A year ago, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The year 2011 didn’t seem too promising, either health-wise, or economically. There was massive unemployment, stocks were down, real estate was in the toilet, and domain parking platforms were sinking like BP in the Gulf of Mexico. Though my law practice was doing fine (and, thank God, still is), we were faced with doing only one T.R.A.F.F.I.C. show the whole year for the very first time since our first show in 2004. My domain portfolio is OK, but nothing to write home about.
All of the above could have spelled doom and gloom, but I decided to take the high road and enjoy life and make lemonade out of lemons. So in February, Barbara and I traveled out to California for our first DomainFest. While we had the opportunity to spend quality time with Chris and Linda Hartnett, Mike and Judi Berkens, Ron and Diana Jackson and Michael and Sheri Castello, we were stricken with Legionairres Disease and were under the weather for over a month.
In May, Barbara and I decided to celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary on a 2 week cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal. Once again, we enjoyed our trip, but had to overcome no air conditioning in our cabin for the first 3 hot days, fog that was so thick that our tender couldn’t find the ship in Newport, Rhode Island and had to skip a scheduled port in Gloucester, Massachusetts; it rained constantly (or sometimes snowed); the St. Laurence Seaway was so high that we had to take a bus to Montreal because the ship couldn’t go under the power lines; and the internet was not only expensive, but didn’t function at crucial times.
The Summer was spent recuperating from treatment of the prostate cancer, but I can happily say that the medical team was superb and I am cancer free.
Thanks to the great planning of my partner, Rick Schwartz and the hard work of Alina, Ray, Kim, Chris and Danny, T.R.A.F.F.I.C. was a big success. One person worked harder at making sure that everyone had a room to stay in and was greeted warmly and treated to a great show – my wife Barbara. All one has to do is go to Facebook and see the pictures of the event at the Ritz Carlton that Barbara took to know how important it was for each person to attend and how much everyone enjoyed the occasion.
Finally, Barbara and I traveled to Las Vegas to scout out hotels and had site visits at the Wynn/Encore, Bellagio, Vdara, Aria, Cosmopolitan, Mirage, and Caesars for an upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Some hotels were a good fit and others weren’t, but we are still trying to work out dates with the ones that do work.
Finally, there are some new and exciting monetizing solutions that have appeared during the year, some more successfully than others. The one that drew the most excitement was Frank Schilling’s new monetization platform that only takes premium domains. I know, because he wouldn’t take any of mine for InternetTraffic.com. Meanwhile, Scott Richter started TheParkingPlace.com, John Ferber is the driving force behind DomainHoldings.com and its monetization platform DomainPower.com, and Michael Gilmour has put a great team together and has had a great deal of success with ParkLogic.com. And now Donny Simonton has started up Voodoo.com, which is working hard to make its presence known.
Finally, I wish to thank you, the readers of this blog, that encourage me to keep on bringing you the latest news from Capitol Hill and the UDRP. I enjoy doing it and hopefully, I will continue to bring you news that you can use. Please either comment below or email me as to any suggestions that you may have on subjects that you would like to see covered here in the future.
Thanks for “listening”
Howard
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