UPDATE:  The ICA has updated their site and listed Sponsors.  You can view the list of sponsors HERE.

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Why should you join the Internet Commerce Association?  Before we talk about this topic, I would like to state an important fact to the public.  We have not donated to the ICA or are we members as of yet.  We thought it was important to let the industry discover the true value of the ICA by all the discussions throughout the industry on the recent Snowe Bill.  If there was a hidden agenda with ICA, the public would have discovered it by now. 

Even though I wanted to stay clear of this topic, my intentions were to promote the ICA eventually without giving the full details of my last post.  I would like to thank readers for encouraging me to discuss this topic openly without having to hide my true feelings of why we are in this current position in the industry.  I had no idea it would become a popular post.  I honestly thought it would bring alot of negative remarks.     

Our goal with these topics are to encourage everyone to join the ICA collectively.  If we were members already, many of the blog readers may have thought that we had a hidden agenda being apart of the ICA encouraging membership.  This is unfortunately the truth.  That is why we found it very important to promote the ICA as a non member after obtaining all the facts, so we could all collectively move forward and either donate or join the ICA together. People would rather hear and make a decision about an organization from a trusted neighbor, than to hear it from the company sales man/woman.  Hopefully, we will inspire membership after reading the topics and the comments from readers.

There have been alot of people promoting the ICA recently because of the Snowe Bill.  Many have even stressed that it is imperative to join the ICA because of the Snowe Bill.  (I am not going to get into the Snowe Bill, there is already plenty of information available on it.)  This is the wrong message to promote and inspire support for the ICA.  There will be many more bills trying to get passed into laws to come, so to focus on only one to support the ICA is foolish. 

Why should you join the ICA?  I am going to keep this as short as possible and give you my reasons for joining or donating.  If you want more, there is plenty of detailed articles already written in the industry.  The main reasons why you should support the ICA are to keep the industry safe from corporate America, to continue to have the opportunity to build wealth on the internet, and most importantly to establish a unified front of professionals. 

Positive change does not happen on its own.  It takes people to make it happen and for them to put their self interest aside and embrace something that is bigger than themselves.  People bring value to everything, will you become apart of the solution, or remain a part of the problem?  We have already proven that individuals can not protect this industry or create positive growth, regardless of the amount of money they have earned from domain names.  In order to prevent the industry from staying in a reactive state, we must all unite and support ICA and keep this industry growing positively and in a proactive state.  The time has come to unite! Will you stay an individual?           

There are a variety of things you can do to support the ICA. 

Action 1: Write or email your congressman/woman with the letter ICA has prepared to combat the Snowe Bill.
Action 2: Donate a name to be sold and donate proceeds to ICA
Action 3: Make a donation to ICA
Action 4: Join the ICA for $295 as an associate
Action 5: Join the ICA as a Professional Member (I, II, III)
Action 6: Join the ICA as Sponsor (Silver, Gold, Platinum)

I will publish a part 3 to discuss how to protect your assets. It has already been said many times throughout the years.  Development.