I often get asked about what technology I use in my office and how my office desktop is setup, so here is my list of item I use with a photo as well, click on the image to enlarge it if you like.

Apple iMac 27 inch LED (Latest Model) 2.7 Ghz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 Processor, 12 GB RAM, 1 TB Hard Drive, AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB Graphics. Also standard Apple wireless Keyboard & mouse which I love.

2 x ASUS 21 inch LCD Monitors (These are a few years old now and were left over from my old PC Workstation) so not sure of any model numbers but you can get better quality now that these at half the price I am sure!! LOL

You can never have enough screen real estate in my mind, when you are buying and selling domains, developing websites, working on clients projects, talking on Skype etc etc…. Once you have tried it it would be very very difficult to go back to one screen. Perish the thought!

Altec Lansing Speakers (2 x desktop speakers & a sub woofer under the desk) again a few years old now but you can pick up similar quality ones for well under $100 these days.

My second away from home computer is my Apple Macbook Air

Apple Macbook Air 13 inch 1.7 Ghz Dual Core Intel Core i5 Processor, 4 GB RAM, 256 GB Hard Drive, Intel HD Graphics 3000. (this is a great laptop, so dam lite and powers through any work I need it to do but most of all I can get about 7-8 hours of life from the battery compared to max of 2 hours I used to get from my PC Notebook.

iPad (Version 1) WiFi & 3G with 64 GB of storage. Love this little baby and use it way more than the MacBook Air.
Looking forward to the iPad 3 coming out this year as it will be time for an upgrade then.

iPhone 4S, 64 GB storage, I had the iPhone 3GS before upgrading to this one and bypassed the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4s came out on my birthday Oct 14th so I could not say no to that upgrade could I!! LOL

I also have a Wireless Blutooth Headset from Plantronics model 995H which are very good quality sound and very comfortable to wear for hours at a time if you need to. The built in mic is also very good quality.

But the Microphone I use to do all of my podcasts is the Yeti Blue USB Mic which was (and I think still is) the first USB Mic to be THX Certified (THX is a trade name of a high-fidelity audio/visual reproduction standard for movie theaters, screening rooms, home theaters, computer speakers, gaming consoles, and car audio systems.)
This is the best USB Mic I have ever seen or used and has many options of how it cam be used, here is the link to the manufacturers website. http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/ 

So there you have it, the tools I use every day to run my business from my home office in Perth Australia.

What a great business we are in and what a great time to be running a business on the internet.

Please feel free to let me know what you have as your office or home office setup, I would love to see what others are using.

Cheers

Ed

Marc Ostrofsky - Get Rich Click

Here is a piece about Marc from his website -

Check out his latest interview with Frank Schilling where Frank discusses his new domain parking and monetization service www.InternetTraffic.com Keep up the great work Michael.

A focus on my ccTLD domains mainly in my home country of Australia will take up most of my attention & time.

Here are some of the domains that we will be working on in 2011 -

AudioBooks.com.au, Cardboard.com.au, DslrCameras.com.au, SlrDigitalCamera.com.au & SlrDigitalCameras.com.au, ElectronicDrums.com.au, GpsSoftware.com.au, LedDownlights.com & .com.au, LiquorLicensing.com.au, MiningJobs.net.au & MiningJobsAustralia.com & .com.au, Forex-Trading.com.au, StepLadders.com.au, SuperchargerKits.com.au & ShortCourse.com.au.

So there is enough there to keep my developers busy for 2011 and beyond. I will be keeping you up to date on how these sites are going over the new year and will be happy to accept any constructive criticism and feedback on how they can be improved.

In regards to the podcasts on this site, I will be stepping that up with a target of at least one new podcast every fortnight with a wide range of people in the web industry not just domainers but anything and anyone that is related to developing a successful domain name including Web Development, Content Management Systems,  SEO, Pay Per Click Advertising, Social Media, Content Writing, Business Development & Management, Website Images, Graphic Design and a whole lot more. If you have any particular subject you would like to learn about and hear from experts on the subject, please drop me a line and let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you.

I would just like to thank  all of you who have been guests on my podcast as without you guys it would not be anywhere near as interesting! Also a big thanks to all those who have been reading and listening to my blog / podcast over 2010, I apreciate your support. It is hard to believe that this site will have been running for 4 years come July 2011 so there will be some celebrating going on then I can assure you.

I wish you all a very Happy New Years and very prosperous 2011!

Cheers

Ed

www.kajabi.com.au

List Control
Product Launch Formula 3.0
Video Boss
Outsource Force

All had a little link at the bottom that said “Powered By
Kajabi” and until now, not too many people knew what that was about. Today, FINALLY, answers!

www.kajabi.com.au

It’s apparently already changed the way John Reese, Andy
Jenkins, Frank Kern, Trey Smith, and Jeff Walker marketed
their biggest products this year.

I think it’s going to change the way EVERYONE markets online
very soon. And after you watch this, it’ll probably make a
convert out of you too.

Kajabi Landing Pages

Ed Keay-Smith

P.S. The only lame part of this video is how long you’ll have
to wait to get your hands on Kajabi after watching. But I guess a few days isn’t so bad. You decide: too long to wait?

www.kajabi.com.au

P.P.S. Oh yeah, there is NO OPT-IN NEEDED to watch this. It’s totally in the open. (Which is kind of shocking, considering.)

Disclaimer: Ed Keay-Smith & OzDomainer.com are affiliates of Kajabi and will make affiliate commissions on products or services purchased through these links.

I have wanted to interview Frank since I began this domain names podcast almost 3 years ago.

It should happen within the next week or so, hopefully in time for my birthday on the 14th October.

If you have anything you would like me to ask Frank on your behalf, then please leave a message in the comments section of this post.

Cheers and have a great day!

Ed

This weeks guest is Jeff Kupietzky from Oversee.net where Jeff talks about some interesting facts regarding Oversee that I have not heard discussed anywhere before.

After talking with Simon this afternoon he told me who will be on his next episode (but has sworn me to secrecy) and I am sure that it will be a great show, don’t miss it.

Well done Simon for getting this show of the ground.

Great to hear from you again Frank, In my mind once a month or so is better than not at all.

Here is the link to Frank’s blog http://domainnamesales.com/sevenmile/blog/

I think 2010 is going to be a great year for domainers & domain names in general.

Regards

Ed

Every time I look in forums or on domain blogs there seems to be some dickhead trying to flog their worthless domains to some poor unsuspecting domain newbie that gets sucked into the who “Premium Domain” bullshit. Excuse my French but this reeeeeeally pisses me off.

Trust me on this one, www.i-bloody-great-bullshit-domain-name.biz does not class as a “Premium Domain” in my books.

People who are new to domains and reading this blog, please please please!!! DO YOU RESEARCH before you hand over your cash for these rubbish domains.

I could go and register 100 new hand registered names that are better than 80% of the crap that I see being bought and sold in the domain aftermarket. STOP and THINK! before you buy a name, ask yourself, Is this a generic word or phrase that is being searched on in Google or the other Search Engines or is it just some made up crap that someone thinks is a great idea and is sure to catch on one day or be “Brandable”.

Sorry to rant on guys & girls but this has just gotten beyond a joke and I had to say something.

PS. My above Premium Domain i-bloody-great-bullshit-domain-name.biz is for sale for a limited time only for the bargain basement price of just US$10,000!

Any takers???

Regards

Ed

Paul Sloan

My guests today on Domain Names Podcast are Paul Sloan & David Carter from www.PlayingTheAngles.com

David Carter

Paul Sloan is a longtime journalist, who has worked for Fortune Magazine, National Public Radio, CNN and a bunch of other places, on staff and as a freelancer. Paul has interviewed people such as Kevin Ham in that great article that was published in the Business 2.0 Magazine back in May 2007 before the magazine closed down.

Paul has teamed up with David Carter, an Internet Marketing specialist and domain name investor from the UK and together, they plan on building an interactive site, based on interviews and business experiments with some of the world’s finest entrepreneurs.

One of their first guests in Frank Schilling who does not do that many interviews and has some great gems of wisdom in the interview with Paul.

These are two very switched on guys who I am sure will have great success with their new project at Playing The Angles

Thanks to them both for being on my podcast, I hope you enjoy what they have to say.

If you have any questions you would like me to ask Johns in the interview then please email me ed(@)ozdomainer.com or make a comment on this post. Cheers Ed

Morgan has had various websites relating to the Domain Name industry running over the past few years and has a wealth of knowledge on the buying and selling of domains, development on domains, SEO & domain brokerage.

Morgan kindly offered a discount on his services to Oz Domainer Podcast listeners and by simply quoting “OZ 111″ in an email or over the phone to Morgan he will give a 20% discount on his regular fees. This was not a planned thing and just happened during the podcast and I get NO commissions or kickbacks from Morgan for this referral.

I think Morgan is a very smart young guy who has a great business mind and work ethic and will be one of the domainers to watch out for as he is very focused and doing some great work.

I hope you enjoy this podcast.

Wake up Corporate World Exec’s because if you don’t you will be left in the dust scratching your heads wondering what the hell just happened.

Enjoy!

For those who have not seen it yet, Rick Latona has opened up his new forum dedicated to ccTLD’s.

You can fin out more about it here www.cctlds.com , If you join the forum (which is free) feel free to mention
me as where you heard about it from. My forum user name is OzDomainer, look me up when you drop by.

Ron is the main man in the Domain Industry for covering all the major events and is responsible for some of the best domainer interviews I have ever read.

I think it would be great to get some questions for Ron to answer from readers of my blog, so please feel free to submit them to me during February so I can put them to him on the day.

It can be a mine field of information to follow and process and if you have tens of thousands of dollars invested then you had better start paying attention.

You could be in for a rude awakening one day when the law or a company that thinks it has the rights to ownership of one of your names comes a knockin!

My mate Erhan Karabardak from Cooper Mills Lawyers based in Melbourne Australia is a global authority in the areas of Domain, ISP & Telco law.

Erhan was a guest speaker at the recent Traffic Down Under Seminar held in Queensland Australia (check out Erhan’s talk on video here)

I am in Japan for the last night heading to Malaysia tomorrow for Christmas and home to Perth Australia for New Years.

My family and I have had a fantastic time travelling for the past 7 months and would recommend it to anyone.

I wish you and your families a safe and Merry Christmas & Happy New Years, may 2009 be a great on for you all.

Cheers

Ed
OzDomainer

I like to keep an eye on my domains as often as possible to check their traffic stats which may be as often as every 3-4 days or so for my different accounts and domain TLD’s & ccTLD’s.

It always grabs my attention when there is a large traffic spike in particular when its not just over a day or so which could be news or current event related to cause an increase in searches. But when the increase stays there and does not drop back down again it usually points to one thing, Google!

I have had quite a few domains that this has happened to recently and I don’t think that it is a coincident that all of these domains are parked with the same parking company www.parked.com as I think they have one of the better custom domain setups that seems to be very “SEO friendly”.

One of my domains on the subject of Electrical Switches www.electricalswitches.net is ranked about number twelve on Google’s global search using a broad keyword search which is not to bad at all considering that it is only parked. The exact match phrase “electrical switches” lists about 433,000 websites that have that phrase on their site according to the Google results and www.electricalswitches.net is listed at number 9 on Google.

So needless to say that the ppc income has gone up accordingly from what it was a few months ago of about $2 per month to approx $15 per month now.
Now this is not going to buy my New Nissan GT-R any time soon (the best sports car ever to come out of Japan IMHO and a “super car killer“)

The downside to parked.com is that as yet they don’t have a domain sales after market to handle any enquiries about the domain if you have it listed for sale, just a basic contact form which is ok. I would prefer the best of both worlds but with all of the parking companies I am yet to find it.

Still I am impressed with the rankings of my indexed parked pages and while the domains are waiting to get developed they are paying for themselves then well and good.

Perry is one of the best all round marketers that I have ever met and what he has to say in this video is well worth the 15 mins or so it takes to watch it.

Do yourself a favour and check out the video at http://www.perrymarshall.com/bite-the-hand-that-feeds/

I am in Europe at the moment on my Laptop Nomads Trip and have just spent 10 days in Switzerland.

Sasha & Ed at top of Schilthorn Mountain in Swiss Alps

I have been there before but was reminded of how spectacular the place is!

Also how well run it is. Everything was on time and worked well. The trains were fantastic, without doubt the best of our four months so far. If a train is running 15 seconds past its due time then it is running late in Switzerland. You can set your Swiss watch by them.

