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DomainHoldings.com
Co-Founder John
Ferber,
who was featured on ABC-TV's Secret
Millionaire program Sunday night, March
27, hosted a meeting of the South
Florida Domainers group Thursday
night (March 31) at his oceanfront home in Boynton
Beach. Local groups like this are popping up
around the country and are playing an
increasingly important role in growing the
industry by providing networking
opportunities and educating local businesses and
media outlets about the importance of domain
names to online business success. By generously
throwing his doors open to the South Florida
group, John and his girlfriend, Jenna Wehner
(who runs her own online business at UnrealDeals.com)
gave the organization a huge boost with a
record crowd of approximately 80 people turning
out for the occasion.
Above:
John Ferber, Jenna Wehner and their
Yorkie Mason welcomed the South
Florida
Domainers group to their Boynton Beach
home for a meeting/party Thursday night
(3/31/11).
Below:
Early arrivals begin gathering on John Ferber's
pool deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
While
most of the attendees came from nearby South
Florida communities, one - veteran domain
investor Steven Sacks - came all the way
from Indiana. Sacks happened to be in
town visiting his close friend, fellow Hoosier Chad
Folkening, who is also a Domain
Holdings Group co-founder.
Above:
Indiana's Steven Sacks (center) traveled
furthest for the event, followed by
Ron & Diana Jackson who made the four
hour drive from Tampa to attend their
first
South Florida Domainers group meeting.
Diana is at left and Barbara Neu at
right. Below:
John Ferber (center) shares ideas with Scott
Ross (left) and Scott's
son Evan (right) who is a rapidly rising
young star on the Florida political scene.
Shortly
after sunset the crowd gathered on the pool deck
for a brief auction of domain names and
paintings produced by a local artist, with all
proceeds going to the charities that Ferber had
already donated a total of $100,000 to in
the Secret Millionaire episiode that
aired March 27, 2011.
John
Ferber (center) conducts an impromptu charity
auction supported by attendees
that ringed the pool (only a small fraction of
the crowd is visible in the photo above). Millions
of people were moved by the generosity
Ferber showed in the national telecast and made donations
of their own to the causes he spotlighted.
You can help too with a donation made
through the Microgiving.com
website that Ferber founded to help raise funds
for worthy causes of all kinds. 100% of
any donations made through this link - www.microgiving.com/profile/secret-millionaire
- will go to the organizations featured on Secret
Millionaire. Ferber's
partner, Chad Folkening, also spoke at the event
and declared South Florida to be the "domaining
capital of the world." Chad can make a
persuasive case for that argument with many of
the most successful domain investors in history
living in the area (and many in attendance
Thursday night incuding Michael Berkens, Zappy
Zapolin and Alan Dunn, to name just a
few). Several of the industry's most influential
companies are also located in South
Florida. The
South Florida Domainers group (and their events)
are being organized and led by (left
to right in the photo below) Stu Maloff (StupendousDomains.com),
Rick Waters (Webcast1.com)
and Mike Ward (BocaNames.com).
They are doing a great job of growing the
organization and I'm sure they would be happy to
provide advice for others interested in leading
a similar group in their own community.
Our
thanks Stu, Rick, Mike and especially to John
Ferber and Jenna Wehner for being such wonderful
hosts for this event.
Diana
and I decided to stay over in South Florida for
the weekend. To learn more about John and what
he and his team are building at Domain Holdings
Group LLC (a firm founded just last year), we
visited the company's office in Delray Beach
today (Friday, April 1). The enthusiasm and
energy there is off the hook as you can see in
the photo below.
John
Ferber (front row left) and his team members
at Domain Holdings Group LLC
are already making big waves in domain
development, SEO and monetization.
I'll
be sharing what I learned in a major profile
that will be pubished this month. After the
visit to John's office, he and Jenna joined
several South Florida domainers, along with
Diana and I for a wonderful lunch at Delray
Beach's famous Sundy House (a boutique
hotel and restaurant built on a stunningly
beautiful property featuring lush tropical
vegetation, fish ponds and waterfalls that
transport you to another world).
Above:
The lunch group at the Sundy House
Friday, April 1 (clockwise from left
to right) included Rick Schwartz,
Alina Schwartz, Barbara Neu, Howard
Neu,
Jenna Wehner, John Ferber, Ray
Neu, Diana Jackson and Ron Jackson.
Johh
Ferber's many talents apparently include photography.
He snapped the photo
of his visitors below in the gorgeous gardens at
Delray Beach's Sundy House.
The
weather is beautiful in South Florida this
weekend and we are look forward to another group
outing Saturday before heading back to our side
of the state Sunday. I'll have more on how the
rest of the weekend plays out for you on Monday
and hope that wherever you are in the world, you
are having a great weekend as well.
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