.Org manager paid a lot less to Identity Digital for managing its registry backend under new contract. Public Interest Registry (PIR), the nonprofit that manages the .org top level domain name, has posted its annual Form 990 (pdf) tax return for 2024. The company generated $104.2 million in program revenue in 2024, up from $103.7 million in the prior year. Total revenue increased to $106.4 million from $105.1 million, thanks in part to higher investment returns.

Learn which landers to use and a tip to get more out of the lease-to-own. My guest this week is Wade Smith, Director of Aftermarket Sales at Afternic. Wade talks about the new DomainNames.com initiative and how it came to be. He also shares how Afternic brokers follow up on leads and provides tips about which landers to use. You'll also get guidance for pricing your domains and learn a simple tweak to help you make more money on your lease-to-own sales.

Google changes hit the company hard in Q3 after strong start to the year. Earlier this week, IONOS (IOS.F) announced that it plans to sell its Sedo unit. The reason was quite clear to industry observers: the traffic arbitrage business Sedo has relied on for much of its revenue in recent years was severely impacted by Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) winddown of AdSense for Domains.

Platforms combine for 136 sales of $2,000 or more. Newfold Digital's two domain marketplaces, NameJet and SnapNames, combined to sell about $749k of domain names over $2,000 last month. The total does not include the many sales below that threshold. All told, there were 136 sales of $2,000 or more. Here are some domains that stand out to me: Tesoro .com $91,000 - Tesoro means "treasure" and is also used as a term of endearment.

Application describes ways to use AI to assist with parking page creation and optimization. D3Serve, a company applying blockchain technology to domain names, has filed a sweeping patent application (pdf) covering aspects of domain parking systems. The company is an ICANN-accredited registrar offering domain tokenization through its Namefi platform. Its patent application is titled "System and Method for Automated Domain Advertising Using Artificial Intelligence With Language and Retrieval Augmented Models."

New registries should enter the market with their eyes wide open. A lot of new companies will enter the domain registry business with the next round of new top level domains next year. Last time around, there was irrational exuberance about the opportunity. Hopefully, people now have more realistic expectations. This isn't just about volumes. It's also about how you work with the registrar channel.

A healthcare organization, a deck builder, and a tourism marketing business bought domain names. Sedo's public sales list this week was led by a two-letter .org domain. The company also sold ado.ai to the owner of rankingCoach GmbH. This might be an investment purchase rather than end user. Here's a list of end user domain name sales that were recently completed at Sedo.

Company puts Sedo domain and ad monetization business up for sale. IONOS Group SE announced today that it plans to sell its Sedo domain sales and monetization business. In a release, Achim Weiß, CEO of IONOS Group SE, stated: The AdTech business faces exciting challenges and at the same time has a lot of potential. To leverage this potential, increasing management attention is required, which we cannot provide optimally on a permanent basis.

New rules make it harder for search arbitrage companies to use alternative to AdSense for Domains. With Google AdSense for Domains effectively dead, domain monetizers and search arbitrage businesses are moving to the company's Related Search for Content (RSOC) product. This is prompting Google to impose restrictions on the product, which could further reduce publishers' revenue. In August, the company added new "Restricted Access Features" to its Related Search product.

Company considering strategic options for its entire business. Team Internet Group (AIM: TIG, OTCQX: TIGXF) is undergoing a strategic review, with active discussions for "divestment or formation of strategic partnerships for substantially all parts of the business in separate transactions," the company announced today. The company said discussions are most advanced for the Domains, Identity & Software segment. This includes domain name registrars such as Moniker and RegistryGate, as well as a registry services provider business.

Company tries to upgrade to .com through UDRP. A FORUM UDRP panelist has found Sunwin Vibes Ltd to have tried reverse domain name hijacking. The online gaming business uses the domain sun .win and filed the case against sunwin .com. Unfortunately for Sunwin Vibes, the registrant of sunwin .com registered the domain name in 1999. That's well before Sunwin Vibes existed.

There were a lot of new (old) faces, and organizers can improve next year's show with some tweaks. NamesCon took place in Miami last week, and I'm glad I attended. Here are my thoughts on the show. Miami was a good move It's good for conferences to move around the country, and Miami was a smart selection for this year. I saw lots of people at this event who live in the area that I haven't seen in years.

