The Rick Schwartz Domain Name and Traffic Blog: RicksBlog.com – Home of The Domain King®

Good Evening Folks!
There are certainly a lot of deserving people in the industry that should get this Pioneer Award from Epik.com and I accept it in behalf of every one of them. Nobody can pioneer an industry alone. It takes a lot of people pushing something that has yet to prove itself and have some level of success doing it. So for all the pioneers, this is for you. I am merely one spoke in a wheel that few understand just how big and meaningful it is. Time will prove that. History will prove that. The numbers are proving that.

As I have said since the get go, “Domains are a unique opportunity in time” and “no commodity in the history of mankind will go up so far so fast” and continues to skyrocket. There is no doubt that the best years are still in front of us.

I know not everyone has liked my style or my thoughts. But I also hope they notice they have benefited from all the pioneers that put themselves out there and push things along. Sometimes we have successes, and sometimes we have failures. But even in failure we know that progress is made. That we are just a little closer to the goal for the next attempt.

Babe Ruth was the best Baseball Player in history. But he did not make the most money. The big dollars came many decades later. So no matter what domains sell for today, it is but a fraction of what they will be in a decade from now. That is why there is still so much opportunity. While other asset classes are losing value, or even imploding, domains keep increasing and going against every thing else.

So I want to thank Rob Monster and the other members of the selection committee of Epik for choosing me to receive this very special award of recognition. I have worked thousands of hours in behalf of the future of domains and what we all do and love. This makes it all worth the time, effort and arrows.
The video tribute was quite moving. It brought me to tears.So good to see such good friends and qualified domainers saying such nice things. Priceless. So a special thanks to each of you and the comments here. Special Thanks to Mike and Judi Berkens who went way out of their way to make this happen. Danny Pryor for putting it together and Owen Frager for jumping on another windmill.

Plus such kind words from all of you. Ari Goldberger, Warren Royal, Rob Grant, Mike Zappy Zappolin, Chuck Hatcher, Frank Schilling, Dr. Chris Hartnett, David Castello, Michael Castello, David Carter, Monte Cahn, Grant Keiser, Aron Meystedt, Bruce Marler, Vern Jurovich, Ron Jackson, Owen Frager, Mike Mann, Danny Pryor, Howard Neu, Mike Berkens, Judi Berkins and Bandit.

Epik Reaction from The Domains on Vimeo.

Thank you. Truly Priceless.
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

All too often I see companies that strike gold and sellout
to the first buyer that comes along waving $$$ in their face. But why sell?? If
you hit a gusher, why not keep it? I think the hardest thing you can do is have
a successful business. And if you do have success, why get rid of it? Why sell it?


Unfortunatey sometimes this actually stunts growth and
progress. If my memory serves me right, many years ago IAC bought utrade.com. They bought them because imho they were a threat to uBid.com (which I believe sucks and sucks really bad) and quickly dismantled it. I have seen this play out over and
over again.

Had uTrade.com stayed on the scene with the plan they had, we would
have all been better off. To this day, they had the single best co-branded, lead generating program that was ever on the net imo.

My traffic was growing. My earnings were growing. They were growing. They paid a $5 bounty for each signup. No BS. Each time they got a valid name and member for free it was $5. They new the value of that sign up and they knew the rest was up to them to convert. That added up to about $1300/day with my eBid.com and was growing every single day. It was when I truly learned about ratios and closing rates and targeted traffic.

1 visitor in 1000 to signup was really potent traffic. Normal was 1 in 10,000 or more. The thinking at the time was the best was about 1 in 800. Well the book got rewritten by ebid.com. We broke not only 1 in 800. Not only 1 in 500. Not only 1 in 100. But imagine 5 in 100?? Absolutely unheard of at that time. But THIS is the spark that happens with a perfect match of a site and traffic. So while others debate, I already know and it has been proven.

Then via Avenue A, they wanted to buy my eBid.com. Their offer was $60,000. I laughed in their face. I explained they have been buying the traffic for $30k a month, why would I sell for $60k?? To that, they stopped buying my traffic and have never had contact since.

Today, utrade.com a parked page and owned by Match.com. eBid.com is a parked page and is still owned by me and has earned many times that $60k offer so many years ago. I always get offers, but the earning power still makes it a keeper. uTrade.com was a model to copy, not destroy.