This article continues directly on from Part 12 and Part 13 in the series on the domain industry.

This brings up the most important point that we need to never forget, traffic really is king. It's the one unique resource that everyone needs and they're prepared to pay for it. This is why I think that while domains keep on generating traffic then we'll all still be in the game. Someone, somewhere will want to pay for it no matter what Google and Yahoo actually decide in their corporate ivory towers or if parking company mergers happen.

I'm sure that the last few articles have raised a few eyebrows and created a few smirks on the faces of others but the fact remains the industry will not remain stagnant in the midst of a hurricane of change.

For example, I've now heard it from domainer after domainer that their revenue is down considerably and that this has been caused by a fall in EPC and traffic. What's strange about this tornado of change is that the fall in traffic was for portfolios that have been consistent for years and you could almost draw a straight line since the beginning of this year for the decline.

These storms to the industry at the domainer level must be creating massive cyclones at the parking company level. The hardest being hit would have to be those companies that are not able to cross-subsidize declining revenues from their own domain portfolios or other revenue streams. Some of the companies that raised huge sums of debt at the end of last year must be feeling the pinch at this time.

When I see these sort of changes my "gut" tells me that "times will be changing" and so I'd recommend a close examination of your own risk profile. Once you've managed your own risk you'll be able to enjoy the rocky road forward and even pick up a few bargains on the way!

This article continues directly on from Part 12 in the series on the domain industry.

Stick "SedDrive" with "DarkName" and you would end up with an organization that has both Google and Yahoo contracts, an auction platform, state of the art parking, international exposure, and the biggest portfolio in the world. More importantly then all of this is the accumulation of vast amounts of traffic.

While all of this is taking place, the Domain Sponsor merges with Parked , TrafficZ and HitFarm. "HitZonser" would contain the largest traffic portfolio in the world combined with Google and Yahoo expertise and contracts and state-of-the-art parking technology, registrars and auction systems. Not a bad combination.

You'll have to forgive me for leaving out some other players out such as Dotster, Parked and EVOLanding, Sendori plus a host of others. They can logically slot into either DarkName or HitZonser. One of the nice things about writing a blog is you can be hypothetical like this without actually considering the organizational and financial challenges required to make all of these mergers really happen.

Regardless of whether I'm right or not it just seems to make sense that parking companies will either grow, merge or perish. The growth rate needs to be far in excess of the growth in the market therefore I'll predict here and now that we will begin to see mergers in the next 12 months.

The really big merger would be gluing DarkName and HitZonser together. This would finally lead to the tail wagging the Google and Yahoo dog.

To put this in poker parlance it would mean that there were three people at the table and the commodity is advertising not traffic. "DarkHit" would have vast quantities of quality traffic that advertisers desperately want access to. This could build to be a significant threat to the dominance of Google in the online advertising space.

Once again I want to follow the fictitious game of poker that I wrote about in a number of pervious articles. This is the game with Google, Yahoo and parking companies all sitting around the table. Google has managed to carve out the enviable position of perfect information resulting in them walking around the table to see everyone's hands prior to bidding.

We explored the fact that maybe their may eventuate a mega-park with a large enough tail to "wag the dog". This is worth investigating further and to try and understand why it could or could not happen (ignoring collusion issues of course).

After the bloodbath of the small "cap market" in Australia Fabulous has a market capitalization of about $AU30m. If it wasn't for the different cultures of the two organizations it would make perfect sense to merge Dark Blue Sea with NameMedia which would then have over one million owned domains for sale via the DDN.

I'd scrap the Buydomains system as it doesn't allow instant transfers of non-owned domains. In an industry like domains it makes sense to have a single system and Dark Blue Sea seems to be giving their's away for zero cost. It would be interesting to see how GoDaddy handled this state of affairs with a single player holding such a huge portfolio.

Meanwhile in Germany Sedo and NameDrive need to merge. The major sticking point would be the intense rivalry and angst that exists between the two companies.

After visiting Cologne and both Sedo and NameDrive a couple of weeks ago I think that both companies would be surprised to know that they both thought highly of each other. The senior management of both companies appeared to making a conscious effort to put the past behind them and move onto the future.

Once the hatchet is buried (preferably not between the third and fourth vertebrae) then merging both ND and Sedo just makes logical sense. Once again the culture of the two organizations would be a challenge to push through but hopefully not insurmountable. This would really shore up the international front which both ND and Sedo excel in.

In the next article I'll continue to ride the merger train and take a look at how we can create the mega-parking company "DarkHit"

In the mail I received a letter from a lawyer indicating that I was infringing on their clients trademark for a generic com.au domain. It just so happened that this particular domain has personal and historical importance to me and my wider family. I'd only parked the domain as a temporary measured until I got around to using it.

The letter really surprised me as I had already talked to the trademark owner several months prior and ensured that there was not any trademark conflicting advertising on the site. He was happy that this was the case.

After speaking with the lawyer for several minutes I then asked how they saw the TM related material because I couldn't see any myself. They indicated that when they used the search box on the parked page and looked for one of their clients products and that a competitor's products also came up.

That explained the search queries for the domain. The lawyer had been the only person that had searched for that particular product. I indicated this and also suggested that this was an attempt to reverse hijack my domain name. I also said that I was quite happy to go to court and plead my case before a judge. The lawyer got a little angry at the reverse hijaaking insinuation but at the time I found it hard to view it any other way.

It was at this point that the lawyer indicated that their client didn't want the domain but just wanted me to block all search queries related to their client's products etc. I said that I didn't know if this was technically possible but would investigate it further.

I thought about it for a while and then called the lawyer back and left a voice message to the effect of, "Good news! I believe that I can block the search queries. Can you please provide me every term that your client's industry uses, their product names, product numbers and same information for all of their hundreds of competitors. Also part information and anything else that is pertinent to their industry."

I presume that their will be thousands of items and this will keep them busy for quite some time. It just made me angry that a lawyer could go to a parked page, use the search box and say, "Ahh haa! Got you! This is a trademark infringing site because I forced the site to behave in this manner."

I'm not sure if many of you have had any experiences like this but every now and then I choose to fight and I think that this may be one of those cases. There doesn't seem to be any justice in a world where a lawyer can create trademark infringements at will via a search box. I'd invite anyone to share their own experiences that they may have had or if you are a lawyer a legal perspective would equally be helpful to us all.

Jetlag, the bane of my life. Since arriving back from Paris and Domainermeeting I've been laid flat by huge volumes of work, tests for my pilots license and family commitments. These have all been neatly wrapped up with the worst case of jetlag that I've ever experienced.

I've been feeling pretty guilty about not continuing some of the series of articles that I've started but one of the things that jetlag does to you is rob you of a desire to do anything. A nice blob would describe my mind perfectly. I wouldn't trust anything that I wrote while under the duress jetlag time let alone subject you to it. Seeing that that I'm now writing this article it must mean that I'm finally getting back into my home time zone, thank goodness!

This now brings me to my thoughts on our wonderful industry. I thought that it would be good to clarify an important point. I think that with the last series that I wrote on Google that some people have come away with the impression that I was anti-Google. This is actually very far from the truth.

For a start, let me say that because you disagree with what an organization is doing doesn't mean that you are against them. In fact, Google is the best thing that has ever happened to the domain industry. Without Google many of us would not enjoy our lifestyle!

Google has managed to carve out an incredibly powerful position in the Internet economy and after considerable investment of their shareholders funds they are in my opinion exploiting their position as much as possible. Google is obligated to do what is best for their shareholders and continue to increase their wealth as much as possible. If I was in charge of Google I'd do many of the same things that they are doing.

This doesn't mean that we all have to like it though. The point of many of my articles is that since Google is the dominant player in our industry then we are obligated to intimately understand what they are doing and how to gain better results for the end provider of revenue, the advertiser.

By continuously providing better results for advertisers we can become indispensible to Google and maintain our powerful position by being the controllers of vast quantities of traffic. The challenge for our industry is how to eliminate fraud, grow our revenue lines and out Google, Google by becoming smarter and not just complain about things such as the 20% drop in revenue many of us have experienced since the beginning of the year.

This is where I will leave this article and go away how to out Google, Google and work out how the industry can become an indispensible stream of quality traffic.

I can't believe that I'm doing this again. Yep, I'm sitting in the airline lounge while I await QF6 to Singapore and then onward to Melbourne. The lounge is packed and yet there isn't a sound as everyone stares completely wrapped at the TV while Spain and Russia battle it out in the Euro Cup.

Since leaving Paris I headed off to Luxembourg for a couple of days with the guys from EuroDNS and Domain Invest. Freddy, Marcus and Xavier are fantastic guys who combined have an incredible expertise in domains. It was only a few years ago that EuroDNS was a tiny little registrar and it now is a thriving business with multiple successful business units.

I spent a wonderful afternoon at Freddy's house overlooking a valley that the Moselle river ran through the middle. It was a relaxing day with great food and company. Katherine (Freddy's wife) was a wonderful host and spoilt us all rotten with her very tasty strawberry cake.

Incredibly the grand duke of Luxembourg decided to have his birthday while I was there so we headed into the city for dinner. After stopping at a bar I had a pleasant surprise when I found out that the girl behind the bar was Australian. I said to Marcus and Freddy that Australia was conquering the world one bar at a time :-) After all, if you control the alcohol you control the world!

The next day I headed off to Cologne to catch up with my friends at both NameDrive and Sedo. NameDrive was a fantastic place and had the chaotic frenzied feel of a start-up that's really going places.

Greg (CEO) related a story that when they first started no one had chairs as he said that they needed to "earn their seats" by getting results. Fantastic story and I couldn't help noticing that they all now have chairs so they must be doing something right. I really enjoyed my time with the team at NameDrive and have earned a new respect from me for their focus and efforts in what they are doing.

Sedo was a sharp contrast to NameDrive but nevertheless just as impressive in a different way. Since I'd last been to Cologne Sedo has more than doubled in size and have put in place an excellent account management team supported by top notch managers. Although it was a lot more corporate than NameDrive I couldn't help wonder whether a better organization for both companies could be formed by merging them together. It's probably just a pipe dream though. All I know is that I genuinely wish both Sedo and NameDrive every success.

So here I am......sitting in the Frankfurt lounge, answering emails and hoping that Russia will win the soccer so that they can play Germany on Sunday night.

Domainer meeting in Paris has finished and ICANN is in full swing but I find myself on the TGV fast train to Luxembourg. The day started with a group of domainers including Jay & Susan from Domain Intelligence (ie. TrafficZ), Dan from Fabulous, Roland from Domain News plus a few others getting together to head off to Versaille.

Versaille was an incredible statement to the height of opulence and extravagance from the bygone Kingly eras of France. There's nothing like priceless works of art, incredible furniture and gold to get your attention. The day was hot and after walking what seemed miles down into the lavish gardens Susan, Dan and I had the brilliant idea of hitching a ride back on a golf cart driven by a really helpful Versaille employee. He offered to take us back almost to the front gate as long as his boss didn't see, ahhhh France, you've just got to love it! We felt like the kings of old as we saw face after face longingly look after us as we sped past. After a nice relaxing lunch we headed back to the hotel where I picked up my bags, flagged down a taxi and headed to the TGV train station. This is what brings me to the here and now. It's really the first chance that I've had to really think about how Domainer Meeting went.

Other than a few minor delays at the beginning the event itself was really well run and congratulations should be extended to Melanie from EuroDNS and the rest of the team for their supreme efforts. Contrary to what some people believe it's not easy putting on a show with hundreds of international guests.

One of the challenges I often face at events like Domainer Meeting is getting a chance to experience some of the sessions. I often end up going from meeting to meeting doing some great business but missing out on some excellent content.

For example, I heard that Dan Warner's session on domain economics was outstanding. Dan spends days working through statistics and thinking about the domain industry and his insights are invaluable. I feel really fortunate to call Dan a great friend and there is nothing quite like sitting down with him and discussing domains over a nice bottle of wine. He would have to be one of the most generous guys I know with his time.

I also had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with Jothan Frakes and his wonderful wife Melissa. Like Dan, Jothan is an exceptional thinker and is happy to spend hours with you to share about his thoughts on domains. Spending time with Jothan is always a tremendous educational experience and his breadth of knowledge on ICANN related issues is just incredible. By the way, Jothan turned 40 in Paris so welcome to the 40+ club!

I also had the pleasure of getting to know both Michael and Sig from Parked.com. Both of them a great guys and a lot of fun! Michael was a part of the group that did a café crawl around Paris (you've just got to try that some time) and Michael joined Dan and I on our journey to Sacre Curr and La Defense (IT Museum).

Conferences are about people not events. Whenever I go to a conference I'm meeting with old friends, getting to know new ones and conducting a great deal of business in the process. If you plan on running a transactional business where you do one deal after another and keep on moving on then you really don't need relationships. On the other hand if you plan on building your business then I can think of no greater way to do so then by spending time with people and really getting to know them.

I keep on saying to my own business partners that there is no more important thing to do in the domain industry then to get to know other domain owners. It's just so much easier doing business with a friend that you can trust rather than a stranger. In th meantime if you attended the conference then I would encourage you to send an encouraging email to EuroDNS....they did a great job!

Tomorrow I'm off to Domainermeeting in Paris. It's another long flight but being from Australia you get pretty used to those! It will be great to catch up with all of my friends again and also get to know a lot of new European friends while I'm there.

In a year that's saturated with conferences it initially appeared that Domainermeeting was going to have a difficult time getting numbers and sponsors to support the event. This definitely is not the case! The domainer meeting website is filled with sponsors all wanting to get exposure to the European market. I haven't had a chance to catch up on the numbers of delegates but from all reports Domainermeeting appears to have gained a lot of support from Europe, USA and other international countries (such as Australia). I'm really looking forward to meeting every there!

Backing Domainermeeting right up against ICANN was a great idea as international travelers only had to extend their trip by a couple of days to take in both events. I'm sure that both EuroDNS and Domain Sponsor have pulled out all the stops to ensure that the event will be an outstanding success.

So what's on the agenda? As you would expect there is a welcome address by Xavier Buck from EuroDNS followed by Phil Corwin speaking on behalf of the ICA (Internet Commerce Association). The first morning covers new TLDs and ccTLDs and there should be an interesting session on the situation in European parking.

I'm particularly looking forward to Dan Warner's address at 1:45pm which will be covering the topic of Domain Economics.

It will be nice having a late start the following day after the Domain Sponsor party as it will give the panelists on at 9:45 (including yours truly) a chance to get our thoughts together on "building an online brand/domain". A couple of other sessions on the second day stand out for me. The first is the one on tax optimization (a subject close to all our hearts) and domain investing. The auction will then start at 2pm and run until 7pm.

All in all the agenda and the various speakers look really interesting and with the added difference of having a largely European perspective I'm sure that DomainerMeeting will be an outstanding success. After the event I'll write a blog on what I thought the highlights were. Until then I'd better go and pack!

I've just received a skype message from Dan Kimball of dnZoom. He's a great friend and one of the guys who are constantly trying to get me to move to Louisville, Kentucky. One of the really nice things about our industry is meeting great people like Dan and Sean (also from Louisville and dnZoom) who are both really genuine people who you can trust completely.

So what was the Skype message all about? He just let me know that Bido (of which dnZoom is a part) is launching its first auction this Wednesday. It's been a while coming but I'm sure that the wait will be well worth it.

Bido's auction system is pretty unique as they guarantee the price for a domain which effectively underpins its value. I'm sure that this alone will cause a few people to check through their lists to find any suitable names to sell.

Bido also only charges an 8% fee but the most unique aspect to their auction system is that they will be having independent experts valuing the domains up for sale. Anyone can apply to become an expert but I'm sure that they will be applying some sort of criteria to the process. After all, an expert needs to actually be an expert.

At the moment Bido plan on auctioning off one name per day seems a little light on. I would expect that policy to change pretty quickly as the business model gears up. The challenge that they will have will be to get enough experts to value domains as the volume of auctions increases.

There is one thing for sure, Bido is definitely a shot across the bow of existing auction companies. It will be interesting to see the competitive reaction from these companies to a domainer entering the marketplace with a fairly unique auction business model. All in all I think that it will be good for domain owners having another player in the market and I wish the Bido team all the best in their venture.

For the past few articles I've been using poker as the analogy to explore the options for parking companies when negotiating with Google. As we have seen the balancing act that Google has established between themselves and the parking companies is critical and it just so happens that the easiest solution on how to manage it is to ensure that there are a number of parking companies (players) at the table which are all roughly the same size.

This creates competition in the industry and will mean that Google's potentially biggest problem is continuously fighting for market share rather than wondering how to stop them from cheating at the game. You've only got to look at the creative ways in which some of the parking companies endeavour to migrate more traffic over to themselves to realize that the competitive round of market forces is alive and well. Google has managed a situation where it's better to fight with your neighbour rather than with the Giant in the corner.

The worst thing that could happen for Google is if all of the parking companies decided to stop trying for market share and joined forces.

From the poker game perspective this would mean that all the players get up and leave the table but decide to move all of their remaining chips over to the one remaining parking poker player and create mega-park. What's going to happen now?

The final player has resources to build an advertising exchange and explore other technologies, processes and innovations. This final player decides to play two tables rather than just the one.

Google and Yahoo don't particularly like this but the problem they face is that without this player there's no game and as we explored earlier that wasn't a good outcome for either of them. When they try and say that they only play exclusive games the remaining parking player can just say "no". After all, two games need to be played.

Consolidation is the big danger for Google. If there is consolidation of parking companies or massive domain portfolios then Google runs the risk of losing their market dominance. Google needs the traffic but mega-park has multiple options where they can monetize it. This is where I believe that many people will finally realise that the defining unique resource in the domain industry is traffic and NOT advertisers.