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The
Lowdown
February
2012
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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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David
Castello Expands His Music Industry Footprint
With New Publishing Company and First Artist
Signee
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If
you follow this column
regularly
you know that Domain Hall of Fame member
David Castello, of Castello
Cities Internet Network, made a
major return to his music industry roots
in 2011 (see our December 2006 Cover
Story on David and his brother Michael
for more on their music career). Last summer
David moved to Nashville (CCIN owns Nashville.com)
to manage red hot
up and coming singer/songwriter BREE
(as well as to play drums in her band). Near
the end of the year David launched his own music
publishing company - Werewolf Publishing
- and today he officially signed his first staff
writer in a deal announced at the Nashville
office of music rights management giant BMI.
It won't surprise you to hear that Werewolf's
first signing was the writer David wanted
most - BMI writer BREE!
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(Left
to right): David Castello, BREE,
BMI’s Bradley Collins and Almon Law’s
Noah C. McPike
after the Werewolf Publishing
announcement of BREE's signing at the BMI office
in Nashville.
(Photo courtesy of Drew Maynard) BREE
and David were in the studio last month working
with Bob Ezrin's
crack engineer, Justin Cortelyou (Ezrin is
one of the top producers in music industry
history having produced albums by Pink
Floyd, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Rod
Stewart and dozens of other heavyweights).
Justin is finishing up the mixes on a new album
by The Darkness, then he will start
mixing the tracks he did with BREE and her band.
David is expecting those final mixes to
be aural dynamite, so don't be surprised
if you see BREE breaking big before this year is
out.
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A couple of
other notes today - domain industry
veterans Mike Robertson and Jen
Sale at DomainGuardians.com
have launched a new monthly domain
brokerage newsletter. If you are
interested in aftermarket domains,
either as a buyer or seller, you will
want to sign
up to receive their list.
Mike and Jen have an endless list of
friends and contacts in the domain
business, so they are very well
positioned to facilitate domain sales -
something they proved when they brokered
the $150,000 sale of eSignature.com
in 2011. |
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In
case you missed it, I also want to call
your attention to an important
article by Internet
Commerce Association Legal Counsel
Phil Corwin that was posted
on the ICA website Friday. Corwin called
on ICANN to launch an
immediate investigation into the UDRP
arbitration practices of the National
Arbitration Forum (NAF). This comes
in the wake of two egregiously unfair
NAF decisions that resulted in domain
names being taken away from their
rightful owners. Noted attorney Paul
Keating has
also blasted
these incredibly unjustified decisions.
Corwin's article includes the letter he
sent to ICANN to bring this situation to
light. Now we will see whether or not
the oversight body is going to let this
kind of malfeasance at NAF stand. |
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(Posted Feb.
27, 2012)
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With
7 Weeks Left in the New gTLD Application Window
Activity is Heating Up at Consulting Companies
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Those
who want to run
their
own new gTLD registry have to get their
applications in before ICANN closes the
door on the current application period April
12, 2012 - exactly seven weeks from
today. With the deadline looming activity
is heating up on several fronts. Architelos,
one
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of
several consulting companies that are providing
advice and helping applicants get their
paperwork completed and in on time, announced
today that the firm has earned more than $1
million in consulting and software services
fees in its just concluded first year of
operation. Yesterday,
ARI
Registry Services announced that the
governments of Australian states New
South Wales and Victoria have
contracted them to help secure three new TLDs; .sydney,
.melbourne and .victoria. To
handle the load, ARI said they have
"engaged professional services firm Ernst
& Young and digital brand
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management
services provider Melbourne IT to assist
its consultancy work in developing applications
for those three TLDs that will adhere to
ICANN’s strict requirements."
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On
Tuesday the
Directors of Top Level Domain Holdings
Limited (TLDH), the only publicly traded
company focused exclusively on acquiring and
operating new generic top-level domains,
reported that the company will soon be
purchasing a second batch of 20 application
slots for new gTLDs which will increase the
total application slots purchased by the company
to date (on behalf of itself and clients of its
subsidiary, Minds
+ Machines) to 40.
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Under
ICANN’s rules, applicants for new gTLDs
must first purchase a slot for each
application at a cost of $5,000 which will then be deducted from the full $185,000
per gTLD application fee. Last week ICANN said
it had received 100 applications to
date.
TLDH
Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said,
“We are delighted with the progress the
Company is making and the quality of the
applications on which we are working. The
criteria ICANN has set are demanding
and we therefore have to ensure we only
support the most likely to be
successful.” |
TLDH
Ltd. Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush |
While
these and other consulting companies are
busy now, it is likely to be nothing
compared to a frenzy that is expected to
build with each passing week leading up
to the April 12 deadline. It will likely
be a long time before ICANN opens a
second application window, so those
interested in operating a new registry
are determined to be on the first
boat when it sails seven weeks from
now. |
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(Posted Feb.
23, 2012)
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Picture
Perfect: Ron Sheridan's New Venture - Pixt.com -
Aims to Revolutionize Photo Sharing + Lana del
Rey Wins Major Brit Award
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While
covering
the
DOMAINfest
Global conference in Santa
Monica, California earlier this month I
bumped into serial entrepreneur Ron Sheridan
(the former Business Development Director at Oversee.net
who was the subject of our February 2009 Cover
Story). When I asked Ron what he was
working on now, he had something really cool
to show me. That
something is called Pixt.com
- a new platform, currently in beta, that pulls
all of your photos from multiple sources
(including Facebook) into one central
location with features I've never seen
before. You can spread the photos out on your
wall and, like real snapshots, each one can be
moved around (by you or visitors to your Pixt
page), flipped over to see notes about the photo
and filed into photo drawers you create to keep
all of your photos neatly organized. Sheridan
is always looking at new web-related
opportunities and when he saw this technology
that had been created by four partners, he
quickly invested in the project, taking significant
equity in the enterprise. Since Pixt.com is a
free platform, the first thing that popped into
my mind is "how are you going to monetize
this?" Sheridan promptly showed me real
businesses that were already incorporating the
Pixt technology. For example a vineyard licensed
it and is letting their customers post their own
wine related photos on the vineyard website's
Pixt-powered page. This kind of fresh, appealing
user-generated content will almost certainly
increase a business site's traffic and keep
people coming back for more. I
also liked what Pixt does for online shopping.
Let's say you are interested in buying some new
neckties. Pixt will pull in photos from all of
the silk ties offered on Amazon, for
instance, allowing you to then easily pick your
favorites,
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Ron
Sheridan
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click
on any you want to order (which takes you right
to Amazon for fulfillment) or file them in a
necktie drawer you create for future reference.
The more I looked at the platform the more I realized
how many possibilities it opens up. Given the
massive reach of Facebook, another cool thing
about Pixt is that you can access and use all of
its features from within your Facebook
account, without ever leaving.
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One
thing Ron asked me to pass along to his many
friends in the domain community is that he would
like your help during the platform's beta
period. You can do that by requesting
an invite through the site (you can
also select a "Just Try It Out" option
without signing up), playing around with Pixt
and letting them know of any issues that need to
be resolved or improvements you would like to
see. It is a very impressive platform -
one we all may be hearing a lot more about in
the future.
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One more
note - I just got word that tonight in London,
the friend and young singer I have been
raving about for several years, Lana
Del Rey, was named winner of the International
Breakthrough Award at the
annual Brit Awards show (the UK
equivalent of the Grammys). To
show you how big this award is - last
year's winner was Justin Bieber.
Big congrats to Lana and her family,
including proud parents Rob &
Pat Grant! |
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(Posted Feb.
21, 2012)
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Presentations
and Videos from the DOMAINfest Global Conference
Now Available to All Online
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If you weren't able to attend
the
2012
DOMAINfest Global conference that
ran January 31 - February 2 at the Fairmont
Miramar Hotel in Santa, Monica,
California, here's the next best thing to
being there. Show organizers have posted
presentations and videos from the various
conference sessions online for all to see. You
can now view everything from Oversee.net
Co-CEO Debra Domeyer's welcoming remarks
to the must see Fireside Chat with Twitter
Co-Founder Biz Stone conducted by
Oversee Co-CEO Scott Morrow.
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A
scene from the DOMAINfest Global Fireside
Chat with Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone
(left)
conducted by Oversee.net Co-CEO Scott Morrow
can now be seen online.
There
is also a video of the PITCHfest Contest
with a particularly valuable closing segment in
which the panel of judges offered tips on how
to give a winning elevator pitch. You'll
also want to check out the PDF presentations
from sessions on Landing Page Optimization,
Local/Mobile Trends, Advanced PPC Practices,
Affiliate LeadGen, SEO for 2012, Keyword
Modeling, new TLDs, Domain Valuation and Public
Policies Impacting Domain Investors.
The
session videos are available here: http://domainfest.com/mediaarchive/V9
and the speaker presentation files are
available here.
Also, if you haven't already read it, our
comprehensive wire to wire conference
review article is available here.
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(Posted Feb.
16, 2012)
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.ORG
Continues High Rate of Growth - 2011 Marked the
3rd Straight Year of 9-10% Gains
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The
Public
Interest Registry (PIR),
the administrator of the popular .ORG extension,
enjoyed another growth spurt in 2011.
According to the registry's latest bi-annual
report, known as The
Dashboard (.pdf file), .ORG
registrations grew 9.9% in 2011, reaching
9.6 million total domains under
management at the end of the year - a net gain
of 411,002 for the second half of the
2011.
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Some
other interesting bits of information from The
Dashboard:
-
The
renewal rate of existing .ORG
websites for the second half of 2011 was 75.4%.
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.ORG
has maintained consistent growth between 9-10%
annually for the past three years.
-
.ORG
domains under management rose from 3.9
million in 2005 to 9.6 million in
2011—an increase of 146% in seven
years.
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North
America and Europe continue to
represent the regions with the most .ORG
registrations, with Australia, China and
Japan also making the top 10 country list
for the second half of 2011. .ORG is especially popular
(though not limited to) non-profit organizations
and that association has made it a TLD that
enjoys an especially high level of trust
with web users. Brian Cute, CEO of
The Public Interest Registry, noted "With
Internet usage continuing to surge worldwide,
and individuals and organizations alike placing
even greater importance on doing good and
promoting their passions online, it's no
surprise that .ORG continued to see consistent
and substantial growth during the second half of
2011."
Another
interesting note from The Dashboard is PIR's
announcement of its intention to pursue a new
domain extension, .NGO.
