This week I interview Helmuts Meskonis, who organizes the Domain Summit conference in London and owns DNForum and AcornDomains.

Helmuts had a bit of a rough relationship with some in the domain name community early on thanks to his association with a controversial person, but I had a chance to chat with him at the Internet Commerce Association meeting last month and learned about some of what he’s doing in the business.

We discuss this background, why he rebranded London Domain Summit to Domain Summit (and how he bought the corresponding domain from Mike Mann), and how he’s trying to breathe new life into DNForum.

Also: Trader Joe’s, Tucows, No Labels, Ethereum and more 

Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers

Once a year, domain investors Mark Levin and Logan Flatt join me on the show to discuss their sales results from the previous year.

On today’s show, you learn how many domains they sold in 2023 compared to 2022, a breakdown of which top level domains they sold, how they are acquiring domain names, and what they are trying differently in 2024 to try to improve their results.

Also: Mar-a-Lago, .com price increase, Epik’s owner, Namecheap v. ICANN, GPT.

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Most domain investors are passive. They list their domains for sale on marketplaces and put of “for sale” landers and wait for buyers to come to them.

A subset of investors do outbound marketing, contacting businesses that might be interested in buying their domains.

One such investor took this on overdrive recently. Ryan Ewen, founder of DomainManage.com, contacted 25,000 prospects and sold $300,000 of domain names.

On today’s show, Ryan explains how he did it and what he learned. 

Also: 

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

Have you ever typed an email address into a web form and it wasn’t accepted because your address ends in a new top level domain? Or noticed that a domain name wasn’t linked on social media because the network didn’t recognize the top level domain?

These are examples of a lack of Universal Acceptance of all types of domain names. Universal Acceptance means that all valid domains and email addresses work in all software applications.

ICANN and the internet community have been working on Universal Acceptance for a long time, but there’s a long way to go.

On today’s show, I’m joined by Sarmad Hussain, Senior Director IDN and UA Programs at ICANN, and Nabil Benamar, a professor in Morocco and chair of the UA Steering Group Measurement Working Group. The pair talk about what has been done and the road ahead.

Also: UDRP stats, Epik controversy (again), closed generics and more. 

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2023 is in the books. On today’s show, I share my domain sales results from last year including total sales, breakdown by TLD, median prices, length of domains, acquisition strategy, and more. I also share a couple of tactics I’m going to try to boost sales in 2024.

Also: Escrow.com sales, reverse domain name hijacking, and a $300k domain lost in a cybersquatting dispute

Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers

Chocolate.com. Licorice.com. Caramels.com. These are some really sweet domain names, and they’re all owned by one company: GOAT Foods. The company is leveraging these great domain names to sell snacks and confections.

On today’s show, GOAT Foods cofounder Jonathan Packer tells the company’s origin story and explains how the high-quality domain names have helped it launch its brands. He also explains which great domains the company is turning into businesses next.

Also: Squarespace dip, Roberto.com, Century.com, Verizon’s cybersquatting win

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

It’s the annual predictions episode! On today’s show you’ll hear from 25 people about what the biggest surprises of 2023 were and what they expect to happen in 2024. Happy new year and let’s make 2024 a great one!

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

“Brandable Insider” Keith DeBoer returns to the show this week to talk about domain investing. Keith owns about 5,000 domains. Today, he explains how he decides which domains to buy, where he’s listing them for sale, and why (and how) he pruned his portfolio by about 500 domains this year.

Also: DNS abuse, .io, .xyz, and more.

Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers

2023 has been full of activity in the domain name business. There have been acquisitions. Changes in hot technologies. And much, much more.

On today’s show, I discuss what I think were the five biggest stories in domain names last year. 

Also: .AI mania, fast transfer, ICANN’s schedule and more

Sponsor: Sav.com backorders