I was at a Christmas party the other night and was having a chat with a person when the conversation moved from the weather to, how have I maintained my strong marriage. The questions caused me to reflect upon what I’ve learned over the last 32 years and how simple decisions have contributed to my own wonderful relationship.

Learn about your spouse
Roselyn and I had been married for a few years and one night we decided to have a movie and munchies night at home. I rented  a video (remember doing that!) and picked up some chips and chocolate to enjoy together.

Upon arriving home, my wife looked downcast and said, “You know I don’t like Salt and Vinegar chips.”

I must admit that I was completely stunned at this comment but not for the reasons you may initially assume. You see, I was stunned because after all the time of dating, being engaged and now married for several years I had not paid attention to this simplest of thing about the most important person in the world to me.

It was then and there that I decided to learn everything I could about this incredible woman that had decided to live her life with me. In fact, we both decided to learn about each other and what we discovered was that our love grew exponentially in the process.

I’ve been reading with interest about the sale of the .org registry by the Public Interest Registry (PIR) to Ethos Capital. The value of the deal is just shy over $1.1 billion and if you are to believe some people, the deal was done in a cesspool of corruption and scandal.

What's in it for PIR? They are now funded to do good for the Internet in the long,long,long-term future without having to worry about running a registry. Could you imagine being on the board of PIR, facing the prospect of another round of extensions being released by ICANN and then having a billion-dollar opportunity fall out of the sky and into your lap? You would be crazy not to seriously look at it!

Now let’s think about the numbers for a second. A typical .org domain sells for $10 (to make the maths easy) and since they have roughly 10 million domains in the registry then .org generates a top line revenue of $100 million per year. Of course, this is shared with the registrar in a variety of different agreement structures but let’s imagine that it wasn’t.

By paying $1.1 billion for the business either Ethos Capital is possibly going to be looking for a long-term hold (ie. north of 11 years) of the business, plan on growing the number of domains or there is some other reason they purchased it.

Growing the registry is a long, hard road. The entire domain space grows by about 5% per year and .org is a small percentage of that. If they managed to grow by 200,000 domains (ie. 2% per year) it would be a miracle. This would only add $2 million to the top line revenue and doesn’t really change the ROI economics that much for Ethos Capital.

Taking responsibility for your own life rather than blame everyone else for your circumstances is quite a novel concept for some individuals. After all, why make sensible decisions when you can blame it on your employer, the government or family members?

My wife and I were watching the news the other day and “You’ve got to kidding me!” escaped from our lips several times. It seemed there was one article after another where people blamed everyone else for their situation.

The first was an automotive worker that was complaining because two years earlier the company he worked for had to close down production. He was complaining because since getting his generous pay-out he hadn’t been able to find a job with comparable conditions.

The reporter took the tack that the government should be doing something for this hard done by auto-worker. They even had a union official giving the guy a hug outside the closed down factory.

Let’s think about that for a minute. His previous company had CLOSED because it was unprofitable to do manufacturing in Australia due to the ridiculous benefits the workers received. Any company that offered comparable benefits would soon be out of business as well!

Essentially the auto-worker unions kept on demanding more and more until the car companies (they have all exited manufacturing from Australia) couldn't pay.....and you guessed it, they closed down. If the reporter was half decent they would have suggested the auto-workder demand reparations from the union rather than the government.

In this short series of articles I'm sharing some of the things that I consider prior and during NamesCon so that from a business perspective I can get the most out of the event. This is the second part in a two part series on "Getting the Most Out of NamesCon". The first part can be read by clicking here.

I would like to remind readers that if you haven't registered for NamesCon as yet then you can click on the above banner and receive a 20% discount. Full disclosure, I don't make anything from this and it was a generous offer from NamesCon to help the users of WhizzbangsBlog.

11. Organise meetings before NamesCon
Don’t wait until NamesCon starts to organise a meeting with someone. More than likely the person you are wanting to catch-up with will have a full agenda and you won’t get any time with them. To avoid disappointment, reach out to them before the event and be sure you clearly state your objectives for the meeting.

12. Keep some time clear
Don’t completely block out your entire schedule with meetings. Keep some time open for that interesting opportunity that comes along that warrant’s further discussion. In many respects these types of meetings are the icing on the NamesCon cake.

13. Smile
There’s nothing quite like seeing someone at a conference that looks like their having a good time. A simple smile transforms the face and your demeanour. It also tells all those people around you that you’re open for business! It doesn’t cost a thing to smile…..so give it a go.

14. Take meeting notes
Let me assure you that by meeting ten you won’t be able to remember what happened in meeting one. Take LOTS of notes WITH action items. If I’m in a meeting with someone that doesn’t take notes then sadly, it’s likely the meeting won’t result in any business.

I’ve been enjoying blogging now for near enough on 12 years and to be quite honest with you it’s been one of the joys of my life. Sharing my thoughts each week with readers from across the world has been a privilege and I would like to thank you all for your kind words of support.

After considerable thought I decided that Whizzbangsblog needed a little shake up and that it was time for a change…..and it’s all good!

For a start, I plan to update the look, feel and functionality of the website so that it’s easier for readers to find articles they are after. If anyone knows a good Joomla template designer, then please don’t hesitate to let me know.

As well as my normal blogs I plan on doing a LOT more videos as well as introducing a podcast. The vlogs and podcasts will cover a number of main themes:

• Business and entrepreneurship.
• Extended, long-form interviews with interesting people from all sorts of backgrounds.
• Getting the most from life (ie. video musings).
• My other writing (scifi book, children’s adventure etc.)

What I would like to know is which topics you would like to hear more on. Is it a specific part of domain investing, business, life or something else entirely? Please let me know as I plan on scheduling the content over the coming weeks.