Mount Kilimanjaro, Rick Latona Auctions, & TRAFFIC

Rick asked me to shoot out an update today.  There are three things that I wanted to cover:

1) It is Day 3 of the Mount Kilimanjaro climb.  Since the group is taking the Machame route, they should be at Shira Camp now.  Tomorrow, they will pass through Lava Tower and hit Barranco Camp (3950m).  The full details of each day’s climb are at kili2010.com/climb-info.  If you haven’t picked a climber to sponsor, now is the time.  Proceeds all go to a great cause, The Water School.

2) On the auction front, we are looking for premium domain submissions in the eCommerce category.  Basically, if it is a product sold at your local mall, Wal-Mart, or The Home Depot, we would like to help you sell it.  We are looking for one or two word dot coms (English word), and we will look at ccTLDs if they are in appropriate language for the country.  Submit your names here.

3) The press release below went out earlier today.  If you are considering attending TRAFFIC Milan, now is the time to book your hotel room(s) and get the ticket(s) for the show.  If you are considering sponsorship, a booth, a tabletop, or any type of sponsorship, feel free to email me directly to discuss further.  Registration for TRAFFIC Milan here.

TRAFFIC Milan conference and hotel registration are now open.

Atlanta, Georgia USA – March 2, 2010 – Targeted TRAFFIC is gearing up for its first 2010  European show, which will be held on April 27th-29th 2010 in Milan, Italy. Milan is the largest metropolitan area in Italy with an estimated population of 7.4 million. The city has the largest financial and business center in Italy, it is known for its unique Leonardo da Vinci fresco The Last Supper and it is recognized as one of the world’s fashion and design capitals.

The conference will be held at The Milan Marriott which is adjacent to the Milan City Fairgrounds and a short distance from the city centre. Targeted TRAFFIC will conduct business as usual starting April 27th 2010 with their networking activities, panel sessions, exhibitor area and live Domain Auction by Rick Latona Auctions.

TRAFFIC Milan is in less than 2 months, and TRAFFIC has promotions going that should interest you.  Early Bird pricing for TRAFFIC Milan is only 499 EUR (or about 680 USD).  Do you plan on coming to the TRAFFIC Dublin event?  If so, you may purchase tickets to both TRAFFIC Milan and TRAFFIC Dublin for only 749 EUR (or about 1020 USD).  The schedule, hotel information, registration details, and exhibitor information have all been updated at www.targetedtraffic.com.  These tickets include full access to the show and all show sponsored events.

Sign up now on our website www.targetedtraffic.com to obtain your ticket and book your rooms to TRAFFIC Milan.

Feel free to email me with any questions or comments:

David Clements
david –at– ricklatona.com

1Source: Ron Jackson, DNJournal.com

One Challenge Accepted. Domains.com <— That’s right. Domains.com

It’s hard to imagine a name that could fit our industry better than Domains.com. I’m sure we’ve all reached out to the current owners at least once inquiring about it.

Today, I’m proud to announce that I’ve just secured the brokerage agreement on our own category killer, domains.com.  This is in response to my challenge post put up just before the big holiday.

This will not be a cheap name and the business does not come with it. I will be putting together marketing materials and personally attempting to sell this name for all of us to see.

If you or your company has an interest in it the best you can do at this time is submit me a proposal. You should know that the seller is willing to finance, accept equity proposals or talk specifically cash. All proposals will be taken seriously.

We won’t be in a hurry to sell this name but we do want to cut a deal in the first half of 2010 if we can find the right buyer.

It’s ranked in second position on Google for the keyword “domains”. This is not an easy keyword to get.

Please only submit your interest level if you are sizable enough to get within reach. While I can’t say any numbers at this time, I think you know what I mean by that.

You could own Pointcast.com, on the cheap - Old school internet guys will appreciate this one

Certain events in 1990s drew me into the Internet business. One that is most memorable to me is Pointcast. In fact, I collect paraphanelia from defunct .com companies, especially the high-profile ones that went bust. In this picture I’m holding an unopened copy of Pointcast and in my left hand, Pointcast I-Server, their intranet platform for corporate networks (Windows NT edition).

