The Domain King's® thoughts on domain names, web traffic, increasing web sales, success, life, and plain-old Business & Marketing 101. Nothing happens until a sale is made!
Simple question today. Normally we start T.R.A.F.F.I.C. at 9AM. But in Vegas we are thinking of starting as late as noon. So the question is when would you like to see the show hours. Please take the poll below and let us know what you think. On May 1, I start working on the schedule in earnest and want to give you what you folks want and fit into the Vegas nightlife.
NOTICE: I have gotten wind of a couple companies, company teams and a few individuals setting up shop in Vegas to leach off of TRAFFIC during the show. Your reputations, not mine. Just one level above RDNH for me.
JUST TO BE CLEAR
So if you or your company needs to save a few grand, this is not the place to do it. Those savings will be very costly. Howard and I work way too hard to sit idly by. So on the record, for the record. If they cheat us, they will cheat you.SIMPLE!
And of course I will publish each and every name of the companies and the individuals. So Don't do it! Stay home or come thru the front door. ZERO TOLERANCE! Coincidence? We will let your peers decide. Just so we are clear. If you engage in this activity, EVERYONE gets to know. This is a serious show where many people paid a lot of money to attend and you are taking advantage of them. NO WAY!!
As reported by DomainNameWire.com, P&G finally stepped up to the plate and bought the domain that just weeks ago they had been found guilty of trying to Reverse Hijack with THIS DECISION and many follow up posts by yours truly.
I think we will reach a watershed moment this year and while attempted hijackings are up, they will crest and then begin to recede as so many decisions are against them. Plus they are realizing that there is more than a loss involved. ME! I am the SOB that is out to destroy them just like they were out to destroy some unsuspecting domain registrants and their dreams.
So when it comes to REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING we will closely monitor all developments and we will do whatever it takes to stop it. Once they get convicted, their reputation is owned by ME to do what I see fit with as far as circulation of their misdeeds.
Bing has Balls!!! They have been going after Google and BRANDING 'Scroogled' for months. I wrote about it back when they started the campaign. It is brilliant. Here are my on record statements and posts about Bing.
And in one of their latest commercials they actually state 'Maybe You Shouldn't Trust Google for anything!'
What if I told you that one of our attendees that most of you know has traveled a MILLION miles to come to TRAFFIC shows over the years. You would probably think I was exaggerating. So let's count. Each trip I count as 12,000 miles. 24,000 miles round trip.
So if he went to 10 TRAFFIC shows that would be 240,000 miles. 20 shows would be 480,000 and when he attends the Vegas show which will be 24 out of 25, he will be well over 1/2 million miles and well on the way to 1 MILLION miles.
So is Michael Gilmour insane? Ok, please don't answer that. Anyone that actually likes me is a bit insane. But Michael is a numbers guy. Plain and simple. He knows numbers. He is insane when it comes to numbers. The only guy I know I would trust my numbers to because he is really good. And the most important number he discovered is when he spends $15,000 to come to a TRAFFIC show, he gets so much bang for his buck that he is willing to keep spending some DAYS on a plane to travel half way around the world.
36 hours from when he steps out of the house until he sees a hotel room on the other side of the world.
WHY would anyone do that? What is your excuse not to?
Michael, like many others, you have been part of the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. family since the beginning. We are BLESSED to be surrounded by some of the world's best and most talented folks. It's been a hard fought battle over the years but that battle is not turning into a celebration.
The curse of the past was it was hard to find others to work with domainers for all types of reasons and biases. Today and in the future that is no longer the case. We have proven our skills and our visions have been ROCK SOLID!! ROCK SOLID!
That is now being recognized and we are attracting many folks from different backgrounds that no longer see us as predators taking what we should not. But the practical business people we are that have laid claim to the most sought after land in all of history.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. is NEVER an expense to those that attend or there would be no reason to keep coming back! TRAFFIC MAKES you money it does not COST you money!! DUH!!!!
It' no secret that when it comes to Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) proactive is an understatement to describe my efforts. I am on a personal and professional mission to SHAME these folks in such a manner that folks will figure it out before I have to publicly tar and feather them. Not your style, then get used to bending over.
I get this email over the weekend with a THREAT.
I don't take kindly to THIEVES.
My company **************, LLC. owns the trademark for ************(United States Patent and Trademark Office Serial Number ***********). We would like to inquire about a friendly transfer before we pursue a legal course.
