A new day, a new year, and the first day of 2016.

Before I forget and start rambling, Happy New Years to you and yours! I hope this will be a prosperous year for you on both a personal and professional level.

So, what’s in store for 2016 here at Kickstart Commerce?

For one, you see quite a bit of domain investing news and stories than in 2015.

Of course, you started seeing some changes at the tail end of 2015 with the introduction of the domain auctions daily listing.

In addition, you’ll gradually see more domain auction houses, such as Flippa, NameJet, SnapNames to name a few, included in the daily listings.  So be on the look for those over the next few weeks and months of 2016.

I’ll still write and cover SEO topics, but it’ll be a bit different than in the past.  I’ll focus more on how to’s and do-it-yourself SEO strategies.

In addition to written content, I’m really excited to launch video blogs and screensharing how I’m executing SEO for select customers.  This will not only serve to bring attention to my customer relationships, but it will give you greater insight to how I work and achieve search-safe SEO results.

I have to admit that I was on the fence about introducing videos and mentioning customers.  However, with the enthusiasm and encouragement from select customers of wanting to share their story, I’m too now excited about what is to come with the video blogs.

Nevertheless, many changes are coming and happening in 2016, so stay tuned.  For now, let’s take a look at today’s domain auctions ending.

As 2015 comes to an end, it’s been quite a year for Kickstart Commerce pertaining to SEO and Domaining.

The 2015 recap…

I’ve help quite a few customers determine that SEO MUST be aligned to the needs of their business as well as their overall marketing strategy.

I’ve successfully taught, coached and consulted quite a customers on what it means to always be continuously content marketing with an education slant and not selling.

I’ve also fired a few customers who only wanted to focus on buying reviews, buying links, or create content based solely on keyword focus in an attempt to sell and not educate.

Although I’m working with less clients, my stress levels are down, yet my overall value proposition has increased right along with profitability.

Where we’re headed in 2016…

I’m looking forward to 2016 and focusing less on SEO and more on domaining. I’ll still accept new SEO relationships with customers, but I’ll be more intentional with who I am called to serve and how to serve their business in the most effective manner long term.

That said, with my new found time in serving less customers, you’ll notice that there will be quite more posts about domaining in 2016. You may have already noticed with daily domain auction posts being made within the last week or so.

Nevertheless, the domain industry overall is growing at quite a rapid pace. Namescon, a growing domaining conference, is right around the corner is expecting nearly 1500 domain investors (aka domainers) to attend.

With the domain industry growing, I’m devoting more time to educating brands not only about SEO and content marketing, but adding to my repertoire the value-add services of educating customers about domain investing at a personal level for themselves as well as a professional level for their business.

With the new domain extensions becoming more relevant over the next couple of years, the time is right for me to transition with the vast market growth of the domain industry itself.

As we enter 2016, I want to leave you with my top 10 predictions for where I see both SEO and Domaining headed. At the end of 2016, we’ll see how spot on I was or was not. That said, here are my 2016 predictions…

Well, it’s the final day of 2015.  Many events have taken place this year.

Some feel good moments, while other moments are appalling and breathtaking to say the least.

All in all, I’ve a good and blessed year of many high moments and not many low moments.

I’m looking forward to 2016, and all that comes with it.  I’ll slow down on some fronts as it pertains to less search marketing customers or, put another way, more of a focus on profitable, value-add work with less customers.

It seems strange, but focusing on less customers will actually increase my bottom line, while reducing the stress and time it takes to no longer serve customers not aligned to Kickstart Commerce.

With my new found time, I plan on focusing a bit more on domain investing.  The domain industry as a whole is picking up quite a bit of steam over the last 1-2 years.

You probably picked up on this over the last week with the addition of the domain auctions ending posts that are now flanking the site.

In addition, I’ll change quite a bit of content on the product and services pages, removing some services and modifying others substantially.

