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

Morning Folks!!

The value of a domain is in direct proportion to the idea and business behind it. Very simple. One guy wants to have a business with a total annual sales of $50,000 and one guy wants to run an empire worth $500 Million. Do you really believe the domain has the same value?? Get off of it.

I have long been on record saying that the valuations out there are all a farse. Period. They are simply a great business model for the owner and for people who don't know any better. Nothing wrong with that, but it has no value. See how I make friends. I say something factual or state my strong opinion and of course it offends everyone in that business and half of those that actually paid for one of those worthless appraisals that can be waived in the face of other folks that know even less.

But what is my choice? Insult you and blow smoke up your ass?? My soul is not for sale.

You have a unique asset. Somebody else wants that unique asset. Your JOB is to extract as much value as possible and do it not by looking at yesterday and last year but looking forward 10 years. If th buyer does not like that....move on!

One guy spends $1000 a year on advertising and another spends $1000 a SECOND on advertising. You don't think information like this is valuable? You don't think this has a direct value on your asset? If you are afraid to ask questions, you are afraid to make the big money. Folks that want YOUR asset MUST overpay by definition. You don't have to agree. But you will leave a lot of money on the table.

So answering an email without an offer and looking for a 'Deal' or a 'Reasonable' price on your domain is just going to be a waste of your time. Eventually you will figure it out, but you will waste YEARS of your life in the process and you will handicap your business and growth. There is no LAW saying you MUST answer every email. It is not rude because you are not obligated to waste your time or even answer.

In FACT, I answered only 8 of those inquiries last month. Why? I READ their words and their words usually tip off who is who. Look for the keywords. Anyone with an appraisal whether buying or selling is automatically eliminated. The chances of extracting his head from his ass at that point is a near physical impossibility.

There are emails that casually are interested in your domain. There are emails from other domainers. There are emails from end users. There are emails from brokers. There are emails from lawyers. There are emails from representatives. There are emails from jerk-offs. There are emails from folks with an agenda. There are emails that set a trap. Do you know the difference between these types of emails and more?

That is just the first layer. Then there are a host of other CLUES that tell you who you might be dealing with. Value is based on their idea and your circumstance. If there is no circumstance the value is going up because you have no motivation to sell. Put Proctor and Gamble as the owner of my domains and see the difference in response. Price. Interest.

If you are young and in good health, time is an ally in this business. The game has changed. The model has changed. but these changes are predictable as things evolve. Domains are the center of Internet evolution. When a company has a great success on the Internet they have demonstrated that they would like better more high profile domain names in a lot of cases.

Nothing remains the same as it was yesterday. But as long as you deal with meaningful quality domains you will be safe.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Franky gets 3x as many inquiries in a day than I get in a month and then some. But I love the idea he had to list domains that folks are interested in. So I did something I never did. I went through my emails of the last 30 days and here are the domains that have been inquired about. Many are ones that I get offers on nearly every week.

I am not sure what if any value this will have but if nothing else, it is just something I can refer to from time to time. Now I can't list all of them because some are in active negotiations and others should remain private until some time passes. The domains with asterisks are domains with multiple inquiries.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

ebid.com**
ebud.com
kissass.com
dirtypictures.com
gpf.com
FamousNames.com
SexualDesire.com
handicapper.com
Tryouts.com
TopSecret.com**
Delivers.com**
399.com**
PartyVille.com
1012.com
1620.com
StarvingArtists.com
Property.com**
iWantSex.com
eTrip.com
Tradeshows.com**
GoBabyGo.com
SecretUnderground.com
VirtualTours.com**
SayWhen.com
StartLiving.com
eGold.com**
Private-Property.com
GoFishing.com
ACRepair.com**
UnEmployed.com
SexGod.com
989.com
750.com
2995.com
TeamBets.com
Properties.com**
CamJam.com
BestIdea.com
VideoDates.com
Sexo.com
8181.com
efu.com
Properties.com
wxy.com
cheapest.com**
Prop.com
Cutie.com
CheapDate.com
Mens.com
JackpotBingo.com**
eBet.com**
800club.com
11311.com

Morning Folks!!

