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Marketing
panel members Michael and David Castello (top),
Dr. Chris Hartnett (bottom left) and Michelle Miller
(bottom right).
Hartnett, who started his former company
with three employees in rural Iowa and grew it into a firm with offices
in 192 countries around the world, said he was drawn to domains
because “This is such a virgin area – we are the pioneers and
the opportunities are unbounded.” Harnett added, “The
world is at our feet now. A guy sitting in a hotel room in Alaska
with a notebook computer can create millions of dollars worth of
wealth. The only thing stopping people is their own fear and
negativity!”
The Castellos (who were profiled in our December
2006 Cover Story) concurred with Hartnett advising
attendees to “get your own piece of land – it doesn’t even
have to be a great name. Just get a good name, listen to your
audience and give them what they want.” David added “Just
find a name or a concept that you are passionate about. If
you are passionate about something, all that content you have to
write and the things you have to do – it’s not work. It becomes
an extension of yourself, your personality and your creativity. If
you pick something you are passionate about you are already 90% of
the way there.
| Next up we heard the keynote address
from former Sex.com owner Gary Kremen (whose story was
told in our March 2006
Cover Story). Kremen is a very bright guy and is
exceptionally open with anyone who shares a love of domains (he
invited attendees to email him or even look him up in Google and
give him a call if they wanted to talk about the business).
Kremen,
who has been online since 1983 (even before there was a world wide
web) was also one of the founders of Match.com, a pioneering
dating site he said he conceived to help find himself a wife. Kremen
sold the site before locating a mate but he told attendees he just
got married for the first time last month (drawing a warm round of
applause from the audience).
Kremen said the talking points for his
speech were scribbled down on his ride in to the hotel. With the
life he has led, a lot of preparation |
Gary Kremen giving his keynote speech
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| isn’t necessary to come up
with an unending string of interesting observations and anecdotes.
After selling Sex.com for an estimated $12-$14 million
(believed to be an all-time record for a single domain name), Kremen
has been looking for a new challenge. He said it might involve
rolling out a new kind of parking service because he thinks he can
do it better that today’s practitioners.
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GoDaddy's
Tim Ruiz introduced .me |
The new .me
registry sponsored the luncheon that followed. Partners Afilias,
GoDaddy and ME-net are taking over
administration of Montenegro's .me ccTLD and opening
it up for global registrations. GoDaddy's VP of Corporate
Development, Tim Ruiz, was on hand to talk about the upcoming
rollout for the extension and was also joined by .me board
member Desiree Miloshevic. The land rush starts June 6
with general registration set to open July 17.
The final three seminars of this
year’s Roundtable conference followed lunch. First up was Updating
Your Legal Mind, featuring a panel of leading domain and IP
attorneys. Moderator Derek Newman introduced included Jeremiah Johnston
(Sedo), Karen
Bernstein, Paul McGrady (Greenberg Tausig LLP) and
the always erudite and entertaining Dr. John Berryhill.
While
there are over reaching trademark holders who try to claim rights
beyond those
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| they are entitled to, Johnston
said most TM holders
who contact domain owners are willing to listen. “They have
legitimate concerns,” Johnston said, “but if you take time to
explain to them why you have a legitimate right to a domain and they
don’t, they will usually go away.” |
Johnston also said that no matter what
happens with the current Snowe
bill being considerd by the U.S. Congress, that
will be just the first shot of many that will be fired at domain
owners in the years ahead. As the current President of the Internet
Commerce Association, Johnston emphasized how important
it is for people in the industry to come together and help the
non-profit trade association protect domain owner's rights.
Legal
Mind panel members (left to right): Jeremiah Johnston,
Karen Bernstein,
Paul McGrady, and in photo below, Dr. John Berryhill.
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|
Berryhill said the whole industry needs
to keep an eye on the cybersquatting
suit recently filed by Vulcan Golf and others
that names Google as one of the parties they are seeking
damages from. “If Google loses this case, there could be a rush
for the exits by people in the domain channel,” Berryhill
said. A loss that would open up Google to large financial damages
could prompt them to severely curtail or even eliminate their domain
monetization program.
The previous day, Fabulous.com COO Dan Warner
had said that the entire domain channel only represents about 3%
of Google’s revenue so they could decide to walk away from the
whole sector if TM issues create too many headaches for them. Still
another good reason to develop domains or seek alternate revenue
streams now.
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|
DNZoom’s Sean Stafford
moderated the next session Advanced Domain Valuation,
welcoming John Tompkins (Trellian), Jay Finnan
(Sedo), Lucas Ehrbar (NameDrive) and Adam Strong
(DomainNameNews and DomainConsultant.com)
to the podium. The panelists provided |
|
Adam
Strong
DomainConsultant.com |
some insight into the arcane
process of appraising domains, something they described as part
art/part science.
Strong works with a group of noted domainers,
including Frank Schilling (the subject of our December
2007 Cover Story) who have started a new appraisal
service at DomainConsultant.com.That
firm was engaged to help select domains for the Domain Roundtable
live auction that followed the next day, but a bit of a falling out
developed after the auction produced lower results than many
expected. An article
on the DomainConsultant site claimed part of the problem was that
show organizers wound up ignoring most of their recommendations.
We’ll talk more about the auction in a moment.
The educational agenda for this
conference ended with a final seminar on Portfolio Management
featuring Dan Warner, Sean Stafford, Jay Finnan and Jamie
McMillan (LinkShare). Unfortunately, with the late Sunday start
(5pm) less than 30 people |
| were still in the room to hear
this discussion. No formal events had been placed on
the Sunday evening
schedule, so many show goers took the opportunity to spend the
afternoon and evening seeing the sights around San Francisco. You
certainly can’t blame them for that as it is certainly one of the
world’s most beautiful cities. |
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| The final day of the conference Monday
(April 21) was devoted entirely to the live auction. Hopes
were high going in as $3.8 million in sales had been made at
the first Roundtable live auction in August of last year. This one was
plagued with problems though. Last year’s event was a
technological breakthrough that effectively combined live onsite
bidding with online bidding via the Internet. This year, the
technology sputtered causing numerous delays and some confusion
about who had the high bid (an bidder onsite or a bidder online).
In
the end the sales total reached just $400,000. Aside from the
technical issues some felt the better names on the block failed to
move because the reserves were too high, others cited the slowdown
in the general economy and still others, as I noted earlier, said
there were too many low quality domains in the mix. All of those
factors probably contributed. |
Auctioneer
David O'Shaughnessy
conducting the DRT live auction. |
I also noted that less than 50 bidders
were in the room most of the day, even though show organizers
charged no admission to attend the auction and the room set-up was
extremely comfortable with free food and beverage service throughout
the day. Despite a first class environment, the small crowd resulted
in few onsite bidder wars. There were over 800 people online when
the auction began but some in that group said they were impacted by
the technical glitches so their participation was muted to at least
some degree as well.
When you try to be on the cutting edge
of technology, sometimes you end up getting nicked and sometimes you
score a clear cut win (as last year’s DRT auction did). I can’t
criticize anyone for pushing the envelope and trying to perfect a
better way to do things, especially when their first trial went so
well in 2007.
Name
Intelligence team members (L to R) Charissa McCuen, Carl
Taylor and
CEO Jay Westerdal track the auction while David
O'Shaughnessy solicits bids.
Auction
view from the audience Monday (April 21)
Though live auctions have become a
hallmark of domain conferences they are just one of several elements
that define the overall show experience. Anyone who has been to one,
including this one, will tell you that the most important element,
by a mile, is the opportunity to network with your peers. From
that standpoint – in fact from every standpoint except the auction
results – this show was well worth attending and I will certainly
be back.
The promoters cut no corners in giving
attendees their money’s worth. After the event was over they even
booked an evening after show party at a local club, The Cellar,
where the men and women still in town were treated to casual snacks
and an open bar in an entertaining casual atmosphere.
Freddy
Schiwek (EuroDNS), Kindha Gorman (Rebel.com) and
Jonathon Boswell
(LeaseThis.com) chat with friends at the after show party
April 21 at The Cellar.
Seth
Coman (Modern Domainer Magazine) looks on as his opponent lines
up a shot.
Unwinding
in The Cellar - (L to R): Michael Robertson (Fabulous.com),
Greg Manriquez (NameDrive), Jakob Loska (NameDrive)
and Dan Kimball (DNZoom).
It was another
good networking opportunity - a chance to make new friends and get
to know old ones even better. Thanks to Jay Westerdal, Susan
Prosser, Ray Bero, Charissa McCuen and everyone
else on the Name Intelligence team for again being great hosts and
delivering another invaluable conference experience.
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