It’s no secret that companies of all sizes have been known to invest in domain names in addition to their core business.

Some of these companies started because of a domain upgrade for their brand and digital presence.

Others invested in domains for brand protection and to stave off the competition from owning prime digital real estate.

And in some instances, companies have solely acquired companies, thriving and dying, based on domain portfolios.

While domain investing is quite common amongst a growing number of for-profit organizations, I’ll explore a few arguments for and against non-profit organizations investing in domain names.

With a full day of activity ahead of us at the 1st Annual Asheville Domain Investor Meetup, Rick Schwartz picked up where left off from the Cocktail Party, and kicked off Friday with a generous and heartfelt welcome.

Unlike the typical conference bound by the constraints of structure and a time-based agenda down to the very second, Friday felt more like an unconference model as attendees filled the Skyline Room.

5 years after the last T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Conference, Rick Schwartz is back at it again with the 1st annual Asheville domain investing meetup held at the historic Grove Park Inn nestled away in the sleep-hollow town of Asheville, North Carolina.

With the holy grail of the conferences for domain investing industry is NamesCon, Schwartz took a chance to establish and facilitate a small gathering of domain investors to connect, share, and do business with one another.

In fact, Dr. Gregg McNair literally communicated the same thoughts — a smaller event with limited registration for a Who’s Who of Domain Investing at a higher admission cost — almost a year ago during MERGE! (now defunct).

So, in addition to ~80 fellow domain investors, I jumped at the opportunity to pay and book tickets, travel, and lodging to attend this event the very moment Schwartz went live with ticket registration.

Everyone and their grandmother, if not great-grandmother by now, use emoji — billions daily in collective use — to communicate a multitude of thoughts and expressions daily.

Whether by email, text, chat, clothing, or billboards, emoji marketing has nearly touched every possible form of communication, including domain names.

From Apple to Taco Bell to Domino’s to name a few, a growing number of brands are committing more and more marketing and advertising dollars to the use of emoji marketing.

One of the most recent announcements for brands entering the emoji marketing space with their own branded emoji — the pickup truck — is Ford Motor Company.

I’ve grown to appreciate GoDaddy’s Domain Manager improvements over the years.

Some improvements have gotten better throughout the years, while others crashed, burned, and were likely dead on arrival.

However, I find myself missing GoDaddy’s old user experience for the Domain Manager.

Unlike the early days in my domain investing journey, I found myself hand registering a few domains the other day.

As I was on autopilot, clicking through each screen of GoDaddy up selling additional domain extensions, email, etc., I arrived at a new web page not displayed before to my knowledge.

Domain parking has long been dead, especially when parking subpar domains.

I own a handful of domains, redirecting to GoDaddy’s CashParking service, that have managed to pay for themselves as a handful of domains within the portfolio on an annual basis.