After more than 160 individuals or companies were nominated for THE Domain Conference Awards, run off balloting was conducted last week to choose the finalists in each of 9 categories. Those finalists were announced this morning when the last round of voting to pick the winners also opened. The polling will close at 5PM U.S. Eastern Pacific Daylight Time (8PM EDT) tomorrow (Tuesday, September 1, 2015) with all votes being tabulated by Escrow.com.

The inaugural edition of THE Domain Conference runs September 26-29 at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The award winners will be announced at the Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, September 29. 

Conference organizers said no one candidate in any category received more than 50% of the votes. The final ballot (below) was narrowed down to each person or company that received at least 10% of the votes cast in that category. You can vote for 1 person or company in each category (except the Hall of Fame were two names may be selected). In order to be counted, your ballot must be submitted to [email protected] on this official form (which you can coy and paste) no later than 5PM PDT Tuesday (September 1).  You will need to send a complete ballot because organizers, in an effort to prevent ballot box stuffing, will not count ballots that name only one person or company.

DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR –VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] ADAM DICKER

  [  ] MERLIN KAUFFMAN
 

BLOGGER OF THE YEAR – VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] ANDREW ALLEMAN

  [  ] ELLIOT SILVER

  [  ] GIUSEPPE GRAZIANO

  [  ] MICHAEL BERKENS

  [  ] MICHAEL CYGER
 

BROKER OF THE YEAR – VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] ANDREW ROSENER

  [  ] DAVE EVANSON

  [  ] NEGAR HADJIKHANI
 

THE BEST REGISTRY – 2015 – VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] .CLUB

  [  ] DONUTS.CO

  [  ] UNIREGISTRY

  [  ] VERISIGN
 

THE BEST REGISTRAR – 2015 – VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] GODADDY

  [  ] UNIREGISTRY
 

DOMAIN INVESTOR OF THE YEAR – VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] ALI ZANDI

  [  ] ELLIOT SILVER  

THE BEST COMPANY IN THE DOMAIN INDUSTRY – 2015 – VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] AFTERNIC

  [  ] .CLUB

  [  ] ESCROW.COM (RECUSING THEMSELVES BUT THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT)

GOODWILL AMBASSADOR OF THE YEAR –VOTE FOR 1  

  [  ] MICHAEL CYGER

  [  ] NAT COHEN

  [  ] RON JACKSON
 

DOMAIN INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME – VOTE FOR 2  

  [  ] ANDREW ROSENER

  [  ] BOB PARSONS

  [  ] BRADEN POLLOCK

  [  ] COLIN CAMPBELL

  [  ] GARY CHERNOFF

  [  ] LAWRENCE FISCHER

  [  ] RICHARD LAU

  [  ] VERN JUROVICH

Radix Registry had high hopes for their latest new gTLD - .online - that entered General Availability Wednesday (August 26). Their dreams came true when it took just 30 minutes to blow past 28,000 registrations, setting a new record for opening day new gTLD registrations (a mark that had been set by .club at approximately 25,000). By this afternoon, the .online numbers had crossed 35,000 according to ntldstats.com. 

Registrars selling .online for Radix were equally happy with the launch. Richard Stevenson from 1&1 Internet said, “.online has extensive global appeal and relevance as it applies to anyone and everyone – hence, we expect it to be a popular domain option. Businesses and individuals alike will be attracted to both the clarity and vast potential for attractive new names that .online offers them."  Go Daddy's Theresa Geraghty added, “We have seen a trend where customers select domains that are relevant and easy to remember – just like .online."

While Above.com is a well-known domain industry brand the Co-Founder and President of Trellian (Above.com's parent company), David Warmuz, feels a lot of domain investors still aren't aware on many of the company's wide ranging services. If your first thought when you hear Above.com mentioned is domain parking, you aren't getting the big picture. To change that, Above.com, who provides domain investors with free tools designed to minimize the daily challenges associated with the monetization, registration and selling of their domains, has announced the launch of a major brand repositioning initiative.

The company said that as changes unfold in the months ahead domain investors with accounts at Above.com will have "access to a variety of enhanced product features and benefits that will reinforce Above.com’s brand positioning as a technology innovator."

