Afternoon Folks!!
Took a few hours off to see The Steve Jobs Movie. Very good!!
That said it is not as good as the Social Network, however it was still an excellent history and VERY motivating. Definitely worth seeing.
You walk out feeling the need to achieve something really great!
It is mostly the early years and only one scene from this century when they introduced the iPod.
I guess Jobs 2 will deal with this century.
Rick Schwartz
Afternoon Folks!!
When will these CHEAP BASTARDS ever learn? I can also call them would be THIEVES which is a LOT worse. I'll let everyone else play nice. I will keep calling them out until this stops. Sorry to the politically correct. You don't play nice with people who abuse the process and try to STEAL! You stick it up their asses, never let them forget and let it serve as a lesson to the next PREDATOR.
As Michael Berkens has reported today, Jaguar/Land Rover is the latest to have been found GUILTY of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name MountainRovers.com. Complainant is Jaguar Land Rover Limited (“Complainant”), represented by Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA.
Hope you folks are PROUD!!??
Another company run by CHEAP BASTARDS that has TARNISHED a brand forever! I am sure these idiots will be pissed at me, but they should be pissed at whoever internally signed off on this RISK to a Grand BRAND. If they worked for me, they would not see lunchtime. So let their anger flow! And why didn't they get a heads up by Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP?? Surely at this stage you would think.......
They join a growing list of BIG names like Procter and Gamble and what I called the "Biggest Management Shakeup in 100 Years" in being labeled thieves by the governing panel. Let's see if heads roll before the end of the year on this mess. The entire decision can be found here and it is quite the read. DomainNameWire labels it as a "Scathing Critique".
The attempt was so blatant, that the panel found for the respondent without the respondent even answering the complaint. A HUGE VICTORY for all!! But this is a really GREAT case because there was no response by the domain owner and the panel still found Jaguar/LandRover guilty of RDNH. Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA got defeated by a ghost. How does a debacle like this unfold?
You can be certain I will have more to say about Jaguar and Land Rover and how they have soiled their brand. Cheap vs PRICELESS! Who is responsible there for this mess?? Who made that decision? Who approved it? Who?? Can you say SHAKE UP??!!
And I get to point to and USE Jaguar/Land Rover and Procter and Gamble to discourage the next CHEAP BASTARD that would rather STEAL than PAY!
Now as I offered Procter and Gamble, Jaguar/Land Rover can come here and respond or hide under their desks, think it is no biggie, then wait until the fallout happens. I will add them to the current list and repost. The Hall of Shame! The Scarlett letter. They OWN it!
Some say $100,000 fine would discourage this behavior.
CHUMP CHANGE!!
The price they pay NOW is far more serious and far more lasting. It's tarnishing a BILLION DOLLAR brand. The harm that was done was PRICELESS. It can't be measured, erased or fixed. $100,000 fine does not discourage and may even encourage. People losing their jobs over things like this is a much bigger price to pay but that is a small price to pay in comparison to the self-inflicted damage they have done. Their decision, whoever made them, whoever was involved in it should be fired. They risked the companies good name for what reason?? Folks should be able to see inexcusable a mile away.
MORE TO COME!
Rick Schwartz
Morning Folks!!
Business is looking to the 22nd Century while businessmen are STUCK in 20th Century thinking. Stuck! Their mindset is STUCK!
So when you are stuck, you complain. And so they do. But their complaint just boomerangs on them. They have to stop being "Cheap Bastards" and adjust to this century. Here is my key point and I have written about it since DAY ONE!
If you open a real world brick and mortar business there are EXPENSES. Recurring expenses. Stupid expenses. Un-needed and unwanted expenses. All those expense added together are expensive! So if these folks want to LEAP into this century the FIRST thing they need to do is get a piece of paper and list EVERY single expense they would incur just to OPEN a storefront. But since these guys are STUCK, virtually NONE of them will actually do that. And it was CRAZY RICK that started that comparison in 1996.
The bigger the store, the bigger the prize. One .com can fulfil the work and needs of millions of storefronts. Amazon.com has how many storefronts? I guess SEARS was stuck. How much does it cost to build a big box store and furnish, man and insure it? How long does it take to build? The invisible ghost called Amazon is eating your lunch and soon it will be your dinner too.
And I forgot to mention you will man your stores with a bunch of know nothings that don't have a brain and are probably too busy on the phone helping someone there that can't even buy at the expense of the customer waiting at the register with cash in hand and ignoring you.
See the Internet's biggest bonus is not dealing with idiots. Get out of my way. I will pull it off the shelf, bring it to the checkout, swipe my own card and I am on my way. Why be frustrated with idiots?
But I got off the path. So they build and build and spend and spend and they fight a losing battle. If you sell a shippable product and that is your brick and mortar focus, the way you get unstuck, is by closing down stores. You have already branded yourself. If the Internet is not your #1 hub and source of sales, you are doing something very last century and eventually it is going to cost you your business.
So not to spend some REAL $$$ when making your mark on the Internet and therefore being a cheap bastard, is your #1 mistake. PLEASE consider those startup costs. EVERY single penny. RECURRING BILLS, LIKE RENT AND INSURANCE AND GARBAGE AND EMPLOYEES AND ELECTRIC AND ALL OF IT.
Now go shop for a domain name and you will have an overwhelming choice of quality in the marketplace. Big difference between developing for the sake of it and a business transforming itself for greater sales, greater distribution areas and greater profits.
Let me make it really simple. When I go to a restaurant and the owner is a CHEAP BASTARD, I never go back. Ah...How do you spot a cheap bastard?
Well for a restaurant he serves and off brand ketchup for example. They don't serve real butter they serve some spread crap. The cream comes from a box and you add water. Now if they do this stupid cheap shit in front of you, can you begin to imagine the shortcuts they will take when buying their food?
So a stupid extension may have similar ramifications. A silly .com will do the same. If "to" is in your domain, you MUST own the version that as the number "2" in it as well or you have a gaping leap that lasts forever. The invisible tax you pay and think I am an idiot for even telling you about it. Wake up cheap bastard. You are so damn cheap that it is costing you more money than actually being a sport and doing it right.
Cheap bastards build on sand. They take shortcuts that end up costing more money. They are wired for failure. Like the saying goes, if you don't have the time to do it right the first time, how the hell are you going to make the time when you have to go back and fix it?
Rambling? You bet. This stuff is all connected. Do it right and you get rewarded. Do it on the cheap and it always costs more.
In 2010 we licensed out T.R.A.F.F.I.C.. A new formula was put in place with new shows around the world. Ticket prices were dropped from $1795 to $395 and many were comped trying to get folks to the shows. It was a rotten formula. If you cut your price by 75% you should triple your attendance and more. Did not happen. Instead only 1/3 showed up. Everything was done on the cheap and the product suffered and so did the benefits. The Hong Kong show they planned had to be cancelled. The prices were low and the formula was gone and so was the result. Fixing something that isn't broken can have devastating results and it did.
It drove me crazy watching what we built come tumble-down from the sidelines. But I bit my tongue and knew I had some rebuilding to do in 2011 when the deal expired. Not the way I do things. So I know about this stuff first hand. Doing it right gets rewarded and doing things on the cheap comes back to haunt. Change the formula, change the recipe and change the result. As I told Howard at the time, it was a bridge over troubled waters as 2010 stunk economically.
So until end users see the comparison and take it and actually weigh it seriously, domain values are still very CHEAP! So there is no excuse whatsoever to settle for an inferior domain name. No matter what the extension, inferior has great costs and not so many benefits. The invisible cost of lost sales will put the small guy out of business and cost the big guy MILLIONS and MILLIONS and MILLIONS because THEY were cheap bastards and don't have the ability to see things as they are. They had the dollars, had the budget, did not have the VISION and CHEAP won the day! Cheap Bastards FAIL!
UPDATE: As Michael Berkens has reported today, Jaguar/Land Rover is the latest to have been found GUILTY of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (RDNH) on the domain name MountainRovers.com. So yesterday they could have been called "Cheap Bastards". Today they can be called "Would be THIEVES!" They tried to abuse the system because this multi-billion dollar company and their lawyers tried to short-circuit capitalism and try to hijack another entities domain name by an abuse of the system. Here is my take on that action! Complainant is Jaguar Land Rover Limited (“Complainant”), represented by Jennifer M. Hetu of Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP, Michigan, USA.
Rick Schwartz
Morning Folks!!
Talk about a SCATHING article about the new gTLD's. this baby is a blockbuster!!! How many of these "Weddings" are going to end up in death as they die on the vine? Or, maybe open up shop and be served with 100 or 1000 different lawsuits claiming this or that and as a corporation you are compelled to answer each and every one of them? How do you spell "Can of worms"? Well here is a batch jumping out of a can just as we are getting to the altar.
