OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Worldwide Media, Inc., the company owned by Michael Berkens, has bought at least 4 domain names in the New gTLD .diamonds.
2 domain names were purchased on the second day of Donuts, the .diamonds registry, Early Access Program (EAP). So the domain names were bought for about $3,000 each:
yellow.diamonds
i.diamonds
Mike then bought the domain name round.diamonds on the 3rd day of EAP for about $1300.
And then again on the 4th day of EAP he bought colored.diamonds for about $700.
I didn’t find these 4 domains in the zone files as they don’t have nameservers assigned to them…
Michael Berkens has bought several other New gTLD domain names such as:
Z.clothing
U.ventures
J.ventures
F.ventures
H.clothing
I had a look at who owns the corresponding domain names of yellow.diamonds and
i.diamonds in .com:
both rounddiamonds.com and rounddiamond.com are owned by MAXAM MAGNATA INC. (DOMAINGEMS.COM) that is a domaining company dealing gem related domains
yellowdiamonds.com: MARCHEX
idiamonds.com: Israeli company webfore.com
yellowdiamond.com: Frank Schilling’s Name Administration Inc.
idiamond.com: Frank Schilling’s Name Administration Inc.
coloreddiamond.com (Tedhens Limited, the domain is for sale)
coloreddiamonds.com (whois proxy)
OnlineDomain.com - © Copyright 2012-2024 - All Rights Reserved
Hat’s off to Michael Berkens! Most women love Colored.Diamonds and many men are working right now to pay for them……..
Zournas,
You may or not be aware of the fact that Berkens is a person who provides expert advice professionally to the new G Registries.
Now, nobody knows for sure what he is doing in buying these names. it could be benign purchases, but it’s incumbent on you, the reporter in this blog post, to inform your readers of Berkens activities as relating to right of the dot, and as a consultant. I’m just saying…
I’m not trying to pick on you, but I hope you understand.
I will pretend that Mike didn’t reply below as just read all the comments now.
Yes Mike does provide consulting services to some registries.
I know what he is doing buying these names: he is paying for them at various registrars.
If you doubt that then YOU should provide evidence that either he is not paying for the domains or that Donuts is paying him to buy the domains.
So your opinion is that he is buying the domains without paying (and buy that not allowing Donuts to sell the domains to other interested parties) or that he is somehow
promoting the .diamonds domains. (which of course is not happening as the domains are not in zone files)
Or maybe I am paid to report hidden purchases to promote .diamonds.
Whatever.
You keep searching for conspiracy theories and missing the obvious.
People buy domains that are not .com. And they also buy crap .com domains.
Always happened and always will.
BTW I also bought 1 .diamonds domain name.
I will help Konstantino out here.
RightoftheDot.com has not been retained in any capacity by Donuts to work directly or indirectly on any of its strings or applications.
Donuts has not retained ROTD to conduct any of its contention auctions.
Donuts is not even an advertiser on thedomains.com, or any domain blog as far as I can tell.
Simply put we haven’t received a penny from Donuts.
All new gTLD’s domains are being acquired by my company Worldwide Media, Inc, and part of Mostwanteddomains.com having nothing to do with ROTD in the normal process through registrars and not from the registry.
We also are the proud owner of big.diamonds and Appraise.diamonds
Finally I wouldn’t say I love diamonds, I would say Judi does.
Pretty sure we are sitting with less than 50 new gTLD domains out of around 75,000 domains we own
We will work on getting these live this week.
@Mike
Thanks Mike.
You like .diamonds. Judi loves diamonds. 🙂
@All
I own 33 new gTLDs out of about 10000. Does this mean I like new gTLDs or hate them? Hmmmm
Zournas,
You own 33 new gTLDs? Really?
We are forever precluded from knowing what your true opinion is about the new G’s scheme.
You are no longer able to be unbiased. It’s human nature, and automatic, that you will wish your investments in them to succeed; therefore you cannot be neutral.
Bias is defined as prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair; it even shows in the way you address me and my comments on this post already. I’m not looking for conspiracy theories. It’s amazing how stuff come to light once I challenge. Who knew you already purchased 33.
I thought the frequency of your gTLD posts was unusual. (Not the content). You accused me of double standards. Freedom of speech is measured in content, whereas flooding of posts is measured in frequency, and/or amplitude.
Which ones did you buy? Which .diamond?
Yep. Is that many or not enough?
I don’t have to explain what I do to anyone. Just like Mike doesn’t. Especially when I don’t do anything wrong.
No I am not unbiased. Just like you that you prefer .com just because you only own .com.
Well I own .com .net .org .biz .info .us .gr .co.uk. .whatever.
My purchases have nothing to do with my posts. e.g. I don’t write about sunrise because I have marks to protect.
You say flood, I say not.
The main problem with gTLDs is that everyone thinks they should take sides. Pro or against.
