There was a lot of debate leading up to the conference about whether this year’s program (which was heavily weighted toward SEO and development) could be of any use to domain investors. The beauty of domaining is that there’s no “cookie-cutter” way of doing things, and I think this year’s conference acknowledged that.

Rather than rehash the entire three-day event, I figured I would cherry-pick the information and action items I found the most helpful. I took A LOT of notes, and some of the seminars were better than others – I’m only going to focus on the data that was the most useful.

This will be split into two parts. Action items are listed after each bullet point so you can implement these ideas into your own portfolios, campaigns, and websites.

1. Mobile is Taking Over

This is a no-brainer, with more people browsing on their smartphones than ever before.
Oversee.net stated that 12-13% of their traffic is mobile, and mobile ad revenue is expected to grow from $3.3 billion to $20.6 billion between 2012 and 2015, more than doubling each year.
If you specialize in local search, think about this: 50% of mobile queries have local intent.

2. Social Networking

Ok, we know social media is important, but check out these stats:
1 in 5 minutes online is spent on social networking
15-24 year-olds are abandoning email in favor of text messaging, Twitter, and Facebook
Women, as a whole, are more active on social networks, and Latin America ranks highest for engagement worldwide
5% of all ad impressions in the U.S. are “socially-enabled.”

3. Keyword Research = Understanding Visitors’ Intent

This is huge for optimizing landing pages, PPC campaigns, and parked pages. Ultimately, a successful page delivers EXACTLY what the visitor is looking for. Anything less than that results in a “bounce,” or the dreaded “Back” button. You may think you have the world’s greatest “pet food” domain, but the reality is that nobody searches for “pet food”…they search for “dog food, “cat food,” and breed-specific products.

One example was an SAT test prep site that wasn’t getting very many conversions. They discovered over 70% of searches had nothing to do with “test prep.” Instead, people were searching for “What time is the test?” and nearby testing locations. Solution: Rethink the company’s model and provide a page of test dates and locations.

4. PPC: Work Smarter, Dig Deeper

I use Google Adwords to advertise my music business to wedding clients throughout the year, so I found this particularly helpful. Jeff Ferguson of Fang Digital Media spoke about “digging deeper” into PPC campaigns. Too many people set their keywords and target area and spending limits, and forget about it. Jeff and his team found out that if you study your clicks and ROI over a month, patterns would emerge showing which days of the week were most cost effective for your ad (taking into account holidays and industry-specific factors).

Spend more on the days with the most views and clicks, and less when ROI is down. Clarify who you’re selling to – if it’s “Enterprise-level SEM,” specify that.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of my DOMAINfest highlights, which will cover landing pages, Google’s ever-changing algorithm, and why the old “parking” model of domain investing may be facing extinction in the next few years.

Moniker, which was a part of the Oversee.net family of companies, has consistently ranked in the Top 10 largest registrars worldwide. The deal has not been formally announced, aside from a mention on KeyDrive’s website. Although I can’t speculate as to whether the recent exits of Moniker staffers, among them trusted Account Executives Bari Meyerson and Don Lyons, had anything to do with the deal, it has been pretty clear that there have been changes underway at Oversee and Moniker over the last year. The company lost over 800,000 names in 2011, with a lot of investors pulling out and moving names elsewhere in light of privacy breaches, poor management, and the firing of staff members.

Michael Berkens first hinted at the possibility that the companies might be for sale in this post from January 9, 2012. We’ll continue to update as more information becomes available.

Morgan started out by welcoming the crowd of about 75 at the Shore Hotel — mostly investors, although there were also several developers and affiliate marketers who were new to domaining.

Left of the Dot and Inspection.com

Left of the Dot’s John Lyotier gave the first presentation, detailing their development strategy for properties like Villa.com and Massage.com, which includes subdividing valuable domain real estate into subdomains. He used Inspection.com as an example, which the company recently developed in anticipation of the extended Moniker Premium Domain Auction at DOMAINfest. Within minutes of launching the site framework, a lead came in from someone looking for a home inspector, which proves that industry credibility goes hand-in-hand with owning a premium, industry-defining domain.

John also mentioned the innovative measures the company is taking in terms of analyzing and reaching out to end-user prospects, and explained that they’d had direct contact (both through email marketing and snail mail) with 54 highly targeted decision makers regarding Inspection.com.

Left of the Dot doesn’t only develop as a sales strategy. They also forge longterm relationships with owners of premium domain properties, splitting development costs, revenue, and upside. It is clear they have an amazing team and are taking a unique approach to domain development, and it will be exciting to see what they come up with in the future.

Abdu Tarabichi of Domainsville summarized his site’s successes in terms of social media, and the founders of ContentWriters.us pitched their service, which delivers original, Copyscape-approved content for $.01 a word.

Protrada

The night wrapped up with two exciting presentations from Protrada and Morgan Linton. Protrada is a sleek new domain management and auction tracking platform that has recently ventured into rapid development. In only 11 seconds, Protrada can populate a widgetized, fully-functional website based on its semantic analysis of your domain’s keywords.

Company guru Troy Rushton says that what sets them apart from other mass-development platforms is the depth of their content, as well as the flexibility of their designs. For instance, you can book travel through their sites (partnered with Expedia), and they have a variety of lead gen forms and search functions that make for a more interactive user experience, over say, a static minisite.

Appraiso

Morgan Linton and his team unveiled a new valuation tool, Appraiso, which draws on archived sales data from a number of platforms to determine a website’s value. You can value the domain by itself, or enter in traffic, revenue, and profit, to generate a sales value (based on multiples and comps of similar sales).

One of the really cool features about Appraiso is its ability to recognize and flag issues such as when revenue for a site appears too high based on the number of unique visitors per month. This can help potential buyers assess whether the seller’s estimates are accurate. There are a number of other cool features they plan on unveiling in the near future, and Morgan explained that the algorithm on which Appraiso is based is structured to “learn” from newly inputed data.

If you are ever in Southern California, I highly going to the Southern California Domainers Meetup – the group has reserved the Shore Hotel as its venue and will be holding regular Meetups every three months. It’s a great way to meet domainers from around the country, and I’m already looking forward to the next one.

For more information:

Protrada: Protrada
Appraiso: Appraiso
Left of the Dot: Left of the Dot
ContentWriters.us: ContentWriters.us
Domainsville: Domainsville

* Unless you were at the “other” more exclusive party happening in town.

Credit: DOMAINfest/Oversee.net

There’s nothing quite like the thrill of attending a conference like DOMAINfest, with a jam-packed agenda of three days of seminars, discussion panels, and networking parties.

The most important aspect of any conference or trade show is, of course, the people you meet — and I don’t mean the celebrities and industry VIPs. Domain conferences present endless opportunities for forging lasting business relationships and friendships, and these are a few of the steps you can take to guarantee you get the most out of your conference experience.

Here is my list of tips so you can network like a pro.

Top 10 Things to Do (and Not Do) at a Domain Conference:

1. Get There Early. Show up to breakfast, coffee breaks, and evening parties 15 minutes early, when the crowd is thin and it’s easier to mingle. Once the room fills up, it will be noisy and a lot harder to strike up conversations.

2. Have a Gameplan. Review the schedule ahead of time and figure out which seminars and panels you’d like to attend, and who’d you like to meet. If your emphasis is on SEO and local search, you may want to plan some meetings with experts in that field. If your focus is on ccTLDs, find like-minded investors to connect with.

3. Take Advantage of Every Opportunity. A couple of years ago, DOMAINfest added Dine with an Expert, where participants could sign-up to have breakfast or lunch with domain “celebs” like Frank Schilling and SEO guru Bruce Clay. These fill up quickly, so it’s best to reserve your spot early on. The same goes for pre-or-post conference meetups and dinner invitations. Say “yes” to everything.

4. Get to Know Everyone at Your Breakfast Table. The guy giving the keynote address probably isn’t interested in what you do, but the guy sitting to your left during breakfast or lunch probably is. Even if you’re not the talkative type, make an effort to introduce yourself to everyone around you. You’ll have more interesting conversations that could lead to lasting relationships down the road.

5. Have Business Cards Ready and a List of Your Domains. People will inevitably ask what domains you own, and it’s a lot easier if you have a list handy (see #5 — if they don’t ask or show any interest, keep it to yourself). Business cards are also essential and you can get inexpensive ones at Inkd and Vistaprint.

6. Do NOT Start Every Conversation with a Sales Pitch. There was a guy in NY who was peddling his list of domains for sale every chance he got. I even saw him interrupt people’s conversations, asking them if they would take a look at his list. People see that stuff coming from a mile away, and looking desperate is NOT the way to sell names. It’s also bad etiquette. When networking, be friendly and engaging, and lead off with something other than a sales pitch.

7. Ask questions. This goes hand-in-hand with #4. People are always interested in talking about themselves, and showing an interest in their background and what they have to offer can be a great ice breaker.

8. Use an App Like Evernote to Write Down Reminders. I always travel with my laptop, and some people prefer an old-fashioned pen and paper, but take time between events to write everything down, from the names of people you met, to interesting domains for sale you’d like to inquire about, and notes from the seminars. I like to use my Macbook for more extensive note-taking, and Evernote on my phone for contacts and action items.

9. Tweet First, Save Facebook and LinkedIn for Later. Following someone you’ve just met on Twitter is a great way to say “let’s stay in touch.” Save the Facebook and LinkedIn requests until you’ve established more of a personal and working relationship.

10. Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up! This is common sense, but only a small percentage of people actually do it. Take all of those business cards you’ve saved, reminders on Evernote, and Twitter contacts, and reach out to people preferably no later than one week after the conference. If you wait too long, you’ll never get around to it, and they might not remember you. A simple, “Hi, John, it was great meeting you at the conference. Keep me posted on Project XYZ and your sale of Widgets.com, and if you ever need anything, you can reach me at (your contact info here),” will do.

There was an outbreak of the flu (and to some extent, a bacterial infection, possibly Legionnaire’s disease) at DOMAINfest last week, and now the CDC is involved. While I wish everyone who was affected a speedy recovery, I don’t know what’s going on with the blog posts this week.

It reminds me of being in seventh grade and seeing fights break out during recess.

Yes, that’s right—seventh grade—and these are grown men with full-time jobs and families.

One of the problems is that the domaining world is tiny. Word travels fast.

It’s also populated by successful, driven men (for the most part), who have egos, and tempers flare quickly. I don’t know what to report, but the comments in some of the major blogs are starting to read like TMZ.

I suppose, being a newcomer and an outsider (recognizing that many of these rivalries are deep-rooted and were formed years ago), I don’t have room to talk. I’ve witnessed the bickering for the past several months, but it only seems to be getting worse. It’s up to the people involved to sort out their issues in a healthy way, but in the meantime, the rest of us are subjected to it, because these are our sources of news, and people we look up to.

Respect, once lost, is not easily regained.

For the past year, I’ve had the growing desire to do something meaningful. I’ve got a great job, live in an exciting city, and get to tinker around with domains in my spare time, but for a while now I’ve wanted to get involved with more projects that could directly help others. I got in touch with a local organization called A-SPAN that assists and rehabilitates the homeless, and started a campaign at work collecting mini-sized toiletries during our band’s 3-week tour in the fall. I’m in a D.C. Volunteers Meetup, but that’s just isolated projects here and there – D.C. is full of entrepreneurs and young professionals who actively serve, and their energy and ideas never case to amaze me.

There are a number of domainers who donate their time and money (most of which probably doesn’t get reported), but when you’re dealing with drop lists and sales pitches and auctions all day, it’s easy to think of domaining as a very self-centered “me, me, me” endeavor. At times, it seems like it’s all about the bottom line.

A domain is certainly valuable without a site attached to it, but it isn’t necessarily meaningful. How meaningful is a portfolio of 100, 500, or 10,000 standalone names, without a greater purpose? Do you see what I’m getting at? It’s profitable and fun to trade chips with fellow investors, but after a while, it can start to feel…well, a bit empty.

I met Robert Wray (@wraydo on Twitter) yesterday, who domainers probably haven’t heard of, but who’s no stranger to anyone who was at the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas and is familiar with the concept of “connected cars.” Robert started the Baltimore-based company MP3Car.com in 2004, which provides custom mobile computing solutions to customers worldwide (GM, NASA, and MIT are among their customers, and he also happens to own NuclearWar.com, but that’s a whole different story).

He’s one of those innovative “out of the box” thinkers who is very passionate about technology, but is also involved with community outreach projects that help inner city students in Baltimore. In addition to learning a few things about wired and electric vehicles, he also got me thinking about how to (possibly) develop with community service as well as monetization in mind.

Before I get ahead of myself, I’ll say that I acquired a Geo .ME last week that will be one of my major development projects later this year. I’m waiting until I get a few things sorted out before announcing the name, but I’m very excited about it. The country is a big tourist and honeymoon destination, which is a no-brainer for hotel booking affiliate programs, but lately I’ve been brainstorming how to make the site valuable to local residents, as well. It’s not as much of a challenge with something like Denver.com where residents and tourists are a bit more integrated, but in this case the audiences would be vastly different.

There will be a follow-up post on Geo Developing for locals vs. tourists (an offshoot of an interesting discussion I found on a different blog), but for now, I’m approaching this new project from a different perspective. I’ll need to include cheesy “tourist trap” affiliate ads to pay the bills, but if I can figure out how to implement a section of the site that’s dedicated to volunteer/donation/employment services for the local residents, I’d like to do it.

This is all in its infancy right now. But I’d like to encourage everyone to think about whether any of the names in your portfolio could be put to good use. Parked pages add nothing of value to the user experience and to the community. So develop, develop, develop, and see what causes you can help besides just your own bottom line.

P.S.: I welcome all advice on geo development for this upcoming project I have. This is new territory for me. Happy Sunday, everyone!

February’s auction includes 175 names, including many of Mike Mann’s (Codom Holdings, LLC) premium names. With the exception of a few headscratchers (how did that get in there?) set at low reserves, there are some GREAT keywords up for grabs. Here are a few:<!--more-->

art.co
automotive.co
bath.co
biking.co
cigar.co
dance.co
exercise.co
friendly.co
lasvegas.co
restaurant.co
movie.co
creditcard.co
bank.co
gas.co
gold.co
health.co
investing.co
internships.co
luxury.co
fitness.co
finance.co
drugstore.co
clothing.co
pizza.co
luggage.co
technology.co

In full disclosure, yes, two of those are mine: Friendly.co and Internships.co.

Sedo has an extensive list of buyer and end-user contacts, and I’ve been assured that their brokers are actively reaching out to companies about this auction. I think it’s interesting that they’ve chosen to go ahead with a second auction before seeing the results of the first one—and it obviously benefits them, since there are so many people clamoring to submit their names, and even if they sell at low reserves, Sedo gets paid. It also benefits those who have .CO portfolios and are looking to sell their names. Which brings me to my next point:

How do you decide when it’s a good time to sell?

I have enough decent .CO domains that I could sell a few and still keep plenty as longterm holds. I didn’t register most of them as “flips,” and I’ve always thought it would be silly to sell your best 1-2 names early on. Then again, there’s something to be said for using the .CO “hype” to your advantage and striking while the iron is hot.

I could submit names like MortgageLending.co, Borrowing.co, Naming, co, and HealthProducts.co with no or low reserve, but that’s a risk. There seems to be an art to auction pricing because on one hand, a low reserve encourages bidders. But if the name doesn’t go beyond $60, well, you’re screwed. All of those names are ones I’ve had private offers on and I’m fairly certain they would go for more than that, but that’s the risk with low reserve auctions.

I consider my premium Spanish and German terms to be longterm holds. Oddly enough, the names I’ve received the most offers on have been Anna.co, Friendly.co, and Girokonto.co (German for “checking account”).

I registered many of these names with the intention of holding onto them for 2-3 years, but now it’s being suggested that I submit a few of these very strong, one-word names for insanely low reserves. I want to make sure I’m not shooting myself in the foot.

I like to experiment and test out different strategies, so I’ll probably throw in a few no/low reserve names in the second auction, but I have to pick the right ones. I’m not risk averse, but I do try to think things through beforehand so I don’t end up regretting my decisions.

Are you buying names as longterm investments, or are you content with flipping a .CO 3-5x what you paid for it?

If anyone has thoughts on selling vs. keeping names for the long term, I’d love to hear them.

Photo credit: sxc.hu

Happy New Year! 2011 has gotten off to a great start for me, and I hope it’s going well for everyone else, too.

One of the awesome things about the last few weeks is that I’ve been able to connect with a couple of local domain investors. Washington, D.C., is a place that attracts a lot of movers and shakers, so it’s no surprise that some of the world’s most elite domainers—including Mike Mann (Codom Holdings, LLC) and Nat Cohen (Telepathy, Inc.) live here.

A few weeks ago, Alex Ripps, an attorney and the brains behind DNSamurai.com, Domainer Nation, LostBlog, and other projects, contacted me over Twitter. We met up for dinner last week—sushi, of course—and it was great to have someone to talk shop with. I’ve made several domain friends in the last year, but because we all live in different cities, our conversations are limited to the phone and email.

In short, it’s awesome to have someone else to geek out with.

There are a LOT of domain events coming up this year, but we all know that conferences can be expensive. If you can’t make it out to one of the big conferences, there might be something local you can attend.

Reach out to local developers and investors on Twitter, and not just because you want to sell them some names. People will be more apt to listen to what you have to say if it doesn’t come across as a sales pitch.

Here are some upcoming events and groups you can join:

Jan. 25 – Portland Domainers Kickoff Event, Portland, Oregon
PortlandDomainers.com 6-10pm at Vie De Boheme
To attend, email Ron@RSS.com or portlanddomainers@gmail.com

Feb. 26-27 – Rocky Mountain Domain Conference, Denver, CO
Registration and agenda available at RMDC.CO
Includes guest speakers Braden Pollock of LegalBrandDomains.com, Morgan Linton, Sharon Hayes, and an optional ski trip!
For questions, contact Mike Law: http://twitter.com/NameTalent

Southern California Domaining Meetup
http://www.meetup.com/domaining/
Events scheduled throughout the year
For questions, contact organizers Jason Thompson (@DNPimping) or Morgan Linton (@domainvestors)

South Florida Domainers
http://southfloridadomainers.com/
Events scheduled throughout the year
Contact Mike Ward (@BocaNames) or Chef Patrick (@ChefPatrick)

DC Domainers
http://dcdomainers.com – Site in progress, events scheduled throughout the year
Contact Alex (@AlexRipps) or Nadia (@DomainSushi)

Chicagoland Area Domainer & Developer Group
Join Discussion Group at NamePros
Started by Vito (@TheDotStop)

TBA August 2011 – DOMAINfest’s Power Networking Day in New York
http://domainfest.com
More affordable than the longer conference, this one day event includes panels, guest speakers, an auction, and great networking opportunities.

It’s amazing how much you can learn from other industry professionals. Make it a point this year to reach out and network in your own backyard.

For domain investors and developers, this means plenty of coupon codes—for new domain registrations as low as $5 and 50% off hosting plans. Check out these deals!

(These are not sponsored, I’m just posting to help people save some cash).

• GoDaddy: 30% off .COM, .NET, & .ORG. Good for new registrations and renewals. Use code Give30F.
• GoDaddy: $5 .COM New Registrations and Transfers. Good through November 29. Use code cjcBLACK10.* (See info about removing Website Tonight trial below).
• NetFirms: $1.95 domains. Good for multiple domains if placed in a single order – I registered 7 and normally would have paid $71, but it was $17.55. Use code BLACKFRIDAY (deal is also good for Cyber Monday).
• Hostgator: 50% Off Web Hosting Plans. Use code CYBERMDAY2010 or select your hosting plan on the home page (code is automatically activated). Good for new accounts only, so use a different username/credit card to get the discount.
• Network Solutions: 50% Off Hosting Packages &amp; Local Search Visibility Packages with code CYBERMON10.

* Make sure you remove the free trial of Website Tonight that GoDaddy adds to your shopping cart. They’ve started adding these when you use a coupon, so unless it’s a service you want to try out (and pay for), click “remove” in your cart on the left side of the screen before finalizing your order.

These coupons are subject to availability. I can confirm that Hostgator’s and Netfirms‘ are good – I just registered 7 domains and got 50% off a hosting plan at Hostgator.

Check it out – prices start at $8 and there are some VERY high CPC ($40!!) names in the list, at ridiculously low prices! Tons of great keyword and product names that would lend themselves well to minisites, Epik or Smartname product portals, affiliate sites, or lead generation.

Post “sold” in the thread to claim, and feel free to email or PM me with any questions. I’ll try to get back to everyone as quickly as possible. I’m on very little sleep today but I promise to check the thread and my messages as often as possible. Spread the word!!