NameMedia Chairman and CEO Kelly Conlin in Line for a Board of Directors Seat at a Major Media Conglomerate

Having been named one of the Top 5 executives in the entire business publishing field by Media Industry Magazine, the Harvard Business School graduate's advice and counsel is valued throughout the media world. That was illustrated again today when the E.W. Scripps Company, one of America's biggest newspaper and TV  ownership groups, announced that Conlin has been nominated to serve on the Scripps board and will stand for election by the Common Voting shareholders at the May 1 annual meeting. 

	Scripps reached out to Conlin in the course of some major board changes at the 90-year-old Cincinnati based company. Nackey E. Scagliotti, a great-granddaughter of the founder, Edward Willis Scripps, notified the board that she will retire from service after the annual meeting and will not stand for re-election. The board’s nominating committee has recommended that Rich Boehne, who has been the CEO and a director since 2008, replace Ms. Scagliotti as the board’s chair. With the CEO serving as chair, the board will also select a lead independent director from among the directors elected in May. Scripps owns and operates 19 television stations in
markets including Denver, San Diego, Detroit, Phoenix, Cleveland, Cincinnati and my home town - Tampa, Florida, as well as 13 newspapers in cities including Memphis, Knoxville, Naples, Florida and Corpus Christi, Texas. As the company positions itself to adapt and grow in a new media world they couldn't have a better advisor on board that Kelly.

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Today's Riddle: What Do Domainers, Escrow.com, Fender Guitars, Giving, Geddy Lee, Rush and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Have in Common?

One thing I've always loved about the domain business is the fact that there are so many very successful people in this industry that have not forgotten where they came from. They appreciate what they have and they generously give back to more causes than you might

ever imagine. In the past year alone they've donated tens of thousands of dollars to the good work of The Water School, an organization I've frequently written about because I know it is a charity where 100% of the donations go to the people the money is intended to help.  That is just one example of many though. I'll tell you about another one,  but probably should first explain why that one immediately caught my attention. Those of you who are familiar with my background know that I am a big music fan and ran my own retail record stores in Florida for many years. I've got a Fender Stratocaster hanging on my office wall (that's it at right) with a Fender Mustang amplifier sitting right below it and a stack of Learn to Play Guitar books on an end table next to it. That's right, I don't know how to actually play it! However, one of the top things on my bucket list is learning to play a tune on electric guitar.  I dream of it being something like Jimi Hendrix's version of "All Along the Watchtower" (Jimi played a white Fender Stratocaster at Woodstock) but I know it will more likely be along the lines of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" - but that's OK! I just want to play something and I want the equipment and instructions sitting there to keep taunting me until I make time to start learning.

So, what does that have to do with domain people giving back? I'm glad you asked! As it happens the Fender Music Foundation (FMF) runs a program, that, like The Water School, makes sure every penny donated is used to put musical instruments in the hands of students enrolled in music education programs around the country. Over the past seven years more than 187,000 budding musicians have benefited from the program.  As for the domain connection, Escrow.com, a company that just about every domainer has used at one time or another in the process of selling their names, played a key role in the FMF's latest fundraising effort.

Escrow.com handled the sale of a black  Fender Geddy Lee Jazz Bass Guitar autographed by the Rush bassist and vocalist,  Geddy Lee himself, along with fellow  band mates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart (all three of whom will be on hand when Rush is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April 2013). The sale raised over $10,000 after the guitar was auctioned off through Reverb.com. Escrow.com initially got involved in the auctioning off of the guitar after hearing about the effort from one of their staff members, General Manager of Emerging Markets Andrew Sokol, who sits on the Board of the Fender Music Foundation as the Chairman of the Grants Committee. Escrow.com President Brandon Abbey (through whom Escrow.com also contributed to The Water School's WaterShave fundraisers when they began last year and did so again this year) said "The Fender Music Foundation is yet another organization we are passionate about. We just recently co-sponsored a golf tournament that raised $120,000 for the Semper Fi Fund and America's Fund (both of which benefit injured	Above: Rush drummer Neil Peart autographing the guitar sold by Escrow.com.   Below: a close up of the autographed guitar that went for over $10,000. (Photos courtesy of Reverb.com who ran the guitar auction on their site).
and ill members of the U.S. Armed Forces and their families) and when Andrew approached me with the idea to sell the bass to benefit the Fender Music Foundation, it simply fit right into our model of wanting to help others." (You can read more abut the sale of the guitar in this pre-sale announcement).

