Remember?

Ultimately, it's best when people can easily remember your address. Your place of business or personal website is permanently arranged inside their heads, a familiar, quickly-remembered address.

Sure, people can keep notes or bookmarks. But better you flash forth as foresight.

Familiar names provide trust & respect.

Short, easily remembered names are greatly valuable.


Selling to China

People in Europe, the USA, Japan and elsewhere are starting to awaken to the fact that China is an economic powerhouse. Not only are incomes per capita rising, but more & more Chinese rich people are shopping the world.

Remember: just 1% of China is about 14,000,000 people.

Remember also that it's not essential to rename your company or to put your online activities wholly in Chinese. You can tap into this key market by providing gateways to the savvy Chinese consumer and opinion leaders, and follow-up later with a bigger presence.

Buy a few IDN domains and link them to your overseas website. A generic name supplements your company name, as books.com and book.com funnels customers to Barnes & Noble booksellers, who also use domains bn.com and barnesandnoble.com  Sadly I don't own 书.com or  本.com ("books" in Chinese / Japanese) but I do own such names as 食料.com (food) and 子.com (child).


Many Chinese wine sophisticates and quality restaurants are looking to stock their cellars; some would like to buy whole vineyards. Perhaps they could find your business via champagnebrand.com or  赤霞珠干红.com (CabernetSauvignon). Now's the time to plan -- enjoy your future with China.

Billion Brains brand

Domain names are often compared to real estate, but I daresay we gain entry to the mind. A key word or an easily recalled phrase with already a spot in the brain makes a great domain. We can buy one character Chinese & Japanese .com domains that two billion children hand practice writing, often hundreds of times.

Wonderful domains already reside in each brain. My domains colonize real estate in each mind. Highly valuable branding, and certainly a great avenue for marketing & business development.



lividly

Going GONE

Interested in buying a domain name?  Don't squander unique opportunity.

Each year around the world, millions of new businesses are formed. Most seek dynamic domain names, and many now seek more than one name. Generic descriptive names supply authority while channeling added online business. The generic name supplements your company name, as books.com and book.com funnels customers to Barnes & Noble booksellers, who also use domains bn.com and barnesandnoble.com

If you're watching a domain name, buy it.

To win control of a unique resource, you must pay more than anyone else in the world. By definition. Comparative statistics mean little. And there may be only one perfect name for you. Consider cost vs. value over months & many years. Your great domain name is a tireless worker. Your domain is a 24-7 always-smiling staffmember. In my opinion, a decent business hoping for effective online positioning should prepare the cost of a small truck: US$30,000 still now buys a great domain. Own a mobile business asset that can increase in value.  Do not delay.

As a possible buyer window-shopping a unique item, expect no warning. When a name's sold, it leaves the market - perhaps forever. You're suddenly shut out - permanently.

New Domain Sales Platform

Functions & dimensions I'd like in a domain sales platform:   (unranked)

  • Interested people & potential purchasers can register to "watch" the domain auction. They are notified if price rises, and/or at 30 minutes before auction closes, the amount of top bid.
  • Auction extends 10 minutes if there are bids within the final period (auction ends only when no bids for final 10 minutes).
  • Auction house reliably handles pre-screening of bidders
  • Payment and escrow are reliable, easy, and integrated with sales platform

Investment Domains

Last week the two-character domain KK.com sold for US$2.4 million to a buyer from China (link). Other huge domain sales include IG.com (sold a few months ago for US$4.7 million) and FB.com sold for US$8.5 million.

These transactions are not purchasing systems developed on the websites - these domains attracted buyers aiming at redevelopment. In other words, the names are highly-attractive billboard space.

Some 20 years ago, each multi-million dollar name changed hands at below US$50.

Now, as more of our world comes online, the pace of change grows. China is building its muscle, and single-character .com domains are likely to become success stories.

Chinese firms are developing, and tens of millions of people form new venture business (just 1% of China is 13 million people).  Further, the rest of the world wants to sell to China, Japan, and other Asian consumers.

