In this “Conversations” video I reminisce with Howard and Barbara Neu about the early days of the domain industry, TRAFFIC conferences and what they are doing now. It was a real journey down memory lane for the three of us as we recall some of the highlights of the various events that transpired more than a decade ago.

Howard and Barbara are widely regarded as the heart and soul of the domain industry and together with their renown business partner, Rick Schwartz, they brought domain investing into the mainstream. It’s through efforts by great people like them that domain investing is what it is today.

I hope you enjoy the conversations video and don’t forget to like, comment and subscribe to my Youtube channel.

Being a seeker of the truth is one of the most transformative attitudes that a person can have in their life. Many years ago, I determined that being truthful would be one of the foundations for my own life.

The result of this journey has been a great relationship with my wife, kids and friends all over the world. I have been blessed beyond measure and I wonder what people that I will develop strong bonds with into the future.

I find that too many people are very loose with the truth and then wonder why their lives end up in a mess. In this “Life Principles” video I encourage others to join me in also becoming seekers of the truth. It’s a life principle that has stood the test of time and has brough much joy to those that follow it.

Have a great weekend.
Michael

As many readers are aware, during this year I’ve been sharing a number of the principles that I endeavour to follow in my own life. I’ve found they have helped me enormously in relationships and making better decisions.

Early this year I had a friend give me the book “Principles” by Ray Dalio and recommended that I read it. I found it was really interesting reading from a person that has analytically put principles into practice in almost every aspect of his business. I should say from the start that I didn’t agree with everything that he wrote but it was still extremely challenging.

Ray spoke at TED 2017 in Vancouver and in a simple example I think he brilliantly summarised the practical outworking of what it means to work in a radically transparent meritocracy. This allows the staff at his hedge fund, Bridgewater Capital, to focus on the best ideas rather than all the politics that often rips apart many organisations and often results in bad decision making.

He freely admits that it’s not for everyone but the example he uses of radical transparency is eye opening….and extremely challenging. I hope you enjoy the video and find it thought provoking.

Have a great weekend.
Michael

Last year, some of you may remember that I set myself the challenge of launching a new business. Although it was a significant challenge I managed to attract enough customers to make it worthwhile and it’s continued to expand with a whole flock of repeat clients.

For the past week or so I’ve been working diligently on opening a new market vertical. Attracting new clients from a different market vertical is taking a much bigger investment than I thought but I’m determined to reach them.

If you remember from previous blog articles, the first incarnation of the business involved positioning a bird bath in the garden outside my study window. It took quite some doing but after moving it around and laying out some bread crumbs I’ve managed to attract a number of bird families as my first clientele.

The photos below can testify to the success of my existing venture….but I wanted the business of me enjoying watching the birds from my study window to expand.

So what are the domain industry’s really big issues? What should we be driving innovatively to solve and what issues are way beyond the scope of short term solutions?

When I think about the really big issues in the domain industry I find that I’m forced to reflect on the four primary business models associated with domains:

1.       Selling domains like stock items
2.       Selling high value domains
3.       Traffic monetisation
4.       Development

Selling domains as stock items is all about increasing the sales turnover of low value domains (sub $2K) in your portfolio. This is similar to a supermarket which operates on low margins wanting to increase the throughput of products being sold.

When you look at the incumbents in this market they have all been trying to increase the demand. This has largely been achieved through increasing the breadth of their distribution networks (ie. Registrars) so their inventory is exposed to a larger audience.

I see a number of innovations that centre on pricing that can be explored in this market and I will discuss two of them in this article. To date, the feedback from domain marketplaces has been that if a domain is priced it’s more likely to sell. This seems to make sense as buyers like to know what they are about to pay for domain rather than “make and enquiry”.