T-Error

Major company can’t get domain names to resolve without www.

Last week I went to payroll processor Paychex’s web site, typing Paychex.com into my internet browser. After a few seconds I got an error message “Network Timeout. The server at paychex.com is taking too long to respond.”

The problem? I didn’t type in www. before the domain name, and the company hasn’t set up its servers and DNS correctly to handle this. It’s a simple thing and only takes five minutes. But by not setting it up correctly, customers think the web site is down. For a transaction oriented web site such as PayChex, this is a major no-no.

I sent a message to Paychex via Twitter and received a response that it would “pass that suggestion to our web department”.

Thanks, but calling it a “suggestion” is the wrong term. Someone on the web team should have fixed this yesterday. Pick up the phone, call the CTO, and get him to fix it. It’s still not fixed at the time I’m writing this.

Do you know of other major web sites that haven’t set up their servers/DNS to resolve correctly?

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. DomainSponsor Dumps Paychex, Brings Payments Back Inhouse

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Snapnames auction ends today; more auction activity in the weeks ahead.

SnapNames’ first “Showcase Auction”, a new monthly online domain name auction, ends today at about 12:15 PDT. Auctions that receive bids in the final minutes will be extended.

At the time of writing, about 40% of domain names have met their reserves. DegreePrograms.com is leading the board at $8,914 with 8 bidders. WatchMeNow.com has one bidder at $3,300 in second place.

There are a number of good one and two word domain names that have met their reserves at attractive prices. Pumped.com, Defeated.com, HeadButt.com, and LukeWarm.com have all met their reserves at under $1,200.

Sedo’s monthly GreatDomains auction ends on Thursday. 5b.com is leading the pack of domains that have met their reserve, garnering 15 bids up to $7,305.

Sedo also has an auction ending today for WeightTraining.com at $12,500. This is interesting since the domain name sold for $19,000 at last month’s Domain Roundtable auction in Washington, D.C.

In other online auction news, Rick Latona Auctions has announced an online auction beginning July 23. There will be 100 domains in the auction and they are still accepting submissions. Bidding is available at proxibid.com/ricklatona.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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1. GreatDomains Auction Ends Thursday, 80.com at $60k
2. Aftermarket.com Auction Ends Today, Great Domains Thursday
3. SnapNames Opens Submissions for SnapNames Live Auction

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The SnapNames Summer Stimulus auction is ending today at 3:15pm EDT, with many domains still available at great prices.

Of the 80 domains up for auction there’s only about $35,000 worth of bids on half the names.  I’m sure many people are waiting until the  last minute. Forty of the domains still haven’t garnered a bid and 5 of those are No Reserve names including Floors.biz, Nondescript.com, Winnie.net, GolfingMaui.com and BargainCars.net.

Click here to visit the auction headquarters so you can start bidding today!

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada

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Sedo posted a spectacular week of sales including Mouse.com for $125,000, Keyboard.com for $100,000, 70.com for $87,000, and 63.com for $75,000.

In total there were 128 domains sold for over $750,000. Check out the full list of results after the jump…

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada

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Cleveland Browns quarterback loses arbitration for BradyQuinn.com.

Brady Quinn’s domain name has been intercepted.

The Cleveland Browns quarterback filed for arbitration at National Arbitration Forum to get the domain name BradyQuinn.com from a Florida man. He lost the case, failing to persuade an arbitrator that the domain name was registered in bad faith.

The case hinged on when exactly Quinn got common law rights to the name “Brady Quinn”. The respondent argued that Quinn had only been featured in local media before the domain name was registered, and that Quinn hadn’t established common law rights. Quinn was a senior in college when the domain was registered, and had just been offered a scholarship to play for Notre Dame.

This case is one that really could have gone either way. I could see a panelist deciding that the respondent only registered the domain after learning about Quinn in the press, especially since the owner offered to sell the domain for $2,000. But this arbitrator was unconvinced.