They had a desk top application that you would install which, they claimed, could have information pushed to it. It was widely popular. I had it and would want tech news streamed to me all day long. The year I was into it was 1995. Without Pointcast I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did as fast as I did. I followed all the latest press releases from AOL, Microsoft, Netspace and the rest.

Now the guy that started Pointcast probably wasn’t the best businessman in the world. He turned down Rupert Murdoch’s $450 million offer for it in 1997. Later on they planned a 250 million dollar IPO, only to withdraw that.

After a long serious of unfortunate events it ended up selling for only 7 million dollars.

More crazy mergers and aquisitions went by and it eventually was owned by AOL for a while before my client ended up with possession of the name and the trademark.

You can buy Pointcast.com and the trademark, right now for $38,000. With its 15 year old backlinks, I think it is a safe bet. Who knows, perhaps you could build a new application and send out a release that Pointcast is back! I am sure it would get picked up by all the major news outlets.

If you have an interest in the name, please contact me directly.

Latonas.com beta auction - WhyPark.com charity auction, is live

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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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.

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.

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.

Should I rename my company Cyberspace.com?

I need your help. My partners and I are agonizing over a decision so we’ve decided to lay it on the masses.

While I realize this isn’t the most professional way to name an organization that does as much revenue as we do currently and are projected to do in the future; it is the 21st century and the age of collaboration.

First, some background. We have RickLatona.com which is essentially the newsletter, Rick Latona Auctions, AEIOU.com (our web development arm) and we are building other domain related services. The loan companies, DigiPawn and DigiLoan will be left out of this conversation.

We want to throw everything in one pot for a few reasons. One of the biggest is that it would focus advertising dollars. We could build a much bigger and broader brand this way. Also, quite frankly, it probably makes sense to separate my name from the identity a bit.

Now we’ve gone round and round about what would make a great name. We’ve wanted something that could stand out. Something that didn’t sound like all the other domain companies.

It just so happens that we own the name Cyberspace.com due to a recent acquisition. The names has pros and cons and that’s what’s making it such a hard decision.

Pros

• Memorable
• Has the word “space” in there which has a real estate feel to it
• I hold a very old trademark to the term

Cons

• Could sound unprofessional
• 90s term

Now my gut is that the cons can be destroyed through the use of the name. Our planned marketing blitz would establish the name Cyberspace.com as a domain company. The domain company, hopefully. In a perfect world….

What do you think? I really really want to know.

Parked.com agrees to sponsor all 6 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. events in 2010

*image reprinted with permission of dnjournal.com

I’m proud to announce that Parked.com has joined the likes of Skenzo and InterNetX as a sponsor of all six T.R.A.F.F.I.C. events in 2010.

The men behind Parked.com have always impressed me. I’ve known most of them since the late 90s. They are an agressive bunch and very savvy businessmen.

Thank you Parked.com for your continued support.

Domain sales are up. Way up in fact. Is the economy improving for us?

I’ve often compared running our newsletter to being on the front-lines of the domain industry.

It’s really quite intensive. We look at thousands of submissions every day and get hammered with replies from our users, both positive and negative.

To run it is to have your finger on the pulse of things.

Over the last couple of weeks we have seen a notable increase in activity. Sales are way up. The question of the day is, will it stay that way?

Perhaps its the entrepreneurial spirit in me. I’m the eternal optimist. I can’t relate to the doom and gloom nay-sayers out there. Some friends of mine tell me its because I’m American, that the rest of the world thinks that things are going to get much worse.

I just don’t see it. When we are putting up $30,000-$70,000 a day in sales, how am I supposed to be negative?

Now truth be told we’ve also made a lot of changes to our newsletter.

For one, we rarely run our own names anymore.

We’ve started doing weekly themes.

We’ve started running more expensive premium names.

I think those things are making a notable difference but I also think the general mood out there has improved. People seem less scared to make the necessary investments.

It also helps that I finance a lot of the deals.

*cheers* To a bright future!

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