It was a privilege to interview Jackson Elsegood, who is now the general manager of Escrow.com. During our time together Jackson shares a few things about himself and some of the exciting things being developed for Escrow.com.

Escrow.com has become a key part of the domain industry ecosystem and if you buy and sell domain names then this interview is not to be missed!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

One of the biggest problems for many of us in the domain industry is there is way too many opportunities and sadly, not enough time. One of the great things about domain names is they’re so incredibly flexible with all of the different businesses that you can drive off them.

This past week I’ve found myself in a state of “thrashing”. For those of you that have never heard of this term it derives itself from the computer industry where a hard drive gets so fragmented that the hard disk head has to jump all over the place to piece together a file. In the old days, you could actually hear the head on the hard disk chirping like a little mouse as it was swung across the disk platter.

For a business, thrashing is when you have a huge number of projects on the go and never get enough time to complete any of them. You end up pushing each one forward just a little bit before jumping onto the next. Like a hard disk head, you find yourself just wanting someone to defragment your life so that you can focus on a project and bring it to conclusion.

In the lead-up to Christmas I found myself frustrated, completely unsatisfied and driven crazy by the number of opportunities surrounding me. I just can't help coming up with new ideas that need to be carefully suppressed and it's all because domains are just so darn intriguing.

For instance, I just built a little “skunk works” project that is now processing over a million pieces of traffic per day and the data coming through is incredible. I can see that off the back of this data is another dozen or so opportunities.

I’ve just been working through a new sales process for 3 and 4 character domains and my previous post (read here) covers a number of new concepts to better sell domains. It’s a real sale of really good domains and so far it’s been an outstanding success. So I’m scratching my head and thinking…..hey, I think I’m onto something here….!

Then there’s ParkLogic Next….this is a BIG one. We’ve completely redeveloped the entire ParkLogic platform so that it’s immensely flexible in how we can work with partners, route traffic and then mobilise the data for clients. It’s been a huge effort but we are already seeing an increase in payouts for domain investors with traffic domains.

There’s then the little project of routing traffic to tier two providers that Google was paying only tiny amounts for. This project provided an uplift of around 30% for the sample set of domains. Not bad when you consider the results of this "skunk works".

Then there’s the other small thing that I’m working on that involves working more closely with direct advertisers in distinct market verticals. How do you solve the problem where a revenue event may occur three months after the traffic was sent to an advertiser’s websit?. The problem is solvable and the dividends look like they will be huge…..but they could also be really low if the correct algorithm isn’t nutted out.

So this is a few of the things on my plate…..and trust me when I say there are a lot more! Some of them will provide incremental improvements for clients (all good) while others are quite revolutionary concepts that are still being proved out.

If you would like to see something pretty amazing then come to our table at NamesCon on the Sunday afternoon. You’ll get a glimpse at ParkLogic Next and we hope that you like what you see.

So back to my thrashing problem…..I’ve allocated a few hours this afternoon to break the back of one of my big programming problems. And doing something like this is really the key to solving this type of issue. When you find yourself jumping from one project to another take a look at your list and ruthlessly prioritise it. It’s the only way that you’ll get the biggest bang for your time. So in a few hours’ time I’ll have an issue off my plate and I’ll secure the benefits for the business.

This does bring up another point….if you would like to propose a business concept to me then make sure that you have the one page summary that is backed up with a solid plan. I’ve had people try and talk me through an idea and this can be a lot of fun over drinks but if you’re really serious then give me something in writing that I can get stuck into.

I would also like to finish with the axiom, “If you want something done then give it to a busy person.” People that aren’t busy tend to push things off until tomorrow…..busy people, prioritise and get things done or they tell you they just don’t have the time.

I hope this helped you with managing your own challenging list. Domains are wonderful things that just keep on creating unusual and exciting opportunities!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

ParkLogic has a client that is doing a little house cleaning on their domain portfolio and is placing eighty-six three and four character COM/NET/ORG domains for sale. The domains have been priced to sell.

A few of the standout .com domains include: kdrz.com, mkgw.com, trkx.com and pppp.net All of the domains have been categorised as either 3 or 4 character, whether they contain “aeiouv” and also numbers.

Please contact me (mgilmour at parklogic dot com) if you would like to be sent the full list. Below is the offer process that will be conducted.

1.      All offers are to be submitted by the 16th Dec.

2.      If the Buy-It-Now price for the domain is reached then it will be immediately sold.

3.      From the 16th Dec we will continue discussions with the top 2 bidders for each domain and if the reserve is reached then the domains will be sold by the 21st Dec.

All transactions will be conducted through Escrow.com

Full disclosure - I have a personal stake in these domains.

Have a great weekend!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

I get asked, “Michael, how can I grow my business?” a lot. More often than not my reply often starts by saying, “You’re not going to like what I have to say….”

I’ve been in business for nearly 35 years and some things just don’t change. The first is that there is no such thing as a free lunch. In other words, if you want to eat then it’s going to take a lot of effort.

So many of us get entranced by the mega-success stories that we never realise that behind the scenes there’s more often than not a person working 12+ hours per day. You go to a conference, hear from an inspirational business leader about their great success and wonder why you can’t be like them. What you haven’t considered is the fact that they have compacted 20 years of their life into a thirty minute presentation…..so everything seems so incredibly brilliant!

For example, my daughter announced to me the other day that she wanted to become a Youtube star (don’t we all). She’d found out about a Youtube star that is now earning millions of dollars in endorsements per year and thought that sounded like a great job.

Here’s the disconnect for her…..she doesn’t have anyone following her but the star has millions. To build my daughter’s business will take a LOT of hard work producing quality content and then climbing the social media ladder by swapping “likes” with other Youtubers. This will very like end up being a multi-year journey…..so a little disheartening for my daughter.

You really can’t get out of it, businesses take a lot of time, energy and effort to get going. In the domain industry, it’s not uncommon to have two year sales cycles to get a potential client to run a test for their traffic domains. This is even though it literally takes seconds to update a DNS....go figure?

Despite all the effort necessary to run a successful business is almost deceptively simple. All you have to do is add value for someone and then repeat, over and over again. The minute you stop adding value or repeating then your business will struggle.

Too many people spend too much time working on businesses that fundamentally don’t add any value. This is exactly the same in the domain sales industry. I’ve seen so many portfolios that the owner has faithfully renewed each year but never sells a single domain. The reason why is the domains aren’t adding value to any potential buyers.

Likewise, I’ve seen some domainers sell one or two domains per year and barely hang in there financially as they pray for a massive windfall to come and land on their head. It’s very likely it would be better to go and buy a lottery ticket and hope your numbers come up.

The reason why companies like Godaddy are successful is because they find buyers where they can add value and then they repeat the cycle time and time again.

Let’s compare this to the problems that Moniker encountered eighteen months or so ago. A lot of things went wrong with the company that caused both the add value and repeat aspects of the business to fall apart.

In comes new CEO Jothan Frakes and what does he focus on? Getting Moniker to once again add value and consistently repeating the value proposition for customers. Right now, Moniker is in the process of reinventing itself and I’ll be the first to say that I will not be surprised to see them become the domainer powerhouse registrar in the future. It will be a long journey but I’m confident the team will pull it off.

Another example of adding value and repeating would have to be Escrow.com. Their business is run entirely on trust and they have to repeatedly add value or their customers would leave in droves.

I was speaking with the new general manager, Jackson Elsegood, yesterday and he said since the recent acquisition of Escrow.com by Freelancer one of the first things they were working on was 24/7 support. He wanted to ensure Escrow’s global footprint would be serviced by global support. It was all a part of adding value to customers and being always available.

Likewise, as one of the founders of ParkLogic I provide every customer with my personal skype address. They can reach out to me at any time if they experience any difficulties. I wanted to be the first person to know if customers were having problems. In conversations with clients I’m always looking for how we can add value and then repeat it. At the moment ParkLogic repeatedly processes around 40 million pieces of traffic per day and we add significant value with each one.

So how do you develop a blog and make it successful? Write articles that readers find engaging and don’t just write the same thing as everyone else. Next, do this three to four times per week year in and year out…..Google will love all the new content!

About 8 years ago Whizzbangsblog started out as a big experiment. I wanted to see if I could develop a brand that was so “way out there” simply by consistently adding value. Many of the other blogs seemed to be repeating news (some do a great job btw) but I wanted to dig a little deeper and bring some business insight into what was happening.

So here I am, still enjoying writing and readership is consistent (thank you!). Within the space of around 30 minutes of publishing an article around 200 people have read it and overtime many of the articles have been read by thousands of people. I’m not trying to brag about the success but rather to use it as an example of how anyone can actually develop a domain into a business.

So how do you make your business successful? There are many parts of this which I will go through in future articles but start with adding value and repeat this for your own customers. It’s a simple formula that works!

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.

There’s nothing like a funeral to remind you about your own mortality and what’s really important in life. At 2pm today I will showing my support for a lady that lived her life, not for herself, but for others. She was an amazing person who showered those around her with love and compassion even though she herself was in great physical pain.

It’s so easy to get so caught in being busy that before you know it the years have slipped away and you stand at the precipice of the afterlife. When that moment finally comes, you can’t take all those toys and trappings that you’ve worked so hard for with you….they all just fall to the wayside.

What we can do is decide how we will be remembered. A great partner? Fantastic father? A person of great ethics and moral fortitude? Although we cannot influence the afterlife we can have a dramatic impact on those we are leaving behind. How will they remember you?

I don’t know anyone that wants to leave a legacy such as, “He made lots of money or has 50 house investments.” Although those nothing wrong with those pursuits most people would rather be remembered for who they are, not just what they have accomplished.

Domain owners tend to spend an inordinate amount of time alone, staring at their computer screen and some have even drifted off into the next life without many people really knowing about it. I love domaining but I don’t want to be remembered for the fact that I owned gx.com.au or some three letter .com. I want to be remembered by colleagues and online friends for who I am.

I aspire to be like the lady whose funeral I will be going to today. While in hospital, she would spend time encouraging doctors, nurses and other patients who may have been going through tough time in their lives. She had a tremendous faith in God that she would be looked after in this life and the next. Whether you believe in a God or not, you have to admire and respect people who have such unshakable belief. They are an inspiration for us all to remember that people and our relationships are what’s really important.

So in this Saturday Musings of reflection…..what do you want to be remembered for?

Have a great weekend.

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Michael Gilmour has been in business for over 32 years and has both a BSC in Electronics and Computer Science and an MBA. He was the former vice-chairman of the Internet Industry Association in Australia and is in demand as a speaker at Internet conferences the world over. He has also recently published his first science fiction book, Battleframe.

Michael is passionate about working with online entrepreneurs to help them navigate their new ventures around the many pitfalls that all businesses face. Due to demands on his time, Michael may be contacted by clicking here for limited consulting assignments.