Monday, December 29, 2008

Vacation.ca sold today

DomainReport.ca - In a quick turn of events, the domain I reported earlier today for sale on eBay, Vacation.ca, is confirmed by the seller to have been sold since that posting. The BIN price on eBay was set at $75,000 US, however it looks to have sold for under that amount. Unfortunately we will never know the final sale price due to buyer/seller confidentiality, however it is very likely a high/mid xx,xxx US dollar sale. What is certain is that it is one of the nicest .ca generic domains to have changed hands in 2008.

Vacation.ca up for sale on eBay

DomainReport.ca - I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and was able to spend some quality time with loved ones! The new year is almost here, and I think most of us will be happy to say good-bye to 2008, especially the latter part of 2008.

A premium .ca domain has been listed on eBay with a BIN (buy it now) price of $75,000 US. The domain is Vacation.ca and here is a link to the page:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200290845756

The owner has disclosed that he has turned down offers in the $40,000 range already. As of today the sales page for this domain has had 117 views, and shows that two offers have been made.

The sales format for this domain isn't an auction, it looks like potential buyers can make an offer, or simply buy at the BIN price. If an offer is made that the seller likes, he can accept it. Obviously this would be a great domain for a company in the travel/tourism/vacation/holiday industry. It's easy to remember, on the mark, passes the radio test, and would look good in a print ad.

On another front, a two letter .ca appears to have sold on DNforum.com for $8,000. That domain is SN.ca


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Friday, December 19, 2008

.CA domainer profile on Namefox

DomainReport.ca - Today the domain report is pleased to bring you our profile on dnforum.com member and .ca domainer - Namefox - and his current project at SEOspecialist.ca. If you're a member at dnforum, you have probably noticed that Namefox is a frequent poster in the .ca discussion and sales threads.

The idea of these profiles is to show other .ca domain holders what others are doing in this space, what is working, what is not, how people started out, and so on. If you're like me, you find the people involved in domains to be as interesting as the actual buying, selling and development of domains.

If you would like to be profiled, please send me an email to rob (at) borhi.com and I will get back to you with a list of questions you can answer at your own leisure. Not to be left out, I plan to profile myself in the next few weeks as well.

Well then, let's get started with our profile on Namefox today!

What is your DNForum handle?:
Namefox

And your first name?:
Wallace

Where do you live?:
Surrey, BC

What year did you start domaining and how/why did you get into it?:
2000. I got into it as a result of owning an online business selling specialty blankets. I owned the .com for my business and I bought the .ca to protect my brand. I started snooping as I always do and found some really good .ca's relating to blankets so I registered them. It was a natural (or unnatural) progression from there.

How many domains do you own? What % are .ca?:
I currently own 250; 50% are .ca.

What do your family/friends think of your domaining?:
My girlfriend is amazed and likes the money. My friends are blown away at the return on investment and are always asking to be taught.

How much time do you spend on domaining?:
Probably about 20 hours per week. All hours are not totally out of necessity but out of love for the game. I like to hunt for good domains.

Are you full-time or part-time domaining? if part-time, do you hope to get to full-time, or is it just a side business for you?:
I was F/T but am currently just P/T but am hoping to get back into F/T domaining/ecommerce in 2009.

Do you develop domains, do PPC, sell domains, or all? What methods have worked best for you?:
I do a multitude of things. I buy/sell, PPC, develop and start e-commerce sites.

What will you try in 2009 for domaining that you haven't tried yet?:
Focusing on more development definitely.

What was your best domaining move (.ca and other extension)?:
I would have to say getting in early and listening to my instincts.

Your worst domaining move (.ca and other extension)?:
Buying crappy, non-commercial domains in the beginning.

How do you sell your domains?:
Mostly on DNforum.com but I also contact end users.

Right now, are you doing more aftermarket buying, or fresh regging?:
I do alot of fresh registrations but I do find myself buying aftermarket when good opportunities arise.

What is occupying most of your time right now in domaining or websites?:
Although I am very internet literate, I still don't have great web design skills. I am increasing skills in this area.

What do you think of the future of the .ca extension, say in 5 to 10 years?:
There will be a lot more awareness in Canadian culture of the .ca domain space. We are seeing an increase in usage of .ca domains in business and this will only increase. With CIRA running things, I don't really know where they are headed but I sure hope .ca domainers band together to increase their say and louden their voice.