Well, I am both.
Not all new gtlds are created equal. I don’t own any .plumbing and I don’t intent to. Nor will I buy a .xyz.
There are going to winners and a lot more losers.
Finally I don’t give a rat’s ass if .diamonds fail or if .estate goes to hell.
I don’t even care if all fail. I will go back to my com and org and info.
But it doesn’t hurt to diversify by 1% or even 10%.
I bought color.diamonds and e.estate because I liked them. I don’t have much to lose.
And I am not hiding anything. If you were reading comments in various blogs you would know I have bought a few new gTLDs.
And all data is in the zone files.
Please stop doubting everything and everyone. It doesn’t lead anywhere.
“Please stop doubting everything and everyone. It doesn’t lead anywhere”.
I deny that I’m doubting everyone or everything. Usually when I agree with someone, or something, then I either don’t comment, or say “I agree 100%”, or whatever the percentage is.
I do have one blogger I agree with 100%, and that would be Borgos of Impulse; I’m yet to disagree with any thing fundamental, or substantial; and that is because, his writing is often based on empirical data, and standards adjudged by True or False, not right or wrong, or good or bad.
If he is blogging about a domain name he purchased, he will give you all the axis on that purchase; likewise sales of his names. If he incurred poor results from say, Google, or any powerful entity, he will share the entire truth.
And, incidentally, I agree with you (Zournas) about 75% of the times; it used to be higher.
Now, what have I been complaining about lately? The domain major markets and the results that make absolutely no sense. And a little agitation about new gTLDs. That’s not complaining about everything. ICANN came in tearing up the neighborhood, it’s always something with ICANN! Therefore, I complained a little, now I’m complaining about everything?
Congratulations on your purchases.
I understand how one could doubt unpublished sales but doubting published sales is not something one should do without evidence.
Check domaintools.com and see if domains changed hands. Then contact buyer and seller. If you find something wrong then you can say whatever you want.
A few people have doubted a couple of my sales. I only reply like this: “Do you want an escrow.com and internet banking screenshot with that?”.
Thanks
BTW I have already posted e.estate for sale here in my blog. It has been there before I made this post.
@Berkens,
You’ve always operated above board, and this is not casting any aspersions…such as vilifying, disparaging, denigrating, or pillorying any particular person, I was just saying it’s proper to reveal your connections regarding this story; you may not always be around to explain the details. But I thank you for clarifying the above.
Yet, you may still gain intangibly just by buying and participating; it could still be a form of solicitation of Donuts to in fact deal with your ROTD outfit. That’s just one interpretation..
(I’m still boycotting your blog, Berkens).
Addendum,
I am not into new TLDS, I’m perfectly happy with dot coms.
If the following names are available, they are better than Berkens’ picks:
1. VVS.Diamonds
2. Certified.Diamonds
3. Round.Diamonds
4. Princess.Diamonds
5. Emerald.Diamonds
6. Oval.Diamonds
7. Pear.Diamonds
8. Asscher.Diamonds
9. Marquise.Diamonds
10. Gia.Diamonds
Good luck!
could of bought a real diamond instead of buying words
A key point here is the comment made by MB himself – of 75k domains owned, fewer than 50 are in the new TLDs – less than one tenth of 1% of the portfolio between all new TLDs combined. So if I were to make a comparable investment in the new TLDs I would only be allowed to buy ONE new TLD domain between all the possible combinations which might become available in 2014.
Guys also it should be noted that Worldwide Media, Inc, is owned by Judi and Myself 50/50 while ROTD is owned by Myself and Monte 50/50 so different ownership as well
Round.diamonds we got
Some of the others are reserved
Aunt not a yellow diamond you need about $20K for a decent one six figures for one of any size
@Leonard Britt,
50 new gTLDs is a lot, given these things are just starting to launch.
Speed is described as rapidity of movement or action, or mathematically put,
distance over time.
So, you can say Berkens is speeding, when it comes to the new gTLDs..
@Berkens,
Monte Cahn is a sharp guy. So, you’ve got a great insider there as a partner.
“I understand how one could doubt unpublished sales but doubting published sales is not something one should do without evidence.
Check domaintools.com and see if domains changed hands. Then contact buyer and seller. If you find something wrong then you can say whatever you want”. – Zournas
@Zournas,
I believe you’re sincere in the comment above, so let me try to explain as best as I can.
I know you’ve heard the domains likened to stocks some times, and real estate, in others; granted each one of these are different technically; but they share market discipline together.
