As I sit in the Orange County Airport awaiting departure back home to Texas, I want to take a moment to say a special and very sincere THANK YOU to all of the wonderfully generous sponsors whose contributions helped make DBRFunFest, not only possible, but incredibly memorable.

One of the great things I found in this ‘unconference’ was the unique relationship building it fostered, as opposed to selling.  No one was there to sell anything.  Yet I made some great connections and already have plans to engage with several folks and companies I had the chance to spend time with over the 4-day weekend in Dana Point.

In what amounts to essentially a weekend-long party where no one is selling, one might wonder what’s in it for everyone, particularly those who sponsored.  I can only tell you that I came to Dana Point knowing many folks only as online acquaintances and in some cases friends, and left four days later feeling more like family.  So in answer to that question, I will leave you with another more poignant, which is, “what’s the ROI of your mother?”

Thank you again to all of the sponsors.  A few I have not worked with before but most I have and here I want to toast each of them, and share a bit about some of my own personal experience.

thank you

Go Daddy:  A few of us were commenting over the weekend about how we used to hate Go Daddy, but how things have really come around 180.  When I first started out six or so years ago, I would register my domains anywhere but GoDaddy. Now they’re the primary registrar I choose to house the majority of my portfolio.  I used to despise their support, and now I have not had a bad support experience with them in several years.  Their Premium Domains sales channel is what initially won me back, but the ease of domain management/admin and support have kept me there.

thank you

Rook Media was recently covered in a DNJournal cover story and is a company with quite a bit of interesting background.  Although domain parking doesn’t constitute even a modest portion of my domaining income, I have tested out Rook Media in the past on a handful of domains that weren’t monetizing at all on other providers and was pleased to find some of the domains getting clicks and making money there.

thank you

While I havn’t used Parking Crew before, I know others who have and have heard good things about them.  Since I don’t own a high traffic portfolio, and most of my revenue is made on resale rather than parking, there are still a lot of platforms I haven’t worked with yet.  This is one, but I really appreciated their sponsorship nonetheless.

thank you

Escrow.com is still the only online escrow service I’ve used over the years, and remains so today.  Simple and reliable, just the way it should be. What else can I say?  I really enjoyed talking with Brandon Abbey and Andee Hill who made an appearance at the final wrap dinner.

thank you

Above.com is a company that optimizes parking performance by sending traffic to parking providers on a rotating basis according to what will perform the best for any given day/time/domain/etc, and I’ve written about them before.  They’ve recently launched a new domain marketplace and newsletter who’s layout I really like, and I’m planning to list some of my page rank domains for sale there shortly.

thank you

NameInnovations I’ve not had the chance to do business with but they specialize in domain investing, consulting and domain brokerage, and the owner Kevin is a great guy.

thank you

DBRFunFest was the first I’ve met Morgan, and I wasn’t quite sure how I’d take to him in person.  Due to some other engagements he didn’t make it down until the Saturday night’s dinner.  I grabbed a chair next to him and struck up a conversation, and I have to say that I had so much fun talking with him and was so engaged in our conversation that before I knew it the entree had arrived and I still hadn’t taken a single bite of my salad yet, and maybe two sips of my soup if that.

thank you

Warren Royal of Bobbleheads.com surprised and delighted everyone with some very special custom bobbleheads to present to attendees for take home and some for awards.  The bobbleheads really are remarkable in their level of detail.  Thanks again Warren, it was great to finally meet you as well.

thank you

Last but not least, is another company I’ve not had the pleasure of doing business with before: Golden Knight Media, a professional website development company owned by Charlotte (Charlie) Gilbert.

additional thank you’s

Anonymous donations toward the event were made by a couple Domain Boardroom members that wished to remain anonymous.   I know I speak for everyone in saying that we are all grateful for your very selfless donations, even if you couldn’t be there yourselves, you were there in spirit.

Thank you also to Bill Hartzer of Standing Dog Interactive, an internet marketing agency out of Dallas, for illuminating us with a deep-dive SEO keynote presentation that was very informative and entertaining.

Thanks also to Bob Olea of Domain Sales Plus and Kevin Allen of End User Marketing for all of the legwork in getting things organized (even though Kevin beat me heads up to win the 2013 poker tournament.  I’ll be back!)

Not to leave anyone out, the championship poker bracelet was courtesy of DomainAgents.  Tim Tams were provided by Jen and Mike of DomainGuardians.

And what timing, they are just calling my plane to board now after an hour delay.  Till next year!

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