Morning Folks!
Yesterday I exchanged emails with a small group. A successful group. Guys I have known for a while and we are all a bit controversial to say the very least. We began talking about the new folks that are struggling and what was really going on with them. I think we came to the immediate conclusion that it was not domain related. It was unfortunate but much deeper.
I wrote the following to them. It was supposed to remain private but one suggested I publish what I wrote and I am just stupid enough to do it hoping something I say will make somebody stop and think and then turn failure into success. Turn a foe into a lifelong friend. I'll have a lot of pigeons shitting on me, but I am an optimist and I know making that lifelong friend makes it worth the effort. Besides, I love when my foes waste all their passion and effort on me. That is a KNEE SLAPPER! They work their 10 hours and I occupy about how many of them?
I can understand it is confusing out there. So many motives, so much BS. But that is your job in life. Don't swallow the BS. Don't be a fish. Know the difference between bait with a hook and food. Unfortunately once you become bait, then others just use YOU and another pigeon is born and another eagle has been grounded.
'There has never been a business with so much
opportunity at every turn at every moment if you know what you are doing
and have a strong wortk ethic. These guys work for 10 hours and brag
about it. 10 hours is a morning to us! So it isn't about domains. They
are losers in life until they change how they think and approach things.
I have been trying to reach these guys for years and few if any
actually make the leap. More did earlier, today, very few. It's sad.
I used to be a loser. I did everything half assed. Then I heard a
line....'If you don't have enough time to do it right the first time,
how the hell you gonna make time when you have to do it right the second
time?' From that moment on I changed my approach and so did the
results. Fucking magic! lol
That is why even tho I like to be very inclusive, we need to recognize
and stick around like minded folks because that way of thinking can only
do harm. Eagles and Pigeons. Not much in between. Pigeons just shit on
you.
I got this the other day and it pretty much states it....'Desire is to
want something but Passion is the refusal to live without it'
I think all these
bozos are about to be schooled. Yesterday EVERY domainer had the EXACT
opportunity to speculate and win or lose. All the big mouths will have
their jaws dropping soon as they watch folks manufacture money from thin
air. This proves they have no talent and just whine. Losers in every
sense of the word. While others are enjoying success and creating even more, they will still be
saying the same crap or sitting on the sidelines spewing hate instead of jumping in and do what a true domainer does and have the balls to speculate. If they can't make it in domains which is a gift
from the heavens, they will make it in nothing.'
Then as the title suggested, one suggested why not do this as a seminar? 'Now is the best time ever, so stop whinning and do something!' So instead of waiting to October to examine this, why not now?
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Andrew Douglas
.co isn’t the right place to be speculating. There are lots of great places to speculate though and I’ll reserve my capital for those areas that I know work for me.
But to say that the .co landrush was a level playing ground for everyone is a bit of a laugh. The amount of capital you have to”play with” is significantly different than some poor bastard who lost his job 6 months ago and is trying to make a go of domaining. If you think that has no impact whatsoever, you are sorely mistaken.
Rick Schwartz
Life is not about”Level playing grounds”….It is about making the most of what you have and building on it. Level playing fields are reserved for games not life.
As for what you put the $$$ into, that is the choice we each make.
Domainshane
My daughter told me yesterday that pigeons are also called”Rock Doves” and that it was a much nicer name. So from this point on I will be only buying Rock Dove shit names.
em
Hi,
There was a word coined a few decades ago that fits perfectly for what domaining is all about.
The”speculation” here is not really the right term for what successful domaining is, IMO. I see it more as an”investolator” scenario. A combination of both speculation and investing. The chances of success are much higher when you do both. The drive of the speculator and the shredness and poise of an invester are required.
Just thought i would give my two sense because a lot of people can’t see that daytrading is pure speculating and domaining, if your good at it, is more investolating.
Andrew Douglas
I agree, and I don’t begrudge you your advantage at all. But you were the one that sad that every domainer had the exact opportunity.
That’s like saying everyone has the opportunity to go to the space station – all you need is around $20 million in cash.
Rick Schwartz
Em, thanks for articulating that and you hit the nail on the head and explained it well.
Rick Schwartz
Andrew, ok, but it is splittig hairs with the spirit in which it was said. The only thing that truly changes is scale. But if you work SMARTER that is what helps lev el the playing field. Here is my example.
