The following is a guest post written by Morgan Linton. Morgan is the President of Linton Investments, a Los Angeles-based Domain Investment Firm. Morgan runs a ccTLD Brokerage Newsletter and is the publisher of ccTLD Investors magazine. Morgan writes about his adventures in Domain Investing on his blog – MorganLinton.com.

With the .CO launch getting closer and closer I thought now would be a good time to review some important information about the TLD so you can make smart moves from the beginning! I am quite confident that the .CO launch this year should be one of the most impactful TLD launches in the history of the industry. While there are people lined-up on both sides of the table – when it comes to .CO there is a buzz going-on that you just can’t ignore!

So here are five things you should know about .CO – feel free to comment and add #6, #7, etc.

1) The Global Sunrise started April 26th and goes until June 10th. This is for people who have a trademark and the corresponding exact-match domain that would like to get the .CO. One important note here is that the trademark holder needs to have registered the exact-match domain before 7/30/2008.

2) Landrush runs from June 21st through July 13th and allows anyone with an interest in commercially valuable domains to apply for registration before general availability. Any domains that have two or more interested parties will go to auction and be sold to the highest bidder.

3) General Availability is July 20th and at that point .CO will be available to anyone in the world. This question comes-up a lot so it’s important to be clear here – anyone in the world can register a .CO – it is not limited to residents of Colombia in any way.

4) .CO is NOT a TLD for Typo-Squatters! The people at .CO are working very hard to create a globally-recognized and respected TLD. While many Domainers might think that .CO opens the door for new typo-domains be warned that the .CO folks will be working hard to prevent this.

5) When people in a focus-group were asked what .CO means to them the top answers were, “Company” and “Corporation” – having YourBrand.CO is a great way to represent your brand or product-category online.

Landrush starts in a little over a month and I am officially excited! .CO is coming and I think it’s going to change the Domaining world forever.

What do you think?

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Only days before the GEO Domain Expo in New Orleans did Patrick Carleton send me an email saying to send a bio within the hour, because I would be speaking Thursday. I don’t know if you guys remember but I am deathly afraid of public speaking. Just this past November was my first ever speaking engagement to a local business group. Thankfully I made it through, I think mainly because it was only a group of around 25 people.

Ok, so I agreed to Patrick’s demand…er…request (lol) and said I would participate on his Social Media panel. Still nothing prepared, I had a conversation the night before with Patrick telling him I was extremely scared but thankful it was going to be questions and answers so I can rely on the other members of the panel. What came next made my heart race. Patrick said no, you will have ten minutes of your own on stage to discuss Social Media. WHOA!!!

Long story short, I was a nervous wreck and prepared nothing. The other panelists had slide show presentations and pages of notes to refer to. I decided to just show a real world example of how Social Media works for me. I pulled up my accounts (Twitter/Facebook/Su.pr) to show how I drive roughly 5,000 visitors to any website I choose every single month.

I think I nailed it…watch the video and judge for yourself. Before you watch, I want to give a special thank you to Steven Kaziyev of DomainersDigest.com for recording and editing the following videos.

I also want to say that Patrick Carleton put together a great event. The GEO niche is very unique, a lot of different faces from the other shows so it was nice to meet new people and gain a little more insight about the GEO space.

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DOMAINfest Live Auction has come to an end…thank goodness! This being my first live auction I will admit I am exhausted. Right now I am up in the room, taking a break and catching my breath. In just a few minutes I will head back down for a few hours more of networking and dinner and of course an after party or two.

With over 100 attendees and a packed house for the keynote speaker, Jay Berkowitz, this has been a great event.

Here are the results of today’s auction:

35 domains sold, totaling $2,386,550

Dating.com
$1,750,000.00

BoardGames.com
$450,000.00

Therapists.com <— my top sale of the live auction
$50,000.00

Antidepressant.com
$30,000.00

GolfResorts.com
$22,500.00

EFP.com
$9,950.00

GJ.net
$7,200.00

BJH.com
$6,500.00

Birth.net
$6,000.00

PatioTables.com
$5,500.00

Sentimental.com
$5,250.00

Taunt.com
$5,000.00

ArtAppraisal.com
$4,000.00

Vinyl.net
$4,000.00

QWZ.com
$3,850.00

CarSecurity.com
$3,500.00

LasVegasDiscounts.com
$3,500.00

UsedHybridCars.com
$3,250.00

CakeStand.com
$3,000.00

CaribbeanCruises.net
$2,500.00

DivorceRecord.com
$1,500.00

StoneFurniture.com
$1,500.00

SchoolTutors.com
$1,200.00

AAC.co.uk
$1,000.00

CherryTrees.com
$950.00

BudgetOnline.com
$900.00

SportsSites.com
$850.00

MicroManaged.com
$600.00

LateShows.com
$500.00

LowerUtilityBills.com
$500.00

Day.me
$400.00

CdCollection.com
$300.00

NYC.asia
$300.00

TaxTube.com
$300.00

PersonalBanker.net
$250.00

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My good friend and fellow domain investor/blogger Morgan Linton is appearing live today at 2pm EST on Owen Frager’s Domain Success show.

Morgan has become a weekly writer for this blog sharing his knowledge of the ccTLD market, an area I am not an expert in.

Morgan will be discussing the following:

• Domain Monetization
• Domainvestors Television
• Domaining Seminars in Los Angeles
• ccTLD Investors Magazine
• 3rd Edition of Domain Flipping Book

I highly recommended listening in on the conversation today, I’ve learned a lot about development from Morgan.

Register Here

If recorded I will try and get a copy to post here after the show.

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Well, not exactly, not yet at least. What I meant to say is my first domain name under contract that should sell for $1mil plus. That name is…CommunityCollege.com.

Here are some of the names I am brokering in the upcoming DOMAINfest Live Auction later this week…

• CommunityCollege.com
• Karate.com
• Detox.com
• Counselors.com
• Therapists.com
• eAgent.com
• ToasterOvens.com
• VS.net
• Birth.net
• MotorLodge.com
• NIX.net

If you would like further information on these or any of the names in the auction send me an email through the contact page and I’ll be more than happy to help you.

To place a pre-bid on any of these names or to view the full catalog visit SnapNames.com.

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