I read a story on Facebook yesterday, and I asked if it could be posted on my blog because it’s a good story involving two domain industry veterans.

This is a guest post from  Donna Mahony (who operates  Domain Boardroom. Donna  shared a recent experience she had involving a domain name owned by Mike Mann, which had been previously owned by her veterinarian. I think it’s timely considering a UDRP decision and  discussion  that is ongoing on Mike Berkens’ blog.

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My nearly 14 year old dog, Max, was very ill last night. After speaking with my vet, Lane Kihlstrom, affectionately know as Doc Lane, we decided to wait and see how he was in the morning. He was tired and weak and nearly unresponsive.

Doc Lane is your typical country vet. A one man show with a mobile clinic. As he has done for me and many others so many times, he was at my door as quick as he could get here! After treating Max, who it seems had maybe eaten some poisonous weeds and loving on my other critters, Lane and I sat chatting (him on the floor with Max). He told me that in the midst of some turmoil last year he had forgotten to renew his domain name and asked if I could help him renew it. Super! He saves my dog, I save his domain!

Of course, it didn’t go that easily. The domain was now owned by Domain Asset Holdings, LLC, Mike Mann’s company. I know who Mike is, of course, but I doubted if he knew me.

We all get those sad tales from previous owners. We groan, sigh, roll our eyes. I hate getting them but always respond kindly and do the best I can for the previous owner. My stomach churned at being on the other end. I contacted Mike with my friends story.

Karma completed it’s circle. Mike responded quickly and he and I were able to make arrangements to have my friends domain returned home. Thank you, Mike.

Every year for the last seven years, Andrew Allemann from Domain Name Wire has conducted a survey with questions pertaining to the domain industry. The topics range from domain parking, domain news, conferences, and everything else in between. I think the results show an interesting overview of the domain business, and the more participants, the better.

If you have not taken the 2012 DNW survey yet, I urge you to take it now or as soon as you have a chance so you don’t forget. It shouldn’t take more than a few minutes, and your answers will help provide valuable information about the domain industry to people who read DNW (everyone). The survey will be given until January 31, 2012, and once the results are tabulated, Andrew will share them publicly.

The survey is hosted on Survey Monkey and it can be completed anonymously. There will be a drawing for Andrew Kesmodel’s Domain Game book, or you can get $20 via Paypal if you are the randomly selected winner, assuming you leave your name and contact information.

New year’s eve is always a fun night for my friends and me. As more of us have kids, I think this will likely change, but for the last several years, it’s always been a celebration with several of my college friends and their wives.

Last night, a group of us cheered in the new year at a restaurant called Buddakan. As we raised our glasses to toast to a new year which promises to be filled with babies, weddings, and other happy celebrations, I couldn’t help but think about one aspect of the new year that is bad for me: starting the new year from $0.

While the majority of my friends have salaried jobs, and the new year doesn’t mean much for them in terms of their income, for me, it is always an anxiety provoking time.

As the clocked ticked past midnight, some of my monthly invoices started rolling in, including a hosting bill and domain renewals. Although there will be advertising revenue soon from my various websites, there is not much else guaranteed with this business. Every year, it’s a new challenge to drive revenue and generate income. In some ways it’s exciting, but it’s also quite nerve wracking.

As I write this, I was surprised by the first stream of income for the year – a new cat sitter listing on CatSitter.com. I will take that as a good omen.

Wishing you a great 2012.

Yesterday, I thanked the advertisers who financially support my blog, allowing me to post new content daily. Today, I want to thank another important group that also helps my blog considerably.

Aside from Google, Bing, and Yahoo, there’s another group of websites that sends consistent traffic to my blog at no cost to me, and I want to say thank you to the people who run those websites. The payout may be low, and it may be time consuming and expensive to launch and market these sites, but it is very helpful to people who manage blogs.

I want to give a big thank you as both a domain blog publisher and domain investor who reads other blogs to these websites:

• Domaining.com  – owned and operated by Francois  Carrillo
• Domainsville.com – owned and operated by Abdu Tarabichi
• Namebee.com – owned and operated by Andrew Reberry

I don’t ask for anything from people who read my blog, aside from posting respectful comments to help enhance the articles that I write.

In order to continue writing my blog daily, I rely on advertisers to financially support this endeavor. Frankly, if it wasn’t for the advertising revenue, I couldn’t afford to take the time away from my business or share some of the private bits of knowledge I’ve accumulated.

I am extremely grateful for the support of a number of companies within the domain industry, and I hope that you support these companies as well.  Thank you to the following companies who have advertised on my blog during the past year, most of which continue to advertise today, and some of whom have advertised on my blog for more than a couple of years:

• DomainTools
• Sedo
• National A1 Advertising
• Escrow.com
• .CO Registry
• Minds & Machines
• Afternic / NameMedia
• Euro DNS
• Domain Capital
• TRAFFIC Conference
• Name.com
• Trafficz
• Aftermarket.com
• Big Jumbo
• ICM Registry
• WhyPark
• Dynadot
• DN Forum
• MiniSites.com
• IDN Tools