Web Design and Development, Domain, Webhoting and Media Solutions

DOMAINfest Global 2012 is now history. The 6th annual show concluded in Santa Monica with a farewell breakfast this morning that followed last night's grand finale at the House of Blues. We have closing day photos and highlights that pick up where we left off near the end of Day 2.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com we have Photos & Highlights from the DOMAINfest Global conference, covering late Day 1 activity last night as well as today's Day 2 events in Santa Monica. Find out why three conference attendees are sporting a dramatically new look today.

The 2012 DOMAINFest Global Conference is underway. While the show officially opened this morning, there was a lot of pre-show activity last night including a big soiree hosted by Frank Schilling. We have photos and highlights from that as well as today's opening sessions in Santa Monica.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The SedoMLS Network announces a new partnership with registration giant Go Daddy, the doors open at the DOMAINfest Global conference in Santa Monica this afternoon and we break down 2011 domain sales data and ponder how much money lies beneath the tip of the sales iceberg.

DN Journal's January Newsletter is going out to opt-in subscribers today.

For the 8th consecutive year, DNJournal.com kicks off the New Year with our annual State of the Industry Cover Story, an endeavor that brought together 15 experts and company leaders from across the industry to get their thoughts on the key trends of the past year and what they believe is in store in the year ahead.

Today in the Lowdown at DN Journal: .Com registrations pass another milestone - the 100 million mark. Plus, DOMAINfest Global releases the final agenda for next week's big show in Santa Monica and domain sales giants Afternic and Sedo have announcements about the latest expansion of their respective platforms.

Last week a half dozen ccTLDs and a pair of non .com gTLDs earned placed on DN Journal's all extension Top 20 Sales Chart.. This week they did a complete switch with the non .com gTLDs taking six places while the country codes had to settle for two. One constant was the .coms who again took the most chart entries.

Europe's Domaining 2012 conference, coming up in Valencia, Spain April 26-28, is still three months away but show organizers have been hard at work for weeks now putting together an all-star speaker's line-up. Here are some of the industry experts who will be on stage.

The DOMAINfest Global 2012 conference will be running next week in Santa Monica, California. Over the past couple of weeks I've posted about some of the business highlights on the agenda, but one of the biggest changes will involve the evening social events. After a 3 year run, the Playboy Mansion is out & 3 new venues are in.

When I got an email from Chicago.com owner Josh Metnick with a subject line that said "Something amazing is happening!" I sat up and took notice. Josh is not a guy who is given to hyperbole. We got on the phone and he did indeed have an amazing story to tell - one that will be music to the ears of owners of top tier .com domains.

Today in the Lowdown at DN Journal: Wednesday's widespread protest by key Internet websites has killed the controversial SOPA bill, the two founders of one of the domain industry's favorite charities have retired and named replacements (one a domain pioneer) and David Castello returns to his first love!

DOMAINfest Global has added 3 expert speakers to the line up for the upcoming show in Santa Monica. Escrow.com has reached a major milestone - the $1 billion mark in secured sales and Screenshots.com offers a concise look at how the web's key sites looked during Wednesday's protest against SOPA/PIPA.

Diversity was the keyword for week two of the 2012 domain sales season. As usual, the .coms did dominate with a dozen entries on our latest weekly all extension Top 20 Sales Chart, however a half dozen ccTLDs and a pair of non .com gTLDs also elbowed their way onto the elite list.

Legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali is celebrating his 70th birthday today. Seeing all of the news items about Ali's birthday left me wondering how MuhammadAli.com was currently being used and also brought back fond memories of the day I got to go toe to toe with "the greatest of all time."

The deadline to apply for DOMAINfest Global's popular PITCHfest Contest for online entrepreneurs (coming up Feb. 1) was set for today, but conference organizers decided to leave the window open a little longer. Elsewhere, time is running out to bid in a 1,2 & 3 Letter .PRO domain auction that ends Tuesday night.

In today's Lowdown at DNJournal.com we have news from 4 different domain conferences; DOMAINfest Global, the next Southern California Domainers meetup, Domaining Europe and Traffic 2012. Plus, Lana Del Rey, the new music industry sensation with domain industry roots, appears on national TV tomorrow night.

You probably heard about the sale of Marijuana.com (including both the domain name & the popular forum built on it) last November in a deal reportedly worth $4.2 million. What you haven't heard is that the deal was made possible by a service provided by Escrow.com that is helping fuel more sales at the high end of the market.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. It covers the first week of 2012 sales. The New Year got off to a good start with a million dollar sale reported along with two 6-figure sales that we are the first to report. One of those is a big Canadian ccTLD sale.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Inside Braden Pollock and Patrick Ruddell's new partnership in ScienceFiction.com. Plus, ICANN leaders to answer questions tomorrow about the controversial new gTLD program that opens Thursday and a new brokerage agreement is announced by Sedo and the .CO Registry.

Marc Ostrofsky, the domain industry pioneer known for the sale of Business.com in a deal valued at $7.5 million and for writing the book, Get Rich Click!, is in the news again. Publishing giant Simon & Schuster has purchased the rights to his New York Times bestseller and will distribute it globally.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com, encompassing the final week of the 2011 domain sales season. The old year went out with a bang with the final week of sales reports bringing three six-figure sales to light along with 37 solid five-figure sales.

It looks like ICANN will begin accepting applications for an unlimited number of new gTLDs on schedule next week. However, a late wave of vehement opposition has brought the U.S. Government into the fray and cast doubts on when or if many proposed new extensions will actually see the light of day.

I love my iPhone as much as anyone but I never envisioned the do everything device might become a key piece of news gathering equipment for professional journalists.Gannett, the media giant that publishes USA Today, is buying 1000s of iPhones & iPads to help its reporters record video & retool for the web.

I love new years (and not just because it is a good excuse to drink champagne though I do give New Year's Eve bonus points on that count)!. I like New Year's Day even more. Regardless of whether the previous year was good, bad or indifferent, there is always something exciting about starting a new year with a fresh slate.

DNJournal.com rings in the New Year with a new Cover Story. Ever since domain parking revenue went into a tailspin a few years ago, people have been looking for an alternate means of monetization that would restore the returns their domains used to produce. Some think lead gen whiz Braden Pollock may have a solution.

Despite warnings from a local citizen that they were about to lose MiamiPolice.com, the Miami Police Department let the domain drop because they didn't want to pay the renewal fee. To absolutely no one's surprise a cybersquatter grabbed the name and parked it. Now a Miami news outlet is blowing the whistle on the police.

A few top domain blogs and news sites do well financially through advertiser support, but it is a labor or love for the majority who don't make a lot of money from their efforts. Domaining.com, the top aggregator of domain news headlines, has come up with a plan to make the holidays a little merrier for those content producers.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The next to last week of the 2011 sales season came with a surprise - the rare appearance of a .net domain at the top of our all extension leader board. It is one of the year's 10 biggest non .com gTLD sales and the 4th biggest .net sale reported so far in 2011.

Dr. Chris Hartnett is one of the most well-known investors in the domain business. However, Chris has always believed in diversifying one's assets to hedge against disaster in any one category. Still, it may come as a shock to those who know him to learn where the mild mannered doctor is putting his money now.

We had a wonderful Christmas in Florida Sunday. It was 82 degrees & sunny so snow was a little scarce but we still have White Christmases - it's just that the white stuff here is sand instead of snow! Our Christmas wish is that you & your families are having an equally joyous holiday season and that 2012 will be your best year ever.

Verisign has released their latest quarterly Domain Name Industry covering the 3rd quarter of 2011. The new report shows domain registrations worldwide continued to grow at a steady clip as the quarter closed with just under 220 million domains registered across all TLDs - a jump of over 8%. ccTLDs regs rose even more.

Two high end domain sales, one that soared all the way into the top ten for 2011 and another that reached the year's top 20, lead DN Journal's latest weekly domain sales chart. There is an interesting back story to the previously unreported $280,0000 sale of the domain in the #2 slot that we will tell you about.

The operator of the .Info registry, Afilias, has announced the winners of its 2011 .Info Awards recognizing the best websites built on .info domains this year. The top 3 sites were selected by combining scores from a 7-person panel of judges with votes the public cast for their favorites. We'll tell you who picked up the prize money.

The music career of Lana Del Rey continues to explode. Today it was announced that the sultry young singer, the eldest daughter of Rob and Pat Grant, will make her first American TV appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live on January 14, 2012 in a show that will be hosted by Harry Potter!

Last summer #1 registrar Go Daddy announced that the company had entered into an agreement with 3 private equity firms to make a strategic investment n the company. That agreement was finalized today. Terms of the deal were not announced but it likely involved hundreds of millions of dollars going to Go Daddy .

I've always been a fan of ccTLDs that represent the world's major economies, including France's .fr. I've reported a lot of good .fr sales through the years but due to strict Nexus rules could never register .fr domains. I still can't but thanks to a major policy change that went into effect December 6, a lot more people can.

The Castello Brothers, who have both been professional musicians, have become rock stars in the domain business. Now, thanks to Bree, an exciting new singer/songwriter that David Castello is managing and playing drums behind, David could be on the verge of becoming a rock star in the music business too.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The six-figure sale of a two-letter .com through Moniker/SnapNames leads our latest Top 20 Sales Chart. It becomes one of seven two-letter .coms that rank among the 100 biggest sales year to date. Six ccTLDs also made this week's leader board.

Tebowing has become a global sensation with people all over the world striking the prayerful pose that Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow has become known for. The domain name, Tebowing.com, was registered less than 60 days ago and the lucky new owner is now reaping the benefits from the Tebow craze.

DOMAINfest Global 2012's PITCHfest Contest on Feb. 1 will give participants a chance to pitch their projects to a panel of angel investor judges and around 700 internet entrepreneurs & investors expected to be at the big show in Santa Monica, California. We'll tell you what's at stake and how to take part.

The 2012 DOMAINfest Global conference is less than 8 weeks away. A Who's Who of the domain industry will be in Santa Monica, California for the event that runs Jan. 31- Feb. 2 at the oceanfront Fairmont Miramar Hotel. You could be there too and thanks to a Fantasy Domaining Contest, you could be going all expenses paid!

The domain industry is such a young one that there are very few companies that have been around for even a decade. Yet Paul Goldstone, who owns registrar DomainIt.com and industry news & information resource iGoldRush.com, is celebrating the 15th anniversary of BOTH companies this week as well as his 40th birthday!

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Domain buyers rang up more than two dozen reported sales at 5 figures or more and 3 of those cracked the 6-figure mark. The .coms had a dominant outing sweeping 18 of the 20 chart entries. However, the ccTLDs did have one of their 20 best sales of the year.

General availability of the new .XXX extension began today, Names are available on a first come, first served basis at standard registration fees. In another debut, Screenshots.com launched a free site that allows users to view screenshots of what a website has looked like throughout its history.

Sedo Co-Founder Tim Schumacher, the pioneering domain industry company's CEO, is leaving that post December 31. Schumacher, who will continue to serve on Sedo's Board, cited personal reasons for stepping down but he is expected to get more involved with start-up businesses. Tobias Flaitz will take over as CEO.

For over a decade now domain industry pioneer Rick Schwartz has been sharing his knowledge & advice about the business on an almost daily basis. Rick's Blog had been one of the most popular (and certainly the most controversial) soapbox anyone in this business has ever stood on but he won't be on it daily anymore.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Moniker/SnapNames claimed the top spot on the all extension Top 20 Chart after closing a big mid six-figure sale of Answer.com. It is the sixth biggest sale reported so far in 2011. 14 .com and 6 ccTLDs made the elite list while the non .com gTLDs were shut out.

Last year at this time Thought Convergence was busy launching their new domain sales platform at Aftermarket.com. With a 1st anniversary to celebrate, the company came up with the best possible way to mark the occasion by booking a blockbuster domain sale - a deal that came in above the half-million dollar mark.

After producing Spain's biggest domain conference for the past 3 years, Dietmar Stefitz is aiming higher for the fourth edition of his show next spring. Stefitz has brought veteran industry executive and conference producer Jodi Chamberlain on board to help run the Domaining 2012 event that will be held in Valencia, Spain in April.

If variety is the spice of life the past week was a very spicy one for the domain aftermarket as seven different TLDs earned places on our all extension Top 20 Sales Chart. As is usually the case, the top spot went to a .com with this week's leader weighing in at $90,000, but the ccTLDs were also a force to be reckoned with.

Michael & Judi Berkens have lost their beloved Yorkie Bandit who passed away over the weekend. At Traffic conferences, Bandit became as familiar to veteran attendees as anyone on two legs (and a lot more popular than many of them)! Bandit may be gone but his spirit will live on in a new annual award that will bear his name.

DomainHoldings.com recently began publishing a free newsletter that has been providing a lot of interesting tips and information for domain investor/developers. In the latest edition Michael Berkens talks about co-selling Meet.me for an astounding $450,000, ICANN's new gTLD plans, his thoughts on mini-sites and more.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. It was a big week with two of the year's ten biggest sales being recorded including two of 2011's five biggest ccTLD sales. The country codes wound up taking four of the top five spots on our new all extension Top 20 Sales Chart.

With Amazon's release of their new Kindle Fire model on Monday, tablets are again the talk of the town. While the jockeying among hardware makers is always interesting to follow, what's more important to domain investor/developers is HOW people are using those tablets. We have some very interesting new data on that.

Next spring some adventurous people with good hearts from the domain industry will take part in a climb of Africa's majestic Mount Kilimanjaro to raise funds and awareness for The Water School. YOU could be among those scaling the 19,340-foot mountain but you'll have to hurry. The registration deadline is less than 3 weeks away.

I am frequently asked whether or not it is too late to make money in the domain business? Obviously, I thought the answer was "no" when I entered the field in 2002 and over the past decade my answer has always remained the same. The latest case in point came today with an astounding .ME domain sale.

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone will deliver the keynote speech at the 2012 DOMAINfest Global conference coming up January 30 - February 2 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. Conference organizers also released other details on the show agenda today.

Solid five-figure sales were abundant this week with almost enough to fill TWO Top 20 charts in the latest sales report at DNJournal.com. Moniker/SnapNames led the charge, sweeping the first five spots on our latest all extension leader board with a quintet fronted by a sale that came in at nearly $90,000.

The 5th Annual .Info Awards competition is now underway with more prize money than ever before ready to be distributed to the top three finishers in the contest to determine who has developed the best .info websites. Also today, Landrush for the new .xxx extension got underway and will continue until November 25.

Left of the Dot Media Inc., fresh off a nice geodomain deal with Oahu.com last month, is back in the news with word that they have added two domain industry veterans to their Board of Directors. Left of the Dot provides an alternative to domain parking by leasing sub-domains of premium generic domain names.

Sedo's latest quarterly Domain Market Study came out Wednesday and, as always, it is packed with interesting information. In the latest quarter Sedo logged more than $19 million in sales. Com domains continued to be the most frequently sold but a popular ccTLD is gaining ground and .info is showing improvement.

The big boys came out to play this week giving the domain aftermarket four six-figure sales, including one that ranks among the ten biggest reported so far this year. Another ranks among 2011's 25 best sales. The .coms piled up 17 of 20 chart entries with the ccTLDs taking the rest. No soup for the non .com gTLDs this time out.

Winged Media, a rapidly growing domain technology and monetization company with offices in Australia and the U.S., has secured a $3 million investment from the Carnegie Innovation Fund. The money will be used primarily to further develop the company's innovative Protrada domain trading and monetization platform.

The ICM Registry announced today that more than 80,000 applications for new .xxx domain names were received in the Sunrise period that ended Monday. Next up will the a 17-day Land Rush starting Tuesday (Nov. 8), with General Availability opening December 6.

I've been telling you for the past few years that Lizzy Grant (stage name Lana Del Rey), the daughter of veteran domain investor/developer Rob Grant, was going to be a star in the music business. Now it's happening. Lana is featured in a high profile color spread in the new November issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

A new DN Journal newsletter is going out to opt in subscribers today. The publication is also available to everyone online. In the latest issue we break down the most recent quarter of reported domain sales (3Q-2011) to see how they compare against the same quarter a year ago.

A new Cover Story at DNJournal.com is a comprehensive review of this month's T.RA.F.F.I.C. 2011 conference on Fort Lauderdale Beach. The year's only T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference helped restore equilibrium to a previously over-crowded conference scene that has returned to a manageable number of shows that really matter.

ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin has sounded an alarm that should make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Some proposed new legislation is being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives that would put domain and website owners at the complete mercy of so-called "rights holders".

The largest numeric domain sale ever reported crushed the aftermarket competition this week to lead DN Journal's latest Top 20 Domain Sales Chart. The monster deal helped the .coms sweep all but two chart entries, leaving just two places for non .com gTLDs while the ccTLDs were shut out for the first time this year.

A new version of the popular DomainsBot domain name suggestion tool went live today, making it easier for people and companies to search for domain names as well as Twitter handles and Facebook pages. We also have an update from the ICANN meeting currently underway in Dakar, Senegal.

Sunday was such a great day I'm not quite ready to let it go. The day tied together two ends of my professional career - the present and the distant past (a past that doesn't seem distant at all after, for the first time in decades, re-uniting with some special people from those days last night).

The 42nd International ICANN Meeting gets underway Sunday in Dakar, Senegal. The introduction of new gTLDs in 2012 will be one of the main issues discussed at this meeting. ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin will be there to monitor any developments that might impact the rights & interests of domain registrants & investors.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Legendary domain investor Garry Chernoff was the seller in both of the top two domain sales reported over the past seven days. He helped the .coms take 12 places places on our latest weekly Top 20 Chart while the ccTLDs claimed five spots and the non .com gTLDs three.

I'm back home after a wonderful week on Fort Lauderdale Beach for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference that closed Wednesday morning. Here are photos & highlights from the last 24 hours at the show, including the live auction, the final business session, two closing night parties & more, including hints of a return to Las Vegas.

In my last post from the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Fort Lauderdale Beach conference yesterday, I signed off with 3 afternoon sessions left to attend as well as the official T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Party last night. Here are photos and highlights from those events as well as most of today's sessions at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

Rain forced outdoor activities scheduled on the opening day of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Fort Lauderdale conference inside on Sunday, but the inclement weather didn't slow anyone down. We have photos & highlights from Sunday as well as the first half of the first full day of business today.

DN Journal has T.R.A.F.F.I.C. pre-show photos highlights from Friday & Saturday at Fort Lauderdale Beach. The only 2011 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference gets underway this evening with Sedo's welcoming cocktail reception at the Ritz Carlton after another full day of pre-show cabana networking.

Guests began arriving in Fort Lauderdale Beach Thursday in preparation for 2011's only T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference. The big event officially gets underway Sunday night (Oct. 16) but there is already plenty of activity going on at the oceanfront Ritz Carlton Hotel that is hosting the show.

I'm heading off to Ft. Lauderdale Beach today so I can get settled in at the Ritz Carlton before the crowd arrives for the big Traffic conference that starts Sunday. I'm looking forward to congratulating Rob Grant on the latest development in his daughter's blossoming career as a recording artist - her live performance on British national TV.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Six-figure domain sales returned this week after taking the previous week off. Three were reported this time around including one that is the year's biggest non .com gTLD sale and another that ranks among the four biggest country code sales.

Two well-known figures in the domain industry have a lot to celebrate today. Left of the Dot Media CEO Chris Jensen is jubilant over the company's first geodomain project at Oahu.com and City Advertising CEO Darren Cleveland is savoring his company's recognition as one of America's fastest growing companies.

Paul Goldstone and Morgan Linton have teamed up to make a monthly series of free educational videos available exclusively at Goldstones's iGoldRush.com site. Morgan will produce the videos about turning domain names into brands to increase profitability, with the first video going up today.

If I could have been two places at once I would have loved to have been in Munich, Germany last week for Domainerwiesn ("Domainer Oktoberfest"). That event, held right in the middle of the world famous Oktoberfest beer festival, was a crowd-pleasing affair filled with fun, networking and, of course, LOTS of beer!

The first ever GeoPublishers.com Expo was held last weekend in Chicago with some of the world's top geodomain owners on hand for the inaugural event. Here is DN Journal's wire to wire coverage of a conference that featured some of the most valuable programming we've seen to date.

Just 10 days from now, on Sunday evening, Oct. 16, one of the most highly anticipated T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences to date will convene at the fabulous Ritz Carlton Hotel overlooking the Atlantic Ocean at Ft. Lauderdale Beach, Florida. For four days the Ritz will become the center of the domain universe.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Just one week after one of the best domain sales weeks of the year (one that included four six-figure sales), the temperature in the aftermarket dropped a few degrees this week with the #1 reported sale topping out at $55,000. Still the market's mid-range did very well.

Sedo has added a prominent new member to their SedoMLS team. Frank Michlick has come on board to help expand a domain sales promotional network that currently has close to 60 partners. Michlick spent over five years with Tucows, founded DomainCocoon.com and co-founded DomainNameNews.com.

I'm back from the first ever GeoPublishers.com Expo that was held in Chicago over the weekend. The event featured a dozen excellent sessions that sent attendees home with great tips and invaluable information that will help them strengthen their geodomain based businesses. 

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal: Notes on some interesting domain news from around the world including a chance for European domainers to meet in Warsaw, a critical auDA Board election coming up in Australia and Canadians get their own domain forum.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Autumn has just arrived and the first week of fall was accompanied by a welcome surge in the domain aftermarket. 4 solid 6-figure sales led the way & there were so many 5-figure sales we could have filled up TWO Top 20 Charts and still had some domains left over.

When the DOMAINfest Global conference returns for its 2012 run Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Santa Monica, the event will have an entirely new look at night. After 3 straight years of finales at the Playboy Mansion, the closing night party this time will be at the House of Blues in Hollywood. Two more new venues will debut other nights.

New DN Journal Cover Story: David Sams won 9 Emmy Awards as a wildly successful TV producer in Hollywood. His credits include introducing Oprah Winfrey to America. He entered the domain industry with still more success. A stroke turned his life upside down but wound up putting him on an even more rewarding path.

With the 2011 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference now less than three weeks away (Oct. 16-19 on Fort Lauderdale Beach) organizers have been issuing a steady stream of updates and additions to the show agenda. Today they announced that author Scott Cleland, "the world's leading Google critic," will be a featured speaker.

Geodomain investor/developers will be gathering in Chicago late next week for the first ever GeoPublishers.com Expo. The event will run from Friday evening, Sept. 30 through Sunday, October 2 with most of the key players in the geo space on hand. We have all of the details on the final agenda.

The biggest Australian ccTLD sale reported to date set the pace in the domain aftermarket this past week, changing hands for 6 figures. A .com sale also cracked that barrier to take the runner up spot on DN Journal's new Top 20 Chart. The country codes then scored big again to round out the top three.

TrafficMedia.com, a one stop web solutions shop spearheaded by domain industry pioneer Igal Lichtman, has just inked a small business domain development deal with a $5 billion Wall Street giant - Amdocs. The deal centers on TrafficMedia's Vortalizer website building platform that I took a close look at today.

An important week-long election gets underway in Canada this week. Voting that will select four new members to the Board of Directors of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) - the body that administers Canada's official country code TLD, .CA - gets underway at 12 noon (Eastern time) on Wednesday.

DN Journal's comprehensive review of DNCruise 2 (with previously unseen photos & untold details), is now out. With blue skies & balmy breezes, this year's event was picture perfect. A new itinerary included a stop in Grand Cayman for an unforgettable day with legendary domain investor Frank Schilling on his home turf.

The one constant you can always count on in the domain industry is change. This summer we've seen the decline of some companies, the birth of new ones, management changes & mergers at others, etc. Today Oversee.net announced a 13% staff reduction. There have also been some big changes at DomainAdvertising.com.

The last many of you heard, Rick Latona had sold his domain sales newsletter to partner Toby Clements and ridden off into the sunset. It turns out reports of Latona's domain only sales demise were a bit premature. He just closed a 6-figure sale that leads DN Journal's latest weekly chart.

Several dozen domain investors and industry executives helped raise funds for one of their favorite charities, The Water School, by climbing Africa's majestic Mount Kilimanjaro in 2010 and again in 2011. If you missed taking part in one of those life changing adventures there will be another opportunity in 2012.

I've just returned from the second annual DNCruise conference and this year's event succeeded in topping last year's well received debut cruise. I'll have a wire to wire recap out before the end of the week, but in the meantime here are some early photos and highlights from the big event.

The 2nd edition of DNCruise - the only domain conference held on a cruise ship - gets underway today when the boat leaves port in Tampa, Florida, en route to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. The ship will sail from a city that is mourning the sudden loss of its most beloved citizen (and a personal hero to me) - Lee Roy Selmon.

As further evidence that we are all in the right line of work, local media experts BIA/Kelsey are forecasting that small to medium sized businesses will spend 70% of their marketing budgets on new media outreach by 2015, when traditional advertising's share will have plunged to just 30%! Also, DX.com sold just 2 weeks after launch!

Verisign's latest Domain Name Industry Brief reports that total domain registrations soared 8.6% from a year ago and now number more than 215 million. Many TLDs, including .com, .net and major country codes rode the rising tide.

After having just one name on last week's all extension Top 20 Sales Chart the country codes were back with a vengeance this week, taking the top spot on the elite list and five places over all. The non .com gTLDs also did well with four charted domains while the always dominant .coms took 11 places.

The August Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. Jesse Stein and his Florida based company,Triton Web Properties, has quietly assembled a portfolio of top-notch category defining generic domain names with one goal in mind - developing each one into a full-blown, best in class e-commerce business.

Over the weekend, Hurricane Irene went on a destructive tear up the Eastern seaboard that affected millions of people in 15 states including a number of people from our industry. After two days without electricity some are just now getting back online.

Left of The Dot Media (LOTD) created a lot of buzz when the new domain monetization company introduced itself at the 2010 Traffic Vancouver conference. LOTD leases sub-domain websites built on category defining generic domains and they say they've hit a home run with their latest project at Importers.com.

6-figure sales were missing in action last week but players in the high end of the market returned this week to close two transactions that broke the $100,000 mark. One was a popular one-word term and the other a 2-letter .com. Only 3 non .com domains made this week's Top 20 Chart - two were non .com gTLDs and the other a ccTLD.

There were far fewer domain conferences in the first half of this year than we've seen in the recent past, but things are about to get busy on the show circuit with at least five industry events scheduled over the next eight weeks in the U.S. alone. Here's what's on tap.

PPX International Chairman Gregg McNair will be leading a group of domainers back to Africa this fall to get a first hand look at how The Water School, a charity that is widely supported by the domain industry, is saving lives. There is room for YOU on the trip to Kenya too (including a safari to a world famous game reserve)!

You are probably familiar with Andrew Rosener's domain brokerage company Media Options. The company regularly sends out a popular email list of domains for sale. Media Options is breaking new ground now though, having just entered the hot daily deal space with a new subsidiary at DX.com.

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom announced in a Twitter post Tuesday that he would be leaving the organization next July. While Beckstrom wrote, "I have decided...", a well-known former ICANN staffer says Beckstrom is not the one who made the decision. Also today, Traffic offers web based businesses an opportunity to get funding.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. SelfEmployed.com set the pace as the .coms swept 16 of the 20 chart entries. The ccTLDs and the non .com gTLDs had to settle for two places each on the elite list but the two from the latter category rank among the year's 15 biggest non .com gTLD sales.

Digimedia Founder Scott Day, one of the domain industry's early pioneers, has launched a new endeavor with Digimedia President Jay Chapman and iThemes Media CEO Cory Miller. It is a non-profit foundation designed to serve as a tech community hub dedicated to web-based innovation, creativity and training in their home state.

The hotbed for domaining in Florida is located along the Sunshine State's southeast coast, but Florida's Gulf Coast (where I live) also has a lot going for it - enough to attract some domain industry friends who visited Saturday and Sunday and made it an especially enjoyable weekend for my family.

One of the domain industry's key executives, Jeremiah Jonhston, has left his COO role at Sedo to open his own legal practice. Johnston will continue his current role as Sedo's General Counsel. In the seven years he has been at Sedo Johnston has played a key role in bringing mainstream business media attention to domains.

The DOMAINfest Global conference has set the dates for their 2012 show in Santa Monica, California. The conference, staged by DomainSponsor, will return to its popular oceanfront venue at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel but the closing night party, after 3 straight years at the Playboy Mansion, will move to a new location.

Veteran domain investor Roy Flanders called on Mike Robertson at DomainGuardians to broker eSignature.com for him and Roy's confidence was rewarded when Mike moved the domain to a tech industry giant in a six-figure transaction that tops DN Journal's latest weekly sales chart.

Diana and I are back after spending the past week in California's tech Mecca, Silicon Valley. Our son Aaron just moved there from Boston to join Apple Computer as a chemical engineer based at their Cupertino headquarters. Aaron and his wife also just welcomed their first child so we headed west to see them and explore the Valley.

Web.com, a leading provider of internet services and online marketing solutions for small and medium-sized businesses, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Web.com to acquire privately-held Network Solutions, the original domain name registrar.

A pair of six-figure sales totaling more than half a million dollars took the top two spots on DN Journal's latest weekly domain sales chart. Five ccTLDs (including four that reached the top ten) and one non .com gTLD joined 14 .coms on the new Top 20 Chart.

The AfternicDLS has become the first domain aftermarket venue to roll out a mobile phone application that allows buyers to search and bid for domain names. Also today - with 2011's only Traffic conference just 10 weeks away, the show's organizers have begun accepting nominations for the annual Traffic Awards.

2011 domain sales got off to a slow start with no 7-figure sales in the opening quarter of the year. However, the climate changed in the 2nd quarter when the year's five biggest sales to date were logged, including a pair that broke the million dollar barrier - Social.com at $2.6 million and DomainName.com at $1,000,000.

Since the summer of 2010 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized 141 domain names that the agency said were being used for illicit activities. The latest phase of their campaign just ended with the arrest of a New York man and the seizure of 16 domains allegedly used to sell counterfeit goods.

After five years with Oversee.net, the past two-and-a-half as the company's President and CEO, Jeff Kupietzky is leaving the company effective at the end of August. Kupietzky, his wife and five children plan to relocate to Israel.

Parking has been a staple of the domain business for the past decade so it probably won't surprise you to hear that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu has entered the parking business. What will surprise you is that it's not domain parking.

It was an excellent week for the domain aftermarket as we saw the year's biggest ccTLD sale - the third largest 2011 sale overall, as well as one of the year's ten biggest non .com gTLD sales. The .coms had another big outing too with a six-figure sale and another deal involving entertainment giant Disney.

Domain investor/developer Morgan Linton has launched a new service at DomainTheft.org aimed at helping domain owners recover names that have been stolen. The company's centerpiece is a stolen domain database that lets buyers & brokers know if a name offered for sale has been reported stolen by its owner.

Today in DN Journal's Lowdown...What does new Cover Story subject Marc Ostrofsky have in common with the Three Stooges?...Why did Adam Dicker open a domain college?...When will the rest of the world get what MTV already knows: Lana Del Rey rocks!...and the auction submission deadline is looming for DOMAINfest NYC.

Marc Ostrofsky's best selling book put domains in the mainstream media spotlight and it's not the 1st time he's done that. 12 years ago Ostrofsky created a frenzy of interest in domains when he sold Business.com for $7.5 million deal. But these are just chapters in a much bigger success story that hasn't been told until now.

Last December I told you that a convicted domain thief named Daniel Goncalves would likely be spending five years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing the domain name P2P.com from Internet entrepreneur Marc Ostrofsky and selling it on eBay.com for $121,000 to a former NBA player. Today the sentence was handed down .

Fueled by a new $2.9 million venture capital investment the Domain Holdings Group is charging into the crowded domain development race with a completely revamped platform at DomainPower.com. The previous incarnation - Rapid Domain Builder - was an award winner but now it is even better.

Sedo claimed the pole position on our latest weekly all extension Top 20 Domain Sales Chart with Sadara.com. The buyer appears to be the Saudi Arabian Oil Company who filed for a trademark on the term "Sadara" in March . Five ccTLDs and three non .com gTLDs joined a dozen .coms on the leader board.

The agendas for two key domain conferences coming up in October are shaping up nicely. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. has selected Bill Karamouzis as keynote speaker for the big show coming up Oct. 16-19 on Ft. Lauderdale Beach and Ron Jackson will speak on opening day at the 1st GeoPublishers Expo in Chicago Oct. 1.

Peter Dengate Thrush, who was ICANN's Chairman of the Board until stepping down from that position last month, has quickly stepped into a new position in a private sector he helped create. Plus, .CO scores another coup by reeling in Google as its latest high profile user and a new domain information portal opens at Domainsville.com.

CAX.com, Zenscrow & Sedo have rolled out some cool new domain services that should have a positive impact on domain sales, financing, leasing & analysis. Coupled with the debut of Protrada,com's new domain acquisition & management platform, there is plenty of evidence that innovation is alive & well in the domain industry.

In yet another painful reminder of how egregiously ICANN sold domain registrants down the river in their last contract negotiations with Verisign, the company announced another wholesale price hike for .com and .net domains today. The latest jump in prices takes effect Jan. 15, 2012.

Time is our most valuable asset and the impressive new Protrada.com platform that debuted tonight makes it possible for big portfolio owners to save prodigious amounts of time by automating key tasks including domain acquisition, sales, monetization, management and even a respectable level of development.

Owning Minus.com turned out to be a big plus for Denver-based domain investor Brian Wick. He just banked 6 figures for the domain in a private transaction. That sale leads our new weekly Top 20 Domain Sales Chart with kudos also going to the ccTLDs. They swept even more places than the .coms.

UK domainer Robert Epstone (a former manager of the seminal rock band T Rex) and fellow Rotarian Beat Schmid de Gruneck have completed a grueling 29-day, 330 mile barefoot walk around Bali to raise funds for needy children in Indonesia where both men have homes. Here's an inside look at their unique journey.

One of the most active local domain investor/developer groups in the U.S. has another exceptionally attractive event coming up next week. After attracting the largest crowd in the group's history for their last event at John Ferber's oceanfront home, South Florida Domainers have scheduled an equally appealing encore.

Domain industry veteran Marc Ostrofsky is the best selling author of Get Rich Click!, a hot new book about making money on the internet. The success of his book earned Marc an invitation to appear on the ABC-TV talk show The View last month with a return visit today. Once again he turned in a very impressive performance.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com (this expanded report actually covers two weeks since there was no report last week when Ron Jackson was away on vacation). The headliner is a 7-figure blockbuster that becomes the biggest sale reported thus far in 2011.

Castello Cities Internet Network, the corporate entity that administers the Castello Brothers' blue chip portfolio of domains & developed websites is moving their headquarters from Palm Springs to Nashville. We'll tell you why. Plus, DNForum unveils its own phone app & Marc Ostrosfky returns to national TV Friday.

Since entering the domain industry in 2002 rarely has a day gone by that I haven't been immersed in the business, including days when I was supposed to be "on vacation." However, I just returned from a break that was different than in the past due to circumstances that required me to totally disconnect from domains this time.

The 2011 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference, coming up October 16-19 at the fabulous oceanfront Ritz Carlton Hotel on Florida's Ft. Lauderdale Beach is shaping up to be one of the best shows in the history of the ground-breaking T.R.A.F.F.I.C. series. We'll tell you why.. Also today, another new company joins the domain monetization fray.

With DNCruise II just over 10 weeks away time is running out to get the best rates for the world's only domain conference at sea. The event's return engagement will be held Sept. 5-10, 2011. Last year's cruise earned rave reviews and with this year's event featuring a visit with Frank Schilling in Grand Cayman it should be even better.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Three 6-figure sales set the pace, including one that ranks among the year's 10 biggest transactions & another that is the 2nd biggest non .com sale reported so far in 2011. We also saw one of the year's top 5 ccTLD sales in a big week for the aftermarket.

A contract to sell Social.com for $2.6 million has been signed in a deal co-brokered by Moniker.com's John Mauriello and Marksmen Inc.'s Cyntia King on behalf of that company's new sales division at NameQuiver.com. Once transfer has been completed that will become the highest sale of the year to date,

I will likely benefit from new TLDs as new registry operators buy ads to market their extensions. There are also friends and companies that I respect that will make money by providing services to new TLD operators - and I will be happy for them. Having said that, in my opinion the program is a solution to a "problem" that doesn't exist.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. After 2 weeks without a 6-figure sale, a $200,000 deal broke the brief blockbuster drought. Five ccTLDs, including a trio of .CO domains, joined 16 .coms and one non .com gTLD on our new Top 20 Chart (the extra places resulted from a 4-way tie for the final position).

The 2011 DOMAINfest Europe conference was held last week in Barcelona, Spain. The event, put together by Oversee.net, ran June 7-9 at the Pullman Barcelona Skipper Hotel. We've gathered some show photos and highlights that help put you in the middle of the conference action.

Michael Mann, who co-founded BuyDomains (and later sold the company to NameMedia) will be presenting a free webinar on June 23 that will provide tips on "How to Dominate Your Marketplace." A free Sedo seminar the same day sets up a webinar double-header for those looking for sound advice to improve their businesses.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: We tell you how you can reserve a seat at an upcoming free Sedo webinar that will help you improve your domain negotiating skills. Also, a note on how Marc Ostrofsky's appearance on ABC-TV talk show The View impacted sales of his new book Get Rich Click!

Domain industry veteran and newly published author Marc Ostrofsky was on ABC-TV's hit show The View today, talking about his best selling book Get Rich Click! Ostrofsky managed to give domain names a huge plug while promoting his book. Here's our review of his appearance on national TV.

Domain industry pioneer and author of the new best selling book Get Rich Click!, Marc Ostrofsky, will be featured on ABC-TV's morning talk show The View tomorrow (Thursday, June 9). Ostrofsky will be the 4th domain industry figure to be seen on TV this year, but the 1st to be on the tube talking about making money on the web.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The past week included America's Memorial Day holiday and it looks like buyers took an extended break. 4-figure sales are rare on our Top 20 Sales Chart but a half dozen of them qualified this time out. 10 .coms, 6 ccTLDs and 4 non .com gTLDS made the list.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: the DOMAINfest Europe conference gets underway in Barcelona, Rick Latona announces a new direction for his Latonas.com auction site, Podcast.com also re-launches with a new business plan and Mike "Zappy" Zapolin goes big again with Huge.com.

.CO's series of successes continued today when Overstock.com announced the company is renaming itself O.co. The re-branding will include renaming the stadium shared by MLB's Oakland A's and the NFL's Oakland Raiders O.co Coliseum. Also today, a domainer and friend begin a 330-mile barefoot walk for charity.

It's no secret that PPC earnings have fallen off a cliff the past couple of years. A lot of domain owners would pull up stakes and move on - IF they had somewhere better to go. Any time there is a problem, sooner or later someone comes along and promises a solution to that problem. That's what we are seeing in domain parking now.

Though the .CO Registry staged its global launch less than a year ago (in July 2010) it has already hit the 1 million registrations mark. Official word came from the Miami-based registry today. North America leads the world in .CO registrations accounting for 50% of them with Europe having about a 25% share.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. This was an unusual week for the aftermarket. No six-figure sales were reported but a flood of solid five-figure transactions closed - enough that we could have filled two Top 20 Charts with them and still had some left over.