Only a few thousand single-character international domain names exist for .com development. Each of these has elegance and already space in the minds of billions. I can see development where $15,000 investments are worth $500,000 in five years. Very nice valuable nest eggs for retirement...

Here are a few good domain possibilities.
If you're an existing business:  Buy 'em Now !
If you're a new service:  Buy 'em Now !
Now you can Buy into 2 Billion Brains...

蛸.com   Octopus

隣.com   Neighbor

血.com   Blood 

疾.com   Disease

蔥.com   Scallion

岸.com   Beach

請.com   Invitation

etc...

Own a Door to History

Just a few years ago, the Soviet Union, USSR, was a powerful nation. Until the Soviet collapse in the early 1990s, top US intelligence and major news around the world claimed the Soviet Union was hugely vigorous, mighty, growing and supremely powerful. Perhaps the USA was more powerful, but this story employed millions of people & generated trillions of US$ in military spending & business. Nearly 300 million people lived in the Soviet Union.

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Russian: Сою́з Сове́тских Социалисти́ческих Респу́блик, tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik) abbreviated to USSR (СССР) or the Soviet Union (Сове́тский Сою́з)

Collapse was cruel.

I offer two domain names for the Soviet Union, in Chinese and in Japanese:

苏联.com

ソ連.com

Each is available for sale at US$25,000

(Of course) I paid even less. Both China & Japan have been important Soviet allies, enemies and rivals. The Soviet Union was a grand nation inspiring fear & awe. Amazing it's now so little valued and even largely forgotten...

"...Ozymandias, king of kings --- "

New .com Promise (Verisign)

As described in the previous posting here at abcBrand (link), the infrastructure operator for .com domains: Verisign corporation (NASDAQ: VRSN), has applied to ICANN for an additional nine (9) forms of .com in international scripts

Because .com is the most popular & valuable aggregate of domain property rights, Verisign must be careful about eroding or diluting previously-purchased rights, and could be held liable to rights holders for any breakdown in reliability or value.

The solution proposed by Verisign is partially described here (link):
http://www.verisigninc.com/en_US/products-and-services/domain-name-services/value-added-products/idn-domain-names/index.xhtml

"A registrant of an IDN.com or IDN.net or registrant in one of our new IDN TLDs will have the sole right, subject to applicable rights protection mechanisms, but not be required to register the same second level name across all or any of our IDN TLDS, including .com or .net TLD as applicable."

Verisign continues with two examples (quote):  

Use Case No. 1: Bob Smith already has a registration for an IDN.net second level domain name. That second level domain name will be unavailable in all of the new .net TLDs except to Bob Smith. Bob Smith may choose not to register that second level domain name in any of the new transliterations of the .net TLDs.

Use Case No. 2: John Doe does not have a registration for an IDN.com second level domain name. John Doe registers a second level domain name in our Thai transliteration of .com but in no other TLD. That second level domain name will be unavailable in all other transliterations of .com IDN TLDs and in the .com registry unless and until John Doe (and only John Doe) registers it in another .com IDN TLD or in the .com registry. 

Will this proposed system work smoothly? I hope Verisign can appropriately track owners and their rights. Will it be possible later to split & transfer one or more transliterations? In other words, might we see .com held by company A, with the Japanese .コム (.com in Japanese) held by another firm?

IDN .com Power

The last post introduced why .com is more powerful than nation-specific domain names.

But the internet has many generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) changes developing. Verisign has nine applications for new .com formats in assorted languages (link). A similar format introduces three new .net forms.

Verisign also promises that when one form of .com is registered, only that registrant will have the right to register the other nine - they'll be unavailable to other potential registrants.

Again, only this first registrant has the option to purchase any or all of the other nine .com forms, but is not required to do so.

It's unclear, however: can the names be 'unpacked' later & sold separately, or what residual rights (if any) to the reserved forms can be transferred.

