In life, I find it very important to support something bigger than yourself and self interests.  The rewards to doing this are delivered in different forms and can not be predicted.  Unfortunately, there are many people who will only support something if they can directly benefit from it.    

Page Howe from DnTV.tv, is a gentleman who has consistently proven his support to something bigger, thru multiple domain transactions that support the Internet Commerce Association (ICA).  He recently purchased WestOrlando.com for $500.00 from the ”Support ICA Thru Sales” section of the blog.  I would like to thank Page Howe for completing the transaction yesterday.  This transaction will be donated to the ICA by SimplyGeo.com, LLC. 

We will continue to list names for sale that support the ICA, so please submit names you wish to donate.  Names do not have to be geo domain related, but must be in good taste.  The names listed so far, are all names that I have donated.  Please help me make this section a success by either donating or buying some great names that will support the ICA.       

A while back, I said SimplyGeo.com would join the ICA as a professional I member.  I wanted to give readers an update to our membership pursuit that is long overdue and I apologize for not keeping readers informed.  After reading all membership plans, it appears that SimplyGeo.com only qualifies to join the ICA as a Silver, Gold, or Platinum member.  Since our network will deliver an array of services to domainers and developers, we do not meet the criteria for the other membership plans.   

However, we will still support the ICA with domain sales thru the blog and donate to do our part and help protect the domain industry.  It will take a great deal of time before we become members of ICA, but hopefully our actions will show our support to ICA and encourage new membership on the individual level.   

I have listed ICA’s membership guidance for your convienence:

“Businesses that earn a major part of their revenue by providing products or services to domain investors and developers must join as Silver, Gold or Platinum member.”

 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. 

All the blogs in the domain industry have written articles on the ICA and the current threat of the industry with the introduction of the Snowe Bill. I really have done my best to stay away from discussing this topic. My personal feelings surrounding this topic might not be what people want to hear. We are in this position because domainers have failed to evolve throughout the years to protect their assets as a unified front.

Because I have received several of emails and some blog posts recommending I cover this topic, I will.  It will be published in two articles. The first will discuss the domain industry and domainer habits, and the second will focus on how you can make a difference and protect your assets. This post will probably be controversial, but in order to understand why things are in the current state in the industry, we must look to the past for answers.

The domain industry started gaining momentum in 1998. Of course back then, people did not consider it an industry. It was considered an opportunity, and many people figured out how to take advantage of this opportunity and generate revenue with domain names. Sure there were names registered before 1998, but the market did not start evolving until 1998. The domain industry was born internationally over night with the sale of business.com in November 1999 for $7.5 million by Marc Ostrofsky and the rest is history.

“Our industry is at risk” is the tagline you will find on almost every blog discussing the ICA.  Join the ICA now because of the Snowe Bill is definitely the wrong message to promote to form a unified front.  I find this a little frustrating when I read this throughout the blogs, as many use these key phrases because it is the hot topic. History always repeats itself in different manifestations, if you stay around long enough. For many of the old school domainers who started in 1999 and earlier, these words are nothing new. They have been preached since November 1999.

The domain industry has been under attack since November 1999 when Congress added a new cause of action to the Lanham Act (15 USC S.1125(d)) ["Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act"] expressly designed to prevent cybersquatting. This is when the cease and desist letters flooded everyone’s mail box. Am I right domainers? ICANN and WIPO became mainstream in the industry once this law was passed.

What did domainers do? Absolutely nothing. As time went on, they continued to take care of “Number 1″ and focus on building their portfolios. Many of them were sued and taken to WIPO only to lose their valuable names. There were hundreds of factual stories going around every month on people loosing names to companies because of the new law and WIPO decisions. Again, domainers did not nothing. They focused on themselves and faced issues individually. The industry was very divided back then and secretive. It was all about hording information to advance your self interests and everyone could care less who they screwed over building their portfolio. Trust me when I tell you, that many of the leaders in the industry today, were not about helping anyone but themselves back then, or if they did help, they had a hidden agenda.  This is how the domain industry evolved. There was no sharing of information like the transformation of the industry in 2007 where industry leaders decided to share insight and useless secrets. Unfortunately, I see this same type of behavior occurring in the new generation of domainers. This all must end and a unified front must be established. This is why I took the bull by horns and chose the geo domain industry to build a unified front.

Domainers have had many opportunities to unite and form an organization to combat laws aimed at the industry since November 1999, and they refused to unite. It was not until late 2006 that the ICA was established by big players in the industry to protect “their assets”, I mean the industry.

They have the most to lose and the writing was on the wall of new laws coming to fruition against domain owners. The only way to protect their assets and their way of life was to form ICA and get the small guys to pay for the funding after the initial investment thru membership and donations. It was the cheapest way to protect their assets. That is how things have been done for thousands of years by big corporations and elections, if you take the time to research historical events. The great thing about forming the ICA regardless of the hidden agendas, it will also protect everyone in the industry and form a unified front for the first time ever in the industry.

You see, it is not hard to predict what is coming in any industry if you analyze market history across different platforms. Domainers look at individuals as visionaries when they say something and then it happens, but they are simply repeating something that has already happened in another market and it is inevitable of occurring in the domain industry. The real estate market closely resembles the domain industry. Historically, you can see the trends by starting back in the wild wild west days when the rail road wanted everyone’s land in its path and it has evolved from that point, much like our industry.

I am done talking about the past, it is time to focus on the future. The future demands a unified front in order for everyone to continue their hobby, part-time business, business, or livelihood in the domain industry. I felt it was important to outline the characteristics of domainers throughout the years, to see why the industry has not evolved into a unified front. This is why it is so hard to get domainers to support the ICA, or anything they can not directly profit from, they are simply used to doing things on their own. It is a hard habit to break and it is the reason some people have stopped blogging, you simply can’t force change, just inspire it.  In my next post, I will do my part to break this habit and educate individuals on how to protect their assets.  The information will not be forced and will simply be placed on the table for you to digest when you are ready.  I am sure I have offended some people, however the statements I have made are factual. The truth is always in the pudding!

I will post part 2 later today. Thanks.