Over the next five years Song advanced to new positions in operations and portfolio acquisitions at DomainSponsor. His talents did not go unnoticed and in 2008 he was lured away by a management opportunity in business development in the affiliate marketing field.  Now, four years after he left, Song has come back home to DomainSponsor where he will again serve in the account management role where he made so many friends.

Song said, "I really missed working in the domain industry and working with so many old friends.  In addition, Oversee has some exciting growth plans and I am really looking forward to contributing and being a part of it.”  

Song will reports to DomainSponsor's Director of Sales, Sam Tseng,  who, like Mike, started at the company in 2003. Sam, who has been there even since, said, "I'm delighted that Mike is back. He is so knowledgeable and has a great reputation with customers. "

Director of Sales Sam Tseng
Domain Sponsor.com

Cahn first gained widespread fame when he successfully brokered the historic sales of WallStreet.com and Autos.com that were recognized as the first $1 million and $2 million 

Cahn running a live domain auction
at the May 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference

sales in the industry respectively. Overall Cahn has been involved in selling more than $300 million worth of domain names in the last 10 years, including seven-figure sales of Cameras.com, Dating.com, Photo.com, Bored.com, CreditCheck.com and Slots.com among others.  

Cahn is also credited with starting the very first domain brokerage company in 1996. He pioneered and innovated what are now considered industry standard services, including WhoIs privacy, domain escrow, domain appraisals, bulk domain management, domain security and theft prevention, stealth acquisitions and live domain auctions.

Domain Holdings Co-Founder John Ferber said, “Monte brings with him a range of knowledge dating back to the mid-90s where 

he was able to contribute services that widely shaped the industry and are still in use today. That type of forward thinking fits with our philosophy as we add to our brokerage and monetization services.” 

This will be the first Las Vegas T.R.A.F.F.I.C. run by Rick and Howard in more than 5 years. A four-year annual run there ended with the last one they helmed in February 2008 at the Venetian Hotel. There was one more show in Las Vegas under the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. banner in January 2010 at the Hard Rock Hotel, but that one was run by Rick Latona under a one-year licensing agreement with the show's founders. 

After the agreement with Latona expired Schwartz and Neu were content to settle back into the one show a year in Florida format that they started with back in 2004 when they staged the industry's first large scale domain conference in Delray Beach. The only 2012 show will be held October 7-10, 2012 at the Ritz Carlton on Ft. Lauderdale Beach, a gorgeous oceanfront venue that also hosted the duo's lone 2011 show). 

The Las Vegas shows have always been popular though (the biggest crowd in T.R.A.F.F.I.C. history turned out for the 2007 show at the Venetian) and a number of regular attendees have lobbied for a return  

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founders Rick Schwartz
& Howard Neu (Bobbleheads.com versions!)

there. With the previously over-crowded conference calendar having been winnowed out by market forces, Schwartz and Neu finally agreed to get back on board and do two shows (Ft. Lauderdale Beach and Las Vegas) next year. 

In the meantime, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 2012 is barely over four months away now. No other major U.S. shows are slated for this year, so if you want to take advantage of the invaluable opportunity to meet and network with fellow domain investor/developers and service providers from around the world, now is the time to start making plans for a trip to the beach in Florida this fall.

At the beginning of this year ardent Water School supporter Gregg McNair (the Chairman at PPX International) came up with what, at the time, seemed to be a bit of a hare-brained idea (or perhaps I should say a hair-brained idea). The fun-loving Australian dynamo decided he could convince a few of his fellow attendees

at the DOMAINfest Global conference in California to let him shave all of the hair of their heads in exchange for donations to the Water School. 

Proving that you should never underestimate McNair's powers of persuasion, he managed to line up three brave souls who were willing to sit still while "The Mad Barber from Melbourne" 

(Left to right) Jeff Gabriel, Vern Jurovich & Bill Lozada
post-shave at DOMAINfest Global 2012 in California

mowed  their previously well-coiffed heads into barren wastelands! The sacrificial lambs - Vern Jurovich (InternetTraffic.com), Jeff Gabriel (President at DomainAdvisors.com) and domain investor Bill Lozada were obviously thinking with their hearts rather than their heads, but by stifling the urge to run for the nearest exit, the trio succeeded in winning thousands of dollars in pledges for the Water School from onlookers who appreciated their sacrifice. 

The only problem with all of this is it just encouraged McNair to go after new victims! As I have already documented in this column, I was the next to fall in the line of fire. Despite my best efforts to elude him, McNair chased me half way around the globe and finally ran me down in Valencia, Spain last month at the 2012 Domaining Europe conference. 

