Thanks To The Castello Brothers For A Great Weekend in LA

I wanted to type a quick public thank you to David and Michael Castello who showed me a great weekend in LA this past weekend. Between great sushi at SushiRoku, cigars at the Buena Vista Cigar Club in Beverly Hills, or great wine and food at Si Laa Thai, they made sure that my time there was great.

For my readers that are from outside the domain industry you can see the successful online real estate properties that the brothers own at CCIN.com. Although the details will come in another post many of you have heard of the Grape.com project that has started with them.

But one thing great about visiting LA is I also got some great time with my good buds Jason Thompson and Morgan Linton, I have not been out that way in awhile so was very excited to get some time with them as well and also want to thank them for their hospitality, seems Morgan always ends up being my chauffeur when I am in town, sorry bud:)

Every time I get to spend time with the Castello Brothers I come away feeling energized, one thing about them is they see the big picture. They see more than a great domain name, that is a very important thing to get. Too many times I see domain investors talk development and think that ends with the website. The Castello Brothers have the same mindset that I like to think I have, seeing that the domain name is the foundation for a real business that just starts at the website but really takes off when you take advantage of the BRAND that is the great domain name. And that means more than just getting traffic from the memorable name, it means revenue from developing a real business by either getting out there and working the streets for ad sales or selling a product on a category killing product domain name.

Sometimes we get to busy and wrapped up in day to day work or business and can lose track of the bigger picture, this weekend with them helped re-energize and focus my efforts. Stepping back from day to day but still keeping focused on business can be one of the best refreshers you can get, sharing ideas, brainstorming, in a different and energetic environment helps the creativity flow.

Also, the domain industry should give a big thanks to David, watching him come into dinner Saturday night after doing several interviews live and recorded after being sick all week was interesting, he was a trooper and made it though, if you do not know what I am talking about take look at the Good Morning America video of David discussing the "Playboy Plague". If you could of heard the conversations he pushed at the stations in between interviews you would know why I say we owe him a big thank you, he could not help but to sell the value of domain names and why they are so important. And before you think that having a few conversations about domain names and what domaining is to producers, etc does not mean much, think about how most big ideas start and know that he did have emails coming in from one I know of for sure wanting a follow up on the industry. It is a start.

Thanks guys, appreciate all the hospitality!

Tour Of Missouri And Organizing Statewide Media Coverage and Marketing

Wow, what a day! This may of been the strangest day in my professional career, I am not sure ever in my life I have worked on such a diverse range of items. That said I gotta say I loved every minute of it and have appreciated the chance to learn new things as we prepare the logistics around covering an international sporting event such as the Tour of Missouri

After a slight snafu by the organizers of the event we were able to get back on track with our plans and are very (VERY) happy with the exposure we have on the Tour website, for an example of what we worked out with the sporting event organizers check out : Stage One Tour Of Missouri Details . We were able to get that on 4 stages that we are in the Health and Wellness expo that follows the Tour. The site received 330 million pageviews last year and indications are the stage detail pages are some of the highest trafficked pages. Great exposure!

The day started with a customer sales meeting, then a partner training session, then the day was more diverse by the minute, I had a great call with one of the people that was most inspiring as my interest in Geo domains developed, David Castello. If you ever have the chance to talk to him take it. Great insight and a good person to boot. I want to thank him publicly for taking the time today to discuss monetizing geo domains and domain investing in general. After that though the Missouri.me team did everything from shop at Lowes to get materials for the booth to having THOUSANDS of pamphlets printed up at Office Max, then separating our water bottles into groups for each of the stages we are in the expo handing them out at.

After all that was done we worked until 8:3o tonight working with the organizers of the press side of the Tour to prepare for the Press conference on Sunday that includes State Government officials and international cycling professionals, for those not familiar with the sport, the type of teams we are covering in this race are the same teams that race the Tour De France, half the team that Lance Armstrong rode with this year in the Tour will be racing. This is my first ever time managing the reporting of an event and to add coordinating a marketing event alongside it the stress has been a bit crazy but ever minute has put a smile on the face. To have the chance to do this is a great thing for any new website and especially one that is focused on a statewide portal such as ours.

The challenge is now making sure we have coverage during the stages, at the booth, in the press conferences post stage finish, and people doing interviews with the cyclists. Oh yeah, the stages normally start and finish 100 miles from each other going over back roads that you never see any other time.... And then it is quickly off to the next hotel and do it all over again the next day.

For us though its a chance to promote Missouri.me and create unique content that will help promote our community sites in the towns that the race goes through. We look forward to posting frequently on our Tour reporting site (to be launched tomorrow, late but still on time to do what is needed, and promoting the unique content to the cycling community that we also know well). We luckily were able to recruit some extra help and were able to get the press passes needed to give to a freelance writer that we will be working with that happen to know the sport.

I must say if a year ago you told me I would be getting ready to sit in a press conference REPORTING on an international event and covering cyclists that I watch year after year in events I would of said you were crazy. What a difference an idea and a year can make!