T.R.A.F.F.I.C-- You're Welcome Yahoo

"When you park a name – especially a really good one – you are essentially consigning it to a slow death." ~~ David Castello

Mike Berken's post today about PPC and the Traffic show reminded me of something I wrote a year ago in anticipation of the last New York show called T.R.A.F.F.I.C. NY Features $5 Billion Name. Here's an excerpt:

"Imagine you have a PPC portfolio that has earned $500,000 over the last three years. You thought that 3x that revenue would be an easy sale to close. And now this year you are down 30% and worried sick. So here's how you can see the forest through the trees. As you walk around the floor at T.R.A.F.F.I.C and come face to face with the CEO of your PPC provider say "You're welcome for the $500,000 MY DOMAINS earned you over the last 3 years and for the 3x value it added to the stock of your company."

Then when you see the Yahoo or Google guy say "You're welcome for the $800,000 MY DOMAINS earned you over the last three years, for the extra money you made by blocking my domain from the search results or delivering a search bar type in to your results page hijacking the user intention. You're welcome for my contribution to your record results, to the increased value of your stock options and please tell the Masseuse who cashed out her options as a millionaire, I was so happy I could contribute to her lifetime dream. Then when you see the CEO of your registrar be sure to say "You're Welcome for all the revenue I contributed by taking risks and investing my hard earned money in ensuring my portfolio was profitable so you could be assured a reliable recurring revenue stream-- so reliable that you could be acquired for 3x my revenue and everyone Else's."

The point is that domainers walk around with low self-esteem feeling that they are getting away with something that's wrong, something that's easy, something they shouldn't be entitled to. The truth is that the domainer is the bread winner, supporting a whole family of dependents before feasting on the crumbs. If you don't believe this just look at the stocks of the companies involved. Or the gains of the shareholders of these companies. YOUR success is their success.

You've had it wrong thinking it's the other way around.

Therefore everyone has skin in the game and is equally motivated to work together to clean up what's diluting the Traffic quality score and work longer and harder to deliver new solutions. This is your time, your moment to stay in the forums, listen to the speakers, ask questions and hold them accountable. You deserve and shouldn't expect to leave the conference with anything less than unbridled confidence in the tools, strategies, partners and commitment of everyone to ensure a prosperous future."