Acro.net - Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

While some of us count down the time until tropical storm Fay leaves Florida behind, there are only about 12 hours left until FixedLoans.com goes on sale on Bido. Not to let this intro go without citing my home state again, the Real Estate market in Florida has been hit particularly bad; homeowners that were lured into ARM type loans have been struggling since the market bubble burst, as interest rates ballooned.

On with the domain auction.

Fixed (rate) loans are the most straightforward home loans: for the entire lending period - be it, 15 years or 30 years - the interest rate is locked at a number fixed at the time of signing the loan papers. Currently, these rates float below the 7% mark.

FixedLoans.com was apparently owned in the past by a famous Greek domain entrepreneur, Michael Bahlitzanakis. If you cannot pronounce his name easily, just take a look at a couple of domains in his portfolio: Mall.com, City.com. Apparently, Michael obtained FixedLoans.com in 2006 for a mere $10,000 - at a time when most lenders scorned the fixed loan option and offered lucrative deals on 3 and 5 year ARM loans.

Today, these types of loans are the least favorite: the fixed loans are more common, especially since lenders have cut down on handing unsecured loans left and right to people with less than stellar credit history.

So, FixedLoans.com goes on sale on Bido - that’s going to be a single day event, much like every other sale that occurs on the newly established domain auction venue. Bido has tapped into the niche market of “one domain per day” auctioning and they seem to be doing pretty well. There are no bidding minimums; everything starts at $1 with no reserve price.

In theory, you can grab FixedLoans.com for one buck - or will it end substantially higher than what Michael Bahlitzanakis paid for it, just two years ago?

Go to Bido.com to find out!

I just came across this WIPO case with regards to the domain name Aspis.com

It would have been a typical case, if it weren’t for the fact that I actually visited the web site back in 1998 when it was registered; its purpose has always been to gripe against the (then) CEO of Aspis Pronoia, an insurance company in Greece.

Not only does the .com registration predate the complainant’s Swedish mark by 8 years, it’s also a generic, dictionary, ancient Greek word that means “shield”.

So some Swedish meatball comes to claim a mark that’s three thousand years old, and only one of the 3 panelists - Mr. G. Gervaise Davis III - had the guts to engage full vision, unlike the other two panelists.

Indeed, it’s alarming to see that the WIPO system is far from flawless and that there is no fair and balanced measure of what constitutes “legitimate use” and “bad faith”.

So I check my domain access logs today and I notice a sizable traffic increase, that points back to some blog run by fellow Greeks. The first hunch was that someone points to my domains, Acroplex.com and Acro.net because they found something of interest; instead, there is a bunch of crap about an adult traffic domain, which I sold back in January!

Apparently, the new owner - a Greek Australian - has set up a porn site and started spamming the Blogger forums pimping his “ladies”. Which is fine by me, but because he uses WHOIS shield, there is no indication of me not being linked to the domain anymore. I contacted his web host and his account was promptly suspended. I’m also his eNom domain registrar (reseller) and I will consider unlocking his info. The sad part is that once again, people that have no access to the proper information jumped to conclusions in an instant. Gotta love the Internet lynch mob.

Once again, be careful about who you sell your domains to, they might be used wrongfully in the future.

Ever since I started registering domains with the intention to develop or resell (the option to monetize was added much later) I decided to stick to the same basic principle: if it’s in the dictionary, it’s something I can use. If I can use it, others can. If others can, then I have established the motive to register or purchase it.

I can honestly say that the selling potential of dictionary .com, .net, .org domains - the original TLD triad - is a sure winner. As long as I don’t need a dictionary to establish what the word means! Of course, there are dubious spellings or common typos, but the bottom line is that a positive dictionary word serves its purpose well, in real life and in the online commerce world.

I recall buying Gravity.org for a mere $105 on DNForum, at a time when everyone else was looking to buy domains with type-in traffic or typos. I’ve stuck to my guns of picking up dictionary domains as often as I can and this principle has paid off in the long run, more times than I can recall. Four years ago, Gravity.org was sold to a nice guy, who has since then developed it into a beautiful web site depicting his literary work.

Later on, I discovered a great source of such dictionary domains in the form of a well-known parking guru who decided to do what was best at that time, having had thousands of domains that generated little parking income and had renewal fees to be paid. I managed to pick up a lot of these domains in private transactions or via forums; others I bought on eBay and via direct communication with their owners.

There were so many dictionary domains in these days between 2002-2005 that could be had for as little as $20 to just over $100 - I became more organized when such sales would occur, by keeping Notepad open to paste into it the entire list and then I’d delete quickly the names I did not want. I found that to be faster than pasting over the ones that I might want.

It’s shocking even to me, that one such domain that I picked for $50 at a “feeding frenzy” sale on DNForum three years ago, was just sold for a whopping $6,000 via Sedo. Then again, I’ve had other such large sales of dictionary domains in the past - but none resulted in such a high return on investment. I will have to thank my traffic guru seller for this. By the way, it’s an .ORG!

It’s often frustrating trying to sell dictionary domains with inherent potential at reseller forums; the expected responses immediately inquire about traffic stats. When the brand is built around a domain that cannot be misspelled or mistyped, the traffic shall come. What won’t come again, is an abundance of dictionary words in the original three TLDs.

Frank Schilling, in his last blog post in months made this monumental statement:

A few years back I was approached by a company and encouraged to place my domain names for sale through their marketplace. I was given a host of reasons why this was a good idea. “These names don’t make any money”.. “ Selling the names will actually improve my overall portfolio’s value”.. “Selective pruning is just prudent”. Shortly thereafter, a second domain marketplace called. They suggested I sell my names through ‘them’ and that I should cap my purchase prices at $5,000 because that was the limit of automated credit card processors in their scenario.. They even sent me a list of names that I should sell.. tens of thousands of them that don’t make enough to cover their renewals.. and If I could get $2,000-$5,000 each wouldn’t that be Fabulous?! The problem as I looked through my list was that many of the names they suggested I sell were pretty good. I’d pay more than 2-5k for many of these names if they were dropping at auction. I politely declined their offer.

One should employ additional means of measuring the potential value of a domain, other than its visitor figures, and dictionary domains maintain a strong reselling potential regardless of the existing traffic. An experienced domainer will soon acquire a “gut feeling”, an “on-the-fly” evaluation ability that only comes after several successful transactions - and a few monumental failures.

At the same time, one should ensure that a solid business plan is in place; for which I recommend the services of a qualified Certified Public Accountant (CPA) so that every dollar earned or expended is accounted for. I know that I will paying a whole lot more in taxes next year.

What is the domain that resulted in an 120-fold ROI ? You’ll have to keep your eyes peeled on Sedo’s sales for that, in the next few days

From behind the iron curtain of a middle Eastern nation known for its anti-American sentiment, a self-proclaimed hacker seems to be the perpetrator of a series of recent, high profile purchases of domains - using stolen credit cards.

Using proxy servers located in Iraq, he took control of a Network Solutions user account and its main domain, Get-Hosted.com. Then, using either a credit card associated with the account or other stolen credit cards, he made purchases of domains offered for sale via the Network Solutions marketplace. These domains are brokered by two major players in the domain after-market field, BuyDomains and Fabulous.

Apparently, he tried the fraud scheme first at Fabulous, as their domains are typically priced lower. After testing the waters of his process by making several small purchases, he turned his attention to the higher-priced domains offered by BuyDomains. A week or so later, his appetite was large enough that one of these purchases made it on DNJournal: DomainTools.net was sold for $4,088.

Fabulous reacted quickly, reversing between 5 and 6 purchases of about $350 each and regaining control of the domains within days of the incident. The perpetrator, having gained experience from this test run, then decided to alter his process; the roughly 6 large purchases he made from BuyDomains were immediately transfered out to the compromised Network Solutions account and WHOIS protection was added.

Having used stolen credit cards - in other words, other people’s money - it was time now for the hacker to capitalize on the value of the assets; an estimated $25,000 worth of domains. Not too shy about declaring his location (Iraq), he created two accounts at DNForum and offered the domains for a quick sale, at extremely low prices. These aged or otherwise generic names were being offered for $200 to $500 each, with a couple of others seeking offers.

The DNForum sales thread about one of these domains, xdev.com, had a short lifespan; the domain was still listed for sale at Afternic by BuyDomains with a hefty $9,700 price tag on it. And yet, the seller was eager to take any amount of money, ranging from $1,500 up to a BIN price of $5,000. After all, he never paid a penny out of pocket for these domains. The DNForum community was quick to determine that the sale was extremely suspicious and to alert the moderators about the ongoing scam.

Other domains offered for sale included Getting.net, DomainTools.net, DoTrust.com and OrbitPay.com - all of them were being offered at unreasonably low prices. Thankfully, DomainTools.com maintains historical data on domain ownership; it was easy to see that all these domains followed the same pattern: they were sold recently by BuyDomains and were instantly transferred to Network Solutions, to an account with WHOIS shield.

It’s probably the first time that several major players in the domain market were involved as the direct victims of a scam:

• BuyDomains and Fabulous were defrauded, giving up domains in exchange for stolen funds
• Network Solutions & potentially Afternic were used as a Trojan Horse to facilitate the purchases through their respective marketplaces
• Sedo was consequently used by the scammer as a point of sale for some of these domains

Additionally, Visa and Mastercard obviously had to reimburse funds and to reverse charges to the legitimate owners of these credit cards.

Currently, all of the domains appear to have been recovered in a special trust account at Network Solutions. The investigation is ongoing, with regards to the legal ramifications of this act which could amount to tens of thousands of dollars in billable time. It would not be surprising if finally the FBI and Interpol are involved in this case.

Over the course of recent years, Internet scams have proliferated into segments of the global market that were left untouched by traditional crime. It’s imperative that international politics ensure a smoother relationship and cooperation between nations, instead of leaving predatory “black holes” such as Iran, Iraq and North Korea. These criminals operating from such countries feel untouchable by the lack of law and punishment in their own countries and often engage in these acts as a “sport” or a “hobby” - gaining bragging rights among their peers.

However, when other people’s money is involved, it’s not a game anymore.

