It’s been an exciting week for emoji domains for the right reasons, and now it appears for the wrong reason based on late Friday afternoon tweets from impacted emoji domain investors.

Early this week I reported that Global Domains International (GDI), the company behind the .WS registry, would publicly release new emoji domains for the most recent Unicode Emoji Version 11 at 1PM CST on March 1st.

Well, March 1st and 1PM CST came and went, leaving nearly 161 .WS single emoji domains registered and scattered amongst many domain investors.  There was much excitement expressed throughout Twitter by emoji domain investors who were able to snag their desired .WS emoji domains.

But the excitement was short lived, coming to a screeching halt last Friday afternoon near the close of business as a few stories began to surface about emoji domains being clawed back due to a .WS system glitch that allowed multiple registrations for the same emoji domains. 😱

What an opportunity attending NamesCon offered myself and others this year to meet and make new relationships as well as reconnect with existing relationships.

Although there’s quite a bit of content made available across varying breakout sessions, panels, and workshops, I’m sharing my thoughts about one the of workshops that caught my eye was the Optimizing Domain Management  Tools Talk.

Based on a recent blog post, it appears many Efty power users have long requested Stripe as a payment method to instantly collect payments from domain transactions.

Although a great product that is thriving, simplifying, and increasing the odds of a domain investor’s portfolio realizing profitable ROI, I personally don’t use Efty but have followed the company and its product from day one.

However, Doron and team have done a stellar job providing affordable domain sales and marketing services for domain investors to manage and turnover their domain portfolios.

Efty now offering Stripe provides domain investors with instant payment collection, but at what cost and risk? 🤔

Just when you think you’ve seen or experienced it all in life, something or someone new captures and piques your interest.

That was exactly my sentiment when I discovered a BRS Media press release a few weeks touting an “expression of interest” into emoji domains.

Love was in the air, and so was the news that DNForum had been sold as reported Feb. 14th (Valentine’s Day) by DomainGang.com. ❤  Breaking news to all, DNForum terms of agreement and buyer’s identity were protected by a non-disclosure.

But as it stands today, you’ve likely heard proverbial “shots fired” pertaining to DNForum’s resurfacing due to industry blogs sharing the identity of the new DNForum management team.

And based on my reading comments from various folks across industry blogs, the love that was in the air has some singing that the thrill has come and gone, never to return again. 💔

There are no shortage on thoughts and feelings at it pertains to the resurfacing of DNForum and involved parties. It’s truly the good, the bad, and ugly, and it’s more talk than just domains going on.

There appears to be smoke in the city over at Network Solutions. 🔥 And if not smoke, then a blazing fire that dwarfs any wildfire likely ever encountered. 🔥 It’s been a rough week for Network Solutions aka Web.com.

Traversing the domain industry to find your place under the sun can be quite challenging, especially when your a newcomer.

There are many casualties and carcasses along the domaining journey to learn from or join. YIKES! 😳

One doesn’t have to blindly throw money down the drain purchasing ill-advised domains.

In fact, you’re likely better off attending a few conferences and touching base with experienced domainers BEFORE  spending a dime on domains.

And speaking of conferences, I recently attended NamesCon 2018. I met with a number of domain investors and industry professionals throughout the conference.