The Domain King's® thoughts on domain names, web traffic, increasing web sales, success, life, and plain-old Business & Marketing 101. Nothing happens until a sale is made!
I am a worrier. I worry about this and I worry about that.
But worry is also my greatest single motivator. The fear of failure. The fear
of losing. The fear of things not going properly. That fear is my motivation.
It’s almost like a self contained energy and power plant. Fear leads to worry
and worry leads to motivation. Motivation leads to paying particular attention
to all the small details because the fear of failure makes me worry and the
worry makes me pay acute attention to the smallest of details and paying
attention to details lead to an increased chance of success.
So I love times like this. I am more worried than normal.
But that worry is my energy plant and as long as I am worried, life is just
dandy! But there is a negative biproduct of all this. People think I am
controlling. But is that really the right word? As a worrier, I see failure or
those things that slip thru the cracks that may lead to failure when many
others don’t. So I have the choice. Standby and watching things go south, or
not. If I am not involved, well maybe no need to care. But if I am on the ship,
I am going down too, so I do worry. I do take control when I see that stuff
fall thru the cracks. That is how I am wired. We are all wired a bit different.
So we all need to identify and celebrate our strengths and weaknesses because
we never know which weakness is actually our greatest strength.
In a few days, I mark the day that I got my very first Domain Name. LipService.com on December 26th 1995. I have had several monikers along the way. RickS, Mr800King, Webfather, DomainKing but I have always been Rick Schwartz.
It really was not until months later, in May, that I got my 2nd and 3rd domains. A birthday present from my brother. My 2 company names at the time.
Then I sent him an email and asked if he could get me 1 or 2 others. Then 1 or 2 more. Then 1 or 2 more and after a while he got sick of the work (Smart) and says go to this link and register them yourself.
AND THAT was my first day in Domaining.
I did not know how to cut and paste. I did not know how to search. I could barely navigate anywhere and when I did get there, I had no idea where I was, how I got there or how to got back.
So my only point of reference was a domain name. I knew how to type in http://www.lipservice.com etc. But it would take me a while to grasp the http:// part and you had to put in the www in those days. (Some sites still have not figured out that one)
So I was a know-nothing lost pup in a land of techies. Techies and I see a different sun and a different moon. Oil and water.
I was an idiot in their eyes. They were right of course. But I had a different path that they could not see or get their head around.
How do you advertise 125.66.139.81 on tv or radio or magazines or Billboard? Of course I was an idiot for asking that cuz everything comes from SEARCH.
“You don’t advertise on TV, you have links you idiot!” And that was how the table was set.
This idiot was dependent on those idiots!!!
I got kicked off my first host because of makeout.com and listing party chat lines. So I had to find another provider and another idiot to deal with. After a few idiots I finally found a host that understood how to point as many domains as I wanted to one page. Redirecting.
Redirecting. Wow!!
Funny part is all the genius idiots I had already dealt with told me what I wanted to do was impossible. So maybe now you understand why genius idiots don’t impress me. I actually like SMART people not those that think they are.
So remember I am in the wilderness. I am BLIND to where I am. I've been having the genius idiots lead me until then. I was dependent on idiots. And they were idiots for multiple reasons. They thought they had a 9-5 job as a hosting company for starters.
Their servers were up and down like yoyo’s and they had no sense of urgency. I was out of business, they were out of business and all their clients were out of business but they were GONE!! Gone on weekends and gone 16 hours a day.
Now they are CERTIFIED IDIOTS!!
So I discover I am a businessman in a sea of idiots. That sounds like opportunity to me. So I find this guy in Pennsylvania that hosts and has a brain and still has issues being a techie, but we found common ground. Maybe paying $1500/month for my domain hosting helped!
But I would have to rely on him to make update changes to my page or link changes. Until the day I learned to FTP. LIFE-CHANGING!!
I could finally take updates in an instant and not rely on 9-5’ers that may take DAYS and a 2nd email or even 3rd email to get something done.
