[Header image via Washington Post]

I’ve been disappointed in recent days to see some web industry leaders and mainstream publications come out against ICANN’s approval of the new TLD system, scheduled to go live in 2012.

There are concerns that new TLDs are just money-making schemes that provides no value to the internet, or that trademarked names are going to be rampantly squatted upon. Do you believe any of this is true?

This open survey features a few poll questions that should offer an idea of reader confidence or lack thereof in new TLDs.

New Top Level Domains Opinion Survey

Please submit your answers for the 5 brief poll questions below.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Consider sharing this survey to include your networks’ opinion on new Top Level Domains.

Thank you for your participation. Please subscribe to DotSauce Magazine or come back at a later date to review the results.

Opinion Survey: New Top Level Domains DotSauce Magazine

The .co.uk domain name aftermarket is extremely active. In Q4 2010, .co.uk had a higher average sales price than both the .net and .org extensions, quadrupling in value from just $523 in Q1 of 2010 to $2,030 by the end of the year.

The extension is maintaining strength in 2011, currently holding three of the top ten ccTLD positions on the year to date domain sales charts on DNJournal.

If you are new to the UK domain name market here’s a little bit of background about the .co.uk extension and how you can get in on the action.

Nominet UK is the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Dr Willie Black and five others in 1996. There are around 9 million registered .co.uk domain names to date. Nominet publishes a comprehensive annual domain industry report which was featured on DotSauce last year. You can view the 2010 Nominet Annual Report here. (PDF)

How To Invest In .co.uk

There are a number of ways you can get into the .co.uk market and successfully make money. Which way you do it depends on your preferences as an investor. Here are some routes your can explore and some resources to help you along the way.

Hand Registration

The simplest form of domain name investing is registering a domain name from a UK registrar such as DomainMonster.com or 123-Reg.co.uk. Here are some key indicators to help you choose a quality name, which you are likely to be able to resell for a decent amount or develop into something which earns you revenue.

Check Google’s Keyword Estimator on Local UK Exact setting to determine how many searches there are for that term each month. Anything over 4,400 and you are on to a winner. Another good indicator is CPC value. Make sure you will be earning more than £1 per click at a bear minimum; any thing less than that and you’ll be left with diddlysquat by the time Google takes their cut.

DomainPrices.co.uk is one of the longest running databases of .co.uk domain names sales and is good for market research. Pay no attention to the likes of Estibot or any other appraisal tools, they are highly inaccurate more often than not. There are still some great .coms which can be hand registered and with six times the amount of .coms in the world than .co.uk domains, there is plenty of opportunity to go at in the UK market.

Aftermarket

There are some UK specific auction sites where sales tend to be much faster for selling and achieving better prices than major marketplaces like Sedo.

AcornDomains.co.uk is the de facto UK domain name forum and a huge resource of information for new and experienced domain name investors.

DomainLore.co.uk is a simple but effective auction site to buy and sell domains quickly and easily. There are many opportunities on these sites too for finding undervalued domain names that portfolio owners are looking to get rid of to fund other purchases.

I would recommend registering on both websites. Bargains can be found and a savvy investor can make a good profit buying at the right price and flipping the domains. A recent example of this would be the sale of TVS.co.uk which the previous owner bought for $1,500 in 2007 and sold last year for $75,000.

Drop Catching

Drop catching is the art of querying the Nominet Whois database lots of times just as a domain name is about to expire in the hope that you are first to “catch” it as its suspended indicator turns back to available. Drop catching is quite a bit different in the UK compared to the US in the fact that pretty much anyone can register as a member of Nominet for a small annual fee and directly query their database to catch domains whereas ICANN accreditation is significantly more difficult.

Drop catching directly through Nominet requires the domainer to have a script written in pretty much whatever programming language you are comfortable with, which can not just query the Nominet database, but input selected domains to scan during a 24 period and then if one becomes available, send a request to register the domain name.

If you are not confident going through the whole process of becoming a member of Nominet, having a script written and monitoring it yourself, then you can simply back order .co.uk domain through many of the UK registrars for a small fee and save yourself the hassle. Just this weekend I caught Cartagena.co.uk, a Spanish and Columbian holiday resort which I intend to sell straight away.

Domain Development

Be a category killer i.e. WeddingPlanner.co.uk

The .co.uk is also a great market for domain development. Finding your own niche is crucial for this and a savvy investor will have a selection of category killer domain names that they are developing either for long term revenue or for a quick sale once traffic and rankings in the search engines have been achieved. When I say “category killer” I mean market-leading domain names, ones that are generic and can “own” a niche.

I have been collecting dog breed domain names over the last 6 months and own a good selection which I am currently developing to drive traffic to a larger dog insurance website once I have finished building it. One of the sites, Rottweilers.co.uk, now gets over 5,000 visitors per month and the way it is built can now easily be rolled out across the other dog breed domain names I have.

Once you have control of your niche in the UK the returns can by rewarding. A significant example of this was MoneySupermarket.com’s purchase of nine UK financial services domains for an initial £4.6m.

I cannot stress enough that having a strategy for your domain name purchases is important. If your business strategy to develop .co.uk domain names, rather than trade them on the aftermarket, then a great tip is to check out places where you can buy existing websites on a good domain name. There are many UK businesses which are going out of business due to the financial climate and a good domain investor can take advantage of this and snap up an aged domain with good authority and existing content for a relatively small investment.

There is no denying that .co.uk is a great domain extension to invest in. Whichever method you choose to become involved with there is certainly still a large amount of opportunity within the UK domain name market.

[Header image by Flickr user Trey Ratcliff.]

What do you think about .co.uk domain names? Please leave a comment below and consider sharing this introduction to investing in .co.uk.

An Introduction To Investing In .co.uk Domains DotSauce Magazine

Acclaimed info-graphic artist JESS3 was commissioned to design this beautiful illustration of the generic TLDs of tomorrow looming over the historic downtown of current domain spaces.

Take a moment to look closely over all the proposed extensions. There is actually a great selection of Premium TLDs including .RUN, .NEW, .SPACE, .CHURCH, .PAPER, .FUTURE; which I have not seen any group show interest in operating.

Washington Post Commissions Artist’s Illustration of New TLDs DotSauce Magazine

[Header Image: Phil Roeder, The Pack is Back, January 23, 2011 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

Business Insider shared results today of a study of online conversations by social analytics company Infegy. They have been tracking Super Bowl chatter since 2008 and have discovered that teams generating the most buzz online historically walk away the victors.

For this year’s game, the Packers are ahead by just a bit. They have been mentioned in 12.28% of Super Bowl chatter versus 12.02% for the Steelers. Pardon me while I bump that percentage up just a little bit… Go Pack!

GoDaddy will be taking center stage again at the big game today as they have done since 2005 . They have been planning to introduce the world to .CO domain names along with a new GoDaddy.CO Girl. (The headless figure to your right)

New .CO domains are normally $29.99 at GoDaddy, but for their biggest event of the year, they are reducing registration prices drastically.

Today you can get unlimited .COM and .CO domains for just $7.49 if you use this promotional link!

This limited time offer gives a huge discount of over $22 for each .CO domain. It’s a great time to pick up keywords or a brand that you’ve been wanting. It also provides an opportunity to invest in the increasingly popular .CO extension.

Have a wonderful day everyone. Enjoy the game and the savings.

Internet Buzz Predicts Packers Win + Super Bowl Savings! $7.49 .COM and .CO Domains at GoDaddy DotSauce Magazine

The number itself was inspired by Douglas Adam’s classic novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in which 42 turns out to be the meaning of life. It is a number many geeks will instantly recognize. 42 is meant to convey that this TLD is different and unique from all others. Previously no other domain extensions have been numeric.

There are a tremendous number of hurdles that stand in the way of .42 becoming truly public and fully functional as a true TLD. I commend the group for recognizing and aiming to tackle each obstacle that stands in the way of the TLD’s widespread adoption.

How To Resolve .42 Domains

To get this new TLD to work properly, you must configure your router DNS settings to be able to resolve the new addresses. Additionally, Windows users may need to modify a registry value in order for .42 domains to resolve. There may also be conflicts for certain browsers, but work-arounds are emerging quickly.

Several OpenResolver providers have made it fairly simple to access .42 domains by simply modifying the DNS settings of your router.

The goal of the experiment is to make the technical processes easy to overcome for the public. The 42Experiment Wiki has been created to educate and explain all aspects of involvement with the domain and there is a great FAQ on the 42Registry homepage (French).

How To Register a .42 Domain

The 42 Registry offers a single .42 domain name to each registered community member.
You can sign up here to join and apply for a domain. Each request will be approved manually by moderators. There are significant technical challenges involved with hosting and managing a .42 domain. Server configurations and mail clients need tweaking in order to handle the numeric TLD.

There are already a select number of .42 compatible web hosts who have shown support for the experimental TLD.

Can .42 Reach a Wide Audience?

Free software enthusiasts are not in short supply, you are likely a fan yourself. It is important to note that this reference is to open-source code and software packages, not to be confused with “warez,” which is essentially stolen software. So, I believe the concept of the project is admirable. Freedom of information and a connected world are the basis on which the Internet was founded upon. Recent events in Canada (rate limiting) and Egypt (blackouts) have caused many to question if governments are the best entity to manage the Internet.

The 42 Experiment needs to continue progress in simplifying the processes for resolving, registering and hosting domains. It’s not hard to imagine that this will soon be as simple as installing a browser addon. At that point, I think this private TLD could take off as a viable free domain for geeks and free software enthusiasts.

The community needs to grow to help spread the word and additional partnerships need to be formed with ISPs, DNS providers and web hosts. If the people behind 42 Experiment are able to reach popular DNS service providers such as OpenDNS, they have the potential to expand the reach of the TLD tremendously.

What are your thoughts on .42? Could it become a trend for hackers and the PC savvy? Will it be stomped out by ICANN and other powers that be? Please leave a comment below and consider sharing this article to spread the word about the 42 Experiment.

Experimental Numeric TLD, .42 Launches Without ICANN Approval DotSauce Magazine

The online usability study pitted GrpTrp.com against GroupTrip.co and the results speak for themselves. Two tests show the .CO domain to be the better option and it was ultimately chosen as the new business name. Bryan’s pre-conceived notion that people would somehow not trust .CO domain names was proven false.

I would have liked to see more domains be part of this study. A three-word domain or another .COM alternative could still have potentially outperformed the .CO domain in text-link advertisements. However, Bryan is looking for a brand name for his startup and is wise to keep it short and as memorable and relevant as possible.

Test 1: Sponsored Text Ads – Will users trust a .CO domain enough to click on it? The same ad copy was shown using both domains and the .CO version performed slightly better in two different trials. You can review the full results here.

Test 2: Memorability Poll – Using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and PickFu, Bryan was able to quickly poll 200 users on their domain preference. Users were to select between the two options shown below.

79% of 200 responses said they would be more likely to use and remember the .CO domain. That is 155 out of 200. You can see a list of complete responses here with commentary from users.

It’s interesting to note that the survey displays the domain spoken verbally as “dot C O” instead of “dot Co.” I can’t say that I’ve actually decided for myself which option is preferable, though I’m leaning towards “dot Co.” Both methods of saying the domain are viable and speaking the two letters seems to have worked at least for this test. It would be another interesting thing to split-test.

I’d like to thank Bryan for this interesting study. It’s good news to hear that users are recognizing and accepting of .CO domains as I suspected. In our latest poll question, results for .CO’s outlook in 2011 have been a very close race since the beginning. Lots of people are on board, and equally as many have not been convinced, yet.

What are your thoughts on clear .CO vs not-so-good .COM domains? What choice would you make for your business? Please leave a comment with your opinion.

[Top Image: Michael Johnson, Apples & Oranges - They Don't Compare, May 14, 2008 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution]

79% of Respondents Choose Quality .CO Domain Over .COM Alternative DotSauce Magazine

The latest announcement from CoInternet is that GoDaddy.com will feature a 30 second commercial segment during the Super Bowl game that is dedicated exclusively to introducing .Co domains.

GoDaddy has sponsored the Super Bowl since 2005 and has grown from a 15% market share to the industry leader, capturing over 50% of the market. CoInternet hopes to gain the same momentum by being featured in the big game. The opportunity looks very promising.

Aside from GoDaddy, many other leading registrars have partnered with CoInternet and are promoting .Co more enthusiastically than .Com domains.

Sponsorship deals have been arranged for virtually all leading domain industry publications (including DotSauce Magazine) as well as other major web and print publications such as Website Magazine. Twitter is also on board, using T.co URL shortener as the default.

Make Your Prediction

I have been watching coverage and commentary on .Co domains since the beginning. Feelings seem to be evenly devided between accepting .Co as a success and disregarding it as fools gold.

This poll aims to put the debate to the test. I’m interested to know if you think the general public will use and recognize the .Co domain extension in 2011.

Please take a moment to cast your vote…

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Thank you for voting. You may also be interested in viewing the results of our latest poll. Readers have selected .XXX and .Shop to be among the most valuable proposed gTLDs.

Please share this poll with your friends and associates to see what they think about .Co. Then come back soon to see the results.

Poll: Will .Co Domains Become Mainstream in 2011? DotSauce Magazine

I recently discovered that NewTLDs.tv maintains an interesting list of new gTLD proposals. This database represents 135 applicants who have expressed interest in managing new top-level domains. However, there are some organizations that have competing interests in the same gTLDs, such as .NYC, .Shop and .Web.

A wide selection of major cities have submitted proposals including .Paris, .Berlin, .Dubai, .London and others. I would like to see more support around new gTLDs for cities and states in America. Several countries, continents and even .Earth are also represented.

Specialized gTLDs have made a strong showing, representing many industries such as .Game, .Bike, .Music, .Sport, .Money and ideas such as .Peace, .Love, .Eco and .Free.

I have selected what I believe are the top 10 gTLD proposals. To get an idea of how I selected these TLDs you may be interested in reading my article on premium TLDs.

Please take a moment to vote for the top three gTLDs you feel will be the most valuable in terms of domain resale for top keywords.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Thank you for your response. Check in again soon to view the results. If you would like, you can leave a comment below explaining your vote or why you think a different gTLD will be more valuable.

POLL: Which New gTLDs Will Be the Most Valuable? DotSauce Magazine

At the company’s existing free domain website, nic.cz.cc we can find information on what the .Free catch might be. This information is not mentioned or implied on the new DotFree website. With the goal of discovering just how they were making a profit, I explored the website and came across some interesting details.

What’s the catch?

I found that they are offering a premium domain registration option. This turned out to be a list of generic characters and dictionary words that were marked up anywhere from $4.95 to $14.95 per year. This is not a common practice. Most TLD launches typically reserve only the most premium keywords to be auctioned to the highest bidder during a landrush period.

The dotFree Group plans to host the premium auctions in addition to reserving most, if not all dictionary domains for “premium registrations”.

To be expected with any free domain, registrants are subject to various up-sell services including WHOIS privacy, SSL certificates and something called “Domain Lock.” I’m assuming domain lock is to prevent unauthorized transfers, but that seems like something that is typically default on most registrars.

State of .Free

DomainIncite reports 15,000 unofficial .Free pre-registrations have been claimed in the past two days by 2,787 people.

I am skeptical because Not all TLDs are created equal. A major portion of TLD launch success rides on how it is managed. Taking that out of mind, I would say that .Free has a lot of potential due to a wildly popular concept behind the name.

I believe .Free could do as well as .Me, .Co or even .Info if the concept is adopted by businesses. The domains could function as an excellent promotional marketing tool.

The .Free TLD plans to launch after ICANN approval sometime in the 3rd or 4th quarter 2011.

You can sign-up to pre-register a .Free domain now at DotFree.com

Let us know what you think about .Free domains. Would you consider paying for a quality keyword on this proposed extension?

How .Free Plans to Earn a Profit Giving Away Free Domains DotSauce Magazine

Paul Carpenter, a Search Optimization consultant based in the UK has shared his thoughts and regional insight on the report.

After reviewing all of the data, Paul left us with these final words of wisdom:

If there’s one message coming loud and clear from this report it is that domains are BIG business – and whether you’re in SEO, marketing or business itself, you’d better start paying attention to the trends and the availability of domains in your target markets.

Domain Industry Report Highlights

• Global registrations slowed, yet record 13 million created in 2009
• Top 20 registrars in UK account for 75% of market share
• Country-code domains on the rise, use and adoption increasing
• Large growth expected in China for relatively new .CN domains
• Only 61.5% of new domains are re-registered after 2 years
• 90%+ of 10 year old domains are re-registered

You can read Paul’s analysis here or review the full report on Nominet.

Will there will be a surge of new ccTLD registrations in coming years? It seems clear that demand is on the rise. Google and other search engines are enabling this growth through focus on local results.

How will .US fare as it competes with .Com and the rapidly growing .Co? Please leave a comment below with any thoughts.

Nominet Report: ccTLDs on Rise, “Domains are BIG Business” DotSauce Magazine

The .CO landrush has come to an end and it has been a spectacular event. In just a few hours, the .CO registry will open to the public for general availability registrations.

There have been over 40,000 pre-registrations during the landrush period and a lot of media coverage both within and outside the domain industry.

General Availability

Update: The registry is now public! Remaining .CO domains will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. GoDaddy has .CO for $29.99 per year.

CoInternet is now reporting over 215,000 registrations so far.

Thousands more domains will be claimed during the general availability today and in the coming days, weeks and months.

Combining todays’ expected registrations and premium domains awarded for landrush applications should easily total several million dollars in estimated value.

Notable .CO Domains

O.co – Sold for $350,000 to Overstock

E.co – Sold for $81,000 at charity auction

T.co – New short URL for Twitter (likely to be implemented today)

Disrupt.co – TechCrunch startup event

Duck.co – DuckDuckGo Search Community

.Co Founders Program – Many businesses and individuals awarded free .co domains under contract to actively develop for at least 2 years. You will begin seeing many launch announcements on .co domains soon.

3 Things I Like About .CO

• It rides on the coat tails of .COM in representing commerce and companies.
• Registry operator CoInternet is doing a phenomenal job marketing the launch and will likely continue to do so.
• Early adoption by big players such as Twitter

3 Things I’m Concerned About

• Will people have a problem recognizing a .CO domain when spoken verbally? We are so used to hearing .COM
• Over speculation within the industry may cause public outcry against domaining and tarnish .CO similarly to .US
• Owners will fool themselves into believing their keyword .CO domain is worth just as much as it’s .COM counterpart.

What do you think of .CO? Please leave your comments below or send me a message on Twitter @DotSauce.

Want to know more about the domain industry or how to get started buying and selling? Ask a question on the all new DotSauce Q&A forum.

Millions in Virtual Real Estate to be Created Overnight During .CO Launch DotSauce Magazine

MY.CO is opening up a world of opportunity for domain name registrars during the highly anticipated .CO launch. Their service offers registrars direct access to the .CO registry.

25 years after the creation of .COM domains, the .CO domain extension is being opened up to the world as a fresh opportunity in a crowded space. The anticipation is building like no other TLD launch before.

This new service from MY.CO allows ICANN accredited registrars such as EuroDNS to offer landrush registrations for .CO domains until July 16th and public registrations during the launch. It all happens behind the scenes, through a robust EPP gateway.

Additional features include:

• WHOIS resource showing a registrar as the entity of record
• Customer data kept private within a registrar
• High performance EPP protocols, Tier 4 datacenter
• Supported and authorized by official .CO registry (CoInternet)

Dedicated resources will be allocated during the landrush for each registrar partner, ensuring a smooth experience during peek volume. I imagine MY.CO partners’ and their customers’ pre-registrations will be successful during the landrush period with this advantage.

The .CO domain extension is proving to be very popular even before it’s launch and there is expected to be an explosion of registrations in the coming years.

Interested registrars can sign up here or learn more at MY.CO.

Registrars Add .CO Domains to Their Offering in Preparation for Big Launch DotSauce Magazine

In this article, I will be sharing my thoughts and opinions on the many domain name extension options available today and some that are coming soon.

Here is a brief explanation of the different types of top level domains.

Generic TLDs or gTLDs

These extensions include .COM, .NET, .ORG, .BIZ, .JOBS, .PRO, etc. ICANN is currently in the final rounds of policy making to open up applications for new gTLDs.

One of the first new gTLD extensions we will see is .XXX. Many others will follow such as .ECO.

Country Code TLDs or ccTLDs

These extensions include every country’s short-code. A handful of countries have been blessed with a pleasing acronym such as Tuvalu (.TV), Montenegro (.ME), and Colombia (.CO).

Other countries generally have to make due with local usage.

Which gTLDs are premium?

The clear winner is .COM. Most would agree that this is the best option for recognition, search rankings and inherent value.

Looking at .NET and .ORG sales, they are typically just a fraction of a comparable .COM sale. I will say that .ORG may be the best available option for organizations. I do not consider .NET at all, except for brand protection because it is a dated idea.

Aside from .COM, I don’t believe any other currently available gTLDs are premium quality.

I do admire and respect the promotion, innovations and community outreach by Telnic, managers of .TEL. However, I do not consider the gTLD itself to be premium. A premium alternative for what they are doing has not been created yet, it would be something like .SOCIAL.

.XXX, .MOBI, .BIZ, .PRO, .JOBS – These extensions all had the right intentions, but ultimately they are created for too small a niche to be premium quality in my book.

Which ccTLDs are premium?

I believe .ME is doing well after it’s launch just 2 years ago. Many successful websites are using the extension for blogging, social and personal apps. It has a broad, yet unique concept that is also memorable.

For the past few years, the internet and our televisions have been coming closer and closer together.  Finally this fall, Google TV will be made public, bringing the internet and a mass media of citizens to your TV box set. I think this will really seal the deal for .TV as a premium ccTLD. The extension has already had alot of success as businesses are founded and existing media outlets have adopted it with open arms.

On July 20th 2010, the unprecedented public landrush will take place for .CO domains. Unprecedented because of the phenomenal work by CoInternet in marketing the launch. There has been early adoption through innovative promotions like the CoFounders program in which Twitter was accepted and claimed T.CO.

So what makes .CO premium? The main fact is that it rides on the coat-tails of .COM. The extension could not have launched at a better time. Society has embraced bite sized information in the form of status updates, many of which contain odd two-letter ccTLD link shorteners.

This .CO extension will best other ccTLD options and will be adopted by a wide audience for both personal and business use. It also passes the requirement for both memorability and meaning, though in this case, .CO has a multitude of meanings.

More Premium gTLDs Coming Soon

The future is very bright for the domain industry. As I mentioned earlier, ICANN is finalizing policy to open up new gTLDs. This change will bring about many not-so-good domain extensions that you should avoid, but it will also introduce high quality extensions with real meaning and value!

For now, I’ve got my eye on a couple of generic .CO domains I’d like to develop or hold on to. GoDaddy’s .CO registration is $29.99/year and the public landrush will take place on July 20th 2010.

What domain extensions do you think are premium quality? Which ones are bad? Please feel free to share your opinions in the comments area.

Premium TLDs: Not All Domain Extensions Are Created Equal DotSauce Magazine

CoInternet is proving to have the most interactive, intriguing and lucrative domain extension launch to date.

TheDomains broke the news, Twitter has been accepted into the CoInternet .CO Founders program. An initiative to get developers involved in launching websites and businesses on quality .CO domains.

Twitter’s Official Link Shortener Coming Soon

Twitter’s new domain, T.CO will be used as the official link shortener to protect users from malicious sites. T.CO links will appear within all tweets and direct messages.

T.CO links will be monitored for malware. If malware is reported or detected then a T.CO link is flagged and a warning is shown to a user before visiting.

Users can still use existing link shortening services such as bit.ly, but those shortened links will be “wrapped” within an official T.CO link.

Twitter has other big plans for T.CO. The official announcement on Twitter’s blog mentions they will be putting click-through data to work for their Promoted Tweets program and within future commercial applications.

…routing links through this service will eventually contribute to the metrics behind our Promoted Tweets platform and provide an important quality signal for our Resonance algorithm—the way we determine if a Tweet is relevant and interesting to users. We are also looking to provide services that make use of this data, an example would be analytics within our eventual commercial accounts service.

E.CO Charity Auction Underway

Another lively .CO event is underway today. Bidding for the E.CO domain auction has reached over $30,000 on Sedo. All proceeds from the auction will be donated to the charity of the winners’ choosing.

The auction is now live and will conclude on Jun 10th at 4PM EST.

Bidders must be certified for this special auction. Follow the links on e.co or Sedo for details.

Claim Your Own .CO

The public launch for .CO domains is nearing.  July 20th is the official date for general availability.

Right now, you can pre-register .CO domains at GoDaddy for $29.99/yr.

If multiple people pre-register the same .CO domain it will go to auction, but your initial fee will be refunded if you don’t get the domain you want.

The adoption of .CO by Twitter and the brilliant management and promotion of the extension by CoInternet is definitely a strong sign that quality .CO domains will prove valuable. What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment below.

CoInternet Lends Twitter T.CO Domain As Official Link Shortener DotSauce Magazine

Google has made several big announcements at it’s I/O developer conference. Among them are a web app store, a font API to make the web more beautiful, and now Google TV may soon be a seriously popular destination for browsing the web and consuming video content.

Here is a brief explanation and demo of Google TV:

Will .TV Domains Be In High Demand?

While I personally do not own any .TV domains, I have a feeling the .TV brand is going to get a lot of exposure this year.

Thousands of websites may be interested in creating their own media channel optimized for Google TV. Of course a .TV domain is not required, but makes clear sense to use in this setting and may provide a more memorable branding option.

Please take a moment to respond to the poll question:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Get Your Own Media Channel Started

.TV domains can be registered at GoDaddy for $39.99 per year.

Web Developers interested in getting a head-start will want to read this guide for designing websites optimized for Google TV.

Google TV will certainly not be limited to just video. Images, text and interactive features will need to be carefully placed to ensure a pleasant user experience.

Google TV Coming This Fall: Will .TV Domains Be In High Demand? DotSauce Magazine

The World Domain Cup contest has just released a report on the top 100 most voted for potential gTLD (top-level domains).

Japanese internet service provider, Interlink is hosting a quirky large scale contest. Pick the right gTLD and you could win a revenue share of the first year of new domain registrations as well as a piece of $10,000.

Interlink is prepared to invest in a single gTLD when ICANN gives the go-ahead, so they have created the WDC to help select their gTLD.

WDC votes do not necessarily matter, Interlink will be making a selection they feel will be the most successful. However, it is interesting to see which future domains are getting the most votes.

.WEB has the most votes (350), followed by .EARTH (#2) and .LOVE (#3) with a little less than 250 votes each.

.WORLD (#4) and .ORZ (#5) has received about 145 votes, this seems to be a Japanese emoticon.

.BLOG ranks #6 with about 120 votes.

.WWW (Yes, as a TLD) has received about 75 wasted votes.

.MOE (#8) must be a popular name because it too received about 75 votes.

.HOME (#9) and .FREE (#10) round out the top 10 proposed gTLDs with a little over 50 votes in the WDC. For more, check out the Top 100.

.GAME (#11) and .LIFE (#12) both received a little less than 50 votes.

.XXX and .STAR have tied for position #13 with about 33 votes each, what a coincidence.

World Domain Cup Releases Top 100 Proposed New gTLD Extensions By Vote DotSauce Magazine

Risky Business

There are evident risks for trademark infringement when using .CM domains.

I encourage any decent sized company to take the initiative and pre-order their respective .CM domain to prevent any later headache.  I also strongly discourage anyone from attempting to profit from typo traffic on established .COM websites.

The typo traffic is likely not as much as you think on your average .CM name. There are more profitable ways to quickly develop online business on legitimate domain names.

I’m also not convinced that .CM is a viable brand option for anything but a company in Cameroon.

Traffic Machines?

On the other side of the table, there are countless .CM domains are generic in nature and can not be said to violate any trademarks. Could these be valuable resources for driving some targeted traffic to existing business?

Rick Latona is managing an auction currently of premium .CM domains that are generic in nature.  Domains such as Cars.cm, Loan.cm, Games.cm, etc. are available with reserves from $1000 to $20,000.

NameJet has gained exclusive rights to manage the sunrise registration / pre-orders for .CM domains.

So What’s Your Move?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

Please respond to the poll and leave your comments below.

POLL: Will you pre-order or buy .CM domains? DotSauce Magazine

These .ME domains are owned by Randy Charach, founder of Synergy Domain Club and all around great online businessman and fellow domainer.

There are hundreds of quality, actionable, and generic one word .ME domains that can be purchased for as little as $69 starting today through the month.

I just browsed through the list and over 150 of these .ME domain names already have backorders placed!  Some great brand names can be found and even real world first names.  Here are some examples…

You can follow this link to view all Premium .ME Domains on NameJet.

A handful of these backorder opportunities may end soon, so check it out while you can and keep watching as Randy has just informed me more will be added in the coming weeks.

Premium .ME Domains For Sale at NameJet DotSauce Magazine

There have been some great developments this week, interesting article guides, editorials and even big announcements from Microsoft and Google!

Let’s face it, nobody can really keep up with all of the news and articles surrounding the domain and internet industry and I’m sure all you guys who were at TRAFFIC missed some things. I monitor and share this stuff actively and I still manage to miss some of the news myself.

So, for your convenience, I have compiled below what I feel are the most valuable and important articles on domaining from the previous work week.

Domain Buzz – Monday June 1st through Friday June 5th

Whizzbang’s Blog – The PPC Industry: “For the first time ever Google posted a down-turn in earnings which is remarkable for a number of reasons…“

The Domains – Congress Calls ICANN Out On Finances: “Florida Republican Cliff Stearns called ICANN out on its finances , noting that the last balance sheet the nonprofit group showed a $7 million surplus.“

DNW – Congress Beats Up ICANN, 3 Part Series: “members of the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet took turns ripping into Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and its President/CEO Paul Twomey.“

The Domains – Verizon Testifies To Congress Against New gTLD’s: “in front of the House Energy and Commerce Internet Subcommittee panel, which is holding hearings on ICANN, that new gTLD’s shouldn’t be allowed unless there is a proven market demand“

DN Journal – Final Day Photos and Highlights from the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. : “We have already seen one blockbuster sale, DiamondRings.com at €162,000 ($230,179 at today’s exchange rate). In a solid ccTLD sale, Houses.co.uk just went for €51,000 ($72,429).“

TechCrunch – The Dot Coms Are Booming Again (Domain Registrations, That Is): “VeriSign has just put out its quarterly report on the web domain industry stating that there are now just about 183 million domain names in existence. This represents a 3% increase from last quarter and a 12% increase from last year.” Full VeriSign PDF report here.

DNN – Targeted TRAFFIC ccTLDs 2009 Live Auction Results

INC. Magazine – Is Your Domain Name Killing Your Business?: “Choosing the right domain name is crucial to helping potential customers find you — with shorter, simpler, intuitive descriptive names ending in dot-com considered better.“

DNN – Dan Warner Sails From Dark Blue Sea: “Dan Warner, one of the most public faces of Dark Blue Sea has left his position as COO of DBS (parent company of Fabulous.com).“

DomainNews – President of CCIA will be keynote speaker at Domain Roundtable Conference: “Domain Roundtable Conference in Washington ,D.C. will start this month and will have as a keynote speaker Edward Black, President & CEO of Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).”

Google – Page Speed Firefox Addon: “Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.”

DotSauce – SEO Advice of the Year! Google’s Matt Cutts on Successful Blogging: “Matt recently gave a presentation on the subject of SEO and blogging at WordCamp San Francisco and has been kind enough to share his presentation with everyone.“

DNJournal – Wednesday Photos & Highlights from T.R.A.F.F.I.C Amsterdam Including Kevin Ham’s Keynote: “With one day still to go I can tell you this has been an exceptionally informative and entertaining conference.“

DotSauce – POLL: Do You Buy Expired Domains?: “The nature of a domain registration will continue to provide virtually infinite opportunity for domainers, simply because of the fact that names expire.“

DotSauce – Hot New Domainer Resources Coming This Summer to DotSauce: “new Domaining Directory will feature comprehensive industry resources, tools and contacts. It is currently in early stages of development but is already an industry first.“

Rick Schwartz – It’s a DEAL! Candy.com (Sells for $3M). And the Buyer is…: “G&J Holdings, LLC today announced the purchase and acquisition of the web domain Candy.Com and the development of a new internet based confections retailer“

LLLL.com – Marketing — Are Domain Companies doing all they can do?: “9Domain Marketplaces should) have a link on your homepage which showed the last hundred or even the last thousand sales on your site? Would that not give potential buyers more confidence in making a purchase?“

DNJournal – Photos & Highlights From the First Full Day of Business at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. : “Internet Commerce Association President Jeremiah Johnson spoke about new threats facing domain owners, including efforts being undertaken by trademark interests to have the UDRP process replaced with a new system“

WannaDevelop – Exact Match Keyword Domains – Most Important Investment for Online Business: “Lots of opportunities for people who do get it to capitalize on this. Big time! Lots of opportunities for “domainers” and the collectors of quality exact match domains that are two to three keywords long…“

Domainvestors.tv – Do You Know Your Visitors? Why Analytics is Key to Monetization: “Analytics is an often overlooked part of the website development process but potentially the most important step in the long-term monetization of a site.”

eBusinessDomains – Bing Is Now Live – Microsoft Launches New Search Engine: “Microsoft has unexpectedly launched their new search engine ahead of schedule. Bing.com is the new face of search and will replace Live.com“

DNJournal – DN Journal’s First Report from Amsterdam: “The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs conference gets underway tonight in Amsterdam, Holland.“

Hope you enjoyed the Domain Buzz round up for the week! Have a great weekend.

If I missed anything feel free to leave a comment below.

Domain Buzz – This Week in Domaining DotSauce Magazine

Mr. Ed Keay-Smith, Oz Domainer, will be representing DotSauce readers. He won a free conference pass here a couple weeks ago.  Tell us how it goes Ed!

