.CM Auction Exclusive - Announcing an online only auction of .cm premium names in July - Inventory Inside

Rick Latona Auctions has cut a deal with the registrant of aged .cm names to auction. These are not being auctioned off the registry but the registry is aware.

More details will be published soon but I wanted to give you guys a teaser on some of the names:

casino.cm
poker.cm
loan.cm
billboard.cm
cars.cm
401k.cm
abc.cm
aaa.cm
academy.cm
ae.cm
apartmentguide.cm
budget.cm
buy.cm
shopping.cm
coach.cm
boston.cm
creditcards.cm
date.cm
digitalcameras.cm
drugs.cm
drugstore.cm
bodybuilding.cm
cupid.cm
fling.cm
forex.cm
forrent.cm
games.cm
gateway.cm
guess.cm
gap.cm
gunbroker.cm
jeux.cm
jobs.cm
juegos.cm
king.cm
launch.cm
maps.cm
musica.cm
nick.cm
canada.cm
playboy.cm
switchboard.cm
virgin.cm
lasvegas.cm
australia.cm

Interview with Victor Abboud of NIC.EC - Ecuador’s ccTLD

I’ve decided to take on an ambituous goal to interview all of the world’s ccTLD registries. Some of them will take years before I can get them to agree and others will take years before they are even operational like some African nations. A man has to have a mission though and the project intrigues me.

This first interview is with Victor Abboud of NIC.EC the Ecuadorian ccTLD. While their market share is small they are doing a promotion for domainers that ends in a few days so the time to publish this is now.

After friendly chats with Victor over the phone and via email I feel that they are a domainer friendly registry so I want to help them get more exposure. After all, any friend of domainers is a friend of mine.

A bit about Ecuador first. I was there last summer when I visited the Galapagos Islands with my family. I really liked the country and the people very much.

According to Wikipedia Ecuador has around 15 million people. Most of them live either in Quito (the capital) or Guayaquil the financial center. NIC.EC is in Guayaquil.

The official language is, of course, Spanish.

Now onto the interview. As this is my first one, forgive me if I have missed important questions.

RL - Please tell us your official title with  NIC.EC

Mr Abboud - General Manager   of NIC.EC , Domain Registry of Ecuador .

RL - How many .ec names are currently  registered?

Mr Abboud - There are almost 20,000 domain names under .ec .

RL - I see that www.nic.ec is also in English. That’s  very handy for many of us. Can you tell me if email and telephone support is  also available in English?

Mr Abboud - NIC.EC website is in Spanish and  has a full version in English  , as well as all reminder and  confirmation emails. We have customer support by email and telephone also in  English .

RL - I see that you have a special running until the 20th  of June. Can you tell my audience all about it?

Mr Abboud - During the last years we have had a promotion of discounted  fees , and this year from June 10 to the 20th, the promotion  is for new domains for US$10 for 1 year , $20 for 2 years and $30 for 3  years, which is a great opportunity to register domain names . Many domain  holders had their names under .com.ec but not directly under .ec . Some  prefer one or the other , some prefer both , in any case is a good moment to  register both options as well as others as .info.ec and .net.ec .

RL - Are there any restrictions for foreigners that want  to own .ec names? 

Mr Abboud - Registrations under .ec , .com.ec  , .net.ec , .info.ec are open to all with no local presence required ,  however domains under .edu.ec , org.ec and .gov.ec are only for Ecuadorians.

RL - What about transfers? Is there paperwork required  for transfers or can people simply push a name to another account?

Mr Abboud - For domain transfer from one Registrant to another there is some paperwork  in terms of signing a form and sending some documents. Also there is a  transfer fee . This process is not through the website but is not time  consuming if done properly.

RL - It  appears that nic.ec is both the registry and registrar for .ec domains. Do  you have any plans for opening up and supplying volume discounts for other  registrars?

Mr Abboud - Many Registrars register .ec  domains for their customers but also many Registrants register directly  through NIC.EC . We are working on implementing a Registrar accreditation  process for them to have a more efficient process on .ec registration as  well as fees according to the volume they manage. This effort is to promote  the use of .ec domains and for Registrants to have several options of .ec  registration with value added services

RL - Do  you offer tasting or have plans to offer tasting?

Mr Abboud - No domain tasting in .ec because though one may register a  domain name, activation is upon payment.

RL - What do you do with expired domains? Do you publish  a list anywhere of .ec names that are expiring or have expired?

Mr Abboud - We  do all efforts to make domain holders aware that their domain is  expiring and that may suffer suspension of services and finally its deletion  . Once the grace period ends after many processes and alerts, the domain is  deleted and no list is published and it is then available for registration .

Thank you Victor for taking the time to help me on this project. Good luck with your promotion and see you at an ICANN meeting or hopefully a Targeted TRAFFIC show.

.CO is coming - Expect huge prices and an intense aftermarket - finally real competition to .com

At long last, the nation of Colombia is going to turn their coveted ccTLD extension “.co” into a business.

I’ve received word that on the 23rd of June the country will be accepting a bid. My source tells me that Verisign, Straat Investments, Affilias, Argus, and Technology Services (GTS), among others, have all expressed interest in and most likely placed bids to be the administrator of the extension.

The .co extension will be a major hit. Not only will the names get snatched up by domainers due to their similarity to .com names and other names that use .co like .co.uk (United Kingdom) but if marketed properly, end-users will also want the names.

After all, .com means (commercial) where .co traditionally means (company). In many ways, .co makes more sense than .com for a company’s domain.

I’m not saying that .co is an immediate threat to .com. Please don’t blow out of proportion my comments. I’m just saying it is the biggest threat. I can’t think of any other extension which would have the same potential.

If I was a gambling man - which I am from time to time - I’d place my bet on VeriSign walking away with the prize. I can’t imagine there being a price tag too big for them to pay to control the extension which poses the biggest threat to their core business.

ccTLD Extended Auction now live - full inventory list inside

The extended auction inventory is now live and open for bidding. We have over 1000 high quality names and ccTLDs on the list. Please take the time to review it carefully.

Bidding is open until the auction closes Monday the 15th. You can go to www.proxibid.com/ricklatona and search for the name you want to bid on or the lot number for the name. The complete inventory is available for download below:

Excel Version | PDF Version

Bid Online Now!

eNom, VeriSign and Rick Latona Auctions partner to auction off premium .TV names without steep renewal fees.

Big news for .TV fans -

June 4^th 2009, in Amsterdam, during the Targeted T.R.A.F.F.I.C. domainer event in Europe, Rick Latona Auctions will be auctioning off .TV domain names that normally have well above average premium renewal fees.

These premium names have been available for years but haven’t moved due to high fixed annual costs associated with them. The deal offered now is much more attractive.

Let’s take a look at a an example:

Satellite.tv will be auctioned off with a $30,000 reserve and the renewal fee is now only $750 per year. That’s an exceptional deal considering the renewal fee was $10,000 per year before. Now someone could really make a business out of this premium name.

Some others:

Domain	Reserve	New Special Renewal Fee
Help.tv	$37,500	$1000
Home.tv	$90,000	$1500
Traffic.tv	$25,000	$750
Lawyers.tv	$25,000	$750
Sales.tv	$14,000	$750
Racing.tv	$14,000	$750
Classic.tv	$15,000	$750
Classics.tv	$15,000	$750
Germany.tv	$75,000	$1000
Today.tv	$9,000	$750

One question that I am anticipating is whether or not these can be transfered. The answer is yes. As long as the names are renewed, they can be transfered at this special renewal fee. They can never be transfered out of eNom, however.

This is the first time these names have been offered like this and the chance may not come again. Please let us know if you have any questions or if you would like to apply for financing on one of the names.

Free Entry into T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Amsterdam? You can get them from me. Here is how

Starting tomorrow, I will be putting 1-5 premium ccTLD names for sale in my newsletter that will each come with a free entry into T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs Amsterdam. The entry fee into the show is $1995. Each premium name will be worth more than $1995 but I will have them priced at $1995. You can call it what you want. $1995 for the name and get a free ticket or $1995 for the ticket and get a free name. I don’t care.

These will be transferable tickets. Meaning, if you are already registered, plan to invite a colleague, or want to buy 10 of the names or just give tickets away, it doesn’t matter.

If you aren’t subscribed to my newsletter yet you can do so here.

I am keenly aware that the world as a whole is more budget conscious than it has been in a while. I sincerely hope this helps those that need the help and motivates those that need to get their buts in gear.

Things I’ve learned from ccTLDs.com so far. There’s a wealth of information at your fingertips.

It’s been just shy of two weeks since we launched ccTLDs.com and in that time, I’ve learned many things that I didn’t already know. You have to love the value of having a community of experts.

So far, there has been no real drama on the board and the members have all been very helpful to each other. All in all, I couldn’t be happier with the way things have gotten off.

In no particular order, here are some highlights of things I’ve learned. These are just my personal experiences.

While the Dutch language has letters with symbols, there is no need for .nl IDN names as Dutch people would never use them. Dutch people use the same keyboards as Americans do and wouldn’t even know how to make the symbols in the same way most Americans wouldn’t know how to type café.  The thread is here.

.AR (Argentina) names are free. The thread is here.

Multiple word German .de names can be more valuable if they have dashes in the names. The thread is here.

Be careful what names you register in France. You could get your ass sued in a heartbeat. The thread is here.

Be very careful with .in names. We have yet to find anyone who has successfully defended their right to even own a generic name. The thread is here.

Anyway, these are just a few of the things I’ve learned and the knowledge is only just now starting to accumulate. I hope you can find time to stop by and take a look. Don’t be afraid to ask a question if you have one. Everyone has been very helpful.

Is an IDN a third category of name or are they just ccTLDs or gTLDs?

Personally, I’m a fan of the long-term value of internationalized domain names or IDNs. While I would rarely pay much for a name now on the wholesale market, I can certainly see them only going up in value as the consumers get used to the idea.

When I talk with my friends in Japan, they were not even aware that they could type in Japanese into their address bar. That is sure to change.

Recently, I’ve been asked to create an IDN forum on ccTLDs.com. I’m reluctant to do that because to me niña.com is a gtld and niña.es is a ccTLD.

Recently, someone posted in a thread comments that drive this point home. While the discussion started about the domain finanzierungshilfe.de, it quickly turned into the best way someone should own a name that should be an IDN. The word Kämpfen, for example, is an IDN. However, they said the best way to own it would be kaempfen not kampfen if you were going to not have the IDN. In a pefect world you’d want all three in both .com and .de. Which is the most valuable of the 6? Heck if I know. That’s what the board is all about. I think if I could have only two I’d want Kämpfen.de and kaempfen.de.

In short, I see the line between an IDN and ascii domains becoming less clear, many years down the road. The line between ccTLDs and gTLDs will remain transparent.

ccTLDs.com, less than 24 hours old - so far so good. How it affects the overall plan. Also, registries that will speak in Amsterdam

By now it should be obvious I’m doing everything I can to promote ccTLDs to the market at large. If there is something I’m not doing, it’s only because I haven’t thought of it yet. It isn’t for a lack of effort or willingness.

The new forum should help focus the discussion on these topics. Soon, we’ll be offering it in multiple languages and adding many other features. It’s a work in progress so bear with us as we set about improving the service.

The benefits are starting to already show. Because of the forum and our show in Amsterdam dedicated to ccTLDs we have had commitments from the following speakers:

Sabine Dolderer the leader of Germany’s denic which runs .de.

Phil Kingsland - Director of Marketing and Commincations for Nominet (.uk)

Michel and Rudolf of SIDN who run the .nl registry.

.PL (Poland’s registry) will have someone there.

Klemens Pidner from Austria’s .at registry will be presenting.

Oscar Robles-Garay who runs Nic.mx and will be launching the general registrations of .mx during the show.

Moustapha Saya Kiagama, the General Manager from Netcom.cm SARL will be presenting.

Someone from .NG will be there for the relaunch of Nigeria’s extension. There are over 150 million English speaking people in Nigeria.

We are talking to a dozen others so the list is sure to grow.  If you would like to nominate a speaker for one of our Seminars at TRAFFIC ccTLDs, you may click here to nominate yourself or another person.

What’s great is that because of the intense focus on the subject matter at hand, country-code top-level domains, we are getting both registries and registrars beating down the door to attend and sponsor the show.

This all means that there will be more people at the show than past European domainer meetings and more contacts and relationships to be had. There will definitely be a wider variety of people from the domain industry. This will be a show like no other.

Anyway, back to the message board. We are going to do our best to keep ccTLDs from being clutered with advertising. The only thing people will be able to purchase will be individual forum sponsorships. If someone wants to sponsor the .de forum, for example, they will get their image below the usernames in the threads and a sticky thread at the top of the .de forum. At least for a while, there won’t be any other ads on the site. We are looking for a clean experience.

I really have more to say but I’ll leave it for future posts. I’ve got to go meet up with the family now at Magic Kingdom. I made my daughter promise not to ride Space Mountain without me.

Technology Sucks. If you tried to signup for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs over the last few days you might have received an error. It’s been fixed now.

Several of you have received security warnings when you have been going to the TargetedTraffic.com/cctlds webpage to register for the conference.

What caused the problem was that there were elements in the site that were similar to elements found in triblabla.awasr.cn, a known website which hosts malware software.  We have cleaned up the code and tested it and we have not been able to get any further security warnings. It wasn’t our fault, per se, other than not efficiently testing the site.

Although we have not found any further warnings, please let us know if you get any so we can address them immediately.  We would like to thank Hennie and Nico for helping us address and resolve this problem quickly.

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