Kudos to the folks an Escrow.com and everyone else in our business who do us all proud by supporting so many worthy causes. As Winston Churchill once said, "We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give."

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DomainMarket President Chad Bennett Resigns, Protrada Partners With DomainPower and .US Registry Up For Grabs Again

Chad Bennett, who  served as President and Chief Technical Officer at Michael Mann's aftermarket sales venue, DomainMarket.com, for the past 10 months has stepped down from that position. Bennett  has decided to devote all of his time to Lancera.com, an IT outsourcing company he founded in 2011. Bennett said Lancera now has over 70 full-time employees with three offices in the U.S. and the Philippines.

Bennett was proud of the growth DomainMarket has experienced over the past year, telling his Facebook friends, "In the short time I was there we doubled e-commerce revenues and traffic to the website, increased monthly revenues by over 160%, lowered our expenses by tens of thousands a month and had created a completely new internal system to manage DomainMarket's portfolio of over 335,000 domains.

The testimonials page at Lancera includes comments from several of Mann's businesses 

Chad Bennett
Lancera.com Founder

(including DomainMarket.com and SEO.com), as well as his well-known non-profit organization, GrassRoots.org. Lancera has also done work for multiple Fortune 500 and INC 500 clients.

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Did You Know the Latest New TLD Land Rush Opened Today? Say Hello to .PW

You've been hearing about ICANN's impending (it always seems to impending) launch of hundreds of new gTLDs for many years now, but new gTLDs come in more than one flavor. Several new ones have been launched over the past decade, including .info, .biz and .mobi, and several others have been re-launched as new global TLDs after starting life as country code TLDs (ccTLDs). Well-known examples of the latter group include Colombia's .CO, Montenegro's .ME and one of the earliest ones from this category - Samoa's .WS. 

Land rush opened today for a new entry that was birthed from ccTLD roots, .PW, an extension that in the past served as the country code for the Micronesian island nation of Palau. Under a new licensing agreement the Directi Group has become the new operator of the .PW registry and is now marketing it as a globally open TLD they are branding as the Professional Web.  Directi’s offering has proved to be popular with registrars worldwide as 90 of them from 31 different countries signed on to offer .PW domain registrations to their customers.

Chris Sheridan eNom, VP, Business Development

Directi’s own ResellerClub, a major registrar services reseller, is, as you would expect, marketing .PW,  to tens of thousands of customers. An even bigger fish, Demand Media’s eNom, the world’s largest ICANN Accredited wholesale registrar, is also part of the .PW line up. Chris Sheridan, eNom's VP for Business Development, said “The market is looking for fresh and well-priced inventory and quality generic names are always in demand. We look forward to promoting .PW across our 8,800 strong reseller base as a well-priced alternative before the new gTLDs arrive.” With so many new TLDs due to hit the market at once, it is certainly wise for the .PW camp to get their name out there now before the crowd arrives. They may also benefit from the impending horde of new gTLDs, simply because they have been written about so much that at least some potential new registrants are now more aware of the fact that there are other options to the right of the dot.

The big question for .PW and all of the new gTLDs to come is just how many domain registrants will be willing to try something new rather than retreat to the perceived safety of older, more established brands like .com, .net or their local country code. As always in this business, the time they are a-changin', and things are about to get even more interesting as the new gTLD drama plays out.

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Death of Parking Pronouncements Premature? Oversee Says PPC Earnings Are Improving

Ms. Domeyer, who comes from a technical background (she was Oversee's Chief Technical Officer before becoming CEO), attributed the gains to better optimization including increasingly important mobile friendly technology. Ms. Domeyer said their mobile monetization returns were up 18-20%. She added that the company continually runs 13 different tests with changes dictated by those tests  bringing as much as an 8% rise in income. Debra also noted that the highest revenue per click came from tablet computers, followed by desktops, with phones third. 

In addition to monetizing domains owned by others, Oversee holds a large portfolio of their own and they both sell names and develop them with many already hosting profitable online businesses. She said most of their sales come from direct end user inquiries with a few
others handled by the two or three brokers Oversee works with. Ms. Domeyer said even though the company has dropped many under performing domains from its portfolio, overall income from that portfolio was higher, thanks to "buying smarter."

