This week I talk with Katja Speck and Tom Keller about ID4Me. Katja is the managing director of ID4Me, and Tom Keller is a board member whose day job is Head of Domains at 1&1 Ionos. The best way to think of ID4ME is an easy way to log into the websites, similar to signing in with Facebook or Google, while maintaining control over your data. (Of course, there’s a lot more to it.) It's based on DNS, and Katja and Tom explain how it works and the benefits for the domain name ecosystem.

Also: Impeachment, app makers buying domains and more.

Why do small business owners register the domain names that they choose? On today’s show we’ll talk to five business founders, most of them solopreneurs, about the domains they picked and how they selected them:

1. 7-time Guinness World Record holding Juggler Niels Duinker, who uses ComedyJuggler.com and JugglingWorkshop.com.
2. Danielle Cuomo of VirtualAssistUSA.com.
3. Side hustler Jason Stum, who sells graded comic books at CertifiedComic.shop.
4. Travel blogger Amanda O’Brien, who blogs about her travels at TheBoutiqueTraveler.com.
5. Joel Nagelbush, who uses DynamicImpact.co.

These interviews will help you understand the role of registrar search results in domain selection, what people do when the domain they want is already taken, and how names come to be.

Also: Stolen domains & scams, GoDaddy’s product launch, .Org’s rebrand and more.

This week I talk with Matt Overman, the SVP of sales at Donuts, the company that offers 240 domains in new extensions such as .money and .expert. Matt explains why his company is reducing the price on over 1 million new top level domains that are marked as premium, including moving most of them to non-premium status. He also responds to some of Michael Berkens’ comments about new TLDs and gives examples of how some people are successfully using the domains.

Also: Slofies, Scratch.org settlement scratched, .Music fight, No more .chrysler, and good news about a website held for ransom.

Woven CEO Tim Campos comes on the show this week to talk about his company acquiring the domain name Woven.com. Campos it the former CIO of Facebook and is internet savvy, but he still found immense value in hiring a broker to acquire the domain. He also discusses the importance of getting a good .com domain name for his business.

Also: A big legal bill, Destruction.com, and Google connects with Domain Connect.

Domain investor Mark Levin return to the Domain Name Wire Podcast to talk about how he’s investing in 2019 and his results. The year is only 8 months old, but he’s already smashed last year’s sales total. Today, he explains: what he’s buying, how much he pays for domains, how and where he sells them, and much more. I learned a lot from this interview and will incorporate some of Mark’s ideas into my own investing. You’ll learn a lot, too.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) fights for civil liberties, free speech and privacy on the internet. The non-profit is vocal about domain name policy, and it’s latest salvo is over the new .Org contract ICANN signed. While others focus on the removal of price caps, EFF (which uses a .org domain) is concerned about the extension of URS and other provisions to the agreement. On today’s show, EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz discusses the group’s concerns.

Also: Reverse domain name hijacking, NHL’s domain win, stolen domain lawsuit, and Sedo’s new lander.

Jeffrey Black registered IMI.com in 1994. Over two decades later he found himself in court spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to prove that he wasn’t cybersquatting on a concrete company’s brand by registering the domain. On today’s show, Black’s attorney Mike Rodenbaugh walks us through exactly what happened: why Black registered the domain, how this case proceeded all the way to a jury trial, and what happened next.

Radix CEO Sandeep Ramchandani discusses the current state of new top level domain names from his perspective. We discuss how much premium domains should cost, if domains under management is the right metric, switching costs of domains, and much more. It’s an interesting discussion.

Matthias Conrad joined Sedo as its new CEO at the beginning of the year. On this show, Matthias talks about his impression of the domain aftermarket—and Sedo—after about half a year on the job. Conrad explains how he thinks Sedo can improve, what the aftermarket needs to take it to the next level, and some data including Sedo’s median domain sales price.

Also: Change at the top at GoDaddy, MicroStrategy’s domain profit, premium domain sales, end of an era at Uniregistry, ICANN’s “sort of” response to ICA.

Want to grow your audience and business? One of the hottest things to do right now is to be a guest on podcasts. On today’s show, I’ll explain step-by-step how to leverage podcasts. This is a great opportunity for domain name companies and domain investors, as well as people who have built an online business.

Also: Verisign’s earnings, Whois spat resolved, private jet, and Web.com’s acquisition