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

Morning Folks!!

With North Korea and South Korea blustering for war, While the dollar is losing value, While the world is watching riots in London, Greece and Ireland, With the TSA groping us and violating us, it is Domain Names that have garnered the headlines and that is BIG NEWS!

Now I am not here to discuss the seizure nor the implications. That discussion just begins and billions may be discussing it. I am here to tell you that after 15 years of being in a wilderness, we are truly entering mainstream. Entering into the gravity and radar of business and beyond.

I have watched 16 online Christmas Seasons come and go. This one is uniquely different. This one is embraced. This online Christmas is a combination of stores driving traffic online. Those same stores are driving traffic online right from their stores. What was looked at as a threat 16 years ago is now being embraced for the sales opportunity it was meant to be. It took 16 attempts to find the right door. But they are finally on the track. Finally in the hunt. Finally understanding what this medium can do for their bottom line. Step ONE!!!

Sears and Kmart and others were open on Thanksgiving Day for the first time ever! That’s a big deal. That’s a way of saying they are starting to “Get it.”

So while Domain Names are the Headline at THIS MOMENT, it is a moment I have only dreamed about for many years. Let the discussion begin. Let them kick it around. Let the masses focus just for a day on what we do and what others do and what can and can’t be done.

Today marks the end of the “Wild West” in the evolution of the Domain Industry. It has finally been brought to the highest level of our consciousness and that is priceless.

This year “Social Media” forced them to engage their customers in a way they never could do before. They realize their customers are their 24/7 and they must be there as well. This is the result of a bad economy doing really good things.

Now this post will be online LONG after that headline is gone. But make no mistake, this is a great moment regardless of the form in which it has come. The debate about WHERE to draw the line on all things related to domain names begins today and it is no longer limited to ICANN. Today, ICANN had their power usurped by Homeland Security. That's fodder for what may end up being just as important a discussion.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Imagine you are a football coach, your job to go out and get the best players and win games. You do that. As a coach you keep picking good players and you win time and time again. Sure not all are the players are stars, but enough are and together they make a good team.

The other coach does the same thing but picks badly. If he is blaming the pool of players he has to choose from or the money in his wallet, he is not looking in the right direction. First he needs to figure out what the other coach (you) sees that he does not. If he blames the other coach (you), he is wrong. If he blames the players he is wrong. If he blames anyone but himself he is wrong. It is a simple equation and folks can apply it to many things. Including domains. If that other coach never considers that he needs to do something differently, he will just keep losing and that is no fun. So why keep doing it?

Take this example: You are given a bag of 100 diamonds. They are mixed sizes. 20 are real diamonds and 20 are fake Cubic Zirconia’s. The rest are just really poor quality stones with low commercial value if any at all. Your job is that you have 10 minutes to pick out the best gems. A guy that knows diamonds will pick out the winners quicker than you can lay them out.

So that is what I see and refer to when talking about domains. Folks keep picking cubic zirconia’s and blaming everyone else for their lack of success. I just try and make the point that studying the difference between domains will allow you to target ones with more value and more people want. That’s called “Demand”. When you have demand, prices rise. When there is no demand, there is no dollars either.

So all the coaches out there that are domainers, I am just trying to help you to win a few games. You are spending the time, the same energy and in many cases the same dollars, but your focus is not working. Trying something new is never comfortable. Looking at things differently and applying to what you might be doing is never comfortable. But the discomfort only lasts as long as it takes you to correct things and get on the right path. The first step is by objectively looking at things in a different way. I gave a few examples and hope it has some value to someone. Pick different type players and you will get different results. You have to empower yourself. Nobody can do it for you.

Everything I write applies to domains with value. You see the price for a domain with value and potential and the price for meaningless one is the same. There is no difference. The only difference is in picking the winners. Just like that bag of diamonds. Same effort, big difference in results. YOU can change that!!

Hey, if you’re the gifted SEO guy, you can build an empire on any url in the world and it will be fine. So I am not talking to you. For us mortals, domains have to pass a series of tests to have value. Meet a series of criteria to have value. It has to have a purpose and a reason to increase your odds and have a leg up on the competition.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

In 1995 I did not start getting domains to send to PPC. There was no PPC until several years later. It was never part of the plan. It was a nice surprise that bought one huge thing……TIME!

The business model was figuring out how to afford to bridge the 20 year gap that it would take for the world to evolve to where it was going and hence the values as well. So it has been a terrific ride with PPC. It bridged the gap for about a decade. But it is obvious it won't make it the additional 5 years. Don't take me wrong, PPC is not going anywhere. But the biggest domains and the bulk of the traffic is.

The future is in Strategic Alliances. Hooking up with those with a mutual interest. Could not do that in 1995. There was nobody to hook up with and virtually nothing to hook up. But now things are different. The game has changed because now there is a game.

In 1995 the average person spent ZERO minutes a day online. Care to guess what that number is today? Now look at the increase. I submit that nothing in history ever changed human behavior so much or so quick. Not even fire. My sources tell me that the word about FIRE spread very slowly.

Strategic Alliances means you don’t have to sell your domain name. You create value but not in the traditional way. You do it by being meaningful and creating an audience. By evolving. The true trick is finding the right domain for the right time for the right strategy with the right partner. And that takes TIME. 20 years to be exact.

Had my time line been shorter, I would have likely gone down a less fruitful path and always be disappointed. So those looking for immediate gratification in domains may be disappointed time and time again until you see that not only is this business a marathon, it is a number of marathons all strung together.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz