3 key takeaways from NamesCon Online 2020

NamesCon Online 2020

Well the first online-only version of NamesCon is now in the books and it’s safe to say it was a hit, so much so that I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes a regular thing. Raymond, owner of TLDInvestors and blogger at TheDomains said it best:

My biggest takeaway from NamesCon Online is it needs to be permanent. In April I wrote on TheDomains, is the future of NamesCon virtual? Well it’s certainly part of the future in my opinion.

NamesCon Online has been great in my opinion, to be able to just move in and out of meetings, to the social wall, to people’s private messages has been great.

GoDaddy has really done a great job. The UI and UX are fantastic and it’s the best virtual platform I have been on. I expected this event to be ehh, ok. It has been really great.(Source – TLDInvestors.com)

I agree with Raymond 100% – an online version of NamesCon should exist even after the world returns to normal (which is happening at some point, right?)

While I don’t know the numbers I do think this event likely brought together more domain investors from around the world than ever before. You could feel the energy and the Twitterverse was buzzing with activity all day every day which made it even more fun to hop on Twitter every morning.

I’m still watching sessions, and the fact that every session was recorded and is still available makes it possible to really soak up a lot more content than I normally would at an event. I’ll be doing posts covering some things I’ve learned from certain talks but to kick off what is likely going to be weeks worth of content, I thought I’d share three key takeaways from NamesCon 2020 that are pretty hard to ignore.

  1. The domain investing community is global – never has it been more clear that we are a part of a truly global community, and to see different ideas and perspectives from around the world was both eye opening and energizing. For me personally, it made me realize I need to spend more time connecting with domain investors in Asia and Europe and I have some great new friends in both regions that I’m looking forward to getting to know better.
  2. Investors are getting more comfortable going beyond .COM – the days of our community being .COM focused are behind us. Investors are seeing strong results across a wider range of TLDs than ever before and this trend is only accelerating. While I think we all agree .COM is king and will always command top-dollar, there’s never been a better time to stray outside of your comfort zone, you’ll find yourself in good company and with other investors that can help you learn the ropes.
  3. Development and SEO is top-of-mind for investors – while I won’t say parking is dead, when it comes to monetizing domains most investors are looking at development and SEO as their path towards passive income with domain names. The NamesCon Online talks about SEO were pretty darn popular and I kept hearing from investors who were looking at backlinks as a key criteria when buying expired domains. Heck, this week ConstitutionUS.com sold for over $100,000 at Go Daddy and it’s the backlink profile that propelled that name into six-figure territory.

Those are three key takeaways from NamesCon that are top-of-mind for me, if you have some of your own please feel free to share away in the comment section below!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton