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Two Tales from the Playboy Mansion

Elliot Silver
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I am sure a few people read this headline, and said “uh oh!”   Don’t worry, no secrets shall be revealed in this blog post!

I wanted to share two stories from my evening at the Playboy Mansion last Thursday – one of which I think is funny and one of which is pretty cool.   As expected at the Playboy Mansion, there were a number of celebrities and athletes hanging out. I am sure some of them were there simply because it was the Playboy Mansion, while others probably attended because there was a charity auction for Autism Speaks.

One of the professional athletes that was there was Coco Crisp, and as a Red Sox fan, I wanted to thank him for his playing for the Sox and helping to bring a World Series to the team in 2007. As you may recall, he was benched in favor of rookie Jacoby Ellsbury, who had a break out playoffs. I thanked Coco for being a “mentch” during that time for not bitching about being taken out of the starting lineup. He told me that he couldn’t hate on Jacoby because of their friendship. He seemed authentic, and was a gentleman.

I mentioned that Sox fans will remember his selflessness and would cheer for him when he returned to Fenway. He thought they would cheer until he got a hit or scored a run, and I told him we would always cheer for him – especially my mom (who has been a Sox fan since the Ted Williams days). He said, “I love your mom!”

Since he is now playing for Kansas City, I asked him if he likes BBQ. He thought about it for a second and with the famous Coco grin, said, “not as much as I like chowder!” Not only was he a friendly dude, but he let me take a picture with his World Series ring (thanks, Adam Strong!)

Later on in the evening, I was walking into the tent to grab a drink, and a few girls perked up and smiled at me. I smiled back and cooly continued my walk to the bar to grab a drink as more girls smiled my way. Awesome. Well… until I turned around and about two feet behind me was Jesse Metcalf. Guess they weren’t smiling at me.

Anyway, the Playboy Mansion lived up to its billing, and it’s one of those experiences I don’t think I will have again. Much thanks to Ron Sheridan for putting on such a fun night.

DomainFest Auction Wasn’t All Bad

Elliot Silver
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I think we can all agree that the Moniker live auction at DomainFest was pretty much a bomb, but I don’t really think this is a bad thing for the industry. There weren’t many bargains in the live auction, which shows that domain owners aren’t necessarily losing faith in their investments and selling their domain names for whatever the market will yield as a consequence.   This shows that there is strength in domain assets, especially those that are of high value.

For the most part, it seemed that the high priced domain names that were listed were priced far too high for other domain investors to purchase.   Sure, they may be worth the amount to someone with a solid business plan, but most domain investors don’t have business plans for names they plan to buy.   Many have them for names they own, but it can be fruitless to build a business plan around a name that isn’t owned by us.   This coupled with just a short amount of time between the final list publication and the auction, it’s not very likely that a plan can even be built.

Also, many of the names up for sale at auction have either been listed at other auction(s) recently or had been privately marketed recently.   There were a couple of names I made private offers on in the last couple of months, and I decided against bidding on both (even though my offers would have equaled or superseded the reserve).   Personally, I don’t like to buy at public auction, and I’ve only done so once.   With a market in flux, I didn’t want to be the price setter – especially in a public auction.

So how can live auctions be improved?   Mike and his readers have some good suggestions. I’ve also made a few additional suggestions in the past, mostly related to end user education.   I still think it would be wise for a domain ambassador to attend a non-domain tradeshow and run small group sessions discussing the importance of generic domain names.   Every single industry has tradeshows, and most tradeshows have opportunities for educational seminars.   Why hasn’t any company made in-roads with end users yet (with the exception of when an end user already knows that he wants to buy a particular domain name)?

Over the past several years, it always seemed that live domain auctions would yield seven figures no matter what.   Well, this isn’t really a reality any more.   Domain owners are more picky about what they buy in this tight market, and without domain owners continuing to be speculators, it is much more difficult to produce eye popping auction results with domain investors being the primary target audience.

Times are changing, but I don’t think this is a bad thing for our maturing industry.

DomainInvesting.com a “Top Drop”

Elliot Silver
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I just updated my picks for “Top Drops” on Snapnames.   One name that might be of particular interest to domain owners in the name DomainInvesting.com.   Although DomainInvesting.com does not appear to be a standard dropping domain name, it is certainly one that could be used by a domain investor in a variety of ways.   It’s in auction through February 3, and the current auction price is just $240.

***UPDATE***

Bidding is now up to $675.