Warmuz said, "Despite what many domainers think, Above.com is not a parking service. We actually operate at a level above parking services by making them compete against each other for domain traffic.  In fact, we go a big step further by enabling direct advertisers to compete for the same traffic. By maximizing the competition for traffic, our technology ensures the best possible monetization."

David Warmuz
Trellian Co-Founder & President

Warmuz added, "Many domainers don’t know this, and many also don’t know that Above.com has an integrated registrar and buy/sell marketplace.  This lack of awareness is why we are launching our brand repositioning initiative.  We want to help everyone fully understand and experience the revenue improvement advantages that we offer, not to mention the time and cost saving advantages.”

THE Domain Conference's first Domain Industry Awards are off to a flying start. Conference Co-Founder Howard Neu said 161 different people or companies were named in 9 voting categories during last week's nomination period. With close to two dozen nominations in some  categories,  a round of run-off voting will be required this week to determine the finalists in each category. Final balloting will then be held next week to pick the winners from among the finalists in each category. The awards will be presented during the inaugural edition of the show coming up September 26-29 at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. 

The run-off voting is now open and will continue until 5pm Pacific Daylight Time (8pm EDT) Thursday, August 27. Escrow.com has agreed to tabulate all votes.  You may vote for 1 person  or company in each of the 9 categories shown below that also lists the eligible nominees. Ballots must be emailed before the deadline to [email protected] using the official form below provided by THE Domain Conference.

I had an opportunity to meet a lot of very interesting new people a couple of weeks ago when I went to India to cover and speak at the 2nd annual DomainX conference in Bangalore. One of them was Jitendra Vaswani of BloggersIdeas.com, who is one of the country's most popular bloggers. I found Jitendra's story to be especially interesting because he has done something I've always advocated domain investors should do - pick a subject you are passionate about and develop at least one website on that topic. I've seen many people create nice new revenue streams for themselves by doing that, just as Jitendra has done.

A blog is one of the most cost effective and quick ways to put your idea online, but like anything else that is worthwhile, it will take a little planning and a lot of elbow grease to turn your domain into a money making business. In the planning stage you need to determine if you can bring something new and interesting to a topic that will let you stand out from the crowd and attract an audience. That is easier to do if your topic falls in an area of interest that is currently underserved by sites that are already out there.

Jitendra Vaswani
Founder, BloggersIdeas.com

Vaswani said, "One needs to find the right niche to write about. My blog has a niche : SEO and the business of blogging itself.  Blogging caught my attention when I was in my first job as an SEO executive.  I learned blogging from one of my friends who  told me I should start my own because I was  good at SEO. Once I  started I got very interested in the process and started experimenting on my blog. I followed many mentors in my industry like Neil Patel, Zac Johnson, John Chow and many other top marketers who dominate the blogging world.  I always  try to learn from their  posts and how they are making money from it."

The main reason I tell people who want to develop a site to choose a topic they are passionate about is that writing and producing content is a lot of work - work they will get tired of doing, causing them to quit before they gain traction, unless they love what they are writing about. It is a view Vaswani shares. "Yes, the subject is very important when starting a blog. If you don't have the right subject,  trust me, you will  never get interested in writing a blog. I was interested in SEO & digital marketing, so it  compels me to write about it a lot. I have seen newbies not choose their  subject wisely. They make mistakes and ultimately lose interest in blogging."

In addition to finding the right niche, a successful blogger has to find ways to promote their site and build traffic. Vaswani pointed out several methods he uses to do that. "My target audience is from the digital and online money making niche. So I use social media channels to  promote my content, especially Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Google+ which is very important because it is a Google property."

"I also use some blogging  communities that I share my content to: Blokube.com, Bizsugar.com, BlogEngage.com, Indiblogger.in, etc. These are some very active communities where you can share your content and get targeted  traffic. Join some Facebook groups to share your content, but don't spam on Facebook otherwise they will ban your URL. If you really want to get traffic on your site your SEO and social media should be very strong. Also build relationships with fellow bloggers as this will  help to get more traffic too."

Jitendra Vaswani (right) with DomainX Co-Organizer Gaurav Kholi earlier this month in India.
(Photo from Domain Name Owners Association of India)

Vaswani got a nice introduction to the domain business at the DomainX conference and was even motivated to register a few new names of his own. While Vaswani is much more a developer than a domain investor he has wrestled with a problem many in our industry have. Domainers often talk about how difficult it is to explain what they do to friends and family. In Vaswani's case, the problem was a much bigger one than that when he decided to become a blogger. As a profession that is barely a decade old many outside the field don't recognize it as a serious way to make a living.  "When I told my parents about blogging, they didn't agree with it," Vaswani said. "I was forced to  take a job because of societal pressure. Parents don't understand their children's needs, they think about society first. This is the main problem with Indian parents."

Vaswani turned that negative into a positive, using their disapproval as motivation to succeed and prove them wrong. "They encouraged me to leave blogging and get a secure job but I never quit doing it," he noted. "With all of the family members against me, and alone on my journey, I wanted to prove I could make enough money from blogging." Vaswani has just about all the proof he needs, having risen to a position among the top couple of dozen professional bloggers in India, but he hasn't brought the matter to a head yet. "I still I haven't told my parents that I am doing full time blogging -  they still think that I have a job and while doing that job I am blogging and freelancing. When the right time comes I will tell them I am a full time blogger," Vaswani smiled (apparently confident his family doesn't read DN Journal)!  

Coming off the most successful Sunrise period for a generic new gTLD, Radix Registry has high hopes for their new .online extension that will enter General Availability next Wednesday (August 26, 2015).  The Early Access Period for .online (which allows the public to register domains now but at higher prices than those that will be in effect in General Availability) got underway yesterday (August 19).

.Online had 775 Sunrise registrations (Sunrise is the period in which trademark holders can file claims on domains before they go on public sale). That is the most to date for a generic extension (other examples of generics include TLDs like .website, .link, .xyz and the still to come .web). From a Sunrise standpoint only two adult extensions (.porn and .adult with 4,000 each), .sucks (with 3,000) and two geo extensions - .brussels (1,200) and .melbourne (856) had more names claimed than .online.  

Sedo continues to show they will do whatever it takes to sell domain names. Today the world’s largest domain marketplace announced a major new outlet for the SedoMLS domain distribution network, adding  the leading wholesale domain name registrar, eNom, as a partner. That means domain owners served by eNom and their resellers can now list their premium names for sale on the SedoMLS network, putting those domains in front of the customers of over 650 sales partners, including top registrars around the world. 

+

before when I was in India last week covering the DomainX conference in Bangalore. Sedo's International Senior Sales Consultant Frank Tillmanns was also there and I couldn't help noticing the T-shirt Frank wore to lunch.

Yes, becoming a human billboard for Software.com (and a portfolio of other names included in the package - see the back of Frank's shirt below) may be a little bit "low tech" in this day and age, but in front of the right crowd it can be very effective. You have to admire the Sedo broker's willingness to do whatever it takes to find a buyer!

Tillmanns said he is already in negotiations with an interested buyer for the Software.com package. He noted that the seller holds a registered U.S. trademark for Software.com - a name that has been in active use ever since it was registered in 1995. Tillmanns expects the package to go in the high 7-figure range. 

On the downside, if he sells the package this cool T-shirt will suddenly be obsolete! Not to worry though, Frank already has suitable subject matter for another one as Sedo is also brokering Files.com and a related package of domains, including 10 ccTLD variants (the .co.uk, .com.au and .de among them). Tillmanns projects that package will go in the low 7-figure range. If you are interested you can contact him directly (frank.tillmanns at sedo.com) - and if you buy he might even throw in the T-shirt!

THE Domain Conference (coming up September 26-29 at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida) has just opened nominations for their 2015 Domain Industry Awards. As most of you know, an awards program was a big part of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference that came to an end after its 10th anniverasary edition last fall. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder Howard Neu decided to keep the tradition alive with THE Domain Conference, the new event being launched next month by Howard, his wife Barbara and their son Ray.

If you want to nominate someone, you can copy the form in the section below, fill in your choices and email them to [email protected] no later than Thursday, August 20, 2015. You can nominate only one person or company in each category. 

