Although networking with other domain investors is high up on the list of reasons to attend a domain conference, in my opinion, there is one primary reason. Attending a domain conference gives you the opportunity to meet your sales representatives and managers for the companies with whom you do your domain business.

Whether your business primarily relies on domain investing, parking, or other monetization, you can meet the people who can help you when you are in need.

For my domain registrations, I primarily register my names with Moniker. No matter who is running the conference or where it is, I almost always see my account manager Bari Meyerson at the shows. Monte Cahn is frequently there as are other Moniker representatives, but it’s always good to connect with Bari. I also register some names with Godaddy, and my representative, Brad Larson is frequently in attendance.

The same thing goes for domain parking, although you already know by now that I don’t rely on parking for much revenue (under $1,000 per year). However, just about all of the companies are there and have company representatives available to answer questions and address complaints.

I know that if I ever have a problem, I am comfortable calling or emailing Bari and Brad day or night, and I know my issue will be addressed almost immediately. When you establish a personal relationship with the services companies with whom you do business, you are more easily able to reach your sales managers in times of need.

In addition, if your business relies on advertising from companies who exhibit and attend domain tradeshows, this is an opportunity to tell them about your website. If you own DomainInvesting.com and plan to develop a website on it, your best bet is to connect with the right people at the domain show to let them know about your plans and advertising opportunities.

Likewise, attending an industry tradeshow can also be smart when you are developing other domain names in different verticals. Most tradeshows offer free exhibit hall passes, allowing you to meet with vendors who may want to advertise on your website. This is a topic for another post.

Upcoming domain conferences where most domain companies will be in attendance include:

• Targeted TRAFFIC – January 21-23 in Las Vegas, Nevada
• DomainFest – January 26-28 in Santa Monica, California
• Domainer Mardi Gras – February 11-13 in New Orleans, Louisiana

Is it really Saturday already?  It feels a bit like the movie Groundhog Day with the past few days off.  Anyhow, here are some of my random, rambling, somewhat coherent (hopefully) thoughts this Saturday morning following the New Year’s festivities.

(Ironically enough, I accidentally hit post late Friday night when I wrote this instead of for first thing Saturday morning)

• Have you ever seen an active company looking to sell its brand domain name? I hadn’t until I did a Whois search for InternetReit.com. There was a small graphic at the top of the page that said, “InternetReit.com is for sale. The owner of the domain you are researching has it listed for sale for $29484.” I know Internet Reit, Inc uses IReit.com for its website, but I wonder why they’d be willing to let this generic brand name go for under $30,000.

• I was just checking my stats this morning to see how much traffic my blog received last year. Well over a quarter of a million visits according to Google Analytics. That’s a big increase from the year prior and a very cool number to see. Thank you for visiting!

• I haven’t had the chance to do this update yet, but I figured I would remind you while I am thinking about it. Don’t forget to change your copyright notices on your websites to 2010 from 2009.

• I’d like to welcome some of my new advertisers and thank them for their support. IDNTools.com and Above.com are new advertisers to my blog, and DomainTools has increased its presence. Of course, I would like to thank my current roster of advertisers for continuing to advertise on my blog.