Bhavin Turakhia, founder of Directi, the company that owns and operates Skenzo, BigJumbo and DomainAdvertising.com, was selected as a “Young Global Leader” by the World Economic Forum. Turakhia was one of 12 leaders from India that was honored.

There were over 1,000 people considered for this honor (whittled down from an original 5,000+ that were considered), but only 190 leaders were selected. The World Economic Forum considers things such as rapid career progression, delivering results to the leader’s company or organization, altruistic entrepreneurship, and a variety of other factors.

This is a significant honor for Turakhia, and I congratulate him for his achievement.

The full list of Young Global Leaders for 2011 can be found in this pdf on the World Economic Forum website.

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Please help me raise funds for the Ronald McDonald House

Andrew Allemann’s Domain Name Wire was the first domain investment blog, and since that time, it has maintained it’s status as the leading domain blog. Since 2005, Andrew has been providing unbiased industry news and insight on the business of domain names.

It came as a bit of a surprise to me a couple of months ago when Andrew announced that he was going to work for Directi, as Senior VP of Business Development for several of Directi’s media businesses.

I wanted to give Andrew some time to settle into his new role before asking him some questions about this move and how it will impact him, DNW, and domain investors. I appreciate that Andrew took some time out of his very busy schedule to answer the questions below.

ES: What were the factors that contributed to your decision to work for a large domain-related company?

AA: I’ve had a couple companies talk to me over the years about coming to work for them.  It makes sense — I have deep knowledge of the industry and the key people.  I also spend much of my time thinking of ways to make the industry better for domain name owners.

ES: What changes will be noticeable on Domain Name Wire, and how do you plan to alter your reporting on articles that may conflict with your new position?

AA: My deal with Directi includes me retaining ownership and control of Domain Name Wire.

Now that I’ve been working with Directi for a couple months, I can safely say that you shouldn’t notice many differences on Domain Name Wire.  As I announced my new role I reached out to several of my sources and companies in the industry to let them know about the change.  I was expecting some of them to clam up about working with Domain Name Wire in the future, but this was not the case.  Most were supportive.  If there ever is an industry where partners are also competitors, this is it.

As far as DNW content is concerned, if I spend 1 hour a day instead of 8 hours, the difference in what my readers get out of the site probably drops only 10% or so.  There will be a few stories I’m late on or don’t cover because I don’t have time, but this will be minimal.  I’m also working with some industry freelance writers to bolster the site’s content.

Whenever I write about a Directi product I will include a disclaimer in the story.

ES: With a number of domain companies hiring these days, what made you choose to work for Directi’s media businesses?

AA: Leaving the world of being a full-time entrepreneur was not an easy decision.  Had Directi not brought an incredible opportunity to me I would have declined.  Several things drew me to Directi:

-It’s constantly innovating.  It’s not a company that will ever say “Let’s just stick to what we’ve been doing.”

-There’s no committee to make decisions.  It’s in the hands of a couple smart brothers, which means the company is nimble and can move on opportunities quickly.

-It’s based in India.  One of the most important skills needed in today’s world is to be able to work across cultures.  I’m learning quickly what that entails.

-It’s not just a domain company.  I want to expand my knowledge base.  For example, we just launched Media.net, a contextual advertising solution for developed web properties.

ES: For those of us who may not be familiar with the company, please provide some information about it and let us know why we will want to work with your company.

AA: Although Directi owns a top 10 domain name registrar and various related businesses, I’m specifically working with Directi’s media businesses.  This includes two parking companies (Skenzo and BigJumbo) and Media.net, a contextual advertising solution.

Very few domainers have dealt with Skenzo because it targets bigger players that earn $50,000 or more a month.  We recently relaunched BigJumbo, which gives all domainers access to our parking technology regardless of size.

ES: What are you most excited about in your new position?

AA: I’m working with some dynamic and successful people that live half way around the world.  I don’t think about it day-to-day, but it’s really quite amazing: I walk into my office, turn on a big screen TV, and suddenly I’m video conferencing in high definition with people 10,000 miles away.

There’s also nothing boring about this role.  Every day is different, whether it be working on a marketing strategy, making a sales call, or evaluating a new opportunity the company is considering.

I know there are people who swear that more minimal landing page graphics are better for click through rates and ultimately revenue on parked domain names. There are also people who think that a better looking landing page creates a better user experience for visitors, and they will stick around longer as a result.

My company doesn’t do enough parking to really test these theories enough for me to take a guess. However, I’ve recently seen a couple of nice looking landing pages and wanted to share them with you.

The first one is for CampingSupply.com, which appears to be a Dotzup lander based on the DNS. The pictures match the domain name and theme perfectly, and the center links make the lander look like a developed website. I would imagine the links are hand selected to give visitors the options they would expect on a camping supply website. I don’t know the owner, but I believe he has a number of good domain names.

The second landing page I like is a weight loss theme from Domain Advertising. Although they can’t link to the actual website, you can see the test theme on their internal review website. Like the aforementioned landing page, the links are hand selected, and highly relevant to the theme. It’s very easy to navigate, and it looks very similar to a developed website, which probably helps with trust, time on the site, and perhaps CTR.

What are your thoughts on custom landing pages, and have you seen any nice looking ones recently?

I was doing some domain research yesterday when I came across ChristmasTreeLots.com, and I have to say that the landing page is great. In fact, it almost doesn’t look like a parked page at all.  I did a bit of quick research (and emailed the owner), but I am not completely sure which company is behind the parked page, although I believe it might be Skenzo.

The navigation remains very simple, encouraging click throughs, and the top search bar is customized. People are encouraged to “search for the perfect gift,” and you better believe that no matter what they type in, there will be links to that product on the next page. If the owner emails me back, I will ask him how the results compare to other parked domain names that he owns.

Now is a good time to check out some of your holiday-related domain names to make sure they’re well optimized. Parking companies add new templates and images often, so perhaps there’s a better landing page now than there was when you set it up.

Last month at an engagement party, I met a friend of a friend who works for Advertising.com. After brief introductions and small talk, he mentioned that he works for Ad.com. Knowing that Ad.com had just sold at Moniker’s auction for 7 figures, I inquired further, and he mentioned that his company is actually Advertising.com, but everyone calls it Ad.com. Therein lies the problem.

In most cases, when a company or famous person has become known by a nickname, and that nickname or moniker becomes just as famous as the person (and clearly associated with the company or person), that company or person may be able to legally claim common law rights to that nickname or term.

Michael Jordan was known as “Air Jordan” because of his leaping and dunking ability. During his playing days, Nike introduced the Air Jordan brand, and I believe it is still one of their most famous brands. Had Michael Jordan not been known as “Air Jordan,” the term “air jordan” would probably be worthless unless someone else used that term famously. Like Jordan, Advertising.com became known as Ad.com internally and externally, and many people associate the term Ad.com with Advertising.com. However, unlike the term “air jordan,” the term and domain name “Ad.com” has significant value besides its usage by Advertising.com.

As an entrepreneur and marketer, I can commiserate with all parties involved in the situation. The current Ad.com domain owner just wants the sale completed as expected, Moniker/Oversee.net wants the commission they are rightfully owed, Skenzo is worried that they are going to have to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in addition to the purchase price to protect their new investment, and AOL wants to protect the brand they believe is rightfully theirs.

As a domain investor on the other hand, I am very concerned by this move by AOL, and it will make me more vigilant about researching the domain names I buy and develop.