- Joined
- Mar 1, 2004
- Messages
- 3,888
- Reaction score
- 4
You know what they say... All good things must come to an end. Well, if you don't already know, the domain typos and TM problem crash is inevitable. It cannot be stopped. It can however be delayed but it will happen sooner than later. You can count on that. But when?! Who knows!! What I do know is that for now, everybody is set to cash in on it. Starting from Google and Yahoo, as well as all of the dozens of domain parking companies powering the millions of TM and problematic domain names. Thousands of committed and determined opportunists and professional domainers are going to exploit the system to the fullest and register and profit from every domain with a little bit of potential.
Some of the domain industry's finest are cyberquatters... Well, they are seen as ones by the public eye anyways. But who cares right?! Almost all industry insiders and internet reporters, analysts and so on think otherwise... They are held in high regards and well respected as entrepreneurs and visionaries, but by the general public they are nothing more than typo squatters. Yep. It's true. Those giant companies with millions of domains under their management who are at the center of the domain industry are all cashing in on trademarked domains.They own them. They park them. They sell them. They do it all...
It wouldn't be fair for me to single out any one domain related services company and go off on them and on and on... But really, all of the top domain industry companies are guilty. They all participate. They all turn the blind eye. They all willingly choose to. Nobody forces them. It is very convenient to play it stupid. It is easy to let things slide. Sure thing! Why the hell not?! Good $$$
Look, I am no angel... I've had my share of UDRP's and TM problems / disputes which I've been able to settle amicably for the most part. It takes a lot of time and skill in order to be able to do this. I'll be the first to admit to own what may be considered a lot of problematic domains few years back. Domains that may be considered confusing / typos or domains that I should not of owned in the first place if we were all to follow certain rules and guidelines setup by ICANN, but I made those decisions (registrations) knowing all the risks. I did the research. I did everything I needed to in order to go about making a good business decision, take out as much risk as possible from the equation and hopefully make a lot of money. So what if it involves bending certain rules and exploit the system here and there... Everybody else is doing it! Lets go for it.
When PIR (Public Interest Registry) who controls the .org registry was running promotions on .org domains at $1.99 per year for new registrations of course I wanted in on it! I mean, who can pass up such a great deal right?! I registered thousands of .org keyword domains at various participating registrars who were passing on the savings. I quickly setup web sites on them by mass development and made some nice money thanks to Google AdSense who provides an instant monetization solution... Oops!! Oh wait, I wasn't suppose to do that??! Was I? Setting up websites for the sole purpose of making money from them is kind of Google AdSense' TOS violation or something I think... Oh well. Who cares right?! Everybody else is doing it... Why the hell not! Go go..
So, what exactly is the whole purpose of .org domain names anyways? Here is the text found right on the mainpage on the PIR website "Trusted across all backgrounds, ages and nationalities, .ORG is where people turn to find credible information, get involved, fund causes and support advocacy. As a premier domain, .ORG provides an unrivaled channel to share ideas, to enhance lives, to advance your mission."
Nope... I wasn't interested in setting up .org websites where people could turn to find credible information, get involved or fund causes or support some sort of advocacy. I was interested in particular in snapping up as many of those remaining keyword domain names in .org as possible because Google and Yahoo favor keyword domains in .org and it is easy to rank them at the top. I wanted to make lots of money off of them by doing as little work --- at only $1.99 it was a no brainer and a great investment. I was all over it... Why not?
I did a clean sweep of some of the best remaining dictionary domains as well as common commercial phrases that I was interested in. Domains mostly consisting of two and three keyword combinations. Why shouldn't I had registered them?? Was it really wrong? My competition would sooner than later! So I did it without hesitation. I beat them to it. I got them all then. The first day the promotion was available I had my lists ready and within 24 hours I had secured about 98% of the domains I wanted to. I still have most of them today... Websites that have taken off shortly after being launched that now pull in a ton of traffic thanks to Google, Yahoo and MSN that make a nice and passive income... Gotta love it. It's just great. I love the PIR and .org domains.
There is a abuse and exploitation going on pretty much at each and every level as far as the domain industry goes. Starting from the registrars who profit off of trademarked domains by registering them for their clients behalf as well as re-selling them at auction once they expire. Domain parking companies monetize those problematic domains traffic for all of the top registrars as well as all of their clients domain portfolios. Domain investors trade and resell problematic domains that they never even should of owned on a daily basis many times over and over again. It's everywhere. No getting away with it.
Those same companies putting on the biggest and best tradeshows... Those sponsoring the lavish parties and get togethers... Those giants controlling some of the largest domain registrars in the world... Those domainers running some of the most influential domain discussion forums... Those bloggers who are outspoken and highly respected in the space... They all do it. They all exploit the system. Some of them speak out about it and contribute a little bit, but behind the scenes, they are all about something else. Dirty money. Money made from problematic domains. If they don't directly own the domains they manage them for clients. They have been breaking the rules for years. Way before they came into the public eye... Still, they continue to break the rules and have the best of both worlds... I mean, why not? It's working out!!!
Sooner than later... There isn't a single doubt in my mind that it will play out just like this: There will pop up a young and ambitious and highly motivated lawyer who will want to make a name for himself and he will go after the domain name industry in ways that none of us have even imagined. It is coming and there is no denying it... Hiding behind the whois privacy of your domain registrar won't protect you when the court orders start to come in and your registrar hands them over all of your personal information and lots of other goodies as show of full cooperation. You think they are going to protect you just because they make a dollar or two per registration and you have been their client for many years with thousands or tens of thousands of domains?? You are kidding yourself. They won't. It doesn't work like that. Never has.
All of the offshore companies and various accounts under different identities setup won't do much good either when the FBI is going to come investigate you and everybody you ever knew or did business with over the past decade. Everything you tried to hide so hard will be revealed in a few days time. Sure, there are a few people out there that have done a better job than others at not leaving traces but most of the people and companies with problematic domains... A 12 year old could find all the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of domain names that they own within a few hours. I guess they think that they are somehow untouchable. I find this to be kinda hilarious!!
So, you want to find out who they are for yourself? Wanna see how easy it is?? Go to DomainTools.com and use their Domain Typo Generator. Search for totally made up non-generic trademarked keywords such as Facebook, Google, Craigs List, Mercedes Benz, MySpace, etc. Use the "registrant" view to see exactly who owns them and the "dns" view to see where they are monetized. Thousands of problematic and possible TM infringing domains. Thanks to DomainTools for all this great information. The company that is owned by parent company Thought Convergence who monetizes some of those problematic domains with their Trafficz.com domain parking service. Nice!
When the .BE (Belgium) domain registry was giving away free .BE domains in a promotion and efforts trying to raise their ccTLD profile and so on... Guess what?? I submitted thousands of domains in the landrush at every .be registrar I could find that was offering this promotion. I had secured many great keyword domains which I mass developed. I also parked and resold plenty of them which had natural traffic and made thousands of dollars instantly.
About a few weeks later, I received an e-mail from one of the registrars where I had a few hundred free .be domains registered with and all of them were parked. I had not managed to develop them yet... They said something along the lines of "you registered too many domains..they are parked...we are taking them away and will be deleting them" so they closed my account and took control over the domains... Few days later, I visit some of the domains and... They are parked at a different company! This registrar was parking those domains for the remaining 330 days of the registration term and making money... Double standards?! You think? Nothing new in the domain industry. There are so many examples and cases I can point out... There wouldn't even be enough time to cover them all and analyze properly. It is for another day... No no.. It is for a 300 page book "Domain Name Industry: So Full of It."
Everybody does it... No denying it. No getting away with it. Show me a list of top domain portfolio holders who you know and think are 100% clean and I will show you a list of 10x more popular domainers and companies with 100x the amount of domain names who are as dirty as it gets. So really, there is nothing to brag about. Domain industry is trying to get all this mainstream attention and acceptance past few years... Is it smart?? Is it going to backfire? Of course it will. On TV, there is always stories about all this frauds and scams... On CNBC they are real hot this days on primetime. So watch out!! LOL.
So, whether it is a pissed off blogger or an ambitious lawyer or a TV exec looking to do something creative and go at it with the domain industry... There it is. Just waiting. The greatest opportunity to truly expose it for what it is. It is so easy. It is so simple. It is so worth it. But why isn't anybody doing it?? Why is everybody skipping this story? What... A $1 billion dollar plus scam and fraud isn't good enough? Well, I think I know the answer and I think you do too.
Anyways, there is a lot more to be said and written about this subject... I could go on and on but there is really no end. It is very complicated. It is also very profitable. Everybody wants to cash in. Every single day another Joe Schmoe wants to do it and gets in the world of domaining. Domain parking companies want to do it and encourage it. Domain registrars want to do it and run promotions for new registrants. Internet service providers want to do it off of unresolved internet addresses. Web hosts too... Everybody is doing it and getting away with it. If somebody quits doing it, another one picks up right where they left off. There is no quick easy way or solution to the problem.
On a final note, though, if and when domain typos are either taken offline, blocked or stopped being monetized... There will be a ton of rage and debate and it will effect everybody and I mean everybody. Tons of good traffic gone from the search channel. Tens of millions of targeted monthly visitors gone from Google's and Yahoo's ad inventory. Hundreds of millions of dollars gone from the cash flow of Google and Yahoo and many top domainers. Oh there will be chaos... Will there? Can it really happen?!? What a disaster.... Noooo!?
Look, I don't know... But the domain industry sure as hell is fun and exciting and it is what used to get me up and early before sunrise each and every morning highly motivated and ready to conquer the challenges presented. The fact of not knowing.. The chase... Well, I've retired from the 24/7/365 win-at-all-costs domain game or domain grind or whatever you call it this days but as an observer of the industry and a big fan --- still fascinated by it as I am sure many are. We'll just have to let things play out and see how it goes. Be careful though, there are always consequences! Don't think that you are invincible.
Some of the domain industry's finest are cyberquatters... Well, they are seen as ones by the public eye anyways. But who cares right?! Almost all industry insiders and internet reporters, analysts and so on think otherwise... They are held in high regards and well respected as entrepreneurs and visionaries, but by the general public they are nothing more than typo squatters. Yep. It's true. Those giant companies with millions of domains under their management who are at the center of the domain industry are all cashing in on trademarked domains.They own them. They park them. They sell them. They do it all...
It wouldn't be fair for me to single out any one domain related services company and go off on them and on and on... But really, all of the top domain industry companies are guilty. They all participate. They all turn the blind eye. They all willingly choose to. Nobody forces them. It is very convenient to play it stupid. It is easy to let things slide. Sure thing! Why the hell not?! Good $$$
Look, I am no angel... I've had my share of UDRP's and TM problems / disputes which I've been able to settle amicably for the most part. It takes a lot of time and skill in order to be able to do this. I'll be the first to admit to own what may be considered a lot of problematic domains few years back. Domains that may be considered confusing / typos or domains that I should not of owned in the first place if we were all to follow certain rules and guidelines setup by ICANN, but I made those decisions (registrations) knowing all the risks. I did the research. I did everything I needed to in order to go about making a good business decision, take out as much risk as possible from the equation and hopefully make a lot of money. So what if it involves bending certain rules and exploit the system here and there... Everybody else is doing it! Lets go for it.
