The last ‘rescue’ ended abruptly (here). It was, however, only for $750,000 which wasn’t going to come within a bull’s roarer of paying the bills.

The new offer includes payment of all of Access 31’s debts by ‘unconditional donation’ and to pay unconditionally (by way of non-recourse loan) ‘the future running costs of the company until the company is operating with revenue exceeding expenditure or for a period of up to four years, whichever is sooner.’ Generous. Very, very, very generous.

The rescuer would like, if accepted, to introduce his own business model and to suggest some additions or changes to the current Board. He also offers ‘to cover the legal costs to have a Lawyer draft the agreement.’ and to release the current Directors from all liability…and all other debts or claims of whatsoever nature’ Given the business performance of Access31 to date, a release of the current Directors is a modest first step.

So next Monday the members will assemble to vote on a special resolution, ‘that the Company be wound up voluntarily’ as well as several ordinary resolutions relating to the nuts and bolts of liquidation. They will also ‘be given the opportunity to put forward their comments and views on the rescue offer… in conjunction with the resolutions…’ Does this mean they vote on it?

Membership was to lapse on June 23 but was held over by the Board to July 3 to vote on the liquidation resolution held over from the June 23 meeting. The Minutes from that meeting state: ‘current financial memberships would be carried over until a resolution could be voted on …’ The resolution is going to be voted on next Monday, but am I valid? Not on your Nelly. I have been told officially that it’s a new resolution and only those who renewed their membership for the current year are welcome.

Yep. The initial resolution (notified 4^th June, 2008) is: “That the company be wound up voluntarily.” The new resolution for September 1^st is “That the company be wound up voluntarily.” You can see the difference.

And who are the eligible members? I know of one and he’s going to be a very lonely little petunia in the cactus patch if he’s the only one who bravely, foolishly, unrefundably, paid his membership to Access31.

I have asked Access31’s caretaking machine how many members were invited and how many attendances were expected but she has not yet answered. But I’ll stand outside on Monday, along with a number of other interested parties, waiting to hear the result. It’s more exciting than ‘Scrap Heap Challenge’

Newspapers, which have traditionally made most of their money from classified ads, are grappling with the trend of real estate, job and car advertising to move from newspapers to cheaper online competitors.

The internet is rapidly outpacing archaic paper media as the main source of news, entertainment and communication worldwide. Welcome to the second internet revolution. Analysts predict that paper news will be all but extinct within the decade. The internet is the fastest expanding communications medium in history and media moghuls like Rupert Murdoch and James Packer are now running as fast as they can to catch up with it. In this ever changing climate of i-phones and interactive news the big boys have been a little slow to adapt to this fast evolving universal technology.

Any of you wanting to become online publishers some day should seriously consider buying up a domain now. In fact I would recommend you buy as many as you can. The race is on. Rupert Murdoch just layed off 550 journalists in his bid to beat the competition into establishing a solid online media presence. A full third of his Australian workforce at such infamous papers as the Sydney Morning Herald have been sacked.

Editor of The Age Sacked: Fairfax
http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=509855
27th August 2008, 10:15 WST

This bold invasion will involve the replacing of many office staff with internet savvy bloggers. Leaders in the new role of intermedia hosts and editors. It will include the mass purchase of pertinent site names in what will become known for decades as the great ‘Domain Grab’. Anybody with a credit card is welcome to play. If you don’t own a credit card then I suggest you beg somebody you trust who does own a credit card to buy one for you. Your own name is always a good idea if its available. Especially if there is a chance you might become famous. You don’t want to be paying big bucks for it later on from someone else who realised its potential before you did.

But celebrity domains are only the tip of the iceberg. The mainstream press has been very slow to move in on the net because they have little understanding of how it works. Rupert Murdoch bought out MySpace when he could have simply purchased a more relevant domain for $6.95 and created his own version. Facebook is now challenging MySpace for dominance of the personal homepage market as users trial them both and critically analyse their services online. A combination of overly strict censure and cyberbullying at MySpace is causing a mass exodus from this once popular site. If they replaced the welcome message picture of young and hip internet celebrity Tom Anderson with one of the new owner Rupert Murdoch then everybody would probably close their accounts.

Popular domain names register a high amount of type-in traffic. This means that people don’t bother searching out a link to the site but simply type it straight into the address bar. High type in traffic inevitably leads to high search engine results. High search engine results lead to large numbers of webcrawlers perusing your little corner of the net. Webcrawlers are search engine programs that seek out relevant sites to list on search engine results. For instance a search on ‘Paris Hilton’ will deliver the most visited, word rich sites containing the words ‘Paris Hilton’. If you own something like http://www.parishilton.com then you are off to a good start. Webcrawlers will swarm all over it. But don’t expect them to hang about if the website itself has nothing relevant to ‘Paris Hilton’ on it. Combining a relevant interesting website with the most pertinent domain names is the best recipe for success on the internet. Make it a domain that is easy to remember. Catchy even. Don’t make it too long or even the best touch typists aren’t going to bother making regular visits except through link clicking.

I own over 80 domains. Some I plan to keep and others are being held for people I admire and respect who I think were a bit neglectful for not buying their domains but shouldn’t necessarily be punished for internet ignorance. My domain trading house has always been http://www.domainsite.com (a great example of relevant domain buying in itself) which has always played fair and honestly with me and is probably one of the cheapest sellers in the market. Public domains such as .com, .org and .net routinely sell for a meagre $6.95 and even a homeless guy can scrape that sort of money together. The .info domains are much cheaper but are rapidly gaining in popularity.

Be careful though. Don’t buy domains restricted to special groups. They can be taken away by the World Intellectual Property Organisation(WIPO). Examples include .com.au and .org.au domains which only registered companies and organisations are allowed to purchase. Read the instructions at your domain trader’s website.

You can join http://www.domainsite.com for free but you will require a credit card to actually purchase any domains. Their services include email, domain transfer and redirection among a host of other nifty control features which I must confess I’ve never even fully explored. You will need to reregister every year to keep your preferred piece of online real estate so don’t forget and let it fall back onto the open market.

If you have any further questions feel free to email me at:

wayne@murdochpress.com