Most people that know me know that I’m a bit domain-crazy. Any half-good idea that I have usually results in a domain name purchase–mostly as a “just in case” I decide to actually develop it. Despite the fact that this is a self-enabling and productivity damaging practice, I still partake in it. However, I have significantly limited myself in terms of what I let myself purchase (the next step was locking my laptop in a trunk and burying it in the back yard).
With that being said, a business parter and I have had our eyes on a particular domain name that is perfect for a future expansion of our current project, IndyDads.com. The domain name we wanted was DadNation.com. I’ll let your capable mind explore exactly what our future idea is with this domain instead of writing about it here. As luck would have it, the domain was up for expiration last month and I was excited at the prospect of snagging it. This is where I ran into trouble.
I was all ready to go. I had my domain name backorder set through GoDaddy and was just waiting for the good news. Now, I understand a thing or two about how competitive the domain name aftermarket can be and that for most good domains, it’s difficult and expensive to snap up expiring names. However, I figured with the relatively low demand for this domain, I would have no problem getting it. I knew I was in trouble when I received my very first email from a domain taster.
Because I had already registered DadNation.org, the domain taster’s automated system had managed to snap up the dot com AND generate a marketing email to me explaining that I could acquire the dot com easily by purchasing it through their company. The asking price? $997!
Ouch! No way. Perhaps if I was some big company that just had to have the domain, $997 wouldn’t seem like so much. But, for a side-project that is mostly a labor of love, that is out of the question.
So, I figured I had lost the domain for good. But, the way the email was written, I figured it was a form letter and not an actual human sending me the message. Two days later, I received another email that was similar, but contained a slightly more urgent call to action. I did some research on domain tasters and confirmed that they indeed only had 5 days to return their domains for a refund. Also, based on what I had read, often times domain tasters base the value of a domain off of the traffic hitting the domain. So, I was careful to neither visit the domain DadNation.com or respond to any of the emails.
I held my breath for 2 more days (not literally).
Then, on August 3rd, I received an email from GoDaddy alerting me that the name servers had changed to GoDaddy name servers! Then, another email telling me my backorder had been successful! It worked! The domain taster returned the domain after getting nothing out of me and I was able to register it for the normal price.
Having lost good domains in the past to a variety of frustrating reasons, it was nice to actually win one (and without spending a small fortune). While I’m sure the situation would change depending on the exact domain name in question, but my parting advice is that your best weapon against a domain taster is patience and silence (and an active backorder on the domain).
I’m working on a new business idea with a friend and we continue to run into problem after problem. What we want to do is time consuming, hard to schedule, risky, and our equipment costs are turning out to be very expensive. Prohibitively expensive for what we are wanting to offer. Vendor after vendor gives us prices that are just too high. It’s getting frustrating and becoming clear why there are not many people doing what we’re trying to do. I should be depressed right now.
For some reason, I’m not! I’m actually excited! Focused. Determined. I feel like we’ve really run into a wall, but I think of all the other people who have given up and turned away because of it. This is where we prove how innovative and creative we are. We have to throw away our conventional thoughts on solving our problem and get a little crazy. If we can solve this problem, we’ll be in great shape and will greatly multiply our success.
I know this is all vague. I just needed to share a business epiphany I’ve had today where I feel I’ve turned a corner on how I handle problems. Instead of taking the easy road and giving up on an idea, I feel compelled to charge ahead.
I think this will be fun. More details eventually. 
Like most fun and exciting events, Blog Indiana 2008 seemed to whiz by this past weekend. It’s funny how months and months of planning and build-up can result in such seemingly short weekend.
I am generally a modest person. However, I have to declare that Blog Indiana 2008 was a success. I still haven’t taken the time to dig through the boxes of stuff we crammed into my truck as we rushed to clean up and exit the building before it closed on Sunday. Though, I’m pretty sure we topped 160 attendees total by the time the weekend was over. We had an article in the Indianapolis Star on Saturday that drove a good number of people to register at the door on Saturday and Sunday (something we had originally planned not to do, but glad we did!).
The Good
By far, my absolute favorite aspect of the entire weekend was getting to meet and talk with so many of you. Even though I spent a fair amount of time running around the place making sure everything was running smoothly, the personal interactions and random conversations with local (and not so local) bloggers was so much fun. Meeting so many people I only know on Twitter and through blogs was interesting and strangely comforting.
Seeing the hard work that Shawn and I put in to creating a conference that, from face to face conversations and the majority of our received surveys, was well received and enjoyed by the attendees was a dream come true. We’ve never put on a conference before and we had to make some decisions without really knowing what was best. It looks like most of them worked out and most people seemed to get a lot out of the event.
