The main issue I had with Twitter was the idea that it was based on following another person and knowing their whereabouts. However, I couldn’t have been more incorrect. Twitter is a powerful networking tool if used properly. You can start conversations with the biggest and best people in your industry. You can find potential clients who talk about needing a service or product you offer. More importantly, you can maintain these relationships. Once you take that first step and provoke that conversation, follow up with them later on. Let them know you’re interested in them and they should be interested in you.

Since I began utilizing Twitter, I fell in love with it and encourage you to sign up if you’re not on it. And while you’re at it, feel free to follow me: twitter.com/samsilverman.

When the FBI issued arrest warrants for those involved in FullTiltPoker.com, PokerStars, and The Cereus Network, the FBI also seized all assets of each company. This included SamSilverman.com, as it was an asset of the FBI.

Go to SamSilverman.com. It redirects to FullTiltPoker.com, which discusses the FBI’s issuance of arrest warrants and seizure of company property, or assets. Talk about bad publicity for me! So what is my course of action now that the FBI is the new proud owners of SamSilverman.com (MYNAME).com? I’ll wait to let the FBI make their first move. I should probably stay out of this one.

Who else can say their (MYNAME).com is owned by the FBI? Pretty cool, eh?

Porn.xxx and Sex.xxx are now up, working, and ready for the world to see. ICM, the company in control of .xxx registrations, placed generic content on those domains so they are safe for your viewing. The links include generic comment about the .xxx extension, a top-level domain extension dedicated to adult websites.

The .xxx extension is a controversial TLD, debated for almost 11 years before ICANN chose to dismiss the advice of national governments across the world. It is in fact the first time that ICANN has ignored the advice of national governments to approve a domain extension.

What do you think of the newly approved extension dedicated solely to adult websites?

“We rate VeriSign Buy (1M). VeriSign is levered to improving trends in eCommerce and online advertising in its core domain name business where we expect growth to re-accelerate over the course of 2011. A measured pace of investment in the business as well as the inherent operating leverage in the core businesses should enable operating margin expansion to continue and 15%+ earnings growth through 2012. 2012 is the first year of clean financials following a relatively messy divestiture process.”

Consumers, on the other hand, must disagree with Citibank as the stock price fell 0.93% this past Monday. But it’s important that we let the rest of the week play out in order to see whether consumers will end up putting their faith in Citibank, Verisign, and the domaining industry (or as Citibank calls it, the domain name business).

GoDaddy receives a lot of critique within the domaining industry. However, GoDaddy remains the largest domain registrar on the world wide web. Mitt Romney is not the only celebrity who registers his domain with GoDaddy. Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, Avril Lavigne and several other big names in varying industries also use GoDaddy.

Hope that’s a fun fact to get you through the day. Please refrain from any political-oriented comments. We all know where that leads!

The majority of speculators claim this increase in domain disputes is a positive sign for the domaining industry. Increased interest in domain names represent increased demand in the domaining industry. And when demand rises, prices also go along for the ride. Many reason and interpret this data through this logic, seeing it as a symbol that can mean only good things for our industry.

However, one cannot accurately interpret a piece of data without looking at the plethora of interpretations a number can have. I am of the belief that the increase in domain disputes symbolizes absolutely nothing for domainers. In fact, it, if anything, means something bad for the domaining industry. I attribute the increase in domain disputes to companies’ growing interest in protecting trademarks and brands as well as their increasing awareness of internet law. These 2 factors yield high demand for a small segment of the domain industry – domain owners who infringe on others’ trademarks, brands and/or names. This does not mean increased demand in the domaining industry for domainers all over the world.

Is the 24% increase in domain disputes being made into a false hope for domainers? Make sure to submit your comments below!

The major problem in outsourcing is the communication barrier. Unless you’re dealing with a native English speaker, it’s almost impossible to fully communicate what you’re looking for. Not only that, but when the developer has problems or a question, the broken English is hard on the eyes and difficult to understand.

The solution that seems obvious is to speak in simple English. Well when you’re talking about a website development or application development project, it’s almost impossible to speak in such easy-to-understand English. Any word that the foreign developer does not understand can mess up the entire project.

After trying to finish a long-term project of mine that I have been working on for the past year, I’ve discovered how the communication barrier has slowed me and my business down. I take more time trying to explain and understand the developers I outsource to than I do to conduct my routine business.

In my opinion, after this year of facing a harsh reality that little is getting done, outsourcing isn’t worth the time. I’d rather work with somebody from the U.S. and pay them double or triple what I pay foreigners. This barrier is low-end outsourcing’s ultimate downfall.

Known best for its eNom.com domain registry, eHow.com website with how-to articles, and YouTube how-to videos, Demand Media has an interesting business model. Instead of focusing on targeting consumers performing generic online searches, the company focuses on specifics. Or as it says in the IPO registration, “Our approach is driven by consumers’ desire to search for and discover increasingly specific information across the Internet.”

While having an interesting model, the company lost $22 million last year, and $6 million in the first 6 months of this year. For a low-cost business, these losses are hard to believe. The company has about 10,000 freelancers working writing and creating videos for them. They only pay writers about $15/article and the makers of videos about $30. Producing approximately 5,700 new items each day, the company sets a standard for freelancer productivity.

eHow.com and other how-to websites owned by Demand Media are reported to have approximately 86 million unique visitors each month, producing 550 million pageviews each month. Looking at those numbers, I can’t believe how a company like this is unprofitable. After reading an article on Tech Crunch, I learned a lot about where Demand Media was making money and where it wasn’t. Here are some quick facts about Demand Media’s profits:

- 44% of the company’s revenues are from its domain business, eNom.com.

- 45% of  the company’s revenues are from advertisers.

- 26% of the company’s revenues are from Google’s ad program, Google AdSense.

- 21% of the company’s revenues are from the eHow.com website.

After seeing this, I determined that the company is spending way to much money on its content creation for eHow.com. Let me break this down for you. Out of the 5,700 new articles and videos everyday, let’s say that 5,200 are articles and 500 are videos. That means Demand Media is spending about $78,000 on articles and $15,000 on videos each day. That accounts for approximately $33,480,000 in the company’s yearly expenses. Seeing that $33,480,000 in spending is only making up for 21% of the company’s revenue, I think the company should use some of its resources elsewhere.

With all of that being said, it’s still yet to come out where and how Demand Media has lost and is still losing money into this year. Would you invest in Demand Media if it goes public? What do you think of their business model? Submit your comments below.

On my way back from the city today, (surprise, surprise) I received my 9th call from Doba this month. When I asked to be taken off their calling list, the representative laughed and refused my request. He then proceeded to insult me multiple times. I immediately asked to speak with his superviser. I wasn’t going to sit on the phone and listen to this jerk, nor was I going to continue getting calls from Doba. I explained my story to his supervisor, who told me that I was out-of-line and his employee did nothing wrong. The employee fought me about being put on the do not call list (which may or may not exist for Doba), and ended the phone call by hanging up on me mid-sentance.

This experience makes me question 2 things about Doba. First, it makes me question their employment procedures and practices. How exactly do they find these employees? I can promise you that because both the employee and his supervisor I spoke to disrespected me to the extent they did, Doba clearly isn’t too worried about their employees maintaining respect to clients and potential clients. Seeing as that is the first thing most companies look for in positions where employees deal with people, I think calling to question Doba’s employment procedures is reasonable.

Secondly, it makes me question Doba’s business practices. You’d think after asking a total of 5 representatives to be put on a do not call list, you’d be on that list. And yet everytime I ask, the calls continue coming in (and in today’s case, my privacy gets disrespected). Thus making it more than appropriate for me to question their business practices.

Anyways, what’s the moral of the story? Don’t sign up for Doba’s trials or for more information unless you’re ready to be harassed by numerous phone calls until you sign up.

Here’s my thoughts as to why it’s a such a solid concept. The owner only has 8 auctions in a given day. He must be selective because he’s limited to picking such few domains. Therefore, he has the ability to pick the best names to auction off, allowing bidders to bid on these better names.

Now, on a website like TDNAM.com, GoDaddy’s aftermarket, there are tons and tons of auctions going on. It’s tough to find a good name, and takes a lot of your effort and time. With AuctionPus.com, there are normally 8 great names that go through a highly selective process for you to choose from, so you don’t need to waist your time searching and searching and searching some more. As the title says, AuctionPus.com is more selective, which allows bidders to bid on better names, which results in less time and effort on your part because AuctionPus.com won’t spit out thousands of junky domains you’d have to scroll through.

Feel free to leave your reviews or thoughts below in the comments section.