The categories are:  

DOMAIN DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR  

I nominate _____________________________________________

DOMAIN BLOGGER OF THE YEAR

I nominate _____________________________________________

BEST REGISTRY OF THE YEAR  

I nominate ______________________________________________

BEST REGISTRAR OF THE YEAR  

I nominate ______________________________________________________

DOMAIN BROKER OF THE YEAR  

I nominate ______________________________________________________

DOMAIN INVESTOR OF THE YEAR  

I nominate ______________________________________________________

BEST COMPANY IN THE INDUSTRY FOR 2015  

I nominate ______________________________________________________

GOODWILL AMBASSADOR AWARD  

I nominate ______________________________________________________

DOMAIN INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME  

(The following have already been inducted into the DOMAIN INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME: Mike Berkens, John Beryhill, Monte Cahn, David Castello, Michael Castello, Michael Cyger, Scott Day, Adam Dicker, Chad Folkening, Jeff Gabriel, Ron Jackson, Rick Latona, Igal Lichtman (Deceased), Mike Mann, Howard Neu, Sahar Sarid, Frank Schilling, Rick Schwartz and Yun Ye):

I nominate ______________________________________________________

Once the nominations are received, all balloting will be handled by Escrow.com and the winners will be announced at the Awards Luncheon scheduled for Tuesday, September 29th in the .CLUB Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel and Spa.

While I was away covering the DomainX conference in India last week Domain Holdings released their 2Q-2015 report. As one of the major domain sales platforms (a position amplified when Flippa.com bought DH in late May to bring two key platforms under one umbrella while  keeping their individual brands), I wanted to get the DH results onto the record here. 

For Q2-2015 Domain Holdings report over $6.1 million in sales, a very healthy 29% jump from the previous quarter. That is an average of better than $472,000 a week and Dh said their average sales price is $59,079 (19% higher than in 1Q-2015) which reflects their emphasis on brokering top tier domains. 

The DH report said, "the USA and China remain the largest two markets for Domain Holdings, accounting for 90% of all sales. In Q2 we

continued to see a strong demand for number and acronym domains from the Chinese buyers. Short brandable domains also continue to be on the rise for the Chinese buyers." 

Even though the general economy has been slumping in China recently, DH said they expect demand from domain investors there to remain strong in the current 3rd quarter. You can read the complete Domain Holdings 2Q-2015 Report here. 

I spent all day Monday flying home from India after spending last weekend at the 2015 DomainX conference in Bangalore. As I result I didn't see the big news about Google launching a new holding company for their various enterprises called Alphabet on the domain ABC.XYZ until yesterday morning. I've spent some time since then reading some of the countless press reports that have understandably created a lot of excitement in the new gTLD community as well as expressions of continued skepticism from other quarters. 

The news and opinions were everywhere including in our local paper,  the Tampa Bay Times, this morning. This is obviously a major coup for new gTLDs and especially for .XYZ and its founder Daniel Negari. However, opinions on exactly how much impact it will have on overall  

ABC-XYZ blocks image from Bigstock

new gTLD recognition and acceptance ranged from very little all the way up to Wired's breathless proclamation that the announcement signals the end of .com dominance.  As is usually the case with such extremes, the outcome will likely fall somewhere in the middle but the fact remains no one knows for certain exactly where the needle will end up on that spectrum. 

I personally think this is a really solid cornerstone to build on, but the new gTLDs will still need many more bricks in the wall. The thing that made .com dominant was that it was adopted by almost every major corporation around the world, so .com was seen everywhere you turned, becoming synonymous with the Internet. It is still everywhere you turn and I think it will take a lot of time for that to change. Even many new gTLD registries have admitted that uptake has not met their expectations to date.  We will of course see more and more new gTLD raindrops hit the .com stone but that stone is so massive I suspect it will take a long time to erode it significantly. As for this specific case, Alphabet will not be a consumer facing site and Google's use of the name is a special case, something Alan Dunn broke down very astutely (as he always does) on his NameCorp blog. 

However anyone feels about "registration-gate"  the man is getting results. If you happen to be in Southern California next week, and want to hear more about how he has done it - straight from the horse's mouth - Negari will be hosting the August 20 meeting of the Southern California Domainers at .XYZ headquarters in Los Angeles.  You can register for the 6:30PM meeting here. 

The busy day two registration desk this morning at the 
2nd annual DomainX conference in Bangalore, India.

The 2015 DomainX conference concluded at the luxurious Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore, India today - a day that produced something I have never seen at a domain conference before. Nearly two dozen mainstream TV, newspaper and online media reporters showed up for a lunch hour press conference set up by DomainX organizers at the Taj. In the past it has been unusual for more than one non industry reporter to cover a domain event (and many times there have been none). 

