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

Evening Folks!!

Quite a day it has been in domain land. No matter where you come down on things, it has been interesting.

The most surprising to me was the one company I had my eyes on. I knew they would grab one, but I was not sure about the others. When I saw that they did not apply for .Mac, Apple did what was expected and got .Apple.

No confusion there! Simple! Reinforcing. Clear.

I was surprised that so much crap was revealed. Some looked more like domain names than extensions.

3 parties are going after .Property and one for .Properties. So I have nothing to complain about. There will be dividends to the .com and money to be made as this unfolds. Just not in the way domainers make money.

I had a supplier in the 1980's that taught me about making money from the 'Hole in the Donut.' How you sell something you got for free for a lot of money and make infinite profit because your cost basis was $0.

So there will be money to be made, just not in the traditional way we think of in terms of domain investing. There will be a lot of entities hiring new people. Experienced people. But nothing will happen overnight. 2013, 2014, 2015.

Can you imagine the intensity of the marketing when hundreds are out there all pointing out the benefits of their extension? Some we have heard before and some may be new. It will be a WAR! The brands will all be fine and useful. I have no doubt there. But the experiment will be consumer adaptation or it could become an internal platform for a company.

As for the generic gTLD's again, the consumer will decide. When was the USA scheduled to go on the metric system??

This is not all black and it is not all white. But as always, time will tell. First we are going to see some of the highest stake poker games the public has EVER seen before. Amazon vs Google for one. This is a heavyweight match and there will be a number of them unfolding. One thing for sure, it won't be boring.

Rick Schwartz

Afternoon Folks!!

It is bareley noon and we already have a record amount of Domain Industry Blog Posts. As of this writing this is how they stack up:

DomainNameWire.com 15 Posts 16 Posts 17 Posts

TheDomains.com 13 Posts 14 Posts 15 Posts 17 Posts

DomainNameNews.com 11 Posts 12 Posts 13 Posts 14 Posts 15 Posts 16 Posts 18 Posts 19 Posts 20 Posts 21 Posts

DomainGang.com 7 Posts 8 Posts 9 Posts 10 Posts 11Posts 12 Posts

Check back as we update the numbers. This is just TOO FUNNY!!

But they did do a good job assembling the info and getting it out quick!

Rick Schwartz

PS: Don't miss the 'Reality Check' we are doing today.

Morning Folks!!

While all the bloggers are tripping all over themselves this morning posting the new gTLD's, let's deal with REALITY. The lessons already learned.

We all know that NNN.COM are always in demand and prices can go to 6 figures or more. Most sell for between $25,000-$50,000. But what is the value of the .CO equilalent? I don't know, let's find out.

This is something I have not done before but I always deal with reality. So I want to sell the following NNN.co domains. I would prefer to sell the entire lot to one entity.

Let the bidding begin! (Maybe)

Morning Folks!!

One of my favorite lines I use when people press me for answers I don’t know is “It will reveal itself.” Which to means be patient and as things unfold, the answers will reveal themselves. So today we have the “Big Reveal”.

I want to wish all applicants good luck in their journey of new gTLD’s. When I speak out I speak out through the eyes of an end user and as a domain name investor. I have dabbled in many extensions other than .com and I guess that is why I am so opinionated. When you have excess dollars you are always looking where you can put those dollars and maybe hit big. It is not often there is even that type of opportunity even in a world full of opportunity.

High stakes poker is what we are about to see. Some in it only for the game itself. They may be the smartest ones. In and out before it begins. But then again many will really want their new gTLD and may not have enough money to secure it. That is where we as domainers may have an opportunity to fund one of those.

I have heard dozens and dozens of new extensions. But none have really lit my fire yet. I define exciting as need, want and desire from an end user and right now I don’t see that demand. So it has to be created. That may or may not happen and we are going to have a lot of barkers out there. It is going to be a carnival. T.R.A.F.F.I.C. won't have enough booths for all of them! (But we will expand to accomodate)

My position is clear. But as I do each day when new info comes in, I reconsider and see if anything changes. Today will be interesting as we go through the lists to see if any or how many may meet the threshold of interest. I am hoping that something changes my mind.

I will pay more attention to domainer plays than those of others because I think domainers have a leg up into what might work. The 1 in 1000 that changes everything. Is it out there? I DON’T KNOW. I don’t think so. Based on history probably not, but we will see and an open mind is key to any success in business.

I think the race will soon be on and elbows will be flying. Is this the NBA? Could it get nasty? Intense? It may. Stay tuned. In the next 1-2 years we are going to see a barrage of advertising and positioning and collapse. We are about to witness a free for all the likes of which we have never seen before and it won’t be up to domainers if these new extensions can find a big enough audience to be effective and meaningful and will it take years or decades to accomplish.

All the new extensions just prop up .com to an even more powerful position in the world. Expansion never hurt Times Square! Sometimes standing on the sidelines at the start of something is a good strategy. May 18^th for example. Facebook.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz