The Longest Legit Domain Name I've Ever Come Across

One of the most universally accepted tenets of domain names is "shorter is better". Short domain names are very user friendly, are easy to remember and are often very brandable.

Typically, when I come across a very long domain name, it's usually a novelty name that is long for the sake of being long. I've never come across a serious domain name that has more than 30 characters. Until today.

I received a large envelope in the mail today. The sender is "In Re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation". The next line in the sender address reads "Claims Administrator". Looked like some serious legal stuff, so I opened the letter immediately.

Turns out that I am a member of a Class that has settled with MasterCard and Visa in a Class Action suit. I'm a member of this Class because my small business meets the following criteria:

"All businesses and organizations in the United States that accepted Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards for payment at any time during the period October 25, 1992 to June 21, 2003."

I can claim a cash payment by filling out the form included in the envelope, or I can go to the following web address to file electronically:

www.inrevisacheckmastermoneyantitrustlitigation.com

43 characters! Oh, man! I get tired just looking at that domain name.

It's actually the right name for the job. The name isn't going to get any type-in traffic, but it is very search engine friendly; type the search term "In Re Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation" into MSN or Google and a link to the website can be found within the top 5 organic search results.

Maybe they should have thrown in some dashes to make the name even more search engine friendly, and to make it easier for human eyes to read. Heh.

As far as making a claim, I won't be filing for this one. The last time I filed a claim as a member of a Class in a case against Toshiba, I (eventually) received a check that was large enough to take care of my phone, cable and Internet bill for that month, and I still had plenty of cash left over for food shopping. According to the documents with the details about this Visa/MasterCard deal, I am entitled to receive a cash payment that is estimated to be $2.00! Ha! It probably cost more than $2 for the postage and the paper that was used to send me the class action notification letter. Oh well.

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HPWeb.com: Cybersquatting?

A guy in Korea has been ordered to hand over the HPWeb.com domain name to Hewlett-Packard.

Cybersquatting? No, not really. If you ask me, the HPWeb.com domain name is fair game. So why would he be forced to give it up?

Well, it's all about how you use a name. To be accused of cybersquatting with the domain name HPWeb.com is a stretch, but the guy who was holding the name was using it for an email service, so anyone who received emails from e.g. webmaster@hpweb.com would most likely think that they were in fact receiving correspondence from someone under the employ of Hewlett-Packard. Not good.

Now if the Korean gentleman who was holding the HPWeb.com domain name instead used it for e.g. a website about his (hypothetical) web hosting service that uses nothing but the latest and greatest servers made by Hewlett-Packard, I doubt that Hewlett-Packard would have gone after him, especially if he placed the following disclaimer (or something similar) at the bottom of every page:

This HPWeb.com website is not owned by or affiliated with
The Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Good idea to use a disclaimer like the above as an email signature as well, just to be on the safe side. Of course, the above situation assumes that the Korean gentleman was not using "HPWeb" or "HPWeb.com" as his company name.

As long as the above hypothetical web hosting company was running an honest operation, I highly doubt that Hewlett-Packard would have had a problem with it.

So all you domainers and developers out there with similar domain names: be careful how you use them. If you develop a website, blog or any other type of service, be sure to make it clear that you are not trying to pretend to represent some other company, especially a company with deep pockets!

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A Recent, System-Related Improvement @ GoDaddy.com Is Very, Very Welcome

I'm a bit obsessed with efficiency. I have to be. Managing hundreds of Internet domain names is no simple matter, and anything that slows down the day-to-day handling of multiple domain names can drive even the most patient person mad with frustration. As you can imagine, I appreciate anything that can help to streamline or simplify the management of my every expanding list of domain names.

So I was very pleased to read about the latest improvement over @ GoDaddy.com, the domain name registrar that I use most often.

Before today, if I needed to change e.g. the nameservers (or is it "name servers"?) for a block of names, I would have to first unlock the names in question, then I would have to wait for the system to update, then I would change the nameserver settings, wait again for the system to update, then I would have to lock up these reconfigured domain names in order to safeguard them against domain hijacking. Mama mia!

As of today, I can change the nameservers for my GoDaddy registered names without having to unlock them, then re-lock them when I'm done; the GoDaddy system is now sophisticated enough to handle the nameserver change request while keeping the names in question locked. Hallelujah! This improvement will actually save me a lot of time, believe it or not, as I do need to change the nameservers for my names often.

It's about time really: I've never had to do the unlock/lock dance over @ eNom, and I'm sure that most large registrars handle simple nameserver requests without any hassles.

With improvements like this, I may be able to avoid the pain and misery of carpal tunnel syndrome after all!

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MilitaryBlog.net on eBay: Make Your Best Offer

The domain name www.MilitaryBlog.net needs a new home so I've put it up on eBay. You have the option to make your best offer, so please do so if you like this name. All reasonable offers will be considered! Thanks:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5828390578

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GoDaddy Coupon Codes

If you want to save some money on your GoDaddy domain name registrations, use one of GoDaddy's coupon codes when you check out.

Many GoDaddy coupon codes eventually expire, but some don't. The trick is to try a few codes when you check out and use the one code that is a) working and b) saves you the most on your order. A coupon code that gives you $2 off your order is usually the best way to go is you are only ordering one domain name that costs $10 or less. But if you were to order 3 .TV domain names with a total cost of $105, you would want to use a 10% off coupon instead, as this would save you more money.

Here are some GoDaddy codes that I've used recently:

Code: buy1 - $2 off .COM names.
Code: saveten - 10% off your order total.
Code: savenow - 10% off your order total.
Code: usa6 - $1 off your order total.
Code: goox3004at - $2 off any order (this one may have expired, but give it a try anyway!)

Code: gdg103130 - The is the most recent coupon code I've come across, and it's also one of the best! This code will get you 22% off ALL .COM, .US, .NET, .ORG, and .BIZ domain names; it will also get you 30% off ALL .INFO, .WS and .NAME domain names. This one may expire soon, so don't procrastinate!

Enjoy the codes!

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AfterNIC Raises The Bar, Offering More Ways To Earn Commissions with Affiliate Links and Domain Parking

I'm been an AfterNIC evangelist for some time now, and for good reason: I've earned some nice commissions with AfterNIC affiliate links and their domain parking program.

Well, some exciting news has just been released by the good folks @ AfterNIC: more ways to earn commissions! Here's a snippet from today's news release:

"If you are parking your domains with AfterNIC, you are already using the parking service with the highest payout percentage (90-100%) and the ONLY service that pays you for referring aftermarket domain name buyers and sellers. Being the best does not mean we cannot get better. Until today we paid commissions only on Exchange memberships and domain name purchases. (We paid you 50% of Exchange Membership fees and 25% of sales fees from a domain purchase.) Effective immediately, you now get those commissions plus 25% commissions on all other services your referred member purchases.

Now you earn commissions on escrow-only service, domain name appraisals, listing upgrades, our new premium anonymous offer service, and any other paid services. You continue to earn commissions for a full year from your referrals. You continue to earn the same commissions whether you refer visitors from your affiliate web site or just by parking your domain with us.

How much traffic to your lower traffic names comes from people looking for domain names? We are the only parking service that pays you for this traffic through our Affiliate/Parking program, and now we pay you more!

PPC revenue from AfterNIC Choice parking is at record levels. We are going into what is traditionally the best time of year for advertising, including online advertising. If you have not tried our parking service recently, now would be a good time to do so. Please give us a chance to show you what you can earn."

And don't forget: with AfterNIC's domain parking program, you can choose to display links from Fabulous or Domain Sponsor, or you can park you names "In House" with their "House Parking" option.

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.ES Will Be Available To All After November 8

After Tuesday, November 8^th, 2005, The country code top level domain (ccTLD) of Spain--.ES--will be available to all. Currently, .ES is restricted to residents of Spain. Come November 8^th, it won't matter if you are from China, or Canada or the good old US of A: anyone and everyone will be able to register .ES domain names.

I've also been informed that AfterNIC members will be able to get a 20% discount on .ES registrations at the www.EuroDNS.com domain name registrar; use coupon code "AFTERNIC_ES" to get the discount. If you are not a member of AfterNIC, click here to join.

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Domain Name Giveaway: DedicatedWebHost.us

The domain name giveaways are back! Hallelujah!

I'm giving away the domain name DedicatedWebHost.us.

I want to make my domain name giveaways simpler, and I also want to make sure that I don't give any free names to spammers and the like. So with this giveaway, I'll be experimenting with a new format.

I think that DedicatedWebHost.us is a great name, but I can't use it, so the name needs a new home. DedicatedWebHost.us is registered @ GoDaddy.com until May 25, 2006.

If you want this name, send me an email and communicate to me why you believe you deserve this name. Be sure to include any URL's and other information that I can use to help me make my decision. Also, in the field for "Your E-mail Address", do not use any email address from a provider of free email accounts, e.g. Yahoo!, GMail, Hotmail, etc. Use any email address associated with any domain name you own (e.g. your.name@yourdomain.com), or use the email address provided to you by your ISP (e.g. your.email@verizon.net.) This will help to weed out the spammers!

Post a comment here once you have sent your message so that I can know to look out for it.

I will post here as soon as I've found a worthy winner!

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Have You Nabbed Your FREE .BE Domain Names Yet?

Free .BE domain names? That's right. Right now you can register .BE names for 1 year free of charge at participating registrars.

A NamePros member discovered the free .BE names offer @ www.EuroDNS.com a couple of days ago. Since then, lots of NamePros members were able to secure some high quality .BE names for free @ EuroDNS.

But it appears that the registrar has been overwhelmed with requests, as they now have a 10 free .BE domain name limit, with a charge of $4 per .BE name after that. Still, 10 free .BE names is much, much better paying $20-$40 per .BE name, which is what registrars have been charging lately.

Other registrars offering free 1 year registrations of .BE names include www.Nucleus.be (Nucleus.be has a 5 name limit on their free .BE offer.)

The free .BE promotion is set to expire on January 31, 2006. But if you plan on taking advantage of the promotion, you shouldn't procrastinate, or else you might find all the names you want gone! Here's a list of some participating registrars:

www.Nucleus.be
www.EuroDNS.com
www.1dollar-hosting.com
www.namebay.com
www.trade.be
www.Box.be

Is giving away free .BE domain names a good strategy? I think it is. The official top level domain (TLD) of the European Union--.EU--is getting ready to explode onto the scene, and the .BE namespace will have a very tough time competing with it. I think the hope is that at least some of these free .BE names will get developed into valuable web properties over the course of a year; registrars like Nucleus and EuroDNS can then charge a registration fee for those developed names once it comes time to renew in November of 2006.

I dropped a number of novelty .BE names back in March of this year. You can get these name for free right now; if interested, click here for the list.


If you nab any free .BE names, or if you find another registrar offering free .BE names, post a comment with some details. Thanks!

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Name Intelligence Announces The Next Domain Roundtable Conference

Name Intelligence, the folks who own the highly useful WHOIS lookup website @ www.Whois.sc ( a site I visit at least once every day!) have announced the next Domain Roundtable Conference, scheduled for the April 18^th through the 21^st of 2006. Here's a snippet from a press release issued today:

"From Name Intelligence, the innovators of the popular Whois.sc domain search technology, comes an unparalleled domain name industry event, The Domain Roundtable.

Back by popular demand, Name Intelligence will be hosting the second annual Domain Roundtable Conference April 18-21, 2006.

The conference focus is the Domain Name and Web Traffic Industry, and will be valuable to attend for anyone who works with domain names and web sites.

The Domain Name Aftermarket, Auction Models, Valuation and Appraisal, Search Engine Ranking and Optimization, and Traffic Revenue, along with information about new Top Level Domains and trends in the industry.

Last year, the successful Domain Roundtable Conference in Seattle brought together a most diverse demographic, including search engine insiders, domain industry insiders (i.e. ICANN accredited registries, registrars, resellers), intellectual property interests (i.e. large corporations, trademark and IP attorneys), and domain entrepreneurs (i.e. affiliate revenue, online advertising, domain search engine optimizers, auctioneers, domain aftermarket and large portfolio holders). The focus this year will be the same, but on a much vaster scale, bringing together professionals from the very far reaches of the globe.

The Domain Roundtable conference will act as a conduit for network facilitation within the industry, putting many professionals in one place at the same time, offering a platform of immense opportunity to discuss, debate, and deliberate on such topics of concern as search engine perspective on the industry, particularly SEO and improving engine capabilities and data retrieval, registration renewal and market trends, and so on. Additionally, issues regarding Whois privacy and the prevention of domain hijacking will be discussed.

The Domain Roundtable will provide sponsors with booth space, exhibiting opportunities, and speaker/panelist opportunities. The conference will be held at the new Bellevue Westin Hotel. This beautiful facility is centrally located in Downtown Bellevue and accommodations for attendees will be available in the host hotel. In addition to domain name industry conference sessions, there are special keynotes and local networking events during the dates of the conference for interested parties. Information about the conference and activities can be found at the domainroundtable.com website.

For more information on The Domain Roundtable Conference, contact us at 206.838.9035, extension 8 or by email april2006 at domainroundtable.com.

Conference passes will be limited in number to the first 350 participants, and become available on a first come first served basis on October 27th."

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