I'll tell you all about that important breakthrough - but first things first. After an opening day that was dedicated entirely to networking, the second and final day of the 2nd annual DomainX event was notable for another unheard of attribute - all of the day 2 passes were free of charge to those who pre-registered online. DomainX is a non-profit organization whose 

mission is to spur growth in the Indian domain market by making the public and potential investors aware of the value of high quality domains and how they can benefit any enterprise. 

Above: After some of the first guests were in their seats DomainX hostess Sneha Bhati (left) kept them thoroughly entertained and engaged while they waited for the rest of the audience to get their nametags and make their way into the Taj West End Ballroom for the official start of the program.  She did it by interviewing some of this year's international guests including Australia's Ned O'Meara from Domainer.com.au. 

The first session then began with the first keynote address from Mr. Daftari - a frequent visitor to U.S. shows who is regarded by many of his countrymen as the "Father of Indian Domain Investors."

Deepak Daftari (eSiksha.com) delivering his keynote address 
Saturday morning (August ) at the 2015 DomainX conference in Bangalore, India. 

Above: A cross section of the audience at the final day of DomainX Saturday in India.

After the keynotes Deepak and I were asked to join international guests Ned O'Meara, Zak Muscovitch and Martijn Schneider, as well as DomainX Founder and CEO Manmeet Pal Singh at a press conference for local media interested in what was so important about domain names that prompted people from around the world to fly all the way to Bangalore for this gathering. When we reached the press conference room I was stunned to see TV crews and row after row of print and online reporters. It was a real home run in DomainX's quest to spread the domain gospel through India, one city at a time.

Above: (left to right) Deepak Daftari, Ned O'Meara, Ron Jackson and attorney Zak Muscovitch fielding questions from mainstream reporters in Bangalore, India. Another panelist, Martijn  Schneider (HousingAgent.com), left his seat to take this photo and DomainX Founder Manmeet Pal Singh is also off camera answering questions. Press reports from this session are already starting to be filed as I write this. 

Below: DNJournal's Ron Jackson fields questions about the domain business and what brought him to India from a KNN TV reporter (this photo also taken by Martijn Schneider). 

Below: At the same time the press conference was going on, .Desi Registry Principal Siddharth Ohri was on stage in the Taj West End Ballroom offering a presentation on the new gTLD that is probably closer to being a "Super ccTLD" in that it represents the culture, people and products originating from the Indian sub-continent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka).

Below: Next up with a 90-minute outdoor lunch break on the fabulous Prince of Wales lawn at the Taj West End Hotel were guests were treated to a wide variety of Indian entrees and desserts. It was a beautiful day with great company and a terrific idea by DomainX to dine outdoors.

Below: The afternoon sessions resumed with a Legal Panel covering UDRP, URS and INDRP issues. Panelists included (left to right) Moderator Ankur Raheja, Na. Vijayshankar (CEO, CberLawCollege.com), Rodney D. Ryder (Partner, Scriboard.com) and Zak Muscovitch (Founder, DNAttorney.com).

Next up, Sushanto Mitra, Founder & CEO of Lead Angels, seen in the photo below, discussed how Indian venture capitalists view the domain space in a talk hosted by Dr. Shurjo Ghosh.

A presentation on IBM's Cloud Business, handled by IBM Cloud Business Development Leader Samarth Kholkar, filled the next spot in the agenda, followed by another presentation, this one from Joeri Bortslap (MD at Resello.com) who is seen during his talk in the photo below.

Below: Resello also had a spot in the sponsor exhibit hall adjacent to the main ballroom, an area that doubled as a coffee and cookie break lounge. That's where you see my wife Diana with our new friends Pradeep Kumar (left) and Ashvin Patel (right).

Below: Also in the exhibition hall, Sanjeev Sharma from SS Consultancy Services, was on hand to welcome vsitors to his OpenSRS/Tucows booth.

In the final business session of DomainX 2015, Deepak Daftari (center in the photo below) returned to host a Fireside Chat with Ned O'Meara (Domainer.com.au) at left and Martijn Schneider (HousingAgent.com) at right.

Below: While business was now done - the day was not over. It was time for a celebration as DomainX handed out their 2015 Awards. The first for Domain Magazine of the Year went to Ron Jackson for DNJournal.com.

Below: The next award for "Rising Star" in Indian Domaining went to Aishwin Vikhona (Aishwin.com) earning him a hug from presenter Zak Muscovitch (left).

Below: DomainX then handed out thoughtful Thank You awards to 14 different show participants who made special contributions to the event, incuding Dr. Shurho Ghosh (at right below) with DomainX Founder & CEO Manmeet Pal Singh. 

Below: Mr. Singh (at left) also presented three special recognition awards - momentos handed out to thank the co-organizing team of tjhe first DomainX last year - who are no longer with the organization. They are (left to right after Mr. Singh, Nishank Yadav, Email.biz's Anshul Goyal and Sibtain Zaheer).

Below: Next, DomainX invited Ron Jackson to help Aishwin Vikhona (right) launch his new book - Sell Domains Fast (available in both paperback and ebook editions). The launch capped a big weekend for Aishwin as it accompanied his Rising Star award noted above. 

Below: (Left to right) DomainX Co-Organizer Gaurav Kholi, team members Pankaj Vijayvargiya, Dhairya Cholera and Hardik Modi and Founder Manmeet Pal Singh then came onstage to thank everyone in the appreciative crowd for coming and making the second annual DomainX conference something truly special.

With the final curtain having now come down on DomainX 2015 we can say that this show exceeded our expectations in every way - from the spectacularly beautiful Taj West End Hotel, to the sights and sounds of Bangalore to the non-stop networking Friday to the huge mainstream press response and informative and entertaining business day today, we could not have asked for more. It all made our first visit to India - a country we have quickly come to love - a trip we will never forget. 

The 2015 DomainX Conference opened today at the Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore, India. It has long been known that networking is far and away the number 1 reason people cite for going to domain conferences. At most conferences you will find a high percentage of 

attendees out in the halls chatting rather than sitting in on whatever session is running in the ballroom. So, DomainX decided to try something different and make day one of this year's show ALL networking. 

This was also the only day DomainX charged an admission fee. Tickets for day 2 tomorrow - with a more traditional mix of speakers, sessions and networking - were offered at no charge to those who pre-registered online and all of those tickets were taken. Those who bought the networking session felt they got a great return on their money today.

At left, Aishwin Vikhona (BulkWhoIsFinder.com) chats with DomainX's Dhairya Cholera 
(2nd from left) at the sign-in table for the Day One networking session at DomainX.

Facing the camera at front left are Frank Tillmans and Sophie Piek 
who flew into represent Sedo at DomainX.

DomainX Brand Ambassador Deepak Daftari (center), who will deliver the first 
keynote speech Saturday morning, visits with HousingAgent.com's Martjin Schneider (left) 
and Domainer.com.au's Ned O'Meara who will also be speaking tomorrow.

Above: Intense discussions were the order of the day 
everywhere you looked at DomainX today. 

Below: OK, maybe a little less intense at the bar where we spotted Canada's top notch domain attorney Zak Muscovitch (left). Zak will take part in a legal issues panel discussion Saturday. At center is Kashish Vikhona and at right, his brother Aishwin Vikhona (Aishwin.com) who will also be back tomorrow to launch a new book he authored on selling domains.

Above: It's a small world - my wife Diana, while talking with Dr. Amaresh Hombal who came from the Bahamas, learned he has a sister who lives just a few miles from us on Florida's Gulf Coast.

Below: .CLUB is in the house! Nivu Hussain was on hand to represent the popular new TLD. 

Below: Even after day one ended, the networking didn't stop. About two dozen guests got together for a dinner at the Taj West End Hotel's Masala Klub Restaurant hosted by Deepak Daftari, DomainX Founder Manmeet Pal Singh and his Co-Organizer Gaurav Kholi.

Tomorrow's closing day at DomainX will open with a coffee & tea networking session at 9:30am followed by keynote talks from Deepak Daftari and Ron Jackson. The day will continue through the afternoon with a series of panel discussions, presentations and a 5pm awards ceremony. I'll have all of those highlights for you in my next post from Bangalore Saturday.

With one day to go before the 2015 DomainX conference begins Friday at 12 Noon (local time) at India's Taj West End Hotel we took the opportunity to get out today and explore the host city - Bangalore - a metropolis of more than 8 million people that is known as India's Silicon Valley. 

