Just a reminder about my auction that ends in a little less than three hours. I am selling the entire set of names below for the highest offer that I receive by 12pm EST (noon) Today. No extension will be given for last second bids. Highest bid received by 12pm (noon) EST will get the names. Since I have to go back and forth between 2 forums and my blog, I think it would be best to put your best bid in a few minutes before noon, that way you may be able to update it should another higher bid be received. The auction is for all of the names below, and the highest bid on TTF is $900.

This is a multi-venue post, but I will update the thread when offers are received. All names are registered at Moniker for an easy free push to your Moniker account.

ApplePickers.com
ArkansasSite.com
CheapToiletries.com
ChristianityExpert.com
ChristianityExperts.com
ChristianityTeacher.com
ChristianityTeachers.com
ChristianityWebsites.com
CommoditiesInvestors.com
DelawareBusinessLoans.com
DelawareInsurer.com
FloridaSubprimeMortgages.com
HaveBeens.com
HealthcareBargain.com
HiTechFund.com
HMOCompanies.com
ImmediateAlerts.com
ImmediateCreditScores.com
MerlotWorld.com
NevadaForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyBusinessLoans.com
NewJerseyForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyInsurer.com
NewJerseyInsurers.com
NewJerseyShoppingCenters.com
NewYorkInsurer.com
NewYorkInsurers.com
OhioInsurer.com
OhioInsurers.com
OregonTeacher.com
PortableComputerMemory.com
PortableMemoryCards.com
PortableVideoDevice.com
ReusableMemory.com
RhodeIslandLender.com
SubprimeHomeLending.com
SubprimeHomeRefinancing.com
SubprimeMortgageProblems.com
TelemarketingSite.com
TexasInsurers.com
TexasSubprimeMortgages.com
TruckDrivingInsurance.com
WirelessHandheldComputer.com
WirelessHandheldComputers.com
WorkersClothing.com

Most people immediately delete spoofed phishing emails that make it through their spam filters. These emails appear to come from places like Paypal, Ebay, banks…etc, and the senders are attempting to get you to enter your account/financial details, or click on a link to install malicious code on your computer. A spoofed email looks like the real deal, but if you examine the headers, you can tell it isn’t from that company.

More often than not, the email originates from a domain name that was recently registered, most likely for the phishing attempt. The Whois information is usually private, forged or based in another company. While most people’s immediate response is to delete the email once a phishing attempt is detected, I would recommend reporting the email to the company that purportedly sent it. This will allow them to make an effort to shut the website down and possibly determine who is behind the scheme.

Each company has its own specific place to report suspicious emails, but for Paypal, you may use “spoof@paypal.com.” Additionally, for emails of a spamming nature, you can forward your complaint to the US government by forwarding the email to “spam@uce.gov.” I don’t know how these companies investigate the phising attempts, but phishing hurts us all.

In an effort to promote transparency, the Internet Commerce Association has revealed its membership directory. The membership is beginning to take shape as a “Who’s Who” in the domain investment and developer community. As the Internet Commerce Association is able to continue to spread their message, I think the membership will continue to expand. I still believe the ICA is the only trade group that is looking after the rights of domain registrants.

I am selling the entire set of names below for the highest offer that I receive by 12pm EST (noon) on Thursday. I am not selling the names individually, so please don’t ask. This is a multi-venue post, but I will update the thread when offers are received. Feel free to start the bidding at $10 with $10 increments. All names are registered at Moniker for an easy free push to your Moniker account.

ApplePickers.com
ArkansasSite.com
CheapToiletries.com
ChristianityExpert.com
ChristianityExperts.com
ChristianityTeacher.com
ChristianityTeachers.com
ChristianityWebsites.com
CommoditiesInvestors.com
DelawareBusinessLoans.com
DelawareInsurer.com
FloridaSubprimeMortgages.com
HaveBeens.com
HealthcareBargain.com
HiTechFund.com
HMOCompanies.com
ImmediateAlerts.com
ImmediateCreditScores.com
MerlotWorld.com
NevadaForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyBusinessLoans.com
NewJerseyForeclosureAuctions.com
NewJerseyInsurer.com
NewJerseyInsurers.com
NewJerseyShoppingCenters.com
NewYorkInsurer.com
NewYorkInsurers.com
OhioInsurer.com
OhioInsurers.com
OregonTeacher.com
PortableComputerMemory.com
PortableMemoryCards.com
PortableVideoDevice.com
ReusableMemory.com
RhodeIslandLender.com
SubprimeHomeLending.com
SubprimeHomeRefinancing.com
SubprimeMortgageProblems.com
TelemarketingSite.com
TexasInsurers.com
TexasSubprimeMortgages.com
TruckDrivingInsurance.com
WirelessHandheldComputer.com
WirelessHandheldComputers.com
WorkersClothing.com

I ran into a technical problem with the Lowell.com website hat has caused a minor setback and will hopefully cause just a short delay. Throughout the development and review process, I have always viewed the site on my Macbook using Firefox, Safari, and the most updated Internet Explorer browser. The few people that have also reviewed the site have used similar browsers and computers as well. Unfortunately, after asking a friend to review the site, we determined it not only looked distorted using Internet Explorer 6, but it was unusable. Additionally, the site looked distorted at 800 pixels.

