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clock for three days? Fortunately,
NamesCon Online provided a solution to the problem by making replays
of every conference session available online to registrants through the end
of this month. That allowed me to report the events that happened in our
U.S. time zones at the end of each day, then spend last week watching the 18
sessions on the South Asia Track that ran live during what were the
wee hours of the morning in the U.S. Sept. 10 and 11.
I
also caught up with three sessions on the Europe Track from Sept. 10
that I will be telling you about in my next Lowdown post. All told that was
about 20 hours worth of excellent content to enjoy after the
live show ended. I found all of to be well worth viewing as it brought me up
to date on what is happening in other rapidly growing regions around the
world. I can also now fill you in on who spoke on the busy track (that
highlighted the booming domain industry in India), and the topics
that region's leading experts covered.
Since this was the
first NamesCon event held entirely online, the first order of a business on
the South Asia track was an introductory walk-through session on How
to Get the Most Out of NamesCon Online on the Virtual Venue! It
featured, clockwise from top left above, Hitesh Wadhwa (Domainofy.com),
Divya Shukla (Community Manager, Urban Skill) and Sibtain Zaheer.
Hitesh, Divya and Sibtain would go on to serve as moderators or interviewers
in the sessions that followed over the next two days.
The first business
session (below) featured a Welcome Address from a guy
many call the "Father of the Indian Domain Industry," Deepak
Daftari. Deepak is well-known outside of India as well. Universally
recognized as one of the most successful investor/developers in the business,
Deepak has been a frequent speaker and attendee at major domain conferences in
the U.S. and other industry hot spots around the world for more than a decade.
The first panel
discussion focused on Growing Domain Aftermarket Industry in South Asia.
When it got underway, the time in the U.S. was 1:35AM, so you can see
why watching live wasn't the best option in for those of us on this side of
the globe. However, thanks to the replays, we were still able see and
hear some great ideas and information provided by (clockwise from top left
above) Manish Lunja(BrandPros.com), Aishwin Vikhona (Global
Websoft), Riz Memon (Empire Names) and Jay Paudyal (DomainKhan.com),
who also did double duty as a featured moderator throughout the show.
Next up, Vinesh
Bhaskarla (Sculpt Digital), seen below, provided a Workshop on Finding
Good Domains
. Vinesh is known as a classic high volume domain flipper. He has sold
many names within 2-3 days of acquiring them. In addition to providing
tips on finding and selling names quickly, he discussed his strategy for
finding buyers for them.
The next session
featured a Fireside Chat with Ashish Tulsian (CEO, POSist
Technoligies Pvt Ltd), above. Jay Paudyal interviewed Ashish who is
one of India’s top entrepreneurs and the man behind the creation of POSist–
a leading online POS and Restaurant Management software product. He offered
insight into what brands and businesses look for in a domain name, include
how his own companies decide on the names and TLDs, including ccTLDs and new
GTLDs, they believe will boost their businesses.
Below, the topic
turned to Domain Names as Digit Assets in a panel discussion
that featured, clockwise from top left below, technology guru,
entrepreneur and angel Investo Abhishek Rungta (INT), Arun
Bansal (Founder of ServerGuy Inc. & Breeze.io) and Jay Paudyal. They
delved into the kinds of words, terms and domains that generate enough value
to merit being classified as true digital assets.
There are lots of
different places to list domains for sale on the web and - in a special
breakout session on Listing Domain Names - the panelists above
discussed how the various options stack up against one another. This half-hour
featured, clockwise from top left, Khan Mohammad Nakib, moderator Sibtain
Zaheer and Arafatul Islam Akib. Khan and Arafatul are prominent
domainers from Bangladesh who started domaining as their part-time
career and went on to build one of their country's largest domaining
communities, DAB.
The panel discussion
that followed shared Inspiring Stories of Young Domainers - Domaining in
Your Early Twenties. Industry veteran Deepak Daftari
(at top left below) who has mentored many of the region's young people that
have found success in domaining, moderated the session. The group of rapidly
rising investors included, clockwise after Deepak, Jai Gupta, Aman
Tibrewal (BrandSilk.com), Avjit Roy (ViableNames), and Mukesh
Kumar (WebDudeIndia.com). They talked about the challenges they faced as
domain "newbies" and the things they learned that helped them get
established.
In another breakout
session that ran concurrently with the Young Domainers discussion, Vipin
Khetarpal (Founder/CEO, Datameter Technologies Pvt Ltd), talked with
moderator Hitesh Wadhwa about Best Practices of Email Outreach.
