I’m a very casual domainer and have been buying some domains here and there over the last few years. One of the biggest mistakes I see new domainers make is buying domains with trademarked terms in them. I monitor NameJet for certain terms that drop, and have seen lots of obvious examples of trademark-ridden domains that have gone into auction at ridiculous prices. Do NOT be one of these people.

There’s obvious trademarks, but I fell into the not-so-obvious territory just a few months ago. This territory is real estate. I ended up picking up realtorsarasota.com for just under $500 in a NameJet auction for a friend of mine who is an actual Sarasota Realtor. Soon after I got cease and desist letter from the National Association of Realtors telling me to stop using the domain.

Since I had no legal ground to stand on, I had to redirect it to realtor.com until the domain name expires. A quick $500 down the drain. Similarly I have a friend in the industry who may end up losing his domain with the term “MLS” in it. That too is a trademark of the NAR.

When it comes to real estate domains, do not go after anything with “MLS” or “Realtor.” (Real estate, agent, homes, etc. are fair game since they’re generic terms.) About a year ago I saw therealtor.com dropping from SnapNames and the auction was already over $1000 – makes me feel sorry for whoever won that domain.

This lesson applies to most domain purchases. Before you spend a lot of money on a domain (through a  drop, private purchase, or new registration), be sure that it does not include a trademarked term. This is a lesson that diggdotus learned the hard way – Digg’s legal team forced them to change the domain because it included Digg’s trademark.

Some companies don’t go after domains that contain their trademarked term (like Google or Flickr), BUT they have every legal right to and might change their mind down the line. It’s best to avoid that situation all together.

The lesson here: check copyright.gov before you spend big money on a new domain.

If you want to learn more about copyright and trademark issues, check out Sarah Bird’s posts on Seomoz, here’s a good one to start with about Zappos.com.

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Are you starting your very own web 2.0 website? Has your thousand monkeys on a thousand typewriters taken the day off. Are you too drunk to come up with your very own random string of vowels and phonetic spellings?

Well, my friend, you’re in luck.

You can now outsource the creation of a typical “2.0-sounding” (and cleverly unpronouncable) company name for a small fee. Apparently there’s a company called Brand Bucket that’s trying to commoditize the art giving your startup a really really terrible name just because the domain is not registered.

I thought the whole reason a company chooses something really bad like qeeglixtr.com is because it’s $9/yr to register, not because it’s actually worth branding with, or worth paying money for. But maybe that’s just my narrow-minded pro-pronounciation, pre-1.0-thinking. Branding shmanding.

Here are some domains/company names/branding nightmares you can purchase from BB:

• exaact.com
• flizo.com (F to the lizo, V to the izz-A fo’ shizzle my nizzle?)
• fluidux.com
• galxz.com
• leadspool.com (presumably so Mike can eventually rhyme it with deadpool)
• linqto.com
• noqeo.com
• tilili.com

And if you buy now, they’ll even throw in a web 2.0 logo (and not just the standard one either). It’s a startup in a box! All you need is a social graph, something with RSS, throw in a widget and BAM, you’re in business.

I sort of have to give Brand Bucket props though. The idea is kind of entrepreneurial. Or should I say zntrepreneurial? (Psst, that’s not yet registered).

P.S. This is yet another reason I’m bullish on domaining.

P.P.S. Can someone please explain their “photo gallery” graphic to me?

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Welcome to the Colbert Platinum section of AU Blog. Today we’re gonna talk about flossing your riches with the hottest new status symbol – crazy expensive ccTLD’s. (And maybe, just maybe – before we’re done here.. we’ll all be wearing gold-plated diapers.)

Here’s a little known fact: Ethiopian Domain Names are the Crystal of ccTLD’s.

Yes, we’re talking about the .com.et ccTLD.

It belongs to Ethiopia – and apparently it’s the Crystal of Domain name extensions.

Why you ask? *Queue Robyn Leech voice*

This gem of a domain extension is so exclusive, it costs an eye popping $380 to register a domain under it. And what’s more, DNS modifications cost $30 each. (presumably because they change the DNS by writing it on a scroll and dispatching it by falcon to the registry where a butler inputs it into the internets via a golden keyboard). It’s like Crystal of TLD’s. Why pay $10 for a .com when you can impress your friends with a $380 .com.et?