My developer is working on a fix for this as we speak, but it is causing a delay at the moment. While this is something that I will catch well in advance the next time, it wasn’t something I spent much time considering. We all make assumption when doing things, but you know what they say about people who assume things!

You can read more about this minor setback as well as the progress of the Lowell.com website on the Lowell.com blog. I am still hoping to launch it in a couple of weeks. Please keep in mind that the site is being built offline, so the current Lowell.com website looks nothing like how the new website will look.

Now might be a great time to re-contact domain owners if they were previously reluctant to sell a domain name. With the credit crunch, rising unemployment rate, depressed real estate values, and the dropping Dow (aside from the past few days), people may wish to cash in their virtual domain assets. This might make it easier for you to convince someone to sell a domain name they have been holding out on selling.

While most domain investors archive their mail messages, allowing them to contact buyers who made offers in the past, many passive domain owners may not. Recontacting these people may be the only way to get back in touch. As long as a respectful email is sent, I don’t think you will have any problems in terms of annoying someone or having them think you are spamming them. In fact, some might welcome the fact that you are checking in with them. I have found that being persistent (but not in an annoying way) works wonders. I prefer saying something to the effect of:

“We haven’t spoken in a while, and I am still interested in buying xxxxxxxxx.com. Would you consider selling it at this point? If not now, please let me know if you change your mind in the future.  I am willing to buy it for $x,xxx.”

While I don’t like to capitalize on someone else’s loss, your offer may come at a good time for them, and they may have decided to sell their domain name.

I apologize for not updating the Lowell.com development blog in a while. For the last few weeks, I have been busily trying to finish, revise and edit the Lowell.com website, and I think we are getting very close to launch now. Basically all of the pages are done and set, but it’s just a matter of going through to make sure there aren’t typos, ensuring that all of the links work and take people to the proper places, and just cleaning everything up. There will be many tweaks made after launch, but I want a presentable website launched before I begin soliciting advertisers.

Since the last update, I made a major change in the execution strategy of Lowell.com. Previously, I intended to use phpMyDirectory to allow me to include a full directory site that would be easy for businesses to update and enhance their listings. After spending quite a bit of time thinking about this - and even starting the work on this, I decided to change course and not use a full directory. There were several reasons for this decision, and I expounded on them on the Lowell.com blog.

I plan to write a couple more updates in the next few days, and hopefully the Lowell.com beta site will be launched by the end of March or first week in April! We are only a couple of weeks behind, but I think that’s pretty good!

Although I don’t always agree with Francois’ industry viewpoints, I think he started a great website with Domaining.com. The site makes it very easy to see when domain blogs/news outlets have updated, and it’s very easy to navigate to those sources. I have a few industry resources in my RSS feeder, but Domaining.com makes it much easier for me to get domain industry news quickly from sources that I don’t necessarily read daily.  Thank you to Francois!

In 2004, Thailand, Indonesia, and nine other countries suffered one of the deadliest natural disasters in history, when a tsunami killed well over 200,000 people. Thousands of tourists and other people in the area were killed when an unexpected giant wave quickly swept onto land and through their villages. There were just a few seconds available to decide whether to climb a tree, enter a building with a solid foundation, or run as fast as possible to beat the wave. Many who made the wrong decision died while trying to survive. It was a terrible tragedy, and the affected areas are still in the process of recovering three years later.

An interesting thing happened just moments before the tsunami reached land that saved countless lives. As the ocean began to recede, many natives who saw this began running in the opposite direction. They grabbed their children, warned their friends, and they booked it as fast as they could run, leaving most of their possessions behind. They knew that a receding ocean meant a tsunami was about to devastate their area, and they didn’t stick around to see what would happen. They grabbed what they could and took cover as far away as their legs could take them in the five minutes they had.

While changes to the domain industry certainly are not Read More »

Rick posted that yesterday’s blog post will be his last. While Rick offers some poignant thoughts, I think one of the comments on his blog post sums things up best:

“I hope you all realize what is going on here. The message should be loud and clear. Rick has been warning everybody all year to help him mount a defense against what is coming. Very few are paying attention, and very few are helping him build the fort to protect against the coming invaders. So, rather than waste is time blogging to people who don’t listen, he is leaving us to fend for ourselves and he will use his new found time to mount his own defense (probably by developing some of his domains and selling others). We have lost our visionary and a big industry voice.

WAKE UP PEOPLE! Rick stops blogging, Frank stops blogging, Yahoo kills arbitrage, Ask/Google, Snowe Bill.

The writing is on the wall.

Fast forward to 2010 and do a “Where are They Now” on the domainers of yesteryear. Some will have cashed out and be wealthy and happily retired. Some will have developed domains into businesses worth millions or maybe even billions. Most, however, will be EMPLOYEES working for a BOSS, wasting their hours thinking about the good old days and wondering what went wrong.” - Posted by: Robert Pearl

Everyone really needs to think about what is going on here. Our industry is changing. We had a much better chance a year ago when Rick first started discussing the problems that were on the horizon. They are no longer on the horizon - they are here. I hope it isn’t too late.