Morning Folks!!
There is a HUGE problem in the domain industry and has NOTHING to do with the value of our assets. It's the FACT that as Domain Name Investors we have gone from the majority to a SMALL minority. They have more people working at GoDaddy.com than there are full time domain investors.
The number outside of the small investor circle is growing at a rate bigger than our entire community every few days or few weeks. That is the level of expansion we are gearing up to see.
The biggest enemy for domain investors is not the value of domains. It is not seeing and not understanding what is happening around us. The oxygen is in jeopardy of being sucked out if you are now keenly aware of what is taking place. If you don't understand the different sectors with different motives. What's worse, SOME don't play by the rules. They take a short cut. They LIE and CHEAT and FOOL to get ahead.
Just yesterday I went to a restaurant that was rated #1 and had rave reviews. Alina and I went to lunch there. The place was fine. No problems. Pretty strange menu. But ok. Just ok. I would be willing to BET that those reviews were PAID for. Paid for! Bullshit! Propaganda. Hook, line sinker. We took the bait.
So we are seeing that at every level. But in the domain industry if you don't see it, then your financial future is at stake. Just look at the 'Comment Whores' that are unknowns without a real name or email addy, spewing shit all over the blogs once anyone dare say anything not liked or are not wanted. Like barking dogs. Agenda driven drivel. But you are seeing some blogs like Elliot's that are rejecting that stuff and that's a good thing. Invisible voices, fake names and emails that are agenda driven and add nothing to the conversation should never see the light of day.
There are basically 3 groups of domain names. By far the biggest and most important are those used by businesses around the world to identify themselves, brand themselves, sell things and grow. That is the BASIS for VALUE to begin with that many forget about.
The next group is you and me. The domain investor. We have a limited audience with collective value that can't even be measured. Tens of Billions, Hundreds of billions. Who knows. The ONLY reason we exist is because of the first group. Without them, we would have sand in the desert!
Then we have the 3rd class or group. They are the masses trying to do anything in their power to duplicate something that is not duplicate-able in THIS medium. They want to repeat what group number 2 did. US. But they CAN'T because they don't have group #1. We do! They would almost have to invent their #1 all over again. Good luck with that. Should be complete about the time your children's grand kids get married.
Let me prove part of that. I got in at the tale end of the 800 number business. But even then their was a path to success. I was the very last guy to come in that industry before it basically collapsed. The LAST guy. But it taught me what was to come.
Many people made tens of millions of dollars with 800 numbers. Many. Hundreds. Not to mention the big companies like AT&T who invented the 800 number and the end user that sold many tens of millions in extra new sales because of the stigma associated in those days to spend $2 a minute on a long distance phone call.
The 888 number's came out. Sure there was new opportunity and many made millions. Not many. Some. Few. But the point is many more participated only to realize it was a smaller pie. Hello!!?? See what is coming now?? They came to a dying industry. Dying because if the Internet. Not because if a new extension.
There are anywhere from 350-1000 men and women that you could truly categorize as 'Domain Investors' on the entire planet. Then you could categorize those into several groups. But for this example, we don't have to.
How many will that number grow by with 1000 new gTLD's for example? Let's see it goes to 100,000 or even 1,000,000. The point of this equation is that the gtld's will have 1000 times as many participants as we all have now, splitting a pie that will never even be 10% the size of .com. That's a damn crowded pool!!
There will always be successes. But they will be fewer, wider and not as great. The pool just is not that deep. The crowds will make it even difficult to find clear water to dive into.
or
The pool will be deeper, bigger and EMPTY.
Either way.....
Just an equation that gives an answer years before the event. I would even like to be proven wrong because wrong means new opportunity. So just like 800 and 888 I don't see the threat. I just see an expansion. Expansion is not a threat even tho many react that way. 888 was never a threat to 800.
.TV, .ME, .whatever even in success will never be a threat to .com. NEVER in OUR lifetimes.
But behold, that is just one leg of this Octopus. A leg that will give birth to other legs. Thousands of legs from that one.
There is no way I could even write about the other legs of this octopus in just one blog post. Lots of legs to talk about. Registrars, PPC, Lead Gen, SEO, Social Media, Fake Social Media, aftermarkets, valuations. I think I might need a blog post just to identify all the tentacles.
But guess what?? None of this matters unless you are oblivious to what is happening. Unaware of the changes and motives and propaganda to make you weaker or even to doubt yourself.
So if you are at a point you are doubting yourself.....STOP! You are just falling victim to BULLSHIT! You are listening to all types of DRIVEL as folks STRUGGLE to keep their companies in business. Allied companies.
The only thing going on is folks are selling their souls to repeat what we did and are doing! If you are a domainer that thinks your domains will be less valuable in the future, YOU ARE A VICTIM! Hook, line and sinker. Spit out the bait you fool before it is too late and you swallow it.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
RaTHeaD
agreed… spot on as usual. btw gone from 240 to 190… hoping for 162. please hide the rum cake.
Danny Pryor
Tentacles? I thought octopi had suction cups! :)
Guy
yep agree with that.
best bet get all domains at one good registrar, dump the rest
dump all parking companies, have your own hosting. do your own sales. be master of your own destiny
conferences, parking cos, brokerages, all have agendas
be your own man guys!
I’d just like to tm ‘octopus shit’ before you do Rick
lol
you heard it here first!
Acro
“Just look at the”Comment Whores” that are unknowns without a real name or email addy, spewing shit all over the blogs once anyone dare say anything not liked or are not wanted. […] Invisible voices, fake names and emails that are agenda driven and add nothing to the conversation should never see the light of day.”
Rick, you hit the nail on the head.
I agree with you 100% and the issue is not what one says, it’s putting their name and business behind it that makes a difference.
A lot of nasty comments that attack you or others, I never allow through on my blogs, simply because they are from cowards with an agenda.
I challenge everyone that has the balls to say these things in someone’s face, to come to TRAFFIC and attempt just that.
Domaining has been recently infested by fat-talking pu$$ies that parachuted out of nowhere, without even a single decent domain under their control.
Keep fighting the good fight!
Donny
Funny thing about the restaurant reviews. They are getting worse as competitors give bad reviews about each other. Then you just have tons of fake crap all over. Nothing can be trusted except video anymore.
I think facetime will make this real easy in the future to give an instant review of a restaurant or product. Or even to have the option to comment on a board like this with video.
This places the actual person in front of the screen. I always thought the term vlogs would take off. It still could but make take a few more years than I thought. Or it could turn out to be zero.
That is one reason we got AutoVlog.com years ago and a few other related vlog names. Seeing a video or forum where people can actually talk about the car makes more sense visually.
Donny M
Poor Uncle
Rick, you are so dramatic. I love it. I wonder how many people would sold their soul to achieve success with domain names. My guess is very few. I saw the movie margin call the other night. There might be a few more soul seller in that industry if you are a buyer. :)
AHEAD OF TIME
Any publicity is good publicity so all these new gTLDs
can only help the domaining industry. I really believe
we are still in the glory years and I have been buying
domains that are better than when I started 12 years
ago!!!
10 years time people will look back on this blog
and think the prices domains were selling for was
super cheap and wish they bought lots of them.
Most people are followers and it just a matter of time
until they start getting into the domaining industry. WHY
because everyone loves money and great domains are
priceless.
Tom g
“There are basically 3 groups of domain names. By far the biggest and most important are those used by businesses around the world to identify themselves, brand themselves, sell things and grow. That is the BASIS for VALUE to begin with that many forget about.”
Couldn’t agree more.
Kevin
“The Best Way To Predict The Future Is To Invent It.”
Alan C. Kay
Sbepstein
dot com is a multi-trillion dollar brand.
nuff said.
Steve
Ekman77
Awesome blog post Rick as usual! I had one of the”Comment Whores” say their name was Dr. Phil and his comment was that the domains i listed were Pigeon Shit. I only approved his comment to show how much of an idiot this person was but after reading this I wont accept any more comments that the person doesn’t identify themselves. Thanks!
Dave
steve
I have bad news. I just ate the octopus.
Nadia
Good post, and I agree that like 888 numbers, gTLDs won’t endanger .com. But we should keep our eyes and ears open for whatever paradigm shifts lie ahead that could potentially change the WHOLE game. It’s not coming any time soon, but I’ve seen a certain reluctance from a few domainers to adapt to changes and move with the times. In general, domainers tend to be forward thinkers and are usually keenly aware of emerging technologies, buying patterns, etc. But there are a lot of people (present company excluded) for whom the same strategy has has worked for the last 5-15 years. If it’s.not broken, don’t fix it, but don’t turn a blind eye and think that one way of doing things will carry you through forever. Many of the companies who’ve folded in the last 7-8 years sat on the very technology made them go extinct. People often don’t want to embrace things that could potentially disrupt their way of doing business.
As far as what that could actually be, I haven’t figured that out yet. :)
Joao
I have said this once in here, and i am going to repeat it.
If all domainers stoped selling their domains for the next 5 years, the aftermarket would stop and the domain prices would be sooo damn high.
I am refering to .coms only.
Also, i am seeing that the aftermarket players are forcing people to sell their domains very very cheap. Sedo is one of them because their parking $$$$ is getting lower and lower. The technique is to release you from paying them the selling fees. I am also seeing that brokers newsletters are starting to become a load of shit. I would sugest that the market should be better educated and not just”fast profit” oriented.
Also, SEO or Slave Engine Optimization is simply a long term suicide. But i see many and many people working for google without beeing their employees, getting paid by them with a proper wage, following their rules when the ones that actually produce content are themselves! WTF?!
Make websites, not google sites. They are so big and so good…let them make their own. And when you realize that they are launching .whatevers and putting your site down on ranking because of the same ole”content quality” excuse…dont be surprised.
The Other Adam
“The pool (punchbowl) just is not that deep.” and there’ll be lots more turds in it soon.
JamesD
Many domainers have been tricked into giving the vast majority of their traffic away for free…nothing for nine visitors and then 20c for the tenth! Now that’s BULLSHIT!
Check me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Google charge for every visitor they send to their paying customers? Yeah, I thought so.
See what I’m getting at here?
There is a solution on the way… ;-) and I may be calling for one your domains Rick to head up the business. But is the question, ‘will I be able to afford it’ OR ‘can I afford not to get it’?
Bruce Diller
Asset security I believe is an underlying problem today with domain names today e.g. fear of loss via urdp.
5 years ago would ANYONE ever have thought that vanity.com a generic word would lose a urdp trademark case?
While I am not a domain investor/trader by trade, i I do own many many domain names I registered in the early days ( mid late90’s) because I understood a domain is like real estate” they just don’t make any more and every piece is unique”
NOW personally I’m kind of feeling that owning a premium domain name is like walking in Harlem at midnight holding $100 bills in my hand just waiting to get mugged.
There is NO such thing as ‘legitimate rape’ and yet it appears to me that URDP’s are being framed as ‘she dressed in mini skirt she was just asking to be raped’ – we ALL KNOW how vile rape is any form.
One man one vote
Bruce Diller
Jeph smythe
“But behold, that is just one leg of this Octopus. A leg that will give birth to other legs. Thousands of legs from that one.”
I do’nt think you really understand how a octopus works Rick. I had a pet one in a tank when I was a lad and I am %95 sure it had either six or eight tetacles. I couldnt ever really count them because it would run away (slither actually eww) before I could put my hand’s on it.