The next thing I learned was to cut and paste. CONTROL-C, CONTROL-V, Then CONTROL-F
I was in pig shit heaven!!
With those simple tools, I was able to change my destiny. To this day I can’t do much more. Though I do know now how to search like a bloodhound now!
Through all this I am alone. I know nobody. That is until I started hitting the chat boards and getting banned from those chat boards and my posts pulled.
Professional businessman many of them with adult sites. They were talking BUSINESS!!! The business was TITS and ASS, but the discussion was almost all business!
That was when I finally came out of the wilderness for the very first time. Little by little I worked my way into the group. It took me about 2 weeks to make a name for myself.
“Serge” was the guy on board that everyone feared. One day Serge offered a $5 challenge. I stepped up and I said I would take that bet.
I lost!
So now I owed Sege $5. Serge was in New Jersey, I was in Florida. Serge sends me his addy, I send him the $5. But it was the manner that I sent the $5 that got the attention of Serge and everyone else.
I spent $12.95 to overnight that $5.
Well, Serge knows class when he sees it and of course he loved it!! That $5 check is framed and still hanging on his wall, until this day. That made me a name. That made me credible and in a cyber world of the invisible, that made me real.
I always say all successes and failures happen at the start. That ladies and gentlemen, that was my start.
From there I developed the most potent traffic any of them had ever seen. My domain traffic sold at rates 100 times MORE than the rest! They need 10,000 visitors to sell a membership, my traffic needed less than 100 to sell one.
Remember, there is no mainstream back then. There was CNN and now much else. Amazon is 1 year old. Google was yet to be founded. eBay was months old. Graphic User Interface, GUI, had just barely arrived. Remember MSDOS?
It was truly the dark ages of the Internet.
But I took a good chunk of my earnings and kept buying mainstream names even though there was no mainstream. Mainstream rejected the Internet. Mainstream tried to bury the Internet. Mainstream tried to discredit the Internet.
They were all schmucks and idiots cuz they should have been embracing it. They rejected the idea of selling cars online. Rejected it!! How much were those sales worth that they rejected??
They did that for a DECADE before they figured it out. They were IDIOTS for letting so many years pass. I simply can't excuse their shortsightedness nor should anyone. They failed miserably and hurt their companies.
Give them an award! What the hell you want me to do? Praise them!!?? They did not see the single biggest tool in business history. So whatever education they had, did not work as planned.
And even today, 25 years later, they still have not figured out the value of great and strategic domains. And while they dither, those domains went from $15,000 to $15 Million and now accelerating.
I will leave you with a few recent Twitter thoughts and DEEP beliefs!
I hope I have explained my attitude towards idiots and where it came from and why it is so strong. But how do you respect incompetence? What is the point of having a degree or degrees if you miss something life-changing like the Internet itself? They failed the biggest test of their lives and that does not make them smart! It may make them irrelevant.
In the month since my mom passed I have been keenly aware of things. I believe the spirit is very stong for a certain period after one's death. So without going into it I follow certain paths to their ends. I am guided to these paths by pure accident. Or so it would seem.
One such path led me to an interesting blog post and I am going to paste it below. Great words of wisdom.
If you truly want to change your life, you must first change your mind. You must free it from the restrictive thinking that holds you back.
Here are 50 thought-provoking quotes gathered from our sister site, Everyday Life Lessons, and from our blog archive that will help tweak your thinking and set your mind free.
You are only destined to become one person – the person you decide to be.
Do good and feel good. Do bad and feel bad. It’s that simple.
You are what you do today, not what you say you’ll do tomorrow.
We all make choices, but in the end our choices make us.
Ultimately, it’s not what you do every once in a while; it’s what you dedicate yourself to on a regular basis that makes the difference.
Stay true to yourself. Never be ashamed of doing what feels right. Decide what you think is right and stick to it.
If you don’t stand for anything, you will remain forever on your knees.
No amount of money will make you happy if you aren’t happy with yourself.
You know you’ve made the right decision when there is peace in your heart.
Don’t worry if your goals seem crazy to other people; oftentimes the crazy ideas are the ones that have the greatest impact.
