Mark Burgess

Burgess said an independent assessment done by local media experts Borrell Associates estimated the value of SanDiego.com to be as as high as $8 million, given the appeal of the San Diego market. SanDiego.com is already a well developed site that Burgess indicated was doing around $700,000 annually in ad sales and search revenues. 

Burgess noted that Borrell believes those revenues can be increased significantly. "Without properly applied marketing dollars and enough sales people, SanDiego.com was likened to a potential world-class marathon runner without a coach, a sponsor or registration in the race or a 16-year-old Elvis picking his guitar in his room in Tupelo, Mississippi," Burgess said. "As original registrant of the domain name and founder of the company, I agree. The site receives a very high amount of direct traffic that gives the site a chance to convert like no other site related to San Diego." 

One other note today. I just returned home over the weekend after spending last week covering the 2010 GeoDomain Expo in New Orleans. Our comprehensive show review article will be published within the next seven days. Next up on the conference schedule is the one-day DOMAINfest Ft. Lauderdale power networking event coming up Thursday, May 13 at the W 

Hotel. The conference will run from 10:30am to 10:30pm on that day. The show agenda has been expanded to include a keynote from Jay Berkowitz, the CEO of TenGoldenRules.com.

Highlights also include an update on Internet Trends from Oversee.net CEO & President Jeff Kupietzky and a two-hour power networking session after lunch. The remainder of the afternoon will devoted to four panel discussions. The first will be a session offering Website Development Tips and Success Stories that will feature Brian Gilbert, Rick Waters, Howard Yeh, Mike "Zappy" Zapolin. Another devoted to Keyword Tools and Tactics in Buying Domains and Acquiring Traffic will follow featuring Jay Berkowitz, John Carcutt, Pablo Conde and Jean-Pierre Khoueiri.