Domainer's Gazette-Home

a non-domaining post.

We’re in a pretty nasty drought down here in ATL..

I’d never heard of a rain dance done online, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

so enjoy these top rate animated gifs, as I coax the atmosphere in the southeastern United States to become full of moisture.

here we go..

and my personal favorite:

where’s Hatfield when you need him?

As domainer’s, we all start with a single domain..

Mine? good ole PlanetBnB.com. I didn’t even realize I was a domainer back then. No, it ain’t pretty, I was trying to teach myself HTML so I could build a website. To do that, I needed a domain name.

Here are the stats:
Registrar: GoDaddy
When: 2004
Registration Length: 1 year (later extended to 10 years)
Parked or Developed?: Developed, it’s a bed and breakfast directory.
Still Own it? Yup
Highest Offer to Date?: No serious offers yet. Don’t think I ever wanna sell it though.
Interesting Tidbit: I registered the domain name in my office, which - at the time - was a closet in my 1BR apartment.

so … what was your first domain name? what are the stats? (ie. Registrar, When, Reg Length, Parked/Developed?, Still Own?, Highest Offer? Interesting Tidbit..)

Since a majority of auctioning domain activity has shifted to NameJet, I thought I’d give my 2 cents on this new service.

The Good:

• On average, a lower entry fee than Snapnames. Namejet charges $70, versus $99 at Snap. Snap does auction a few domains at $59, but it’s a rare occurence.
• Alerts users of cut-off time for pre-release domains headed for auction (8PM). Snap never provided this (although we eventually figured out the cut off was roughly 3pm).
• And on that point, Namejet allows users up to 8pm to order pre-release domains. Snap’s cut-off time was, like I said, around 3pm. Those extra hours help, cause if you’re working another full-time gig, it can be tough to get all your prospects uploaded in the middle of the day.
• NameJet reveals how many users have pre-ordered a domain prior to auction - a feature I find extremely valuable.
• Namejet also reveals the high bid during the pre-order period.
• Features a ‘Quick Backorder’ function, where users can add an auctioning domain to their pre-release list with one click. Very handy.
• Domain registration price is included in purchase price. GoDaddy’s TDNAM nickel-and-dimes you by requiring an extra $10 reg fee on top of the winning auction bid.

The Bad:

• Namejet blocks the names of competing bidders, a feature I loved within Snapnames. It’s more fun when you can see your competition.
• For auctions that exceed $5,000, NameJet requires full payment via wire transfer. That sucks, cause I track business expenses on my credit card. Also, I want the miles!
• This is temporary, but … The systems is riddled with bugs. Anyone actively using the app is having to sift through mountains of error messages. I have yet to win a domain yet, so I can’t speak to the domain transfer process yet.
• Doesn’t provide traffic estimates for each domain. TDNAM provides this, and I find it darn helpful.

Ya’ll experienced anything else?