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My
wife Diana and I used that time to continue
touring Valencia aboard the double decker hop on
hop off tour bus that I wrote about in my first
post from Spain Wednesday night. We
had only covered half of the available route
Wednesday, so went back to see the rest of the
picturesque circuit Thursday when Braden
Pollock of Legal Brand Marketing and
his fiance, best selling author Lisa Bloom,
joined us to enjoy the ride around the city and
the balmy 80 degree day. While sitting on the
open upper deck of the bus under glorious blue
skies we were treated to one stunning panorama
after another. 
Above:
A scene from Valencia, Spain shot from
the upper deck of our tour bus Thursday.
Below:
Our bus-mates, Braden Pollock and Lisa
Bloom at their window seat.
Soon
after we returned to the hotel, a crowd
comprised of domain investor/developers from
23 different countries filed into the
Sorolla Palace ballroom for the show's opening
session.
Part
of the crowd at the opening session of Domaining
Europe 2012
Thursday afternoon, April 26
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DomainHoldings
CEO Jason Boshoff delivering
the opening address at Domaining Europe
2012 |
DomainingHoldings.com
CEO Jason Boshoff got things
started with an opening address
highlighting new opportunities that
are opening up in the domain industry.
After several years of declining PPC rates
Boshoff predicted that domain owners will
see monetization revenues start
increasing due to innovation from new
companies that are offering more finely
tuned pay per click services or
alternative monetization options such as
zero click, niche lead generation and ad
networks.
As a service
provider, Boshoff also believes the
impending wave of hundreds of new gTLDs
will have a positive impact on many
companies in our space. Quoting Michael
Berkens, Boshoff said new investors
will be spending over $400 million
on new gTLD applications alone. That will
be followed by even more money spent on
new web site development and optimization,
marketing and publicity that will raise
the general awareness of domain names to
previously unseen levels. |
After
his address, Boshoff took a seat on stage to
moderate the show's first panel discussion, an
insightful Domain Brokers Roundtable
that gave the audience expert advice on what
they need to do to increase their aftermarket
domain sales.
The
Domain Brokers Roundtable featured
(left to right): moderator
Jason Boshoff, Frank Tillmans
(Sedo.com), Jeff Gabriel
(President,
DomainAdvisors.com) and Toby Clements
(Toby Clements.com)
With
more domain owners looking to increased sales as
the best way to offset PPC declines, the
role of brokers in the industry had gained
tremendously in importance in recent years. In
addition to selling tips (prime among them -
setting a realistic selling price), the
brokers weighed in on how new gTLDs might
affect sales of existing extensions. Tillmans
thinks a flood of new gTLDS will create
confusion and only increase the value of
.com and leading country codes like Germany's
.de. Gabriel agreed that the general public
does not understand domains requiring companies
that use a new extension to have a matching
premium .com address to avoid a high
percentage of traffic loss. Clements observed
that the market will ultimately decide as
brokers will sell any extension as long as there
is a demand for that extension.
The
CEO and Founder of one major new gTLD applicant,
AnnaLisa Roger of .Green,
following with a presentation detailing why she
believed .green will be one of the most widely
adopted new gTLDs. AnnaLisa then joined a panel
discussion that I moderated on New
Business Opportunitues in New gTLDs.
The
New Opportunities in New gTLDs
panel featured (left to right): moderator
Ron Jackson DNJournal.com), attorney Paul
Keating (Law.es), AnnaLisa Roger
(DotGreen Community), Phil Kingsland
(Nominet, operator of the .UK registry)
and Sergey Gorbunov (from leading Russian
registrar RU-Central.)
I
should first note that not all of the panelists,
especially Paul Keating, think there will
be many (if any) good new opportunities for
domain investors in new gTLDs. Keating cited the
lack of promotion provided by operators of
previous new registries, .eu in
particular, that he said left those extensions
to die on the vine, leaving him skeptical of
promises made by would be operators of new gTLDs
who he believes are unlikely to have the tens of
millions of dollars needed to market a new TLD.
Ms. Roger on the other hand thinks the the relevancy
of an extension like .green (and the
public movement behind green efforts) will make
it a success. Others agreed with the point Jason
Boshoff made in the speech that started the show
- that the introduction of so many new gTLDs at
once will increase awareness and lift all boats.
That
session closed the opening day of business at
8pm Thursday evening. In Spain the dinner hour
is typically 10pm - late by the standards of
many other countries, so Domaining Europe
organizers Dietmar Stefitz and Jodi
Chamberlain moved it up to 9pm. On a very
pleasant evening attendees took a short walk to
the Business Day Restaurant for a
dinner that received excellent reviews.
Toby
& Stephanie Clements (front left), along
with Diana Jackson and David
Clements
(front right) at one of the many tables filled
with Domaining Europe 2012 guests at the Business
Day Restaurant in Valencia, Spain
Thursday night. The conference had cut off
ticket sales after running out of available
seats for dinner guests prior to the show.
The
evening continued well after the dinner ended at
well-known broker Toby Clements threw an open
house party in the Presidential Suite at the
top of the Sorolla Palace. That event was still
going strong when Diana and I finally threw in
the towel at 1 o'clock this morning (Friday,
April 27).
Part
of the crowd at the after dinner party hosted by
Toby Clements (TobyClements.com)
that closed the opening day of business at Domaining
Europe 2012 Thursday night.
As
I write this day two of the conference is
underway with a full slate of presentations and
panel discussions on tap. I'll have photos and
highlights from those as well as tonight's
social events in my next post from Spain.
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