If you are a domain owner odds are you owe George Kirikos a thank you. His monitoring of ICANN matters have saved registrants a lot of money and heartache over the years. One former ICANN exec who Kirikos tackled went so far as to file a legal proceeding against him but that censorship attempt has failed.

26- year-old Elephant Orchestra Co-Founder Jan Barta has built a business empire that now stretches far beyond the domain world. His success marks a huge comeback for a family that had lost everything they owned in a Communist takeover of their homeland. We have the whole story in the latest DN Journal Cover Story.

Domain industry pioneer Michael Mann, who co-founded BuyDomains (and later sold the company to NameMedia), plans to share some advice on how to beat your competition in a free webinar that will be presented next Thursday (June 2). We'll tell you how you can sit in. We also have a couple of DOMAINfest Europe updates today.

The latest quarterly Verisign Industry Brief shows demand for new domain names continues to grow. 4.5 million new domains were added to the Internet in the first quarter of 2011, and over 15 million have been added since the same quarter a year ago. We have more details on that plus a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2011 update.

The domain aftermarket enjoyed a very solid outing this week, generating two of the year's ten biggest sales, plus 2011's 2nd biggest country code sale and its 4th largest non .com gTLD sale.

When talking about how the Internet is siphoning readers and viewers away from traditional media, the focus has been on newspapers because they have been hit the hardest by the rise of the web. However new data shows leading magazines also lost millions of readers over the past year.

In a model case of well executed domain development and monetization, Domain Holdings, the new company co-founded by Secret Millionaire John Ferber, has helped create a mutually beneficial strategic alliance between Silver.com (owned by industry veteran Mike "Zappy" Zapolin) and a leading silver investment company.

Over the years Britain's Ian Andrew has sold hundreds of generic domain names through his company, DotcomAgency, but he decided to get some outside help to give one of his best domains special attention and it has paid off in a big way. DomainAdvisors.com has just closed a $358,000 sale of Andrew's 33.com.

RegistryPro, operator of the .PRO registry has a new CEO. The company has hired one of the original board members of Afilias (operator of the .INFO registry) to fill the role. Also today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com, another coup for .CO and DOMAINfest Europe releases its preliminary live auction catalog.

It has been a long time coming, but finally - four and half months into the 2011 domain sales season, the year's first confirmed seven-figure transaction has been completed. Boxcar.com/DomainConsultant.com did the honors to take the pole position on our new weekly Top 20 Sales Chart.

The domain business NEVER stands still and while the overall industry is constantly reinventing itself, a lot of well-known people in our industry are going through big changes and/or landmark events in their lives as well. Take Morgan Linton, David Sams, Marc Ostrofsky, Rick Latona & Frank Schilling for example.

There has been considerable debate over whether or not social media would one day supplant domains/websites as the most popular way to market a business. A new survey shows that while social media marketing is growing in popularity, websites remain the runaway favorite among small businesses.

Domain industry veteran Taryn Naidu has been named Executive Vice President for Registrar Services and General Manager of eNom, the popular registrar that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Demand Media and the world?s largest ICANN accredited domain name wholesaler.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: EVO Media Group, best known for their DevHub domain development platform, has always done things a little differently and now their unconventional approach is also being reflected in the executive suite with the installation of two Co-Presidents! We also have a DOMAINfest Europe update.

I had the pleasure of meeting impressive teenage domain investor Brian Diener a few weeks ago in South Florida. I already knew about Brian from reading his well written blog at TeenDomainer.com and from his writing I was expecting to meet a personable, smart young man who is going places. That is exactly what I got.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. We saw one of the year's three biggest sales completed this week - one of a dozen .com domains that earned places on our all extension Top 20 leader board. The ccTLDs also made a very strong showing claiming four places in the top ten and six spots overall.

I've always said one of the biggest threats to domain owners are attempts by covetous parties to get policies or laws changed to make it easier for them to take your domains without paying for them. Well, they are at it again - this time trying to slip a trojan horse into the .net contract with ICANN that Verisign has up for renewal.

A new monthly DN Journal newsletter is being emailed to opt in subscribers this weekend (and is also available online). It breaks down domain sales from the first quarter of 2011 to see how they compare against the same period a year ago. The results are mixed with total dollar volume up slightly but median prices slipping a bit.

A domain industry version of Clash of the Titans was set in motion Wednesday when Moniker.com founder Monte Cahn filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against his former employer, Oversee.net, as well as that company's co-founder Lawrence Ng and its President and CEO Jeff Kupietzkty.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Three six-figure sales and rumors of a pair of seven-figure blockbusters headline the past week's activity in the domain aftermarket. The .coms enjoyed an unusually dominant week, sweeping 19 of the 20 chart entries. The lone exception was a German ccTLD,

Several offspring of well-known domainers are making it big on their own. One of the most successful second generation domainers is Heather Hartnett, daughter of Dr. Chris Hartnett. She just launched Heather.TV, a site featuring her own interviews with the stars. Also today, details on a $20,000 .Biz Contest at Reseller Club.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com:: Marc Ostrofsky's new book "Get Rich Click!" has soared to #1 on charts at BarnesAndNoble.com and Amazon. Also in the news; DomainConvergence, a Future Trends Domains Auction, FMA's Launch of Arabs.com, the Evan Ross - President Obama Connection & Ray Hackney.

Not long after I met domain pioneer Marc Ostrofsky for the 1st time, he told me he was working on a book about how to make money on the Internet. That was several years ago and every time I saw him after that he was still working on and excited about the project. Finally his hard work is coming to fruition with the release of Get Rich Click!

Earlier this month Rick Latona announced that he and long time partner Toby Clements were dividing up their assets and going their separate ways. As part of the deal, Clements, a veteran domain broker, got 100% ownership of Latona's popular domain sales newsletter We talked with Clements about what he has planned.

This was quite a week for the domain aftermarket as we saw not only the biggest sale of the year to date, but also the biggest country code sale of the year and the second biggest non .com gTLD sale of the year. Those domains fill the first three slots on our new weekly all extension Top 20 Sales Chart.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was wrapping up work on a new Cover Story that would be released today. That article - a profile of Secret Millionaire John Ferber - is now out and is one I think you will enjoy reading. Also today, we have more details on the show agenda for the DOMAINfest Europe conference coming up in June.

Few (if any) people in the history of the domain industry have entered the business accompanied by the aura of success that surrounded John Ferber when he arrived on the scene last year. In a new DN Journal Cover Story, Ferber, who sold his company for $495 million, explains why he loves the domain business now.

It has been a busy few days here so I've had a few items pile up on my desk that I wanted to share with you as we head into a new week. This rundown of People and Events in the News includes Sai Pola at InGurus.com, a Playboy Mansion Illness Update, .CO's Juan Calle and a new blog from Australian domain investor David Harry.

A new non-profit trade association & expo serving the geodomain industry - GeoPublishers.com - launched Thursday. The birth of the new organization begs the question - what happens now to Associated Cities - the original geodomain trade association and organizer of the annual GeoDomain Expo?

DN Journal Exclusive: Some of the biggest names in the geodomain world have joined forces to launch a new non-profit trade association at GeoPublishers.com. Fred Mercaldo, the Castello Brothers, Gordon Borrell & the owners of NewOrleans.com are among those leading the group & a new Expo that will debut next fall.

Christmas is still eight months away but a buyer at Sedo couldn't wait to get their hands on the Spanish language domain that defines the holiday. Mexican company Video Turismo spent six figures to get a deal done. Meanwhile Rick Schwartz and Michael Berkens teamed up to buy another high ranking domain.

Major congratulations go out today to Bill Karamouzis (who was featured in our March 2010 Cover Story). Bill has just sold his thriving online game company - Hallpass Media - to MindJolt, one of the largest cross-platform game developers and publishers in the world.

On Friday L.A. public health officials released preliminary results from their investigation into the outbreak of illness after a domain industry party at the Playboy Mansion Feb. 3, 2011. While 3 cases of H1N1 (Swine flu) were confirmed they are STILL looking for evidence of legionellosis and answers to some other questions.

Most domain industry bloggers are taking advantage of social media outlets like Facebook and/or Twitter to help drive traffic to their websites. No surprise there of course, but before now I had not seen a breakdown detailing what percentage of an average web publisher's traffic could be credited to their presence on social media sites.

For the 2nd week in a row a pair of 6-figure sales set the pace on DN Journal's all extension Top 20 Sales Chart. A $90,000 deal rounded out the top 3. Six ccTLDs took places on the all extension leader board along with a pair of non.com gTLDs.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Technical issues blew up last week's Domain Madness 3 live auction, but the rescheduled event is now set to go on fortified servers at 2pm U.S. Central time Wednesday afternoon. Elsewhere, .Org does a good deed for Japanese domain owners & domain pioneer Scott Day turns 40!

A BusinessInsider writer who authored an otherwise balanced account of the domain business has apologized for using the term "squatters." Meanwhile, a seasoned domain investor has published his own piece at BusinessInsider - one that makes a compelling case for the high value of domain names.

Today in The Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A columnist for mainstream business magazine Business Insider tells readers why good domain names are worth paying a premium for (he also discusses Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham) + Michael Mann offers advice on when to quit your day job!

It was another solid week for the domain aftermarket with two of the year's biggest sales to date getting rung up, including the year's biggest non .com gTLD sale. Four ccTLDs also made the all extension leader board. All told three dozen domains sold for at least five figures.

Jodi Chamberlain has been named President of a new full time staff leasing company. Many of you know Jodi from her long time association with Rick Latona's companies. She helped produce the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences that Latona staged in 2009-2010 & most recently served as Director of Sales at Offshoring.com.

We started a 4-day visit to South Florida at a party hosted by Secret Millionaire John Ferber in Boynton Beach and ended it at Rick Schwartz's penthouse condo on Ft. Lauderdale Beach where the next T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference will be held at the Ritz Carlton in October. Here's what we did and why you may want to do it too!

In today's Lowdown, I'll tell you about a special charity auction that gets underway Thursday on Sedo.com, Rick Latona's decision to move his auctions from Latonas.com to Sedo, a new feature story about a big advance in domain management & a new interview in which I covered some topics I haven't talked about before.

Action in the domain aftermarket has been a bit slower than expected in the opening quarter of 2011, but a lot of catching up was done over the past seven days. In fact, four of the year's 10 biggest sales were logged since last week's report as the market served up its best performance of the year to date.

ParkLogic Founder Michael Gilmour quietly accumulated a half million domains under management through personal contacts and word of mouth recommendations. His clients have been rewarded with a remarkably advanced system that has now morphed into a phenomenal all purpose domain management platform.

I hope you had an opportunity to watch ABC-TV's latest episode of Secret Millionaire that aired last night. The reality show focuses on successful but selfless people who go out of there way to share their good fortune with people in need. Sunday night's episode focused on Domain Holdings Co-Founder John Ferber.

When John Ferber, Chad Folkening & Erik Simons teamed up to found Domain Holdings Group last year, big things were expected from the new domain development, SEO and monetization company. That new union is already bearing fruit. The acquisition and development of Mortgage.org is a prime example.

The 2011 domain conference schedule continues to shape up with Oversee.net confirming the dates and location for DOMAINfest Europe today. The show will be held in Barcelona, Spain June 7-9, 2011 at the Pullman Barcelona Skipper Hotel. Sun worshipers will be happy to know that the hotel is just 50 meters from the beach.

With the country fixated on college basketball's March Madness at this time each year, our friends at DomainConsultant.com came up with a great idea for a domain event that could ride on the basketball tournament's coattails. Domain Madness returns for a third go round March 29-April 5.. Here's what is in store.

Blockbuster sales have been scarce so far this year. With the opening quarter of 2011 drawing to a close, only seven six-figure sales have been reported. The latest of those came this week at Sedo. They also logged the biggest non .com gTLD sale of the year and the week's biggest ccTLD sale.

Even though DOMAINfest Global drew a record crowd this year, many who would like to have been at the annual event held in Santa Monica, California a few weeks ago were unable to make the trip. If that is you, you can now see what you missed as a number of full-length videos have been posted on the DOMAINfest website.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Washington D.C. based Greenberg & Lieberman is building an internet law super team with the addition of ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin + the AfternicDLS invades Europe in another major expansion.

On Tuesday Rick Schwartz published an item on his blog naming Chef Patrick as the Moniker employee who was behind a widely publicized WhoIs privacy breach there in December. The news triggered a firestorm of commentary on both men's blogs that is still going on. The question now is what happens next?

This has to be one of the most unusual weeks we've ever seen in the domain aftermarket. The often-maligned .BIZ TLD topped all comers to lead our new all extension Top 20 Sales Chart and five of the first six places were swept by non .com TLDs.

Sedo is offering a free webinar - 5 Steps to Sales Success - on Wednesday, March 30th. We have details on how to reserve a seat. Plus, the crowd of new companies that want to provide consulting services for new gTLD applicants continues to grow with another one entering the fray today.

After a successful maiden voyage in 2010 DNCruise will return September 5-10, 2011 with a Caribbean voyage that will feature a special outing with legendary domainer Frank Schilling when the ship docks near Frank's home in Grand Cayman. DNCruise Founder Patrick Ruddell detailed plans for the event today.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com an end of the week wrap-up featuring people in the news (Directi Co-Founder Bhavin Turakhia and former .Org CEO Alexa Raad), TLDs (.TV & .Australia's .AU) and a company from Down Under, Fabulous.com.

Sedo claimed four of the first five places on our new weekly all extension Top 20 Domain Sales Chart and 14 of 20 positions overall. Their haul included $85,000 for this week's chart topper. Three ccTLDs and three non .com gTLDs joined the 14 .coms on the all extension leader board.

Introducing the world?s first plug-and-play tool for website geo-targeting. A new offering from the founders of Root Orange called GeoSkipper allows any website to tailor geo-targeted messaging, prices, deals, or just about any content on the site to a visitor's geographic location. The company's first customer is Chicago.com.

Special interest domain meetings are enjoying a growth spurt. Successful gatherings have been held for everyone from IDN enthusiasts to developers to fans of specific TLDs. Now comes word of an event centered around (but not limited to) members of Donna Mahony's popular private domain forum - DomainBoardroom.com.

DN Journal's latest monthly newsletter is currently going out to several thousand opt-in email subscribers. The newsletter, also available online, looks into how the new local and regional domain meetings popping up around the U.S. (and beyond) are helping fuel further growth in the domain industry.

Name.com has released a free full service domain registration app for Android smartphones (an iPhone version is coming soon). Name.com becomes one of only a few ICANN accredited registrars that offer domain registration apps and the world's first with mobile back ordering capability.

In Late January former Fabulous.com executives Mike Roberston & Jen Sale announced they were leaving the company to start up a domain-related venture of their own. This morning Robertson and Sale revealed what that venture will be - a new company called Domain Guardians, formed with three key partners.

The Wall Street Journal has introduced a new interactive feature with an article spotlighting a special listing from one of real estate domain pioneer Rob Grant's websites. Plus, Dan Kimball cashes in with DNS.com and the .Org registry celebrates its 9 millionth registration.

Over the past week Oversee.net's aftermarket twins, Moniker/SnapNames, closed a number of sales from their live domain auction at DOMAINfest Global, helping them take seven places on our latest weekly all extension Top 20 Sales Chart. Four ccTLDS joined the .coms on the elite list but the non .com gTLDs were shut out.

The Los Angeles Times reported today that public health officials investigating an illness outbreak that affected a reported 170 domain conference guests, have found legionella bacteria in an unnamed water source at the Playboy Mansion where the show's closing night party was held.

Late Night King Jay Leno and Domain King Rick Schwartz were among those rubbing elbows on the final day of the 5th Annual Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance Sunday. Diana and I joined industry friends at the spectacular 3-day event that raised an estimated $1 million for Boys and Girls Clubs.

After conquering Africa's Mount Kilimanjaro last year in a fundraising climb for The Water School, a team of domain industry pros is getting set to do it again starting March 23. We have a preview for you, Plus, Aftermarket.com has released a sampling of domains that will be up for bid in their live auction at Domain Roundtable next week.

2011 domain sales have a new king of the hill, or should we say queen of the hill? GamesForGirls.com soared to the top of our Year To Date leader board, as well as this week's all extension Top 20 Sales Chart, after changing hands in a blockbuster deal at Sedo. 4 ccTLDs also made the elite list along with 3 non .com gTLDs.

There won't be as many domain conferences in 2011 as last year, but you wouldn't know it from the number of shows packed into the five weeks between February 1 and the first week of March. The first three are in the books but three more will run over the next 10 days. Also, Sex.com claims a Guinness World Record.

After spending most of the past two weeks focused on the outbreak of illnesses that followed this month's DOMAINfest conference, we have some catching up to do. So, while health officials continue their investigation we have updates on new developments at NameMedia, T.R.A.F.F.I.C., Boxcar.com and DomainTools.com.

Health officials investigating the outbreak of illnesses that followed this month's DOMAINfest conference in L.A. asked all who fell ill (even if they have since recovered) to contact their doctors about have some specific lab tests done. Tests were to be free only for L.A. County residents but now help is being extended to others.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. No blockbuster domain sales were reported this past week but the market's mid range made plenty of hay with more than 50 sales of at least $10,000 hitting the books.

I was surprised to see in a new letter sent out by DOMAINfest Global organizers this morning that public health officials investigating an outbreak of illness that followed the conference have not gotten all of the co-operation they need from attendees in order to find the answers we are all waiting for.

The new February Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. Over three days at DOMAINfest Global this month an unmistakable theme emerged in our talks with those among the record breaking crowd of approximately 700 people. The big takeaway was that optimism is back in fashion in the domain industry & for many good reasons.

The LA County Dept of Public Health has just sent a letter to DOMAINfest Global attendees.The letter says if you attended the Playboy Mansion party and have had respiratory symptoms "we encourage you to contact your health care provider as soon as possible."

The Center for Disease Control in conjunction with Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has started an investigation into the outbreak of illness that left dozens of recent conference attendees suffering from severe flu-like symptoms and at least one confirmed case of legionellosis.

After dozens of domainers fell ill with acute flu-like symptoms after returning home from last week's DOMAINfest Global conference, we came to suspect a bacterial infection rather than flu. In a major development today we learned that the first known lab tests done on one of those who fell ill confirmed it.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The new column actually covers two weeks worth of data since we were away last week for the DOMAINfestGlobal conference. The top three sales from the past two weeks also rank as the three biggest sales reported so far in 2011.

Yesterday we told you about dozens of domainers being bedridden after falling ill upon returning home from last week's DOMAINfest Global conference. When I wrote that 24 hours ago I knew of about 50 attendees who were all suffering from the same symptoms. Today the sick list grew by another 50% and has likely reached triple digits.

With approximately 700 people on hand last week's DOMAINfest Global conference was another great event, but there was one downside to having so many people from around the world so close together - a nasty infection swept through the crowd leaving dozens of attendees battling a debilitating bug this week.

We're back from another great DOMAINfest Global conference. A number of people who were at that event in Los Angeles proceeded directly to San Francisco where the first .NXT Conference will be held tomorrow through Thursday (Feb. 8-10) at the downtown Hyatt Regency. We have a preview.

Another great DOMAINfest Global conference closed last night with a gala party/charity fundraiser at the world famous Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. We have photos and highlights from that spectacular soiree in our final post from California.

The curtain will come down on the 2011 DOMAINfest Global conference in Santa Monica, California with a big party at the Playboy Mansion tonight. The show's final business session is currently underway. We have photos & highlights from the past 24 hours for you.

The DOMAINfest Global Conference continued today at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. We have photos and highlights from all of the day's events for you, including who won the show's tightly contested Pitchfest competition between new online businesses.

