Monday, April 27, 2009

MyID posts .ca domain auction schedule

DomainReport.ca - MyID has now posted their auction schedule for .ca domain names in May and June (see below).

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MyID.ca will be holding weekly auctions during the months of May and June 2009.

The auctions will take place on Tuesdays, and will start at 1:00 pm Toronto time. Bidding will be open for 2-3 hours depending on number of domains auctioned and the auction anti-sniping extension. The first auction will happen on Tuesday May 5, 2009. The last auction (before summer break)will take place on June 23, 2009. In total 8 auctions will take place in May and June. The auction schedule for the summer will be announced later.

As the bidding period is relatively short (few hours), we will allow proxy bids to be placed by those that won't be able to attend a certain bidding
session. These bids will be hidden and will be placed as proxy bids when bidding starts.

Here is the schedule of the upcoming auctions with relevant info about the auction type and the submission period:

May 5, No Reserve Auction, Submission period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by April 30,

May 12, Geo Domains Auction, Submission Period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by May 5,

May 19, General Auction, Submission Period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by May 5,

May 26, $100 Reserve Auction, Submission Period starts on April 28,Domains will be listed by May 12,

June 2, Adult-Only Auction, Submission period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by May 19,

June 9, General Auction, Submission Period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by May 19,

June 16, $250 reserve Auction, Submission Period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by May 26,

June 23, General Auction, Submission period starts on April 28, Domains will be listed by June 2.

Please note the following:

a) All those wishing to participate are encouraged to complete the authentication process ASAP. This applies to both buyers and sellers.

b) The No-Reserve Auctions and fixed-reserve auctions are not meant for mediocre names. We will not accept any domains of sub par quality.

c) A domain can be submitted once for any of these 8 auctions. Unsold domains can still accept offers through PAO (Post Auction Offers).

d) All our auctions are .ca auctions only.

e) The 'listed by' date above indicates that auction lists may be announced earlier if a sufficient number of domains is received. Accordingly, you are
encouraged to submit your domains early to reserve your spots. You can actually reserve a spot for June 23 auction on April 28.

f) We will advise domain owners when their domain(s) have been accepted. This will give them more time to advertise and market their domains.

g) The submission period on April 28 starts at 2:00 pm Toronto time. Submissions will be accepted for all auctions.

h) There have been some changes in the auction operations. We'll advise of these in an email in the next 24 hours. All authenticated users will receive
that email. In addition, all those that subscribed to our mailing list will be receive that message.

i) We reserve the right to make changes in the schedule and info above. Adequate notice will be sent to advise of the changes.

For any question you may have, please contact us.

Best of luck to all.

MyID.ca Auction Team


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Friday, April 24, 2009

MyID to resume .ca domain name auctions

DomainReport.ca - I just received an email this morning from MyID.ca informing that they will be running more .ca domain name auctions in May and June. There are a few changes to the auctions from last year which are explained in their email below.

I didn't think we'd be seeing any .ca auctions this year due to the economy, but the overall domain market seems to be holding up, with many auctions still running at the major domain conferences. If anything, I get a feeling that the economy is driving more people to get a business online due to lower start up costs and the lull in the job market. If you are out of work, one option is to start your own online business instead of doing nothing. And to get online you need a good domain name to increase your chances of success.

To learn more about MyID and the auctions, please click here to visit their site.

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Greetings from Gus and Danny and all of us here at MyID.ca. We are very excited at what we have planned over the next couple of months.

A) MyID Dot Ca Auctions:

1) MyID.ca will be holding a number of dot ca auctions in May and June. These auctions will include on top of our usual auctions, some specialized ones such as no-reserve auction, geo domains auctions, and an "adult" domains auction.

2) The exact dates of these auctions will be announced in the next 48 hours. At that time, an auction calendar will be posted and all authenticated domain owners will be invited to submit their domains and reserve their spots for the next and subsequent auctions.

3) There will be limited spots in each auction for high value domains ($10k+). These spots will be allocated on a first come first served basis to the premium generics with attractive reserves.

4) Each auction will be followed by a 'Post Auction Offer' period that would allow the unsold domains to receive offers.

5) MyID.ca commission is now a sliding scale that rewards frequent sellers with lower commissions (as low as 5%). In addition, frequent buyers are rewarded with cash back incentives.

6) We will allow credit card payment for some transactions. Some restrictions apply. Our ironclad security will not be negatively impacted.

B) Even more BIG news....

We are putting the final touches on a number of additional projects all targeted to .ca domainers. This will be HUGE!

Details coming up very very soon.

Keep a close eye on your Inbox and for now plan on what you would like included in the next auctions.

Here's to your success

MyID.ca Auction Team



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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Sema.ca sells at Sedo

DomainReport.ca - The latest weekly sales report is out at DNJournal.com, and there was one .ca domain sale reported in the country codes.

Sema.ca - $5,000

I'm not sure of the meaning of 'sema', it looks to be a common acronym for many uses. We'll have to wait and see what kind of site is put up.

What I found interesting in this weeks domain sales report, and reports of recent weeks, is that the average selling price for country code domains is above that of the .net's, .org's, .info's and other global tlds (not including .com).

There were many .de, .co.uk, .es and .fr sales in the country code section this week. Even though those countries have 2x to 3x the population of Canada, they get many more sales reported than for the .ca extension. It makes me think that the .ca domain market has some catching up to do, which should happen over time. Many of these other country code extensions are also open to anyone, while .ca has some restrictions regarding residence.

Monday, April 20, 2009

The tale of ForSale.ca

DomainReport.ca - The domain blog DomainBits.com reports on a CDRP proceeding (Canadian equivalent of UDRP) for the domain name ForSale.ca

http://www.domainbits.com/reverse-domain-hijacking/

Great read and it looks like the panel made a good decision.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

EEE.ca sells in TBR auction

DomainReport.ca - The domain name eee.ca was auctioned today after being picked up in yesterday's TBR. The winning price for this domain was $2,550 CAD. This is a domain that expired and wasn't renewed by it's previous owner.

The appeal of this domain is that it is short, and contains all the same letter. "E" is also considered a premium letter. There are only 26 possible combinations like this, and I've never seen any come up for sale in the past.

The final price shows that short domains with special features like this one are highly regarded.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

dot .ca domain sales of past week

DomainReport.ca - The DNJournal.com sales report is out this week, and there are two .ca sales to report. Most of the .ca sales of late have been taking place in forums or in the weekly TBR, but now there are a couple of other sales to report that I haven't seen until today.

LocalWork.ca - $3,500 US at Sedo

SmallBusinessLoan.ca - $1,499

On a site note, property.ca is still listed for sale at dnforum.com, and the high bid is at $74,000 CAD.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Property.ca listed for sale at DNForum

DomainReport.ca - The domain name property.ca has been listed for sale at DNforum.com with an asking price of $111,000.

Offers are also being taken.

The thread for this sale is here:

http://www.dnforum.com/f356/property-ca-thread-359965.html

I don't usually post sales of .ca domain names like this, but this is a highly premium domain and is worth noting that it's being made available. It is one of the best, or the best domain you could use for the Real Estate market in Canada.

If you are interested in this domain please visit the link above and contact the owner directly.

Some of the details from the sales thread:

Let me start by saying I have sold several big 5 figure dot ca domains and never have I owned or sold as powerful a keyword as this, never imagined I ever would. It by far trumps all previous reported sales/names but for 1 or 2 and by all rights should be asking far more when putting them side by side to compare. The dot com is reported to have seen 8 figures, that is $10M+++. The property industry will ALWAYS be with us, the name has it all. Not everyone can afford such a name but those who have or do would ask considerablly more and for much less. The potential here is to see another 6 figures from an end user or reseller.

I will make some things clear.

This is NOT a traffic or revenue sale, do not ask. It does obviously receive both though. This is Keyword all the way!
This is the first time the name has ever been offered you have not seen it elsewhere.
I am taking offers via PM or email ONLY, unless you are posting SOLD@BIN or a nice comment, please do not post.
There is one condition with the sale, that 2 @property.ca emails are forwarded for 5-6 months.

That is all and I MAY update the high offer in time. Presently there are 3 serious five figure offers from members here.

All the best to those who make offers and enjoy going after what is imo the very BEST dot ca ever offered for such a price and very best dot ca offered on dnforum or any forum for that matter.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Kaboose sells to Disney Online and Barclays

DomainReport.ca - Canada based Kaboose Inc., an online media company that owns parenting and family websites in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, announced today that it is selling virtually all it's assets to Barclays and Disney Online.

Barclays Private Equity is purchasing Kaboose's UK based Bounty Group Limited.

Disney Online, a unit of Disney Interactive Media Group, will purchase substantially all of Kaboose's North American assets, including all of its online media properties and related businesses.

Some of Kaboose's websites include:

Kaboose.com

BabyZone.com

Bounty.com

AmazingMoms.com

ParentZone.com

Zeeks.com


Gross proceeds from this sale will be about $120 Million, which will be distributed to shareholders at an expected value of 65 cents per share. In the last year Kaboose shares have traded over $1.50 C, and as low as 23 cents C.

It's an interesting sale in that Kaboose has esentially built up all these website destinations, and is now selling them to huge media companies. It's a trend we've seen before and that I believe will continue.

Kaboose is a company I've looked into for a few years and considered investing in due to their online focus, high traffic sites and good domains. Shares in Kaboose were trading in the 20 and 30 cent range as recently as December and January. Anyone who bought at those levels will probably enjoy cashing out in the 65 cent range from this purchase.