The inaugural Adspace Conference was held on April 22, 2009 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California in conjunction with ad:tech San Francisco. Adspace’s lead sponsor was Google, and it was billed as a “One-day event, sponsored by Google, to highlight billion-dollar ‘hidden economy’ and best practices leveraging AdSense and other networks.”

The event is still prominently mentioned on the Ad:Tech website, along with a link to its website, located at AdspaceConference.com. Unfortunately for the conference management team, the domain name was allowed to expire on 1/20/2010, and anyone who visits the website will see a Godaddy parking page.

“Contextual advertising is a $6.7 billion industry globally,” says Marc Phillips, co-director, ADSPACE, LLC. “By bringing this community of publishers and advertisers together, ADSPACE can help attendees learn how to make more money from text advertising such as Google AdSense and other affiliate advertising offers.”

Hopefully this was just an oversight rather than a reflection of the future of this conference. Unfortunately, the domain name had a private registration, so I couldn’t contact the previous owner to ask about the domain’s expiration. However, I do recommend registering a name for longer than a year or two, keeping an active credit card on file, and managing your own domain registrations.

On March 10, 2010 at New York City’s Marriott Marquis, the Learning Annex will be hosting its Internet Expo, billed as the “Shortcut To Internet Riches!” As part of the full day session, you will have a chance to learn from one of the most well known domain investors, Marc Ostrofsky,.

As you may know, Ostrofsky was one of the founders of Internet Reit, a large domain investment company in Texas. On the Expo’s page Ostrofsky session is described as follows:

The easiest way to earn a dollar online is simply buying and selling domains. And that’s exactly what Marc Ostrofsky does as the president of Internet REIT, which currently holds approximately 400,000 domains. Find out how he does it… how he sold business.com for a world record $7.5 million…and how can you do the same.

There are a total of 25 Internet experts who will be participating/leading the seminar during the day.  Topics include building a business online, growing a business online, Internet marketing, SEO strategy, the domain session, and many other topics.

The cost of a full day pass is $99.95, and it begins at 9am. I am not attending the conference, but found it interesting that the topic of domain names is being covered as an investment tool rather than as a SEO/business development strategy, which may be more appropriate.

In July, I blogged about the City in a Box platform offered by Fred Mercaldo and his team at Scottsdale.com. A few people asked me if I would be willing to use the platform on one of my websites. I can finally answer that question today.

One of the reasons I flew out to California for Domain Fest was to finalize a couple of deals that have been pending. I am happy to announce that one of the deals has been finalized, and I will be engaging in a marketing/content partnership with Scottsdale.com (see press release below).

Scottsdale.com is one of my favorite developed geodomain names, and I have always admired Fred Mercaldo’s team. They have a great sales staff, and they are clearly experts when it comes to geodomain development and monetization. I am very lucky to be able to work with them on one of my more valuable domain assets.

I’ve known Fred since the Geodomain Expo in Chicago, and I am excited to be working with him on this project.

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Silver Internet Ventures, LLC Announces Partnership with Scottsdale.com, LLC

Companies agree to marketing, advertising, and content distribution partnership for Burbank.com using City in a Box platform

SANTA MONICA, CA (January 26, 2010) – Silver Internet Ventures, LLC and Scottsdale.com, LLC announce a marketing, advertising, and content distribution partnership on Burbank.com, a domain name owned and operated by Silver Internet Ventures. The new website will be built on Scottsdale.com’s proprietary City in a Box platform, and the sales and marketing team at Scottsdale.com will manage sales and content on the website.

“In the year and a half the company has owned Burbank.com, traffic has grown from a few hundred visitors a month to several thousand,” said Elliot J. Silver of Silver Internet Ventures. “As a result of living across the country, it’s been difficult to manage content and ad sales. The Scottsdale.com team has a great sales staff, and they will serve the Burbank market in ways I can’t. This partnership is something I am excited about, and I look forward to working with the Scottsdale.com team.”

“We are very excited to take on the Burbank.com project.  Personally, I have spent a significant amount of time there over the years, and have a pretty good feel about the city and what it has to offer. Billed as the “Media Capital of the World”, it truly is a hub of the entertainment industry, but it is neighborhoods too, and home to over 100,000 PLUS people,” said Fred Mercaldo, of Scottsdale.com.  “We are pleased to be Elliot’s choice to both develop and monetize his Burbank.com asset, and we will exceed his expectations!”

Mercaldo continued, “we will do our best to make Burbank.com a resource that the locals will come to rely on, along with providing visitors a robust site for planning their studio and entertainment industry visits.  Our ‘City In A Box’ software solution is a perfect fit for this site, and we will be announcing a major initiative within the week that will detail our aggressive growth plans for over 30 GeoDomain markets in the US.  Examples of our software can be reviewed at sites such as Palermo.com, Chandler.com, Sunnyvale.com, and more.”

The new Burbank.com website will be launched by April 15, 2010. Companies who are interested in advertising on the new website should email the sales team at sales@burbank.com. A representative will contact you shortly.