- Joined
- Apr 5, 2005
- Posts
- 9,851
- Reaction score
- 1,337
There's still some of the event to go (paintballing today, though I'm skipping out on that) and then a drinkie at the bar this evening, but since the meat of the meeting is now over, it's worth taking a quick look at what transpired...
Firstly, hats off to James and the team for putting together a first-class event. The magic Namedrive wristband has been the ticket to unlimited drinks and some great food, and the presentations have been a lot more useful and relevant than at the other conferences I've been to in the past (TRAFFIC Down Under, DomainFest Amsterdam and Targeted Traffic Amsterdam).
(Tip for future conferences: do NOT fasten your wristband tightly to your wrist or you'll be wearing it night and day until the event ends as it's designed intentionally not to be removable - pocket it instead! I'm still wearing mind, and developing a mild case of wristband-chafe...)
The Domainers meet Domainers panel was a good start. Some interesting tales from all the panelists, and Greg's story of flipping a $10 million newly acquired portfolio within weeks was amazing.
Morgan Linton did a brilliant job building a simple blog site on the fly in about 20 minutes flat - showed me that Wordpress has a lot more tricks up its sleeve than I'd discovered to date. And his advice about building out networks of names was great. His mindblowing energy - well, I'll get to that in a bit...
The Domain Legislation panel was very wide-ranging, and included Leslie's comments about professionalism in the domain industry that were picked up in The Register. In the context, and sitting in the room, I felt they were very valid and highlighted a fair concern. After all (from here on, this is MY commentary, NOT hers) it only takes a few ranters and rabble-rousers to cause a stir in the UK market, as it's very small and sites like The Register love anything that smells of trouble, so there's a ready ear for complaints and accusations, and conspiracy theories. Plus there have been occasions where some of the stuff posted here on Acorn has made me cringe, whether for the extreme foul language (we had a very long thread on that a while back, sadly inconclusively) or the ranting tone.
Having said that, the vast majority are NOT THE PROBLEM and the people I've met and listened to at the show come across as professional and engaging. But it only takes a few outliers with too much time on their hands to cause a stir and give Nominet a headache.
Other interesting stuff from that panel includes the fact that Nominet's working through processes that will hopefully eventually allow for any length of domain registration from 1 year through 10 years. There was also a hint (but no stronger than that) that the cost of transfers may be revised downwards at some point i.e. that's an issue on the agenda.
The Domain Sales panel was good. I'll gloss over my part in it and leave it for others to comment if they like, but I found James' info about the series of emails that he sends to potential buyers very informative, and especially the increase in response he's seen moving from a long sales email to a 1-2 line approach at first. Tessa covered all the bases when it came to valuing domains and also explained some of the tools she uses to get appraisals (she knows they have to be taken with a heap of salt, but they can also be useful when dealing with novice buyers unaware of domain values in general, as can past sales data for domains in the same niche)
The Expedia panel was an eye-opener for me, as I didn't realise they had so much data (aside from the hotel listings) for affiliates to chop up and reuse in any way they like, and also the fact that they seamlessly provide the back-end for many travel companies who you would have pegged as direct Expedia competitors! Definitely something for me to look at for my Maps.co.uk project somewhere down the road...
The Development/SEO panel was a bit sales-heavy, but that's fair enough since one of the companies presenting was a Silver show sponsor. Still some good info here as well, and an interesting comment (mirroring my own belief) that plural product generics are more useful than singular if you're building a site focusing on selling that product - makes it seem more like you're THE place to buy that product). There was also some interesting comments on doing online PR, and using press release and article sites to drive traffic and get incoming links - and the ticket-selling tip was great. I'd have preferred to have had more specifics on which resources to tap for distributing press releases or syndicating articles (rather than "Google it") but the underlying process was clear.
While there weren't many sales (and this has been covered at length elsewhere) Morgan Linton's seemingly limitless ocean of energy and enthusiasm made the auction a very entertaining event. If you heard the audiocast you'll have already experienced a taste of it, but he was also striding from side to side and waving his arms as he tried to whip a generally tame audience into a bidding frenzy. This was the only genuinely weak point of the show, and suffered from the available inventory and some slightly strange choices like the succession of ".co.im" domains that left the room as silent as a crypt. Fortunately, Morgan kept it fun, but overall I would say that I would have preferred 1 or 2 more panels instead of the time that the auction took up.
The food and drinks afterwards were tasty and copious. I can't comment on the after-after-party as I dropped out and kept on chatting in the hotel bar (wimpy, I know) but everyone headed off in a swarm of mini-buses just after 9pm...
Overall, the most RELEVANT domain show I've been to, and probably also the most REALISTIC. Parking was addressed, but also mini-site development, large development projects, domain sales, affiliate programs, white label development, lead-gen and more, which paints a pretty accurate picture of the real options facing the owners of decent generic names in 2010.
Two thumbs up!
Firstly, hats off to James and the team for putting together a first-class event. The magic Namedrive wristband has been the ticket to unlimited drinks and some great food, and the presentations have been a lot more useful and relevant than at the other conferences I've been to in the past (TRAFFIC Down Under, DomainFest Amsterdam and Targeted Traffic Amsterdam).
(Tip for future conferences: do NOT fasten your wristband tightly to your wrist or you'll be wearing it night and day until the event ends as it's designed intentionally not to be removable - pocket it instead! I'm still wearing mind, and developing a mild case of wristband-chafe...)
The Domainers meet Domainers panel was a good start. Some interesting tales from all the panelists, and Greg's story of flipping a $10 million newly acquired portfolio within weeks was amazing.
Morgan Linton did a brilliant job building a simple blog site on the fly in about 20 minutes flat - showed me that Wordpress has a lot more tricks up its sleeve than I'd discovered to date. And his advice about building out networks of names was great. His mindblowing energy - well, I'll get to that in a bit...
The Domain Legislation panel was very wide-ranging, and included Leslie's comments about professionalism in the domain industry that were picked up in The Register. In the context, and sitting in the room, I felt they were very valid and highlighted a fair concern. After all (from here on, this is MY commentary, NOT hers) it only takes a few ranters and rabble-rousers to cause a stir in the UK market, as it's very small and sites like The Register love anything that smells of trouble, so there's a ready ear for complaints and accusations, and conspiracy theories. Plus there have been occasions where some of the stuff posted here on Acorn has made me cringe, whether for the extreme foul language (we had a very long thread on that a while back, sadly inconclusively) or the ranting tone.
Having said that, the vast majority are NOT THE PROBLEM and the people I've met and listened to at the show come across as professional and engaging. But it only takes a few outliers with too much time on their hands to cause a stir and give Nominet a headache.
Other interesting stuff from that panel includes the fact that Nominet's working through processes that will hopefully eventually allow for any length of domain registration from 1 year through 10 years. There was also a hint (but no stronger than that) that the cost of transfers may be revised downwards at some point i.e. that's an issue on the agenda.
The Domain Sales panel was good. I'll gloss over my part in it and leave it for others to comment if they like, but I found James' info about the series of emails that he sends to potential buyers very informative, and especially the increase in response he's seen moving from a long sales email to a 1-2 line approach at first. Tessa covered all the bases when it came to valuing domains and also explained some of the tools she uses to get appraisals (she knows they have to be taken with a heap of salt, but they can also be useful when dealing with novice buyers unaware of domain values in general, as can past sales data for domains in the same niche)
The Expedia panel was an eye-opener for me, as I didn't realise they had so much data (aside from the hotel listings) for affiliates to chop up and reuse in any way they like, and also the fact that they seamlessly provide the back-end for many travel companies who you would have pegged as direct Expedia competitors! Definitely something for me to look at for my Maps.co.uk project somewhere down the road...
The Development/SEO panel was a bit sales-heavy, but that's fair enough since one of the companies presenting was a Silver show sponsor. Still some good info here as well, and an interesting comment (mirroring my own belief) that plural product generics are more useful than singular if you're building a site focusing on selling that product - makes it seem more like you're THE place to buy that product). There was also some interesting comments on doing online PR, and using press release and article sites to drive traffic and get incoming links - and the ticket-selling tip was great. I'd have preferred to have had more specifics on which resources to tap for distributing press releases or syndicating articles (rather than "Google it") but the underlying process was clear.
While there weren't many sales (and this has been covered at length elsewhere) Morgan Linton's seemingly limitless ocean of energy and enthusiasm made the auction a very entertaining event. If you heard the audiocast you'll have already experienced a taste of it, but he was also striding from side to side and waving his arms as he tried to whip a generally tame audience into a bidding frenzy. This was the only genuinely weak point of the show, and suffered from the available inventory and some slightly strange choices like the succession of ".co.im" domains that left the room as silent as a crypt. Fortunately, Morgan kept it fun, but overall I would say that I would have preferred 1 or 2 more panels instead of the time that the auction took up.
The food and drinks afterwards were tasty and copious. I can't comment on the after-after-party as I dropped out and kept on chatting in the hotel bar (wimpy, I know) but everyone headed off in a swarm of mini-buses just after 9pm...
Overall, the most RELEVANT domain show I've been to, and probably also the most REALISTIC. Parking was addressed, but also mini-site development, large development projects, domain sales, affiliate programs, white label development, lead-gen and more, which paints a pretty accurate picture of the real options facing the owners of decent generic names in 2010.
Two thumbs up!
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