Again, on the plus side (in addition to the free hair cut) tens of thousands of additional dollars poured in for the Water School from kind-hearted domain industry donors. As of this writing, a total of $51,350 (and four scalps) has been collected as a result of McNair's two head hunting expeditions! When you consider that with $50 the Water School can supply a family of five in the developing world with clean drinking water for life, that is enough money to do a lot of good. 

My luck runs out - Gregg McNair mowing me 
down at Domaining Europe 2012 in Spain

Gregg "The Mad Barber" McNair 
taking another scalp in Spain

When Gregg started this whole thing he asked if I could acknowledge those who donated $500 or more in this column and I am happy to do that today. In addition to thanking those donors listed below, I want to express my gratitude to everyone who gave, regardless of the amount. Jan Barta (ElephantTraffic.com) and Frank Schilling (InternetTraffic.com) also deserve special recognition for going above and beyond the call of duty. Jan and Frank pretty much sealed my fate by putting $10,000 each on my head (and Jan had already given $3,000 when the first three guys went under the blade). 

ParkingCrew.com raised another $4,500 for the cause in Spain by contributing $150 for every person who 

wore a free ParkingCrew T-shirt to the closing night party. Also, in addition to wielding the razor, Gregg McNair, along with domain pioneer Richard Lau (who both serve on the Water School's Board of Directors) were among the five biggest individual cash donors to the campaign. Here is the full $500 or more honor roll, members of an incredibly giving domain industry community that I am very proud to be a part of: 

After being shut down for nearly six weeks due to technical issues, ICANN's TLD Application System (TAS) has finally been re-started. Those interested in operating new gTLDs will now have until 23:59 GMT/UTC on May 30 to finalize and get their applications in. ICANN is also expected to announce a new date soon for The Big Reveal when all of the applicants and the TLDs they applied for will be made known. 

The technical snafu and the long period of time it took ICANN to resolve the problem resulted in a lot of brickbats being thrown at the domain name system's oversight body. Even so, a lot of people still see riches in the soon to be 

expanded new gTLD space. Just last night, DomainDiction, a new company offering marketing services to new gTLD registry operators, announced it had entered the fray. 

There are a lot of familiar faces on DomainDiction's managerial staff, led by CEO Jennie-Marie Larsen who first entering the domain name industry 12 years ago as head of NeuStar's registry business operations in Europe. In that post she

participated in the creation, market introduction, and development of TLD business for .BIZ, .US, .and several ccTLDs when NeuStar was awarded contracts to operates those registries.

Chief Strategy Officer Pinky Brand is also well-known for his role in the 2006 launch and marketing of .mobi. The executive team also includes Head of Registrar Marketing John Kirkham, Head of UK PR & Marketing Tina Lord, Head of European Online Marketing Henry Lewington, Head of North American Online Marketing Rob Rozicki and Consultant for German OR & Marketing Christoph Hausel. You can read all of their bios here, along with that of Chief Financial Officer Hugo Idler. 

In another effort to support domain owner's rights, Carrillo is also promising that 30% of the profits generated by DONA.com will be donated to the industry's non-profit advocate, the Internet Commerce Association. 

The ICA employs an experienced Washington, D.C. based Legal Counsel, Phil Corwin, who has tirelessly represented the interests of domain investors at ICANN meetings and in the halls of Congress. Registrant rights are continually under attack and despite being out-spent and out-manned by over-reaching trademark interests Corwin and the ICA have helped fend off many proposed changes to policy and law that would have had an extremely negative impact on domain owners. 

Carrillo said, "We really need to have our voice heard to influence ICANN and governments to change rules and better defend our rights. It's critical and urgent that we unite and have a strong association to defend us. Without big changes things can only get worse, much worse." 

On the day that I began my trip to Spain to cover last month's Domaining Europe 2012 conference in Valencia, Simon Johnson sent me an email to let me know about a new iPhone app that Kikabink International Pty Ltd. (a Melbourne, Australia based company that Johnson co-founded) had just released. With the trip to Europe and the game of catch up required after I got back I just now had a chance to download the free app that Simon wrote about. 

It is definitely a useful tool that you are going to want to add to your smartphone arsenal. The app provides access to more than 72,000 historical domain and website sales (dating back more than 10 years), enabling you to review sales prices and use that information to help value other domain names that are similar. Johnson said the app, simply called Domain Sales, is the first one in the world to provide sales data on a wide range of TLDs including mainstays .com, .org and .net as well as ccTLDs like .de, .co.uk,  com.au, .ca and .us to name just a few. You can filter for specific TLDs, domain age or length and also set exclusions. 

Johnson noted, "Business owners often have difficulty finding domain names, as many of them are already registered. As such they have to buy domains on the aftermarket. The issue then becomes, how much should they pay? The Domain Sales app solves that problem by providing comparable sales. The real-estate industry uses comparable sales to value property and we believe Internet real-estate is no different."

Johnson added, "The app provides sales from major aftermarkets, auctions and private sales and users can also get real-time reports on what has just been sold, where and for how much. We're really proud of what the Domain Sales App can do. It really levels the playing field. Now anyone can get the facts and discover how much their domain or website might be worth." 

You can download the app from Apple's 

Screenshot from the Domain Sales app

You can also set filters to refine results.

iTunes® App Store or by visiting http://www.DomainSalesApp.com. To get my copy I just typed "Domain Sales" in the App Store search box on my iPhone and it came right up. Add the fact that there is no charge for an app that many would gladly pay for and it is obvious this is an app that anyone interested in domains should have on their phone. 

Protrada CEO Troy Rushton

Protrada CEO Troy Rushton said, “We created a platform that allows anyone to build one, two, or ten websites all with a few clicks. Partnering with content providers and allowing for the addition of interactive features without writing a single line of code has greatly contributed to the initial success we have seen. Appraiso was an obvious fit for us. Thousands of people are building websites with Protrada and now they can find out how much those sites are worth. This gives Protrada users a way to better understand how the digital real estate they are developing can grow in value over time.”

Rushton added, "When Protrada users are ready to sell, Protrada can seamlessly allow users to list these sites on some of the top domain and website marketplaces on the planet. Having a valuation benchmark will reduce uncertainty and stimulate transactions and Appraiso is well positioned to become the standard."

Speaking for Appraiso, Linton said, "The founders saw a gap in the market and spent a year crunching numbers and building a tool to accurately estimate the price of a developed website. We saw the opportunity to innovate in one of the fastest growing spaces on the Internet and we went for it. Before marketplaces like Flippa, website sales happened underground, scattered across hundreds of forums across the net. With over $31 million in website sales in 2011 alone, Flippa has shown that the market for developed websites is growing, and fast."

“With the incredible growth of smartphones and rapid adoption of Internet users across the globe, digital real estate is a large and growing market and we’re looking forward to playing a valuable role in this next phase,” Linton said, adding “The best part is we are still seeing only the tip of the iceberg, and unlike physical real estate, with digital assets the sky really is the limit!”   

Appraiso Co-Founder Morgan Linton

The Sedo report said Buy Now's new status as the most popular transaction option is due in part to the strength of  Sedo’s partner network, SedoMLS, which distributes Buy Now names for sale globally (often showcasing aftermarket names in the purchasing path at leading registrars). The report noted, "This increase shows that end user buyers are finding the faster, Buy Now purchase an increasingly attractive option.

.Com continued to account for far more sales than any other extension on the Sedo platform, claiming 45% of total sales. The next closest TLD was .DE, the popular country code for Germany, that took 16% of the sales pie.

Sedo CSO Liesbeth Mack-de Boer summed up the report saying,  “The results of this quarter’s domain market study are extremely promising.

.Com image from Bigstock

With the highest sales numbers we’ve seen since early 2011, this year may have the potential to become the strongest for the domain market in quite some time."

Ruddell did leave the door open for a return of DNCruise in 2013 but at this stage he did not want to guess what the odds of sailing again might be. "I honestly do not know right now," Ruddell said. " We are extremely busy with our work and DNCruise takes a lot of time to organize and coordinate with so many guests. If we are able to make a 2013 event happen we would look around June or July, during the summer months so domainers can take their families, or sometime in October or November, so it could run back-to-back with T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Ft. Lauderdale.

The Carnival Imagination (docked in Nassau, 
Bahamas during the 1st DNCruise in October 2010. 

Dr. Phil was among the many anticipating the release of Lisa's new book. He had her on his nationally syndicated TV show as a special guest last week (Phil has had Lisa on a number of times and he also put Braden on the air, speaking from the audience, in an episode with Lisa last year). 

Lisa been a fixture on American television for the past decade, appreaing regularly on CBS, CNN, HLN and MSNBC shows. The award-winning journalist, legal analyst, trial attorney and daughter of renowned women's rights attorney, Gloria Allred, has also been featured on Oprah, Nightline, Today, Good Morning America, Rachael Ray and many other popular programs. From 2001-2009, Lisa hosted her own daily, live, national show on Court TV, and she has guest-hosted Larry King Live, The Early Show, and Showbiz Tonight.  

While I'm on the subject of writing, I was excited to hear that one of the most knowledgeable (and personable) people in our industry, Thought Convergence CEO Ammar Kubba, is about to launch his own blog at Afterthought.com (you can leave you email address there now to be notified as soon as the blog goes live).

Ammar and his long time friend and business partner Kevin Vo were featured in our October 2007 Cover Story that was one of our most popular profiles ever. Together they run some of  the best known service providers in our business including TrafficZ, DomainTools and Aftermarket.com with Los Angeles based Thought Convergence serving as the parent company of those entities. 

Ammar, who describes himself as a serial entrepreneur and humanist, will bring great insight (and, I expect, his terrific sense of humor)  to a blog that will undoubtedly become a daily must read as soon as  it launches.

Ammar Kubba
Afterthought.com

In another important announcement, Escrow.com has just launched a new tool that will be especially useful to domain brokers as it enables any three parties to securely complete an online sale. Escrow.com put together a 

concise video that, in just over a minute, explains how the simple process works. It is already being employed by veteran brokers like Andrew Rosener at MediaOptions who spent several months during the product's beta phase using and advising the Escrow.com team on the features brokers would value most. 

Elliot Silver has more details about the new service on his blog where you can also read and/or leave feedback about the product. Both Rosener and Escrow.com's Director of Business Development Andee Hill have also been responding to questions there should you need any more information about incorporating the new tool in your transactions.

We arrived back home to Florida in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and, as noted in my last post from Spain, I came home with a lot less hair than I had originally crossed the Atlantic with (none to be exact). PPX International Chairman Gregg "The Mad Barber" McNair finally ran me down in Valencia and persuaded me to give up my hair in exchange for donations to The Water School - a life saving organization that we both support in every way we can. 

In new photos that came out today (at right, courtesy of TargetDomain.com's Facebook feed) you can see how things got off to a bad start and quickly went downhill for me from there! I thought about trying to wiggle out of McNair's hot seat but once pledges hit $20,000 I no longer had the luxury of saying no because I know how far that money will go toward eradicating disease by introducing The Water School's inexpensive clean water solution in developing countries.

I am happy to say that pledges passed $40,000 by the time we left Valencia and donations can still be made at WaterShave.org. I'll be getting some more information on specific donors and amounts from Gregg in a few days so I can recognize those generous givers in this column.

I was also happy that we were able to do this in Valencia where McNair gave a terrific presentation that showed domainers on the European side of the pond how important the Water School's work is. The domainers there also showed how generous they are by extending a helping hand to those in desperate need of one.

After getting back home, there was still one bit of conference related business I wanted to take care of. That was to send a personal thank you note today to each of the 20 people or companies that helped Jodi Chamberlain produce the surprise video that was shown Friday night  after I was honored to receive Domaining Europe's 1st Award for International Communications in the Domain Industry. Their congratulatory messages made an already special night truly unforgettable for Diana and I.

Leading the lamb to slaughter - unlicensed barber 
Gregg McNair (left) and Braden Pollock (right). 

One thing bothers me - Gregg McNair 
has  way too much fun doing this!

I may look pretty happy here but this was 
before someone handed me a mirror!

In a related note, I learned today that in addition to the message they recorded for the video, the DomainAdvisors.com team (of Gregg McNair, Jeff Gabriel, Tessa Holcomb, Amanda Waltz and Gina Aubrey) had spent a good bit of time putting together a comic Powerpoint slide show centered around a night out with a Ron Jackson bobblehead doll that was 

originally planned for the video but could not be included.  It kind of reminds me of one of those Mr. Bill sketches from Saturday Night Live except I don't get abused as badly as Mr. Bill did :-)  

My only minor quibble with the slide show is it hints I might be a Boston Red Sox fan (since they are major  rivals of our Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East that could never happen!)  They also show my bobblehead cozying up to a New England Patriots jersey but the Pats are way too good for a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan like me to appreciate. I am however on board with the admiration my bobblehead shows Boston Celtics legend Larry Bird - he was the best. You can  check it out here to see what I mean.

Now, with a wonderful week in Spain in the books, we return to our regularly scheduled programming, starting with a new double length domain sales report that will be out Thursday night. In the meantime, thanks to all for the memories!