discredit.org

Lately I’ve decided to break free from the traditional social networking model with the help of ning.com. Up until now I have been utilizing facebook, myspace and twitter and have had a good amount of success doing so. A number of the deals that I tend to work on, need an effective Internet presence with the ability to create a following or a membership base.

The closest thing to fitting all of these social networking features into one site is the platform that ning.com provides you with. You can create a website with the simple drag and drop of an icon. The only thing that requires a bit of work with ning, is customizing the design aspect of your site. Recently I had a client who is a DJ here in Los Angeles, California that needed a website with several of the social networking features ning provides. I went ahead and built the site and created a custom header as well as a background. Although the site is a work in progress you can view it here: djdense.ning.com

This beats having to design an entire site from scratch. Since my schedule is very hectic I don’t have the time to code custom platforms. I am a firm believer in not recreating the wheel and will continue to utilize tools which are readily available on the web to help complete projects. Ning is perfect for the music industry as well as a number of other industries. If you take the time to look into the features which are currently offered for free on the site, you will see that ning might be a perfect match for your future projects as well.

I’ll get right to it. My favorite show might not return for another season if there is not enough support from the community which has grown to love it. Apparently the ratings are not as high as ABC expected and since this is the case, they have not renewed the contract for season 2.

If you enjoy this show and feel that it is informative as I do, then please submit your comments to ABC! This is important! Here is the message I sent to ABC a few minutes ago:

“It has come to my attention that Shark Tank might not return for a second season. If the ratings reflect my family, friends, business associates and counterparts then this should be the complete opposite action to take. Not only does America need a show like this, you are providing millions of people who are unemployed with the opportunity to educate themselves on what most don’t get a chance to experience in a lifetime. This show is network television’s equivalent to an MBA in business.”

Feel free to submit your own comments, requesting ABC to bring back Shark Tank for another season. As some say the show is only getting better and I completely agree with this statement.

Taking a bit of a break today. I will continue the Domain Spotlight Tuesdays next week. Thanks to all my readers!

I am taking the day off from the Wednesday podcast and will continue with podcast number 5 next week. Enjoy and as always thanks for taking the time to visit the site!

For those of you that didn’t hear last weeks podcast, feel free to listen to it here.

When google mail is operable the benefits are countless. I have several Gmail accounts that I use daily, some of which are used as the main emails for my domaining business. At this time Google Mail is down and a 502 Server Error is presented when I try to log into my account.

I have confirmed this issue with a few of my business associates who also use Gmail as there email lifeline. It is days like this that make me think about a redundant solution, Google Mail is obviously not bullet proof. Although I am sure I will still receive the emails which were sent to me during this outage, the urgency of some of these emails could pose a problem for me.

As a domainer / small business owner my clients mean everything to me and a slight delay in servicing them properly could lead to bigger issues. Its days like this that reiterate the importance of redundancy. I will now have to develop a plan to make sure issues like this do not arise in the future. Although google’s servers are out of my control, maybe this is a calling for me to setup an in-house hosted solution.

On August 19th, 2009 my cat was neutered by the local animal shelter clinic. In Los Angeles, California it is a law that if you adopt a cat from an animal shelter, then you are required to have the cat neutered within a few months of your adoption date. This date is dependent upon the age of the cat that you adopt.

While trying to find the address of the animal shelter that I initially adopted my cat from, I ran into several different sites which provided me with inaccurate information on the location of the shelter. In other words it took more time than it should of to locate the right shelter to visit.

Personally, I feel that the lack of an effective Internet presence for such an important cause as animal adoption does nothing but harm the potential chance of an animal finding a good home. If an individual is searching for a local animal shelter and the information returned is not what they are looking for, some will simply give up and delay the adoption process.

In my efforts to connect people with animals that need a home, I have decided to develop a website which will index all of the animal shelters in the United States. I feel that this project is needed and could care less about the monetary aspect. I will be funding the development of this project with my own money.

Although I stated that I wouldn’t be registering domain names until half of my portfolio has been developed, this is a definite exception. My last visit to the animal shelter transformed me in ways that I can not explain. The fact that the majority of animals at the shelter, cats and dogs alike will be put to sleep because of the lack of awareness concerning animal adoptions does not sit well with me.

With this transformation within myself, comes awareness. With this awareness I have decided to use my technical ability as a domainer for a good cause, ensuring that more animals are given a fair chance in this world. I’ll make sure to keep everyone informed on the development process.

My cat actually just jumped into my lap while typing this blog entry. This just reiterates why I have decided to start this project.

I am in the process of creating a list of rules to follow while working on my domaining projects. One of the rules which actually applied to me today was “When In Doubt Register A Dot-INFO.” While searching for an extension to register my complete name in, I ran across several other extension which looked tempting. The extensions I ran into were Dot-IN, Dot-CC, Dot-WS and of course Dot-INFO. I have tried to contact the owners of JasonThompson.net and .org but none of the owners responded to my emails, which is there lost because I would of paid $x,xxx for my name in these extensions. Out of respect for JasonThompson.com I have my own reasons why I felt it wasn’t right to contact the owners. Since I was left with a number of extensions to choose from and the Dot-INFO of my name actually became available recently, I decided to register it. This was definitely a great acquisition because I only had to spend $1.07 through GoDaddy on a name which represents me as a brand in an extension that I actually respect. In addition to that I can market the future site by saying if you would like to learn more information about me, simply visit JasonThompson.info and you will be able to read my daily thoughts and activities. I plan to develop the site into a blog where people can actually get to know me, my family and friends on a personal basis. The site will also cover some of my business based activities and start to establish me as a brand that people can count on. My goal is to help people reach there goals and create situations that benefit the both of us. I don’t want to sound like a “Life Coach” but it is definitely something that I am good at and I can’t say that I won’t visit that arena sometime in the future.

To sum it up, if you find yourself in a weird situation while searching for a given keyword or term in a number of different extensions. Think about the rule! It will only cost you just over a dollar for that Dot-INFO. You can then either choose to register other extensions at a later date or develop the Dot-INFO you registered.

While in Las Vegas I did not open my laptop one time. The hotel we were staying in had Internet, but I felt that to truly enjoy the trip I could not spoil the short vacation with a blister of email replies. Instead I decided to wait until I got home to get back to business. Las Vegas was AMAZING! I have never had so much fun in such a short time. If you go to Las Vegas in the near future I would suggest to visit the Bare Pool Lounge at the Mirage Resort and Casino as well as the night club Tryst at the Wynn Hotel. If you want to enjoy Vegas the way it was meant, those two places are definitely a MUST!

Now back to the business of domaining or not domaining? Confused, well you should be. In a future blog entry I am going to shed a bit of light on advertising to your local community and how the simplest forms of marketing work more than spending an arm and a leg on online advertising! Yes, even spending money on something as cheap as a hand regged geo-domain! For the cost of around $6 I have received three solid leads for my computer repair business. These leads are local to my community and came in the form of direct phone calls. I have already converted one of these leads and have scheduled appointments for two of the leads for Monday. As domainers we tend to forget about the power of simple advertising methods, hopefully when I do shed some light on the method that I used to market my service some of you will find creative ways to use the same type of advertising in your own businesses. You will laugh once you hear how simple it is. Enjoy the rest of the weekend! I may or may not post an entry on Sunday. We’ll see how it goes as I might find myself playing golf!

I’ve been debating on when to write an entry about the death of Michael Jackson and the media spectacle we have turned his funeral into. I gotta tell you that I am not shocked, mad, happy, disappointed or even agitated about how the media has covered Michael Jackson over the years. When Jackson was alive he was ridiculed for being who he was and mocked time and time again. Now that he is dead there are several organizations and people who are trying to profit from such a dire situation. From the person who is currently selling domains on ebay to those that are selling tshirts with his face on the street corner, capitalism is in full effect. I personally feel that our country always tends to appreciate an individual’s contribution after they have passed away, but while they are here we beat them down to the lowest points even if the slightest mistakes are made.

I live about 30 minutes from the Staple Center, where the Michael Jackson funeral reception is currently taking place. While watching NBC today it was mentioned that our state is currently fronting the bill for the security at the Michael Jackson estate, the Forest Lawn Cemetery as well as the Staples Center. Currently the state has spent $4,000,000 for the security alone, which consists of police and private security personnel. Our state is deeply in debt, but I have to say as a fan of Michael Jackson I feel his family has done us justice to provide people around the world with an opportunity to celebrate and morn such a creative force. Our state will stay deeply in debt, regardless if they fronted the bill for security or not and I could care less about politics right now. I do feel that the $4,000,000 could of gone to public programs for helping kids, but then again that’s purely political.

I didn’t know Michael Jackson, but I will continue to reflect on the fact that I had a chance to go to one of his concerts when I was younger. I remember going with my mother and seeing green smoke on the stage. That’s about all I remember as I was so young, but it definitely is a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life. Rest in peace Michael Jackson, you’ve definitely lived life and helped a great deal of people.

Great question, right? Then why are a great deal of us not taking the time to relax? I used to wake up early and spend the entire day on my computer registering domains. If I started to feel a little tired I would pop open a can of Rock Star and rejuvenate myself. Not only was this not healthy, it would cause me to crash later that night completely cutting myself off from any sort of relationship I had with my family members, friends and girlfriend at the time. Whelp, I learned the hard way and one girlfriend later I realized how important it is to get away from domaining. Getting away from the domaining world is tough for die hard domainers, we are constantly thinking of the next great domain name to register or the next site we would like to build. Why is it that we are so addicted to this industry? Are you addicted? Then you might want to look into getting some help, Tia Wood has the remedy here.

Back to being serious, if you find yourself solely concentrating on domaining all day everyday then you need to stop yourself for a moment and really assess what is important in life! I am very serious! A good way to do this would be to turn off all electronic items in your household, this includes any computers, communication devices, etc… Now grab a blank sheet of paper and pen and title it “What’s Important To Me.” On this list write the numbers one through five and really concentrate on writing the most important things you value in life. If you have trouble thinking about these five things, then take it further and imagine what would happen if you were to die tomorrow! Yes, it is very hard to think about this moment but you would be amazed how this will help you reprioritize a number of things in your life. My list includes the following:

1. My Family

2. My Girlfriend / Friends

3. My Pets

4. Helping People

5. Education

These are my top five most important things in my life. Notice I did not include anything that was of a material nature as material objects don’t mean much to me. My list helps me reserve time to talk with my family members more often, spend more time being active with my girlfriend, head on more trips to Vegas with my friends, play with my cat more, help those that are in need and invest within my own human capital by learning more about topics which interest me.

Instead of staying inside this holiday weekend I decided to celebrate 4th of July by going to see Public Enemies. On Sunday I spent the majority of my time at the beach with my girlfriend and had a blast. Here are a few pictures from the weekend I would like to share with you:

Hermosa Beach On July 5th

Relaxing at the beach with my girlfriend!

My girlfriend Danielle setting up the umbrella.

This is as close as you get to paradise out here in Los Angeles. Hermosa Beach was amazing on Sunday and we found ourselves eating a large pizza from one of the amazing pizzerias at the end of the day. Great times and good food, what more could you ask for? I was very productive today because of the time I spent away from domaining this weekend and on Wednesday I head to Las Vegas with a few friends!

Make sure you actively take time off to relax, it will help you in all areas of your life!