Domenic has been involved in many online business ventures over the years and was (and now is again) the owner of www.MP3.com.au and has a very interesting story based around that domain which he talks about in the podcast.

It was refreshing to speak with someone in the Australian business community that has such a strong understanding of the value of generic keyword domain names and is do great things with them.

I hope you enjoy the podcast.

I have been using this app for a few weeks now and love it, it just makes my life that much easier due to the speed and simplicity of how it checks for sales history.

This is a free tool so go to iTunes or the DomainSalesApp.com website and give it a try, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Danny is trying to figure out what the question actually means, but they both get there in the end.

Maybe the question you should be asking is “How can I add app trading to my domaining business?”

mike mann

paul sloan

gary halbert

simon johnson

In light of recent Google changes, quality content is now crucial to building a successful brand online.

Quality podcasting however is still an option, but we’re working on it.

This episode is all about content. Where to get it and how to leverage it.

Links

media piston

iwriter

text broker

elliot silver

no-brainer

It really is a no brainer

There’s a lot to talk about this week. Better.com is for sale on flippa, lots of domain news, and Ed shares his “no brainer tip!”

Better.com Flippa listing

domain name sales

dnjournal

domain scout

Lots of news too…

Links

www.Flippa.com

Yes, even the yellow pages!

Links

Peter Drucker

The Challenge

Rick’s Blog

Danny has some tips on how to successfully approach buying domains and Ed shares a huge marketplace that most “domainers” haven’t even thought of.

Links

Domain Fest

Morgan Linton

Frank Schilling

Water Purifiers

Experts Academy – Brendon Burchard

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.

Optometrist.com.au

This is a major win for this business that is a smaller company competing against the larger ones such as OPSM, Spec Savers etc. As it happens, it appears that Spec Savers were the previous owners of Optometrist.com.au.

So congrats to the folks over at The Eye Practice.

If you have not herd of Flippa.com yet then come out of your cave and have a listen to what they have to offer. They are one of the biggest website sales marketplaces on the web at the moment and are getting very good results for their customers.

I have not used Flippa as yet but will be listing a few of my sites for sale there shortly.

Flippa.com

If you have been contemplating listing a website for sale on Flippa.com but have yet to do so, it would normally cost you US$19 to list a website with them.

Andrew has kindly organized a discount code for OzDomainer Podcast listeners which will give you 15 credits towards your first listing so you will only have to pay the balance of US$4. Just use the discount code “ozdom1” to claim your 15 free credits.

If you have already used Flippa.com in the past please feel free to leave a comment on how you went and what website / domain you listed or sold on Flippa.

I hope you enjoy the podcast.

I think we are in for an amazing year where domain names will reach a whole new audience of end users.

To help with that process, I hope that the interviews I have done in the past and my future podcasts will help to educate the general public and domain investors alike.

Some of my upcoming confirmed podcast guests will be -

Adrian Kinderis, CEO of AusRegistry

Adam Dicker, CEO of DNForum.com

Page Howe, CEO of  SiteHQ.com

Frank Schilling, (Second follow up interview from our first last year)

Also on my list but not spoken to or confirmed -

Michael Berkens, CEO of MostWantedDomains.com & Author of TheDomains.com

Rob Grant, CEO of RealEstateDirectory.com

Michael & David Castello of CCIN Castello Cities Internet Network
This will be a follow up interview with the Castello Brothers from my first podcast interview with them back in 2008

I have many more on my list that I will add at a later date. If you have anyone in particular you would like me to have on my podcast, please drop me a line through the comment section and I will see what I can do to get them on the show.

Have a great day!

As far as I am concerned, Woolworths picked it up for a song!! It sounds like they intend to take on Bunnings in a pretty big way so it will be interesting to see how they go about it.

Owning the single word category killer domain name should help a to get them going.

Here is the full story in the Herald Sun today http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/dot-dashed-as-domain-name-lapses/story-e6frfh4f-1225971726800

I had some issues with my emails not getting through to Frank which delayed the process, but I finally got it sorted with some help from my mate Ron Jackson from DNJournal.com who passed on some messages to Frank on my behalf. Thanks a million Ron

Ron did a brilliant cover story article about Frank on his blog back in 2007 which you can read here – http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2007/december.htm

Frank is a legend in the Domain Name industry and very nice guy to boot.

For someone who achieved so much in a smaller amount of time than most other domain investors, he is a true champion of this business.

Frank’s blog, Seven Mile (named after the beach where he lives on the Grand Cayman Islands) is by far one of the best domain name blogs out there even though he only posts once a month or so but when he does it is true gold. If you have not read it make sure you put on your list of “must do” items.

Anyway, that is enough from me! Get stuck into the podcast.

Enjoy

Kajabi Marketing Software

Hi all,

It is not very often that I have been this excited about an online product or service, but Kajabi is a different beast completely.

If you have no idea what Kajabi is and what the heck I am talking about then you can check it out here www.Kajabi.com.au

If you have already watched the first video then the latest video with a look behind Kajabi and what powers it, to its pricing structure are all revealed on the latest video. Just click on the “Get Kajabi” tab at the top of the page.

I have decided that I will be going for the Ultimate package as it just seemed to be the best value for my business model, but there is an option for everyone.

There is a 14 Day Free trial with no strings attached but it is for a very limited time.

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

For those of you who don’t know who George is, he started up the Domain8.com drop service for the .com.au ccTLD which was later sold to Fabulous.com and renamed to Drop.com.au which is its current service. Watch the video to see what George is up to now and his views on the domain industry at the moment.

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

Anyway to topic of this post, .Co domains.

Well it am pretty dam sure that it won’t be .Co, not in my life time anyway!

I have waited for a while to let the initial rush of the .Co registrations die down to see how things have gone. As far as new registrations go, it has gone very very well with close to 500,000 .Co’s registered in the first few months. Not to bad at all. 

I have been reading posts on many domain blogs where people are talking up the .Co like it was going to knock the .Com off it’s number 1 spot in the next few years, it makes me laugh that these folks are so ignorant. Domain newbies would be the best way I can describe them and ignorant ones at that.

Now I am NOT saying that they don’t have a place and that they are not valuable, far from it. I think that the .Co is one of the better gTLD’s to come along in the past 10 years and I own about 30 of them myself. But to even suggest for a moment that they will take over as the king of domains is just delusional IMHO!

At the time of this post there are over 80 Million .Com’s registered and has taken 25 years to get to that number. With Billions of dollars of marketing and advertising dollars behind the brand of .Com it just won’t happen. 

So let’s re-visit this post in 5 years time to see how the .Co has gone and if it has overtaken the .Com. If it has I will eat my hat live on video.

Have a great day folks.

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.

The radio ad was for a new Australian business directory company called Bloo www.Bloo.com.au.

At the end of their ad spousing all of their great features and benefits they gave out the web address just as it sounds BLUE, they did not give the alternate spelling of BLOO to the listeners. Big mistake in my book! If they owned www.Blue.com.au and it redirected to www.bloo.com.au then that would be fine, but they don’t it just goes to a dead page.

So if you are going to run radio ads make sure you have the right combo of domains to cover yourself and if it is a different spelling make sure you let the listeners know how to spell it so they can at least find you.

Domainer Income

Simon has a huge amount of experience in the domain industry and has been flying low under the radar
so far, but that is all about to change with his new domain name management service.

In my opinion Simon has put together one of the best domain name investment tools available
today and I have looked at them all! He does have a limited version free trial so make sure and check it out.

Disclamer:!!! I am an affiliate of Domainer Income and will make a commission if you purchase the Pro version of Domainer Income but if that bothers you then just bypass my links and type the domain in yourself.
The product is that good I just think more people should know about it regardless.

Here is a short Bio on Simon.

Simon Johnson
Co-Founder Domainer Income

* Co-Founded one of Australia’s first ISPs (isp.com.au) and Internet Security companies (shake.net)
* Former writer for Australian Personal Computing Magazine
* Author of best selling book on Internet Safety (Keep Your Kids Safe), published worldwide by McGraw Hill.
* 12+ years working for large multinational companies in the areas of Security, Fraud and Risk.
* Co- Founder of DomainerIncome.com

Enjoy the podcast!

Coincidentally yesterday the domain name www.CaravanParks.com.au sold on Drop.com.au for AU$10,100.00

I did not go after the domain myself but I did say to my wife Lois that I thought it would go for between $8 – $10 thousand dollars.

Anyway that is enough work for 1 week, congrats to Shaun Pilford from DIRECT NAVIGATION DOMAINS for picking up the domain, it is a great one.

I think we have some very exciting times ahead for the .AU market.

Here are some screen shots of some names that sold at auction last Friday 28th May on Drop.com.au

Drop.com.au Secondary Market Domain Auction Part 1 of 3 28.05.10

Drop.com.au Secondary Market Domain Auction Part 2 of 3 28.05.10

Drop.com.au Secondary Market Domain Auction Part 3 of 3 28.05.10

David Lye, CEO Netfleet.com.au

I believe that the .AU market has huge potential and with the help of sites like Netfleet.com.au and partner company Netregistry.com.au that the general publics awareness of the value of quality generic domain names will only get stronger.

I hope you enjoy this podcast.

Cheers

Ed

Only half of Australian small businesses have a website and of those businesses that have a website, less than a quarter of them feel they use their website and the Internet well enough to get a real tangible dollar benefit from it.

Achieve More Online is part of the Federal Government’s $14M Small Business Online program. The program will help small businesses, particularly those in tourism and professional services – get online and achieve more.

You may already have a website and want it to work harder for you. Or you may be looking to go online for the first time. Whatever stage you are at, the Achieve More Online program has 7 small business specialists who will show you, in simple steps, how to improve your online presence to ultimately put more $$ in your bottom line.

1 day hands-on workshop, 12 locations across WA and NT

In just 1 day, you’ll learn the 8 fundamental building blocks of a successful online marketing and website strategy and have a complete action plan to help you put that knowledge to use.

The 7 small business owners and specialists in their field will show you how to use the Internet to promote your business and create a website that works to deliver real dollars to your bottom line.

From business planning through to optimising your site for search engines and simple online marketing tools, everything you need to know about developing a better online business will be delivered to you in an interactive workshop and 1-to-1 mentoring sessions where we will help you solve your business’ specific problems.

At the end of the 1 day workshop, you’ll understand the 8 building blocks of a well balanced, effective online marketing plan:

• business plan, target market & purpose
• website design
• content building & copywriting
• graphic design & layout
• website imagery & photos
• website traffic generating tools such as pay per click advertising (PPC) & search engine optimisation (SEO)
• website promotion & relationship building tools such as Twitter, Facebook & other social media
• and the often underutilised and powerful email marketing tools you have at your disposal

All it costs is just 1 day and $49

In just 1 day you will have a complete action plan to create or upgrade your small business website and all for only $49.

You’ll know the right steps involved, and you’ll have a smart detailed action plan to get you started. You can contact us for follow-up support if you need further help or guidance throughout the program.

Want more information or to register?

Workshops commence in June across several locations throughout metropolitan and country WA and the Northern Territory.

Visit our website www.businessbalance.com.au/sbo for more details and to register online or alternatively fill out the attached form and fax it back to us to secure your place.

If you have any questions please phone us on 1300 856 274.

We look forward to helping you get the most out of being online.

This is an Australian Government funded initiative under the Small Business Online program

First up www.CarParts.com.au went at auction on Drop.com.au for AU$18,012 and was picked up by Michael Sojevic from the domain blog www.DNTrade.com.au. Well done Michael, that is a record for Drop.com.au where the biggest previous drop was for www.Printing.com.au that went for AU$9221 last year.

I was bidding on this name but only got to AU$5000 as that was my budget, damm!!

The other big name to go was www.CurrencyTrading.com.au which went for AU$5206 and was also picked up by Michael Sojevic, well done again mate!
I got to AU$2500 for that one!!

ccTLD’s are alive and very well DownUnder.

If you have been keeping an eye on what has been happening in the domain world over the past 18 months or so you will have noticed a significant increase in ccTLD sales across the globe. Most recently the sale of Fly.co.za at Traffic in Vegas for US$65,000.  Now yes of course I hear all the .com crazed domainers yelling “but Fly.com would be worth at least 10 times that price”.  No SHIT!!

But how many of them could pony up and pay the price for the .com?? Very few! So as far as opportunity and price of entry go ccTLD’s are great value are are overlooked by many domainers for reasons that are usually based on ignorance!

Just go and take a look at Ron Jackson’s DN Journal Website and the domain sales list and see how many of the top 10 sales of last week were ccTLD.

ccTLD’s Rock and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!

I am happy to announce that my business partners & myself have just picked up the domain www.AudioBooks.com.au from the www.drop.com.au (owned by Fabulous.com) auction yesterday. The name up until then had been registered since 1999 but had not been developed for whatever reason.