What advice you would give other domainers or someone just starting out?:
It really all depends on your pocket book. If you have a small budget, do not start of frantic. Get some advice, buy a few good domains and develop them. Focus on bringing in traffic and increasing revenue. Once you feel you have a good understanding of the internet and domaining, start buying more domains. If you have a large budget, buy in the aftermarket and preferably my domains ;-)

Is there anything else you would like to add? Any projects you currently have on the go?:
I have been doing my own search engine optimization successfully for over 8 years. About 2 years ago, I started contracting out my services to other people and companies. Just recently, I started SEOspecialist.ca and am signing on with new clients every week. I am also working in conjunction with Ready Network and am doing contract work for them. If you or any one you know are looking for an SEO specialist, send them to SEOspecialist.ca.


Thank you for your time in answering these question!


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Wednesday, December 17, 2008

.CA domain sales make weekly sales report

DomainReport.ca - Today's domain sales report from dnjournal.com includes some .ca domains in the country code section, after quite a few weeks of little or no .ca reported activity.

The .ca sales included many domains from MyID.ca's last .ca auction. MyID is planning to hold another .ca auction in the second half of January 2009.

Lesbian.ca was the #2 country code domain, and made #17 on the overall chart.

sales figures are in US $

lesbian.ca - $20,400

graduationgifts.ca - $2,500

momz.ca - $2,000

catsonline.ca - $1,850

publicrelationsjobs.ca - $1,700

socialjobs.ca - $1,600

translationjobs.ca - $1,250

secretrecipes.ca - $1,250

The top extensions in country code sales were .de, .co.uk and .eu in terms of numbers of domains placed. Other extensions that showed up were .nl, .tv, .fr, .se, .cn, .es, .ch. .asia.

The top country code sale was Schauspiel.de for $28,200, which means 'pageant' in German.

Monday, December 15, 2008

PO.ca on auction at Sedo

DomainReport.ca - A nice two letter .ca domain is currently on auction at Sedo.

The auction for PO.ca has 8 bids right now and is at a value of $3,400 US, although the reserve is not met. There is just over 3 days left in the auction.

You can view the auction by clicking here.

Two letter domains are always in great demand, especially in top country codes like .ca. There are only 676 possible combinations of two letter domains.


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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Domain Auction today at DNForum.com 6pm EST

DomainReport.ca - Just a reminder to everyone that dnforum.com is holding a domain auction today starting at 6pm EST (3pm PST).

Head on over to dnforum.com to join in the fun!

The other big news today is that Google has announced they will be opening up "Adsense for domains" to all adsense publishers in the next week. This means if you have domains without websites, you can 'park' them in the Adsense program and possibly earn revenue from any traffic. Overall, I think this is a good thing because it will give publishers one more feature to use with Adsense, instead of having to find domain parking from another source. The service rolls out to North America and English users first, then will move to other regions and languages over time.



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Monday, December 8, 2008

Tucows launches Hover.com

DomainReport.ca - Canada based Tucows launches domain management service Hover.com, see today's press release below:

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TORONTO, Dec. 8 /CNW/ - Tucows Inc., (AMEX:TCX, TSX:TC) a global provider of domain names, email and other Internet services, today officially welcomes Hover (http://hover.com) to its family of web services.

Hover is a hassle-free domain management service that makes it easy for anyone to buy a domain name, set up a personalized email address and connect a domain name to all of their web services - in seconds.

"Many providers will sell you a domain name, but none make it really simple to use those names," said Ross Rader, General Manager, Hover. "Our goal is to make domain names as easy to use as they are to buy."

Hover's features include:

- Hover's innovative URL forwarding tools make it incredibly easy to
manage your personal identity online:

- Use Hover to point other people to various web pages. For example,
rather than sending someone a link that looks like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCutOJ5YfMk , you can
use Hover to create "shortcuts" that look like this:
http://awesomelawncare.com/tips or
http://howto.awesomelawncare.com.

- Hover helps users create personalized email and email forwards
that share the same personalization as the domain name. This helps
get rid of ugly email addresses like: lawncare99@hotmail.com,
replacing them with personalized addresses like sales@
awesomelawncare.com

- They also include simple, easy-to-use domain management tools like
WHOIS privacy and DNS management all included at no extra charge.

Hover offers three options for selecting domain names:

- Use a simple search that offers helpful domain name suggestions to
easily find that perfect domain name. At launch, Hover offers .COM,
.NET, .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ, .US and .CA, with more options coming soon.

