After around 24 hours of traveling I've finally reached Vegas for NamesCon! If anyone is around then ping me on skype, facebook or here on whizzbangsblog. I'll be the guy trying to stay awake and get into the Pacific time zone.

On the flight over I fine tuned my two presentations on Monetisation (on Sunday and Wednesday) and I must admit that they've really come together nicely with heaps of illustrations, case studies and data on monetisation. I think that anyone attending the sessions will go away with a lot of great information to help them with their portfolio.

We have a large team from ParkLogic here which is really great but the bad news is that it looks like our banner for the table on Sunday didn't make a flight.....sigh.....just got to love Qantas. We'll be the table that is handing out little miniature koalas that you can clip to your lanyard and then give to your kids when you get home.

So make sure you make a beeline for our table on the Sunday to pick up your koala and get a demonstration of the ParkLogic Next platform. I think that you're going to love it!

I'd better get going for my walk so that both Roselyn and I can enjoy the conference and not sleep through it. See you at NamesCon!

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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'm sitting here at the airport in Queenstown, New Zealand after a great weeks vacation in a magnificent part of the world. Almost as a parting gesture I couldn't help noticing that one of the the networks available at the airport was called "whizbang". Shame about dropping a "z" but it made me feel right at home.

After the past week I feel energised and looking forward to the new year! This is going to start with heading to Vegas tomorrow for NamesCon where I've heard that over 1200 people will be in attendance. Seriously, if you aren't attending you will be really missing out.

As well as having around 30 scheduled meetings I will be speaking on Domain Monetisation for two sessions, an intro and also a masterclasss. I spent the week before Christmas researching some great case studies to illustrate the points in the sessions....it should be a lot of fun! If you are interested in monetising your domain traffic then make sure that you signup for the sessions online at the NamesCon website as they are filling up fast.

I'm also going to be doing a Q&A on Sunday where people can ask any question they would like about how to best monetise and manage their domains. I'll do my best to answer all the questions and help out as many people as possible.

ParkLogic has a table on the Sunday where we will be providing a new installment of a sneak preview of our new Next platform. We'll also have five of us at the conference....so make sure that you grab any of us if you have any questions about how we can help you with your portfolio.

One of the great things about this trip is that I'll have my wife, Rosely, with me. I know that everyone will make her feel more than welcome and I know that she's really looking forward to meeting everyone.

Anyway.....my flight is being called so I'd better get going now. Cheers!

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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.

At the end of each year I like to reflect on the past twelve months and then try to make some predictions for the coming year. In a nutshell, I believe that 2016 will see an incredible amount of change in the domain industry. Here’s a few predictions for you…

The current Chinese powered boom will peak by the end of quarter one as the Shanghai index continues its rebound. Chinese investors that were looking at exiting money will return to the more liquid stock market as a source of investment returns. Those domain speculators that have invested in long strings of numbers will find they are left holding their assets.

In an effort to curb costs domain investors will seek to outsource their domain management to firms that provide such services. The economies of scale derived by such firms will free investors time to concentrate on other investment opportunities.

Downward pressure on earnings will continue to place stress on large portfolio investors as registrations costs increase. This will mean that there will be greater numbers of more marginal domains dropped. Those investors that have scaled will be looking for an exit through either marketplaces that are acquiring domains (eg. Godaddy) or portfolio owners that have managed to extract additional value from traffic.

Consolidation of the new gTLD registry market will begin in earnest as the unprofitable registries seek an exit to recoup some of their investment. Successful registry owners will be in a buyers’ market where they will be able to pick and choose whom they acquire for often massively discounted rates.

Traffic domains will continue to underpin the wealth of the domain industry. Additional revenue streams will be developed off the back of domain traffic that is much broader than just the advertising. Understanding true “user intent” and what it means will open up significant opportunities for domain owners that have aggregated large traffic portfolios.

