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This Coming Week

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Several people have asked me if I am going to be in Las Vegas for TRAFFIC this week. Unfortunately, I can’t make this show as I will be in Lowell for a couple of days. The Lowell.com website is nearing completion, and I need to take some photos prior to the launch.
The site is coming along quite well, and the design/layout is nearly finalized. Likewise, the directory is almost completely built. Most of the difficult part has been finished, and we just need to work on the actual presentation of the data. I will write a more comprehensive post about building the database, but the upshot is that it was a pain in the neck to coordinate the data with the phpMyDirectory application. I guess it was more of a time consuming project than anything else, but I will cover that in a subsequent post.
I don’t believe I will be bidding at the TRAFFIC auction, but there are a couple of names I really like, so we shall see. Safe travels to those of you who are on your way to Vegas. Remember – the better gamble is on a good domain name than on a blackjack table (although I love blackjack!)

Moniker TRAFFIC West Auction List Released

Moniker publicly released the TRAFFIC West live auction domain list this morning. They received over 120,000 submissions for next week’s auction, and after reviewing the names, I think this auction will set a record for highest grossing domain auction – even though it is missing the great multi-million dollar domain name that is still reasonably priced. There are some strong domain names listed, with many at reserves I would consider reasonable.
The full live auction list can be seen

Help Send Grassroots.org to TRAFFIC Las Vegas

Does anyone have a spare ticket to TRAFFIC Las Vegas that can be used by Grassroots.org? I was speaking with Angela Siefer, the director of this non-profit organization, and she said they don’t have the $2,000 budgeted to pay for a ticket to the show. Perhaps someone has a ticket they aren’t using, or maybe someone would be willing to make a tax deductible contribution to help them attend the conference.

Breaking News: Oversee Acquires Moniker

According to this just distributed press release, Oversee.net has acquired domain registrar Moniker. I assume this is the news to which Rick Schwartz was referring this morning. More information about this can be found on Moniker’s homepage.
It will be interesting to see what will happen with the two major domain conferences (DomainFest and TRAFFIC) and their live auctions. Domain Sponsor (an Oversee.net company) is a founding partner of DomainFest, which features the SnapNames Live Auction from January 22-23, and TRAFFIC features the Moniker Live Auction on February 20 in Las Vegas.
I am sure we will soon learn more about how this news will impact the industry.

Penthouse Invests in Friend Finder Network

According to a report in the New York Times, Penthouse Media Group just invested $500 million into Various, Inc., operator of 25 social networking sites, including Adult Friend Finder and its related Friend Finder Network websites. Combined, Various’ companies have a reported member base of more than 260 million consumers, with about 1.2 million paying consumers.

The purchase shows how bullish a company like Penthouse is in the Internet marketing channel. As the Internet continues to mature, magazine and newspaper publishers have struggled to maintain viewership, and they’ve had to put out a strong web product to keep their customers satisfied. It will be interesting to see how Penthouse and the FFN leverage each other’s assets and industry knowledge to create a stronger company.   It will also be interesting to see if they work under one company name or if they maintain their own brand identities.

At the recent TRAFFIC auction the FFN network paid $1.8 million for Seniors.com.

Domain Investors “Cowboy Up”

After the TRAFFIC auction ended and the dust settled, Cowboys.com was again for sale in the silent auction. A large group of domain investors from Rick Schwartz’s private Targeted Traffic Forum formed a group and made the winning bid for Cowboys.com. The background story can be found by clicking here.

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