Eric Lyon from NamePros just sent through an interview that I did with Edward Zeiden at NamesCon 2017. It was great revisiting the 2017 interview to see what is still relevant in 2018 and whether any of the predictions came true.

The video also reminded me that in 2018 domain investors need to continue to focus on the outcomes for their investments. Before you buy a domain you should already know which of the four primary business models will be providing the return.

Is the investment a stock item, high value domain, development opportunity or are you going to earn money from the traffic.

I should say that Edward interviewed me again in 2018 and I look forward to seeing that video....I'll post it hear as soon as it's finished being produced. Many thanks to the great NamePros team for all the work they are doing in creating a historical video archive of our great industry.

NamesCon 2018 has ended, attendees are on their way home and the exhibit hall is now all packed up. So was the conference really worth it? Did it deliver for me what I was hoping it would? Most importantly will I fork out my hard-earned cash to journey across the Pacific to attend next year?

NamesCon 2018 would have to have been the best conference I have attended in……well…..since NamesCon 2017. The attendance was about the same as 2017 but appeared a little lighter due to the number of meetings being held in suites. This brings up a really important point.

I judge conferences on not the number of attendees but whether the right people are in attendance. In this case, NamesCon really delivered as I found myself surrounded by people that I was wanting to catch-up with…..in fact, I ran out of time so my apologies to all those people that I didn’t manage to say "hi" to.

To give you an idea of my schedule, I had an average of 16+ scheduled meetings per day. This didn’t include the impromptu meetings you have at any of the parties, walking down the long hallway or just bumping into someone in the exhibit hall. The right people attended NamesCon and this meant a huge, and I really mean HUGE amount of business was getting done.

At any one time about half the attendees or more were huddled in meetings as they bought or sold domains, did other deals or developed closer relationships that can only be made face to face. The other half were in some excellent sessions as they gained a greater appreciation of just how flexible domains could be or how cryptocurrency and the blockchain will impact their businesses.

It’s not long until NamesCon and it looks like it’s shaping up to be bigger and better than ever! As well as all of the excellent sessions there are a host of networking events that will ensure that attendees will get the most out of the conference.

As well as being asked to be a moderator on the Sunday I also have the privilege of sharing in a session title, “Data Mining for Revenue with Registries and Registrars” on Monday at 11am in the .ASIA room. I must admit that I’ve pulled some great data together for this session and if you’re a registrar/hosting company or a registry then I hope that it will show you how you can tap into some significant opportunities in your business.

What really makes NamesCon a “not to be missed” conference is the quality of the attendees. Nine times out of ten, after speaking with a person you’ll find there is a large potential opportunity for you both just waiting to be unlocked. The challenge at the end of the conference is to work out which ones you will pursue first.

I would like to start by wishing readers a very prosperous 2018. This sounds really good but what does it mean? Where are the opportunities and how will you take advantage of them?

Whenever I think of investment opportunities I’m forced to reflect upon the underlying business models being adapted. Whether it comes to domains, crypto-currencies or anything else it’s the business models which ultimate will or will not produce the results we all dream of at the beginning of the year.

Let’s tackle the domain investment business models:

Development
For the past year and a bit, I’ve been working on a platform for better monetising domain traffic. The key here was to build a platform that more accurately understood the traffic while at the same time building both immediate and residual revenue. I can only say, watch this space…..as my first evolution of this will be launched shortly.

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.