Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

Readings for April 12th, 2008

Published on 2008-04-12 19:16:52 0 Comment Edit
URL: http://www.gulfnews.com/business/Technology/10205046.html

Gulfnews: Prepare for battles over domain names

An old friend sent me an email from Seattle last week. Things have changed in the 18 years since I last talked to Jothan Frakes. For starters, he's now an industry expert in the domain name industry, which didn't even exist the last time we talked. What brought about the email was a conversation I had earlier with Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, an organisation that includes in its tasks the managing of domain names and IP addresses . I won't go into all the details of the conversation, partly because the details are in dispute, but the general gist of what I wrote is that domainers are going to be an issue in the Middle East. Twomey has since said he said nothing negative about domainers. Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree there, although Paul's words were not as critical nor as directed as some websites portrayed them. What really seemed to confuse the issue is my description of domainers, who despite what the industry will tell you, do not have the best reputation as a whole. I have received emails saying that I had blackened the names of a solid and wholesome industry. Please, who are you trying to fool?

Source: Gulf News

News flash: Domainers operate globally.

OzDomainer: Domain Names Podcast Episode 8 with Michael & David Castello

Published on 2008-04-12 13:18:54 0 Comment Edit
URL: http://www.ozdomainer.com/97/domain-names-podcast-episode-8-...

Well I have been wanting to interview these guys since I first had the idea of doing some podcasts about domain names at Oz Domainer and what a treat it was!
According to Michael it was the first time that both himself & David had been recorded together for an interview.

Michael & David Castello (Michael on the left & David on the right of photo) are great guys with a huge depth of knowledge on domain names especially when it comes to Geo Domains.

Source: OzDomainer

Domain Bits: Don't Drink The "Develop Your Domains" Kool-Aid

Published on 2008-04-12 13:15:52 2 Comments Edit
URL: http://www.domainbits.com/develop-domains/

The biggest theme in the domainersphere in the last few days has been about development of domains. Many people are saying that this is the way forward for domainers and the best way to profit from domains. Elliot talks about his ideal portfolio. If you look at the direction he is heading in, he is basically selling off his portfolio of domains and working toward having a few successful developed websites. Lord Brar talks about how he makes money from domains - essentially he develops them before reselling. Over and over we hear about how "pure" domaining is dying, and domainers need to hop on the development bandwagon.
All of this is somewhat ironic to me, as I've come into domaining from an SEO background. As Peter would say, I'm an SEOmainer. So, I'm moving in the opposite direction that everyone is recommending - I'm doing less developing, and more pure domaining.

I've got nothing against development and indeed, I continue to develop websites. However, I think the problem with the recommendations I see is that most domainers underestimate the amount of time, money and energy that goes into developing a successful site. It's actually quite incredibly large. It's also important to recognize that developing a site is actually fairly trivial in the scheme of things; what's difficult about making a website successful is marketing, and marketing is a relentless, demanding, and never ending task.

Source: Domain Bits

Seth Godin: Drop the dot?

Published on 2008-04-12 13:12:14 2 Comments Edit
URL: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/04/drop-the-dot...

Rob writes in from Australia, proposing that [dot] com is superfluous, just as www is.
We don't say, "Visit us at http://www.askinosie.com," we just say, "askinosie.com."

It's pretty clear that we don't need the front matter. In fact, the latest version of most browsers are intelligent enough that you don't have to type www in. But do we need the [dot] com part? Shouldn't the user be smart enough to type in the brand name and expect to get the site?

The suffix is useful, and we'll have it for a long, long time in my opinion. That's because [dot] com uses just four characters to say, "we have a website and this is the address for it." No need to say "our website is" when you can just use four characters instead.

Source: Seth Godin