When PIR (Public Interest Registry) who controls the .org registry was running promotions on .org domains at $1.99 per year for new registrations of course I wanted in on it! I mean, who can pass up such a great deal right?! I registered thousands of .org keyword domains at various participating registrars who were passing on the savings. I quickly setup web sites on them by mass development and made some nice money thanks to Google AdSense who provides an instant monetization solution... Oops!! Oh wait, I wasn't suppose to do that??! Was I? Setting up websites for the sole purpose of making money from them is kind of Google AdSense' TOS violation or something I think... Oh well. Who cares right?! Everybody else is doing it... Why the hell not! Go go..
So, what exactly is the whole purpose of .org domain names anyways? Here is the text found right on the mainpage on the PIR website "Trusted across all backgrounds, ages and nationalities, .ORG is where people turn to find credible information, get involved, fund causes and support advocacy. As a premier domain, .ORG provides an unrivaled channel to share ideas, to enhance lives, to advance your mission."
Nope... I wasn't interested in setting up .org websites where people could turn to find credible information, get involved or fund causes or support some sort of advocacy. I was interested in particular in snapping up as many of those remaining keyword domain names in .org as possible because Google and Yahoo favor keyword domains in .org and it is easy to rank them at the top. I wanted to make lots of money off of them by doing as little work --- at only $1.99 it was a no brainer and a great investment. I was all over it... Why not?
I did a clean sweep of some of the best remaining dictionary domains as well as common commercial phrases that I was interested in. Domains mostly consisting of two and three keyword combinations. Why shouldn't I had registered them?? Was it really wrong? My competition would sooner than later! So I did it without hesitation. I beat them to it. I got them all then. The first day the promotion was available I had my lists ready and within 24 hours I had secured about 98% of the domains I wanted to. I still have most of them today... Websites that have taken off shortly after being launched that now pull in a ton of traffic thanks to Google, Yahoo and MSN that make a nice and passive income... Gotta love it. It's just great. I love the PIR and .org domains.
There is a abuse and exploitation going on pretty much at each and every level as far as the domain industry goes. Starting from the registrars who profit off of trademarked domains by registering them for their clients behalf as well as re-selling them at auction once they expire. Domain parking companies monetize those problematic domains traffic for all of the top registrars as well as all of their clients domain portfolios. Domain investors trade and resell problematic domains that they never even should of owned on a daily basis many times over and over again. It's everywhere. No getting away with it.
Those same companies putting on the biggest and best tradeshows... Those sponsoring the lavish parties and get togethers... Those giants controlling some of the largest domain registrars in the world... Those domainers running some of the most influential domain discussion forums... Those bloggers who are outspoken and highly respected in the space... They all do it. They all exploit the system. Some of them speak out about it and contribute a little bit, but behind the scenes, they are all about something else. Dirty money. Money made from problematic domains. If they don't directly own the domains they manage them for clients. They have been breaking the rules for years. Way before they came into the public eye... Still, they continue to break the rules and have the best of both worlds... I mean, why not? It's working out!!!
Sooner than later... There isn't a single doubt in my mind that it will play out just like this: There will pop up a young and ambitious and highly motivated lawyer who will want to make a name for himself and he will go after the domain name industry in ways that none of us have even imagined. It is coming and there is no denying it... Hiding behind the whois privacy of your domain registrar won't protect you when the court orders start to come in and your registrar hands them over all of your personal information and lots of other goodies as show of full cooperation. You think they are going to protect you just because they make a dollar or two per registration and you have been their client for many years with thousands or tens of thousands of domains?? You are kidding yourself. They won't. It doesn't work like that. Never has.
All of the offshore companies and various accounts under different identities setup won't do much good either when the FBI is going to come investigate you and everybody you ever knew or did business with over the past decade. Everything you tried to hide so hard will be revealed in a few days time. Sure, there are a few people out there that have done a better job than others at not leaving traces but most of the people and companies with problematic domains... A 12 year old could find all the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of domain names that they own within a few hours. I guess they think that they are somehow untouchable. I find this to be kinda hilarious!!
