GoDaddy Celebrates Memorial Day with $5.95 .US Domain Names

The good folks @ www.GoDaddy.com are celebrating Memorial Day with a sale on .US domain names. Use coupon code is gdh0530 to get dot-US domain names @ $5.95 each. I just tested gdh0530, and I'm very happy to report that it works for both domain name renewals and new domain name registrations. I was going to let a few .US names in my portfolio drop, but then I got word of this new code, and decided to renew them.

I like the .US namespace a lot. Of all the emerging top level domains (TLD's), I like .TV the best, with .US and .CC tied for second place. Dot-US has an "official" connotation to it that I find appealing. The future is bright for .US, me thinks.

gdh0530 is set to expire on June 15, 2006: enjoy!

GoDaddy Coupon Code Update: Looks like both gdh050230 and hash3 are still working for $6.95 dot-COM domain names, and I just read of someone who has just used GDRADIO22 to get $10 off a $40+ order. Let's hope that these old classics stay active for the rest of the year! Yep.

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The Latest GoDaddy.com Coupon Code: $15 Off Orders of $50 or More

The latest coupon code (discount code) from the good folks @ www.GoDaddy.com is gdh051630, and it will get you 15% off your order of $50 or more. But it looks like GoDaddy is back to snubbing their loyal customers, as this code won't work for domain name renewals or domain names that are already discounted (sigh.)

gdh051630 is set to expire on May 31, 2006, so if you can use it, enjoy!

NB: coupon code hash3 is still working and can get you $6.95 .COM names, and it works for new domain names registrations, domain name renewals and domain name transfers. Enjoy!

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Dotster's Next Happy Hour Is Tomorrow: $1 Domain Names!

Dotster.com is having another Happy Hour event tomorrow--Thursday, May 11, 2006, between 1pm & 2pm Pacific Standard Time (4pm - 5pm EST): $1 domain names!

And there's more: starting tomorrow--and for a limited time--Dotster.com is offering 5 free domain names with the purchase of a new web hosting plan. Promotion details below:

"Beginning this Thursday, Dotster.com will be running two great promotions: we’re kicking off the week-long promotion with another Happy Hour!

Happy Hour will be held Thursday, May 11 from 1pm – 2pm PDT, and savvy shoppers who visit Dotster.com during that hour will receive a free coupon for a $1 domain. We’ll give away 1,000 coupons or give them out for 1 hour, which ever comes first. The coupon will be valid from May 12 – May 15. Limit 1 coupon per account. Eligible domains include .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us, and .info. Check out Dotster.com for a countdown to Happy Hour.

But that's not all! Starting Thursday morning, Dotster.com will also offer 5 free domains (.com, .net, .org, .biz and/or .us) with the purchase of any new hosting plan. Shoppers will have to enter “5ForFree” as their coupon code to take advantage of this special offer. The offer is not good for non-standard pricing, or with any other coupon. This promotion will only run until May 22."

Feel free to post a comment here to let us know if you were able to get any domain names with this promotion. Thanks!

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$0.10 Insertion Fee Sale @ eBay: One Day Only!

For today only (May 9, 2006), eBay is having a $0.10 insertion fee sale. This is a great opportunity to sell domain names--or anything else, of course-- and save money, especially items listed with a relatively high asking price. eBay's fees can be quite oppressive, so you should take advantage of any and all eBay sales like this one!

The following table details the savings you can enjoy by listing your auctions or fixed price items today:

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Chinese College Student Goes Broke By Investing In Domain Names

Here's a true story from the dark side of domaining: a college student in China has lost all his money by overzealously investing in domain names; he may be blocked from graduating because he's unable to pay his tuition. Yikes!

Here's a snippet from today's story:

"A Chengdu college student named Shi Kaisheng spent all of his tuition money and savings on an unsuccessful investment in domain name registration, Chengdu Wanbao reports. Shi had registered more than 30 domain names since the second half of 2005, including stonesea.com, dayunhui.cn and libaiqing.cn. Every registration cost Shi a 60 Yuan registration fee and a 1,800 Yuan trademark registration fee per year. However, Shi has so far failed to sell any of his domain names. Shi said that he has no money for college tuition and may be denied a graduation certificate for defaulting on his tuition fees."

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Banned Domain Name: Auto-Insurance.TV - Stay Away!

I just cancelled a domain name 6 months before it was due to expire. I've never done this before, and it wasn't an easy thing to do considering that it was a .TV name which I heretofore had invested $70 in registration fees.

The domain name is Auto-Insurance.TV. A nice keyphrase domain name which I had developed into a simple website and blog. Last year, I noticed that both Yahoo! and Google refused to index the site and I didn't understand why since everything was done "white hat"--everything from the content to the promotional side of things.

I have concluded that the domain name-- Auto-Insurance.TV--was already tagged by Y! and Google as a banned name before I registered it, which means that a previous owner may have used it to send out spam or to perpetrate some other "black hat" nonsense.

What I really don't get is why Auto-Insurance.TV didn't show up in any of the spam databases I checked before I registered the name. I remember checking at least 3 databases and finding no hits for it. I guess this name simply managed to escape detection somehow.

Hindsight is 20/20 (Please Excuse The Cliché)

In retrospect, I admit that I really should have chosen to pass on Auto-Insurance.TV when I searched www.archive.org and found that someone had developed the name, and later dropped it. Why would someone develop a name and drop it? Yep, you can think of lots of reasons, right? And many are quite unsavory. This red flag, along with the fact that car insurance is a favorite theme for spammers, really should have been enough to get me to pass on this name (though, in my defense, I have had success with names that had been dropped by previous owners, like Joy.TV.)

Car Insurance is one of the most abused keyword/keyphrase terms on the Internet (I'm willing to bet that you get plenty of spam related to car insurance on a daily basis, yes?) so if you plan on starting a web project related to car insurance, be careful. Once competitors get wind of your site, some will look for any excuse to get you shut down, including reporting you to Internet authorities with lies about your site. I'm writing from experience here: a lowlife tried to shut down this domain name blog a while ago.

So, stay away from Auto-Insurance.TV folks. Of course, you could register the name and try to convince Y! and Google that you have nothing but honest intentions, and they may be willing to lift the ban on the name. But in my opinion, it isn't worth the trouble.

If you know of any new spammer databases that you'd like to share, please feel free to post a comment here. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

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20% Off .COM Domain Names @ GoDaddy.com

Today's www.GoDaddy.com discount code is gdh050230 and it will get you 20% off .COM domain names. This time you can use this code for domain name renewals and domain name transfers, so I guess the folks @ GoDaddy haven't forgotten about us loyal customers after all.

gdh050230 is set to expire on May 31, 2006 which gives you plenty of time to work on a list of names to register, renew or transfer. Enjoy!

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