The podcast that changed an industry
December of 2004 marked a change in the domain industry, with the launch of Domain Masters, a radio/podcast show broadcasting weekly episodes of domain industry news, pulse reports on new trends and domain success stories.
Domain Masters was founded and hosted by Monte Cahn, who passed the torch to me (Victor Pitts), who continued the show for many years. A few others were guest host along the way, but Monte and Victor were there for the majority of the show’s run. Domain Masters was made possible by the technology and infrastructure provided by WebmasterRadio.fm, who is now operating as Cranberry Radio.
There were few podcast in 2004, and there were no other domain focused podcast at that time. The industry’s news at that time was mainly disseminated by Ron Jacksons DNjournal.com and a few of domain forums. Bloggers had not yet arrived in a significant way to spread news or influence opinion. Domain Masters provided a valuable service to the domain investor community by sharing the investor’s story as well being a connection point between them and the domain registries, parking services, seo companies, affiliate networks, lead generation networks, legal experts, and industry conferences. Domain masters would provide live coverage at domain conferences and domain auctions, which enabled the entire domain investment community to be plugged in. There has been many occasions when a domain investor told me that he or she took interest in domain investments after having listening to Domain Masters. Some of these people could recall specific statements of impact made by myself, or Monte, or a guest of the show.
Each episode of Domain Masters was broadcast live, and archived for digital streaming or download at Webmaster Radio, iTunes, and many other audio archive websites. The ability to download the show to your MP3 player was a plus, because it enabled people to listen to the show from their car, on a plane, or while commuting on the subway. As the years rolled forward, technology evolved, and podcast became easier and cheaper to produce. This enabled others to produce their own podcast, which led to content being duplicated. Everybody was interviewing the same people and covering the same stories. Video podcast had also increased in popularity as the technology became better and more affordable, so the audio format lost a bit of its luster. For a while it also seemed like everyone had become a blogger, so this added more of a feel that the industry had ample coverage and Domain Masters was no longer needed.
I left the show in 2014, but still look back to that experience fondly. The show has been picked up by new host a couple of times in the time since then, and I enjoyed tuning into their shows as a listener. Indeed Domain Masters had positive impact on the domain industry as a whole, and it has had a impact on specific people in a significant way. It was an honor for me to host the show over a prolonged period of time, and to have had the privileged to interview so many incredible people. You can still listen into archives of Domain Masters at Cranbery Radio (http://cranberry.fm/shows/domain-masters/)
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