AMA with Helmuts, founder of HostMaria, Domain Summit, $Maria Coin, & owner of DNForum, Acorn Domains forums

[Helmuts]

Good morning DNForum,

I'm Helmuts Meskonis, and the 1st one to open this AMA (Ask Me Anything) category! I've been on quite the journey in the world of domains and online ventures, and I'm happy to share my experiences and insights with all of you. Wright or Wrong - the time will show

A little about me:

• Founder of HostMaria: started as 20i reseller, signed-up over 10k new users over 2 years, and now offering dedicated servers for custom needs, and planning to become an accredited channel partner of Nominet, Afnic, Denic, DNS Belgium, nic.lv and others.
• Founder of the London Domain Summit: a B2B convention that brings domain business owners/executives, investors, and experts together to discuss business, the latest trends and opportunities in the domain industry.
• Launched layer 1 cryptocurrency $Maria Coin (PivX fork): Took me 4 years to get ready to launch it.
• Recently, I became the proud owner of DNForum and Acorn Domains: Two significant forums in the domain industry that have stood the test of time.

Feel free to ask me anything I'm here to answer your questions.

Ask away, and let's jump-start this AMA category.

 

[Deep Joshi]

Would you ever import a game?

 

[Helmuts]

Would you ever import a game?

sorry?

 

[Deep Joshi]

sorry?

Hmm okay, another one is there something you look forward to each year?

 

[Helmuts]

Hmm okay, another one is there something you look forward to each year?

Yes. Just need to complete this one .. it is getting together great!

 

[Deep Joshi]

Yes. Just need to complete this one .. it is getting together great!

 

[Deep Joshi]

What are your thoughts on the upcoming U. S. elections?

 

[Helmuts]

What are your thoughts on the upcoming U. S. elections?

If had had to place my bet > USA will have the 1st female president! It is awesome!

Though, not my country and Americans should decide what they want for themselves.

You?

 

[Deep Joshi]

If had had to place my bet > USA will have the 1st female president! It is awesome!

Though, not my country and Americans should decide what they want for themselves.

You?

Asking Kamala if she is black or if she is Indian is like asking a white person if they are Irish or German

 

[Helmuts]

Asking Kamala if she is black or if she is Indian is like asking a white person if they are Irish or German

sorry? .. let us leave politics and politicians away, especially when judging politics of a country we don't live at. Thank you. This is a professional domain name investing/trading forum. Thank you.

 

[Deep Joshi]

What are your favorite things to eat around Christmas time?

 

[Deleted member 323001307]

Dear Helmuts, Do you see a future in domains with nGTLDs (new extensions)? Some deem it crazy investments. What's your opinion?

 

[MapleDots]

Good Day Helmuts

I am a fan for you acquiring DNforum and Acorn Domains.

I know you also opened up a French and a Romanian ccTLD forum.

Do you have plans to open any more?


Edit: Just saw the Latvian on as well, will have a few more questions once you respond.

 

[Helmuts]

What are your favorite things to eat around Christmas time?

Clementines .. always remind me of Christmas.

Dear Helmuts, Do you see a future in domains with nGTLDs (new extensions)? Some deem it crazy investments. What's your opinion?

Good morning, most have failed as the companies operating these haven't invested enough in advertising/marking or building up a sales team (an expensive task).
This is a serious business and can do well if the company approaches this professionally and at least create a dedicated remote marketing team and starts attending 2-3 b2b dn industry events (this woud be the minumim).

I like Lars of ShortDot > they operate .icu, .bond, .cyou, .cfd and .sbs and have made this profitable.

We just did an AMA (ask me anything) session with Lars. If you are curious about the business cases, this video could be interesting to watch:

--

Good Day Helmuts

I am a fan for you acquiring DNforum and Acorn Domains.

I know you also opened up a French and a Romanian ccTLD forum.

Do you have plans to open any more?


Edit: Just SAT the Latvian on as well, will have a few more questions once you respond.

Good morning Frank, yes, this is the plan. We are hoping to make an announcement in this field towards the end of the September (finalizing a deal)

What about you, Frank?

 

[MapleDots]

I'm working on the idea of a Canadian Marketplace similar to flip.uk or brandable.uk, am liking the idea of incorporating that into the forum.

I was thinking about the ccTLD forums you have and why not integrate them all into DNforum with separate forums for each ccTLD, but I finally realized that was a simplified English approach. One somehow thinks everyone speaks or is able to converse in English so keeping them separate is definitely a better approach.

Once I saw the French, German, Romanian, then I began to understand the language part is important.

It also continues to amaze me how strong the .uk or .co.uk market is.
Germany is strong too with .de and China rocks with .cn

On DN.ca we removed the .com and .other marketplaces in favour of .ca exclusive and I have found that isolating that keeps us more focused.

The more I look at it the more I like the idea of the ccTLD forums and I'm kind of thinking about a universal drop down addon for Xenforo where you could select country and got to the ccTLD.

ie...

UK -> .UK
Germany -> .DE
Canada -> .CA
Furnace -> . FR
etc

You are instantly in the proper language and the forums compliment each other.
I have something similar with our domain friends but I'm thinking about changing it to a drop-down where it takes you right to the countries ccTLD.




I kind of like that idea for you, at the very top adding a drop down for all your forums getting you to each one instantly.
And since they all have different names the best way to go about it is to have the country, then name or extension.

Also wondering who will eventually build out a .us forum, I think that time has come as well.

 

[Helmuts]

I'm working on the idea of a Canadian Marketplace similar to flip.uk or brandable.uk, am liking the idea of incorporating that into the forum.

I was thinking about the ccTLD forums you have and why not integrate them all into DNforum with separate forums for each ccTLD, but I finally realized that was a simplified English approach. One somehow thinks everyone speaks or is able to converse in English so keeping them separate is definitely a better approach.

Me too .. already for a long time .. though, thinking about liqudation/wholesale marketplaces built for domain investors (not end users)..

 

[Helmuts]

@DNF Admin good morning Prashanna, let us try doing the same

You are instantly in the proper language and the forums compliment each other.

View attachment 9639

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I kind of like that idea for you, at the very top adding a drop down for all your forums getting you to each one instantly.
And since they all have different names the best way to go about it is to have the country, then name or extension.

wow!!! What an idea!!!

though it probably makes sense only if these are your forums.. top menu is "most precious" navigation guide for a new user .. I would be afraid to lose a new user.

 

[Helmuts]

@MapleDots Wow!! Frank, I love how you have done Free and Premium listings at dn.ca:



@DNF Admin check it out

 

[MapleDots]

wow!!! What an idea!!!

though it probably makes sense only if these are your forums.. top menu is "most precious" navigation guide for a new user .. I would be afraid to lose a new user.

Yes, I was thinking that for you and you can put the drop-down right into the main bar at the top or the secondary menu bar.

See how I do things in the secondary bar...
Just imagine that moved to the main bar and then linked to each ccTLD forum... UK, France, Romania etc