Domains and Divorce, Are You Prepared for Your Domain Assets to Come Under Fire?

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – This is a very personal post today with thoughts you might find surprising, however, one thing that readers of my site will always get is honesty, good, bad, or ugly; you’re going to have the opportunity to read through the details of my experience on the web – with whatever it may be – and those who read these articles have come to expect and respect my honesty and thoughts where sharing my real world experience on the Internet and within circles of like-minded individuals relate to those who learn from my experience. My hope is always that it helps grow (or protect) their own businesses.

Regrettably, today marks the end of my work with LongIsland.com and the company behind it, Long Island Media Inc. Most folks who read this blog have come to know me as the front-facing guy who owns and operates LongIsland.com, one of the most successful and well referenced GEO domain name businesses of all time, since the site rakes in over a million a year in revenue, but my secret has not been GEO domaining by itself; it is built around a business that ‘utilizes’ a GEO domain for another purpose, in my case, regional automotive advertising, but this could be done with anything, especially real estate. It took me a long time to realize this which is the key to owning a GEO domain name, in my opinion, as it has become more and more difficult to earn revenue on the GEO domain name itself, which is why many of them are currently for sale, again, in my opinion. You need to utilize your GEO domain to accomplish something significant in your specific market.

A few Geo domain names that come to mind are Florida.com, Texas.com and Baltimore.com, all of which are currently for sale.

My partner at Long Island Media Inc., will now take over the reins of running the site and business and I wish him all the luck in the world and I will remain on the sidelines with my interest in the business and to help consult and advise, however, officially I will be moving on to new projects soon and will no longer fill the role of CEO at Long Island Media Inc. (LongIsland.com).

The reason for the separation is complicated yet expected; one, I’m in the middle of a fairly nasty divorce, and when you are going through a divorce all assets and business interests become a target of the divorce; second, a divorce is and can be very distracting and instead of focusing on the business, sales and profits, I’ve become somewhat distracted from the day to day responsibilities of running things and have become focused on my divorce proceeding, something that has been negative for each of my businesses and my partner has been left with little to no choice but to do what he can to remove that element from the operations.

For those who have not been through it, I’ve seen and been through a lot of challenges in life and my career, but I’ve never quite seen anything like the destruction and disruption of operating a business through a divorce proceeding, especially when there are multiple businesses all created during the divorce and therefor all maritial property. My corporate attorney describes it as this: Every partner’s worst nightmare is their other partner going through a divorce; it complicates everything, so if you have a portfolio of domain names, a single valuable domain or a business and are considering a marriage, you might want to seriously consider a prenuptial agreement prior to the nuptials themselves, as all assets held prior to and/or built or acquired during the marriage will or can become targets of the divorce proceeding, even domain names, and a divorce can cause great complications between owners of certain assets.

It might seem trivial to some, but once you register a domain name during a marriage it becomes marital property just as if you were to register a business, that too becomes maritial property. For me personally, many of both were created during the marriage, a complex creation of multiple problems so my advice is to put extra thought into these issues when contemplating marriage, unless you do not mind your foundations being rocked if ever there is a change in circumstances, especially if your spouse is actively engaged or holds any ownership of the business. I’ve been a big believer of splitting everything in a marriage and it should go without saying that this proves extremely complicated when the marriage ends.

As far as owning a geographic domain name, my advice is this: if you own a great GEO domain name, focus on something profitable in your particular market and use your GEO domain name to further your position in that specific market. Become the expert in your market because of your GEO domain name, and build a foundation in your market around your GEO domain name that keeps you well ahead of your competitors. If you can do that, you’ll have the leverage you need to succeed. Everything these days seems to be about leverage; there is A LOT of competition out there, and you need to stay competitive and authoritative and a GEO domain can do just that; differentiate you from others.

I look forward to meeting everyone at NamesCon this year just as I have every other year, but this year will be a little different. Instead of meeting everyone as the guy who owns LongIsland.com, I’ll be the guy who put LongIsland.com on the map; the guy who truly loves domain names and building out Internet properties for not just a hobby and for enjoyment, but for a living.

My parting with LongIsland.com and Long Island Media Inc., operations is a sad one, but it is necessary and done so with forward looking endeavors and the interest and ability to make great things come about that will further me to the next project, the next great domain and business I can focus my energies on in the New Year.

John Colascione

About The Author: John Colascione is Chief Executive Officer of Internet Marketing Services Inc. He specializes in Website Monetization, is a Google AdWords Certified Professional, authored a ‘how to’ book called ”Mastering Your Website‘, and is a key player in several Internet related businesses through his search engine strategy brand Searchen Networks®