TRAFFIC awards ceremony concludes in Miami.

Just moments ago TRAFFIC announced the winners of its annual awards at the TRAFFIC conference in Miami. The show organizers said they received a record number of votes.

Best new monetization solution – Whypark
Best overall domain solution – Sedo (second year in a row)
Developer of the year – Rob Monster (with Epik)
We get it award – National A-1 (owners of some of the best premium generic domain names)
Best domain news blog – Elliot Silver (Elliot’s Blog)
Sponsor of the Year – .Co (who put on a great party at the Versace Mansion last night)
Domainer of the Year – Gregg McNair (PPX, also promoter of The Water School)
Domainer Hall of Fame – Monte Cahn and Rick Latona

Highlights from first full day of conference in Miami.

The second full day of T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami is about to kick off. But before getting to that, here’s a quick video of a few scenes from the first full day in Miami.

The day started off with a 10 am brunch and opening remarks by Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu. Next, congressman Cliff Stearns chatted with Howard Neu about some of the legislative issues facing the domain name industry.

The afternoon included a few sessions, followed by Test Track (sponsored by .co) that featured two entrepreneurs pitching business plans. Then everyone headed off to the Versace Mansion for a great party (also sponsored by .co).

Congressman addresses domain conference in Miami, Florida.

Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) addressed the TRAFFIC domain conference this afternoon. About 75 people were in attendance during Stearns’ fireside chat with show organizer Howard Neu. Stearns was joined by retired Congressman Mike Ferguson. Stearns is a member of the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, and Ferguson was on this subcommittee while he served.

Stearns said there are lot of things people in the domain name industry should be concerned about:

-Cybersecurity, shutting down your domain names, and trademarks
-ICANN, concerns about moving it to under umbrella of United Nations, Stearns said he’s been fighting this
-Net Neutrality, possible taxes on internet service
-Reciprocity for fraud overseas
-Copyright infringement/trademark
-Re-write of the 1996 Telecommunications Act

Stearns said the domain industry should look to Congress to set a level playing field. He said that if a big company sues you over a trademark, odds are you’re going to wilt because they have more money than you.

Ferguson noted that there are a special interests that are getting their voices heard, and the domain name industry needs to do the same thing.

Domain name registrar sponsors a college football bowl game.

After years of advertising in the Super Bowl, GoDaddy is upping its football ante by sponsoring its own college football bowl game. The company will be taking over what was the GMAC Bowl, and it will now be known as the GoDaddy.com Bowl.

The game takes place January 6, 2011 in Mobile, Alabama, and features teams from the Mid-American and Sun Belt Conferences. It’s a smaller bowl game (last year Troy faced Central Michigan) but takes place later in the bowl season.

The company will be giving away 3,000 tickets to Mobile area youth for a special “kids zone”.

More details are available at GoDaddyBowl.com.

Big announcements coming this week that will change the domain aftermarket.

The business of selling domain names to end users will forever be changed before the end of this year.

Domain Name Wire has learned that this week Afternic will announce it has inked agreements with both eNom and Moniker to be Premium distribution partners. They will join Network Solutions and Register, giving Afternic deals with 4 of the top 10 registrars for premium distribution. Afternic also has a deal with GoDaddy Auctions. These deals will be fully implemented before the end of the year.

What does this mean? Domain owners who have their domains registered at eNom (owned by Demand Media) or Moniker (owned by Oversee.net) will be able to list their domains at Afternic’s Premium level. Premium listings are syndicated across all premium partners’ sites. If someone is searching at Network Solutions to register a domain you own and have listed through the system, they’ll be able to purchase the domain name through the registrar. The domain will also be instantly transferred to the buyer regardless of which of the four registrars currently has the domain.

Getting your domains into the “registration path”, which this allows you to do, is key to selling to end users. I’ve talked to a couple people who have used Premium listings on Afternic who say the results have been remarkable.

The big win for Afternic with these two registrars is inventory. Yes, it helps that domains will be listed for sale on both web sites, but the real win is getting access to inventory at two registrars that are popular with domain investors. Network Solutions and Register are key to end user sales.

I’m not sure how the deals are structured for eNom and Moniker. I suspect they get a cut of the action. But more importantly this is another customer retention tool. I’ve moved a number of my domains from Moniker to GoDaddy over the past year to take advantage of GoDaddy’s premium listing service.

Yesterday Afternic changed its promotion levels and commissions. The commission for these Premium level listings is 20%, or 15% if the domain name is parked with Afternic/SmartName.

This is going to be a really big deal for domain owners.