DOMAINfest Global got underway today in Santa Monica, California. The show's organizers, Oversee.net, said a record number of registrants are on hand for the 5th annual event. We have photos & highlights + word on a new company formed by Monte Cahn & Michael Berkens.

DN Journal's latest monthly newsletter is being emailed to opt-in subscribers this weekend. It contains a comprehensive breakdown of 2010 domain sales data comparing the year just past against the previous year, as well as 4Q-2010 vs. the same quarter a year ago. The good news is ALL categories showed improvement.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com some final notes before DOMAINfest Global gets underway Tuesday including plans for another domain industry assault on Mount Kilimanjaro, a major acquisition by DOMAINfest organizer Oversee.net and a decision by two veteran Fabulous.com execs to strike out on their own.

iGoldrush has launched an innovative new domain brokerage service with an end-user focus. Meanwhile, frigid temperatures in upstate New York have prompted Rob Grant to create a website and new national honor that has embroiled him in a free for all over who can claim to be the coldest place in the nation.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo rang up the seven biggest sales and claimed 11 places overall on our new all-extension Top 20 Sales Chart. Three ccTLDs made the elite list along with one non .com gTLD.

Less than a week after announcing a new partnership with Linton Investments, PPX International's DomainAdvisors.com has made another major move - hiring former Sedo broker Jeff Gabriel as President of the domain consultancy service. Gabriel was the lead broker on the record-breaking $13 million sale of Sex.com.

When the 3rd International Internet Marketing & Domaining Conference is held in Punta del Este, Uruguay Feb. 23-25, two very familiar faces will be seen on stage delivering the keynote address at the big event. The show's promoter, German Abal, has called on the Castello Brothers (Michael and David) to headline the show.

NameDrive's Director of Business Development, Kamila Sekiewicz, dropped me a note this morning detailing some major changes that have taken place at the well-known domain monetization company. I also heard from the Co-Founders at LeftOfTheDot.com about their hiring of well-known industry veteran Frank Michlick.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The AfternicDLS rang up four of the top eight sales, including the biggest and wound up taking 6 places overall on our latest all-extension Top 20 Sales Chart. Sedo also had their usual strong outing taking five places in the first ten.7 ccTLDs made the Big Board.

Our 7th annual State of the Industry Cover Story has just been published. To gauge the prospects for the domain business in the year ahead (and make sense of what happened in 2010) we called on an all-star line up of 19 top industry executives, investors, developers and attorneys for their opinions. This is a report you can't afford to miss.

Less than 3 months ago PPX International Chairman Gregg McNair launched a new service for the domain industry, DomainAdvisors.com. Now comes a new partnership announced today that will greatly expand the company's range of services through a union with Morgan Linton's company, Linton Investments.

The 2011 DOMAINfest Global conference gets underway two weeks from today in Santa Monica, California. Oversee.net, the organizers of the annual three-day extravaganza, just announced detailed plans for a series of eye-popping nightly parties that will cap each business day.  

It has been over four years since I first met David Castello during a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. event in Hollywood, Florida. After becoming friends I felt like I knew him pretty well but he keeps surprising me. Still I wasn't expecting to see him caught on camera getting intimate with one of the stars from the Twilight movies.

The 2011 domain conference season is about to get underway in earnest. At least five shows will be held over the next 7 weeks, giving domain investors a chance to network & explore new opportunities in attractive locations scattered across 3 countries. These events will range from local gatherings to giant events with a global focus.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A nice 100K sale got the 2011 season off to a good start, as did five solid ccTLD sales that crashed the all extension leader board. The non .com gTLDs didn't fare as well having no representatives on the Big Board.

This has been a good news/bad news day. On the bright side - after eight years together, DevHub Co-Founder Mark Michael and his fiancee Ashley Hayes have announced a wedding date. On a less happy note, devastating floods in Australia have Fabulous.com's Michael Robertson pleading for relief fund help.

Rob Grant owns the world's largest collection of geo-targeted .com real estate domains and it is a rare occasion when he lets one go. However this evening Grant announced the price of a deal he just closed for ParkCityRealEstate.com. Elsewhere the Sedo broker who sold Sex.com for $13 million has resigned.

In what looks like a geodomain marriage made in heaven premier websites representing two of America's most popular vacation destinations - Las Vegas and New Orleans - are joining forces in a new partnership that will bring big changes to the current site at NewOrleans.com.

A free webinar coming up two weeks from today will be of interest to anyone considering becoming their own ICANN accredited registrar as many other major players in the domain industry have already done. The webinar, titled Demystifying ICANN Accreditation, will run from 2-3pm U.S. Eastern time on January 20,

Last week was the final week of the 2010 domain sales season and the year closed with a couple of unexpected guests occupying the penthouse suites on DNJournal's new weekly all extension Top 20 Sales Chart.

With local advertisers shifting their ad dollars to the Internet I have always liked the position of geodomain owners. If you happen to be one of them (or plan to develop geo-targeted domains of any kind), local media giant BIA/Kelsey is presenting a free one-hour webinar next Tuesday that you might find very interesting.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference organizers announce a new tropical venue for their next show in October and. cancel plans to go to San Francisco in March. Also today, outgoing ICANN Ombudsmen Frank Fowlie heads to the locker room after taking a called third strike in his dispute with Air Canada who kicked him off their plane.

Earlier today Rick Schwartz & Michael Berkens both wrote about an unfortunate incident at Moniker.com. I heard the details about this incident a few days ago in an off the record conversation. While the customer is understandably angry he is also focused on seeing changes made that will help prevent such incidents from happening again.

Our latest monthly newsletter is being emailed to opt-in subscribers this weekend. It is also available online. This month we have a special interview with Boxcar.com founder and domain industry veteran Mike Fiol. Mike talks about his innovative new domain auction platform as well as his work at DomainConsultant.com.

After taking a year off in 2010, Domain Roundtable is open for business again. Registration opened today for a 2011 show that will be held March 1-4 in a spectacular new setting on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. You can save $300 by registering early. Plus, we have background on our latest Cover Story profile.

New Cover Story at DNJournal.com: Most of you know about the big splash that the .CO extension made after the Colombian ccTLD was re-launched and made available for worldwide registration last July. But you haven't heard the story of the man behind .CO's rebirth, 32-year-old Juan Diego Calle, the CEO of the .CO Registry.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo secured the top spot on this week's domain sales chart with a nice 6-figure deal for a 2-letter .com. They went on to sweep 13 of the 20 entries on our new weekly all extension leader board. The runner-up spot on the elite list went to a big .CA sale.

If you have ever been to a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference you have probably seen Ft. Lauderdale based videographer Roy Crogan manning a camera at the rear of the conference room. I was saddened to get a note today letting me know that Roy passed away on Christmas Eve.

Marketing maven Owen Frager has always known how to get attention. His provocative headlines draw a steady flow of readers to his Frager Factor blog so when I read that he was in the emergency room after getting run over by a pack of stampeding dogs, I didn't know what to think! Here is what really happened.

As a kid my family opened presents on Christmas Eve but my wife's family opened theirs, like most, on Christmas Day. So, when Diana and I started our own family we worked out a compromise that became a new family tradition. A 2nd tradition that began when our daughter was a child will keep me up past midnight tonight.

It is remarkable to see what a great domain can do for someone. Former real estate investor Patrick Ruddell is a relative newcomer to this space, having jumped head first into the domain industry when the real estate market collapsed in 2008. Now here he is, less than two years later, at the helm of ScienceFiction.com.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo tops our latest chart with a $233,000 sale and it looks like they are about to complete one that will be much bigger. This week's Top 20 is made up of 13 .coms, 4 country code domains and 3 non .com gTLDs.

DOMAINfest Global 2011 has released an update on what is in store for the big event in Santa Monica, California Feb. 1-3, 2011. Over 600 domain professionals from approximately 30 countries are expected to attend. Details on the agenda & a preliminary list of expert speakers highlighted today's announcement.

Last Christmas Rob Grant got a lot of press with his timely Recession Wreaths website. The tongue in cheek site offered wreaths decorated with cut up credit cards and pink slips! Well, this Christmas Grant is at it again with a new faux ecommerce platform at RecessionGiftBaskets.com!

I've always advised developing one or more of your domain names on topics you are passionate about. If you do it well, the potential rewards can dwarf any other form of monetization. Two friends who are on that path, Elliot Silver and Jessica Bookstaff Doppelt, just added solid new developed sites to their growing networks.

As I write this, Christmas Day is still 10 days away but it seems Santa paid an early visit to the domain industry this week. Four lucky domain sellers found shiny six-figure financial packages under their tree. When you add them all up over $1 million changed hands in those four deals that lead our latest weekly Top 20 Sales Chart.

The best news I have heard this week has to be word that a convicted domain thief is going to jail for his crime. Daniel Goncalves will not be doing his time in some minimum security lock up either. Instead he can look forward to spending five years in state prison and paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution.

While I was away visiting family the past four days ICANN again decided to delay final approval of their plan to roll out an unlimited number of new gTLDS. While I see no need for new gTLDs, I am starting to feel a little sorry for people who have invested money in businesses that hope to service operators of new gTLD registries.

The 2011 DOMAINfest Global conference coming up February 1-3 has announced a new Fantasy Domaining Contest (similar to Fantasy Football) with some attractive prizes up for grabs. They have also made some key changes in the PITCHfest Contest that debuted at the 2010 show last January.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. GoDaddy Auctions staked their claim as a viable high end marketplace this past week when they closed a huge $350,000 sale that leads our latest all extension Top 20 Sales chart. Sedo is also set to close an even bigger six-figure blockbuster.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The .INFO registry's latest annual report shows a 30% jump in registrations over the past year....The .CO Registry is celebrating an upcoming appearance in a GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial....and domain investor Warren Royal of Bobbleheads.com makes his TV debut.

I have been hearing positive feedback from many who have tried the new graphics rich parking platform at DomainAdvertising.com (where landing pages favor stunning photos over text). Now I also have some hard numbers put forth in a new case study produced by the company's CEO, industry veteran Dan Warner.

Domain industry pioneer Monte Cahn, the man who founded Moniker.com and stayed on to lead the popular registrar after it was sold to Oversee.net in 2007, is leaving the company effective December 31, 2010 when his current contract ends.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: DOMAINfest Global 2011, coming up in February, has landed GoDaddy Founder and CEO Bob Parsons for the keynote presentation. Also, MO.com published an extensive interview with DN Journal's Ron Jackson today. Topics included the past, present and future of the domain business.

The four-day Thanksgiving weekend gave most Americans a very short work week last week but the domain aftermarket continued full steam ahead, producing two of the year's 30 biggest sales to date. .Coms took 12 of the 20 chart entries. ccTLDs swept the other 8 leaving the non .com gTLDs out in the cold.

PPX International, the rapidly growing company headed by 2010 Domainer of the Year Gregg McNair, has been working overtime the past few months putting the finishing touches on a host of new services. The PPX initiatives are aimed at making them a leader in domain consulting, management and monetization.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Versign's latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief reports that the total number of domain names registered worldwide crashed through the 200 million barrier in 3Q-2010. Plus, Frank Schilling is featured in a new podcast at OzDomainer.com and Francois Carrillo rolls out more new websites.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo will have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend as they swept 10 of the first 11 chart entries, including the #1 domain. The .coms piled up 12 chart entries and the ccTLDs also had an excellent outing with 7 charted domains.

We just got photos and highlights from an impromptu gathering that PPX hosted for domainers visiting Hong Kong November 14-16. The domain management and monetization company put the 3-day outing together to fill a void created when the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Hong Kong conference planned for those days was canceled.

I just got back from an extended weekend trip to Mount Dora, Florida where Diana and I went to a huge outdoor antique and art fair. While the domain business was supposed to be left on the back burner, I couldn't resist doing some domain name evangelizing by asking several dealers if they had their own domain name and website.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: DOMAINfest Global lands the author who wrote the book that the hit movie "The Social Network" is based on. Plus, Mike Mann sells his share of an up and coming online company and a thank you to Frank Schilling and others who turned the table on me.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com and this will go down as a landmark week in industry history. Sex.com has officially changed hands for $13 million in the largest cash domain sale ever reported. We also learned about the largest sale we have ever seen for a domain with a "4" prefix.

After buying Bobbleheads.com for $30,000 in 2008, Warren Royal built the domain into a booming business that has become the world's premier source for collectible bobblehead products. Legendary domainer Scott Day's company, Digimedia, took notice and just invested in Royal's rapidly growing company.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Local and regional domain meetings are springing up all over. Denver is the latest to get their own event. The .CO Registry announces plans to auction off I.co and ICANN takes flak over its latest (and possibly last) new gTLD guidebook.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Two solid and previously unreported six-figure sales set the pace for the domain aftermarket this week. 13 .coms made the latest all extension Top 20 Chart, along with four ccTLDs and three non .com gTLDs.

The AfternicDLS and a leading registrar, Name.com, announced today that Name.com will join Afternic?s Domain Listing Service as a premium partner. By teaming up with leading registrars, the AfternicDLS is boosting sales by making possible instant transfer of domain names sold at any of their premium partner sites.

The 2010 Traffic Miami conference was a landmark event, not just because it drew great feedback from attendees, but because it also brought some clarity to a domain conference picture that had become muddled by a tsunami of shows. In our new complete show review article we break down what happened and what it means.

Afilias, the operator of the .INFO Registry, today announced the winners of their 2010 .INFO Awards. A panel of judges selected the top three websites built on .INFO domains from a field of more than 130 entries submitted from over 20 countries around the globe. At stake was a $7,500 first prize, $5,000 for 2nd place and $3,000 for third.

In our latest newsletter emailed to opt-in subscribers we broke down 3Q-2010 domain sales reported to DN Journal. A lack of 7-figure blockbuster sales caused the total $ value of reported sales to fall from both the previous quarter and 3Q-2009 but a big rise in the median price showed increasing prices in the broader market..

Last week when the news broke that Sex.com would be sold for $13 million in a bankruptcy court auction a number of mainstream media outlets asked us where that sale would rank among the biggest domain sales ever reported. This is what we told them.

Two years ago a company used the UDRP process to try to take a generic name away from Frank Schilling's company without paying for it. In typical UDRP fashion (the deck stacked against the domain owner) the company won the filing, but Schilling wasn't done. He slapped them with a lawsuit that just settled.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A $500,000 deal, the 11th largest sale reported so far this year, led the way and helped Sedo pile up 10 of 20 entries on this week's leader board. .Coms had one of their most dominating outings of 2010, taking 17 of 20 positions on the all extension chart.

Today in the Lowdown at DN Journal: PPX International invites domainers to hang out with them in Hong Kong this month...Associated Cities President Fred Mercaldo calls it quits...The Castello Brothers take a big step forward with Nashville.com & our favorite singer/domainer's daughter, Lizzy Grant, graces national TV.

With interest in IDN domains growing it was just a matter of time before the first formal IDN conference was staged in the U.S. IDN Event, organized by Aaron Krawitz and Gary Males of IDN Tools, was held Saturday night (Oct. 30, 2010) at the Park Avenue Haru Restaurant in New York City. We have photos you haven't seen before.

New DN Journal Cover Story: Former football player Chad Folkening has had to continually change directions to get around obstacles in life. Untimely events broke his body, derailed a business and claimed the life of a brother. Yet Folkening has come through it all and emerged as a leading player in the domain industry.

.CO enjoyed a wildly successful re-launch this past summer - now the .SO Registry hopes a little of that ccTLD magic will rub off on their extension too. Unfortunately, .SO has some big hurdles in its path. .SO may find a place on DomainHacks.com though. Also today, a reminder that the 2010 .Info Awards voting is now in its final hours.

A bankruptcy court judge has approved the $13 million sale of Sex.com. Once the domain has been transferred to its new owner - Clover Holdings - it will officially become the highest all cash sale ever reported publicly. Also today, has Google gigged Epik.com? and, just in time for Halloween, Bido.com rises from the dead.

The aftermarket produced another 7-figure sale this week - one that ranks as the 5th highest sale reported so far in 2010 and is the year's 6th sale to crack the million dollar mark. The country codes had big week too, taking 8 places on the all extension leader board. One was a 6-figure sale that is the 7th biggest ccTLD sale of the year.

Former SnapNames VP Nelson Brady created a world of trouble for his company and himself when he was caught shill bidding in company auctions one year ago. Two lawsuits resulted - one pitting SnapNames against Brady and the other affected customers against SnapNames in a class action suit. Both have now been settled.

Are your ready for another Florida conference?! Yes, DNCruise and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami just ended, but another event, featuring some familiar names in the domain industry, is coming up next week in Hollywood, Florida! Plus, how to reserve one of the new toll free 855 phone numbers at no charge & changes at the AfternicDLS.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. I was away for a 10-day stretch covering the DNCruise and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami conferences so the latest column actually cover TWO weeks worth of data to bring you completely up to date on all sales reported to us since our last column. Five 6-figure sales top the new chart.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Photos and Highlights from the closing day at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami. Plus, a personal view of what the BIGGEST dividend from my years of covering T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences has really been.

The third day of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami 2010 conference on South Beach Tuesday (Oct. 19) kicked off with the annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards and also featured a speech from Don King and a Rick Latona live domain auction that generated almost $500,000 in sales.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami got down to business Monday (Oct. 18) - the first full day at the conference that is currently underway at the Loews Hotel on South Beach. We have photos and highlights from Monday's activity including a party at the fabulous Versace Mansion last night.

The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami conference opened Sunday evening with a crowd of several hundred on hand at the Loews Hotel on South Beach. We have photos and highlights from opening day activities that stretched late into the night.

After a full year to prepare Traffic Co-Founders Rick Schwartz & Howard Neu will get back in the saddle this evening when the Traffic Miami conference opens at the Loews Hotel on South Beach. It will be the first show staged by Rick & Howard since Traffic New York last year. Here is a preview from Miami.

It's hard to stand out in the crowded domain conference field so Chef Patrick knew he would have to do something different when he decided to put on an event of his own. His solution was to stage the 1st domain conference ever held on a cruise ship. We have photos & highlights from the debut of DNCruise.

A pair of extraordinary domain conferences will be held over the next 10 days with domain investors & service providers getting together on land and sea. The first half of a tropical twin bill - DNCruise - the first domaiin conference on a cruise ship - gets underway Monday followed by Traffic Miami on South Beach.

The DOMAINfest Europe 2010 conference in Prague, Czech Republic got down to business Wednesday (Oct. 6) with more than 200 registrants on hand at the Intercontinental Hotel. There were lots of new faces in the crowd, there to talk about the burgeoning European domain name and monetization marketplace.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo uncorked a big sale to take the top spot on this week's chart. However, it was ccTLDs, rather than the .coms, that dominated the new all extension Top 20. Only 6 .com domains earned places - the fewest since we began tracking the aftermarket 7 years ago.

Cases of domain and identity theft reported by blogger Michael Berkens this week has prompted the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference to schedule a session at their upcoming Miami show devoted to security issues. Also, for those who will be arriving in Miami early, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. has a special place for you to relax until your room is ready.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Starting tomorrow a string of three special conferences over the next 16 days will bring domainers together in the U.S., Europe and aboard an International Cruise Ship! We also have interesting article links from two former high level NameMedia executives.

Traffic South Beach, coming up Oct. 17-20, added to its exceptional roster of speakers today. Organizers announced Advertising.com Co-Founder John Ferber will talk. That news came just 48 hours after it was announced that a U.S. Congressman - Cliff Stearns (R - Florida) - will also speak. Also today, Domaining III Award Winners.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo rang up one of the year's 10 biggest sales to take the top spot on our new weekly all extension leader board. Sedo swept 11 of the 20 chart entries overall. Eight of the nine remaining chart openings were taken by completed sales from the .CO Landrush Auctions.

