I understand you are now the Vice President of Business Development at WHYPARK.com a great COMPANY, Congratulations to you ,but I cannot help thinking you are a west coaster, Seattle? As I mentioned I have had coffee with your President Craig Rowe.

Let me know if you are currently located in Ohio as I would like to meet you for coffee as well. I have been a happy WHYPARK client and would like to discuss some brainstorming ideas with you.

Also I would like your opinion on why there has, as of yet, NOT been a domainers conference that focuses on online branding, the next logical step in the evolution of marketing on the internet. There are many Madison Avenue firms that are looking to alternatives that are branded. Any comments?

XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the kind words and kudos to WhyPark. I joined them because they are new movers in this industry, and ahead of all others trying to do what I’ve been attempting to do (sidetracked by client work) for five years — provide inexpensive but search engine indexable content.

I can’t talk in detail about my involvment with producing the DRT 2007, but my initial focus was on what you’re talking about — bringing in corporate sectors for backbranding their online presence with generic descriptive domains. That didn’t move forward the way I wanted or envisioned in 2007, but I think it will soon at some smart-thinking conference.

The problem with looking at MAAA involvement is that they don’t want their clients to “resolve” eyeballs to their sites with a simple $2 million domain name. MAAA charges by the hour, and by the ads (15% ad agency fee to the agency by the publisher), so it’s much more profitable for MAAA to avoid the keyword generics and “buy domains that match the MAAA ad campaign”. Watch primetime TV commercials very closely (I know it could be boring, but you’ll get the tactics), and you’ll see the the domains they promote match the ad campaign slogan, NOT the client’s prodserv.

So, the only solution is for us to be able to reach the marketing directors at the major companies and the marketing websites and convince them to come to a domain conference where we show them how they can save their company a lot of money. When J&J bought Baby.com, and promoted it back in 2005, it caused a huge stir in the ad industry, because traditional ad agency reaction was “new media” is going to cut our jugulars. Of course, a smart ad agency would get involved in buying domains, but they still think they can make more off their clients by keeping them “dumb”. What we domainers have to do is EDUCTATE THE CORPORATE MARKETING DIRECTORS ON DOMAIN VALUE AND AD COST SAVINGS.

Who will lead the way?

XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

That’s not us making you blush, that’s the photos you just saw of Jothan Frakes NAKED! I blushed too! (mad search on Google images going on right now by our readers – sorry folks, Jothan showers in his undies! Any photos of Jothan naked are photoshop fakes, promoted by TMZ.com) (apologies to JF for using his name in my lame joke)

You know, I would say it’s worth at least $595 just to spend 10 minutes with Frank and pick his brain, especially if you’re the kind of person who wants real world information without a bunch of extra fluff and hype.

Every time I’ve spoken to Frank, he gets to the heart of the matter right away, pulls in his years of experience and expertise, and makes concrete suggestions that will help you.

And you’re right, there’s no ego at all, just pure and true desire to help people. This kind of commitment is truly rare and it’s not something you will find every day in this industry.

I’d go as far as saying that $595 for this event isn’t just reasonable — it’s DAMN CHEAP!

He really should be charging at least double.

But again, I understand why he’s doing this, and it’s definitely not about the money. So take this chance while you can, and be one of the first on the inside of what will undoubtedly become the premier Canadian domain conference!

Heck if you’re in Canada or anywhere in the Northeast US, it’s a total no brainer that you need to be at this event.

Joe Davison
Electron.com

XXXXXX Stephen Douglas Responds:

Frank is good people, not just because he’s very very smart about this industry, but because he shares it without an ego. I think his conference pricing is PERFECT for the budget of any beginning, novice and professional domainer. Domain investors should be all over this conference. It’s not going to be big, and if you go, you most likely will have the opportunity to talk to Frank and many other domain experts without waiting in line, or pushing through a crowd. Great opportunity, DomainConvergence.com