Bill Sweetman of NameNinja is back on the show today, and I promise you're going to get a ton of ideas from this show. Bill spends his days helping companies buy domains, and today he talks about his strategy for identifying the right person at a company, figuring out the profile of who should contact them, communication channels and some zany ideas to get a response when all else fails. LIke sending out a bat-signal.

2019 is coming to a close. A year ago, 18 people made predictions about what would happen in the domain industry this year. Who was right and who was wrong? You’ll find out this week when you listen to the predictions people made. I’ll also recap the predictions I made and whether or not they came true.

Also: .Org pricetag, Ethos talks, fractional domain ownership, NameSilo’s rank 

Does making tweaks to domain sales landers lead to increased sales? That’s one of the questions I ask Doron Vermatt, co-founder of Efty, on today’s show. We also discuss Efty’s sales volume, how to optimize sales and what it’s like running a business that caters to domain investors. 

This week I catch up with domain broker James Booth of Phenom.com (formerly BQDN.com). We first talked in 2016 when he was just starting in the domain industry and had already brokered $5 million of domains in his first six months. At the time, 95% of his transactions involved people in China. In this episode, James gives his take on the implosion of the Chinese domain market. He also explains what’s happening in the overall domain market now that one word .com domains are so expensive, how much trading goes on among domainers, and what will happen to domain investing during the next recession.

I spent last week in Montreal at the ICANN meeting. While there, I sat down with Namescon CEO Soeren von Varchmin to talk about January’s conference. After many years in Las Vegas, NamesCon is moving to Austin. Soeren explains why it’s moving and why you should attend. He also explains how running a conference for the domain business is different than for the hosting business.

Also: Tucows sells its domain portfolio, ICANN’s expected decision, True Detective, Sixth Street, Jimmy Wales, MarkMonitor and more.

Some people are good domain name investors. Others are good site developers. Richard Lau and James Morfopoulous are a rare breed; they are both good domain investors and site developers. They built up Resume.com and sold it to Indeed. Now they are creating Logo.com. Hear what they have to say about the value of a good domain when developing a business. Also learn what types of domains they buy, how they price them, and their strategy for selling domains.

Also: Facebook cybersquatting fight, late renewal fees, new .new, and Afilias’ pay cut.

Two weeks ago, Shane Cultra and I discussed some improvements we wanted GoDaddy to make. On today’s show, GoDaddy VP of Aftermarket Paul Nicks comes on the show to discuss some of the fixes and improvements the company is making. We also talk about the future of the aftermarket and where domain investing fits into the broader domain name ecosystem.

Building links and authority for a new website is hard but there’s a way to skip a lot of the work. Today’s guest, Sean Markey, explains how to find expired domains and turn them into websites to leverage their search value. 

Also: Scratch.org, cybersquatting disputes, Sedo and more

GoDaddy has made many improvements to its domain platform. What more can it do to make the experience better for domain investors going forward? On today’s show, Shane Cultra and I discuss some ideas for the company that dominates the domain name aftermarket.

Also: Pablo Escobar, domain hijacking, .UK, .Uno, and Tucows sends its cows out to pasture.