Oversee.net is a sprawling Internet advertising company. Its hydra-headed holdings include DomainSponsor, Low.com, and Revenue.net, but of interest to us are two recently-purchased long-time domain name companies not mentioned on their main site: Moniker, Monte Cahn’s pioneering live-auction company when it comes to live auctions, and SnapNames, well known as the place to go to snap up a name when you’re hoping against hope that someone will neglect to pay their domain fees. We’ll consider both of these last two together for the purposes of TLD auctions, since they play complementary roles.

Note: In this series on auction providers, responses to my questionnaire are unedited, except that I’ve fixed typos, punctuation, grammar, complete nonsense, etc. to protect the guilty.

How many years have you been in business?
Moniker 10 years, SnapNames 8 Years, Oversee.net 8 Years

Will you work with new TLDs to auction names? Will you do that on a non-exclusive basis?
Yes, we will work with new TLDs to auction names. Exclusive relationships are preferable, obviously, and can significantly enhance the end-user’s experience; however, we will consider non-exclusive relationships in appropriate circumstances.

Do you have customizable offerings for Sunrise, Landrush, and collision (limited participant) auctions?
Yes, we do. Sunrise, land rush, or other circumstances of “collision” auctions involve private auctions limited to qualified or enlisted parties. The SnapNames platform has private auction capability and the SnapNames staff is very experienced with the nuances involved in limited participation auctions.

Have you auctioned names for a new TLD before? If so, which ones?
Yes, for .MOBI and .ME

Do you do online auctions, live auctions, or both?
Both.

What languages have you done auctions in? (Please distinguish between live and online auctions)
English, live and online.

What currency(ies) have you used in your auctions?
U.S. Dollars

If you run an ongoing domain auction platform, how many domains are currently listed for sale?
Typically there are tens of thousands of names available at any given time on the SnapNames and Moniker systems. The SnapNames daily inventory refreshes daily, depending on expiring and deleting inventory acquired through the drop or made available from partnering registrars.

At which venues/conferences in 2009/2010 will you have a presence where you could promote the TLD auctions

• DomainFest Global, January 28-30, 2009 in Hollywood
• T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York
• T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under (Australia)
• Any and All ICANN meetings

. Will you provide any marketing/advertising for the new TLDs you are working with. Please be specific.
Yes, we believe this would be a critical step for the TLD and for the auctions.

With its combined divisions, Oversee.net has an immense audience of customers, registered users, websites, conference attendees, conference presence and highly ranked podcasts. This would include but would not be limited to the following:

• Oversee.net divisions have customer lists that number into the tens of thousands each. We are appropriately active with our updates and notifications about industry events and information. New TLDs would strongly benefit from mention in these portals, newsletters and news alerts.
• Monte Cahn’s DomainMasters podcast on WebmasterRadio.FM is a popular and widely downloaded show with a large and dedicated following. The audience is looking for discussion of key domain name sales in the new extension or upcoming promotions or launches. The episodes with interviews between the host and key registry executives to discuss the new TLD are often the most widely listened to and downloaded. This is a unique exposure with an authentic dialog about a new TLD.
• Moniker.com is one of the top ten ICANN accredited registrars. Moniker would be in a position to promote the TLD through direct sales to its large base of sophisticated registrants.
• SnapNames and Moniker also have become premiere names in domain name auctions, with significant reach into communities of registrants, including professional domain name investors, enterprises, vertical market interests and others.
• Oversee.net is the operator of the well established and popular DomainFest conferences, which are held in the US and internationally. These conferences attract a spectrum of participants from beginner to expert and also attract media attention and participants new to or from outside the domain name industry.

Are you willing to provide a fixed payout to the TLD in addition to percentage-based payouts?
We are flexible in our discussions and willing to find an appropriate solution that can make sense for all parties.

Are you willing to collaborate on a TLD at the business plan stage without an exclusive agreement?
Oversee.net is open to collaboration with any potential TLD applicants, registries or registry consultants.

Do you have a primary point of contact who has TLD launch experience with the process of a TLD launch? If so, who? Please provide name and email address.
Yes:

• Monte Cahn monte[at]moniker.com
• Jothan Frakes jfrakes[at]oversee.net
• Mason Cole mcole[at]oversee.net

Please add any relevant additional thoughts
Many of the business models for new TLDs regard auctions as a way to self-fund and build awareness of the TLD in the name space. It’s very important to choose a provider with the auction experience and marketing power to make those needs a reality.

Oversee.net, with the combined might of Moniker.com and SnapNames.com in its family of companies, is uniquely positioned to add value beyond the auction proceeds. We are a top tier provider that can partner with any size or circumstance, and are uniquely positioned to be a strong ally in the coming TLD process. We hope you will see a clear attraction to partnering with us for this important process and would appreciate the opportunity to discuss your TLD.

If there’s anything that Oversee/Moniker/SnapNames neglected to mention in their response, please add your own observations about them in the comments.

That concludes the series on new TLD auction providers. Not answering the questionnaire (so far) were Bido.com, ThoughtConvergence, and Aftermarket.com. I’ve sent a couple of these out just recently, so if there are further answers, I’ll pop up a post.

Tags: Oversee.net, Moniker, SnapNames, Monte Cahn, Jothan Frakes, Mason Cole, Domain Masters, DomainFest, T.R.A.F.F.I.C., T.R.A.F.F.I.C Down Under, ICANN, new ICANN TLDs, new ICANN domains, domain auctions, domain auction providers, domain auction houses

Posted by Antony in: Domains, General, Guide to new TLDs