Archive for the ‘Other Income sources’ Category:

Raising Capital Just Became Easier

Written on September 23rd, 2013 by directnavigationno shouts

As part of the Jumpstart our Business Start-ups Act passed last year, startups can now raise up to $1,000,000 through the internet.
There are some provisions.

“The new law does include safeguards. There is the $1 million limit on how much entrepreneurs can raise each year, and they can take money only from so-called accredited investors: people with a personal net worth of more than $1 million or who make more than $200,000 in annual income. Eventually, however, another revision is expected to be approved that will lower the restrictions around the definition of an accredited investor, meaning more of the public will have a chance of investing their own money into companies that they believe could be as big and successful as Facebook or Twitter. ”

Some worry about potential problems.

“tech investors like Fred Wilson and Rick Webb, are less optimistic. They warn that by deregulating the raising of equity investment — at least in part — the legislation has the potential to unleash a cascade of abuses by luring investors to what may be risky and untenable business ventures.”

Some see it as a huge game changer.

Slava Rubin, the chief executive of Indiegogo, which lets musicians, artists, and techies take donations to finance one-of-a-kind projects, said the new law could unlock a whole new wave of business.

“You eliminate the gatekeepers and the crowd gets to decide what gets funded,” he said.

People like the Dipaola brothers, who have waited for more than a year for the revisions contained in the law to go into effect, are thrilled. They say the law represents a new era of entrepreneurship in the United States”

Be Part Of a Domain Business Accelerator – Develop Consultant.com, Accountant.com, Japan.com, etc

Written on November 16th, 2012 by directnavigation8 shouts

Ok. how would you like to be part of a World Class Accelerator, working on businesses developed around key generic domains. Well now is your chance. Gary Millin, who is both a venture capitalist and a serial entrepreneur can make this happen. Gary is part of World.com. They own some of the most prime real estate on the web. His firm has built up businesses on such generic names as Doctor.com, Lawyer.com, India.com, USA.com, Popstar.com, London.com, Paris.com, and Madrid.com.

Now here is your chance. Go to http://www.worldaccelerator.com/ to see what needs to be done.

Congrats to Gary and Gerry.

Here is the full press release:
Domain-Driven Business Accelerator Unveiled
World Media Group has introduced into the ever-expanding accelerator marketplace, a first-of-its-kind accelerator that combines the inherent, powerful benefits of a premium domain name with winning development teams from all over the world.
New York, NY, November 14, 2012 (PRWeb) – Business incubators and accelerators have captured the imaginations of entrepreneurs worldwide, and these institutions have given birth to some of the most transformative Internet and technology businesses today. World Media Group, a company that specializes in bringing recognizable domain names to life in meaningful ways for online consumers, has announced the launch of World Accelerator (www.worldaccelerator.com)–a new business accelerator that utilizes a concept not yet seen in the burgeoning startup development marketplace.
In addition to offering traditional accelerator elements, such as seed capital and mentorship, World Accelerator offers teams the unique opportunity to build a thriving business on the foundation of a prominent and highly brandable domain name with access to a readily identifiable constituency of customers. Names such as alumni.com, comic.com, diploma.com, fight.com, fact.com, FAQ.com, Japan.com are just a few examples of the brands available via the accelerator. In real estate, billions are paid for premium locations. Online, your location is your domain name and a premier address can make the difference in giving you the credibility you need to open doors, improve conversions, improve retention and accelerate your business.
Led by Gary Millin as CEO, an industry maven responsible for turning World Media Group’s development of premium domain names into growing businesses, World Accelerator’s innovation is in providing startup companies with a valuable brand around which to build their businesses as a crucial starting point.
“Over the last ten years, the cost and time needed to bring exciting and disruptive businesses to market has dramatically compressed. However building credibility with customers, partners and your brand still takes time.” said Millin. “World Accelerator changes this paradigm, turning it upside down as companies can now start with a powerful existing brand on day one. With this business accelerator model we can empower the right teams – those with sound business plans, leadership and poised for action – to successfully develop these fertile domains into lucrative businesses.”
Since 2007, World Media Group has successfully developed numerous domain names into businesses, proving the model which is the foundation of the new accelerator. Millin, in his work with World Media Group and in collaboration with top management teams around the world, has achieved success with domain names such as Doctor.com, Lawyer.com, India.com, USA.com, Popstar.com, London.com, Paris.com, and Madrid.com. These, along with other World Media Group properties, have seen an average of 45% per annum revenue expansion and, today, generate over 20 million visitors a month.
Having outfitted his new business accelerator venture with a similar recipe for success, Millin is excited to start working now with even more top teams and entrepreneurs – stating that he has “extremely high hopes” for all of the businesses and people who will be seeking the services of World Accelerator – which is currently launching a beta site in order to generate interest and identify prospective participants for developing some of the most promising of its 1,000-plus internet domains.
“With our beta launch, World Accelerator will be seeking entrepreneurs and teams who have an interest and the capacity to develop these brands into successful sites. The criteria for acceptance into the program are pure and simple – a great idea that can leverage the brand, a solid leadership team, and an executable strategy,” said Millin. “Entrepreneur teams accepted into the World Accelerator program will have access to capital and mentoring, and of course a high visibility domain name – the key differentiator between World Accelerator’s services and those of other business accelerators.”
Millin has also drawn on his career, both as a venture capitalist and as a serial entrepreneur including founding and running a public company (Mail.com), to ensure that World Accelerator has a terrific team of mentors right out of the gate. The accelerator is headquartered in New York City and already has mentors from across the US, Europe and Asia.

DomainFest Barcelona Announces Speakers and Agenda

Written on May 12th, 2011 by directnavigationno shouts

Domainfest Barcelona has announced the agenda and list of speakers for their June show. In addition they will offering 1 day passes for $295 and $495 with dinner for those that want to come for the main day which is the wednesday of the show. Oversee always puts together a good show. The press release to follow:

LOS ANGELES and FRANKFURT (May 11, 2011) — DomainSponsor®, the traffic monetization division of Oversee.net® and organizer of the DOMAINfest® series of conferences, has announced the agenda for its second annual DOMAINfest® Europe conference in Barcelona, Spain June 7-9, 2011. The agenda is designed to help attendees, sponsors and expert speakers share business insights and form new partnerships.

Presentation and panel discussion topics and experts were carefully selected to provide the domain investors, online marketers and website developers in attendance with ideas on how to address important issues impacting their businesses today. Networking activities will play an important role in helping attendees continue the dialog on these topics.

Agenda Highlights
The agenda kicks off on Tuesday, June 7 with a networking cocktail reception in the exhibit hall from 16:00-20:00.

Presentations, panel discussions and the Moniker domain auction will take place on Wednesday June 8.

Morning presentations include:
• European Legal and Regulatory Issues. Paul Keating, founder of Law.es, will discuss the most recent, critical, legal, regulatory and ICANN trends and issues impacting domain investors in Europe and abroad.
• SEO Best Practices After Panda. Richard Baxter, CEO of SEOgadget.co.uk, will discuss the impact of Google’s recent panda algorithm changes on SEO best practices. His presentation will offer tips on information architecture techniques that can improve organic rankings. He will also offer his perspective on how the Yahoo/Bing partnership will impact users, advertisers, and publishers in Europe.
• Dark Patterns: User Interfaces Designed to Trick People. This keynote presentation will be given by Dr. Harry Brignull, User Experience Designer at Clearleft.com. Dr. Brignull will present examples of websites that rely on so-called “dark pattern” techniques designed to mislead the user into a conversion path. Attendees will gain a better understanding of how to increase conversions without resorting to “dark patterns.”

Afternoon panel discussion sessions include:
• TLD Update: Growth Trends and Investment Bets. Expert panelists will each give fast, hard-hitting five-minute presentations that highlight their top three observations and predictions regarding ccTLDs and gTLDs. Q&A to follow. Panelists include Daniel Eisenhut from InternetX, Tobian Wann from Verisign and Ken Hansen from Neustar, Inc.
• Mobile, Social and Affiliate Revenue Strategies. Expert panelists will each give five five-minute presentations highlighting a variety of new trends and techniques that can help earn maximum revenue on domain traffic. Q&A to follow. Panelists are Laurence Aderemi from Google Europe/AdMob, Miguel Ochoa from Affili.net and Peter Glaeser from Sponsormob.

English-Spanish translation services for all presentations and panel discussions on Wednesday June 8 are sponsored by Law.es.

To facilitate relationship-building among attendees on Thursday, June 9, attendees will select and participate in two different, small-group excursions. All excursion groups will reconvene for lunch and dinner to share fun stories about their cultural experiences.

Morning excursions include:
• Backstage at FC Barcelona (sponsored by Verisign)
• Gaudi walking tour (sponsored by Neustar)
• Old Town & Las Ramblas walking tour
• Tapas cooking class
• Wine tasting in Penedes

Afternoon options include:
• Barcelona in the Middle Ages walking tour
• Montserrat tour
• Savory stroll scavenger hunt
• Tapas bar crawl
• Old Town & Las Ramblas walking tour

Wednesday and Thursday evenings will include elegant dinner networking parties at famous venues.

Moniker Live and Extended Domain Auction
Moniker® will host a premium domain auction on Wednesday, June 8, at the Pullman Barcelona Skipper hotel beginning at 16:00. (10 a.m. US Eastern, 7 a.m. US Pacific). The auction will offer simultaneous live in-person as well as online remote real-time bidding.

The Moniker Extended Premium Domain Auction involving online bidding only will begin on Wednesday, June 8 at 18:00, (noon US EDT, 9 a.m. US PDT) and end on Wednesday, June 22 at 19:15 (3:15 p.m. US EDT,12:15 p.m. US PDT). For details on all auctions, including how to bid remotely, please visit: http://domainauctions.moniker.com/2011/DOMAINfest-Barcelona

Demand Media Stock Is Going DOWN, DOWN, DOWN

Written on April 25th, 2011 by directnavigation6 shouts

What will Demand Media stock be at six months following their IPO date? That is a very important question that many employees and early investors are asking. That date is when they have their first opportunity to sell their shares.

In the past, many technology employees have become overnight millionaires once their firm went public but had worthless paper once they were able to sell their shares. Of course you have companies such as Google and Apple, where many employees did very well when their time came.

Let’s get back to Demand Media. The stock was one of the first high flying tech firms to go out this year. I can tell you that they threw an incredible party at Domainfest celebrating their IPO. Whats not to celebrate. They priced at $17 per share and hit a high over $27. Unfortunately what goes up, must come down. When Google made changes to their algorithm, some Demand sites suffered large traffic decreases. It must have put a scare into investors as the stock has been trading down each day. Today it hit an all time low of 13.99 during the trading day.

What will it be in 3 more months. My personal guess is under $10, which is a lot higher than I think it will be in 1-2 years.

Online Ad Spending Tops Print Ad Spending

Written on December 20th, 2010 by directnavigation4 shouts

For the first time, more ad money will be spent on Online Ads as opposed to print ads in newspapers this year. According to WSJ. Online Ad sales in the US will hit $25.8 billion as opposed to $22.8 Billion for print ads. Only 6 years ago, Print Ads out spent Online Ads by 5 to 1. We are in the right industry. The only question is how to get more of those dollars into the domainers hands. Strictly using PPC is not the answer. I will explore other avenues in later posts.

Search Marketing Expo.com Starts Today in NYC

Written on October 4th, 2010 by directnavigationone shout

Search Marketing Expo opened today and runs through Wednesday. It’s an interesting show. I was there earlier today and ended up running into 3 people I knew. If you live in the NYC area, you might want to get an exhibit ticket, which I believe is just $50 and lets you attend some of the main talks. There are some good networking events/parties today and tomorrow. Their website is searchmarketingexpo.com.

Domainers, The Word For Today Is MOTIVATION

Written on September 7th, 2010 by directnavigation4 shouts

Many of us work out of their home. Most of us do so alone. I have worked for over 15 years out of an office in my house. While my “commute” is only 2 minutes, there are more times that I am late for work than you can imagine. The problem working out of you home is that it is very easy to get sidetracked. In addition, anyone in sales can tell you, some days your on and some days you don’t want to pick up the phone or turn on the computer. Most of us don’t have a choice, If you don’t work, you don’t have the potential to make money.

Summer is one of the things that gets in my way. While I do work, it’s at a much more leisurely pace than the rest of the year. Well, Summer is over. The time is now to get back to a 110% of productivity. Over the next day, I will be putting my game plan together. It will list business projects that I am currently involved in and new projects that I am considering. I will set goals and rewards if I make those goals. The rewards are my motivation. They could be money, accomplishment, or even some time to have fun. Either way, I am ready to go and I hope you are too.

Major Adult Affiliate Program Closes Down

Written on June 23rd, 2010 by directnavigationone shout

One of my readers recently sent me information about WEGcash closing down their affiliate program. From what I am told it was one of the more popular adult affiliate programs. I am told that there are many other profitable affiliate companies offering adult services so I think it is a company issue and not an industry wide problem. Here is the letter that was forwarded to me regarding Wegcash:

Today’s communication with our affiliates comes after much deliberation, as well as a heavy heart. After 10 years, and millions of dollars in affiliate payouts, WEGCash has decided that the continuation of the affiliate program is no longer sustainable. Therefore, we will no longer be accepting referrals effective May 21st 2010, at 4PM PST.

The reasons, many of which are obvious to all of us, revolve around the decline in membership revenue. The continued proliferation of free adult videos has spawned a market which does not support an affiliate program. This communication should in no way be interpreted as an industry, political or ethical stance, nor should it be deemed dispiritedness; rather, we choose to look at this as a time to embrace the future.

While our company is closing one door, we are working steadfastly on new opportunities. While we could all engage in the revisionist history of “what ifs,” events leading up to the current free tube models aren’t negotiable; we are better served focusing on the future. We also feel that energy is better served realizing the true successes that our affiliate program brought to us, and to our thousands of wonderful affiliates (without whom we would never have achieved the success we did).

The gravity of this announcement is in no way lost on our company’s staff, from executives and programmers, to its owners. The Wegcash brand was conceived by two passionate and driven entrepreneurs. Throughout the years, its continued prosperity is attributable to the hard working staff members, past and present, who stayed late, came in early, and passionately put their heart and soul into the product. It is also very much attributable to the thousands of affiliates that entrusted our brand with their business.

While today undoubtedly is revealing in terms of the current market, it’s also the lore for the successful future.

Our sincerest thanks to each and every one of you for the past decade of fruition,

WEGCash