Morning Folks!!
Few can figure out how to make money and be profitable with a .com address. Why would anyone in their right mind think it will be any easier with .WHATEVER?? It won’t be easier.
That has nothing to do with the opportunity it may or may not present. If you are selling bait for a living and everyone wants cheeseballs, your job is to have cheeseballs. Your job is not to tell the guy that cheesesballs won’t work with these fish.
So what I have been talking about for years with “Conflicts of Interest” is now being taken to another interesting level with crosswinds developing. Things are getting a bit tangled. Some see that and are defining themselves. Others will not define themselves because they disguise themselves and their motives. If you don’t know who does what and who shills for who and which corporate whore leans this way or that….it will cost you dearly and a lot of money in the future.
Crosswinds can be defined in many ways and fit into many categories. Usually there is a financial motive behind whatever is going on. But make no mistake, there is a semi-organized set of narratives out there that will try and bend reality. Peeing on your leg and telling you it is raining.
I don’t mention names and I don’t have anyone specific in mind. But the riptides and crosswinds are obvious to a trained eye and invisible to the gullible. Yes gullible. And when they become gullible they become a parrot or a pigeon at the whim of somebody else that has an agenda.
I don’t know why, I just know the signs, the trail and point it out to those keen enough to figure it out. Just look at the comparison to the number of full time domainers compared to the TEN’S of thousands of employees that work for companies servicing the industry and beyond.
Like other industries before, we are all about to be blown into different directions and orbits. Our paths may or may not cross again. I am sure you can sit back and think for a few minutes and wonder what ever happened to “So and So”? The point is that will be a more and more common occurrence as we are all pulled into different directions and different businesses and then new orbits.
The full time domainer population has grown very little over the years. On the otherhand we have been overwhelmed by companies servicing domainers and domains. Thousands and thousands and many more thousands on the way. Each with a financial agenda and that is what creates the crosswinds. You can barely separate reality and fact from fiction and agenda driven words.
It will get 100x worse. .Whatever will raise that all exponentially. And while a lot of money is earmarked for that sector, most of it will be lost and those businesses will be washed away. .CO had little headwinds compared to what .XXX is dealing with. The growing .XXX protests are getting louder and more organized. Definitely not what they want at this stage of the game.
Point is each and every new extension will come with a new set of motives, crosswinds, agendas and others helping them carry out their mission. These days most of that activity will be on blogs. That is not neccesarily bad unless you are oblivious to what is happening and who has a financial motive to say this or that. Which statements are based on fact and which are just hired guns to promote sales or hurt a competitor? If you don't think that is important it would be a kin to an explorer throwing away his or her compass. There is nothing more important and that will become more clear as time goes on.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
PS: Don't forget the THOUSANDS of 'Corporate Cubicle Whores' that are employed by these service companies that will likely do and say whatever their employer tells them to do and say.
Samit Madan
There seem to be a lot of hidden agenda’s atm. Most top domain bloggers are providing services to registries and promoting certain extensions, but not all of them will ack the fact that they are.
People want you to do what they say, not do what they do, but what else is new.
Will you be investing in new TLDs as a domain investor or a registry owner?
Kevin
It’s a very complex marketplace right now. Many domainers are just sitting on the fence not knowing where to go and what to do with the domain portfolios they’ve built up.
I get a good perspective of the market, since I deal with a wide variety of clients from the wealthy old guard domainers with their one worder kingdoms to new guys with longtail keyword domains. There are a ton of domains for sale so buyers are having a field deal snapping up domains from sellers raising cash to ride out the economic turmoil we’re in. Even the wealthiest domainers are selling at very good prices compared to years past. A few are still living in the past with unrealistic prices.
Most domainer new and old are very uncertain which way to go with developing and monetizing solutions. One day one company is popular, the next it’s another that just came out with something new. A lot of innovation, but I don’t see any one company grabbing the lion’s share of the market.
There are a lot of buyers with million dollar deep pockets, but they are demanding the highest quality domains with reasonable price tags. I’ve had several deals that could have been closed for 7 figures this year had the sellers come down to the reality we’re in now.
I’m predicting the most successful domainers in the next few years will be those who focus not just on developing their domains, but building large scale businesses on them. It means raising capital and forming joint ventures to do sites right which is pretty much unchartered terrority for most domainers. But a few are starting to see the clarity of opportunity ahead and shifting in this direction where the real goldmines await.
