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T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2006: How Domain History was Made at the Westin Diplomat  - Page 3

The Thursday night parties made for another short night, but everyone figures they can always sleep when the conference is over! The main event Friday morning was the speed networking session first introduced to rave reviews at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West in Las Vegas last May. Everyone sits facing each other, then every two minutes, one row moves down a seat while the other row remains stationary. In this system, you wind up meeting and exchanging cards with about 20 people by the time the hour is up.  

Richard Cohen of National A-1 and his partner Sandra were among the people I met during that hour. Their company owns some stunning domains, like Diet.com and Singles.com. Though we met for just a couple of minutes, Richard has taken some of his valuable time since the show ended to send me some excellent advice on making websites more appealing and adding features that keep people coming back. His company has been very successful on the Internet for more than a decade so getting the benefit of his experience from that brief meeting at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is another example of what makes the show well worth the price of admission.

Scene from speed networking session



Robert Alfano
DomainCapital.com President

The next session focused on how to finance your domain purchases. DomainCapital.com was the first in the space to offer that option and others are now stepping up to do the same. The panel included DomainCapital President Robert Alfano, Ari Bayme (who spoke on behalf of DotzUp.com’s finance program), Moniker’s Monte Cahn and Roland Chemtob of LeaseMy.com. The seminar explained what you could expect when applying for a loan to buy a domain. Typically the name is held as collateral with a loan term of up to 60 months and interest rates that run from 12-16%. You can normally borrow up to two times the annual revenue produced by a domain.

Chemtob, a former banker who has raised over $200 million for Internet startups, talked about the benefits of leasing, an option that is starting to turn up more and more often for domain owners looking for increased income without giving up their domains.    

The Friday lunch was sponsored by Fabulous.com and featured a talk by company COO Dan Warner who presented highlights from his new 52-page paper on the domain aftermarket that was featured in DN Journal and is available in its entirety at AftermarketDomains.com. 


Scene from Moniker's Live Auction

Auctioneer Joel Langbaum

Then it was time for an event everyone had been waiting for, Moniker.com’s Live T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Auction, an event that was broadcast over WebmasterRadio.fm where Moniker CEO Monte Cahn hosts the Domain Masters radio show every Wednesday night at 7pm U.S. Eastern time. 

Moniker also conducted a silent auction online throughout the conference that ran a couple of days beyond the show, closing Monday afternoon (Oct. 30). Professional auctioneer Joel Langbaum was brought in to handle the gavel, repeating a role he filled in the first ever live domain auction held at last year’s T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Delray Beach. Langbaum is quick with a quip and his entertainment skills kept the crowd engaged throughout the four hour event. 

When it was all over, more than $4.7 million worth of domains had been sold, more than doubling the previous live auction record set last May at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. West in Las Vegas. The silent auction added another $607,000, pushing the final total to $5.3 million

Cameras.com stole the show in the live auction, being taken for $1.5 million by Sig Solares of Parked.com. Flowers.mobi also made a huge splash after attracting a stunning high bid of $200,000 from T.R.A.F.F.I.C. co-founder Rick Schwartz. 

Schwartz has always championed .com and has had strong reservations about other extensions so he would seem to be an unlikely buyer for this domain. He had this to say about it. “First of all before we are "Domainers" we are "Investors." At least that is how I would describe myself. I decided that buying a few premium .mobi's would possibly be a good investment. Time will tell. I sure am not going to pitch anyone on the extension. I know what you know. In time we will all find out if flowers.mobi was a steal or a bad investment. The downside is it goes down in value or becomes worthless. The upside is that a domain like this can be life changing. I don't see that many opportunities that cross my path that fit into the "life changing" category and I don't gamble much and don't buy lottery tickets. I am willing to take the risk and give it the time needed. Also take in to account that 4 people in the room bid over 6 figures for this domain. I knew all the bidders. They were all qualified. All I can say is stay tuned and we'll all learn together."

Another .mobi also cracked the 6-figure mark with Anything.com purchasing Fun.mobi for $100,000. A dozen domains attracted 6-figure or higher bids and a total of 115 names were sold, averaging $42,000 per sale. That is a 35% success rate for big ticket items that as we noted earlier aren’t normally as liquid as other assets.  You can see the complete list of live auction results here.

The highest price paid in the silent online auction was $60,000 for Castle.com, followed by the $30,000 each fetched by Cage.com and PAX.com. A total of 288 domains were sold in that event, an average of $2,100 per sale. The complete list of silent auction winning bids can be seen here

Conducting these auctions was a massive undertaking for Moniker. More than 50,000 domains were submitted for the event and that list took countless man hours to whittle down to a manageable size. They got it done and also made some dramatic improvements since the Las Vegas show. 

Moniker CEO Monte Cahn
spots a bidder

The live auction ran especially smoothly this time out. This auction  taught them more about what works and what doesn’t so the next one auction will be better still as this platform continues to develop into a premier showcase for selling quality domains. 

