Category: Guest blogging

2017, The Year of the Customer? 4 Trends to Watch in the New Year

Last year, nearly every sector was affected by the emergence or adoption of a tool or technology – think big data or the Internet of Things. It’s safe to say that in 2016, tech-driven business innovation became mainstream. And technology hasn’t just transformed the way companies do business – it’s transforming the way they build relationships with their customers.Big data and IoT have been the talk of the town for years, and now we’re just starting to skim the surface of their benefits. As companies navigate through the wealth of info available, these insights will inform the way we make decisions, which platforms we’ll offer consumers to engage in and how and where they will purchase goods or services. In essence, more products and services will begin to be shaped by the customer for the customer.

Read the rest in this article I wrote for MarTech Advisor.

It’s the end of domain search as we know it (and I feel fine)

This guest post I wrote for DomainNameWire generated a lot of debate and was the most read story on the site in November 2016.

As a domain geek working in an industry full of people passionate about domains, I often find myself involved in very interesting discussions about the state and challenges of the domain industry and the impact that new TLDs are having on the business and on users.

There seems to be general consensus (and concern) that new TLDs have not made the impact expected and that overall adoption is lagging behind. However opinions are definitely more divided regarding the causes of the problem and the possible solutions.

Read the full post on DomainNameWire.

Cloud is my business, .CLOUD is my domain

This is a guest post I originally wrote for the 1&1 Blog. That blog has however been discontinued, so I am reposting the article in its entirety here.

Over the past couple of years a large number of new domain extensions have reached the market. Many of these new extensions are keywords that are commonly found in legacy top-level domain registrations such as .com or .de. A prime example of this trend is the word “cloud”, which according to corporate Registrar CSC has risen in popularity over the last few years, thanks to the growing importance of cloud computing and the ubiquitousness of cloud-based services.

With this mind, it is easy to see how the new domain extension .cloud provides clear advantages to companies operating in the Cloud computing space, and to anyone that finds this keyword relevant to their business. Launched 4 months ago, .cloud has taken the domain market by storm with over 55000 .cloud domains registered by companies and individuals from over 130 countries.

Continue reading “Cloud is my business, .CLOUD is my domain”

How serious domain investors can help new TLDs succeed (and make money in the process)

My first guest post for DomainNameWire, analyzing the difficult balance Registries have to strike between maximizing sales and building a quality zone to secure their business in the long-term.

Last week I had the honour of being invited to speak at the first edition of DomainersMeet in Dubai. The main focus of the event was to drive awareness in the Gulf/Middle-East region about the opportunities related to investing in domain names, and the organizers managed to bring to Dubai a number of well-known domain industry experts, filling the agenda with a broad spectrum of information and opinions on the subject.

Not being a domainer myself, at first I had my doubts as to whether this event would be a good fit for me, but in the end I am very happy I went. Preparing my talk about “A day in the life of a Registry”  gave me a great opportunity to reflect about the work that new TLD Registry Operators have to do to promote their extension and the role that domain investors can play in actively supporting the development of the industry.

Read the full post on DomainNameWire.

What HNA Group Acquiring Ingram Micro Means for Odin, Cloud Business

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In this second opinion piece I wrote for Channel Partners Online, I look at the cloud market and analyse the impact that HNA’s acquisition of Ingram Micro is going to have.

HNA’s move certainly fits in the recent trend of Chinese companies “shopping” abroad, acquiring big names in the tech space. While the current turbulence around the yuan and volatility of the Chinese internal market have certainly played a role in creating this trend, it is quite clear that cash-rich Chinese companies are also genuinely interested in acquiring technologies that they can leverage with their own products and in growing in new markets, such as North America and Europe. The proposed acquisition of Norwegian browser maker Opera by a group of Chinese companies for $1.2 billion is another example of this growing trend.

Read the full article on Channel Partners Online.

Ingram Micro, Odin, Microsoft & Cloud Hosting: A Perfect Storm

This opinion piece I wrote covering Ingram Micro’s acquisition of Odin was one of the top stories on Channel Partners Online in January 2016.

Ingram Micro recently announced it is acquiring the Odin Service Automation platform from Parallels. It’s a very interesting piece of news, particularly in the context of a more general trend of consolidation in the cloud hosting industry. As cloud-based services become more widely adopted and commoditized, there is a movement toward fewer, very large players fighting for domination. It’s a battle that has already seen quite illustrious casualties, including HPE, which decided to give up trying to compete with its own offering and become a premium partner of Microsoft Azure.

What’s the relationship between Odin and Ingram Micro, and how does Microsoft come into the picture?

Read the full article on Channel Partners Online.

Thinking outside the .com box: how getting creative with new domain names can help you make a mark

In this guest post for Tech.eu, I explain how the increasing amount of options beyond registering a .com domain name opens up a whole array of fresh branding opportunities for smart marketers.

As a self-confessed domain geek, every time I am at an event I spend quite a lot of time looking at the Web addresses used by exhibitors and startups to advertise their wares. The result of my informal survey is that still a large majority swears by the mantra that “.com is king”, even if it means having to go through all sorts of keyword acrobatics to find an available one.

Particularly if the name chosen for the product is a fairly generic one, their Web address will invariably swell to include generic keywords like “get”, “hello” or “app” and the occasional dash.

Read the full article on Tech.eu.