The report said, "This initiative is a
major opportunity for non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), a community that
depends on those three letters to set itself
apart from commercial or governmental bodies.
PIR believes that NGOs worldwide would benefit
from .NGO as an exclusive signature online where
they can effectively differentiate themselves
and advance their missions."
For
more information on The Dashboard or to download
a copy, you can visit http://pir.org/news.
|
(Posted Feb.
15, 2012)
To refer others
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The
Afternic DLS Expands Into Russia, Germany's
Biggest Domain Conference Gets Underway &
WaterShave.org Debuts!
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The
AfternicDLS
announced
its latest expansion today - one that
opens up the rapidly growing Russian
market for domain sellers. The
AfternicDLS did it by bringing RU-CENTER,
Russia’s first and largest domain
registrar and hosting company into Afternic’s
Premium Reseller
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Network. Through
the partnership RU-CENTER will add Afternic’s
premium domains to search results on nic.ru.
RU-CENTER will also utilize Afternic’s Instant
Transfer technology on these listings,
giving buyers instant access to their purchased
premium domains. Afternic’s integration with
RU-CENTER is to be completed by the end of next
month (March 2012), when premium listings
will start appearing on nic.ru.
Andrey
Vorobyev, RU-CENTER Director of
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Public and
Government Relations, said "“Afternic has
the largest portfolio of instant transfer
domains in the world. This was a big factor in
our decision to partner with them. Along
with the ease and speed of their Instant
Transfer technology, the quality of Afternic’s
domain listings will add much value to our
users’ experience and give our customers a
greater range of choices in their domain
research and selection process.”
Jason Miner,
Senior Vice President of Sales and General
Manager of Afternic, added, “This is a very
exciting partnership for us. The success of the
domain aftermarket depends on bringing the
biggest and best registrars around the world
into the Afternic network. Now domain sellers
listing their names on Afternic will have an
expanded buying audience and RU-CENTER will have
an expanded offering for its customers. It’s a
win-win.”
Elsewhere,
the 2012 DOMAINfest Global
conference just concluded in California
(our
comprehensive show review
was published Sunday with many new
photos and show details) |
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but
across the ocean the biggest German-speaking
event in the industry - DomainPulse
- just got underway today in Hamburg,
Germany with an estimated 350
participants on hand for the 9th annual
meeting at the Hotel Grand Elysee.
The two-day event concludes tomorrow
(Tue., Feb. 14). |
This
event is hosted by DENIC
(Germany's .de registry), NIC.at
(Austria's .at registry) and SWITCH.
The focus of this year’s conference is
the increasing importance of the
Internet in all areas of life, a topic
exemplified by a session this afternoon
titled Internet Addiction: The
Inability to Live without the Computer. Domain
legal issues will be among the subjects
in the spotlight tomorrow with one of
the Tuesday afternoon sessions titled Obligations,
Liabilities, Blockings: The Risks all
around Domains.
One
other note today - as reported
in our new complete
review of the just
concluded DOMAINfest Global
conference, three well- known industry heads
(belonging to DomainAdvisors.com
President Jeff Gabriel,
InternetTraffic.com's Vern
Jurovich and domain investor
Bill Lozada) were shaved
(by PPX International Chairman Gregg
McNair) during the event in an impromptu fund raising
effort for the Water
School. |
(Left
to right) Jeff Gabriel, Vern
Jurovich & Bill Lozada
sporting their new
close-cropped looks! |
The Water School is a registered charitable organization in
Canada and the U.S. that
is literally saving lives in Africa through education on clean water
practices. The domain industry has
practically adopted the
Water School as its unofficial charity
and two leading industry figures,
Mr. McNair and Richard Lau
now serve on the organization's
Board of Directors.
|
More than $30,000 was pledged for the three scalps
McNair collected during
DOMAINfest Global in Santa Monica and
more shavings
are planned going forward
(with the victims
volunteers still to be
selected)! Pledge invoices from
DOMAINfest Global are being distributed now but if your invoice
does not arrive you are
requested to simply go online
to the initiative's new
website at WaterShave.org and
complete your contribution. |
Its a great cause
that is 100% sustainable with 100%
going to the actual work in
Africa and it is 100% tax
deductible. So even if you have not pledged,
consider going online
to help lift the value of those
DOMAINfest scalps so that those curly
locks will not have died in
vain! |
|
|
(Posted Feb.
13, 2012)
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What
Could Be Better Than Spring Time in Spain? Join
Us in Valencia For Domaining 2012 in April
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Last
fall I
told you
that Inverdom.com
CEO Dietmar Stefitz, who has staged the
biggest annual domain conference in Spain
for the past three years, was planning to take
the event to a new level in 2012. His
first step in that direction was adding veteran
show producer Jodi Chamberlain (who is
one of the 15 experts featured in our current
Cover Story) to his team. Together
they are producing Europe's
Domaining2012 conference April
26-28, 2012 at the Sorolla Palace Hotel
in historic and beautiful Valenica, Spain.
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Dietmar
Stefitz and Jodi Chamberlain
are producing the Domaining 2012 conference
coming up in Valencia, Spain April
26-28
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I
have heard much praise of Dietmar's previous
shows, none higher than I heard just last week
from Michael
Castello of Castello
Cities Internet Network while we
were having lunch after the DOMAINfest
Global conference in Santa Monica,
California. Michael and his brother David were
keynote speakers at Dietmar's last
conference in Valencia and Michael
told me it was one of the most enjoyable shows
he had ever attended. He said the way the
show was run, the beauty of the city of Valencia
and the friendliness of the Spanish people were
all incomparable.
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With
Michael's words ringing in my ears and a
personal invitation from Jodi for Diana
and I to attend the April 2012 show, I'm
happy to say that we have made plans
to be there and are looking forward
to meeting and making many new friends
on that side of the ocean. It will also
be exciting for us to be able cover the
event for DN Journal
readers. |
I
can already see that we are going to be in good
company. A peek at the very early agenda
already shows a great line up of veteran domain
investors, brokers, developers, attorneys and
company executives on the program, including Jeff
Gabriel (DomainAdvisors.com), Braden
Pollock (who was featured in our December
2011 Cover
Story), Troy Rushton (Protrada.com),
Morgan Linton (MorganLinton.com), Toby
Clements (TobyClements.com), Tommy Butler
(Glasgow.com), Kathy Nielsen (Sedo.com), Frederick
Schiwek (DomainInvest.lu), Paul Keating
(RenovaLtd.com) and many many more. Valencia
itself will also be a star attraction. The
historic port city on the Mediterranean Sea
is Spain's 3rd largest city with a population of
over 800,000. About 2.3 million
people live in the Valencia metropolitan area.
In addition to its fabulous monuments, Valencia
known as the birthplace of paella, a
world famous staple of Spanish cuisine. Domaining2012
is shaping up to be something special and
with an early bird registration
fee of just €600, it also looks like
one of the best values in the conference
business. We look forward to seeing many of you
there! Diana
and I hope to see you at Domaining2012
in Valencia, Spain April 26-28, 2012
|
(Posted Feb.
10, 2012)
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Who
Is The Single Woman David Sams Has Gotten
Involved With?
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You
might think
that
National Enquirer like headline was meant
to trick you into clicking through to this
article but it's true - David Sams (one
of the original producers of the Oprah
Winfrey Show and the subject of our September
2011 Cover Story) has entered a new
relationship with a single woman. I
know some of you who know David are thinking,
"Oh no, David couldn't be dumb enough to
split up with the love of his live - the lovely Michelle
Bekeza!" Well, you would be right, he's
not. David's new relationship with Mandy
Hale is strictly business.
Like many other domain investors who have
diversified into new enterprises, Sams has other
irons in the fire. His latest is a new partnership with Ms. Hale, the
author of a hot new book called The
Single Woman's Sassy Survival Guide to Letting
Go & Moving On.
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David
Sams and Michelle Bekeza
Michelle is OK with David's involvement with
Mandy
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Sams
and Hale formed a new company, The
Single Woman, LLC, to launch
a strategic plan for the brand,
of which publishing is just the
first part (David told us many
more books are to follow). If
you read our story about
David,
you know he is a marketing
genius with a long track record
of success. The duo's work promoting
Mandy's book, her website at TheSingleWoman.com
and The
Single Woman brand has helped make
the new
book (that has a
perfect five-star review rating
from buyers at Amazon.com) a breakout
success. This despite the
fact that it was given only
limited pre-release distribution
starting Feb. 1 with full
distribution on all platforms
coming on Valentine's Day,
February 14.
After
just 24 hours in
pre-release mode The Single
Woman's Sassy Survival Guide
had shot up to #3 in the
Kindle Store Women's Health
category, #7 in Women's Books
and #49 in Self |
|
Help.
In the week since then it has soared
even higher and it just cracked Amazon's
Top 100 in the massive Non-Fiction
category. It is also #1 on
Amazon's Hot List for Personal
Health, #6 on that list for Self Help
and and #26 on the Hot List for all
Non-Fiction books. |
David and
Mandy, who are both based in Nashville,
are giving buyers of the Kindle version
of the book a big incentive to buy
before the big Valentine's Day push on
all platforms. It is currently priced at
just $2.99 for the Kindle
edition (if you don't have a
Kindle you can still download the book
and read it on your laptop or PC.) David
said he and Mandy decided to cut out the
middleman by self publishing so they
could make the book affordable for the
millions of singles who need the
information most.
To tell you
a little more about Mandy, her bio
reveals that in October 2009 she ended a
year and a half long toxic
relationship and was looking for an
inspiring “single lady” role
model to look up to for
encouragement and motivation. Her site
notes "The word "single"
seemed to carry a stigma with it; of
being unwanted, unlovable, and
undesired. Looking around at all the
fabulous, rockin’ single ladies around
her, Mandy knew something must be done.
It was time for a Single Woman
Revolution. Mandy launched a Nashville
Examiner column and shortly
thereafter, her Twitter
page – both of
which became an instant success."
In one year
Mandy has amassed over 427,000
Twitter followers (@TheSingleWoman) from across the
globe. Over the weekend she got
endorsements on Twitter from ABC's
Sherri Shepherd and author Nicholas
Sparks (The Notebook).
Mandy, who has drawn a crowd with her
inspirational, witty and often wildly
humorous take on love and life, was
recently voted a 2011 "Woman of |
Author
Mandy Hale |
Influence" by the Nashville
Business Journal under the
category of Inspiration/Mentor. She has
also been featured on several radio and
TV shows across the country and she is
just getting started. With David in her
corner the sky's the limit and if
you don't believe that, just ask Oprah! |
|
(Posted Feb.
8, 2012)
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|
With
a Little Help From Albert Einstein, Warren Royal
Once Again Demonstrates the Power of a Category
Defining Domain Name
|
Domain
investors
have
always preached the value of a category
defining .com domain name. Such a name
provides instant credibility and web
surfers often believe that a site built on an
exact match .com term is the leading
authority in the category they are
searching. Many wise business people have taken
advantage of that phenomenon and few have done
it better than Warren Royal, who was the
subject of our December
2008 Cover Story.
|
Even
though he had zero experience in the
bobbleheads space, Royal paid $30,000 for
Bobbleheads.com
back in 2007. He then set about learning
everything he could about that business and
today he stand as one of the world's leading
custom manufacturers and sellers of bobblehead
dolls! His
Georgia-based company, Royal Bobbles, LLC,
has become especially well known for exquisite
bobbleheads representing historic figures.
Many of those are featured in such prestigious
locations as the White House Gift Store, the
Library of Congress, Arlington National Cemetery
and the Gettysburg Museum Store. Warren's
products have also been featured on national TV
shows including Meet the Press, The
Today Show and Glenn Beck and in
magazines such as Kiplinger’s
and Fast Company. With
their unparalleled quality, craftsmanship, and
attention to detail, Royal Bobbles has been
chosen to execute high-profile official licenses
to produce bobbleheads of John Wayne, Alfred
Hitchcock, Martin Luther King Jr., General
George S. Patton and many others. In
the company's latest coup, the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, which was
co-founded by Albert Einstein (and which
holds all IP rights to the likeness of the
legendary inventor who bequeathed those rights
to university upon his death in 1955), chose Royal
Bobbles to produce an oversized,
limited-edition model of the Father of Modern
Physics.
Royal
said, “We are honored that the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem has granted us the
opportunity to produce the Albert Einstein
|
The
Albert Einstein bobblehead doll
produced by Royal
Bobbles
|
Bobblehead. The
University is rightly very selective
about the products which they authorize, and the
outstanding quality of our product line was a
major factor in their decision to work with us
on this exciting new venture.” Congratulations
to Warren on his continuing success. If you want
an example of how a category defining domain
name can supercharge a business, what he
has accomplished with Bobbleheads.com is a perfect
example. Incidentally,
Warren has produced and sells two bobblehead
dolls representing figures from the domain
industry - Domain King Rick
Schwartz and DN Journal's Ron
Jackson. Knowing that Rick's hero
is Albert Einstein, I suspect he will be among
the first in line for Warren's latest creation. Rick
Schwartz at work in the home office of his
Fort Lauderdale Beach condo with a portrait
of his idol, Albert Einstein, looking on.
If you looking closely at the front center of
Rick's
desk you will also see the Rick Schwartz
bobblehead doll produced by Bobbleheads.com.
|
(Posted Feb.
7, 2012)
To refer others
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|
CEO
Switch at Sedo Was Among the Major Events at
DOMAINfest Global Last Week
|
|
Sedo
Co-Founder Tim Schumacher
in Santa Monica Thursday (Feb. 2)
Tobias
Flaitz
New CEO at Sedo.com
|
One
of the most significant events at DOMAINfest his
year was a changing of the guard at one of
the industry's premier companies, Sedo.
When they hosted a networking dinner party at
the Monsoon restaurant in Santa
Monica Tuesday night (Jan. 31), it was company
Co-Founder Tim Schumacher's final official
appearance as Sedo's CEO. Tim will remain on the
Sedo Supervisory Board but after ten years of
non-stop work he is ready to take a break
(including an upcoming family vacation in New
Zealand) and then look into broadening his
business interests beyond the domain space.
I
sat down with Tim for a long private interview
Thursday, just a couple of hours before he boarded
a plane for his return trip to Sedo's home base in
Cologne, Germany. We talked about his
entire history with the pioneering domain
monetization and sales company, dating back to
when he and college pals, Ulrich
Priesner, Ulrich Essmann and Marius
Wuerzner, launched the business while
Tim was still in school. That discussion will be
the basis for an upcoming home page feature
article looking back at the career of one of the
industry's key figures over the past decade.
New
Sedo CEO Tobias Flaitz was also in Santa
Monica and I had the pleasure of spending some
time with him Tuesday night, before he officially
became CEO, and again Wednesday night after he had
assumed his new role. I was immediately impressed
by both his openness and intelligence and
though he has some big shoes to fill with Tim
stepping down, I think Tobias is going to fit in
very well with Sedo, their clients and the
industry at large.
Tobias
holds a degree in engineering and an MBA
from the Universities of St. Gallen (Switzerland)
and UC-Berkeley (USA). He spent several
successful years as a consultant for Accenture
as well as Booz & Co. and since 2007
has held a management position in strategy and
business development with Hubert Burda Media
in Munich.
|
While
the domain industry is new territory for Tobias,
he is a quick study and he was already
getting up to speed just hours into his new
position. As he guides one of the most
influential companies in the business, we will
all be hearing a lot more from him in the
future. Speaking
of Sedo, while DOMAINfest was underway, the
company released their 2011
Annual Domain Market Study including a 4Q-2011
Review (.pdf file). This report is
always loaded with insight into the
domain aftermarket, including which extensions
are selling best and what kinds of prices they
are bringing. If you haven't seen it yet, be
sure to check it out.
|
(Posted Feb.