The last big event of the conference, the annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards dinner, followed the auction. In early September, nearly 1,200 ballots were emailed to people who have a standing invitation to attend T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conferences. Their votes determined the award winners. So, without further ado…the envelopes please:

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards

Category Winner
Best New Click Program Sedo Pro
We Get It Award
(Awarded to a company that understands the web and the domain space)
News Corp.
Sponsor of the Year Domain Sponsor
Domainer of the Year Rick Schwartz
Best Overall Solution Fabulous.com
WADND Registrar Seal of Approval Tucows
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Hall of Fame 
(Two people will be voted in each year)
Rick Schwartz and
Ron Jackson (DNJournal.com)

Matt Bentley accepts Best New 
Click Program Award for SedoPro
Ron Sheridan accepts Sponsor of the Year 
Award for
DomainSponsor
Rick Schwartz accepts 
Domainer of the Year Award
Dan Warner accepts Best Overall 
Solution Award for Fabulous.com
The team from Tucows.com accepts the WADND Registrar Seal of Approval
Rick Schwartz and Ron Jackson (DNJournal.com) accept plaques as the first two 
members voted into the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Domain Hall of Fame. Howard Neu holds a 
master plaque that will have the names of two new members added each year. 


Along with the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Awards, Brian Null of GolfCourses.com handed out awards for the Tuesday morning golf tournament. Chris Stewart, who is obviously too good a player to be allowed on the course with other domainers, won both the Longest Drive and Shot of the Day Awards. The winning team was captained by Brian Null (and yes, the authorities are looking into this!).

The Saturday morning breakfast gave everyone a chance to say their final goodbyes before checking out. There was also a meeting of the new T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Advisory Board, a volunteer group that was elected by show attendees earlier in the week to provide Schwartz and Neu with input on future shows, such as show locations, possible seminar topics and and potential keynote speakers. 

Those elected to the advisory board were Ron Sheridan (DomainSponsor.com), Dan Warner (Fabulous.com), Frank Schilling (Name Administration, Inc.), Monte Cahn (Moniker.com), Adam Dicker (iREIT.com and DNForum.com), Ron Jackson (DNJournal.com), John Berryhill (attorney) and Steve Sturgeon (DomainNameLawyers.com). Mr. Schilling, who has taken on a founding role in the new Internet Commerce Association, regretfully excused himself due to other time commitments.

As of this writing everyone is back home and more than likely catching up on their sleep (with the exception of Monte Cahn who apparently never sleeps). In four months it will be time to do it all over again at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. I hope to meet many of you there!

* * * * * 

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East 2006 Photo Gallery

Here are some additional photos shot during the week at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Enjoy!

Frank Schilling, Name Administration

During one session, moderator Howard Neu called Frank "perhaps the most successful domainer of all time." He is also one of the nicest guys in the industry. We've yet to meet anyone who has had anything but good things to say about "Franky".



Pope John Berryhill
holding court 
at the DomainSponsor party.


Above: David Kesmodel (left), former Wall Street Journal writer who is now working on a book about the domain business, with Adam Strong.

At right: Sal Shepherd and friend at DomainSponsor Party.

Longtime forum friends finally meet face to face. From left to right above: Bob Connor (Domebase on the forums and Dear Domey at DN Journal, Charles Christopher (I Like Info at DomainState.com) and Richard Meyer (Actnow everywhere).

DomainSponsor.com's Ron Sheridan surprised Rick Schwartz with a special gift "in recognition of the contributions he has made in moving the industry forward." The framed map Schwartz received is the perfect gift for a domain lover - it has a chart listing the country codes for every nation on the globe.

Above: Jonathan Boswell of LeaseThis.com with Motley Fool Co-Founder Tom Gardner. Above: Jordan Rohan, Managing Director at RBC Capital Markets.

Above: Two more veteran and very successful domain investors, Canada's Shaun Pilfold (left) and Chad Folkening of ECorp.com in Indianapolis. Shaun hates flying so he drove all the way from Western Canada to South Florida to make the show!

Brian Null of GolfCourses.com (left) and Marc Ostrofsky, President of iREIT.com (right) with two lovely ladies at the DomainSponsor Party.

Above: Howard and Barbara Neu. Howard is the Co-Founder of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and a former Florida TV personality who is the consummate show moderator. Barbara does an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to make the conference run smoothly.

Jothan Frakes of DomainSponsor.com (above left) and Adam Dicker, DNForum.com owner and iREIT VP (above right). Two real pros that are always a pleasure to be around.

The Parked.com booth. Gentleman on the left behind the table is CEO Sig Solares who purchased Cameras.com for $1.5 million in the Live Auction at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. 



Above right: Amber West and Michael Collins of Afternic.com.

At left: Milbank Roy VP Ari Bayme prepares for a talk on domain leasing.

Below: Roland Chemtob of LeaseMy.com talks to attendees after that Friday seminar on leasing domains.

Boat People: A scene is from the TrafficZ.com party cruise on the Intracoastal Waterway

Above: Sam Aidun (DomainSponsor) and one of his favorite clients Nick M on the boat

At right: Rick Schwartz with TrafficZ's very dapper CEO Ammar Kubba

If you come to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. forget about the diet! Good food and drink are show trademarks.

The show venue, the Westin Diplomat, was superb inside and out. This view of the pool area and Atlantic Ocean beachfront was shot from our 29th floor balcony.

Here's another shot from the opening day cocktail party that shows you the beautiful setting at the Diplomat. As you can see behind attorney Paul Keating of Renova Ltd (center above) everyone in the room had a panoramic view of the ocean while enjoying the party. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East will return to the same location in October 2007. Hope to see you there!



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