“We rate VeriSign Buy (1M). VeriSign is levered to improving trends in eCommerce and online advertising in its core domain name business where we expect growth to re-accelerate over the course of 2011. A measured pace of investment in the business as well as the inherent operating leverage in the core businesses should enable operating margin expansion to continue and 15%+ earnings growth through 2012. 2012 is the first year of clean financials following a relatively messy divestiture process.”

Consumers, on the other hand, must disagree with Citibank as the stock price fell 0.93% this past Monday. But it’s important that we let the rest of the week play out in order to see whether consumers will end up putting their faith in Citibank, Verisign, and the domaining industry (or as Citibank calls it, the domain name business).

The majority of speculators claim this increase in domain disputes is a positive sign for the domaining industry. Increased interest in domain names represent increased demand in the domaining industry. And when demand rises, prices also go along for the ride. Many reason and interpret this data through this logic, seeing it as a symbol that can mean only good things for our industry.

However, one cannot accurately interpret a piece of data without looking at the plethora of interpretations a number can have. I am of the belief that the increase in domain disputes symbolizes absolutely nothing for domainers. In fact, it, if anything, means something bad for the domaining industry. I attribute the increase in domain disputes to companies’ growing interest in protecting trademarks and brands as well as their increasing awareness of internet law. These 2 factors yield high demand for a small segment of the domain industry – domain owners who infringe on others’ trademarks, brands and/or names. This does not mean increased demand in the domaining industry for domainers all over the world.

Is the 24% increase in domain disputes being made into a false hope for domainers? Make sure to submit your comments below!

First off, you need to accept that Domaining.com did add technology blogs to their feed. If you’re angry about this, Domaining.com has a tool that allows you to block feeds. God forbid you have to click once or twice to get rid of a feed. But keep in mind that technology blogs are useful to most internet businesses. Domaining is a type of internet business, so Francois (the owner of Domaining.com) is simply expanding his feed to include other information that can potentially help domainers.

Late last week, Domaining.com put a donation button on the top of their feed. Surprisingly enough, this outraged a couple of domainers for one reason or another. In my opinion, if you were outraged by a donation button, I’m going to recommend you go to anger management classes. If donation button on a website is troublesome to you, you may want to step outside for a change and smell the coffee. Domaining.com removed this button at some point during this weekend or today. The amazing thing is Domaining.com had every right to put that donation button on their website. They provide one of the most useful, popular feeds to the domaining industry, and most-likely don’t make much (or as much as they should be).

Anyways, sorry for the rant. I think it’s necessary that domainers understand that they should stop complaining Domaining.com, but actually thanking them for their helpful, free service. I look forward to comments.

Step outside of your comfort zone. Elliot brought up the point that no matter what, people are going to run to register domains similar to FrenchCookingGames.com, after CookingGames.com sold for $350,000. And I’ve seen it happen on numerous occasions. Seriously, if you can be replaced by a machine, you should be.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in following trends. But you need to be smart when following trends. Never bank on the idea that the owner of CookingGames.com would ever even consider buying a domain as bad as FrenchCookingGames.com. And the truth of the matter is, if someone invests 5 or 6 figures in a domain name, chances are they’re either not interested in bad variations of that domain name, or will sue for trademark infringement or cybersquatting in the case that they actually are interested. People spending that kind of money on domains aren’t stupid (generally).

Without creativity, you cannot be successful in business. You need to be able to come up with innovative ideas. One of the few things I absolutely hate is when people tell me they just weren’t born with a creative mind. I promise you, how creative you are is based solely on how hard you try in life and how creative you want to be. Just remember the saying, when patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. Think outside the box. Get creative!

I was really impressed that this nice, young lady was making sure that shoppers were finding everything. She was going from aisle to aisle making sure that the customers were having a good shopping experience, especially as everybody is doing their last minute Thanksgiving shopping.

Now, while one might think, okay, big deal. They’re paying a lady to help shoppers. But really, they’re stepping up, especially during the busy time of Thanksgiving, and making sure that every shopper has the best and least stressful shopping experience. They’re taking their grocery store one level above the rest. They realize that there are other grocery stores customers can go to, and that if they want to get the customers to their store and to continue coming to their store, they need to take this extra step

The important lesson here is that customer service should be the priority in any business. You want to make sure that every customer comes out of whatever deal you are involved in with a smile on your face. That could mean talking to a customer about how their day is going or it could mean redoing an entire project for an unhappy customer until they are happy. You want to please each and everyone of your customers.

While it hasn’t been confirmed from eBay, Chicago News websites are saying that the glitch is happening throughout the Chicagoland area. eBay really gave no specifics in their announcement, other than that theres a glitch.

So why will it be a colder night for Chicagoans with an eBay auction ending tonight? Well I don’t know about you, but whenever I list an item on eBay, I’m always monitoring it, especially during the last few minutes. Just a little story on the side, I remember helping a good family friend list one of their old iMac’s on eBay. During the last few minutes, the bidding was still in the $100-$200 range, so she called me worried that it would end that low. Her and I monitored it, and watched it go from the $100-$200 range to the $600-$700 range. Had we been not able to watch it during the last few minutes, she would’ve been stressed beyone belief until she saw the closing price.