Mike Berkens uncovered a WHALE of a story by the NY Times yesterday and I am compelled to post about it here as well. It is stunning. It is a rebuke of what is to come. The Clusterf*ck as I have been describing it since day one. But Clusterf*ck sounds mild when Ester Dyson says it is "contributing nothing" and others use the keyword CONFUSION! Gee where have I heard that word before. Confusion. Let me think. Maybe 100 posts of mine!
"The proliferation of these suffixes seems fraught for both consumers and companies. It has the potential to confuse online searchers: .car or .cars? baby.toys or toys.baby? It could also prompt companies, at great expense, to register bunches of new brand sites defensively as a way to pre-empt cybersquatters, spoofers and fraudsters."
Some technology veterans and trademark experts view the domain expansion as largely unnecessary.
“You are creating a business, like derivatives on Wall Street, that has no value,” says Esther Dyson, a technology investor who served as the founding chairwoman of Icann. “You can charge people for it, but you are contributing nothing to the happiness of humanity.”
She went on to say, “You are creating a business, like derivatives on Wall Street, that has no value,”.
THESE ARE VERY STRONG WORDS COMING OUT. Taking a stand like this in public is not an easy thing to do. She is courageous for saying them and it would be even more courageous to heed them.
And perhaps the biggest warning comes from professor, Jacqueline Lipton, from University of Houston Law Center.
“The Internet address oversight body may not have considered deeply enough the larger linguistic and societal ramifications of setting off a land grab for new virtual real estate like .love or .home “It’s a private body, that is dabbling in this very delicate balance of commerce and expression online that is fraught with pitfalls.”
Morning Folks!
The title says it all and it is all so simple. Prefixes and suffixes GUARANTEE there is an endless supply of .coms. Put "The" in front of anything. Put "USA" at the end of anything. Or "global" or a "Location based" prefix or suffix. Add a dash. There are more .coms available than have been resgistered by a factor of 1000.
All I can do from here is add to my argument. But what for? The example speaks for itself and THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of prefixes and suffixes are out there to use. com in short supply? NONSENSE!
Rick Schwartz
Morning Folks!!
EXACTLY 500 YEARS ago in 1513 Ponce de Leon found the fountain of youth in Saint Augustine, Florida. 500 YEARS ago this year.
What does that have to do with domains, domaining and domainers? Well I got an issue of Homes and Land and there it was. "Build your Dream House"
"Oceanfront lot with expansive Ocean and Intracoastal views located on the white sandy pristine Crescent Beach." $750,000
ok, so this oceanfront lot has been sitting there for 500 YEARS and still nobody has developed it. Nobody has built on it. But somebody has owned it. Many sombodies probably. It sold many times over the years and nobody built a thing and now it has a price of $750,000. And they call US squatters instead of homesteaders??
500 YEARS! How much was the first sale worth? The second sale? the third?
I DEMAND the owner do something with it! He is not using it. Somebody could put it to better use.
Pathetic argument huh? But these same TERMITES out there use that argument against bona-fide domain investors like you and me that foresaw what others did for HUNDREDS of years and THEY did not see it. Now they are angry and they are cheap and some are thugs and some have even been labeled as THIEVES by the governing body as they have been found GUILTY of REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING!!
If we did it their way, then each of us could challenge this oceanfront land with a WIPO or NAF suit and claim some BOGUS rights and walk away with this Oceanfront lot with expansive Ocean and Intracoastal views located on the white sandy pristine Crescent Beach.
Simple!
So now those that don't even understand about investing in domain names know what a scum bucket thief looks like! And when they demand to know what you are going to do with your investment, you are not compelled to answer and in FACT it is none of their business. They can make an offer, they can suggest a joint venture, they can do lots of constructive things. But just like the landowner that would tell the guy passing by to go to hell if he was called a landsquatter, the domainer should be no different.
But an even bigger lesson!!
What is your life expectancy?
Consider that when you are buying KEYWORD .whatever's.
See you in the next life!
Afternoon Folks!
"Advertising is going to change more in the next 20 years than it has in the last 100. If you need proof of that, just look at the patent Google was granted Thursday for a Google Glass-based ad system."
I think Google came to be AFTER Impression Based Advertising was responsible for the first bubble. Good for sellers of traffic, bad for advertisers looking for bang for the buck.