By getting into town a couple of days early we've been able to see some of the groundwork DomainX Founder Manmeet Pal Singh, conference Co-Organizer Gaurav Kholi and their entire team have done to make this 2nd annual event something special. After their successful debut last year in Hyderabad I came to India with expectations already set high but everything I have seen so far has exceeded those expectations, so I think attendees are in for a couple of very productive days here Friday and Saturday. 

As I wrote yesterday, the site for the show, the Taj West End Hotel, is a true world class hotel that underlines DomainX's intention to play in the domain conference big leagues. As the bustling capital of Indian high tech, Bangalore is also a natural host city for the event. My wife, Diana, and I got a close up look at the town today when DomainX arranged a car and driver and again lent us team member Dhairya Cholera to help guide us through an urban maze we likely would have gotten lost in without their help. We certainly wouldn't have been able to cover as much ground as we did - and now that we've done that I wanted to share some photos from this lively city with you.

After our temple visit we headed for one of Bangalore's most famous attractions - the fabulous Lalbagh Botanical Gardens.  

Above: This may not look like a scene from a world famous botanical garden but it is. This very unusual natural rock outcropping is at the entrance to the Lalbagh Botanical Gardens, an enormous green space that stretches over 240 landscaped acres.

Above: Vidhona Suddha - the seat of the Karnakata state government. Like many places in rapidly growing Bangalore a major construction project is underway at the site.

After a few more stops, we decided to have a late lunch before heading back to the Taj West End. Dhairya and another DomainX team member who had joined our group back at  Lalbagh Gardens, Hardik Modi, decided we needed to have some good Indian food so they took us to a barbeque joint!  But make no mistake - this was Indian barbeque - with both spicy versions of various meats and vegetarian barbeque (an animal I didn't know existed)!

I always thought Americans ate more food than anyone but now I think Indians could beat us hands down in that department. The all you can restaurant - Barbeque Nation - served up plate after plate of appetizers, soups, salads, main courses and desserts that Dhairya and Hardik made disappear (OK, maybe we helped them a little bit). The only downside is we now have an insurmountable calorie overload to work off this week! 

Above: Diana Jackson and DomainX's Dhairya Cholera get ready to dig in at Barbeque Nation.

When we got back to the Taj West End at the end of the afternoon, hotel receptionists had another nice surprise waiting for us - fresh jasmine flower garlands and a Bindi dot painted on our foreheads - a gesture said to bring good health. They also gave us fresh glasses of coconut water (maybe as a backup in case the Bindi dots don't work)!

We have had a couple of great days to get acclimated in Bangalore, but now it's time to get down to business. DomainX gets underway at 12 Noon (local time) Friday (August 7) and continues all day Saturday. I will, of course, have photos and highlights from both days for you in this column. 

We arrived in India early this morning, a couple of days ahead of the 2nd annual DomainX conference, so we could explore Bangalore and the historic Taj West End Hotel where the show will be held Friday and Saturday (August 7 & 8). Those coming in for the event at the 

125-year-old venue are in for a treat - both on the domain front and in the eye candy arena. It is hard to imagine a prettier place to gather for any occasion. 

Above: My wife, Diana and I, exploring some of the 20 acres of lush tropical foliage that surrounds the five-star Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore, India where the DomainX conference will be held Friday & Saturday (August 7 & 8).

Below: Rooms at the Taj are located in a collection of Victorian era buildings connected by scenic walkways that meander through the spectacular property. 

Above: While sitting on the back lawn at the Taj West End, Diana is visited by some friendly fowl representing a turkey-related species that we were told lives only in southern India.

Below: The Taj takes full advantage of their gorgeous scenery with a variety of outdoor dining options including these tables at the Masala Klub.

Above: The spacious Taj West End Hotel Ballroom  
where the DomainX conference will be held.  

Below: DomainX team members (left to right): Hardik Modi, Founder & CEO Manmeet Pal Singh, Dhairya Cholera, DomainX Co-Organizer Gaurav Kholi and Preetham Shetty in the conference hall planning the stage and seating layout for this weekend's sold out show. 

Tomorrow we plan to get out and see some of the surrounding city and it looks like we have lined up a great tour guide in Deepak Daftari who will be the first keynote speaker at DomainX Saturday. That will be a lot of fun and I expect to have some photos and highlights from the day for you in this column Thursday. Then we all get down to business when the show opens at 12 Noon Friday (local time in Bangalore - that is 9.5 hours later that U.S. Eastern time, so when the conference starts it will be 2:30 in the morning back home in Florida).   

India's 2nd annual DomainX conference is coming up this week with the two-day event set to run at the five-star Taj West End Hotel in Bangalore, India Friday and Saturday, August 7 & 8, 2015. DomainX Founder and CEO Manmeet Pal Singh told us registration is now closed after hitting 1,000 online sign ups Saturday. The actual attendance is expected to fall between 500-600 because many who registered for the free second day only (with nothing invested) will not make the trip. Even so, if expectations are met, attendance will be around 40% higher than it was the show's successful debut run last year in Hyderabad. 

DomainX's unique format offers a special networking day on day 1 Friday - a day dedicated to face to face interaction between attendees and experts, with just a couple of short introductory  talks from the stage (the first coming from DomainX Brand Amabassador Deepak Daftari and the second from DN Journal's Ron Jackson). Day 2 Saturday has a more traditional agenda with keynote speakers and an array of panel discussions on timely subjects. I was originally scheduled to sit on one of the panels but have since been invited to deliver a second keynote instead and will be honored to again join Deepak in doing that Saturday. You can see the full conference agenda here. 

Manmeet Pal Singh
DomainX Founder & CEO

Singh believes the cost to attend has to be kept low to help accelerate growth in the Indian domain market by eliminating cost as a barrier to entry for those who want to learn more about the business. Fortunately, a number of well-known sponsors share that vision and stepped up so DomainX could continue to offer no or low cost tickets as they did last year as well. 

In alphabetical order, Escrow.com, Go Daddy and INForum.in are Platinum sponsors while Airfare.in, .Desi, Domaining.com, DomainPros.com, IBM and Resello.com are Gold Sponsors. Further support is coming from eight Silver Sponsors including Bruwink, BulkWhoisFinder, Verisign (.com/,net), Catchy.com, JUA Domain Name Consultants, NameCatch.org/.in, OpenSRS and Uniregistry. 

We are looking forward to our first visit to India, meeting that country's up and coming domain investors and covering it all for you. Look for our first pre-show post from Bangalore in this column Wednesday with daily reports continuing through the conclusion of DomainX 2015 Saturday.

Lobby of the Taj West End Hotel in Banglore, India where 
DomainX 2015 will be held Friday & Saturday (August 7 & 8).

Senior Strategist Bill Hartzer
Globerunner.com

We've had a busy week making preparations for our trip to  India to cover next week's DomainX conference in Bangalore. As a result I didn't get a chance to share a few  interesting items that came across my desk, so I wanted to do that this weekend before heading overseas Monday. 

For starters, Globe Runner, a digital marketing and SEO agency based in Dallas, unveiled a new product called Verified Domains. Globe Runner Senior Strategist Bill Hartzer told us, "It's the first service that provides background checks and due diligence for domain names. Kind of like a CarFax report for your car, but for domain names. Verified Domains checks out a domain's past and offer a Buy Back  guarantee that the domain name is clean and ready for commerce." 

The dollar amount of the Buy Back guarantee depends on the level of service you choose to use. Hartzer said, "The Verified level gets you over 15 manual reviews of various data points, and includes a $5,000 Buy Back Guarantee. Manual reviews include data points like a Whois History Review, Review of Former Site Topic, Email Blacklist 

Check, Limited Search Engine Reputation Review and DNS Health Check. The Verified Plus level gets you all of the checks included in the Verified level, but includes more data points and a $25,000 Buy Back Guarantee. The Verified Premium level includes the Verified and Verified Plus checks, but also includes more extensive checks of whois data and search engine reputation issues. There are over 45 different manual reviews of various data points done, and it includes a $50,000 Buy Back Guarantee."

You can review pricing for each level and more details on the level of service each provides here. The Buy Back Guarantee essentially says that if Verified Domains verified the domain as being "clean" and ready for commerce, and a problem is found within 30 days of the verification, Verified Domains will buy the domain. "Hartzer said, "For domainers, a report from Verified Domains could be used to "close the deal", giving some assurance to buyers that there aren't any problems with the domain. Adding a report could allow you to ask more for the domain, as it's a Verified Domain. Discounts are available for multiple domains and entire domain portfolios. For resellers, Verified Domains will work with you to integrate into your platform  and provide a referral fee."