Sedo.com CEO and Co-Founder Tim Schumacher said the market trends they were seeing at Sedo included diversification (into multiple TLDs), internationalization, lower transaction costs and higher levels of sophistication among buyers. At the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in October, Schumacher introduced an extension rating system similar to the stock market’s Buy – Sell – Hold ratings. Schumacher currently has Buy ratings on .info, .us and other major ccTLDs and IDNs. He rates .com, .net and .eu as Holds (.eu was downgraded from a Buy rating in October). Schumacher advises selling .biz, .cc, .ws and .tv.

At the lunch break, Ron Sheridan handed out a variety of door prizes to delighted winners, then introduced a big screen video interview he had recently taped with Name Administration, Inc. leader Frank Schilling who many believe is the most successful domain investor in the world. Though he was not there in person, the charismatic Schilling had the crowd hanging on very word. Schilling, who is originally from Canada but now lives in the Cayman Islands, described himself as a value investor who was attracted to the intrinsic value of domains that could be used for paid search. To get started in this business, Schilling sold off some rental homes and used the proceeds to buy domains. It turned out to be a good move. Today it is estimated that his domain portfolio earns close to $20 million annually.

Schilling said he likes ccTLDs (country code domains) and his preference in order is for .coms, the ccTLD of your country (if it is a major country), .net and then .org. “Really good names in .info and .mobi will also have some value,” Schilling said. He added that the next phase in his business plan will be to start developing his domains.

The appearance of Aaron Kornblum (Microsoft Senior Attorney) marked the first time a Microsoft representative has appeared on stage at a domain event. Kornblum said Microsoft owns over 20,000 domains and averages 300 new registrations a month. They also promote the use of domains by giving them away as part of their Office Live program and they offer customized domains through Windows Live.

IREG holds a phenomenal group of one-word category-defining domains likes Software.com, Phone.com, Podcast.com, Chocolate.com, Luggage.com, Sweepstakes.com and many others. Zapolin recounted the company’s remarkable history which included buying Beer.com for just $80,000 and selling it three months later for $7 million! They have also developed and sold such gems as Diamonds.com, Computer.com and CreditCards.com. These days, with the value of such prime Internet real estate readily apparent, they are far more interested in developing and holding their domains than selling.

Zapolin and Miller both emphasized the many advantages that a strong generic domain provides, including critical search engine positioning. For example, a Google search for chocolate brings up their Chocolate.com ahead of the sites run by such world famous brands as Hersheys.com, Godiva.com and Ghirardelli.com. This fact is one that many major brand owners have still failed to recognize. Owning the generic name of your industry makes you the gatekeeper for the entire category. People usually search for the product before the brand and you can direct the traffic from those search inquiries to any brand you wish.

Tina Dam (Director of ICANN’s IDN program) said that ICANN is currently focused on implementing full native character set addresses for IDNs (meaning that the full domain name and extension would be available in the local alphabet – today IDN’s have the name in the local script with the extension in Latin characters like .com or .net). She said there are still a few technical issues to be resolved but ICANN is trying to fast track that.

Dam also said that a revision of the protocol that handles IDNs is coming that may result in characters from some scripts being removed. In those cases, existing domains with the deleted characters will no longer work, so they are working on minimizing dislocations caused by that. Dam said no target date has been set for full IDN (including extension) availability though she is thinking late 2007 or early 2008 is possible.

TechCrunch.com Editor and Founder Michael Arrington thinks the domain aftermarket would really explode if it was easier for people to access available names. Today they are scattered across multiple venues with differing purchase formats and requirements. “Executives are generally clueless about the domain market so they end up just making up names,” Arrington said. “Someone needs to hold their hand”. You can bet there are already companies thinking about ways to make the process as easy as Arrington envisions.

Posted By: DomineroTo get started in this business, Schilling sold off some rental homes and used the proceeds to buy domains. It turned out to be a good move.

Posted By: DomineroSchumacher advises selling .biz, .cc, .ws and .tv.