In this blog I would like to share with you about a force more impactful than a trade war and more destructive than an atomic bomb. Each of these incredibly powerful events are nothing compared to the power that can be unleashed by gossip. Yes, you read that correctly, gossip.

With the power of an ill-spoken word a friendship can be destroyed, a marriage torn asunder and children estranged. I’ve seen it and I imagine you've seen or even experienced it. In particular, the power unleashed by gossip can undermine an organisation and ruin the synergies of teamwork in a flash.

Gossip is when something is shared in a negative manner and the listener has no ability to influence the situation. It seems pretty innocuous, but it doesn’t take long for the negativity to develop a life of its own.

I can guarantee that the person being shared about will eventually hear about what is being said about them. Could you imagine being them? None of the people they thought were friends and colleagues had their back and stopped the spreading of the vicious hurtful rumour. They end up feeling hurt, disenfranchised and no longer part of the team.

Gossip is so insidious that often starts small and grows and grows! For instance, did you hear that John had a fight with his wife, took off down the pub to drown his sorrows and ended up being found by the police sleeping on a park bench the next morning.

Winter has come to Melbourne, Australia and not just Game of Thrones, Westeros. Outside my study window, blustery winds pelt pebble sized hail down to create a white sheet of rubbly ice on the grass. Inadvertently I pull the zip of my sweater up a little higher as if that alone will ward off the cold.

This scenario is replayed out around the world but not just in the weather but in business. You’ve been working hard on your business for years and for some reason along comes an event that completely blindsides you. It could be a supplier changes the rules, a major customer moves elsewhere or even a piece of equipment breaks down. Whatever the event you find yourself thrust into winter.

It’s during times like this that businesses either remake themselves or they fold. During winter, it’s often less about profit (or loss) and more about the resilience of the balance sheet to make it through this time. For small businesses, it’s all about protecting the cash.

Winter is a time of assessing what is really important for your business and what is merely an interesting opportunity. Every expense item should come under scrutiny and it’s less about the size of the item and more about the process of asking the nasty question, “Do we really need this?”

I remember when the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) hit in 2008, marketers had their budgets cut and the bottom started falling out of the pay-per-click market. The double whammy for us was the Australian dollar rapidly appreciated against the $US and climbed to just over $1.10. It was a time of winter and one that very few predicted.

Getting your hands around the data is paramount when it comes to working with domain traffic monetisation. I’ve had a number of readers ask me to write further about how ParkLogic conducts a traffic test and whether it really is worth all the hassle.

The first thing we ask for is baseline data from where the domains were previously being monetised. Some people get suspicious with asking for this information and take the approach that we should just perform as “good as we can” so I thought it would be good to unpack why we ask for this data.

There are three primary reasons:
1.    Focus
2.    Accountability
3.    Trust

By having data prior to starting the test helps us immediately focus immediately on where the effort will have the most impact. Without baseline data we end up spinning our wheels for the first part of the test and this is not worthwhile for either ourselves or the potential partner.

Accountability is crucial in any transparent relationship. We take managing domains very seriously and we believe we need to be held accountable against the baseline data at the very least. Let’s face it, the revenue from these domains goes to paying mortgages and putting food on the table for many domain investors.

The last reason is trust and, in many respects, this is the most important reason out of the three. ParkLogic has a stance that we do not have people who use our service, but partners and these relationships are built upon a solid foundation of mutual trust.

Embarrassingly, as many readers are aware, Australia has gone through seven prime ministers in the last ten years. The latest PM, Scott Morrison, only assumed the job eight months ago and across the last weekend the nation went to the polls to decide what to do with him.

I must admit that I love elections and I can’t help myself as I’m glued to the television for the evening as the fate of the nation unfolds. Democracy is an amazing process and sadly, I think I've bored all my family and friends on my love for the topic over the years. Democracy is when an entire nation sits on a knife edge as the people determine who has the right to lead them….it’s incredible!

What happened to Mr. Morrison? He won, and in my opinion, there was a very good reason why the people of Australia voted for him. All the opinion polls were against him but he won anyway….why was that?

In the post-election interviews a common theme emerged from the newly elected members of parliament. They shared about how Scott Morrison had an unshakable belief in himself. Despite all of the reasons to think otherwise, the newly endorsed Australian prime minister knew exactly how and what he had to communicate with the Australian people. He didn’t waver in his message and he was constant in its application.

Rather than oscillating on whether he should change based upon the latest opinion poll he maintained a personal conviction and message throughout the campaign. Clearly this resonated with voters as they voted him back into office.

I need to apologise to readers….I just received some data from Escrow.com that proves that I was completely wrong about the size of the domain sales market. Back in August 2017 I estimated the market to be around $250m and what the latest Escrow data proves is that I was wrong…..by a long shot.

According to the report, Escrow.com alone sold around $340m (all quoted values are in $USD) in domains in the last 12 months. By far the biggest market was the USA which did just over $60m in the first quarter of 2019 with Canada coming up a distant second with around $8m in sales.