Got an iPhone? You Must Have This Free App! I’m very pleased to announce that we have just released our new FREE iPhone app called Domain Sales. We created the iPhone app to help grow the industry in the area of valuations and exposure to international markets. You can use our huge database of 72,000+ comparable sales to justify prices, when you buy and sell domains and websit...
Simon Johnson - Monday, April 23, 2012 - 18:30
New TLD’s – Google Debunks The Misconception Yesterday I read an article in Marketing Magazine discussing the new top-level domains. It stated: “Will a new TLD web address automatically be favoured by Google over a .com equivalent? Quite simply, yes it will.” I found it difficult to believe what I was reading, as the article contained no statements from Google. Fas...
Simon Johnson - Wednesday, March 14, 2012 - 22:26
Overstock Tells Investors O.CO Was A “Bad Call” The earnings call for Overstock has disclosed some interesting results for .co, but what does that really mean? By way of background, in 2010 Overstock purchased o.co for US $350,000 and indicated it would rebrand its business O.co. Fast forward to 2012 and here are some extracts from their earnings call transcript: “O.co was m...
Simon Johnson - Saturday, March 3, 2012 - 19:31
Google Retires Adsense For Domains Google has announced that they will retire their hosted domain product within Adsense. Effective immediately, publishers cannot use the product and it will no longer be available for existing users by June 27. This might come as a shock to some, but not to others, as last year Google announced their “parked domain classifier...
Simon Johnson - Wednesday, February 22, 2012 - 19:18
New Regulator Guide Shakes Up Industry Australian regulator ASIC has just published a guide with far reaching implications for Internet Marketers, domain name investors and social media experts. Titled “Advertising financial products and advice services: Good practice guidance”, the document applies to any medium, and specifically singles out “webpages, ...
Simon Johnson - Monday, February 20, 2012 - 19:51
Google Targets Parked Domains Google has announced a new “parked domain classifier”. “This is a new algorithm for automatically detecting parked domains. Parked domains are placeholder sites that are seldom useful and often filled with ads. They typically don’t have valuable content for our users, so in most cases we prefer not to show them.R...
Simon Johnson - Sunday, December 4, 2011 - 3:57
Media Coverage of auDA Election It’s great to see both the industry and the media getting involved in the auDA Election. The Domain Industry News Magazine, DNJournal has posted this great article. This is a small extract; I’d encourage you to visit DNJournal and read the article. Quote: “The only candidate from the domain investment community runn...
Simon Johnson - Thursday, September 29, 2011 - 23:44
auDA To Change Monetisation Policy The 2010/2011 Names Policy Panel made a number of recommendations regarding domain name monetisation to the auDA Board. This submission was made to the auDA Board in August. Since then, many domain name owners have been eagerly awaiting the auDA Board Minutes. After approximately a month of waiting, the minutes have been published on...
Simon Johnson - Monday, September 19, 2011 - 1:35
Candidate Statement – 2011 auDA Board Election New auDA members have asked me to publish a detailed candidate statement, informing them of where I stand on a variety of issues. If I had to summarise it, I’d say that I’ll work in the public interest and constructively with the Board, towards the following outcomes: Reduce regulation and grow the .au marketplace Decreas...
Simon Johnson - Friday, September 16, 2011 - 20:31
Holding ICANN Accountable ICANN – good in theory, but it’s failed the public. The original intent of serving “the public interest” has been lost. Esther Dyson recently summed it up perfectly. It was so good in fact, I decided to post it here: “Most of the people active in setting ICANN’s policies are involved somehow in the doma...
Simon Johnson - Monday, August 29, 2011 - 3:54
.AU History A media event was held last night celebrating “25 Years of .au”. While reading through the handful of stories that popped up in the papers this morning, I began to think about the numbers. Has it really been 25 years? How long have these organisations really been around for? Here is a brief history lesson
