TRAFFIC Silicon Valley Interviews

Brian: This is an opportunity for us to meet with people in the industry that can help us grow the business. Some good business development, networking; that's usually actually been what we've taken from most of those shows so far is the networking opportunities.

Monte: And Chris you had the opportunity to participate on a panel and talk about the development out of your properties. Tell us a little about that and what, you know, what's going on today in terms of development compared to a year ago or two years ago.

Chris: I think anytime you have a chance to speak to your peers about development it's definitely a highlight of the show. I look back to a year ago and now to see where the space is developed and a year ago people weren't considering developments and now it's definitely a new strategy for domain owners especially if they have some fantastic names.

Monte: Now, were you able to forge any relationships in the venture capital or banking area for some of your initiatives and plans since they happen to be present at this show and they weren't present at the other shows?

Brian: We had the opportunities to have some initial conversations, explore what the opportunities might be, let some folks know what we're up to, what our . . . what we're looking to do with the properties and you know at the same time we've also had the opportunity to strike relationships with folks with traffic, golf related traffic, some search folks and look at some opportunities to you know leverage those relationships to grow what we're doing with our . . . with the golf business.

Monte: And Christ where are you going to take the business and your new role with the company and you know, where do you see it out in a year, two years and three years out from now?

Chris: We have a plan. We have a strategy; we know exactly what we're going to do. I can sum it up by saying that don't be surprised that the next Hotels.com is Golfcourses.com.

Monte: Cool beans. That's the way . . . that's what I like to hear. Good. Alright, well there you have it from Chris Stuart and Brian Null from Golfcourses.com.


 HYPERLINK "http://www.moniker.com/domain-masters/traffic-interviews/Dan.mp3" Interview with Dan Warner of Fabulous.com

Monte: So, Dan, tell me about TRAFFIC Silicon Valley. What did it mean to you?

Dan: [laughs]

Monte: [laughs] What did TRAFFIC Silicon Valley mean to you?

Don: What did TRAFFIC Silicon Valley mean to me . . . it meant that I had to stay up till the wee hours of the morning preparing presentations for three or four hours later when I had very little sleep, lots of pots of coffee and actually going out there and meeting a lot of fantastic people. I would say fabulous but that's a little self-serving.

Monte: Well, great. Well, and what would you say was the biggest new message from the show compared to the last show that we were at in Delray?

Don: I think it was a lot about finance. You know, real estate. People are talking a lot more about domains as assets rather than as just some sort of fluke. The massive amount of revenue that's being produced by domains today is really making it a whole new industry.

Monte: Great. Well, you heard it from the horse's mouth, Dan Warner. Mr. “Domain Analytic Professional,” a fabulous guy.

Don: [laughs] Thank you.

HYPERLINK "http://www.moniker.com/domain-masters/traffic-interviews/RickAndHoward.mp3" Interview with Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu of TRAFFIC

Monte: . . . the two founders and organizers of the TRAFFIC Conference series. Why don't you guys both some up what kind of a successful show this has been, not only for yourselves but for the domain community and what was different about this show than the other shows that we've done in the past?

Howard: Well, I'll tell you about the success and he'll tell you about the difference but the fact that this was the biggest show when we expected it to be the smallest show and it turned out to be the biggest show was fantastic for us and when I had a show of hands today at lunch as to how many were here for the first time, 90% of the hands went. That tells me that we're getting the message across, that we're broadening our base and the people are understanding what domains are about, what domainers are about, what the industry's about and why, in fact, we are business people and investors and at a level that's far higher and above what the public perception has been of domainers in the past.

Monte: That's a good point and there's been 350 people attending this show in a period this show was put together in 70 days. What's the most important message that you think came across from this show, from TRAFFIC Silicon Valley show?

Howard: Well, I think we were able to accelerate the entire industry. We brought new facets in as including the financial people and we have very strong partners between with Google and Yahoo! and Fabulous and Domain Sponsor . . .

Rick: And Moniker.

Howard: . . . and Moniker, and that's our job is really to accelerate. We only have X amount of years to live and we got to get this thing moving.

Monte: So, the next show is going to be very exciting in Las Vegas; it's expected to be the largest show ever again. So people are asking me. There's going to be over 500 people there and what are some of the key differences that we're going to have as the format for that show that's different from every show that's been done before?

Howard: Well, we're going to have two key differences. One is that Monte Cahn is going to do a fantastic million dollar auction of domains, the largest domain auction in the history of domains.

Monte: Pressure, pressure.

Howard: [laughs] And the focus of Las Vegas is going to be on networking. We've always wanted to encourage networking but we've never been able to program it. This time in Vegas that's going to be our primary area of programming so that we are going to have networking sessions where people can actually get together by interest of domains, by business interests and by meeting people that they never even knew existed. So that's going to be our primary area.

Monte: And that's a different approach and that is . . . when we're at shows like this everybody does get together and does their networking on the sides but a kind of a forced networking, a forces networking event, actually promotes good business and helps people to actually do deals together. Back in South Florida that's going to be phenomenal and larger and we're outgrowing our facility, what's to come in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale in October 2006?

Howard: We have no idea at this point. And that's a serious comment. We are small enough to react to the . . . to current events, unlike large shows where they have to plan things a year in advance. We may not know until weeks before the show exactly what we're going to do, how we're going to do it and really events of the industry are going to dictate to us where we need to go, what we need to do and who we need to do it with.

Monte: Well, that sums it up from Howard Neu and Rick Schwartz, the two founders, co-founders, of TRAFFIC Conference and its been a very successful conference. I haven't heard one bad word about how the event went and I can tell you that we've done more business here than we've done in the previous two shows combined, so it's been very successful. So there we have it, a summary from the two founders of the TRAFFIC Conference.


Interview with Ron Sheridan of DomainSponsor.com

Monte: And here we are with Ron Sheridan form DomainSponsor.com and Revenue.net. Ron, give us a little bit of summary about how TRAFFIC Silicon Valley was for you and your company. I understand that you did very well and it was a great finish for you guys.

Ron: It was. Yeah, I think that a lot of people come to this show and they start focusing real hard about where they want to be for the next year and maybe where their business is at right now and we do well because we're focused on modernization and so people are obviously looking at monetization versus selling a portfolio or transitioning it and I think that it's a good environment. We meet people face-to-face and a lot of these people spend their time at home, you know, and . . . usually by themselves, working on their portfolio and here they get the chance to meet people, hang out, share ideas and we'll always do well in that environment.

Monte: And you guys have been a part and a key sponsor for this event ever since it came into existence. What was the different message that you got out of this show than you've had in the previous shows? What was the key message that you're taking away as not only a company but also as somebody who has a lot of experience in the domain business?

Ron: I think that I would have to say that the level of the game has risen. It's far more competitive than it ever has been in the past and I think the domainers in aggregate as a whole have really elevated their understanding of their business far more so than they used. I think one of the common threads that I hear is people really hadn't realized just how much they were holding on to, how much they were working with. So I think the game has gotten higher, at a higher level for a lot of people but I also think the level of intensity in the industry and the competitiveness, which is always healthy, is rising and I personally . . . we are very excited about that.

Monte: And how about some of the newcomers? There's a lot of new faces at this particular show but from the outside banking world and also for people that saw the articles in the Business 2.0 and The Wall Street Journal article and they're now wanting to come in and invest – how can DomainSponsor and Revenue.net help them get started in the business?

Ron: I'm not sure I want to help them [ laughs ]. I think quite frankly people are looking to buy up domains . . . well, some of the people buying up domain portfolios are, I guess, tightening the game quite a bit, because what they're doing is they're buying these portfolios at a higher multiple. That means that they have to have a higher rev share. That makes it tougher for us but that's fine we can step up to that and I like the professionalism and the sophistication in a lot of these investors and these different companies bringing in the game, so I guess in reality its always a good thing. We tend to think very long term, very strategic and we find that that's the same type of mentality you get from some of these people, so I think it's to be expected given the state of the industry, given where things are at and I think we're going to see more of this activity not less.

Monte: And speaking of the future a little bit, where do you see the domain business, you know, a year from now given what you've seen from this conference and the conference that's coming up in Las Vegas and what's it mean to DomainSponsor, you know, a year from now? Where do you see the business being a year or even 5 years out?

Ron: I think its going to get down to the math a lot more than it has in the past. I think numeric people are going to be looking at the simple mathematics of monetization of return investment and again I speak only from that perspective 'cause we're not in the domain selling business, we're not out buying domains but I think that people are going to be looking to find out who's the best monetization service for what portfolios they may and they'll keep moving them around until they find the right solution, I think, that's healthy. So from our point of view its just ratcheting up the competition, which bodes well for us given the resource that we've invested in figuring out how to monetize portfolios. We think we're pretty good at it and the size of the portfolios that we're monetizing right pretty much establishes that.

Monte: Well, you heard from Ron Sheridan from DomainSponsor. Another great successful show at TRAFFIC Silicon Valley.

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