Mike Berkens just posted the tentative Moniker Live Auction list for the TRAFFIC show in New York on his blog, and the list has some incredible domain names. I don’t remember seeing a better live auction list before, and if the reserve prices are reasonable, this could set a new record. Hopefully Moniker is busy emailing potential end users about the domain names in auction, and let’s hope some of these prospects bid!

These past couple weeks, I’ve been irritated by people making uneducated comments about end-user sales being too high. On various public domain forums, some people seem to think that end users are paying too much for domain names that define their nice or define a major category in their niche. I think these comments are uneducated and somewhat baffling.

If your family owned a diamond or jewelry business on the 4th floor of a building in New York’s famous diamond district, how much would it be worth to be able to buy out the lease of the shop right on the corner of 47th and 5th, which is passed by tens of thousands of people a day?  This location is far more lucrative to a diamond dealer than it would be to someone else – say a ski shop.  I wouldn’t expect the owner of a ski shop to criticize a diamond dealer for paying millions of dollars to secure the best slot in the diamond district, so why are some domain investors critical of domain sales to end users – the people that know their business?

Some of the threads where comments were being made seem to be more of a personal nature directed at Rick Schwartz and his recent sale of RoomDividers.com.  There are people who are actually alluding to a conspiracy theory or some other dumb bullshit (like Rick is going to stake his rep on a $75k deal).  For fuck’s sake – leave Rick alone.  It’s easy taking potshots at one of the domain industry leaders, but it makes you look like a clown.  By no means do you have to agree with everyone, but there is a way to disagree without being disagreeable.

Think what you want about whoever you want, but when you air your views out in the public, people may be less inclined to do business with you, and it’s your reputation that will take a hit.

When you see this logo, do you think soccer.tv, football.tv, futbol.tv, calcio.tv?  Perhaps this sport goes by another name in your country, and you would use an IDN to find the site. Regardless of what you call the sport depicted in the logo, Michael Schneider has it covered because of his smart domain strategy. Michael acquired nearly every single worldwide language variation of the word. The branding is unique, and he doesn’t have to worry about losing visitors due to language differences.

By doing what Michael did with his portfolio of related domain names, he can have wonderfully unique branding that many others couldn’t match.  Had Michael just registered one or two versions of the term, it’s likely he would have lost visitors who entered a different term into their browser box.

Other companies have also done what Michael is doing with their brands. Playboy, Apple, and the NBA have  spent billions of dollars branding their logos and imaging, and they are able to use an icon to signify the domain name.  Michael has spent 7 figures acquiring his soccer/football related domain names, but the logo clearly shows what users will find when they enter their familiar keyword with .tv.

Just imagine you are watching a game..they can then freeze/pause on the ball…just add a www. to the left of the ball, a .TV to the right of it and you just ‘spoke’ to the whole world during the game with what carries most sentiment – the ball.
I think this is a smart domain acquisition and global branding strategy.