6, 2012)
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|
Closing
Day Photos & Highlights from DOMAINfest Global
in Santa Monica
|
DOMAINfest
Global 2012
is
now history. The 6th annual show concluded at the Fairmont
Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California
with a farewell breakfast this morning (Friday,
Feb. 3) that followed last night's grand finale at the House
of Blues in Hollywood. Before we get
to Thursday's closing day photos and highlights,
let's pick up where we left off in my last
post - near the end of day 2
Wednesday. The
Pitchfest Contest was just ending after
ten entrepreneurs had pitched their business
ideas to a panel for four distinguished judges.
The judges wound up chossing Elliot Labreche
of Akashic, a cloud file storage startup,
as their winner based on creativity, viability,
originality and revenue potential.
|
Elliot
Labreche of Akashic (left) collects the
Judge's Award from Oversee.net
Co-CEO and President Scott Morrow after
Wednesday's Pitchfest Contest.
The
audience also given an opportunity to vote to
for the business plan they liked best. Sometimes they
agree with the judges and sometimes not. This
time not - as John Karavas of Babafoo,
described as a "Linked In" for high
school athletes, won the Pitchfest Audience
Choice Award.
John
Karavas of Babafoo making the Pitchfest
presentation
that won the Audience Award for best online
business idea. The
Wednesday business day closed with a discussion
of Public Policies Impacting Domain Investors.
Internet
Commerce Association Legal Counsel Phil
Corwin gave a comprehensive presentation
outlining legal and policy issues domain
investors need to stay of abreast of in order to
protect their interests. After his talk, Phil
was joined by Sedo General Counsel Jeremiah
Johnston and Oversee.net Senior VP
and Legal Counsel Todd Greene to answer
questions from the audience.
(L
to R): Phil Corwin, Jeremiah
Johnston and Todd Greene answering
audience questions
about legal and public policy issues on
Wednesday (Feb. 1, 2012) at DOMAINfest Global.
Wednesday
night's big social event was a crowd favorite -
a trip to the world reknowned Petersen
Automotive Museum for a Dinner Networking
Party sponsored by the .CO Registry.
DOMAINfest
Global guests ogle some of the dozens of
rare, exotic and famous cars
at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los
Angeles Wednesday night (Feb. 1, 2012). A
highlight of the evening was a preview of
the Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl ad that
will be aired during Sunday's Super Bowl Game
between the New England Patriots and New York
Giants.
.CO
Registry (.CO Internet S.A.S.) CEO Juan
Diego Calle (at far left)
treats guests to a preview screening of
this year's Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl ad. |
In a special
treat for DOMAINfest Global guests, the
star of the Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl
commercial, Colombian model Natalia
Velez, showed up in person to meet and
greet attendees and have her picture taken
with everyone who asked. In addition to
obviously being beautiful, Natalia was
very personable and it was clear that she
thoroughly enjoyed interacting with fans.
The 30-second
Super Bowl ad, that cost over $3
million, is expected to be seen by
approximately 120 million views
worldwide. Go Daddy and .CO also ran
a successful ad in last year's Super Bowl
game as part of a .CO marketing effort
that set a new standard for promoting a
new or re-launched TLD. |
Juan
Diego Calle with Natalia Velez,
star of the Go Daddy/.CO Super Bowl ad. |
|
Gregg
McNair gives Vern Jurovich a
"trim" |
One
other note before we moved on to
Thursday's closing day highlights. As I
mentioned in my
last post from Santa Monica,
three conference attendees,
InternetTraffic.com's Vern Jurovich,
DomainAdvisors.com President Jeff
Gabriel and domain investor Bill
Lozada, generously permitted PPX
International Chairman Gregg McNair,
to shave their heads in exchange for over $30,000
in pledges made to a great charity, The
Water School.
The
deed was done at a late night party
Tuesday night after I had left (expecting
that it wasn't going to happen). I noted
that I had photos coming and now here they
are. At left (in a wonderful shot courtesy
of Dan Adamson), Vern's hair is
transferred to Gregg's hand! |
Below,
"after" shots of Vern's fellow
"snipees", Jeff and Bill. I
think it's a great look for both guys and
just think of how much money they will
save on hair care products! |
Jeff
Gabriel sports his new "do' |
Bill
Lozada looking good sans locks |
Moving
on to the closing day (Thursday, Feb. 3)
highlights from DOMAINfest, the day began with a
9:30am session on Domain Valuation Techniques
for Buying and Selling.
The
Domain Valuation panel featured (left to
right) moderator Lisa Box
(Oversee.net),
Paul Nicks (Go Daddy), Liesbeth Mac-de
Boer (Sedo) and Ken Taylor (Marksmen
Inc.).
After
that experienced group provided advice on
setting domain prices, as well as buying and
selling strategies, it was time for one of the
week's main events - a Keynote Fireside Chat
with Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone.
There have been a lot of great keynoters at
DOMAINfest Global over the years and I hesitate
to single one out of the group because so many
were excellent, but I have to say Biz was my
favorite to date.
Stone
served up one hilarious anecdote after another
about growing up and his various business
ventures in a funny, yet informaton-packed and
inspirational interview adroitly conducted by
Oversee leader Scott Morrow. Stone's sense of
humor and wit is just stellar. I'll have
some specifics from the talk in our full show
review article that will be coming out in a week
or so - right now I'm just thankful I recorded
the talk because it is one I will listen to
again. I'm already on Twitter (@dnjournal)
but after hearing Biz I've gone from being a
mere user to a major fan of the man who helped
create it.
Twitter
Co-Founder Biz Stone (left) being
interviewed by
Oversee's Scott Morrow Thursday (Feb. 2,
2012) at DOMAINfest Global.
After
Biz and a lunch break it was time for the final
DOMAINfest panel discussion, one covering SEO
Tips and Best Practices.
The
SEO Tips session featured (left to right)
Bruce Clay, moderator Scott Morrow,
Andy Atkins-Krueger (WebCertain Group)
and Danny Sullivan (Search Engine Land).
This
group of well-known experts talked about the
importance of quality content and website
arhitecture and provided advice on the latest
SEO techniques and tools.
The
final business event of DOMAINfest Global, the Moniker
Live Domain Auction, followed at 4:30pm. The
auction wound up producing more than $392,000
in sales led by Empire.com at $135,000.
QE.com added $89,000, CatFood.com
went for $61,000 and Marriages.com
for $36,000. It was originally reported
that QR.com sold for $325,000 but that winning
bid was later rescinded because the buyer
thought they were bidding on a different domain
(12.com).
Auctioneer
extraordinaire Wayne Wheat (at the
podium)
conducting Moniker's Live Domain Aucton
Thursday (Feb. 2).
|
After the
auction it was time for a final night of
fun. The ladies got a head start on that
with a 6:30pm Women in Domaining
reception at the Fairmont. Soon after,
motor coaches began ferrying guests across
town to Hollywood's House of Blues
for an evening of networking, good food
and fine performances from Lucent
Dossier, a performance artist group
that combines a dash of Cirque du Soleil
style acrobatics with creatively attired
models and modern dance.
Faces in the
crowd included the nine guys in the photo
below. The line up is kind of a domain
industry version of the 1927 New York
Yankees line up known as Murderer's Row
because of the heavy hitters in every
position. Left
to right they are Ammar Kubba, Page
Howe, Roy Messer, Steven
Kaziyev, Ari Goldberger, Michael
Lindsey, John Yeomans, Andrew
Rosener and Bill Lozada. |
Performance
artist group Lucent Dossier
entertaining
DOMAINfest Global guests at
Hollywood's
House of Blues Thursday night (Feb.
2, 2012). |
The
visit to the House of Blues was a fine way to
cap a wonderful conference week (with fabulous
weather) in Southern California. This morning
people started heading back home after a very
nice farewell breakfast at the Fairmont. Diana
and I had the good fortune of having our flight
home cancelled by a winter storm in
Denver where we were supposed to connect to
Tampa). There were no other available flights
out today, so we are enjoying an unexpected bonus
day and night in Santa Monica. Our day was made
especially delightful when Michael
Castello brought his family
down from their home in Moor Park
to have a long, leisurely lunch with us at the
Fairmont this afternoon. Several
others stayed over in the Los Angeles area for a
weekend-long Domain
Boardroom Funfest at Dana Point.
Domain Boardroom is a private forum operated by
veteran domain investor (and one of the finest
people you will ever meet), Donna Mahony,
that has attracted many of the industry's
leading experts and investors.
|
A couple of
other house keeping notes to wrap up these
closing day highlights. For the second
year in a row the winner of DOMAINfest's Fantasy
Domaining Contest was Edwin Sherman
who picked up a great prize package that
included free DOMAINfest admission, four
free nights at the hotel and a $1,000
travel stipend.
The winner of
the Passport Drawing (attendees got
their passports stamped by visiting each
exhbitor's booth, then dropped the
completed passport in the drawing bin) was
Adam Young who won a $500
Amazon gift code. The $250 second
prize went to Daniel Eisenhut and Enrico
Schaefer received a $150
American Express gift card as third
prize. |
View
of the Pacific Ocean from our 9th
floor balcony
at the Fairmont Miramar in Santa
Monica, California
where the DOMAINfest Global 2012
conference
was staged this week. You can see why we
didn't
mind having our flight home cancelled
today. |
While
I've covered a lot of ground in this
week's daily Lowdown reports from Santa
Monica, there are a lot more photos and
details to share than could be fitted into
these posts that have to be made on the
run while the show was underway. I'll tend
to those in a comprehensive show review
that will bring everything together in one
place for posterity a week or so after we
get back home and clear the decks
there. |
|
(Posted Feb.
3, 2012)
To refer others
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|
Editor's
Note: Since today is the final day of the DOMAINfest
Global conference in Santa Monica, California we
are goint to wait until we have photos from tonight's
closing event before posting our Day 3 Photos &
Highlights. We expect to publish those Friday (Feb. 3).
(Posted Feb.
2, 2012)
Day
2 Photos & Highlights From DOMAINFest Global
- Oversee.Net Sells Moniker & SnapNames to
KeyDrive
|
The
DOMAINFest Global conference
continued
today at the oceanfront Fairmont Miramar
Hotel in Santa Monica, California. In
my opening day
highlights post yesterday I left off
just before a late afternoon panel discussion on
Affiliate Lead Generation Best Practices
got underway. The photo below is from that
session that featured
HasOffers.com CMO Peter
Hamilton (standing) and (seated left to
right behind him) Brook Schaaf (CEO,
Schaaf-PartnerCentric), Jay Weintraub
(CEO, NextCustomer Inc.) and Eoin Matthews
(VP of Business Development at VigLink).
|
The
last business session Tuesday (Jan. 31) was a
one-hour Sponsor Showcase in which
representatives from the top DOMAINfest Global
sponsors each had five minutes to talk about
their services. Then
it was off to the show's first official evening
social function, a Dinner Networking
Reception, sponsored by Sedo at Monsoon,
a nearby Balinese restaurant in Santa Monica.
Sedo CEO Tim Schumacher made his last
appearance in that capacity, telling the crowd
about the partnership
deal the SedoMLS and GoDaddy
announced this week. Tobias Flaitz took
over as Sedo's CEO today (Shumacher, one of the
three company co-founders, will continue to serve
on the Sedo Board). A
scene from Sedo's Opening Night Dinner
Networking Reception at Monsoon
|
After Sedo's
event, PPX International hosted a
late night party at the Shangri-La
Hotel, a block south of the Fairmont
Miramar. As I mentioned in
yesterday's post, there were rumors going
into the party that InternetTraffic.com's
Vern Jurovich (one of the nicest
guys in this or any other industry) might
consent to having his hair shaved off in
an effort to raise funds for The
Water School. |
DOMAINfest
guests jammed the Shangri-La to see
if that would happen and, in fact it did.
Not only did Vern lose his locks, he convinced
DomainAdvisors President Jeff
Gabriel to make the sacrifice too and
later in the evening, a third domainer
with an ultra big heart (and now an extremely
short haircut), Bill Lozada, faced
the guillotine for a good cause.
Unfortunately,
this all happened in the wee hours of this
morning, after I left the party, so I
don't yet have the "after"
photos to show you, though I'm told they
will be coming my way soon. Nor have I
seen any of our three new heroes
around the hotel today (of course, they
could be in disguise - a local wig shop
reported a run on their inventory today).
At right you can see what Vern looked like
"before" his run-in with the
shears. It is not official yet, but I
heard over $30,000 was pledged to
the The Water School in support of their
sacrifice. |
Vern
Jurovich, InternetTraffic.com
before last night's
"haircut" |
In
my book that makes Vern, Jeff and Bill beautiful
(not that they weren't already) whether or not
their new hairstyle is in vogue. The money they
raised will actually help save lives. Each is a man
among men. Before
Day Two of DOMAINfest Global got underway this
morning (Feb. 1), the Co-CEOs and Co-Presidents
of Oversee.net
(who organizes the annual conference), Debra
Domeyer and Scott Morrow, hosted a
Q&A breakfast for industry media
representatives. I'll have more on the ground
covered during that interesting session in our
full conference review article after DOMAINfest.
One bit of big news that was breaking while we
were with them was Oversee's
sale of Moniker.com and SnapNames.com
that was officially announced later in the
morning.
|
Bill
Hunt, President
Black Azimuth Consulting |
In today's
first business session Black Azimuth
Consulting President Bill Hunt,
in a solo presentation, provided advice on
Analyzing Keywords to Find Revenue
Opportunities. Hunt discussed how
to use updated keyword research and
modeling techniques to compenstate for the
latest changes at Google, Bing and Yahoo.
The second
morning session featured a panel that
covered Advanced PPC Best Practices
and Campaign Management Tools. The
experts on the said offered tips that they
say could help you double your
conversions, lower your costs and save
time in the process.
Below:
Advanced PPC Panel
participants (left to right) were
moderator Dwayne Walker
(Oversee.net), Joanna Lord
(SEOmoz.org), Jeff Ferguson (CEO,
Fang Digital Marketing) and David
Rodnitzky (CEO, PPC Associates). |
|
CEO
Tim Ash, SiteTuners |
After another
beautiful outdoor luncheon at the
Fairmont, the Wednesday afternoon schedule
began with Tim Ash, the author of Landing
Page Optimization, speaking about
- you guessed it - landing page
optimization - specifically Landing
Page Optimization Best Practices and
Conversion Tools. Ash offered
specific landng page adjustments that he
said will dramatically improve anyone's
conversions.
As I write
this, the final business session of day two, the highly anticipated Pitchfest
Contest, is just wrapping up. Ten
entrepreneurs pitched their business ideas
to a panel for four distinguished judges.
The judges wound up picking Elliot
Labreche of Akashic, a cloud
file storage startup as their winner based
on four criteria. The audience also had an
opportunity to vote and they wound up
picking a different winner, Babafoo,
described as a "Linked In" for
high school athletes. I'll have more
on the Pitchfest contest for you in
tomorrow's post |
(including
photos of the winners), as well as photos
and highlights from tonight's big social
event, a Dinner Networking Party at
the Peterson Automotive Museum -
one of the world's best. |
|
(Posted Feb.
1, 2012)
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|
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