Nevertheless, I’ll keep posting about SEO and Domain Investing when topics interest me, or when I think topics might be insightful for you and your business.

Well, cheers to the coming year, and I wish you and your business much success!

Let’s get to today’s domain auctions.  I’m giving you quite a number of domains as a parting 2015 gift.  

The last Hump Day of 2015 is here!  Some of us are sleeping the week away due to not having to go to work.  But for those of us grinding out the last few days of 2015, keep grinding.  It’ll pay off soon enough.  Regardless, make it a good one.

From reading a variety of online posts, both SEO and Domaining are poised for a big win year heading into 2016.

Will voice search lead the way in 2016?

My SEO area of focus for 2016 will be mobile and social.   Both areas of interest will play a vital role as more companies focus on voice search via smartphones, and more digital assistant apps are launched in a forever changing search landscape.

If you’re website is not mobile, you’re signing the desktop death certificate, and your website’s search rankings and traffic are sure to come to a trickle and then an abrupt halt.

But will voice search place a search gap between the have and have not businesses in 2016?

Can new domain extensions turn the corner in 2016 and become mainstream?

As for domaining, there’s so much expectation on whether 2016 will be the year that the general public buys into the new gTLD’s or new domain extensions.

My guess is that companies will focus on .brand while the general public still lives on unaware of the new virtual real estate for the next couple of years.  This doesn’t mean I’m against the new gTLD’s. I own a handful of carefully selected domain extensions myself as it pertains to local markets and my area of expertise.

I think the general public will come around should companies investing heavily in using and marketing their very own .brand domain. But can domain investors, registries and registrars hold until this happens to reap great fortunes?  That’s the question we’ll see played out in 2016 and likely for years to come.

I expected this week to be somewhat quiet with Christmas now a thought of the past.  Things have been quiet on a personal front although it’s been a week of weather woes for those of us living in Texas, primarily West and North Texas areas.

Here in Austin, I found myself pelted the other night by hail that came out of nowhere as I was trying to figure out why my tire wasn’t keeping air in it.  Good ole’ Texas weather for ya.

I never figured the exact cause of loss air in the tire, so I took it to the professionals at DiscountTire.com.  And guess what?  They couldn’t figure it out either.  Oh well, I had them rotate and replace the valve stems.  We’ll see how this holds up for now.

In domaining news, the short 3, 4, 5, and now 6 character .com domains keep racking in more sales.  I’m still baffled by all of this market entry and shift.  I just wonder how long this can continue, yet remain profitable.

I’ve participated and won a few domains, making sure to not get into any $5 and $10 bidding wars for expired domain auctions. I’ve been quite happy with my selection, and even more surprised by the inquiries that are rolling in as they now transfer to my account.

Welcome back.  It’s Monday and time to get back on the grind.

I really don’t expect to much shaking and baking to happen this week as it pertains to domain names.  Then again, one never knows.  This week, the last week of the year, could prove to be record breaking.

Not much going on in terms of GoDaddy auctions, although I tend not to list NameJet, SnapNames and Flippa auctions.  But there are more than enough names to go around.  China is still buying 3, 4 and 5 character domains, both .com and .net.  With that, let’s take a look at today’s auction.

Morning. It’s the day after Christmas, and I’m well rested.  I didn’t participate in any auctions yesterday, so I’m not certain on what happened.  My family and I have had a wonderful Christmas and I hope you and yours have should you celebrate Christmas and the birth of Christ.

With it being Saturday, I’m certain all stores will be busy with gift card purchases and returns today.  I’m so thankful to not be in retail with rush and long hours during this month.

Personally, I plan on spending more time with my wife and boys today, hoping for more good Christmas weather to allow the boys to ride bikes and play with an assortment of outdoor gifts received.  We’re due for a thunderstorm today.  This could lower temperatures from about above average weather of 70-80 degrees as of late.

Well, there are decent names with auctions ending today, so let’s take a look.