Audio Books are big business these days and getting bigger as time goes by. I have about 20 books that I have picked up from various places online to listen to on my MP3 player when I walk or exercise or just relaxing.

The plan is to develop the website into the leading authority in Australia for Audio Books and being a book worm both paper & audio this should be a fun project.

So if you know anyone that would like to do a deal and list their Audio Books for sale on our site when its completed please let me know.

Cheers

Ed

Andrew shares his years of experience online and talks about what lead him to where he is today, what he thinks the future of the internet has to offer and his new domain sales platform website Simple Domains.

Enjoy!

The only Drop service that I am aware of is www.drop.com.au (formally www.domain8.com.au up until a few weeks a go when it was sold to www.fabulous.com)

Added 02/12/09 Sorry forgot about www.domainwatch.com.au, I use www.drop.com.au a lot more though.

There have been many names dropping over the past weeks and months that should just never have been allowed to expire,  someone has taken their eye off the ball!!

Names like Townsville.com.au one of Australia’s most popular towns with tens of thousands of searches per month on Google Australia, who in their right mind would let that name drop. Surely it was not because they could not afford the AU$25.00 for 2 years renewal fee?? It went in the drop auction for AU$17,000 if my memory serves me (don’t quote me on that figure!) Then today we saw MotorHomes.com.au drop and was picked up for AU$5555.00 again with tens of thousands of searches on Google Australia.

So my question to you and other domain owners is this – Who Is Renewing Your Domain Names??? Who Has Been Given the Responsibility?? of making sure that you don’t lose your precious assets.

If you have a business / company and you have staff who’s job it is to manage the renewals of your domain names, make sure that you are included on the email list for renewal reminders even if you have it set within your registrar for Auto Renewal. Things can still go wrong with Auto Renewal in place such as credit cards expiring and what if the staff member responsible for these domains leaves the company and more than likely there company email address gets cancelled by the IT department not knowing that all of the renewal or domain related notices are set to go to that now non existent email address.

So go and double check all of your domains now to make sure you are protected from this happening, I am not sure about everyone else but paying the AU$25.00 renewal fee is a dam site cheaper than having to pay for it at auction due to ignorance or being lazy. Go check them now!

Cheers

OzDomainer

Just a quick update about a couple of podcasts -

Rick Silver from www.n49.ca

I am also happy to announce that I will be doing a podcast with Rick Silver from www.n49.ca / www.n49.com and we will be talking about his new role with Rick Latona & the Traffic shows as Panel Moderator. I met Rick in Amsterdam in June at the Traffic ccTLD conference. He is a great speaker and has a fantastic portfolio of generic .CA domains that he has developed over the years. So I will keep you posted on that interview when it goes live sometime in the very near future.

If you have yet to listen to my Podcasts with the other 2 Ricks, Rick Latona & Rick Schwartz then please have a listen to them at these links.

http://www.ozdomainer.com/domain-names-podcast-episode-5-with-rick-latona-from-ricklatonacom/

http://www.ozdomainer.com/domain-names-podcast-episode-10-with-rick-schwartz-domain-king/

I met Gregg at the Traffic ccTLD conference this year in Amsterdam but did not get to spend any time with him which would of been great but he was very busy and hard to get a hold of, maybe we can have a talk on a podcast at some stage as I am sure it would be great listening.

Well done again by Ron Jackson, he truly is the master of interviews! I especially love the bit with the cow giving birth (thats where Gregg gets his hands dirty)

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.

Chef Patrick

On this episode of Domain Names Podcast my guest is Patrick Ruddell from www.ChefPatrick.com.

Patrick started his Domain Names Blog only 12 months ago and has built it into a fantastic resource for the domain industry. With its unique blend of Video, Comic Strips & Reviews it stands out from the crowd of often same old same old domain blogs.

Patrick has put a great deal of effort into his WordPress based website and I think he has done a great job for a “Non Techie” as he calls himself.

I hope you enjoy the podcast.

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.

They are all listed on the no-reserve auction. Please let me know what you think.

They are as follows -

accesscontrol.info
adsl2.org
artdecofurniture.info
bluetoothheadset.info
broadbandcard.net
businessclassairfares.info
cameratripods.org
classiccarshows.info
cranescales.net
electricalswitches.net
fifthwheels.org
fifthwheelrv.net
fifthwheelrvs.net
firepits.info
gpssystem.org
hosefittings.net
hvacsystems.org
hvacfilters.net
industrialclothing.org
industriallighting.org
industrialtools.org
industrialvacuum.org
industrialvacuums.org
learnfirstaid.org
ledglobe.net
onlinetravelagents.net
pdareview.net
retailindustry.org
smallbusinessvoip.net
swimmingpoolcovers.org
toggleswitches.net
touchscreenmonitor.org
wirelessaccesspoints.net
wirelessopticalmouse.net

So while I was looking at these names that I own -

www.mountain-bike.com.au

www.mountain-bikes.com.au

www.road-bike.com.au

www.road-bikes.com.au

www.bmx-bike.com.au

www.bmx-bikes.com.au

I came across this website www.bicyclestore.com.au which on its own is a half decent domain name to have, but I also discovered that this same business owned www.mountainbike.com.au, www.mountainbikes.com.au, www.roadbikes.com.au & www.bmxbikes.com.au, which all redirect to his main website, not a bad effort and who knows how many other generic domain names he owns relating to his products and services.

Now without talking with the owners of the business I can never be sure of how much traffic that those names are bringing in but I did a quick calculation using the Google AdWords Keyword Tool set for “Australian” stars and it would be over 360,000 searches per month just on the exact match phrases alone for those names.

So its great to see that more and more businesses seem to be getting a grasp of the true value of generic domain names.

Zappy shares his years of experience online and talks about what lead him to where he is today, what he thinks the future of the internet has to offer  & we discuss his latest project www.InternetWarrior.com

A special thanks goes out to Andrew Hazen from InternetIdeas.net for helping me contact Zappy when my emails to him were not getting through for whatever reason. Thanks mate!

I would also like to thank everyone who has made comments and posted links on their blogs/websites about how much they enjoy this podcast. I have had a few requests from listeners about who they would like me to interview on future podcasts such as Frank Schilling, Mike Berkens & Rob Grant to name but a few. So if you do have someone that you want to hear from please let me know and I will endeavor to get them on the show.

So starting with Frank Schilling! if you are reading this or if someone knows how to contact Frank I would love to hear from him. Same goes for Mike Berkins & Rob Grant.

Regards

Ed

I was fortunate enough to meet Edwin on the first day of the Traffic ccTLDs  conference in Amsterdam and spent many hours talking about domains with him. He is a very switched on guy and has been around the domain industry since the mid to late 90′s and started one of the first ever if not the first website all about buying, selling and investing in domain names called www.igoldrush.com.

Many of you may have seen it of late as it is still around but was sold by Edwin several years ago to its current owners.

One of Edwin’s current projects (of which there are many) is his domain sales website www.memorabledomains.co.uk which lists many of his domains for sale targeted mainly at the .CO.UK domain market.

This is the longest podcast I have done at 1Hr & 16Mins in length. (yes I know I could cut it in half and have 2 separate podcasts, but time is just not permitting on that front) as Edwin has some great insights into many other domain related subjects such as domain development, mini-sites, marketing of domains and much much more.

Make sure you take notes as there are some gems in this podcast for those of you who have your ears and your mind open!

So grab yourself a cup of something, sit down and enjoy the podcast.

Jeff and I talk about the Indian domain names market, Traffic ccTLD Amsterdam and the ccTLD market in general.
Jeff is a very smart guy who really gets the .IN domain extension and his Indian Domain Forum is the leading authority on the subject.

If you have any interest at all in Indian domains make sure you have a listen to this podcast and check out his forum.

Rick is a “tell it like it is” type of guy which is one of the reasons I like to read his blog religiously over at http://www.ricksblog.com

The conversation started in the toilet and progressed from there. (you will have to listen to it it to find out more).

We talked about everything from his start in domains, some of his recent sales and what he thinks lies ahead for the industry.

I greatly enjoyed my talk with Rick and I hope you learn something from this very sharp business man.

Enjoy!

I have been asked by a few people if I thought flying all the way from Perth to Amsterdam (which is about a 24 hour trip including layovers) was worth it?

I think the answer comes back to the type of person you are, If you are the type of person who is shy, sticks to themselves and only goes to the sessions in the day then it may not be the best investment of your time and money but you may just pick up one thing from a speaker that could be very important to your business.

If you are the type of person who is outgoing, like to meet new people and network then you would be crazy not to go as you will learn more in the first day (especially if you are new to domaining) than you could imagine.

This is what these seminars and conferences always come down to for me, THE OTHER PEOPLE ATTENDING! I look back over the past 5 years at some of the conferences I have been to and some of my closest friends and business associates have come from them. Even though I live thousands of miles away from them we always keep in tough on a regular basis through the magic of the internet and programs such as Skype www.skype.com

Howard Neu Singing

********************************************************
The one thing I am sure of is that everyone who attended Traffic ccTLDs Amsterdam left with something different, new business connections, new ideas of how to do business, new friends and a few hangovers as well LOL but the important thing now is what is done with this new found information or business associates. If nothing is done then you may as well not have attended. Massive action is the key, act now while the information and inspiration are still fresh (I am speaking to myself here as well LOL)

One thing I did learn is that Howard Neu has a great voice as he demonstrated on the second evenings dinner event at West India House where a great time was had by all I am sure.

So thanks to all the people like Rick Latona, Howard Neu & Rick Schwartz for putting on these events and bringing people together from across the globe to share their information and view points regarding domain names. I still consider myself a very small fish in a very large pond but I am having a great time learning from everone else and hearing their stories. Thanks to all of those people who I talked with at Traffic ccTLDs and until the next time we meet I wish you all great fortune and happiness.

I was going to give a detailed blow by blow description of the event but then I realized it was pretty pointless after reading Ron Jackson’s coverage of the event in his recent June 2009 cover  story at www.DNJournal.com.  The guy does such a great job it would be very very very hard to do it better.

So rather than just repeating what Ron covered so well I will just give some of my viewpoints and opinions of what I thought of the event.

First point is to again thank Mark Fulton from the Domain Blog www.DotSauce.com for passing on the ticket to me to for the event that he won from Rick Latona. If you have not been to Mark’s blog check it out as it is one of the best out there!

One of the main reasons myself and others go to these industry events / conferences is to meet people and network. The sessions are great most of the time and I always learn something, but what you learn from just having a chat over a drink with someone is so much more rewarding that I would go just for that reason alone.

Considering it was Rick’s first major event it was run very well with only a few teething problems that you can only learn from over time which I am sure they will. If I had to give it a score out of 10 for how the conference was run I would say it was about an 8.5 /10 which is very decent in my books.

But the devil is in the details and I have been spoiled in the past by some of the internet marketing events that I have attended in the past where the details really really matter! Even to the point where they will get the attending guests to fill in a quick survey at the end of the conference to get feedback on what the attendees did and did not like about the conference and what could be improved.

I thing this is an important step and I have done this myself at seminars that I have run through my own business at home. If you don’t ask you will never really know as most people are polite and even if they did not like something they may still say it was “fine”. However if you give them an anonymous opportunity to speak their mind they will be free to tell the truth about what they think.

(From Left to Right) Jeff Behrendt, Ed Keay-Smith, Edwin Hayward & Matt Asher.

***********************************************************
I came away from the conference with some new friends and business associates and thats what it is all about in my book. It was great to get to know people like Jeff Behrendt from www.InForum.in as we have chatted many many times online about Indian domains but this was the first time we had met. Jeff’s Indian domain name forum is the leader in regards to the Indian domain space and is well worth your time if you have any interest in the .CO.IN or .IN domain extension (a sleeping giant IMHO). I shared a hotel room with Jeff and we had some good laughs, he’s pretty funny for a Canadian LOL!

Another kindred spirit that I met at the conference was Edwin Hayward from www.MemorableDomains.co.uk. Edwin was one of the panelists at the conference and did a very fine job of covering the UK domain extension. I got talking with Edwin on the very first day of the conference and we seemed to get on well and had a great appreciation of the .CO.UK ccTLD of which Edwin is a leading authority on the subject. Some of the things I picked up from Edwin in the first few hours of meeting him were well worth the time and effort of getting from Perth to Amsterdam for the conference. I came home with a completely different view on my domains and what I would be doing with them in the future but more of that in an upcoming blog post!

Matt Asher was someone who I only got to know in the last few days of the trip but was a great guy with a very nice collection of names who is also from Canada. Mark own www.freebeer.com which is a name many males would appreciate! Matt is American by birth but moved North to Canada from the US and now calls it home.

All of the guys I have just mentioned and I spent the Friday morning after the conference checking out Amsterdam on foot and on a boat ride and had lunch at a very nice little restaurant to top it all off.

It was great catching up again with Elliot & Karen Silver (from www.elliotsblog.com) who I met in New York last year when I was travelling with my family and also meeting for the first time Ron & Diana Jackson & Rick Latona who have both been a guest on my Domain Names Podcast.

Well this is all for now, more to follow in Part 2 where I will discuss my upcoming project idea that I decided to work on from talking with people at Traffic ccTLD’s.************************************************************

Ron & Diana Jackson

I am very happy to say that this time next week I will be in Amsterdam attending Rick Latona’s TRAFFIC ccTLD conference in Amsterdam.

I was fortunate enough to win a ticket from Mark Fulton from www.dotsauce.com Domain Blog. Mark was awarded the ticket himself for being the person to make the most number of blog posts on Rick Latona’s new www.cctlds.com website / forum, unfortunately for Mark his passport was out of date and he was not going to have enough time to get it renewed. He put it up for grabs on his site and I put my name down for it and gratefully he chose me to have the ticket.

So a quick airfare purchase and room reservation and I am now all set. So thanks very much again to Mark Fulton for the ticket.

I look forward to catching up again with Elliot & Karen Silver and also meeting for the first time Rick Latona & Ron Jackson who have both been interviewed by myself on this blog / podcast.

I will be sharing a room at the hotel with Jeff from www.inforum.in so no doubt we will have lots to talk about regarding the Indian domain name industry.

So all in all I think the conference will be great knowing the quality of the organizers and the speakers, but I look forward mostly to getting to meet new friends and business partners and catching up with others.

I am looking forward to this interview as I have huge respect for what Rick has done in and for the domain industry over the years.

The interview will not happen until after TRAFFIC ccTLD in Amsterdam as Rick has a full schedule and some holidays between now and then so that gives anyone who has specific questions that they would like to ask Rick the time to get them to me.

Funnily Rick and I were both quoted in the same article in the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald in Jan 2008
I spoke about that in this post http://www.ozdomainer.com/rick-schwartzs-rivers-of-gold-story-from-the-sydney-morning-herald/

Cheers

Ed

I consider Ron to be the top guy when it comes to reporting on whats happening in the Domain world with his great interviews that he does with the who’s who of domainers, his coverage of all the major domain name conferences and his relentless tracking of the sales that are happening in the domain industry.

I hope you enjoy the Podcast.

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.

Well it is!

Ron Jackson has just posted this today – The State of the Industry January 2009: 15 Leading Experts Break Down What Went Wrong in 2008 and Predict What Will Happen in 2009 and it would have been worth reading if it had only been the last post by Leading Expert #15 (you will have to read the article to find out who it is)

DO NOT WASTE A SECOND MORE ON MY BLOG! GET YOUR BUTTS OVER TO THE ARTICLE NOW

It is no surprise to me that China is now the leading country in terms of the number of internet users it has with 253 Million users beating the US with 220 Million and of course the amazing thing is that China has only a 19% user penetration to reach number 1 where the US has a 72.5% user penetration. This leaves room for massive growth over the next 5 – 10 years for China. Even if they only grow to 40% in the next 10 years that is over 500 Million internet users and that is huge numbers in anyone’s book.

But the country that excites me the most is of course India. No surprise there to my regular readers! With over 60 Million internet users to date it is number 4 on the list just after Japan. With a population of over 1.1 Billion people its user penetration is a tiny 4% which leaves massive room for growth. So happy days I think are ahead for the .co.in & .in ccTLD. Every day I am picking up great one & two word domains at reg fee which in time I am sure will be worth 50x times what I paid for them.

I have already seen an increase in interest for my .co.in & .in domains through Sedo and have sold a few over the past 12 months for anywhere between a 50x – 150x return.

I am constantly re-investing my profits into buying more Indian domains and developing the ones that I like the most. I can’t buy them all and don’t have the time to look every day, but there are still GREAT Indian domains to be had at reg cost. I still invest in other ccTLD’s and have several hundred .com, net & org’s in my portfolio and also .co.uk but I think the diamonds in the rough are my .co.in & .in domains. Give it a few more years and I will either be laughing or being laughed at. Nothing ventured nothing gained!

We start off in Tokyo for a few days then off to Kyoto & Osaka for another 20 days.

What I have noticed so far in Tokyo is that they have some strange domain names indead!

In one of the local magazines which promotes hotels there was a high percentage of hyphenated domain names.

For eg. www.central-inn.net, www.ark-hotel.co.jp, www.toyoko-inn.com I could go on but there were way to many with hyphens it would take me all night.
Lets just say they like their hyphenated domain names!

There was also a Japanese hotel using an Indian Hyphenated ccTLD domain www.e-room.in/royalkj/ go figure???

In the one to top the lot was one we saw walking down the street which was www.eeeeeee.jp/ Look out LLL & LLLL markets, here comes the LLLLLLL.
Now if anyone can guess what the company does at www.eeeeeee.jp/ before you click on the link, I will buy you a beer!

More strange domain name sitings from Japan coming soon.

Looking at most of the dropped domain names these days is its blatantly obvious that most people registering domain names don’t have a clue as to what constitutes a good or great domain name. Yes there can be exceptions to the rule but they are few and far between.

If the people registering these very poor, nonsensical domains had only read Ron Jackson’s great website Domain Newbie first, they may have thought twice about registering them and done some research before hand.

Name Newbie

Ron’s other site that he is much better known for is DN Journal which as MUST read also for all domainers / developers.

I have chatted to Ron via email many months ago (before I left for my 7 month trip) about him being the subject of one of my future podcasts but we have both been very busy so it is on the to do list!

It is a spoof video from “Domain Name Dollar Store”

Take a look you should get a laugh, even if you have watched it before!

The funny (& sad) thing is that most of the names in the video are better than most of the drop lists these days.

Cheers

Ed

Here is an extract from that post.

“About 6 months ago I made a list of about 500+ .co.in & .in domains that I was looking at registering.

I purchased about 100+ of the ones that I liked the best and left the rest for later or in this case other people.

One domain that I did not register was pvcpipes.in. A very good name, but I had others to deal with.

Well, checking back on it and others I see that quite a few of them have been registered by companies and NOT (as far as I can tell) by domainers.

The company that now owns pvcpipes.in is a manufacturer in India of you guessed it – PVC Pipes.

It is a trend that I think will get stronger as the Indian domain market gets more recognition from the Indian population.”

To read the whole post go here

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.

One thing I do on a regular basis is look over the domain names that are going to auction at any given time and then do a search of my ccTLD’s that I have in my portfolio (mainly .co.uk, com.au & .co.in & .in) to see if that domain name is available in any of those extensions.

Quite often they are and as long as it makes sense to searchers in that country and has a decent search volume for the domain name keyword string, then I will register that name. I do usually stick to commercial based domains as it is much easier to monetise them from parking in the short term and developing mini sites etc with them.

As an example here are a few Indian domains that I picked up after looking over the current list of auctions coming up next week at TRAFFIC in New York.

spreadsheets.in

spreadsheets.co.in

securityalarms.co.in

atriums.in

atriums.co.in

computerbatteries.in

computerbatteries.co.in

researchlab.in

researchlab.co.in

researchlabs.in

researchlabs.co.in

bulldozers.co.in

bulldozers.in

liabilities.co.in

liabilities.in

ticketsales.co.in

partysupplies.co.in

furniturerepair.co.in

furniturerepair.in

Now I now these names are not a .com or .net but they can be very, very powerful in their country of origin as many people relate very strongly to their own ccTLD.

I know for a fact that they will pretty much all wash their faces within 6 months once a mini-site has been put up with some original content, AdSense , affiliate programs & advertises etc. The risk of investment is not very high for a decent return and hopefully a better sale price in the long run.

I have many sites that are set up this way and tick along bringing in $5+ per day from AdSense and some a lot more from affiliate products and advertising and none are .com domains.

It is a no brainer to me that if I can buy a good quality overlooked ccTLD for under $10 and spend another $150 on content and building the mini-site and get that back in 6 months then from then on its all cream on top.

An example of a site I have is www.biodieselkits.co.uk. I have had that domain since Feb 2007 and from about Nov 2007 it has been bringing in between $5-20 per day in AdSense income and it is number 1 in Google UK for its main keyword phrase (and has been for the past 9 months) and in the top 5 on Google globally as well.
I am also talking with some suppliers to sell the product direct from the website (these kits sell for anywhere between $2500 – $25000 depending on the size) now it won’t take many sales even at the low end to make this a very profitable website and I spent $200 bucks and about 2 hours developing it.

I am not saying this to pat myself on the back, I am saying this to try and get those of you who think ccTLD’s are not worth it to think again, they are and they will only get stronger over time as the .com gets stonger and more expensive and out of reach for the small to medium businesses to buy.

At the end of a day it is just a simple formula that works for me, it may not be for everyone and that’s fine by me too. (more for me )

I am looking forward to seeing how much the .com equivalents of my domains sell for if at all. If they do go for high prices it only ads to the value of my ccTLD’s.

Am I full of crap??? Time will tell! LOL

[ad#ad-1]

The answer depends on many things.

But first you need to ask a few other more important questions-

Do you even want to to do them yourself?

If so, how much time do you have available if you are building the sites yourself?

Do you want to create the content for the sites yourself or outsource it to a ghost writer on Elance etc?

How many domains do you have to develop and are you kidding yourself that you will ever get around to building them all out!!??
(I own approx 900 or so domains and I know that I will only ever get to developing a fraction of those)

The answers to the above questions may very well make the first question mute!

If you get to the point where you do want to develop your domain names yourself then here are some of the software platforms that I use.

For anything website / blog related, as far as I am concerned the king of the hill is WordPress. I have tried the others over the years but still keep coming back to WordPress and it just keeps getting better and better each year. It is open source so it if free to use!! Yey!

It has a huge community behind it and most decent hosting companies using C/Panel or alike suck as Host Gator have automated installs and updates available which makes it very easy for the new person getting started with WordPress.

I have about 10 sites that I currently have running in WordPress including my Biodiesel Kits website and of course this one. So check it out at www.wordpress.org

The other software program I use and have done for the past few years is XSite Pro 2. It is a fantastic HTML / WYSYWIG website design package that is taylor made for web marketers and has many great templates, widgets, scripts etc built in.

The latest version 2 has only been out for the past 4 months and is a great improvement over the first version which was still great for its time.

XSite Pro 2 has built in scripts for your AdSense account details so it makes it very very easy with just a few clicks to have ads placed wherever you like on your site.

A site that I have just started which is on the subject of water purifiers in India called www.waterpurifiers.in was built using XSite Pro 2. It won’t win any design awards, but in my experiance in internet marketing over the past 5 years “slick is dick” and as long as the site is fuctional and has good information that is all that most visitors give a hoot about. The more bells and whistles you have on a website IMHO the worse it is for the user.

So thats my 2 cents worth on the matter and I welcome any useful and relevant comments.

Cheers

Ed

We were in the local cafe using the wifi when a very cool van drove past us and it caught our eye and so did the domain name. The domain is www.dogwalking.fr and you will never guess what this company does…. you guest it, Dog Walking. I did not get a chance to check out the domain name until later that day about 7 hours after first seeing it but because they used an easy to remember domain name I went straight to the website no problem at all.

I know to most this may seem like such an obvious thing to do, but on my travels I have seen some really crap domain names and guess what, I can’t remember them!

Anyway check out this website, it is very very cool and one of the stand out websites I have seen this year. www.dogwalking.fr

According to Michael it was the first time that both himself & David had been recorded together for an interview.

Michael & David Castello (Michael on the left & David on the right of photo (Picture courtesy of www.dnjournal.com) are great guys with a huge depth of knowledge on domain names especially when it comes to Geo Domains.

They own through their company CCIN (Castello Cities Internet Network) some great names such as www.PalmSprings.com, www.Nashville.com, www.Acapulco.com and many more which are also listed on the Associated Cities website that they joined back in 2004.

They also own some catagory killer generic domains such as www.Whisky.com, www.GolfClub.com, www.Daycare.com & www.Bullion.com

Both have a great story to tell and a wealth of knowledge to share for those who are wise enough to listen. So if you have even the slightest interest in Geo Domains make sure you listen to this podcast.

Michael & David also won the 2008 Domainers Choice Award for both the Rising Star and Domain Ambassador categories at DomainFest 2008

Also check out this great video of the Castello Brothers in their Rock Band Michael Seven, you will see a side to them that you may not have seen before (Michael Lead Singer/Guitar & David on Drums). Great stuff!! www.michaelseven.com

Hope you enjoy it.

First up I will be interviewing Dan Kimball & Sean Stafford from www.dnzoom.com

We will be talking about the creation and launch of DN Zoom and what it has to offer domainers also we will be talking about Sean’s new eBook Domain Graduate.

****************************************************************************

michael-and-david-castello

Also later in the week I will be speaking with brothers Michael & David Castello from CCIN (Castello Cities Internet Network)

These guys have a great portfolio of Geo Domains and we will here from them the history behind those names and and their thoughts on this domain space.

I am greatly looking forward to speaking with all of these guests and I hope that if any of you that listen to this podcast or read this blog have any questions for the above guests, please send me them via the comment section of this post.

(Pictures courtesy of www.dnjournal.com)

AUSTRALIAN internet entrepreneurs are raking in millions of dollars a year by spotting the true value of what’s in a name.

The practice of buying up unused names, known as “domain parking”, is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion worldwide — and Australia is seen as a growing market for those with an eye for a dollar.

The Australian Domain Name Administrator (AUDA), the governing body for “dot au” domains, is set to loosen regulations restricting the practice within months, sparking a likely buying boom as a result.

Domainers, as they call themselves, spot generic or popular names that have not been turned into websites and register them for as little as $US7 ($A7.50). They cram them with advertisements and watch as they earn a few cents per hit — big bucks when you have a portfolio of tens of thousands of domains.

Unlike cyber-squatting, where people infringe trademarks and fraudulently obtain internet traffic, domainers say they are supplying people with information.

With two partners, he has built a business around names such as geekwatch.com and bingonight.co.uk — names that receive hundreds of hits through the sheer weight of the billion or so people who use the internet daily.

He now works full-time as a domainer and is auctioning one of his most prized sites, profgolfer.com, which he hopes will fetch him $75,000.

“Enormous money can be made out of parking still in Australia with dot au space, where a lot less penetration has been made than in America,” he said. “It’s as easy as seeing how many times a particular word is indexed on Google then seeing if it is taken or not.”

Click here for the whole article..

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.

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

If you have any questions you would like me to ask Elliot during the interview please get them in quick via the comments section of this post.

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.

This just in from www.domainnamewire.com
It is great to see more and more companies spending money on quality generic domains that are targeted to the products and services they own.

” [Updated 9:49AM CST] ESS Data Recovery has purchased the domain name DataRecovery.com for $1.659 million, confirms company President Ben Carmitchel.

The sale marks the biggest reported sale of the year and shows the promise of a targeted, generic domain name.

The seller is competitor Associated Computers, Inc. of Minnesota. Carmitchel confirmed that the transfer took place on February 1, 2008.

In a phone interview this morning, Carmitchel said he’s been working on buying the domain for a long time.

“I’ve been working on it for 5 or 6 years,” said Carmitchel. “I’ve known [the previous owner] for a long time. He wanted to sell it but he wouldn’t let it go for chump change.”

Click here to read the rest

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

I was also interviewed and had a few comments quoted in the article.

Here is a snippet from the story -

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In Rick Schwartz’s thriving real-estate business there are no rising interest rates to fret over, no land taxes to deal with and foreclosures are few and far between.

Yet Schwartz rakes in millions of dollars in annual income from his 6000-odd properties and recently sold one for $US750,000 after buying it in 1997 for about $US100.

It sounds too good to be true but Schwartz, the self-appointed “domain king” and full-time trader of internet real estate, says he is shocked more people haven’t tapped into the rivers of gold flowing through the domain name trading business.

For the whole article click here

The domain name industry has been receiving a great deal more press within the last 12 months or so and it looks like 2008 will be no different. A sign of things to come in what I consider to be the best business & industry to be involved with.

I would like to thank Rick Schwartz for being the flag bearer all these years in particular the early days when everyone thought he was a bit crazy for spending money on domain names. He has had the last laugh on that subject!

I still think it is early days for the domain name industry and the best is yet to come. Bring it on I say!

Another fantastic article done by DN Journal owner Ron Jackson.

Here is just a snippet.

frankschilling.jpg

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If there is any man in the domain business who truly needs no introduction, it’s Frank Schilling. By now just about everyone has heard the name, read the blog and marveled at the numbers. He owns hundreds of thousands of high quality generic .com domains and annual revenues for his closely held Cayman Islands company, Name Administration, Inc. are estimated to be in the $20 million range. Despite enjoying a level of success that would turn most people’s heads, Schilling, now 38, remains unchanged and is universally regarded as one of the nicest people in this (or any other) business. These are all things you have likely heard before, but to borrow a line from Paul Harvey, now it’s time to tell “the rest of the story.”

Go here to read the rest of this great story!

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

A survey showed that more than 79% IT certified professionals want to pursue additional certification credentials. EMC E20-001 certified holder want to obtain 1Y0-308 Citrix® Access Gateway 4.5 Advanced and Microsoft MCSA 70-648. Obtaining 646-363 CXFA and 650-393 LCSE Cisco Lifecycle Services Express certification credential will help you obtain high salary. Check out new 312-50 also

Well for those of you who don’t follow English Football (or Soccer as we call it in Australia) Sydney FC (Sydney Football Club) has defeated LA Galaxy 5-3 in their friendly match at Telstra stadium in Sydney tonight in front of 83,000 fans.

Image courtesy of Sky News.

It was a great match and David Beckham was in fine form with one of his trademark penalty goals.

So what does David Beckham have in common with domain names?

Well you would only have missed the Sydney.com domain name painted on the grass next to the goals if you were blind. Not to mention all the flashing and scrolling billboards along the edge of the pitch. I am not sure the numbers of the global audience, but it would had to have been in the tens of millions.

Now while all the other advertisers were displaying all sorts of hard to recall images, Sydney.com stood out the most and was the one that can had the easiest time remembering after the match. Easy just type in sydney.com in the address bar on my browser and hey presto, I’m there. The others I would have to do a fair bit of searching before I would find what I was looking for.

So as far as I am concerned it was a win for Sydney FC & a win for www.sydney.com

Go domain names!!

PS. Do you think that I gave enough links back to www.sydney.com LOL

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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

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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!

Microsoft MCTS 70-640 and MB2-633: Microsoft Dynamics CRM certification exams are designed for those who are serious about their career in IT. The highest value certification exam IBM 000-331 Power Systems Sales for AIX and Linux and 000-223 IBM System p Administrator will help you enhance your career options. The top level revenue generating certification exam is a Cisco 650-575 LCSAS Lifecycle Services Advanced Security exam.

This article link by Sir Frank Schilling with my comments attached.

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/releases/?contentId=4625

I love the .co.uk domain space and own just over 250 of them. Although I live in Australia I was born in Scotland and am developing a few of the better quality names with some companies in the UK.

I think the survey is very accurate and only makes sense that people have a high trust factor for their local ccTLd.

I know that most of the people I talk to in Australia have a similar mindset for the .com.au.

Yes .com is still king but the ccTLD’s still have a great deal to offer the new domainer that may not have the cash to get into the higher priced .com domains.

I had better stop typing and get some more …

Cheers

Ed Keay-Smith

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It just goes to show that Corporate America has got a great deal of learning to do regarding the value of a great generic domain name.

Here is a snippet from the article.

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For the rest of the story click here

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For more surprises, here is a detailed list of published Sedo sales for the week up to September 17th, 2007:
.COM Sales

debit.com 100,000 USD
cadilac.com 68,000 USD
lsk.com 20,500 USD
1z.com 18,000 EUR
bii.com 17,500 USD
observe.com 17,000 USD
depends.com 15,499 USD
heya.com 15,000 USD
vte.com 12,800 USD
solardirectory.com 11,000 USD
myfreefilehosting.com 11,000 USD
figurine.com 10,100 USD
sportsdate.com 7,100 EUR
ykj.com 6,650 USD
colocationhosting.com 6,500 USD
vkn.com 5,900 USD
playstreet.com 5,550 USD
enjaz.com 4,900 USD

Other

gems.org 11,100 USD
mechanics.mobi 7,000 USD
taste.org 4,200 USD
renovation.biz 2,732 USD
podcasts.info 1,750 USD
paper.info 1,355 EUR
dressers.net 1,188 USD
call-center.org 1,000 EUR
catalina.mobi 900 USD
solarheizung.org 900 EUR (solar Heating in German)
costume.biz 800 USD

ccTLD

hongkong.de 10,000 EUR
motels.tv 7,000 USD
scotland.tv 6,750 USD
truck.us 3,150 USD
fotos.co.uk 3,100 USD
oral.tv 2,850 USD
citysite.net 2,625 USD
domainreseller.de 2,550 EUR
songwriters.de 2,500 EUR
restaurant.se 2,500 EUR
superman.ws 2,050 USD
objektschutz.de 2,000 EUR (Security Services in German)
igame.co.uk 2,000 GBP
rent.cc 2,000 USD
EUR10.eu 2,000 EUR
westminster.de 1,750 EUR
holiday.be 1,550 EUR
traumberufe.de 1,500 EUR
socialbookmarks.de 1,500 EUR
myone.at 1,500 EUR
arzneien.at 1,500 EUR
handymitvertrag.de 1,200 EUR(Cell Phone with Contract – this is a typo, though?)
top-business.de 1,200 EUR
innovativesystems.eu 1,100 USD
zweifel.de 1,050 EUR (To Doubt in German)
gratis-strom.de 1,050 EUR (Free Electricity in German)
fussballvz.de 1,010 EUR (Football Club in German
voip.net.in 1,000 USD
online-fluege.de 1,000 EUR (Online Flights in German)
juegogratis.tv 1,000 EUR (Free Game in Spanish)
chinaimports.com.cn 1,000 USD
kolor.de 1,000 EUR
disain.eu 1,000 EUR
weltgeschichte.de 900 EUR (World History in German)
clipping24.de 850 EUR
bericht.de 800 EUR (Report in German)

Websites

cursayer.com 3,700 GBP
base.cc 1,500 EUR
bajame.net 25,000 EUR (bring me down in Spanish)
vconvert.net 15,700 EUR

50 Great e-Businesses and the Minds Behind Them by Emily Ross & Angus Holland who are both from Melbourne , Australia

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It reviews the history behind some of very well known e-businesses like eBay, Google, PayPal and some of the not so huge or well known ones but still very successful.

The stories of these start-ups is so wide and varied it should give people some idea of what is possible for businesses on the internet.

This book is hot off the press and I am not sure that it is available outside of Australia at the time of this post being written. For more info please go to the the publishers site Random House Australia. It is well worth your time and effort IMHO!

See below for more details from the publisher.

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Another book of business case studies – short, sharp and motivational – from the authors of the bestselling 100 GREAT BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM.

Description of book

Creating profitable businesses on the internet is no mean feat and, as anyone who has watched the rise of eBay or Amazon knows, the web has forever changed the way we do business. Now the bestselling authors of 100 GREAT BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM take a look at some of the smartest, most profitable internet businesses operating today, and reveal that whether big, small, local or on the other side of the planet, when it’s web business, it’s a small, fascinating world, with potentially limitless opportunities.

This collection of 50 case studies from around the world offers valuable inspiration, ideas and lessons on the principles of successful internet businesses – from travel (kayak.com) to sex (Danni Ashe), in cyberspace there is a new way to sell everything. The founders of sites like lastminute.com, netaporter.com and collegehumor.com provide lasting lessons on the art of building an e-business success rather than a dot.com bomb. It’s all about web innovation, timing and tapping into those billions of customers.

50 GREAT E-BUSINESSES AND THE MINDS BEHIND THEM delves into thriving sites in the areas of travel, gambling, sex, retail, blogging, medical testing, financial services, celebrities, astrology and other entertainment. And with fresh updates on Google, Dell, and CraigsList covering all of their innovations, where better to look for e-business advice than from the world’s best?

This snippet is from Domain News -

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Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, today announced that it recently brokered the sale of the domain Chinese.com for $1 million. The deal marks Sedo’s first seven figure sale in 2007.

Domain name sale prices often follow trends in the marketplace, and Chinese.com certainly indicated the massive economic interest in China,” said Matt Bentley, chief strategy officer, Sedo. “Additionally, the transaction further demonstrates Sedo’s expertise in the premium domain name market.

What are your thoughts on the price it sold for, do you think it was to high or to low or like Goldilocks said “Just Right”?

List of names is from Domain Name News

ComputerTechnology.com – $16,208
Artichoke.com – $26,500
AntiCoagulants.com – $1850
MultiplePersonality.com – $2900
GTF.net – $1500
LifeSchool.com – $1550
InsuranceTX.com – $700
AutomotiveSeat.com $900
Solaire.com – $8067
CoolBike.com – $5170
IGoods.com – $3933
IndependentMortgage.com – $6100
CommunityTitle.com – $1250
Accreditation.net – $1255
IndustrialSoftware.com $1550
FineRealEstate.com – $825
HumanAssets.com – $575