Every now and then I completely put my foot firmly in my mouth and this time is no exception. I just recently sent out an email announcing the sneak preview of the new whizzbangsblog (viewed at michaelgilmour.com) that will go live on the 13th July and this email was the cause of my mishap.

If you can indulge me, please picture this. It’s 2am and other than the glow of my monitors the room is as dark as the rings underneath my eyes. I’m getting towards the end of a mammoth migration and development project and I’m on the verge of that strange sense of elation that only comes at the end of a developers “death march”.

So what do I do? I want to tell the world about my efforts and get some feedback.....just one more push is all that it will take. Sending emails can be a deadly business.....and in this case it was. My carefully constructed prose was punctuated by sporadic caffeine induced excesses that would have made my fifth grade teacher cringe. At 2am in the morning everything looks great!

What I really wanted to do was to thank the sponsors of whizzbangsblog as they are the ones that allow me to spend the time necessary to generate some semblance of content on our industry. In my near stupor I made the fatal mistake of hitting the “a” key when I really should have hit “e” and now I’m paying for it.

You see, the “a” and the “e” are actually quite important letters when it comes to a person’s  or company name. Not so strangely people often get a little put out when you spell their name incorrectly.

So at 2am in the morning my efforts to thank my sponsors fell short of an “e” and gained an “a” which resulted in me misspelling Oversee as Oversea. I could try and justify myself that from my perspective that Oversee is actually Overseas but that would only work for Australians where everything is “over-a-sea” from us. If you were from the UK then you travel abroad.....and I’m sure Oversee wouldn’t want to be classified with “a-broad” (girl).

So there is nothing to it......I would like to apologise to Oversee for misspelling their company name. Oversee is a great company to do business with (we do a lot) and I have the highest of respect for their fantastic team. I’m very sorry for this oversight and I’m confident that you will accept this apology in the good grace that it has been given.

I’ve learnt a couple of lessons from all of this.....don’t send mass emails at 2am, the difference between an “e” and “a” can be quite profound and finally, caffeine induced flashes of brilliance may look very different the next day.

I'm really excited to announce that stage one of a major upgrade to whizzbangsblog.com is just about completed. You can get a sneak preview of the site at michaelgilmour.com and I would appreciate any feedback that you may have on how it can be improved prior to the site going officially live. I anticiapte that the launch date will be Monday, 13th July 2009 and I'm really looking forward to it finally being released.....it's been a bit of a labour of love!

There has been a complete overhauling and starting from scratch of the content management system, server and server software wth the goal of providing greater functionality and results for the domaining community. Now that the development is largely completed I will re-engage the brain into writing on my thoughts on all things about domains and our great industry. I would like to highlight that whizzbangsblog is now inviting anyone else who would like to write their thoughts down to contribute to the new blogging area.

Here are a few of the upgrades that I hope you will enjoy and find useful!

Domain Community
Other than changes to the look and feel I've added software to create a closed domainer social community. This will allow members to be able to setup groups, upload photos and videos, post private messages and messages on another persons wall. Of course, like Facebook you can also invite friends into your own close group. Have a look at it and please don't hesitate to provide any suggestions that you may have.

Domain Blogs
I've now setup areas for other domain owners to blog about their domaining experience. I'm really looking forward to other domainers providing their insights on the industry. It's really easy to use the blog system. All you have to do is click on Domain Community, Domain Blog and then "My Account". It's just like a word processor from that point onwards.

Searchable Article Archive
At long last you can now search the extensive article archive on a huge range of topics. There are literally hundreds of articles that have been written over the last few years on a huge range of topics.

Upgraded Forum
I've now completely reworked and upgraded the domain forum area. The domain forum will be an area for serious domain owners that want to learn and share about the industry and better monetizing their domain portfolio. It's business people talking about domains as a business.

Future Development
I almost hate to say it but I think I've contracted the development bug! I'm pretty busy developing a directory system where domain owners can list their interests (buying, selling etc) in domains in order to attract additional business.

I'm developing a lot more on whizzbangsblog and I'm really feeling pretty energised by the new system running on the updated Joomla 1.5 platform. Don't forget to please provide me with any feedback on the upgrade and let me know any suggestions that you may have.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been reporting on my journey into the world of development for Downwind.com.au. I’ve continued developing the site and adding features that I hoped would add value to a pilot’s experience so ultimately they would tell their friends about it and also return themselves.

My focus has been primarily on providing the systems and infrastructure so that members can add the content themselves to the site (good old fashion web 2.0 strategy). For example, some of the features that I have include:

- Areas for members to upload photos of their experiences.
- Forum to discuss aviation topics
- Members can create their own unique groups and publish information
- Personal blogging area (I have about 10 bloggers now)
- An area where members can add information about their home airfield
- Marketplace so that members can buy and sell items
- A directory of aviation companies
- A nightly chat time at which I will be inviting regular guests

So I’ve been busy developing out all of these different “hooks” in an effort to provide value to the members and attract new members to the Downwind. Not surprisingly, the strategy is actually working. Feedback is really positive and the length of time spent on Downwind by members is continuing to increase.

In the first chat room experience I wanted to get some immediate feedback from members and so I asked them what they wanted in the site. I was really pleased to receive a heap of ideas that provided a great path forward in providing continued value for customers. There is nothing like asking what people want and then giving it to them.

Now that Downwind has some proven sustainable offers for members I’ve contacted many of the Aviation magazines to see if I could get some editorial written about the site. I was really pleased to receive a positive response and Downwind is now going to be featured in a number of the top magazines. All good and it hasn’t cost me a penny.

I’m really trying to get the creative juices flowing around how to best reach the aero clubs. They represent a large proportion of the general aviation community and other than sending out traditional marketing literature I’m trying to come up with an idea that would really appeal to their members. Any ideas or suggestions would be very welcome!

The next stage for me is now to contact potential advertisers and pitch to them the advertising opportunity on Downwind. The whole site is a pointless exercise unless I can complete the loop and start generating some significant revenue. I’m reasonably confident that it will be well received by advertisers but then again isn’t every developer confident in ultimately making a dollar? I'll keep you posted on how I go!

For the past few months I’ve been getting increasingly aware that Whizzbangsblog really needed a complete overhaul. The current format and structure has been great for the past few years but I felt that it was about time that I got stuck into it and upgraded to new versions of and provided better functionality for readers.

When I reflect on the last few years of Whizzbangsblog I found that there were two reasons why I started it. Initially it was a journey into learning about how the content management system, Joomla worked and whether it was worth pursuing further for domain development. Secondly, and even more importantly I’m pretty passionate about the domain industry and the blog provided a way for me to learn and share about this passion.

So I’m now embarking on the process of upgrading and redeveloping the whole site. It’s going to be quite a bit of work but I also hope that it’s going to be a rewarding experience for both you and me. I will be developing the site at michaelgilmour.com so feel free to see the progress at any time. I’d also love to get any feedback on what you find could be really useful for you and your domain business. In the meantime, wish me luck with hacking out the code!

About 12 months ago I remember hearing from a number of domainers that the domain industry is essentially protected from the Global Financial Crisis. I really couldn’t understand that thinking as ultimately any PPC income is dependent upon Google and Yahoo and they in turn depend upon advertisers.

The recent published financial results from Google have made very interesting reading. For the first time ever Google posted a down-turn in earnings which is remarkable for a number of reasons. The first is that it’s incredible that in a traditionally volatile industry like advertising that Google has not posted any down-turn in earnings until now. The second is that the down-turn was 3.1% for the Google owned properties and 3.2% for the content network – which is very low compared to what some other industry verticals have experienced in the last 12 months.

Although these numbers are low it should be considered that they represent an aggregate of the entire Google content channel of which domaining is one part. As seen from a slide that I produced which graphed the Google share price and Earnings per Click rate the domain industry has experienced a considerable real decline compared to other publishers. Click here to view this article.

Another interesting fact gleaned from Google’s financial results is that Google has halted the decline in what it pays out to content providers. Quarter 4 ’08 and quarter 1 ’09 were both at 26.9% which suggests that we may be seeing a bottoming out of what is paid out to the content channel. Remember that the domain channel is a part of the overall content channel and that a reduction in Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC) is a bad thing for the domain industry.

I was not able to get the same granular information from Yahoo’s various reports and after a considerable amount of reading of annual reports I found that Yahoo’s TAC has decline from a high of 30% in 2005 and now sits at 25.1% for 2008. For a similar period Google has decline from 37.2% down to the already mentioned 26.9%.
A challenge for both Yahoo and Google is that if they continue to reduce what they pay their publishers then there will come a point where publishers begin migrating to second tier PPC providers or affiliate networks. I wouldn’t be surprised if both Google and Yahoo are getting to that point now and hence the slowing down of the reduction in TAC.

I think that we have seen the lowest point in the PPC side of the industry and during the next 6 months an upward trend will become more evident as the global economy recovers. I would recommend keeping an eye on the Google and Yahoo share prices as an early indicator of better EPC rates to come.

For the past few weeks I’ve been reading about all the machinations between Thought Convergence and Name Intelligence. Who’s right and who is wrong and the number of varied opinions varies from insightful to the completely bazaar.

It’s almost like a days of our lives is unfolding in front of our eyes and we’re all waiting for someone to throw a “hissy-fit” and storm off the stage. Or it could be viewed more like a gladiator’s arena with the domaining world screaming for blood with the anticipation that a “thumbs down” for either opponent will ultimately satisfy our blood lust.

The question I asked myself was, “Do I really care?” Business disagreements occur all the time and one party’s understanding of a contract can be quite different from the other. Normally this is sorted out in a sensible, rational manner by the parties involved but sometimes there are complete differences of opinion and a judge has to get involved. Stuff happens....!

The danger for us all is that we get sucked into the vortex of public opinion and start taking sides without knowing all the facts. This is when I ask another important question, “Am I in a position to care?” I hate to say it but 99% of the time I’m not so I just sit back and reserve my judgement.

The temptation for each of us is to side with the person that we know best but my personal advice is don’t take anyone sides, let the courts settle the matter and focus on your own business. Whatever it is that you’re doing to make a living get focused back on that and stop worrying about the saga that is unfolding.

I know that that some people have setup a website to attract our attention and prove that they are right. Hey, I spent 2 minutes looking at it and suddenly realised that I was approaching the event horizon of a storm that I didn’t need to get into.

So I would like to take this time to wish both Thought Convergence and Jay well in sorting out their differences and I hope that the collateral damage from the episode doesn’t impact too many other relationships. In fact, let’s hope that the equivalent of “Brook” doesn’t storm off the stage and the rest of us keep our distance from the spectacle of the arena.

The brightness of the day
is followed by the darkness of the night but
it’s the rays of the morning sun
that gives us hope.

So I’m not a poet but I think that the above really describes the state of the domain industry. At the moment many of us are experiencing times of darkness when we look at our revenue numbers and it’s only natural to begin to grope around for a solution.

I was talking to a number of people that work in the industry this week and each of them were commenting on the fact that it’s a pretty dark time out there. Many businesses in the domain space have been laying off staff, downsizing and hunkering down to weather the storm. Whether you’re a  big or small business it’s clear that there is a cash squeeze in the industry.

What this dark time has done is caused domainers to move from a revenue to a profit mentality. In the past it was all about traffic and increasing your revenue line as registration costs were regarded as a minimal expense compared to the potential revenue.

This has resulted in portfolios being re-examined and domains that previously would never be dropped are being dropped. The financial risk/potential reward of holding these domains is no longer justifiable. What this means is that the whole industry is shaking itself out and will become far stronger out the other side.

So despite all of the doom and gloom let me reassure you that I believe that morning will be coming soon. There are some tentative signs that the worse may be over and that EPC rates will begin to climb and domain values will soon follow suit. If you’re sitting there and wondering how to page the next registration fee then just remember that next month it should get a little easier.

As many of you know I love numbers and what you can or cannot interpret from them. After a bit of a hiatus I recently did a “dumpster dive” into masses of data to see how the domain world is progressing now that we are in the middle of a GFC. As an aside, I think that things are really serious when the media spawns yet another acronym for us to remember in the form of GFC for “Global Financial Crisis”.

Many of us are very concerned with Earnings Per Click (EPC) rates and the fact that they’ve taken a massive decline over the last 12 months in particular. There is nothing like a decline in revenue to get your attention in a hurry!

With a little bit of inspiration I graphed the EPC rates paid since August 2007 for a large portfolio of domains (ie. statistically significant) and the Google and Yahoo share price. What it showed was there was a strong correlation between the three data series.  In fact, I believe that the correlation is strong enough to suggest that as the Google/Yahoo share prices increase then the EPC won’t be that much further behind.

Some good news for domain owners is that all three graphs appear to be rising for the last few months. This rise will have two affects, firstly more money in domain owner’s pockets and secondly greater funds in the industry which will lead to more investment into domains by domain owners.

This means that for those of you who are cashed up and are snapping up bargains in the existing depressed market I think that this time will end in the not too distant future. Greater disposable revenue leads to greater investment which in turn leads to great competition for reduced numbers of domains. In other words, “make hay while the sun shines!”