DomainTools Blog

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under conference is fast approaching. The Fabulous team has put together an outstanding program of events and speakers with all net proceeds of the conference benefiting ICA. They are also hosting special ICA Charity Auction held Wednesday, November 19, 6:30pm AU-EST. Full details of the agenda, events, charity auction are available on their website.

Aftermarket.com Down Under auction is shaping up nicely with a remarkable line up of domains. Tomorrow, November 14, we will announce the full catalog list and launch auction pre-bidding! Prior to this, there have been a couple of new features added to Aftermarket.com you should know about. Features we believe buyers and sellers will both greatly appreciate!

Be Eligible!

Don’t be caught up at the last minute getting registered. Make sure you are eligible to participate in the auction. Participants need to agree to the Aftermarket.com Down Under Buyers auction contract and have a valid credit card on file in their DomainTools account. If you have not purchased a product or become eligible to bid in a previous auction, we will ask you to donate $1 to Grassroots.org when you register – we know that it is a bit odd, but the good news is that you’ll help out a great organization and be ready to bid in the Down Under auction.

Attending the conference? Come visit us at the Thought Convergence booth to get registered early.

Be Ready!

Curious about new features? Check out our Non-Binding Test Auction available to explore the Aftermarket.com bidding interface. This is a test – and only a test – domains are test, bids are test. The domains in the catalog are invalid and are NOT representative of the Down Under auction domains! You will need to be eligible to bid for the test auction as well. If you have already verified with a credit card on file, all you need to do is agree to the Test Auction terms.

1. Bid validation confirmation - if your bid appears to be unusually high, there will be a request to confirm bid to ensure only valid bids are entered. The factor is 5x the bid increment:

Asking price: $10,000
Bid Increment: $1,000
Your bid: $16,000 = prompted to confirm bid (1000 x 5)

2. Instant notification of activity - As bids coming in on any lot, the lot price in the pricing column is immediately updated and highlighted for all participants to notice the activity.

3. Bid Now! button - Have you ever wanted to just push that button to make the next bid? Now you can! The minimum bid is clearly displayed below the button. Click the button and place that bid. Proxy bidding is still available as well.

A previous blog post explained the auction bidding interface. It is a great tutorial.

Be Alerted!
This is an auction you DO NOT want to miss! To aid you in not missing out, we launched an SMS service. Reminders about the auction will be sent to those signed up for SMS alerts available in your DomainTools Members area, select Mobile Alerts (SMS). It’s a simple sign up and verification process – just confirm your phone number and you will receive reminder when auction starts. Don’t miss out on the auction.

SMS service will soon be added to all DomainTools products that currently send RSS or Email notifications, too.

Aftermarket.com Down Under auction is not one to be missed. Make certain you have everything in place to take advantage of the excellent collection of domain names up for sale.

You may recognize the name. Michael Collins ran Afternic with his brother for a few years (his brother still works there). Well, Michael moved on to run a new business that he had purchased called Speed and Truck World (Speed-Truck.com) but the call of the Domain Industry was too strong to keep him away. He was asked if he would be interested in joining the ICA by Ron Jackson as their new Executive Director. He was not that sure about the job until after talking with some of the Board Members like Bob Martin and Frank Schilling.

Now that he has the job he said, “I am not able to sell anything I don’t believe in. I feel like I would be making a difference.” For those of you that know Michael, he has a big heart and has always treated his partners with a lot of respect. I personally think Michael is an excellent choice for the ICA position.

The ICA Board is still split on whether Domains should be considered property or contract rights but Michael plans to focus on improving and the rights of domain holders either way. He expressed that needs to happen both on Capital Hill and in the Halls of ICANN. Trademark attorneys represent their clients rather well at ICANN, but no one really represents domain owners.

Michael said, “If you are using a commercial parking service, it is very hard to avoid infringing on someones right if that person is trying hard enough they can target ads to show up on your domain.” That is very true, I have seen a lot of generic domains become victims of screenshots. Google services ads are based on the region so it is hard to tell what is being shown to European’s when you are viewing your own website in North America. The average domain owner has little chance to defend all the angles a good Trademark attorney will use to take the domain.

Recently the Los Anglos Angels tried to Reverse Hijack the domain Angels.com. The EFF and other organizations defend Free Speech cases for free. I told Michael it would be great if the ICA sued large companies that try to Reverse Hijack domains from small registrants. This would send a message to big companies that they couldn’t prey on small companies.

Michael plans to get his son involved in the Speed Truck business when he gets out of the Military in Two years. This would give Michael even more time to work for the ICA.

UPDATE: Offical Post at ICA