Here's the The Lowdown
from DN Journal,
updated daily
to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name industry.
The Lowdown is
compiled by DN Journal Editor & Publisher Ron
Jackson.
Domain
Pioneer Award Winner Rick Schwartz Has Helped a Lot of
People Make Money - Including His Critics...Plus Notes
About the Castello Brothers, Jessica Bookstaff Doppelt
and DomainConsultant.com
The 1st
AnnualEpik
Developers Conferencecloses it
3-day run today in Seattle. In news from
the show Thursday, T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founder Rick
Schwartz was honored as the first
recipient of the Epik conference's Domain
Pioneer Award. A very nice tribute video
(produced by Owen Frager and Danny
Pryor) featuring over 20 of Rick's
friends and industry associates was shown when
the well-deserved honor was announced. One of
Rick's close friends, Michael
Berkens, took a copy of the video to
Schwartz's home Thursday and recorded Rick's
emotional response after he saw the video for
the first time. Michael posted both the original
video and Rick's response on his
blog.
I'll
add this to what I said in the video - I don't
think anyone has championed the value of good
domain names as fervently as Rick has
over the years. Along the way, through
Rick
Schwartz
Epik's Domain Pioneer Award Winner
his
original domain board (a private forum) and his
current blog,
Schwartz has generously shared his expertise and
opinions with others. That has earned him many
ardent supporters while, at the same time, his
high profile and outspoken nature, as he will
readily admit, have also attracted more than a
few critics.
What
I find interesting about that is that
Schwartz's tireless promotion of
domains, his globally publicized high
end sales and his creation (with Howard
Neu) of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference, all helped push this
business to levels I don't think
it ever would have have reached in
such a short time frame without him
continually beating the drums. The
irony in that is that he has helped
everyone, including his harshest
critics, make more money. That is a unique
legacy to leave behind, one fitting for
such a unique individual.
On
a related note, today
T.,R.A.F.F.I.C. released the
first half on an all-star list
of speakers that have been lined
up for the highly
anticipated show
coming up October 17-20
on Miami's South Beach.
This will be the only
2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. event that
Schwartz and Neu are doing
themselves (Rick Latona
took on the other five).
The
18 speakers named in an email
sent to those on the conference
mailing list today included Keith
Levinson, Mike "Zappy"
Zappolin, Michael Berkens,
Michael Gilmour, Ari Goldberger,
Lonnie Borck, the Castello
Brothers, Juan Calle, Lori Anne
Wardi, Ted Olson, Owen Frager,
Dr. Chris Hartnett, Donny
Simonton, Kathy Nielson, Dan
Warner, Divyank Turakhia and
Ron Jackson. The second half
of the list is due out next week
and the organizers said it will
include a lot of names that will
be new to most of you. The show
agenda is also nearing
completion. You can check
that out here.
Speaking
of the Castello
Brothers
(who are on the
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. speakers
list above and will also
be keynoters at next
week's Domaining
III
conference in Valencia,
Spain) - Michael and
David are the special
guests on the second
episode of Simon
Johnson's excellent
new series of DomainerIncome.TV
video interviews.
Johson,
who is based in Australia,
traveled all the way to Palm
Springs, California
The
Castello Brothers (Michael,
at left, and David)
to
film this interview with
the Castello Brothers
(who own PalmSprings.com).
The episode runs 29
minutes and is broken
into two parts to
accomodate YouTube.
Anytime you can spend a
half hour listening to
Michael and David's
advice I can guarantee
you it will be time well
spent.
Jessica
Bookstaff
Doppelt
PigeonForge.com
Jessica
Bookstaff
Doppelt,
another key
player in the
geodomain
community that
the Castellos
are such a big
part of, is
featured in an interview
of her own at Brian
Null's
excellent MO.com
website devoted
to successul
entrepreneurs.
Jessica
owns and
operates PigeonForge.com
(a very popular Tennessee
resort town
famous for Dollywood
among other
things), Durango.com
and TheVirginIslands.com.
One quote from
her interview
sums up the
power of a
strong domain
about as well as
anything I've
seen. "When the opportunity to buy PigeonForge.com came knocking, I opened the door and saw
my freedom- personal, professional and
creative,”
Jessica said. If
you want to
learn the ropes
there is no
better way to do
it than see what
people who have
already been in
the ring have to
say.
One
other
note
today - DomainConsultant.com,
fresh
off
their
big sale
of DomainName.com
a
couple
of weeks
ago -
has
another
notable auction
for a
huge 1,244
name network
of
sports
related
ecommerce
sites
coming
up Wednesday
(Sept.
22).
DC's Mike
Fiol
told us all
of the
names
have
been
developed
and now
yield
a $5,000-$7,000
monthly
profit,
even
though
no money
has been
spent on
promotion
or
marketing
of the
keyword
name
based
network.
If you
are
interested
in
bidding,
visit www.domainconsultant.com
for more
information.
A
full
prospectus
and list
of
domains
is
available.
We need your help to keep giving
domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
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