Latonas.com is live, in beta format at least. I've posted the full press release below but before that I want to leave you with a few thoughts.

1. This is not the full version of the site. The brokerage department is not live, for one thing. This is also only a beta site. There may be problems.

2. More than anything, I hope you guys can see where we are going with this. We have gone out of our way to showcase your domains like the valuable assets that they are. We have thrown out of the window the way other online domain selling websites have done things to date.

3. We do not want to come across as a technology company, even though I have five full-time programmers working on this and I intend for this to be an ongoing, never-ending development project that will improve, improve and improve.

4. What we want to be is nothing less than the Christies or Sotheby's of intellectual property. Your names deserve a classy representative and this is what we are trying to accomplish. For instance, I have three full-time artists working on this. We are doing custom graphic images for each and every name.

5. We believe in WhyPark.com's mission. We want to help them raise money for charities and we are not making anything off this auction. They in turn are helping us raise an audience that will beta test our product.

6. I may take this site back down after the charity auction. If you want to see what it is about, sign up now and look around.

Lastly, I just want to say again that this is an ongoing project. I'm very committed to the domain industry and increasing the values overall. All of us at the upcoming Latona's Domain Brokerage and Auction House, appreciate you and everything you are working for and are here to help. Don't hold any comments back. We have the infrastructure to quickly adapt and make changes to our system until we have what all of us need, a platform to extract the maximum value out of your precious domains.

P.S. For those competitors out there analyzing this post, not to worry. I'm much more likely to tackle other intellectual property industries than compete with your parking and other programs. Let's work together. My door is open to new ideas.

Full press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rick Latona Auctions starts charity auction on behalf of WhyPark.com - Registration and Bidding now open on beta platform.

Atlanta, Georgia USA - December 7, 2009 - Rick Latona Auctions has been working on a proprietary auction platform in collaboration with its sister companies. This week only, it'll be open to preview and beta test at www.latonas.com. Once the auction is complete the system will be locked back down.

The WhyPark.com charity auction is a real auction with people bidding for real domains and spending real money" stated Rick Latona, CEO of Rick Latona Auctions, "however, it is a beta test of the software and website. The full version with many more features will be released in early January, well ahead of our Main Event at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas. This is only a sneak preview of what we have been working on".

The WhyPark/Latona's auction has already started and it ends on Friday at 3:00pm EST at www.Latonas.com.  Rick Latona Auctions would like to invite you to take a look at the system, register for the auction, bid, and give comments on the your experience. Don't bid unless you want the name, however! This is a live auction.

"We have our team standing by to make improvements," said David Clements, President of Rick Latona Auctions.  "We see this as a valuable opportunity to wind up with a platform that is custom suited to our industry, and we really would like to get honest feedback from participants of this first auction."

Registration and bidding for the auction will be at www.latonas.com all week.  This is where you will go to view the catalog and register and bid in the auction.

For any technical questions related to the auction software and to report bugs, please email bugs@latonas.com. For any questions about Rick Latona Auctions, please email David Clements at david@ricklatona.com.
About Rick Latona Auctions:
Rick Latona Auctions is an industry leader in the brokerage of domains and domain auctions.  This industry has exceeded 428,000,000 US Dollars in total sales1 representing over 54,000 individual domains sold since October 2003.  Auctions attract branding managers and executives looking to buy domains to increase their company's market share against their competitors.  Registered bidders from a live audience and those watching the live online video and audio broadcast compete with one another buying domain names.  Rick Latona Auctions is proud to be the exclusive auction company for all six T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conferences in 2010.  Rick Latona Auctions also can assist you by acting as your domain name broker for a domain purchase or sale.  For additional information, please visit www.RickLatona.com/auctions.

For further information:
David Clements
Partner/ President
Rick Latona Auctions
+1.678.468.9228

1Source: Ron Jackson, DNJournal.com
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