The upcoming Traffic Internet conference in Santa Clara later this month will feature Dr. Paul Mockapetris at the podium. Dr. Mockapetris and Jon Postel invented the “domain name system” (DNS), the core domain name to IP number lookup system powering the world wide web since it began.

If you operate a business website, you are currently betting your business on the reliability of the DNS system. If you have built a brand around a domain name, you have invested in the future of the DNS system.
I can’t think of a more relevant speaker for a domain industry conference… I hope we get to hear about where DNS is going or is likely to go in the future, as that insight must be amazingly valuable for everyone holding a premium domain name or a valuable Internet brand.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is April 27-30 see TargetedTraffic.com

I’m working on a newsletter I call WebPrescience. I will host it at Webprescience.com. It will highlight insights into the future of the web, as I and others see and describe it, or hint at it. I hope it will ultimately replace this blog, and significantly advance my objective of noting, describing, and questioning what it means to be competitive on the Internet. My kind of futures research.

Had I already started the Web Prescience newsletter, I would have included excerpts from this New York Times article  “Ping Software that Monitors Your Work, Wherever You Are“. I have a lot to say about this article, in the context of the future of the web within our global economy, but right now I will just take a small quote:

“No one gets fired,” Mr. Webb said. “They just don’t get work.”

Obviously I need the WebPrescience Newsletter so I can expound on this revealing news report. On that note, if anyone can recommend a newsletter system that represents a good balance between  AWeber and hosted Mailman, please let me know either in the comments or via email to john at this domain. I love the controls that make Aweber so reliable as a delivery agent, yet I dislike the extreme control they exert over my membership lists. I like hosted Mailman for it’s robustness and simplicity, yet can’t affford the spam blocking risk.

In SEO world there is this repeating argument that a monetization project could be executed on almost any domain, even though some domains are clearly better than others. The issue is cost: for Internet marketing projects, a “premium domain”, the argument goes, is not worth a premium price because the project could be executed on a “sub-par” domain at a bargain price.

Almost every time I mention a domain aftermarket opportunity as an opportunity for SEO execution, I get comments suggesting the money needed to buy the domain would be better spent marketing a sub-par domain.

This week funshit.com sold at auction for $2000. Is there an SEO anywhere in the world that doesn’t know how to put funshit.com to work immediately, in a way likely to generate $2k/month within a year? Is there an SEO out there courageous enough to argue that funshit.org or funshit.net is “just as good” at a lower buy-in?

Go ahead and propose building out on some cheaper name, but I don’t think the argument holds water. That domain is perfect for fast marketing a time-wasting traffic site, which can be put to use for all sorts of low-overhead miscellany likely to generate a revenue stream with long term value. FAIL and you’ll generate $300-500/month with minimal overhead… a 4-5 month return on investment in the domain (a domain likely to retain resale value separate from your development efforts, by the way).

At some point the monetization value of an aftermarket domain truly exists (separate from type-in or asset value), even for seo cynics. You don’t have to believe me; it’s my opinion. What’s yours?