Do You Ever Conduct Research At The Last Minute While Bidding On An Expired Domain?

One of my favorite places to grab expired domains is the Go Daddy auctions domain name aftermarket. Today while scanning through the list of expired domains I noticed one name in particular which sparked my interest. The name was CrossFitYoga.com. I didn’t know much about CrossFit up until today, but I knew enough to realize that this name would be a potential trademark issue.

As with anything I wanted to research CrossFit a little more to understand what type of trademark issues could arise if one were to move forward with purchasing CrossFitYoga.com. I wanted to understand what the licensing costs would be to utilize the CrossFit name. As the auction came to a close I discovered exactly what I was looking for. On CrossFit.com’s FAQ page it states the following:

What is the cost of affiliation?

As of 1 January 2011, affiliation costs $3000 annually.

What is included in being a CrossFit Affiliate?

• Legal use of the CrossFit name, logo, and promotional materials.
• Access to a private discussion board for affiliates.
• Promotion from the main site and Community page.
• Support from HQ and the larger community through affiliate conference calls, seminars, and in-house business opportunities.

The part that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the legal use of the CrossFit name. For the company to state this on their website, I am pretty sure they would want the new owners of CrossFitYoga.com to become an affiliate. The name ended up with two bids. The winning bid was only $15. To legitimately use this name here in the US tag on an extra $3,000 per a year and you avoid any legal issues which could arise from owning a name of this nature.

Let’s just say it was fun to conduct a little research during the final minutes of the auction. I stayed far away from placing a bid and was happy to learn a little more about CrossFit. Hopefully the new owners put the CrossFit name to good use and maybe they’ll move forward with becoming a CrossFit affiliate in the near future.

Photo / Logo Credits: CrossFit.com

How GoDaddy.com Looks In A Text Based Browser

This evening I setup Dropbox with the Linux server that I have in my home office. I’ll make sure to type up a blog entry in the future on how to do this because it was a bit tricky configuring everything via command line. One of the steps required me to use a text based browser to visit a URL to link my server to my Dropbox account.

The text based browser that I installed on my Linux server is called Lynx and all I had to do to install it was type yum install lynx. Loading and browsing the url with a text based browser wasn’t fun, but it got the job done. After finishing what I needed to do with syncing a few files I decided to visit a couple of sites with the text based browser.

One of the sites I checked out was GoDaddy.com. I was pretty impressed at how well the site was laid out in text form. I wasn’t impressed by the amount of cookie prompts which swarmed my screen to simply bring up the main page. Here is how GoDaddy looks in Lynx. To get the full effect of the image below make sure to click on it.

www.godaddy.com cookie: ATL.SID.SALES=StvyZPEwpaATgY7l0GKc1aM3NaetN7K3XQTwfBKclu8%3d Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: gdCassCluster.sePQKXdv2U=1 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: vistorpromo1=firsttime Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: MemBotChk=false Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: SplitValue1=74 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: preferences1=_sid=&countryFlag=us&gdshop_currencyType=USD Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: flag1=cflag=us Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: currency1=potableSourceStr=USD Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: mobile.redirect.browser.checked=1 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: countrysite1=www Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: PCSplitValue1=3 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: tra=cookies=1&referrer=&sitename=www.godaddy.com&page=/&server=P3PWCORPWEB108&status=200 OK&querystring= Allow? Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: BlueLithium_yahooremarketing=ocbetjhbligalfddtatiwglisjpbggxf Allow? Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: GoogleADServicesgoogleremarketing=zbfcxegbggobpgahmataofvilahjnggg Allow? Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: advertisingHP1=zbfcxegbggobpgahmataofvilahjnggg Allow? Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

www.godaddy.com cookie: LP_ValueClick1=zbfcxegbggobpgahmataofvilahjnggg Allow? Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)

For the heck of it, I might just try and register a few names using the text based browser to see what prompts come up on each of the pages during the checkout process. You never know what you might discover when you revert to using a text based browser!

