Verisign aggressively markets .com in India

Verisign, the custodian of the .com domain extension, is aggressively marketing its .com extension in India by emphasizing that bigger profits are possible with a .com website.

The company has launched a new initiative called Be A Leader With .Com in India and has several case studies to show how a .com web site has helped businesses thrive on the internet.

Verisign is aiming to showcase to its audience the following benefits of a .com website:

• Competitiveness: A .com domain name is one of the most popular across many geographies and industries.
• Reputation: Many of the biggest and best corporations around the world use and promote their Web sites with a .com extension.
• Customer traffic: A .com domain name is by far the most likely extension to be tried out by visitors from type-in traffic.
• Creates a positive perception: A .com domain name suggests that you are serious about doing business and lends credibility.
• Establishes longevity: .com is one of the oldest extensions and suggests a well-established presence on the Internet.
• Improved visibility: A .com domain name gives you the right advantage in a populated online landscape. Today’s search engines are geared to recognise .com. For example if you type mydomain into a search bar without worrying about the ‘www’ or the .com, you will end up at http://www.mydomain.com.

Free .mp domains as Chi.mp goes LIVE!

Chi.mp has opened up registration and is giving away free .mp domains, which are otherwise available for $20 per year at get.mp.

.mp is an interesting domain extension and could produce a number of domain hacks. I, myself tried the names of a few cities in Madhya Pradesh (MP), one of the largest states in India and wasn’t able to find a single one unregistered! Found out that all of these redirect to the Chi.mp home page! So, the guys had already thought of that and want to keep it personalized and not commercialized! Well, in that case at least these should be available as paid domains.

Would have been great to get some of those if I could but looks like it ain’t gonna be. Never mind!

Anyway, Chi.mp not only allows users to select a personalized .mp domain name, but also link it  to their online social networking profiles and RSS feeds etc. Would create some interesting kinda’ sites.

Hope this wouldn’t turn out to be a fibber as the .tel domain extension seems to be. So much for storing your contact details IN a domain name! Bah!

President Obama means business for domainers

The citizens of America made a historic decision by electing the country’s first African-American president, Barack Obama. Many newspaper traders are said to be asking for up to US$300 for a copy of The New York Times announcing Obama’s triumph on November 5.

Obama’s historic win also has given rise to hundreds of hopeful domainers and cybersquatters rushed to register domain names with Obama as a keyword. Many of these domain names are being pitched as premium domains and are being offered for sale on eBay, Sedo and many other domain name forums across in internet.

Even Obama’s popular speech termed ‘Yes We Can‘ has inspired people to write songs, record them and upload to Youtube and garner thousands of daily hits. It also seems to have inspired a pornographer who has put his domain www.sexwecan.com for sale for $10,000.

Then there are Obama playing cards, Obama pin badges, Obama plaques, Obama posters and Obama paper dolls and many other Obama items on sale on eBay and elsewhere.

Hope this euphoria augurs well for the new President of the USA and all that we would like to say is that -

Mr. President, We Wish You A Merry Christmas and hope that you will be able to play Santa Claus to the economy of the United States, which would mean some smaller gifts to other fledgling economies worldwide! May you have a terrific time at the White House and be able to pull off a coup of sorts by sorting out the economic mess all around! Amen!

.PRO domain names registrations pick up

EnCirca has announced that there has been a 100 percent surge in .pro domain registrations since RegistryPro relaunched the domain one month ago. This enormous surge in registrations demonstrates there is an unmet market demand for professional service firms who wish to develop their online brand.

Despite a very competitive market and assertions that the .com domain is the most desirable for small-business owners and professionals, the interest in the .pro domain signals that businesses and professionals are still investing in protecting their brands in niche markets. Customers that have registered their preferred .pro domain since relaunch include numerous trademark owners and professional service firms.

Dot-pro domain names work just like dot-com domains, with the ability to create fully featured websites and email addresses. The extension is already universally recognized on the Internet as the premium space for licensed professionals.

The .Pro domain is a restricted domain name, available to professionals who self-certify that they meet the eligibility requirements of their profession. There are no restrictions on the types of names a business or professional may register: including trademarks, industry keywords, search engine terms, company names, or marketing slogans. There is no limit to how many dot-pro domain names an individual or company can register.

Licensed professionals from anywhere in the world are eligible to register dot-pro domain names on a first-come, first-served basis for just $24.99 for the first year. Subsequent years will be priced at $49/year. Renewals are priced at $59.99/year.

