Popular domain brokerage company Igloo.com has just given their website a nice refresh that includes an interesting new page devoted to Brand Stories. It currently features capsule reports on more than two dozen companies that have purchased high end domain names through the brokerage - items that detail how the companies are utilizing their newly acquired domain assets.

The domains/websites featured include Jet.com, IG.com, Yoga.com, Turkey.com, Israel.com, Card.com, Pro.com and NewOrleans.com to name just a few. We are obviously talking about some high end Internet real estate here.

Volumes have been written about the business of selling domain names, but what if you found yourself on the other side of the table and wanted to buy a specific domain so badly you could almost taste it? It isn't always as easy as looking up the owner's contact information and sending a note asking if they would be willing to sell and, if so,  for how much? You can also bet that the better the name is, the more complicated the process is likely to be.

If you find yourself in that situation (or someone has asked you for advice on how they might go about acquiring a domain they need) veteran domain broker/consultant Giuseppe Graziano from GGRG.com has published an extensive free guide to the process titled The Ninja Guide to Buying a Domain When It’s Already Taken.

You probably already know about Giuseppe. Prior to opening his own shop based in Lisbon, Portugal,  he served as the European Director of Business Development for DomainHoldings. Since opening GGRG he has published a number of insightful free domain business guides on his blog with the latest being this in depth piece on an important topic that often gets overlooked. 

GGRG Founder Giuseppe Graziano

Whether you want a specific name for a development project or to improve your investment portfolio, the advice in his guide could help you land the asset you've set your sites on.

Graziano noted in his introduction to the guide, "Over the past few years, this has been my job –  helping people buy and sell domain names. After many hiccups, a decent amount of large deals and a few millions in brokered transactions later, I have a good grip on what is the best way to approach the acquisition of a domain name. It is both an art and a science, because every domain name and every domain owner is different. Whoever gives you generic negotiation advice is not telling the full story. In this post, we are going to open the kimono and reveal our proven acquisition process and domain negotiation hacks, so you too can experience that feeling of being a proud owner of your dream domain, and know that you paid a fair price for it."  

The guide is well worth checking out - or at the very least, bookmarking, so you will have it handy when the need arises. 

Spring is here and the season isn't the only thing changing. Earlier this year Uniregistry announced they would soon be releasing the successor to their popular DomainNamesSales.com (DNS) aftermarket platform - Uniregistry Market. Today it arrived. 

In an email to current clients, Uniregistry promised the same solid foundation as DomainNameSales, with faster tools, instant insights and an up-to-date modern user experience, adding "If you already have a DNS account, simply log in to Uniregistry and link to it. This will give you access to all your inquiries right there in the Market."

Domains listed at Uniregistry with a “buy it now” price are eligible for instant checkout through their Registrar. The company noted, "Once added to the market, anyone can find your domains with a simple search from our homepage. You can manage all your sales inquiries with ease using a sales inbox designed specifically for the process of selling domains. Reply, set reminders, quote prices, and do it all from a single interface. Act on individual requests or use our powerful bulk tools to manage everything in an instant. We’ll even help you out with credit card payments, wire transfers, and payment plans."

We first had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Disspain (as well as current AuDA Board member and veteran entrepreneur/domain investor Simon Johnson) at the 2008 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Down Under conference in Australia and wish the widely respected executive the best in his next position. 

With the 8th annual edition of the Domaining Europe conference just a couple of months away show Founder Dietmar Stefitz continues to add new elements to an event that he said will easily be the biggest in the series to date. Having already chosen a new host city, The Hague in the Netherlands, for the 2016 conference May 29-31, Stefitz just announced another first - Domaining Europe's inaugural domain auction on May 31. The sale will be run by Netherlands-based aftermarket sales site Undeveloped.com. Names for the auction can be submitted at D-E.auction (you can also sign up to receive upcoming auction updates there). 

The NonCom Day May 31 will feature .CLUB's globe-trotting Chief Marketing Officer Jeff Sass and Ingrid Baele, Head of IP&S at corporate giant Philips, who will talk about their plans for .philips, one of the first ".brand" new gTLDs.  Stefitz also said Uniregistry (operator of many new gTLDs including .link and .click) plans to send as many five representatives to the show. 

Organizers of India's DomainX conference will stage their 3rd annual event August 6-7, 2016 in New Delhi but they've already got another 2016 event under their belt. Growing the country's domain industry is a year round job so the Domain Name Owners 

Association of India decided to add a smaller workshop event that was held March 5-6 at Vivanta by Taj in Panjim, Goa, India.

Above: DomainX Co-Founder Manmeet Pal Singh (left) welcomes attendees at the sign in table for the DomainX 2016 Workshop in Goa, India March 5, 2016. 

Below: Deepak Daftari (left, facing audience) from eSiksha.com was one of the many speakers featured at the workshop.

Above: Deepak Daftari chatting with fellow speaker Alpesh Shinde from GoDaddy.

Below: In addition to education, the DomainX Workshop provided invaluable networking opportunities. These happy attendees marked the occasion with a selfie. 

Above: In another highlight of the Workshop, DomainX Co-Founder Manmeet Pal Singh (left)  launched his new ebook - Domain Name Investing 101 (there is also a promotional video for the book on YouTube). Every Workshop attendee received a free copy.

Below: A "class photo" from the first DomainX Workshop in Goa, India (March 5-6, 2016)

With their first successful Workshop project completed, DomainX organizers will turn their attention to the big show coming up in August. I had the pleasure or covering and speaking at last year's event in Bangalore and am planning to return for the 2016 conference a little over four months form now in the nation's capital.

The 3rd annual edition of DNSeattle will be held May 12, 2016 in Kirkland, Washington at Premier Sponsor GoDaddy's offices overlooking beautiful Lake Washington. The meetup for domain industry participants, organized by  DomainSherpa's Michael Cyger (a Seattle area resident himself), will welcome guests from throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond. 

DNSeattle will officially run from 6-9pm but post-event socializing will continue until midnight next door at the Woodmark Hotel. Discounted rooms at that hotel are being made available to DNSeattle attendees at a nightly rate of $239. 

Guests can look forward to an evening of networking and hearing from distinguished speakers while enjoying appetizers and drinks. Tickets are just $14 but capacity is limited to 75 people so they will sell out very quickly as they have in the past (a wait list will be started when the tickets are gone). You can get a good idea of what to expect at the event by checking out photo albums from the 2015 and 2014 editions of DNSeattle. 

Once again all proceeds from the event will benefit the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle - a pioneering research institute focused on finding a cure for cancer. Mr. Cyger thanked GoDaddy for their sponsorship and providing the meeting space, acknowledging company representatives Arnold Blinn, Shefali Shukla and Joe Styler for their support. He also thanked supporting sponsor Donuts and noted additional supporting sponsors would be appreciated.

The new Executive Director of  The Domain Name Association, Roy M. Arbeit, officially stepped into that role today (March 15, 2016). As the industry trade association's leader Mr. Arbeit will help drive domain name industry awareness globally and increase membership support by engaging stakeholders to influence the continuing evolution and advancement of the industry. The DNA, a non-profit organization, was established as an industry-led effort to advocate for the expanded use, universal acceptance, and trust of domain names by promoting best practices and sharing the value they provide as a primary tool for users to navigate the Internet.

Mr. Arbeit has over 20 years of experience in business marketing strategy positions and has been an integral member of strategic leadership teams for global business services organizations. Previously, he was Managing Director of Marketing and Sales at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) in New York, a 140,000-member global professional organization. At ASME, Mr. Arbeit helped drive revenue growth and expansion into new markets, and he led the association’s digital strategy for greater impact, engagement, and global reach. He has held several high-level sales and marketing roles at other companies, including the American Arbitration Association, Ernst & Young and Citibank.

Executive Director Roy M. Arbeit
Domain Name Association

Adrian Kinderis, Vice President of Corporate Development at Neustar and Chairman of The DNA, said “Roy is a strategic thinker and experienced team builder who will help us to accelerate our mission of making the importance, value, and utility of domain names more widely understood. He was selected from among a robust pool of qualified candidates because of his significant expertise in driving membership success in industry trade associations."

Mr. Arbeit said, "I’m excited to begin working with such high-caliber, industry-leading companies to develop a comprehensive global strategy for furthering The DNA’s mission and member activities. With increasing interest in the domain name economy, the timing is right to raise the association’s profile and engage and extend its membership base to encourage the healthy growth of domains globally.”

As domain industry veterans and our regular readers know, David Castello (of Castello Brothers fame) returned to his music industry roots a few years ago to manage the career of his wife BREE in the rock trio named for her that David also plays drums for. The Nashville based group has been making steady progress ever since and is now poised for a major breakout in the UK, a country long known for discovering talent before the rest of the world catches on. 

David and Bree just returned from a promotional tour of the UK where Bree was interviewed on many of England's top radio stations. Bree's first single from her upcoming album New Skin, "Damn, I'm Being Me Again", is currently receiving play on over 40 radio stations in the UK. 

Bree doing one of several major radio interviews 
in the UK this month (photo from Steve Hughes).

They will return to the UK in May with fellow band member, upright bassist Mayrk McNeely, for a series of live shows and interviews. I believe their music and the discerning UK audience is a perfect match that is going to create major waves in the months ahead. You can check out their newly released video for " Damn, I’m Being Me Again" by clicking the play button below.

For the first time China's most popular domain sales platform,. 4.cn, is going to hold a premium domain auction featuring a single new gTLD - .CLUB. The catalog will include 8.club, along with 24  two-number domain names, including 11.club., 44.club, 55.club, 99.club and others. You can see the full list here.  Bidding will open on Monday (March 7th, 2016) at 5pm in China (4am US Eastern time) and the auctions will continue with staggered end dates from March 21-24. All of the names will be offered with no reserve so all 25 domains are expected to be sold.

Enthusiastic Chinese domain buyers has buoyed a number of new gTLDs with .CLUB being among the prime beneficiaries. The registry has reported a significant spike in registrations from China with more than 420,000 of its domains having been registered there. .CLUB has also logged more than $2 Million in .CLUB premium name sales to Chinese investors over the past few months. 5.club, for example, sold for more than $58,000 in a  December auction.

.CLUB Founder & CEO Colin Campbell said, "The strong demand we’ve been experiencing in China, especially for short numeric domain names, should make this auction on 4.cn very exciting. Investors see these names as more than domains. They are a valuable and increasingly liquid currency and they are in limited supply. We are also honored that 4.cn has selected .CLUB to be the first ever dedicated new domain extension to have its own auction on 4.cn.”  

4.cn is a fully bi-lingual platform making it easy for both English and Chinese speakers to participate in the auction. To register in English, you can click here.   

We've leaned a lot more about the first big domain conference in the Middle East since we initially told you last month about the debut edition of the Domainers Meet show that is coming to Dubai April 23 & 24, 2016. For starters, the venue was moved   

to the Hotel Radisson Blu, Deira Creek in Dubai after it was determined the original location wasn't going to be able to accommodate the conference's needs.

Conference organizers also revealed their international list of speakers that includes some of the most well-known names in the industry as you can see from this line up (listed alphabetically by first name): 

• Adam Wagner (UK) - Owner at GCCinternet.com 

• Alan Ezeir (US) - .WS President | high margin affiliate network program

• Braden Pollock (US) - Owner - Legal Brand Marketing LLC, ScienceFiction.com

• Brett Napoli (US) - Founder/CEO - Ambition Insight, ThatDROP.com

• Daliah Saper (US) - Owner & Attorney at Saper Law Offices, LLC

• Francesco Cetraro (Denmark) - Head of Registry Operations - .CLOUD

• Kelly Hardy (US) - Owner at Kelly Hardy Consulting, Inc | Business Development Consultant - domain .ME

• Michael Gilmour (Australia)- Founder and CEO of Park Logic

• Rolf Larsen (France) - CEO and Founder of dot GLOBAL

• Solomon Amoako (Canada)- Former Sedo Chief Sales Officer & SVP, Americas

• Tessa Holcomb (US) - Co-Founder and CEO of Igloo.com.

In addition, organizers said that, subject to their availability, they are expecting representatives from ICANN, Google, Facebook, Etisalat, Du, UAE Government and the Arab Emirates Domain Authority (AEDA) to attend.

All told the conference has a core team of six professionals and a seven-member advisory panel. The team is led by Mr. Anilkumar K, Director Business Development, Mr. Muzammil P, Project Manager and Ms. Swathi K Satheeshbabu, Manager Admin. Support is also being provided by WebCastle, Team Maargga and Mr. Alavudheen Bin Majeeed.

InterNetX will kick off festivities surrounding the world's biggest hosting/cloud conference, WHD.global, with a live domain auction in Rust, Germany on Monday night, March 14, 2016 (the night before WHD.global gets underway there with a crowd of more than 6,000 expected to be on hand). The auction of premium new gTLDs will get underway at 10pm (local time) in the lobby of the El Andaluz Hotel.

34 lots from five registries (Radix, .CLUB, Uniregistry, .Cloud and .Global) will be put up for bid. The catalog includes such names as   Hosting.Club, LowCost.Cloud, V.Hosting, Backup.Global and Website.Host. 

You do have to be registered for WHD.Global to bid, but InterNetX is providing a free WHD ticket code that is posted on the auction registration page where you will also find the complete list of domains that will be sold. Space will be limited so you are encouraged to register early if you wish to attend the event.

Auction image from Bigstock