Anyway domain names are NOT in the toilet far from it (the best long term investment there is at the moment IMHO) But they are on the toilets.

Toi Toi at Top of Alps

It has been very interesting over the past 4 months travelling through the UK & Europe taking note of the domain names on advertising etc. Without a doubt I have seen far far more companies using their ccTLD’s (Country Code Top Level Domains) eg www.toitoi.ch over the .com. This is good news for people getting into the domain name space as there are many many opportunities available for people to focus on their ccTLD’s if the .com is gone. Its a no brainer that if the .com is availble and affordable then you should try and get it but you can still do well without it outside of the US.

Although the US has a very large population of approx 301,139,947 people that still leaves over 6 Billion people who do not necessarily see the .com as their domain of choice.

Travelling is a very very eye opening experience in many ways, in regards to domain names it just confirms my strong belief in ccTLD’s and their future.

Take a look around where you live and see what people and companies are using for domains and don’t miss out on opportunities by having the .com blinkers on.

The train has free high speed wifi on board so my wife Lois, Daughter Sasha and I all had our laptops out making good use of the 4 hour trip.

We had a very funny moment as I was on Elance paying one of my content writers in India for the work that she was doing for one of my Indian domains about Water Purifiers www.waterpurifiers.in (still parked at the moment but being developed). We sat and pondered at the freedom an online business can give you as we are from Australia travelling through UK & Europe using someone in India to write content for our sites that are both globally and locally targeted.

If that is not a sign that the world truly is a global economy these days then I don’t know what is!

I also caught up with another Aussie domainer mate of mine Ben Wilks from Queensland who has been travelling since May. We met at the Tower of Lo

Ed & Ben Wilks - SEO Legend

If anyone needs any top notch serious, kick butt SEO work done, then Ben is your man.

We offer services for you business promotion. Our web development team is the professional in web design and search engine optimization. We also offer you cheap and affordable web hosting packages with emerging services.

As most of you know my family and I are on the road for 7 months taking some time out and having a great time I can tell you

We have a blog about what we are up to at www.laptopnomads.com so I will not repeat myself with that stuff here.

I relation to domaining and domainers I have managed to catch up with some guys I know from the web but have not met in person up to now and am very happy that I have done so.

I first caught up with David Carter and his family at his home in Birmingham UK for afternoon tea and met his children and wife Jan.
Read more on that with some pics here http://www.laptopnomads.com/10/laptop-nomads-are-go/

Then we spent some time with Tommy Butler and his wife Tricia who own www.glasgow.com (very nice domain name guys) Tommy is a very switched on guy and has many many Glasgow related domain names and his a great business based around them.

He took us around Glasgow for a day and we all had a ball. As Lois & I were both born in Glasgow it was a real treat to be taken around buy the man who owns it!!! Virtually at least LOL. More about that on our blog at http://www.laptopnomads.com/38/edinburgh-to-glasgow/

So many thanks to those guys for their time and hospitality, it was great to finally put a face to the names.

Before I left I said I had a new podcast to upload that I hade done with Brian Johnson from www.domainparkingmoney.net, well I am still editing that one as I have had some audio editing challenges since being away but should have it ready soon.

As for other podcasts I have been talking with Ron Jackson from www.dnjournal.com about doing one but the timing for both of us has not been great so as soon as I have more info I will let you all know.

If you have any suggestions or requests on who you would like me to interview on the subject of domain names or internet marketing please let me know and I will see what I can do.

Regards

Ed

Marketing trend is changing into online marketing. There are a lot of website hosting companies which offers online marketing solutions. These companies have increased their services circle into web site design and website development field.

I have had the pleasure of knowing James for the past 3 years now and he is truely one of the pioneers in the affiliate marketing industry and a great guy to boot!

James and I talk about his successful Affiliate Marketing business and his Affiliate Marketers Bootcamp training system helping people learn the skill to develop their affiliate websites.

James lists some of the Affiliate Management companies that he uses like www.cj.com (Commission Junction) also the Open Source Content Management System Drupal

One of James’s websites is based around his passion for Shelby Cobra’s and his website www.kitcarconnection.com

Thanks very much for your time James and I look forward to that ride in the Cobra!!

Rick speaks about his time in the domain name industry and how he got started, he also talks about his businesses DigiPawn & Offshoring and what is involved with the operations of both those businesses.

He talks off his trip to Tanzania and his climb up Mt Kilimanjaro and what he keeps in his garage next to his office??

Thanks for your time Rick and I hope the listeners enjoy this podcast.

Elliot was awarded this year with Domainers Choice Award of Best Domainers Blog for 2008 which I think was well deserved.

We talk about his life as a domain investor, the development of his domains www.lowell.com & www.salinas.com and the very serious topic of the Snowe Antiphishing Bill that was introduced to the US senate last week that has the potential to drastically effect the way domain investors operate if left unchanged.

Check out ComputerWorld for the entire article on the Snowe Bill and also the link to the ICA Internet Commerce Association where you can join as a member and help support the people that support domainers and are one of the main voices helping domainers to challenge the Snowe Bill.

Elliot also spoke about Sean Stafford’s Book Domain Graduate which is well worth a read for new to intermediate levels of experience in the domain industry.
Click the link below for more info.

I think that Elliot is one of the domain industries movers and shakers and has a very bright future.

Michael has a great deal of experience in the domain name industry and we talk about how he got started, his recent trip to T.R.A.F.F.I.C in Las Vegas, advice for new people to the domain industry and his favourite subject, Parking Transparancy.

He also has a funny story about the Akubra Hat that he won at T.R.A.F.F.I.C in Las Vegas

I hope you enjoy the podcast and please let me know what you think in the comments section of this post.

He is in Australia at the moment working on some projects with another domainer and friend of ours Ben Wilks and will be heading back to the UK in a few weeks time. Rob is the owner of www.music.co.uk and others such as www.lol.co.uk, www.webftp.co.uk

In this interview Rob shares his incite into the domain name industry particularly the .co.uk name space. For the links to the websites and tools we spoke about in the podcast please go to this link Domain Web Tools

I hope you enjoy this podcast and if you have anyone that you would like me to interview or a specific topic that you would like covered then please let me know.

In Episode 3 of the Oz Domainer Podcast I will be talking with Australian Domainer Michael Gilmour from Whizzbangsblog.com where we will be talking about his recent trip to T.R.A.F.F.I.C West in Las Vegas and the subject of Transparency that he spoke about at the conference.

I will be interviewing a wide variety of people in the domain name industry and I hope the knowledge that is shared will give value to the listeners.

If you have anyone in particular that you would like me to interview please let me know in the comments section of this or any other of the podcast posts.

Thanks

Ed

Here are a few of them -

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While running on the treadmill last night, I was wearing my TrafficZ shirt with the “I ? Domains” graphic on it. I hate running, so I like to think about various things to get my mind off of running to shorten my workout. I looked in the mirror, saw the shirt, and thought about why I ? Domains, and I wanted to share a list of some of the reasons:

1) Opportunities to find success no matter what the focus
2) Global industry allows networking with folks throughout the world
3) Develop, Park, Blog, Arbitrage, Hybrid…etc… You name it, you can do it
4) Fun and interactive investment vehicle
5) Industry is under the radar

To read the rest of this post head on over to Elliot’s Domain Name Blog

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quote.gif

Over the weekend it ended up selling for $200,000. Not bad at all!
As Perth Western Australia is my home town I would be in big trouble if I missed this story!

Perth-City-From-Kings-Park.jpg

Ron Jackson from http://www.dnjournal.com interviews Leland Hardy.

Here is a snippet from the article.

The Domain World’s Renaissance Man: A Ringside Seat With NewYork.com

lelandhardy200.jpg

He’s been a brilliant scholar, a pro boxer, a big time sports agent and a Wall Street wizard – and Leland Hardy is just getting started.

Born into an over-achieving family that excelled in academics, Leland Hardy simultaneously fit the family mold by learning multiple languages and earning a Wharton MBA and broke it as a professional boxer who became a close friend to Muhammad Ali. Boxing and becoming a Wall Street wizard are two disciplines that rarely go hand in hand. But that’s not all. Hardy was also a sports agent, representing several NFL and NBA stars, the business advisor to tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams and a business partner with rap superstar Master P. To add further spice to the mix, in 1994 he hand registered what would become one of the world’s most valuable domain names, NewYork.com, a name he continues to hold today (along with over a thousand others).

Go here for the whole story, you won’t regret it!

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