It’s All About Sharing our Stories….


Morning Folks!!
All you can do as a writer or a blogger is to share your story or write hard news with or without commentary. Share your
view. Share the way you did it. Share the way you see it. There are so many ways to climb this mountain.
There are many right ways. There are many wrong ways. Many profitable ways. Many
unprofitable ways. Probably the best way has yet to be discovered. Sometimes you even play the devil's advocate.

But sharing what works is what makes the difference. Does not mean
you have to do or like or embrace. It is just one way. One idea. One
path of many. Personally, I love to hear the different stories and
adventures and the emotions along the way. Some hit gold by accident,
some by design. Some have had one success, some have had many, some
have had none. But each story is another clue. Another piece of the
puzzle. Even the wrong pieces contains clues. Even wrong pieces can be
valuable. We are just wired one way and that sometimes is not a good
thing.

It's easy to look back and say this and that. It is harder to look forward
and to be on the offense. We are living in an age now of caution. The $$$ are
not flying around like they once did. The dollars now are held and delivered
very deliberately and after great research.

I write these posts as a collection in total not as islands. Chapters.
Thoughts. They paint a picture all together. A very detailed picture
for those that read the way I intend it to be read. There is a lot of
redundancy. That is by design. There are many points of intersection
and each one has to be fully examined. There are two choices here. Stay one
step or more ahead or keep pace with the masses which is always one or more steps behind.

The hard part of the next period is to navigate treacherous conditions
and stay ahead of things. That really is the key. Be ahead of it. Fix it before
it breaks. Prepare before need. Don't be in a position to be surprised by
unexpected events.

Do all that and also look and search for incredible opportunity. But don't
measure that opportunity by yesterday's standard. Not even today's standard. It
has to be based on a future standard that will be difficult to pinpoint.

So much of what is happening is geographic. Regional. But the fallout is
worldwide. In past crisis I would say, close the TV, don't read the newspaper,
just go ahead and ignore the bullshit. This time that still may be a good
strategy, but I don't think so. This time it is more akin to whistling past the
graveyard.
There
is incredible opportunity at the moment as well as incredible pitfalls.
It is a tight rope. It is dancing on the edge of a cliff. 2009 will go
down as my best year ever. It should be your best year ever. In good
times money flies around. In challenging times it is opoortunity that
flies around. It takes a different set of skills to harness
opportunity. Opportunity is usually not visible to the naked eye. You
have to look into another dimension. But when you can do that and you
learn to repeat, repeat, repeat, it becomes easy to see the opportunity
and harder to decided which one is the one worthy of your time and
energy.
So while some see my posts as doom and gloom, they are
not. They are an acknowledgment that some things have more force than
others. That some things are bigger than us. I am sure many stocks on
the market are stronger today than a year ago, But their stock prices
are down due to no fault of their own. They are doing great. But that
does not give them the power to defy downward gravity. Navigating these
waters is now a full time job.

Folks keep asking me which way domains will go as far as pricing.
The answer for me is clear. Marginal domains will not go up in value
right now. Likely will go down. However, with premium domains there is
some insulation. While they may not go up inside the incestuous
confines of the domain industry, they are likely not to go down outside
the industry.

But you nor I will decide this. Circumstance will decide.
Financial health of each of us will decide. Your overhead will decide.
A unique asset on sale at a unique moment in time that has great value
will always sell. So no downturn will really affect the sale if the
market is big enough and sophisticated enough.

Many ask about the future of live auctions. Each auction is only
as good as the domains in the auction and the prices asked plus the
audience you attract. That along with pre auction marketing is what
will determine the future of auctions. Historically bad times are
extremely good for auctions. Domainers are just coming to terms with
the fact that this economy affects them as well as everyone else. There
is no full immunity. Those that think that are in for a rude awakening.
Like they say....it is hard to make millions, it is even harder to keep
them....
I think at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Silicon
Valley you will see a much different result then the recent auctions. We have a great audience and the domains need to great.It
will come down to the domains. Great domains make for a great
audience. It always has, always will. Money finds its way to the
marketplace when you put up something good. Something of value.
Something they want or need. Anything less and we all keep our bidding
paddles in our laps. It is really as simple as that. So take the
garbabge out, keep the bidding active and realize people get bored with
hundreds of domains. Especially when they are of bad quality or greatly
overpriced for a WHOLESALE audience. I think there will be so many
great domains coming to the market by April that veteran domainers will
likely go out of their way not to miss another unique opportunity in
time. One last chance to secure a few gems before they are locked away
and reserved only for the end user.


Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz