T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York 2007: The Domain Business Takes a Bow on the World's Biggest Stage
(Page 2)

Despite the late night for those who stayed til the 2am conclusion of the TrafficZ party, things got underway bright and early Thursday (June 21) with an 8am breakfast buffet. The exhibit hall opened at 9 each day, a half hour before the first seminar and stayed open throughout the day. That was a good place to visit representatives from businesses you deal with and learn more about the products and services offered by those you haven't tried yet. Before we dive into the Thursday morning seminars let's take a quick peak at some of the exhibits.

You see the DomainCapital.com booth in the right column (with company president Robert Alfano at the far right). DomainCapital was the first company to offer financing for domain name purchases. That pioneering move has had a major impact on facilitating high dollar transactions and allowing the industry to keep moving forward.

Of course the best thing about the exhibit hall is all of the free swag the sponsors hand out. Below Eben Smith and Matt Villa hand T-shirts, stress balls and other goodies out at the Sedo.com boooth.

At the Rebel.com booth (below) fluorescent orange beach shoes were all the rage!

At the Fabulous.com booth below Mike Robertson (at left) and Peter showed off some 
really slick new landing pages that will be debuting later this month

There was no sign of Ammar Kubba when we stopped by the TrafficZ.com booth below (word was he was partying a bit late the night before at the Hawaiian Tropic Zone!). Fortunately the staff still had plenty of cool T-shirts on hand.

The opening session covered Domain Optimization and Research, disciplines that can increase the returns from your domains dramatically if done properly. The panel included Australia's Michael Gilmour (ParkLogic.com), Brian Carr (VP of Direct Search for NameMedia), Ren Warmuz (CEO of Trellian) and Howard Hoffman (President of PPCIncome.com). 

Optimization panel (left to right): Ren Warmuz, Michael Gilmour, Brian Carr, 
moderator Howard Neu (standing) and Howard Hoffman

Unfortunately, I missed all but the last few minutes of this seminar as I was in an Internet Commerce Association board meeting that ran late. The good news is that I got a copy of Brian Carr's entire Powerpoint presentation that you can get here. This is the first time that NameMedia has released information on what they are doing in the optimization area. Much of what Michael Gilmour talked about is also available on his excellent Whizzbang's Blog - a must read for people who are serious about domain monetization. I did catch a few of Howard Hoffman tips including a recommendation to test multiple parking services as different ones have different strengths so you may see large variations for some domains from one service to the next.

The next session was very valuable for people who want to build successful businesses on their domains. The five panelists have all proven to be experts at doing that. The group included Sahar Sarid (who was the subject of our May Cover Story) co-founder of the Recall Media Group and brothers Michael Castello and David Castello of Castello Cities Internet Network who were featured in our December 2006 Cover Story). The dais was also graced by another DN Journal cover guy, Jeff Reynolds of AmericanFlags.com (featured in December 2004) and Recall Media Group President Darren Cleveland. 

Domains have outperformed virtually every other investment you can imagine over the past few years, allowing owners of premium domains to build up cash that is now available to reinvest. The third seminar of the morning, Investing Beyond Domains, discussed the best place to put that money now - plow it back into domains or diversify into other areas? The five man panel brought Sahar Sarid back along with T.R.A.F.F.I.C. co-founder Rick Schwartz, attorney Ari Goldberger, Freddy Schiwek (EuroDNS.com), Australian investor Greg McNair and Dr. Chris Hartnett (retired CEO and founder of USA Global Links). 

Schwartz has probably been the single biggest proponent of domains in the business but he told the audience he also believed in diversification. He has moved some money into real world real estate (having bought 7 different properties for $12 million). He said he is not a fan of the stock market but is a major share holder in Dark Blue Sea (the Australian company that owns Fabulous.com) because he knows the people who run the company and is confident in their management ability. 

Schwartz said domain owners have always been investors first and had simply picked domains as their investment vehicle because they recognized their potential. He said always keep your eyes open for new investment  opportunities because any one vehicle could come crashing down tomorrow. Having said that he added "Domains are still the single best investment in this universe."

Dr. Hartnett agreed that diversification is essential, noting "we made our money through concentration but now we want to keep it and the best way to do that is through diversification." Hartnett said the best thing to do is put your trust in friendship and partnership and don't let your own ego allow you to become arrogant and think you will always know what is going to work simply because you have had success in the past. He added that what he especially liked about the domain business is the people who have given millions of dollars to help other people. "I think that is the most important investment of all, " Hartnett said. "Be humble and be supportive of everyone else."

With that everyone broke for a lunch sponsored by Fabulous.com where Mike Robertson filled everyone in on new developments at that company (including the DDN we talked about earlier and a very impressive set of new landing pages in their PPC program). I also took the stage to speak briefly about trends in the domain aftermarket where we have seen a major jump in prices and transaction from the first quarter of this year to the second. The total dollar value of sales reported to us in the second quarter was up more than 50% from the dollar value reported in the first quarter and the average price of sales reported to us surged from $6,873 in the first quarter to $10,544 in the second. Keep in mind  that we track only four-figure and up sales, so averages for the entire market would be a good deal lower as many smaller transaction occur. The numbers still show solid upward momentum in the secondary sales market. 

Attendees were briefly ushered out of the main hall so it could be reconfigured for the main event - Moniker.com's Live Auction. Professional auctioneer Joel Langbaum was again flown in from Florida to run the sale attended by a capacity crowd. 

Auctioneer Joel Langbaum (left) and Moniker CEO Moniker Cahn enjoy the auction action.

Moniker had gotten some great results from their previous live auctions and there was a great deal of interest in how much being in New York would impact the auction results. When the final hammer came down at 6pm Langbaum and Cahn had good reason to smile as they had booked a record-breaking $10.9 million in sales - more than double the previous high water mark. A few days later an accompanying silent online auction ended adding more than $1.4 million to the tally for a final total of more than $12.3 million.

Two photos above: Scenes from the Moniker Live Auction

Moniker's live auction format has become so popular that it now produces the lion's share of the highest valued sales reported in the industry. In addition to running a live auction at all of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. shows Moniker now runs them in association with many other events. In fact they have another one coming up next week (July 8-10) at the Affiliate Summit in Miami, Florida. 

The record-breaking auction results left everyone in a good mood for the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York finale - a Farewell cocktail party and dinner sponsored by Klickerz.com. 

Emily Anne and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. co-founder  Howard Neu (whose many 
talents include professional singing) entertain the crowd on closing night

And thus the curtain came down on the official T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York agenda. For those leaving the next morning, breakfast was served to send them home on a full stomach. Those who serve on the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Advisory Board (whose members are nominated and elected by show attendees each year at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference) stayed over for a mid-morning meeting Friday. The board's function is to advise the show organizers on ways to improve the conference, future agendas, show locations, etc. 

*****  

WAIT! There's more. Check out additional snapshots from 
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York in our Photo Gallery

Return to Page 1 of this article

Go to the Photo Gallery

Return to DN Journal Home Page

 Home  Domain Sales  YTD Sales Charts   Latest News  The Lowdown  Articles  
Legal Matters  Dear Domey  Letters to Editor  Resources  Classified Ads  Archive  About Us