The traditional domain brokering business model will change as the small number of good brokers come under increasing demand from a larger and larger pool of sellers. As the laws of supply and demand come to bear, sellers will offer inducements to brokers to attract attention to sell their domains.

Late in the year, inroads into new management tools will assist domain developers in scaling the development business model. This problem has been the Achilles heel of the development industry and has limited much of the growth in this direction….so keep an eye out on this space.

Consolidation of registrars, monetisation providers and registries will continue as founders seek to exit and economies of scale come to bear on business models. Innovating businesses will be snapped up as speed will become an important asset in scaling faster than competitors.

Despite Marissa Mayer’s (photo above) best efforts, Yahoo will continue to languish and Google will continue to consolidate its hold on the domain industry. As Google’s grips tightens its grip, more and more alternative advertising sources will become viable for larger numbers of market verticals.

NamesCon will be hugely successful and run simultaneously as Affiliate Summit West will be an event that introduces new blood into the industry. The Domain Conference in September will continue to grow and Dietmar’s decision to move Domaining Europe to the Netherlands will pay dividends. DomainFest Hong Kong will really expand as a premier domain conference off the back of the growing Indian and Chinese markets.

So that’s a few of my predictions for 2016. It will be interesting to see how many of them come to pass…..I know that a number of them are already moving forward. See you all at NamesCon in early January.

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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 love Christmas! It’s a time where my family comes together and we celebrate with great amounts of joy, laughter and of course, food. It’s a wonderful season that is full of love.

A couple of weeks later we throw a Christmas party where the house is filled with both our kids and our own friends. It’s a bit crazy in the rush leading up to the event but everyone has a great time with way too much food on offer!

For about the last twenty years the whole family heads into the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne on the 23^rd December for the Carols by Candlelight practice. When we first started going there was about a hundred people camped out on the lawn listening to famous singers rehearse for the big event that is nationally televised the following night. The practice has now grown to around 20,000 people who have a great time with their families singing along to the various carols.

After the carols Rosleyn and I put together the ginger bread house that was cooked earlier in the day so that it’s ready to decorate the next morning. Since the kids were little they’ve had the joy of decorating the house with candies….I think more go into their mouths then on the house. LOL! Now that Tim’s nearly 23 nothing’s changed other than his girlfriend is pitching in to help out.

Today we head across to my parents for lunch, who live not far away, for a traditional Canadian Christmas meal in honour of the nine years that we spent in that great country. So as well as being Australian I have a fair slice of Canadian in me that makes me want to put some ice skates on and sing “Oh Canada”! The whole wider family will be at my parent’s house so I expect it’s going to be bedlam at present time. All good!

We all roll back home and for dinner for some good wine, fruit, cheese, crackers and a slice of ham. Each year, as a family, we always read the Bible’s account of the first Christmas to help remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas. It’s not “happy holidays” but “Merry Christ’s mass”.

After this special family time, we all put our individual sacks around the tree, one for each member and anyone else that is staying with us for Christmas. Each of the kids have had the same uniquely decorated sacks for Christmas since they were born. We all then stuff the sacks full of presents to one another….the rules are that you can’t touch any presents in your own sack until the next morning.

I must admit that I’m like a big kid on Christmas Eve and I get so excited that the next morning I’m the first to get up (around 7am). The first thing I do is make a cup of tea for Roselyn in a cup that is only used on Christmas morning each year. The second thing I do is put on Frank Sinatra singing Jingle Bells and other carols. We only play that on Christmas mornings as well.

Now that they are older I end up waking up the kids for a great time of gift giving, laugher and fun. Afterwards we have a special Christmas breakfast that involves a magnificent parfait made by Tim and then we head off to Roselyn’s parents for Christmas lunch and more presents…..we don’t even want to think about the calories of all these meals!

Boxing day is more family activities, relaxation and this year we may even head down to the beach for some sun…one of the nice things about living in the southern hemisphere is that it’s hot at Christmas.

Amongst all of the frivolity I like to stop and be grateful for all of the blessings that life has brought me. For all of the team at ParkLogic who have put in so much work over the last year, my wonderful wife, children, wider family and friends. For the many friends around the world that I’ve made through the domain industry and the ones that I’m yet to make. I’m going to be particularly blessed this year as Roselyn is coming to NamesCon.

I’m also blessed to have had such great sponsors of Whizzbangsblog this year. Companies such as escrow.com, .club, Karen Bernstein, Namejet, The Domain Conference, Stevan Lieberman and others have made it possible for me to continue to write articles that endeavour to dig out the nuggets of gold that help improve all of our businesses.

I am very fortunate to know so many great people and to be blessed by their friendship. We mustn’t forget that there are also many people that are less fortunate and look on Christmas as a time of sadness as it brings back memories of lost loved ones or other such traumas. If you are one of these then my heart and prayers go out to you.

Lastly, I would like to thank the many readers of whizzbangsblog. Throughout the year you have continued to inspire me to write with your comments, emails and many skypes. I look forward to catching up with many of you at NamesCon and online in the coming year ahead. In the meantime, have a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year!

Michael Gilmour

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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.

As an eleven-year-old, I’ll never forget seeing Star Wars (A New Hope) for the very first time. The path of the huge Imperial Star Destroyer simultaneously blazed its way across the screen and my mind. As a young kid I desperately wanted my own X-wing fighter just like Luke Skywalker or fly alongside Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon.

Prior to this baptism of the imagination I’d already been well indoctrinated by my father into scifi by a nightly diet of Star Trek. It was way prior to VCR’s, DVD recorders or any sort of time-shifting technology so the family dinner was always delayed so that we could see Captain Kirk and Spock in action.

Later in life, I decided to be a really cool Dad and pulled my kids out of school so that they could see the very first session of each of the first three newer Star Wars. The teachers were horrified that I would prize seeing a movie above “education”…..but sometimes education goes way beyond a classroom. At the end of the movie I dropped my kids back off at school so they could tell all of their friends that they’d already seen the latest instalment of the light sabre universe. Trust me that my kids got some serious kudos from this and Dad became a hero! :-)

Earlier this year I finally reached a life-long goal by publishing my own science fiction book, Battleframe. Holding my book for the very first time is one of the proudest moments in my life. I’m already a third of the way through book two so watch this space.

Battleframe was ultimately inspired by my father who opened up the worlds of Doc Smith, Frank Herbert, Gene Rodenberry, George Lucas and the like. I’ve journeyed with each of these writers as their characters have fought against insurmountable odds to overcome some challenge…..but Star Wars was something special.

So other than a few special moments in a movie theatre how has Star Wars and the scifi genre changed you? Fundamentally it has given me a positive outlook on life. Nothing is impossible and there is no problem so great that it can’t be solved by creative thinking.

For example, the other day I’m sitting at my desk and decided that it was about time that I dusted off my PHP programming skills (btw, inspired by R2D2 and C3PO) and tackle some really, really difficult algorithms. After a few days of effort my emperor was slain and before me was a report of simplistic beauty……you’ve just got to love it when something comes together.

When I look at my various business endeavours I know that there will be difficulties along the journey but I’ve also tried to train myself to view the challenges as something that can be overcome. Luke Skywalker didn’t have it easy but eventually he became a Jedi and defeated the evil emperor.

Late this afternoon, I’m taking my whole family plus girlfriends and boyfriends to see the latest instalment in the Star Wars franchise. It’s not the very first screening (stupid kids jobs!) but it I’m sure that I will become the eleven child once again as I see Lucas’s universe unfold before me.

What will be really special is that I’m also taking my father along. We’ll both have one of those really special times together sitting in the dark and getting freshly inspired about life’s possibilities.

So, how has Star Wars changed you? Did it convert you into becoming a bit of a geek and ultimately get you into domains? Share it in the comments below.

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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.