Morning folks!!
This is going to be another “Time Capsule” post.
This post I made on December 27, 2000 on my 5th year on the net. You
will see I say we are entering “Phase 2.” That is particularly appropriate today
as I believe we are now beginning “Phase 3” of all this. So this post is a
little over 7 years old. The more things change, the more things stay the same.
If recollection serves me right, this post was made just a few months before
the collapse. Hope you find a tidbit of value.
“My 5 year anniversary is TODAY.
And for the record......the net is 5 years ahead of where I expected it would
be at this point in time.
Lipservice.com started this and has even survived WIPO.
The #1 question was always why aren't you building sites? Actually it wasn't
really a question, it was more of an accusation. An assault on my judgment. A
put down. Now 5 years later I can explain this, and with MATH, can prove it to
be a safer and smarter road to travel than any other I could have chosen. My
proof are all the dotcom failures laying on the side of the road.
The first year was the darkest. I felt so all alone but knew I was not. The
Internet was little more than a wasteland of 'Under construction'
signs or the first generation carcasses of a website that would remain. There
were other domain speculators that I would run into time and again. We were
mining the same mountains and the same veins at times. There were not many full
timers then. Perhaps about 12 guys that I would run into. In those days the
ONLY thing that gave me motivation to plow forward was losing a domain by just
a day or two. I knew at that point I was hot on the trail. At $100 a pop it got
expensive pretty quick. But I believed in what I was doing so strongly that I
could not stop myself. It was like a disease. I was hooked. All day....all
night. Mostly THINKING of domains that could be important pieces of property in
a few years. And where were the bills?? Netsol had not billed me for over 100
domains for MONTHS. I would pay for what I could afford and risk losing ones
that I had to wait to pay. But I did eventually pay for them all. If netsol had
not done that I doubt I would be where I am. They gave me financing and that
made the difference. Hence my respect for incompetence.
It was November of 1996 that I hooked up my first 300 domains. All adult and
all pointing to the same place. (A trick in those days that few knew could be
done). I made okay money until ONE day in March of 1997. The day I learned to
ftp and to manipulate a simple web page. THAT changed my life and my destiny!!
My first day of traffic experimentation had begun and while others made ,005 a
click or a penny a click. I made a dime a click and more. I thought my
calculator was broken. But then the checks started coming I realized my
calculator was not broken. I had indeed harnessed some very potent traffic. That
led me to the ynot board in April of 1997. A place that changed my life like
this place has hopefully changed some lives. It looked and sounded a lot like
it does here but with a few REAL geniuses and many VERY sharp individuals.
Folks I could never match. Folks that are sharper when they sleep than I am
when I am awake. WOW!! I was in awe. But I decided to work my way in and while
coming out of left field I had something to bring to the table, the most potent
traffic anyone had ever seen. It was the first time anyone called me a
'Webmaster' and I felt like I lowered all webmasters by being one
myself with NO SKILLS that a webmaster would have. My motto: 'If you can
cut and paste it, I can do it!'
The #2 question was always why don't you have employees working on this all the
time building new sites? First of all it would have been a DISTRACTION for me.
I was in a unique crossroads of life and I focused on domains like a laser
going thru a peephole. It was more important to run in directions never gone before
than to stop and invest the time where everyone else was. Besides, I understood
that things would get CHEAPER in time. It was in my best interest to move
slowly with development and run like a panther to obtain those domains to
develop.
For example when I came along $39.95/mo for an adult site was next to
impossible to get. I refused to be put on an adult server cuz of their history
of getting clogged with traffic and thus putting you out of business. So you
were lucky to get $50 a month sites. Many paid $299 A MONTH per domain. I
understood that these prices would only come down in time. Today you can get it
for free, or just a few $$$ a month. Imagine having a thousand domains and
paying $50,000 a month for hosting. I would have been out of business before I
started. So while I opened my first domain and had my first site built on this
day, it was another 11 months before I hooked up the next adult domain.
I remember when nobody believed that I got my traffic by typeins. They did not
believe that folks would type an address on the browser bar. They were great
techies, but they did not understand that when they would start to advertise a
.com on the tv that people would get there via the browser bar entry. You may
laugh at that now, but that was the sort of silly stuff I had to overcome with
LOADS of other crap. They called me names and by the time they figured out I
was right on the mark, I had bought every domain I could think of and knew it
could not be duplicated.
Bottom Line.....my way, it is not the only way. It is not the best way. But it
was my way. It worked for me. While THOUSANDS of others tanked, with THOUSANDS
of employees and BILLIONS of dollars invested by faithful stockholders it was
all wasted for they had no plan.
Bottom line.....i went thru the jungle, the desert, the doubters, the laughers,
etc etc and I am still on my campaign!! I have SURVIVED!!!!! May others have
survived too. But WE are the true warriors!!
So I toot my own horn today. I am proud of what I have accomplished and realize
it is only NOW that it TRULY begins. I knew the day I started that it would be
many years before the soup would be ready to serve.
Today is the begining of phase 2. I go into it with several hundred active
sites and about 125,000 daily unique visitors scattered among them. Now it is
time to focus on growing that traffic and linking the sites together. Most
orbit independently but that will eventually change.
5 years ago it could have cost me tens of thousands for an obsolete site. Today
for a few hundred bucks you can get state of the art site and with the
collapse, there is some real talent running around. While I still don't have a
clue how to do most things on the net I have been able to accomplish the one
thing few have done and that gives me a great advantage. I know how to turn a
profit. A footnote for most, but profit is my guiding light and everything else
is bullshit.
Build it small and make it work, growth will occur. Build it big with no
direction and you get the problems most .coms are now facing.
The turtle wins EVERY time!!!
Remember one thing.......You can have ANYTHING in this world if you REALLLLLLY
want it. Those that doubt this, they are 100% right!! 
Have a GREAT 2001!!
Domain King
Wed Dec 27 07:32:52 2000 - message #284
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