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I
have been running a series of highlights
from DN
Journal's first 10 years - an anniversary
we will officially reach on January 1, 2013.
On Wednesday
I covered some of the key moments from 2007
which by many measures cold be regarded as the
industry's best ever. The boom continued
through 2008 with interest in domains so fevered
that sub-categories of the general domain
industry became self-contained red hot
"industries" of their own - the prime
example of the being geodomains - domains
representing specific geographic locations like NewYorkCity.com,
Chicago.com and LosAngeles.com.
The top geodomain owners had formed an
organization of their own, Associated Cities,
to promote geodomains and they staged annual
conferences around the U.S. from 2006-2010 (I
was the keynote speaker at their 2007
conference in San Francisco
and also covered each show that followed; Chicago
in 2008,
San Diego in 2009
and New Orleans in 2010).
The
founding board members and staff of Associated
Cities (left to right):
Back Row - Josh
Metnick, Patrick Carleton, Sean
Miller, Jonathan King, Skip
Hoagland &
Mike Ward. Front
Row: Michael Castello, David
Castello and Dan Pulcrano.
After
doing a popular Cover
Story about the Castello Brothers in
December 2006, I profiled two more key
geodomainers in 2008 Cover Stories - Dan
Pulcrano (who owns the .com names of
more than half of America's 50 largest
cities) In February
2008 and Skip Hoagland (who
owns many key U.S. and international city, state
and country domains) in July
2008.
Geodomains
were so hot, that category was further divided
into booming sub-sectors of its own - geo-targeted
domains pairing a city name with a product
or service, such NewYorkRealEstate.com.
The undisputed king of city-real estate domains
was (and still is) Rob Grant, who was
profiled in our April
2008 Cover Story.
Rob
Grant and his wife Pat at the 2006
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Florida.
While
Rob is still thriving and known throughout the
industry, he is no longer the most famous person
in his own family!. As many of you know, Rob
& Pat's daughter is international music
suiperstar Lana Del Rey.
2008
provided DN Journal with an abundance of
riches in terms of Cover Stories. Nine of
the ones we did that year were personal
profiles (the most we've ever done in one
year). One of those was one of our most moving
pieces to date (and one of my personal
favorites), the June 2008 profile of
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Hall of Fame member Dr.
Chris Hartnett titled From
Death's Door To A Heavenly Mountain: How Dr.
Chris Hartnett Built a Billion Dollar Company
and Discovered the Real Meaning of Wealth.
Dr.
Chris Hartnett
back in the saddle after beating a near fatal
illlness.
Two
of the world's most successful young
entrepreneurs in any business, Oversee.net
Co-Founder Lawrence
Ng and Directi Co-Founder Divyank
Turakhia, were also profiled in
popular 2008 DN Journal Cover Stories. Divyank
was a millionaire by the time he was 18
and, along with his brother Bhavin,
he founded a company in Directi that was valued
at $300 million at the time of our story
(and is worth much more than that now
after four more years of phenomenal growth).
Directi
Co-Founders Divyank Turakhia (left)
and Bhavin Turakhia
at the 2008
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West conference in
Las Vegas.
Page
Howe, Michael
Gilmour and Warren
Royal were also profiled in 2008
Cover Stories making that an all-star
year from start to finish.
While
2008 was another great year for the domain
industry it ended with a shock that
reverberated around the world - a sudden
financial meltdown that rocked Wall
Street and began what has come to be
know as The Great Recession - the worst
economic downturn since the Great Depression. As
fate would have it, domain investors from around
the world happened to be in New York City
shortly after the bad news broke, attending the 2008
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York conference. The
headline on our conference review article said
it all: T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
New York 2008: Domainers Who Met in Brooklyn
Counted Their Blessings While Wall Street Mulled
a Meltdown in Manhattan.
It
was true - while panic was ensuing
elsewhere, domain owners remained confident that
their assets would allow them to weather the
storm better than others and most of them
did. The biggest disruption for domain owners
was a dramatic fall off in pay per click
revenues, but the beauty of domains is that they
can be monetized in many ways - through
PPC, lead gen, leasing,development or sales to
name a few. So as PPC evaporated, owners of good
domain names were able to turn to sales to keep
money flowing their way.
The
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference has a history of
great keynote speakers (jncluding a former U.S.
Presidential candidate - Steve Forbes -
in 2007). At the 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. New York
conference, vivacious real estate magnate
Barbara Corcoran, who is now one of the
stars of ABC-TV's hit series Shark
Tank, wowed the crowd with her talk.
Left to right in the photo above are Barbara
Neu, her husband - T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder
Howard Neu, keynote speaker Barbara
Corcoran, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Rick
Schwartz and Rick's wife Alina.
Next:
2009 - Domains continue to outperform other
asset classes as the Great Recession continues
to unfold, leaving us with many more personal
success stories to chronicle in our Cover
Stories, despite the spreading economic
downturn.
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