Morning Folks!!
How can it be?? How does it happen? An industry of such strong willed folks that are also strong doubters in what they themselves do. It is so sad to see folks reacting in a short term manner in what is a life long marathon.
There is NO OTHER INDUSTRY ON EARTH with such a low bar to enter and how quickly you can change your destiny. But unfortunately most folks are clueless when it comes to what makes one domain have great value and one that will just rot until you drop.
Worse is when I see domains of GREAT VALUE being sold for chump change. So the opportunity is out there. But if you are not ARMED with the knowledge as to what makes one domain have GREAT value as opposed to doubling your money, then you will find the road difficult. If you don't understand sales and what motivates some to buy you will not understand domain names.
So you want an example? Fine. The other day somebody got a great bargain. Somebody bought a domain that was $2000 at Sedo and whether you agree or not is worth into the 6 figures. It's not worth 6 figures if he sells it tomorrow. It is worth 6 figures if he buys it to plant. It's worth 7 figures if he uses it for a business. It's not even a .com.
So opportunity in domains come in many wrappers and flavors. The problem is so many seeing the true potential value once the music stops and the .com domain inventory shrinks and shrinks and shrinks. See many are in a business of diminishing returns. A domain can only be bounced around domainers a few times until it either sits with the last domainer or is bought by the end user never to return to the market again.
So resellers will eventually have diminishing returns. Less inventory. Less quality. Less money. Less demand for less quality. A catch 22 and a peek at the future.
Of course their lifeboat is the new gTLD's. But there is a problem at the ranch. While this is great for resellers, the buyers are likely to have great disappointment in their projects. The end user is smart enough to figure things out even if others don't want him to. I blogged about one such case here on this blog not long ago. Others would be smart to heed the words of somebody traveling the actual path as opposed to thse that benefit from your ignrance and gullability.
But sure, if you don't see things clearly of course you have this self doubt. But it is the self doubt that is killing you and your business not the reality of just how much opportunity awaits you. And I say that regardless of the extension you focus on.
I saw this movie before. Many of you have as well. Around 2002 the folks looked almost the same way. One guy either forgot to listen to how bad things were or decided to capitalize on how bad things were. Somewhere along the way with less opportunity than today Franky was able to amass one of the world's greatest domain portfolios. This is likely the last time you will be able to get meaningful .com domain names at prices that are just cheap. But not because of the value of the property but the circumstance of the domainer.
When this wagon comes full circle I can guarantee that this period will DWARF that period. And that is why it is so sad for me to see not only domainers in doubt but teams and companies in doubt. There is no doubt when I look at the future and the horizon. There are only waves. But when you don't know a diamond from a piece of glass, THAT my friends is the only enemy out there.
So when a domain like Beep.me sells for $2000 that is a domain that has meaning and is brandable and marketable. Of course I will have a host of folks saying that they overpaid or some other such nonsense. But in fact they are clueless on their art.
And a disclaimer, I have no idea who bought it and did not even do a whois lookup. If it was an end user, they bought a nice future with a good idea. For a domainer, if he is a cat on a hot tin roof, he can flip it and make a nice months salary or hold on to it and walk away with 6 figures at some point not in the distant future.
And here is what I see. In the past years we have seen a host of electric cars come to market. They got lots of money and they advertised and got all types of publicity and all the rest. Well Fisker collapsed as their cars blew up. The Volt cost like $75,000 to make and they sell for $45,000 and they too blow up too. So even if you wanted one of these PIGS, would you REALLY park it in the garage at night with you, your wife and kids????? It was THE deciding factor for me.
Now gTLD's are not going to blow up anyones house but it may cause a business to blow up and collapse. But there may be a parallel. Because when it doesn't work, they all circle back to what they used before. In this case, gas. Yes, gas can blow your house up to but the incidents are rare and usually self inflicted. And when .crap blows up, then they all circle back to .com and THEN my friends is when you see the manifestation of a 20 year plan coming together. Values will necessarily skyrocket.
Not all gTLD's will be electric cars. But if enough gTLD's blow up....then what? They might hurt other gTLD's. That's what. So what you think may unfold is not what I seeing unfold. How many of these new extensions will PROVE to be electric cars that just blow up? NONE of us know that. But we do know it will be significant because we are already seeing evidence of it and we as domainers have seen this before.
The bottom line is for any extension or domain in that extension to have value it must be powerful, clear and unique before we even discuss other parameters. The right combinations WILL have great value. But the WHEN question is also part of that equation.
But who cares?? It ALL spells opportunity and domainers have opportunity all around them and MANY are walking around like zombies!! Snap out of it!! Wake up. You are in the epicenter of the most dynamic business on earth right now. Your self doubt is killing your business not the opportunities out there.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
John
I have always wondered when the market would dry up of .com domains. I’m still waiting, but it seems like a base demand is there and increasing, so it has to happen. I can’t wait.
New TLDs will bring out more buyers for .com. It will be a boon for all domain investors.
Owen
All true but Oil is a finite resource and domains are too. The cars ay have blown up but the solar panels I see popping up all over Boca means the government is on to something. See they have the datA as does schilling ham div etc so there could be two plays the one we know and the one we dont
Maksim
Well, .com is the king! :-)
Stu Holly
Great advice Rick, I have decided to plant too :)
eh
Amen to that.
free yourself from dot fear, dot doubt, and beware of dot confusion
henry
Seems rather odd that you would use a .ME as an example in this post instead of a Dotcom especially when the new GTLDs are basically the new .ME, .CO, .US etc….
DonnyM
People adding on natural gas to cars is starting to take off. 1.65 as opposed to 4.00 a gallon. Why get anything else?
I just picked up the best domain possible (.com) in the natural gas area 5 months ago. So deals are available like Rick says.
May take 2-3 more years to take off but when natural gas stations start to pop up all over the US the”gas conversion” cycle will begin.
The value of that one car converting to natural gas is around 5-7k to a shop.
Electric is a tough sale right now. In 5 years who knows.
Henry
.me is the only extension that is a word so that is big plus. I can’t think of any other extensions that say something in two letters or less I guess .tv and .so but they don’t blend in as well as .me.
A .go extension would not be so bad if someone came out with it.
Point being with .me is that money can be made regardless of what anyone thinks. But the biggest money will still be in .com
Donny
Raymond Hackney
Donny with that logic, not that I have a problem with .me but then .us sales should be picking up.
There are names that don’t go with .tv just like there are names that don’t go with .me. Plurals kind of stink with .me because so much of the branding magic in .me is the intuitive nature of a verb that goes with it. Do.me, Meet.me,Please.me. If you are a photographer then photographer.me is nice but photographers.me is not as nice.
Rick what is interesting about Beep is that someone sniped that, I believe it was pushed to auction at $2,000. Someone else bid $2,050 and got the domain. Maybe someone figured the end user was the $2,000 bid and they could get and hold for more.