Morning Folks!!
I bought domains because I was not smart enough or talented enough to get search engine traffic. Ignorance is a great thing sometimes! I bought domains because I did not want to spend a LIFETIME spamming search engines with misleading CRAP to get traffic. I bought domains because that was a non ending stream of traffic that could actually grow over time. I bought domains because it was a unique opportunity in time and those that did not see it missed the greatest gold rush in the history of mankind. I bought domains because in the future nothing would be so important or meaningful on a worldwide marketing basis. I bought domains because it was the greatest resovoir of customers, buyers, consumers, business people and on and on with virtually no limit ever to come to be. Where else can one domain produce 40,000 visitors a day for $8 a YEAR??? $8 divided by 14 million annual visitors. Let the bean counters figure out the cost on that one.
Now let's look at my SEO abilities. I have none. Zippo. I don't believe in a lot of the nonsense. I think relevance is the key. Popularity. Many other factors. So I believe SEO spamming actually can do harm. I think growing your business is the best way to get that ranking.
Now I will piss some folks off and they will try and undermine my listings but I don't really care as it is not going anywhere I truly make a profit. But if you type in 'Rick Schwartz' in Google I am #1 out of 750,000. If you type 'Domain King' you will see the same thing. But then I took it a step further. Where was I if I typed in 'Schwartz'? 26 million results and again #1.
Now there are still names I have yet to type in that I may rank high. 'Asshole' may be one some would agree on. Maybe one of the SEO guys can get me up to #1? ;-)
To be honest, I was always a bit jealous of singers. They sang and marketed their name and nobody can ever take that away. In my case I can't sing and while I always marketed my name in way or another, I marketed my companies or company I worked for name much more.
Many think domains have had their golden day and traffic is going down etc etc. Well in some cases they could be right. However if you look at the BIG picture, traffic, audience share, in the future is just getting harder and harder to attract and that is why you are seeing so many outrageous things going on. It's all gimmicks to defend a shrinking audience base in traditional media. That means the cost of doing business is going up. The cost of gaining new customers is going up. The cost of breaking out of the crowd is going up. That means that domains and traffic will become more and more in demand regardless of the current conditions. That soapbox is getting harder and harder to be heard no matter how big you are. No matter how big your megaphone is. What was once 3 channels competing for your eyes, ABC, NBC, CBS is now infinite. Infinity is killing these folks. What started in 2000 and 2001 is finally completing itself in 2009/2010. They were successful in delaying the inevitable. But they no longer have the power to stem the tide. What we are about to see is the greatest shakeout of business and industry in the history of the world. The greatest shift in power that the world has ever seen. The rules of yesterday will no longer be valid in many cases.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
PS: Did a search for 'Rick' and got 83 million results. I was #3. Beaten out by Rick's Caberet and Rick.com owned by Legendary DJ Rick Dees. So much for Rick.com and Ricks.com. Missed those. Had to settle for Dick.com lol
PS: And now the POWER of the domain name. I looked up 'The King' I am nowhere to be found which is no surprise. Of course people like Elvis, MJ, Martin Luther King and Burger King appear. My link to them? I own TheKing.com which redirects right to this blog. Take those 6 degrees of separation and reduce to 1.
permacrisis
You’re singing NOW baby!!!
Jim Holleran
Rick,
You have the best blog on the internet, right to the point as always.
By the way, when is the big news you mentioned a few days ago that will be posted in DNJournal.com?
Thanks,Jim
Tim
How about apps like Apple apps that win traffic over domains? I see this as a potentially huge negative variable which I have not quite made up my mind on.
For example, getting your weather on an iPod app as opposed to going to Weather.com. This could be repeated infinitely also marginilzing direct navigation somewhat.
Chris
Two Words! Nail & Head !!!
Steve Fox
I think abc, nbc, cbs switch to hulu and just make less money but keep the marketshare. So if any small startup breaks out they will buy them.
I am seeing a shrinking money pool is all for now.
My guess is people will stay blind to the Internet for the next years to come.
Noonoo
The writing has been on the wall for a while. Too many of the old school have their heads in the sand.
Dave Wrixon aka Rubber Duck
Can’t disagree there. Yes, and I did miss out, mainly because the US was so much ahead of everyone else.
I still, however, believe that there was and to some degree still is opportunity as the Internet spreads to other languages. OK, none of these is ever going to be quite as important as English, but if you have the right keywords, there is still a lot of money to be made. Lets face it if you park a domain you pick a keyword. How much of a linguist do you really need to be?
OK, there is still a bit of uncertainty as to whether it will be Transliteration.com, IDN.com or IDN.IDN, but there sure as hell is a market out there and it is growing rapidly. In Russia, browser usage is growing at about 5% per month. It does take a genius to work out that can only be a good thing.
At the end of the day it is down to your keywords and the PPC providers. Yes, SEO is never going to be an option for me either, but if you look at the SEO mob, they have some seriously crap domains!
Lisa
Rick, you totally rock! Being 21 now and domaining since my teens, it’s going to be a fun journey in the decades ahead. When you come out with your book you’ll can tell ’em”I hate to say I told you so.”
This is my favorite quote of the day:” What was once 3 channels competing for your eyes, ABC, NBC, CBS is now infinite. Infinity is killing these folks.”
Josh P
Actually, you’re #2 for Schwartz; FAO Schwartz is #1, which makes sense. Click the link at the bottom of the Google search page to view result not customized based on your browsing history.
Still ranking #2 on Schwartz is nothing to sneeze at. There are probably tens of thousands of Schwartzes out there (several of them rather famous), and of them all Google likes you the most.
randomo
@Josh P: That’s funny that”FAO Schwartz” is #1 for”Schwartz”, since the store’s name is really spelled FAO Schwarz (no”t”).
Paul Bliss
Not all of us who do seo spam the engines. I’m not offended, but as someone who doesn’t own any premium domain names (yet), I can use my skills to drive traffic to my sites. Instead of seo’rs and domainers butting heads, if we all worked together, there would be more money for all parties involved.
Dr.Arnie katz
Great Post Rick. You are right on the money.
nSathees
Else where you have posted an article titled”Fool’s Gold”. I enjoyed it and posted a comic how to sell”Fool’s Gold” in my blog here http://nsathees.com/how-to-sell-fools-gold-domain-name/
Don’t kick me Rick ;0)