These forms may be preferable to using country-code cc-TLD such as .ru or .cn -- but promise to substantially raise costs for those who will supplement many .com addresses with .ком or .点看




.com
(present Western)
.ком
Cyrillic
קום.
Hebrew
كوم.
Arabic
.कॉम
Devanagari
.คอม
Thai
.コム
Katakana
.
Simplified Chinese
.
Traditional Chinese
.
Hangul

Need IDN .com

IDN, or international domain names, are non-Western characters with two alternate addresses. The "international" character(s) with the final tld string (for example, .com)
子.com
and also a Punycode string starting  xn--   (plus tld string)
xn--i8s.com

In many cases, first IDN registrations are in non-Western nations, where businesses or individuals register & use country-specific TLD such as
.cn  (China)
.ru  (Russia)
.jp  (Japan)

But this is changing quickly !  
Global businesses use .com
The .com address is primarily attractive to global customers.

Let me explain why:

Characters used in China are used to a large extent also in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, etc. (and to a lesser extent in Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.) Very few in other nations enjoy using the .cn country code, nor do Chinese people want to type .jp -- but they're OK with .com

Similarly, the Cyrillic script used in Russia and in many Russian domains are often the same characters in assorted other nations:  Bulgaria, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Ukraine -- all use the same characters.

Why draw attention to foreignness in your activities? That final country code (cc-tld) is very often an unhappy reminder of historic injuries. Typing the final characters can feel disloyal.

Because of imperial rivalries and historical frictions, customers prefer to use their own nation's country code, or use the "neutral" .com

Any site can then redirect or point to the same content as on a national-focused page. So it's far better to prepare for global business:
Buy your IDN .com

士.com
ключ.com
нажмите.com

Chinese Buying Frenzy

The market for .com domain names has greatly heated-up in two areas:
1) numerical domains
2) Chinese single-character domains

Short (smaller) numbers have been selling strongly.  Chinese buyers are also snapping-up the .com form of Chinese character domains. Such domain names are more useful in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan & elsewhere than .cn names.

Good single-character .com Chinese & Japanese names can still be purchased for under US$25,000 -- but not for long. There are only a few thousand such domains for the entire internet world. They provide their owners instant recognition, interest & authority. Some firms move or build their web home on the domains, others use them as forwarders to another (often country-specific) home address.

Korea for Sale

Korea-related Brand Domains For Sale







Russia For Sale


Russia-related Brand Domains For Sale





.com Power

Frank Schilling of Uniregistry and DomainNameSales.com has just released a video (watch below) describing a new landrush in top level domains (TLDs). Instead of .com and the present bunch of gTLDs (now 22 global TLDs such as .com .net .org .mobi .biz .edu .xxx .tel etc.), and also the ccTLDs (country-code TLDs such as .jp .uk .se .de etc.), there will be thousands more: .whatever

Frank Schilling claims soon we'll not look for usedcar.com but look instead for used.car

Maybe.

But there'll be a big gap in time when people are dissatisfied with the results at used.car or cheap.hotel - or as now, there's nothing at all there. The public will fall back to web searching and search engine recommendations. And it's likely the power of .com will remain extremely valuable...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=p75KeJN9D0E

RDNH ?

Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) is effort to steal a domain name from its proper owner through legal complaint to WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization; or other official body) that a domain was registered and used in bad faith, and also infringes a trademark.

In some jurisdictions the RDNH finding can be used to bring charges. Legal terms & definitions differ around the world, but complainants guilty of RDNH might later be counter-charged with:
  • Attempted Theft
  • Attempted Grand Larceny
  • Robbery by Deceit
  • Attempted Robbery
  • Fraud
Two great websites highlight RDNH transgressions, and ensure improper complainants & their lawyers are remembered as attempted thieves:

HallofShame.com

RDNH.com


There are no automatic WIPO penalties, so RDNH findings need support & publicity.

--------------------------------------------------
It's not uncommon that trademark holders misunderstand their rights. Trademarks are registered for a specific class of goods, within a specified geographic region, for a specific period.

