My newest GeoDomain Venture!

Last week I finished signing the papers, and this week I have already started work on the new site! A press release was sent out earlier today:

Domains New Media announces that Jon Lumpkin has joined their team

We would like to announce that Jon Lumpkin has joined the team of Domains New Media to develop Alexandria.com.

Formerly with Richmond.com, Jon brings to the table valuable programming, technical and business skills that will help develop Alexandria.com into a thriving GeoDomain.  Many of you are familiar with Jon’s work as seen on Richmond.com and may have seen his presentation on “Technology & GeoDomains” at the last GeoDomain Expo.

Alexandria.com presents a unique opportunity in the GeoDomain space, as it will be a site focused and developed around two cities that are worlds apart; the Alexandria in Virginia and the Alexandria in Egypt.  By offering visitors access to these two major metropolitan destinations we are able to provide the information that visitors are seeking.

Simultaneous Development

Development of Alexandria.com will be coordinated between two teams. Gastón Piarrette will head up the development and content for the Egyptian side and Jon Lumpkin will be working alongside Josh Stauffer and Jeremia Froyland to develop the Virginia side.

While this presents unique challenges and opportunities by developing a main site that features both cities, we believe that it offers visitors to the site information for their particular city of interest.

Skip Hoagland, the CEO of Domains New Media said “We are very pleased that we have the opportunity to bring Jon’s skills and talent to our team.  Additionally, we are extremely excited to tackle the challenge of developing both sides of Alexandria.com.  Jon brings a world of technical knowledge in our industry and we look forward to working with him on this project.”

The new site will soon launch and we are excited about helping add value to our industry through the development of these GeoDomains.  We are proud to be a member of AssociatedGeos.com and look forward to moving our industry down an exciting and pioneering road.

About Alexandria.com
Alexandria.com offers information for residents and visitors of Alexandria, Virginia and Alexandria, Egypt on their website.  With information about hotels, real estate, news, attractions and businesses, they cater to online those who are interested in Alexandria.

About GeoDomains New Media
Alexandria.com is a subsidiary of the GeoDomains New Media family of Companies which includes such premium sites as: Atlanta.com; BuenosAires.com; HiltonHead.com; MyrtleBeach.com and Portland.com as well as many other premium GeoDomains; along with the Social Media Networks GeoDomains.com; SimplyGeo.com and GeoDomainer.com.

I’m not quiting my full time job I just took on, this is just something spare to work on in some free time to make some extra money, and work on a passion that I really started to enjoy! One of my favorite things at Richmond.com was the development, SEO/SEM, and market that you target. And now I get to do all this and more!

UPDATE: I just found out that this made DNJournal.com too!

You can read the whole story at DNJournal.com!

On Richmond.com and my last week…

Well, as im sure many of you have heard by now, Richmond.com has been sold, and this week is my last (though, they were two separate events, and oddly enough, not related. I announced my departure a little over 3 weeks ago, and just knew about this a little under 2 weeks. (For those that don’t know that are visiting the site – I have been working in Technology over there for a bit over 1.5 years).

It was a shocker. I could go on and on about what I feel about the situation, what I did/didn’t know before the announcement, etc. I just don’t think this is the place. If you are curious, and do want to discuss, then email me. Though, please realize, this is becoming more and more ‘distant’ to me as I prepare to move on, and not really sure if I even want to THINK about it anymore.

It sucked. Friends lost their jobs. Things had been rough for all of us for a while, and towards the end, just outright confusing. Obviously there were things I couldn’t talk about, and then keep on going as if things were ‘normal’. I made it though, and so did they. Its a crappy economy, a crappy time, and if you don’t adjust to what needs to be done, you won’t be able to go much further. Of course after everything happens, we still have to keep our heads up and march on. Half the people did keep their jobs, but who knows doing what once moving down to Franklin street.

I don’t think it was ever competition. Yes, all these sites are awesome. I personally love rvablogs and rvanews. If you haven’t been using them, you should. Same with inrich.com. Yes, for a while, they were ‘the enemy’, but they had some amazing resources we didn’t. First, its just coverage – they are a newspaper, and of course have the editorial resources readily available. Then you have technology. You have amazing people like Tripp and Tess (although Tess not for much longer). We obviously had amazing people too, and for a small team, I think we did really well against the ‘big guys’. Of course with Ross and all over at Rvanews/Rvablogs, I have always thought these guys were brilliant and ‘knew whats up’. There’s just tooo many smart minds in this small city of ours, but obviously this is a very good thing.

Other than those in our company that had to move on (and those after the next week I will no longer be working with), Im also really going to miss those I have met through the Associated Cities. They are a great group, and I just wish there was some way to stay with them, although i’m no longer affiliated with a geodomain. These guys are doing some amazing stuff for those with geodomains, and everyone should keep an eye on them for the good stuff that is still yet to come.

I had been super stressed out trying to keep all this in. So sorry if I pissed anyone off or have seemed ‘odd’ for the last few weeks, life has just been a mess. But we are just counting down the hours now…

So who knows whats next. Obviously people have their rumors, and I can neither confirm nor deny what you here. And hell, after this Friday, I won’t know any further, and will just step back and watch (though, Im pretty excited to start doing ‘my own thing’ as well). All I know is that for the next week, i’ll be working for this new company, pretty much assimilating all knowledge I have built up over the last 1.5 years, to pass on to the next person. And now that ‘its all out there’, I think this last week will be a lot more comfortable, for all (other than those that they didnt keep), than the last few.

Finally, I want to leave a few links of coverage, from all over the country, covering this news…

• InRich.com / Richmond.com press release
• Elliots Blog – A great domain-name blog that was also involved in the geo-domain arena as well.
• Domain Name News
• The804.com
• rvanews

Listening To: ‘Under Your Spell’ by The Smashing Pumpkins

My interview is now online!

On a work related note, I was recently interviewed by the Associated Cities, a domain network that we are a part of at work. You can read the interview on their site.

I was asked about two weeks ago and finished putting together my answers over the weekend. Just moments after receiving my copy through the mailing list, I ended up getting a few emails from people all over the world on our list thanking me for taking the time to respond and even asking some questions! I think thats pretty cool 🙂