A Blast From The Past: What Mistakes Have You Made As A Domainer?

Every now and then I plan on revisiting an old post. Some of the topics that I’ve written about in the past are relevant to current day. Some of these posts serve as a reminder of where my mind was at and where my mind should currently be when it comes to domain investing. Today I chose to revisit a post that I wrote back in September of 2011 which covered one of many mistakes I made as a domain investor.

I like to consider my mistakes learning experiences and registering a .cm domain during the land rush stage was a HUGE learning experience for me. This post is the exact reason why I won’t be jumping into any land rushes for any of the new gTLDs. My investment strategy has changed since 2011 and although domain investing can be considered speculative I like to stick to extensions which are heavily marketed and have staying power.

The extensions I tend to invest in are .com, .net, .org, .me and .co. Yes, I tend to invest in these extensions in that order. Until another extension proves to me that they are going to do what it takes to make sure that their brand will continually be marketed to the masses, I will have to stick to the waters that I am used to. Enjoy the post!

What Mistakes Have You Made As A Domainer?

I’ve made quite a few mistakes as a domainer! These mistakes have cost me money and made me money. I guess the biggest mistake that I have made during my years spent as a domain investor is investing in bad gtlds. A perfect example of this would be when I fell into the land rush stages of the (.cm) extension.

Here is a little more information on this wonderful extension, grabbed directly from wikipedia:

The official registrar for .cm domains is Netcom.cm, based in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Netcom.cm Sarl was founded in early 2008 as a partner of ANTIC, the Information Technology Regulator for Cameroon. On October 15, 2008, NETCOM.cm Sarl launched the registry service for .com.cm, .co.cm and .net.cm. The current version of .cm domains went live August 27, 2009.

In August 2006, it was reported that the .cm registry had set up a wildcard DNS record, so that all unregistered domains in this top-level domain go to a parking page with paid search links. This was likely intended to take advantage of typographical errors by users attempting to reach .com web sites.

Recent auctions of .cm domains have skyrocketed as high as $81,000 for what pitchmen have termed “prime real estate”. However, some bloggers have noted that nothing of any real value was actually put up for auction, despite the price war. Namejet.com the official auction site for the .CM domain registrar Netcom.cm sold over $500,000 in .cm domain names the first day and over $2 million in the first week.

Guess how much this domain name cost me?  I paid a total of $350 for a 2 year registration.  I ended up doing nothing with the domain name and it dropped silently into the abyss.  I’m not mentioning the name because I am still fighting over the fact that I did nothing with it.  I spent $350 big ones for no apparent reason.  I bought into the hype and as soon as the rush was over I realized that I ended up with nothing more than a pipe dream.  In this pipe dream, I was the one left holding the bag.

This experience taught me many things, but the main realization I took from it is not to buy into the hype.  Right now there is a great deal of hype surrounding the (.xxx) extension, but I am staying far from it.  There will be money made in this extension, but I’ll leave that up to the big guys.  Anyways, they seem to strike deals before normal people like us are able to get a piece of that land rush pie.  Since that is the fact, I will stick to the waters that I am used to and lets just say (.me) is about as risky as I am willing to get these days!

Evernote Issues A Service-wide Password Reset

Today I received an email from the Evernote team about suspicious activity occurring on the their network. A little earlier today I was saving a few domain lists I had acquired to Evernote and noticed that my password wasn’t working. I was glad to see this email, because I initially thought I was either entering the wrong password or my account had been compromised.

To be honest with you, I expect Evernote to be a target. The massive amount of data that people store using the Evernote service probably looks like a pot of gold to some. It’s tempting to use Evernote to scan just about everything, but subtle reminders like this show that you have to be careful of what you store on any cloud based service.

Evernote is a great service, but I will be rethinking what I utilize the service for in the next few days. Anything which is stored online is vulnerable and although user files weren’t accessed, this should still be a wake up call for many of us that like to store just about everything with the service.  Here is the email that I received:

Dear Evernote user, 

Evernote’s Operations & Security team has discovered and blocked suspicious activity on the Evernote network that appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote Service.

As a precaution to protect your data, we have decided to implement a password reset. Please read below for details and instructions.

In our security investigation, we have found no evidence that any of the content you store in Evernote was accessed, changed or lost. We also have no evidence that any payment information for Evernote Premium or Evernote Business customers was accessed.

The investigation has shown, however, that the individual(s) responsible were able to gain access to Evernote user information, which includes usernames, email addresses associated with Evernote accounts, and encrypted passwords. Even though this information was accessed, the passwords stored by Evernote are protected by one-way encryption. (In technical terms, they are hashed and salted.)

While our password encryption measures are robust, we are taking steps to ensure your personal data remains secure. This means that in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords. Please create a new password by signing into your account on evernote.com.

After signing in, you will be prompted to enter your new password. Once you have reset your password on evernote.com, you will need to enter this new password in other Evernote apps that you use. We are also releasing updates to several of our apps to make the password change process easier, so please check for updates over the next several hours.

As recent events with other large services have demonstrated, this type of activity is becoming more common. We take our responsibility to keep your data safe very seriously, and we’re constantly enhancing the security of our service infrastructure to protect Evernote and your content.

There are also several important steps that you can take to ensure that your data on any site, including Evernote, is secure:

• Avoid using simple passwords based on dictionary words
• Never use the same password on multiple sites or services
• Never click on ‘reset password’ requests in emails – instead go directly to the service

Thank you for taking the time to read this. We apologize for the annoyance of having to change your password, but, ultimately, we believe this simple step will result in a more secure Evernote experience. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Evernote Support.

The Evernote Team

Zopfli.com Is Registered On The Same Day Google Makes An Announcement About The Open-Source Compression Library

Have you heard of Zopfli? I certainly didn’t know anything about it until Google made an announcement today that it was going to open-source the new general purpose data compression library. The Zopfli algorithm got its name from a Swiss bread recipe. Here is more information about the Zopfli Compression Algorithm taken directly from the Google Open Source Blog:

The Zopfli Compression Algorithm is a new, open sourced general purpose data compression library that got its name from a Swiss bread recipe. It is an implementation of the Deflate compression algorithm that creates a smaller output size compared to previous techniques. The smaller compressed size allows for better space utilization, faster data transmission, and lower web page load latencies. Furthermore, the smaller compressed size has additional benefits in mobile use, such as lower data transfer fees and reduced battery use. The higher data density is achieved by using more exhaustive compression techniques, which make the compression a lot slower, but do not affect the decompression speed. The exhaustive method is based on iterating entropy modeling and a shortest path search algorithm to find a low bit cost path through the graph of all possible deflate representations.

The output generated by Zopfli is typically 3–8% smaller compared to zlib at maximum compression, and we believe that Zopfli represents the state of the art in Deflate-compatible compression. Zopfli is written in C for portability. It is a compression-only library; existing software can decompress the data. Zopfli is bit-stream compatible with compression used in gzip, Zip, PNG, HTTP requests, and others.

Due to the amount of CPU time required, 2–3 orders of magnitude more than zlib at maximum quality, Zopfli is best suited for applications where data is compressed once and sent over a network many times — for example, static content for the web. By open sourcing Zopfli, thus allowing webmasters to better optimize the size of frequently accessed static content, we hope to make the Internet a bit faster for all of us.

As a domain investor I immediately checked to see if Google owned Zopfli.com. To my surprise (sarcasm) someone in China ended up registering the name. Ironically the person that registered the name not only registered it today, but a gmail email address is listed in the whois information for the name.

I decided to dig a little deeper and searched the street address located in the whois information and found out that this person / company also owns MicrosoftStorer.com. I guess we can sum it up that this individual can be labeled a domain squatter. It’s unfortunate to see Zopfli.com get snapped up, especially since it is an open-source compression algorithm. It will be interesting to see if Google decides to go after this name in the future. I’ll make sure to keep a close eye on what ends up happening.

Domain Spotlight Thursdays: TrafficManagement.com

Today’s domain spotlight is shined upon TrafficManagement.com. I spotted this domain name while heading home a few days ago. This is one of the best domains I have seen planted on the side of a truck. The domain is owned by a company called Traffic Management Inc. Here is a blurb taken from their website:

TMI specializes in providing our customers, employees and the public a safe work zone while maintaining an efficient flow of traffic. We combine many years of experience with new approaches and technologies to provide a fresh, progressive direction in the traffic control industry.

It’s interesting to see the company refer to themselves as TMI on their website. After reading this blurb I immediately found myself visiting TMI.com and unfortunately that domain is owned by EMCOR Group Inc. As I’ve said in the past, you can’t own all the good domains but Traffic Management Inc. definitely gets points for owning a solid two word premium name.

Here are a few pictures I was able to snap of the truck proudly showcasing this domain name:

Keyword Domain Wednesday: Domains Available To Register 2-27-2013

This week’s Keyword Domain Wednesday will just include a few keyword names that I found. I won’t go into detail about the Google exact searches for the phrases since I am running low on time. There are some decent names in this list. I especially like the device names.

AirlineFaresCheap.com

CheapFlightsForStudents.net

CheapFloridaVacations.net

CheapMexicoVacations.net

ComputerDriver.net

DeviceDriverSoftware.com

SmallRecordingDevice.com

It’s getting late and I’ve been messing with Virtual Box all day. It’s time to get some shut eye!

Rising Tide Media llc. Issues A Press Release About Acquiring YachtFinancing.com

Rising Tide Media llc. has acquired YachtFinancing.com. The press release states that Rising Tide Media llc. adds another top level domain name to its marine loan division. Here is the press release in its entirety:

Rising Tide Media llc. Acquires the Domain Name YachtFinancing.com

Sewell, NJ (PRWEB) February 26, 2013

Another powerhouse domain (YachtFinancing.com) has been acquired by Rising Tide Media llc.

With the latest addition of YachtFinancing.com, it brings a very unique solution to consumers in need of Boat Financing and Yacht Loans by ultimately giving them the Lowest Boat Loan Interest Rates around. Their goal with Boat Loans and Yacht Finance is customer support. Reps are available to answer questions and also walk customers through the loan process.

Boat Loans dot com provides an Online Boat Loan Application. They provide Boat Loans, Yacht Loans, Used Boat Loans, Boat Documentation services and Boat Loan Refinance. They also have free tools such as a Boat Loan Calculator which will help you determine your monthly Boat Loan Payment. They offer the flexible Boat Loan Rates and Terms, short and long term, its simple free and easier than ever to Apply for a Boat Loan these days.

Since Rising Tide Media llc. acquired the domain name yachtfinancing.com, Rising Tide Media llc. has set it up to redirect to boatloans.com. Over the next month Rising Tide Media llc. will build out a simple website for yacht financing with all the tools to help the consumers.

About Rising Tide Media llc.
Rising Tide Media llc. owns and operates sites likehttp://sportfishermen.com. Unlike most companies who offer web services Rising Tide Media can show you results. Rising Tide Media can show you sites they personally own that produce income. We offer consulting, web hosting, web design, programming, phone apps, advertising campaign management and domain name acquisitions.

Guest Post: 5 of the Best SEO Tools for Content Marketing by Anna Mackey

Anna reached out to me via email and offered to provide an article on SEO. This is a market segment that I would like to discuss more on this blog and I figured having Anna write an article catering to search engine optimization would only benefit those that read it. I hope you not only learn a few things from this guest post, but you put some of the tools that Anna mentions to good use. Enjoy!

