Domain Registrar Discounts Unexampled

EstDomains Still Offering Unexampled Discounts

EstDomains, a US-based domain registrar, prolongs its special offer and announces that company's domains will remain cheaper than the net cost from original domain zone owners up to August 31, 2008.

(PRWEB) September 6, 2007 -- It is common knowledge that domain registrars selling domains to end buyers have relative marketing freedom in their pricing -- still, their prices remain tied to the prices set up by companies who own this or that domain zone, like VeriSign. EstDomains Inc. started its special offer with domain prices set below the net cost of original domain registries. Originally this special offer was to expire on August 31, 2007, but following the feedback from its customers, the company now extends the duration of the offer to August 31, 2008.

It has to be noted that the prices of EstDomains Inc. remain tied to the original costs from corporations owning the domain zones. However, if the original costs are subject to change, the margin between the net costs and prices for EstDomains Inc. end buyers will still remain. This makes the prolonged offer from EstDomains Inc. a perfect domain deal for every customer.

Currently, EstDomains Inc. customers can get a .com, .net, .org or name domain for as low as $5.99. One-year registration of an .info domain will cost $3, while .biz domains cost $5.39. As for .us and .tv domains, their registration is priced at $5.49 and $24.99, respectively. Learn more about the services and special offers from EstDomains Inc. here: www.estdomains.com.

Press Contact: Konstantin Poltev
Company Name: Estdomains, Inc
Phone: 302-722-4217
Website: www.estdomains.com

Domain Parking? Just Add Water!

I'm doing some testing of one domain over at http://www.WhyPark.com. I thought I should give them a fair test and not just judge them on the basis of the fee they charge. One the one hand, paying $100 to park up to 100 domains is not cheap, especially if your domains are junk and are not getting any traffic. Even if WhyPark is great, it's going to take some time to get some traffic and earn some money. Still, paying for a hosting account that will let you put up 100 sites and all the time it's going to take is not trivial. But that's not what this post is about.

Tonight I got a comment on one of my blogs and it was a spam comment. They found my post about WhyPark and I guess they didn't like it, because they made a somewhat cryptic comment to the effect that Instant Website was better. So, after I deleted the spam and posted a reply, I went over to IW and thought I would give it a try. I opened an account and set up a test using a domain they provided: 

http://wally.nordfish.nowiw.com/

I don't know how long that will stay up, and I decided to not do a screenshot. But I'll tell you that while their site may actually be effective, they look like crap and I would be embarrassed to say one was mine...! At first they don't seem too bad, but they take what looks like magazine articles on good topics, and then put other spam crap in dim faded text in every other paragraph. Do a search for a topic that has nothing to do with the site and then look at the articles. It looks like a site of a a mad person, or some of the really old spam content sites we used to see on GEOCITIES and TRIPOD years ago.

Here's a partial list of sites to look at so you can get a better idea:

appetizer.co.za
arcon.co.za
badcreditloans.net.cn
badcreditservices.co.uk
broadband-high-speed-internet.com
chunky.co.za
commercialloan.net.cn
creditguide.org.uk
dentistry.co.za
guy.co.za
ins.co.za
lifeliberty.co.za
mygoals.co.za
nanoiphone.org.uk
propertyguide.ws
redfly.co.za
sacouple.co.za
simpleloan.eu
stayout.co.za
there.co.za
uncle.co.za
univision.co.za
website-hosting-servers.com

I don't know, I guess it's worth a try if you think it's for you. I guess you have set your DNS to point to their site before you can get a "credit" and setup your site for real. So it doesn't seem to cost anything, they have some ads on the site that are theirs and that is how they expect to make money. They might make more if they just buy a lot of cheap domains and make sites for themselves...

Park! Why?

I was just granted a free trial account at WhyPark.com for one domain. There has been some discussion on Namepros.com about this service that you pay about $100 dollars for and that allows you to set up as many as 100 domains. As an alternative to domain parking there system allows you to enter in some information including some ad network code like AdSense, and quickly set up something like a web site that pulls in articles that are on the topics for keywords that you choose.

For my test, I selected the domain http://www.music-download-universe.com that has been parked for several months and earned perhaps a dollar. I choose this domain name because it does get a lot of traffic, so I won't have to wait, but also because it gets few clicks and those clicks pay very little.

The setup is about the same as a parking page where they provide you with options to customize your parking pages. Unlike parking, there did not seem to be any defaults, so if you have a lot of domains you are going to be spending time getting each domain name set up. The good news is that each site should not take you long one you get started. They include a tool to help you find keyword for you domain and it looks like the data may be coming from WordTracker, but I could not tell. The search terms have numbers so you can see what it popular. I added "free music downloads" and a few other related phrases.

Then there are two areas where you can enter in your ad network code. I added normal AdSense at first and then after thinking about it I pulled that out and replaced it with the AdSense for referrals. This works much the same, but I think there are more interesting ads and many of them can pay you a LOT more than normal AdSense. I picked some categories for music/entertainment and consumer electronics.

I may experiment with this and see just what I can get away with in the manner of creative coding such as links and iframes... Since you just pay for the service once, I don't think WP will care unless you create sites that look trashy or broken, or cause problems for their servers.

You can choose a number of domain templates and customize one as well. You can also add new pages. I will see how the basic setup goes and then consider doing more work on my site. You will find they sites look much like what we are used to from Made For AdSense (MFA) sites, so adding a contact, about, and other pages could "round out" the site so it really looks like a site. One of my suggestions will be to WP that they offer pre-configured pages like an about and contact page for users to make this easier. I would like to create one page of content for an about page and then have that as a default that I can edit on a site by site basis.

Winding up for now, there was on feature that was something I just suggested on the forums the other day. When domainers buy and sell domains, there doesn't seem to be any way to easily transfer the domain within a parking service. You must contact support and have them verify you are now the owner of the domain and then you can set it up under your account. It would be a big plus to be able to transfer the domain parking page set up to the new owner so they can easily maintain the current earnings. WhyPark has this option now for site owners. Yes, you do have to open an account with WhyPark, but at least you don't have to re-create all the settings and start from scratch. I would like to see WP charge the new domain owner $1 for the transfer of the domain name to their account. That way they would not be forced to pay the full fee for something they may not really want, but there would be some incentive for them to leave the domain with WP which may not provide much income, does provide continued advertising for their system.

Citizen Hawk Service Upsetting Domainers

CitizenHawk, Inc. is sending out emails to domainers that they feel are infringing on the trademarks of some companies. Domainers that get emails from them are upset in part because they come on so strong and are demanding that the domainer turn over the domain to Citizen Hawk. Many domainers think this is a scam since they are being asked to turn over their domains.

While not exactly a scam, it seems to be a service that may or may not be legal. Unless the Squawker has been authorized to act in the behalf of the trademark holder, they may not have any right to do what they are doing.

On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with  providing a service that goes after those that may be abusing a trademark.

My concern is that there are some cases where a trademark may be involved but no abuse is taking place, such as a domain like Xboxforums.org. If a site is not doing things that should be considered abuse, will they still be targeted? My advice to companies is to go easy on those that may be loyal and good customers at first. You can always get tough later on if you find real signs of abuse and infringement.

Frankly, I could see this area ripe for a different kind of service that provided not only a policing service, but also one that offers education as well. Many new domainers start buying domains and do not realize that they may be potentially infringing on a trademark. After all, if you find some valuable land that no one owns, but that they could have staked a claim in and didn't, it doesn't seem likely that they are interested in it.

Ebay had the right approach last year when they sent out thousands of emails to people that registered different variations of the word "ebay". Rather than pay a lawyer to get all nasty, they simply notified people that they were being put on notice and that they should not use, sell, or renew any domain with their trademark. The implication was that if the advice was not followed, they would come after you and you were not going to like the encounter...

www,citizenhawk.com