NamesCon: Spotlight on RightOfTheDot

This article is part of a series of interviews with NamesCon exhibitors and sponsors. NamesCon is the largest commercial domain name conference and is held every January in Las Vegas. The NamesCon 2015 dates are January 11-14, 2015 at the Tropicana Hotel on the famous Las Vegas strip.

Today’s interview is with Monte Cahn, President of RightOfTheDot, LLC.

Q. Can you tell us about your company and how long you have been there?

RightOfTheDot, LLC is an Internet consulting and advertising firm specialising in new and existing TLD strategy, board advisement, premium domain and market positioning, sales, brokerage and auction services, and contention resolution and private auction services. The Principals of Right of the Dot LLC are two of the most experienced and successful executives in the domain name industry with a combined 35 years of domain industry success:

Monte Cahn has been pioneering domain name and virtual property aftermarket services since 1995, participating in the sale of more than $350,000,000 in domain name sales & brokerage, including the industry’s first domain name sale for over $1 million dollars with the sale of Wallstreet.com in 1999. He Founded Moniker.com a Top 7 ICANN Accredited Registrar in the year 2000 where he was CEO and President. He also served as President of SnapNames.com. He managed more than 10 million domains, and 117 ICANN Accredited Registrars.

Michael H. Berkens, Esq. is a lawyer and a domain valuation and development expert. He founded Worldwide Media Inc., in 1997, which owns and manages an investment portfolio of more than 75,000 domains. Its retail site, MostWantedDomains.com, is responsible for tens of millions in domain sales. Since 2007, Michael has published a widely-read blog call TheDomains.com, in which has published over 7,500 posts, which have generated well over 80,000 published comments. TheDomains.com has generated over 8.5 million visits.

For more information please visit: http://www.rightofthedot.com

Q. This is your second time at NamesCon. Can you tell us about your first time and what you got out of it?

I was asked to speak on a few panels at the first NamesCon which was a good reason to attend the conference. After arriving and being engaged in the first day, I immediately felt the excitement in the air that there was a new and different domain conference that would shake up the industry in a good way. I felt the timing was perfect, the price to attend was affordable and the content was quality. People were clicking and doing business. We held several important meetings during the conference which propelled our business forward.

Q. This will be your first time sponsoring at NamesCon. Can you tell us why you are sponsoring this year and what you hope to get out of NamesCon?

We felt that the timing was right to build a new foundation for domain values for both new TLDs and show how values in .com names will remain or increase through a live and online domain auction, which is our specialty. I pioneered the live and online domain auction concept in 2004 and feel like the time is right to start a positive domain auction format that attracts a world wide end user and new and existing domain investor environment. We felt that sponsoring NamesCon not only this year but making a commitment for the next few years, was a way to show our commitment and confidence in the conference as well as the domain industry as a whole.

Q. What are your thoughts on the new TLDs?

We are very bullish and positive about the overall new TLD opportunities. Already there are new companies, new tools, new investors, new processes, and new choices for millions of customers as a result of new TLDs being introduced into the market. We feel that it will raise the tide water for the entire industry and build awareness for the entire domain industry. We also feel that the PR and marketing efforts of all the new and existing registries will help educate new markets about how to use domain names in the right ways. It also helps legitimize and professionalize our industry in many ways.

Q. NamesCon is all about business networking. Can you tell us a story about the success of a meeting at NamesCon last year?

We literally had 18 side meetings in 3.5 days of the conference which was great. That means that many of the folks and companies we wanted to meet with in general were there at the conference, which was great. We had many important meetings and as a result some of the new domain registries we met with last year will be putting domains into our live and online domain auction at Namescon this year. Also one of clients that applied for .Tickets won their contention set and we discussed ways in which we will be working together to help make .Tickets a huge success. Fortunately we will be working with the .Tickets executive team this year.

Q. Where do you see RightOfTheDot going in the next year?

RightOfTheDot, LLC will continue to work with new and existing TLD registries positioning profitability though sales and business development of their premium domain names. We will also be selling / brokering some new TLD applications that some applicants are choosing not to use. We will be conducting very focused premium domain auctions for specific industry category events and Geo locations such as targeted industry events in New York City for .NYC names, .Build names for the construction and building industry conferences, .Attorney and .Lawyer names at legal industry conferences, etc.

Q. Can you tell us about how your services help deliver value to your customers?

Our services help our customers through establishing new market values for new and existing domains, through end user usage and founders programs, and successful high end brokerage and auctions to increase revenue and profitability to our clients. As a result, registrations and renewals and retention will increase for each of the clients we work with. We believe that this is a long term play and it will take 5-10 years to establish this new market and will do all we can to make it sticky and valuable for all that use new and existing domains to start, grow, and increase business on the web.

Q. You are a leader in the industry. What are your thoughts about where sales and values are going in the next year?

We are the industry leader in premium domain positioning, strategy, auctions, and over all sales. We believe that sales will continue to increase, that domain values will continue to increase as more and more become educated about how to use new TLDs. When many of the brands that have applied for their own new TLDs bring them online such as Nike, KMPG, Google, Amazon, Philips, Sony, etc., the next generation of internet users will be more comfortable about typing in and searching for companies using their own brand names to the right of the dot. As more small and medium size business start using new TLDs, this will also gain market share and awareness world wide. This along with internet traffic and users doubling over the next 5 years, will help increase the value of most domain extensions over time.

RightOfTheDot is in a good position to help our clients navigate through these positive changes in the industry.

1 COMMENT

  1. We are very excited to work with NamesCon and the industry on setting a solid foundation for new and existing TLDs / Domain Extensions as we all work together growing our industry.

    We are pumped about conducting the live and online premium domain auction at NamesCon!

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