How is the Santa Clara Traffic conference going?

[maroulis]

yep report was amazing - thanks Duke....

 

[actnow]

Its nice to be able to read an indepth article presentation like this to make those of us unable to attend feel as if we were there the whole time.

JEsports,

I met Mark from www.Army.com at the conference. It was the first traffic conference
for both of us. He is also in Alabama like you.

Great guy. And, also a very sharp businessman.

I think we had 3 to 4 hours of conversations during the whole conference.

We would have never met and exchanged ideas if we hadn't attended the conference
since he doesn't visit any of the forums.

 

[JEsports]

Thanks for sharing Act ... did he say if he worked at Redstone by chance? that is interesting to know that someone owns a premiere name like army.com here close by.

 

[actnow]

... did he say if he worked at Redstone by chance? that is interesting to know that someone owns a premiere name like army.com here close by.

I don't recall redstone in our conversation.

However, they originally were part of a cable company(?) and he and his partner bought
the division from the company 5-6 yrs ago.

They only own around 100 domains. But, Boy, are they nice domains.

 

[JuniperPark]

Great article, and great photos. I especially appreciate the photography because the lighting there was so tough, they had a mix of lights of every type in the rooms, including florescent.

 

[Duke]

Great article, and great photos. I especially appreciate the photography because the lighting there was so tough, they had a mix of lights of every type in the rooms, including florescent.

I know, I wound up with a lot of orange pictures.

It's also not easy making you guys look good you know! :laugh:

Fortunately I shot several hundred so a certain percentage wound up being usable. Half the article preparation time was spent on editing photos, correcting red eye (or in Dale's case, bloodshot eyes) etc.

 

[Leading Names]

I know, I wound up with a lot of orange pictures.

It's also not easy making you guys look good you know! :laugh:

Fortunately I shot several hundred so a certain percentage wound up being usable. Half the article preparation time was spent on editing photos, correcting red eye (or in Dale's case, bloodshot eyes) etc.

You seem to be an expert at editing pictures. This is you, right? :blush:

- Rob

 

[Duke]

You seem to be an expert at editing pictures. This is you, right? :blush:

- Rob

Yes, but that is a bad example. It didn't require any touch-up at all.

 

[eCommando]

You mean, if I am looking for BMW.de, I won't be able to go there and check out the site?

It's not in Google anymore!

I think the most startling thing about the domain industry at the conference was actually NOT said by the domainers, but slipped out during a QA panel discussion by an investment analyst. He said he thinks that either Microsoft or Google will GET RID OF THE ADDRESS BAR in the browser by offering free wifi service which disables the address bar. It would be the beginning of the end of the value of domains.

At first I thought, "that's silly, people won't go for that". But with more thought, I realized it is the same concept as getting rid of the DOS Prompt about 12 years ago, when Windows was born. Everyone thought it was silly, how would you get around and run programs without a DOS prompt? DOS based companies fought the trend and lost, because clicking icons was easier.

Will people give up some 'freedom' online to save $30 - $40/month on internet access, and navigate based on MSN (or Google) Search listings? Very likely yes. This had a lot of people nervious, several asked me about it later. It's something to think about.

 

[JMJ]

I found it amusing in the article when it said "Google accounts for .4% of our traffic." Goes to show how important Google thinks they are and how important they really are.

 

[maroulis]

I found it amusing in the article when it said "Google accounts for .4% of our traffic." Goes to show how important Google thinks they are and how important they really are.

I imagine >70% of their traffic to be type-ins bmw.de is no brainer what I found personally interesting reading Duke's notes was the mentioning of type-in traffic by Dan Warren (Fabulous) who pointed out that "...while many still believe type-in traffic comes mostly from gambling and adult related searches those topics account for only about 3% of direct navigation traffic."

Have you tried to put a rough estimate of what % type-in traffic might amount to? I for example very rarely will click on a link - 80% of the time I just type-in the URL....

 

[mole]

Half the article preparation time was spent on editing photos, correcting red eye (or in Dale's case, bloodshot eyes) etc.

:cheesy:

 

[sasquatch]

I found it amusing in the article when it said "Google accounts for .4% of our traffic." Goes to show how important Google thinks they are and how important they really are.

By the same token "they" account for .4% of Google's traffic. %+| Goes to show how important "they" are and how important they really are.