The moral of the story is that eBay better fix this glitch so Chicagoans with auctions ending don’t stress. Hopefully eBay will have this glitch figured out. If you are in other areas of the world and are experiencing this glitch, make sure to comment below.

He recently made a post on his site titled: “BREAKING: Rick Schwartz wants to Sell the Domain Industry to Microsoft for $8 Billion. REALLY!” The post goes on to describe how HE has the greatest idea for Microsoft, which mainly includes the sale of his domain portfolio to them. Oh yeah, and for $8 billion dollars. I almost threw up when I heard this. Can you get any more egocentric than this? Not only self-proclaiming himself the “Domain King,” as the title of his blog, but evaluating his portfolio at $8 billion.

Rick Schwartz is considered one of the best in the business. But by whom? Did he start his own legacy? According to dnjournal.com, he did.

Let’s start with the Domain King premise. Schwartz anointed himself and annoyed his critics by claiming that title in the mid-90’s. Does he have a rightful claim to the throne?

DnJournal goes on to debate both sides of Rick Schwartz, the good and the bad. The article can be found here, http://www.dnjournal.com/columns/cover020204.htm.

Questions to Comment On:

1. Do you like Rick Schwartz? Do you support his titles or thing he is “overrated?”
2. Is what Rick Schwartz did/does ok?

By the way, Rick if you’re reading this, please don’t take it offensively. In fact, you should feel so famous that other people write about you! Again, with all respect.

This  problem is faced by many young teens coming out of college with low credit card ratings. They want to get a good rating, but no one will give them some sort of a loan to increase that rating. But in both domain and credit ratings, there are ways around these troubles.

Lying is a harsh word, and in no way do I support lying. However, creating a great image for yourself is easier than you may think. Look at http://www.Asmro.com, DNUnderground’s parent company. This theme and website was thrown up in around an hour. Sure, we still need a welcome post, but even the content on the website is near sufficient to convince a potential client of your professionalism, (actually a real word,) and reliability. In all, a company website that FUNCTIONS well is the first step to building your legacy.

Talk the talk. On your company website, or even on a separate blog speak professionally. This means to write grammatically correct (I’m sure I’ve screwed up somewhere in this post,) use a vast vocabulary, and include correct statistics. Talking the talk also applies to the information you include regarding yourself. Frequently, DNUnderground mentions past experience. These past experiences increase our public image and ensure our readers that we are reliable and trusted members of the internet community.

I’ve split my original article into two sections, one about Tips for Beginners, and one about calling out Rick Schwartz. Get excited for tomorrow’s article.

Questions To Comment On:

1. How did you get started or create your legacy?
2. Would you pay $5 more for reliability?

I am very excited for the new features that Yahoo speaks of implementing into their search engine. Adage.com reports they will be improving their search engine with:

Video ads in search. Yahoo is expanding an existing program and offering video on a cost-per-click basis to a select group (100 to 150) of large advertisers.
More control, lower keyword prices. In a new initiative, search advertisers will be able to buy just Yahoo sites, or the entire network, and the company will lower some minimum keyword prices.
Portable campaigns. The company is developing a system to allow advertisers to easily export Yahoo search campaigns to other search engines such as Google. Google offers this with its AdWords Editor, but advertisers have long complained that it is difficult to use and impractical for large campaigns.
Customized search. Yahoo is enhancing its “build your own search” service, allowing developers to customize search on their sites and share revenue, as Google does today.
Customized results. The company is renovating search results to better reflect the personal interests of users — along the lines of its new “It’s Y!ou” slogan — and improve the matching of keyword ads to longer queries.

With all of the features of Microsoft Bing, and the new and upcoming features of Yahoo, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo combined will be like “search heaven”. It will have all of the features a user could ask for. I have always been a Google user. Although I like and commonly use some of the features Microsoft Bing has to offer, I have always found that Google’s simplicity beats out the other search engines. But once this merger happens, if it does, well, chances are I will enter search heaven and begin using the Microsoft Bing/Yahoo (combined) search engine more and more often.

I’d like to get your comments on this though. Does the simplicity of Google beat out these other two search engines? Are Yahoo’s new features going to attract new users? Submit your comments below!

My feeling is that a big company can make good use of any quality domain name. Whether that name is Toys.com or that name is PayPal.com for example, both companies have been able to make a name for themselves.

Why does a company need to spend so much money to buy a generic dictionary word domain name when they can buy a brandable name for so much less and most likely do just as well with it.

While PayPal.com is worth a lot more today than the company purchased it for long ago, I can almost guarantee you had PayPal not become what it is today, the domain name would be worth a lot less. PayPal isn’t even a great brandable name in my opinion, but the company has been able to do wonders with it.

I’d love to hear your comments. Call me crazy about my opinion, but just know that many people outside of the domain industry have agreed with me on this and think I’m crazy when I tell them the sales prices of some of these domain names.