indomaining.com

The top category in any extension is four letter dictionary words, at least in terms of valuations. And this has a foundation in the fact that these are extremely easy to brand and promote. After LLL dictionary words, these come a close second for me, even higher than ‘all premium’ (duh!) LLLs. So, here’s the

For many years we have been supporters of Bob Parsons, having watched Godaddy evolve. In fact, his “16 Rules of Success” is framed on our office wall. Unfortunately all that business experience has now fallen by the wayside.

Earlier today we discovered a video clip whereby CEO Bob Parsons took a trip “to Zimbabwe and hunt problem elephant“. Caution: The video is very graphic and may offend some viewers.

After watching the video we decided that we could not support an organisation that engages in such practises and have commenced moving our domain name portfolio to other registrars.

Media Coverage

It seems that over the course of the day, the mainstream media has picked up this story with coverage in:

1. LA Times – Bob Parsons under fire for Zimbabwe elephant-hunting video

2. TMZ – ‘GoDaddy.com’ Elephant Killer — PETA Is Extorting Me

3. PETA – In this letter, awarded Parsons the “first-ever Scummiest CEO of the Year Award”.

Is The Elephant Endangered?

The IFAW lists the African elephant as “Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) and by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). It is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora except for populations in those countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia) which were reclassified to Appendix II.”

Note that Zimbabwe “reclassified” the African Elephant. Of course, this is the country run by President (some would say Dictator) Robert Mugabe.

Where Do I Move My Domains?

Godaddys competitors have also publicly denounced Parsons actions and are giving away domains at below their cost. Earlier this evening we received an email from NameCheap titled “Transfer for $4.99 and Help Save the Elephants”.

“Transfer your domains to Namecheap for $4.99 for the next 24 hours through 11:59pm EST on 3/31/11 (limit 10 per user, valid for all com/net/org domains). On top of that, we’ll donate $1 for each transfer to Save The Elephants. Use coupon code BYEBYEGD and let’s help the Elephants together!”

What Do You Think?

Are you moving your portfolio away from Godaddy? Is this really about “protecting crops” or just an excuse to travel to another (perhaps “less regulated”) part of the world and shoot high powered weapons at large animals?

Have your say, post a comment below and let us know.

In today’s Lowdown, I’ll tell you about a special charity auction that gets underway Thursday on Sedo.com, Rick Latona’s decision to move his auctions from Latonas.com to Sedo, a new feature story about a big advance in domain management & a new interview in which I covered some topics I haven’t talked about before.

Action in the domain aftermarket has been a bit slower than expected in the opening quarter of 2011, but a lot of catching up was done over the past seven days. In fact, four of the year’s 10 biggest sales were logged since last week’s report as the market served up its best performance of the year to date.

I was just checking out the auctions one GoDaddy when I noticed some closeout domains marked at $1. Now before you get excited, that’s $1 PLUS standard renewal, which with coupons you can get for around $9. So that’s $10 for a chance to pickup a 5/6 year old domain, that’s not bad at all