So, let’s take for a example, assume that Mr.Warren Edward Buffett, (who is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century), purchased 50,000 shares of Facebook, and you purchased 1000 of the same; now assume that both of you are ready to sell; now assume that you put your sell order 10 minutes before Mr. Buffet’s. Guess what will happen: your shares will be filled first; If a buyer wanted to buy 40,000 shares, your 1000 shares will be gobbled up, and 39,000 of Mr. Buffets will go fill that 40,000 order. The brokerage cannot say “Hey, that’s Mr. Buffet the billionaire, his shares are better or smarter than Zournas the millionaire!”. In the stock market, similar class of stocks have equal weight, and opportunity. Guess what will happen if this is not so? The little guy will only be able to buy when stock’s high, and unable to sell when it’s going up, and vice versa.
Now, the principle is what’s at issue here, that is equal opportunity to sell and buy; the domain market cannot be exactly like the stock market, but the equal opportunity at the market place is essential. We don’t have now. That’s what I’m complaining about. New, and intermediate domainers can only buy, they can’t sell; meanwhile, the market places are selling PS domains, and you can see it in your weekly post: great domains mixed in with PS names, 10 to 90 ratio.
My quarrel is not only with veracity, as you imply, but especially with process and result.
For example, if you have Unfair.com for sale at the major domain market places for $100,000, but they turn around and sell Un-fair.com for $107,000, and they do something similar to that, even with $1000 names, then you are entitled to complain.
The stock market has nothing to do with domains in terms of selling and buying.
As I said before people buy crap domains all the time. I have sold a few myself.
Domains that I was thinking of dropping get sold. Or domains I dropped, get picked up and sold by someone else.
There are people buying dash domains and leaving the non-dash versions in new gTLDs as we speak.
Shit happens.
Where are you going to complain? And say what?
Look, I only use the marker places for very few domains lately. You should do the same. Try DNS.
Also I would like to see 10 of your domains. Your best. To understand why you are complaining.
“There are people buying dash domains and leaving the non-dash versions in new gTLDs as we speak.
Shit happens”. – Zournas
Thanks for your reply.
I’m not complaining because of my self, or myself; if I cared about just myself, I will get along with everybody. My complains have been going on for 6 years now; I started knocking the “Parking Companies” because there was no money to be made parking domains, but bloggers were presenting Domain Parkers as excellent business that enticed Newbies to buy and register domains, but were not seeing similar results; so that battle was fought and now everybody knows that you don’t make money like the old days parking domains.
I have fought other battles, including lowering the domain Conference prizes. Not that I can’t personally afford it, it’s for the good of all.
I have fought for Elliot’s weekly names for sale post not to be deleted because many domainers have fun with it, and he has been enjoying it featured lately. I don’t have to benefit personally to do what’s right.
You’d be surprised what’s wrong in this domain industry, and all it takes to fix them is to start cleaning them up one by one.
So, I can guarantee you that the market places will change. Or another player will come into the space.
(If you want to see some of my names, head to site, click on my name).
BTW, Zournas I can see that you are not listening because I pointed you to the PS domains you list every week sold by these major markets, instead of you concentrating you comments on those incredible sales, you somehow want to ignore those and see my own domain names. Even if my domains are bad, they couldn’t be as bad as those that get sold every week by Sedo and Godaddy. Go on take a look at your weekly names sold!
@Domaenclature
The domainer community as a whole is much to small to control what happens with new gtld’s. Most of these guys are hedging themselves, buying domain insurance, some are gambling, really we have no clue.
We can take what we know about the end users we work with, about how we run our own companies, and apply the principals of new gtld’s to these scenarios.
The end user will decide if they want to put ABC.Plumbing on the side of their van, or keep ABCPlumbing.com there.
At the moment, they are more into their business, and are happy with their domains, There will be road warriors who try much like Overstock, and O.co, which has been famously presented many times.
I think the registries will make or break the new gtld’s, It is clear where the first 21 extensions have gone, majority to old domainers, new ones, and some niche speculators. There have been some end users who have made registrations, and they have paid up in early registrations.
The $30-40 annual reg fee, and even higher in some cases will hurt them against the .com going forward, as if someone sent a letter to my business, flaunting these names, I would throw it in the garbage as a cash grab not knowing anything about the industry.
What .buzz is doing, is basically setting up 5 figure pre purchase sale amounts on many names, reserving others, leaving pigeon shit got general registration. In this case I think many of the domainers will bypass them, end users will get frustrated, and in the end they will have to drop prices, and push marketing to win any business back.
It took 20 years for .com to get to where it is, we are 1 month into this, if people want to gamble, you need to let them put their bets down. People to this day, still purchase penny stocks, with the 95% premise of losing their money. This is no different.
.buzz doesn’t mean anything to me.
Maybe that is because I am Greek but I have been doing this too long and I have been fine not owning any “buzz” domain names.
Also there is no turning back. Once you’ve lost domainers and end users you are not getting them back. The next new gTLD will be there
to pick them up.
I have never witnessed a more skeptical crowd in my life!…. ……It’s unbelievable out there right now!… There is no cover and nobody is safe!…..The madness is out of control!…Please, stop the madness!…..
diamonds gTLD is a goldmine.