Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Note.com has a Twitter feel to it

DomainReport.ca

Thanks to a post today at Fusible.com
http://fusible.com/2010/12/will-namedias-social-networking-app-note-com-go-public-in-2011/

I decided to revisit Frank Schilling's Note.com site.  I've seen the site before and the note form on some of his other sites, and even filled it in a few times.  Today I noticed that on the right hand side of Note.com you can see people's comments, but also the domain name that each note came from.  It's interesting to watch some of the notes scroll by and see how the comments relate to the keywords in the domain it came from.

Some examples:

"Does anyone know when Japan became a country?"  - japaninfo.com

"Does anyone have a yorkie?  Are they good?"  - dirtypaws.com

"Can I use my SEP and Keough to pay off my homes first and second mortgage(s)?My homes value is under water and it hard to keep up in these rough times,please advise"  - taxattornies.com (typo)

"hi kelly im sandy and i love your note about wolves.<3<3<3"  - wolfpictures.com

There are also some funny and silly comments left, but that's what you can expect when you give some people a blank platform to list their comments.

By looking at the notes for a while what can you conclude?  One thing is that many of these people are visiting the domains and have questions or comments about the keyword subject.  Another thing is that you get the feeling you are getting some real-time comments from people who are out there in the world, looking for something online.  It is also the same feeling you get when looking at Twitter tweets.  Real time information coming from people all over.  That is one of the great advantages of Twitter, you can get real-time feedback on all kinds of subjects, and see which ones are hot (trending) at the moment. 

There is also an Ask Jeeves or Answers.com feel to the page, because many people are asking questions.  As far as I know they are not getting any answers yet, but maybe that is a feature to come.

So where will this all take Note.com?

I don't think anyone knows yet, not even Frank, and it even says that on the site.  But as we've seen from Twitter there is some value in getting real-time feedback from a large amount of people.  Maybe I'd want a widget from Note.com to put on my websites so people can join the Note.com network.  Maybe I'd want a widget that shows me whenever someone leaves a note about a subject like "U2" or "New York" or "Christmas".  Could Note.com somehow become a blend between Twitter and Answers.com, with some other kind of twist?

It will be interesting to see how this experiment develops, but it surely looks like it is turning into something.

Make Millions!

Also today, I read a post about Mike Mann at SullysBlog.com
http://sullysblog.com/Mike-Mann

There is a nice interview there with Mike Mann.  He is the person who started BuyDomains.com and now runs DomainMarket.com.  He has built great portfolios of domain names, among the many other ventures he is involved with.  Mike Mann seems to be one of those guys who does everything.  The interview noted that Mike Mann has a book out called "Make Millions & Make Change!". 

Whenever you get the chance to read a book by someone who has accomplished a lot, you should always take advantage of that.  The book has a website at MakeMillions.com where you can order it from Amazon, read it online or download a pdf or audio version.  I am definitely going to get my hands on a copy, I'm sure there are a few things in there that can help me!  Thank you to Mike, and to Sully for the blog post!

What Will 2011 Bring for the .CA extension?

DomainReport.ca

To start things off as 2010 comes to an end, I saw one .ca sale reported at Sedo this week.

Wonga.ca - 2,599 EUR


The domain is still parked at Sedo, and at first I was a little surprised because I don't know what Wonga means.  But Wonga.com is a cash loan site from the UK, so perhaps they bought it to start up in Canada.

I think Ron Jackson of DNJournal.com will be publishing his last weekly domain sales report of 2010 today, and there may be some more .ca sales reported.

Looking back on 2010, to me it was not a standout year for the .ca extension.  There were a few nice sales and many Canadian businesses and people continue to use the .ca extension, but I don't feel there was any major breakthrough in the aftermarket for .ca.  The biggest event was perhaps the switch to an EPP code system from the previous registrar/registrant transfer system through CIRA.  CIRA gave the registrars more control over the transfer of .ca's.  Though it was a bit confusing at first, I think most people are now familiar enough with it.

Another big event of the last year was the TBR .ca domain drop being postponed for a few weeks while the new EPP system was implemented.  Then we had a number of TBR drops cancelled, with the last cancellation causing a major stir amongst participants because although the drop was successful, CIRA decided that it wasn't a fair drop to all the registrars and so cancelled it again.  Gladly, this event is now behind us!

What will 2011 bring for .ca domains?

I don't know!  But seriously, here are a few of the things I see ahead for the .ca extension in the coming year or so.  Some of these apply to domains in general, but I think that .ca will get caught up in the general trends of domain names.

.CA will continue to be a preferred (top 1 or 2 choice) for most Canadians.  You still see a lot of people and businesses in Canada using the .ca.  Governments use .ca and it is in advertisements everywhere.  Since it continues to be reinforced in everyday life, I think the .ca remains on solid ground in Canada.

More businesses and people will need a good domain name.  I think now more than ever most people realize that it's a virtual world, and you have to have an online presence to be relevant.  People will want to have a cool domain name.  Businesses will want to have their name as a domain name, or a domain that describes what they do.  Unfortunately, many will find that their first choice for a domain name is already registered and/or being used by someone else.  I got more end user enquiries this year than in the past - not by a huge amount but it's been picking up.  Many only want to offer $100 to $300 for a domain, but I think this is the start of a trend.  As good domains become more scarce, you will see prices go up.  I think we are at the start of this happening in a significant way.

