discredit.org

The big day is dawning upon us.  Morgan Linton and I have formed the foundation for a domaining group here in Los Angeles.  Our first meetup is scheduled to take place this Thursday at Casey’s in Downtown Los Angeles.  While preparing for this meetup I couldn’t help to think about a few things:

1.  Have we marketed the group enough to our target audience?

We want both domainers and end-users to come to the meetup.  It will help balance the group out, allowing for more intuitive question and answer session.

2.  Should a section be reserved at the venue just for our group members?

Since we picked a bar and the meetup is relatively early in the evening, I have not reserved a section.  I am still debating on if this will even be needed for our first meetup.

3.  What will be the turnout ratio for the meetup based upon those who have RSVP’d yes versus those who actually show?

This is an important point!  I have organized a few meetups in the past which focused on other subjects and there were always a couple of no shows.  This is something that I will pay close attention to during the beginning stages of building this group.  Currently we have  at total of 9 people who have RSVP’d yes and 3 that have RSVP’d maybe.   We even have two members driving all the way from San Diego to attend the meetup!

All of these questions were settled by an article that I read in the December 2009 / January 2010 Inc. magazine.  The article is entitled “Networking Sick of canned keynote speeches?  Try an unconference.”  This article describes how an event such as a conference is actually arranged by attendees as opposed to the normal top down approach.  There are no agendas, pre-printed materials or canned speeches!

During the initial stages of formulating the Los Angeles Domaining Group I would not mind for our meetups to follow a similar path.  If a member has an idea, I want the member to feel free to announce it to everyone and if the topic flows in that person’s direction, then by all means the spotlight is theirs.  This format will allow us to engage the group in a manner where everyone feels comfortable and confident to communicate!

There’s nothing more stale than having a group, where no one talks!  We want everyone to have the opportunity to speak, provide insight or even simply ask a question.  Therefore the meetup will be a bit of a learning experience for both Morgan and I.  We are using this period of time to determine what will work and what needs to be thrown out of the window.

In conclusion, I am very excited about the fact that we were able to spread the word about this group in such a short amount of time.  If you are in the Los Angeles area and would like to attend the meetup, feel free to RSVP here.

Piracy has plagued several different industries, extending itself from one spectrum to the other.  Did you know that piracy is effecting our industry as well?

A few months ago I thought about writing a blog entry in regards to this subject.  The curiosity was sparked while researching the various domaining tools currently available on the market.  While searching for the specific tools on google, links to torrents sites  were returned.  These links would lead you to titles such as the following:

AntsSoft.Domain.Inspect.v1.7.Beta.incl.keygen

Domain Punch Professional v1 0 102204 WinALL Incl Keymaker-CORE

Your Expired Domain Program v4.2.WinALL Cracked

I find this very interesting and this is the reason why.  I and many other domainers have written that our industry does not have enough main stream exposure.  One thing that I have learned over my years of being an Internet Entrepreneur is you can judge the popularity of an industry, product or service by taking a look at the black market.  If the black market has found the need to bootleg or pirate tools which pertain to your industry then there is indeed an audience willing to receive these items.

The fact that the domaining industry has such an audience shows me that this industry is much larger than I previously anticipated.  None of these tools which are readily available on the black market are priced more than $130.00 for a single license.  That brings me to the main point of writing this entry.  Regardless if people are pirating domaining software or not, I can say that if our industry does indeed have limited exposure this is a sign that things are definitely changing.

If the black market has started to offer the tools that we as domainers use, then we are definitely headed in the right direction.

For those that might misquote or misunderstand what I am saying, please think about this matter before you judge this topic.  I am in no way condoning piracy on any level and I feel that the legal aspect of software licensing should be taken serisouly.

I’ve been reading a few blogs and have noticed a couple of entries discussing what to get domainers for Christmas.  After pondering about my own Christmas list I kept thinking about items that I wouldn’t want to receive for Christmas.  Now don’t get me wrong, I am all about giving.  After all I was born on December 25th and have had the pleasure of enjoying this wonderful holiday year after year.

Enough mushy talk, let’s get on with three presents not to get a domainer for Christmas!

1.  A Domain Name

A word of advice, before buying a gift for a domainer!  Do not make the mistake of purchasing a domain name that you think the domainer would like.  I don’t care if you had good intentions in doing so!  This act alone might actually spark a conversation you might not want to have during the holiday season.  Save yourself the time and despair by staying far away from such an idea.

2.  A Pre-Paid Legal Membership

Where to begin with this.  So your significant other or friend occasionally speaks about the legal aspects of domaining.  You figure, since there are so many legal concerns I will purchase my favorite domainer a pre-paid legal membership and they will get all of the legal counseling there heart desires. WRONG! Pre-Paid Legal services are a joke when it comes to the domaining world.  The advice that such a service provides you with could actually cause your favorite domainer more problems then anything else.

3.  A GoDaddy T-Shirt

Just because a few of us tend to use the GoDaddy website, doesn’t mean we want to sport the brand!  I might upset a few people with this, but isn’t the GoDaddy brand a bit corny?  I mean the marketing obviously works for the company but has anyone actually been impressed with the quality of commercials that have been released? I could go on and on with this!

I tend to utilize GoDaddy to register domains for cheap prices.  I haven’t found a service which has cheaper domain registration coupons then GoDaddy.  Other then that, you won’t find me at your local restaurant or bar wearing a GoDaddy t-shirt!

If you want to buy a domainer a t-shirt make sure there is a Moniker logo located on the front of it.

So there you have it!  Three presents to stay far away from this Christmas!  Don’t even think about getting a domainer these three things!  You’ll thank me later for it.

The Los Angeles Domaining Group will hold its first meetup next week on December 17th, 2009 at Casey’s Irish Bar & Grille in Downtown, Los Angeles.  The meetup will promptly begin at 7pm.  The founders of the group are Jason Thompson (me) and Morgan Linton of Linton Investments.

We have decided to organize a Los Angeles based domaining group to network with local domainers, share ideas and ultimately expand awareness about the domaining industry.  Both Morgan and I are eager to open the doors of the group to domaining professionals and end-users.  As a domainer, I have personally recognized that end-users are a key asset to the domaining community and educating them will only move our beloved industry forward.

Members will be able to meet one another, exchange ideas and have a great time at a landmark pub in Downtown, Los Angeles.  Make sure to bring your business cards and network with fellow domain enthusiasts, while enjoying  great food and spirits!  For more information on the Los Angeles Domaining group feel free to visit our meetup page:  www.meetup.com/domaining

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a Los Angeles Clippers game, courtesy of a few close family friends.  One which is a season ticket holder and the other manages DJ Dense (the official DJ for the Los Angeles Clippers).  While sitting in section 111, row 13 in seat 20 I noticed something from a distance.  Something seemed a bit strange, but quite familiar.

No it wasn’t the fact that the Clippers were up the majority of the game or the fact that they even won 88 to 72.  What I saw was the infamous GoDaddy logo!  As a fellow domainer you could say I got a little excited when the GoDaddy advertisement was displayed court side.  I had to think fast!  Since my camera didn’t have a phone on it, I asked my friend / business associate to take a picture with his iphone.  He promptly accepted the challenge and was able to grab a few pictures before the GoDaddy advertisement disappeared.

I am elated that GoDaddy has taken such a proactive step with their advertising campaigns.  When it comes to brand recognition, they are raising the bar as a domain registrar & hosting provider.  This brings me to the conversation which was sparked after seeing the advertisement.  My friend actually stated that GoDaddy should spend some of that money on simplifying their checkout system.  He said it was confusing.  They should simplify it so customers don’t get frustrated and go elsewhere.

This is coming from a software developer!  If he thinks it’s confusing then imagine what the average person must feel like!  Personally, I completely agree with my friend’s statements.  When it comes to using GoDaddy, I have learned to ignore any and all upsells.  In fact, I don’t think I have ever been upsold on a GoDaddy service with the exception of the free privacy trial.

In the end it turned out to be a great game.  Just when I thought I could get away from thinking about business, the GoDaddy advertisement pops up.  Kudos to the marketing team at GoDaddy, someone has obviously done there research.  I wonder what other sports goers had to say that night when the advertisement was displayed.
*Yes, I am a Los Angeles Clipper Fan!

