4mail.com is a philosophy statement.

The url 300gas.com could be a buck saver in the neighborhood. The name 30minrecipes could take a half hour to resolve. The domain name 3daydeal.com could be a trifecta of domain value. the name 3-dpods.com could phone it in. The url 3gbike.com could be a dimensional cyclic name. A seris of 411 names fall from the Pool.com waves, 411bid.com among them. 411ww.com could be warcrafty, and 411hiv.com isn’t about the birds and the bees, specifically.

The name 4drealm.com is for domainer namer gamers. 4Fresno.com is geo specific. The name 55to.com could be speedy. 5rules.com is short and sweet. The domain 7daygames could mean a day of rest. 8000g.com is cryptic but memorable. 80day.com and 80web.com could be link mirrors. The site at 96tv.com could be a video site for nostalgia tubes.

More deleting names at the drop at Pool.com.

OnlineCollegeDegrees.com Sells Big for $22K

Get your wallets out, domainers are buying. The indications are good for developing education market and niche domain names again. The SEDO hot nom de jour was Online CollegeDegrees.com, sold for $22,800. This long but focal domain name will be successful capturing a huge and active traffic segment of both online services and education click and SEO eyeballs.

Also from the SEDO list, SwissTV.ch also headed the top European list of continental domains abroad. A domain movieshowtimes.com rang in $16K in change, and  visitnyc.com sold for just over $10K. Domain names such as modernspa.com sold for $5,5K and RussianTube.com vended at $5000. Sportsads.com sold for $3,000.

Epik Auctions Nets $47K in Name Auction

The Epik.com Developer’s Conference Auction was held today, and for a first event showing the Epik.com event is off to a respectable start.The auction sum was almost $48K in total for eleven domain names. The big tipoff moneychanger was $17,500 for ComputerTips.com. Pillows.net had a soft landing at $16,000. TacticalKnife.net cut up at $3,000. Next up was Beachbags.net. for a respectable chunk of change for a dot-net, bagged at $2500.

Then Camcorder-Microphones, long but useful, was picked up by a $2,000 bid. BeerCoolers.net iced out at $1500. Exercise mat.net was rolled up at $1,200. KidsChairs.net sat down for $1250. CottonThread.com was strung up at $1100. ClothingRack.net racked up about $1,000, followed by DVDStand.com which stood for a thrifty $700.

The Epik Developer’s Conference in Seattle continues, flavored by strategic speakers marketing their domain and site development profit models. While some domain market watchers speculated this was a poor showing, some industry veterans commented that “for an initial event auction to turn close to $48K is more than a modest success”. Epik.com’s 1st conference continues through today.

to Dmoz or not to Dmoz?

To DMOZ, or not to DMOZ-That is the question. Friends, Domainers, name-countrymen, lend me your bandwidth. The topic at hand is the much-ballyhooed DMOZ directory inclusion which has come under speculation by many domainers of late as to relevancy and utility.

Domainers worldwide are looking to find a level playing field. Yet long term domain owners want historic DMOZ values when it can help them market a name sale. Is it fair to webmasters and domainers that the inclusion of Adsense or Google (or any ads) is a mystery factor that is a variable for each application?

Long before Google flexed its monopolistic muscles, the DMOZ set the standard for relatable, categorically indexed links in the big-brutha of all directories. Yet today even many former editors debate the relevancy of the DMOZ. The foul whiff of corruption taints the purity of the DMOZ resource.

Many newb and career domainers offer differing opinions. Some domainers barely know what it is, while others dismiss it as a one-shot task amid a laundry list of other, value-establishing domain activities like link building, blogging, community hosting, social networking, article posting, and advertising.

This has become a philosophical topic in the realm of domain name buying and selling. Insofar as many domain name estimators use the DMOZ inclusion as a factorial in the valuation, the cementing of its value is of interest to all. Furthermore, the possibility of obtaining paid DMOZ link attainders by committing e-commerce with DMOZ editors has reared its ugly head.

