This first strategic partnership will be one of many for Appraiso. It’s been great to watch Morgan’s startup come to fruition over the last year. He, Daina and other project partners have invested unbelievable time and energy building Appraiso into what I believe will be THE standard online website appraisal tool.

Back in March, Morgan happened to be in Denver on the very first day Appraiso launched.  To celebrate he, Mike Awada the AccidentalDomainer and I got together for dinner and drinks.  I could feel the passion and excitement from Morgan as he talked to us about the exciting launch day and shared with us a little more about the vision he has for Appraiso, which was very intriguing!

Back to Appraiso’s the new partnership with Protrada, here’s the press release I just got in my email:

Taking Website Appraisals To The Next Level: Appraiso Announces Protrada As First Partner

In early 2012 an innovative startup in Los Angeles released Appraiso, the first tool to put serious mathematical modeling behind website appraisals. The founders saw a gap in the market and spent a year crunching numbers and building a tool to accurately estimate the price of a developed website. “We saw the opportunity to innovate in one of the fastest growing spaces on the Internet and we went for it,” says Morgan Linton, one of Appraiso’s three founders. Before marketplaces like Flippa, website sales happened underground, scattered across hundreds of forums across the net. With over 31 million dollars in website sales in 2011 alone, Flippa has shown that the market for developed websites is growing, and fast.

Last year another innovative company, Protrada, created an all-in-one platform for buying, selling, and developing domain names. In early 2012 they refined their platform creating a website builder tool that took the platform to the next level making it easy for anyone to build content-rich interactive websites. The tool was an instant success with hundreds of thousands of domains running through Protrada and thousands more coming onboard each day. “We created a platform that allows anyone to build one, two, or ten websites all with a few clicks. Partnering with content providers and allowing for the addition of interactive features without writing a single line of code has greatly contributed to the initial success we have seen,” says Troy Rushton, Protrada’s CEO.

Today Appraiso and Protrada have announced a new partnership making the Appraiso Website Appraisal system available directly from the Protrada platform. “It was an obvious fit for us, thousands of people are building websites with Protrada, now they can find out how much those sites are worth,” say Linton. “This gives Protrada users a way to better understand how the digital real estate they are developing can grow in value over time.”

Protrada users can immediately begin using Appraiso from within the platform to evaluate their current sites as well as track website value on a regular basis. Then, when they are ready to sell, Protrada can seamlessly allow users to list these sites on some of the top domain and website marketplaces on the planet. “Having a valuation benchmark will reduce uncertainty and stimulate transactions, Appraiso is well positioned to become the standard. We are already seeing an increase in web development services as investors seek to unlock the value of their digital assets,” say Rushton about the early results of the integration.

In a world where digital real estate is growing faster than physical real estate both Appraiso and Protrada are positioning themselves to play a critical role in the development and sales of digital assets. “Let’s face it, physical real estate used to be one of the best investments you could make, but those days are over. With the incredible growth of smartphones and rapid adoption of Internet users across the globe, digital real estate is a large and growing market, and we’re looking forward to playing a valuable role in this next phase.” says Linton, “The best part is we are still seeing only the tip of the iceberg, and unlike physical real estate, with digital assets the sky really is the limit!”

Disclosures: Yes, I’m friends with Morgan Linton. Yes, Appraiso is a sponsor of this blog. No, I was not paid to write this post.

This batch is pretty strong as well, there are some great names up for grabs. 188 domains will be on the auction block, with this many being sold at the same time there will definitely be some great deals! Here are 10 top picks in the upcoming auction.

computers.me
creditcheck.me
debt.me
dvd.me
florist.me
cruise.me
legal.me
tools.me
traffic.me
wireless.me

This list doesn’t event include the awesome geo names in the list such as japan.me and losangeles.me. You may have noticed cruise.me is being re-auctioned. It was bid up to $7,076 in the auction earlier this year. Perhaps the buyer never paid, either way it’s back and it will be interesting to see what it goes for this time around.

If I had to, I would guess this auction brings in less than the one in February. That auction was timed pretty nicely after the buzz of the meet.me sale which may have sparked some higher bids.  While there are many great one word domains in available in this auction, none of them are the awesome verb/action words that work so well with .ME.

When is it necessary or advisable for a startup to have a matching dot-com domain name? What should take priority, the brand name or the domain name? —B.E., Upland, Calif.

Klein’s response to the question basically suggests that the domain name is secondary in importance to developing the brand name.  To prove her theory Klein found a few ‘branding experts’ and used their words to try and convince readers as to why paying more to own the best .com for your business is not that important.

The advice given by the branding experts basically said if your preferred domain name is taken already you should register a weaker option by adding a prefix/suffix or using the plural, hyphen, etc.   One ‘expert’ George Tierney of Quantam Method (www.quantanmethod.com) said:

“Let’s say the company is Acme Toys. You find that you can’t get acmetoys.com because someone has already purchased this domain name for the purposes of resale,” he says. Rather than pay a cybersquatter for the premium domain, he says, find a close alternative, such as acme-toys.com, or acmetoysco.com. “These alternatives will work just fine in the early days of your business. Once you have positive growth and budgets allow, you can go back and acquire the premium domain..”

First off, Tierney generalizes anyone holding a domain name someone else may want a cybersquatter. Then he admits that down the road you will want to pony up for that premium (preferred) domain name.  All the while, during the most crucial part of your business launch you might as well build up your website on that crappy domain name you settled for.  Don’t worry you’re only sending who knows how much typo traffic to the other domain name you wish you had which is in turn increasing its value so that you really pay out the ass when you try to acquire it later.  Ingenious.

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In other news, Friday the folks from Artemis out of San Francisco published a press release stating their intentions for the .secure top level domain.  Alex Stamos, CTO of Artemis said about .secure in the press release:

“We are creating a safe neighborhood where you know people follow the rules and you can rely on them to do things securely..  There is not going to be typo squatting or malware.

We are going to make it really air tight so even if you were in Syria the Syrian government couldn’t hijack you.”

Ok. Not sure if that made sense to anybody.  Maybe the rest of the explanation of how the company works will register with you:

“There are all kinds of shenanigans people pull with domain names.

There will be all kinds of people squatting over the domain space and we are just not going to let that happen.

Businesses registering .secure websites will be required to verify their identity and accurately represent what they do.

If you use the word ‘bank’ or ‘brokerage,’ you will have to prove that is what you are.. You can’t just grab that domain and sit on it.

Those running .secure websites would need to install safeguards, such as data encryption and guard against viruses that could be passed on to visitors.

If you launch a website and two days later there is malware on it, we are taking it down and you will have to come to us and explain.

If companies go through a little bit of pain to run on .secure, in the end they have done themselves and their customers a great service.

If you want to be lazy, you should not apply for a .secure domain.”

So, the plan is to sell .secure domain names. I can’t figure out what kind of security is offered/guaranteed with a .secure domain or if they require that YOU have installed safeguards in place? By the way, don’t worry! There will be no cybersquatting of .secure domain names only verified businesses will be allowed their .secure domain name. 

Let’s not forget that pre-installed anti virus and malware can already be offered with new TLD’s which is the case already with .XXX, so there is no new technology or innovation in this plan.  I’m sorry but if what I see in this press release is any indication of the success of .secure, I see a huge flop.

Jason Boshoff, CEO of Domain Holdings said in a press release:

“Legal is among the more competitive verticals with hundreds of millions of dollars spent on online advertising annually.  Owning this name provides any entity with interests in the space with a unique positioning or monetization opportunity.  It’s rare in any business to be able to own something that simultaneously promotes your brand while eliminating your competitors’ ability to promote itself, there is only one Attorney.com.”

A listing price under $3 million for Attorney.com should spark some serious interest.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this one sell soon.  Lots of opportunities with this name,  I even like the potential to sell e-mail addresses or sub domains.

Domain Holdings brokerage is currently broker many premium .coms including TeaParty.com, Ethanol.com, Directions.com and Draw.com among many others.

Why It’s Important To Own Your Name .Com

One third of the people on our planet are now connected to the internet; that’s over two billion people worldwide. The internet has become a place where you can learn, do, watch, buy or sell anything you can ever imagine. The internet has all but eliminated the need for us to leave our house. We can get entertainment, human interaction, food, clothing, grooms and brides all from the comfort of our chair. This incredible boom has made the importance of owning your own personal domain name vital, as it is the hub for which you are known in the online world. Here’s some of the key reasons why:

It’s Online Real Estate- When people use Yahoo, Bing, or Google to search for an exact term, the .com is generally going to be the first result that pops up. A lot of people around the world will even just type the term in with .com at the end. The first website that they find using either method is the one most people believe is the authority.

Best Place to Start a Website- Your Name .Com is quick and easy to remember for the people that know you. It saves you the hassle of having to create a new brand and embed that in the head of your target audience. Website hosting is affordable and building a website is easier than ever. With free programs like WordPress, you don’t need to understand complex codes to be able to create a professional looking website.

Protection- Angry rivals or astute individuals with dollar signs in their eyes will not hesitate to purchase your name .com. Once it’s in their possession, it’s an arduous process to win it back. In the meantime, they can make a profit off of your fortune or slander your name.

It’s Professional- Any serious businessman improves their stock with their name .com. Business cards and resumes alike look stronger and a candidate more desirable. Morgan Linton, serial entrepreneur and International Channel Manager for Sonos Inc. told Astounde, “No question, if you plan on doing anything important in your life, it’s vital to own your name dot com.”

Flexibility- Once you purchase a domain name, it’s yours. Despite the occasional price increase from ICANN, you can register your name for as many years as you want and lock in a certain rate. No one else can stake a claim to that name so long as you renew it when it comes time. Not only that, there is no requirement to build a website on it, you can just hold the name in your account.

Ease of Maintenance- Unlike most things in life, your domain name only needs to be addressed once per year. Not only that, but you’ll receive a friendly e-mail reminder to do so. Imagine if the same could be said for haircuts, your garden, dinner, your marriage, or feeding your pet.

Branding- You are in complete control over the ‘you’ that other people see when searching the internet. You are in charge of the information, pictures, professional reviews and other information that a friend or prospective colleague will see. Your brand is in your hands.

Customized E-mail Addresses- No more JHB5277@gmail.com or tennisguy2012@yahoo.com. With your own domain name, you can create any e-mail address you can think of @yourname.com.

Help Avoid Confusion- There could be another John Smith out there who enjoys taking ‘artful’ photos of naked men, and decides to post the videos and pictures of such on your name .com. You can avoid this potential shortcoming by locking up your domain name.

Price- Buying a domain name is one of the best bang-for-your-buck purchases you will ever find in your lifetime. A domain name can be had for $9.99 on most domain registrars ($8.95 on DomainIt.com). If you click on the link below, it’s only $7.99. That’s the equivalent to one mediocre value meal. Amortize the cost over a full year and it’s just over ¢.02 per day.

Despite all of these positive reasons why owning your name .com is important, there are still millions of people around the world that don’t see the value. Many people do, though, and you may very well find that your name is already taken. If you are one of the lucky people whose name isn’t already taken, what are you waiting for?

A few highlights from the agenda include a Domain Brokers round table with Toby Clements, Frank Tillmanns and Jeff Gabriel.  Also, a New gTLD Business Opportunity session featuring Annalisa Rogers from .green, Sergey Gorbunov .ru, Paul Keating from law.es.  Additional sessions will be focusing on domain development and the future of domaining with industry veterans Gregg McNair, Braden Pollock and Jason Boshoff.

While much of the focus from this event will be around ccTLD and new gTLD domain names, the two days of conference sessions covers a wide variety of topics beyond TLD strategy including domain name sales, domain development/monetization/lead gen, smart investing and risk vs. reward.

Ron Jackson posted some pre show highlights yesterday from the Sorolla Palace Hotel.  I always enjoy Ron’s updates from the domain conferences, keep posted at DNJournal.com.

