Saturday, September 26, 2009

Welcome to the Web Nelson Daily News!

DomainReport.ca - My local newspaper for a small town of 10,000 has finally started a website. I remember checking the domain on their emails that were posted in the paper about a year ago to see where it resolved, and it didn't. This week they launched the site and I think it looks pretty good for a start.

They ofcourse will keep the newspaper going, and will have some additional stories online, and some of the stories in print will not be online. They allow comments to articles if you register. They are using Google Adsense, and inviting local businesses to advertise. They are adding extra photos to the site and allow you to purchase them. The site looks nice to me and is easy to navigate.

I think it makes smart business sense for them to have a site, I just wonder why it took them so long? The domain name is pretty good too!

To check it out, visit:

http://www.NelsonDailyNews.com


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Twitter vs Facebook & cheap Magazines

DomainReport.ca - We all know that Twitter has been in the news for much of 2009, but people still debate whether having a Twitter account is useful. Some people sign up, use it for a while, then do nothing for months. After time, many go back to Twitter and find it helps them with their business.

I saw a good article today that compares Twitter and Facebook, and how more business people are finding advantages with Twitter. It also seems that Twitter has Facebook a little worried, and Facebook is trying to implement some Twitter-like features. If you are interested in the Twitter debate, the article is linked below.

http://thestar.com/business/article/701347

Another subject that has caught my attention in the last two years or so is how cheap magazine subscriptions have become. For example, Macleans, a popular Canadian magazine, recently offered me 20 issues for $14.95. That's about the cost of 3 issues on the news stand.

But Sports Illustrated tops them all. Just yesterday in the mail, I was offered a 56 issue subscription for $30 Canadian, PLUS I get a free NFL team performer jacket of any NFL team I choose! To me, it looks like a great offer and I wonder how they can afford to do something like that? The cover value of the 56 magazines would normally be $256.

The only way I can rationalize this is that magazines are losing subscribers, likely because people are getting more of their news online. But magazines need eyeballs to show potential advertisers that they have a large number of subscribers. If they lose the subscribers, they can't charge as much for advertising. So they are willing to make and ship the magazine for a loss from the subscriber angle, in order to maybe make a profit with their ad sales. Another benefit is they might want more subscribers in order to drive them to their website.

This is the same thing that happened to Business 2.0 magazine, which was my favorite. One minute I got a year's subscription for $10, and a few months later the magazine folded, and my subscription was moved to Fortune magazine (which isn't too bad either). I would have paid a lot more for a Business 2.0 subscription because I enjoyed it so much.

How long will today's magazines last if they have to keep giving it away?

Friday, September 25, 2009

Is Canada missing the Web's Potential?

DomainReport.ca - Thanks to member burgerman at DNforum.com for pointing out this story on the CBC. The title of the article is "Google exec says Canada missing web's potential".

In the article, an executive from Google talks about how Canadian businesses aren't advertising online as much as other countries with similar tech knowledge.

"businesses in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, where between 15 to 20 per cent of all advertising is done online, have taken to the web much faster than their Canadian counterparts and are therefore gaining an edge in international competitiveness

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, online advertising revenue has more than quadrupled over the past five years to $1.6 billion in 2008 or 11 per cent of all spending. I am surprised by this statistic from the article and thought online advertising would have a higher % of all spending by now. If it grows to the level of other countries and above, it shows there is still a lot of potential to develop websites and take advantage of businesses looking to advertise online. For example, you could build a website about your local area offering original content on attractions and events, and get advertising from hotels, motels, resorts, restaurants, accountants, lawyers, etc.

Here is a link to the full article:

http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2009/09/23/google-search-advertising-canada.html?ref=rss


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Thursday, September 24, 2009

God.ca domain name listed on Ebay

DomainReport.ca - I received an email this morning from Josh at JDP Network informing me that God.ca is now for sale on Ebay. The buy it now price is $49,000 US, or you can make a best offer.

The seller is listed as honeybeau07 with 100% positive feedback and a rating of 264.

The listing reads:

For sale, one of the most powerful, impacting and targeted domain names ever to be offered and for the first time!

The domain name God.ca, the name itself invokes many emotions, crosses cultural divides and touches the world in it's entirety. With over a third of the world believing in a God and billions more waiting to be reached the uses are endless. This name would be perfect for a church or those groups seeking to reach the world via the internet by providing their information to north america. The gospel and teaching on God has become very mainstream, do not miss this chance to be a leader by branding a powerful domain. I am open to serious offers, the owner must have a Canadian "presence" and one can be easily arranged.


Whether it sells or not, I'm sure it will garner a lot of attention as a strong, three letter word with importance to many religions in Canada and abroad.

If you want to see the listing, you can click here.



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Monday, September 21, 2009

New Domain Law blog by Zak Muscovitch

DomainReport.ca - I came across news of a new domain law blog today by Zak Muscovitch of Toronto, Canada.

Zak has been a domain lawyer for 10 years, and has also handled .ca cases from what I've heard.

His new blog can be reached at:

http://dnattorney.com/blog.shtml

Bio and contact info from his site:

Zak Muscovitch is a domain name lawyer. He has been practising domain name law for ten years. Go to http://www.DNattorney.com and http://www.muscovitch.com for more information or email Zak Muscovitch at zak@muscovitch.com

Welcome to the blogosphere Zak, domain law is an important topic and I'm sure many domainers will appreciate your take on this subject.


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Friday, September 18, 2009

Recent .ca domain name sales

DomainReport.ca - There are only two recent .ca sales to report that I know of, one reported at dnjournal.com, the other showed up on Sedo today.

SaveMore.ca - $3,300 US

electricite.ca - $4,500 US (electricity in french)

The first domain is a brandable type name that I could see being used effectively in advertising, perhaps by a grocery or department store.

The second domain is a nice french one-word generic, now owned by Corporation Service Company of Nova Scotia.

So far both of these domains don't resolve to a webpage.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Negative comments on Kevin Ham talk in Vancouver

DomainReport.ca - The techvibes.com blog has a post on Kevin Ham's speech in Vancouver this week at the Vancouver Enterprise Forum.

The post talks about how Ham discussed getting into domain names, and his life and business lessons learned so far. Ham also presented a video on his company's plans for Vancouver.com, and told the crowd they were open to partnerships and ideas for the site. The video is posted on the blog.

The interesting thing was the comments made on this blog post, some from people who attended the event. Though most found his speech inspiring, they were less impressed by the domain investing angle.

Some of the comments:

Give the domain to the city of Vancouver and let people take a vote on what they want it to be.

I'm ashamed that this city's tech entrepreneur community idolizes domain squatters.

So, buying a domain name and making a business out of that should be worshiped? Weird.

I don't idolize him or domain squatting.

The City of Vancouver should just undergo a simple Domain Name Dispute Resolution process to win the Vancouver.com domain - it would be awarded back to the city with zero difficulty, IMO.


To me, these comments show that domainers are still lumped in by many people as cyber squatters. I thought the impression of domain investors was getting better, but apparently not.

You can read the post on tech vibes here:

http://www.techvibes.com/blog/reinvents-kevin-ham-wants-your-ideas-for-vancouver.com

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Frank Schilling interview and latest headlines

DomainReport.ca - Though there isn't much in the way of news in .ca domains lately, there has been a lot happening in the overall domaining world.

The biggest news I've seen lately is that Paul Sloan, a writer who has written extensively on the domain and internet markets, has a new website, www.PlayingTheAngles.com .

One of the first articles he posted was an interview with Frank Schilling. I enjoyed Frank's blog at SevenMile.com while it lasted, and hadn't heard much about what he's been doing lately, other than reports of experimenting with his landing pages. The interview gives some current views that Frank has about the domain market and is a great read. You can find the interview here:

http://www.playingtheangles.com/interviews/frank-schilling/


Here are some other headlines on domains in the past while that are worth reporting:

- WoodPellets.com sells for $115,000 US at Sedo.com

- Call.com sells for $1,100,000 US

- Christian.com sells for $600,000 US

- Release of .CM domains generate over $2,000,000 in auctions

- ProteinBars.com sells at Namejet auction for $56,900

- The decline in PPC revenues is again a hot topic among domainers

- Sedo reports more than $15 million in domain sales in second quarter '09

- Casino.mobi sells for $135,000 US through Moniker.com

- Shopping.de sells for $2,850,000 US

- Sedo plans to auction off one and two character .biz domains

- Rick Schwartz released some of his domain sales in recent weeks, which included PunchBowl.com (six figures + considerations) and ChinaTours.com ($200,000).

Looking at those headlines you wouldn't know the world is in an economic downturn.

There is a lot of interesting news on domains published daily, and you can find it all aggregated at Domaining.com. Some of my favorite reads lately have been:

DnJournal.com

ElliotsBlog.com

DotWeekly.com

Enjoy the rest of the week!