The big news yesterday was that NamesCon is moving. Where we don’t know, but we know it won’t be Vegas. Change is good is the saying but in my opinion they are confusing the staleness of the city with the staleness of the conference. Nobody has asked for my opinion but that’s never stopped me so I will tell you it anyway. The reason why DomainFest and NamesCon were popular were exact opposites. DomainFest had fantastic keynote speakers, great parties, and set up an environment where people wanted to come for the entertainment value alone. But it was extremely expensive and when parking died and didn’t provide the excess millions to supplement the conference, it slowly died. Richard Lau started NamesCon with a simple idea. Lets have a few of us get together in Vegas and talk domains. No conference fee, just a get together. That was the other reason we went to conferences anyway so why not just get 100 or so of us together in Vegas. By the time we all agreed to meet, the numbers had gotten pretty good size. Richard switched it up a little as number grew and came up with something official. Centered around WaterSchool , can raise some money and try and put a few talks together. Keep the cost cheap and let everyone organize their own dinners and entertainment. That way more people could come and the conference ticket price would be super cheap. That concept morphed into the big conference that NamesCon is today.
Here lies the problem. There aren’t many domain investors in the world. The ONLY way to get big numbers is to keep the conference price cheap. Cheap meant a conference full of panels by other domain investors or friends of domain investors. The first year was good because we hadn’t seen many of our peers talk. As the years pass we’ve pretty much seen each other talk over and over. And there are only so many Michael Cygers that can deliver every time. This is the staleness that is present, not the venue or the city. In my opinion only, we’re missing good storytellers and TED type talks at our conference. It needs to bring in an outside story. Doesn’t have to even be someone you know. I can pretty much assure you most people had no idea who Ben Mezrich was before his talk. But he is best selling author who has written some books everyone knows. They just didn’t know he wrote it. He delivered one of the best keynotes I have seen. We need more keynotes like that. I’m sure you could add $20-25 a ticket for a really really good speaker. And it only needs to be entertaining. That’s it. People made fun of Kim Kardashian being a keynote but not many people that attended the talk made fun after. She knew her shit and you could tell she was as good of an investor/money maker as anyone in the room. Can you imagine what it would cost to get Kim in a talk today? Probably not any amount of money. But you get my point. It was something we look forward to.
This op ed is by no means criticizing the work that the people have done at NamesCon. They are a hard working group. They have done their best to put together panels that appeal to all different types of domain investors. Some of the speakers this year are going to be awesome. I am really looking forward to Kate Buckley’s talk. I do think that like all conferences, NamesCon is forced to hold panels geared towards their advertiser’s area of domain investing in exchange for them being an advertiser. Adding panels that a smaller niche of domain investors would attend. It also keep cost down because they don’t charge for a talk because its good for their business. If you bring in outside speakers they are going to charge. I’m not going to solve it here in a 10 minute brain storm but you get my point. The challenge is in the conference itself. The venue only gives them a reason to come OTHER than the conference. Vegas does not get stale to most. What gets stale is a conference that is built around being a low budget event. It is next to impossible to bring in creativity when there is no money for it. This is the problem. That being said, I get my ticket for free. I get a free ticket for promoting the show. I wouldn’t take the ticket if they didn’t let me be honest about my thoughts. I have said for years its a MUST for a domain investor to go to NamesCon. Mainly because it is attended by great domain investors and there is no better way to succeed in something than to surround yourself, listen, and talk to successful domain investors. And NamesCon is where they will be. The problem is we will lose them if we don’t give them a reason to come. Once a few stop coming others will stop showing up because their friends aren’t coming. It’s up to NamesCon to keep them coming. Maybe that’s a new city. Maybe that’s a new approach to the conference. Fortunately I don’t make that call. Here are today’s names. Click through to see the current price and to fund this daily list
Quote of the Day: “The most valuable of all education is the ability to make yourself do the thing you have to do, when it has to be done, whether you like it or not.” – Aldous Huxley
Domain of the Day: WeAcceptCrypto.com Take crypto, show the world you do or a directory of the companies that do. No bids
Namejet, Sedo, and other Names Up for Auction
Bonpo.com Some may see it as Bon Po with Bon being a Tibetan religion. Some just see it as a nice 5L.com
BaltimoreStorage.com City / Storage names are great for marketing
Ichabods.com Most people are going to think about the most famous Ichabod. Ichabod Crane
EstateSigns.com Real Estate signs or entry signs to neighborhoods
JungleFuel.com I can see the logo already. A monkey swinging and drinking your new sports drink
IBLA.com Met reserve and going to change hands
WSBA.com This one isn’t there yet but could hit it
LCIA.com Another one with this pattern or style
Refurnished.com Bidder Hailan is right there again at the front of the reserve price
AddicttingGames.com And on this one as well. Bill Kara must be proud that his old site is still so valuable that typos are worth thousands. At least to Hailan
TherapyStudio.com Met reserve. Great name for medical therapy and rehab
DomainSales.org I don’t mind the .org here. Although I do feel you almost need to be on a dot com to show you understand the value of a dot com. I’d make an exception here
iCanadian.com Here’s Hailan again. Has this one up to $5K. Which happens to be the front end of the reserve
GHVO.com Cheap one here. $120 met reserve
Godaddy Domains With Multiple Bids
ForceOne.com everyone is thinking Air Force One like me. Everyone. 20 years old and GD values it at $9K
GWBush.com Former President of the United States. He’s the one that is still alive
WatchOnlineTV.com Obviously WatchTVOnline would be the good one here but I think this could still sell for high four figures to an end user company
EventDate.com It doesn’t tickle my whistle but its as good as EventBrite so why not
BeachGetaways.com One of my favorites on the list. Going to the beach is a dream vacation for much of the world
TripSolutions.com Same category, but doesn’t draw as much emotion as the above. Would make a good trip finder tool name though
CarParker.com Sounds like a quarterback for the Texas Longhorns but also a valet or automated valet technology
DocList.com Find a doc.
SpyCatcher.com Virus and cookie catcher
CakeUniversity.com Upgrade name for some companies. Great name for a culinary school that specializes
TrueReflection.com I would rather have the plural as a brand but that’s not what’s up for auction. And you are actually only getting a singular reflection in something so probably the proper plurality
Conita.com A girls name that is more prevalent in Spanish speaking countries.
GroupLodging.com A little generic but gets the point across that you need a little more space than your average place to stay
Sendm.com Not sure what M are but here’s where they can be sent from
ActiveLoan.com Good CPC in the loan industry but hard to get people to visit the site
RuggedWatches.com Great marketing name if you’re trying to promote this type of watch
MadeByRobots.com Not sure anyone is going to promote this unless they feel robots is actually better than hand made by a human. A human that’s having a bad day. Stayed up too late last night watching a basketball game that started at 8:40 because it was west coast. And then the coffee maker broke and the guy he works with on the line forgot to wear deodorant so got on and off the line as quick as possible. But I’m sure its still better than a robot right?
PetFlare.com Every pet needs 6 pieces of flare
Relaxity.com Exudes relaxation but doesn’t quite roll off the tongue for me. Bidders disagree
LearnPerl.com For people that want to learn coding in Perl
CannabisToys.com Getting some bids. Hoping these are toys for adults. Cannabis is not for kids
HighestBidder.com the irony of this one. The highest bidder on highest bidder gets it
Godaddy Domains With One or No Bids
SoloEvents.com A travel agency for those that go it alone
Papoy.com A 5L.com and a character from Despicable Me
CoolCleaning.com Memorable cleaning service name. Easy logo
Citizens360.com Exudes “complete”
ClearResearch.com 2 billion google results can’t be a bad thing
Zwami.com Cool looking and sounding 5L with only one bidder
Toorist.com People that visit. Terrible spelling but tourist came to mind when you saw it didn’t it?
PayYourRespects.com Online funeral listings
WarehouseFarms.com Essentially what the canna industry is
Bizur.com No bids at $12
Beyos.com And another one
Dutia.com gets 31 visits a month if you believe Godaddy. 31 whole visits
HowToBaby.com Love this one. Great new parent site name
FoundYourPhone.com Not much value but a fun play on Apple’s FindMyPhone
RiteFlow.com Sold a flow name last year. Rite Aid says this is the proper way to spell Right
TurboBull.com Sounds like a stock trading program
The Rest of the Names With Bids
58dmj.com
666cn.com
759355.com
81mv.com
AEMDesign.com
AyurvedaCosmetics.com
AyurvedaSkincare.com
BadassJacks.com
BestJerseysForSale.com
BulkSMSPack.com
CheapJerseysWholesale.org
ChuanHeng.com
CinchUp.com
CivicEGClub.com
ClockworkCoders.com
ClutchFlyRods.com
CTiss.com
DiamondLimousine.com
DriveTruck.com
EdHiFoundation.com
EmergencyDisaster.com
EonAir.com
FillBach.com
Fouxiu.com
FrankFritzFinds.com
FreshLimeApps.com
Funily.com
GingerTrade.com
GoodJerseySmall.com
GPNT.net
Hagyp.com
HaoShimy.com
hbboao.com
HBS4.com
Henbucuo.com
HimEva.com
HolisticLocal.com
Homo-Online.com
HopefulHeadlines.org
HostingPortal.com
HRTInc.com
ICRAssociation.org
Killa1218.com
Lanatives.com
Laoxuzs.com
LatinaMedia.com
Libo28.com
LizzieBennet.com
LMC3.com
LoveDaveLittle.com
MagnaMat.com
MalaEng.com
MixShopping.com
MrsDian.com
NeoHand.com
NetFlixCodes.com
NinaCafeHotel.com
Olulu.com
OptionPain.com
PaiBox.com
Parc.org
PlatoTheme.com
PokerBid.com
PositiveStrokeSartSchool.com
PotBase.com
PreteenGallery.net
PurePoland.com
QZChunsen.com
RedIdentity.com
Reverse.info
RhinoSeo.com
SandiegoVacations.com
sc02188.com
Scops.org
SeatHunter.com
shenzhenjr.com
ShopTheScene.com
SiteStacks.com
StartupCyprus.org
t923.com
Tapoos.com
Tekamxhan.com
ThePatientForum.com
TheRogueBar.com
TooRist.com
usalng.com
VitoGo.com
VKLeaks.com
Wanwma.com
WeShy.com
worldwideocr.com
Wusemi.com
Xeura.com
xrgjmy.com
Xubee.com
Zandou.com
Just FYI Refurnished .com link goes to Refurbished .com – still a good word either way 🙂
I would like to attend but like most domain investors, I have a full time job. I don’t want to take away from family vacation time to attend. If it were on the East Coast – NYC – it would be an easy trip. Vegas is too far for a quick hit. I would love to meet some of the people I deal with face to fave so they can see I’m not really an asshole 🙂
I’ve never set up a conference so I have no real insight, but it seems like NYC would just be more expensive for nearly everything. How about a nice warm island in the Caribbean? That is worth the extra expense.
I totally agree about the price of tickets I know about 20 last minute Larry’s including my self. Who all would want to go but we all dont want to pay 699 or whatever for a ticket. Another thing I love Vegas but not in January it’s too cold I sure there would be more people going if it was in a slightly warmer time of year. It will be interesting to see where namescon gets moved to I hope it’s not in the middle of nowhere.
Why does someone bid $1 under stated reserve, is this the auction seller manipulating, are these auctions not sanctioned via NameJet for fraud ?
I’ve bid a dollar under reserve many times. It can certainly be a strategy if you want less people getting involved / emotionally tied to the auction. Sometimes I do it to mess with someone who has a ridiculous reserve and the name will never sell. You can do this sort of thing at Namejet, but you can’t at GoDaddy. The way GoDaddy handles it is much worse in my opinion. Say there is a name with a reserve and I’m willing to pay $5500 for the name. The current top bid is $500. I bid $5500. The bid moves to $600. How crazy is that? What if $5500 is beyond the reserve price? Does it sell the name? It should move to my bid amount.
Yes. Thank you for the great examples, but in such cases it looks like bidders are being baited to activate reserve by false interests. I think auctions are sacred, and should be treated as such. Loosely goosey bidding rules ruin it for everyone.
Take crikey.com for instance it is now behind bid up for auction a third time, this is real money in the tens of thousands, people are playing with the system. Scary
Travis,
My opinion is it should only move to your bid if its under the reserve. If its met reserve I would want to only pay what I have to pay for a name. If I am willing to pay $5000 and can get the name for $600 then I don’t want it to
move all the way up. Only as someone puts in a higher bid.
Sorry, that part might not have been clear. It should definitely move up to my bid price as long as it is at or under reserve. It doesn’t though.
NamesCon should move to Miami Beach. Highs in the 70s in the winter. A lot of stuff to do.