As reported on ElliotsBlog.com, .XXX Sunrise period which originally was to end today, has been extended until Monday, October 31st, 4pm EST. Also reported is they have received over 70,000 pre-registration requests. At roughly $200 each that is $14 million, WOW!

For those of you that don’t know if the Sunrise period is for you, watch this short 2:46 minute video for a better understanding. Then head over to Domain.xxx for more information on where and how to register.

And instead of repeating what others have written about on the .XXX Sunrise, here are some interesting articles to check out.

With 5 Days Left In Sunrise, .XXX Reports Over 42,000 Applications Taken
.XXX Has Grossed $10 Million Already [Updated]
Final Chance to Protect Against .XXX Domain Names
Inside Frank Schilling’s $1.65M .XXX Purchase
ICM Registry, In A Record Setting Sale Sells Gay.XXX For $500K
SheMales.XXX Sells For $200,000; 3 1/2 Times More Than The .Net Sold For

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The news of .XXX sponsoring a powerboat broke late last week, so I am a little late to posting. Although late, I think it’s great news. Any chance of getting the word out about domain names is awesome and this is certainly a BIG way to do it!

This is now the second boat that .XXX has sponsored within 30 days. In mid-September ICM Registry sponsored our industry’s only conference on a cruise-ship, DNCruise.

Either later this week or early next I plan on posting my two cents about .XXX. In the mean time, here is the press release direct from ICM Registry released on September 30th.

.XXX RACING TO MAKE ITS MAIDEN VOYAGE AT OFF SHORE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN KEY WEST, NOV. 11-13

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida: ICM Registry, the company behind the .xxx top level domain (TLD) announced today that it is entering world class powerboat racing with world champion driver Mike Seebold to compete at this year’s Off Shore World Championships in Key West, Florida.

Seebold and the team will be unveiling the all new race boat at TRAFFIC, the domain investment conference in Ft Lauderdale on Oct. 15-16^th, where guests and some surprised beach goers will get a chance to see the Miss .XXX powerboat blast along the coastline for a few test runs.

“We are extremely pleased to have a champion of Mike’s caliber join the .XXX Racing team and we look forward to lots of success with the .XXX Powerboat Team both on and off the water”, states ICM Registry Sales Director, Vaughn Liley.

“We are excited to be part of the .XXX team and were going to make them very proud in Key West as we go for the World Championship”, stated champion powerboat racer, Mike Seebold.

.XXX puts internet users in control of the content they wish to view or avoid, the .XXX indicates to the consumer that the website is likely to contain adult material, so they can now make an informed decision, whether to select or avoid. For more information about .xxx please visit www.about.xxx

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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.

How to learn more about any ccTLD Market

I always suggest that new ccTLD investors focus on a market they know and are comfortable with. If you live in the US then .us is a logical choice, if you live in France, start with .fr. Once you’ve mastered your market you can take the strategies that have worked for you and apply them to other markets. The issue is – how well do you know markets outside of your own?

In some cases you may vacation in the same place every year – let’s say you visit Amsterdam and tour the museums every summer, then .NL might be the next ccTLD you want to look at. Sure – you can invest in just about any ccTLD under the sun, but you have a unique advantage when you know more about the market.

Now let’s suppose you want to get started in another market that you aren’t familiar with at all. Suppose you’ve heard great things about .ca ccTLD but you’ve never been to Canada. The first step is to head on over to Google – but instead of just typing Google.com – this time enter Google.ca. Now do a few searches as you normally would and take a look at what sites appear on the first page of Google.

Now is where the detective work comes in. You want to really put your thinking cap on and start analyzing a few search queries and understand some of the features of top-ranking sites in the country you’re looking at. Pay attention to the advertisers on the side – is it local or global advertising? Who are the advertisers and do they have great domains or could you sell them a great domain?

Once you’ve done a bit of searching and feel a bit more at home on Google.ca then you’re ready to head-over to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and take your research a step further. Now start typing-in some of the keywords you’re looking at buying, i.e. if you want to buy sailboat.mx – take a look at the Google Adwords Keyword Tool and find-out how many people are searching for the world “sailboat” in English on Google in Mexico.

As you learn more about other countries you might find that search queries that are wildly-popular in the US might have little or no traffic in another country. For example the term “holiday” is used to describe a “vacation” in Europe and many other parts of the world. Thus – while “vacation” may be the most popular term in the US during the summer – “holiday” may take the cake in other parts of the world.

By better understanding both the search results and search volume in the country you’re looking to invest in you can pick better domains that will most likely appeal more to people in the local market. You should also use tools like Namebio.com and DNJournal.com to better understand past sales in the given market.

So break-out your favorite Sherlock Holmes hat and get ready to learn about another part of the world – there’s opportunities in just about every market – so what are you waiting for?

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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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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.

Many people see the ccTLD market as confusing – how could anyone  understand all these different domain markets all over the world?

Well the answer is – they can’t! There is no way you can expect to be in  expert in all ccTLDs – but I can tell you this – you’re an expert in at  least one and that’s the easiest place to start!

So what ccTLD are you already an expert in? That’s easy – the ccTLD  associated with the country you currently live in! For me that was .US  and my great experience with the .US market caused me to expand into the  over twenty markets I’m invested in today!

Now to go a level deeper. Suppose you, like me, live in the US so you  want to get started with .US. Now let’s go a step further – what city do  you live in? Suppose you live in Berkeley, California (my hometown) -  well then maybe you’d want to start looking at some domains like  BerkeleyRestaurants.us or BerkeleyHiking.us – pick a particular area that  you have fresh content ready to go based on your own experiences.

Start small and buy 5-10 domains in the ccTLD of your home country  focused on the part of the country you are the most familiar with. Just  think – now every time you go to a restaurant – you’ll have new content  for one of your sites!

The same applies for any other ccTLD – if you live in Germany, start with  .de – if you live in South Africa – start with .co.za – like Warren  Buffet says – invest in what you know!

Once you get comfortable with one ccTLD you can start expanding to others  using the same approach. I got started with .co.in and .in through having  a number of Indian friends all who watched Cricket constantly. They told  me how popular cricket was in India and I started buying Indian domains  that had to do with cricket. Before I knew it I was getting direct type- in traffic on a number of my domains – but it took understanding some  information about the country or region first.

Suppose every year you take a vacation to France and stay in a particular  city. Well now you can start investing in .FR because France would be the  country you know the most about next to the country you live in.

That’s it – while this may seem a a bit oversimplified it’s amazing how  many people hold-back on investing in ccTLDs simply because they don’t  know where to start. Once you’re started I think you’ll find that ccTLDs  represent a great way to expand your portfolio and invest in the Global  Domaining Market!

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