Well as Mr. Schwartz announced earlier today Nominations For TRAFFIC awards including the Domain Hall Of Fame & Domainer of The Year are now opened. (Copy of the notice is below), and will be handed out at the TRAFFIC South Beach show in a couple of months.
The Nomination period is short, closing at Tuesday August 17, 2010 at 5PM EST.
Last year I was doubly blessed when I was elected to the Domain Hall of Fame as well as named Domainer of the Year.
It was an incredible honor and I thank you again for your support
I’m not going to repeat people I previous nominated, but please considered them as well.
You can check out my past nominees here.
Domain Hall Of Fame
For this year I thought I’d nominate some people who aren’t “domainers” per se but have done a huge service for the domain industry and are well deserving of entry into the Hall.
Of course the precedent has been set for people to be voted into the Domain Hall of Fame for their contribution the industry by the well deserved election of Ron Jackson who was voted into the Hall based on this contribution to the domaining community for his incredible body of work at the DNJournal.com, rather than as a pure domainer.
Monte Cahn., co-founder of Moniker.com.
From its inception Moniker.com has been the choice of many domainers, helping it to come out of nowhere to become a perennial top 10 registrar.
Under Monte leadership, Moniker.com has been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in domain sales, though brokerage and auction sales.
Let me say that again.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in domain sales.
This year was no exception with Moniker.com selling many million dollars+ domains like Slots.com, Dating.com, and Guns.com. Matter of fact in just a 60 day period this year Moniker.com sold over $10 Million in domains.
There are few in the domain business that have not sold or bought a domain using Moniker.com
Of course over the last few years after Moniker was acquired by Oversee.met, Monte has taken over duties at SnapNames, started it monthly showcase auctions and launch the DomainFest auctions.
Jeremiah Johnston, Chief Operating Officer, Sedo.com
Since taking over as COO of Sedo.com Jeremiah has overseen a company that has also been responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in domain sales.
Let me say that one again.
Hundreds of Millions in sales.
$23 Million in the 1Q of 2010, almost $22 Million in the 2nd Quarter of 2010.
The same thing can be said of Sedo as of Moniker.com, there are few in the domain business that have not sold or bought a domain using Sedo.com
Sedo.com has become under Jeremiah leadership one of the premier sales and auction platforms in the world for domains and unquestionable the leader for ccTLD’s.
Jeremiah has also served as President of the ICA for several years without any compensation.
Say what you will about the ICA, but at the end of the day the ICA has protected domainers rights in many instances and Jeremiah has spent a ton of time for free on behalf of all domainers.
Jeremiah has also been extensive quoted in mainstream online and offline publications promoting domain names and their value to end users
Howard is the Co-Founder, of TRAFFIC.
Without a doubt the TRAFFIC show has made an impact on the industry like no other. It was not only the first domain show, it was mechanism for which most of each met each other the 1st time.
Over the years the TRAFFIC show has taken a bunch of people owning domain and turned it to an industry.
The TRAFFIC show still hold the record for a most sales revenue in a live domain auction.
Howard not only has been a co-founder and co-owner of the conferences but has been the moderator, the host, of each and every TRAFFIC show.
If you think like I do that TRAFFIC changed the industry, Howard Neu is deserves a lot of the credit.
Domainer of the Year:
Juan Calle
Juan is the CEO of .CO Internet S.A.S., which is operating the registry for the ccTLD of Colombia.
One of the biggest story of the year in the domain world has been the roll out of the .Co extension.
Whether or not you believe in the extension, you have to agree the roll out of the extension with over 400,000 registration in less than a month, has been one of the most successful in many years.
Juan is also a domainer holding a fantastic portfolio of Domains, as the founder of Straat Investments including ParisHotels.com, TokyoHotels.com, , LondonHotels.com, ChicagoHotels.com, MiamiHotels.com, DallasHotels.com, just to name a few.
Joel Williams
In 2010 one of the biggest story of the year was the release of the previously premium priced .TV domains.
When these .TV domains were released many domainers grabbed them but no one got as many great .tv domains as Joel Williams did for his company BrandLab.com
Wedding.tv, Realestate.tv, Eco.tv, Cook.tv, Date.tv, just to name a few of the hundreds of .TV domains that now reside under Joel’s company’s ownership.
Whether you “believe” in the .TV extension or not you have to respect the move Joel made and the domains he was able to secure in that extension.
No matter who you think is deserving of these awards, and the other TRAFFIC awards being handed out in South Beach in a couple of months, you need to get your nomination in now.
Of course feel free to post your nominations below as well.
Here is a copy of the official announcement:
“”””NOMINATIONS ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED FOR THE 2010 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. AWARDS.”””
Established 5 years ago, the Annual T.R.A.F.F.I.C. AWARDS will be presented at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. SOUTH BEACH at the Awards Ceremony on Tuesday, October 19th at the beautiful Loew’s South Beach Hotel. The T.R.A.F.F.I.C. AWARDS have become the most prestigious and sought-after awards in the domain Industry and are presented annually.
Nominations for this year’s awards are now open and will close on Tuesday, August 17th at 5 P.M. EDT. All nominations should be emailed to nominations@targetedtraffic.com or just hit “Reply”.
The Categories and previous recipients are:
SPONSOR OF THE YEAR
Previous winners –
2007 Traffic Z
2008 Traffic Z
2009 Parked
DOMAINER OF THE YEAR
Previous winners –
2007 Kevin Ham
2008 Rick Latona
2009 Mike Berkens
BEST OVERALL DOMAIN SOLUTION
Previous winners –
2007 Moniker
2008 Fabulous
2009 Sedo
BEST NEW MONETIZING SOLUTION
Previous winners –
2007 Skenzo
2008 Sendori
2009 Above
THE “WE GET IT” AWARD
Previous winners –
2007 Steve Forbes & Russian Standard Vodka
2008 Foreclosure.com
2009 Melville Candy Co.
DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR
Previous winners –
2008 Kevin Ham
2009 Shaun Pilfold
DOMAIN BLOG OF THE YEAR
Previous winner –
2009 Ron Jackson/ DNJournal
DOMAIN HALL OF FAME
Present members
Ron Jackson, Rick Schwartz, Sahar Sarid, Frank Schilling
Yun Ye, Christopher Hartnett, Scott Day, Michael Castello
David Castello, Mike Berkens, Kevin Ham
Monte by a long shot.
The rest… I washocked to see a few names on the prior years lists, makes this kind of a joke Michael.
Let me just explain what I mean…..
SPONSOR OF THE YEAR
Previous winners –
2007 Traffic Z
2008 Traffic Z
2009 Parked
Really he who gives the most gets an award?
DOMAINER OF THE YEAR
Previous winners –
2008 Rick Latona
LOL
BEST OVERALL DOMAIN SOLUTION
Previous winners –
2007 Moniker
2008 Fabulous
2009 Sedo
What exactly does this mean and what did any of them do those years to get an award?
THE “WE GET IT” AWARD
Previous winners –
2007 Steve Forbes & Russian Standard Vodka
2008 Foreclosure.com
2009 Melville Candy Co.
Lets be honest, 2 of them should never have gotten it and gotten an award for that.
DEVELOPER OF THE YEAR
Previous winners –
2008 Kevin Ham
2009 Shaun Pilfold
Don’t you actually have to make money anymore or is it just the try that counts?
DOMAIN BLOG OF THE YEAR
Previous winner –
2009 Ron Jackson/ DNJournal
This I can agree with fully, Ron is great 🙂
DOMAIN HALL OF FAME
Sahar?
It is unfortunate that who you know or how much money you spend drives the winners and not actual accomplishments.
To be taken seriously we shouldnt be able to find so many head scratchers in there. I don’t walk through the nhl, mlb, nba or nhl halls and say wtf, do you?
Josh
These awards are voted by people in the domaining community.
I’m not sure what money has to do with it.
Mike,
You are right on target when it comes to your nomination of Joel Williams for Domainer Of The Year. Joel has been working under the radar for many years in this business with great success. You mentioned how Joel has locked down one of the best .TV portfolios in the world, but that’s nothing new when you realize that Joel has stayed ahead of emerging media trends in this business like nobody else and is a true pioneer. Joel was picking up names like MoviesOnDemand.com (1998) and in the early 2000’s he was picking up domains like SportsBlog.com, NewsBlog.com, BusinessBlog.com, MusicBlog.com…on and on…long before anyone understood what their value was. That foresight continues to this day, Oh and by the way, Brand Lab owns many fantastic .com’s that are in development like Official.com, ShoutOut.com and Curious.com to name a few. Congratulations to Joel for the well deserved nomination.
Brian
Thanks just to be clear, for Joel or any of our picks or your picks to get nominated, people need to send their ballots into the TRAFFIC show before Tomorrow at 5PM
Just a minor clarification: Nominations are due by tomorrow, but ballots for voting on those who have been nominated will go out in September.
@Mike, I can agee most are warranted but money or should I say buddy buddy had more to do with the ones I had a laugh at. Im sorry but the community as a whole is not only those who attend confrences regularly or even mention what it is they do in this industry. I would go as far to say that most who are deserving of an award will never be mentioned. jmo
Joel has took tremendous risk on .tv and I am glad you saw this. In fact, I think his ROI on his exist strategy if he has one will be one of the highest ever in this industry. Thanks for mentioning Joel, well deserved!!!
MHB,
I appreciate the list you published. Something to get the thinking started. I agree with some of them but you articulated it well so I won’t go into it here.
I just want to point out I know many people in the domain business that do not do big dollar things like sales of domain names. They work quitely behind the scenes but the work they do lays the foundation for many things to come.
Dig a little deeper and look for the innovators.
Just sayin’
Steve
Feel free to share.
I am developer with a portfolio so I am mainly working with the developers and the brokers that I partner with on domain buildouts.
A few developer / domainers:
Tim Kissane http://www.facebook.com/#!/timbury
Melly Walker http://www.facebook.com/#!/MellyWalker
A domainer:
Bruce Tedeschi http://www.facebook.com/greatdomains
I could find a few more and I apoligize for leaving anyone out. I am busy as heck and need to get back to printing money 🙂
There are many since we are an up and coming industry. The big guys you mention are very important because they give us visibility and raise the value of our assets. The rest of us are a layer or two down working on stuff that is just as important but not as visible.
In one way awards are important for the big folks to get them more visibility; but the behind the scenes people need a little reconigition also. Kind of like the Emmys that reconize the sound guys etc but not at the big televised show.
Em-Bee,
Isn’t there an award for “Craziest Domainer With The Best Ideas”? (Yeah Steve, you didn’t mention me in your suggestions… and after all those crates of 17 year old scotch I sent you… can’t a guy buy some respect?) 😉
After 11 years in this business, about seven of them publicly, I’m kinda jonesing for a TRAFFIC Domainer award of some type. Heck, “MOST OBNOXIOUS”, I’ll take it! (Mike Cohen would fight me for that)
How about (“The Domainer Who Knows The Most Domainer Companies Inside Secrets”)?
Ohhhh, I see some people interested in that last award. lol No worries folks. I don’t kiss and tell.
I will sum up my experience in this incredible industry — very exciting, very rewarding.
Em-Bee, all of your nominations in this article are spot on — I’m torn between “Monte the Man,” and “JJ the Sniper”. Why those gangster handles for these fine gentlemen?
– Monte works his ASS OFF and succeeds in huge ways that effect EVERY DOMAINER, regardless if they use Moniker or Snapnames. That’s why he’s The Man of domaining. His inclusion is long overdue in this award session.
– Jeremiah NAILS every issue with logic and objective prowess that is pretty much unequaled in our space. This is a guy who knows the domain game at every level that is essential for every domain investor. He’s elusive, but when he pops his head up and shoots, some idiotic domain issue gets a put down hard! Hence his “Sniper” label.
best wishes for all the nominees — you all deserve the recognition!
I might as well point out to your readers that “BEST NEW MONETIZING SOLUTION” Award should easily be won by Craig Rowe of WhyPark.com.
Nobody has impacted new domain monetization solutions that work easily than Craig Rowe and WhyPark.com. It’s like at this point for me and how I advise my clients “if you aren’t pulling typeins, then build them out and do it quick and with results at Whypark”. A domain monetization solution that is absolutely required by any domainer with more than 100 domains.
Stephen
You will probably be able to vote for both of your choices for domain hall of fame, as in the past few year two people were elected and you were allowed to vote for two.
2010 August 17 Stephen Douglas_Successclick.com permalink
I might as well point out to your readers that “BEST NEW MONETIZING SOLUTION” Award should easily be won by Craig Rowe of WhyPark.com
*************
Pleaseee.
Don’t make me laugh, “Mini crappie cookie cutter sites” (aka as Domainer’s Holy Grail) don’t work, never had never will.
…to get Phantom traffic (bots) counted with no monetary reward (or at best negative ROI) is absolutely worthless.
The largest parking company has never gone into it, and the second largest company pretty much abandond their efforts (They even “had” a Lab specialized in alternatives to parking)…
Either develop right or don’t…
Mike,
Thanks for the nomination and to everyone for their kind words.
@Joel,
You respresent .tv in a good way for all of us. Enjoy it now, because I am catching you buddy (lol):)
@ Domo Sapiens
Thanks for pointing out my mistakes in having Whypark make my domains that were making nothing while parked, now making me money at Whypark, and getting me more interested buyers. I’m sure that you’ve actually used Whypark services with at least 100 of your domains, and your comments here are based on direct experience with them for at least 90 days.
I must apologize. I see your handle now and then, but I forgot who you are – you know, your professional name that would lend credibility to your critical comment about Whypark. Forgive me if “Domo Sapiens” is actually your professional name.
Funny response.
Yes I tried them out as well as Smartname, still a parked .com client and visit the catatonic WP’ forum from time to time.
apology accepted
IMNSHO “mini crappie cookie cutter sites” are the antithesis of Google’s promise for relevant quality UNIQUE and often updated Results , and the “smarter than ever” algorythm treat them as such (just like a parked page , as it should)
Cheers
Robert(o) Fernandez
UPDATE
Nominations were announced by TRAFFIC yesterday.
Nice to see all my picks made it
Congrats to all nominees its quite an honor
http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2010/09/traffic-2010-nominations-announced-here.html