So, you want to find out who they are for yourself? Wanna see how easy it is?? Go to DomainTools.com and use their Domain Typo Generator. Search for totally made up non-generic trademarked keywords such as Facebook, Google, Craigs List, Mercedes Benz, MySpace, etc. Use the "registrant" view to see exactly who owns them and the "dns" view to see where they are monetized. Thousands of problematic and possible TM infringing domains. Thanks to DomainTools for all this great information. The company that is owned by parent company Thought Convergence who monetizes some of those problematic domains with their Trafficz.com domain parking service. Nice!
When the .BE (Belgium) domain registry was giving away free .BE domains in a promotion and efforts trying to raise their ccTLD profile and so on... Guess what?? I submitted thousands of domains in the landrush at every .be registrar I could find that was offering this promotion. I had secured many great keyword domains which I mass developed. I also parked and resold plenty of them which had natural traffic and made thousands of dollars instantly.
About a few weeks later, I received an e-mail from one of the registrars where I had a few hundred free .be domains registered with and all of them were parked. I had not managed to develop them yet... They said something along the lines of "you registered too many domains..they are parked...we are taking them away and will be deleting them" so they closed my account and took control over the domains... Few days later, I visit some of the domains and... They are parked at a different company! This registrar was parking those domains for the remaining 330 days of the registration term and making money... Double standards?! You think? Nothing new in the domain industry. There are so many examples and cases I can point out... There wouldn't even be enough time to cover them all and analyze properly. It is for another day... No no.. It is for a 300 page book "Domain Name Industry: So Full of It."
Everybody does it... No denying it. No getting away with it. Show me a list of top domain portfolio holders who you know and think are 100% clean and I will show you a list of 10x more popular domainers and companies with 100x the amount of domain names who are as dirty as it gets. So really, there is nothing to brag about. Domain industry is trying to get all this mainstream attention and acceptance past few years... Is it smart?? Is it going to backfire? Of course it will. On TV, there is always stories about all this frauds and scams... On CNBC they are real hot this days on primetime. So watch out!! LOL.
So, whether it is a pissed off blogger or an ambitious lawyer or a TV exec looking to do something creative and go at it with the domain industry... There it is. Just waiting. The greatest opportunity to truly expose it for what it is. It is so easy. It is so simple. It is so worth it. But why isn't anybody doing it?? Why is everybody skipping this story? What... A $1 billion dollar plus scam and fraud isn't good enough? Well, I think I know the answer and I think you do too.
Anyways, there is a lot more to be said and written about this subject... I could go on and on but there is really no end. It is very complicated. It is also very profitable. Everybody wants to cash in. Every single day another Joe Schmoe wants to do it and gets in the world of domaining. Domain parking companies want to do it and encourage it. Domain registrars want to do it and run promotions for new registrants. Internet service providers want to do it off of unresolved internet addresses. Web hosts too... Everybody is doing it and getting away with it. If somebody quits doing it, another one picks up right where they left off. There is no quick easy way or solution to the problem.
On a final note, though, if and when domain typos are either taken offline, blocked or stopped being monetized... There will be a ton of rage and debate and it will effect everybody and I mean everybody. Tons of good traffic gone from the search channel. Tens of millions of targeted monthly visitors gone from Google's and Yahoo's ad inventory. Hundreds of millions of dollars gone from the cash flow of Google and Yahoo and many top domainers. Oh there will be chaos... Will there? Can it really happen?!? What a disaster.... Noooo!?
Look, I don't know... But the domain industry sure as hell is fun and exciting and it is what used to get me up and early before sunrise each and every morning highly motivated and ready to conquer the challenges presented. The fact of not knowing.. The chase... Well, I've retired from the 24/7/365 win-at-all-costs domain game or domain grind or whatever you call it this days but as an observer of the industry and a big fan --- still fascinated by it as I am sure many are. We'll just have to let things play out and see how it goes. Be careful though, there are always consequences! Don't think that you are invincible.
