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Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson. |
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Chef
Patrick Beams Out of ScienceFiction.com - Braden
Pollock Takes Over the Bridge
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Patrick
Ruddell
(AKA
Chef
Patrick), made a big splash with the
DNCruise
conference he launched in October
2010, but he didn't reach warp
speed until two months later when he led a
small investment group that bought
ScienceFiction.com
for $175,000 and immediately set
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about
developing that category defining domain. As the
project progressed some early investors sold out
and a major new one, Braden Pollock (who
was profiled in our November 2011 Cover
Story), bought in. The shuffle ended
with Ruddell and Pollock as 50/50
partners in ScienceFiction.com, LLC. As
of today you will no longer find Ruddell on the
bridge of the starship ScienceFiction.com.
Ruddell has sold all of his shares (at an
undisclosed price) to Pollock, leaving the lead
gen whiz from Los Angeles as the sole
owner of the popular website. Monday
(July 30) was the last day on the job for
Patrick and his wife Zezura, who also
played a major role in building the site. Ruddell,
who recently re-entered the real estate business
in Florida's Tampa Bay area (joined
by Zezura, who recently got her own real estate
license) told us, "It came down to the time commitment needed for this project. When I initially started ScienceFiction.com, one of my partners was tasked to handle the roll of
Editor In Chief. Unfortunately, things did not work as planned, which meant my wife Zezura and I had to adapt and take over this responsibility in addition to running the business and other ventures." "On a daily basis our editing duties included selecting content, managing 15+ writers, editing, scheduling, social media and more. News
never stops, we would work/edit when the kids get home from school, in the middle of dinner, holidays, birthdays, what seemed like all the time. It is very difficult to have any family life and run a project like this. To be successful in anything I truly believe there needs to be a fair work-life
balance." Their
efforts paid off with traffic to
ScienceFiction.com now surpassing a half
million visitors a month. Pollock intends to
move the site into an even higher orbit.
"We're already adding lots of content every
day but I plan on increasing the number of
articles added daily to test the effect it has
on traffic. I'd also like to add original
interviews with sci-fi actors, writers, game
designers, etc.," Pollock said.
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Patrick
Rudell
Braden
Pollock
Sole owner, ScienceFiction.com
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"Going
forward there will be a major focus on movies,
since that's where the biggest advertising
budgets are. We're discussing the idea of
some major content partnerships as well. Beyond
that, my team will start selling advertising
space on ScienceFiction.com,"
Pollock added.
Though
Ruddell has beamed out of ScienceFiction.com he
still plans to stay involved in domain
investing and development. "Definitely!,"
Ruddell said. "I launched my first website about college professors in 1999,
so this is not my first and certainly not my last web
business. I do have a few ideas and projects in mind, and after a short break we will consider what to launch next. No matter what it is, it will never be a news website on the scale of ScienceFiction.com
though. And who knows, maybe with the extra free time we can think about a
DNCruise 3!"
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Braden
Pollock and his fiancée, best selling
author
Lisa Bloom, on DNCruise
2 in September 2011. |
Braden
Pollock also has far flung business
interests including his flagship
operation at LegalBrandMarketing.com.
When asked how he was going to be able
to juggle the time demands of
running ScienceFiction.com along with
his other business ventures and
obligations Pollock told us,
"Patrick and Ze have already built
a team of about 15 writers, including an
assistant editor and web designer. My
team will take over steering the ship
along with ad sales. I've got a great
lady on staff, Alessandra Ferrara,
who's a self proclaimed sci-fi geek
and avid gamer. I offered her the
opportunity to take over as editor and
she jumped at the chance. She's very
excited to get started. As for me,
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don't
do the heavy lifting anymore. I
have a great team that can take
care of our various businesses. As a
matter of fact, I'm currently writing
you from a cafe in the quaint little
seaside town of Husavik, Iceland!" |
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Ruddell
said he is leaving ScienceFiction.com
with a sense of pride and a great
deal of valuable experience that
will help him going forward. "ScienceFiction.com has grown to over 500,000 visits per month, been linked to by websites such as
CNN.com, HuffingtonPost.com and TechCrunch.com, featured
in comic books and quoted on numerous other publications. The experience as a whole was
great because, thankfully, we had an
amazing staff. We learned a lot from our writers, they took pride in the site and shared in our accomplishments. This has been an amazing journey
developing a web property of this size. We leave this project in
good hands with Braden and his team." |
Patrick
& Zezura Ruddell |
(Posted July
31, 2012)
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