Two domain conferences on agenda for next 6 weeks.

Domain industry professionals have two conferences on the agenda from now until the end of February.

In less than two weeks, DOMAINfest kicks off in Hollywood, California. DOMAINfest, organized by DomainSponsor, is the largest industry conference by attendance. DomainSponsor will spend about $1 million organizing the show, including parties at Universal Studios and the Playboy Mansion. The conference starts January 27 with a “bootcamp” for new and intermediate domainers and the evening will conclude with a Moniker domain auction. Official sessions start January 28.

The agenda for Domainer Mardi Gras is coming together nicely. Organized by Modern Domainer magazine and taking place in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the event runs February 19-21. Domainer Mardi Gras’ educational components will focus exclusively on risk management issues. Panel sessions will include risk management, diversification, running a business offshore, and tax risks. Confirmed speakers include: Matthew Berman from Deloitte & Touche; Sandra Brooks from DomainTaxGuide.com; Andrew Allemann from Domain Name Wire; Ron Jackson from DNJournal; Michael Collins from the Internet Commerce Association; Rick Latona from RickLatona.com; Patrick Carleton from Associated Cities; Tim Cole from ICANN; Craig Rowe from WhyPark.com and Sam Nunez from Sedo.

I will be at both events, so be sure to find me and say hello.

Google Adsense for Domains’ mass-market approach will strain domain name industry.

Almost all of us were surprised today when Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) said it was opening up its Adsense for Domains program. It used to offer domain advertising relationships only to people with massive traffic, then it shut down the application process completely, and now it’s offering it up to anyone with a domain. From talking to a couple sources, it sounds like Google partners were notified of this last week.

To be sure, what Google is offering Adsense account owners is a far cry from the advertising feeds it offers DomainSponsor, Sedo, and Fabulous. But this is a still a major development.

Some of the initial reaction was jubilation. People think that going direct to Google means cutting out the middle man.

I doubt it. Even if there’s some increase in the near term, it allows Google to lower the payouts in the long term. (And a short term increase is doubtful; my tests with the service shows almost all ads are from the content ad feed and quality landing templates are lacking.)

Consider what domain parking companies bring to the picture. First, they bring traffic aggregation. This gives them bargaining power when negotiating payouts with Google. Second, they bring technology that improves earnings and minimizes fraud. There’s a reason DomainSponsor has mathematicians on staff. They’re tweaking everything to maximize earnings. Parking companies have to get the fraud part right because they often times pay earnings to customers before they get their final report from Google.

These benefits cannot be understated.

Now consider what you bring to the table: A little bit of traffic and no technology. If everyone went direct to Google, there would be just as much traffic but no bargaining power and no technology. Whereas parking companies have long term payout contracts with Google, individuals get their payout percentage changed at will.

Soon I’ll be writing about “the Google squeeze” in which Google is able to dial back the revenue share with many of its publishers. It has found a way to do it with parking companies even though they have fixed percentage payouts. By going direct to domain owners, you can expect an even more drastic pullback on payouts.

Is Google doing this to gain bargaining power with the parking companies? Perhaps.

There’s one other angle to consider here. Perhaps Google doesn’t have grand plans. Perhaps it is targeting people that wouldn’t normally qualify to use a domain parking service. Joe Adsense Publisher who has a few spare domains. Google can make money from him. With revenue under pressure, Google is looking for anything to keep the machine going.

But I’m going to bet the company has bigger plans.

Google lets customers bypass DomainSponsor, Sedo, and other domain parking companies.

[See update at bottom with latest information.] In a surprising move, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is now offering Adsense publishers the opportunity to park their domains directly with Google, rather than using a second-tier provider such as DomainSponsor or Sedo. Domain Name News caught on to this official Google post earlier today.

I’m personally shocked at this move, given the retreat Google seems to have been making in the domain channel. Google previously only wanted to work with people generating over 750,000 visits a month, and then later shut down Adsense for Domains applications all together. For now, it seem that Google is not going to cut the long tail out of domain parking. It also isn’t distancing itself further from the industry. It is doing just the opposite.

But before you get excited about going direct to Google, I suspect your earnings will go down by doing so. Domain parking aggregators such as DomainSponsor negotiate high revenue shares with Google, something you won’t be able to do. Additionally, templates are limited to Google’s standard Adsense for Domains landers, which probably won’t convert as well as advanced landers from traditional domain parking companies. Also, you can’t just change your nameservers or forward your domains; you must create an A record and CNAME for each domain.

I suspect Google may be trying to put heat on parking companies by opening up its system to anyone with an Adsense account. At first this program will attract people who only have a handful of domains and can’t get accepted by most domain parking companies, but I’m sure Google will expand it from there.

I logged into my account moments ago to see how it works. The screenshot below shows the option of Adsense for Domains on the Ad Setup tab:

You submit your domains for consideration, and they are “pending” until Google approves them. I suspect it does a general scan for trademarks.

You can edit the colors of your landing pages and suggest keywords that should be used to trigger ads. However, you can’t edit the layout, ad pictures, or customize text.

UPDATED: I have set up my first domain on the service. It was painful setting it up because you have to set up A records and CNAME for each domain. Furthermore, it just uses Google’s simple one-click template. The front page ads are all from the content feed instead of the search feed. It appears that if you click on related links it still shows content ads. The only way it shows search ads is if you actually type in a search term. Let me know if you see otherwise. Also, I’ve heard that a beta tester used the system and received poor results. That doesn’t surprise me. But Google may have some tricks up its sleeves…it always does. Here’s what my landing page looks like:

Social networking tool for domainers not limited to DOMAINfest attendees.

As part of its DOMAINfest Global domain conference, DomainSponsor has launched an online social networking platform called DOMAINfest Connect. It is open to everyone: attendees, potential attendees, and people who just want to network with other people in the domain industry.

DOMAINfest Connect is powered by introNetworks, a social networking platform provider. It’s easy to use and seems to be valuable for making connections before the conference.

After registering for the service you create a profile. The profile system is fun: just drag and drop different characteristics about your business, professional life, personality, and interests. You place up to 10 characteristics in each category on a “scale” weighting how important they are:

After answering a few more questions and submitting your profile, you see a map that shows other people and how closely their characteristics match up with yours. Not only is it interesting to peruse, but it makes it easy to connect with like-minded individuals and even set up meetings with them at DOMAINfest.

Of course, it can be a bit scary too. My closest match is Frank Michlick.

Latest announcement from DomainSponsor puts this conference over the top.

When a conference organizer says the conference will include a “Dinner Party at Unbeatable LA Hotspot”, it’s natural to be skeptical. But DomainSponsor has come through for next month’s DOMAINfest Global event in L.A. As DomainNameNews scooped a couple days ago and DomainSponsor confirmed today, the closing night part for the conference will be a charity event at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. The party will benefit Autism Speaks.

Even before the party was announced I decided this is one conference I didn’t want to miss. I’ve passed on previous DOMAINfest conferences, but after sitting down with Oversee.net (DomainSponsor’s parent company) a couple months ago I realized the trip would be well worth my time. The company is pumping a million dollars into organizing the event. In addition to educational content and domain auctions, attendees will also visit Universal Studios and get exclusive access to two of the rides.

I’ll be speaking at the conference, and I know Elliot Silver will be there as well.

Tickets to DOMAINfest Global 2009 are only $895 through the end of December. The hotel is affordable at only $209 per night. Because of competition, flying to Los Angeles is usually very cheap (I’m flying non-stop for $250).

For more details about the event, visit the DOMAINfest web site.