A headline in a local newspaper jumped out at me - White Pages End Is Near! Wow, still another true institution of American life is about to be swept away by the web. How lucky we are to be on the right side of this irresistible wave that continues to wash away things that have been have been a part of our lives for decades.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A new domain conference has been added to the crowded October schedule and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. announces a March 2011 show on the West Coast. Plus, wondering where YOUR parking revenue went? More fingers are pointing at Google and Yahoo.

Our new T.R.A.F.F.I.C. South Beach preview article wound up covering much more ground than we anticipated. Conference Co-Founder Rick Schwartz took off the gloves saying domain owners are getting shafted while their "partners" roll in the dough. Schwartz also laid out how T.R.A.F.F.I.C. plans to respond.

A new Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. It is a profile of Jeff Kupietzky, the man who has guided Oversee.net (parent company of DomainSponsor, Moniker, SnapNames and DOMAINfest) through a severe recession and unexpected crises that could have easily brought down a company with less skilled leadership.

The Domaining III conference in Valencia, Spain continued today with keynote speeches from Sedo CEO and Co-Founder Tim Schumacher and Castello Cities Internet Network Co-Founders Michael Castello and David Castello. The speakers also answered audience questions in a lively Q & A session.

The Domaining III conference got underway today in Valencia, Spain with business sessions and an opening night cocktail party. The Castello Brothers made the trip to Spain to conduct a workshop and deliver one of the keynote speeches at an event that will continue through Saturday. We have the first show photos.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Moniker took the top two positions on our latest all extension leader board and helped .coms sweep the first five spots. ccTLDs claimed five places on the elite list while non .com gTLDs took three.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: the next stop on SedoPro World Tour is coming up two weeks from now in Tuscany, Italy, right after Prague's DOMAINfest Europe. We have new details on both shows + highlights from Verisign's latest quarterly Domain Brief showing a nice jump in global domain registrations.

Geodomain giant Skip Hoagland has sold one of his marquee websites - MyrtleBeach.com - in a multi-million dollar deal that will also give him 100% ownership of several other .com city domain websites he previously co-owned with long time partner Intellistrand, LLC. Also today - Rick Latona cancels T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Hong Kong.

Rick Schwartz's high profile and outspoken nature have attracted more than a few critics. While his detractors may not admit it, the Domain Pioneer Award winner's non-stop promotion of domains over the past decade has helped just about everyone, including his enemies, make more money.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Sedo adds veteran domain investor Dave Evanson to its Sales & Brokerage team...the DomainConvergence Conference, scheduled to run in Montreal next week has been postponed until 2011... and .CO passes another major milestone.

You've heard the expression - "Cheaper than dirt" - well, when it comes to domain names dirt is anything but cheap. GoDaddy Auctions just proved that with a $100,000 sale that tops our latest weekly Domain Sales Chart. 5 ccTLDs also made the elite list along with one of the year's 10 biggest non .com gTLD sales.

Microsoft's Bing search engine has slipped past Yahoo to become the 2nd most popular search engine in the U.S. according to new data released by Nielsen today. Google continues to hold a big lead and may widen it with Instant Search. Ironically, Bing blew a chance to beat Google to the punch with that feature.

Though not quite as busy as a crazy stretch in August that saw five domain conferences crammed into just 14 days, the show circuit will be lit up by six conferences over the next five weeks. The action will take place on both sides of the Atlantic and will end up touching five countries as well as a wide swath of international waters!

Website development has been a hot topic among domain owners this year. While much of the conversation has centered on developing a large number of domains at once - some of the most successful developers in our business continue to do it the old fashioned way - building full fledged online businesses brick by brick.

I was away last week for our son's wedding in Sarasota, so I have a double-length domain sales report for you this week that will bring you up to date on all sales reported to us over the past two weeks. We are also doubling our usual Top 20 charts to 40 positions each to make room for the double dose of data.

For the past eight years my life, like a planet orbiting the sun, has revolved around domain names. That's not a complaint, I have loved every minute in this business - but after being forced to spend a full week away with almost no Internet access it dawned on me that there is life beyond the web and that other world has a lot going for it too!

I'm currently in Sarasota, Florida where our son will be getting married on the beach this weekend. While I'm in Sarasota - the place where I began a TV sporstcasting career - I will also be researching a possible geodomain project. More details in what will be my last Lowdown post until Tuesday.

The high value of generic domain names was the topic of conversation in two new interviews with industry leaders - Jeff Kupietzky of Oversee.net and Jeff Bennett of Swap.com. One was printed by a Boston business publication and the other kicked off a new video series from Simon Johnson's DomainerIncome.tv.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Attendees at the Epik Developer's Conference coming up Sept. 15-17 will find a little something extra in their "goodie" bags - $795 worth of EpikBucks. We'll tell you exactly what those are + we have news updates on October's DN Cruise and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. South Beach conferences.

DN Journal's new monthly newsletter is out. We connected with Epik.com Founder Rob Monster to learn more about the upcoming Epik Developers Conference, but the discussion wound up covering much more than that, including Monster's take on the shaky state of domain parking and the future of domain development

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Moniker rings up a 7-figure sale in the DOMAINfest New York Extended Online Auction, country code news featuring ,AU, .NL, .MX and .UK, plus Alexa Raad, the highly successful President and CEO of the .ORG Registry (PIR) will step down next month.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A preview of Germany's biggest domain conference - DomainvermarkterForum - coming up next week in Munich. Plus, why .CA domain owners should rally behind Zak Muscovitch's bid for a seat on CIRA's Board of Directors.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The top sale ranks among the year's 25 biggest to date. Nine country code domains made the all extension leader board and we also saw one of the year's five biggest non .com gTLD sales this week.

The DOMAINfest New York Power Networking Day was held Wednesday (August 18) at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. Conference organizer Oversee.net sent us some of show photographer Marvin Yan's pictures from the event so we could share them and the conference highlights with you.

The 1st Annual Epik Domain Developers Conference is coming up Sept. 15-17 in Seattle.The founder of a company that has a portfolio of over 8,000 developed geo domain names will give the keynote address. His speech will be followed by a live auction featuring 100 developed websites with both events open to the public.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Updates on Wednesday's DOMAINfest in New York, a new online auction at GreatDomains, information on the annual .Info Awards Contest (with $15,500 in prize money up for grabs) and a note on Morgan Linton's new video interview with Ray Neu.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Domain buyers were very active again this week. Moniker.com closed a seven-figure package sale as well as a separate 6-figure transaction and Sedo.com scored big with the year's second largest non .com gTLD sale. 

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com we identify the two remaining unnamed domainers from our latest Who Are They? photo challenge. Plus, details on a EuroDNS drawing for 20 free passes to the Domaining III conference coming up next month in Valencia, Spain.

Rob Grant, CEO of RealEstateDirectory.com (who was profiled in our April 2008 Cover Story) and John Burke, President and CEO of Select Sotheby's International Realty in northern New York State, have announced a unique partnership with the launch of a powerful New York real estate portal for LakeGeorgeRealEstate.com.

Parking revenues have fallen so far over the past couple of years that some have declared parking to be dead. I wouldn't go quite that far, but there is no denying that parking has become a critically ill patient. In this environment, no one would dream of starting up another parking company, right? Wrong!

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Another six-figure sale leads our latest Top 20 Chart and many of the names on the elite list come from deals no one has reported before now. Several were part of a $152,000 transaction involving a group of 3-digit numerical domains.

A second Keynote Speaker has been added for next week's DOMAINfest New York Power Networking Day...DNWStats.com adds Parked.com as a partner for their new traffic and revenue verification service...and a large group of 3-Letter ccTLDs have gone on the auction block at NameDrive's NDX Market.

Tired of getting ripped off by people selling domains with bogus traffic and revenue statistics? Andrew Allemann's new DNW Stats service aims to put a choke hold on the cheaters. Also today, some answers to our latest Who Are They? Challenge.

Time for another round of everyone's favorite domain game (OK, so maybe it's the only domain game, but we're not too proud to take the title by default!). What we are trying to do, with your help, is identify some of the people in our massive photo database so we can match names with all of those pretty faces!

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The week started with several reports of sales increases for 2Q-2010 vs. the previous quarter and the same quarter a year ago (our own data showed a 38% jump in dollar volume over 2Q-2009). So how did buyers respond to the good news? By taking a bit of a break!

Over the past four months I have been giving the new ecommerce platform at SmartName.com a thorough test to see if their quick development system could breath some life into domains that weren't producing anything parked. Over that time span I have moved about 500 domains into SmartName. Here is what happened.

The latest quarterly domain sales data from DNJournal.com & Sedo.com shows a nice uptick in aftermarket activity. Sedo reported its 4th straight quarter of rising sales. Also, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Dublin promoter Rick Latona weighs in on the over-crowded domain conference calendar & .CO fans get their own Facebook community.

This month's T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Dublin event will be the first major domain conference ever held in Ireland. In a new interview with show promoter Rick Latona we got details on what is in store as well as Latona's view of an over-crowded conference schedule that will see 5 shows in the last 2 weeks of August.

In the latest DN Journal newsletter we break down 2Q-2010 domain sales results which showed a big jump from the previous quarter as well as from the same quarter in 2009. We also profile an impressive young woman who is doing some great work for a charity that is widely supported by the domain industry.

In my last Lowdown post I asked readers to help us identify some people in our massive industry photo archives that I did not have names for. I started the quest with a shot of two lovely ladies. As I expected, our readers came through like champs! En route to getting the IDs I needed I also had an interesting brush with ESP!

Sedo makes a consistently strong showing on our weekly Top 20 Domain Sales Chart but the company outdid themselves this week, turning in the best showing by anyone EVER on our all-extension leader board. Sedo's sales blitzkrieg gave them 18 of the 20 chart positions, including all of the first 13 places.

Over the years I have taken thousands of photos of domainers at industry events around the world. I noticed in going through our massive photo archive recently that we have hundreds of photos of people whose names I don't have. I would like to change that and hope you can help. Also today, more news on upcoming conferences.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The Castello Brothers will join Sedo's Tim Schumacher as keynote speakers at next month's Domaining III conference in Spain, NameDrive has a new Director of Business Development and, after 40 shows, Owen Frager will hang up his Domain Success microphone Wednesday.

The newly re-launched .CO extension just opened for general registration Tuesday but before most new .CO domain owners even had time to change their nameservers venues popped up offering newly registered .CO domain for sale. The highest profile sales site is Flipping.co by virtue of the fact that it comes from Francois Carillo.

Just when you thought the show schedule couldn't get any more crowded, here comes August and the busiest domain conference month ever! Five major conferences are scheduled between the U.S. and Europe and all of those events will be shoe horned into a period of just two weeks in the latter half of the month!

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com and after 7 years of tracking the domain aftermarket we saw something we've never seen before - non .com domains took more places on our weekly all extension Top 20 Chart than .coms for the 2nd week in a row. 2 ccTLD sales totaling $750,000 led the non .com charge.

The .CO extension opened for general registration today and the re-launched TLD got off to a blazing start. Within 30 minutes of opening the total number of .CO domains taken had soared past the 100,000 mark. .CO also got a huge boost with the announcement that Overstock has purchased O.CO for $350,000.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: .CO General Registration Just Hours Away, Sedo Pro Forum website goes live, public commentary closing soon on hot topics at ICANN, Rick Schwartz logs another big sale and Canada's Rick Silver takes center stage with .CA.

A new Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. This month we profile Canada's Rick Silver who rules an online empire built on his nation's relatively unheralded .ca country code extension. ccTLDs have been coming on like gangbusters, making Silver's bet on top tier generic .ca domains look smarter with each passing day.

Skip Hoagland has always preached that partnerships are the way to get high quality domains developed into popular websites. Hoagland cut deals with experts in hunting and automotive media to transform two more of his domains - Shooting.com and CarClassifieds.com - into online destinations that just launched.

The venerable .ORG registry is celebrating its 25th anniversary this week. It was on July 10, 1985 that the first .ORG domain name was registered. Since PIR took over operation of the registry in 2003 it has grown by 300% to over 8.5 million active domain names.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A pair of F words totaling $183,000 set the pace at the top of our new all extension Top 20 Sales Chart. It was also a big week for the ccTLDs as they piled up eight entries on the elite list. The non .com gTLDs had a decent outing too with two of the four biggest sales.

An international domain conference you may not have heard about before is coming up in Valencia, Spain early this fall. Domaining III, produced by Inverdom's Dietmar Stefitz, has already lined up Sedo Co-Founder and CEO Tim Schumacher as one its keynote speakers.

You thought ICANN meetings must be boring, right? Well, not if Directi has anything to say about it. At the latest meeting in Brussels, Directi held a Beerfest at the Delirium Cafe - a famous bar that has the largest variety of beer available at any one place on earth - more than 2,000 brews! Here is an inside view of the event.

The Lowdown at DNJournal.com has a Weekend News Roundup featuring details about an extension for the .CO Land Rush, CFIT's latest court win over Verisign in a legal battle that may one day give domain registrant's some relief from Verisign's constant price hikes and the latest domain auction news.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. We were away on vacation last week so the latest column is a double length report highlighted by three 6-figure sales. One of those ranks as the year's 4th biggest ccTLD sale. We also have news about TWO MORE 6-figure deals.

The SedoPro Forum is switching to a new "World Tour" format that will begin next month with a get together in Boston, the home base for Sedo's North American operations. From there the previously annual event will hit seven different cities on four continents in the year ahead. Elsewhere, WhyPark.com announces a major upgrade.

I just returned from a memorable vacation that took me across the Carolinas and even beyond the long reach of the Internet for several days over the July 4th weekend (yes there are still places in America with no Internet access!). Here are some details and photos from a trip I won't soon forget.

Younger viewers are deserting TV in droves, choosing to consume their video online instead. The median age of prime time TV viewers is the oldest ever - close to 51 years old now. That has huge ramifications for TV as well as video rich web platforms that stand to benefit from the historic shift.

When it comes to domain arbitration cases, domainers usually get the short end of the stick - even when decisions should go in their favor. So it was refreshing to hear about a decision that came down a few days ago busting a French company for trying to hijack a one-word generic domain from its rightful owner.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Summer officially arrived this week along with four hot 6-figure domains sales - one closing at $450,000 in one of the year's 10 biggest deals. The 3 others that also cracked the 6-figure mark included a .net that now ranks as the year's 2nd biggest non .com gTLD sale.

Just as L.A.'s beloved Lakers repeated as NBA champions last week, the organizers of the DOMAINfest Global conference have positioned themselves for another big win by announcing their show will return to L.A.'s popular beachfront community Santa Monica in February 2011.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: the 38th ICANN internationl ICANN meeting opens in Brussels, Belgium and the .CO land rush gets underway. Plus, the Castello Brothers were spotted at a Tanning Expo at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas last week. We will tell you what they were doing there.

DN Journal's wire to wire review of Canada's first T.RA.F.F.I.C. conference has just been published. Here are the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver conference details (plus previously unseen photos) that we did not have time to bring you in our daily highlight posts from this month's show in one of the world's most beautiful cities.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com, The preliminary agenda has been posted and early bird registration opened for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference coming to Miami's South Beach. Plus, some NAF UDRP arbitrators were caught with egg on their face in April and the embarrassment just grew worse with a new revelation.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Since we were away last week for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver the new report is a double-length column covering all of the notable sales reported over the past two weeks. Just like summertime temperatures, action in the aftermarket appears to be heating up.

A new report from Pingdom.com, building on 1Q-2010 stats released by Verisign, says we are about to (or may already have) hit a landmark 200 million domain registrations worldwide. Plus, Domain Name Wire's Andrew Allemann tells us about a new service he is about to launch.

Legendary Vancouver area domainer Garry Chernoff was not able to make it to last week's Traffic conference, so the Castello Brothers took the conference to him! Michael and David made a 250-mile pilgrimage to Penticton, British Columbia to see "The Cherminator" and wound up getting a birds eye view of Garry's world.

Many of the domain industry's movers and shakers are converging on Vancouver, British Columbia for Canada's first-ever T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference + notes on some new industry websites and events.

The weekly DNJournal.com domain sales report is out and it was a very solid 7 days for the aftermarket. After three straight weeks without a sale above the five-figure level, the market broke loose with the biggest sale of 2010 entering the books along with a pair of nice 6-figure sales,

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com, some background on our new Cover Story about Dan Warner, plus concerns about how a proposed ICANN policy could harm aftermarket sales and our take on a newspaper story that says .mobi has at least one foot in the grave.

New DN Journal Cover Story: The life of former Fabulous.com leader Dan Warner. He has done a hitch in the Navy, worked as a carpenter, paramedic, fireman, software developer & pharmaceutical salesman + survived a near fatal accident & a thieving CFO who wound up in jail after destroying Warner's multi-million $ company.

A holiday weekend news roundup from DN Journal includes: The latest update on T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver - Photos from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Milan - DOMAINfest Europe Releases Agenda and Opens Registration - Former SnapNames VP Nelson Brady Admits Shill Bidding in Response to $33 Million Lawsuit + E.co Goes Up for Bid

Verisign staged a 25 Years of .Com Gala Wednesday night in San Francisco co-hosted by comedian Dana Carvey and Sun Microsystems Co-Founder Scott McNealy. We have a first hand account from Aron Meystedt, the current owner of the first .com domain ever registered, who was among those recognized at the event.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A dozen .coms took places on our latest Top 20 Chart with the ccTLDs also turning in a strong showing with six chart entries. A pair of .nets gave the non .com gTLDs representation on the elite list as well.

Yesterday we ran a video interview with CentralNic Founder Robert Pooke who explained how he assembled the world's greatest collection of 2-letter .com domains - a portfolio that includes US.com, UK.com, EU.com and LA.com to name a few. Today CentralNic GM Joe Alagna details how the company utilizes their LL domains.

Wouldn't it be great to own a 2-letter .com domain like US.com, UK.com, EU.com or LA.com? Or perhaps NO.com, DE.com, CN.com or SA.com. Well, one guy, CentralNic's Robert Pooke, owns ALL of those domains and many more. Pooke tells us how he acquired those great domains and how he decided on his current business model for them.

The .CO registry's innovative Founder's Program is awarding high profile domains to early adopter developers who submit the best plans for a relevant .CO website. Today the registry announced that TechCrunch is one of the companies that has been awarded a .CO domain that is hosting a new website.

May has seen the launch of new domain industry websites as well as the addition of new features at existing sites. The new resources offer everything from domain promo codes that will give you registration discounts to an extensive list of categorized and rated sites that will help you find better domain names.

The .com extension turned 25 years old this year and as part of a year-long celebration to mark the anniversary of the world's most popular extension, Verisign will hold a special 25 Years of .Com Gala, hosted by comedian Dana Carvey, on Wednesday in San Francisco. Here is a preview of what will be happening there.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. For the second straight week no reported sales broke the six-figure barrier, however a couple of even bigger blockbusters are waiting in the wings. The 16 .coms on the leader board are joined by a trio of ccTLDs and a pair of non .com gTLDs.

Today in the Lowdown at DN Journal: The recent surge in high end domain sales continues with another 6-figure sale. Plus, the high value of generic domains on the aftermarket is the subject of a new white paper that could be useful in educating your customers about what constitutes a good name and why your price is justified.

One of the most highly anticipated T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences in years is coming up June 8-10 when the pioneering industry trade show makes its first ever appearance in Canada...and a very special place in Canada at that. Vancouver is the epicenter of an area that has played a huge role in domain industry history.

As of this writing, three public 7-figure domain sales have been completed so far in 2010, but all of those were at or just above the $1 million mark. In the past couple of days reports of bigger pending sales indicate that high ticket domain transactions are heating up along with the temperature as summer approaches.

