Latonas.com to beta test in partnership with WhyPark in a December Charity event

Craig Rowe, of WhyPark, recently asked me if I would help him with a charity auction he was organizing. While I’m happy to assist, I think he’s doing me more of a favor.

Some of you may have noticed that we’ve quietly rolled out a small ad campaign promoting pre-registration for our upcoming platform.  We have banners at both Elliot’s Blog as well as DN Forum. That’s about it though, like I said, we are quietly rolling it out.

The WhyPark Charity Domain Auction offers our company a great opportunity to test the system. It won’t have all the features turned on and their could be some bugs but that’s ok. It’s an online only auction and it’s a far enough away from the Vegas show to give me the feedback we need.

WhyPark is doing this for right reasons and I love their spin that the single highest bidder gets to choose which charity the proceeds go to. They’ll be supplying the domains and its really their gig. You can go to their site to submit names and find out more information.

To pre-register for Latonas.com and receive updates through our system, you can sign up at Latonas.com.

Marketing to end-users is hard but possible. The most important element is time.

Rick Latona Auctions spends time and money marketing to end users, but it takes more than that to get the job done.  The most important thing to keep in mind is that it takes time for end users to come to the table.  For example, the average response time from a Fortune 500 company to an initial contact is about a month - and that is just to get the conversation started.

To give you a little insight in how we do things, here’s the basic process. After receiving the agreement from the domain seller, we start compiling a list of potential buyers. We go way past the obvious and the “Fortune 500″. For example, the keyword “paper” could be someone in the forestry business or someone that buys outstanding loans. Also, we look for those middle tier companies that want to compete with the Fortune 500 companies. Think candy.com. Hersheys didn’t buy it. A company that wanted to compete with Hersheys bought it.

Once we have that list we not only start calling but we send a FedEx package to the leaders of the respective companies. Heck, on some names we spend in excess of $2500 just sending letters announcing the name is for sale.

By the time we are on the phone with the person who might make a decision weeks have gone by. That’s just getting in contact with them! Establishing the value and getting a decision out of them is like pulling teeth. It’s hard, but possible.

If you have a premium domain name, right now is the time to submit it for our upcoming auction at TRAFFIC Las Vegas.  The earlier a name is submitted, the sooner we can begin marketing it, which increases the likelihood of having multiple bidders.  To submit your premium domain, please do so today here.

We are ready to continue the success that we had at TRAFFIC New York.  To do this, we need high quality names at reserve prices that have a shot at selling in today’s market.  We also need time to properly market the names.  Bottom line - sales are up and no one will work harder for you to sell your domain names.

If you are interested in attending T.R.A.F.F.I.C. or watching the auction live or online, please visit www.targetedtraffic.com.  For a limited time, we have extended our 1,295 USD price for attendance to the show.  Act now, because that rate will not last long.

Introducing a new face to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Rick Silver selected as our new moderator

I love Howard Neu and would never say anything bad about him. I have no negative thoughts. He’s a great guy, honest, passionate, and most importantly loyal to the cause. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is as much of a part of his personality as it is of Rick Schwartz’. They were partners after all and Howard did a lot of the heavy lifting. Their vision is our legacy. We thank them for that.

Everyone who has been to a T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show knows who Howard is because he was the moderator that introduced all the panels and asked the questions while the crickets sang sermons in the audience. He has been the face of the domain industry and I’d like to be the first to publicly thank him and nominate him for next year’s domainer’s hall-of-fame for his historical significance and impact.

All of that said, things are different now. I can’t count on Howard and Rick being at all the shows, nor should I expect to. They’ve done their time. It’s my responsibly to bring the show into the second decade of this 21st century and those two have trusted me to do so.

As my first major change to the basic concept that is the industries original and premier trade show, I’d like to officially announce our new moderator. I wanted to find a person that would have the skills to represent all of us, keep the show engaging, entertaining and sophisticated. Deep thought and deliberation was put into the matter.

Fortunately, I’ve been a fan of public speaking for some time. While I’m not that great at it, I’ve read enough books about it, watched enough pros and paid attention to be able to recognize real skills when I saw it. Rick Silver has skills.

My first meeting with him was at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. ccTLDs in Amsterdam. He got on stage to represent and promote .ca names, a sector that he dominates. I was blown away. I thought his stage presence was a skill that transcended his domain portfolio. Seriously, he’s the best public speaker in the industry. He’s a clean-cut, intelligent, professional, industry growth focused, honest, family man that can captivate an audience.

I knew immediately that he was the right guy for the job and after a tough negotiation I’m proud to announce that Rick Silver is the new moderator for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. events.

Not only will he do better at it than I would personally, he’ll be impartial and honest in a way that I hope will show all that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is about promoting the growth of the domain industry, not my personal growth or any one individual’s. I want everyone to know that I will go through great lengths to prove that I’m not in this business for profit. I have profit generating businesses and I licensed from Rick and Howard the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. shows because I knew that handled impartially, with integrity and with an aggressive global expansion plan, that my other businesses would profit.

Rick Silver is Rick Silver. He’s yet another Rick to confuse the newbies trying to memorize who’s who. I promise to never attempt to influence his opinions.

Here’s a brief bio on him:

Rick Silver has been in the domain space since 2000 and is the founder & CEO of n49 Interactive Inc, a leading Canadian web development agency and online directory publisher. n49 holds the lions share of premium generic .ca domains such as dining.ca, limos.ca, and kitchens.ca. The company has developed a platform for generating vertical market portals that feature user reviews, video and tools to help small businesses establish, manage, and optimize their online presence.

Rick is active in the domain community and serves as president of the Domain Owners Association of Canada. He is a strong proponent of the development of generic domain names into useful websites through effective journalism, social media and mass collaboration.

Previously Rick was the president of Marconi Medical Systems Canada, a global leader in medical imaging technology. He is a graduate of the University of Windsor and resides in Toronto, Canada with his wife Debbie and their 2 children.

Glaciers disappearing from Kilimanjaro - CNN.com headline, why it matters

*In this image you can see how far back the glaciers were from the summit I was standing on.

As I type this; there is an article headlining the home page of cnn.com. It’s titled “Glaciers disappearing from Kilimanjaro“.

I can tell you that from my own experience, the guides on my journey had all said they could tell the ice was going away.

It seems appropriate to remind all domainers of our upcoming Kili2010 trip. Around 30 of us have already committed to climbing the tallest summit in Africa in an effort to help bring water to those in need.

In 20 years there will be no more snows of Kilimanjaro. Let me know or visit Kili2010 to join the effort.

You could own GolfClubs.com for $35,642.16

Well, not really. However, the seller of this ultra-premium ecommerce name is willing to offer 5 years financing at the low rate of 7% per year with only the first payment down. That means, to qualified individuals, that you could secure this name for just $35,642.16.

That would also be your payment for 60 months or 5 years. If you can put together a business and cash flow the payment it would be a real win-win for both you and the seller.

This also assumes a 1.8 million dollar price point which is the lowest that the name has ever been offered for.

GolfClubs.com is one of the best ecommerce names you could own. If your company has the resources to develop the name properly and can convince us that you can make the payment in a timely fashion, please contact us immediately and we will try to put the deal together for you.

Free tickets to TRAFFIC Las Vegas to big buyers of names at RL Auctions New York

In the coming weeks and months we’ll be putting out a lot of press regarding T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas which will be held at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino January 21st - 23rd of 2010.

Rather than inundating you with a lot of information that will get lost in the noise we’ll release one interesting thing at a time.

Today’s new policy is that anyone who spends at least $20,000 at an RL Auction will automatically get free entry into the next show.

That means that if you purchased names exceeding that amount at the live auction or plan to do so during the extended auction which ends in a few days, you can contact us for a free pass. Don’t worry. We’ll be contacting you too!

This will be an ongoing theme. Buy names in Vegas and get a free pass to Milan. Etc, etc, etc….

We are working hard to ensure everyone feels the Vegas show is the greatest show ever thrown in the industry. I can’t wait for the feedback.

Maybe the worst domain I’ve ever let expire

First, I swear I didn’t register this name myself. My disdain for .mobi names has been well documented.

It was part of a large portfolio of names that a customer had defaulted on.

When I saw it in the pending expiration list I litterally laughed out loud. A mobile site about Amish furniture?

Priceless.