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Sedo Press Service: Backlinks from a Major Domain Company to Domain Industry Blogs

"Sedo Press Service"
With more than 1.4 million member accounts from around the world, Sedo is the world's leading marketplace for domain names. Sedo's own Press Service backlinks to Domain Industry blogs including the popular DNJournal written by Ron Jackson.

If you weren’t aware of Sedo’s Press Service, it’s a page on Sedo’s website that provides up-to-date news on hot topics and domain industry trends.

The page includes backlinks to a number of Domain Industry stories written by bloggers listed on Francois Carrillo’s Domaining.com – including Mike Berkens’ TheDomains.com, Elliot Silver’s ElliotsBlog.com and a number of other sources including Business Wire. 

If you are planning on starting a blog or whether you already write a blog, getting backlinks from a reputed company like Sedo can help you get traffic and it’s great overall exposure for your website.

Our recent story on the sale of Oink.com for $17,000 and other interesting sales was well received by Sedo, judging by the backlink on Sedo’s Press Service page.

Starting a Domain Industry Blog

While there’s no shortage of blogs written about SEO and web development, there is a shortage of blogs covering the Domain Industry. 

If you want to start a blog, one of the first steps to building an audience is getting listed on Domaining.com.  Getting listed isn’t free, but it’s well worth the cost, as Francois Carrillo’s website aggregator will keep readers returning to your site, again and again.

To submit your blog for consideration to Domaining.com, email [email protected]

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Lots of available .TV keyword domains registered at Demand Media being auctioned, with no interest

"Enom.tv"
While several keyword .tv domain names are appearing on the aftermarket auction sites, Enom.tv has several listed for sale such as Display.tv for $870. Is .tv losing more interest to the new country code top level domains like .co?

There are lots of .TV domain names that are dropping in the next several days, or in some cases, being auctioned by their owners with a minimum bid of $69 on the aftermarket. 

The crop of domain names, which appear to be registered at eNom (a Demand Media Company) look decent, however no one seems that interested in placing a bid. 

A few .TV names that have bids are bidding high – with journalist.tv attracting 26 bidders with a current high bid of $300.

But for every one .TV domain with a bid, there are dozens more with zero. 

List of .TV Domain Names with zero bids

Here’s a sample list of some of the keyword .TV domain names with zero bids that have a backorder due date of August 2, 2010 @ 11 PM EST.  The names are being auctioned at NameJet.

Candle.tv
Complex.tv
Crepes.tv
Ecosystems.tv
Examine.tv
Examiner.tv
Forged.tv
HeartAttack.tv
ImageHosting.tv
Retailers.tv
RightMinded.tv
SoftDrink.tv

If you expand your search to “Order By Date” within the next 5 days, dozens of more keyword domains are up for auction with zero bidders including Insatiable.tv, LongTerm.tv, Methane.tv, MousePad.tv and more.

Although we own very few .TV domain names such as Evangelist.tv, we’re interested to see what these names will ultimately sell for.

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Crew behind Bodog, gives Slots.ca its own website

"Slots.ca"
Slots.ca is the second highest publicly reported Slots domain sale of all-time, ahead of Slots.eu which sold for $31,000 in 2009. Calvin Ayre, the buyer of Slots.ca, also owns Slots.com, one of the top 10 domain sales of all-time.

As we suspected, the purchase of Slots.ca for $207,000 in July 2010 was made by Calvin Ayre and his company Bodog Brand.  The purchase of Slots.ca followed Calvin Ayre’s acquisition of Slots.com for $5.5MM.

The domain name Slots.ca up until this week, redirected to Slots.com, but now the crew behind Bodog has given the domain its own web site.  This means the site will start ranking in the search engines.

Calvin Ayre is set to dominate the global internet when it comes to Slots with his recent acquisitions of Slots.com and Slots.ca — and his company knows a thing or two about online gaming. 

According to Wikipedia, Calvin founded Bodog in 1994 with $10,000 to his name and rapidly evolved his brand into an online gaming and entertainment empire, becoming a billionaire – with the likes of Richard Branson who operates the Virgin empire.

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Newer Domain Name Auction Platforms like AuctionPus, haven’t taken off

"Auctionpus"
Media sales prices of $500, a goal by Andrei Polgar the founder of AuctionPus, have proven to be elusive in 2010, even with Bido shutting its doors

Have you looked around lately at the newer domain name auction platforms? What happened? 

The lifespan is shorter these days for smaller domain auction websites that try to launch amongst the big auction houses like Sedo. 

Since Bido closed down in May this year, the startup that was funded by Sahar Sarid who is well-respected within the Domain community, hasn’t come back online — despite being put up for sale months ago.

The Low Quality Domain Stigma

Nothing gives life to an auction like a premium domain name and low asking prices, and few auction websites are willing to implement the strategy.

Even sites like GreatDomains who run monthly premium domain auctions, can’t seem to keep a quality inventory month to month, especially an inventory with attractive pricing.

Bargain Domains

Francois Carrillo’s BargainDomains.com might do the best job at listing domain names cheaper than they should be. 

To submit domains for sale, domains must appraise at least $250 to even be considered.  This strategy immediately helps to eliminate the poor quality domain names, and it forces sellers to list their names at bargain prices – a bonus for prospective buyers on the hunt for deals.

AuctionPus

The still-new AuctionPus.com launched by Andrei Polgar, promised no more crappy domains for sale, a problem that plagued Bido’s platform where names like GlassesFreeTV.net were listed for sale at $1,199.

While many web sites promise change, it’s hard to deliver. 

AuctionPus has noted a slowdown.  Though Andrei Polgar is very familiar with Domain Investors and he has had success with other ventures, AuctionPus has yet to be one of them.  Though names are displayed on the website daily, you’ll be hard pressed to visit the website and see a name with a bid.

Given the ease of starting a website these days, the difficulty lies in the business model and differentiating yourself. 

While domain name auctions (both online and offline) have drawn a large number of critics in 2009 and 2010, it is still nice to see startups giving it a shot in hopes of creating the winning formula.

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What can $1 million buy in today’s Domain Market?

"Dating"
You better rethink your buying strategy if you were planning to buy Dating.com. The domain name in 2010 would cost $1.75 million.

In today’s challenging economy where jobs are being shed and unemployment is at a record high, spending your money can be a difficult decision. 

But despite the harsh economic climate that has prevented many companies and individuals from buying up domains, big price tags for domain names have returned in 2010, with the most expensive deal in 2010 valuating the gambling Domain Slots.com at $5.5 Million. 

The Slots.com purchase was made by Billionaire Calvin Ayre of Bodog Brand.

But the person with $1 million in their wallet who is ready to invest, couldn’t even afford to give Slots.com a moment’s consideration.

What could that money buy?

What’s astonishing is that $1 million wouldn’t get you very far in the Top 10 Domain Sales of 2010 according to the sales charts over at DNJournal. 

You could afford to acquire BoardGames.com and Poker.ca, leaving you with $150,000 in change, just enough to buy Cheesecake.com at $100,000 and GoFish.com for $50,000.  Or some combination thereof.

$1 million in the above scenario would get you: BoardGames.com, Poker.ca, Cheesecake.com and GoFish.com.

Or, you could also just buy one domain — Poker.org, yes .org, for $1 million and call it a day.

Depending on where your interest lies, that $1 million won’t go far.  It costs big money, after all, to build up a portfolio of category-killing domain names. 

The cost to do business in 2010 is not cheap if you’re on the buying side, but if you’re on the selling side, that’s where the money comes in.

If you had $1 million to spend on domain names, would you spend it on names already listed in DN Journal’s 2010 YTD Top 100 Sales Chart?  Let us know your thoughts in the comments.