As a domain investor I have regular moments of embarrassment. Some of those moments have included registering an unintentional typo-domain, forgetting to park recently acquired domains, registering a non .COM name when the .COM was available, and forgetting to renew SnapNames domains at one of the many registrars that don’t send renewal reminders.

Today I experienced a new type of embarrassment: the type that comes from selling a domain so senseless that I’m ashamed to tell my friends. You may wonder why I registered such a domain in the first place if even the thought of selling it would make me blush. The domain in question was registered last month as part of a computer generated batch that I was furiously trying to register at the airport before my flight left. To say I was distracted would be an understatement.

The generated list was not rocket science; it was a simple search-and-replace Excel doc of existing domains. An example is a list of domains where three or more TLDs are registered with keyword “domainnames” and then replacing that string with “domains” before checking .COM availability. Most domain investors can see the logic of such an exercise, but who among us would be so senseless to throw caution to the wind and blindly register that list of hundreds of domains? If that weren’t a rhetorical question, the correct answer would have been “me.”

While my first reaction to the sale was disbelief and embarrassment, my emotions are now mixed. That one sale put all my airport registrations into positive ROI. Now I am wondering if my hand-editing of computer generated lists is really the smart thing to do.

When we take the time to build and invest in our domain analytics, what keeps us from trusting the results? In this instance it was mostly fear of wasting money, but also a bit of ego thinking I knew better than the computer. I doubt I will ever trust a domain analytics system completely, but I’m getting a lot closer.

In the ever increasing furry over Apple’s upcoming tablet device, many are looking to market indicators for a hint of what’s to come. Now there are two markets that indicate “iPad” as the upcoming tablet name: betting websites and domain name registrations.

Betting website Paddy Power has changed the odds in the Apple tablet naming competition. Yesterday “iPad” had a strong lead over “iSlate” with odds 1/3 and 2/1 respectively. Last night, however, “iSlate” odds improved dramatically from 2/1 to 5/4. While the 1/3 odds for “iPad” remained the same, these changes indicate that the recent “iPad” trademarks may not be as convincing as they were earlier in the week when the news first hit.

Meanwhile, dark horse “iBook” has finally joined the race today jumping in at 4th place with 12/1 odds, just behind “iTablet” which has stayed steady at 10/1 odds since Saturday.

While betters may be growing more indecisive, domain investors and speculators are pointing to “iPad” as the tablet name. In analytics I ran earlier this morning on the number of .COM domains registered over the past 48 hours, the keyword “iPad” increased by 93 domains, “iSlate” increased by 76, “iTablet” scored 14, and “iBook” grabbed fourth place with just 12 domain registrations.

In the last month many trademark filings and a whois record have come to light that point to possible names of Apple’s forthcoming tablet computer. The two names with the most trademarks are “iSlate” and “iPad” with “iTablet” being predicted by at least one Apple blog. While the news, blog, and IP worlds still haven’t decided on a name, the betting world has reached consensus.

European betting website Paddy Power has been running odds on potential Apple tablet names and initially indicated “iSlate” would be the most likely name. Last week they were paying 4/5–less than even money–for “iSlate” and 7/5 odds for “iPad.” The flurry of international trademark activity last week has made big changes to the odds. On Saturday the odds for “iSlate” and “iPad” reversed, giving “iPad” the lead of 1/5 odds before settling down at 1/3 earlier today with “iSlate” running as high as 9/4 before dropping slightly to 2/1.

With odds for the Colts winning the Superbowl at around 1/2, the 1/3 odds for “iPad” make it sound like a sure bet.

Apple has e-mailed selected media for an invitation-only event on January 27th. The invitation indicates that the event will begin at 10:00 AM and will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco.

Through leaks, rumors, and wild speculation many expect Apple to announce their tablet, possibly called “iSlate.” The blogging and technology press has been jumping since December 24th when MacRumors announced that Apple owned the “iSlate” trademark and domain name.

UPDATE: Fox News has confirmed that the event will focus on the “tablet device, iPhone 4, and a new round of iLife 2010 software.”

The Friday following Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because it is estimated to be the first day of the year that retailers become profitable or get out of the red, and in to the black. While searching for a good Black Friday website on Google I found a lot of different Black Friday websites that showed advertisements and gave daily updates. I wondered how many websites there were, so I did some domain name digging and found the following statistics:
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In an e-mail to Sedo customers earlier this morning Sedo announced the Intellectual Property Management Company. This new company is alternatively listed as a subsidiary of United Internet Group and Sedo, and elsewhere as joint venture of Sedo and member of the United Internet Group. According to their website they offer services including registrations, transfers, and renewals for ccTLDs, gTLDs, and IDNs, DNS hosting, SSL certificates, and domain acquisitions through Sedo.
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If you are like me, you probably have never heard of BCMS Corporate. I first heard about them from a direct mailing to my business advertising a free seminar in my area. Their seminar was titled “Selling your business for all it’s worth” and my first thought was that they were a small-scale private equity firm looking to scoop up businesses and assets for pennies on the dollar. I could not have been more wrong about who they are and how they operate.
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While there are one or two domain auction companies that have a checkered past when it comes to ethics and the law, the vast majority of companies conducting domain auctions today are worthy of trust. The question of trust, however, should extend beyond rigging auctions to an analytics and economics level. Do you worry that placing a large bid at an auction house has the potential to have a negative impact on your domain acquisition economics?
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One of the things I liked about working at a large company was the opportunity to meet people in a range of professions. When one of our web developers approached me to discuss domain investing, I gave him the the first few tips that came to mind. Since then I’ve put together a more thorough list that should be a good start for beginners.

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Sedo had a healthy week of sales, selling over 170 domains worth $809,724 according to my exchange rate calculations. Lots of interesting backgrounds on the top five sales listed below.
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