Domain Name Auction List

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Brian

Looking to find a domain that was once unavailable or sell your own? If so take a look at these various domain name auction and other domain marketplaces.

Moniker – They have live auctions and provide escrow services. You can also use their domain acquisition experts in an attempt to negotiate a domain that someone may already have registered. They will attempt to acquire a domain on your behalf.

Sedo – They state to have the worlds largest domain marketplace. You do not have to buy or sell as an auction, there are fixed price options as well.

Afternic – A domain auction, buy, sell and park domains. When selling a domain through them they publish the sale through their network of partners and registrars.

NameJet – A great place to find expiring and expired domains, sold to the highest bidder.

Here are forums that also work as a domain marketplace.

DNForum – A forum about domain names that also allows you to but and sell domains.

NamePros – Domain discussions which also allow you to buy and sell domains.

Amazon verse Netflix

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Brian

We can all learn from competition, competitors, and knowing that you always need to look over your shoulder and continue to innovate regardless of your business.

Market Capitalization Results
It appears that strong competition has been able to decrease a competitors net worth by over $7 Billion. Between my first writing about Netflix and Valuations on 7/18/11 ($14 Billion) to today the difference in the Netflix (NFLX $6.7 Billion) overall market capitalization is $7.3 Billion. I cannot say that competition alone has resulted in the drop of Netflix’s value, however one could assume it may be a large part.

Competition
Google has taken on Facebook and now Amazon continues to up the ante against Netflix. This is fascinating to watch and truly is competition at it’s best. In my opinion, as I am a paid subscriber of both Netflix and Amazon’s streaming service, everyone wins. By everyone I am referring to the customers and not the investors.

Amazon Strikes Another Big Deal
From the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, there was a letter on their homepage. I have taken a couple pieces that outlines their current deal and the overall service they currently offer. This is in direct competition with Netflix.

I have big news for Amazon Prime members – we’ve just signed a deal with FOX to add a broad selection of movies and TV shows to our unlimited instant streaming service later this fall. The new additions from the FOX library include 24, Arrested Development, The X-Files, Ally McBeal, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and – available on digital video for the first time – The Wonder Years. We now have deals with CBS, NBCUniversal, Sony, and Warner Bros, and adding FOX will bring the total to more than 11,000 movies and TV shows available for unlimited instant streaming. … Prime instant videos can be played on more than 300 HDTVs, Blu-ray players, and set-top boxes. … You can also watch movies and TV shows instantly at our Amazon Instant Video Store, where we offer more than 100,000 movies and TV shows for rent or purchase, no Prime membership required.

Conclusion
Congratulations to Amazon and I should add as I am a user of Netflix I hope they continue to strike positive deals for their service as well. Watching this battle can teach us a lot. It is amazing to see how one company can fall behind in the competition and lose half of their companies value. In my opinion competition spurs constant innovation, be sure to keep an eye on your businesses competition and be sure to constantly innovate.

Turn Your WordPress Website into an iPhone App

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Brian

I only write about a few online services that are really impressive. This is quite an amazing service. If you like to control every little thing you can when creating a website or coding a program this may not be for you. However read on if you want a fast and affordable way to create an iPhone App with your website content.

Instant iPhone Application
create an iphone app with your website If you want to have an iPhone application instantly with the content from your website you have to give WiziApp a try, their site is here at WiziApp.com. Take a look at the image to the right.

The application is easily customizable. You simply pick an application name, customize the menu bar and also include advertisements to potentially generate revenue. This will create an iPhone application that everyone can find in the App Store and download.

How does it Work?
There are three simple steps:

(1) Download the WordPress Plugin – This step is free, you download and install the WordPress plugin. You then get to view what the iPhone app with your content would look like.
(2) Create Your App – There is a step by step wizard that walks you through the various decisions to customize your app. Consider this a plug and play application, as you make the decisions by answering the wizards questions you see your app changing to reflect those changes in real time.
(3) Publish to Appstore – You just give your app a description and they publish it to the App Store for you.

What from my WebSite is in the App?
All of your content can be delivered. The basics are your pages, posts, comments, categories, tags and links. They take it one step further and also include images, audio files and videos. All of the content is published in real time. In other words once it hits your website as a new post it will appear in the application itself instantly. You do not have to do anything, this is all taken care of for you by WiziApp. Also if you have ever had an application push information to you, you know how valuable this can be. I have a CNBC app that tells me when there are new hot stories with a pop up on my iPhone. The WiziApp can do this for you as well and you can push information to your audience.

Statistics
I love statistics and analytics to understand how various things are working and making decisions with the information. WiziApp provides information on your application. You can see daily App store stat updates as well as visits and downloads. All this information is provided for in your website control panel just like site stats.

They Update for You
If the Applications need updating due to a new iPhone operating system or change, WiziApps makes that change for you.

Make Money with Your Application
You can choose to have advertisements included in the application. You can keep the application ad-free or you can include them. Advertisements are implemented by allowing you to use your own AdMob account. This is nice for a couple of reasons. First, the WiziApp company does not take any of the revenue you generate, in other words they do not have their hand in your pocket. Second, you continue your one to one relationship with AdMob and receive your payments from them directly as you normally would.

Cost?
This service is not free. There is a setup fee and a monthly fee. Setups range from $200 to $500 and monthly costs range from $20 to $50. Now contrast that with what you would have to pay someone to create a custom application for you and then make modifications if an update is needed. This is a quick and comparatively inexpensive way to have an iPhone application for your site.

Visit WiziApp
Here is the WiziApp.com link again.

Digital Conference East Coast September 2011

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Brian

If you are on the east coast, in the Virginia, Maryland, D.C. area you may want to check out the Digital East 2011 conference coming up in 2 weeks. The dates are September 28th and 29th, 2011. The location is Tyson’s Corner Virginia. Learn more about the conference here at their site.

digital east 2011 The topics will be primarily about digital marketing, Internet strategies and best practices. They will have individuals from these companies: Google, Microsoft, Gowalla, Yelp!, LivingSocial, AOL, Yahoo!, StumbleUpon, Rosetta Stone, Cisco, Advertising Age, CNN and others.

Here are some of their topics, find all of them at their site:

Mobile & Location Marketing
Web & Mobile Analytics
Interactive Advertising – Beyond the Traditional :30 Spot
Fully Integrating Promotions (PPC, Social, Display and Email)
Cloud Computing Strategies
Integrating Offline and Online Marketing Efforts
Social Games to Achieve Your Brand Marketing Objectives
Paid Search Visitors: Get the Most Out of Each Click
Social Commerce & Gaming
Advanced SEO

XXX Domains and What You Need to Know

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Brian

Regardless of whether you want a .XXX domain, you should understand how they work. First of all know that .XXX is now a domain extension and you can obtain domains. Most importantly know that you can apply to have a particular domain blocked from the .XXX domains, maybe it is your name, business name or trademark, see the Sunrise B phase below.

Brief History of the .XXX sTLD
The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on March 18, 2011. The registry is operated by a company named ICM Registry LLC and the sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). [find more background on the wiki page for .xxx]. I have a primer on domains and domain registration if you would like to learn more about how it works.

Keep Name or Trademark from becoming a .XXX
Apparently a lot of thought was put into the process of registering these domains and what the objections may be. You may not want a .XXX domain, you may also not want someone else to use your name, business name, trademark, or other words as a .XXX domain.

Registration of .XXX
There are multiple phases of the launch before the general availability of the .xxx domains. The phases are: Sunrise AT, Sunrise AD, Sunrise B, Landrush, and then the General Availability which is much like any other domain registration. All the Sunrise phases (AT, AD and B have are during the same time period). Each phase has specific application requirements. Here is a graphical representation of the phases and how to navigate them (also found here).

xxx domain registration

.XXX Registration Phases

Here is a brief primer on each phase and what it is for. If you wish to register a domain I suggest you visit a registrar such as GoDaddy and learn more.

Pre-Registration:
Some domain registrars allowed pre-registration as early as August of this year for the Sunrise, Landrush, and General Availability phases.

Sunrise AT:
The AT stands for Adult Trademarks. If you are in the adult industry and have registered trademarks or intellectual property rights you can apply. Note: this is not first-come, first-serve, if there are more than one wanting the same domain there will be a closed auction.
Dates: Sept. 7, 2011 to Oct. 28, 2011

Sunrise AD:
The AD stands for Adult Domains, those that have existing domain names under another extension such as .COM, .NET (other TLD extensions). Again, this is for those in the adult industry and already have domains as either the owner or assignee. Note: this is not first-come, first-serve, if there are more than one wanting the same domain there will be a closed auction.
Dates: Sept. 7, 2011 to Oct. 28, 2011

Sunrise B:
The B stands for Block. If you are not in the adult industry and have registered trademarks or intellectual property rights than you can apply to block them from becoming .xxx domain names. Note: this is not first-come, first-serve, if there are more than one wanting the same domain there will be a closed auction.
Dates: Sept. 7, 2011 to Oct. 28, 2011

Landrush:
This is for those in the adult industry to register any domains whether or not they have registered trademarks or intellectual property rights. This is also not a first come first serve phase as there will be a closed auction if there are two or more applicants.
Dates: Nov. 8, 2011 to Nov. 25, 2011

General Availability:
Anyone within the adult industry can now register on a first come first serve basis. There are two things that differentiate this phase from the others. First you must be in the adult industry to register a domain, not anyone can register. Second, this phase is a first come first serve basis. Also now anyone can now apply to block domains.
Date: Beginning Dec. 6, 2011

I tried to keep it brief, check with your favorite domain registry for more information.

AdWords and Trademarks – It May Not Be What You Think

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Brian

Are you familiar with Google AdWords policy on Trademarks in advertisements placed on Google or throughout the Google network? You may think you know their policy on Trademarks, and you might, but just to be sure read on and consult Google’s policy.

Background on AdWords & Trademarks

Google AdWords
Google AdWords allows you to place an advertisement on their site or across their network. You pay when people click your advertisement, what is known as Pay Per Click (PPC). They also provide display advertising and video advertisements. Most of the advertising is text.

Trademarks
Instead of getting into the details of trademarks and service marks here is some reference material. In the United States there are three levels of rights to be aware of. First of all there is common law that may afford you rights in a mark through use of the mark, then there is State by state registration (more here at FindLaw), and finally federal registration of Trademarks from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

AdWords and Your Trademark

Let us assume your Trademark is Kleenex. You may not want anyone to be using your trademark in their advertisements for a variety of reasons. This is a common issue with advertisers that have affiliates and they tell their affiliates they cannot bid on keywords or phrases that have their trademark such as Kleenex. Many people believe you can simply tell Google not to allow others to put your trademark in their advertisement or bid on your trademark as a keyword. Then Google will not allow it. If that is what you assumed, that is not entirely correct.

From Google’s policy note the following:

Please note the regions where we will investigate ad text only. We will not disable keywords in response to a trademark complaint in these regions.

So they will investigate use of your trademark within the advertisement text however they will NOT disable the bidding of your trademark as a keyword. This means that if your trademark was Kleenex competitors of yours could bid on the keyword Kleenex. When someone searches on the word Kleenex your competitors can place an advertisement such as “Buy the best tissues around, get them here”. Here on the Google AdWords policy on Trademarks there are two links that expand. One that shows the regions that they investigate ad text only and those that they investigate ad text and keywords. Note that in the United States they only investigate ad text and not the keywords, also note that in most regions they only investigate ad text. There are probably many reasons why, one of course being the fact that the more keywords people can bid on the more money they can make and trademarks just may be a significant chunk of revenue.

Most importantly you need to understand how Google does and does not assist you with Trademark monitoring.

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Monthly Archives: September 2011