Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Recently I had to change the CNAME records for several domains in order to point them to an online venue.

In the past I used eNom but as I moved the majority of my domains to Fabulous.com I wasn’t familiar with their bulk tools.

Fabulous offers a DNS Template feature, that allows you to apply a profile (“template”) against a number of domains.

I created the template, adding CNAME records for “www” and “@” and saved the template with a name of my choice.

To use these features, domains at Fabulous must use the myns1 and myns2 DNS pair. As it’s not a preset profile on Fabulous, I had to create a new nameserver profile, adding those two to it. It took me 1 minute, literally.

The next step was to bulk edit the DNS for the domains, so I pasted my list of domains into the relevant box and applied the new DNS profile to them.

Once this was done, the final step was to apply the DNS template to the domains. In 5 short minutes I was thus able to switch and point my domains in bulk to the venue of my choice.

Fabulous offers many more features, including a security fob that I reviewed in the past. Check it out!

While I achieved my first domain sale in early 2000, I didn’t register domains with the intent to sell until a year later. In 2002 I joined the WebHostingTalk community, and after that DNForum.

Since my early days of interacting with other domainers I’ve learned a few things, for which I’m grateful.

I apologize for not being able to list all the names of great people that I’ve interacted with; it would be impossible to do so. Collectively, every domainer I’ve communicated with gave me the opportunity to both gain ideas from and to, hopefully, offer my insight and advice.

Ron Jackson has been around since my early days at DNForum; a good 10 years of achieving remarkable sales through competitive pricing. Ron taught me how to price domains right and to seek opportunities.

Igal Lichtman (MrsJello LLC) who sold me hundreds of quality domains at reseller prices; many of which I was able to sell to end-users at a remarkable profit. When I finally met Igal in person at TRAFFIC Orlando in 2008, it was bear hug time

Tia Wood, a talented web developer who prefers to keep her feet on the ground with regards to her achievements and clientele; she taught me the importance of keeping lists and how much positive thinking and faith in oneself can make a difference. Thank you, Tia.

Bill Kara, for becoming my enterprising idol since he facilitated my biggest domain sale ever; as a fellow Greek he is well aware of the intricacies of our culture and has offered constructive criticism during the past three years.

Elliot Silver, whose fine sense of humor I finally managed to understand and appreciate; he’s been a great stimulant with regards to domain development and despite never meeting him in person so far, we’ve had some great phone conversations.

Adam Dicker, owner of DNForum who put up with my feisty temper and attitude on numerous occasions; he’s a quiet force from the North who manages the largest domainer community on the Internet.

Francois Carrillo, a great French entrepreneur who has rejuvenated the domain industry through his numerous domain projects; he’s been the welcoming butt of my jokes at DomainGang.com and has provided me with plenty of project work in the past two years.

Shane Cultra, Morgan Linton and Patrick Ruddell for providing me with stimulating feedback about my projects, providing valuable leads and for keeping me in check. Thanks guys!

Mike Robertson of Domain Guardians, for topping the list of the most likeable persons in the domain industry, with his demeanor and hard work to make things happen.

Rick Schwartz – he’s the giver of “tough love” in the domain industry that we all need in order to succeed. Never a BS’er, always a provider of thoughtful advice. Rick taught me the power of “no”: turning down offers that don’t match a domain’s value.

Andrew Allemann, a news machine when it comes down to UDRP updates. Andrew is the reason I created the famous “100%” image for DomainGang and his advice was rock solid from the beginning.

Nadia Pessoa, a brilliant young domainer who is challenging the “boys club” in domaining. She has been successful where I have failed and her methods are very effective. Not bad for a professional harp player!

Mike Berkens, who keeps a low profile but dishes out great advice daily through his blog; he’s been a great motivator for me to restructure my approach to domaining.

Lori Anne Wardi, for providing me with great amounts of support to achieve equilibrium at a professional and personal level. Thank you, Lori Anne.

Lisa Allen, of Sedo – who along with other Sedo staff have taken great care of my needs and have provided me with a valuable platform to sell my domain names.

Marc Randazza, possibly the only attorney who understands my sense of humor; he has to, as he runs The Legal Satyricon. Marc has been a great advisor and a good friend.

And so many more, that I will collectively say: Thank you, all.

This is an exclusive picture of Mike Robertson – Business Development Manager for Dark Blue Sea and Fabulous.com

Mike has been growing a beard for more than three weeks now, in order to help raise awareness about the devastating floods in Queensland, Australia.

Not only has Mike’s campaign helped raise a significant portion of the pledged money before Australia Day on January 26, but it has helped bring out a lot of the humor that Aussies are known for – including Paul Hogan of “Crocodile Dundee” fame

Mike’s sense of humor is evident in the exclusive photo below, with Mike Robertson posing with “Wilson” – the volleyball that Tom Hanks spent “quality time” with in the movie “Cast Away“.

Simply awesome!

Please help Mike and his campaign by donating to the cause – every dollar counts.

I will personally mail Mike a shaving kit once the goal is reached!

As a followup to a post made on DomainGang.com, I’m asking for all domainers to donate to the relief fund for the flood victims of Australia:

The catastrophic floods in Australia exceed in area 1 million square kilometers – or about 4 times the affected area of hurricane Katrina. It’s an area so vast that it matches the total size of Germany and France combined. It’s a catastrophe, especially since there is no indication the waters will recede soon.

A lot of bloggers asked for the image used on DomainGang to be made available in a smaller, more usable format. Feel free to use this new, WordPress-friendly 125×125 image to link to the Queensland relief fund.

Please also note that Fabulous.com & Mike Robertson are also on a similar initiative that collects Paypal funds as seen at Mike’s twitter post.

Please donate and help spread the word that Australians need our help now!

A few days ago I explained why I don’t consider myself a domainer, a title and word that has yet to make any dictionary.

Simply put, the activity surrounding ‘domaining’ is not only misunderstood to those outside of the industry, it’s also often distorted and abused by those in it.

Allow me to explain, once again, that unless someone woke up one fine morning with a university degree that says “Domainer” on its certificate, no such pure thing exists.

My earlier post was about how the domaining universe is expanding versus contracting – Rick Schwartz used the word “shrinking” – and that’s solely because those that want to call themselves “domainers” are a fast-dying breed.

As a graphic designer & web developer, I have the luxury of observing the domain industry from a distinct standpoint, avoiding the pitfalls that many newcomers – but also old-timers – are running into.  You too can do the same, even if you are a musician, a real estate broker, a forex trader, an IT guy or an aspiring American idol.

To succeed in what you do with regards to domain names, you must step aside and away from the “domainer” mentality; keeping an one-track mind of what constitutes our industry is not going to get you anywhere. You need to take your industry’s perspective and carefully apply it to domain names; this way you will be having a distinct advantage over any self-professed “domainer”.

The domain industry is not in danger of contracting, simply because there is untapped territory that no hard core “domainer” will tell you about: the world outside of “domainers” – and this should be your business target, your goal, your oyster.

And reaching out, exploiting if you must the riches of that outside world, you have to first shed your domainer mentality – as if it were a sin.