It is also worth pointing out that I learned a great deal about how much of any of my success in life is because of the never ending support of my wife. She is the reason I am able to push myself to do the things I want to do in life. Her only complaint with this conference was that I didn’t let her take some of the stress off of my shoulders sooner. She was invaluable in the weeks leading up to the conference and was a life saver the days of. She is new to blogging, so feel free to stop by her site and leave a comment!
The Bad
The only truly “bad” part of the entire weekend was wireless internet issues. Sure, some sessions were better than others, we forgot to check for random marathons occuring in the city, and Shawn & I probably figit too much on stage. But, the wifi was really bad. So, I’ll take this moment to apologize. I’m usually the first person to roll my eyes and say “How hard is it to get WIFI right, people?!” at any conference that screws it up. And, while I won’t go into the reasons why we had so much trouble here, I will say that wifi WILL work at any future event we put together. Top of my list. I might still figit a little on stage, but, by God, we’ll have working wifi next time.
The Future
The survey results we’ve received so far have been outstanding. Not just in that people really enjoyed the conference, but we are getting great feedback on how to improve. Believe me when I say that we are reading every single survey and will be compiling a list of every idea and suggestion.
So what is next? Let’s just say there is a lot of wind in our sails right now and we’ll be getting to work on our plans for next year this month. I’d love to drop hints, but we still haven’t formally met to discuss the future. We do have some big ideas that I think you’ll be interested in.
With that said, if you have an interest in lending your talents to help us in planning, generating ideas, speaking, or sponsoring the next conference, don’t hesitate to drop me an email at noah (at) blogindiana (dot) com.
Photos (see many more at the Flickr Photo pool and Photrade Group)
-
- Blog Indiana attendees gather for announcements.
-
- Each session was located close by in large classrooms.
-
- Attendees could select small buttons to tag themselves like they would tag a blog post.
-
- Attendees could select small buttons to tag themselves like they would tag a blog post.
-
- One of two panel discussions which included some great speakers.
I’ll update this post with more commentary later. But, for now, here it is!
Video courtesy of Fox59!
This is a question most bloggers wonder–especially when they are first getting started. While there are plenty of ideas on exactly how often you should blog, we wanted to know how often you actually are blogging.
As we close in on 100 bloggers having completed the 2008 Indiana Blogger Census, I thought it would be a good time to share a little bit of the data we’re collecting. As you can see from the pie chart, Hoosier bloggers are blogging much more than I had anticipated.
Read the rest of this story over at the Blog Indiana 2008 Conference blog.
Sell photos on photrade | By HamWithCam
Ever since I discovered Photrade.com through their sponsorship of Blog Indiana, I’ve been admiring the service and slowly starting to use it. My main interest in the service is the ability for bloggers to find great photography and easily place it on their blog or website. Many bloggers just grab images from Google Image Search or where ever they can find them without consideration for the legal implications of using photos without permission. With Photrade, the permission is built-in.
On the other side, photographers (professional and amateur) can profit off not only your free usage of their photos, but the integrated marketplace allowing their photos to be licensed/sold at prices they can control. All photos can be watermarked with a custom mark that helps protect everyone’s photos. If someone wants to purchase the right to use your photo without the watermark, Photrade facilitates that purchase in an automated way.
I believe this new service, which is just now in beta, has huge potential. Below, I humbly submit some feedback from what I’ve experienced so far.
- I love the ability to search for blog post images and easily post into my blog. I would love stronger integration the way flickr lets you make blog posts about a photo directly to your self-hosted blog.
- Please, please, please release an API. I think a killer application for Photrade would be a Wordpress plugin that would let me browse Photrade’s database of photos straight from my “Create New Post” screen. Then, just a button click drops the photo into my blog post.
- It would be great if the framing and links that accompany an embedded Photrade photo could be customized. I’d just like to see the style, spacing, and fonts be a little better styled (or give me control).
- The uploader works pretty well and it is fairly fast (as they claim). However, it would be great if they could add some kind of counter letting me know how many photos I’ve uploaded and if any had any errors. Also, once the uploads are done, there is nothing prompting me as to what to do next.
- A more detailed, expanded view of all my photo view activity and their earnings.
- And last but not least… I can’t wait until the Flickr integration is complete! That is what is really keeping me from using Photrade to full potential. I have a pro account at Flickr and use it for ALL my photos. Being able to import photos directly from Flickr would make Photrade my 2nd favorite photo app (maybe my first, depending on the size of my next royalty check!)
Of course, the site is still beta, and is still amazing. I highly suggest you check it out: Photrade.com
« Previous Entries
