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Full Steam Ahead: There
Will Be No Summer Doldrums on the Domain Conference Circuit
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We normally
send out our monthly newsletter in the final week
of each month but over the last 10 days in May I
was away covering the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East
conference in Orlando, then busy writing
our comprehensive show review
article. As a result our May issue is
arriving in your email box in early June.
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In
another sign of explosive industry growth 2008 has
the busiest conference schedule in industry
history. I was planning to go to the Domainer
Meeting in Paris, France June 19-20,
but my wife Diana has to undergo knee surgery (for
a torn meniscus) June 18 so I will have to stay
Stateside to help her get around during
rehab.
Diana is expected
to recover in time to accompany me to the 2008
GeoDomain Expo, coming up at the W
Hotel - City Center in Chicago July 10-12.
We really enjoyed our first GeoDomain Expo last
November in San
Francisco and are looking forward to
again seeing the many new friends we made at that
show. This is an an exceptionally bright,
hardworking group of entrepreneurs that are a
great source of knowledge and inspiration.
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Chicago
- The Windy City will host
the 2008 GeoDomain Expo July 10-12
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In
addition to covering the show for you I will have
the honor of moderating a Saturday afternoon
session July 12 called GeoDomains in the
News. I'm going to have a top notch panel
to call on including former Wall Street
Journal reporter David Kesmodel who
just published a book on the industry called The
Domain Game. The dais will also
feature Elliot Silver (ElliotsBlog.com), Ezra
James (Modern Domainer magazine)
and Steven Morales (SimplyGeo.com).
That's an all-star line-up in my book.
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The
GeoDomain Expo is a refreshing change of
pace because it is the only show where the
focus is squarely on development.
That is something I think all domainers
would be wise to learn more about now that
the past year of declining PPC revenues has
shown how dangerous |
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it is
to rely on just one revenue stream. Yes,
developing is hard work and there are no
guarantees of success but if you can build a
viable site with direct advertiser support on just
one of your best domains you will have an ace
in the hole that can carry you through
turbulent times and any twist or turn that Google
or Yahoo! decides to throw at you.
Having your future in your own hands provides
piece of mind that is priceless. |
In
addition to being a great place to learn more about
developing sites, the GeoDomain Expo will provide
tips on forging those key contacts with the
advertisers who will pay the bills. The Expo also
has one of the lowest registration rates in the
domain conference field, $695, and an early bird
special good through June 8 can knock that down to
just $595 if you act right away. Considering the
quality of people and information that will be
available to attendees, that is a tremendous
bargain.
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There
will be a lot of changes at this show. I
think most significant for our readers is
the fact that the conference, previously
focused on pure city .com only domains, is
now open to people with any kind of
geo domain in any extension, whether
they be pure city domains like Chicago.com
(or Chicago,us, etc.) or just geo
targeted names like ChicagoRestaurants.com
(or .org, .info, etc). I think that is a
great move that will bring in a lot of new
faces and new ideas that will take an
already excellent show to the next level.
Speaking
of the next level, one of the world's top
local media consulting companies, the Kelsey
Group, has signed on as
co-presenters of the event and the company's
co-founder and chairman, John Kelsey,
will be the keynote speaker. Kelsey's
involvement moves this event into the big
leagues. I hope to see many of your
there.
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John
Kelsey
2008 GeoDomain Expo
Keynote Speaker |
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WIPO
Panel Finds Domain Parking to Be a Legitimate Use
| Domain
owners have been under steady attack
over the past year as covetous parties
seek to find ways to separate domain
owners from their assets without paying
fair market value for them (the Snowe
Bill being one of many
examples of this). One tack the opposition
has taken |
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Ari
Goldberger - noted attorney
won a key WIPO case that
upheld parking as a legitimate use. |
in
an effort to reverse hijack domains is to
claim that parking them is a sign
of bad faith and an illegitimate
use.
In the
face of such baseless charges it was
heartening to hear from one of the world's
top domain attorneys, Ari Goldberger
(ESQwire.com),
that he won a decision in a WIPO case
last month in which the three-man panel
ruled that parking is a legitimate
use (with one panelist dissenting). The
case was Super Supplements, Inc. vs.
Vertical Axis, Inc. (whom Ari
represented) in a dispute over Vertical's
domain SuperSupplements.com.
In their
decision, the panel wrote
"in many cases, including cases in
which the present Respondent has been a
respondent, panels have found that the
provision of such click-through services do
constitute a bona fide offering
of the service unless the bona fides
of the offering is tainted by evidence of
bad faith, see for example, Williams,
Babbitt & Weisman, Inc, v. Ultimate
Search, NAF Case No. 98813 and Nursefinders,
Inc. v. Vertical Axis, WIPO
Case No. |
| D2007-0417.
In the opinion of the majority of the
Panel such services are now a common
business practice and there is no
evidence of bad faith in Respondent’s
adoption and use of the disputed domain
name in providing such a service." |
WIPO and UDRP
decision have overwhelmingly gone against domain
owners in the past (they lose an estimated 85% of
the time). Of course many of those losses are slam
dunk trademark infringements that the domain
owners should have lost - but there have
also been egregious cases of non-infringing
generic domains (like LH.com recently)
being unjustifiably taken away. The sensible and
fair decision rendered in the SuperSupplements.com
case gives us some hope that the
"parking" smear tactic will be put out
to pasture where it belongs.
Dr. Chris
Hartnett to Be Featured in Our Upcoming June Cover
Story
| We
are spending this weekend wrapping up
work on our June Cover Story that is to be
published Monday (June 9). I've often
heard veteran domainers speculate on who
might be the |
| first
billionaire to come out of this business.
As it happens, we already have one entrepreneur
in this space who has tasted that heady
level of success in previous business
ventures.
Dr.
Chris Hartnett completely revolutionized
the global telecommunications industry
with a company he founded called USA
Global Link. His meteoric rise in the
business world almost killed him
though. When his weight dropped below 100
pounds Hartnett had to sell his company
(to Deutsche Telekom and Worldcom)
to save his life.
Fortunately
Hartnett is back on his feet today and
enjoying his new business life and growing
circle of friends in the domain word. I've
met very few people, especially who have
experienced his level of success, that
have managed to stay as well grounded as
Chris has. His personal story is truly
remarkable and I am looking forward to
bringing it to you a few days from
now. |
Dr.
Chris Hartnett |
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