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.

It’s been an exciting few days here in Asheville as an eclectic group of domain investors traveled from near and far to share visions, dreams, and ideas to help one another and the domain industry in general.

The farewell breakfast Saturday morning and the Brewery Tour that same afternoon was just the activities to put a nice bow on all the good accomplished over the last few days.

About 40 attendees attended the farewell breakfast, and everyone shared their best memory of the event and stories from past events.

With a full day of activity ahead of us at the 1st Annual Asheville Domain Investor Meetup, Rick Schwartz picked up where he 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 the domain investing industry, 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.

Yup, it’s the second week of the month and you know what time it is, right? That’s right! It’s time for Verisign’s Top Trending Keywords Report.

Moments ago, Verisign published to its blog June’s trending keywords registered for .com and .net domains.