Vipin has over 20 years of experience in domain
services, brand building, web hosting and email solutions and is a solution
consultant to many companies in India. Vipin currently heads Datameter
Technologies, which provide managed cloud hosting, Email servers and helps in
solving complex problems relating to web and email services.
As
they headed down the home stretch on the first day of the South Asia track, Abhishek
Talwar (Founder of Delvelogic), at left below, got together with Jay
Paudyal (Founder of Urban Skill) for a Domaining Rap. In
addition to talking about domains,
Abhishek and Jay sang about them in
a cool rap that combined both English and
Hindi languages!
Newcomers to the
domain world often have no idea where to start, so industry veteran Arvind
Reddy (100DollarDomains.com), above, was featured in session that addressed
that - How to Begin Your Domaining Journey. Arvind provided
advice on everything from market research to finding good names, selecting a
niche and choosing the right business structure for your online presence. Divya
Shukla, the coordinator & curator of a popular Webinar course on
domaining at Urban Skill, and a relative newcomer to the space herself,
joined Arvind for this informative talk.
At the same time, a
special breakout session conducted in the Hindi language covered the
same ground - How to Start a Domain Name Business. It was
presented by Hitesh Wadwha and Praneet Thakur, founder of an
SEO Agency named ShoutRank where he also shares valuable information on
his blog. Praneet also co-founded a popular expired domain analysis tool
called CheckDuck. These two sessions for newcomers closed a busy
opening day on the South Asia track, with seven more sessions left to go on
closing day (September 11).
Things on the
NamesCon Online South Asia Track got started Friday, September 11 with a
Welcome session hosted by Urban Skill Founder Jay Paudyal. It was
followed by the panel discussion above on the Art of Buying
Five-Figure Premium Domains. It featured, clockwise from top left, Arun
Bansal (ServerGuy.com) Hiren Patel (QualityNames.com), Manish
Lunja (BrandPros.com) and Aishwin Vikhona (Global Websoft). All
of these gentlemen have posted high dollar sales, just one example being
Hiren's recent $180,000 sale of ElectricCar.com.
At the same time a
breakout session (shown below) dug into Domain Name Disputes and Digital
Rights. It featured legal experts Rodney Ryder (Founding
Partner, Scriboard), at left and attorney Ankur Raheja (Cylaw
Solutions) at right, with moderator Sibtain Zaheer in the row below
them. Anyone entering the domain industry needs to understand the respective
rights of domain owners and trademark holders to avoid potentially expensive
legal issues. Rodney and Ankur are both world renowned experts in the domain
and IP field.
Another pair of
sessions that rain concurrently covered How to Sell Domain Names,
with one presented in English and the other in Hindi. In the English session,
Paul Singh (Platform.in), inset above, delivered an excellent presentation
on the subject, covering all of the bases including issues unique to India's
rapidly growing market.
The Hindi language
session on the same topic, below, featured (clockwise from top left) Divya Shukla (Urban Skill), Rohit Goyal (Domain Mojito) and
Hitesh Wadwha (Domainofy.com)
When DNJournal.com
started 17 years ago there were very few women in the domain business but
things have improved dramatically for the better on that front in both
mature markets like the U.S. and growing markets like those in South Asia.
Experiences and opportunities for Women in Domaining was
discussed in the session above by Anita Walker (SmartWebby.com), at
left, and Divya Shukla (Urban Skill).
In the next session
the topic turned to Best Practices for LinkedIn Outreach. That
was covered by Hitesh Wadwha, at left, and Riz Memon (Empire
Names). Hitesh and Riz have found that, among all the social media options,
LinkedIn can be especially effective in connecting with potential customers.
They offered tips on how to craft outreach messages that can trigger domain
sale conversations.
After two days of
non-stop action on the South Asia Track at NamesCon Online, it
was time to bring down the curtain with one final panel discussion. For this
one, a topic that never goes out of style was chosen - Domain Appraisal:
What's My Domain Worth? It featured four of the show's most active and
experienced experts, clockwise from top left, Arvind Reddy, Paul
Singh, moderator Jay Paudyal and Deepak Daftari.
The audience was able to get into the act too by submitting names of their own
for appraisal.
After this popular
session, Jay Paudyal delivered the closing remarks and thanked all who
attended the South Asia Track sessions - a true conference within a
conference that played a huge role in making the first ever NamesCon
Online a home run. As for us, we have one more NamesCon Online base to
touch - the Europe track - that I will detail in my next post.
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