Domain Name Wire Podcast

Domain investor Josh Reason joins me this week to share insights from managing his 5,500-domain portfolio. He discusses what types of domains he's investing in, where and how he sells domains, and how his strategy is evolving. Josh also shares details on some recent sales and discusses his platform, DNX.com, which helps investors discover quality domains to buy.

Also: Tariffs, domains in the courts, and more.

Sponsor: Sav.com domain auctions

Braden Pollock had a record year last year, selling $6.5 million of domains. Many of his sales are headline-grabbing, but he also does a robust business with less expensive domains.

Today, he reveals some of his recent domain sales, explains how he prices domains, and discusses some of his success with non-.com domains.

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

It's time for our recurring podcast with domain investors Mark Levine and Logan Flatt! Mark and Logan come on the show frequently to share their domain investing results, talk about what's working, and what's not working for them. On today's show, they detail their 2024 domain investing results. You'll hear which top level domains they're selling, how and where they are acquiring them, and how they are optimizing their portfolios.

Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers

Afternic launched a basic self-brokering option last week. On today's show, GoDaddy Sr. Director of Domain Investor Product Alan Shiflett joins us to talk about self-brokering. He discusses the company's iterative approach to launching this feature (and others). We also discuss how the company is experimenting with AI in the aftermarket and how it has reduced shill bidding.

Also: Amazon's new domains, Global Domain Report, which registrars are growing.

Sponsor: Sav.com backorders

The domain name industry gathered in Seattle last week for ICANN's annual community forum. During the show, I caught up on what's happening with two important topics: Adsense for Domains and new top level domains.

On today's show I recap what I learned. You will then here from some other people who were at the show last week.

Also: .SU, Snoop Dogg, and Meta lawsuit appealed

Sponsor: Sav.com domain auctions

At least one company is going big in the next round of new top level domain expansion.

On today's show, Yoni Belousov explains why his company Nova Registry plans to apply for around 200 new top level domains in the next round.

Nova didn't participate in the last round, and only entered the business with the acquisition of .link in 2022.

Why is Nova Registry going so big? What types of domains will it go after? And how does it plan to shake up the domain business? Find out on today's show.

Also: Quantifying Adsense for Domains, Minting as a Service, and domain auctions

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers

What kind of results can you get from a portfolio of just over 10,000 domains? My guest this week shares details of his sales last year.

AbdulBasit Makrani was last on the show in November 2023, when he had just boosted his sales by lowering his prices. I ask him about that strategy, and we discuss how even owning over 10,000 domains doesn't result in truly consistent sales.

Listen as AbdulBasit discloses a handful of five-figure sales he made last year, including a $70,000 .org domain. Oh, and as AbdulBasit's kids get into domain investing, he's changing his strategy to make room for them. It's a great discussion.

Sponsor: Sell your domains with Sav.com domain landers

On today's show, I talk to a domain investor who has been very successful with .io and .ai domain names. He discusses how he's tweaking his approach to investing in these domains in today's domain investing landscape. He also shares his 2024 domain sales results and how they compared to the prior year. Listen to learn how a small change he made to how he uses Afternic boosted his sales.

Also: Verisign's risks, Afternic data, Bentley

Sponsor: Sav.com backorders

Public policy has a major impact on the domain name business. On today's show, I catch up with one of the groups that helps represent domain registrars, hosts, and other internet infrastructure providers when it comes to policy.

Christian Dawson is the co-founder and Executive Director of i2Coalition. He brings us up to speed on The Domain Name Association, which merged with i2Coalition, and also introduces the new Secure Hosting Alliance.

Sponsor: Sav.com domain auctions

I've interviewed the founders of Unstoppable Domains on two separate occasions, but the most recent was in 2020. A lot has happened in the past five years. On today's show, Unstoppable Domains founder and CEO Matthew Gould sits down to talk about what the company is doing to marry blockchain with domain names.

It's a refreshing conversation; Matthew explains that some of the company's past efforts haven't taken off as hoped. The company has pivoted to become an ICANN-accredited registrar, and is layering blockchain-enabled tech on top of existing domains. One interesting takeaway: consumers don't want to know they're using blockchain when they're using blockchain.

Also: MicroStrategy's name change, Super Bowl commercials, earnings season and more

Sponsor: Sav.com domain transfers