Real estate recession? Gasoline prices above $4 a gallon? Election year madness?

It can only happen in the United States of America, which is about to celebrate its two-hundred and thirty-second anniversary of independence, on July 4th.

Americans are a nation of hard-working, ingenious people that maintain one element unique around the world: united, they are able to share, create and prosper in any kind of weather, under the protective shield of the All-American Dream.

Simple ideas become entrepreneurial forces that catapult individuals and companies to the top of their industry; combined with the ingenuity possessed by people that are given the opportunity to prosper, it’s an unstoppable force.

Enter Nick Spanos, NYC real estate broker who also happens to be a 3rd generation Greek. Nick owns bAPPLE.com - short for “Big Apple” - a company that deals in premium, multi-million dollar real estate based off SoHo, NY.

I met Nick at TRAFFIC / Orlando in May; he’s the type of guy that looks at you in the eyes and can tell whether you are a bullshitter or not. In the late 70’s, Nick had a prolific encounter with Steve Jobs at the Homebrew Computer Club. Apparently, Apple eventually used one of Nick’s sinus plotting functions in their range of computers; Nick’s affection of geometry led him to create his own computer board. Later on, in the 90’s, Nick began investing in virtual real estate - domain names - and his current 10,000-strong portfolio contains both generics and traffic names, which Nick monetizes using software that he created.

But Nick Spanos is a strong player in the non-virtual real estate field as well. Nick’s ambitious expansion from his Union Square offices to the bAPPLE, Inc. headquarters in SoHo - the premium location in the heart of Manhattan next to world-famous luxury stores - is only an illustration of his commitment to meet the demands of his extensive clientèle, which includes real estate brokerage in Florida, Panama and Greece.

While the US remains in recession, Nick turned his focus to the market that presents increased opportunities: European buyers. With the Euro currently trading at $1.57, cash-laden investors that visit the US and its metropolitan center, New York City, are able to get more premium real estate for their money. In fact, most of bAPPLE’s buyers pay hard cash, something unheard of for the mortgage-driven Americans. And that’s great news for Nick Spanos, who was invited by CNBC to present his successful story this morning, to viewers around the globe.

Click here to view Nick Spanos on CNBC

So what is it going to be, real estate or virtual real estate? Land that we can walk onto and live on, or domain names that we cannot touch but we can equally develop, monetize and resell? In today’s economy, diversification is the key, and Nick seems to have discovered the best combination, successfully delving in both!

As kids, we used to play that game called “broken telephone“. Other names for this game included, “operator“, “grapevine” or “pass it down“. It involved a chain of kids that would relay a short but quickly spoken phrase, rather silently. By the time the phrase reached the last kid, the phrase would be completely distorted and in many ways funnier than the original one.

The following is excerpted from the movie Johnny Dangerously:

Lil: Get this to Johnny on the grapevine: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s brother at the Savoy Theater tomorrow night. Got it?

Polly: Got it.

Polly: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s brother at the savoy theater pass it on.

Prisoner: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s brother at the Savoy Theater tonight. Pass it on.

Prisoner: Vermin is going to kill Johnny’s mother at the Savoy Theater tonight. Pass it on.

Prisoner: Vermin’s mother is going to kill Johnny tonight at the Savoy Theater. Pass it on.

Prisoner: [gibberish]

Prisoner: There’s a message on the grapevine, Johnny.

Johnny: Yeah, what is it?

Prisoner: Johnny and the Mothers are playin’ “Stompin’ At The Savoy” in Vermont tonight.

Johnny: Vermin’s going to kill my brother at the Savoy Theater tonight?

Prisoner: I didn’t say that.

Johnny: No, but I know this grapevine.

This morning, the news in the domain grapevine had it that a domain name, Israel.com, had sold for $5.88 million via Moniker’s auction platform. Before noon was over, blog after blog and forum after forum had passed along the information, adding their own little twist to the story. Some said the buyer was an Israeli tycoon, others said it was a Jewish woman investor from a large corporation in New York City. Others, preferred to ponder how much Israel.mobi would sell for.

It turns out that the domain was not sold after all. So much for the rich Jewish lady from NYC; if you know her, I’d like to get her number.

The point is, today’s media possess powers that by far exceed those of the traditional media. In the old days of centralized points of information, the newspaper with the false piece of news would frantically retract all the issues and the poorly-paid paperboys would deliver a fresh edition of the news. On the radio or the tv, an announcement would be made, correcting the mistake - obvious or not - and everything would be put in place, more or less.

After news of the alleged sale broke out, the Moniker people scrambled to issue frantic statements that no such sale had taken place; but by that time, the cat was out of the bag: blogs relay news in a non-linear fashion, they beam out information to all directions, that is picked up from other info processing points on the web; some are rather influential in the way that such information is passed along. All of a sudden, a non-sale became a sale.

So bloggers, amateur or semi-pro, be careful out there: the grapevine game has consequences. Double-check your sources, or better still, differentiate from the rest of the media and provide content, criticism and analysis on your blogs, instead of plain xeroxing of random press releases.

Now, did you hear the one about the upcoming sale of a two-word, hyphenated IDN .mobi for over seven figures?