SEO is a key factor to succeed on the web when it comes to creating and sharing content and media delivered to a targeted audience under the concept called content marketing. The goal of content marketing is to provide people with useful or entertaining information that is not that lengthy to bore people, nor too short, to get people ignoring the subtle call to action or sales pitch included in this format.

Carry out an SEO job based on a content marketing format will be much easier, after your discover the following five of the best SEO tools for content marketing that you can start using to improve your website performance and results.

Best Rank Checker Tools

Despite “pagerank” is a trademarked technology designed by Google, the main search engines on the web have their own ranking systems that measures and evaluates websites by performance and content delivered. In this category of SEO tools, we can name the free Search Engine Ranking Checking tool software that SEObook.com offers, the web-based Rank Checker that SEOmoz.org provides in a trial and membership basis, and most Rank Checker extensions for the Google Chrome and Firefox web browsers.

Best Content Marketing CMS

The most efficient way to make available content marketing-oriented information is publishing and sharing it with the aid of Content Management System (CMS) software that comes packed with all the SEO tools that you need to perform your marketing campaigns efficiently. In this matter, WordPress is undoubtedly the best SEO tool for content marketing that you can setup to deliver content to your surfers and trace the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, as this web software has SEO extensible functions through the many free and paid SEO tools that you can add and manage from inside your site’s dashboard.

Best Submission Tool

Because the ultimate goal of content marketing is publishing and sharing media and information, it is necessary to have a SEO tool that helps you submit the news about your site across the World Wide Web. Whether a press release, article distribution or simple content sharing an SEO Submission Tool will help you to do the job more efficiently, saving you valuable time and spreading the word faster. WebCEO.com is the leading company to get a free desktop submission application or sign up for an online-based submission account.

Best Duplicate Content Checker

Either to check that your own content marketing plans are not replicated elsewhere, or that your guest authors are not publishing duplicate content, an essential SEO tool is having an effective duplicate content checker. CopyScape.com is nowadays the website that offers the best content and plagiarism checker you can try free for the basic service, or signing up for the paid premium membership.

Best Backlink Analyzer

Although the ultimate goal of content marketing is reaching a specific audience and boosting traffic to your website, another contributing factor to achieve these goals is having other sites linking back to yours. For this purpose, the best backlink analysis SEO tool you can use is the free Open Site Explorer that you can find at www.opensiteexplorer.org.

Anna Mackey is the Online Marketing Manager of McKremie, an SEO firm based in Orange County Ca.

3 Places You Can Register A Domain And Pay With Bitcoins

At one of our Southern California Domainer meetups last year a member of the group showed me a bitcoin. I was a little skeptical about the P2P digital currency at first and didn’t think that it would be something that I would use. The digital currency has gained some serious traction and now I am convinced that there might be some direct uses for it after all. I plan on trying bitcoins out in the near future and I might even buy a few domains using them. According to PREEV 1 BTC = 29.80 USD. That would be enough for a couple of solid hand registrations.

Here are three places you can register a domain and pay with bitcoins:

1.  Domains4bitcoins.com – They offer a wide variety of extensions and have one of the largest selections I have seen for a domain registration site which allows bitcoins as a form of payment. Here is a promotional (Fiverr) video I found on their website:

2.  Frankdomains.com – Here is another solid domain registration site which accepts bitcoins as a form of payment. They even have a section dedicated to paying for domains with bitcoins on their website.

3.  Orangewebsite.com – This company does a little more than just domain registration. They provide web design & development, search engine optimization, web hosting in addition to domain registration. One of the first things I noticed when I visited the website was the bitcoin accepted here logo.

For a more comprehensive list of places you can register a domain and pay with bitcoins, make sure to visit bitcoin.stackexchange. I look forward to testing bitcoins out for myself and who knows I might actually accept the digital currency as a form of payment when it comes to my domain sales.