Let’s say I bought 1000 .co’s and I decided to budget $25,000 for that endeavor and see what happens. The next guy can only buy 10 because he has $250. But his 10 can trump my 1000 if he works smarter and has the passion and desire. So the way I view life, it IS an even playing field because there are advantages I don’t have.
BUT….first you must know what makes one domain have at least a potentialfor great value to one that never will. Picking the right stars is what it is all about. One domain can trump 1000 domains any day of the week. Just get the RIGHT domain.
So folks can focus on their weaknesses or EXPLOIT their own strengths. That my friends is the key! You can’t do both at once. Like walking east and west at the same time. Good luck with that. ;-)
Andrew Douglas
Well said.
JJ
how many .co did you buy mr. schwartz
Morgan
Right-on Rick! This is my favorite post of yours all year! I couldn’t agree more and hope that more people read this post and think to themselves”what if” rather than”waste of money.”
A lot of these are the same people who want to sell their domains but don’t spend a minute contacting end-users, they just throw them on Sedo and hope they’ll sell.
I see people like yourself working so hard to achieve the success that you have it’s amazing that people still think they can do it without hard work!
My favorite quote from this post is:
“they will still be saying the same crap or sitting on the sidelines spewing hate instead of jumping in and do what a true domainer does and have the balls to speculate.”
Thanks Rick – you just made my morning with another great post! Always great to hear your perspective on these things!
Perchboy
Thanks for the helpful information, Rick. I so wish Ron Jackson would do a round-table interview with you and other ‘Eagles’ like Frank Schilling and the Castello brothers. That could likely make a book, which I would gladly buy!
Christoph
One of the few things I can say, as a late newcomer to this industry, is that when starting with this I have seen, like all late newcomers, that all good domain names were already taken and this remains as the only and existant truth – I don´t have the money to buy and at the same time I wanted to own a acceptable domain name. I have thought about the chances and started to work on it, to find somewhat what I would call to be a alternative. I am referring myself to be able to register, not to buy, but to register geographic ( .com ) domain names about places in North America which were registered by few others before but going into expiring and all that in 2010. A lof of people called me to be a clown or a dreamer then…I didn´t care about that. I am passionated about geography since being a child and I ever wanted to do something related to geography, finally it seems there is a little bit of success because after 2 years I was able to discover what I think is a small treasure.
What I can say at this point is that there are chances, they are still there but you have to work smarter putting all your passion and effort, like Einstein said – you´ll have success.
ScottM
For awhile on Tuesday it was impossible to even get logged on to Bulk Register to go register the .co domains. My partner and associates and I were trying to get about 50 .co’s and ended up with only 2.
There would seem to be a hidden opportunity with the .co’s even if you didn’t get to register one but own the .com. version. Once the buyer of the similar-named .co gets it configured and hosted and realizes it may not be as wonderful as he/she thought when they registered it then it may drive up the value of the similar-named .com.
And a lot of .co’s are being held back in reserve by the .co registry and it seems there are no 2-letter .co domains at all being allowed so we were happy about that.
jeff
how much should we ask for a geo .co?
steve
I like my pigeon #$@#$# over easy.
Tina
Don’t work harder, work smarter. That is what I always say.
PK
Speculation vs. Investment – The topic that will never die regarding the purchase of domains. If you are buying a domain simply to re-sell at a later time I do not see how it is not classified as a “speculative” investment. You believe the name has value and will sell for a price higher than what you sell it for, other than reaching out to potential buyers or waiting for them to come to you, you really have very little control over where the price will go and what it will sell for in the future. As such, you are speculating. However, GOOD names have inherent value. These names may easily earn revenue by simply being parked or through some other rudimentary form of monetization without the necessity of being developed into full blown websites because they are that good. If you by these types of name for the ROI/cash flow, I would classify this as an investment.
EM – I really like the twist you put onto it because when you purchase a GOOD domain you really are marrying the two ideas together. You are speculating that at a point in time you will be able to sell the name for a higher price (but really you have very little control over this other than hard work and yes… some luck) but if you are also generating positive cash flow you have also managed to make a nice investment.
As for .CO names, it’s anybody’s best guess if they will succeed or not. However, I give credit to those taking a punt on some names. Assuming you size your risk appropriately what do you have to lose? If .CO does not work out it will be a distant memory, if it does work out you can smile and be proud of yourself for taking that risk. On the flip-side the naysayers only upside is to say “I told you so”, really not much of a reward.
In the meantime; I picked up Speculation.CO. I think it’s a perfect name to follow the .CO extension in the event it succeeds.
3wasDomain
I didn’t buy any .co names. I didn’t want to pay 29.99 a year. Is that the yearly price their going to be forever? My thoughts too if I build a website on .co people will write it out as .com
rob
re detractors spending time on you
lol youve got a whole blog talking about them
rob
your not better than anybody else
if anything you were luckier with domains, but not better
steve
it will just make the .com more valuable.
people always go to the .com
fuckdotco
.co is just another .cm .mobi .whatever scam
Buy the best…buy only .com
Tia Wood
LMAO. You crack me up.
Tia Wood
This is one of your best posts, Rick, that reflect on any opportunity to be had in the domain industry. Thank you for the insight once again.
Eric Borgos
I worked 14-18 hours a day (from home) 7 days a week for the first 10 years of my Internet business. I still work 7 days a week. 10 hours a day would have been a vacation for me.
Successclick.com
Hi Rick,
I know you see my comments, and my own blog posts referring to you, some good, some bad. I know you expect this to happen because you call yourself the”Domain King” and ummm… creepily (sorry)”The Webfather”.
However, I liked this comment by you I’m taking directly from your blog above:
“Turn a foe into a lifelong friend. I’ll have a lot of pigeons shitting on me, but I am an optimist and I know making that lifelong friend makes it worth the effort.”
I want to go from imagined”foe” to”lifelong friend” (my fans, please don’t have a coronary on this statement!)
My problem is that you always write articles in the abstract, never mentioning names, domains, techniques, facts about how you really got started in domaining (truly). You could be giving some of these guys”WHINNING” (just a little tip – it’s”WHINING” – with one”N”), a wise zen-like response, because from all your amazing success, one thing you’ve shown all us domainers is your humbleness, empathy, and charity.
I hear you talking about great things in domaining, but we never see a detailed report on what it is that will make money. It’s almost like you still have that attitude from 2002, when giving anyone direct information on how to invest in domains was tantamount to a death sentence.
I know this personally, because my best friend was in your group, and so scared to bring me in because he thought I’d”stir up trouble”. Of course I didn’t do that, you and I hit it off great right from the start. I even copied your beard.
Anyway, I’m not here to tear you down, just hoping you’ll be more detailed in explaining the good and bad of domaining when you post, instead of blanketing anyone who disagrees with you as domainers full of
“pigeon shit”.
All I can say now, and hoping this is what you’re talking about when”having the balls to speculate”
– When I start revealing the new Future Trend domains that I’m now getting five figure offers for (after over six years of speculation) and along with the other domainers who bought similar domains, it will be a new world of domain values you may have missed. But that’s okay, I think you’ll be excited about it, and hopefully, maybe, cautiously, possibly, even using soul-evolution, look at me as a friend and buddy!
I’ll even dump Mike Cohen off my contact list…(wait, he’s not on my contact list).. well, you get what I’m saying.
Cheers and I’m always interested in what you have to say!
SEO Company
I am mostly caught by your title. It gives conviction on what I really wanted hence; start working on it now instead of complaining. Taking bold massive actions is necessary in order to achieve success.
Cheap Insurance
I think this was the most valuable thing said in the post:”Desire is to want something but Passion is the refusal to live without it”.
Separately, being a financial expert of sorts, I can definitely say that PK is correct — the value of an investment depends on the free cash flow flowing from it. Speculation is an entirely different animal. For my views on the differences, here a post on my blog about it:
http://www.loganflatt.com/2007/05/to-consume-save-invest-or-speculate-that-is-the-question/
This post on real estate is apropos as well; if only so many real estate speculators over the past five years could have read it and internalized it!
http://www.loganflatt.com/2007/07/you-dont-own-real-estate-real-estate-owns-you/
Thanks for a very interesting post, Rick.
Logan.
Peter
and your hardwork has certainly paid off, Eric. But at what cost? How is your vision? Your back posture? Have you gone to the doctor lately?
I will not kill my health by working 18 hours a day for 7 days a week for 10 years for no amount of money. That sounds worse than I-banking.
Dave Wrixon
I read this post without realising it was to do with .co
Didn’t you guys get burnt badly enough on dot mobi?