Rick Schwartz
Morning Folks!!
I will state for the record once again that ANY and nearly all new gTLD's will need domainers at their core if they really want to have a chance. That is why I believe most of the new extensions will simply die on the vine and have no meaning or importance whatsoever. That takes care of "Most". But as INVESTORS, it is our job to pick out the one or ones that will lead the pack.
NONE will ever approach .com in OUR lifetimes. Not even a close 2nd will appear.
We will have 2 major groups initially. Investors and flippers. So you will have 1000 flippers flapping away. Don't get pissed. It is just a reality that is coming and you can see from the MOON!! Rubber Duck x 1000. Edward Cline x 10,000. :-) Get ready!
On the other hand "Domain Investors" move more quietly and look at it as accumulating an appreciating asset.
That brings me to my poll from Thursday and this post. As you read the comments a picture appears. And once again DOMAINERS get it RIGHT while many will and ARE getting it wrong.
.Com works because it was the first and is synonymous with the Internet. Over 95% of every major business in the world has their .com and collectively spend billions of dollars druming .com into our consiousness. And it worked!!
Add up all the other advertising dollars for all the other extensions and in ONE DAY .com will outspend what others did collectively in over a YEAR.
Besides that you can put .com at the end of anything and it SOUNDS good. You can not say that with MOST of the new extensions. They are limited in meaning and gluing a keyword to something with NO meaning is a tough road to hoe. I look at most extensions as limited and the last thing you want to do is limit yourself.
So when I asked the question on Thursday, "What are the Top 10 New gTLD’s?" I got a very good amount of opinions and many were common.
Without doubt, the ONE extension that lead the way was .Web.
Only a few others were even mentioned more than once. But ones that were, .Free and .music for example.
.NYC lead the .geo's, only one comment for .LA. I see that mainly because it has already been out for so many years without having much impact. I would say .LA is more dependent on .NYC than any other factor. That said Geo gTLD's seem to have the most support and perhaps the best hope.
The one thing most folks FAIL to ask is WHY does .com rule? Why did .com take off like a rocket and leave .net in the dust? What elements are missing with the new gtld's? Will .net have a second look over .crap?
Some of the answers:
.com was adopted universally by large and small businesses throughout the world. It is synonymous with the Internet like the 800 number is to the telephone.
.com has TRAFFIC that is very valuable and when measured against all other current extensions, has more type ins than all other extensions combined and multiplied. An extension with no traffic is like an oil well with no oil. It is still a well but it ain't worth shit.
So the question for .web is it another .com or another .net?
Then of course you have a VERY BIG problem. Holding back of "Premium" domains in each extension. While registrars and registry's will make money, it won't translate well down the food chain. They are likely the ONLY ones that will see a profit. This takes out the NATURAL DEMAND. Another element that will be missing from the .com formula.
Missing elements? Yes, many. Some are the foundation of .com and KEY to the success of .com and completely MISSING in 99% of the .whatevers. Good luck with that formula. Good luck with IGNORING those KEY elements.
Those missing key elements is why .web lead the way for domain investors when asked which gtld's have a CHANCE to succeed.
So a different recipe GUARANTEES a different outcome.
I DO believe there could be some every powerful phrases that come out. But one or even several of those are not enough to support an entire extension. And while folks throw around big numbers before this all comes into being, those numbers will be a MOUNTAIN to climb for most. Most will be stranded on that mountain like .travel and some will die on the mountain like .mobi. But even those like ME who have jumped on .xxx for example would gladly take those $$$$ back and return those "Premium" domains.
That is why I believe that the gtlds will not only make .com MUCH more valuable but EXPONENTIALLY more valuable. It also has a chance to rescue some of the extensions that have been around for a long time and get a second look.
.Travel may get a second look and probably find the same result as the first look. However, others may do better. .TV, .ME, .Info. Net, .Org. I know many think I will be saying .biz. Sorry, ain't on my list. "B" stringers in my book. Sorry.
The main difference I see is the way domain INVESTORS will look at things and the way domain FLIPPERS will look at things. So I just look at today. Folks email me all day long to flip .co. I am sure there is a market for those names. But it is a very soft and hollow market and getting more than a few hundred dollars is a very hard task if it can be sold at all. Same with .xxx. Demand is just not there. That means prices are soft and likely won't be climbing much if at all. Investor asset or a liability?
So as this all comes closer into focus, we will follow this and the ANTICS that follow. The domain INVESTOR will be the ones picking most of the winners and by not buying, picking the losers as well. And NEVER forget that type-in traffic is still the core of value that DROVE the entire .com train.
I have invested in almost every new extension over the past decade++ and not a single one of them have put me in the black including .me. On the other hand, during those same years, .com has changed my life. I can only hope it happens again!! But I can not ignore evidence that cost me over $1 Million to obtain. That money buys me a STRONG opinion.
Rick Schwartz
Morning folks!!
So with 1900 new extensions coming to market which will be the top 10 Domain Investor Extensions?
Once you discount the .Brands, you will have maybe 1200-1500 generic extensions. Which are your favorite? Which has you LOL? Which ones do you think can eventually breakout over the next TWENTY years? Post your list.
Let's assume 10 could potentially break out of the 1200-1500 generics. 10 winners and a lot of losers. Guys holding the bag and there ain't much in the bag. But in with all the crap are a few gems. Which ones? Even a die-hard .com guy like me knows there may be ONE worth looking at. One? I would love to have an opportunity to repeat. I don't see it happening. But I would not fight it if it did. I would embrace it. But first I need to see 3 elements that are NATURAL. Need, Want, Desire. Now everyone goes blank the moment I mention these 3 words. Scares the daylights out of them.
Personally.....Need, Want, Desire is THE radio test for me. But folks are scared of those words when they NEED to embrace those words. You can instill.....Need, Want, Desire. That is what SALES is all about. But it NEEDS a basis. So what 10 would fit in the Need, Want, Desire category? What 5? I will continue to state that without the domain investment community most of them will die on the vine. But some will bear fruit. Which ones?
So if you are one that has a new extension coming, this is the time to start telling us the real benefits we will see as an investor or an end user and what they plan to do to educate folks about something few will even know about for YEARS. And we should make a note of those that shun domainers as they will eventually rethink things but will be way too late. There are some HUGE marketing pitfalls to come complicated by hundreds of other .whatevers that want to clean tour clock and out you out of business.
I really can't wait to see this fiasco. The likes of which we have NEVER seen in history of mankind. An invented need to invent $$$$. How many of them will open their doors and sell NOTHING other than friends and family? But for the HUNDREDS that sell squat, there will be a few that market right and create a Need, Want and Desire.
And Branding?? Well branding happens all by itself. Register 10 million names and you are branded. Mass usage is the best and purest branding. When folks come with their own Need, Want, Desire and it is your product or service they Need, Want, Desire. That is branding.
So who will break out? I have not even studied the list. It is overwhelming. Which ones have the best chance? Which ones have no chance?
At the end of the day it will be up to 3rd parties to embrace what is coming. But it will be the domain community that truly picks the winners.
Rick Schwartz
Morning Folks!!
What I will describe is nothing new. Been with us since the first shill bid at an auction. But what you are about to see will make even shills turn red. Company wide shills. Fakers.
We all do our best to get a running start when starting a new business. But when does a running start touch fraud? Or at the least misleading folks into believing something is more successful than it really is? In the domain industry seems way too often. And with what is coming, they may all do it to SURVIVE.
So these are prearranged deals with "Friends" and "Associates" and others that are FAKE. That are NOT an arm's length deal. That are simply to put out there to FOOL you. I guess it is not up to me to point out each case. Why should I take the risk? But I will do this so that you will be on alert. Some are going to be desperate and they will have to resort to fake sales to even stay in business.
They will feed bloggers the headlines and they will repeat, repeat, repeat. So the bloggers do THEIR dirty work. Hook, line and sinker.
Which brings me to one of my favorite quotes from Mark Twain. "A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on."
So lies spread fast while the truth sometimes has to be searched for. And they use domain bloggers to spread their lies.
Does the blogger have any responsibility in this? Interesting question and there will be interesting answers. I know they just want to "Play nice". But where exactly is the line?
Don't be a victim. At this stage most of you should be sophisticated enough to spot this crap. They play on your emotions and fears and dreams. Just be on the look out and separate the genuine from the fake. How do you know. Don't believe 99.99% of the BS you hear. Maybe a couple will be caught red-handed and will discourage others.
I am a numbers guy. I can spot BS numbers a mile away. The propaganda whores are going to be at full strength within the year. Fake deals, fake headlines, fake success and using unwitting bloggers and others looking for new content to drive the getaway car.
Rick Schwartz
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