Domain Name Wire Podcast

Escrow.com has been in the news a lot over the past week thanks to its role as the escrow agent on several big deals. It handled the $3.5 million ICE.com deal, the $1 million snoring.com/sleeping.com deal and Crypto.com. Today I chat with Jackson Elsegood, GM of Escrow.com, to get his take on the market. We also discuss the progress the company has made on account verification and new features, as...

ConvertKit has become a successful email marketing platform with $1 million a month in revenue. But it became apparent to founder Nathan Barry and his team that the company need to rebrand. On today's show, Nathan discusses the two year journey of renaming the company, including the intense negotiations to buy Seva.com.   Also: Payoneer quits the escrow business, DomainTools sued and happy birthda...

This week's guest is one of my most requested guests, "Domain King" Rick Schwartz. We discuss how Rick is investing in domain names today (you might be surprised), how he views the domain sales market in 2018, and why he believes it's not too late to become a domain name investor.   Also: A very viral video, reverse domain name hijacking and Verisign's latest patent.

The business of domain name resellers is constantly changing. This week, we speak with Aditya Arya, the AVP of Business Operations for LogicBoxes. LogicBoxes helps companies manage their own registrar or become a domain name reseller. Learn how this type of business is changing and the impact GDPR has one it.   Also: WP Engine's acquisition, ICANN goes to Cancun for Spring Break, a nice .Ca sale,...

You've surely seen .me domain names and might even own some in your domain name portfolio. Today you're going to learn about how the .me domain name came to be when we talk to Natasa Djukanovic, the CMO of the .Me registry.   Also: Web.com takeover, RDNH bonanza, Mugshots.com update and more.

How do people learn about new top level domain names? Why do they decide to register them rather than go with a .com? What are their experiences using the domains? On today's show we talk with three people who registered new TLDs: Kristi Kohut, and artist who uses KristiKohut.studio, Raluca Comanescu, who sells a planner at TheFeathers.ink, and Dave Rohrer, a digital marketer who uses BusinessOf....

Ecommerce is a huge business opportunity, but owning a business with physical inventory can be overwhelming. Our guests this week run ecommerce businesses in which Amazon handles the hard stuff for them, including fulfillment of the product. Noah and Adam Weitzman of the AMZ Answers Podcast run what's called 'Fulfillment by Amazon' businesses, or FBA. You've probably seen some of these listed for...

How can we grow the importance and usage of domain names? As EVP of Registry at Donuts, John Pollard is tasked with finding new and innovative ways to grow the market. On today's show, learn about investments the company is making in order to execute on this goal. Even if you don't care about new top level domain names, this is a case of a company pursuing ideas that could help all businesses and...

In 2007 Drew Walsh mortgaged his house to buy the domain name Towing.com. It was a big risk that has paid off. On today's show, Walsh explains how he has developed business on premium domain names. He is starting a documentary video series in which he will try to develop three premium domains into businesses with $25k in monthly recurring revenue...it's going to be a blast to follow.   Also: Tired...

Description: How can you turn your domain name into an ecommerce store and sell it? Our guest today, Caroline Balinska, explains how to find products to sell, how to set up your online store on Shopify, and drive consumers to it. Then, learn how you can sell your ecommerce site on an exchange similar to Flippa. Download Caroline's guide here .   Also: Domain investor arrested, GDPR, Donuts invests...

This week on the DNW podcast we talk with Jen Sale, a long-time fixture in the domain name industry who now runs the domain name brokerage Evergreen . We talk about how the domain industry has evolved over the past two decades and what Jen is seeing in the domain market in 2018. Also, in a busy news week, we review the Google .App launch, Whois records, earnings at GoDaddy, Tucows and Wix, and why...

Jean-Noël Frydman operated France.com for more than two decades before the French government organizations he previously partnered with decided they wanted the domain. They sued in French court and won the domain. Now Frydman is fighting to get the domain back. Hear his incredible story on today's podcast. Also: MMX acquires ICM Registry, how you can get ready for GDPR and Google's .App .

This week we talk new top level domain names with Sandeep Ramchandani of Radix. Radix is a portfolio new TLD company that focuses on generic extensions such as .online and .site. Sandeep reveals the company's results so far, talks about how to value a new top level domain, discusses premium domains, and how he plans to grow his business. Also: Square buys Weebly, Verisign earnings, Cooperative Agr...

Imagine this: you're bidding in your first domain name auction. You're traveling and are at a hotel in Iceland with poor internet connectivity. There's a domain name you really want but the reserve is at least $1 million. Suddenly, your screen shows a $500,000 bid. You bid the next increment at $600,000. Within a matter of seconds it escalates and you place a $900,000 bid. Then, crickets. You have...

Mike Kugler is CEO of VacaRent, a company that just paid a record price for a domain under a new top level domain: $500,300 for vacation.rentals . On today's show, Kugler gives the interesting story about how he negotiated for the domain and why he was willing to pay so much. There are lessons in his story for both how domains are sold to end users and the power of syndicated domain listings.

This week we chat with Media Options CEO Andrew Rosener about three topics. First, we talk about his hometown of Panama City. ICANN is holding a meeting there this summer and Andrew explains what to expect when visiting the city. Then we discuss his acquisition of DomainSherpa and what he's doing with the media platform. Finally, we discuss the domain name market so far in 2018. It's off to a grea...

Security companies and brands rely on Whois records in order to quickly identify and mitigate all sorts of bad behavior: phishing, counterfeiting, fraud, spam, DDoS and more. What happens when these experts can no longer get access to Whois? On today's show we talk with Tim Chen, CEO of security company DomainTools. Tim explains how companies using Whois to thwart the bad guys and what happens whe...

Bill Karamouzis, also known as Bill Kara, has made a lot of hefty domain name investments. Some of them have been for businesses. He bought CookingGames.com for $350,000 and paid $725,000 for MathGames.com for his latest venture, TeachMe. Bill shares data from these domain purchases and also explains why he thinks there's an opportunity to buy outdated websites and fix them up. You'll get a lot of...

What is it like integrating and selling new top level domain names as a registrar? On today's podcast we talk with Tobias Sattler, the CIO for United Domains, a registrar with 1.6 million domains under management and around 10% of these in new TLDs. Tobias talks about some of the challenges his company faced onboarding new TLDs, dealing with different backend systems, handling premium domains and...

Imagine creating a website that is generating $1500 or more a day and then getting hit with a lawsuit claiming trademark infringement and cybersquatting. That's what happened to Michael Gargiulo. Making things more complicated, he was leasing the domain name from someone else. Despite settling the lawsuit and abandoning the business, Michael looked forward instead of backward. He negotiated to buy...

Remember when The New York Times' domain name server settings were hijacked to point the site somewhere else? It could have easily prevented this from happening by using Registry Lock. On today's show, Elisa Cooper of Brandsight talks about domain protection. We also discuss corporate domain name management and how big companies have needs that are different from domain investors small businesses....

A lot of domain name owners gripe about how unfair UDRP can be. They might be surprised to learn that it was almost a lot worse. Today we talk with Kathy Kleiman, who was instrumental in tilting the UDRP back in the domain name owner's favor. Learn what happened in the late 1990s and what is happening now with the review of UDRP and other rights protection mechanisms. Also: easy Adsense, a bespoke...

What makes for a good top level domain name? Well, it starts with the ABIC test. Christa Taylor of dotTBA has helped many companies apply for, plan for and/or launch top level domain names. This puts her in a unique position of seeing new domains at many stages and monitoring different strategies. On today's show, we discuss what has happened with new top level domains so far as well as what she e...

NamesCon took place in Las Vegas last week, attracting hundreds of domain investors, registrars, registries and other domain name junkies. For this week's podcast we'll talk with 15 people at the conference: Page Howe (domain investor), Sandeep Ramchandani (Radix), Steven Kaziyev (domain investor, NameSummit), Ari Goldberger (ESQwire.com), George Hong (GUTA.com), Jeff Sass (.Club), Jackson Elsegoo...

Blake Janover just paid $500,000 to buy home.loans, a record price paid for a domain under new top level domain names. Is he crazy? Hear his story and listen to Blake explain his rationale for buying the domain name. Also: Crazy .club price, profitable domain company, UDRP fight, and GoDaddy goes to Austin.