So you’d like to go a step beyond a simple WHOIS search and become a real Domain Detective, good, you should! I play detective several times a day whether I’m looking at buying a domain, looking at a potential deal, or protecting my own brand. I’ve tried every single tool I could imagine and Domain Tools has been my go-to tool for years now, and for good reason, it has everything you could want and a whole lot more.

Today I thought it would be fun to show some of the features that have made me such a big fan of Domain Tools. So watch the video below and in under five minutes you  will be ready to be a Domain Detective yourself.

I’m back with my second video this week! Today I wanted to cover three of the common misconceptions about Domaining. If you’re just getting started in the Domaining world this should dispel some of the common myths and hopefully get you moving on the right track. Enjoy!

Francois announced Dofo.com this year, a cool tool that allows Domainers to access all of their research and evaluation tools in one place. I’ve been using it since launch and have to say it really is saving me time. Basically Dofo takes all of the sites that Domainers visit and makes them easily accessible from a handy sidebar. This is not one of those where I’m going to exaggerate and call it a “Game Changer,” because I don’t think it is.

Instead I’ll say that Dofo does absolutely save Domainers time and it is something that I’m using on a daily basis now. Before I would have to have a million tabs open in my browser when I was doing domain research, now there’s just one. It’s slick, easy-to-use, and has just about every service you could ever want to use all in one place. Want to see it in action? Just check-out my first look video below:

I am unbelievably excited to announce that DomainInvesting.tv, a dream that started over two years ago, has now become a reality! The final version of our first episode was finished this week and I will be bringing it live on DomainInvesting.tv tomorrow and onto the iTunes store in early February!

Since all of you have been so supportive of this project I thought it was only fair to let you be the first people to see it! I would also like to give a huge thanks to Oversee, without them this would not have happened. Through they’re sponsorship and support we now have a solid video to show anyone who doesn’t know what we do, but wants to learn!

Remember, the target market for this video is not Domainers or even tech-savvy people. The real goal of this video is to be able to show it to an end-user, let’s say a Doctor, Lawyer, or Investment Banker that knows about investing, but doesn’t know a thing about Domaining. I’m sure you’ll recognize some very familiar faces in this first episode – thanks to everyone who took the time to sit down and record an interview for the show, together we can show the whole world what Domain Investing is all about and grow our industry in 2012!

I am very excited to say that after two years, over ten conferences, charting the globe from Ireland to Vancouver, we finally have a finished product! It has been an incredible process and a lot of work to make this happen and less than two weeks the first full 30-minute online television program about Domain Investing will be live for the whole world to see!

As you will see from my post last year, the initial goal was to release this in March of 2011. Well, I’ll tell you, it takes a lot to put something like this together and I was fortunate enough to meet an incredible videographer and editor that have made this dream a reality!

If you don’t know much about this project, I started it back in January of 2010 filming interviews myself. What I quickly learned is that I’m not a great videographer, lighting guy, or editor. So after doing some great interviews I realized that if I wanted this to be professional, I had to get a pro onboard.

Afflatus Productions have gone above-and-beyond to make this first episode really sparkle. If you don’t know much about the project the idea is simple – make a monthly show about Domaining, but that is not intended for Domain Investors. That’s right, this isn’t a show you are going to watch, this is a show for you to show end-users, your parents, friends, family, potential buyers, etc. to introduce them to the industry.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible support and vision of Oversee, and specifically Aaron Kvitek who got this idea from day one! We’ve put-together a quick intro video to give you a taste of what’s to come:

As I like to say, stay-tuned! It’s time to do even more to expose the whole world to what we do!

I’ve now had a couple of months to really get under the hood and play-around with Epik. This has been a controversial player bringing some of the most spirited comments I’ve seen on my blog yet. However, one thing I’ve found with companies that push the limits and redefine the status quo is they get their share of critics. Just look at wildly successful startups like AirBnB or Groupon and you’ll find some incredibly harsh critics, people who claim their lives or businesses have been ruined by the service. Then there’s the rest of us, everyone else who actually sees it for what it is, a true innovation and massive step forward.

One of the first people I spoke with about Epik was Ian Lopuch, a good friend of mine who has been using Epik for a while now. Ian and I spent over an hour on the phone talking about Epik, his experiences, and how he’s using it to grow his investments. Ian has the problem that so many Domainers have, some truly great domains with good search volume and CPC but not enough time to build them out. We’ve worked with Ian over the years to build-out a number of his top properties but it wasn’t until Ian started using Epik that he really made the leap.

Ian has a goal that I think so many Domainers have – to build-out every single domain that he owns. The difference between Ian and most other Domainers is…he’s actually doing it, and Epik is making it possible. So far he has over 100 domains developed, 60 of which are built-out thanks to Epik. Ian has taken the time to put at least two articles on each Epik site and as I’ve said time and time again, content is king. Ian’s experience with Epik has been great, he is developing his names, making money, and building real assets.

Now Epik is making big moves to make it easier than ever to acquire, build, manage, and divest all from within the Epik platform. I have been very happy with the Epik as a registrar since I can manage domains I’ve registered through any registrar, not just Epik. I can easily see all my domains, from all of my registrars, in one place and list them for sale on the Epik marketplace or develop them through Epik or DevHub. Not only does this make the acquisition and development process seamless, but selling your domains becomes a lot easier. To show this process I thought a picture would only go so far, so I put-together the video below:

Epik makes it easy by transferring the entire asset from Epik account to Epik account, and it’s instant. On top of that Epik has now made it possible to sell domains commission free and tax free. This is a first, and it will save Domainers lots of money. They do this because within the Epik platform the domain name never becomes cash, it remains virtual property, it simply changes accounts. No commission, no taxes, seamless smooth transfers of domains and websites – only on Epik.