Everything we do and discover already happened in another medium and your job is to find that parallel and connect the dots by finding the corresponding components. That's how you get ahead of the crowd.

I will tell you what I see because it is bigger than the first 20 years put together. The difference between the pay Babe Ruth got and what 'A-Rod' gets.

Except I see the years condensed. Per the chart below, it took 50 years from Babe Ruth Until Catfish Hunter making 10x more. Compare that to a domain name that may have only taken 5 years for it to go up 10x in value. Maybe even 100x in value. Maybe much more. So in this medium things are accelerated and always has been. But the start is slow. It always is. The bigger, the slower. But now we are past slow. We are rolling. Rolling along. Rolling along and gaining momentum.

With top baseball salaries It took only 20 years for the next growth of 10x. 1975 to 1995. So I have always used THIS model below melted in with the history and growth of TV, the survival of Radio and the phenomenon of the Hula Hoop along with all the advertising dollars spent and how long it takes the masses to adjust to something new and big. Then ending up with a sale somewhere because nothing happens until a sale is made. In other words, study the past to see the future. It all happened before. Just with another medium or with a different vehicle.

The 1994 NBC clip that has been going around TV and the Internet this past week is a PERFECT example of how FAST we are moving to change the world like that in less than 20 years. It accelerates from here in an exponential way. Facebook is the beginning not the end. An exit for your domain an on ramp to your domain a window into your domain. All roads still lead to the domain regardless of the stops along the way.

And while $70,000 was a lot of money in 1927, it did not have the buying power that $33 Million has today. Where are we today in reference to that graph and the ultimate value of domain names? I would say somewhere between 1972 and 1975. The upside is something incredible.

YEAR SALARY/YR PLAYER TEAM/ORGANIZATION

1927 $70,000 Babe Ruth New York Yankees

1930 $80,000 Babe Ruth New York Yankees

1949 $100,000 Ted Williams Boston Red Sox

1966 $130,000 Willie Mays San Francisco Giants

1972 $200,000 Hank Aaron Atlanta Braves

1975 $740,000 Catfish Hunter New York Yankees

Major League Baseball's reserve clause was struck down in 1976, beginning an era of free agency and thus market-value player contracts

1979 $1,000,000 Nolan Ryan Houston Astros

1981 $2,000,000 Dave Winfield New York Yankees

1985 $2,130,300 Mike Schmidt Philadelphia Phillies

1986 $2,800,000 George Foster New York Mets

1990 $3,000,000 Rickey Henderson Oakland Athletics

1991 $4,700,000 José Canseco Oakland Athletics

1992 $5,800,000 Bobby Bonilla New York Mets

1993 $5,975,000* Ryne Sandberg Chicago Cubs

1995 $9,237,500 Cecil Fielder Detroit Tigers

1997 $10,000,000 Albert Belle Chicago White Sox

1998 $14,936,667 Gary Sheffield Florida Marlins

2000 $15,714,286 Kevin Brown Los Angeles Dodgers

2001 $22,000,000 Alex Rodriguez Texas Rangers

2005 $26,000,000 Alex Rodriguez New York Yankees

2009 $33,000,000 Alex Rodriguez New York Yankees

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest_paid_baseball_players

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

You know I am an iPad fan, but today should be a small illustration of what is to come. 'The Daily' App will be available at noon Eastern time TODAY at the App store.

360 degree Photos. Video, Print and interactive. I am watching the news conference. This is an amazing new development and another stake in the heart of traditional media. They have also made it profitable. To buy what you see. Sport. This is a wow! This is another HUGE moneymaker.

I have not seen it yet, but I believe this is a BIG deal and another game changer in a series of game changers we will be seeing from here on out. It reminds me of the day USA Today came out. They all said it would fail. But I liked the format. It was easy to read. It was colorful in a sea of black and white. I became a fan.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Update: Now that I have downloaded it and used it a bit I would say It will have to have some real identity and some compelling and unique content to be as big as I thought. I could see it could be good locally and depends how it evolves. But I have to agree with what has been posted so far. Yawn. But that does not mean I will dismiss it quite yet.