You’ve built an amazing site and within a week of building it you have been able to monetize it exactly how you planned.  Your google adsense and affiliate partner accounts are starting to reflect all the hours you spent developing the site.  The website you intricately took the time to build is working.  Now you can move onto the next project as you are confident that this developed domain will continue to trend upwards.

Another week goes by and your developer confidence has sky rocketed.  You decide to log into your affiliate partner accounts and notice that there is a large gray area which effected your earnings potential dramatically.  This can’t be real, there must be a glitch or a problem with the affiliate tracking software.  No, this is very real and it can happen to you!

Have you ever heard of the term, “police the police.”  Well in this case the police unit is your hosting provider and monitoring them is your legal duty!  I used this example because there are a number of domainers out there who simply TRUST that there hosting provider will have there best interest.  Well guess what?  You are a very small blip on your hosting provider’s radar and when your site goes down I can almost guarantee that unless you notice it your hosting provider will turn the other cheek.

Now I am not writing this blog entry to scare you.  My objective is to arm you with the write tools and information to make sure you are monitoring your online properties properly.  With that in mind, I also want to remind you that I have worked in the web hosting industry for years and have seen the unfathomable.  We’ll discuss that in a future blog entry!

What tool should you have in your domaining arsenal?  In walks pingdom.com!  This site is a life saver!  A few months ago while I was away from the computer, I received a text message saying that my blog was down.  At that time I had DNPimping.com hosted on a server which was running a proxy site.  To put it simply the server was running out of swap due to the popularity of the proxy site.  Since it was running out of virtual memory, apache would crash and along with it goes access to DNPimping.com!

Without that text message I would not of known that the server was down.  In addition to this I would not of been able to calculate the total downtime to notify my dedicated server provider with.  Most quality webhosting companies have an internal system to monitor uptime.  Again, I want to stress “police the police!”  Because I had my own monitoring service I was able to be proactive on resolving my problem.  Ultimately I decided to kill the proxy site, move my blog and cancel the dedicated server.  This process has saved me both time and money!

Pingdom.com is an uptime and performance monitoring service.  Best of all you can take advantage of this service for free.  The free account only allows you to monitor one website, hostname or ip.  For me this is all that I needed, the only website I am actively monitoring at the moment is my blog.

If you decide that you would like to upgrade your account to monitor multiple properties, the interface allows you to do so at the click of a button.  Email and SMS alerts make this service a no brainer for the average domainer.  (Hey that rhymed!)  Basic accounts start off at $9.95 a month and business accounts start off at $39.95 a month.  If you decide to sign up for the service, feel free to write a comment about it.

There are other uptime monitoring services and tools out there.  I have tried many of them and in my opinion this is one of the easiest to use and it flat out WORKS!

*I enjoy the service so much that I am in the process of joining their affiliate program.

With a total of 105 bidders, goodwill.com rakes in a five figure sum on NameJet.  Some say that this domain was a complete steal and others are mentioning that this domain is a hot bed for legal issues.  Goodwill.org,which is  owned and operated by Goodwill Industries International, Inc. could potentially cause a problem for the new domain owner.

It should be interesting to see what happens in this case and I will make sure to keep a close eye on any news surrounding the domain name.

Excuse me for my ignorance and for the fact that I didn’t ask a pertinent question before the lead question to this blog entry.  That question would be, does a domainer need a business card?  Since I feel that a domainer indeed does need a business card, I figured fast forwarding past this question would be best.

Now what kind of information should be included on a domainer’s business card?  I guess that really depends on the target market that the domainer is trying to reach.  Target markets can get quite diverse, so I figured I would stick to two potential target markets which are:

I.  Domaining Associates

II.  End-Users

Lets talk about domaining associates.  These are the indviduals who partake directly in the domaining industry in one form or another.  They tend to be well versed in industry “lingo” and will understand terms that the typical person might not understand.  For this target market I would suggest the following be included on a business card:

1. First and Last Name

This is a given for most people, unless you consider yourself a private person.

2. Title or Position

I can not stress how important this is!  In the domaining industry a number of us tend to wear many different hats, some of us work for larger companies who specialize in products or services geared towards domainers and some of us run our own businesses where domaining happens to fit under one of the many services our business offers.

Then there are those who domain part time or as a hobby.  Regardless you need to include a title!  It allows for your audience to immediately know where you fit into there business / social network and superseding this point it allows for them to know immediately how you can benefit them or vice versa.

3. Company Name

If you have a company this is a given.  Make sure to include your full legal business name, try not to abbreviate it.  Name recognition is important, so why not!

4. Telephone & Fax Number

Yes, the telephony age is still here.  People want to know that they can reach you.  Make sure to include a telephone number where they can.  Nine times out of ten if you are passing your business card out, you are most likely generating new leads for your business or trying to network with people.  Either way make sure that you can be reached!

There have been times where I have received business cards from associates, where the number leads directly to a PBX system with a pre-recorded message.  After not being able to reach that person, I simply went elsewhere to connect with someone who would actually answer there phone!

5. Website & Email

Make sure the website is operable or at least has an under construction landing page.  There’s nothing more embarrassing then going to a website which resolves to a hosting directory with folder listings.  Actually the only thing more embarrassing is visiting a URL which does not resolve at all!  Make sure it’s working before you list it on your card.

Same goes for your email!  Bounce backs are a dead end for business.

6. Summarize What You Do

Please summarize a bit of what you do for your target audience.  If you are a domain broker, then make sure to list it!  If you are a domain investor then put it on your business card!  You get the picture!  One sentence or phrase can go a long way when presenting yourself.  These lines alone have the capacity to open and close a deal.

Now for end-users!

This might sound funny, but you need to remember that the average Joe walking down the street has no clue about the domaining industry.  If you were to tell them you were a domainer they would either ask what that is or shrug and act like they know what you are talking about.  If you fail to convey this message to them on your business card, guess where your card will end up?  Perhaps the garbage can or if they are nice, the recycle bin.

The end-user business card should have every point which I have listed above.  In addition to this you should designate an area to describe some of your experiences in the domaining industry or include a couple of lines on what the domaining industry is.  The perfect location for this would be on the back of your business card.

An example of this would be “As a domain broker, I help facilitate the domain acquisition process.”  This statement alone will be sure to spark some interest or if you prefer to explain a little more information about the domaining industry you could include maybe a simple definition of domaining.  For this I will reference wikipedia “Domaining is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring Internet domain names with the intent of selling them later for a profit.”

Regardless of what you decide to put on the card.  Taking the extra step to identify your target market will increase your chances of succeeding in this industry.

On a special note, if you have any suggestions feel free to post them as well!  All input is welcome!  Till next time my friends.

As a domainer I have a natural interest in what other domainers are doing.  Here are the top five domaining blogs I tend to visit:

1.  BruceMarler.com

Bruce’s blog entries tend to be well thought out.  He tends to inform his audience on everything from business ventures to the best wordpress plugins to use for your blog.  This is by far my favorite domaining blog and my comments on his site are a testament to this.

2.  Domainvestors.tv

Morgan has an amazing way of making the complicated sound simple!  Armed with great videos and a professional attitude, in my book he has become one of the best teachers in our industry.  In fact, I don’t think there are many others out there that can break our industry down to a science like he can.

3.  NameTalent.com

Mike is a refreshing voice in the domaining industry.  His blog is fairly new to the landscape, but he covers a diverse range of topics which tend to reflect the overall outlook of domaining.  When I want interesting news and want it fast, I head over to his site to view all of the latest trials and tribulations.

4.  TeenDomainer.com

Brian is a young domainer with the passion of a veteran.  His posts prove that the domaining world has no age limit.  He can compete with the best of them and has always been more than willing to provide advice when needed.  Brian represents a demographic which is needed in our industry and is sure to inspire many other young domainers with his future accomplishments.

5.  Domaingang.com

This site speaks for itself.  I always felt that the domaining world was a bit too serious!  In walks the domain gang to flip it upside down and shake it up a little bit.  This blog is the gossip magazine for the domaining industry.  Sometimes the gossip headlines are written so well, you can’t help but to believe the content that follows!  I always get a kick out of reading the site!

Every Sunday I will be featuring a new quote pertaining to the domaining world. At this time I plan on creating the quotes myself. In the future I might expand it to featuring quotes that I feel are important. For now lets focus on what the Domain Pimp thinks!

“As domainers we convince each other why we are important.” - Pimp Jason