Water Night! What It Is and Why You Will Want to Be Part of It if You Are Going to Webfest Global 

Yesterday I ran through a lot of things that will be going on during the Webfest Global conference coming up February 5-7 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. Those were all things that are part of the official agenda. Today I can tell you about another can't miss event that is not part of the show schedule, but is sure to draw just about every major player in the industry who will be in town for the conference. 

That is Water Night 2013, a special evening event set up by domain business leaders Richard Lau and Gregg McNair, to benefit one of the industry's favorite charities -  the Water School. 

Water Night will run from approximately 9:30pm to 1:30am on Tuesday night, February 5 at the rooftop Sonoma Wine Garden located at 395 Santa Monica Place. 

There will be an open bar sponsored by NameCheap.com and entertainment guided by DJ Tessa. Wristbands that can be purchased here for a tax deductible $50 per person donation to the Water School will be required for admission and 100% of every dollar donated will go to the charity.

You do not have to be registered for Webfest Global to attend, but if you are attending the conference, you won't even have to leave the building to get to the Water Night event. Webfest's official opening night dinner and networking reception on February 5 will be held at the La Sandia and Zengo restaurants that are located on the same 3rd floor level as the Sonoma Wine Garden at Santa Monica Place. The dinner starts at 7pm and is scheduled to be over by 10, when you can walk just a few steps over to the Water Night festivities at the Wine Garden.

It will be a great opportunity to meet key industry players you may not have had a chance to meet before as well as catch up with old friends in a casual environment. Legendary domain investor Frank Schilling and his DomainNameSales.com team are among those who have already signed up. Of course, my wife Diana and I will be there as well. Since I sacrificed my hair in another Water School fundraiser last spring in Spain I feel like I'll be safe from Mr. McNair, the Mad Barber from Melbourne, Australia, this time around.

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Beyond Kim Kardashian Webfest Global Show Agenda is Tabloid Fodder Free

At last year's show I remember thinking it was kind of cool that Twitter Founder Biz Stone would be the keynote speaker, but wondering how interesting could a guy be whose entire business was based on saying nothing longer than 140 characters! As it turned out, Stone's talk was probably the most inspiring and entertaining one I've ever heard. His deadpan sense of humor and the insight he gave into how Twitter was built was priceless. 

As a speaker at an internet conference, Kim Kardashian may or may not come remotely close to Stone's performance, but I still expect it to be an entertaining hour with a few surprises thrown into the mix, as has been the case with past keynoters. In any case, as famous and controversial as she may be, Kim isn't the reason people will (or will not) be going to Webfest Global. As surveys have shown over and over, people place networking as the #1 reason they go to conferences, followed by the business sessions with the keynote speaker way down the list. 

So, even if the idea of a Kardashian mixed up with domains makes you feel faint at the very thought of it, you will be happy to know that the very first thing on the conference agenda is a speed networking session on Tuesday morning, February 5th. In fact, aside from the Kardashian fireside chat, the rest of the agenda is 100% tabloid fodder free. The second session Tuesday morning will be a panel discussion of 2013's most talked about issue - the impending arrival of new gTLDs.

The space shuttle Endeavour on its final flight over Los Angeles on Sept. 2012. Webfest Global attendees will have dinner under the wing of the shuttle on Wednesday evening, Feb. 6, 2013.	Wednesday will see the live domain auction when we will find out if that long time staple of all conferences that has flagged badly in recent years can be resuscitated. That evening will be the event I am most looking forward to (other than the networking) - dinner and drinks under the wing of the space shuttle Endeavour at the California Science Center. On the closing day, Thursday (February 7) highlights will include a couple of sessions devoted to adapting to an increasingly mobile Internet,
the annual Pitchfest Contest that introduces some intriguing start up businesses, a special Women in Domaining reception and an evening social event at Hollywood's world renowned Magic Castle.

So, whether or not the Kardashians are your cup of tea, there will be a lot to like in Santa Monica (not the least of which will be the famous pier and fabulous beach that stretches out in front of the hotel). Some say the Kardashians are the epitome of modern day celebrities who are famous for being famous rather than for any particular skill set or talent (even though Kim can point to some real business and social media successes). The controversy alone makes me wonder just what we will see on stage February 6. I'm going in with the hope that it will be another pleasant surprise. 

In any case, the choice has already brought Webfest Global a ton of pre-show publicity. You can say "yes, but it has been bad publicity," but you know what P.T. Barnum said about publicity - "I don't care what they say about me, just make sure they spell my name right!" Sounds simple enough, but  Kardashian is not that easy to spell! So, we'll all just have to wait a couple of weeks to see how this all plays out.

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Kim Kardashian Named Keynote Speaker for the Upcoming Webfest Global Conference 

Well, I have to admit I didn't see this one coming! Oversee.net has selected celebrity/entrepreneur Kim Kardashian to be the keynote speaker at the Webfest Global Conference coming up February 5-7, 2013 at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica, California. 

I'm sure some of you are saying "what does Kim Kardashian have to do with domains?" but keep in mind that Webfest Global (formerly known as DOMAINfest Global) had expanded its scope this year (hence the name change) to cover a much broader range of online business topics. 

As  many of you know, in addition to being a reality TV star, Kim is a very successful entrepreneur who has leveraged her brand to build many successful businesses, including ShoeDazzle.com, and to help many charities like the Dream Foundation.  She is also known for her phenomenally successful use of social media that includes some 17 million followers on Twitter. 

Kim Kardashian 
Image from Bigstock

Oversee.net’s CEO Debra Domeyer will talk with Kim about  what went into building her businesses and brand in an on stage fireside chat scheduled for 11am Wednesday, February 6. It will certainly be a change of pace from some of the  conference's previous  keynote speakers like Twitter Founder Biz Stone,  GoDaddy Founder Bob Parsons and Apple Computer Co-Founder Steve Wozniak, but I have a feeling it is going to be a very interesting and lively conversation.

With Webfest undergoing an image makeover for this 7th conference in the annual series, Kim would seem to fit in with the remodeling theme and she certainly gives the Los Angeles based show some of the kind of Hollywood glamour you might expect for a conference based in the movie and TV capital of the world. I will be in Santa Monica to cover Webfest Global for you with daily posts in this column. 

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Michael Cyger Reaches a Major Milestone as DomainSherpa.com Posts Its 100th Show 

When Michael Cyger launched the video interview site DomainSherpa.com a little less than two years ago (on February 9, 2011), it quickly became clear that an important new domain industry resource had arrived. Michael knew the best way to get reliable, useful information was to get it straight from the horse's mouth. So he began lining up one pioneering domain investor, developer or industry leader after another to sit for in-depth video interviews that others could learn from. 

Even though we live in a short attention span society, Cyger refused to cut corners. If it took an hour (and often more) to get all of the valuable information he wanted to get on the record, he took the time to do it. I always thought that was the right choice. Even though most people prefer quick soundbites, how serious can you be about succeeding in this business if you can't spend an hour or so listening to what someone who has already been there and successfully done that has to say? Consider his now massive video interview library to be a college course in domaining without the tuition fee!

Michael Cyger

Cyger is an excellent interviewer whose main objective is always to zero in on what his subject can share with viewers that will help them make more money in their own businesses. With the time that Michael (and Wayne Nelson,  the producer he brought on board to help last year), put into show prep time as well as the production of each video, I don't think that anyone expected that now - before DomainSherpa has even reached its 2nd birthday, it would have 100 quality interviews available on the site. 

DomainSherpa hit the century mark yesterday (Monday, Jan. 21) when Michael posted an interview he did with me just a few days earlier. It was the second time that Cyger turned the tables on me by having me answer questions rather than ask them. He first did it in March 2011, shortly after launching the site and I was honored to be asked back for show #100.  

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Finding Your Niche: How a Laid Off Local TV Reporter Created a New Career for Himself Online

I have often talked about the boundless world of opportunity offered by the world wide web. It's just a matter of finding your niche. As I detailed in our current Cover Story marking DN Journal's 10th anniversary, the internet killed my previous business - music retailing - but it also opened the door to something that turned out to be even bigger - domain investing and this publication. Ten years ago I found an unfilled niche (the need for a domain industry trade magazine) and built a new career around filling that hole.

The Internet has given a lot of displaced people a new lease on life including a local TV sports reporter named Dan Eassa whose story was told in our local newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, this morning. Prior to owning brick and mortar record stores I had been a TV sports reporter for nearly 20 years in this market  myself, so I could relate to Eassa on that level - but what really resonated with me was how, after losing his job,  he created a new future for himself online - one that he has full control over - something that he did not have - and never would have had - working for someone else in his old job at the local ABC-TV affiliate, WFTS Channel 28. Three years ago Dan Eassa (now 45) was a 42-year-old father of two with 17 years of broadcasting experience when Channel 28 told him his position was being	TV studio image from Bigstock
eliminated. Just a few months earlier his wife had been laid off from her teaching job at a private school. When it rains it pours.

After months of desperately searching for a new TV job and coming up empty, Eassa, a former college football player at Pace University, decided he had to take the bull by the horns and make something happen himself. As a sports reporter and former college player, he knew how important college recruiting had become to coaches, players and parents who wanted their kids to get unbiased advice that would help them make one of the most important decisions of their lives - yet there was very little authoritative information online on the topic. 

Football player image from Bigstock	So, with plenty of time on his hands, the unemployed Eassa turned himself into an expert on the subject. He read and memorized every word of every rules manual available at every level of college football. By June 2011 he had created a non-profit organization and website to guide everyone involved in the football recruiting process through a maze that multi-million dollar college programs rely on for talent. He even gained the support of big time NFL players like Derrick Brooks and LaDainian Tomlinson. The site took off and Eassa found himself being invited to speak about recruiting at schools and prep association meetings all over the U.S. Over the past two years he has spoken in 35 states and been paid as
much as $2,000 per appearance. He also draws a salary from the organization he created. His wife has found a new job too. When one door closes, another one opens.

Dan Eassa is the first mover in a new niche that he created and now he is the go to guy nationwide when people need information on what the recruiting process entails including things like how many of the promises recruiters make are based on fact and how many on fiction? What constitutes a violation of NCAA rules? Is there really any such thing as a free four-year ride (Eassa says there is not - exploding one common myth).

This is just a brief recap of writer Joey Knight's full story about Dan Eassa in the Tampa Bay Times. Read the entire piece for more remarkable details about how Dan went about creating a new future for himself and his family (and while you are at it, check out this 2012 piece from Forbes Magazine called 7 Steps to Find Your Niche - and Dare to Risk). If Dan could do it (and he did), if I could do it (and I did) and thousands of others could do it (and they have) you can do it too!

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Domain Leasing Continues to Gain Converts - NoktaDomains Latest to Get On Board

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The Mane in Spain Goes Mainly Down the Drain! Jodi Chamberlain Next to Lose Hair for The Water School?

Over the past 12 months PPX International Chairman Gregg McNair has used his considerable powers of persuasion to convince a series of domain industry figures to let him shave their heads bald in exchange for donations to a very worthy charity - The Water School. Last spring at the 2012 Domaining Spain conference in Valencia, Spain, I was the last in the current line of sheep sheared by the mad barber from Melbourne, Australia. 

Now it looks like the conference's co-promoter, Jodi Chamberlain, made a mistake in sitting next to me after the deed was done because Gregg has zeroed in on her as his next victim! 

Domaining Spain co-promoter Jodi Chamberlain (right) with Ron and Diana Jackson after Ron had his head shaved by Gregg McNair in Valencia, Spain last spring to raise over $50,000 for The Water School. If donors step up again, Jodi has agreed to have her head shaved at the April 2013 show in Valencia.

Jodi revealed today that she would be willing to sacrifice her lovely brown locks when Domaining Spain returns for an April 25-27, 2013 run at the Sorolla Palace Hotel in Valencia, if donors step up again and generate $50,000 in pledges to The Water School. You can help make it happen by visiting www.watershave.org to pledge your support. Jodi told me she is also planning on going to Africa this summer to see first hand how The Water School is saving so many lives in developing countries with the organization's inexpensive and effective disease-preventing clean water solution. 

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DomainInvest Rolls Out New Affiliate Program Aimed at Building Hosting.co.uk Into an Industry Favorite

DomainInvest.lu, a Luxembourg based company co-founded by well-known domain industry veterans Frederick Schiwek, Markus Schnermann (who was the subject of a May 2009 DN Journal Cover Story) and Xavier Buck, is making a big push into the domain hosting business. Schiwek told me it is something they have been planning since 2009 when they acquired the category defining Hosting.co.uk domain name for approximately €37,000. 

They've gotten out of the gate with almost 800 websites online, along side some of their own developed sites like OnlineSchool.com, Whiskey.com,  de.de. However, Schiwek said the company knows that a successful affiliate program is a must if they want to reach their goal of pushing Hosting.co.uk into the ranks of the top hosting companies. 

That critical piece of the puzzle was launched this week when the new Hosting.co.uk affiliate program debuted with commissions as high as £80 (about $125) per referral, depending upon total monthly results. 

Frederick Schiwek, DomainInvest.lu
Co-Founder and Managing Director

Schiwek said the program was designed to be as straightforward and transparent as possible, noting "Participants simply install a special link on their blog or website. The referral tracking system is fully automated, so affiliates need not fuss with records, invoices and the like. Payouts are monthly, and there are no minimum withdrawal limits."

Schiwek expects affiliates will do well with basic web hosting packages priced to sell. At around $3 per month, the “Beginner” level provides 10GB of disk space, 2 unique websites, 10 email accounts and a 99.9% uptime guarantee. The high-end, “Ultimate” package offers unlimited websites, emails and storage for about $12 per month. All web hosting packages feature cPanel and the latest versions of PHP, MySQL and Apache.

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Demand Media's Taryn Naidu Comments on Company's Acquisition of Registrar Name.com Today

In the first major acquisition of the new year Demand Media announced today that they have acquired well-known Denver-based domain registrar Name.com - a company founded in 2003 by industry 

veteran Bill Mushkin.  The acquisition is intended to expand Demand Media’s platform as it prepares for the historic release of new Top Level Domains (TLDs) this year. None of the financial terms of the deal were released.

Demand Media’s eNom subsidiary is the second largest registrar in the world with over 13.5 million domain names on its platform. Demand Media Chairman and CEO Richard Rosenblatt said,  “Name.com will provide a direct channel for us to reach consumers and small businesses as they develop and manage their online identities. This becomes even more valuable as over one thousand new domain extensions are expected to become available for registration in the years ahead.” In Name.com Demand gets a well-regard registrar that has registered nearly 1.5 million domains. 

The Name.com team headed by Founder Bill Mushkin (front center in the black shirt) 
at their home base in Denver, Colorado.  

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DN Journal's First Decade - 2012: The 10th Year of the Ride of Our Lives

In addition to a new Cover Story marking DN Journal's 10th Anniversary ( celebrated on New Year's Day 2013), I have been featuring some of the key people and events we have covered over the past decade in a series of Lowdown posts the past couple of weeks. I last touched on 2011 Thursday. Today we complete the journey with a glimpse at some of 2012's many highlights.

DN Journal's signature elements appear at different intervals with the daily Lowdown (which you are reading now), the weekly domain sales reports and our monthly Cover Stories and Newsletters.  There is also one annual element - our State of the Industry article that appears each year as our January Cover Story (being published around the middle of that month). In it we have many of the industry's top executives, attorneys, investors and developers comment on what they view as the key trends and events of the year just passed, as well as what they expect to see in the new year ahead. NameMedia CEO Kelly Conlin and Oversee.net CEO Debra Domeyer were among the industry leaders featured in our 2012 State of The Industry story. You can revisit it now to see how closely the various predictions made at the start of 2012 panned out by year's end.

Two popular CEOs - NameMedia's Kelly Conlin (left) and Oversee.net's Debra Domeyer show they can lead on the dance floor as well as in the corner office at the 2012 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference's official  party at Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida. (Photo courtesy of Barbara Neu).

In 2012 we also continued to draw from the industry's remarkably deep well of amazing personal success stories from around the world. Our April 2012 Cover Story - Great Scot! How Tommy Butler Went From Gutting Chickens to Developing Glasgow.com and Dozens of Other Successful Sites was a prime example, detailing how Scotand's Tommy Butler built a geo-based domain empire in his home country. 

Tommy Butler (right) speaking at the 2012 Domaining Europe conference in Valencia, Spain 
with DomainHoldings.com CEO Jason Boshoff listening intently to what he had to say. 

One of the most fascinating things about domain investors and developers is that they come from every walk of life. Tommy gutted chickens while others have been everything from lawn mowers to  electricians to doctors and lawyers (and everything in between). Even commercial airline pilots - the field where Bob Olea, the subject of our July 2012 Cover Story, first made his mark (and continues to do so as a United Airlines captain).

At the start of his career as a commercial airline pilot, Bob Olea 
gets an on the job visit from his wife Trudie. 

In 2012 we also published our second Cover Story on industry giant Frank Schilling, following our biographical 2007 piece on him with an update covering his new role as one of the industry's leading providers of services to other domain investors via InternetTraffic.com and DomainNameSales.com. In October 2012, Frank picked up a record third T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domainer of Year Award. He is also in T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s Domain Hall of Fame and, in the photo below, is shown on stage with eight of his fellow HOF members including 2012 inductees Michael Mann and Chad Folkening. I've written Cover Stories (still available in our Archive) on every one of those on stage with me (with Frank Schilling and Michael Mann each having been featured twice).

Nine members of T.R.A.F.F.I.C.'s Domain Hall of Fame on stage together at the 2012 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards ceremony at the Ritz Carlton in Fort Lauderdale Beach, Florida. They are (left to right) Ron Jackson, Dr. Chris Hartnett, Adam Dicker, Howard Neu, Rick Schwartz, Michael Berkens and Frank Schilling along with 2012's two new inductees Michael Mann and Chad Folkening. (Photo courtesy of Louis Rafael Rosenthal of RookMedia).

The past 10 years has been a remarkable ride. I want to thank every one of you who has let me accompany you on this amazing adventure as well as every one that has dropped in here to read about it (you and our advertisers are the most important people of all because without you DNJournal.com wouldn't exist). Now let's get that next decade started - I can't wait to see what it has in store for all of us!

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DN Journal's First Decade - 2011: Predictions We Would Run Out of Things to Write About Prove to Be Unfounded

In addition to a new Cover Story marking DN Journal's 10th Anniversary (a date we celebrated on New Year's Day), I have been featuring some of the key people and events we have covered over the past decade in a series of Lowdown posts over the past two weeks. I touched on 2010 Wednesday. Today it's on to 2011.

When I started DN Journal at the beginning of 2003 a few people told me, "it's really interesting but you are going to run out of things to write about in a few months!"  Fortunately, those concerns proved to be unfounded as this industry wound up having far more interesting back stories than  anyone (including me) could have ever imagined. In fact as we went through our 9th year in 2011 I was able to turn up some of the best personal stories we've ever published.

Those started with our March 2011 cover piece - The John Ferber Story: How The Secret Millionaire Sold His Company for $495 Million and Why He Loves the Domain Business Now. The personable Co-Founder of DomainHoldings.com (and star of a moving episode of the ABC-TV reality show The Secret Millionaire) brought a welcome jolt of energy and innovation to our industry, with both his sunny personality and the new company he staffed with an all-star roster of domain veterans.

DomainHoldings.com Co-Founder John Ferber with 
fiancée Jenna Wehner and some of their feathered friends! 

We found another remarkable human interest story in Elephant Orchestra Founder Jan Barta whom we profiled in May 2011. The dynamic young entrepreneur from the Czech Republic is making his mark in multiple industries, not just in his home country, but around the world. 

Jan Barta (center) with domain industry veterans Mike Fiol (left) and 
Merlin Kauffman (right) at the 2009 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Amsterdam conference in the Netherlands. 

In 2011 we also gave you an up close and personal look at one of the industry's most well-known figures - Marc Ostrofsky - the man behind the famous $7.5 million sale of Business.com and the best selling author of Get Rich Click!, a book that earned him some coveted invitations on the national TV talk show circuit where he spread the good news about domains and making money on the Internet.

Get Rich Click! Author Marc Ostrofsky on ABC-TV's The View (June 9, 2011)
(L to R in the photo above): Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Marc Ostrofsky, 
Sherri Shepherd, Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Barbara Walters.

Speaking of TV, has there been anyone bigger than Oprah Winfrey on TV over the past decade? Would you believe that the domain industry is home to one of the original producers of Oprah's massively successful TV show (as well as mega hits like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune)? It's true and to top it off David Sams has one of the most interesting personal stories you will ever read - a story we told in a September 2011 piece titled: Blessing in Disguise: David Sams Was a Huge Success in Hollywood But An Unexpected Setback Put Him on an Even More Rewarding Path.

