A Comprehensive New Book from David Clements Aims to Take The Mystery Out of the Domain Business for Mainstream Readers

A lot of the most widely-known names in the domain world will be en route to Las Vegas this weekend. They'll be getting settled in for the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) Annual Meeting that will be held Monday and Tuesday (Jan. 27 & 28, 2025) at Resorts World. Many want to get into town by Sunday evening when a pre-show get together sponsored by DomainEasy.com will be held at Crash N Burn. 

Among those attending will be David Clements, the Founder of Brannans.com, who has been one of the busiest domain brokers in the industry over the past two decades. In that time David has been involved in over 10,000 domain transactions, negotiated in 20 different languages across 75 different countries. With all of the experiences that he has been through David is the kind of guy who is often told "you should write a book!"

Well, guess what. He did! So when you see David at the ICA meeting his name tag may say author as well as domain broker. The book is just coming off the presses and should be available on Amazon by the end of the month (quite possibly before the ICA meeting is even over). When it is out we'll come back to this spot and add a link for those who want to order.

David Clements

Editors' Note: The Amazon links for David's book did go live while the ICA meeting was underway. The Kindle edition is available here and the hardcover edition is here.

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After Gaining Sole Control of ParkLogic Michael Gilmour Transforms the Traffic Monetizer Into a Domain Asset Management Powerhouse 

2024 was a big year for ParkLogic.com Founder & CEO Michael Gilmour - in fact the biggest in the 18 years since he and partner David Gibbs established the company back in 2007. They have been a leader and innovator in the domain monetization business ever since (and one of the very few who are still standing after all these years). ParkLogic has been doing much more than standing though - they have been in an all out expansion sprint since early last year when David retired and sold his share of the business to Michael, making him the sole owner.

Michael (who was profiled in a 2008 DNJournal Cover Story) already had plans in mind to take ParkLogic far beyond the domain parking business and turn it into a one of a kind, one-stop domain asset management company. As the sole decision maker he and his team were able to quickly set about turning his vision into what is now a reality. I recently got on a zoom call with Michael for a tour of what ParkLogic enables clients to to do today and what I saw was truly remarkable. As you would expect, making life easier for Domain Investors was at the heart of the platform but there are also next level services for  Domain Registries and Registrars. 

Michael Gilmour
ParkLogic Founder & CEO 

For investors who have quality traffic to monetize Michael said, "The recent release of ParkLogic Next provides hyper-local targeting capabilities that will ensure continued returns from domain traffic into the future. Each day, over 300 metrics are analyzed for each domain name to determine which monetization solution will provide the highest yield for clients. For example, the rules based decision engine can now target all German speakers, on IOS devices, in New York between the hours of 10am and 1pm with a particular advertisement."  

With that data in hand, ParkLogic is able to increase your revenue by selecting the best of several monetization options to get the best price for that traffic in that location at that time. They point to five levels of monetization that are involved:

1. Being part of a larger pool of traffic instantly scales new clients revenue. ParkLogic will establish and manage monetization accounts on behalf of clients with all major partners. You will receive the highest payout levels everywhere due to the massed volume of ParkLogic traffic.

2. Algorithms manage the flow of traffic to the highest paying monetization solution. Effectively we are auctioning your traffic each day to the highest bidder.

3. Optimization of the page content to better match domain traffic to the right advertiser.

4. New technologies to help extract every bit of value from domains traffic.

5. Portfolio management to reduce revenue leakage

Over the years, Michael Gilmour (center) has been a featured speaker at major domain conferences around the world. In this shot, Michael chats with attendees at the 2020 NamesCon Global conference in Austin after appearing on the Keynote Hall stage. 

ParkLogic also works closely with Domain Registrars all over the world, helping them grow their own domain portfolio so they can either enjoy the revenue from the traffic or resell the domains for a higher value. From experience, they have found these opportunities for Registars:

1. Domains that have been registered and have their nameservers still pointing at the registrar

2. Domains that have been purchased but not paid for.

3. Domains that have expired

4. Domains that are a part of the registrars growing portfolio

ParkLogic provides registrars with a report that helps them determine which are the best domains to keep and add to their own portfolio. They can also register domains that meet an agreed set of business rules in a nominated registrar account -  a completely outsourced solution for registrars to grow a new revenue stream. 

For Domain Registries, ParkLogic works closely with registry partners to help them to better understand their non-existent domain traffic (NXD) and the potential commercial opportunities it represents. In particular, if you are a country based registry (ccTLD) then there is a significant opportunities with NXD traffic and building your own domain portfolio for resale or retaining it for the ongoing revenue. The ParkLogic Registry platform provides detailed analytics at the registry, domain and IP address levels. This provides registries with an unprecedented level of data to assist them in meeting their business goals. Check out this page for screenshots of their registry dashboard and some of the statistics available for NXD domain traffic.  

In addition to everything noted above, I was equally impressed with the  advanced new interface that allows you to track all of your domains and revenue data with multiple ways to display, slice and dice the information so you can quickly review your assets and their performance at a glance. It's something you really need to see for yourself to appreciate. If you will be attending the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) Annual Meeting in Las Vegas Jan. 26-28, 2025, that is something you may be able to do in person with Michael Gilmour or Chief Revenue Officer Matt Herbert as they will both be there. You can email [email protected] to check on setting up a demo. 

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Sedo Premium Broker Mark Ghoriafi Gets 2025 Off to a Flying Start With $600,000 Sale 

After a big year as a Premium Domain Broker at Sedo in 2024, Mark "Mr. Premium" Ghoriafi has rocketed out of the 2025 gate with another huge sale. Mark contacted me on this Saturday (Mr. Premium apparently never sleeps!) to let me know he has just closed a $600,000 deal for Pack.com. 

Mark, who we profiled in this 2023 article, represented the seller in the Pack.com transaction, combining his innovative marketing approach with outbound efforts to find just the right buyer for this premium asset. Mark said, "After seven weeks of negotiations intertwined with ongoing relationship building throughout the Christmas holidays, the deal officially concluded on January 10th." Like I said, the guy never sleeps.

We will be charting the Pack.com sale when our next bi-weekly domain sales report comes out on the evening January 22 where you will no doubt find it at or near the top of the leader board. 

By the way, if you will be attending the Internet Commerce Association's 2025 Annual Meeting coming up January 26-28, Mark and I will both be there and will be looking forward to catching up with you and our fellow ICA members in Las Vegas.

Mark Ghoriafi (right) and Ron Jackson at the 2023 NamesCon Global conference in Austin.

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