The .US TLD is the most underperforming ccTLD in existence, I’ve felt this way for a long time. When you look at ccTLD’s like .DE, .EU, .CO.UK, .FR, .CA and even .PL, .NL, .SE and .CC their top sale, sales volume and average sales price all dwarf .US sales stats. Below are the list of documented .US sales above $15,000 (prices rounded to nearest thousand) all the way back to 2004.

Video.us $75k (2007)
Taxi.us $35k
Job.us $35k
SexToy.us $51k
Jew.us $29k
Jews.us $25k
Famo.us $25k
Baseball.us $25k
Voip.us $25k
Foods.us $20k
Football.us $19k
Video.us $18.5k (2008)
Computer.us $17k
Bingo.us $15k
Miami.us $15k

You’ll notice that Video.us is on this list twice. And according to DNJournal this is accurate – the top selling documented .US domain was resold a year later for a seventy five percent loss! Ouch.

I do expect that with the rise of gTLD’s, .US will gain some more traction. .US could also really use some help from its parent company Neustar which has done next to nothing to help promote the .US brand over the last few years.

So, what does Groupon have in store for the one year old startup, Ditto.me? Nothing. They will be shutting off the service by the end of the month.  A Groupon spokesperson said:

“..we’ll be winding down Ditto. On April 30th we’ll switch off the service and remove the app from Apple’s and Nokia’s stores. We think you’ll love what we and Groupon dream up next.”

Well, that was one flash in the pan .ME startup that got swallowed by a big boy.  More evidence though that with a solid plan, startups can utilize catchy words in other TLDs than .com/.net.   Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to catch Ditto.me on the drop this summer when it expires.

2) A nice three letter .com CJF.com is on the market with a BIN of $6500. Seller has had many offers on the name including a limited time $7k offer from Shane which seller let expire.  The same seller recently sold LLL.net at DNF as well.

3) Mike Cohen’s DomainStryker.com expired domains website, blog and custom WP template is for sale.  The sale does not include software, scripts or user databases.  DomainStriker.com is included.  Mike has a private offer of $1500 and has set the BIN at $3000.

4) Pronounceable and brandable LLLL oPop.com has a high public offer of $1200.  Seller has not posted a BIN price.

5) Another three letter .com, ZBP.com has a high public offer of $4000 with no set BIN.  Same seller as LLLL.com (see #1)

All of these sales are in the Platinum forum marketplace, which is DNForum’s most active domain marketplace.  There is the DNF Exclusive marketplace as well which is not viewable to anyone but exclusive DNF members.

Anyone like LLLL.com for $11,500?  I think it was sold for almost twice that amount a few years back when there was a lot of buzz going on with four letter domains after the LLLL .com buyout.

The biggest news for .TV  so far this year is that Verisign renewed their contract with Tuvalu through 2021.  The contract was due up in 2016 and there was uncertainty that Verisign and Tuvalu were going to come to an agreement which made many skeptical of the future of the ccTLD.  This contract extension not only gives investors refreshed confidence but may have skeptics looking at .TV in a different light.

An interesting happening last week, Tweet.TV the Realtime Social TV Guide earned a seed investment of $750,000 from angel investor Joe Kalfa. Tweet.tv inspires to recreate the TV-guide with social infusion.  Honestly, I’m not sure of the business model or the idea but I love the creativity as well as the fact investors are starting to warm up to .TV startups.

Here are a few sales reported since January.  I compiled this list with help from DomainSales.tv and NamePros .TV reported sales thread.

I feel many of these sales are on the low side because they are names being sold from resellers to resellers/investors. Trailer.tv for under $3k and replay.tv under $2k were great buys. Interesting side notes about a couple of the sales – Revolt.tv was bought by one of Sean ‘Puffy’ Combs companies and is supposed to be used to launch a music themed TV network.  Also, Netflix.com is now the new owner of netflix.tv, the .tv domain is currently not resolving.

There are also some excellent sales in the list above such as Jeu.tv which was brokered by Mike Berkens’ MostWantedDomains.com for seller Ammar from AllThings.tv (congrats Ammar!).  In case you missed it, I interviewed Mr. Berkens where we spoke specifically about .TV names in .TV Spotlight post #6.