Soon Epik will be adding complete integration with DevHub which means that in a matter of minutes you can register a domain, put a website on it, and put it up for sale in the marketplace. Along with DevHub integration Epik is also offering full hosting with cPanel support which means buying and selling WordPress sites can be just as seamless as with Epik-built sites. This is a big one for me since I’ve always found it is very challenging to transfer a WordPress site after a sale leaving the buyer confused trying to configure MySQL and move all the right files into the right folders.

Acquire, build, manage, and divest – turning domain names into brands and then allowing for those brands to be sold and transferred as frictionless and cost effectively as possible. Want to learn more? Create an account with Epik and try it out for yourself! In my next post I’ll be taking you all under the hood of Epik’s new Product Portal platform and showing you how to add unique content, optimize your site for SEO, and build a top-notch site with Epik. Of course, when you want to sell the asset you can feel confident knowing you won’t pay once cent in commission or taxes and the transfer process will be smooth and painless. It’s the Epik way and yes, it’s an epic move – but somebody had to get there first, right?

As some of you who have been reading my blog for a long time now know, I’ve been using Afternic since just about my first day in the Domaining world. My first interaction with the company took place through a blog post I wrote back in 2007. They were some of my first readers and also went out of their way to help me feel welcome in the domain industry. Fast-forward to 2011, four years later and I’m still a big fan of Afternic.

The company has continued to innovate over the years rolling-out a first-class parking platform with Smartname and constantly growing the Afternic DLS partner network. Recently they’ve added an “Instant Transfer” feature that takes all the complexity out of transferring a domain name after a sale. So I thought it was about time I did a follow-up from my posts back in 2007 and 2008 and take a look under the hood at Afternic now in 2011:

I hope you are all having a great weekend! As usual I’ve got a lot on my mind after a busy week. This weekend I was thinking back to some of the interviews I did last year and I thought now would be a great time to share these again. My blog has over doubled in readership over the last year so I’m sure there’s plenty of people who haven’t seen these interviews yet.

I think that one of the best ways to learn about Domaining is to hear from successful Domainers themselves. DomainSherpa has done an incredible job this year conducting interviews with some of the top Domainers on the planet. By far the best way to really understand Domaining is to attend a conference like TRAFFIC (coming soon!) or DOMAINfest early next year. There is no better way to get started in any industry than to attend a conference or trade event and meet the people that are actually doing it!

Below are three interviews that I think are absolutely essential for anyone getting started in the Domaining space.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock then you’ve seen a welcome new face in the Domaining blog community this year – DomainSherpa. Michael Cyger has been putting-together some absolutely incredible interviews and he recently did one with Andrew Rosener of Media Options that I really think is a must-watch for Domainers of all skill levels.

If you don’t know Andrew he is one of the top Domainer-brokers out there and responsible for the $440,000 sale of AutoInsurance.org earlier this year (go dot org!) which is currently in the top 5 domain sales for 2011.

I met Andrew at a conference last year and have to say – this guy knows his stuff. Andrew is one of those guys that has the right gut feel for Domains and he makes a nice living as a domain broker and investor. Andrew is also someone that I look to for advice in better understanding the domain flipping and sales market which as you all know is something I’ve been working at learning more about. Andrew has always taken the time to help me out and honestly the advice he gives is absolute gold.

If you want to learn about how to value Generic Domain Names, Andrew is your guy and the Domain Sherpa interview with Andrew is definitely a must-watch. Below are a few of the key points I thought Andrew brought-up in the interview:

• Use the Google Adword Keyword Tool to find exact-match search volume and CPC
• Andrew’s formula for calculating domain value - (# Searches) x (% Click-thru) x ($ per Click) x (24 Months)
• Adding a hyphen to a domain name typically will make it worth 5%-10% of the corresponding non-hyphenated domain
• For building a brand .COM is king
• In hot lead generation spaces like insurance domains are more and more selling to lead generation companies rather than end-users

There’s a new Domaining blogger that has been really going above-and-beyond this year with insightful posts and some of the best interviews I’ve ever seen online. I’m talking about Michael Cyger from DomainSherpa and he’s done some amazing interviews with people like Ron Jackson, and Elliot Silver and I am excited to announce that my interview with Michael is now live on DomainSherpa.com!

You can view the interview by clicking on the image below. It’s an hour long so make sure to get yourself a coffee, beer, or glass of wine to really enjoy the full experience!

I would like to personally thank Michael for the great interview – it was an absolute blast and I hope that it allows all of my readers to get one step closer to understanding what I do and how I do it! Remember, I have a full time job that I absolutely love with a company I am more passionate about than just about anything on this planet. My day job easily takes up over 60 hours a week but hey, I love Domaining and spend just about all my extra free time buying, developing, and monetizing domain names. As you’ll hear in the interview I’m a passive income guy and there is no way I could balance Domaining with the intensity of my job if it wasn’t for the passive income I make from properties I’ve developed and monetized. It’s all about building a business (or building businesses) that run whether you are working on them or not.

Enjoy the interview and feel free to ask any questions in the comment section below or of course you can always just shoot me an email!