Good morning from the HIGH SEAS

Myship_2I
am on the 8th day of
a 9 day cruise. Most cabins on a ship are about 200sq. ft. The cabin I am in is
5300 sq. ft. Complete with private swimming pool, sauna and jacuzzi. The butler
brings breakfast at 8:30 and the concierge takes care of all the daily
arrangements. This is the 2nd time in the last 12 months I have taken the same
cruise and same suite. It just doesn't get much better.


 



I like this lifestyle
and I will do what I can do to protect it. Next week or the week after DNJournal
will report on a domain sale I inked yesterday. The domain sold for $750,000 to
the end user. A domain I registered in 1997. So not a bad return. $70 or $100
turns into $750k. in 10 years. More details to follow. What I can say is this
will be a VERY high profile domain and used by a true pioneer of the Internet.
Their site up before I even bought my first domain name in 1995.


 



So things are
great.....BUT.....


 



There are flaws and
abuses on the Internet. In lawmakers zeal to fix things there will be some tiny
provision somewhere that will change how you do business. It WILL happen. It's
not an 'If.' Domainers think they are immune to losing everything. All they have
to do is put gold in their pocket but don't have resources allocated to
protecting and preserving that gold. I see 2008 as the last chance domainers
will have a say in their own industry. The under toe that will come this year
will remove all cockyness from anyone who reads this.


 


Sure, it's easy to
laugh and ignore. It's much harder to educate yourselves about threats on
multiple fronts. If domainers are not represented at each of those fronts, they
forfeit and whatever the aggressor wants, the aggressor will get.

What is the state of
the industry? Read what the prominent folks of the
industry
have to say. Also you can see my  extended thoughts on the middle and wnd of page3.
The VERY LEAST anyone
reading this should do is get the ICA newsletter and see
the attack we are under. Better yet, join the ICA and protect your assets. Help
expose abuses. The latest by netsol. If you don't know what is going on....are
you really even in the domain industry?


 


Have a GREAT
day!
Rick Schwartz


As the World Turns….

Morning folks!!


The earth will revolve
today but it just may seem a little faster than most days. 2008 is about to
start with a BANG. A very BIG bang. What will it all mean? Stay tuned. This is a biggie! We are going to start the year off right.


Rick Schwartz
UPDATE!!!


Moniker and Oversee Join Forces!!


http://www.moniker.com/oversee/index.jsp




What did we accomplish in 2007?

Forbes1


As I have stated before, 2007 was a challenge. But when you
meet the challenges you come out stronger than ever. For some that is an unusual
year. For me, it is business as usual. The more they throw at me the better I am
going to be. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. marched into New York City in the fall and Steve Forbes
shared an evening with us in Florida. Terry Jones got our attention in New York
and John Reese gave us some great tips in Las Vegas. I am still trying to get my
head around the importance of having Steve Forbes come to TRAFFIC. I have
listened to the CD several times but it is packed with so much info and detail
and history, that iit is taking me a lot of time to figure it all out. That
night will pay dividends to the domain industry for years to come. Anyway, here
are some links to stories, articles, and interviews from 2007. There are more,
but these are the ones I could locate. There are just so many stories to tell in the domain industry. These are mine and I look forward to reading others.



Associated Cities
Review of TRAFFIC NEW YORK 2007

 



Wrap up
Article TRAFFIC EAST MIAMI 2007


 


Associated Cities
Review of TRAFFIC EAST MIAMI 2007


5 Questions with Elliot


http://www.elliotsblog.com/index.php/2007/10/31/5-with-rick-schwartz-ceo-traffic/


 



Domisfera.com Deep Intervierw


http://www.domisfera.com/en/the-deep-interview-of-domisfera-with-rick-schwartz/


 




Most Influential domainers


http://logistiklabs.blogspot.com/2007/12/20-most-influential-people-in-domain.html





The big Bruhah


http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/lowdown/2007/dailyposts/11-12-07.htm


 



My take on domain appraisals on Sahar's Blog


http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/05/25/rick-schwartz-on-domain-appraisals/


 


 



Deep Interview and video with Brett Tabke


http://www.webmasterworld.com/domain_names/3382077.htm




A little youtube fun at the Cowboys.com party


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30O-JJnuYIg



Special guest post on Frank Shilling's blog


http://frankschilling.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/03/special_guest_p.html




 


 


 




 






Where do you want to go this morning?

Each morning many of us
have a ritual we do. We check emails, stats, bank balances, stock portfolios, news,
blogs, scores, auctions, drops, domains,etc. We have our daily morning list of sites we go to. So today
I would like you folks to be the poster. Where do you go? What sites do you
visit? What does your morning look like when you open the lid of your computer
in the morning or move your mouse and start your day? 


Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz


PS: 12 years ago TODAY, a morning like this, I registered my first domain name. A single act that changed my life and destiny. You just never know which seed you plant TODAY will change your life tomorrow.





The Slowest Day No More

Morning folks!!
This post was 12 years in the making. 1996 was my first
Christmas online in which I had an online business earning significant revenue.
From 1996 to 2006 Christmas Day was the single slowest day of the year. It wasn’t
even close. Earnings and traffic down as much as 75%. I would be lucky to earn
one SLOW days take on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day combined. Well 2007 is
much different. Christmas Day traffic was down by about 20% and earnings were
better than TEN other days in the month of December. This is simply
amazing and LONG overdue. It means surfers are surfing and retailers are
selling things. Did advertisers finally figure out that with every store closed
in the real world that people will shop online and many of the gifts are cash
or gift cards that are burning a hole in people's pockets? That online is
the ONLY game in town on Christmas Day no matter where in the world you are?



There is a LOT of
misinformation out there. For example, here is one nobody will agree with
because folks just listen and repeat and don't observe for themselves. TODAY is
the single busiest retail day of the year. The day after Christmas is the big
one. Don't listen to the baloney that it isn't. It is. The difference between
today and the day after Thanksgiving for example is today they are buyers. The
day after Thanksgiving they are shopping. Looking. Deciding. Today, it is ALL
about sales, returns, exchanges and spending those gift cards and cash. TODAY
is the busiest retail day of the year. Just go to a Target and look how many
extra registers are open today that were not open during the Christmas shopping
season. Nobody will agree because the experts tell you HOG WASH and people
repeat what they hear. There is no question in MY mind that TODAY, the day
after Christmas is the busiest day. NONE! Now let me give one caveat. While it
IS the BUSIEST day of the year, it may or may not be the day they ring up the
most sales. Because of returns and exchanges that number is likely to be
watered down. However I would venture to say that more total TRANSACTIONS are
conducted today and that is why you will see big retailers set up extra
registers and have a full staff. Going to the mall today? Going mid afternoon?
As you vehemently disagree with me give it a second chance when you start looking
for a parking space.



So the BIG news,
Christmas Day is no longer the slowest day of the year and someday may actually
being one of the busiest. Can you spell CAPTIVE AUDIENCE? I started my last
post with the following sentence that I am going to use to close this post
because I can’t wait to see it happen. AGAIN.  “
In the first few weeks of the
year we will hear how the experts are surprised about how strong online
spending was. The experts are really no experts at all or they would have
predicted what is coming not reacting to it.”



Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz



Posted on | Comment (1)

Rick’s year end post 2007

Good Morning folks!! 


2007 has been a great
year. The challenges came from every direction and we emerge stronger than ever and ready
to tackle 2008. It's still a couple weeks away but 2008 is already in full
swing. In the first few weeks of the year we will hear how the experts are surprised
about how strong online spending was. The experts are really no experts at all
or they would have predicted what is coming not reacting to it.


The same may be true of
the Presidential primaries that in the next few weeks may change the entire
picture as the nominees from each party emerge. In all my life I have never
seen a more interesting race and be prepared for some surprises. I have no idea how it will shake out. What are your thoughts?


2008 won't be without
its' challenges. The economy is in a bit of turmoil but unlike past economic
woes this time employment is very strong so the dynamics may be quite a bit
different.  We are at a teeter totter point and I am not sure if we will
teeter or totter. We just might squeak through but not without some real pain
scattered through the economy. Then again it could get very ugly as we really
are in uncharted territory. The saving grace may be the Internet. But if the
folks begin to run scared and pull back, it will lead to a self fulfilling
prophecy and they will be responsible for their own undoing. In slowdowns you
don't pull back. You gun the engine and hope you can minimize the impact as
opposed to pulling back and let the tide be your destiny. You fight to stay
even or you lose very big.


Personally I am looking
forward to the coming shakeout. There will be all types of opportunities and
bargains spread throughout the business spectrum. Many things may manifest
themselves in an unpredictable manner. As Steve Forbes told us directly in
October, be prepared for a 'Roller coaster' of a ride. The key is having CASH to swoop down and score big. 


Like many of you I am
going to unwind and enjoy the next few weeks. I will return in mid January
ready to go for 2008. Until then I invite you to go back and read my 52 posts
that I made in 2007. Most will pay you dividends the minute you read some of my
points and think about it. Even if you disagree, I force you to engage. I force
you to reconfirm. I force you to take a second look at something that you may
think complex and actually find out it is quite simple.


To get you started here
is a list compiled by someone as 5 of the top 100 domain blog posts this year.
I encourage you to read all my posts like they were chapters in a book. With
the exception of a handful they are all related and entwined. 


The Line in the Sand


http://www.ricksblog.com/2007/04/the_line_in_the.html


Truth to power


http://www.ricksblog.com/2007/04/truth_to_power.html


The 'C' word
exposed:


http://www.ricksblog.com/2007/07/the-c-word-expo.html


How Madison Avenue let
corporate America down


http://www.ricksblog.com/2007/04/how_madison_ave.html


Domain 'type
ins' represent more eyeballs than American Idol


http://www.ricksblog.com/2007/04/domain_type_ins.html


Happy holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy
New Years, GOOD HEALTH to all and see you when there is something to say.


Have a GREAT day!!
Rick Schwartz



December is a time to STOP and take inventory!

Morning folks!!


Here is just a few little thought
widgets I decided to share:


#1 If you want to fly
the fastest plane first you need to learn how to fly.



If you want to make a
lot of money in the domain business the first thing you need to do is learn
what makes a domain have value. I see that as the #1 problem most have. They
don't know a good domain from a crappy domain. Nothing new. Been that way since
day one.



The domain business is
easy to get in. Take a few grand out of your pocket, search for a domain that
you think has more value than the price you can pay, buy it, flip it.
I will always be a .com guy and it is still my advice to focus on .com. However
never put blinders on. Sometimes it is ok to settle. But when you settle,
settle for a PRIME domain even if the extension is not .com. In other words, if
you want sex.com and most extensions are taken but you stumble on the weakest
extension .biz. GRAB IT!!!! But if you are going to get
moneyimadeatschool.biz.....what the hell were you thinking? If you are going to
get a crappy and weak domain like that, at least make sure it is .com because
if it is not, it is likely worthless.
#2 I have a few questions to ask domain investors today. 



Q1. How much money does
a PPC company make if domainers do not send their traffic to them?



Answer ZERO. It is OUR
traffic that is supporting all these companies. Without our traffic they are
not even in business.



Q2. How much is the PPC
service worth? If the PPC company makes ZERO without traffic, how much should
they be entitled to for the service they provide? What percentage is fair? How
do they arrive at that percentage. Is that before or after costs?



Q3. Since larger players
get a larger share wouldn't it be a smart idea for smaller domainers to unite
as a group and be able to offer a PPC company the same or more traffic than the
largest players? And if the largest players join can they not get another few points?



4. There is some vast
research being done and I can tell you that the numbers don't add up. So where
should the money earned from those domains go? The friends you made at the PPC
company or your own wife and kids?


Now don't get me wrong. PPC companies have over head. They provide an important service. But we need to sit down with our partners and see what's what. That is why transparency is such a vital issue as you will discover in the paragraph below.
This is December. This is the time to STOP what you are doing. HALT! CEASE!
Time to take inventory. Time to reflect on the passing year and set a course
for the upcoming year. Report card time my friends. Make sure you give yourself
honest grades. If your domains earn $1 million a year in gross ad revenue.....how
much should you get of that pie? And if your PPC company is telling you, that
you are getting 65%, don't you have a right and a DUTY to make sure? For
goodness sakes you folks count your frickin' change from a $20 bill at
McDonald's and don't do the same thing when MILLIONS may be at stake??? How
smart is that?


Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz




PPC or development? Kevin Leto has an interesting viewpoint.

Morning folks!!


I never had a 'Guest' blog post until now. But today I woke up and read something posted by Kevin Leto and asked his permission to reprint this. This should put some things in perspective to what lays ahead for domain owners and PPC companies. Change the numbers. Experiment. But there is a lot of truth in the way Kevin looks at things and it rings true with what I know as well. Kevin is the man that led the team behind acquisition of my Men.com domain in 2003/2004.


Parking vs. Development


'When looking at the debate of Parking vs. Development, much depends on
the objectives a domainer has for his portfolio and the types and
quality of his domains.


A high quality type-in domain will obviously have a higher CTR on a PPC
page, usually 30% to 40%, sometimes even higher. Whereas on a web site
you'll see CTR's of 5% to 10%. So you will see a drop in revenues
initially.


The down side to PPC is it doesn't create traffic growth, nor build a
user base, nor offer any other revenue or site feature options. Bottom
line you are limited completely. The upside is simplicity, especially
if you need a monetization solution for tens of thousands of domains.


The down side to web sites are initial drop in revenues (for type-in
domains), initial development costs, and then management of them. The
upside is you now have the ability to grow traffic, grow a user base,
and have total flexibility for implementation of all sorts of features
and revenue generators.


It kills me when domainers say PPC is better. It is ultimately not, and
if you sit down and deeply think about how much money you have been
leaving on the table you'd fall off your chair when the realization
sinks in.


If PPC was indeed better than we wouldn't have any problems selling our
fabulous sounding one word domain names to major corporations all day
long. They'd be falling all over themselves to pay any price we ask.
It's not happening and it's not going to happen, with rare exceptions
of course.


Major corporations don't want to acquire just type-in traffic for 20
years multiples, on an undeveloped domain. They do want to acquire
USERS and a branded domain with a site that provides those users with a
positive experience that they gain information, products, services,
interaction or entertainment from.


Business.com is a fantastic domain as an example. It went from a
$150,000 domain acquisition to a $7.5 Million acquisition for
development as a search engine with companies paying annual fees of
$199 to be included and paying for ad clicks to their directory
listing, and just recently to a $345 Million acquisition by the R.H.
Donnelly company. Most domainers would have that on a PPC landing page
and would be making a ton of money surely. But would they be making
$345 Million with that strategy? The answer is no. What surely turned
Donnelly on was not just the traffic, but that established advertiser
goldmine in Business.com's databases. Those advertisers could then be
further developed as advertisers across their entire ad network.


Web surfers come and either click and go on or just move on instantly
when they hit a ppc landing page. There is no customer aquisition for
the domain owner. Zippo. The most cherished and valued prize on the Net
walks into your store and in seconds is out the back door to someone
else's site. It that smart business? I don't think anyone could argue
it is.


Let's look at a big domain that has 30,000+ type-ins per day. Let's say
it's been owned for 10 years. That's 12 Million visitors a year. 120
Million since registration. Think about that number. 120 MILLION people
have come to your store in the past decade. How many are 'YOUR
CUSTOMERS'? Not a single one. How many of their e-mail addresses do you
have in a database? Not a single one. What kinds of stuff are they
looking to buy? You don't know a single drop of info about them.
They've come and they've gone.


Now lets analyze the valuations. Under the PPC model, let's assume a
high 60% CTR paying 15 cents a click ove the life of the domain so far.
The math works out to $10.8 Million you've earned over the past 10
years. That is great wealth and no one could deny a totally successful
business.


Now lets say the site had been developed. After 10 years not only would
you have those same 120 Million visitors, you would have captured a
percentage of them in some way as repeat visitors, maybe a
subscription, maybe just registered, maybe sold them something
directly, any number of ways. But the main point is you would have tons
of repeat visitors, and they would have provided free word of mouth,
which would have brought in even more traffic and users. The revenues
could be anything here since there are so many ways to generate cash
flow when you have a web site. Surely in that time at a bare minimum
you could have earned equal to the PPC and probably many multiples
more. But the key point is you have not only an incredibly valuable
domain asset at this point, but an even more valuable customer base
asset. My guess is after 10 years you'd have at least 10 to 20 million
users, probably way more. Now you own an asset worth a fortune, and in
the hundreds of millions, and probably even close to a Billion or more.


So both ways make money, but the developed domain model is the true
ultimate long term goldmine. And yes, not every developed site works,
we've seen the dotcom bubble prove that, but the good thing about the
Net now is the economies of scale are so efficient you can take down
one concept and do another without much investment compared to the
early days, and you always have your base type-in traffic. That is not
going anywhere. If one building doesn't work, knock it down and put up
another until you get it right. It's that simple.


Now to the points about mini sites. I personally have found mini sites
work especially great for no-traffic domains bought at reg fee. They
grow traffic, no if's ands or buts. You do the math and even doing 1,
2, or 3 figs of revs a month, the numbers get amazing very very fast.


For most domainers I've polled, the majority of domains in their
portfolio get litle or no traffic. Why did we buy them and why do we
continue to then? It's the expectation we all say that one day they'll
be good for development. What happens is domainers end up having
thousands of these no traffic domains and basically get overwhelmed in
their minds when they reach the point of saying 'ok now how do I get
these all developed?'. 99% of domainers aren't developers. Nor do they
want to be. It takes a lot of multitasking type skills and loads of
energy to be a developer and even more to then manage it all
effectively.


You also don't want to put simple sites on exceptional domains. Great
domains deserve and need great sites. And that doesn't mean you need to
spend an arm and a leg to get that. It certainly costs more to build a
more robust site, but Internet technoloy has dramatically reduced the
costs to an insignificant number compared to the early days. Over the
past couple months I've evolved my mini site concept and system
structure about 5 times over into something more robust, scaleable, and
integrated with lots more features and capabilities than the original
mini sites. I've now got a system designed to accomodate simple sites
for no traffic domains reg fee domains, enhanced sites for moderate
traffic domains and full scale sites for the premium type-in domains
and have figured a way to still keep the costs in check even on the
larger enterprise style sites. So its not just a strategy of instantly
doing a zillion mini sites. You have to evaluate each domain and how
much potential it has and then deploy a precision developed and custom
tailored site on it. Once you do a few, then keep on going and build
out more and more and more of them and you'll soon have an enterprise
sized ad network in your portfolio. Since a small number of domainers
have the really huge traffic type-in domains, this is a way for the
less fortunate domainers to get to that level too by having hundreds
and thousands of small sites doing hundreds of visitors each a day and
adding up to a big number of visitors network wide. It's not easy to
get small sites into thousands of visitors per day, but it is easy to
get double and triple digits of traffic per day on them. You build with
the end user in mind and they will come back and they will do word of
mouth for you and traffic grows.


I've researched all the stuff you hear about SEO inside out, and there
are some valid and genuine ways to optimize sites using SEO techniques.
There are also many 'black hat' ways that SEO wizards do to get high
page rankings for clients. Many of these don't last very long in the
SERPS. My position is look at Google's basic algorithm mantra. It's as
simple as their home page is. Sites that provide users with the best
experience go to the top of the SERPS for the long term. You don't need
all sorts of fancy SEO stuff to accomplish that, nor be an SEO rocket
scientist. You just need to do basic SEO optimizing and provide the
highest quality site experience you can. Not only will you get good
rankings, but users will tell other users, users will bookmark and come
back again and again.


As I've indicated above when you place a high traffic domain on a site
you'll see an initial rev drop, but you will begin the process of solid
traffic and user growth that will take you to the real treasure of
dollars.


And here is where you have to really open your eyes wide and see
exactly where the trove of money is. It is not doing thousands of bulk
basic sites with Google AdSense on them. There is nothing wrong with
AdSense. It works. It makes money. But it is NOT the treasure trove
when you begin developing. It's just the first step of the advertising
monetization process. The gold rush comes when you enter Phase 2 of
development and have traffic built across many sites with well targeted
niches and users and can then sell impression based long term
advertising deals directly to major corporate advertisers. This is
where major major money can be made from advertising on developed
sites. Plus at this point you now have the ability to implement premium
subscription based type services and products to users to create
additional revenue flows, do lead generators, and all sorts of exciting
moneymakers.


Let's go back to the 10 year domain example above. Let's say after 10
years and your several hundred million visitors you had developed a
site and out of all those surfers you grabbed 1/2 of 1% for a
subscription of some kind. Not even taking into consideration the
millions of extra visitors that would have been grown by a site on the
domain, and just using the native type-in volume during that decade for
the base factoring, you'd have roughly 500,000 subscribers paying you a
fee every month. Or maybe just 500,000 subscribers with no fee but who
you could then sell premium rate advertising on, such as in a
newsletter. What's 500,000 subscribers paying you $9.95 /month? That's
$5 Million per month, over 10 years thats $600 Million. So what's
better? $10 Million or 10 to 20x that number by having a web site asset
to sell one day along with a great domain.


And think how much you could sell that asset for with 500,000 and up
subscribers, with major corporate advertisers, and a huge income
stream. Now you own a domain really worth the hundreds of millions of
dollars we all say our domains are worth.


Cha-ching $$$. Once you look at domains with this understanding and
vision, I think most domainers will quickly see the light, sit down
with a calculator and know the future much more clearly and without
hesitation, determine the wealth building strategy to aim for in the
years ahead.'


Kevin Leto
Decemebr 11th 2007


I think we can agree that was one hell of a post. Thank you Kevin!


Have a GREAT day!

Rick Schwartz


Is Fairwinds Partners guilty of spamming with an unsolicited email to me? PART 2

Morning folks!!



Where do I start? Let's
start with that I know a minimum of 3 people personally that have received this
form letter or what most folks consider a spam letter from Fairwinds Partrners.




The spam itself was
posted on the comments area of the previous post so no need to repeat. However
let's start with the a couple of quotes in the return email I sent them:



'So let me recap.
You THINK you are in the business of selling high end domains however you have
never actually sold one. Have you?? I think you misrepresent your abilities.
You call domainers cybersquatters and then send me that spam. That takes
BALLS!!!'



'So good job at
making your company look like a bunch of hypocrites. You trash domainers and
then want to broker sales by spamming them? That makes you ALL look like
FOOLS.'



To which I got a
response which included the following.



'While I am not
involved in CADNA whatsoever, I have read the materials closely enough to know
that CADNA also knows the difference between the two terms.  You may not
have read the CADNA Web site yourself so I will draw your attention to the
following text that appears at the top of the page'
        “Cybersquatting is defined by
CADNA as the bad-faith registration of a domain name that includes or is confusingly
similar to someone else’s trademark.
      
