Domain Name Wire Podcast

If you've ever set up a new email marketing account, web site builder account, etc., you know it can be a pain to change your DNS settings. Adding SPF records, MX records, TXT records and more can be involved.

That's where Entri comes in. The company works as glue between SaaS companies and DNS providers (usually domain registrars) to make it easy to make these updates.

In theory, it's a win for everyone. On today's show, Entri founder Abe Storey explains why he created the company and how it works. He also discusses a legal battle with the biggest domain registrar, GoDaddy.

Also: Google hurts domain parking, Outside .com, Russia's domain complaint, and more.

Sponsor: Sav.com domain auctions

ConvertKit founder Nathan Barry was on the Domain Name Wire Podcast in 2018, talking about his company's plans to rebrand. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a domain, he shelved the plans.

Now, six years later, CovertKit is finally rebranding. The company will become Kit and use kit.com.

On today's show, Nathan explains what went wrong last time he tried to rebrand, how his company outgrew his name, and how the company will transition to its new name and domain name.

Also: Domain prices, new TLDs, keyword data

Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers

Last week Mark Levine and I gave our initial feedback on Afternic Boost, a new program from Afternic that promises extra exposure for a fee.

Today, I'm joined by Alan Shiflett. Alan manages all of GoDaddy's products for domain investors. He talks about how Afternic Boost came about and gives his take on it. I'm still not sold on the product, but I think it's worth understanding what's going on behind the scenes to get an idea of what might happen in the future with GoDaddy and Afternic.

Alan also discusses the coming sunsetting of Dan.com, Make Offer landers, and how domain investors can sell domains in an upcoming auction.

Also: Atom commission match, a bogus $10 million sale, and more.

Sponsor: Sav.com backorders

Last week Afternic announced Afternic Boost, a new program that the company says will increase sales up to 10%. While everyone likes to sell more domains, the announcement landed like a lead ballon with most people I've talked to. The key reason is that you have to give up the majority of your gains in teh form of a higher commission.

There are other things not to like about the program, and today domain investor Mark Levine joins me to discuss the new program and our takeaways.

Also: .Com contract, backorders, and IBM

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

These days it seems like a day never goes by without someone trying to phish me, either via an email saying a bank account is about to be suspended, or a text message trying to scare me into logging into a site.

Phishing involves websites, and websites involve domain names. So which top level domains are phisher's favorites?

On today's show, I chat with Dave Piscitello, a partner and researcher at Interisle. Interisle just published a report about the state of phishing.

The report shows that the domains phishers choose has changed a bit after the demise of Freenom, a registry that gave away free domain names. This created a vacuum that pushed phishers to register more cheap new top level domains, as well as create phishing sites on free subdomains.

Dave discusses some patterns in these registrations, and how the domain name industry could help cut down on phishing.

Also: .Com prices, Godaddy's earnings, and more.

Sponsor: Sav.com domain auctions

How are your domain sales so far this year? Mine…not so great. On today's show, I share in-depth numbers about my sales in the first half of 2024: sell-through rates, top level domains, where I acquired the domains and more. I also hypothesize about why my sales might be down.

Also: Squarespace domains under attack, Dot Earth, .App, and an antitrust challenge against GoDaddy

Sponsor: Sav.com backorders

Last month, a consortium of advocacy groups asked the US government to take action against the .com contract with Verisign. On today's show, Matt Stoller, research director for American Ecomomic Liberties Project and author of The BIG Newsletter, discusses why he calls Verisign an "economic termite." While my reading of the NTIA agreement with Verisign suggests it can't be renegotiated in a way that harms Verisign, Matt explains that there might be ways to apply pressure to change the terms.

Also:

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

I write about domains getting stolen all of the time. On today's show, I interview someone who helps people recover those domains. Bill Hartzer explains how domain names commonly get stolen and the ways to go about recovering them. Interestingly, many of the times someone reaches out to him saying their domain was stolen, that's not really what happened.

Also: .com prices, alo.com lawsuit, Ben Crawford, Porkbun, Atom

Sponsor: Sav.com domain auctions