The complete auction list has been posted on the RickLatona.com and your early bird bids are being accepted via our online auction platform at proxibid.com/ricklatona

To register now for the auction visit www.proxibid.com/ricklatona and create your account.  For any technical questions please contact our Proxibid support lines at 877-505-7770 in the U.S. and +1-402-505-7770 for outside the U.S.

Official T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs Domain Auction Catalog

You can type the Euro amount in this Google Finance EUR to USD Conversion tool.

The live auction begins at 4:00 PM GMT +1.  This is 10:00 AM Eastern Time, 7:00 AM Pacific Time.  Auctioneer Matt Lowery will beginning promptly, if you are unable to attend the online it is recommended that you place your bids early online at proxibid.com/ricklatona

Directly following the live auction, any unsold domains – as well as the online only inventory of over 1000+ additional domains will begin.  The online only auction begins on June 5^th and bidding will take place at proxibid.com/ricklatona

TRAFFIC Amsterdam Domain Auction Inventory – 2000 Quality Country Code Domains For Sale DotSauce Magazine

Check out the loaded conference schedule which features some great sessions and a keynote by Dr. Kevin Ham!

I won a free all inclusive conference pass from Rick Latona for referring the most members to his new ccTLDs.com forum. (So, if you need to get the word out about domain related business you know who to go to!)

HOWEVER, I am a bit of slacker and was not able to get my passport in order to be able to attend the conference.

Take My Place, Vote & Comment Below!

I know this is going to be an excellent gathering of top domainers from around the world and I don’t want that experience to go to waste.  Rick has stated that I can transfer my free conference pass to someone else.

Only vote “YES!” if you can make travel arrangements (and have your passport in order) to attend the TRAFFIC conference on June 1st, then leave a comment stating your interest! This is so I can email you if chosen.

Just a simple “I would go!” comment will suffice.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

I will then pick a winner from those who posted a comment at the end of the week on Friday May 15th, that should give the winner a little over two weeks notice to prepare.

Note, this conference pass is a $1,495 value!

Please share this post if you know someone who would be interested!

Poll: Would you go to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Amsterdam if the Conference Was FREE? DotSauce Magazine

The iPhone app is called “My.tel” and a similar app for BlackBerry users is available.  More details and useage guides on both apps can be found at the Telnic website.

Search the iPhone App Store for “My.tel” to download this app immediately.

Here are some screen shots I took of the My.tel application in action…

Don’t be left out, grab your name before it’s gone!  If you don’t have your own personal .TEL domain yet, you can register one for $14.99 at Moniker.

The app allows you full access to edit every detail of your .TEL domain.

• Publish location through a map linked with the iPhone’s GPS
• Update status using profiles depending on how you want to be contacted at any given time
• Add new or remove certain contact information
• Manage folders which group contact details together
• Manage privacy settings for friends and colleagues

Feel free to post a link to your .TEL domain in the comments below if you would like.  You can find me at MarkFulton.tel.

Free iPhone & BlackBerry App for Managing Your .TEL Domains DotSauce Magazine

Name.com has come through for us again, offering a new 2009 exclusive promo code for DotSauce readers.

This exclusive coupon will drop your price on .COM and .NET registration to just $7.99, the best discount available!

Enter coupon code: SupaSauce when checking out! (Expired)

Update: Use PIRIGUETE for same discount.

Thanks Name.com!

Spread the love and the savings! Share this Name.com promo code with your domainer friends and stay tuned to DotSauce for updated coupons, the latest domain news, resources and tools for domain owners.

Name.com Promo Code: Best Coupon for .COM Registration DotSauce Magazine

Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, is warning ICANN about the hazards of allowing new gTLDs such as .christian, .muslim, .hindu, .buddhist, .jew, etc.

Rajan Zed later quotes Article 2.1 (b) of the ICANN GAC Principles Regarding New gTLDs, which state: “New gTLDs should respect the sensitivities regarding terms with national, cultural, geographic and religious significance.“

I believe he is right and according to the terms defined in the article mentioned above, we are safe from seeing any religious domain extensions.

Not to mention the fees and paperwork involved in launching a new gTLD.  I doubt any institution, religious or not, would be willing to put up the money to launch a new gTLD of this nature.

Hindus Speaking Out Against .GOD Domain Names DotSauce Magazine

Essentially, a virtual business card connected to the social web.

Over 20 million individual users access MySpace each month through mobile devices alone.

Register .tel Domain Names through MySpace?

MySpace is in partnerships with several ICANN accredited registrars and will be offering .tel domains to its community for $20 per year.

I recommend you register .tel domain names at Moniker for $14.99 per year.

Telnic May Fulfill a Need for the Social Web Generation

Telnic, the originator and registry operator for .tel,  has also introduced a free iPhone application, available from the iPhone app store, which it claims “means that, for the first time ever, anyone can edit and publish information on the Web under their own domain without needing web design skills or software or even a PC.”

You can view a live example at Emma.tel, a demonstration to show what your .tel web page might look like.

A little before writing this article I registered MarkFulton.tel at Moniker for $14.99 a year.  The .tel revolution may take off quick because of the viral nature of information sharing.

Social networking is at the forefront of the tech industry right now and has exploded over the last year, this deal marketing .tel on MySpace could be all that’s needed for success.

Here is a quirky video from Telnic that tells a story of how .tel might be used in the not so distant future….

Telnic seems to be putting in the effort towards promoting the extension as an ideal that is inventive, unique… that is, connecting and communicating with people effectively through short calling card websites.

Do You Think .tel is Going to Succeed?

Do you love the new .tel domain or are you having flashbacks of the launch of .mobi? Already investing in .tel domains?

Please share your comments below.

Millions of MySpace Mobile Users May Register .tel Domain Names DotSauce Magazine

On May 2nd, 2009 the second annual Domaining Festival Meetup will be held in Valencia, Spain at the beautiful Sorrola Palace Hotel.  This is an informal event in Spanish for investors and domain name developers to network.

This year the guest speaker is Rick Latona, founder of newly launched ccTLDs.com forum.  Rick will sponsor a Valencia sightseeing tour on the second day of the event.

The upcoming Domaining Festival has been organized to discuss the future of ccTLDs and the prospects of Dominios.tv.

The price per participant is expected to be around 50 Euros.

Soon, further updates regarding the agenda for this non-profit event will be posted in English on Domaining.es.

In 2008, a successful meetup on domain monetization was held in the Maritime area of Valencia with over 30 people in attendance.

Domaining Festival Meetup in Valencia with Guest Speaker Rick Latona DotSauce Magazine

Industry leaders like Rick Latona and Sahar Sarid have recognized the potential for success in ccTLDs.  Rick Latona’s new ccTLD forum has just launched and has over 400 members in just a couple days.

Who is $3000 A Day Domainer?

The website is run by a very experienced ccTLD domain investor, obviously so because he shows us proof of making $3000 a day through Sedo parking!

He is launching this campaign to promote the ccTLD industry because it will increase the value of his own domains, as many of us should be preaching the good word of .COM domains.

What Do I Get Out of the Newsletter?

After receiving a few newsletters, I was very impressed with the quality real-world information and practical advice $3000 A Day Domainer provides to his subscribers.

Not only do you get invaluable information and ccTLD news, but often great video tutorials.  Here is a list of the content you get instant access to once you confirm your email newsletter:

• Quick Video Follow up
• Still skeptical about ccTLDs?
• (New Video) – All Your ccTLD Questions Answered
• (New Video) – Possible Hidden Profit Opportunity
• How To Assure Your Success In ccTLDs
• ccTLD Investing Starting Point
• Basic ccTLD Research
• We Want To Buy Your ccTLD Portfolio
• ccTLD Resource List & Reading Material
• Why haven’t you invested in ccTLD domains?
• Its A Must To Take Advantage of Price Specials

I suggest you subscribe to the newsletter now to start learning about ccTLDs and watch these cool videos!

Exclusive Video Sample

Here is an exclusive video from $3000 A Day Domainer featuring yet another great opportunity to invest in ccTLDs, specifically the upcoming landrush of Columbia’s upcoming .CO domain name.

This has profit potential for various reasons explained in the video with an insider tip for getting ahead of the game.

Lots more where that came from at $3000 A Day Domainer, go subscribe!

Profit from ccTLD Domain Names with $3000 A Day Domainer DotSauce Magazine

This may present a good opportunity for domainers seeking to test the waters in ccTLD investing, myself included.  Continue reading below for other interesting ccTLD happenings.

Like other major ccTLD public launches (such as Montenegro’s .ME domains) there is what’s known as a sunrise period and a landrush period.  The general public will be able to register .MX domains September 1st.

However, It seems that if you own a .COM.MX domain you may register your exact corresponding .MX domain on March 1st.

.MX Domain Registration Schedule

• March 01 to July 31, 2009: owners of domain names in the five sub-extensions (.COM.MX, .NET.MX, .ORG.MX, .EDU.MX, .GOB.MX) can register their sites with the .MX extension. The new domain names will be registered under exactly the same name as the previous domain names. If there are more than one domain name applicant with the same domain name, the one with proof of having the name for longer will be granted the .MX domain name of the same name.
• August 1 to August 31, 2009: during the transition period, the register will analyze the requests received for domain name registration.
• September 1 to October 31, 2009: the .MX domain names will be open to everyone (general registration period) on a “first come, first served” basis.

In Other ccTLD News…

TheDomains is discussing issues concerning ICANN’s latest confusing policy on gTLD (Geographic domain names such as .NYC, .Paris, .Berlin) and the serious implications this might have on the domain industry.

The January 2009 issue of Modern Domainer Magazine featured a cover story on ccTLD.

Can ccTLDs Earn You $3000 a Day?

Rick Latona is talking about it and Sahar Sarid gave his commentary. It seems like everybody is talking about the revenue potential of ccTLDs (Country Code) domain names.

Thanks to some cool videos from the people behind the scenes at $3000 A Day Domainer, the public is seeing first hand and possibly for the first time ever, a domainers’ success story built on ccTLDs.

If you’re interested in ccTLDs sign up for their newsletter. You will get updates featuring general ccTLD information as well as tips and suggestions for getting started off on the right foot when investing in ccTLDs for the first time.

What is your take on ccTLDs?  Please leave a comment below with your experiences with ccTLD investment or any questions you might have.

2009 ccTLD Buzz! Plus: The .MX Domain Extension Making a Comeback After 20 Years DotSauce Magazine

Looking to save some money on domain names?  The prices for domain registrations and renewals recently got bumped up for all registrars.  Here is some good news that will help put some money into your piggy bank.

Name.com has some of the lowest prices for .COM domain registrations and that price just got lower for DotSauce readers.

The fine people at Name.com have provided DotSauce an exclusive updated Name.com promo code.  You saw it here first!

Enter promotion code IPANEMA for $7.95 .COM domains!
New Name.com Promo codes: Subscribe to DotSauce Email Updates!

Look here for other Name.com coupons and listings of expired coupons.

Name.com Promo Code: Exclusive $1.50 Off .COM Domain Registration DotSauce Magazine

The .ME domain name extension has grown wildly popular in just a short amount of time since it’s launch in April.  Many websites have been developed, branded and promoted.

There have been some serious .ME aftermarket sales at high profile live auctions.  Get in on the action by snagging your great .ME domains.

These great new domain names are here to stay!  It should be easy enough to earn your small investment back within 1 year.

You can buy .ME domains at GoDaddy for just $19.99!

Great News! Register .ME Domains for Just 1 Year DotSauce Magazine