Domaining is not cybersquatting!

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I read an article in a major newspaper a few days back - the new form of cybersquatting - domaining. Hogwash! Its as much a legal business, if done right, as any other business. While booking someone’s name or brand is generally unacceptable, there is another type of domain investment that’ll shock your socks off.

Before I go any further, here’s some recommended reading -

#1 - pls note, this is just for 2008.

here’s the one from 2007 - #2

And here are some resources to allow you to do your own research -

http://www.namebio.com

http://www.dnsalesprice.com

Ready for the punch line (what did you think… its a blog post, not a novel ;) )

Domaining is nothing but short for ‘Domain Name Investing’. Not much different than property development. You buy a barren piece of land, get a road to it, add water, add electricity and sell to a builder for a decent ROI. In this case, think of the web as a blank unlimited universe. The only planets or even solar systems that are worth anything are those on a common ‘type path’.

Once people type in a common term and stick a TLD behind it (.com / .net / .in / .tv / etc) and do it often enough to generate a decent amount of traffic… its worth money. To you as a domain owner, to the parking company as a source of traffic, to the ad company (goog/yahoo) as a potential location to place customers ads and even to the advertiser (most so tbh) - who gets targeted interested traffic… at a pittance.

Once you have enough of these type in types, all you need to do is sit and count your money at the end of the month, sit and chat at NP or DNF and live like a king!!

edit - interesting article in LA Times

The Significance of .WS

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Question asked at NamePros -

I am considering purchasing a ws name. What is the resell potential for a one-word business name like money.ws? Not really money, I wish, but kindof similar. Thank you

My answer -
Resell potential = 0.

Honestly, I bought prices.ws and photographer.ws for less than $200 ea. and if you know the value of these keywords you’ll know this is a pittance.

So why buy .ws?
1. Excellent keywords can still be regged.
2. You can buy premium keywords for $20-$50.
3. Excellent development potential, luckily goog doesn’t really care about which extension the site is on but how much content s there and how often it is updated.
4. Godaddy markets .ws - little but its a big brand
5. The ‘website’ christening seems to have more and more acceptance.
6. Its easy to get traffic and thus revenue for better keywords in .ws than a ‘bad’ keyword in .com

Just my 0.06

edit - PS: .ws domains CANNOT be transferred between registrars, peculiar but there it is. So ensure that the registrar you do book at is a reputed one with many customers. Smaller companies might be cheaper but most resellers at least will be unwilling to open an account for 1 or 2 domains.

edit - 30th Mar 2008 -

Theres been a change at the Registry end and now .ws domains can be transferred. edjackiel over at Namepros broke the news.

“Can I transfer my domain to another registrar?

Yes, .WS domain transfers may take place in accordance with the “GDI Transfer Policy”. Please contact the registrar you would like to transfer to for instructions on how to proceed.”

http://website.ws/faq/index.dhtml

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