If you’re thinking like everyone else, then you aren’t thinking. (ReadThinking, Fast and Slow.)
Control your own destiny or someone else will try for you.
Sometimes standing up to your friends can be just as difficult as standing up to your enemies.
The unhappiest people in this world are the people who care the most about what everyone else thinks.
When people undermine your dreams, predict your doom, or criticize you, remember, they’re telling you their story, not yours.
There is a huge amount of freedom that comes to you when you take nothing personally.
No one in the world was ever you before, with your particular gifts and abilities and possibilities.
Your greatest task isn’t to find love, but to discover and destroy all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
A loving, happy person lives in a loving, happy world. A hateful, miserable person lives in a hateful, miserable world. The world around you reflects YOU.
Worry gives small things a big shadow.
Focus your conscious mind on things you desire not things you fear. Doing so brings dreams to life.
It’s not the mistakes and failures you have to worry about, it’s the opportunities you miss when you don’t even try that hurt the most.
It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one over and over again.
To get something you’ve never had, you must do something you’ve never done.
The harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing.
Anyone can run away; it’s super easy. Facing problems and working through them, that’s what makes you strong.
When you have two good options, always go with the one that scares you the most, because that’s the one that’s going to help you grow.
Courage is being scared to death, and then taking the next step anyway.
Sometimes our greatest insight comes from our failure, not from our accomplishments.
You need to screw up to learn. You need to experience it all to create greatness.
Just because you don’t understand something now doesn’t mean the explanation doesn’t exist.
Not knowing everything about your future is a good thing.
Don’t worry about what you can’t control and you may liberate yourself.
People of average ability often achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most people succeed simply because they are determined to.
Temporary happiness isn’t worth long-term pain.
Patience can be bitter, but the seeds you plant now will bear sweet fruit.
The less you expect, the more pleasant life gets.
The more you are in a state of gratitude, the more you will attract things to be grateful for.
The things you take for granted, someone else is praying for.
It usually isn’t what you have or where you are or what you’re doing that makes you happy. It’s how you think about it all.
Do not dwell so much on creating your perfect life that you forget to live.
You are not in competition with anybody except yourself; plan to outdo your past not other people.
To admit that you were wrong is to declare that you are wiser now than you were before.
Humans see what they want to see.
If you spend too much time judging yourself, you won’t have any time to love yourself or anyone else. (Read The Mastery of Love.)
At the end of the day, you can either focus on what’s tearing you apart or what’s holding you together.
Look through the front windshield and not the rearview mirror.
Don't listen to me and all I have said about failing over the years. Listen to what Mark Cuban says: “It doesn’t matter how many times you fail—you only have to be right one time.”
Bingo, Bongo!! So simple. Yet MOST people on this earth are SCARED of failure which means they are terrified of success.
Here are my posts with the keywords, "Fear of Failure". I write about it a lot because it is so true!
“It doesn’t matter how many times you fail—you only have to be right one time.”
That really is the key. So those yapping on the sidelines are so scared to even get in the game all they can do is what they do best, just make noise.
So those idiots pointing their finger at failure may as well be pointing their finger at themselves. Pointing to their own failure to even try.
A true failure should include a leap of knowledge as the residue of that failure.
There is a fork in the road and there are 2 paths.
80% won't go down either path as they will be stuck, confused and unable to make a decision.
20% will try one way or the other. 10% will get it right the first time. That leaves 10% and 8% of them will try one road and give up and the 2% will go down one road, see it is the wrong road, turn back and correct the mistake. That 2% even trumps the 10% that got it right the first time. They may have gotten it right by sheer luck The 2% that failed, actually learned something that led them to a success and they know WHY they succeeded.
Some people don't like talking about results. Don't like to measure results. Don't take the time to see if there was a good result or a bad result. And of course many are busy excusing results and therefore all their energy is consumed by that.
