Once again I’ll be heading off overseas to meet up with a gathering of individuals that are entirely immersed in the world of domains. This time my trek leads me to the fair land of Ireland and a people that seem to sing their words rather than speak. This is a fact that my wife absolutely loves about the Irish!

So after a short hour or so visit to Dubai and twenty-four hours in a flying tin can I’ll arrive in Dublin. After surveying the conference agenda, the first thing that has struck me about ICANN is the crazy number of acronyms. I’m a programmer and also a private pilot and let me assure you that ICANN has managed to surpass even these two noble pursuits with the number of abbreviation they inflict on everyone.

A classic example is on Sunday. I’m trying to work out whether I should go to the GAC, ICG, RySG-CEO TLDs, GNSO or ALAC sessions? Of course there is always the ccNSO or ccNSO SOP or BC-BRG as options as well. Seriously???? It looks worse than my kids texting their friends!!! I must admit that there is one session that looks particularly good…..”lunch break” J

So why am I going to be attending ICANN? It’s really simple, ICANN is a place where business gets done. It’s full of potential ParkLogic clients and the information that you can pick up from talking to individuals is nothing short of brilliant.

Like any organisation, it will take some time to get to know the ropes but this isn’t my first and I know a lot more people who attend ICANN than I did a few years ago. It will be great catching up with them to find out how many of the rapid changes to the Internet over the last 12 months are impacting their own businesses.

In the meantime, I’d better go and pack otherwise I’ll miss my flight….see you all there!

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 recent Domain Conference in Fort Lauderdale, ParkLogic released a sneak preview of what we are calling “ParkLogic Next”. We will be publishing a series of short videos featuring different aspects of Next over the weeks leading up to Namescon in January. It's something that we're really excite about!

About 18 months ago, we made the big decision to rebuild our entire platform and infrastructure from the ground up. This was one of the best decision that we have ever made. With nearly a decade of accumulated knowledge and experience from extracting the full value from domain traffic we are on the cusp of releasing what we believe is a ground breaking domain platform.

We had a number of goals in designing Next:

1. Informative – you can now view different aspects of your data at the click of a button. Everything from Excel like filters to adding trend lines are at your fingertips.
    
2. Actionable – you can make decisions from the data before you.
    
3. Fast – we don’t want clients to have to wait for extended periods of time for their data.
    

With these three goals in mind we have now released a video outlining some of the features of the Next dashboard. The entire dashboard has been built by accessing our own API which empowers clients to also easily integrate their own variation of the Next platform into their own systems. There is no custom secret code....everything is in the API and accessible to clients.

Putting everything into the API is an important principle. It means that larger customers, registrars and registries can easily integrate Next into their own brandable interface. It also provides a huge amount of flexibility for domain investors who like both an online interface and one that allows them to get under the numbers.

A number of the features of the dashboard include:

• Adding trend lines at the click of a button
• Being able to see all of your data via a slider snapshot
• Instantly move data from a chart to a table for more detailed analysis
• View the breakdown between mobile and desktop traffic
• View top referrers, geo-split data and what domains made up a days data
• Excel like filter functionality to zoom in on the data that interests you.
• Everything exportable to a CSV file
   

During the next months we will be continuing to extend the Next dashboard and the underlying functionality that will make it the most advanced domain management interface in the world. We hope that you enjoy the first short video giving a glimpse of ParkLogic Next.

I have to give it to the team at .club, they just seem to be going from strength to strength. I just received an email from Jeff Sass, their Chief Marketing Officer, and they are now releasing a list of super premium domains for auction. Please see the press release below....it's a pretty impressive list of 2 letter and a 1 letter .club domain.

PRESS RELEASE

High Value Domain Names Such As C.club, DK.club, PC.club and PJ.club

Have Strong Appeal in Asia and the West

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL --- October 7, 2015 ---C.Club and twenty-four 2-character .CLUB domain names are set to hit the auction block on October 29, 2015 in a series of five fast-moving auctions with each auction lasting three days. The popularity and value of one and two-character domains is well documented as witnessed through their global sales and usage by major corporations across verticals such as YP.com (Yellow Pages), HP.com (Hewlett Packard), SI.com (Sports Illustrated), EA.com (Electronic Arts), QQ.com (Tencent QQ), W.org (WordPress) and more. In fact, many companies’ brand identity has naturally morphed to be more prevalent in their two-character abbreviated form rather than full name.

This auction, to be held on the Chinese EachNic.com platform, marks the first time .CLUB Domains, the Registry behind one of the world’s most popular new domain extensions, is offering this set of domains in a public auction format. The domain inventory included in this auction has been hand-selected by the EachNic.com team to specifically appeal to Eastern and Western businesses and investors alike. Auction bidding starts as low as $5,000USD for the majority of two-character domains, making them accessible for businesses of all sizes and budgets.

.CLUB Domains has already sold reserved domains at considerable auction prices, including the sale of Wine.club for $140,000 in 2015 at the NamesCon Auction, which set the worldwide auction record for all new domain extension sales to date. This was their first and only auction, showing the demand for .CLUB domain sales. Likewise, interest in the first Eastern and Western auction of .CLUB names is expected to attract strong participation, especially with .CLUB’s active focus on buyers worldwide.

The auction platform will be available in both Chinese and English, and .CLUB will be offering a Concierge Service to assist Western buyers, thus allowing two ways to bid:

• Bid online from the EachNic.com auction platform. Once the auction begins, create an account and bid as frequently as you like.  You can also enter a proxy bid for each auction for automated bidding.
• Use the free Concierge Service and work with a professionalbi-lingual domain specialist to guide you through EachNic.com’s registration and bidding process on your behalf and under your directions. This provides you the freedom to set your limits anonymously before the auction ends. To learn more, contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Payments will be made through the familiar website Escrow.com for non-Chinese investors and through Union Pay for Chinese investors.  To accommodate investors everywhere, teams of bilingual speakers will be available throughout the auction in U.S. and China time zones.

Be sure to frequently check http://nic.club/auction/for the latest news and bidding links for this coveted set of  25 valuable domains. Auction inventory, reserves and dates can be found below.  Each auction will end promptly at 10:30 pm Eastern (7:30 pm Pacific) on the indicated End date.

The overwhelming success of the recent Domain Conference is testament to the resilience and strength of the domain industry. Well over 200 domain investors and service providers gathered in Florida for an outstanding time of networking and learning about the abundant opportunities in the domain industry.

I do apologise but this article will have to be quick as I'm writing it in Sydney just before my next flight to Melbourne.....nothing like a 30 hour journey home!

So what made it such a success? The Neu family, together with their team, made all of the attendees feel welcome while at the same time ensuring that the event went off without a hitch. Congratulations should be offered to all those behind the scenes who made it such an enjoyable event.

As a conference venue, the Hyatt Regency, was exceptional. The rooms were at the right price, the conference facilities were world class and everyone just seemed to hang around. This was evident by the number of people talking and doing business in the large bar area each night.

I had an interesting conversation with Jeff Saas from .club in the hotel bar one night about how to make a conference success for your own business. To paraphrase the conversation, “The repeated attending of conferences and industry events will grow your business as people get to know you and the fact that you’ll hang around.” In other words, the more you attend the more likely you’ll be successful.

I’ve made the journey across the Pacific innumerable times now and I heartily agree with Jeff. A large reason why my own company, ParkLogic, is so successful is that I’ve put in the effort and the resources to associate with my peers. There is nothing like breaking bread with someone to really learn about their business needs and to see if you can meet them.

I should also mention that ParkLogic released a sneak preview of the dashboard for our new platform at the conference. After listening to what domainers really want from a domain management platform we spent the last year in developing everything from the ground up. I will be regularly posting videos of ParkLogic Next that will feature some new and exciting features. Check out next.parklogic.com

As many of you are aware, I have recently published my debut science fiction book Battleframe. The domain industry has given me so much and as a thank-you I gave out over 100 free signed copies to conference attendees. The level of encouragement for writing the novel from the domain community was really inspiring….thank you everyone!

For those people that didn’t receive a copy of Battleframe, I’ve decided to give out a free copy of the e-book via Amazon to 50 people. All you need to do is go to battleframe.club and register for your e-book and then send me an email with the number that you receive after filling in the brief form.

The conference sessions were also excellent with some refreshing content shared by experts in their respective fields. Despite my own hectic meeting schedule, I made sure I attended a number of the sessions.

As you may have guessed the conference was so successful that it will be held again next year. If you didn’t attend this year then whatever you do, don’t miss out next year! See you then.

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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.

Colin Campbell, CEO of .club, asked if I would post this guest blog and after reading it I immediately agreed. Two great things about Colin is his insightfulness about the domain industry but also his willingness to admit it when he gets things wrong. This combination makes him one of the people in the domain industry that I would highly recommend that you pay attention to.

Guest Blog
Why I was Wrong about Domain Investors!

by Colin Campbell

Wow. What a ride.

Started a new company in 1993 called Internet Direct, eventually launched Tucows, Domain Direct, EasyHosting, Hostopia, GeeksForLess and then finally .CLUB.

Here is my confession: I am a product of the 90’s. Yes a dinosaur. A short period of time when we all thought we were coasting on the Star Ship Enterprise….where it all made sense. Money did not matter but coming together was the greater purpose. We were reinventing the world and starting a revolution of collectivism. Some entrepreneurs, my brother and myself included saw making money as a second purpose. It was a rare moment. The internet was, is, and will always be owned by the people of this small little speck of a planet called earth. It was the greatest innovation of our time, and maybe of all time. The 90’s was in fact, a small window in to humanity at its greatest moment. So many geeks, entrepreneurs, journalists, students, and entrepreneurs coming together to make the planet smaller.

Today as CEO  of .CLUB a new domain extension, competing with .COM, I reflect back on my years but also recognize it is a different time. Capitalism has taken hold. It’s become survival of the fittest. Do whatever it takes to survive. I do yearn for the days of the past.

I did a press conference in the late 90’s revealing the identity of Mafia Boy which hit every news channel including CNN calling all spammers internet terrorists. I had the same opinion of domain speculators, domain squatters, domain kidnappers at that time. I grouped them all into the same bucket. I even restricted all employees from domain investing. Here is where I went wrong and thankfully the Rick Swartz, Micheal Berkins, and later the infamous Frank Shilling created a market between those who wanted names for specific reasons and those who sold those names. Today domain investors really play a pivotal role from China to America. They connect with a confused and for good reason out of touch end user. They are thebackbone of the internet, the true brokers and entrepreneurs who work tirelessly to simplify the internet world we live in today. I was wrong. Maybe not so about spammers, phishers, DDOS’ers and the rest. But I was wrong about domain investors.

We recently announced a somewhat controversial decision to offer all expired names on SnapNames dropping auction. Internally, we had a great debate as to why we should not just reclaim the names and resell them through our registrar channel. Why would we let great names go for as low as $69. See I have come full circle now. Today domain investors are the glue that brings it all together for a new domain extensions. We will leave money on the table, but those domain extensions that have an army of domain investors working to get the names in right hands will be successful. It’s time the media, the industry and users recognize what domainers really do. They help connect people and make the internet a simpler place.

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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.