My 2009 Domainer Christmas List

Now that Thanksgiving is behind us and Black Friday is leading to Cyber Monday I thought I would layout my 2009 Christmas list - Domainer edition:

1) That Halvarez no longer bids against me on Snapnames.

Oh wait, that was a carry over from last year, looks like Santa came early.

2) Domainer Peace - Starting small here but how about we have peace between .COM lovers and .Something Else lovers. Figure this is probably about as achievable as world peace but hey it is a start:)

3) iPhone Domain Research App - I want a useful domainer app for the iPhone. Something that gives me useful data on the fly, something that lets me register right then, read next item.

4) iPhone Domain Auction/Drop Catch App - Seems like one of the domain auction houses would catch on to the fact that most domainers fit into the tech world somehow and are probably wanting to use some sort of mobile app to access their service. I can tell you that I would probably spend more money if I had mobile access. Please Santa bring this one.

5) One Positive Domain Related Story - I want one mainstream story to come out that does not refer to us as cybersquatters or something worse. We had a few of these a few years back but lately it is just more negative everyday.

6) Alexa Rank Drop - OK, please Santa bring me lower Alexa rankings on all my developed sites.

7) Less Twitter Phishing In DMs - Santa, can you please bring me something to rid my Direct Messages of Twitter Phishing messages. This would be helpful to all.

Parking Revenue Per Click Revenue - Santa, now this is a big one, we really need this under the tree this year, last year this was not delivered, not sure what the elves were up to but we domainers really need a lift here. Please no more bundles of coal under the tree, we need some gold, or at least copper this year.

9) More Hours In A Day - Santa, I know you get this one a lot, but now that we have domain research, Twitter, Facebook, and everything else we really need a few more hours. I do own MoreHoursInADay.com but it has not helped. Something Santa, even one more hour would help.

10) One Word .Com - Ok, now Santa, this one is tough, I want a one word .COM that gets enough type in traffic to actually matter, not a one word that gets 20 type ins a day, I am talking Rick Schwartz or Frank Schilling level here. If you could just maybe have auto renew turned off on one that would be great, put this in the stocking so my kids do not shake it. Oh, one more thing, preferrably with a pay per click above 10 dollars, that would be GREAT!

Thanks Santa, I am leaving extra cookies and milk this year since this is a tough list but I know you can do it.

What Ticks Me Off The Most About Halvarez

I usually try to avoid reporting the same thing everyone else has, we have all read tons of stories today about the Snapnames debacle and Halvarez (Nelson Brady). As someone who has been up against Halvarez countless times and wondered who was the man (machine....) on the otherside I was not the least bit surprised that it was that specific account that was found to be a scam.

Now, obviously from a financial perspective it ticks me off, I would venture to bet the majority of the domain investors who focus on either quality generic or traffic drops have ran up against Halvarez before, many many times, but what really bothers me is the bigger picture issue with this situation.

As someone who spends a good portion of his time out working with customers on how to do business online, whether it be proper advertising, SEO, web development, etc. It makes it very difficult to be taken seriously when it comes to discussing aftermarket domain names when this is the type of news that is constantly seen anytime domains are in the media. This story was picked up by top news sites today and a portion of the general public will read this.

The industry is already tainted in many peoples minds because of a lack of understanding and no true face or message being given to the world other than stories like this and now the hole just keeps getting dug deeper for us.

The majority of business owners I speak with understand the value of a good domain after real estate is used as a reference, cybersquatter is a term that many have heard but they had never thought of names as real estate, they only hear the trademark stories. But all the education in the world on the value does no good if people see stories like this about the acquisition of domain names on drop or the secondary market.

As I said in an interview awhile back, we need to promote a professional face to the public, until that happens we will never be taken seriously. Right now, whether you want to hear it or not we continue to look like a bunch of amateurs. Even if the people are dead wrong just read the comments at TechCrunch (again) to see how the world views domaining, stories like today just put us back 10 steps....

Sure, the banks and financial institutions were (are) full of crooks too, but they are an accepted industry so they do not have to prove themselves as professionals, WE as an industry are not really considered *real*, how are we going to fix that?????