Danny Pryor
Interesting only one comment has appeared so far; perhaps that is not unexpected, however! I had so much more written, but I’ll keep that in abeyance for now. BTW: I absolutely fell of my seat at the cheeseball analogy! :-D
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick,
To say that it is hard to tell the Black Hats from the White Hats, in or out of our industry, rings with truth. Everybody wants a little slice of a finite pie, and the dogs are getting vicious.
The S.E O. industry, Registrars, Domainers, Attorneys, ICANN , Search Cos., Content Farms, Bloggers, Madison Avenue, Advertisers,
ETC. ETC. are all competing For Domainers, Internet Business Addresses.
So who controls these Addresses ? As opposed to who thinks they control them? There are many TALKING HEADS who are employed by all these competing factions. Is it any wonder that new people need to be educated about what the real truth is?
Truth is Domainers actually have more power than the press and the TALKING HEADS would like to admit. They will say and do anything to influence, What used to be called The Battle For Eyes, which now has morphed into The Battle For Minds !
Domainers please wake up ! You are sitting in the Cat Bird Seat !
Know this and act accordingly, or your competitors will sense your weakness and try to take advantage of you and your VERY VALUABLE ASSETS !
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick,
Bye the way I forgot to mention an often quoted phrase by our Competitors =” Domainers are still living in the past with unrealistic prices. They will never get the prices paid in the past.”
This is a popular saying of those who covet your Business Addresses!
Domainers do not drink the Kool-Aid.The truth is they are more valuable today than at any other time in history = F A C T
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Scott Alliy
Perhaps the wisest comment / suggestion and best course of action is what some domainers are doing to the betterment of all the industry IMO. That is joint ventures. Taking your skill (the ying) and combining it with a partner with skills or resources you may lack (the yang).
The market can turn its thumb at speculative pricing and ideas but real success that come from real development and monetization is hard to look past or ignore.
In summary the best thing that individual domain industry players can do is decide to share skills and wealth through joint venture partnerships instead of continuing to try to sail the seven (currently rough) seas solo.
Come to think of it Hasn’t that been a staple advertised benefit of attending TRAFFIC?
DomainPig
I agree it’s going to get 100x worse!!
It’s showing .com owners that everyone is trying
to get them and they are starting to see the true
value of .com so they are trying every trick in
the book to get around it.
Rick my dream would be for you to setup
a website like this for domainers and protect
.com owners.
http://www.equity.org.uk/AboutUs/WhatIsEquity.aspx
Domainers are getting the wrong advise on most blogs
and losing lots of money, Samit 100% Correct
we desperatly need this in place with all the
new TLDs because it’s only a matter of time before
someone comes along with huge amounts of money
to find a way around it.
Let’s start fighting back and be ready for them
I could not think of a better person to protect
us then the DOMAINKING.
Think of all the money you would make charging
$100 per year. I have an amazing team of programmers
if you want me to set it up.
BullShitWebsites
As I said so many times—if Dot com is King why others are promoting other extensions? Because of greed!!!
Louise
Hi Rick,
Let me get this straight: the next TRAFFIC Miami, auction submissions have to come with two end users? You and Howard get the lists supplied by attendees, and get to approve and qualify the end users? It’s a novel idea, but isn’t that like free information to you? Who would do that? Do you sign a NDA that you won’t contact the end users for personal profit?
Obviously, auctions are in need of overhaul. Maybe it’s a great idea – I’m not criticizing. But I’m trying to see how you’re going to sell that: you pay $1000 to attend a conference you have to supply priority info of your own customers?
Dean
Great post Rick. Another point(s) that needs to be considered is the attention span and/or saturation of the market. As each new extension is introduced, I think the fanfare will be less and less. Yes the single word keywords will always be a hot commodity in any extension, but that in and of itself is not enough to keep any extension afloat. Time will be the real test.
t
Ummm doesn’t more tld’s just mean more noise, And isn’t the main benefit of a good .com to stand out from it ?
Patricia Kaehler
I see mention of development companies in comments above… does someone have a list to share of the Top 10 in 2011… ??
~Patricia Kaehler – DomainBELL
Tom Garrett
I’ll take 2 Whatevers and 1 Brooklyn Bridge please. I’m pretty sure I can flip those.
Martin
I think the entire gTLD proposal will be one, big, hairy .FAIL