As domain investors know, for many years Escrow.com has been providing a critical part of the domain industry ecosystem. The trusted independent link between buyers and sellers have enabled many investors to complete secure transactions for their domain sales. So what’s new with Escrow.com?

While I was traveling through Europe at the end of October I received an email from Escrow.com announcing that they have now released a completely updated API for public beta. I knew this major upgrade was clearly going to be the platform upon which other products and services could be built.

For example, the new API potentially means websites, marketplaces, classifieds sites, shopping carts, and mobile apps can have escrow services built directly into them. This opens up a huge range of potential new clients for Escrow.com that is much broader than their traditional business clients.

Frederick Schiwek, the CEO of Domain Invest, has asked if I’d write about him selling a number of top domains from their very large portfolio. I don’t normally do this but decided to make an exception for Freddy and here’s why.

I first met Freddy well over a decade ago at a Traffic conference being held at the Venetian Hotel, Las Vegas. Some of you may remember those conferences. the domain industry was jumping and over 700 people paid top dollar to attend the conference....and party all night long. It just so happens that Freddy and I bumped into each other at the end of one of the sessions.

You know it’s providence when you have an Australian and a German (who works out of Luxembourg) meet at a conference in Las Vegas, America. A few things immediately struck me about Freddy; he was old school and understood the basic Internet building blocks, his enthusiasm was infectious, and he had an insatiable drive to learn.

Ask yourself a simple question, “Who are you?” It’s one of the most unnerving things you can ever do. It’s one of those questions that forces you to look in the mirror of your own life and face the reality of who you are.

The Star Wars movie trailer, “The Force Awakens”, had a voice over that asked the main character the question, "Who are you?" Not surprisingly, it was never answered but with any luck it will be in the next installment of the blockbuster franchise.

So many of us define ourselves through external factors such as our job. When asked “Who we are” we respond with, “I’m a lawyer or teacher or even a domain investor”. These may be what you do but they certainly do not define “who you are”.

Yes, you read the above heading correctly. Whizzbangsblog has secured a 50% discount for readers wishing to attend NamesCon in Las Vegas at the end of January. This is a discount of up to $500 on a standard ticket and even more for VIP tickets.

NamesCon is being held at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas from the 28-31st January 2018. It is regarded as the premier domain conference in the world and if you are a domain investor or part of the domain industry it’s a not to be missed event.

As well as attending NamesCon I will moderating the first day’s proceedings and taking a session for titled “Data Mining For Revenue With Registries and Registrars”.

I took an early version of this topic last year and it was standing room only. Now that we are twelve months down the track I have a lot more data at my fingertips so I can assure you this will be a data filled practical session on how to increase your revenue.

So how do you get the discount code for buying a ticket? It’s really simple, just login to the Domainer’s Network here and message me (you may as well friend me in the process) that you would like a discount code. I’ll then send it on through to you. It's that easy!

Once you’re registered, don’t forget to check out the NamesCon event in the Domainer’s Network and let people know you’re attending. This will help you arrange meetings and get the most out of the conference.

See you there!

I would like to start with saying a big apology. Yesterday I discovered that my consulting emails for those people asking me to provide them some assistance with their domain portfolio have been going to my SPAM folder.

I found this out when I logged into my clarity.fm account (great system for managing consulting btw) and found a whole host of people had requested some time with me…..whoops!

I strictly limit the amount of time I allow for consulting but not replying was plain rude. I’m very, very sorry that I didn’t respond back to you. If you are wanting some help with your domain portfolio then please feel free to click on this link and I’ll make sure I get back to you in a timely fashion.

This brings up an interesting point. I’ve found many people believe that saying sorry is a sign of weakness and it’s the last thing they’ll do. It’s almost like they’ve been scripted by their lawyer to never admit any sort of liability in any situation….including their relationships.