Everyone will be uber-impressed when you say “Look me up on Internets. It’s iamawesome dot COM [insert short pause here] dot ET!” Jaws will drop, ladies will swoon. The rich dude with a monocle will faint. Everyone will know just how much of a baller you are.

But maybe you’re saying, “Markus, but what if Jay-z is at the party rolling with like 3 .com.et’s, and I really want to blow everyone away?”

Well, my friend – do like Ma.tt does.

Matt, you ask? No. Ma.tt!

If .com.et’s are the Ferrari’s of the internet world, .tt domains are like Gold plated Bugatti’s with diamond spinning rims chauffeured by P’ditty. A .tt will run you $1,000-$1,250 to register (for 2 year min).

Ma.tt, (the artist developer formerly known as Matt) Mullenweg recently switched his domain to ma.tt

You know what that says about him? He’s so f*cking money. He’s like a bear with claws. And everyone knows it.

So there you go. Get yourself a ballin domain name like irule.tt. And instead of buying your old lady a diamond ring, a fancy car, or a house in the hills (cuz you know that sort of gift don’t mean anything), get her an Ethopian domain name.

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This is a pared down list of county code TLD’s that allow foreign registrations.

This is in contrast to country specific TLD’s that place restrictions on who can register them such as citizenship in that country (ex: .eu – must have official presence in the European Union to register)

(via Wikipedia)

• .ac – Ascension Island
• .ag – Antigua and Barbuda
• .am – Armenia
• .as – American Samoa
• .at – Austria

• .be – Belgium
• .bi – Burundi
• .bo – Bolivia
• .br – Brazil
• .bs – Bahamas
• .bz – Belize

• .cc – Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• .cd – Democratic Republic of the Congo
• .cg – Republic of the Congo
• .ch – Switzerland
• .ck – Cook Islands
• .cn – People’s Republic of China
• .cx – Christmas Island

• .dj – Djibouti
• .dk – Denmark

• .es – Spain

• .fj – Fiji
• .fm – Federated States of Micronesia

• .gl – Greenland
• .gr – Greece
• .gs – South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

• .hk – Hong Kong
• .hm – Heard Island and McDonald Islands
• .hn – Honduras
• .hu – Hungary

• .il – Israel
• .im – Isle of Man
• .in – India
• .io – British Indian Ocean Territory
• .ir – Iran

• .kz – Kazakhstan

• .la – Laos
• .li – Liechtenstein
• .lv – Latvia
• .ly – Libya

• .md – Moldova
• .mn – Mongolia
• .mp – Northern Mariana Islands
• .ms – Montserrat
• .mu – Mauritius
• .mw – Malawi
• .mx – Mexico

• .na – Namibia
• .nf – Norfolk Island
• .nl – Netherlands
• .nr – Nauru
• .nu – Niue
• .nz – New Zealand
• .nc.tr – North Cyprus

• .ph – Philippines
• .pk – Pakistan
• .pl – Poland
• .pn – Pitcairn Islands
• .pr – Puerto Rico
• .ps – Palestinian Territory
• .pt – Portugal

• .ro – Romania
• .rs – Serbia
• .ru – Russia

• .sb – Solomon Islands
• .sc – Seychelles
• .se – Sweden
• .sh – Saint Helena
• .sm – San Marino
• .so – Somalia
• .sr – Suriname
• .st – São Tomé and Príncipe
• .sy – Syria
• .sz – Swaziland

• .tg – Togo
• .tj – Tajikistan
• .tk – Tokelau
• .tl – East Timor
• .tm – Turkmenistan
• .to – Tonga
• .tt – Trinidad and Tobago
• .tv – Tuvalu
• .tw – Taiwan

• .ug – Uganda
• .us – United States

• .vc – Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• .vg – British Virgin Islands
• .vu – Vanuatu

• .ws – Samoa

• .za – South Africa

If anyone finds any errors, please let me know by commenting below.

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Browsing the headlines from Digg this afternoon, I noticed that ICANN is finally planning to stop domain tasting and front-running.

Here’s something ironic. From the article:

Under current ICANN rules, anyone who registers a new domain name has a five-day grace period to back out and receive a total refund. The policy is in place to prevent hassles if people mistype domain names during signup or simply have buyer’s remorse at signing up for ilovespaminacan.com. But because a five-day registration is free, some users “taste” millions of domain names in order to see how well they perform as marketing vehicles. The sites that don’t perform are then deleted and the cash refunded.

Funny enough, I checked the domain they mentioned in the article – ilovespaminacan.com (which was obviously a made up example) – and wouldn’t you know it, it was registered by Network Solutions.

I ran a search for the domain name in Network Solutions and they told me it was available, after which I proceeded to register it (just because I’m writing this post).

So somebody who read the Ars Technica article must have checked that domain’s availability using Network Solutions, after which Network Solutions automatically registered the domain name. There was an outcry about this practice of frunt-running domains earlier this month and most people cried foul.

If you read the Network Solutions response to why they are front-running domains – they said it was to protect their users. It’s complete bullshit, but for the sake of argument, let’s say that protecting users is really their primary concern. Then why would they let anyone register that domain outside of who looked it up originally?

If they really are just looking out for their users, why was I able to register ilovespaminacan.com even though someone else looked it up earlier today? And why did I have to pay 350% more for the domain than I normally would under any other registrar?

Network Solutions is front-running these domains just to lock them up so you (or anyone else who wants it) are pretty much forced to pay NetSol’s highly inflated prices.

I’m glad to hear that ICANN is finally going to stop domain tasting and front-running. It really does put the small guy at a disadvantage and lets companies like Network Solutions reap big profits from this ICANN loophole.

(And now that I’ve given NetSol $35 for the domain, maybe I should start a site about how much I love spam in a can).

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DomainTools recently added a new feature allowing anyone to change the text of any domain name in their database (with a little bit of ajax). So when the computers can’t tell what the domain is “supposed” to mean, you’re supposed to give them a hand.

Well for a bit of end-of-the-week fun, here’s the concept of user contributed content gone awry, straight from Domain Tools itself…

1. Who Represents?
Get your wife something nice.

2. Mole Station Nursery
They have nurseries for moles now?

3. Therapist Finder
But how does this juvenile prank make you feel? (SNL reference omitted)

4. Pen Island
For those who were too cool for the Pen 15 club in middle school.

5. Experts Exchange
For when amateurs just won’t do

6. Power Gen Italia
Oh those Italians and their reputations

7. Optics Express
Get it in under an hour

8. A Child’s Haven
A safe place for wolfman’s offspring

9. Go Tahoe!
You’re lucky! All I got was this Tahoe t-shirt

And yes, this is a rehash of the original “what were they thinking” post, but cooler since it’s all Web 2.0′ed and stuff (just because I defaced a system that uses ajax).

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Yesterday I lost a domain name auction at SnapNames (I refuse to link to them).

For those who don’t know, Snap Names is the exclusive domain name expiration dropper for Network Solutions. If you’re monitoring a domain name that’s due to expire and see that it was registered at Network Solutions, you have to use Snap to try to acquire it.

If you want the domain name, you need to put in a binding bid for $60. If anyone else wants that domain name, then you go into an auction and (s)he who wins the ensuing bidding war gets the domain.

In May of last year I picked up 1 domain name that no one else bid on. In August, I was going after floridaphotos.com but was outbid – there were a few people in the race and somebody ended up snagging it for $1,155.

Yesterday was the auction day for floridajewelry.com and I received an email that I was outbid. When I clicked the link to raise my bid, I kept getting a “can’t find snapnames” message, then a “undergoing scheduled downtime” message. I checked back a few more times, but it wouldn’t load up. So I couldn’t log on to raise my bid before I got out of work. Grrrrrrrr.

This morning I found out the winning bid was $130 at the expiration. Luckily I didn’t care THAT much about the domain name, otherwise I’d be reeling.

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