I admit that I am an addict.  I love board games.  My favorite game of all time is Monopoly and I would play it for hours with my brothers and now my stepsons.  Why bother with the deeds for Mediterranean and Baltic when you can buy Park Place and Boardwalk (I still play the original version, not the Dane Cook version or the Boingboing version)?  The strategy, as you know, is to build houses and then hotels and then bankrupt your competitors until you win the game (I am a bit softer on my stepsons then I was on my brothers).  With this in mind, after many years in educational administration, I became a domainer.  It is Monopoly that taught me the only way to win is to build (and I don’t need to bankrupt my competitors).  A great domain parked can be lucrative, a great domain built will be lucrative.  It’s the Boardwalk and Park Place with the hotels. Domain Strategies gives you the tools you need to put your hotels on your Boardwalk and Park Place.

We’ve just posted our first case study on domain development. Patents.com is an excellent example of the value Domain Strategies can bring to a premium, category defining domain. By utilizing our international network of partners and relationships, Patents.com will be the premier destination for patent content in 15 languages. Click here to read the Patents.com case study.

I really enjoyed the DomainFest 2008 conference. I thought the program was well put together, a nice facility (although better weather would have been appreciated!), high quality networking events, mostly solid presentations and adequate vendor participation. I wanted to tack on some additional thoughts of the conference and industry to my Day 1 thoughts from a newbie blog post based on the sessions and interactions with the people from the industry.

• Lots of legal issues - between trademark issues, domain tasting, domain kiting, IDNs, domain stealing, etc. - there is a significant amount of risk still in the industry for those who don’t know what they are doing. Several panels addressed some of these topics as well as some consumer groups that are actively representing domainers interests to congress including the Internet Commerce Association (ICA).
• Political representation of domain industry interests in nascent and necesary. Due to the amount of money involved in the domain industry and the short runway of legal decisions and laws to base actions on, the need for industry representation in Washington DC is huge. Everyone should support the ICA.
• Many good domain names are available. Sitting through the SnapNames auction on Tues & Weds as well as looking forward to the Moniker auction at TRAFFIC, it is obvious that lots of good domain names have not been built into businesses and therefor are available for a transitive fee. I continue to believe that the best way to maximize the value of a domain is to build it out with a solid business model (doesn’t have to be cutting edge) and generate revenues.
• John Battelle is a really smart guy and a great speaker. I very much enjoyed John’s take on the domain industry given his long term involvement in the internet from a media standpoint. He made several points that I thought were compelling including:
  • The domain industry is a media industry. How do we better serve the viewers and advertisers with relevant media placements and messaging.
  • Creating captivating media is hard. Just monetizing through links is not enough, we need to figure out how to create captivating media on a large scale basis.
  • We have a long way to go. I thought it was funny that he pointed out the executional difference between the mission statement of Kevin Ham’s company, Reinvent Technology, with the output of one of his parked sites. Basically, Reinvent is focused on a new targeted media strategy and the site was a simple parked directory site. Again, we have a ways to go.
  • The real homepage of any site is the Search Engine Results page in which you show up. Your key messaging and context of your business starts in the consumers mind at this point. Great insight.
  • Consolidation is happening at a rapid rate, so choose partners well.

That’s all for now. Please leave a note or send us an email if you’d like to chat further.

ClassyOrTrashy.com is one of the best pop culture domains in Domain Strategies portfolio. Given the amount of attention celebrity fashion receives, ClassyOrTrashy.com is the perfect domain to build a high traffic vote for your favorite outfit or attitude site.

Just think about it - Britney Spears photographs of her latest trip to the clubs or re-hab - you can then have a vote on whether the outfit she is wearing is Classy or Trashy! How about Tony Romo’s trip to Mexico with Jessica Simpson? Was that trip Classy or Trashy? Remember Jennifer Lopez’s green dress that was missing the front? Classy Or Trashy?

The options for the things you can vote classy or trashy is limitless!

Domain Strategies announced today the launch of DomainStrategies.com, an open market place for domain owners, internet entrepreneurs and investors to meet and create value through domain based businesses. Read the press release