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News site runs contest to find available domain name for its social media site; receives hundreds of entries

phonedog

Several days ago, PhoneDog LLC, a mobile news and reviews resource that attracts more than 2.5 million unique visitors each month, put out a call to readers to help find a domain name for its forthcoming social media site that will cover Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, GetGlue, and other social networking sites.

The contest which ended on Saturday January 15th, 2011 at midnight, attracted nearly 200 entries on the public site, but with a private survey also made available to contestants the number of entries was likely much higher.  If a domain winner is selected, PhoneDog will award them $200 in cash.

The rules for the contest were simple.  Two of the most important rules were that the domain name is available and that it ends in .com. 

Here’s a look at the rules.

  • Make sure the domain name is available. (Check www.godaddy.com to know if it’s available.)
  • Domain name must end with “.com”
  • Please do not combine more than two words when choosing a name. e.g., TheSocialNetwork.com is three words, thus, would not qualify.
  • Be creative! Think outside the box! Think about names that are catchy, unique, and memorable.
  • Feel free to play with the spelling of words. e.g., Instead of scribble.com you could suggest skribble.com
  • Feel free to combine words together to form a unique name.
  • Please do not use any words associated with the word “Dog”

A number of words were eventually excluded from consideration, such as social, dog, and phone.

As of yesterday, dozens and dozens of suggestions were left on the web site ranging from syncinit.com to whassuppeeps.com, phonehydrant.com to techlightbulb.com, myfriendsarephones.com to spaceeater.com.

Though running an online contest is a great idea, it’s strange that PhoneDog didn’t keep all submissions private, given that suggested names might be snapped up by readers as was the case for names like mediadog.com.

Others used the comments to simply plug their own names they were trying to sell.

It should be interesting to see whether PhoneDog goes with an available domain name or an aftermarket name. 

Given the company’s success, it shouldn’t have any problem affording a name on the aftermarket.  However by the looks of the company’s other online properties, it’s writing good content, not owning a premium domain name that has determined its success. The company owns and operates other properties like TmoNews.com, DroidDog.com, and BberryDog.com.

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Seller who hand-registered Single-Letter Domain Name D.TV in March 2010 Earns Nice Return: $18,000

stack of money

In case you missed it on Michael Berkens blog or NamePros, the seller of D.TV who hand registered the domain name in March 2010, earned a nice return.  The name sold on Sedo to Michael Berkens who wrote about the name being registered for less than $22 on March 18 after the .TV registery released single letter .TV domains.  Shortly after writing about the remarkable hand-registered domain, Michael became the buyer and purchased the name from the owner for $18,000 through Sedo.

The seller of D.TV also hand registered P.TV – probably some of the most remarkable hand-registered domain name finds of this decade.  Sure, this decade just started, but these hand-registrations might be hard to beat, at least for some time.

We’re relatively new to this whole domaining thing, but Michael Berkens has been one of our favorite bloggers, along with dozens of others who can be found at Domaining.com. 

Michael regularly shares information on his website about his purchases, sales and more.  In the story, “D.TV & P.TV: How Did They Get Registered At Dynadot Last Night For Less Than $22”, Michael left a comment in which he published his .TV holdings (see below).  You can see more of Michael Berkens portfolio over at MostWantedDomains.com. 

2.TV
4.TV
D.TV
Advertising.tv
Airport.tv
Animal.tv
Animals.tv
Bob.tv
Clearance.TV
Craps.tv
Dining.tv
Fashions.tv
Fonts.TV
Garden.tv
Hungary.tv
Iceland.tv
Programs.TV
Psychology.tv
Relationship.tv
Relationships.tv
Repairs.tv
Saws.tv
Sells.tv
Spiritual.tv
Ted.tv
Volunteer.tv

As Michael writes on his blog, the “Acquisition price for each ranged from a low of $69- to a high of $18K for D.TV”.