Background checks at both the entity level and the individual level will be conducted for all applications, to confirm eligibility. The background check may include, but is not limited to any of the following areas:
• Corruption and bribery
• Terrorism
• Serious and organized crime
• Money laundering
• Corporate fraud and financial regulatory breaches
• Arms trafficking and war crimes
• Intellectual property violations

This has caused quite an upset in the Middle East, where some are afraid background checks by the American-run ICANN could turn into racial profiling. Either way, something tells me that terrorist groups would much rather invest $100,000 in missiles instead of the gTLD application fee.

There were a number of other miscellaneous odd sales. RandomActsOfKindness.org sold for $25,000, which is quite a bit for such a long name. Kinderspiele.de (German for “Kids games”) garnered €16,000. Two more long names, IndependentFinancialAdviser.co.uk and DressUpGamesForGirls.com, sold for £9,975 and $15,000, respectively. Booking.travel also fetched $11,000– one of the best sales ever for the forlorn .travel TLD.

Generally very long names are not thought to have significant value. But these sales show that a domain is always worth what a buyer is willing to pay. In this case, it was quite a bit.

Photo | clix

The sites sold for so much because of their high traffic and revenue, but the sites’ enormous success is no doubt due in part to the use of premium domains. Quality, single-keyword domains convey a sense of confidence to visitors and are easy to remember.

Although it can be hard to justify a high price tag of a premium keyword domain, these domains really do pay off in the long run.

Source | Newfound News

Some of the other domains Mann has listed include news.co and bank.co. My guess is his strategy is so successful because he is friends with a large number of domainers. I would not list domains on Facebook or Twitter unless I had an extensive network of domain contacts.

Photo | Flickr

Unfortunately, .edu registration is heavily restricted. Only American post-secondary educational institutions are eligible to register on the .edu TLD. Universities outside the United States are not eligible to apply.

While such a restrictive policy is unfortunate for domainers, the .edu registry has been able to keep the quality of its extension high. As a result, thousands of universities in the United States pay hefty renewal fees every year for their .edu names.

The ccTLD has experienced slow growth due to strict registration requirements. Only individuals living in Ireland or companies with trade ties are allowed to register a .ie name. There is an exception to this rule for Community Trademark holders, however. Registrants are also not allowed to register names for resale.

So why register a .ie domain with all these restrictions attached? Because there are so few registrations, a number of premium names are still available. While few good .coms are still available and other countries have sold off their domain gold, there is still a lot of gold left in .ie’s pot. But only if you’re Irish, of course.

One challenge .co presents to sellers is its high renewal fee. At around £20 a year, the names aren’t cheap to hang onto for long periods of time. The same is true with many other ccTLDs. Some cost upwards of £200 or more to renew!

These high renewal fees provide a major incentive for sellers to sell the name as fast as possible. They also turn away buyers. As a result, many .co registrants are looking to sell their names as fast as possible. This drives down market prices across the board. Before registering a ccTLD for resale, take the renewal fee into consideration.

The sale itself took place on July 19, but wasn’t announced until today. The buyer is an online gaming company in Malta. Part of the reason for the high sale price could likely be Denmark’s decision to liberalize the online gaming market.

Other domains Google treats generically include .tv and .me. A Google spokesperson stated:

We will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted. Webmasters will soon have the functionality to be able to specify this by using the geotargeting options in Google Webmaster Tools.

This news is very good for early adopters of .co as Google’s announcement will surely increase the market value of .co names .

Source | PC Pro
Photo | Wikimedia Commons

Other recent ccTLD sales include PW.ca for $60,000, StockCharts.co.uk for $48,000 and Material.pl (”fabrics” in Polish) for $25,155. Meanwhile, IDN Haushaltsauflösungen.de garned $16,125. The name is German for “financial resolutions.”

Photo | Flickr

• Identify potential buyers and contact them directly. Email is fine, but you should have a professional address. Phone calls and faxes are much more effective, however.
• Be concise and to-the-point. Anyone interested in your domain will research what it is worth themselves.
• Be courteous at all times.
• Use an established domain sale or auction service. Many Internet users are leery of buying from unknown individuals.
• Provide potential buyers with your full name and phone number. This greatly increases their confidence and trust in you.

And of course, don’t give up! Selling a domain takes time.

Previously, Columbia only allowed second-level registrations on .com.co, .org.co, etc. It’s one of many countries in recent years to open up their domains to outside investors.

Source | Domain News