There is one thing that I’ve realised in my travels….there is opportunity everywhere you go. I find that too many people journey through life with their eyes closed rather than take in the wonder all around them.

I’ve found the secret to opening your eyes to the opportunities all around me is to be perpetually curious. Engage others by asking questions and then listen with both ears wide open…..remember you have one mouth and two ears….use them in those proportions.

For example, I’m writing this while staying on a farm right now (it’s a stunningly beautiful place) and after talking with the owner I’ve learned a LOT about cattle. More importantly, the importance of data, GPS and managing the land to get the highest yield. It was fascinating hearing him describe some of the advances in geo-fencing that would allow him to control where his cattle roamed.

One of the biggest problems for many of us in the domain industry is there is way too many opportunities and sadly, not enough time. One of the great things about domain names is they’re so incredibly flexible with all of the different businesses that you can drive off them.

This past week I’ve found myself in a state of “thrashing”. For those of you that have never heard of this term it derives itself from the computer industry where a hard drive gets so fragmented that the hard disk head has to jump all over the place to piece together a file. In the old days, you could actually hear the head on the hard disk chirping like a little mouse as it was swung across the disk platter.

For a business, thrashing is when you have a huge number of projects on the go and never get enough time to complete any of them. You end up pushing each one forward just a little bit before jumping onto the next. Like a hard disk head, you find yourself just wanting someone to defragment your life so that you can focus on a project and bring it to conclusion.

In the lead-up to Christmas I found myself frustrated, completely unsatisfied and driven crazy by the number of opportunities surrounding me. I just can't help coming up with new ideas that need to be carefully suppressed and it's all because domains are just so darn intriguing.

For instance, I just built a little “skunk works” project that is now processing over a million pieces of traffic per day and the data coming through is incredible. I can see that off the back of this data is another dozen or so opportunities.

I’ve just been working through a new sales process for 3 and 4 character domains and my previous post (read here) covers a number of new concepts to better sell domains. It’s a real sale of really good domains and so far it’s been an outstanding success. So I’m scratching my head and thinking…..hey, I think I’m onto something here….!

Then there’s ParkLogic Next….this is a BIG one. We’ve completely redeveloped the entire ParkLogic platform so that it’s immensely flexible in how we can work with partners, route traffic and then mobilise the data for clients. It’s been a huge effort but we are already seeing an increase in payouts for domain investors with traffic domains.

There’s then the little project of routing traffic to tier two providers that Google was paying only tiny amounts for. This project provided an uplift of around 30% for the sample set of domains. Not bad when you consider the results of this "skunk works".

Then there’s the other small thing that I’m working on that involves working more closely with direct advertisers in distinct market verticals. How do you solve the problem where a revenue event may occur three months after the traffic was sent to an advertiser’s websit?. The problem is solvable and the dividends look like they will be huge…..but they could also be really low if the correct algorithm isn’t nutted out.

So this is a few of the things on my plate…..and trust me when I say there are a lot more! Some of them will provide incremental improvements for clients (all good) while others are quite revolutionary concepts that are still being proved out.

If you would like to see something pretty amazing then come to our table at NamesCon on the Sunday afternoon. You’ll get a glimpse at ParkLogic Next and we hope that you like what you see.

So back to my thrashing problem…..I’ve allocated a few hours this afternoon to break the back of one of my big programming problems. And doing something like this is really the key to solving this type of issue. When you find yourself jumping from one project to another take a look at your list and ruthlessly prioritise it. It’s the only way that you’ll get the biggest bang for your time. So in a few hours’ time I’ll have an issue off my plate and I’ll secure the benefits for the business.

This does bring up another point….if you would like to propose a business concept to me then make sure that you have the one page summary that is backed up with a solid plan. I’ve had people try and talk me through an idea and this can be a lot of fun over drinks but if you’re really serious then give me something in writing that I can get stuck into.

I would also like to finish with the axiom, “If you want something done then give it to a busy person.” People that aren’t busy tend to push things off until tomorrow…..busy people, prioritise and get things done or they tell you they just don’t have the time.

I hope this helped you with managing your own challenging list. Domains are wonderful things that just keep on creating unusual and exciting opportunities!

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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.