You Need to Attend a Domain Conference

Elliot Silver
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For those of you who are involved in the domain industry as an investor, developer, or other service provider, I again strongly urge you to attend a domain conference.   The one complaint I heard and have to a agree with is that there are so many good shows now, it’s difficult and expensive to attend them all.   Well, with shows being held across the United States and the world, I suggest you pick at least one close to you and do your best to attend.

Here is a list of some upcoming shows:

Domainer Mardi Gras – February 19-21 in New Orleans, LA

GeoDomain Expo – April 24-25 in San Diego, CA

Traffic – Silicon Valley – April 27-30 in Silicon Valley, CA

Traffic – Amsterdam – June 1-4 in Amsterdam

Domain Roundtable – June 14-17 in Washington, DC

Traffic – New York – October 26-29 in New York, NY

I am still undecided about which shows will attend.   As I did last summer, I have several weddings to attend this spring and summer as well in Michigan, Massachusetts, New York and California.   I am fairly certain I will attend Traffic NY because it’s practically in my backyard (if Brooklyn was my backyard).   I also really want to attend my first Domain Roundtable, especially because it’s on the east coast.   Of course I want to visit Amsterdam and I should really attend the GeoDomain Expo. Clearly I am still up in the air and need to figure some of this out!

Here are a couple of money savings tips if you want to attend the show and save some cash:

1) If you book a flight with JetBlue (not sure about other airlines), keep checking on the price of your flight after booking.   In the past, 90% of airfare prices increased.   These days, they are decreasing as it gets closer to the day of departure.   JetBlue will give you credit for the difference between your booking price and the lower price if it goes down.   Just keep monitoring the price and call if you see it go lower.

2) Check with your service providers to see if they offer customer discounts.   Chances are good that you would have received an offer if they do have discounts, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.   I don’t make enough PPC money or have enough domain names in my portfolio to qualify for any company discounts, but perhaps your service providers can hook you up.

3) Share a room with someone you know in the industry.   Ask friends on the domain forums and maybe you’ll find someone who will be willing to share a room.   Most of the time is spent socializing and you won’t be in your room much anyway. I wouldn’t directly ask someone to share a room though because it could put them in an awkward position if they don’t feel comfortable with it.

4) Stay in a hotel close to the conference but not at the conference.   Again, you are going to spend little time in the hotel anyway.

5) Share rides to/from the airport and don’t rent a car.   Frequently the valet parking or parking garage at a conference hotel is sky high.

Marchex Layoffs Announced

Elliot Silver
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Although they don’t consider themselves domainers, Marchex owns thousands of domain names, and the company is one of the few publicly traded domain-related companies. This morning, Marchex announced that the company is laying off 15 employees, about 4% of its workforce.

They also announced a couple of senior management changes, naming Peter Christothoulou Chief Operating Officer and Matthew Berk Executive Vice President of Product Engineering.   In November, Mike Berkens blogged about Marchex and how it’s market cap was just slightly more than the total amount they paid for Yun Yee’s portfolio. While the stock price has increased since Mike’s post, the economy is still taking a toll on the company.

DomainFest was Best

Elliot Silver
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I returned to New York last night after spending a week in California visiting Burbank and attending DomainFest Global.   It always seems that each domain conference is better than the previous conference I attended.   This can certainly be said about DFG. Aside from the panels (which were good), the networking opportunities were phenomenal – both during conference time set up for networking and during the parties in the evening. Believe it or not, I even had several great discussions at the Playboy Mansion (all involving domains and development… get your mind out of the gutter, friends!)

I don’t typically attend all of the panels, but the few I attended had good information and dialogue. Typically at domain conferences, I maximize my time meeting colleagues, introducing friends, and learning about what others are doing to increase the value of their domain names and generate revenue from them. The atmosphere and layout at DFG was great for individual meetings and discussions involving several people. There were a few times in the exhibition area where people from different backgrounds had great conversations just by happenstance because we were sitting on adjacent couches.

Some people who didn’t attend are going to look at the results of the domain auction and possibly consider it a low point for domain owners.   I disagree with this view for a couple of reasons.   Even in tough times, close to a million dollars in domain names were purchased.   Sellers don’t have the need to drop their prices and give away their names.   This shows some strength, as weakness would be indicated by great domain names being listed at very low reserves, as domain owners need to sell ASAP. This just isn’t the case, and owners of good domain names aren’t looking to sell them in a down market.

This was the best domain conference I have attended so far, and it is a tribute to the hard work of everyone at Oversee.net who oversaw a great show.   Even in difficult times, amid lowering revenues and layoffs, the team at Oversee pulled through and gave us a great conference.

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