The Rick Schwartz Domain Name and Traffic Blog: RicksBlog.com – Home of The Domain King®

Morning Folks!!

Many of you know of or have met Freddy Von Schnauzer when he was the Mascot of TRAFFIC from 2007 until is retirement in 2014. Today is his 11th birthday!! YAY!  But it is very unlikely he will see his 12th. BOO! HISS!!

Last week they found 2 large tumors. He has cancer. He starts radiation on Monday for the next 5 week. Prognosis even with radiation is just months. Maybe less. He is still acting normal and in good spirits. Most would not even see anything wrong. But storm clouds loom.

Freddy has been my best pal ever! He's kinda snarky. Very stubborn at times. A Stud all the time. And is a lover with a heart of gold. He rules the nest. Nobody comes in my home without being greeted by Freddy. He loves new people and drops me like a hot potato! He is always near and he is always involved with the action. His favorite sport is eating. Followed by napping. He likes BIG dogs. Really big dogs. He thinks he is the size of a Great Dane and walks right up and sticks his chest out and goes right in for a kiss and a sniff!

He sleeps on the pillow on the floor by my bedside every night. He wakes up in the wee hours to climb into bed. That's when I get "Cheeky" time. His cheek against mine and some love grunts. Love it! He has his schedule and he has me trained very well. He'll never let you forget what time it is. "Yummy Yummy" is Breakfast at 8:30 and dinner at 3:30. "Turkey Time" at Noon, 5PM and 7PM. A cookie at 2 pm. 3 more after dinner. Lots of kissie kissie's and hugs thru the day. My best feeling is that I have no regrets. As I have said for many years. "Every day is a good day with Freddy".

We had the same color hair back then and we still have the same color hair today. People would comment all the time how much we look alike. But both of us are slightly grayer now. And Freddy gave me the perfect pick up line. It could happen 20 times a day or more if I wanted to use Freddy. A pretty woman would come over and say "Oh how cute"! I would wait a sec, look directly at her with an upset and demanding voice and ask, "What about my dog"? Everyone always laughs! Hope you did too!

So Happy Birthday my little friend. I'll be praying for a miracle and hope I will be joined by many of my friends. What else can I do? To me, EVERYDAY is your birthday buddy!

Last Year I had Freddy Immortalized when I commissioned an artist that I had bought another original work from to capture Freddy. It hangs in my living room today and forever.

Freddy even has his own Million Dollar Bills. I am told any Wells Fargo Bank will cash it! He has his own song too. (Sung to the tune of "He's a Jolly Good Fellow")  For he's a Freddy Von Schnauzer, For he's a Freddy Von Schnauzer, For he's a Freddy Von Schnauzer, that nobody can deny. Yay Freddy!!! :-)

At 9 weeks he was just slightly bigger than my hand. I had to have some "Poopie Protection"

At 10 weeks who knew what a big part of my life he would become? I love Freddy Von Schnauzer!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Google's .App is the Fastest Growing New GTLD. I have watched the numbers daily and going up against some 600 GTLD competitors, .App is registering more domains than any other. That is with the exception of .ICU. Really?? .ICU (a really crappy extension)  had 24,000 registrations the first day, 450 on the 2nd day but by the 3rd day had just 8!!!! Not a single registration at Godaddy. .App about to be #18 and may be headed for a top 10 spot.

There is interest in .App. It's the first end user domain extension I have seen with elements that I deem tried and true. The others are all fails but that does not guarantee a .App win. Matter of fact we only have 1 new GTLD that has over 2 million registrations. .Top at 2.4MM. But don't get too excited. It was DOUBLE that amount on January 1, 2017. https://ntldstats.com/tld/top

7 YEARS of writing about new GTD's. ALL ANGLES. ALL VIEWPOINTS. But folks want to cherry pick. Here's a cherry for them. I have said that when a winning extension comes to market you will know it. I have said there may be room for 3 winners out of 1000 dead horses left on the track because that's what happens during a stampede. And sorry, one horse still running WILL NOT and NEVER WILL help the other horses laying lifeless on the track. The stinkers! All they do is rot and smell.

.App is the ONLY new GTLD so far that has demonstrated and exhibited ANY characteristics of an extension that can survive and thrive. There is demand. There are end users. It's 1 syllable that is pronounable and means something. It's backed by a GIANT that gives it "street cred" and they did not bastardize or cheapen their own extension by whoring themselves out.

Need, Want, Desire. STUDY the numbers. Dig DEEP. They tell a story. They show patterns. They show single fools registering tens of thousands of domains in a single day. They also show how many bogus registrations there are by closely held companies of the registries. Actually, it does not show that, but you can see and figure it out if you study the numbers. Also look closely at the registrations by registrar. NO Godaddy, no chance! Learn how to navigate and study this site. I do it almost every single day. DIG DEEP! Click and learn. https://ntldstats.com/tld

.App is total speculation. However the other 600 new GTLD's have been a waste of time, money and effort! They did not pass the simplest of tests. They were fools gold. They have proved to be fools gold. The registries made money. The money that formerly belonged to domain speculators that speculated on worthless garbage. All they have left are BILLS!

And when I studied DNJournal sales chart last night for the yearly top sales. Take a look at the GTLD section near the bottom. Of the top 100 sales of this year, 55 of the sales were .Net and .Org. 7 more were .biz or .info. Most of the GTLD sales were directly from the registry. What's missing are sales by domainers! GET A CLUE! http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm

One need, One want, One desire and ONE PROJECT AT A TIME. That my friends is the future of buying and selling domains and that future started several years ago. The great "Domain Rush"of the 21st Century is OVER! The greatest technological expansion in history is behind us for now. Every business that IS a business has their domain. That was not true at the start of this century. Now we just have startups and upgrades. The new world order.