It’s been great to see more and more Domain Investors and industry leaders joining the Domainer’s Network. It’s great to see Jeff Sass from .CLUB, Howard Neu from the Merge Conference and many others now onboard.

I’m already finding it really useful to drop in quick thoughts about the domain industry and business into the activity stream. They aren’t fully fledged blog posts but are snapshots about something I may have read online.

For instance, I grabbed a screenshot of the number of the total number of gTLD registrations and posted a comment on it in the gTLD Group. I was also reading an article posted by Matt Barrie, CEO of Freelancer and posted this in the Entrepreneurs Group.

Groups are a core part of the Domainers Network and can be either private or public. Members can create your own groups and invite people to join them in a discussion on a particular topic or they can join other public groups. They can also post videos, share photos, polls or create discussions that are only visible to Group members.

The Group organiser can make announcements to the whole group or even automatically pull in relevant RSS feeds, so the Group members can automatically be kept informed in all the latest news. For instance, I just setup an RSS feed to be displayed in the new gTLD Group for all the latest announcements from ICANN on new gTLDs.

Don’t forget you can also invite friends to join a group. I’m a firm believer that it’s through the collective collaboration of everyone that we can become more astute domain investors. Over the years, I’ve been ever so grateful for sound advice that has helped me make prudent domain investments.

Make sure you check out the Domainer’s Network

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been getting increasingly frustrated with managing all of the different social networks for all my different websites and profiles. What I really wanted was a totally separate social network just for domaining and have it related to topics that are JUST for domainers.

After a bit of work, I’ve now setup the “Domainers Network” on whizzbangsblog.com. Think of it like the Facebook for the domaining community…..and ONLY for the domaining community.

You can do a lot in the domainers network, such as, being able to create and completely control your own public or private groups. I’ve already created a number of groups that you can join, they include; New gTLDs, Entrepreneurship, Selling Domains and Traffic Domains.

You can also add events to the domaining calendar (I’ve added NamesCon, WHD and the ICANN events) and with a click you can indicate you will be attending one or more of them. It just makes it so much easier to coordinate meetings if you know who is attending a conference!

Of course, you can always upload photos, videos and audio files that relate to domains. Everything is published to the “Activity Stream” so other members can see what’s happening. For example, every time I publish a new blog it appears in the activity stream.

There’s a LOT more functionality to the platform than just the above. What I’m really interested in is feedback and whether you feel it’s meeting a need in the community…..or maybe I’m the only one that’s experiencing social network entanglement :-)

Check Out The Domainer’s Community

When I first went on vacation I’d somehow convinced myself the world would end. How could it possibly continue without my considerable effort…..not surprisingly I eventually understood that everything worked fine without me. Have you ever had thoughts of grandeur where you wonder whether your enterprises will collapse without you?

During the first weeks of being away I would regularly check my email and I even replied to a number of them. This brought mild (and not so mild) rebukes from the team back home who politely (and not so politely) told me I was on vacation and to butt out.

It was about week four that I discovered depths of relaxation that I’d forgotten existed. This feeling of bliss was amply supported by being on a cruise ship where the biggest decision I had to make each day was what I would have for dinner. It was wonderful...!

Vacations aren’t real, they’re more of an aberration from our regular lives. When you think of it, vacations are like the carrot that for most of the year is just out of reach…..but I have to say, it’s nice to have a munch on the carrot every now and then.

After traveling around Europe and seeing some incredible sites a dose of reality occurred when I returned home and glanced at my PC sitting forlornly in my study. It hadn’t been turned on for 6 weeks and it beckoned like a puppy wanting a good scratch behind the ears.

Pushing the power button brought a cheerful chirp from my faithful friend and a joyous hum announced its awakening hard drives. The three screens in front of me sprung to life and it wasn’t long before I started wading my way through the quagmire of my online reality as I caught up with the latest pictures of cats (which is very important), what my friends were doing and what had happened in the last 6 weeks in the domain industry.

An hour later I pushed my chair back from the desk, closed my eyes and took a deep relaxing breath. I could almost picture the waiter bringing me another drink with an umbrella stuck in it….sigh…..like I said, bliss. That’s just when my wife let me know the trash had to be taken out….back to reality!

Have a great weekend.

I’ve been attending conference for most of my working life and I’ve found that it’s a real skill to get the most out of an event like NamesCon. Although everyone will have their own style I thought that I’d share how I prepare and approach a major industry conference.

For a start, flying from Australia to Las Vegas isn’t cheap and combined with the jetlag at either end it’s really is a 10-day venture. To get a return on the investment of the direct costs and for my time I’ll want to make sure that I manage my time very carefully.

Before scheduling meetings, check the agenda. Nine times out of ten there will be a number of sessions that I will like to attend. Block these times out or you’ll find you can miss some great input that could potentially transform your business.

I’m finally back after an extended five-week vacation and the recent ICANN meeting in Abu Dhabi. It’s amazing how much can transpire in such a relatively short time…..it’s clear the domain industry doesn’t rest for anyone.

From a personal perspective I would highly recommend to everyone that you take some time off from the hectic life we all lead. One or two weeks is great but there’s nothing quite like at least four weeks help you really think about your life.

During my time away, I had numerous epiphanies while I sipped on yet another drink with a little umbrella stuck in the top. By the way, when you’re on vacation you really need quite a number of the umbrella type drinks as they seem to assist the thinking process a lot. It was during these times that my mind began to really contemplate what the domain industry is all about.

For the first time in a while I began to really think about questions such as, “What really is domain traffic?”, “How to solve scaling development?”, “What other domain revenue streams are possible?”, “Is it possible to generate quality traffic for a domain?”. All good questions that continue to require more thought.

I also began to contemplate some “life” questions. For instance, I reconfirmed that I really enjoy what I do. I love building ParkLogic, working the team and David Gibbs, my business partner. As you may have guessed, writing articles for whizzbangsblog continues to be a passion and I consider it a privilege to have friends in the industry from all over the world.

While Roselyn and I strolled around Lake Garda in the Italian Alps chatting about what we planned to do over the next few years we received a phone call from our son, Timothy. Some of you may remember Tim as he helped man a ParkLogic booth at DomainFest a number of years back. A very short summary of the call was, “Dad, I’m thinking of asking my girlfriend to marry me. What do you think?”

We were both so excited and happy at the news! The very next day he asked Ruth if she would marry him and she said “yes!” How great is that!

It goes to show that when you think you have everything in place that something can completely blindside you (for better or worse). The next time you get away and start thinking about your life never forget there may be a little surprise along your journey! In the meantime, we need to plan a wedding ?

Have a great week!