        CADNA is made up of many leading
edge adopters and generators of new Internet best practices, and as such this
organization knows the value of direct navigation practices and the importance
of direct search to making the Internet more navigable and rewarding to
worldwide web users.
      
        Many of the legal practices of
Domainers that deliver relevant content to direct navigators are not to be
discouraged, but celebrated. And as such, the object of CADNA is
cybersquatting, not domaining.”




ok, now
let's include some other points of fact about these folks who are heavily
involved in coordinating CADNA. I see them as disingenuous.



1. Josh Bourne
is still not telling the truth about the connection between DN tasting and phishing even after the
Anti-Phishing Working Group refuted it with a September report that found that
there was no relationship between domain tasting and phishing scams. Just to be
clear, I'm adamantly against tasting and am proud that the ICA adopted a Code
of Conduct
that calls for an end to abusive tasting and all domain kiting and
has called on ICANN and VeriSign to shut it down with new fees, but this is
just illustrative of how CADNA ignores the facts and throws out unsubstantiated
and disproven charges.



2. CADNA is a cybersquatter by
their own definition that was cited to me above   (CADNA.com
was registered by CADNA Automotive of Memphis, TN, which
subsequently regsiered CADNA as a trademark, long before Fairwinds set up CADNA
and registered the .Org). I have an entire blog post about this here. True,
the CADNA definition printed above calls for bad faith as an element - but
CADNA members have attacked the same bad faith reference in the ICA Code of
Conduct.



3. Sarah Deutsch, a counsel for founding
CADNA member Verizon, picked apart the new ICA code of conduct in a
recent debate with ICA counsel Philip Corwin at the INTA (International
Trademark Association) leadership meeting -- and had the temerity to
say that when Verizon ISP run ads against TM typos under their new Advanced Web
Search service that's customer service, not infringement, at the same time
she's calling for higher statutory damages and criminal law penalties for
domain registrants and questioning whether parked generic pages provide
anything worthwhile to consumers. I think that is outrageous.




4. Now this one should
make you all chuckle. Go to the Fairwinds Partners home page. Scroll to the bottom.
There is a quote there that came directly from Steve Forbes. However that quote was
made by Mr. Forbes specifically for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and released by us for   in a press release before our October show where he
was our keynote speaker.



'Internet traffic
and domains are the prime real estate of the 21st century,' comments
Forbes. 'This market has matured, and individuals, brands, investors and
organizations who do not grasp their importance or value are missing out on
numerous levels.'



http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070920/clth050.html?.v=101



Nothing wrong, but Chutzpah is the only
word that really comes to mind. But don't worry, I am full of adjectives to
describe these hypocrits. I may have to blog just on that. This is going to
begin the unraveling of this garbage. I am not sure what their true agenda is
as it is confusing to me. When I wrote the organization in the summer shortly
after they came into being, my email was never answered to this day. I blogged
about it at the time. So what is really going on here?




Some may think this is
the end. Quite the contrary. This is the beginning. The only question is it a
new beginning of cooperation and working together for what we have in common or
will we have to slay this dragon as they continue to paint us all as
'Cybersquatters' every chance they get? Unfortunately we may already
have the answer and the evidence against them is mounting. The only question is
when do the companies supporting CADNA see the true picture? It is my opinion
that CADNA has the ability to tarnish the very companies and brands that they
represent. Wonder what their take on spammers is?



My advice to both these
companies is get your act together, contact the ICA and begin a constructive
dialogue. Short of that, expect blog posts like these from every legitimate
domain investor out there. It will eventually make its way to the media and
there is going to be a lot of folks with egg on their face. I can see it now.
Cybersquatters vs Spammers. the media would have a field day with that
match up. Let the games begin. However we will win as we define the difference
between Cybersquatting and Domain investing. On the other hand....a spammer is
a spammer is a spammer and EVERYONE hates spammers.



Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz