Drones - The Evolution of Transportation If you read my blog you know I'm into flying cars and with traffic being what it is, they can't come about soon enough. Doesn't matter what city you live in, it's not any better anywhere else. Either too many vehicles on the road or a failing infrastructure. In this article on DailyMail.co.uk mega drones are being tested with multiple passengers, pilot-less control and with the ability to take the helm in an emergency. The aircraft technology is producing a much needed benefit for air traffic control a well as other industries. This is an epic shift in society, like going from horse and carriage to automobiles and entrepreneurs need to plan on this trend. In less than 5 years it will be at consumer price levels and in 10 years, common place. High rises and condos need to start being built with landing pads as the new garage. With growing populations, pollution, the need for the use of alternative energies, infrastructure issues, drones and personal aircraft are a great solution to easy all of these problems. And, aside from natural disasters and terrorism, one of the biggest problems our children will face in their life time that you can be certain of is population growth. Handling and managing all the demands on resources that population growth will bring are where the opportunities lie. If you think traffic sucks now, don't do anything about it. Everyone knows it's gotten worse in the last few years, and that's everywhere. So, forget the race to Mars, let's race to be the first country ready for the 22nd century. Embrace it. This is what will make America great!
I have been talking about flying cars being the wave of the future. What will follow is highrises with parking for personal drones. Looks like Miami will be the first US city with a highrise built for parking personal aircraft at the Paramount World Center. As our population increases along with technology, so will new emerging opportunities for all aspects of this new mode of transportation. The future certainly involves every aspect of flying vehicles, from battery technology, to new condos, supermarket parking and heavy on the construction industry to retool it all. This shift in transportation could be the global industry that boosts the the whole world's economy as every country accommodates it's growing population and employment issues. Theses are exciting times we are living in. Take a look at the video and article Bob Wiley wrote on the MiamiHerald.com.
There's a revolution in technology going on and for as many businesses that get it, many intelligent organizations still just do not. I get a few offers, most of them low, on different domain names every month and one of the questions I was asked by a potential purchaser was, how do I arrive at a price?
It's a fair question and to put an answer to it, here's the rationale behind the numbers. First, like real estate domain names are virtual property, but with several valuable added dimensions. Domains are the way customers find your business, remember your location and spread the news about your products. It's your business address for all practical purposes. Ninety percent of the people you do business with will never visit your business at it's physical location, but they'll all check your website, which is by way of your domain name.
Names that have more traffic or are capable of generating more traffic with short memorable names are worth more and their market demand is more. Like having a shop on main street vs. opening up a business on a rural road. A good memorable name that suits your business or product lines brings customers and helps them find their way back to you. Most company names are picked without the customer in mind or without any marketing considerations, just a name that means something to the organization on a somewhat emotional level. You can spend millions branding a odd name or bring the brand to your door with a descriptive name. And with domain names, you can have several or hundreds of names to drive traffic to your business.
The method, internet media. Consider the pro's and cons of different advertising media. There's print, TV, radio and internet. Print, I throw it out. It's garbage that comes with my printed mail. I haven't bought a newspaper in over 10 years at least and the last time I think I looked at a magazine, I was either in a doctors office or on a plane. Forget print, it's over. The postal service is nostalgic and I'd be willing to bet 100 percent privatized within 10 years. TV, I watch movies for the most part or change the channel during the commercials. Watching the Atlanta Falcons beat the Aint's in the season opener, I saw a couple of ads, but couldn't tell you what they were today. I'm moving in the direction of subscription TV like Netflix and Hulu. I'm not alone. Radio, okay you get ads in front of me while driving more often then I care to say. Occasionally, I am too lazy to load a playlist from my phone or all the stations that I have programmed in are in sync with their commercial's timed together. Traffic reports get me to tune in, but the rest of the noise I could do without. I get about half of percent of anything useful from radio news. The tone and rate of speech only ramps up tension. I'm working on weaseling out listening to main stream radio all together. Half the time I enjoy just listening to silence.
The internet has main access to get in-front of my eyes. I am on the net at home, at work, even while visiting a store in the mall I might be checking prices of a competitor on my phone. I have discretionary income and I move quickly. Like a lot of your customers, I have much to manage and like in the real world, I have to be street smart online and as nimble as a forest creature to find the best deals. I validate a business I am going to use based on the domain they have, how their website looks, works and if they have a phone number on their contact page. Usually I like a second opinion, options or it's just the way to complete due diligence by checking a few other sites. How I find that second, third or fourth site through search or by their domain name directly is potentially a company I'll be working with. CEO's of those companies are the CEO's that are likely to make their 17 percent growth targets and are the ones that get their bonuses. They're the one that get it. I price domain names comparable to other media even when that media is less effective.
30 seconds on Atlanta TV during prime time will cost you 30k and your money is gone just that fast. Most industry magazine ads will cost you upwards of 1200 per month for a four color, 1/2 to full page ad and you don't even know if anyone is reading it. Your domain name is yours perpetually. The internet is even more revolutionary as the phone system was when it came into being some 120 years ago and as fast as technology grows, the internet is not going to be replaced anytime soon. With a great domain name you look like the authority in your industry. Most clients will never see your office, I can't stress enough how important your online presence is. Technology is the only industry that has had double digit growth since the 70's and looks to be booming for the rest of man's existence. The slope of the curve is about to go vertical.
The short, memorable, brand-able, desirable names, and what other similar domains have sold for, makes for the price range listed. We encourage you to make offers on our domains and other available names. The cost, effectiveness and value is continually rising.
By now you have probably gotten an email from every company that you have ever visited on their COVID policy. No need to rehash washing your hands and social distancing here. The point that I want to stress is that we are all in this together, locally and globally, and it's going to take all of us to beat this thing.
I work for the government in my day job, maintaining transmitters along the coast of South Carolina. The government is just people. Some very hard working people that perform jobs that in the private sector usually pays much more for the same work. But, boil it all down, and it's just people helping people.
In times of crisis's past, like the hurricanes we've had, we didn't get extra pay or bonuses, just a good feeling at the end of the day that we made a difference. Getting through this is going to be difficult, but not something we can't do.
There are always two options you have in any situation. One is to do nothing. With COVID doing nothing is actually a good thing. Stay at home and you're not part of the problem. The second option is to try harder. I have to credit my father with that one. He was part of what they now call the greatest generation, but the greatest generation is really yet to come. We are all products of these generations, we are the hybrids. Let's try a little harder and figure this out. Figure out what you can do to help.
Sure it's scary, we see exactly how fragile our world is. And, the big brains say it's going to get worse before it gets better, but we will get through it and come out stronger. Helping others is really the name of the game.
Check on your neighbors, have empathy and employ compassion. We are all going through a lot. I want to be able to reflect back at the End of the Plague party and know I had a hand in making the world a better place. I may not invent a miracle vaccine, but I help keep emergency communications online over here, inspire hope and I lend a helping hand. I am very grateful for the medical, fast food, grocery workers and everyone involved in all these chains that keeping us moving forward.
Do your part and work harder. Patience, courtesy and humor go along way, act like you've been somewhere. Maybe this will spark a spiritual revolution when we finally realize that we are all the same, and that we are all connected.
Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, but this one I just can't see how the management team didn't see the future of their business. Back in 2000 the internet was more than thriving and Blockbuster could have bought Netflix for a mere 50 million. As of today Netflix is worth over 128 billion, down from and all time high of 180 billion. In the summer of 2000, Blockbuster CEO John Antioco said "The dot-com hysteria is completely overblown". His council went on to state how the business models of Netflix and just about every other online business were not sustainable and would never make any money. That statement couldn't be any more wrong then than it is now. Read the full article here on Inc.com How did these guys not see that by delivering their product online would eliminate all of their overhead, shipping and logistical nightmares. Yes, management and vision are two different things, but they shouldn't be. Doesn't matter what business you are in either, not only do you need a strong online presence, there is an evolution going on of how your customers will interact with you and not just on social media. Developers are building virtual realities to showcase products. Imagine if your customers could experience your products before they buy. This will be very popular with the gaming generation as they become the most powerful purchasers of consumer goods in 10 years. If you haven't read the worst business blunders in tech history I would suggest Googling that phrase and see what you get. Branding blunders are even more common and they happen all the time. Avoid a brand blunder and start with a great domain name. A strong domain name is the foundation for enticing and retaining customers with a memorable name. Your domain name also attracts B2B partners and lays the ground floor for building supplemental income streams. Streams turn into rivers and maybe even into a whole new business model for your companies' survival. Have some vision and get creative.
As we approach the 4th quarter of fiscal year 2015, and soon to be at the midway point of this decade, I started to look at the predictions and indicators for internet growth by year 2020. Sounds futurist the year 2020 and I think we are starting to enter into the steeper slope of the curve now. In 2010 the internet had 1.7 billion users, today it has a little over 3.1 billion and by 2020 it should be at 5 billion. Check out the stats by country here on InternetWorldStats.com.
Forecasting the future of the internet is that hard to predict just look at what we do and ask yourself are we going to be doing any less of it. Twenty-five great points are listed in this article on Marketing in 2020 by Jeff Beer of FastCompany.com. By looking at marketing we can see the direction society is taking by observing the force trying to get in-front of the mass. Some key points I took away were virtual reality is reality, brand transparency and through technology it's about to get really personal.
Don't forget to consider the growth of the machine usage with the Internet of Things IoT. Both machine and human usage almost double in the next 5 years!