For all the work effort and talk it all boils down to results vs no results. Even a failure should produce real and tangible results you can use. Matter of fact those results are often the most important and the most overlooked and ignored. I study 2 things. Success and failure. Hopefully I can change a variable of failure to produce a success. A success is simply a step forward. A failure can often be a LEAP forward or a complete collapse. Depends what you do with it. Or if you fear it. Or took the time to see if there was a good result or a bad result before proceeding with the next decision.
That's the 1 over 2.
Results vs No Results. No result is the only pure failure. And even that is not a pure failure if you eliminate something or learn something.
If you walk away, nothing further to say or do. But if you stay:
Results vs No Results.
From that you either get new info to act on or just walk away.
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat.
And everything else is bullshit.
And of course you have those that ignore results. Excuse results. Put lipstick on results. They can't handle the reality of results. So they forget about results and that results in failure at every level for all time. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day and for many that is enough to claim victory.
One moves forward all the time and takes the slings and arrows of progress and one moves in a circle all the time. The path is by choice. Those that are scared to fail are also those that are scared to succeed and they spend a lifetime stuck in that circle. Many slinging their arrows towards those moving forward.
I have more faith in people then they have in themselves and that truly makes me sad.
See, I believe that each of us has a gift and unlocking that gift is the key to everything else in life. But for whatever reason folks either don't think about it or afraid to follow their dreams and make it a reality.
In face of all the historical evidence of those challenged by much more, they are paralyzed by fear. Bound in chains by their mind. Afraid of failure like it was worse than death. Some make the leap, but oh so few. Once you figure it out, the rest is just a matter of time. It's easier the second time because you know the path. That path less traveled.
You have to develop a thick skin to let rejection roll off of you. To know that one door slamming in your face will result in 2 doors opening if you don't let it defeat you right there. Every baby falls down but imagine what the world would look like if they feared getting up?
That's why there are waitresses and waiters at Denny's making $50/day and working their asses off and those at the high-end restaurants with busboy and runners and hosts and others to support you and make $500/night for 33% of the work. IT WAS A CHOICE FOR EACH! And likely the guy at $500 at Chez Max was working at Denny's at one time and learned how to CLIMB the ladder and the way up one opportunity at a time. And he was GOOD on every step of the ladder and that was the passport to climbing it to begin with. The ladder starts at the bottom and anyone that laughs at the guy at McDonald's or Denny's could not last a day doing what they do.
The earlier you harness and control your own human nature is the day you will CHOOSE to work or not. To be productive or not. To try to reach higher and higher goals and achievements or not. Learning that excellent is just 2nd place to perfect. And while perfection can never truly be achieved, it still has to remain the goal. And there are PERFECT answers to questions. There are PERFECT decisions for any decision to be made. It fits perfectly and it is the right thing to do. And even if it does not work out perfectly, excellence as a runner-up and anything above good and very good and you are in EXCELLENT company!
And even if you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you can still choose to do the right thing. That my friends is the birth of Karma. And if you have faith in yourself, you will find it easy to always do the right thing. And that has the power to propel us as a person to bigger and greater things if we choose.
Look, we are people and we are flawed. But when we have a chance to rise to the occasion, the challenge, the obstacle, then we have a duty to rise and do what has to be done. And that is the TRUE difference between $50/day and $500 or $5000 etc. and everything in between.
I guess nobody told anybody that it is in the middle of summer and the stock market is supposed to be asleep and business is supposed to be delayed until September or later. Well as we wrap up the second week of July, I think things are going full blast.
Big Sales, big lawsuits with some big names and just big things starting to happen. We have indeed entered into a different period. A different orbit. I believe things will just continue to get stronger for the foreseeable future. There will be some incredible business failures still to come but now there are folks with cash standing by to step in.
Point is we are getting EVIDENCE daily that things are changing and the horizon looks pretty bright regardless of headwinds and other challenges. Those that got out of the business because of fear will eventually see they just bought in to a scenario that was short-lived.
Business out there still sucks. But an express lane of opportunity is opening up and there is no excuse for anyone reading this not to see it and be able to take advantage of it. The worst is over. It took me many YEARS to be able to say that. A long way from the "Business Fog" I wrote about in early 2009. Flying with zero visibility. Today there is clarity. CLARITY! Does not mean there are not tough times ahead, but clarity is a HUGE difference. Don't believe it? Just read that 2009 post.
It was July 4th 1996 that I picked as the day to make a provocative post about domains and their value. There was no aftermarket back then. But I would share what I learned including the domain names and the earnings. Few of course even believed it. But those that were informed knew. I did that again in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and it became my annual July 4th post. That along with a post every morning and banter back and forth throughout the day and sometimes all night before opening my own board using the exact code that ynot used in 2000. I was surprised anyone even joined in the conversation. But they did. The landscape has certainly changed since then. So my perspective is different from many.
Ynot was one of the first globally active collaboration forums in which folks were doing TENS of millions of dollars in business and competitors working together is what fueled much of it. It was focused on adult because there was yet to be a mainstream for the most part. There was a pond but the ocean had yet t appear.
Here is an illustration that 1000 posts could never put into words. Some folks think they are "Progressive" but somewhere along the way they fear progress. It's like an all or nothing for them each and every time and more often than not that type thinking leads to nothing. A loss. A loss with nothing to show. No progress. So it is defining to see where folks come down on the following illustration. I have said for years and you see it all the time, if you are afraid to fail that means you are terrified to succeed. Here is how I see it.
Winston Churchill said: "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm".
All things come to an end. What you have grown comfortable with in our small pond is coming to an end. Sadly there is nothing that can be done but remember the good ole days. Folks, this is the sunset of the good ole days. Things are changing that makes our pond something that we will just remember. It's not in our control and it is not our fault. But progress and age are going to rewrite what domaining looks like.
There are two keywords you are hearing of this year,'gTLD' and 'Leasing'. One will cost you money. One will make you money. That's how I see it. The next phase is coming at us faster than you might think and the WORST mistake I could make at this stage is be LATE to the game. To the landing of this new phase.
I have patiently been waiting on the beach all these years. Now it is time to prepare the runway. Build the infrastructure. Get ready for the assault. Why now? Because the movement is already in the air. The plane has taken off and now it is just the time to travel here and land. 18 years of waiting STANDBY at the gate waiting for the plane to taxi on the runway. That plane has finally taken off. There are 1900 bumps along the way so it won't be a smooth ride. But when we emerge on the other side in 2-3 years, folks will look back like it was always that way and new folks coming in won't know any different. They will just think it was always like that just like many of you think there was always a domain aftermarket and auctions and unlimited places to register a domain name as opposed to one that did not work well. Working like your local DMV in those days. But 'Horrible' has its privileges.
In 2-3 years nobody reading this TODAY will even recognize the 'Domain Industry'. It is about to change in an uncontrollable way and voices like mine will be drown out by thousands with an agenda. Including myself and maybe you too. That is the way of the world. That is evolution. We can't control it but we CAN HARNESS IT!!!!
It is that 'Drowning out' that will elevate great domains names to their proper place in the eco chain of business. The more everyone yells me, me me, the more the domains will stand out as a way to.....stand out!
See it is the gTLD''s that will make leasing a viable option. It's just so simple and that is why you are seeing a WAVE of folks focusing on this area. Progress is not to be feared. It is to understand what happens when something new is introduced. ALL of our voices will soon be drown out by 1800 STAFFS of 'Cubicle Whores' each with their job spreading great rumors about their extension. There will be announcements of multi million dollar deals and maybe NONE will actually be done from an arms length. 1900 competing motives. They will rip each others eyes out trying to survive. Let's see how long t will be until 'Consolidation' begins. I suspect very quickly. Each consolidation is an exclamation of failure!
That's the difference going forward. It won't unfold the way 99.9 expect it will. It could be ugly. All I know is you will see a lot of caucuses lining the road to the future. All with high hopes. Most based on the second coming of something that will never be repeated. Each step only fortifying and increasing the value of .com no matter what they spew in their own self interest.