Panel denies claim against dictionary .ai domain. StayinFront, Inc., which operates an augmented reality platform marketed at augment.COM, has lost a cybersquatting case it filed against augment.AI. The panel found (pdf) this was a case of reverse domain name hijacking. It's the fourth time Deep Vision Architects, which owns the domain, has had to defend one of its .ai domains in a cybersquatting dispute.

Company didn't exist when domain was registered. An Italian nutritional supplements company has been found guilty (pdf) of reverse domain name hijacking. SNEP S.p.A., which uses the domain name snep.it, filed a cybersquatting complaint against snep.com. A domain investor registered snep.com in 2000 and still owns the domain name. Based on the record the Complainant submitted, it did not exist in 2000.

Lots of crypto companies, a European company that's rebranding, and a "mouse for voice" company bought domain names. Last week's end user domain sales list is coming to you a week late. I was at NamesCon last week and didn't get a chance to review the sales. While I was there, Sedo broker Dave Evanson reminded me that most high-dollar sales aren't reported.

Interviews with 16 people at NamesCon. The domain name industry converged in Miami last week for NamesCon. It's the first time the show has been held in Miami. Held in conjunction with CloudFest, the event attracted nearly 1,000 people. On today's podcast, you'll hear from 16 people at the show. I recorded these on the exhibit hall floor, so I apologize in advance for the background noise.

David Woroch will take over as CEO. Elliot Noss is handing over the reins at Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX). After 25 years at the company, Noss has left the CEO role but will remain on the board of directors. Noss had been a long-time fixture in the domain name industry and was frequently at domain name conferences and ICANN meetings. He stepped back from his role in the industry in recent years to focus on Tucows' fiber business.

Registry domain price increases and a domain registration binge were among last month's top stories. 1. Domain price increases - stories about GoDaddy raising prices on .xxx and Identity Digital raising prices on most of its TLDs were top stories for the month. 2. Heavy metal band Slipknot files lawsuit against Slipknot.com - A 90s heavy metal band has called attention to pay-per-click ads on the domain as evidence of cybersquatting.

The former Soviet Union's domain traffic is driven by a botnet. Last month, Cloudflare launched a new section in Cloudflare Radar that ranks top level domains by their "DNS Magnitude", which is a measure of how many unique clients send queries to the TLD. The company made the surprising filing that the Soviet Union's legacy domain, .su, has a higher DNS Magnitude than even .com.

Company files with court after becoming aware of lawsuit. Not so fast! That's the message for heavy metal band Slipknot, which filed an in rem lawsuit against the domain name slipknot.com last month. Yesterday, attorney Jeffrey Neuman entered a notice of appearance on behalf of the domain's owner, Slipknot Online Services, Ltd. The filing states that the company just became aware of the lawsuit.

The keyword hub is a consistent seller in the aftermarket. Afternic has published a list of the top 20 keywords in aftermarket sales for August. Here's the list, with the prior month's ranks in parentheses. ai (1) my (2) group (4) it (6) home (3) bet (18) auto (13) solutions law homes tech best (19) services (9) new (8) health (5)

A look at the top 10 .com registrars for both new monthly registrations and total domains under management. ICANN has published the latest data from Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) covering the .com namespace. The data covers July 2025. Here are some takeaways from this month's data: If you're curious how many domains Unstoppable Domains is registering with its low prices, it picked up just over 20,000 new .coms in July.

Panelist determines complex dispute is about IP licensing, not cybersquatting. A fight over a domain name related to a restaurant in Scotland has resulted in a finding of reverse domain name hijacking (pdf). The somewhat convoluted case involves a restaurant called Laila Edinburgh. The Complainant is the current proprietor of this restaurant. The domain at issue, lailabrunchedinburgh.co.uk, was registered by a consultant on behalf of a previous restaurant in the location that went by this name.

Initial functionality will be limited to aftermarket domains purchased at Atom. Domain marketplace Atom announced plans for its own domain name registrar this summer, and it has now launched the first phase of it. Starting now, domain aftermarket purchases on Atom will use Atom's registrar. This means that sellers will transfer domains to Atom's registrar when they sell a domain, and buyers will be able to manage their domains through Atom's interface.

Company frustrated by .org/.com confusion filed a UDRP that was dead on arrival. There might be a new poster child for egregious UDRP filings. DrivenData, Inc., which uses the domain name drivendata.ORG, filed a cybersquatting dispute against the domain name drivendata.COM. The company has been frustrated by confusion between the .org and .com domains since it launched on the .org over 10 years ago.