My style cuts thru the bullshit of life.
Read this before you make a FOOL of yourself in public and I OWN your reputation.
Go ahead use this as evidence when you try and REVERSE HIJACK a DOMAIN you have no rights to. I am going to make you famous! Everyone you know will know you are a THIEF!
You got 1 HOUR to apologize or you will be on my blog TOMORROW!
Want to play FUCKER??
Lets do it!!
I get a response 9 minutes later.
Dear Rick,
I apologize and I did not mean to offend you in any way. I was misinformed about the coverage of our trademark, and again I am sorry for my first email. If there is anything else I can do please let me know.
Best,
John
Now I am glad John learned his lesson before I had to do what I do. Domainers need to grow some BALLS and stop being AFRAID of THIEVES and treat THIEVES like a THIEF should be treated.
This will become more and more common place and Howard and I have decided to take the next THIEF to Federal Court and we are going to have even stronger cases and more costly cases to point to. The next CLOWN that even comes NEAR a domain he has no rights to is going to get a lawsuit on their desk and they are going to be made an example of.
With each passing day, there is less an less excuses to engage in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. So the Law firms engaged in this will be soiled just as much and maybe even more than the would-be thief. They know better. They KNOW what they are doing and so I will be opening a special section just spotlighting the law firms engaged in this practice. They KNOW better! That makes them an ACCOMPLICE!
Progress does not happen overnight. Except last night. That's when we threw the switch and opened the FIRST PHASE of the JointVentures.com Pitch Page. What's a 'Pitch Page'? It's more than just putting a sentence and letting them know it is for lease or sale or joint venture.
May I introduce you to the first one. We now have about 2 dozen completed and Danny will be heading back to the cave soon to complete even more.
The first one is pretty complete but still need to do a few things to clean up the page but you'll get the idea. The second one is the shell ready for more things to be added.
We will be rolling out these pitch pages weekly from now on until we get one done for every domain in our inventory. Again, won't happen overnight. This is a multi-year project. But everyone will see PROGRESS and PROGRESS is what feeds the beast.
The first ones are the hardest as we develop a framework and integrate with the rest of the site.
Then owners of the domains like me, will have to decide whether to continue to point their domains to PPC for pennies a day or point to our 'Pitch Page' and look for the long ball. But whether they link to the top of the ppc page or whether all traffic is redirected, today is when the music starts to play!
A little over 3 years ago my mother was on her death bed. I had sent her and her friend on a cruise which was something I did for her 1x or 2x a year since my dad died about 15 years ago. She took very ill on the cruise in 2010 and she had to be flown home by a medical ambulance. If you go on a cruise, always get the insurance. That was a $25,000 expense we did not have to incur.
Doctors wrote her off and could not bothered with an 86 year old. That was until I hired and wrote about NURSE RATCHED and put those doctors on notice that we were watching every move and while they were petrified about their malpractice insurance before the nurse, we turned that into terrified of US and that trumped everything else.
Mom made a miraculous recovery once I grabbed the doctor by his collar and showed him the window and the 6 floors below before he hit concrete. Too violent for you? Tell me when it is your mother and the doctors she had didn't give a shit and just wrote her off. Tell me then.
Now of course I never actually did that. But that was what was in my mind. Can't put me in jail for thoughts! Yet. Am I capable of doing that?
So the question is how do I accomplish that without going to jail? The problem with the doctors was FEAR. So the FEAR I had to give him had to trump that other fear.
Mom 30 days off of her death bed in 2010 days before turning 87
Mom's 90th
So this week mom turned 90 and she is still living on her own. We still meet on Sunday's for breakfast. She still walks and gets around. Her mind is sharp. At breakfast a few weeks ago we discussed going out for her birthday and my brother made a crack and asked her if she wanted to come to her own birthday party. She snapped right back 'If I am invited.'
Touché. lol
She drives too. Ain't no way in hell any of would get in a car with her. But she drives. She shouldn't. But she drives. Can't convince her to stop. Just stay outta her way. But she drives.
So we are talking with a lease candidate. We know they are having folks whisper SHIT in their ears.
Each deal will come down to MONEY! Every one. We have lots of room to find the right mixture like gas and a carburetor in a car. This could be a closing pitch perhaps.
Look, how do you see this dovetailing with your current business and budget?
This is the main question for each company.
So the accountants chime in and no accountant supports an expenditure like this. Nor do they understand sales and marketing. Plus they can not see past December 31, of any given year. That is how they are wired.
Don't get me wrong. I love my accountant. Been working with him for over 20 years. But he is my accountant he does not run my business.
So if you accountant is driving your train, we have nothing to talk about. You already lost control. Have a seat!
Your SEO folks are telling you that this is no good and don't waste your money.
But sorry, your pal the seo guy is covering his own ass. Worrying about his own business. What would happen if that expense was eliminated?
Better yet, imagine what an seo guy could do with a category defining domain name. If he says it does not matter, he is 50% right. But last time I looked, 50% is a failing grade by any measure.
So if your SEO guy is driving your train, we have nothing to talk about. You already lost control. Have a seat!
Like my accountant I have been dealing with my attorney for about 15 years. Not only is my attorney my business partner and very close friend, but he is an attorney and he knows to let me make the business decisions and his job is to make sure my decisions are clear of any dangers. That's it! He does not run the business either.
So if you lawyer is driving your train, we have nothing to talk about. You already lost control. Have a seat!
So here we have what I call 'Headwinds'. But in sales it is taking these headwinds and explaining it in such a fashion that it becomes tailwinds. That is the magic in sales.
So Mr. End user, we don't have to be in your meetings to know what is going on. It is called human nature. It is called predictable. It is called following the herd mentality. These are the pitfalls on the way to a good decision and a meaningful and long lasting relationship.
What are you scared of?? If we are right you transform your company. In the remote chance it does work out, you walk away. That's called opportunity with little or no risk.
And remember one thing bud, you took a RISK going into business and chances are not one of the folks whispering shit in your ear EVER took a risk! Never stuck it out! Never had it all in!
They work for you, or do you work to provide THEM with jobs? Which is it??? Are you too timid to piss them off? WAKE UP!
How many schmucks passed on Hotel.com before somebody figured it out? If you don't know that story, read it here. Where is Borders today? They closed all their stores. Why? Type book.com in your browser. Then type books.com in your browser. What do they sell? Who is still in business? Which company is smart? Which company is out of business? This is not hard folks! You don't have to know jack shit about the Internet to figure some of this out. So stop depending on those that don't understand BUSINESS!
Then maybe your seo guy will throw the pets.com example in your face.
Well I was a major stock holder in Pets.com at one time. The management buried that company. They were horrible. I lost 7 figures from their mentality. They lost 90% of ALL their business with a silly mistake that they refused to correct. Morons!
See when you typed in pets.com in the browser bar like MILLIONS of people were doing during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade back in 1999 you got a 404 error. See the MORONS there, the seo dept, There IT folks, saw no need to fix something they did not even see, know about or understand.
So the MORONS forced the folks to format pets.com to http://www.pets.com or you would not get to their site. I was off the wall calling and emailing them and never so much as got a response. MILLIONS of daily visitors lost. MOST lost forever. How long would it take a consumer to try and walk in a door to find it locked and not walk away? IDIOTS!! And look whi drove THAT train!!!
SEO and IT and both are CLUELESS when it comes to sales, customers, business. Wake up!!! It's like making your FILTHY dishwasher in your restaurant the HOST that seats people!! ARE YOU INSANE???
So THAT is the reason Pets.com failed and you can blame their techies and seo gus for it! It will never be reported. How can they report what they don't know, understand or even see? MORONS!
Bet you NEVER heard that story!! Why?? Cuz nobody gets it!! These morons to THIS DAY don't get it and they were the BITCHES that put the company outta business.
This is a lifelong game. Decisions made in 2013 will have ramifications that will last as long as each of us have been in business or will remain in business.
So it comes down to dollars and how can we tailor this to fit. If what we say unfolds as we say and what we have said for 18 years is already on the record, then MR Ceo you are positioned to take BIG advantage of this decision instead of just a side entrance. You are in a position to dominate instead of being dominated.
You pass or your fail and you have to realize this is YOUR decision. We have either made our case or not. But PLEASE don't rely on advice from folks that are not qualified to see 5, 10, 20 and 30 years down the road. When your children may be sitting in your chair.
Stop delegating important decisions to folks that are NOT CAPABLE of making them!
I would normally tell you to 'Have a GREAT Day' but today I will be a little more blunt. Wake the fuck up before it is too late!
Are you offended?
So it is more important for you to be offended than to grow/save your business?
It was September 22, 2009 that I made my first post about JointVentures.com that I can find online and date stamped. It talks about what I plan to do in 2009 and I state in that post that my vision would take 5 years to manifest itself. So while others jack rabbit all over the place, my head is down, my goal is in mind and in the days and weeks ahead you are going to witness first hand what we intend to do and how we intend to do it.
The 'Pitch Pages' are being customized domain by domain and soon the first set will be released. It takes incredible fortitude to put these pages together because each is like it's own little screen play. Each has an individual story to tell about the domain name. Each is a call to action. Each is the beginning of a discussion. Each are composed of many elements and why some may be invisible yo you, they won't be invisible to the audience we are targeting.
So here it was September 22, 2009 as I layout a basic course of where I want to go, why I want to go there and how I intend to do it. That was nearly 3 years before I ever met of Danny Welsh and 2.5 years before we had our first discussion about it.
That was over 3.5 years before we began to get our 125 charter domain holders and some of the best domains in the world to go to market with. And it was 3.5 years before we had a sales force of 12 that publicly applied for those positions via youtube.com
It will be about 3 years 8 months and 8 days before I go on stage at TRAFFIC and show the results of our efforts. A seed that started with the following post. And that is why it is all on the record for the record. It is easy to manufacture 20/20 hindsight and rewrite history, but when you have your thoughts and ideas PUBLICLY time stamped, those words and deeds are more meaningful when accomplished. When a form begins to appear. Where something imagined can be brought to life.
So fasten your seat belts the next 6 weeks as we ramp up to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. are going to be interesting and exciting and you are going to see a huge amount of progress in a very short amount of time.
Thanks for being part of this journey and Stay Tuned!!
Morning Folks!!
How many years do you think it would take to just look at your domains and decide to open 1000 full fledged businesses? Not just 'Develop' for the sake of it, build businesses. Let me give you a quick answer. You won’t live long enough. Your kids won’t live long enough. So while folks 'Develop' and experiment with minisites, PLAY with TEMPORARY search traffic, I look at everything a bit different. I already got the hair on some of your backs up. But read on before you form your opinion.
See we don’t have time to build 1000 businesses and then we certainly don’t have the TIME to run 1000 businesses. BUT…..when you are a fool like me, you go against the grain. So I realized many years ago that building 1000 businesses was not a possibility. 5000? 50,000, Not in 10 lifetimes.
However there is another way once you all stop laughing and shaking your head. You can laugh. I employ. I look forward. I look to see what things will look like when they evolve, NOT today, not yesterday. What the hell is that Rick??
Well, we may not have time to build 1000 businesses but we certainly have the time to do 1000 joint ventures. So I own JointVentures.com. Think about that. When Trump owns a piece of land he does not build it, he partners with a DEVELOPER and contractors and takes a slice. His TIME commitment is limited to making the deal. Anytime you can invest little or no time and get a return, you are a winner!
So in my mind development is a joint venture that becomes a big business. That won’t work for everyone. It will and does work for me. And again, it is not the developing that counts, it is the business. I can’t run 1000 businesses well. But I certainly can team up with partners to run 1000 businesses well. Nearly 15 years into this and I have never waivered from this belief. Matter of fact, I have never been more confident about it. Now the only thing that will change is the percentage split. In time my share will increase with every deal I make. The goal is 50%. In some cases it may be higher. In most cases it will be much lower. Do you ever wonder what 10% of 1000 businesses would look like??
So keep laughing. The picture I have in my mind of what I want to accomplish is clear and very different from others. That is ok, none of us can have the same business plan. They are all unique. What we can do is compare notes. Share ideas. Share our path. Don’t judge a work of art until it is finished. My picture needs less than 5 years to really take shape, take form and change the way everyone does business in this industry.
You can see that very clear and vivid divide. It is just how you approach things. A waitress goes to work and every day earns dollars. The days she does not work, she gets nothing. So some in this business work like that. They have to hustle every day to make ends meet. No work. No money. Others are much more methodical. They just do things differently and are not dependant on that job or even that restaurant.
The idiots and morons always IGNORE my main point. Because if they actually had to argue the MAIN POINT, they would go down in defeat in the opening round. They have no answer to my main point and they will never have an answer that will hold water. So they have to distract your attention.
This is the story of Wantable.CO buying Wantable.COM for a number of reasons. Led by CONFUSION! Not Confucius idiots and morons. CONFUSION! But ahh, you are so confused!
You can listen to all types of information. Most is biased. I am not immune. So when REALITY surfaces, that speaks 1000x louder than all the nonsense in between. So open your ears. Deal with FACTS!
STOP IGNORING THE MAIN POINT OF MY ARGUMENT!
Last year Mr. Johnson explained a 61% loss using the O.co domain name in lieu of Overstock.com. This year it is Wantable.co story that emerged on Mike Berkens Blog. Seems Wantable.co went out and bought Wantable.COM via Sedo for $47,000. Am amount that Sedo was supposed to remain confidential.
The story closes with 'It looks like a huge success story for the .Co registry.'
Well not so fast Mr. Berkens my good friend. This is in fact a good story for .com and not such good news for .co. However, the POINT in all this is something I have repeatedly stated since this debate began and left the following comment on Mike's blog: Ya know, the POINT I always try to make and the idiots and morons just gloss over like the 2000LB Gorilla isn't even there. It's there baby and here is another PUBLIC sighting!
'This is the ONLY way to brand a non .com.
Bravo!!
You MUST have the .com and THEN you can promote and brand ANY extension you like.
It does NOT work in reverse!'
So I have nothing against .co or .info or .crap or .whatever. My ONLY issue is that being CUTE without owning the DOT COM is not only the WORST business decision one can make, but I can get on stage for 3 HOURS or more and go over reason after reason after reason that you MUST have the .com version of the domain IF you promote a non .com.
So simple even a bean counter should embrace it!
But later after my comment the BUYER of Wantable.COM chimed in on the reasons. STRAIGHT from the horses mouth. These are his reasons. What he learned and discovered. HE FIXED IT!!! THAT is how you do business and I want to congratulate Jalem Getz for being a SMART BUSINESS MAN!! For figuring it out. For not going down with the ship. For recognizing certain TRUTHS because it COST HIM MONEY and lost business. He FIXED the gaping leak. Well done CAPTAIN!!!
Sorry, I am doing this 18 years. Not having the .com version of your domain going forward is moronic and costly. Look at all the folks that started as a .net and you will find that more than 75% of COMPANIES THAT COUNT have acquired their .com version.
So these words along with Mr. Johnson's words will stand taller than all the BULLSHIT we are about to be spewed at to us.
'Hello everyone, my name is Jalem Getz and I’m the president of Wantable, inc. I thought I might add some clarity to why we purchased the .com. I simply want to share our story since I’ve been an Internet entrepreneur for a long time and have always appreciated it when others gave me candid and honest information. Obviously my opinions and experiences are in the vacuum of our business and don’t necessarily apply to other companies.
First: Sedo violated our NDA by disclosing the purchase price. And, to make it worse they got the number wrong.
We actually leased the .com domain 9 months ago when we launched our website wantable.co. It has always redirected to the .co. Leasing the domain gave us the freedom to build a business around the .co but have the option to use the .com when and if there was consumer confusion.
What we learned: the .co is confusing to a small segment of consumers, it is also more likely to get marked as spam by Facebook and email providers. We experienced each of these issues first hand and while none were insurmountable it was clearly an issue.
Why we purchased the .com and what we plan on doing: we purchased the domain this past week, a full 3 months before our lease expires because we feel by owning the .com we can re-brand as “Wantable” and not need to include the .com or .co extension. Expect to see our website running on the .com extension within the month.
While I’m a big fan of the .co movement, and currently advise a few .co companies, I feel if given the option a company should operate under the .com before the .co extension of their brand.
I hope this adds some color to our reasoning and the information is useful to those interested.'
So folks, swallow HORSE SHIT or take it from the horses mouth! Stop ignoring facts and evidence. These companies have no agenda but building a profitable business. They shared their findings.
The Bottom line is .whatever is GREAT, but with out owning the .com, you are likely to FAIL because of confusion. And even if you don't fail, you will stunt your growth, work harder for less business and you FAIL as the CEO from not allowing this to happen to your respective companies. So be cute, but be AWARE! Because you don't have to agree with me and when you find out I was right you will be long gone!
And if you still can't figure this one out, just send IRS DOUBLE the taxes today because that is how much REAL business you are losing each year and eventually you can add 'FINAL RETURN' as your companies fail if you don't LEARN!
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