Domainer's Gazette-Home

I’m gonna say this first off.. I’m a Jim Boykin disciple..

he was (and is) instrumental in my education on domaining and SEO..

and after I got a chance to meet him at Pubcon Vegas 2007, I realized he was simply an all-around nice guy..

so fast forward to tonight.. I’m considering attending SMX Advanced in Seattle, so I decide to view the provided video..

minutes later, I crack a wide smile when I happen upon ole Jim, rocking out, air guitar style (to what song is a debate, it seems to be 38 Special’s “Caught Up In You”.)

screen grab provided here:

and video here

Jim… am I right? Was that 38 Special? I could be wrong… possibly AC/DC’s “Givin’ the Dog a Bone” ?

Ever notice those guy & girl stock photos they use on NameJet and Snapnames?

I have. And I got to wondering… what’s their story?

Who are they?

As domainers, we all see them virtually every day.. so why not do a little digging to learn a little more about our domain auction friends..

so without further adieu..

Meet Joey

Joey is hip, uses ‘LA Looks’ Hair Gel, and feels he represents the ‘new’ breed of domainer.
Other domainers are hunched over a desk.
Not Joey.
He prefers domaining while lounging on his white sofa he borrowed from singer Rick James.
He enjoys wine-in-a-box and shopping at Crate & Barrel.
“whee! look! I just acquired sillyfun-gigglefactory.info!”, he says.
Joey works at the Gap to make ends meet, or at least until he “lands the big one”.

Meet Belle

Belle’s a smart one.
She’s been domaining since late 1994, and has some top notch names under her belt.
Thing is, she spends a bit too much time domaining, and her beau, Sampson, is growing tired of her long days in the office.
Sampson recently gave her an ultimatum, “Me, or the domains”
Sampson isn’t going to like that answer.

Meet Merle

Merle has been up for 5 days straight domaining. No sleep.
Living off Red Bull, Code Red, & Coco Puffs.
His Mom worries about his health, but Merle blows it off, “C’mon Mom, I’M FINE..get off my back!”
Merle shouldn’t raise his voice to his mother.

Meet Pappy

Pappy used to sell refrigerators at Sears. For 23 years actually.
He’s been referred to as a “walking encyclopedia on refrigeration”
Then Best Buy moved into the neighborhood.
He got canned and was forced to take a job at a startup. A startup domaining company.
His boss is 24 years old.
Pappy once asked his boss what kind of refrigerator he had at home.
His boss didn’t answer and quietly closed his office door to avoid any follow up questions..

I’ll be sure to check in on Joey, Belle, Merle, and Pappy from time to time, and make sure they’re doing ok. When I do, I’ll make sure to post an update..

..let’s all thank them for making every day a domainer day!

apparently, it’s Michael Caricofe

of Lancaster, California

and it appears he’s been BestDomainer.com since May 20th, 2006.

Congratulations Michael..

don’t get too lazy, though, you may have some competition…

TheBestDomainer.com is apparently Vasileios Papaioannou

of Volos, Greece

nipping at your heels

the jury’s still out on:

WorldsBestDomainer.com

Oh where oh where can I find the number,

to contact Google AdSense, a domainer (publisher) has to wonder..

They can’t expect folks are fine with just email,

it’s quite ballsy in fact, to withhold this fine detail..

We’ve got questions out here, in cyberspace land

that require a call, and a rep right at hand.

Email would be fine, for a publisher of small sizing,

but what about us, whose revenues are rising?

It’s hard to think you haven’t considered this before,

for a business unit that generated $1.64 Billion in Quarter 4 (2007).

Take note, a change should be slated,

but it’s possible, oh great Google, feels phones are outdated..

(sorry, got to turn ole DG into a plea blog real quick)

it’s 4:27am, and I’m bummed. Couldn’t sleep, so I decided to wake up and post a quick blurb.

A few months back I helped acquire two domains for a small investment group. Our initial interest was to fully develop the names, but after some time, we decided to move our interested onto other projects. Since the DOMAINfest auction was coming up, we decided to toss them into the ring for consideration.

the names? RentalCondos.com and RentalVillas.com.

Initially - I now realize - we were a little aggressive on our reserve price. Because of that, we were originally turned down. I personally thought we had some good names, so our investment group decided to lower the reserve, and re-submit.

We eventually got Tony Clark of Snapnames on the horn, who was a great help, and worked his tail off submitting our names for re-consideration.

On Thursday 1/17, I got a quick chance to speak to Tony, when I was on vacation in Utah, and received verbal confirmation our names were accepted, and that they’d be placed in the auction (I wasn’t sure of which auction - live or extended - I didn’t really care, just wanted them included somewhere).. And just so I could have sort of confirmation, he was cool enough to drop me an email verifying everything:

Hey Peter,

I got it, and will push them in!

Take Care,
Tony-

SnapNames
Tony Clark | Account Manager | 1600 SW 4th Avenue, Suite 400 |
Portland,
OR 97201

Then comes today, Friday 1/18 (or make that yesterday since it’s 4am), heading home from the airport, checking messages. Ran across the email, “Final SnapNames Live and Extended Auction Catalogs Released”..

sweeet..

run a quick check..names not on the live list.. darn. Oh well, extended is fine with me.. Quick scan. names not there. double darn.

Tony, my man, can you help a brother out? Ron (Sheridan), can you help me out?

I’d love to have these names included. I thought blog post might be one way (as I’ve already left ya’ll a message)..and also thought a blog post might be wise as early speculators are gonna download the lists without our names included, and may never realize they’re up for consideration..

and I ain’t here to bash Tony or Snapnames, cause they’ve been great. I’m just here to try and get these little babies included on those lists..

Can ya’ll help a (red headed, glasses wearing, Larry Page stalking) domainer out?

So you decided to drop a fair amount of cash to attend your first domainer conference..

you got a few domains accepted into the live conference; the stars are beginning to align..you’re beginning to count the cash in your head…

..until you jump on your flight.

Ever sit on a bad seat on a plane?

I have.

And I witnessed, recently, the worst I’ve possibly ever seen.

Take note the plane and seat numbers:

Boeing 767-400er (a Delta plane in this case)

Seats 14C and 14E

Bad, obviously not in terms of poor selection of row mates, but poor in regards to location to lavatory.

not like a row away.. but directly across the aisle.

close like you’re dancing a tango with a urinal cake.

On a solid 4 hour flight out to Salt Lake, I duly noted this seat number to alert myself, but hopefully, alert others, to it’s unfortunate location.

“Well, Peter, when I’m making my online reservation, I’ll - obviously - be able to see it’s crappy location, and avoid booking it.”

Here’s the thing..good ole Delta (and other airlines) seem to use fuzzy math clearly identifying these locations on this plane..

take this image I grabbed from their site:

14C and 14E are situated *directly across from the lavatories*

The image shows a blank area across from these seats, and my red arrows show the actual location of said wash rooms.

The poor gal sitting in 14C for 4 hours from ATL to Salt Lake seemed dizzy with fumes after the flight…so..

Save yourself, my dear domainers. Take heed. Smellfest, crappy seat airplane flights are avoidable.