If you want to make it exclusive do it once a year and charge $3k and do the spouse for $1k. Makes more sense to me. I don’t exactly feel pressured to buy tickets to Traffic because I can always attend the next show next month. Do the same people attend all 3 shows, or is it a completely different crowd each time (ignoring the vendors/sponsors).

The NY Yankees had an issue where the price of their field-level seats were very high and many didn’t sell. Despite the fact that the Yankees put out a quality product with some of the best players in the league, they dropped their prices because of the economy last week. People are still saying the tickets are overpriced, as scalpers are selling them for less, but it shows that sometimes price drops are necessary.

I totally agree with you. DomainFest is what I attend every year and that will be it. Rick considers Traffic an investment but I feel buying a good domain name instead of spending money on Traffic is a better investment. I like Rick and I read his blog all the time and respect what he has done, but the price of traffic needs to come way down and you will see many more people attend.

Thanks, Jim

I know, it’s ridiculous. Maybe charging 30-40% of the ticket fee to cover food expenses if your spouse attends, but full price for spouse is trumpeting the word “gouge”.

Heck, I’d do a “team price” where one person pays full price and then brings as many attendees as he/she wants with a 30% discount for anyone in his/her group. But then, I don’t cloak myself in that invisible mantle of 2004 “I’m an insider” mentality. So I believe all people interested in investing in domains should be invited to attend, at a reasonable price. I’d even break it down to “per day” costs.

Some domain conference producers still believe that they have this “magical special quality” because they “know everyone important” in the industry, have a recognizable name, (but so does everyone else who’s been active in the industry for more than three years – look at Elliot, who commands universal respect and knows anyone who is anyone in this business). When your marketing angle is consistently “only the best people attend”, and “invitation only” (then you provide a link for noobies to sign up as a cold lead – lol) blah blah… then you’re just pulling on your name, instead of the benefits you can provide BEYOND meeting other people who think they need to “pay” your sucker high ticket prices to seem as if they are “successful” enough to afford to attend.

I don’t like that marketing angle, because some of the millionaires I know made their money by being thrifty, thinking and buying smart, and saving every possible penny.

Charging ridiculous high prices to attend a domain conference is purely a profit chute, especially when marketing the event mistakenly based on the assumption that the conference is the “best” for you because only those who can afford it are worthy for you to meet. lol… This is an old, flawed and cheezy marketing practice. Why is it flawed? Because it works a few times, but after that (2006)… zzzzzzzzzz

Man, for $2000, you should get your room for free, and all food functions from breakfast to dinner covered (room rate per day average $200 x 3 = $600; food 3×3 at average $25 = $225, total gross cost per attendee = $825). Throw in a few other significant premiums ($175 of nice events/products/speakers per attendee) that benefit your domain business, then I’d be impressed. So $1000 of gross expenses per attendee is not a “gimme” to charge double that, unless you can! And if you can, you got moxy, and more power to you!

But what do I know? Producing a conference is not easy, and most domain conferences make a nice profit after sponsorships and tickets are sold. However, bragging that your conference is the “first and best and everyone else is copying us”, which is kind of pitiful…still sings “Bad Taste” even if nobody says that to your face. If my friends didn’t tell me all the time what an obnoxious person I was, I’d be worse than I already am. Those are friends who truly are friends.

NOTE: Best conference of all the ones I attended, (including the one I produced), is Domainfest ’09. By far. I would try to repeat that same event, same location, maybe new after-event locations (but the same locations of ’09 would suffice). Why? Because most domainers I’ve talked to about Domainfest 09, those who attended told me that conference was the best, and those who DIDN’T attend said they really wish they did, because they HEARD from everyone that it was the best.

Listening Oversee? If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it!