Because Ron Jackson does such a great job reporting domain industry news on DNJournal.com, I think one of the most under-recognized people in the domain industry is Andrew Allemann of DomainNameWire.com. Andrew has been reporting domain industry news since 2005, and he is always the source of great domain information. I’ve met Andrew once in person and had a few phone and email conversations in the past year or so, and I wanted to take a second to give him props. DomainNameWire.com is one of the first domain news outlets I read in the morning, and I appreciate Andrew’s coverage and dedication to the industry.

Of course I didn’t follow the advice I am about to give, but I suppose that is the reason I am giving it! Next time you are thinking about hitting Vegas or Atlantic City (or Mohegan Sun in my case), you might want to consider spending the money on domain registrations rather than blackjack. When you play blackjack, your chances of coming out ahead are pretty slim. When you smartly gamble on a domain name, the prospects can be much greater. Sure, blackjack offers a faster (but shorter lived) thrill, but selling a domain name you just registered for $400 is an even bigger thrill.

Instead of going to the casino and playing blackjack, you are much better off betting on yourself!

I’ve decided to list EnglandVacations.com for sale. The BIN price is just $8,500. The cost of a family traveling to England is in the thousands, so commission on a single vacation booking can be hundreds of dollars. If a small site is built, and a white label travel affiliate is used, EnglandVacations.com can be easily used as a travel portal/engine. Add some unique content about great places to visit in England, and run with it. This name was registered eight years ago.

Here are some recent comparison sales for similar domain names (courtesy of DNSalePrice.com:

CaribbeanVacations.com $130,000
EuropeanVacations.com $85,000
IrelandVacations.com $17,250
AustraliaVacations.com $16,000
AsianVacations.com $15,000* Sold via ElliotsBlog.com
BudgetVacations.com $10,300
CanadaVacations.com $9,600
FijiVacation.com $9,200
BahamaVacations.com $8,188
SwitzerlandVacation.com $7,500
IsraelVacations.com* Sold via ElliotsBlog.com (price not revealed)

I think the most comparable sale on the list is probably IrelandVacations.com, which recently sold for $17,250. The first person to post “sold” in the comment section of my blog will get EnglandVacations.com at a great price.

Thought Convergence, parent company of domain monetization leader TrafficZ, recently announced the acquisition of Name Intelligence, parent company of DomainTools. In a press release issued this morning, the deal was announced, although the price was not revealed. On Jay Westerdal’s blog, Jay added:

“We are going to have more resources at our disposal now to focus on bigger projects, the synergies in this deal were awesome. I would not have signed onto the deal unless it allowed DomainTools to better serve the entire Domain Ecosystem. I will be joining the board of Though Convergence and look forward to working with the entire team in both LA and Seattle. The integrity of our DomainTools data is not in jeopardy with this deal and DomainTools website will remain as a trusted third party to everyone regardless of their affiliations.”

It should be added that DomainNameNews.com first reported that a deal had been reached a couple of weeks ago, although it was publicly announced this morning.