The Domain Adventures of Tobby in Domainland – Part 1: The Piranha Pool

Tobby visited DomainHeadlines.com for the latest news about the industry. Keeping an eye on his stream of twitter messages, he started typing up the summaries on his blog, that more or less read like this:

“VacantParkingSpots.net sold for $500k on Febo – what a bargain for the 3rd buyer in a row this year!”

“Cool available domains auctioned at AfterBid – no offer over $1,000 declined”

“Jasper’s Blog: How to develop your geo-domains for only $5 and get on the first page in Joogle, Sping and Yafoo!”

He was almost done, when he received an instant message from his buddy, Duncan, a push-button publisher & self professed pro-blogger, expert in installing WordPush and talking about GoPaddy domains.

“Yo Tobby – the Domainers’ convention is open now in Karachi, are you going?”

Tobby opened his iPhone calendar app, and with a couple of expertly placed taps he was able to locate his appointments for the rest of the month.

“Hey Duncan, can’t go dude – my 5 year old is in junior soccer league and has a match that night, plus I need to finish a blog post about my new giveaway contest.”

“What’s that about?”, asked Duncan.

“It’s a cool digital fountain pen, useful to those that still write LOL – I mean, I type stuff all day.”

“Shame you can’t go – Ahmed Booga will be there and other big domainers. They have this new thing going on, called Piranha Pool.”

Tobby was intrigued. He slurped the remainder of his vanilla shake and continued typing.

“What is Piranha Pool, never heard of that.”

“Dude, you’re going to love this. It’s a team of rich domain investors, like, the big honchos in the industry. Marc Dilling and Frank Quartz run the show, it will have a large pool filled with piranhas – that’s the metaphor for the ugly domain world out there. Anyhow, they offer to invest in your project if it’s cool enough. I thought I’d let you know because you always have great ideas.”

Tobby was excited by now. He thought about his son’s soccer night, then called his wife Alisha on the phone.

“Honey buns, can you babysit Colby next week at soccer night? There’s this great business opportunity in Karachi I don’t want to miss. Yes, Karachi, Pakistan. I know, it’s about domains.”

Having gotten his wife’s attention, he logged onto the web site, KarachiPiranhaPool.com and clicked on the registration page. He paid his early bird fees – a hefty discount of $200 and charged $2,650 to his Amex.

“Damn, I still have to pay $3,300 for the plane tickets but I’m sure if I go there I will convince the Piranha Pool team about my cool domainer projects.”

He took out his backpack and started stacking away the various gadgets he’d bring along to the trip: his trusty super compact HD camera, an iPod, the digital recording pen and the MegaDork – a device that allowed him to access his home computer from anywhere in the world through voice activation. He made sure his notes were there, along with the schematics for his secret project that’d revolutionize the domainer world.

Tobby never talked about it, but at night, when his wife went to sleep he’d slip out of bed and continue working on his secret project, until his eyes felt heavy and his fingers numb from too much typing. He was now even more determined to finish it, in order to impress the Piranha Pool angel investors with his development skills. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

[…TO BE CONTINUED]