Domain
Names with Monte Cahn from Moniker
In this episode of the
eMarketing Talk Show, the CEO of Moniker.com,
Monte Cahn, provided listeners with invaluable
information about domain names. talks about what
a registrar and domain name is, how to buy and
sell domain names, how to tell if a domain name
is blacklisted, how to appraise domain names and
what cyber squatting is all about, among other
things. Monte believes that domain names are assets
and the next form of real estate. In this show
he guides listeners about how to invest in and
monetize domain names.
Covering the Basics about Domain Names
Monte started his business in 1996 as the first
online domain brokerage firm for domain names.
The firm was originally called “Name Shop”
and then “Hit Domains” and then eventually
“Domain Systems” through a merger.
So Domain Systems was actually founded in 1999
and the company bought an ICAAN accredited registrar
which was called “Mr.DomReg” which
had previously belonged to a hosting company in
Canada. At that time, Domain Systems was a major
reseller for about 5 different registrars and
decided to find a very unique and professional
name for the registrar. This search ended when
they stumbled upon the name ‘Moniker’
in the year 2000.
Interestingly, Moniker is an Irish slang word
that means name or nickname. Monte informed listeners
that people in Europe ask others what their moniker
is when they are on the street and company identities
are often ‘monikerized’ or ‘monikered’.
Monte felt that this was a very unique name that
would definitely stand out from the rest and was
instantly attracted to it.
When asked to define what a registrar is and what
a domain name, Monte explained that a domain name
is a text name corresponding to a numeric IP address
of a computer on the Internet. A domain name must
be unique and Internet users can access websites
using the alpha-numeric version rather than remembering
the numeric address. Monte stressed that every
domain name must be unique and includes the extension
at the end i.e. the “.com” or “.gov”
etc.
Monte also stated that an IP address is a sign
of the domain name but when it lands on the location
it is mapped by two IP addresses. The DNS directs
the website to a set of IP addresses that give
it its final location where you can view and download
content.
As a result the Internet today is this huge mass
of numbers, names and crossing of IP addresses
that map 2 locations and that is why it is called
the World Wide Web. Monte further explained that
a registrar is an organization that has been accredited
to be able to register these domain names through
the central registry. There are several registries
for each of the extensions that are available
today. Back in the early nineties there was just
one registry that was called “Network Solutions”
and they supplied all the “.com”,
“.net” and “.org” addresses
for the entire world including “.mil”
and “.edu”. Then it evolved into other
extensions e.g. “Affiliate” is a registry
that supplied the “.info” brand, “New
Level” is a registry that supplies the “.biz”
and “.us brand”. Mobi and several
other registries supply CCTLDs i.e. country code
domains.
Hence, the registrar is actually the facilitator
of the mapping of those domain names into the
central data bases of each one of these registries.
This enables people to see whether a domain name
is available or not. These particular registrars
then take care of this customer and bring their
domain name to life and their identities to life.
Moniker is an ICAAN accredited registrar for 54
country code extensions in every major TLD that
is available today. Each country doesn’t
have its own registrar but 243 countries do have
their own registries i.e. the central data base
that distributes those extensions out to the world
public for those domain names.
Monte revealed that every domain name is in the
central database so, for e.g. “.com”,
“.net” and “.org” names
are in a central base that is run by a company
called Verisign right now. This company operates
the central registry and works closely with ICAAN,
the corporation that assigns names and numbers.
Monte told listeners that “www started in
the US through our invention of the Internet,
so currently the government does govern the DNS
server and the ICAAN operation. However, ICAAN
is a multi national facility that operates all
the major TLDs and is basically assigned to govern
the Internet in general”. The government,
according to Monte “unfortunately, or fortunately-
however you may want to look at it, does not get
a kick back on the price of a domain.” At
the moment, Verisign gets all the money for the
domain names that are registered through the central
database and then ICAAN gets a tax or fee for
every domain name that is registered. This helps
pay for their budget and operations. As a result,
registrars are actually charged each of those
fees and then they have to pass those fees on
as their registration costs to their customers.
Today, the actual cost to the registry is $6
of which $.36 goes to ICAAN for taxes and operation
fees, so it is actually ‘$6.36 before you
even turn your lights on as a registrar for each
domain name’. So since GoDaddy charges $8.95,
they aren’t making much money through selling
domain name. GoDaddy is an example of a company
that uses the domain name as kind of a loss leader
to bring people into their hosting environment.
Then there is the example of Yahoo that isn’t
even a registrar and yet sells domain names for
$2.99 in order to get people onto the Yahoo network
for hosting and e-mail. Monte stated that Moniker
actually “uses the domain name as an asset
and helps it grow in value so that it is very
beneficial in the long term.”
Monte also revealed that the people who got the
domain names free right at the very beginning
are not grandfathered to the renewal process.
Every single domain name owner needs to pay a
renewal fee and every registrar charges something
different.
Monte pointed out that underscores do not work
with domain names but dashes do. However, dashes
are not the preferred method to register a domain
name due to the fact that most people won’t
type a dash in when they are naturally typing
in a domain name into the address bar. As a result,
‘if you have a dash in your domain name
you really have to make sure your customers know
that there is a dash there or they will by nature,
type in the full name without the dash. Hence,
Monte discouraged listeners from branding themselves
with a dash.
However, Monte explained that dashes do have
some meaning and some value when you are using
it as other supplemental domain names that lead
to your website. In such a case, they actually
work as search engine friendly domain names because
the dash separates the keywords in the domain
name. This allows people to use two different
words like auto-sales that can be searched. In
the search engine, both auto and sales comes up
as a preferable searchable term inside the person’s
domain name.
If you don’t have dashes, search engines
can still figure out that you are using two or
more keywords. Monte advised listeners that if
they can’t find a name in a ‘.com’
address, (most of the good ‘.com’
addresses are gone) and if they are looking for
a short and descriptive domain names (note that
there is a limit of 64 characters) opt for something
related additional keywords. For example if you
are in the auto selling industry e.g. instead
of the domain name AutoSales.com, opt for something
like NewJerseyAutoSales.com. Monte stated that
a Website Story survey found that 47% of the time
people type domain names directly into their browser
to get to the website. This figure has actually
increased, not decreased, despite the popularity
of Google and Yahoo, to almost 70% today. As a
result, Monte really encouraged listeners to opt
for ‘.com’ if they can.
Domain names are getting harder and harder to
find. You can get domain names in the after market,
which is something Moniker specializes in. In
the after market, you can acquire domain names
that someone else owns. You pay a bit of premium
to get these domain names, just like when you
buy a piece of property. Another option is to
go with other extensions i.e. popular extensions
like ‘.biz’, ‘.info’ and
‘.us’ and using country codes etc,
depending on what your business model is.
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