Top domain news: Bad WIPO, big domain sales tweak and SSL.

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A bit of optimism

I felt a sense of relief as the calendar flipped to March this morning. It seems like it was brutal winter in a number of ways.

It was almost like the apocalypse here in Austin when kids got two days off of school due to "winter weather". (Our definition here is a bit different than elsewhere.)

Then there was the sickness. Even if you didn't catch the flu, you were certainly washing your hands like mad and avoiding everyone else.

So it feels good to be turning the corner. The clocks change in a couple weeks. The ground is thawing. Plants are in bloom.

There are also things to be optimistic about in the domain name business. While it's still not the go-go days of the past, I'm seeing some "green shoots" in the market. Some big sales and companies innovating.

Consider the second most popular story on DNW last month. GoDaddy tweaked its "for sale" messages in the purchase path and increased aftermarket domain sales through domain search by nearly a third.

I think there's a lot more low hanging fruit like this. So much more about the domain sales process can be optimized with stellar results.

Consider this a nudge to domain name companies to continuously test. And if you have a test that has big results, be sure to let me know.

OK, on to the top five stories on DNW last month, as ranked by pageviews:

1. WIPO panel screws Domaining.com owner Francois Carrillo out of Ado.com - Thankfully, he's not done fighting.

2. GoDaddy "for sale" tweak leads to 41% more aftermarket sales revenue - New "For Sale" messages are drastically increasing sales of aftermarket domain names.

3. Google is upping the ante on SSL - The Chrome browser will begin showing "not secure" on non-SSL sites, even those without forms.

4. Back from NamesCon — here's my take. It was a good conference. If you missed it, here's a great summary of the keynotes.

5. Analyzing startup domain names - Most of the startups selected for MassChallenge's inaugural Texas class use .com, but not all of them.

If you missed any podcasts last month, now is a great time to get caught up:

Protecting Domains with Kathy Kleiman

Christa Taylor talks domains

NamesCon recap with 15 interviews