I have come to the conclusion that as domainers many of us are blessed and cursed with A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder) or maybe some of us are the opposite and focus too much. Possibly we suffer from both.
The more you think like the masses the better you will do. You must recognize that the 'masses' hold the keys. If they don't go along with the program, you have a flop. No matter how much is invested or touted. The Edsel and the Volt come to mind.
The consumer is finicky and only likes a change with a benefit. Change for change sakes seldom gets rewarded. 'New Coke' and 'Classic Coke'. A failure and a victory. The public rejected the new coke, but in the loss, coca cola company now controlled much more shelf space at the grocery store.
Stage one of the net had to be gathering the domain names. The 'nuts' if you will. Why? Because as I have stated many times, this was a unique moment in time that would never ever happen again. Opportunity your father, your grandfather and his father before that never had. That's a FACT NOW and only a crazy pipe dream back then.
My prediction is that window will be CLOSED at the end of this 20 years cycle. A generation it was open and anyone could participate and at the end of 20 years and possibly a few days before, that window will close. Stage one of the Internet will be over. But for me, that is just when it all really begins. The first 20 years devoted to nothing more than gathering nuts and learning. Realizing that sophistication also takes 20 years. We are growing the most enormous tree the world has ever seen. 20 years is nothing.
My first 20 years were always devoted to seeing a dream through for the next 20 years. More meaningful in terms of the Internet and as I get older and can work less, my little nuts will be doing all the work. It's an engine. 20 years to assemble all the parts and 20 years to implement.
So while there are still REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKERS out there impatiently waiting and losing millions, they can't hijack my vision or how I CHOOSE to implement it and WHEN I choose to implement. And should they try, they will have hell to pay. Ask the poster boy.
Patience is the key and while I can point to tens of thousands of failures they can only point to my slow and deliberate manner as their reason
But here we are. If you want to go into business today you are likely to start on the Internet. There was never going to be a second chance to get great domain names. Once they were spoken for, game over. So our mission was to gather those nuts. Fill the wheel barrels with gold and not even look at the booty for 20 years. Because in 20 years some of that booty would become priceless and others would be worthless.
When you don't know how something is going to unfold you shoot in all directions in the sky and hope some birds fall down. You don't aim, you shoot. You shoot as many as you can as fats as you can and worry about everything else later. You can point the rifle later or at any time in between.
Well, it's getting to be 'Later' and those that have held on and have dozens or even hundreds or maybe thousands of core domains that each on their own could keep you busy for a lifetime are soon to be well rewarded.
I look at the 20 year trip as a wagon train or stage coach going from the east coast of the USA to the west coast of the USA like they did 150-200 years ago. Many were lost along the way and many just gave up. Yet others sprinted off in other directions on their own. It's a tough trailblazing trip. Mountains and valley's and snow and rain and storms and cold nights and summer heat.
So where are we on this trip to the west coast? Well we are nearly there but we will lose more folks now then ever before. We have crossed the mountains of the east, the rockies and now we are in DEATH VALLEY!! A true test of what we are all made of. Some don't believe there is a great ocean just another 100-200 miles away or less. They have traveled 2500-2700 miles and it is at THIS POINT when so many will give up. Will second guess themselves. Will sell out of fear for no reason.There IS an ocean after this hot sand. There is a point where everything will reveal itself and it is at that moment that the your universe changes and the rewards come.
But still remember one thing. Mainstream today is yet to catch up to the adult market of 1997-1998. But they will. The numbers paint a picture for all to see. Stronger than anything I can say those numbers demonstrate what is valuable and what is not.
So that is why I see what I see and how long the journey takes. Frustration starts when you anticipate something happening much sooner and become impatient. Don't second guess the value of a great domain name. Understand that fruit has to be ripe before you pick it or you will likely just spit it out when you get it too soon.
This point is the last opportunity point before the opportunity evaporates completely. The unique moment in time will be gone. The ship will have sailed. So I would imagine this is like 2003-2004 all over again but in a different form and if you knew then what you know now, would you make some corrections to your course? The ONLY way to see th future is to study the past and understand it.
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