Morning Folks!!
You can be a Pigeon or a Domainer but really tough to be both. Most would not like to be pigeons. Many don't even know the difference. WTF is he even talking about? Which one are you? Having lots of domains will not earn you the the title of domainer or investor. There is a growing divide
in the domain industry. The divide is a place we have never looked before.
Never understood before. For well over a decade I have explained the difference
between Investment quality domains and crap. Domains with traffic and domains
without traffic, domains with a future and those without a future. Domains worth thousands and domains that cost thousands.
I have been met with more and more resistance and now I
finally figured out why. I am swimming upstream. Registrars don’t care if you
register a domain worth $30, $30 million dollars or 30 cents as long as they
get their registration fees. So they hype every extension that ever comes out,
every domain in sight at every opportunity and untrained pigeons show up each time. Why wouldn’t
they if that was what you did for a living? They are doing their job. They do it very well because they
have given birth to an industry of pigeons that think they are domainers
because they own domain names. What they own is a bill. A liability. They are a
registrar’s best friend. Here is a
test, if your closest contact in domaining is a registrar I have swampland to
sell you. And let me be clear, my friends own registrars. I have nothing bad to say about them as
a business as a business model or in any other form. But I am alerting some to
the subtle difference in view, in direction in outlook, in destination, in
where you finally end up. The discriminating point that divides people walking in completely opposite directions.
So where there was once one inept registrar with no agenda
now there are hundreds or more and they all want the same thing as a rule. More
registrations. Blood for Dracula. Nothing
more and nothing less. Quality means nothing to them. And that is okay. There
is nothing wrong with that. But if you don’t understand it then you will keep
buying into it and when you buy into that hype, you may no longer be a
domainer. You just may be a registrar’s best friend. So you can follow the lead
of non domainers that know only about number of registrations or you can pay
attention to dozens of real and accomplished domainers. But if you go with the registrar’s
advice, you will be looking for a job in a jobless economy. If you never
thought about this, well now you have. If you don’t get it, you should. If you
continue to register Pigeon Shit, then it matters not to registrars. All the
same to them and that’s how it should be. So if they are your guiding light, maybe time to rethink what you are
doing and the direction you are moving. (Gee am I making friends today or what?) There are a lot of
generalizations here so nobody take anything personally. I am painting the picture
of the landscape. It requires colors to differentiate things. In this picture
the colors are words and thoughts followed by example.
There are investment quality domains and there is Pigeon
Shit. Liabilities to YOU are
profit to THEM. Get a clue already folks! If you screw up in the next few
months, you will never recover. You will not be in the domain business any
longer. This IS your last best chance. There will be the core group of true domain
investors and there will be all the others that are pigeons. Wasting time with pigeons when there
are Eagles in the same nest is fools gold and nothing more. Investor or Fool?
You decide. I will never cater to
pigeons. I will reach out to them to try and get into their heads, but I will
never compromise high standards just to satisfy some pressure to be inclusive. The best way to be included is earning it by putting together a domain portfolio and earning a lot of money. Be deliberate in each purchase. Achieve greatness by finding something that works and repeating it over and over again.
I have been accused that I am the Simon Cowell of domaining.
Okay, not so bad. I like Simon.
When you want the cold hard truth you go to Simon not the others. He doesn’t
worry about how things “Feel”, he deals with the reality if what is. If they
suck, he tells them. If you have worthless domains I’ll tell you. What value
would anything else be? Just to make you feel good? Sorry, don’t come to Simon
to feel good. Go to him for the truth and become the best. Don’t come to me to
buy into stuff just because others can’t figure it out. Now all the registrars
will be pissed off at me lol. So what? I did nothing wrong. They did nothing
wrong. The only ones doing anything wrong are the folks buying pigeon shit and
if that shoe fits change those shoes. Don't get angry, get on the right track. Think before you let your knee jerk reaction control your mind, your being and your direction. I am rooting for your success not your failure. If you are not making big money in domaining, you should and the first thing to do is stop and figure out why. Maybe I just nailed part of it for ya. Maybe not.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Abner Duarte
Great speech, but don’t you think the industry needs both”Pigeons” and the Domainers to be what it is today?
Rick Schwartz
@Abner….Yes, absolutely. But there is no clarity and this post is here to try and point out to folks that there are 2 different parts of this treee and there will be many more. Point is”Domainers” need to know which limb to go on and when the message is confused because of all types of marketing motives and ploys, I think it is time to at least illustrate these two groups that have some commonality but are playing 2 different games. Even I never really looked at it this way until I started writing the post. Then it became crystal clear to me and maybe others. Maybe not. Everyone has the freedom to take it or leave it, agree or disagree. But some that want to be domainers are buying in to the registrar channel without taking the time to figure out why one domain has value can have value and ones that never will. It’s about increasing the odds of choosing higher quality domains.
steve
I am a pigeon, bawk bawk.
Once you lose money you understand what a pigeon is. But your broke and can’t become domainer.
saunfery
Thanks for the entertaining and informative read. When i do domaining, I always make sure to check the domain names and total history before proceeding.
George
People get caught up in the Franks and Kevins mentality. I have to admit that I did as well. The thought of gobbling up tens of thousands of domains and just parking them is very appealing.
But now I am starting to take steps to forge my own path. Following someone else’s past successes is a recipe for disaster. Why should it be about owning tons of domains when, if you pooled all that money you spent on them and bought one absolutely great domain you would probably accomplish more?
People get lured into the”easy money” prospect… well, I have news for that… It’s not true. Never has been, never will be. Sure, there are the outliers that get lucky. But hard work generally equals success. If nothing else, it teaches you a lesson.
Rick, thank you for this. In the past couple of weeks I have started to come around and have figured out that 1+1 does not equal 3. That is what we are all led to believe. There is so much crap out there and it floods my inbox daily with catch phrases”highest traffic!”,”brand new great landrush extension!”,”amazing deletions!”. Bullshit.
Get a plan. Put the plan into action. Live by it. There is no easy money.
Long post… had to speak up though.
P.S. I would rather be Simon Cowell than Paula Abdul.
BullS
Yea…who has BullShitters dot com
That can’t be you. Only I have the BS domains and websites.
Remember, all they care is the $$$
Vij
Every new extensions gets some initial hype, now I am seeing a lot of hype about the .CO extension.
Some are telling that it is better than .com since its 2 lettered one and also abbreviation for company.
Whats your take on this, will it emerge as alternative to .com or its just another over hyped extension which will be doomed later ?
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick,
Opinions are like assholes right, every ones got one RIGHT? That is what makes this game so much fun. Life is a game, and illusionary at best. The media blows so much smoke up our asses that half the time it is hard to separate truth from reality.
Be easy on yourself and others, but please keep delivering the truth, we are all counting on you.
Gratefully,
Jeff
Tony Blair
i like the way you comapred yourself to simon cowell and said ‘others had called you this’
lol
self promotion at it’s best Rick
but tbh quality is important but you have shirked from development your whole life, okay maybe you haven’t needed to, but always gone on about .com, nothing else matters, traffic all that matters
theres a lot of bull in that statement
everyone has to find their way. mistakes are healthy, only way of truly learning, but learn you must, as theres only so many chances
there isn’t only 1 way, that is the first truth though
remember that
Steve M
I’ll never look at pigeons the same way, Rick. ;-)
FloName
I should start my own registrar, lol. Because for every domainer, their are 100s of Pigeons. The registrars will continue to win until the ratio improves. A lot of the fee based sale venues have been cleaning up too. Some are falling as they are overrun with Shit. Hence the fall of Bido.
As more truths such as this escape into the mainstream, the pigeons will (hopefully) learn & either give up, or restrategize.
Hats off to ya Rick. If I would’ve come up on your blog sooner, I may have exercised some restraint with a few of my past registrations.
domain guy
domaining is a small industry,with simple low barriers of entry. most domainers are unsophisticated with access to a credit card and a big dream.domainers then read the auction results and hear about the big sales…and then see themselves somewhere in the picture.aka know as a pipe dream.very few domainers understand what makes a domain have value.
you have done a decent job attempting to explain this but the facts fly over everybodys head…
an easy way to explain this would be:with over 150 million domains registered approxmately 15 million will have commercial value according to frank. the other 135 million will be pigeon shit that the masses register. in addition domaining is similar to purchasing a lottery ticket
a few bucks and no brains or a chance to hit the big time.
Junior
I definitely learned. I didn’t buy any weblo or .mobi…
UFO
Very hard to make money in domaining. I could make money if I tried and wanted to, but every time I have noticed that the effort versus the reward does not stack up for me…
Most successful domainers if they added up the time they spent versus the money they make.. would realise that its burger flipping rates.
Altaf
Rick,
Great post. You made it again. You must be open and truthful like Simon Cowel whether wrong doers like it or not. Otherwise you will be proven wrong one day by the same folks, who doe not like your advice today.
Thanks.
Adam Strong
The biggest registrars don’t make the bulk of their money off of selling domains. That’s a fact.
Budi
Nice post Rick. :)
Arnie Katz
Another great post Rick. The web is so full of bull crap, unfortunately people just keep on eating it. Keep up the good work Sim..,
I mean Rick.
Jay
Domaining needs Pigeons like everyone else…it is what makes an industry. And by the way, Simon does not necessarily represent truth, he represents an attitude that is his branding, you of all people ought to know this!
Ray
So you going to start a course how to be a domainer and not a pigeon? :)
G
What happened to”anut” ;-)
He’s a pigeon or domainer?
JoeP
There is pigeon shit and there are golden eggs. The early birds got many of the golden eggs. There are lead balls and brass balls. I take the salient of your remarks to be”don’t wear lead balls and drag them around” – a wise position, but the common alternative is to find some brass balls and polish them for profit, trade them, or just keep them around hoping that brass goes up in price. (If you should wake up and find that gold balls have infested your lap – that’s better, but unlikely.)
However, this is all quite metaphorical. Let’s get down to specifics. What about domains like eHandbags.com or HandbagWorld.com? Golden eggs? No, but they’re not pigeon shit either. They’re certainly not in the class of Handbags.com, a true golden egg with built-in traffic. However, they’re clearly worth registering and even buying at a good price, because there are more roads to Rome than there are highways. (Metaphors are such fun!)
But one shouldn’t take these remarks to mean that I’m touting pigeon shit like 24-7HandbagMegaMart.info. (I thought of it first!)
Tia Wood
As always, I appreciate the tough love. Keep them coming, Simon. ;)
Chadi
Hi Rick,
I’d like you to follow this post with a detailed example of Shit vs. Gold domains and the tiny hair that differentiate between both.
I do not care about the terminology itself i.e. being referred to as a”Domainer”.
However, I do care to learn more about the mysteries of domains that sell – not the obvious ones like cars.com, but rather, those that confuses pigeons and send them into
a shopping spree for similar domains that never sell.
So, what is the trick? Is there really a method that works time and again, or is it really largely a thing of luck…
Please, teach us with parables and not in pure theory.
otherwise, do not tease us. i.e. scream out loud”I have a secret that I cannot tell you…”
If its a secret recipe, then its never meant to be spoken of.
If its not, then you owe us more lessons on it.