- Bring an existing domain name that you registered with another
provider to Hover and take advantage of Hover's advanced features and
easy-to-use management tools.

- Choose a "Personal Domain" based on your first and last name for the
ultimate in personalization. Hover offers access to over 39,000
surnames for web addresses and email.

Hover is the only domain name management service to offer a free trial,
allowing users to check out some of the Hover tools before paying.

Paid Hover accounts all include:

- A domain name
- Unlimited domain and link forwarding
- Easy POP, IMAP and webmail upgrade options
- Unlimited customer support via email, web and telephone
- Customized, ad-free and iPhone-compatible Hover page
- Easy-to-understand pricing with no confusing upsells or add-ons.

Hover is clear and open with users about their rights and responsibilities as a domain name owner. There are no over-complicated domain ownership rules or shifty practices. Instead Hover provides easy-to-read terms and conditions, an interactive Domain Name Timeline and other tools to give customers the information they need to manage domain names without a hassle.

"With Hover we've taken more than 12 years of experience selling domain names and combined it all with the latest web technologies to make domain name registration simple and less confusing," said Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows. "There's no reason that the average person should feel intimidated, or confused when buying a domain name. Hover delivers on its promise to make a domain name as easy to use as it is to buy."

Hover takes a "best practices" approach to domain sales, using Tucows wholesale services provided by OpenSRS as its foundation. Tucows Retail Services is unifying its ItsYourDomain (IYD) retail, NetIdentity and Domain Direct domain registration services on Hover. Customers of IYD (It's Your Domain) were transferred to Hover last week. Domain Direct and NetIdentity customers can look forward to being transferred in early 2009.

About Tucows

Tucows is a global Internet services company.

OpenSRS manages over 8 million domain names and millions of email boxes through a reseller network of over 9,000 web hosts and ISPs. Hover is the easiest way for individuals and small businesses to manage their domain names and email addresses. YummyNames owns premium domain names that generate revenue through advertising or resale. Butterscotch.com is an online video network building on the foundation of Tucows.com. More information can be found at http://tucowsinc.com.

Contacts

Leona Hobbs
Director of Communications
Tucows
lhobbs@tucows.com
(416) 538-5450

Saturday, December 6, 2008

DNForum.com holding domain auction December 11

DomainReport.ca - DNForum.com is holding a live domain auction on December 11, 2008 at 6pm EST (3pm PST). If you are already a member there, check out the post located in the 'Platinum Lounge' section. If not a member, you can join at DNForum.com

Here are more details on the auction.

When: Thursday December 11, 2008 - 6:00PM EST (3pm PST)

Where: DNF Chat Room

1. Auction Type: Reserve and No Reserve Auction
2. One entry per member - Platinum and Exclusive members only
3. Payment is expected within 24 hours.

Information required for submission:

- Name(s), Registrar, Expiration date, Traffic
- Starting Price
- Payments: Escrow, Paypal, Moneybookers, etc...

Bid Increment:

- up to $100 - $5 minimum increment
- up to $999 - $20 minimum increment
- $1,000 and up - minimum $50 increment

Reserve Auction:

- If you have a reserve auction - your starting price must be at least 25% of the reserve price

Notes:

DNForum conducts the auction on behalf of members and is not responsible for the transaction after the auction. Members need to check for the ownership of the name as well as the payment from the buyer.

Do you have auctioneer talent? If so, they are looking for volunteers who are available at that time of day to help with the auction.

In my opinion it's a great time to hold an auction, because sellers can make some extra income before Christmas, and buyers can probably find some good prices from motivated sellers.

I've already submitted my domain to the auction: Fratire.com

For additional information, join or log in at DNForum.com and check out the post in the 'Platinum Lounge'.



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Friday, December 5, 2008

Words.ca up for auction

DomainReport.ca - The domain words.ca is currently on auction at Sedo, with two bidders and a price of $1,800. There are just under six days left until auction end.

Click here to check the status of the auction.

Words.ca is a nice short domain and about as generic as you can get.

While browsing the Sedo auctions I noticed many other country code domains in play, such as .de, .eu and .fr. Early and mid 2008 were busy for .ca sales, with record breaking top sales and auction activity at MyID. The last quarter of 2008 has been quiet for .ca news. If there are any significant sales happening they must be private transactions that don't get reported.