Types of businesses and professions now eligible for dot-pro include: Lawyers, Accountants, Engineers, Doctors, Architects, Dentists, Educators, Chiropractors, Veterinarians, Surveyors, Plumbers, Inspectors, Investment Advisors, Real Estate Brokers, Insurance Brokers, Nurses, Opticians, Optometrists, Podiatrists, Psychologists, Therapists, Social Workers, Building Contractors, Electricians, Patent and Trademark Examiners, Court Reporters, Police and Fire Safety Officers and any other profession where an official credential is required for a business or individual to offer services.

“Trademark owners and professionals that are serious about protecting and building their brands have made themselves clear. They see .pro as a valuable tool in reaching their target market,” says Thomas Barrett, President of EnCirca. “We urge licensed professionals everywhere that have not secured their .pro domains to move quickly to ensure they safeguard their brands.”

EnCirca is offering a special promotional price for .pro domain names of just $24.99 for the first year. All applicants will be required to submit license credentials to demonstrate eligibility. All international businesses and individuals holding professional licenses can take advantage of this domain.

Israel.com sells for $5.88 million!

Another geo domain, Israel.com has been sold for $5.88 million to an unidentified buyer by its previous owner, Joel Noel Friedman, a 46-year-old Jewish American who bought the domain name originally in the year 1994.

The domain auction was managed by one of the leading domain name registrars, Moniker.com.

The new domain name owner has apparently parked the domain with SmartName.com hoping for some quick ROI (return on investment) through click monetization considering the interest the domain is currently generating in the cyber world owing to the publicity of its high profile sale.

This domain name sale is yet another example of how the business of domaining is on a roll with the booming virtual real estate market. A few prominent sales reported earlier this year include the $10 million sale of Fund.com, $2.6 million for Pizza.com and $1.7 million for DataRecovery.com

Also, another premium domain name America.com is up for sale and is expected to fetch record price.

Sunrise period for .me domains till May 20

The sunrise registration period for the newly launched .me domain names, the generic top-level domain of the country of Montenegro, is on till May 20 and companies having their company names and product names as registered trademarks can book them before the registrations are open for all on a first come first served basis.

The .me registry claims to have received thousands of domain name registrations in the first week of the announcement of the availability of the .me domains.

The sunrise applicants include companies Apple, which registered apple.me, ipod.me and itunes.me. Microsoft, Skype, Digg, MTV and BMW have also registered their .me domain names.

I have my reservations about this pricey domain name, available from 110 to 200 Euros per year for a minimum of five years, which is predicted to be very popular.

With that kind of money being involved, not very many domainers would like to register too many domains. What do you guys say?

Domain Names costlier! .org hiked by 10%

Public Interest Registry, the registry for .org domain names, has notified ICANN that it is increasing the wholesale prices for .org domain names by 10%. The annual wholesale price for .org domain name registrations will be $6.75, slightly below the $6.86 rate that .com domains are expected to be available at later this year. As the profit margins are thin on domain registrations, the price hike will pinch not your favorite domain registrar’s pocket but yours!

Public Interest Registry has given no rational for the price increase to ICANN. As far as I can make out, it has the most obvious business interest in its mind – profits!

One can’t really blame Public Interest Registry for thinking about ways to increase its profits. After all, it has monopolistic control over the .org domain names! In fact, when .biz registry NeuStar raised prices last year, it was belligerent enough to state the reason for the price hike as – everyone else was doing it. What bullshit!

Also, there are talks that Afilias is all set to hike prices of .info and that NeuStar is already planning another hike in .biz prices.

I have always believed that this whole system of ICANN and domain name registries is rotten to the core. They all have a cartel of sorts. Why does the government allow such monopolistic market conditions to emerge? I wish some intelligent guy in the US will hire good lawyers and file a lawsuit against all this!

Why am I mad? Well, the simple reason is that I have loads of domains that I need to get renewed every year and even now it is quite a lot of money I have to spend. With the price increase it will be a whole lot of new burden.

Yes, yes… I know… you will ask me to monetize the domain to sustain themselves. But bro, monetization doesn’t work on its own. It requires a lot of time, skills and effort, which again costs money. A domainer like me is not a programmer or web designer or an SEO expert. To hire them, I would need to spend money. Domaining is getting costlier by the day. Tsk… Tsk…

if I keep it spending on sustenance, when do I get to enjoy it?