Craig Nine

Founder, IDN Forums

Why He Matters: The first domain Craig Nine registered was J99.com. Since that day back in 1999, the 32-year-old SEO consultant and web developer living in Japan – first became interested in IDNs, he didn’t just register a couple of domains to test the waters, he dove in headfirst. Nine is not only the owner of one of the strongest Japanese IDN portfolios, he is also the owner and founder of IDNForums.com, the premier IDN discussion and sales forum, and one of the top sites about Internationalized Domain Names.

Sahar Sarid

Co-founder Recall Media Group/  Conceptualist.com

Why He Matters: With only determination and his sister’s credit card, Sahar Sarid, Co-Founder of Recall Media Group, successfully began his journey into professional domaining and has become an iconic knowledgeable resource to many in the domain industry. Along with his popular blog, The Conceptualist, Sahar educates his readers with domain specific information and industry news. His current project involves a site called "Assista " which is a search engine powered by asking questions instead of using keywords.

Ron James

Founder, NamePros.com/ Director 1Plus.net

Why He Matters: Ron James founded NamePros in February 2003 and has used his skills to create one of the fastest growing domain forum communities on the Internet. Ron and his staff have created a positive and educational resource forum for the domain industry with no signs of slowing down. Ron James registered his first domain in 1997 and has been actively buying and selling on the domain aftermarket since 1998.

Rick Latona

Founder, DigiPawn

Why He Matters: Rick Latona has been in the Internet business since the beginning. Rick’s popular Sick Site Network controls over 5 million daily unique visitors. He currently owns over 10,000 .com names and is highly respected in the industry. Rick Latona is founder of DigiPawn, the first Internet pawnshop that specializes in lending money to domain name owners that use their domains as collateral. It is pioneering endeavors like this, which are pushing the domain industry to new levels.

You

Future of the Domain Industry

Why You Matter: The future of domaining has fast become highly publicized due to recent world record sales and industry advertising. It seems every TV, radio and print commercial advertisement is now tagged with the website address of the company sponsoring the ad in hopes of driving traffic towards the site. Domain names are no longer a collecting hobby, but a multi-billion-dollar industry that has taken the world by storm. As a domainer, we have dedicated ourselves to searching trends, market influences, future potential interest and overall market appeal of domain names that would be highly sought for purchase or traffic monetization. We are the driving force behind the exploding media behind the domain industry and without you being a part of the frenzy, there would be no frenzy. I would like to thank everyone for your positive influences to our emerging industry and I look forward to adding some new faces to the 2008 edition of the 20 Most Influential People In The Domain Industry.