How-to-make-money-from-domains conference comes to Australia

Stuart Corner
Friday, 18 April 2008 03:07

Business IT - Networking

ASX-listed domain company Dark Blue Sea Ltd (ASX: DBS) and the World Association of Domain Name Developers are to host the first domain conference outside the US, Traffic Down Under on the Gold Coast in November 2008.

The World Association of Domain Name Developers has been staging its Traffic conferences in the US annually since 2004 and according to founder Rick Schwartz, the Australian conference is long overdue. "Australians are a major force in the domain industry, representing some of the largest domain portfolio owners in the world. This show will be a truly global event," he claimed.

The conference centres around the use of domain names to attract traffic and earn advertising revenue and the sale of valuable domain names. According to the organisers: "The explosive growth in online advertising (in the first half of 2007 alone, advertisers in the US spent more than $US10b) has seen Internet entrepreneurs earn millions of dollars by buying, selling, developing and monetising...domain names. There are now over 1,000 so-called 'domainers' (as domain owners refer to themselves), as many as 100 million registered domains, and a thriving aftermarket for domain names, with reported sales exceeding $US700m in 2007."

At the recent Traffic event in the US Steve Forbes, CEO of Forbes and editor-in-chief of Forbes Magazine was reported saying: "Internet traffic and domains are the prime real estate of the 21st century. This market has matured, and individuals, brands, investors and organisations who do not grasp their importance or value are missing out on numerous levels."

The organisers also quote "domain industry expert" Ron Jackson of DNJornal.com saying: "Domains are now a global business and the highest growth rates in the industry are currently being found outside the US."

Dark Blue Sea claims to be "the leading supplier of online direct navigation traffic," which it defines as "the action of typing a domain name directly into an Internet browser address bar, and a key source of high quality converting traffic for advertisers."

The company says that its focus is "to provide the highest quality traffic based in a concept called 'primary traffic'...[which] occurs when an original thought is translated into action by using a keyboard. This action is either through typing in a domain name directly into an Internet browser address bar, or searching for a phrase. The reason primary traffic is important is that original thought is the source of search and the basis of the purest quality traffic."

It claims to own a portfolio of over 400,000 direct navigation domains and through its primary product, Fabulous.com, to manage over 600,000 third party domains in 550 industry areas. For the first half of FY 2008 it reported revenue of $15.5m, EBITDA of $2.8m and NPAT of $1.8m.

Traffic Down Under will be held from November 18 - 20 at the Sheraton Mirage Resort. Details http://www.trafficdownunder.com