Domainers will continue to shed some domains and pick up new ones.  The great thing about a domain name is that after you register it, you have a full year to evaluate it.  Did it get any traffic, did you think of a good business use for it now or in the future?  Is it still relevant a year later?  Does it have value beyond it's registration fee?  All these questions and more we ask ourselves as renewal time comes up.  Some domains just don't seem to be worth keeping anymore, so we let those drop.  We renew the good ones and most of us are always finding good domains available to register or buy.  It is a never ending cycle.

I realize these aren't ground breaking predictions, but I think the .ca extension will just continue a steady course and slow rise as it's been doing already.

What big events could happen for .ca?  The biggest change I could see happening would be for CIRA to open up the extension for anyone to register (not just Canadians or businesses with Canadian presence).  I would say this is not likely to happen in the coming year, but you never know.  It is always a possibility and seems to work fine for others like .es, .co, .de, .mx and .me.  What this would do is bring in a whole new (and large) segment of domain investors who want a piece of the Canadian market.  I just saw on the news today that Canadians in general are the most active online users in the world.  We are a small market but very internet savvy.

Another big event would be a large .ca sale, or portfolio sale.  There are some Canadians who own medium to large portfolios of Premium keyword .ca domains.  I could see more of these types of domains being sold off in singles, or a large portfolio being acquired as was the case when Yellow Pages bought a big portfolio of .ca domains a number of years ago.  Nothing shines a light at an extension more than a large sale, especially if it involves a well known company.  Actually, sales like this probably occur from time to time with .ca, they just don't get reported publicly.

My advice for people who hold a portfolio of .ca domains remains the same, pick a few and try to develop them this year.  A good place to start is with a blog about a subject you are interested in because you will have the incentive to keep it up, and you will already know about the subject matter.  Another good blog or website subject would be to do with your local area - real estate, hotels, restaurants - if you live in an area you can more easily do an online site for it.  Remember that you really only need one domain and one website to be successful, and there are many examples of this (Google, Facebook, Amazon).  The problem domainers have is they can see the potential in many domains, and keep acquiring them but never do anything.  Try this year to develop one or a few domains while you wait for the sales to happen.

An interesting Frank Schilling story

I will leave you with an interesting blog post that involves a person who was trying to acquire davey.ca for a family site.  You can read his post here and also Frank's response, which I thought was well worded.  I think the blogger's feelings are ones that are typical for many people who aren't familiar with the domain world.

http://www.reapazor.com/2009/09/27/domain-squatters-web-mafia/

All the best to you for 2011! 

What are your opinions on the next year for the .ca extension?

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Dec 8 .ca TBR domain drop

DomainReport.ca

Well it looks like we are finally back to normal in the wild and wacky world of .ca domain drops. 

Yesterday was the first TBR since the 32,000+ name drop of Dec 1 that finally completed.  This time everything went smoothly so I hope it will continue to be the same in the coming weeks.

This week's drop had just over 2,000 names in it, and about 257 of those domains were grabbed in the drop.

Some of the bettter names (or names I just like) that I saw on the list of dropped domains include:

med.ca
soycandles.ca
ssh.ca
annual.ca
263.ca
bankwire.ca
fruitbowl.ca
mist.ca - (good name to brand a product with, like a room spray or deodorant)
waterbottle.ca
328.ca
a-b.ca
spaceships.ca - (think of the future)
m-b.ca - (my brother's initials)
slope.ca
o-n.ca
quebecgolf.ca
santaletters.ca - (potential holiday business)
homeworker.ca
scramble.ca
swab.ca
hockeymoms.ca - (thanks to all those moms who take their kids to hockey!)
paydayloanscanada.ca - (nice search term)
cartevirtuelle.ca - (virtual greeting card in french)
siliconvalley.ca
powerzone.ca

Did you get anything good in this week's TBR?  I only got one name, cartevirtuelle.ca

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

.CA TBR tries again Today, Janssen.ca sale

DomainReport.ca

It's now been almost a week since CIRA cancelled the last TBR .ca domain drop results.

Last week's TBR went through fine from CIRA's end, however CIRA spent some time afterwards reviewing the process.  Following this review, CIRA claimed there was confusion from some registrars about participating in the TBR based on information that CIRA had provided.  These registrars therefore didn't catch any names, and so CIRA decided it was not a fair process and cancelled the results.  The TBR was rescheduled to today, Dec. 1, and hopefully this time it will go through.

There has been a firestorm of discussion in domain forum threads, wondering if it was just one main registrar company affected, or many different (unrelated) ones.  CIRA claims that it cannot identifiy which specific registrars were affected, only that it may have been 3 to 7.  It's well known that larger registrar companies create many smaller registrars under their umbrella in order to have a better chance at catching dropping .ca domains.  While many people still have suspicions, there is unfortunately no concrete evidence about what really happened and which registrars were affected.  Some of the registrars that were successful in catching dropping domains last week claimed they couldn't see how a registrar would have had problems.

As for recent .ca domain sales, DNJournal.com posted one sale last week in their weekly sales report. 

Janssen.ca -  sold for $4,068 US

It looks like this domain was sold to Janssen-Ortho Inc., a healthcare company that already has a website up for this domain.

There will be another sales report out from DNJournal today.  I also expect to see a lot of .ca auctions from the 32,000 + domains that are dropping today.