There’s nothing like waking-up in the Bahamas! Latest DNCruise Update Live from the Ship!

Domainers on Chef Patric’s DNCruise woke-up in Paradise Island today. In case you missed my last post, our cruise ship had to change course due to the hurricane – and we really lucked out because the Bahamas was awesome! I opened my shades this morning to one of the best views I’ve seen and immediately left the ship and headed to Atlantis!

Before I delve into my adventures in the Bahamas I want to make sure I finish my summary of Day three on DNCruise. After lunch on Wednesday I gave my talk on Monetization. Lots of great interaction from the audience and as you all probably know I love talking at these conferences so it was a blast for me.

I was followed by Rick Waters – an SEO expert that gave an excellent presentation and definitely gave me some great ideas! At these conferences you have to be a sponge, even though I’ve been doing SEO since the mid 90’s I still pick-up things from every SEO talk I hear. Rick knows his stuff and did a great job of organizing a lot of very valuable information in an accessible way.

After Rick, Brad Waller discussed Mobile Apps and some of the changes in the market that we all can’t ignore. If you don’t know Brad – you should! I first met Brad this year at Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas, he’s a celebrity in the affiliate space and an all-around
great guy. Brad discussed the evolution of the app space and the explosive growth and change in how people use the Internet. We can’t ignore this folks so if you’re in denial it’s time to wake up! No the Domain space isn’t dying, but it’s definitely evolving and you should be doing everything you can to make sure your business evolves with it.

The day ended with our keynote speaker, David Sams. Let me just say that this was not only one of the best talks I’ve seen at a conference, it’s one of the most interesting talks I’ve heard anywhere. If you don’t know David, you certainly know his work. He’s won a number of Emmy’s and helped to bring shows like Wheel or Fortune and Jeopardy to the market. David also was instrumental in launching Oprah, undeniably one of the largest global brands in the world.

David is not just a Hollywood big-wig, he’s a Domainer! However David sees domains differently than most of us. David sees each domain as a potential media outlet, a way to reach a whole new audience. David made some great points about how things like Google TV are going to make a major impact on how content is delivered. The moral of the story is clear here – text blog posts like this may be big now, but video is a 2 million ton gorilla that can’t be ignored and WILL become the new standard for how we get our information online.

I would just like to give a HUGE thanks to David for coming on the cruise and giving this talk. Like I said this was one of the best talks I’ve ever seen and I hope to cross paths with David again in the future! Along with being a very successful guy and a true
entrepreneur, David is also a really nice person who is happy to share his insight, ideas, and enthusiasm with others!

On Wednesday night we had dinner, did some gambling, and then headed to GGG’s room for a great party. As you know I don’t blog about nightlife so you’ll have to come to an event in person if you want to see how fun these parties are!

This morning I woke-up, looked-out my window and thought, “wow -we really are in paradise!” It’s my first time in the Bahamas and I was excited to leave the ship and head over to Atlantis. The trick to Atlantis is buying a resort pass so you can walk freely around the spectacular grounds. Atlantis has twelve pools and salt water ponds everywhere.

You could literally wander around Atlantis forever and never run-out of incredible things to see. With sharks swimming over your head as you walk through cylindrical glass cylinders the “wow factor” is over the top. I spent the first half of the day relaxing on the beach with
Craig Snyder from Oversee. Both of us were ready for some R&R and quickly made our way to the beach, grabbed some chairs and soaked-up some rays. Since one of the HD cameras I brought is water-proof I made sure to hop-in the Ocean and shoot some underwater footage. I can’t wait to share these videos with all of you once I get back to shore.

After some time on the beach we headed to the Casino and met-up with GGG and Alan who were enjoying themselves at the Casino. I managed to double my money in Blackjack (definitely a rarity) so I can now proudly say that I made money going to Atlantis 🙂

Now we’re back on the ship and dinner starts in 45 minutes. I was planning on taking a nap but decided that writing a post was more important. Tomorrow morning we arrive back in Miami at 8AM and I’ll be heading back to Fort Lauderdale with Chef and family. Tonight we’ll be doing another Game Night since the first one was such a hit! I can’t believe DNCruise is almost over…looks like I’ll have to go to Domain Round Table next year so I can find another good excuse to get back to Atlantis!

Patrick announced last night that he will be doing DNCruise again next year and this time it will most likely leave from the West Coast. If you didn’t make it this year make sure to come next year – there’s nothing like it! Okay, time to get ready for dinner – stay-tuned for tons of great pictures and videos from the trip!

(Once again I don’t have time to proof-read this post so please excuse any typos or grammatical malfunctions)

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton