MeetDomainers Manchester 2010 – Day One

Today was the first day of MeetDomainers in Manchester England. It was an action-packed day with some incredible sessions followed by the domain auction.

As usually I took a ton of video which I’ll be sorting through and uploading over the next week. Right now I want to let you all in on the details of what happened today so you can feel a bit more like you’re here with us!

MeetDomainers Manchester 2010 - Panel 1The morning started with the “Domainers meet Domainers” panel featuring Gregg Mcnair, Brian Gilbert, and RobTaylor. Each of the presenters explained how they got started in the domain industry and what they are doing now.

I thought this was a great idea for a panel and very interesting to hear from three full-time Domainers. You can Google any of these guys if you want to learn more about them.

Morgan Linton Presenting in Manchester EnglandI was the next presenter and discussed Domain Monetization. I’d be happy to give a copy of my presentation to anyone that would like it – just shoot me an email.

In my presentation I discussed the importance of developing the right domains and how to use tools like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to determine important keyword performance metrics. I had also been asked to give a WordPress 101 tutorial. Even though I only use WordPress on about 2-3% of my sites I do think there are some cases where it can help Domainers get started with development.

The point I made is that WordPress is NOT the perfect development solution…but in some cases if you have a site you plan to update frequently, it can be a good fit. Still I stick with static HTML sites for just about every site I own.

MeetDomainers Manchester - Domain Legislation PanelNext-up was the Domain Legislation panel featuring Lesley Cowley, the CEO of Nominet joined by Matt Mansell the CEO of Domain Monster. It was very interesting to hear some of the details of Domain Legislation and ideas both Nominet and Domain Monster have for the future.

I’m not sure what is confidential and what isn’t so I’ll have to leave-out the details on this one.

MeetDomainers - Domain Sales PanelThe next panel was one that I was particularly excited about – Domain Sales – an area I’m very keen to get more experience with. The panel featured James Tuplin from NameDrive, Edwin Hayward from Memorable Domains, and Tessa Halcomb from PPX.

I learned a LOT from this panel and will actually be putting-together an entire post about selling domains along with some of my new strategies. This directly influenced how I plan to move forward with my new focus on both domain sales and development!

MeetDomainers Manchester - ExpediaNext Bryan Lip, the Director of Partnerships for the Expedia Affiliate Network discussed their travel affiliate program. This was a very impressive and informative talk and I learned some very valuable things about Expedia’s affiliate program.

Once again – I’m going to do a full post just on this so stay-tuned!

MeetDomainers Manchester - Development and SEO PanelThe last panel of the day was about Development and SEO featuring Emma Meheux from Oooba.com and Sam Allcock from Custard Media and PR Fire. Lots of great information here and as usual I learned a few nice tidbits that I’ll share with all of you in a future post.

MeetDomainers Manchester Domain AuctionThe day ended with the live auction and for those who didn’t know, I was also the auctioneer! No, I’ve never been an auctioneer before but I did have a blast doing it.

I did my best to not only describe what made each domain valuable, but also keep the mode light by making lots of jokes and doing my best to keep everyone fully engaged.

Tonight we’re heading-out to Vermillion Cinnabar – an awesome bar in Manchester for the main party. I just looked at the website for the bar and it looks amazing – it was designed by the same person that made Buddha Bar in Paris (which I’ve also been to!).

That’s it for now – more pictures, video, and great learning from the show to come – now it’s time to head downstairs and talk domains!

(No time to proof-read or grammar-check this post so please pardon any errors I may have made)

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton