With Domainfest getting ready to kick off tonight, the agenda is full of very interesting people and sessions, the only thing missing seems to be any “domainers”.
In years past both Domainfest and TRAFFIC had a heavy concentration of panels full of domainers as well as others in the domain industry.
As I reviewed the agenda for Domainfest I actually don’t see one “domainer” on the schedule.
There are SEO experts, mobile search experts, representatives of companies inside the industry like Godaddy and Sedo and Oversee.net.
Yet its actually the 1st domain show I can remember where there are no domainers on a panel.
I’m not saying not having domainers serve on any panels is bad thing, its just a new thing.
Looking at the “Dine with an Expert” series once again I don’t see one “domainer” on list of experts available to dine with.
A domain show without any domainers.
Interesting
Finally a blog had noticed this. Thanks Mike.
Have fun everyone talking about “brands” and do this, do that to a bunch of domainers.
The domain name is the brand. ……. (generic .com domain that gets the direct navigation).
This is going be a type of conference that should be called warrior forum conference. IMO
Noticed the same thing when looking at the, “Dine with an expert list,” which is the main reason why I passed this year. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
I completely agree about the “Dine with an Expert” aspect. I was very surprised to not see more names I recognized on the list. The agenda is very SEO-heavy this year. I’m not sure of the reasoning behind it, but I think things may be shifting slightly, that with dwindling parking payouts, more people are realizing the need for development to generate any type of steady income. And with development comes the need for SEO and marketing.
There are investors who are developing brands – Elliot is one that comes to mind. It certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I think that may be part of the angle here, unless there’s something I’m missing. Unless you own 20,000+ domains, the old “park & wait” model doesn’t really work, does it? I’m guessing that domainers, like so many others in this economy, have to evolve and diversify their skills in order to survive. Many know very little about coding and design, so they outsource. That’s perfectly fine, but there’s something to be said for keeping things in-house and embracing the development side of things, if one chooses to do so.
But overall, yes, I agree with you. I would have loved to see more domainers listed. I’m going this year because it’s probably one of the only years that my schedule will allow me to go. I think their attendance numbers will be down, but I’m excited to meet everyone.
Mike,
Very glad your brought this up.
One of the main reasons I decided against attending. I thought I was the only one noticing it was more like an affiliate conference than a domain conference…
It might not be so bad if the people they have are experts in ways to monetize domains or websites – such as lead generation, how to sell products online, pay per call, etc. Lots of domainers are looking for solutions beyond traditional parking, so people who can offer that would be valuable to network with. But there are domainers who are doing this and you’d think some of them would be speakers there, because they understand where domainers are coming from.
Now …if the only thing missing from the Auction was domainers (because the room was Sooo full of End Users)!
It is obviously a Twitter Name Fest – Look at the Keynote Speaker
$_FREE_$ names are now provided by Twitter
TV announcers provide their @Names ~ not their email addresses
“Domainers” have missed out on securing Twitter Names
Do you OWN 100,000 Twitter Names (Brands) ?
The new DNS uses Free Twitter Names not ICANN $185,000 names
and Twitter has no WHOIS
They are changing/avoiding the subject since the last time they only got the words domainers associated with hookers, hot tubs and studs on Google. Anyone/everyone who is domains goes to TRAFFIC. At DFest you only get the newbies the guys from TRAFFIC exploit.
@ Nadia…..my parking earnings have been going up for the last six months, thanks to Frank’s InternetTraffic.com which is paying out honestly, unlike most of the other parking companies.
The other parking companies, IMO, verbally or silently colluded to pay out all domain investors less money.
Now we all know they were thieves and it was not the economy or Google, it was our trusted “parking friends” that pulled the wool over our eyes and bent us over the barrel. I won’t forget what they did and they won’t get my business anymore.
Regarding domainfest , domain investors already went the development route and it did not work out well for most, so why would there be a need SEO speakers? That’s not for a domain conference, that’s for a development conference. That’s not what domainers are about.
Affiliate marketing / Lead Gen are great, but who cares about the rest of them? I could care less about meeting a GoDaddy rep or Mobile Marketing expert?
Maybe there is simply nothing further to be said in the declining world of pure-play domaining.
The big buy-low and sell-high wins have already happened.
As such, the paradigm is about doing more with your domains and getting into the real world of websites. SEO is but one good place to start – will be interested to hear how helpful traditional domainers found these sessions. I’m sure it will be worth the effort.
@Domains Agree with what you’re saying about monetization however I feel most folk are better off focusing on ways to acquire traffic/users through tools such as SEO before getting too excited about monetizing users that may not ever exist.
In these times it is not easy to organise a conference. Be sure that we will have mostly on every Panel Domainers or Domain related Panelists. Domaining 2012 will take place from 26th to 29th of April in Valencia / Spain . Please contact me directly for more Information.
It’s one of the main reason I am attending the conference. The options from the domainer side of things have been beaten to death… time for newer ideas.
A domain conference without domainers is like a . . . _________ conference without ____________ers.
Jus’ don’t make any sense . . . or cents, either?
When I hear “Domains and “SEO” in one sentence I want to puke.
SEO has done more HARM to my domains than anything else I can think of. REALLY!
SEO is for websites selling a product or service or even gathering leads. Not domains.
SEO is great for visibility but you need something there other than ads, a parked page or some other meaningless content.
SEO works best AFTER you get a natural ranking based on your content and popularity.
SEO is nothing without something very relevant at the website. The best SEO is relevance to a specific topic. That will generally land you on the first page to begin with. From there you can use SEO.
Relevance is the key. To me SEO is the icing on the cake. The last thing you do. It is like building the foundation of your business on the icing and when you do that, it must collapse. It can’t stand the test of time unless you have something relevant and THAT is how it damages the domain and it is long term.
There are some really great SEO folks out there. But there are 10,000 times as many that don’t have a clue and can only harm your domain name. Setting up shop costs nothing. “Domain Appraisals” are becoming the SEO of “Our” industry. We all know they are worthless. But the uninformed don’t know. Cost of entry is also nothing.
FIRST you build the “Mousetrap.” Then you worry about SEO. So many domainers get a domain and the FIRST thing they do is spam the search engines. Very bad mistake.
As for the show. Domainers will always do well as they feed on each other when they get together. But I like the FACT that now folks do see a difference and why I have been saying that TRAFFIC is put on “by domainers for domainers.” Now it is visible.
Good luck to all.
also missing: Michael Berkens
🙂
Andrew
Glad someone noticed.
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