If you own more than a few domain names, you’ve probably heard that the price of .com domain names are going to be increasing across the board on July 1, 2010, the result of VeriSign’s price increase. If you own just a few domain names, this probably isn’t such a big deal, but if you own hundreds or thousands, this is a big chunk of change.

Oftentimes you see registrars touting great transfer prices, which have an asterisk because they don’t include other “little” fees which can add up. Currently, Name.com is running a special domain transfer promotion, where the real price of the transfer is $6.99 – with no added/hidden fees at all.

Name.com’s “Real” $6.99 transfer promotion details:

• No promo code required
• Doesn’t limit the number of domains that can be transferred at one time or per account.
• Includes the ICANN fee in the $6.99 transfer price
• Is valid for new and existing customers
• Ends June 30, 2010

If you transfer your domain name(s) to Name.com for $6.99 total, they will add a year to your domain registration, so you’re actually paying $6.99 for an additional year. If your domain name expires in December of 2010 for example, and you transfer it now, the expiration date will be moved to December of 2011.

Domain Investors who would like to transfer their domains to Name.com and save can start by visiting Name.com’s transfer page.

I just received an email from GoDaddy, the world’s largest domain registrar, and the email announced a price increase for .com and .net domain registrations. As of July 1, 2010, the price of .com domain names will increase 7%, while the price of .net domain names will increase by 10%. The email cited VeriSign’s price increase as the reason.

I am sure that other registrars will send similar emails to their customers, so keep this in mind if you want to renew and/or extend the length of your domain registrations prior to the price increase.

A 7% increase may not seem like a lot of money, but if you have a portfolio of 1,000 names at Godaddy and pay the full price of $10.69, a 7% increase means you will pay $11.44 per name, an increase of $750 for your entire portfolio.

Here’s the email that was just sent by Godaddy:

===

On July 1, 2010, VeriSign®, the registry for .COM and .NET, will increase prices – .COM will go up 7%, and .NET by 10%.

The increase will be passed to registrars like Go Daddy and then, unfortunately, to consumers like you.

As of July 1, we will be forced to raise registration and renewal* prices for these two popular top-level domains.

If you wish to avoid this price increase, you can renew your domain names by June 30 and add another year to your current expiration dates. You have the option to register or renew for multiple years and lock in long-term savings. Of course, should you have any questions, please give us a call at 1-480-505-8821.

Thanks as always for being a Go Daddy customer.

You can learn quite a bit of information from public companies who must disclose just about every thing that could have an implication on the value of the company. Because of this, it’s a smart idea to follow the filings of various domain companies so you can read up on company filings, rather than rely on blogs and other news outlets who may or may not report on certain events/filings.

Some publicly traded companies that are required to make public filings that are related to the domain industry include the following (please let me know if I missed any company):

Google
Yahoo
Microsoft
Marchex
Top Level Domain Holdings
Tucows
Dark Blue Sea
Verisign
Banks.com

In order to follow these companies, I set up a stock portfolio in Yahoo specifically with domain industry related stocks. This allows me to see where they are trading as well as news reports and SEC (or other) filings. Don’t simply rely on others’ interpretations of news – and don’t get delayed news reports that fly under the radar (domain sales for example).

Follow these and other related companies and be more informed as a result.

I read about this litigation briefly in a domain forum while I was away, but in reading the Wall Street Journal blog article, it looks like the impact on the prices of domain names could be quite large. The San Francisco Chronicle also has an article about the lawsuit, which can be read in full on the WSJ website.

According to the plaintiff’s lawyer, Bret Fausett, “There are companies that would like to bid against VeriSign and would charge half of what VeriSign is charging.”

This is a lawsuit domain investors will want to monitor, as there is bound to be additional fallout depending on how things shake out.