The lesson is that you should really try to purchase your domain name early, especially if you’re a pseudo-celebrity. It amazes me how many people who get to the final leg on American Idol don’t own their domain names.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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2. Domain Arbitration Doesn’t “Get More” Crazy Than This
3. SAP Loses Another Domain Name Case

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A brief look at domain name news.

.cm, .info, and other stories worth reading.

Is the .cm landrush a blight on domainers? Chad Kettner thinks so. I tend to agree. Rightly or wrongly, it’s easy for the media to point to major domain name companies supporting the .cm landrush and saying “see, they’re all cybersquatters”. I also question the amount of .cm typo traffic. Personally, I think .co is much more common. You also wonder if parking ad feed providers will monetize .cm traffic. Don’t forget it’s also a country code domain, so keep in mind there’s little oversight. Cameroon could decide to take your domains away.

.Info deals. If, like many spammers and sploggers, you are a fan of .info domain names, this news is for you. .Info registry Afilias has a new page dedicated to special registrar offers for cut-rate .info domains. Keep in mind most specials are only for the first year of registration. (Hey, I actually like .info. But the low price has led to quality concerns.)

Snapnames auction tops $100,000. SnapNames first monthly themed auction brought in over $100,000 in sales. DegreePrograms.com led the way at $31,555. Submissions for the August Showcase Auction are due by July 28; September submissions are due by August 25.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

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2. Domain Name News Bytes for October 4
3. News Bytes: DNW on Bido, .Info Giveaway

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Arbitrator sued in Houston for allegedly presuming guilt.

One of National Arbitration Forum’s (NAF) most prolific arbitrators, The Honorable Carolyn Marks Johnson, has been sued in Houston for alleged judicial misconduct.

Judge Johnson has been an active domain dispute arbitrator with NAF. A 2001 analysis of UDRP cases (pdf) showed that, not only was she handed a disproportionate number of complaints by NAF, but she also found in favor of the complainant 97.2% of the time. Across the universe of cases at NAF, only 82.9% were found in favor of complainants at the time.

She has also decided some particularly egregious cases. She found in favor of the complainant for Freebie.com, even though the respondent owned a company called Freebie, Inc. that used the web site for a “points site” for Blockbuster Video. That decision found its way to court, where two separate courts found that the UDRP was flat out wrong. The first court decided that the UDRP was “unsupported by the evidence” and should be reversed. An appeals court agreed.

She was also the arbitrator on the recent MothersMilk.com case. She was the second arbitrator to hear what amounts to basically the same case. The first arbitrator ruled in favor of the respondent; Johnson found in favor of the complainant.

So what is she alleged to have done to find herself on the receiving end of a lawsuit? While serving as a judge in a Driving While Intoxicated case, she undertook what the defendant alleges was a “bizarre and illegal course of conduct”.

Just an upset defendant? It doesn’t appear that way. The defendant alleges that, while the jury was deliberating, Johnson opined about the need to punish the defendant and the need for the prosecutor and defendant to work out an agreement about the punishment that would be imposed on the defendant as soon as the jury reached a verdict. Johnson then allegedly ordered the defendant to take a drug test, and Johnson advised that, if found positive for illegal drugs, she would tell the jury as it was deliberating.

Keep in mind this all allegedly took place while the jury was deliberating. It then came back with its verdict: NOT guilty.

The suit alleges that the defendant was then detained against her will in order to take the drug test anyway, and makes several other claims. By the way, the drug test came back negative, too.

That one of its arbitrators is on the receiving end of such a lawsuit doesn’t look good for National Arbitration Forum, given that it was recently sued for bias by the Attorney General of Minnesota. NAF settled the case and exited the consumer arbitration business.

It’s up to the court to decide Judge Johnson’s case. After all, you’re innocent until proven guilty. Perhaps Johnson needs to apply that elusive right in both the court room and in domain arbitration cases.

© DomainNameWire.com 2009.

Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.