David Sams and Michelle Bekeza at home in Tennessee

2011 was also a year that some viable alternate monetization methods started coming into their own to help offset the ongoing decline in parking revenue. Braden Pollock was the leading proponent of one those - lead generation - and he told us all about it, as well as how own fascinating back story in the year's final Cover Story.

Braden Pollock and his fiancée, best-selling author, attorney and TV personality Lisa Bloom.

Next up - down the stretch in 2012 - the year DN Journal completed its first decade. 

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DN Journal's First Decade - 2010: Conference Wars Continue, Cover Stories Feature Key Players from Multiple Arenas

In addition to a new Cover Story marking DN Journal's 10th Anniversary (an occasion we celebrated on New Year's Day) that revisits the history of the publication itself, I have been featuring some of the key people and events we have covered over the past decade in a series of Lowdown posts over the past two weeks. I touched on 2009 Monday. Today it's on to 2010. 

As the domain business grew like wildfire in the middle of the last decade, domain conferences sprouted up like mushrooms after a heavy rainstorm. As many of you know, I love conferences as they have played an indispensable role in providing face to face networking opportunities that have allowed attendees to forge invaluable business relationships. However, like anything else it is possible to have too much of a good thing. Such was the case with conference - not so much for attendees who still gleaned high value from them - but for the promoters who saw the pie sliced so many ways it no longer made economic sense for all of them to continue. That situation led to our February 2010 Cover Story - The Rise (and Fall?) of Domain Conferences - For Years They Have Thrived But Can They Survive Oversaturation?

The January 2010 DOMAINfest Global Conference in Santa Monica, California was packed 
wall to wall but over the next couple of years many other shows were not as fortunate.

As markets always do, the conference market corrected itself. Over the two years since our Cover Story equilibrium has returned to the space with only a handful of survivors still standing tall, led by the original conference - T.R.A.F.F.I.C. - and DOMAINfest Global (recently renamed Webfest Global),  with the latter re-positioning itself as a broader Internet business development and marketing conference. 

As the interests of domain investor/developers expanded we decided to touch a lot of different bases with our 2010 person profile Cover Stories. One of the best stories about a successful developer was our March 2010 piece about Hallpass Media's Bill Karamouzis and the online gaming empire that he built and sold for millions.

Bill Karamouzis (in his Hallpass Media office) told us the key to development success
is to concentrate on what you are good at and what you enjoy doing. 

In Monday's post about 2009 I mentioned the boom in ccTLDs. That theme continued to play out in 2010 prompting us to profile an uber developer of Canadian .CA domains - Rick Silver. Rick's profile was also raised that year when he served as moderator of several of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences that Rick Latona staged under a license from show founder's Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu.

Rick Silver, the owner and developer of one of the world's best .CA portfolios, 
moderating the 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Vancouver conference in Canada. 

One of the year's (and decade's) most popular Cover Stories was our October 2010 profile of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Hall of Fame member Chad Folkening - a piece called Broken Field Run: How Domain Investor/Developer Chad Folkening Went from Mowing Lawns to Buying Mansions. Chad had just taken another giant step forward by co-founding Domain Holdings, LLC with web heayweights John Ferber (the man who built and sold Advertising.com to America Online for $500 million) and Erik Simons. 

Chad Folkening with the love of his life Bianka Krausch 
in a shot from our 2010 Cover Story profile of Chad.

Our last 2010 Cover Story was another fascinating profile, this one telling the life story of .CO Registry CEO Juan Diego Calle who led one of the best marketing efforts the web has ever seen in re-launching his native Colombia's .CO ccTLD as a global domain.

Juan Diego Calle (right) greets then ICANN Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush at the 
39th International ICANN Meeting in Cartagena, Colombia in December 2010

Next time - entering the home stretch - a look at some photos and highlights from 2011. 

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A New Year Brings a New Beginning - Looking Forward to Moving Onward and Upward With You in 2013!

Image from Bigstock

Happy New Year! My wish for each of you is that 2013 will be your best year ever. I have a gut feeling that lot of good things will be happening for our industry over the next 12 months. Let's all follow that upward arrow and climb new heights together!

“Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!”

- William Arthur Ward

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