Paid link directories are all over the internet and dozens if not hundreds arise daily. Just as many erode due to lack of interest, poor SEO ranking, little or no active promotion or marketing, and/or failure of hosting or webmaster resources. It seems DMOZ may be in Wiki development stages, where free unpaid editors and contributors have moved on in bulk.

Since the model of the DMOZ assumes the same level of attention to contemporary applications as historic inclusions, do today’s rejections operate on the same benchmarks as yesterday’s DMOZ inclusions? is the archived out of SEO relevancy? And do domain estimation sites and evaluators for domain name resale amounts take that into account?

These are hard-hitting question that will hopefully be answered either by policy changes in SEO and page ranking sites or implied in the continued inclusion of archival DMOZ listings when traffic, density, and SEO value are measured up for a domain name evaluation and resale value estimates.

Would it be appropriate for experienced domainers to criticize heavily?

I have reguarly read the blogs and posts from experienced domainers and I find them quite insightful. But some experienced domainers criticize domain newbies heavily and I found it a bit strange. In every field, there are newbies and we couldn’t expect them to know all the things in a very short period of time. I am a medical professional and I got medical students and junior doctors all the time under myself. I couldn’t expect them to know all the things and it takes a few years to learn skills to be more and more competent. We have to guide them in a supportive manner and it would be unfair to criticize our junior colleagues for not having confidence to handle difficult cases.

I really think this also applies to domaining. I believe I have read that even Frank Schilling registered very crappy domains during his initial few years. In our medical field, there is established textbooks, medical schools, training institutes etc… and it takes usually 7 years to finish medical training and another 7 to 10 years to  become a consultant. In domaining world, many experienced domainers usually keep their ways of success to themselves and it makes more difficult for domain newbies to learn from their mistakes and so on. But over the years, if any newbie is persistant enough to pursue his or her interest, the skills & knowledge would improve over time assuming that there isn’t anything wrong with the newbie mentally.

Bido to Shutter Domain Ramp

Popular upstart Bido.com is announcing a May 5 cutoff. The newfangled auction house snared many happening domainers with its enthusiastic style and upbeat marketing tempo. Many domainers grew comfortable vending their names at Bido.com and are now scratching their heads. While it may be the case that the Bido profit model couldn’t sustain the business enterprise in an extended downturn economy, the fact remains that customers are disappointed the  site/auction portal is going away.

Bido has been a popular portal for domains and many domainers new to the industry. The $1 reserve cut into Pool.com and other resellers of droplists and auctions due to high premiums for participation and domain wins in such auctions elsewhere. “Bido is ceasing operation as of May 5, 2010. All transactions and accounts will be gracefully finalized and closed.” The abrupt cutoff will lead new droplist traffic to existing Bido offers in the hopper, domainers start your droplist search scripts engines now.

Signing the New Domain Language Trend?

The education of sign language interpreters has boomed due to the proliferation of careers and degrees, as well as the online education possibilities of physically handicapped people using sign language as their primary language for learning and reading. Could .-sign be the new portal tld for sign language enabled content and websites?

The age of the Internet and its real estate land grab for geographic and primary purpose business and concept TLDs has come and is still evolving. It stands to reason that with language development happening in online hegemony areas like Asia and Russia, other alphabets and keyboards to assist might not be far behind. Videos and short translated abstracts of text and web content might be a valuable niche for domainers to invest in.

With video, audio, and text content sites streaming content of every kind in every format all over the web, how long until a massive movement to the online delivery of sign language translations and translated sign language content is here? Physically challenged users the world over using sign language speak one universal language. That’s a demographic no domainer can ignore.

Likely codes and letter series for signing and sign language sites are the American Sign Language (ASL), Pidgin Sign Language (PSE), and Sign Exact English (SEE) terms. Translated materials, services, and websites could prove intriguing and sticky to many global SEO enabled data researchers. For web entrepreneurs, selling directories of sign language enabled sites, as well as directories for products and materials to utilize signing could pay off downstream.

Next Page »