Related posts:

1. National Arbitration Forum FAIL
2. Minnesota Attorney General Sues National Arbitration Forum
3. National Arbitration Forum press release practices

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Every domainer has heard the story of how Kevin Ham built a $300 million empire - particularly how he profited from the millions of people who accidentally type “.cm” (the country code TLD for Cameroon) instead of “.com” when searching for a website.

And now that Cameroon’s ccTLD registrations are open to the public, domain auction houses are targeting domainers and typosquaters alike in an effort to sell high-end generic .CM domains for hefty prices.

In Rick Latona’s premium .CM auction, which ended July 14, some of the most sought after .CM domains such as cars.cm, jobs.cm, and loan.cm were sold for prices ranging between $5,000 to $35,500. And beyond that, the registration fees for .CM domains are expected to start around $350 for 2 years.

So were these domains worth it? And are other .CM domains worth registering? I say no, and here are two reasons why:

.CM Is Intended For TLD Typosquatters

While generic keyword-based domain names will always have SEO benefits, there’s no getting around the fact that .CM domains are meant for TLD typosquatters (unless you own a business in Cameroon). Only 2-4% of Cameroon’s population has Internet access and with registration fees estimated to be around $175/year, there are many cheaper alternatives for domainers who want legitimate keyword-based URLs. So unless you are intending to benefit from TLD typosquatting, there’s no use in owning a .CM domain.

But what’s worse is that NameJet isn’t even trying to hide that fact. The official NameJet .CM domain order page is advertising trademark infringing domains such as Skype.cm, Nike.cm, Volvo.cm, and Amozon.cm as “Popular .CM Preorders”, and openly listing two of the main benefits of owning a .CM domain as “securing natural traffic to your site” and “protecting your brand to avoid any misleading uses of your name”.

On the flip side, they might as well point out that the benefits could also include “taking natural traffic away from the intended site” and “infringing on another brand by misleading Internet users with an almost-exact domain”.

The Revenue Won’t Be As Much As You Think

After hearing about the success Kevin Ham had with .CM domains, some might think that .CM is a sure-fire approach to making money online. Besides, much like 2006/2007  there are still millions of people accidentally typing in “.cm” instead of “.com” periodically - and it’s perfectly legal to own .CM domains as long as they’re not infringing on any trademarks.

Even so, Kevin Ham had almost every .CM domain putting pennies in his pocket. Unfortunately, even the richest domainers targeting .CM would be lucky to grab a couple hundred premium generic domains at a cost of $175/year for registration fees. And at this price it would be tough math to figure out how much traffic the domain will receive, how much revenue it can generate, and whether or not would be profitable over time. Plus, keep in mind that PPC revenue is down and the best generic domains will come at a cost as they’ll only be available by auction.

Word is that there are quite a few previous owners of premium .CM domains that were disappointed with the results. Take it for what it’s worth.

That’s my two cents…what do you think? Are you going to be going for any .CM domains?

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada

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SnapNames Summer Stimulus auction has concluded with 38 domains selling for nearly $90,000 including DegreePrograms.com for $31,555.

Overall, nearly half of the names in the catalog were sold and a number of one and two-word domains met their reserves.

Other notable sales included CameraBags.com $10,500, Pumped.com for $5,750, MusicArchive.com for $4,710, DiscountTravel.net for $3,900, BalanceTransfer.net for $3,400, WatchMeNow.com for $3,300, and WirelessModem.com for $3,000. Click here for the full list of results.

Submissions for August’s showcase auction, which begins on August 11 at 3:00 pm Eastern Time, are still being accepted until July 29. Visit showcase.snapnames.com for more details.

[via SnapNames]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada

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AfternicDLS had a strong week, reporting over $440,000 in domain sales including Epidurals.com for $8,500, SPAO.com for $6,300, and NVDirect.com for $5,500.

Check out the full results - which includes over 300 domain sales - after the jump…

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

DomainConvergence | August 12-13, 2009 | Toronto, ON, Canada

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