There were no six or seven figure blockbuster sales this week as the domain aftermarket throttled back to the always busy four and five figure lanes. DrunkDriving.com wound up being incarcerated at the top of our latest all extension leader board after receiving a $60,000 citation.

With domain conferences popping up everywhere these days, show organizers are trying out new locations, formats and pricing plans to attract attendees and spread the "domain gospel". The DOMAINfest conference will roll out a new one-day power networking format for the first time Thursday in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

When Rick Latona announced today that he slashed the registration price for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver show to $395, the first thing I thought of was the Crazy Eddie electronics ads that blanketed TV in the 70s & 80s. A "crazy" character would scream "Prices are so low they're INSANE!" and it became a catch phrase in the ad world.

DN Journal's comprehensive review of the 2010 GeoDomain Expo is now online, It features dozens of previously unseen photos, plus business session details that we didn't have time to go into in our daily Lowdown items that were posted when the show was underway at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans.

As we reported last Monday SanDiego.com was scheduled to be sold in a foreclosure auction Friday (May 7). This morning I received information about what happened on Friday.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: 28-year-old Directi Co-Founder Divyank Turakhia is profiled on national TV in India, Sedo reports a surge in domain sales, IDN Newsletter operators Gary Males and Aaron Kravitz land a big deal with Register.com and Comwired Inc. reels in a monster domain name - DNS.com.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. I was away covering the GeoDomain Expo in New Orleans last week so you will be seeing double this week as we expand all of our charts from 20 to 40 positions. The biggest sale reported so far in 2010 tops the new chart, followed by the year's #2 ccTLD sale.

I was surprised and saddened to get today's news that innovative domain auction service Bido.com is closing down effective tomorrow (May 5). Sahar Sarid & Jarred Cohen built a unique sales platform with some cool social media twists, but in the face of a brutal recession and heavy competition they finally threw in the towel.

SnapNames.com and its parent company Oversee.net today announced they have filed suit against Nelson Brady in federal court in Oregon. The company said that Brady, a former SnapNames VP, used the false name Hank Alvarez to improperly bid in certain SnapNames auctions. The suit seeks to recover $33 million from Brady.

I have learned that the assets of SD Acquisitions LLC, owner of the SanDiego.com domain name, will go up for public auction at 5PM (Pacific Time) Friday (May 7), in the SanDiego.com offices at 610 West Ash Street, Suite 1405, in San Diego. Get the inside scoop in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com.

An analysis of domain sales reported to us in the 1st quarter of 2010 showed that total dollar volume was down 18% from the same quarter a year ago, however the entire year over year difference can be attributed to three big sales made in 1Q-2009. On the bright side the median sale price topped both the previous quarter & 1Q-2009.

A new cover story is out at DNJournal.com. Few domain sales have set more tongues wagging than the $350,000 sale of CookingGames.com in January. A lot of people didn't believe the price but it was real and it was worth every penny to buyer Bill Karamouzis who has had enormous success developing gaming websites. This is his story.

In the Lowdown at DNJournal.com we're closing the week with a roundup of recent developments led by some embarrassing shenanigans involving both complainants in UDRP proceedings and NAF panelists. New revelations cast doubt on how well justice is being served in some UDRP domain proceedings.

When I head over to New Orleans for the GeoDomain Expo next week I will be looking forward to seeing two of the sharpest developers in the space again; Scottsdale.com's Fred Mercaldo and Bruce Marler of the Missouri.me Network. Both will be coming to the show fresh off major expansions of their businesses.

1-800-BUSINESS LLC, a company that was formed to operate a business around the toll-free vanity number, 1-800-BUSINESS and its numerous URL?s, including www.1-800-BUSINESS.com plans to sell off essentially all of its assets in a May 27 auction.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com, The year's 2nd biggest ccTLD sale and the largest sale ever reported for Brazil's .com.br extension leads our latest Top 20 Sales Chart. The .com.br domain changed hands for $300,000.

Fans of the .tel extension got a new resource to draw on today when the TelMasters.com website went live. The site was founded by Mark Kolb and Scott Smith, two early adopter .tel evangelists who saw a need for an exclusive .tel "domain boutique" to address the unique requirements of the .tel community.

GeoDomain Expo organizers have posted more speaker and session information for the event coming up April 28-30 in New Orleans and DOMAINfest has announced the launch of a pre-auction bidding system for the Moniker/SnapNames live auction coming up at DOMAINfest Fort Lauderdale May 13.

GoDaddy Auctions, the AfternicDLS and LogicBoxes all announced new service offerings today. GoDaddy added a public fixed price "closeout" section on their website, the AfternicDLS announced another free webinar for April 29 and LogicBoxes added two free value added features for their registrar clients.

Oversee.net says things are looking up for the domain aftermarket. Their Moniker and SnapNames divisions reported a 42% jump in 1Q-2010 sales compared to the previous quarter. Their results got a boost from a private 7-figure sale and a half dozen six-figure blockbusters.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A pair of six-figure sales head our latest Top 20 list. Five ccTLDs and a pair of non .com gTLDS joined the 13 .com domains on the all extension leader board.

Tessa Holcomb, who brokered several million dollars worth of domain sales at Sedo has taken a new dual position with PPX International and DomainManager.com. Ms. Holcomb will be DomainManager's Director of Business Development and PPXi's Director of Philanthropy.

I was interviewed for an article posted on AOL News today. The reporter asked for my reaction to a comment from an attorney/new gTLD consultant who said "Some day people will look upon .com as the less professional, mom-and-pop segment of the Web where only small businesses and amateurs dwell."

It's not often that you see freewheeling entrepreneurs like Patrick Ruddell taking a job in a big corporation, but it just happened with Chef Patrick joining Oversee.net. For those who can't envision the Chef punching a time clock, we ran him down to get some answers to the question - "Dude, what were you thinking!?"

Rick Latona converts his popular domain sales newsletter into a daily 24-hour auction that will run on the Latonas.com platform. Plus, Sedo rings up over $785,000 in .TV sales through an online auction topped by Business.tv at over $100,000.

With the opening sessions at two major domain conferences, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in Milan, Italy and the GeoDomain Expo in New Orleans, less than three weeks away the agendas are firming up for both events. Here is the latest on what you can look forward to from these events. Plus news on another geodomain sale.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. It was a good week for the aftermarket with a 7-figure blockbuster that now ranks as 2010's biggest sale, plus a trio of solid 6-figure sales led by a $370,000 geodomain deal.

Major registrar Register.com has signed an agreement to join NameMedia?s Domain Listing Service, the AfternicDLS. The deal gives Register.com customers (mostly small to medium sized business end users) access to more than two million domain names currently offered for sale through the DLS service.

In a Sunday surprise, Rick Latona announced that he and Rick Latona Auctions President David Clements are going their separate ways. Both said the split was an amicable one. David's brother Toby, who worked with Rick to start Latona's domain brokerage business, will now run the auction company with Latona.

The 2010 GeoDomain Expo will run April 28-30 at the historic Roosevelt Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New Orleans. To give you a taste of what is in store for this year's show, we hooked up with Associated Cities Executive Director Patrick Carleton for more details about the big event in the Big Easy.

If you plan to go to the 2010 GeoDomain Expo and have not yet booked a room for the April 28-30 show at the Roosevelt Hotel time is running out. With the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival going on at the same time, rooms in the city are scarce so those being held for the Expo will be taken back by the hotel after Tuesday.

A vast majority of respondents in a new Sedo survey of digital marketers said owning the right domain name is a key factor in successful marketing campaigns. Plus, the Yahoo Publisher Network decides to call it quits.

The 2nd best .com domain sale reported so far this year gave Sedo the top spot on DN Journal's new Top 20 Sales Chart. This sale ranks #4 overall on the YTD List because a .org and a ccTLD still rank as the two highest sales reported in 2010, Six ccTLDs made the new all extension leader board along with a pair of .orgs.

Associated Cities, the association of geodomain owners that stages the annual GeoDomain Expo, has transformed itself from a for-profit partnership controlled by a limited number of founding shareholders into a non-profit trade association in which all members will have a voice in operations.

The constantly growing domain conference calendar expanded yet again today when DomainSponsor announced a pair of new one-day events to be held in Ft. Lauderdale (in May) and New York City (in August). Meanwhile the upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Milan show announced a 2nd domain auction featuring .eu domains.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Sedo's parent company gets a new but familiar name. Plus, news from DomainConsultant.com, a new social networking site at SocialDomainers.com and Domainbie.com who is offering an industry beginners ebook that you can try before you buy.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com with high ranking sales reported in every category. We saw the 2nd biggest non .com gTLD sale of 2010, as well as the 3rd biggest .com sale year to date and the 5th highest country code sale thus far in 2010.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu has entered the blogosphere after receiving HowardNeu.com as a birthday gift from his son Ray. Neu said the new blog will range far beyond the world of domains. Also today, Sendori gains approval of two patents related to domain leasing. 

.TV registry operator Verisign has blown up their previous business model for the extension. Prices have been slashed on premium domains and renewal fees drop to standard rates for new registrants. It's all good except for those who bought premium .tv domains before the change and are still stuck with sky high renewal fees.

With spring on the way temperatures aren't the only things heating up. Auction activity is breaking out all over. SnapNames just reported a $335,000 sale in their latest monthly showcase auction and two other big events are underway - Domain Madness 2 and a GreatDomains online auction.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Industry veteran Victor Pitts, who recently left his position as a Vice President at Moniker.com, has accepted a new executive position with Cincinnati, Ohio based registrar DomainIt.com. Also, a legal move has resulted in cancellation of the Sex.com auction that was scheduled tomorrow.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. One of the five biggest sales of 2010 took the top spot on our leader board and we also saw the year's biggest .info sale to date. The ccTLDs also rocked again with five charted domains including one that hit #3 on the all extension Top 20 list.

Sedo announced today that they are teaming up with Verisign (the operator of the .tv registry) to stage an exclusive auction for the entire available catalog of 115 premium .tv domain names. Unlike other premium .tv domains, those sold in this auction will have a standard registry renewal fee. The online auction will run April 1-8.

Time Magazine has published an Annual Special Issue that features an article about one of the biggest companies in the domain industry - Demand Media (the parent company of popular registrar Enom.com). Also, mainstream media is reporting on today's 25th anniversary of the 1st .com domain registration.

DN Journal's new monthly newsletter has the first detailed account of a domain industry climb team's conquest of Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa last week. In her own words, one of the climbers described what it took to scale the 19,340 foot mountain. The grueling 6-day mission raised almost $200,000 for a worthy charity.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A new online magazine focusing entirely on ccTLDs has launched at ccTLDInvestors.com. Plus, ICANN closes its meeting in Nairobi by announcing a new Trademark Clearinghouse database.

ShopCity.com is rolling out an innovative nationwide local shopping network that is offering career opportunities to partners interested in operating their own local marketplace on one of 7,500 URLs. Founder Colin Pape will talk about the platform on a Domain Success webcast tomorrow (Friday March 12).

If you have an early stage company with a great domain, great idea, or both, and you are looking for investors to help you reach the next level T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Milan wants you in their Test Track program. They are also looking for live domain auction submission. Also - GoDaddy reached a HUGE new milestone today.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Guns.com staged a clean getaway - topping the chart with a sale that was 8 times bigger than the runner up (which was also a six-figure domain). 6 ccTLDS also muscled their way onto the new Top 20 Chart, along with a pair of .net henchmen.

A major new market survey of American advertisers and marketers says this will be the year when digital advertising finally passes print media in ad revenue for the first time. Also today, the .CO registry announces its upcoming launch plan including a new Founders Program for early adopters that opened today.

We have learned that Moniker.com has completed the biggest .com sale reported so far this year at $800,000. It is the third highest sale of 2010 overall, trailing a million .org sale and a ccTLD sale of more than $850,000.

New Cover Story: The 2010 conference schedule began with 3 shows in 23 days - an average of one every 8 days! Can the industry continue to support the number of shows that are now being held? We provide a detailed history of the domain conference business and look at its future prospects in an increasingly crowded field.

The group of more than two dozen domain industry pros who went to Tanzania, Africa to climb Mount Kiliminjaro in a fund raising effort for The Water School have finished their mission. 26 of the 27 climbers reached the peak and in the process raised approximately $180,000 for the non-profit organization.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Geodomain giant Skip Hoagland has joined with a partner to purchase a .com city domain website that represents one of Florida's most popular resort towns. Also, a huge new marketplace that sells only .CA domains (Canada's country code) has opened for business.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Domain conferences have been held on land in various corners of the globe over the past five years. In October, a conference will be held on the high seas for the first time! Also - we have an update on the progress of the two dozen domainers who are currently climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa.

Four years after their first European conference in Barcelona, Spain, DOMAINfest will return to the Continent for a big show to be held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Prague, Czech Republic October 6-7, 2010. Here is what's on tap.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A 165K sale at Sedo scored a runaway win in this week's aftermarket race. Four ccTLDs and a pair of .nets broke through the strong .com defensive line to join 14 .coms on our new Top 20 Chart. Two of those country codes crashed the top ten.

Registration for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference coming up in Milan, Italy April 27-29 opened today with some exceptionally low early bird prices offered to those who are quick on the draw. A rate of ?499 ($679 at today's exchange rate) will be given to the first 50 people who register for the offer that expires March 15.

Michael "Zappy" Zapolin has scored a major honor for his latest category killing domain name development project - PrescriptionDrugs.com. The Harvard Business School has selected the site as a candidate in their "New Ventures" competition. Zappy will present to a panel of judges this month with a spot in the final 3 on the line.

Bido.com sold UDRP.com for $16,500 last week. Considering the fact that each side in a single UDRP dispute typically spends several thousand dollars for legal services, we thought someone got a good deal on that domain. As it turns out the buyer was a both a domain investor and an end user.

DevHub just completed a big office expansion project. Next, Co-founder Mark Michael says DevHUb will be introducing some major upgrades to their site publishing and monetization platform. We show you the DevHub team in their new digs and Michael talks about changes designed to help bloggers make more money.

Dn Journal's comprehensive review of the 2nd Annual Domainer Mardi Gras Conference has just been published. This wire to wire report has new photos and individual session details that were not seen in our daily Lowdown updates from the show. In fact every photo in this review is being published for the first time.

On Monday at least two dozen men and women representing the domain industry will begin a climb of more than 19,000 feet to the peak of majestic Mount Kilimanjaro. They are doing it to raise funds for deployment of a water purification system that is helping to stop waterborne disease and save lives in developing nations.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The highlights include the year's first seven-figure sale, two more 6-figure heavyweights and the best week ever for the .org extension. A pair of ccTLDs also crashed the party on the all extension Top 20 Chart.

The 2010 GeoDomain Expo will be held in the Big Easy at the luxurious Roosevelt New Orleans Hotel April 28-30. Associated Cities, who produces the annual conference for domain developers, announced their keynote speaker today and they came up with a winner - Hotels.com co-founder David Litman.

Directi Co-Founder & Skenzo Founder, 28-year-old Divyank Turakhia, runs one of the fastest growing companies in all of Asia. Recognizing Turakhia's growing influence, Bloomberg's powerful UTV Network just featured him in a discussion of the Indian government's 2010 budget. Plus, how I spent my extended weekend mini-vacation!

The owners of PokerCompany.com made history last week when they purchased Poker.org for $1 million, by far the highest price ever reported for a .org domain. We have learned that they also paid the second highest price ever reported for a .org domain in the previously unannounced sale we are reporting today.

After being away from home three of the past four weeks covering domain conferences (T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas, DOMAINfest Global & Domainer Mardi Gras), I owe my wife some time together. So, this afternoon we are off to a favorite place. Plus, Sedo confirms the $1 million sale of Poker.org - the highest .org sale ever reported.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A case study in how to create goodwill for your business and drive traffic to your geodomaiin websites. Veteran domain investor/developer Rob Grant provides a successful template you can use for your own projects, but be ready to get involved in your community if you want to reap big benefits.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Though no 6-figure sales were reported this week there was a flood of solid 5-figure sales. In fact we had almost enough of those to fill TWO Top 20 charts. In addition to the ones that did make our weekly leader board, we logged 18 other sales above $10,000.

The Castello Brothers have developed successful websites on a number of great domain names including PalmSprings.com, Nashville.com & Whiskey.com. They are doing it again with KingTut.com, a project that produced an unusual connection between the Castellos, Tutankhamun and DN Journal's Ron Jackson.

The Domainer Mardi Gras conference gets underway tonight in New Orleans. The forecast calls for a steady rain starting around 6pm that will last til noon tomorrow but in the Big Easy a little rain and cold weather will never stop a good party! Unfortunately snowstorms in the Northeast will stop some guests from getting there.

At T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas and DOMAINfest Global Morgan Linton shot dozens of video interviews for an ambitious new series called Domainvestors TV. Linton has posted the opening episode in the series and upcoming episodes will feature a virtual who's who of the domain business.

The new Weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Biking.com raced to the top of our all extension leader board with the biggest South African ccTLD sale ever reported taking the #2 spot.

The Castello Brothers, David and Michael, spoke at Borrell Associates' Local Online Advertising Conference in New York City today where conference organizers told executives from traditional media platforms "while you were sleeping these guys ate your lunch!"

The Domainer Mardi Gras conference will be held in New Orleans Thursday through Saturday. With the Mardi Gras celebration as a backdrop, DMG already had a lot of appeal and now with the city also celebrating the Saints first Super Bowl win the show is shaping up to be one people will never forget.

DN Journal's comprehensive review of the DOMAINfest Global conference that ran January 26-28 in Santa Monica, California has just been published. Our wire to wire coverage has the show photos and details that you haven't seen yet!

DN Journal's comprehensive review of the 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas conference has just been published. Our daily reports from the event that ran Jan. 21-23 at the Hard Rock Hotel just scratched the surface. Here are the photos and details you haven't seen from the first show of the new year.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Sweden's .SE Registry claims victory over .Com. According to a report published by the government commissioned Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB), "The .SE domain is growing stronger while .com is losing its? foothold in Sweden."

With the ccTLD market on an upward trajectory, dropcatching service Drop.com.au has joined the growing competition for expiring Australian domains. They are claiming a high success rate too - landing 82% of the .au domains they have gone after, including gems like Printing.com.au and MotorHomes.com.au.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The ccTLD that represents a place with a population of ZERO! Plus five more country codes that serve areas with less than 1,000 residents. One of those was once marketed at the "second coming" of .com but it never quite arrived.

The latest domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Boating.com docked at $250,000 to top domain aftermarket action over the past 14 days. A pair of 6-figure ccTLD sales also made big waves and helped the country codes take 3 of the top 5 spots on our new all extension leader board.

DNJournal.com's new monthly newsletter is out. It reports that total reported domain sales dropped 12.5% in 2009, however ccTLD sales soared 28% over the previous year. The newsletter also has an exclusive inside look at Directi's Mumbai, India operations written by Gregg McNair.

A Federal Appellate Court has ruled against AOL and given Advertise.com the right to continue doing business under their generic domain name. AOL claimed Advertise.com violates their trademark on Advertising.com. AOL's over-reaching claims also scuttled a $1.4 million auction sale of Ad.com.

An online domain auction to raise money for Haiti earthquake victims will get underway Friday... the .LU IDN sunrise opens...a free webinar on parking and selling domains is coming up Thursday... plus why Rick Latona and David Clements are riding bikes from Atlanta to New Orleans.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Pre-Bidding opens for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas auction, DOMAINfest Global posts the final agenda for next week's show in Santa Monica and Mocus.com launches an affiliate program paying 50% on domain sale profits.

Back to back domain conferences get underway Thursday when the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference opens in Las Vegas. DOMAINfest Global follows next week in Los Angeles. We're expecting two great shows so we're playing "beat the clock" in an effort to get the decks cleared before the big events.

