Web 2.0.11562 beta

OK not the most exciting site in the world, but it was a pretty simple site to launch and the timing seems to be spot on. I’ve had this domain for some time and always thought it would be nice to develop, but with the current state of the financial world it became just impossible not to put up a site.

I’ll go back and automate the administration a bit more, add more content and polish a few rough edges later, but for now it’ll do just fine. I’m talking about the place to go for information about credit repair, debt consolidation, writing credit dispute letters and more.

OK so the forum is up. http://thaidomainforum.com

I am in this for the long run, comitted to Thai language domains, and there does not seem to be a resource catering to this niche. So I’m going to maintain it in hopes of seeing a community form. If a community develops we will all be the richer because of it. Niches are great places to try to serve IMO, because otherwise the interested parties have nothing.

I get a lot of customers that already have experience dealing with web developers. They often have an old site that is in dire need of refurbishing. Sometimes they’re locked into relatively high monthly charges, that they’ve been paying for years, because they don’t know what to do to break free. This will often be a static site consisting of a dozen pages, that’s been around for five years or so and runs $50 per month. The development cost was partially subsidized by this higher monthly hosting fees. I’ve had customers tell me they paid $1000 initially, and they agreed to pay a higher monthly rate. But keep in mind that these folks are hosted in a shared hosting environment! And little do they understand but often the functional parts are hosted separately as a service, so they cannot be moved.

The real bad behavior, and the reason I write this, is that typically the web dev company registered the domain name for several years. But when I look at the registrant and admin contacts, I only see the web dev company. When I contact them regarding changing the nameserver entries, they will often tell me that money is due, and the customer will need to pay off the contract. And to my amazement the customer will frequently want to do just that! If you are a web dev company take heed - you can put yourself as the technical contact, but be sure to put the real owner as the registrant!

Finally - I’ve been waiting for a very long time for this one. Thai language adwords are available for Thai advertisers!

For someone who has dozens of developed Thai websites this means a lot, because there are so few ways to monetize the sites. We’ve put up some beautiful, hand-crafted sites like this one http://นวดแผนไทย.com (thai massage), with absolutely no way to make a penny, just to get it out there.

Don’t get me wrong, the pool of Thai advertisers at this point is as shallow as the Cambodian Prime Minister’s strategy for national development. And even when I get my first click, it’ll likely be a 2 or 3 cent click. That’s OK, this will be replacing nothing, and as such is gonna seem so sweet!

Don’t just hand over people’s domain names because some thick politician says so! I’ve always felt confidence in the safety of my names at Moniker. One more instance of appropriate behavior makes me feel justified in that opinion.

OK this is just getting too weird, somebody should be watching and making these guys adhere to some sort of policy. Any consistent policy at all. I had several expired domains, with expiration dates spanning a stretch of more than a week, all removed from my account within a couple minutes today. Weird.

With any other registrar I’ve ever heard of or dealt with, they allow a certain amount of time to pass, a grace deletion period, between the expiration date and the time when the domain will be deleted from my account. Here it seems arbitrary, maybe it depends on the domain. In fact some of the recent domains have deleted, but most of the recent ones have been “moved” into an account controlled by Encirca. I think they’re taking advantage of a time when registrar activity is not being monitored by the registry. It’s a shame, because customers like me value knowing what to expect. I’m buying .pro domains elsewhere from now on.

The agreement between ICANN and the registry for .PRO, RegistryPro was recently modified. The original expiration date had passed and it was an opportunity for the parties involved to reconsider the extension and the rules imposed on registrants and registrars. I wouldn’t characterize this as an opportunity lost per se, but rather an opportunity not firmly seized by those who stood to benefit the most from it.

The improvements in this arena are apparent; several registrars are now competing to offer .pro registrations, including Network Solutions. That’s important because this extension will now be on the radars of corporate registrants, who often use registrars like NetSol. They will quickly realize the inherent “rememberability” of this brand. It’s also important because price competition is crucial to the mass adoption of this TLD, and it only happens when more registrars join the fray.

The downside is that they left restrictions in place, but made them vague and unworkable. There will surely be legal challenges if they ever decide to revoke registrations (as they claim) based upon invalid certification data from the registrant. This is an absurd approach, and will retard the adoption of this TLD by scaring off a portion of the potential registrant pool. Hopefully the upside will outweigh this negative vestige from the TLD’s origins of yesteryear.

I’m always angered when I read about some shady outfit operating in a questionable ethical manner. Our industry seems to be plagued by a never-ending stream of these, and all registrars get a black eye from the activities of a small minority.

An associate of mine, in the commercial real estate development business recently got a fax. This was an official looking document, stating at the top that his company needed to purchase a domain name, his trademarked project name dot US. They cited statutes and explained that IP owners need to actively defend their trademarks or risk their claim on said marks. It also urged swift action, although it seems that the domain in question has never been registered. They gave him one day to claim this domain for $35 per year.

A word of advice - if you get a fax or letter pushing you into registering a domain like this, send a copy to ICANN. And if time allows send a letter explaining that after sending this kind of notice to subsequently register the domain would clearly demonstrate “bad intent” on their part and you would be forced to defend your trademark in that case.

So long overdue, the domain tasting system that has been exploited by outfits like this, has finally been straightened out. ICANN has now voted to impose their twenty cent fee on every domain registered. Actually they’re no longer going to be allowing registrars to be refunded the fee during the Add Grace Period but it’s easier to just think of it as now applying to all registrations. This would apply whether or not the registry allows registrants to return the domain for a refund.

This small fee completely changes the economics of domain tasting. For the average Joe, it means you can change your mind about a domain you registered and get almost a complete refund. I’ve seen the need for this when customers of mine accidentally register typos late at night.

For the predatory companies out there who register domains people are actively searching for on registrar sites in the hopes of extorting a large profit to surrender the domain, this is bad news. And for Network Solutions’ latest PR black eye over scalping searched-for domains - this removes the monetary incentive. Three cheers for ICANN!

A good post today by Jay Westerdal reminding us all how the availability of credit for house purchases led to an increase in the prices for homes by making them more affordable. Here is the article.

Financing options do exist for premium domains, but for small business owners insightful enough to understand the value of getting a great domain that will shape their ongoing business strategy, there is nothing. Conventional lenders are not interested, and generally lack confidence in the accepted valuation methods.Domain names have real value in business, and smart financiers will recognize this.

Interesting too to see him mention travel.com and guess that it’s worth is $50 million. I happen to own the Thai version of that, ท่องเที่ยว.com, and believe it’s worth to be one half of one percent of that, or $250,000. Current market price today would be more like $10,000 I think, reinforcing Jay’s point that valuations go up if good names are made more affordable.