Domain Name Wire Podcast

Like many domain investors, Steven Kaziyev was introduced to domain names while researching names for his non-domain business. Now he owns a strong portfolio of thousands of domains across mortgage, real estate and other categories. Steve discusses how he acquires domain names and how he's selling them now, including using BrandBucket. He has some great views on how to generate the most leads for...

Alan Dunn of NameCorp argues that it's never too late to get into domain investing and explains why he thinks just 5% of domain names matter. Also: Elon Musk buys X.com, Berkens sues musician Bryan Adams, premium domain stats and Sucks.com.

Kevin Ohashi lives the "digital nomad" life. We got connected through his activities in the domain investing world, but today we' discuss his venture ReviewSignal, a site that uses sentiment analysis of tweets to figure out which webhosts are best. We discuss how the idea came to be and how much money the site makes. Also: Drop catch shakeup, McDonald's domain change, promoting domain investing an...

This week I delve into Donuts' acquisition of Rightside and discuss what it says about the current state of new top level domains. I also run through a bunch of reverse domain name hijacking cases including Rick Schwartz's RDNH win on Queen.com, discuss a recent registrar acquisition and talk about how Apple could push the use of QR codes.

What's it like bootstrapping a domain name registrar for 15 years? Find out today as we talk with Todd Han, CEO of Dynadot. The mid-sized registrar has had to grow organically while battling a maze of regulation, but it has found a loyal following. There are some great business discussions in this week's episode.

Today we talk with Mark Calandra, General Manager of CSC Digital Brand Services. The 100+ year-old-company is a big player in corporate domain name management. We discuss how companies are reacting to new top level domains, why it's taking a while for .brand domains to roll out, and how brands can work with domain investors. Also: Back to The Trop, Hexonet invests in Japan, .VIP and Skip's domain...

Divyank Turakhia made his initial fortune in domain names and webhosting. He then turned to the online advertising market with Media.net, a company he sold last year for $900 million. This week, the young billionaire discusses how he broke into the crowded ad tech market to create such a valuable company. Also: Igloo goes European, new uses for domains, Afternic expands and no love for emoji domai...

What can you learn from the cult classic The Toxic Avenger? This week Jeff Sass, who cut his teeth in the movie business at Troma Studios, talks about the business and marketing lessons he learned while working for the studio known for creating B-movies. Also: Zak's two UDRP wins, .Asia opening up, Sedo partners for new escrow option and Rightside's two-letter domain names.

Is the blockchain the answer to proving common law use of trademarks? Bennett Collen, founder of Cognate, is banking on it. Billed as a "common law trademark registry", it will be interesting to see if Cognate can assist people in cybersquatting disputes and establishing common law rights in names. Also: WannaCry domain registration, ICANN's tax return and Google Voice.

Is it too late to get into domain investing? Nope. This week's guest is another example of someone who got in late and found a successful niche. Mike Carson sold about a half million dollars worth of domains last year. Combined with his ccTLD drop catching service Park.io he grossed over $1 million. He also has some interesting insight into repurposed ccTLDs compared to new TLDs. Also: driving a t...

Bill Sweetman's job is to help people buy domain names. Learn how a domain buyer-broker thinks in this episode as he explains how to boost the number of inbound leads you get for your domain names and traps to avoid that can lead to lost sales. Also: reviewing April in the domain name business.

Domain name sellers need to understand how companies looking for domain names think. Today we talk with Christopher Gimmer, founder of Snappa, a company that just paid $40,000 to buy the domain Snappa.com after using Snappa.io for a couple years. Listen t

Kevin Murphy blogs about the domain name business, but not as a domain investor. The DomainIncite owner comes on today's show to give his thoughts on the state of new top level domain names and their future, plus we discuss the new whois proxy service created by a Pirate Bay founder. Also: website pirates, .com trademarks and more.

Michael Krell, managing director of BrandBucket, discusses how to make money with brandable domain names. Understand the market for these domains, the prices, sell-through rates and more. Also: DXC Technology and a rundown of upcoming domain meetups and conferences.

This week we chat with domain name broker Andrew Rosener of MediaOptions about the domain name market. He says it's a very bifurcated market, with different results in the investor and end user markets. Also: new TLD sales, lots of legal stuff, and domain escrow.

Naming your company and finding the right domain name can by tricky. Do it wrong and you'll end up going through the expense of a rebrand. Willy Ogorzaly knows this well because his company has been through it--twice! He explains what was wrong with Congo.io, how it rebranded to Lawbooth, and why it has now switched to JustLegal.com. There are lots of lessons in this podcast. Also: Las Vegas Raide...

This week I talk with my wife and Internet of Things expert Stacey Higginbotham about what the Internet of Things is and what it may mean for domain names. She also discusses her perspective on domain names as a technology journalist. Also: Tucows, people moves and a big new top level domain sale.

What do domainers need to look out for? This week we chat with Internet Commerce Association board member Zak Muscovitch about the issues facing domainers that the association is working on, including UDRP reform, "copyright UDRP" and more. Also: price hike fallout, a bespoke domain name and more.

Frank Schilling's Uniregistry created an uproar last week when news leaked that the company was preparing to drastically increase the cost of some of its domains -- as much as 30x! What does this mean about the health of new TLDs? What does it mean for domainers, registrars, and other registries? Frank Schilling sits in the hot seat this week to discuss.

Are we selling domain names to customers the right way? On today's show, Francesco Cetraro of .Cloud discusses the process of getting a domain name from the end user's perspective. He also explains what .Cloud has done right and could have done better on its one year anniversary. Also: Major League Baseball, where's RDNH? and some recent domain sales.

Tan Tran runs one of the three biggest drop catching services, Pheenix, as well as expired domain discovery service FreshDrop. On today's program he explains the domain backordering process and why the cost of catching expired domains is increasing. Also: Poor grandma, a two letter domain sale and more.

Jeff Gabriel knows how to sell domain names. He broke into the industry as a domain broker and now runs sales as VP at Uniregistry. Jeff gives tips for how to price your domains and respond to inquiries for maximum sales results. He also explains the process he recommends for outbound sales of your domain names. Also: Godaddy's big number, Chinese domains, and Amazon's domain choice.

Domainers already monetize web traffic to their domain names. But what about email sent to their parked domains? Today's guest, Greg Kraios, runs an email analytics company that will pay you to send your email traffic in its new Mailbox Park platform. Also, lots of news this week: Antitrust investigation, $1.5 million domain sale, Negari's big court win, Bags.com, PayPal fee increase and much, muc...

Has you website ever been attacked by nefarious bots? Bots do everything from scrape data to try password combos to hack into websites. Edward Roberts works for Distil Networks, a company that fights back against these bots. Learn more about the types of bad bots, how they can affect your website, and how to battle back. Also: Super Bowl commercials, sunsetting domain names and how to sell more do...

This week I have a wide-ranging discussion with Roland LaPlante, Chief Marketing Officer for Afilias. We discuss new top level domain names and why Afilias' past experience with launching TLDs made its expectations for the current round more realistic. We also chat about increased competition for backend registry services, the challenges of restricted TLDs and Afilias' fight for .Web. I also recap...