Don
Some people say it’s to late. I hope they keep thinking that. Less competition.
You only need one company to believe that your domain name is worth xxx,xxx
Does not matter what other people think. You must sell an idea and the vision for that domain name and not just the name itself.
That is why they have trailers for movies.
And stories behind the antique road show on all the shit they appraise for thousands.
If your domain name does not have a movie trailer attached to it how in the hell are you going to sell it.
Traffic is great but ireport.com to me was probably a vision and idea and not about traffic.
Don
idomainmedia.com
Don
idomainmedia.com
Chicken little
Why buy .co when there are so many .mobi around? LMAO.
Is .co is the new .mobi
Quality pigeon shit requires good chicken feed and lots of it.
Dan
You make several good points Rick, which I totally agree.
First I’m glad you’re on the optimistic side of DotCo discussion. Considering some negativity going around it, you weighing in on it, is a positive indicator.
Second, (Quality > Quantity) risk is reduced with quality.
Third, all investments are speculative with a degree of risk.
Good read! Thanks!
Patricia Kaehler
Questions
– if anyone knows:
1. Is there a list of the
extensions that are in
the works trying for approval
over the next 12 months ??
2. Is there a search tool
or site that lists all
the .co’s that have currently
been”taken” ??
since it’s .co and domain
related – I hope it was okay
to ask these two questions
here — I figured you all
would KNOW the answers to
these two Q’s…
Thanks in advance…
~Patricia – DomainBELL
a
“My problem is that you always write articles in the abstract, never mentioning names, domains, techniques, facts about how you really got started in domaining (truly).”
Successclick.com…. Do some basic homework. I think that is Ricks point. Everyone wants it handed to them without doing the work.”Tell me what to do.””Tell me the secret” The secret is there is no secret.
Dave Wrixon
Has anyone here ever been to ICANN.org?
rob
imo .com just took a dive in value
.co could be a real threat
because nows theres 2 versions of the same name if you know what i mean
rob
and .co is better than .com
if they were starting at the same time
Eric Borgos
I am in perfect health, no vision or back problems, but I burned out after 12+ years of doing it, which is why I sold many of my sites (see my blog posting at http://www.impulsecorp.com/the-psychology-of-a-multi-million-dollar-sale for details) so I could slow down.
tzvika
hi,
i’m new to the business of domaining (two weeks old). i think like in every business, it’s easier for the pepole who were there from the beginning.
but i think you can come in 15 years after (like myself) with a new idea or direction, and do a good job.
i’ve started with an idea, and bought several one word .com domains, which i think can be great company/business names, like:
occano.com – to sound
otiosus.com – at leisure
Preium.com – a wine/olive press
Prurio.com – to itch
Possessiones.com- property
Pumico.com – to polish with stone
as you can see, they all have meanings, and if there is a market which will never get dry is the market of new businesses and companies, so they will be looking for names.
at the momment i parked my domains, and they are puting good numbers for two weeks and no advertisment.
i may be wrong, but as rick said, optimism is a big part of any business.
enjoyed reading the post and the comments.
3wasDomain
OK I bought 2 .co names
One for my arcade 3DArcade.co
and TreeMan.co I am thinking I can use this as trade to get some tree’s trimmed!
Paulyoung
.com is definitely king but I think that US internet users feel this more strongly than the rest of the world. The rest of us can see the acceptance of .co as a viable global tld a lot more readily. There are many countries already used to using .co in their domains, .co.za, .co.nz. .co.uk for example.
rob
Paulyoung thats a very good post
on the flip side about kings, remember myspace was king until an alternative arrived, it can happen and i think .co is a threat to .com
and what about when big companies start advertising .co, it will be interesting
buying a .com these days for high multiples or hope for the future is highly speculative, and .co makes doubles the risk imo
UFO
.co will fail to be worth more than the discounted renewal fees. (In DCF/NPV) terms IMHO.
End of story.
.cc .pro .info .ws .travel .mobi and more to come… all have a recurring theme.
LS Morgann
“I hear you talking about great things in domaining, but we never see a detailed report on what it is that will make money.”
————————–
Rick is an example of a smart guy who was in the right place at the right time; who recognized and summarily exercised an extremely time-sensitive opportunity and got good while there was getting to be done.
Where he completely goes off the rails is when he thinks that this one, totally isolated example of good decision-making- however fruitful it’s been thusfar- has seated him atop some guru-mountain. I mean, what was Act 2? Flowers.mobi? For someone with an ego like his, he really should know better than to think that people can’t immediately isolate and identify the personal frailties that go into his”pigeons” shtick…
Without calling out anyone by name or specifically pointing any fingers at Rick or anyone else, I will say this…. I’d be willing to wager a substantial sum of money that many”domain gurus” who have blogs and feel themselves touched with some sort of rarefied wisdom would get positively crushed in a”Who Can Make The Most Money Online” contest against competitors who would probably surprise you- a lot of the ones who insist that you heed their wisdom and take their great advice, if asked to start building right now, wouldn’t have the slightest fucking clue what to do.
In”The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville”, Buffett makes a great illustration about people extrapolating isolated examples of good fortune into the notion that they’re somehow 360 degree experts on everything. If I recall correctly, it was monkeys flipping coins…
rob
its good to see some objective views
because godfather or whatever he calls himself was protected for years on the adult chat boards by the power brokers so to speak on the chance he would join their affiliate programs and send them traffic
hes a bully, big mouth know all, and hes left a trail of bad deals along the way off the back of hope
rob
he almost got me a number of years ago
but luckily for me there was a delay in paying the money upfront before i got to see the quality of the traffic, and one day in to the deal i cancelled it
i think i was about the 10th person in a row to cancel one of his monthly deals, i wonder why
3wasDomain
Hi Rick, I found this old pod cast with you on ozdomainer and you say that you were buying vanity 800 phone numbers. This is before the domain names existed everybody. So you were kinda already in the domain business before it started. So how did you get into the vanity phone numbers?
Bob
Domaining may be a level-playing field just like soccer might be, as only a soccer ball and a field are needed. But to be really good at soccer, domaining or any other activity one must have talent which in turn has to be developed. What talent is needed for domaining? I am not sure, but those complaining about not having success cannot think for a minute that in such leveled playing field they may not know how to kick the ball the right way. It is always easier to blame outside sources, obviously.
rob
if you sell something for x price, its up to the customer to make the decision, buy or not to buy, thats america
but if you know the person will lose a considerable amount of money with the purchase, and you still market it as the best thing since sliced bread, what does that make you?
a fucking asshole
i know its not your fault they were stupid, blablabla congratulations you da man, go write a blog and repeat the process
rob
you see thats what this guy does, he found something that works, and he repeats it, its his mo, sounds good doesn’t it..
EXCEPT most people are left with a bad taste after dealing with him
is it illegal what he does, NO, but its immoral and he targets newbies who will be amazed with his eagles and pigeons and winners and losers talk because hes the webfather, and if you deal with him you are obviously an eagle and rivers of gold will come your way, as long as you pay the $$$ UPFRONT lol
caveat emptor
rob
plus equity these days lolll
rob
he tried this with me in relation to a traffic deal years ago
i just got lucky because there was a delay in the upfront payment and i got to see some of the traffic first
man you should of seen the shitstorm he created on the boards when i cancelled the deal, winners losers trust eagles pigeons blabla and i still sent the guy a cheque, but for what it was worth
and he damaged my business badly with it, because he had the backing of all the power brokers who wanted him to send them traffic (not for upfront dollar though, for a commission per sale), because most of them had already been burnt by his upfront deals
rob
think about the people buying his domains..
they are not experienced web people and/or they’re not experienced with domain names
otherwize why doesn’t ie Frank Schilling or any of the other huge domain guys just come along with their huge cheque books and snap up these great buys??
its because he is charging too much + equity lol
rob
and that goofoff or whatever the domain name is called
man what about the crap he has gone on with there….acting outraged as though they are in the wrong trieing to develop their onlline business, when you consider all he ever does is reverse cyber squat
build something or stfu, because anyone can make money if they landed a top generic domain in the early days, whoopty doopty
rob
whats the matter webscammer..
got nothing to say without 10 power brokers backing you up?
John
I admire what Rick has done and is doing. I was early, got a couple of reasonable names but took a wrong turn and put all my money into creating an ISP that through a bad choice of partners on my part and the crash lost what I had but I still have some names and google traffic. I wish to sell a name, serving.com, do you broker these names Rick or do you have a spot one can read on being a negotiator. I’m good if they come to me but lousy on the cold call. Been the Sedo, Moniker, Latona route and really don’t like what I see.