Jamie Parks Donates Contest Winnings To ICA
Jamie Parks has generously asked to donate his $50 prize to the Internet Commerce Association. Done.
For those that are unfamiliar with the ICA, it’s a non-profit group that represents domain investors and developers. They’re fighting for us and what we do.
They accept donations. But you can also join as an Associate Member for $295 annually, with additional more expensive, and involved, memberships available. I know this fee is not feasible for most people. And I won’t say that you need to join it without having done so myself. I will say that I will be joining them when I can and perhaps you should consider it as well, when you can.
In fact, if any of you are in a generous enough mood to speed up the process for me and purchase the domain I have listed for sale in the right column, I’ll sign up as an Associate Member immediately and donate an additional $700 to the ICA. Just saying 
Again, thanks Jamie for participating and generously offering your prize to the ICA.
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Proof That The Good Domains Aren’t All Gone
There were many submissions for the motto contest and I want to thank everyone for their comment and email entries. I narrowed the field down to 13 mottos. I would have been completely satisfied with any of these, but there was one that I thought did a little more to describe this blog than the others.
Proof That The Good Domains Aren’t All Gone
I liked this one because it offered a point of view of what this blog is about that the name TrendDomaining.com didn’t already imply.
It was submitted by Jamie Parks of Domainer Developer. And I’ll likely take his advice, too, in rotating my motto somewhere down the line (because this motto suggests only hand registers). But for now this one will be excellent.
Jamie, please send me your paypal address and I’ll be speedy on the prize.
I was a little disappointed in the DigitalPoint forums. A few days after posting the contest there, my $50 motto contest had 2 replies and about 40 views. A $5 logo contest had 15 replies and over 100 views. Go figure.
Here is a list of my other 12 favorites:
- Setting the trend for the domains to come
- The Next Generation of Generic Domains
- Predicting The Domains of Tomorrow
- Researching The Domains of Tomorrow
- Pioneering Domain Name Research
- Helping Make Trends Pay For Domainers
- Ultimate domain consultancy
- Discovering Tommorrow’s Top Domains, Today
- F.orgreat domaining .info .come and visit .us on the .net <– nifty!
- In search of the next big domains
- Pulse Of Domains
- Earn more money off domain flipping by following the trends
Again, many thanks to everyone that took the time to enter into this contest. It is much appreciated.
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Fantasy Football Is Not The Only Fantasy In Town
Fantasy Football (FF) is not new, after all I started playing it in 1997 when I took a rookie named Corey Dillon and everyone thought I was crazy. That marked the beginning of my years of total ownage in this mouse-potato game. In the past few years it has grown absolutely huge, and there is plenty of money involved both online and offline. Offline FF is fun. It’s like herding wet cats, but it’s fun.
Justin over at NameBio is hosting a league this year. I’m excited to participate and look forward to some good times.
But this post isn’t entirely about FF, as everyone is familiar with it by now.
To round out the big four of sports, fantasy basketball and hockey are played, but not hugely popular. Fantasy baseball is more widespread, but is still not even close to touching football. I don’t see these three becoming any more or less popular anytime soon.
Other sports that have joined the fun are golf, soccer, wrestling and auto racing. But they haven’t shown continuous growth.
There are a few that have been steadily growing, such as cricket, tennis, rugby and fishing, as shown in this Google Trends report. Sure, they won’t reach anything close to FF’s height, but you don’t need to work with the top dog to make money.
Though FF has spawned fantasy games in other sports, you will find the biggest uphill trend in non-sport fantasy games.
Do you cheer when a bill is passed? Then perhaps Fantasy Congress is the game for you. Yea, you read that right.
Movie junkie (like me)? Then join the Fantasy Mogul league.
When an athlete commits a crime, are you always saying “I KNEW it was a matter of time before he got caught firing off a gun at a nightclub” ? Well, then this sports criminal fantasy league is for you.
Celebrity hound? Well there’s plenty out there for you, such as this.
Everyone loves music. So obviously there would be a league for that too.
Expect a growing trend of non-sport fantasy leagues. Spouses of FF gamers will want to offset the craziness with something of their own. I can see this trend getting bigger and bigger.
So, (most) domainers don’t have the skills to create fantasy leagues from scratch. The thing to sell here is information. Fantasy gamers eat it up. They aren’t satisfied with getting info from just one site, they go from site to site digesting everything they can. They want to win and are willing to do an awful lot to make sure that they do, including spending money. They will pay for information. They will buy guides and excel spreadsheets. All you need to do is get ranked by Google.
With that said, the corresponding domain names should work as well. Most of this would be generic keywords, so trademarks shouldn’t be a problem. Try formats like:
- XXXXFantasy.com
- XXXXFantasyLeague(s).com
- XXXXFantasyGuide(s).com
- XXXXFantasyHelp.com
- XXXXFantasyDraft.com
- XXXXFantasyCheatsheet(s).com
- XXXXFantasyTips.com
- XXXXFantasyPicks.com
- XXXXFantasyGame.com
- XXXXDraft.com
- XXXXDraftHelp.com
- XXXXGuide(s).com
- XXXXFAQ.com
- XXXXLeague(s).com
Know what I want to see? A Domain Name Fantasy League. I know I’m not the first, because someone has already registered all the best appropriate domains and they’re all parked. I was still able to register a couple: DomainingLeague.com and DNFantasyGame.com.
Instead of predicting stats, you can predict domain sales. The more accurate you are, the more points you win. Why has someone not done this yet? Domainers love to predict sales. They love to speculate on how much a domain is worth. Sports are seasonal. Not domaining; this is year-round. You can make the seasons as long as you want.
Someone will have the time and resources to do this, and it will be a hit.
You heard it here first.
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Baby Boomers Will Trigger Many Trends
Boomer companions/caregivers where chosen as one of the top jobs of the near future, as chosen by MSNBC. They’re absolutely right. In fact, the Boomers will trigger several huge trends that have already begun to reveal themselves and will be in full swing just 2 years from now.
There are 78 million Boomers, and in the next couple years many of them will be turning 65, making them eligible for Medicare. 78 million! To give you an idea of how many people that is, it is the same amount that live in our three most populated states:
The Baby Boomers are going to begin retiring and hitting up that Medicare. Expect a surge in age-related illness/treatments such as Alzheimer’s and Diabetes in the next couple years. But is that really all that 78 million people can give us?
Hell no. You see, these people will be retiring and that will set in motion oodles of trends.
To start, someone must fill their positions at the workplace as Baby Boomers are one third of America’s workforce. This is something I pointed out in a post about Generation X. Gen X is set to take over. Know their tendencies, likes, dislikes, whatever.
Second, these people may be retiring from their careers, but some (actually, I think most… and so does CNN) will move on to an every-day job… either by necessity to pay the bills, by choice to fill the time, or to fulfill their lifelong dream of starting a business. You should see a boom in the following industries due to retired Boomers:
- Senior job placement and training services. To help them find a job they’ll be happy with.
- Volunteer and non-profit (especially the Peace Corps). Now that they have the time, many will volunteer it.
- Consultants. Many of these seniors will become consultants for the very field they retired from.
- Temp Agencies. Many people turn to them, and Boomers like them because it’s most likely how they started.
- Houseboats. Both sales and rentals. Boomers love them and can now actually spend time in them.
- RV’s. Oh this will be big. You heard it here first: I don’t care about the gas crisis, Boomers LOVE their RV’s. Boomers love to travel, and they’ll do it in an RV.
Third, Boomers are going to want to live in their dream home. The key is WHERE their dream home is located. Like I said: they love to travel, so Boomers have timeshares, second homes and favorite vacation spots all across the U.S. These are the places they will want to move to. So where are these?
In no particular order:
- Flagstaff, AZ
- Tucson, AZ
- Sedona, AZ
- Palm Springs, CA
- San Diego, CA
- Lake Tahoe, CA
- Aspen, CO
- Boulder, CO
- Tampa, FL
- Port St. Lucie, FL
- Sarasota, FL
- Key West, FL
- Orlando, FL
- Boca Raton, FL
- Fort Myers, FL
- Cape Cod, MA
- Santa Fe, NM
- Las Vegas, NV
- Reno, NV
- Myrtle Beach, SC
- Hilton Head Island, SC
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Anywhere Hawaii
- OK, anywhere Florida
- The Caribbean
Boomers already own timeshares or second homes in these cities. I feel there will be a significant surge in population in most, if not all, of these cities/places over the next couple years as the Boomers move in permanently. They are already familiar with them and will want to spend their remaining days, and money, in the place that most makes them happy. Expect healthy real estate markets in these cities.
I’m sure there are plenty more trends as 78 million people are bound to produce many. Are there any you can see the Boomers setting off?
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What Careers Will Be Most Popular In 4 Years?
MSNBC has posted it’s top 10 hot jobs for 2012. One or two of these may be a bit of a reach, but I think they are certainly on to something on every single one of these. A couple may even ring a bell. That’s partially because I’ve already blogged about their industries.
- Organic food producers, retailers
- Computational biologists
- Parallel programmers
- Data technologists
- Simulation engineers
- Boomer companions, caregivers
- Genetic counseling
- Brain analysts
- Space tour guide (Blogged about it here)
- Robot builders, tenders (Blogged about it here)
Loads of opportunities for domainers here. I think if you focus a small portion of your portfolio to some of these you can’t go wrong.
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