Others in the same jurisdiction may hold similar valid trademarks for different goods and services.

Other businesses can use a word or phrase differently, for a different product, with no registration, and not infringe trademark.

Lawyers may belittle these key points in hope of generating business, but poor understanding threatens the reputation & livelihood of everyone involved in a complaint, and can soil corporate reputation. Domain name UDRP (Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy) cases are read carefully by a great many concerned investors & officials around the world. Too many cases include misrepresentation or deception by the complainant, or abuse of the process (as with the P&G swash.com case). Beware.


Brand.com = Valuable

The domain name Brand.com has recently been purchased by the firm ReputationChanger.com for US$500,000

Their business name will soon also become Brand.com

Congratulations to all involved !

We've many brand-related webnames available to better position your business. Most are for sale at a lesser price than above, often much less. Buy now before prices increase.

Why Brand

There are great new opportunities for consolidating industries behind key internet brands.

Keyword or generic category web domain can supplement existing websites, funneling search traffic to assorted established brands, continuously generating valuable leads, etc. 

Far-flung businesses worldwide share a need to access customers.


Portal brands now often go a step further. They brand a customer need, and such needs can be supplied by any of many worldwide vendors. Under the umbrella of the internet portal brand, order fulfillment is processed and delivered by subcontracted vendors operating to specification. With no exchange of capital, the supplier vendors bear the costs of building & stocking products. They become subsumed into the web-based brand.

Those who brand themselves can keep independence & character.
Why brand? Do it - or work for the portal brand.



RDNH & Attempted Theft

Reverse Domain Name Hijacking, RDNH, is attempted theft of intellectual property through abuse of administrative proceedings. The IP being contested are internet addresses, domain names.

Domain name owners are required to submit to dispute resolution procedures, which can be very costly in time, lawyers fees, and harassing impediments to efficient property management.

Why is this not yet labeled a crime?

Some fools file complaints in ignorance, not understanding IP rights and procedures. This is gradually becoming less of a problem as precedents and case law better clarify infringement, liability and bad faith.

More prerequisite rules would help immensely. For example, the internet is precise, demanding accuracy. If my address is "bank" it's not the same as "bunk" or "band" -- different by one letter or character is different. This is the same for addresses in Manhattan: 84th Street is different from 89th Street. If you want to buy fruit and go to the wrong address, perhaps someone there will sell you fruit. Reasonable. Businesses must provide potential customers with proper directions or risk losing trade. But some poor businesspeople seek to artificially & improperly expand their domain, claiming exclusive control of a wide region to which they've no proper right. Hopefully, a good World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panel would quickly & completely reject such claims. But some strange decisions have favored cagey Complainants.

There aren't yet automatic penalties attached to RDNH in WIPO proceedings - this is a major problem.
 

Best Chance Now

I clearly remember an important investment discussion just after Christmas in 1993. My friend Rick was a doctoral student in Seattle, where over the previous two years he'd watched coffee & café culture blooming widely. He talked about coffee chain Starbucks, and how it had been a great investment opportunity he'd missed - and it had happened just in front of his eyes...

Coffeeshop growth in Seattle had a city block getting one shop on the corner, but soon there was a coffeeshop on each corner, and then a pushcart from the middle of the block selling coffee.

We compared possibilities and commiserated that we could have or should have multiplied our money. Starbucks corporate shares at that time were up nearly two-and-a-half times in 18-months. (Considering subsequent splits, the 1993-06-26 IPO calculates as $0.66 per share; at our discussion it was $1.40). But subsequent events showed the trend was still undeveloped, and the stock was cheap.

We were dumber than we thought.

We never should have then imagined opportunity was over. In retrospect it's clear the world was still largely untapped for coffee culture expansion, and there were no real signs of slowdown. We'd have been "early adopters" even in 1994. And it's similar today for internet domain name investment. Demand will hugely increase for the best brandable .com domain names. In 15 years, the opportunities available today will seem like diamonds on the street, waiting to be picked up, and now most people pass-by oblivious.

Populations are increasing, millions more people come online every week, new businesses are being launched, and internet usage shows no trend to shrinking -- the web is surely being used more and more.Very few people yet are active domain name developers, though the potential for inspired & creative usage of such intellectual property (IP) is amazing and still evolving, with huge profit potential.

Sure, some people already made money, and others (including me) are now positioned with good items for sale and ready to profit (you can buy abcbrewing.com or Seattlebrand.com or TokyoCoffee.com or Belgiumbrand.com while still available for $15,000 each).

But there are millions of opportunities to be developed at little cost.

MSN Money calculated a $1000 investment at Starbucks IPO being worth $6.4 million (2012-10-30 link). When they wrote that, share price was $45.87; today, six months later, it's $60 (2013-04-29; SBUX historical prices link) assuming their math was correct, your $1000 would now be $8.4 million.

Buy a piece of the internet; buy domains todayBest Chance Now.

Facebook vs Freedom

Facebook offers millions of people the opportunity to communicate & share, and it thus makes the world better, more interconnected.

But many people do not recognize they are working under the control of a private firm, whose policies and charges could change at any time. Your photo in Florence (Firenze) with Michalango's statue of David can be blocked as pornographic, your criticism of Dick Cheney may be erased, your private messages to friends might accrue fees or suddenly be deleted. Forcing your online existence through the changing proprietary gateways & templates of AOL, MySpace or Facebook is a sure recipe in frustration. These companies exist to make money - ultimately you pay for their services.  Use them where convenient; don't fully rely on them.

What this means is that most technically savvy people should own one or more domain names. Use the convenient services such as Facebook, but also build your own free space where you can post your thoughts, art and history. 

Zeitgeist & Creativity

The business of domain name development needs better imagery & models.

We can easily help one another by better explaining to outsiders what we do.

Big businesses have now garnished the lion's share of prime generic domain names, though they were comparatively late internet adopters. Rich businessmen helped popularize the word 'cybersquatter' as a derogatory term meaning "anyone owning a desirable domain property and not a major corporation."

Most domain ownership has nothing to do with squatting. Domain ownership is paid for annually. It's very seldom stolen or appropriated. The domain owner has developed a generic or brandable address, from tropes and cultural images, often where nothing existed before. Domains are thus valuable intellectual property, important IP assets. Perhaps you're an IP developer?

Don't let a skuzzy corporate arsehole tell you otherwise; never accept their flim-flam.




Internet Paradigms

Some people view the internet simply:
"Here is the internet. It's free."

Of course it's much more complex. Individual & institutional developers provided infrastructure and technology to launch something almost miraculous.

How do we picture the internet?  Images of the internet are still developing. Proactively defining what's happening minimizes confusing imagery. Don't quietly suffer from stories clouded by vested interests promoting their own agenda(s).

I see an unruly, largely unknown universe. Within this, a mixture of people & firms & governments have created a network of pathways and addresses. Democratically filling-out parts of a new map, we boldly go where no one has gone before ... 

Some of our mapping and pathfinding is systematic, some far-flung. A broad range of people contribute to keeping systems operational. No single nation or commercial group could construct & maintain the wonderful contents now available to all humankind.

Where there was nothing we are building new addresses, to which resources such as inspiration, money, knowledge, passion, guidance, and directions are introduced. These are true New World territories, unlike so-called past "discoveries" that ethnocentrically ignored peoples & cultures already there.

Frictions exist with alleged prior art. We can be forced to wrestle with questions of legitimate interest or bad faith (link), but forward-looking pathfinders reorient toward new horizons. The legal system gradually defines reality -  Who made the first apple?   Can we brand Jesus?.

We build value & add value, we open pathways in the form of domain addresses and original content. Our timely efforts bring know-how, cutting-edge convenience, joy, survival & life improvement tips to billions of people. We are internet pathmakers, content builders and connection providers.