How to .Tel the Difference

One of the more interesting companies I’ve talked to during this ICANN meeting has been Telnic. On December 3rd they will start their sunrise registration of .tel domains. There are a few notable and fascinating things about this extension worth discussing.

The domains won’t be used for websites, per se. You won’t actually be using A records, C-Name records or MX records. You won’t have a hosting company. There will be no FTPing or html pages of any sort.

It’s always when you think you know a thing or two that someone turns everything upside down on you. While even rookie domainers quickly learn what A, C-name and MX records are, even the most savvy of us have never heard of NAPTR records. From what I understand, they are DNS records that can contain phone numbers, email address, links or other communication services.

In other words, they are using the central name servers to propogate out to the world’s DNS servers all of the content that any .Tel will display. If you visit hotels.tel you will be pulling the content from a name server near you, not from a hosting company.

Their goal appears to be to become the yellow and white pages of the 21st century. Besides business opportunities for people that want to setup and sell listings for hotels.tel or taxis.tel, they hope that companies will jump on board with names like microsoft.tel and post all of their contact information. As an individual you could put up your contact information along with links to your Facebook and/or linkedin.com profiles.

The jury, as they say, is out on this point. I think its important to distinguish .Tel from .mobi domains. The purpose of .mobi domains is to point to properly formatted mobile websites while the purpose of .Tel domains is to point to contact information and keyword for individuals and businesses and all information is immediately clickable for a “click-to-call” feature.

The technical aspects of how they are pulling this off, however, is nothing less than astounding. Someone may come up with very clever ways of monetizing a service like this if they think way outside the box like Telnic has.

They are not auctioning off premium names and will not be running a lottery system. When they start their landrush they want it to be a free-for-all. Those who snag the obvious premium names like hotels, taxis and common first and last names will certainly have sellable names on the aftermarket.

Looking for com in a Muslim World

Walking the streets of Cairo reminds me a bit of Asian countries. Without Roman and Greek letters on signs it is nearly impossible to understand things other than familiar logos. I have no problem navigating streets in French, Spanish or other European countries but Arabic, Japanese and the like make you feel like you are truly on another planet.

While there may be .com and .eg (Egypt’s ccTLD, not a gTLD for examples) signs on the street, I haven’t seen any yet.

Of course I’ve also been wandering streets in a jet lag induced stupor. I arrived after an eight hour flight to Amsterdam and a nine hour layover in the same city. I woke up Sunday at 14:00 hours, just in time to go to the Egyptian museum on my one day off and stand in line until the museum closed. In fact, I haven’t really done anything here yet.

Today, however, marks the start of another ICANN conference and my first in eight years. I’ve got a big agenda and many things I want to accomplish this week. Fortunately, most of the signs in the hotels and airports are in English.

First half of the TRAFFIC Down Under Auction Names Released

On the 20th of November I hope to be surfing in the morning while on the Gold Coast of Australia. Afterwords, I’ll go up to my room, shower, put on a suit and get ready for my auction. Here’s the first half of the list we’ll be auctioning off. It’s listed below in no particular order. For more information about the show, visit the official website.

FreeCellMinutes.com	No Reserve
Fabrications.com	5,000 USD - 9,999 USD
Brussels.net	10,000 USD - 19,999 USD
LifeInsurers.com	0 USD - 4,999 USD
StockSymbol.com	0 USD - 4,999 USD
Rang.com	0 USD - 4,999 USD
ProBasketball.com	0 USD - 4,999 USD
Wait.net	0 USD - 4,999 USD
Macros.net	0 USD - 4,999 USD
Pete.com	20,000 USD - 29,999 USD
FaxOnDemand.com	5,000 USD - 9,999 USD
FrenchRiviera.com	100,000 USD - 199,999 USD
Aussies.net	0 USD - 4,999 USD
Gosford.com	20,000 USD - 29,999 USD
inearheadphones.com	No Reserve
MealReplacement.com	No Reserve
TomatoJuice.com	No Reserve
GranolaBar.com	No Reserve
AcidRefluxRelief.com	No Reserve
InfantFormulas.com	No Reserve
ManagingDiabetes.com	No Reserve
SoreJoints.com	No Reserve
MO.com	300,000 USD - 399,999 USD
CharterPlanes.com	10,000 USD - 19,999 USD
VideoPachinko.com	5,000 USD - 9,999 USD
GolfClubs.org	5,000 USD - 9,999 USD
taxaccountant.com & taxaccountants.com	50,000 USD - 74,999 USD
ChristianEducation.com	10,000 USD - 19,999 USD
ChristianFriends.com	100,000 USD - 199,999 USD
CR.com	100,000 USD - 199,999 USD
WY.net	10,000 USD - 19,999 USD

I can return to ICANN and I will

Not since 1999 have I been to an ICANN meeting. I was at the first two in Singapore and Berlin but life took other turns and I stopped going to them. Looking at their meeting archives, I’ve missed a lot.

It’s not only the business opportunities either. If you can make money off those meetings, you can really see every corner of the globe. This next meeting is in Cairo. If you plan to attend, please contact me so we can get together.

November will, in fact, be a busy month. I’ll be spending the first two weeks in Egypt and Amsterdam working on new products and services for the industry which i can’t talk about yet; then the third week in Australia for our auction and the TRAFFIC Down Under convention. All-in-all, I’ll touch 4 continents when I land back home in the States. Perhaps I should go to Brazil just for the hell of it.

My wife’s not to happy about me going to Egypt without her but I promissed that I won’t do any sight-seeing. It’s hard to type with your fingers crossed, by the way.

Get Your Name in Print

The TRAFFIC Down Under show in Brisbane Australia is just around the corner. Specifically, it’s November 18th through the 20th in Brisbane.

If you’d like to submit domains to our auction there, I suggest you do so now. The reason is that I spend over $40,000 a month in print campaigns with periodicals like Website Magazine and Internet Retailer. As you probably know, the lead time is at least 30 days. If you get your names to us this week, we have time to squeeze them into our next campaign before the auction comes.

Auction Results and Final Thoughts - NYC 2008

It’s time to leave New York and go home. Overall, I think it was a very successful show. I cut a lot of deals, developed and strengthened strategic relationships and had a good time. Before I go on I’d like to say, thank you to everyone who voted for me as Domainer of the Year. That’s an incredible honor to be voted for by your peers and I’m grateful.

On the auction front, while we didn’t put up huge numbers, we put up bigger numbers than two of the other auctions. And at $700,100 in sales, we averaged the same amount per lot as Moniker’s premium auction, more or less. I’ve spent the last few days analyzing what we did right and what we did wrong and below are my thoughts.

Those that I do a lot of business know that most of the names that I own I am willing to sell at small margins. That’s my business model. I do a lot of sales because I’m not greedy. Anyway, back to the point. I think the first thing I did right was I brought inventory priced low enough that we got sales on a day the sky was falling in New York.

I think we picked the right auctioneer and spotters. Most people were entertained by them. I did make one major mistake with them. I didn’t stress to them that the buyers were internet professionals and needed clarity. When they first started they would say “sold” when it wasn’t really sold to keep momentum going. I put a stop to that right away. The thought of correcting blogs and confusing sellers and buyers was horrible. Don’t blame them though. That was just habit for them. Our next auction will start at exact reserve prices and it’ll be obvious what sells and doesn’t. I pledge to you transparency. After the first 10 lots or so, the auctioneer was straight up, by the way. Matt Lowery is great and will stay with us and we both apologize for any confusion.

Another mistake I made was I wasn’t myself on the stage. I didn’t know if I should smile or frown or talk or what so I sat there doing nothing. I like to think I have a dynamic personality when I want to and I should have just relaxed and done my thing. I know selling domains as good as anyone so what was there to doubt? I guess I was afraid to smile because I was worried the audience would not bid if I looked like I was happy about making money. On hindsight, that’s ludicrous. They know if they want the name or not and most of them are learning or will learn that I don’t need to make a lot of money on the name. My goal is to sell the most names. I just need to prove that.

We tested our online software and we loaded the data but we never tested it with the data. Shame on us. This isn’t my first rodeo. I’m not sure how that slipped through the cracks. You could see the html tags in the lot descriptions. That was embarrassing. Other than that, the software worked great and their onsite staff handled the situation.

Thank you to everyone involved. I had an awesome team! The official auction results are below:

Domain Name Price
MCC.com $195,000
CountryClubs.com $85,000
EFS.com $55,000
NAP.com $47,500
Lisbon.net $32,000
Spreadsheets.com $25,000
423.com $25,000
PER.com $20,000
LotteryNumbers.com $20,000
SecurityAlarms.com $18,000
PublicAuctions.com $17,000
TruckRims.com $16,000
ComputerBatteries.com $14,000
Wines.net $13,000
BabyAnnouncements.com $13,000
PreOwnedJets.com/PreOwnedJet.com $12,500
Sugarless.com $12,000
RentalCondos.com $11,500
11.net $10,000
OneHourPhoto.com $7,000
GolfClubRepair.com $6,500
BreastExamination.com $6,000
Microbrewers.com $6,000
PrinceEdward.com $4,100
Monopolies.com $4,000
ModelSchools.com $4,000
FrenchPerfumes.com $4,000
HighFidelity.com $4,000
Coeds.net $3,000
PostOfficeBox.com $2,500
StockBuying.com $2,300
StockOrders.com $1,500
ForexTickers.com $1,100
SecondaryLending.com $800
ForexTicker.com $800
StockShare.com $400
StockShares.com $300
StockOrder.com $300
MufflerRepairs.com 
ResearchLab.com & ResearchLabs.com 
Atriums.com 
CustomBoots.com 
TheBronx.net 
GolfClothing.com 
GolfJackets.com 
DayTraders.com 
GayLawyers.com 
Cyberspace.com 
OilandLube.com 
Cognacs.com 
CatFood.com 
Rhodes.com 
Schnapps.com 
DefenseAttorneys.com 
BrooklynLawyers.com 
Chew.com 
CR.com 
BlackEntrepreneurs.com 
Audit.com & Audits.com 
Drugs.net 
Autos.net 
ND.net 
GD.net 
French.net 
PaintContractors.com 
Tasks.com 
RugCleaning.com 
GolfSweaters.com 
Gas.info 
ER.com 
FinancialBrokers.com 
BroadwayShows.com 
SanJuan.com 
Vino.com 
GolfClubs.com 
BlackEntrepreneur.com 
CountryLakes.com 

Total Sales: $700,100

Now it’s time to shut this laptop down and board a plan,  go home and start preparing for the Australia show and many more exciting things to come.

P.S. Thank you Ron Jackson of dnjournal.com for use of the photo.

Last Minute Addition - Seoul.com

Rick Latona Auctions is proud to announce the last minute addition of Seoul.com to our T.R.A.F.F.C. New York auction. Seoul is the largest city in South Korea as well as the 2nd largest metropolitan area in the world. This is listed with a very aggressive reserve in the 1 Million to 1.5 Million range and is priced to sell.

It is game time everyone. All of the “Good Luck” emails have been well received and thank you for your support.

Online bidding is available NOW at http://www.proxibid.com/ricklatona - if you haven’t signed up yet please do. When the hammer hits on these names bidding will be closed.

If there are any issues with registering for online bidding please give David Clements a call at 678-468-9228.

Here is to a great success!

Anxiety Level at All-Time High/Email Down

So, last night I had a dream that Audits.com and Audit.com, two fantastic names, sold in the millions at the auction. Then the dream turned into a nightmare where nothing else sold.

I wake up and go to check my email and our Exchange hosting provider is down. I haven’t received any messages since 3:30. I’m not sure if they are capturing emails or if all of my mail is bouncing.

I use Intermedia.net and they are normally very reliable. I really hope they get it up soon.

Bidding Starts NOW!!!!!

We’ve done one more thing to change the way domain auctions should be run. Our main competitor throws names that don’t sell into an online bidding system and runs them for another week. We are starting the online bidding a week before the live auction. You can sign up now and start bidding! The auctions will close when the live auctioneer says “sold” on the 24th at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Conference and Expo.

My anxiety level is at an all-time high but at this point, I need to let the market determine our fate. I’ve done everything that we could think of. We’ve got, what we feel, is an incredibly good list of names at low reserves. We’ve got a world champion auctioneer. We are using the best online auction software company. We are starting the auction a week early! And, we have better financing options than our competitors because we will pay 10% of your down payment. I don’t know what else to do at this point other than sit back and hope for the best.

We are here to stay which is why we’ve put so much into this. Anything worth having is worth fighting for and the domain buyer, my customer, is why I fight.

Quick Links
View Auction Inventory
Register for Auction
Submit Domains for Auction

Financing Options at Rick Latona Auctions are Better

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Rick Latona Auctions Partners with Domain Capital.

Atlanta, Georgia USA – September 10, 2008 – Today, Rick Latona Auctions, LLC and RickLatona.com, LLC announced a partnership with Domain Capital to finance domain name purchases.

Typically, Domain Capital finances up to 60% of the purchase price, requiring a 40% down payment by the buyer. However, for a limited time, Latona Company clients have to only put 30% down on domain name purchases. The Latona Companies will take care of the remaining 10% of the down payment on the domain name.

Asked about it, Rick Latona said, “To thank our clients for their confidence and business, the Latona Companies are providing an outstanding monetary value-add for purchases through our opt-in newsletter and auctions. Now someone can buy a $100,000 name with just $30,000 down instead of $40,000 down because we are putting up $10,000 of the down payment. Domain Capital offers a great product and this is our way of thanking our customers for their business”

About Domain Capital:

Domain Capital is a financial services company that offers financing to businesses based on the inherent and recognized value of premium domain names.  Our vision is to innovate exciting new financial products and services designed to enable entrepreneurs to exploit new business models. For more information, go to www.domaincapital.com.

_________________

Note: Please ask questions about this. I realize that it may come across as a bit confusing but this is the real deal. I will make 10% of your down payment for you!

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