Morning Folks!!
Guys, all I can say is this nails it. When I say we've turned the corner and the mainstream is being attracted far faster than they ever could have been chased, this is what happens. The waiting and the 20 year plan is shifting on a tipping point as we speak. This is so exciting! Let me have Danny Welsh, my partner with JointVentures.com share a a few things with you in his series of posts that will articulate and then demonstrate what we see unfolding before our very eyes and it is happening RIGHT NOW!....
Rick Schwartz
By Danny Welsh
What's it mean when you can extract more money per MONTH in leasing income from a domain name than all the money the domain name has made in the last DECADE parked?
What's it mean when you can extract more money per MONTH in leasing income from a domain name than all the money the domain name cost in registration fees over a DECADE of waiting?
What's it mean when the company you're negotiating with is grateful for the opportunity to run with their idea and pay only $1000/mo to try out using an asset instead of gambling $1,000,000 to acquire an asset they believe is incredibly valuable but aren't quite as sure as you are HOW valuable?
It means, the times...they are a changing.
No longer can someone come along and try to tell you that your best domain names are somehow worth a multiple of what they earn 'parked' in the lowest common denominator of monetization. No longer do you have to wonder when the mainstream will 'get it' just how influential the domain community has made itself...one $100 or $8.99 bet on the future at a time over the course of now almost 2 decades.
The sales resistance for domain leasing is getting smaller by the day.
The alternatives to the best .com domain names all have flaws that anyone SERIOUS about their business is going to see when you point it out to them. The evidence is just not debatable anymore, and has been carefully compiled by investors like Rick Schwartz and many others with real numbers over more than 18 years.
And if any company is dumb enough despite all evidence to build a thriving business on a .net or .co or a dashed domain or whatever, DESPITE our complete transparency about what traffic leakage is that they can expect...you can rest easy knowing one day as they succeed more and more they'll be knocking at your door hat in hand...all the while you have a silent partner driving confusion traffic to your .com making you money while you sleep.
But the domains for leasing have to be the BEST. They don't need to be Candy.com value, but it needs to have MEANING.And they have to give a company a shot at building a GREAT domain into a GREATER business, with all the advantages that me and you and Rick all know are there, unexploited in a parked domain earning as little as $100 per year. Like a tiger in a cage, capable of destroying all challengers, just as soon as you remove the iron bars.
I want to publicly thank our JointVentures.com clients for ARMING us with an amazing group of domain names.
After reviewing tens of thousands of submissions...maybe 30,000+, and 95% of those totally unsuitable according to Rick's criteria at this time...we have endeavored to choose the 300 third party domain names that I believed I could market and tell the value proposition to end users, and that Rick believed he can help negotiate into a sweet deal.
As of this minute, we have exclusively signed to represent I believe _______##_______ premium assets we can take to the marketplace and show an entrepreneurial community of investors has come together to make a STATEMENT to Corporate America that those assets will be exchanged only for a fair price including residuals,make a STATEMENT to Madison Avenue advertising agencies on the opportunity they missed forever, and make a STATEMENT to small business on the opportunity they still have to align their company with one of if not THE best generic domain names for their category and have the wind at their back forever.
We have no time to waste, a team to continue building, and many kinks to work out as we scale a process that was created FOR RICK SCHWARTZ so that we can serve dozens of others and be a good steward of the trust many have placed in us to kick ass and take names in 2013.
Right now, implementing those scaling procedures is my #1 priority just as soon as I rest and recover a few days from the busiest 3 weeks I can remember in some time.
Over the year you'll be hearing all about our marketing tests and what's worked...and what has not.
That's right, folks. I think it's going to be interesting to build a business with the best minds--
and let's be real here...also the biggest mouths ;) -- in an entire industry watching.
and let's be real here...also the biggest mouths ;) -- in an entire industry watching.
Maybe a little stressful, for some, but I know that pressure makes diamonds. I'll accept that reality and you know damn well it ain't gonna lose Rick Schwartz any sleep.
We may even hire a few folks as sales brokers that want to go on the journey with us, from right here among this blog's readership. Diamonds in the rough that love domains as much as we do, and in today's economy will know a GREAT opportunity when they see it in front of their f@ce.
But with that part about 'full transparency' said and understood....I do have three small requests to make from folks as we go about 2013, and I sincerely hope you'll agree.
1. Give me the same chance Rick gave me to earn his respect and trust
(believe me it was not easy).
2. If you see something, say something
(we have already implemented a dozen ideas or more input by the readers of this blog, with a number filed away for use when we're ready).
3. Expect to see and here more of me here on RicksBlog in the last and next couple weeks than the next couple months. Starting February 1, the phase shifts and the message and focus returns where I want it to be for me and for Rick Schwartz...on the CEO, marketing executive and/or start-up entrepreneur increasingly seeing the great domain name they are interested in using weaved into the JointVentures.com lease and/or profit-share value proposition and thinking to themselves 'this is a hell of a deal'.
I hope you'll do the respectful thing in #1, see the benefit for yourself and your peers in #2, and recognize that for #3...well
As Rick says 'Danny and I will demonstrate with DEALS why the solution for ME is also the solution for YOU!'
My most important business goal for 2013 is not small, but it is not impossible. It's to demonstrate that Rick's solution is the solution for 'the 500.'
And to do so emphatically
not with words alone but deals.
That won't give me much time to joust with folks on a blog.
But as a 2 year reader I do plan to become more active on this forum and I'd like each of you 'regulars' to know that I appreciate the warm welcome you've given me and my ideas.
Being more active, however, means engaging with the people who matter, cheering anyone that wants to participate in what we are doing in spirit but not in letter with a 'mirroring' plan that will pave public acceptance of these types of deals more and more...and for the most part ignoring the jerks that offer no real value to anyone.
Is that fair or is that fair?
Have a great week!-----
Uzoma
By the way, I think OverStock.com should win an award in the next TRAFFIC. We can call it the”Numbers don’t lie” award.
The fact that they actually re-branded to a .Co, got all the data, the leakage, I believe it was close to 40% or more, I forget now, leakage from .co to .com, and found that unacceptable, made it public, and went back to .COM, should win an award. :-)
Matt
I think you’ve made the point. Continuous blowing of your old trumpet only serves to weaken your following. How about sharing some of the joint ventures in progress through the various build stages?
Rick Schwartz
Matt, we will get to that phase when we get to that phase.
Until then please bare with us as we do this the way we see fit.
There is a lot more to come to explain our vision.
Later today or tomorrow I will be posting question and answers that will clarify things even further.
On February 1st we go into another phase. Until then we know exactly what we need to achieve.
So please indulge us these days to do what we feel we need to do FIRST.
Thanks!
Rick Schwartz
And one of those things is getting to know Danny Welsh. Who he is, what he wants to do and why after all these years did I pick Danny to do this massive undertaking. This is a guy with great depth and talent and as you read his thoughts and as he lays the groundwork, you might see something you don’t see right now.
Mark B
This all seems great, but I have the feeling that once the curtain is pulled back on OZ, the only thing we’ll see is the sad, withered ghost of LeaseThis.com
Rick Schwartz
Mark, thanks for the comment!
The timing is different, the business model is different, the people involved are different, the vision is different and the inventory is different before I even have Danny chime in upon his return with what he sees as the differences.
But the ones I mentioned, are ample reason and in the days ahead I will demonstate the difference which is the key. I was not involved with the company you mention and don’t even think they are in the domain business any longer. So a lot of folks have tried alot of things and that has no bearing on what we are doing some 7-8 years later. Timing IS everything.
Krishna
Rick and Danny, please take a second look at site design of jointventures.com. For me it is looking outdated. Sorry if I am wrong.
Patrick Hipskind
Rick and Danny,
You talk about leakage from using a lower quality domain name but you do not translate that leakage into measurable reductions in margins, market share, and profitability. A business will attempt to use a domain name that costs less if they believe they can still obtain the same margins and profitability with it. The recent rebranding of Art.sy to Artsy.net instead of Artsy.com proves my point. Once you demonstrate to that company that they will improve their margins and profitability as well as improving their balance sheet under the intangible fixed assets column, then you will get their undivided attention. These are the factors, not “leakage”, that dictate the price per share of a stock and shareholder value.
While I appreciate the fact that you had to pick excellent domain names to launch JointVentures.com and narrowed the field to 300 domain names, I hope that in the future you are considering accepting domain names from all industry classifications. I did not submit any domain names because this appears to be an exclusive club and I did not want to be shot down by you. Yet, after reviewing your list I now see entire industries you have left out. Rackspace Inc., for example, owns CloudSaaS.com and it resolves to Rackspace.com. I own eCloudSaaS.com and have it parked. I didn’t submit this domain name to you because it didn’t appear to fit your parameters, yet I believe it is an excellent domain name that can be leased to companies in the Cloud Computing industry.
UFO
Have you considered that there requires a willing SELLER and an AGREEABLE price to make a sale? Unless you understand the sellers’ motives then you cannot simply infer the buyers’ actions were the most desirable that they themselves took.
Art.sy is just Artsy which is a definite British expression for a person that is into art I.e. an artsy person. Hence the owner of Artsy.com could at any point use the domain for the sale of art because it is NOT a trademarkable word for that purpose because it is a commonly used expression in that course of trade and commerce.
Hence, if Artsy wants to realise its full potential as an acquisition target then it really wants that .com, likely any acquirer would roll up the .com so the current owners can probably trundle along as they are. But there is always the risk that arsty.com could sell their very business from underneath them… all that latent sunk marketing and branding there for the taking.
Domainers need to understand the motives of the consumer market for their domains. Start using some logic and think about first mover advantages, standardisation, differences in consumers for that segment, sophistication of that segment etc etc etc.
Rick Schwartz
Krishna,
A website is never done, it just evolves.
This is already V2 and I am sure we will be at V12 before the end of the year.
Jeff Schneider
Hello Rick & Danny
I think the possibilities for all Virtual Business Foundations will be enhanced through this evolutionary process you are both creating. Most of all it will be looked upon as a viable marketing strategy especially as its benefits become more and more utilized by companies large and small.Most importantly it will eliminate some of the traffic aggregators who really do not want owners knowing the true effectiveness that a centralized benefactor actually recieves from their VBF.
Parking sites have actually stood in the way by fragmenting a VBFs traffic through poor verification and clumsy placement decisions to end users. These factors alone will bring lots of attention to our Industry as the real data becomes known to End Users.
All in all this is a brilliant stategy,destined for huge suuccess. Thank you both for your professional vision and groundbreaking efforts.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Patrick Hipskind
There could be several reasons why Art.sy rebranded to Artsy.net, but I’ll bet the company didn’t want to spend the money at this time to acquire the .com version. I’m sure they could have acquired it if they offered enough money. And I will also bet that the company doesn’t see the need to have the .com at this point in time.
The decision to acquire an expensive asset comes down to the NPV and IRR that the asset will return. And FYI that is logic, and it cost me about $80k from some of the best professors in the world to attain that logic. As a CEO, I’d be more concerned about the ROI from every dollar spent. If the domain name will improve my margins then I would consider an acquisition. If it adds to the balance sheet thereby improving shareholder value I would consider an acquisition. If it doesn’t then it’s a waste of money.
UFO
Moving from art.sy to arsty.net appears to actually be a negative move. It does not confer any advantages other than confirming that the .com is a better domain and denigrating their own artsy basis of using a ‘trendy’ cctld. They could have pointed the .net at their URL but if you’re suggesting they moved to the .net then that’s duff logic.
You say they could have afforded it, well, quite possibly the owner of the .com isn’t a seller at any price or wants to get some very serious money.
You talk of ROI and NPV and probably will tell me about TV IRR and a whole host of other appraisal metrics, and that would be where to a large extent most of the market has completely missed the whole concept of the web. They were so busy doing KPIs on retail metrics that the missed the concept that the net was coming along that would change the whole basis of doing business. Here today in Britain another high street chain dies because they didn’t get it early enough, they would have had recourse to plenty of the best finance people. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jan/09/jessops-verge-administration-jobs-risk
They could have spent 100k 10 years ago and got a premium .com that could have enabled them to survive. But they didn’t and the likes of Amazon, Ebay shops and all the rest took the market from them. Game over.
See, all these financial metrics can’t fully evaluate strategy.
Domains like IP are game changers. Valuing them is incredibly difficult.
UFO
Nb: If Artsy owned the .com and traded from it then I’d suggest that it would present itself as a far better acquisition target.
I’d further suggest that the uplift in value trading from the .com would be multiples of the cost of acquiring it.
Ebay and Amazon would look favourably at acquiring that type of business, although I know nothing of the actual business model and how scaleable it truely is.
Danny Welsh
RE:”And one of those things is getting to know Danny Welsh. Who he is, what he wants to do and why after all these years did I pick Danny to do this massive undertaking. This is a guy with great depth and talent and as you read his thoughts and as he lays the groundwork, you might see something you don’t see right now.”
Thanks Rick. Now that I’m back from vacation browsing the blog I’ll be responding to those folks that need/deserve response. There are many that do not.
Danny Welsh
JointVentures.com