The January Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com and as we do at the start of every year, we asked some of the industry's leading domain investors and developers, top level company executives, monetization experts and attorneys to evaluate the past year and predict what is ahead.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas names the Keynote Speaker for next week's conference at the Hard Rock Hotel. He has co-authored two best selling books with world famous peak performance coach Tony Robbins and he promises to help you succeed in your business.

The New Year's first full week of domain sales is now in the books. Sedo helped get 2010 off to a rousing start by closing a huge ccTLD sale - one that is more than three times bigger that the largest country code sale recorded in 2009. A pair of IDN ccTLDs also cracked the all-extension Top 20 Chart.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Rooms have sold out at the host hotel for DOMAINfest Global but organizers have found more rooms nearby - IDNTools makes a splash in New York's Times Square & free seats are available for a webinar on Top Parking/Selling Strategies for 2010.

While newspapers have been decimated by the economics transforming today's media industry, Web sites that report news and deliver other content at the neighborhood, or "hyperlocal" level, are bursting with life. The money being thrown at the larger operators in this sector is mind boggling.

DOMAINfest Global 2010 is coming up later this month and all indications are that attendees will be enjoying another world class show when the event runs January 26-28 in Santa Monica. We hooked up Oversee.net President Jeff Kupietzky to find out what DFG has planned for you this year.

Another competitor joined the domain aftermarket fray Wednesday when T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu and Rodan Media Group's Danny Pryor joined forces to launch a new free sales platform at BestDomainsWebsite.com.

The final week of the 2009 domain sales season saw the kind of light overall activity you expect over the holidays but it still produced a pair of impressive six-figure sales. Setting the pace was a $350,000 blockbuster handled by NoktaDomains.

The debut album from recording artist and domainer's daughter Lizzy Grant (stage name Lana Del Ray) was released on iTunes today. Lizzy's dad is veteran domain investor Rob Grant. Ron Jackson (who is a former radio DJ and record store owner) reviews Lizzy's hypnotic new release.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas conference introduces a private option for Test Track, an event that brings business owners together with angel investors. Also, owners of the DomainState forum have put the site up for sale.

There have been many landmark shows in the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. series and the upcoming show at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas January 21-23 promises to be another one as the Rick Latona team takes over production of the U.S. show for the first time. We hooked up with Latona for a special show preview interview.

A fleeting masterpiece appeared in my backyard this morning. I was struck by how appropriate it was to see this on the last day of another decade - to be reminded that despite recessions and wars and all of the other ills affecting the world - there is always a new day ahead, another chance to try to make today a little better than yesterday was for myself, my family and friends and those around us."

Another decade will end less than 36 hours from now and according to a new report from the The Pew Research Center people are not going to miss the "aughts." Yet, here I am - in the small minority that has a generally positive view of the decade that is about to close. Here is why.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A nice .com geodomain set the pace with four ccTLDs rounding out the first five. The country codes went on to take eight places on the all-extension Top 20 chart and a dozen country codes cracked the five-figure mark.

In an effort to persuade people to try their new domain leasing monetization system, Root Orange is running a contest that will give the winner a free hotel room and ticket to the DOMAINfest Global conference coming up January 26-28 at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, California.

A plunge in parking revenue this year left domain owners hunting for new monetization options that might offer better results. The new December newsletter at DNJournal.com takes a look at one new solution devised by two guys from Princeton University. We also have a special year-end letter from the ICA.

Though overall Christmas retail sales were sluggish, online sales were a bright spot this year. comScore reported that Dec. 15th set a new one day record for online sales, crossing $900 million for the first time & easily surpassing the 2nd biggest day on record set on Cyber Monday (Nov. 30).

North Carolina based domainer Abdu Tarabichi has launched a new non-profit website - the Domain Name Knowledge Base - that aims to help educate the public about the domain name industry by providing easily accessible answers to common questions about the business.

.INFO registry operator Afilias released its 2009 .INFO Annual Report this week. The extension currently ranks 7th in total registrations among the more than 270 Top Level Domains (TLDs) worldwide. With over 5.3 million domains registered, .INFO also ranks 1st among all new TLDs introduced since 2001.

The new weekly domain sales report is out DNJournal.com. A pair of previously unreported .de (German ccTLD) blockbusters set the pace, including one that ranks as the highest IDN sale ever reported (easily eclipsing Büromöbel.de - the previous leader reported just 1 week ago).

Elliot Silver has announced his latest site development project at DogWalker.com.This site exemplifies two things you need to look for if you want to build a successful website. So, we've made Elliot's project part 3 of what has become an unplanned series about diversification through domain development.

My last Lowdown post on Friday was about 4 domain owners who are taking control of their own destinies with domain development projects. Those 4 represent just a handful of domain investors who are going down the same path. Still another example just arrived on my door step today.

The new December Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. This exclusive profile of a man who seems to be EVERYWHERE these days - Rick Latona - details how the 37-year-old serial entrepreneur has managed to turn the old order upside down, even though he didn't enter the domain business full time until 2007!

The economy is crippled and PPC has fallen off a cliff, but skies are blue for many domain owners who diversified into development and freed themselves from the whims of Google and Yahoo. Here are four examples of people who have taken control of their own destinies.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The 2010 domain conference schedule gets underway next month with two major shows and I am very much liking what I am seeing on their agendas. Plus, Verisign plays Scrooge again - announcing another big price hike for .com and .net domains just in time for Christmas.

MiamiHerald.com is about to find out. In an effort to survive the historic media shift from traditional platforms to the web, a major newspaper with a rich tradition has been reduced to the electronic equivalent of panhandling. Why is a site with 5 million unique visitors a month unable to make any money? We have some answers.

A pair of nice six-figure sales headline this week's domain sales report at DNJournal.com. Barns.com bagged the top spot in a private transaction. The buyer already has an impressive ecommerce site up and running.The #2 domain is a landmark IDN sale that is the highest verified IDN sale ever reported to us.

Many domain owners have seen their PPC revenue drop by 75% or more, but we may finally witness an end to the carnage in 2010. The latest indication of an upturn comes from Jefferies who raised their price target on Google stock to $695 a share based on strengthening ad revenue. Yahoo is seeing it too.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Ron Jackson is back from a family visit to the frozen north. A Christmas shopping excursion there led to another misadventure in brick & mortar land. Ron also has details on a WhyPark.com charity domain auction that just started on a classy new platform at Latonas.com.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo.com took the pole position on our latest Top 20 Domain Sales chart with a six-figure transaction that helped them sweep 12 of the 20 entries on the all-extension leader board. Sedo also put four ccTLD sales on the elite list.

A new survey of more than 1,000 global business leaders indicates that online ad spending will finally rebound in 2010. 48% of those surveyed said they plan to ramp up their online marketing efforts in the New Year. The biggest beneficiaries will be email marketing, social media marketing and search (SEO & PPC).

Are you among the many domain developers who are building sites aimed at attracting revenue from local advertisers? If so, a major conference in Los Angeles this week and an upcoming free webinar could help put some money in your pocket.

The number of options for buyers in the domain aftermarket continues to grow. Andrew Miller, co-founder of industry heavyweight Internet Real Estate Group (a company that sold CreditCards.com, Shop.com, Diamond.com, Beer.com & many others), has launched a premium domain sales site at SimpleDomains.com. 

McAfee, one the of largest manufacturers of anti-virus software, just named Cameroon's .cm country code extension the riskiest domain to visit in the world. See the others that earned red flags as well as those McAfee says are the safest to visit. Domains are also in the news at the Wall Street Journal today.

The new weekly domain sales chart is out at DNJournal.com. There are three heavyweights totaling $2.2 million at the summit on our latest Top 20 list. The leader ranks as the year's 6th biggest sale. We also saw one of the year's six biggest non .com gTLD sales this week along with a pack of solid ccTLD deals.

Imagine what domain names that define various categories of products and services would be worth if websites replaced all (or even most of) the world's brick and mortar stores. Well, it's going to happen within five years predicts Laurie Sullivan in a provocative post on her MediaPost.com blog today.

New online media platforms have siphoned away much of traditional media's audience, but a New York Times reporter says the future of media, in the hands of young writers and entrepreneurs who are a "bundle of ideas, energy and technological mastery" may not be a bad deal. Like The Who said, the kids are alright!

With acquisitions of Mail.com, Fan.com, Deadline.com & others, the 30-year-old son of auto racing legend Roger Penske is building an Internet media empire. Here's how Jay Penske, backed by $35 million in venture capital, plans to be a big winner in the transition from traditional media to online publishing.

We're getting the decks cleared here so we can join the rest of the U.S. in celebrating one of America's biggest holidays Thursday - Thanksgiving Day. Like many Americans we will spend some time on the road traveling to a central meeting place where 17 family members from near and far will gather to give thanks.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. It was another solid week led by one of the year's 10 biggest country code sales. We also saw two of the year's five biggest non .com gTLD sales this week as that category enjoyed its best outing so far in 2009.

DomainAdvertising.com has named industry veteran Dan Warner as the company's new CEO. Warner is a well-known figure in the domain industry having previously served as the Chief Strategy Officer and COO of Dark Blue Sea, the Australian public company that owns Fabulous.com.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A German geodomain website has won the $7,500 First Prize in the 2009 .INFO Awards Contest presented by registry operator Afilias. Cash prizes also went to the 2nd and 3rd place finishers. Also today, how the stolen domain name CFJ.com was quickly recovered.

The insider shill bidding scandal at SnapNames.com has resulted in a 2nd class action lawsuit being filed against SnapNames owner Oversee.net. In what could be a huge blow to Oversee if granted, the new suit asks the court to disgorge Defendants of ALL revenue earned from SnapNames auctions during the Class period.

Options in the domain aftermarket are expanding with the launch of several new sales platforms by established industry players. BargainDomains.com will focus on undervalued names, NoktaDomains.com has a portfolio of 200,000 names to choose from and a third new player will join them soon.

DN Journal's new monthly newsletter features an interview with two IDN experts on what the new "fast track" process started by ICANN this week could mean for sales of internationalized domain names. People around the world will finally get a shot at domain names written entirely in their own local language and alphabet.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: The boom in ccTLD sales is fueling interest in many extensions representing first world industrial nations. Canada's .ca is among the the beneficiaries. Meanwhile, back in the States, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu gets on the development bandwagon with two new websites.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Whiskey.com washed down $185,000 to whip all comers. Another highlight of the past seven days was the huge number of solid five-figure sales completed - 41 in all. That is nearly twice the number we see in that range in an average week.

If you were watching HBO's hit comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm Nov. 8th, you may have noticed a familiar face in one scene. If you said to yourself, "Hey, that guy looks just like Ari Goldberger!" you would have been half right. The guy looked like the noted domain attorney because that's who it was.

In August we told you about the arrest of Danny Goncalves, the man accused of stealing P2P.com and selling it on Ebay for six figures. This evening we are happy to report that Goncalves has been indicted by New Jersey's Attorney General - the first known instance of a domain thief being indicted on criminal charges.

Steve Morales has resumed his geodomain duties at SimplyGeo.com LLC after a U.S. Army mission abruptly took him away for seven months. While his absence disrupted activity at the company's main sites, his service earned Morales a commendation from the Commanding General of the Quartermaster Corps.

After reporting the departure of two NameMedia Senior VP's earlier today, we now convey the news that eNom Founder and Demand Media President Paul Stahura is leaving his post. The move comes 12 years after Stahura founded eNom and four years after he sold the registrar to Demand Media.

Earlier today we reported that NameMedia Senior VP Pete Lamson, who was also General Manager of the AfternicDLS and BuyDomains, left the company last week. This afternoon I heard through the grapevine that the company's Senior VP for Direct Search, Brian Carr, also left recently.

Senior Vice President Pete Lamson has left NameMedia where he ran two of the domain industry's biggest sales platforms; the AfternicDLS and BuyDomains. Over the past four years Lamson helped boost sales to small business end users through development of an expanded promotion platform.

Skip Hoagland's company, Domains New Media, has teamed up with Databanq to launch a major new site at ChamberOfCommerce.com. The site's CEO, Databanq Co-Founder David Bayer, says the goal of the company is simply to build the largest local business directory in the world.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. There were no blockbusters this week but Sedo rang up a bucket load of solid five-figure sales to sweep the first 8 spots on our new Top 20 Chart. They also placed eight ccTLDs on the all extension leader board including a trio that ranked among the five biggest sales.

Organizers of the Domainer Mardi Gras Conference have posted the Initial agenda for their February 2010 show in New Orleans. Early Bird registrants are also being offered a free 500GB external hard drive for signing up by midnight Friday (November 13th).

The first class action lawsuit has been filed in the shill bidding scandal at SnapNames that continues to dominate conversation in the domain industry. In another development, SnapNames has given customers access to all of their old bidding records so they can calculate the damages suffered in the shocking scheme.

DNJournal's comprehensive review of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference, including dozens of previously unreleased photos and details, has just been published. The event marked the end of an era as conference co-founders Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu have now turned the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. reins over to Rick Latona.

Today in t he Lowdown at DNJournal.com: News from Sedo, Moniker, Neustar, Pool.com and eBusinessDomains.com, Sedo kicks off our round up with 3rd quarter results from their popular aftermarket platform where sales volume rose 5.5% from the previous quarter and average sale prices soared 37%.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Exclusive photos of alleged SnapNames shill bidder Nelson Brady and our thoughts on the scandal that is rocking the domain industry. The company's former VP of Engineering has been fired but the fallout is far from over.

I was away covering the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference last week so we have published a double-length report for you this week that will bring you completely up to speed on all sales reported to us since our last column October 21. Leading the way is a trio of six-figure sales,

Sedo will open a week-long online auction featuring only two-character .com and .net domain names on Thursday. Names scheduled to go on the block include NL.com, RO.com, KH.com and 64.com. Meanwhile two extended online auctions associated with T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York are heading to the finish line.

Owners of ten .info websites have been named finalists in the 2009 .INFO Awards Contest. That group will be whittled down to three winners in public voting this week. The developers of the three winning sites will split $15,500 in prize money with $7,500 going to the first place finisher.

The Lowdown at DN Journal has photos & highlights from the Closing Day at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York: Annual Award Winners, Moniker Live Auction results, an inside look at the $3 million Candy.com deal, 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. locations and dates and, just in time for Halloween, unveiling of a Ron Jackson bobblehead doll!

Tuesday was a busy day at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference, starting at 10am and running into the wee hours of this Wednesday morning. We have photos and highlights from all of the key events including the keynote address, Rick Latona's live auction and Skenzo's official party in Manhattan.

The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference opened with a welcoming cocktail party last night. In private conversations we learned that an official announcement is to be made today naming four new international cities that will host T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences for the first time in 2010. We'll tell you where those shows are headed.

The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference gets underway this evening at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott. We will be there to cover the event and will be posting daily photos and highlights from the show. Here's a look at what's on tap in the Big Apple.

The new October Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. Some say the really BIG opportunities in the domain business disappeared years ago, but people who entered the game late like Gregg McNair keep proving otherwise. McNair didn't enter the business until the end of 2005 but he is now one of the industry's biggest players.

Sedo has provided us with statistics and individual auction logs showing that DDOS attacks against their site on Thursday did not materially impact sales results from their GreatDomains October auction - in fact overall results were better than they were in the previous month's auction.

Though owners of traditional media outlets may still be hostile to the web, a new study says nearly half of their reporters want them to speed up their transition from print to online distribution. Also today, WhyPark announces a unique charity domain auction for December.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York gets underway Monday evening and this will be the last show to feature multiple live domain auctions (starting in 2010, Rick Latona Auctions will be the live auction provider for T.R.A.F.F.I.C.). Both Latona and Moniker will be running live sales in New York and both have catalogs loaded with gems.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Sedo tops the chart with a pair of six-figure sales that rank among the year's highest transactions. The name at the top is one of the 20 biggest sales thus far in 2009 and the quarter-million dollar runner-up is the year's 2nd biggest ccTLD sale.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: A new video featuring a local comedian is driving traffic to Chicago.com....Afilias contest offers big cash prizes to the best .Info websites....our thoughts on the demise of AEIOU.com and Germany's .de registry prepares to offer one, two and three character domains.

The 2009 SedoPro Partner Forum was held at the Waldorf Astoria's Casa Marina Resort in Key West, Florida October 7-9. WIth our exclusive photos and show notes from the event, we'll show you why Sedo's annual gathering is a different animal than mainstream domain conferences.

A number of domain owners who have headed down the development path are reporting major product launches and growth in their enterprises. One just signed an official licensing agreement with the estate of Dr. Martin Luther King and another is rolling out a new statewide network this week.

The final agenda has been released for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference coming up in New York City October 26-29. We have details on that plus some other people and company news tidbits to tide you over this weekend.

I have always assumed that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick Schwartz, all-around industry impresario Rick Latona, Moniker CEO Monte Cahn, Michael Castello of the Castello Brothers and newcomer Aron Meystedt owed their success to domains. I've now learned that much of their capital may have come from "moonlighting".

The new weekly DN Journal domain sales report is out (this one actually covers two weeks since we were away for a conference last week). Three blockbusters lead our expanded Top 40 sales chart and one of those is a previously unreported $600,000 sale handled by Moniker's brokerage service.

The Castello Brothers have joined Fred Mercaldo to launch another developed website at Manicure.com. The domain will serve as the foundation for a network tying together hundreds of domains. Also today, Moniker releases the catalog for their live domain auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York October 28.

Tonight in DN Journal's Lowdown: Ron's on the late shift after spending the day replacing a totaled SUV. More on that, plus news about T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York, including a newly released auction catalog and a new discounted "night pass." Plus links to a pair of webinars that could help you increase your domain profits.

CNN Anchorman Rick Sanchez will deliver the keynote address at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference October 27th. There is a $750,000 connection between CNN and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick Schwartz that made Sanchez a logical choice.

The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference is returning to New York October 26-29. At last year's NYC show, the economy had just entered a severe recession that continues today. We interviewed conference co-founders Rick Schwartz & Howard Neu to see how they have tailored the upcoming show to help domainers deal with the current landscape.

This weekend in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Photos and highlights from from the final 24 hours at the SedoPro Partners Forum that closed Friday afternoon in Key West, Florida. We have pictures from the 1920's themed gala, Friday's closing day panel discussion and a farewell luncheon on the beach.

Despite the recession, third quarter domain sales matched the year ago level for the same quarter and rose 15% from the previous quarter this year. On the flip side, while the total dollar volume of reported sales held steady, the median domain sales price dropped 8% from the same quarter in 2008.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Photos and highlights from the 2nd Annual MeetDomainers Conference that concluded at the Marriott in Warsaw, Poland last Sunday. Conference founder Daniel Dryzek provided us with pictures from the 3-day show and its live domain auction.

Internet Commerce Association Legal Counsel Phil Corwin says the new Agreement of Commitments between ICANN and the U.S. Government that was inked Wednesday could speed up the introduction of ccTLD IDNs but is likely to further delay new gTLDs.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: .Biz bags over $360,000 in an auction of 1-character domains (including $66,000 for a single domain), Sedo co-founders sell their remaining stock to the Adlink Group and the U.S. government loosens (but doesn't release) its leash on ICANN.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A British ccTLD reigns over our weekly Top 20 Sales Chart and takes a place among the year's 10 biggest country code sales. Three other ccTLDs also made the all extension leader board, along with a .org, a .net and the usual dominating pack of .com domains.

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founders Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu say they will turn responsibility for five of six 2010 conferences over to new partner Rick Latona and his team. In another note, the venue for Skenzo's official show party at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York next month has been announced.

GeoDomainers continue to raid traditional media for talent as the Castello Brothers secure the services of legendary local TV Personality Tim Ross for Nashville.com, one of the flagship properties at Castello Cities Internet Network.

Do people who use the Internet have a more positive view of PPC ads than SEO? A search engine called "What Does The Internet Think?" says they do. WDTIT also says Yahoo is viewed far more positively than Google and even new kid on the block Bing nips the #1 search engine.

DOMAINfest Global has named the Keynote Speaker for their January conference in Santa Monica, California, Registry operator Neustar goes .Green and Sedo fuels continued growth by acquiring a former competitor.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The high end of the aftermarket staged a comeback this week with five 6-figure transactions. One of those ranks among the year?s top dozen sales. We also saw the year?s 2nd highest .org sale and the 3rd highest ccTLD sale of 2009.

Those who have been wondering where new ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom would come down on the organization's highly controversial plan to flood the Internet with new gTLDs now have some answers.Those came in a detailed letter Beckstrom sent two U.S. Congressmen, responding to their concerns about the plan.

The remainder of this week will be exceptionally busy ones for most of the major domain auction houses. Starting tomorrow and continuing every day through Monday one or more special auctions will be either opening for bids, taking final bids or reaching deadlines for submitting domains for upcoming auctions.

The new September Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. Despite nearly a dozen false starts, 29-year-old entrepreneur Aron Meystedt refused to throw in the towel. Now the new owner of the first .com domain name ever registered feels he has finally found the business he was meant to be in - domains investing and development.

Verisign's latest quarterly Domain Name Industry Brief reports the total number of registered domains worldwide jumped 9% from the same quarter last year. ccTLDs rose even faster, soaring 14%, however growth has slowed across the board this year, with just a 1% quarterly increase from 1Q to 2Q.

A new six-year study provides good news for domain owners who are developing their own content-rich websites. Data from the Online Publishers Association indicates that if you are going down the development trail, you are headed in the right direction at the right time in Internet history.

ICANN plans to begin its rollout  of an unlimited number of new gTLDs in the first quarter of 2010 but we are hearing that behind the scenes developments make it unlikely we will see any new extensions before the 2nd quarter of next year, at the earliest.

A free webinar next week is offering to show you "How to Sell Domain Names Fast and for Maximum Value." That is a tall order but the hosts for the event are BuyDomains.com and the AfternicDLS, two proven NameMedia aftermarket platforms that have sold thousands of domain names over the past decade.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. Hyphenated domains have always been viewed with disdain by American domain investors, but those in Germany take a different view and a company based there has paid the highest price for a hyphenated domain ever reported to us.

A new conference coming to New York City in February plans to provide expert advice on selling your online ad space to local businesses. The 2010 Local Interactive Advertising Conference will be staged by local ad experts Borrell Associates whose CEO was a featured speaker at this year's GeoDomain Expo.

A New York Times report says ad revenues for popular blogs soared in the first half of 2009 while their old media counterpart - magazines - saw their ad sales plummet 21%. Elsewhere, the .biz extension got a nice boost when a major company announced plans to launch a big new ecommerce site on O.biz.

TrafficZ and General Manager Jonathan Boswell have parted company. Boswell has now turned his attention to his own SEM oriented domain monetization company. He talked with us about his plans to build portals on strong keyword domains that utilize multiple monetization methods.

Organizers of next month's T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference in New York City and the Domainer Mardi Gras conference coming to New Orleans in February announced special deals for early registrants today. If you act quickly you can save hundreds of dollars and even pick up a free Flip video camera to use at Mardi Gras.

The weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com and it was an especially interesting week with Christian.com finding $600,000 in the collection plate, a .mobi domain selling for 6 figures and a $2.8 million ccTLD sale coming to light!

Domain blogs, forums, publications, podcasts and video productions have provided the tools that have helped many newcomers learn about and flourish in this business. Domain media has also been a catalyst for economic growth in the industry at large. This key sector gets its turn in the spotlight in a new DN Journal Cover Story.

Oversee.net has announced that its Moniker.com division has successfully brokered a 6-figure sale of Casino.mobi to Infomeda Ltd. Oversee said Moniker co-founder Monte Cahn handled the blockbuster transaction - one that will be warmly welcomed among .mobi fans who haven't had a lot to cheer about lately.

The content on Domaining.com consists of headlines culled from industry blogs and publications (including DNJournal.com). While we've always liked the site, an Internet billionaire says these kinds of news aggregation sites are "parasites" who should be exterminated! Newsweek Magazine just joined the lynch mob too.

New gTLDs are still months away but the lawsuits and recriminations have already begun. Turf battles over who gets to run the new registries reportedly feature everything from a delusional newbie who thinks new gTLDs will make her the "next Bill Gates" to a wacky group claiming the new TLD rights to every sport on earth!

Sedo rang up the year's 6th reported 7-figure domain sale this past week and went on to sweep the first five spots on our weekly Top 20 Sales Chart (taking 8 of the first 10 positions and 12 of 20 overall). They also put a 6-figure sale and a pair of ccTLDs on the elite list. The AfternicDLS and Moniker also had multiple chart entries.

With announcements yesterday and today, Neustar, the operator of the .BIZ registry, laid out plans to release all of their 1 & 2 character .BIZ domains. The company is also celebrating the news that Colombia has chosen their joint venture to run the .CO registry. Sunrise is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2010.

Last month we told you about a major domain hijacking incident in which more than a dozen names were stolen from industry pioneer Warren Weitzman's account at eNom. The stolen domains are back where they belong now and both Weitzman and eNom tell us how the thief (at least temporarily) made off with the names.

TRAFFIC is going back to Las Vegas for a big show at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino January 21-23. That is just 3 days before Oversee's DOMAINfest Global in Santa Monica and Domainer Mardi Gras follows only 2 weeks later. That is 3 major shows in a 23-day stretch prompting a reader to ask "Are these guys nuts!?"

Top Level Domain Holdings, Ltd. today announced that it has completed a merger with Minds + Machines, a leading registry services provider for top-level domains. TLDH is focused exclusively on acquiring and operating the new top-level domains that ICANN plans to start rolling out early next year.

Organizers of the Domainer Mardi Gras conference announced today that they will be back in the Big Easy next February at a new location in the French Quarter. In another show note, the Castello Brothers, who were keynote speakers at this month's Domain Convergence Conference in Toronto, give the show high marks.

Richard Gabriel, the man who sold Auction.com for $1.7 million in March has just closed another blockbuster deal, moving DropShippers.com for $1.5 million in a private transaction.

RegistryPro, the operator of the .pro TLD, says it has reached an agreement with ICANN that will allow them to release and allocate of one, two and three-character domain names starting in the fourth quarter of this year. Meanwhile .Mobi unveils a new "Resource Center" with a .com address,

The AfternicDLS has expanded its global domain sales network again, this time through a partnership with FreshDrop.net. Elsewhere, Rick Latona Auctions has released the initial catalog for a themed online domain auction that gets underway Friday morning,

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The new column actually covers the past two weeks of action in the domain aftermarket as Ron Jackson was away on vacation last week. At a time when things are usually slow, buyers were busy snapping up 6-figure domains and dozens in the five-figure range.

Marriages made in heaven? Veteran domain industry exec Craig Snyder (Internet REIT & Marchex) exchanges vows with Oversee.net where he will run SnapNames and Moniker. Meanwhile, real wedding bells ring for well-known IDN Investor Rubber Duck (AKA Dave Wrixon). We have pix of the bride & groom.

Ron Jackson is back from vacation with an account of a diverse week divided between one of the world's most remote beaches, a Victorian mansion - complete with a ghostly encounter that had his hair standing on end - and a white coat ceremony at medical school.

Sedo says that, despite the recession, demand for premium generic domain names remained strong at their site in the 2nd quarter. .Coms accounted for 76% of Sedo's sales, but average .com prices were down while average .net and ccTLD prices rose. In an oddity, the average price for the .nets actually topped the .coms.

This was not a good week for one of the world's richest men - Hong Kong based billionaire Li Ka Shing. A WIPO panel ruled that two of his companies were guilty of reverse domain name hijacking when they tried to wrest an IDN domain away from its rightful owner, Canada's Netego DotCom.

Wikipedia had yielded to protests from the domain community and stopped redirecting people to a page on cybersquatting when they enter "domaining", "domainer" or "domainers" in the site's Search box. Those searches now lead to a revamped page on the legitimate business of domaining.

Major Breaking News: ICANN's plans to break ties with the United States has hit a roadblock as several key U.S. Congressman stepped forward today with a call for a permanent and strengthened relationship with the governing body of the domain name system. ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin comments on the ramifications.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com, A pair of blockbusters headline our new Top 20 Chart. One ranks among the year's 6 biggest sales and the other is the biggest non .com gTLD sale reported so far in 2009. ccTLDS are well represented too with one ranking among the week's 6 best sales.

It is apparently open season on domainers and domaining. An overtly biased article on the L.A. Times website leads the latest assault on objectivity and accuracy. This slanted story comes hot on the heels of a continuing controversy with the credibility-challenged online encyclopedia - Wikipedia.

New DN Journal Newletter: Domainers were stunned when Wikipedia recently started redirecting a search on the word "domaining" to their page on cybersquatting! The patently false impression left by that idiotic redirect is still in place, despite multiple notices to the credibility-challenged online encyclopedia.

A New Jersey man has been arrested for hijacking a 6-figure domain name from an ownership group that includes industry pioneer Marc Ostrofsky and former Justice Department prosecutor Albert Angel. Note to crook: Re-read your Robbery 101 text book - stealing from federal prosecutors is NEVER a good idea!

Providers of local directory services are helping domain owners ramp up development at a rapid pace. High profile projects like America.us and Missouri.com are drawing attention to one of the most prolific providers, Denver-based LocalMatters.com.

We believe the best way to build a successful online business is to find a niche and fill it. Missouri's Bruce Marler believes that too and he is doing it right now by building a statewide network at Missouri.me that makes online advertising for businesses in Missouri's overlooked rural communities easy and affordable.

Rick Latona Auctions is looking for submissions for a themed online auction coming up August 21-28. The special sale will be devoted to domains suitable for the CPA (Cost Per Action) - Lead Gen - Affiliate Marketing sector. Examples include banking, insurance, weight loss, credit card & nutritional supplement domains..

DN Journal?s new weekly domain sales report is out and ccTLDs turned in another strong showing, taking the top spot on our latest all extension leader board and six of the 20 positions overall. For the second week in a row, America?s .US ccTLD landed a domain among the highest sales.

The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference bypassed Las Vegas this year but the show will return to the popular desert resort in 2010. Their show dates are still up in the air though and they would like to have you help them decide which of their two options would work best for the majority of people interested in attending.

DNJournal.com Cover Story - Michael Berkens is one of the most successful investors in the history of the domain industry. He also writes an influential blog at TheDomains.com, yet few people knew anything about his background - until now. Meet the man Ron Sheridan called "the best kept secret in the domain business."

Sedo has just announced a new monthly "Industry Spotlight" feature that will highlight domains currently for sale in a specific category on the popular aftermarket site. The first category being spotlighted is Real Estate which gets a dedicated page listing several dozen domains ranging in price from $500 to $5,000.

Sedo is about to unveil a new Price Suggestion Tool aimed at providing domain owners with guidance on pricing their names for the popular sales site. Automatic domain appraisal tools usually produce laughable results. Will this one break the mold? Are "human" appraisals much better?

A one-car crash in Portland, Oregon has taken the life of 38-year-old NetXposure CEO Devin Donnelly. Devin, his mother Jan and sister JillXan are well known in both the domain community and the mainstream business world as all three family members created companies that have been honored in their respective industries.

eNom has issued an official statement on the domains stolen from industry veteran Warren Weitzman's account. They express confidence they can get the names back. Meanwhile, NameDrive throws a roadblock in the thief's path by preventing the crook from monetizing the stolen domains there.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A trio of six-figure sales led by one that came in at close to a quarter of a million dollars led the aftermarket action. America's .US extension also posted its biggest sale of the year, one that rang up over $35,000.

Warren Weitzman's worst nightmare has just come true. He has been in the domain game since 1994 but Weitzman has never seen anything like this. Somehow over a dozen domains have been stolen from his Enom account and he thinks the break-in may have occurred as high as the registry level. Even worse, the thefts may not have stopped yet.

I took my wife on a romantic getaway this past weekend and though I rarely went online I couldn't help noticing the domain names that are being used to promote the charming resort town we visited - Mount Dora, Florida. I loved the city but the domain names? Not so much. Here's the Good, the Bad and the downright Ugly!

Dates and a new location for the 2010 DOMAINfest Global Conference have been announced. Oversee.net's big annual event is staying in Los Angeles but will be moving from Hollywood to the beach for a show that will run January 26-28. Registration will open August 15 with a special early bird rate.

A pair of new white papers (available at no charge) make cases for 1) the value of generic keyword domains in attaining high search engine rankings and 2) the .me extension as a marketing platform (.me will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its relaunch as an unrestricted globally available extension Friday).

A new survey of business marketers from Forrester Research says that 60% of respondents intend to increase their interactive marketing budgets by shifting money away from traditional media. Direct mail & newspapers are projected to be the biggest losers with social media & mobile marketing the biggest winners.

The weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. A pair of 6-figure sales highlighted the action with one of those ranking among the year's 12 biggest sales. The other is the 5th biggest ccTLD sale reported so far in 2009. It was a huge week for the country codes as they swept 10 of the 20 positions on or all extension Top 20.

Over the past 24 hours we've seen 7 major updates at domain industry websites that are worth checking out. Everything from audio interviews and revamped sites to new affiliate programs and a detailed report on how domain owners were shortchanged at an ICANN road show meeting in New York Monday.

Geodomain owners who hope to replace traditional media outlets in their cities are testing a variety of new online models. The Castello Brothers just announced a partnership with a local print publisher that could take their Palm Springs.com site to a new level while also boosting their partner's business.

Waterborne diseases kill 2 million children every year. Most of these deaths can be prevented by giving people access to clean water. A group of domain industry leaders have gotten behind a charity that has a proven solution and they are inviting you to join the group on an upcoming trip to Africa to see the plan in action.

Big news about the GeoDomain Expo. DN Journal reveals the dates and location for the 2010 show - choices that should give Associated Cities the biggest hit to date in their popular conference series. The Expo will continue its tradition of helping domain owners turn their assets into full blown category killing businesses.

Oversee.net is combining the resources of two of its key companies, Moniker and SnapNames, to produce a new monthly online domain auction. That will fill some of the gap left when Moniker lost its live auction slot at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Meanwhile another online auction provider, Bido.com, gets a major makeover.

The new weekly domain sales report is out at DNJournal.com. The #1 position on our Top 20 chart went to the AfternicDLS who posted their 3rd biggest sale of 2009. However, most of the chart entries were claimed by Aftermarket.com who closed deals from three special events and also wrapped up a $380,000 transaction.

The domain community was represented at the Michael Jackson public memorial service in Los Angeles today. David Castello and Natalie Lambert were among the 17,500 people at the Staples Center who were winners in a ticket lottery that drew 1.6 million registrants from around the world.

You know how valuable generic domain names are for attracting highly targeted traffic, but will the world's many clueless corporations ever figure it out? Research from a couple of veteran domainers indicates that big companies are indeed starting to see the light and they provide hundreds of examples to prove their point.

Monday is the last day you can lodge a protest with ICANN that may keep over-reaching trademark interests from helping themselves to your domains in the future. Also, for your holiday weekend enjoyment, hundreds of previously unseen photos from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Amsterdam and Silicon Valley.

Domain sales results from the just concluded 2nd quarter of 2009 are in and they aren't pretty. The total dollar volume of sales reported to us in 2Q-2009 fell 25% from the previous quarter. A big part of the decline came from a pullback at the ultra high end of the market. Median prices were down less than 5%.

A publicly traded American corporation has changed their name and moved from their .com website to the .us version of their new name. Here's why. Plus, NameJet announces they will be the exclusive auction provider for the .cm land rush and they're taking free pre-applications for domain names now.

After taking a breather last week, six-figure sales returned this week with a $500,000 blockbuster and a $100,000 sidekick. The non .com global TLDs, who have been eclipsed by the boom in ccTLD sales this year, also had something to celebrate thanks to the biggest .net sale so far in 2009.

The owners of Oakville.com have developed a custom platform they plan to use to build out approximately 100 fully automated city guide web sites. Oakville.com was first off the assembly line and the popular site is extending its reach by helping to market the PGA's Canadian Open that is coming to Oakville July 20.

.US fans have often said that America's country code is a "sleeping giant." The current global ccTLD boom, recent .us sightings on TV and at the airport, plus the millions of pages from .us business sites that have been indexed by Google indicate the extension might be starting to stir from its slumber.

The company behind most versions of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference website that you have seen in recent years announced a major expansion for their domain development and audio/video services firm. Also today - ICANN makes it official - Rod Beckstrom is their new CEO.

The Associated Press is reporting that the former chief of U.S. cyber security is the leading candidate to become the next CEO of ICANN, replacing Dr. Paul Twomey. Meanwhile, an ICANN VP confirms they want to change the UDRP rules in favor of a URS that would drastically reduce your rights.

For the second day in a row, a major entity in the geodomain space has announced a major development partnership deal involving a generic keyword domain. This time it is the Castello Brothers (PalmSprings.com, Nashville.com, etc.) who are joining forces with LZ Domains to build out Suntan.com.

After a quartet of six-figure sales last week, the aftermarket downshifted a gear this week with the mid-level drawing the biggest crowd. We saw a larger group of five-figure sales than usual and also witnessed the continuing strength of ccTLDs as country codes took 6 of the first 10 spots on our weekly Top 20 chart.

He is best known for his developed geodomains but thanks to new partnership deals, Skip Hoagland is ready to break new ground with his top tier generic keyword domains including Fishing.com and Shooting.com. I found him in Argentina today and got more details on his latest deals.

Domain Roundtable was the 6th major conference in the past 6 months. Could there possibly be anything new left to talk about ? Were there any new faces left to see? Could DRT's new owner come up with any surprises that would make them stand out in the conference crowd? The answers are in DN Journal's show review.

The 35th public ICANN meeting is underway in Sydney, Australia and the agenda includes several critical issues for domain owners. ICA Legal Counsel Phil Corwin is at the meeting looking out for registrant's interests. You can see what he has to say about what is going on there in a video interview from Sydney.

Country code fans have three more reasons to party down this week. ccTLDs, including the biggest country code sale of the year at $266,000, swept the first three positions on DN Journal's new all-extension Top 20 sales chart. All three ccTLDs smashed the six-figure barrier as did the 4th ranked .com domain.

Here is Ron Jackson's view of the new T.R.A.F.F.I.C. alliance between Rick Latona, Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu. Despite the biggest economic downturn since the Great Depression and an already crowded conference calendar these guys are going to DOUBLE the number of shows they run next year. Are they nuts!?

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Exclusive photos and highlights from the closing day (and night) of the 2009 Domain Roundtable conference in Washington, D.C. See why someone had a knife at Ron Jackson's throat during the farewell party!

Today in the Lowdown at DNournal.com: Photos and highlights from Monday and Tuesday events at the 2009 Domain Roundtable conference in Washington, D.C. including a look ahead to the live domain auction and show closing party that will brings down the curtain tonight.

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com. Photos and highlights from the Domain Roundtable conference that opened Sunday night in Washington, D.C. The show continues through Wednesday and you can keep up to date on all of the major happenings through our daily posts in this column.

The new June Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. It is a detailed account of the biggest coming out party ever held for country code domains. It happened just over a week ago when RickLatona.com staged the first T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference ever held in Europe - one devoted entirely to ccTLDs.

Our post mortem on the real estate related domain auction that flamed out Thursday in San Francisco - here's what went wrong. Plus, how a local newspaper's mistake-riddled account of the sale helped deal another blow to the declining prestige of traditional media.