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Specialists in Generic |
A personal account of Internet World 2009by Edwin Hayward NOTE: This is the second year in a row that Memorable Domains exhibited at Internet World. Click here for a look at our 2008 experience. Memorable Domains had a stand at the 2009 Internet World show in Earls Court, London (from April 28 to April 30, 2009). We were on Stand E5009, about four rows of stands in from the door on the right-hand side, for anyone who attended the show and was trying to figure out if they saw us there or not. Hollywood's golden rule seems to be that sequels should to be bigger and louder; we subconsciously followed the rule with a much larger stand than last year's, in a prime position right next to Nominet. More posters, bigger fonts, and up to 3 of us manning the stand (my wife pitched in from time to time, and my friend Mark was back doing sterling duty). While the overall show experience wasn't vastly different from last year, there's clearly a growing understanding of the importance of securing a good generic domain name, as we spent much less time on "education" and a lot more on answering queries about specific names and niches, and going through lists of domains with potential buyers. A lot of the stand visitors were representatives from SEO firms, who made securing an appropriate generic domain name one of the foundation stones of the SEO work they were doing for new clients. SEM firms and others involved in PPC marketing also seemed present in number, and we shared with them the results of our recent study that showed that the use of a generic domain name in a PPC campaign can double traffic. The actual process of exhibiting seemed much more manageable than last year, no doubt aided by the fact we knew what to expect this time around! While we were certainly tired at the end of each day, there wasn't the same feeling of total exhaustion, though that may also be because we benefitted from more fresh air thanks to being near the main doors. |