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No Swoon in June: Domain Business Comes Out Swinging
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In
last month's newsletter,
written just ahead of the Memorial Day
weekend, I wrote about what was shaping up to be
the most memorable summer in the short history
of this industry. June has certainly lived up
to expectations with a series of events that
have pushed the domain business to heights that
few could have imagined at this time two years
ago. I just came back from a week in New York
where I attended the SedoPro Partners Forum
at the stunningly beautiful Mohonk Mountain
Resort in the Hudson Valley near New
Paltz, NY June 17-19, followed by the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Conference in New York City June
19-22. Expectations were high for both events,
but the organizers of the two conferences still
managed to exceed expectations in every way.
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View
of the Manhattan skyline snapped
from
the top of the Empire State Building June
23 |
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I
am currently writing in-depth reviews of both
events that will be published by the end of the
day Monday (July 2) so I won't go into detail in
this newsletter other than to tell you that
these events personified an industry that
is rapidly coming of age and taking its place on
the world media stage. The Sedo conference
exuded class. It was the kind of retreat
you would expect to see staged by a century-old
multinational conglomerate rather than a feisty
upstart that quickly made a name for itself in
the rough and tumble Wild West environment of
the domain world.
Sedo
turned their back on hard sell tactics and made
the event a love letter to their customers,
allowing them to fully enjoy the spectacular
surroundings with the lowest of low key business
promotion during the three idyllic days at
Mohonk (mohonk is a native American word that
means "lake in the sky"). It was a
brilliant call by the company executives who
arranged the affair because everyone in
attendance left with a very positive impression
of their hosts and the lengths they went to to
produce an unforgettable experience for their
customers. |
This
view of the Mohonk Mountain Resort (site of the SedoPro
Partners Forum)
was snapped from the top of a mountain opposite from the
resort where
we wound up after an exhilarating 3-mile hike Monday, June
18.
When
the Sedo conference ended Tuesday afternoon, attendees
boarded a string of party buses for the two-hour ride back
to Manhattan and the start of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference that evening. That short ride transitioned
everyone from one of the most beautiful rural settings in
America to the hustle and bustle of the world's busiest
city. The moment I walked into the cocktail party at the Grand
Hyatt I knew this conference was going to be something
special. The atmosphere was crackling with
electricity, there were more new faces than I had ever
seen at a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show and many of them belonged to
serious investors who came to learn what this domain buzz
going around was all about. They came away very impressed
by what they saw and over the next few months many people
with deep pockets will become important investors in this
business thanks to Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu
bringing their domain road show to the Big Apple.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
New York cocktail party June 19 at the Grand Hyatt
in Manhattan
The
perfect capper was Moniker.com's live and silent
auctions that crowned the event with a record-smashing
haul of more than $12 million in domain sales. The
news quickly hit the New York newspapers and was picked up
by wire services around the world. Everyone seems to be
talking about the conference (and the domain business)
now. Just this afternoon the Associated Cities
newsletter featured a rave
review written by David Castello of Castello
Cities Internet Network, Inc. who was a
speaker at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. for the first time (along with
his brother Michael, they were part of one of the
best seminar panels of the week).
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impact of taking T.R.A.F.F.I.C. to New York will
reverberate for months to come. Even those
who were not able to attend will benefit as this
event, like the conferences before it, will
increase the value of every quality portfolio in
the industry. Many companies took advantage of
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. week to announce new innovations
and services. Dan Warner of Fabulous.com
detailed the company's groundbreaking new Domain
Distribution Network (we are planning a
separate article on that key development in the
aftermarket, but if you want to dig into the
program yourself, you can access Dan's Powerpoint
presentation here.)
NameMedia is also shaking up the
aftermarket with their Domain Listing Service
and we will be telling you more about that soon as
well.
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Dan
Warner preaches the DDN gospel |
After
T.R.A.F.F.I.C., Marchex
announced they had rolled out more than 100,000 new
developed websites in one fell swoop. Domain owners will
be rooting for them to succeed because finding a way to
develop large portfolios en masse is viewed as the holy
grail for unlocking and multiplying revenue streams many
times beyond what is possible with today's PPC pages.
Every week someone is announcing another major step
forward.
People
are certainly noticing what is going on as the aftermarket
contniues to barrel down the tracks like a runaway train.
In our latest domain
sales report published Tuesday night we listed
hundreds of significant sales in all major extensions over
a two-week period that fell in the middle of what used to
be called the "slow" time of the year. Slow
times are few and far between in this industry today. I
have said it many times before, but I believe it is truer
than ever - there simply is no more exciting place to be
in business than where domain investor/developers are
right now.
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Industry Media to Get
Their Props at Domain Roundtable
| With the
latest T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference now history, I took a
peak ahead at the next major event on the industry
show schedule - the Domain
Roundtable conference coming up August
13-15 in Seattle. In checking the
agenda I was |
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| delighted
to see that one of the first seminars will be devoted
to Domain News Media. As you might
expect, this is a subject that is near and dear to my
heart. One of the surest signs that this industry is
growing by leaps and bounds is the emergence of a
diversified media corps devoted to covering the trade.
In addition to DN Journal there are now print
magazines and many expert blogs written by people who
know the business inside out. One of the best bloggers,
Jay Westerdal of DomainTools.com,
happens to own the company that stages Domain
Roundtable, otherwise this timely topic might have
been missed. |
With
the resources that are available today, if you are having a
hard time learning about the business or keeping up with the
latest news, you just aren't trying very hard! While it
creates a more competitive landscape for our publication I am
delighted to see domain media outlets blossoming the way that
they are. We need every voice we can muster to get out
the truth about this industry and counter the lies and
misconceptions that are spread about it by those with an
anti-domain owners agenda. Much
of the success that domain owners have enjoyed has come at the
expense of traditional media outlets who are seeing their
advertisers follow the eyeballs to the Internet. Many of those
outlets are not happy about that and try to stave off the
inevitable by taking potshots at their competition and that is
you. The forces that are reshaping the media world are too
powerful to stop, but those being disenfranchised are
going to try to smear and discredit web-based ad channels in
every way they can. It is up to all of us who cover this
industry to make sure the other side of the story gets equal
time. Internet
Commerce Association Update
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The
Internet
Commerce Association's new Executive
Director Michael Collins and ICA Legal
Counsel Phil Corwin were both on hand at the
Sedo and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences last week. Corwin
spoke at both events and did an excellent job in
outlining the threats facing |
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the
industry and the reasons domain owners should support
the non-profit trade association formed to protect the
rights and assets of domain investors. The ICA is
still less than a year old and has suffered some
growing pains along the way, but I think it is on the
right track now and, with your support, will develop
into the kind of association the industry so
desperately needs to represent it in Washington,
D.C., in front of policymakers at ICANN and
to mainstream media outlets that are paying much
closer attention to this business. |
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ICA
Legal Counsel Phil Corwin speaks to
domain owners at New York's Mohonk Resort |
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| Earlier
this year, the six founding members of the ICA (in
alphabetical order - iREIT, Name
Administration, Oversee.net, Sedo, Straat
Investments and the World Association of Domain
Developers) invited me to join the ICA's Board of
Directors as an independent director. That has given
me an opportunity to get an up close view of how the
organization is developing and changing to meet the
needs of its membership. I believe Phil Corwin is
doing a great job for the industry in Washington and I
think Michael Collins will be an invaluable asset as
he is dedicated to listening to your input and
broadening the ICA's base by expanding the board and
encouraging participation from every corner of the
industry. The organization needs your brain power and
support and as time goes on I think the ICA will
demonstrate that it is an association that can benefit
you, your business and the industry at large. |
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ICA
Executive Director Michael Collins
last week at Mohonk |
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