GeoPublishers Expo to be held in Chicago from September 30th to October 2nd 2011

GeoPublishers.com is the new trade association for the geodomain industry. The inaugural Expo will be in Chicago at the Fairmont Hotel. Starting with the President’s reception on Friday 30 September, there will be a day-and-a-half program of keynotes and
panels, and a sponsored dinner on Saturday 1 October.

Speakers so far confirmed include

• Don Jones, President of New Orleans.com
• Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates
• Sandy Martin, Director of Mobile, Schurz Communications
• Sara Mannix, Mannix Marketin
• Dan Hippler, VP Marketing, Vegas.com
• Sean Miller, NewYorkCity.com

Registrations are now open for the early bird price discount of $495 (and reduced pricing of $395 for second and subsequent registrations from the same company).

Details are on the event’s website at www.geopublishers.com/geo-publishers-expo.

Geo-domain name association Associated Cities went through some rough times in 2009 . Reports of trouble with internal conflicts between board members and the direction of the group circulated as the 2009 Geo Domain expo neared.  It seems now that the group is back on track and pushing forward with a new set of board members with Fred Mercaldo at the helm.

The association sent out an email earlier today outlining the changes to the group including a move to reorganize as a non-profit, a new membership structure, advertising programs, and a general vision for the group.   The entire email can be read after the jump.  It’s good to see this organization back on track and sending a clear message of where they are going.

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Domain investor Michael Bahlitzanakis, aka Mike B, has launched the beta of his newest venture, City.com.  The local search site lets local consumers search, review and rate the businesses in their local market.  The site already includes 16 million local businesses in their search index.  According to the company they have also developed partnerships with leading publishers to include events, local blog content, maps and full integration in to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.

The company is also focused on creating a better and “more transparent” product than their competition. Bahlitzanakis told us that he’s seen local businesses upset at the lack of transparency on other local search sites and has heard from business that they are looking for cost effective strategies to reach local consumers.  He sees a big opportunity in helping these local businesses.

City.com has built a team of marketing professionals who will be “on the street” meeting with businesses and providing direct marketing services.   The company has also established syndication and content partnerships that enable businesses to control their listing information at City.com, while having that same data syndicated to over 100 local search providers including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and YellowPages.com.

Bahlitzanakis also told us about some of the planned features for the site to be released soon, most of these are geared to helping small businesses connect with consumers.  One of the future plans of the site may be of interest to domainers who hold geo-based domain names though. In the coming months, the site will be releasing a local sponsored syndication which will be looking for geo-targetted traffic (NewYorkDoctors.com or ChicagoRealEstate.com for example). “We want all of that kind of traffic we can get” Bahlitzanakis told us when we inquired about whether the company plans to develop relationships with domain owners with geo-based domains.

It’s always nice to see a gem domain polished up and released as a professional service like this.  It’s even better when that business can benefit other domainers.  We look forward to seeing what the future holds for City.com

JPKing.com is auctioning “The World’s Largest Known Real Estate Domain Listing Portfolio” including more than 2,600 geo-domains on June 11 at 4:00pm Eastern Time.

The extensive portfolio includes:

• 2,300+ US City Geo-Targeted Collection covering 99% of the cities with over 35,000 in population
• All 50 US State Level Domains
• Top 250 US City Domains
• 145 International Domains
• All 210 Nielsen Media Market City Domains
• 95% of the collection is “.COM”

To participate, visit www.jpking.com/domainauction or call 1-(800) 558-5464.

For more detailed information regarding the domains and auction, visit: www.worldrealestatelistings.com.

Disclaimer: This is a paid Sales Alert post by JPKing Auctions, one of DNN’s advertisers.

In case you missed the live Geo Domain auction, the finale for the auction is today at 12pm Pacific. The Aftermarket.com team introduced 22 No Reserve and Low Reserve domains in the final days as well as some new city domains on the roster.

The DomainConsultant team will also be announcing the winner of their Domain Madness contest during the auction event.  Tune in to see if you won

Bidding is open at the following link.  Currently 15 domains of the 64 have met the reserves and will sell today.  The total sales amount is currently at just over $118,000,  but with names like Reserve.com at No Reserve price that final number should go up.

These domains have bids and will sell today :

AmericanGuide.com $1500
CasperJobs.com $150
eGainesville.com  $50
IndiaTube.com  $2500
Longhorn.com  $35,000
Money.Travel  $300
MyMaryland.com $150
PiratesCove.com  $3500
Ponce.com $21,000
Reserve.com $23,000
SantaClarita.com $30,000
StCroixVirginIslands.com $150
TorranceLoans.com $50
VacationCalifornia.com $150
VacationInVegas.com $150
YorbaLindaCA.com  $400

See the full list at the Aftermarket.com site

Disclaimer : Adam Strong is both a writer for DNN and consultant with Domain Consultant

Today is the last day to save $100 on early bird registration for the Associated Cities Geo Domain Conference.  The show is slated for April 23-25th in sunny San Diego.  Currently the cost is $595 and you can register here.

The conference agenda features a host of domain industry speakers  including  Elliot Silver, Shaun Pilfold, Miguel Fiol, Rick Latona, Jothan Frakes, Dan Pulcrano, Ron Jackson and more. Speakers will be discussing topics such as development, monetitzation strategies, branding and the overal Geo Domain landscape.

There will also be a live Geo Domain auction hosted by Aftermarket.com. Also, if you are interested in selling any Geo Domains at the auction, today is the last day to submit. Submit your domains here.

Associated Cities has opened up nominations for their Geo Awards.  Nominations are open to the public  until July 1st and final voting will be conducted on July 2nd with the final voting to close on July 8th. Awards will be presented at the 2008 GeoDomain Expo in Chicago.

To nominate someone Click here

Domain Name News received a tip-off that Vancouver.com has been relaunched in a beta state by Reinvent. The company purchased Vancouver.com in September of 2007 and has obviously been hard at developing this top notch geo domain name. (more…)