Darren Cleveland is one of the first people I met when I started selling domain names. He’s always given me good advice and been a resource to me when I’ve sought his opinion on business related matters.

You may know Darren from his domain industry related partnerships with Sahar Sarid and Jeff Bhavnanie. Darren currently serves as President of FuneralHomes.com, and he is also President of Boynton Beach-based City Advertising, an advertising agency for small businesses.

Congratulations are due for Darren’s company, as it was named one of the fastest growing businesses in the country, according to a press release this morning. Inc. magazine ranked City Advertising #189 in its annual list of the 500 fastest growing companies. City Advertising was ranked as the 7th fastest growing company in South Florida.

According to the Inc. magazine report, City Advertising experienced a growth rate of 1,595% and recorded $2.2 million in revenue. The company employs 16 people.

Kickstarter is a cool website where filmmakers, inventors, musicians, designers, and other artists can post a project to seek funding. If the requested amount of funding is raised, the project moves forward with people who pledge funds at varying levels able to receive something in return.

I saw that domain investor Mike “Zappy” Zapolin has posted a documentary film project with Deepak Chopra. The pair are looking to fund a project called  The Reality of Truth. Spirituality, Religion & Psychedelics. Zappy and Chopra are seeking to raise $100,000 for this project by November 7, 2011.

Zappy explains what the project is all about on the Kickstarter page:

“There is a shift in consciousness that is taking place right now. It is a shift away from what used to work in the past, or what used to be “good enough”. This shift in consciousness is causing people to rethink their entire lives–their relationships, their health, and their businesses.

People are fatigued by the chaotic pace of everyday life that leaves them feeling further and further from the peace of mind they crave. People are reconfiguring the very material notion of physical reality, and are moving toward things that would be described as spiritual.  

Deepak Chopra and I, together, have been exploring the concept of “reality” for many years. We have brought together the world’s top thought and spiritual leaders to explore the concept of “The Reality of Truth”.

Religions, businesses and governments would prefer us to stay with the status quo, but people are becoming more and more aware that they have the power to change the game.

This movie will help you understand the difference between what our five senses tell us is real, and the reality that we are all capable of tapping into using our sixth sense.We hope you enjoy, and join us in the conversation.“

Zappy is one of the co-founders of Internet Real Estate Group, a company that has operated or currently operates businesses on domain names like Chocolate.com, Sweepstakes.com, Phone.com, Safety.com, and many others.

If you search for descriptive domain names, you’ve more than likely seen Nokta Domains listed as the registrant on many domain names. The privately held company has a significant portfolio of domain names and has become more intent on selling its domain names over the last couple of years.

I want to share some information from Nokta about its domain sales platform:

• We have launched our new search algorithm so that the buyers can find what they are looking for more easily among more than 3 million domains.
• Moreover, we have categorized each domain for better search results. Please see the category page: http://www.noktadomains.com/category.
• Right now, NoktaDomains.com team is working on the promotion page on which there will be bulk deals with discounted prices and also daily domain deals just like other shopping websites. This feature will be the first for its own category. We believe that feature will bring new opportunities to our customers and domain business.
• Moreover, we add some domain details (Domain’s tld count, word order, word count, google search volume, reg date and more) for every single domain name’s site, please see one of them by clicking these links:  https://www.noktadomains.com/buydomain/touchscreen.com  and  https://www.noktadomains.com/buydomain/creditscores.com
• We are planning to launch “domain submit system” for other domainers at the beginning of 2012.
• We also add new feature to our membership system. Customers can sign up with their Facebook, Google and Twitter accounts.

If you’ve seen a domain name owned by Nokta, it may behove you to reach out and try to buy it. It looks like the company is ready to make fair deals.

It’s very likely that people who follow domain investing blogs and forums know that DomainGang.com is a satirical website with Onion-esque articles. Although there are occasionally articles that are factual, the majority seem to be written to get a chuckle from readers.

Yesterday, Domain Gang posted a humorous article entitled, Singapore domainer gets jail for .XXX domain registration, which was a fictious story about a person who bought a .XXX domain name and was arrested for violating a law in Singapore. To me at least, it seemed pretty obvious that it was a work of fiction rather than a factual story.

Apparently the journalists at Geek.com thought otherwise and posted their own article based on the Domain Gang story. In addition, a French website also picked up on the story and posted their own  article, and there were over 60 comments.    I guess they didn’t bother to check facts.

In this day and age, the first website to post an article generally gets most of the links and traffic. However, people, especially those who are journalists, really do need to check facts before posting an article. Congrats to Domain Gang on the

One of the best methods a private company can use to hire and retain good companies is to offer stock incentives. When the company later goes public, the employees are typically rewarded for their efforts. This gives people incentive to work for the company and stay working even in difficult times.

Last week, Demand Media stock (DMD)  hit a low price of $7.12/share. This morning, the company announced a $25 million share repurchase program. In announcing the news, company CEO Richard Rosenblatt stated, “This share repurchase program reflects confidence in our business and our commitment to maximize shareholder value.”

This is how the company explained the program in the press release:

Under the program, Demand Media is authorized to repurchase up to $25 million of its outstanding shares from time to time on the open market or in negotiated transactions. The timing and amounts of any purchases will be based on share price, market conditions and other factors. The program does not require the Company to purchase any specific number of shares and may be suspended or discontinued at management’s discretion at any time without prior notice.

The part about “in negotiated transactions” makes me wonder if this will allow the company to purchase shares directly from employees who own company stock.

One might imagine employees are nervous about the precipitous decline in stock price since the company went public and managed to reach a price of $27.38/share just a few months prior.  By repurchasing shares from employees, the company could allay some of their fears and reward them for their hard work over the past months and years.

I am certainly not the most knowledgable about this type of thing, but if I were a DMD employee with stock, I would be nervous about the value of my stock, especially given the state of the economy. If you aren’t aware, Demand Media owns domain registrar Enom as well as NameJet.