Ms. Domeyer also commented on the Webfest Global conference that just completed its 7th annual run. Prior to this year it was known as DOMAINfest Global, but Debra said the name change was needed to mirror a paradigm shift in the industry that she believes makes it incumbent upon domain owners to be aware of constant changes in the web, social and mobile landscape that are affecting their livelihood. Regarding her controversial choice of celebrity/entrepreneur Kim Kardashian as this year's Webfest keynote speaker, Ms. Domeyer, who describes herself as a risk taker, said she thought it was time to shake things up. As a woman who, as an expert surfer, has been dropped from a helicopter onto towering waves, Debra is certainly no stranger to taking chances. The Kardashian bet appeared to pay off with a standing room only crowd on hand to hear Kardashian deliver some useful
advice on how to start an online business (she credited her blog as the spark that got her started) and use social media to build a brand - in her case, one that is now known around the world. But that's another story - one I'll have more specifics on in our upcoming conference Cover Story.

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Rick Schwartz Sounds Off on New gTLDs and the Key Difference Between Them and .Com

Before I left for the show, domain pioneer Rick Schwartz, co-founder of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference, shared his new gTLD view with me while I was conducting interviews for our January State of the Industry Cover Story. Some of his comments were included in that article, but due to space constraints in that wide ranging article, I held some others that I can share with you now.

Rick Schwartz on the balcony of his Fort Lauderdale Beach penthouse apartment.	Schwartz said, "The .whatever registries and registrars may have internal success. But that’s the problem and the difference. It is internal success where .com was/is an external success. Think about that. The reason .com is such a success is the wide use and acceptance by 3rd parties. 3rd parties were the big winners. Here Registries may be the winners but that is a completely different equation." "So in success or failure, .whatever will just reinforce .com as not only the gold standard, but THE most sought after property on the planet," Schwartz declared. "The domain name is every great brand rolled into one brand. Your brand, my brand, their brand. Plus the location, plus everything else that comes with it. The intangibles. Like credibility for example. It is the total lifeline, heartbeat, main entrance and foundation of your business and supersedes all other entry and contact points." "If you can hold on to your domains to 2015-2016 I believe that you will see a huge
spike in prices and that is what I have waited all these years for. I am sorry many don’t see it. My most vivid example would be like comparing the salaries of Babe Ruth and Johnny Unitas with Derrick Jeter and Tom Brady. Now that took 70 years. What we are doing is taking 70 months and that clock starting ticking about 42 months ago," Schwartz said.

"T.R.A.F.F.I.C. has been the launch pad of .mobi, .me, .co and .xxx and all have enjoyed great success at our shows. I think that will continue as we have already proved that we can do the job. So I think many of us will benefit from .whatever. My job is not to talk anyone out of what they see - just try and separate fact from hype. Don’t try to value the corresponding .whatever to the .com. Not a fair comparison. Those that buy into that are being fooled. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will premiere, offer and promote but we won’t endorse. And there may come a time where we see no value in that. Time will tell. We will be true to what we believe." Schwartz concluded.

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Closing Day Photos and Highlights From the 2013 Webfest Global Conference in Santa Monica, California

The Engaging and Converting Mobile Users panel featured (left to right): Moderator Min Chan (Oversee.net), Greg Sterling, Will Hsu and Bardia Dejban. 

The 12:15pm lunch break followed under the fabulous 123-year-old fig tree that graces the courtyard at the Fairmont Miramar. Outdoor luncheons were held under the 80-foot tree - the second largest of its kind in the state of California - on each of the three conference days.

Lunch under the spectacular 123-year-old fig tree at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel.

At 2pm it was back to business with Henry Tam, Jr. on stage for a solo presentation on Mobile Advertising Trends. 

Henry Tam, Jr., Vice President, mMedia Advertsing, Millenial Media, kicked off the Thursday afternoon schedule with information on the latest mobile advertising trends. 

Next up at 3:30pm was a panel of experts who offered advce on Acquiring Mobile Users on a Restricted Budget.

This panel featured (left to right): Moderator Gene Chuang (Oversee.net), Cindy Crum (MobileMoxie, LLC), Gary Rudolph (Lolay) and Bryson Meunier (Resolution Media). 

The final order of business at 2013 Webfest Global was the popular annual Pitchfest Contest in which a series of entrepreneurs takes the stage to deliver 3-minute presentations aimed at securing venture capital funding for their enterprises. Two awards for the Best Pitch are then awarded - one from the audience (who voted through text messaging) and one from the distinguised panel of judges that included John Morris, Scott Jarus, Allen Morgan, Will Hsu and Ben Kuo - all of whom are veteran venture capitalists. 

Seven entrepreneurs competed and were judged based on creativity, viability, originality and revenue potential...and the winners were: 

People's Choice Award Winner - Jeremie Godreche (in the left photo above) of Freedom Registry (operator of the .tk top level domain) and Judge's Choice Award Winner - Darren Marble of Filmbreak.com (in the right photo above). Both received their awards from Oversee.net VP Aaron Kvitek (seen at right in each photo), who moderated the contest.  Webfest Global concluded with one last major social event Thursday nght (running from 8pm - 1am) - a visit to Hollywood's famed Magic Castle, a private club that features many of the world's best magicians.

Some of the Webfest Global attendees waiting to be admitted to the Magic Castle Thursday night (Feb. 7, 2013). Photography is not permitted inside the Castle so we can only tell you we saw some astonishing performances with Jeff McBride on the main stage and Jon Armstrong in the Museum especially mind blowing for us. Many other performers showed their incredible stuff in other rooms or the labyrinthine Castle and guests were free to wander from one show to the next as they pleased.

All in all it was a wonderful week on the West Coast - one we are looking forward to telling you more about in our February Cover Story.

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Day 2 Photos and Highlights from the Webfest Global Conference With Kim Kardashian and Dinner Under the Space Shuttle Endeavour

After a busy opening day devoted to domain names Tuesday, variety was the order of the day Wednesday at the Webfest Global conference in Santa Monica, California. In keeping with the show's expanded agenda, attendees heard talks devoted to improving traffic to existing websites and advice on starting a new online business from keynoter Kim Kardashian who has done that successfully with several enterprises.  

The day two (Wednesday, Feb. 6) schedule at the Webfest Global conference began with a 9:30am session on SEO Keywords, Content and Links that featured (L to R): moderator James Keating (Oversee.net), search guru Danny Sullivan (SearchEngineLand.com), Joanna Lord (SEOMoz.org), Christian Neeser (MyLife.com) and Aaron Shear (Boost Search Marketing).

Kim Kardashian image from Bigstock	At 11am, a fireside chat between Oversee.net CEO Debra Domeyer and celebrity entrepreneur and social media star Kim Kardashian attracted a standing room only crowd. Ms. Kardashian had been a controversial choice to keynote, with some questioning how an interview with her related to domains, but many domainers aspire to develop their own online businesses, an area where she has had multiple successes.  Still, prior to the show, I wondered how well Kim  would be able to communicate useful advice from her experience to such a tech oriented audience. The confident and well-spoken Kardashian proved more than up to the task, sharing tips and details on how she started building her businesses and brand as a teenager with an Ebay shoe shop. Ms. Domeyer masterfully kept the interview on track with business related questions that elicited more insightful answers than many expected from someone known more for her celebrity status than the business acumen that anyone who heard this talk now knows she has.
I will share specifics from what Ms. Kardashian had to say in our upcoming Cover Story review of Webfest Global. With the show ongoing (and more sessions I have to go cover), there isn't time for me to go into it now - but suffice it to say that I went into her session with an open mind and came out impressed with a talk that far exceeded my expectations.
After a lunch break the conference resumed with a panel discussion of the pros and cons of acquriing traffic from various channels including PPC, Retargeting, Affiliate and Social.
The  PPC, Retargeting, Affiliate and Social panel at 2pm Wednesday featured (L to R) moderator Raj Beri (Oversee.net), Jay Weintraub (NextCustomer, Inc.), Peter Hamilton (HasOffers.com), Merry Morud (aimClear) and Adam Epstein (adMarketplace). The Wednesday business day closed with the Moniker Live Domain Auction conducted by veteran auctioneer Wayne Wheat (at the podium in the photo below). The auction generated over $560,000 in sales led by a pair of two-letter .coms - JF.com at $250,000 and XU.com at $210,000. A scene from Moniker's Live Domain auction Wednesday (Feb. 6, 2013). Rounding out the top five auction sales were IceHockey.com ($25,000), Free.me ($19,000) and BEZ.com ($17,650). All told, 22 of the 61 domains offered found buyers. The conference organizers, Oversee.net's DomainSponsor.com unit, hit a home run with the Wednesday evening social event, a trip to the California Science Center in Los Angeles for dinner under the Endeavour space shuttle! Above: The jaws of Webfest Global guests dropped when they walked into the terminal where the retired Endeavour space shuttle is housed.  At left: Attendees could choose food from thee different buffet stations featuring American, Indian and Mediterranean cuisines, then settle in at a table directly under the massive spacecraft. Below: Oversee even arranged to have astronaut and veteran Endeavour crew member Garrett Reisman on hand to answer questions from show attendees. Reisman was   surrounded with fascinated guests throughout the night as he held court on what it was like to spend months in outer space aboard the historic Endeavour.  Many attendees, including me, thought this was one of the most memorable social events ever held at a domain conference. As I write this, the final day of business at Webfest Global is underway with the traditional outdoor luncheon in progress. Things will conclude tonight with a trip to Hollywood's famous Magic Castle. I'll have the closing days photos and highlights for you in this space tomorrow.

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Sedo CEO Tobias Flaitz Looks Back at His 1st Year on the Job and Ahead to What 2013 Has in Store

Exactly one year ago today Tobias Flaitz became the CEO at domain industry powerhouse Sedo.com, taking the reigns from company Co-Founder Tim Schumacher who, after more than 10 years at the helm, decided it was time to let someone else run the show. I caught up with Tobias to get his thoughts on the direction of Sedo and the industry in general over the past year, as well as where he saw things going in 2013.

Sedo.com CEO Tobias Flaitz 

"For both the industry as a whole and for Sedo, 2012 was a year of change" Flaitz said, "While parking was a challenge for everyone in the domain world, the needs of buyers and sellers have also changed, which has resulted in both groups asking for better usability and smarter tools for domain trading."

"At Sedo, we spent last year talking with our international customers and attending events so we could determine what changes were most important to our clients, and we have successfully implemented those changes. We also worked proactively to develop innovative solutions and channels to make buying, selling and parking more efficient and more successful for Sedo’s customers. Our vision is to make buying and selling domain names as simple as any other kind of online transaction, and we have been determined to pursue this vision and make it a reality," Flaitz said.

"To bring new buyers to Sedo’s platform and offer them a simpler, more intuitive search and purchase experience, we improved many aspects of our interface and relaunched our German language homepage. This was a direct result of buyers making it clear that they want to be able to research and purchase a name on their own, at any time." 

"Our buyers – both investors and individual users – also told us that they simply want to know what’s available, when, and for how much, without wasting time on negotiations," Flaitz said. "Sellers have heard this message too, and have increasingly turned to Buy Now pricing. This was reflected in the number of Buy Now sales during 2012: accounting for 41% of all transactions at Sedo, Buy Now was the most popular sales channel. We expect this trend to continue at Sedo and across the industry throughout 2013."

"Hand-in-hand with this was the need for sellers to have better, more reliable pricing tools, so that they could list domains for sale with prices that encouraged buyers to make an immediate purchase. This need came to the forefront in 2012, and with scientific pricing tools developed by our dedicated pricing expert Thies Lindenthal, we provided sellers with the most accurate pricing tools and features ever," Flaitz said.

Looking ahead to the new year, Flaitz agreed with many other industry leaders had to say in our current State of Industry Cover Story about what would have the biggest impact on the domain business in 2013. "2013 will be the year of the gTLD, marking a critical point in our industry’s history," Flaitz said. "New gTLDs offer a great deal of new opportunities for everyone connected to the domain industry. It is important that we as an industry show consumers that the new gTLDs have the potential to change forever how consumers and companies interact online."

"Sedo’s goal in 2013 is to partner with registries and applicants to support the launch of the new gTLD program. This will be tied closely to our goal to grow the SedoMLS network so we can provide end users with access to premium new gTLD domains as well," Flaitz said. "As with our other products, Sedo’s new gTLD services are designed as an integrated solution, providing registries and applicants a seamless experience for the launch and promotion of their new extensions. We’re helping find innovative ways to maximize reach and help grow the value of these new extensions, starting from our unique approach in developing customized, premium reserve lists, to our historically strong track record of launch and premium auctions, and our award-winning brokerage."

"Looking at other areas of the industry, we are sure that our strong partnerships with Google and new second tier providers will ensure that earnings will remain stable as we move into the New Year. Our parallel bidding system, which was implemented several weeks ago, delivers the best results for our parking clients, and we are continuing to work on additional improvements in the parking sector to deliver innovative and outstanding traffic monetization options in 2013."

"Finally, Sedo is refocusing on our core strengths: providing superior, innovative domain solutions for our partners, buyers, parkers, and sellers, all in one location. With some new management and strong leadership, we will continue to focus on new strategies and ideas to help all of our clients to succeed this year," Flaitz concluded. 

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