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

Morning Folks!!

Go to any construction site and you will see the "Lunch Truck" come by several times a day to sell food.

So imagine that the internet is the construction site, the address is of course the domain name and the lunch truck is the domain industry. Now imagine there is a HUGE construction zone and multiple structures are all being built at the same time. Now you have many dozens of those Lunch Trucks serving those workers.

What happens when the construction is over? There are no longer 4000 projects but only a few here and there? What happens? You know what happens! Those trucks go bye bye. They go out of business or they have to move to another place that is developing. But if things are pretty well developed, not many lunch trucks will survive. The numbers will shrink dramatically.

Well, that is where the Internet is. It's built up. It's matured. The Lunch Trucks are gone! Yes, some may choose opening a restaurant, but the cost difference between the two is no small matter. Most can't make that leap.

Point is things are always evolving and you need to see that evolution on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years, 20 years basis. It takes time and effort to develop this skill and part of it may be just a gift or is natural or whatever. But it's always about practice. Predictions are not a whim if you hone this skill. They are based on facts and elements and conditions and a host of other things like life long experience and history.

Point is the demand for domains is down. Way down. We went from almost 100% end user need and customers to nearly 100% domain speculators with very few end users. The Internet is built! In 1993-1995 the building started. The Internet has passed Critical Mass. It is now mature. No longer an infant. All grown up. The game has changed. It will continue to change.

The most promising sector today are those businesses upgrading to better domain names. The .Net guys acquiring the .Com. The extra word at the beginning of a domain that gets eliminated. MyThis.com or VisitThat.com or OurProduct.com etc.

Then you have the startups. Most of them come and go very fast. Usually they make a mistake with the domain name and that becomes their biggest hurdle and they don't even know it.

The high end domain investor class is all but gone. Simply put, the risk is too great and liquidity is no longer there. It's no longer a safe and good investment.

The last quarter of the year that starts on Monday is important. Important to domaining and business in general. Big business is done and big decisions are made. October/November/December are HUGE month in domaining. And I like February and March as well with new budgets and fresh cash. Domain Buying Season is HERE!

Is the big money in domaining over? Probably not. 2018 sales seems inline with 2017 sales so far. But it may take a multi-year break at some point and that will change the landscape of what the domain sector looks like and who participates in it.

Supply and demand folks. Supply is overflowing and demand is going down like Sears customers. The Need, Want, Desire, Project levels out there are not what they once were. Not even close. And, it never will be ever again. Sorry to burst your bubble. But the #1 part of business is dealing with reality and that reality is in constant change.

If it were not for the China Frenzy, the entire domain industry would have already been unrecognizable today. Frenzy's come and go. The best you can do is put yourself in a good position for the next frenzy. What's the next one? Who knows? That's why you need to pay attention and evolve with the times. Times are a changin'!

I made my fortune by buying domains from domainers. Those same domainers lost fortunes by selling to me. Sell your domains and dreams to dreamers. Don't sell to domainers. But soon, many may have no choice as the walls begin to close in.

My income was mostly PPC and rose to about $4.5MM/year until the crash. In 2009 it went down to $750,000. The first year since 1998 that PPC did not earn at least $1.5MM-$3.0MM or more. Today, not even $100k from PPC. But still enough to pay all the renewals. My goal since 1995 was to make at least $1 Million/year online.

PPC was a bonus. I never depended on it because I knew it could go away overnight. But that crash is directly related to the value of domains and the marketplace of buying domains. The equation changed drastically. I could no longer justify buying a $100k domain from another domainer because I could no longer calculate a return. Before then, I had a decent idea of how many years or months I would have to hold to break even. That would make my domain purchases free. They were all free.

The $42,000 mortgage for Porno.com was paid in the first 6 weeks. The $12,500 mortgage on Ass.com was paid in 125 days. Some were paid off even faster. The slower ones still were paid off. Every prime adult domain I bought was FREE! Paid for themselves in spades and then still had the domain itself.

Then I took those profits and bought mainstream domain names before there was even a mainstream. There was no way to get a return for those names back then. They could not be monetized. But I kept ploughing that money back into them regardless as I knew that was the future and that basket was huge compared to adult. Eventually my mainstream domains dwarfed the adult ones in size and scope.

There was a sense of urgency to BUY. That sense of urgency is GONE! The "Unique moment in History" has all but passed. It lasted 20+ years, but that window is about closed for the first stage. The second stage has to come with very big money to seize YESTERDAY!

In 1999-2000 I wrote many times about the collapse of the Internet. Brick and Mortar stores tried to kill it off. Said it was unsafe etc. etc. But I had a saying: "From the ashes will rise the REAL Internet". And it did. The collapse left ashes but those ashes rose to where we are today.

Business is about 2 things. History and the future. You can't see or predict the future without a keen understanding of the past. Direction comes from history and your future comes from the destination you decide on.

So it may be a great idea to be in the Lunch Truck business but part of being in business is to see the future trends and not being blind to them. Change is coming. It comes every moment of every day. Your mind has to be as fluid as the things around you. Time to move that lunch truck to a new city. A new project. A new destination or the food will rot and you will go broke!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

There are folks that flip mobile homes and make a living. There are guys that sell mansions and they make much more and they work a lot less! They make many livings!

I have referred to Domains as "Generational Wealth" for DECADES! What does that mean? It means I don't intend nor expect to sell my domains in my lifetime. The assets will roll over to the next generation. In my case I have no kids that I am aware of and so I have set up a foundation that will run long after I do.

I have never been in a rush to sell. Quite the opposite. My entire goal was to preserve my entire portfolio/collection as long as I could. I never wanted to sell Men.com. But I had just gone thru a divorce that cost me millions and I was cash poor. So I had no choice and regretted it for years. But at the same time I used it as an example to point to that helped the value of all domains of value and also parlayed that into the credibility to start TRAFFIC.

Point is except for the Men.com sale I put myself in a financial position to never be FORCED to take a BAD offer! Isn't that the key?? Isn't that the key from selling from a strong position vs a weak one??

When I was selling my visitors on my domains I would rather piss those valuable visitors in the ocean than give them away to people that wanted to lowball me f0r that traffic.

In my world I don't do budgets. I just do it RIGHT and figure it will come out fine at the end. I learned a long time ago not to be a penny pincher. What does that mean. It means when you see a domain for $1000 and you know it is worth $100k, just give the guy the $1,000. Don't have to make a $500 offer first! Why? Because you will lose gems by being cute. That's much more costly in the long run.

Everyone gives advice but very few tell you how much they have made in domaining. Isn't that a key qualifier? You bet it is!! I play the game different and thus I get different results. But I have never hid how I play the game. Been about as transparent as any business can be because it was in my best self interest as well as yours to be public about my sales. Estibot brings values down. Rick Schwartz brings values up.

You are all so worried about Verisign raising their prices but that war was fought 10 years ago and domainers were AWOL! The bigger threat is Estibot and all the valuation tools out there. They are costing this industry and YOU many $$$$. It helps the weak to stay weak and prevents the strong from getting stronger. The way I look at it, it is a cancer on the industry. It's bogus. It's not even good for know-nothing rookies! It should be denounced far, loud and wide!!

I hate talking about ROI. Means nothing to me. I don't care about percentages. I care about long tern value. I care about potential. I care about marketability. And I don't care when I sell. I care that I sell it for an appropriate value. But much of the value has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE DOMAIN NAME ITSELF!! Need, want, desire, circumstance, potential, marketability and the list goes on and on before you even get to the domain itself. But keep selling on a 1 dimensional level like most do and you will keep getting much less than you asset is worth.

If you want to value a domain correctly you have to look at how powerful that domain might become in the right hands with the right idea at the right time and circumstance. I don't fish for bait, I don't fish for a meal, I fish for whales. When a whale is caught you eat for YEARS! You are not dependent on selling your assets to pay bills.

The single biggest reason domainers have problems is they don't really understand domains. So they don't know the difference between the gems they MIGHT own to the pigeon shit that they definitely do own. And since they are lazy, they rely on Estibot to help them make decisions. Decisions what to buy and decisions what to sell for. That's just plain STUPID!

Domains were and sometimes are like Oil Wells. Now that most of the traffic (oil) has been pumped out and tens of millions of revenue made, I can sell the raw land. Had I done that as I was buying, I would have left the majority of the $$$ I have made in domaining on the table. Tens of millions of dollars in Mineral Rights!!. And many domainers let that money go. They would not use PPC or other ways to monetize. They wanted to keep their domain "Pure". Now the game has changed and many are not in a strong financial position.

To take a domainer seriously I ask one simple question. Their ability to quickly answer says it all. "Just tell me your 3 best domains".  I don't want the list of 5000. I just want to know what you would consider your top 3. From that, I know a whole lot!

That means if you don't have 3 impressive domains, maybe you are not playing the game right. I know domainers that have had 250,000 names and not one worth a penny and I know "Jessse" that owns 10 domains that are absolute killer one word industries!

As a domain investor I feel just as comfortable and maybe more comfortable going to sleep with my domain assets at a safe registrar than $$$ in the bank. When I buy a domain those $$$ are GONE!! But gone for that domain as another one will sell and allow me to parlay, parlay, parlay.

I rarely buy a domain over $5000. Most are under $2000.I like $500-$1000. That is where OPPORTUNITY LIVES!!

I believe LLL.com is solid. But that does not mean as a domainer if you have $100k that you buy 4 LLL.com domains. That's a bad way to go! And if you do, just make sure you don't need those $$$ back in the next 5-10-20 years.

When you buy and sell with my mindset it's such a different game. I am continually buying but ONLY when I see something I am willing to own and even if it is generational. I want to be PROUD to add a domain to my collection. Motherf*ckers.com is a perfect example. I don't buy to sell. I buy to corral POWER! A great domain is also great power when used correctly!

Just like raw land and real estate are generational, so are domains if you play the game the right way. If not, you know where it leads to. Look  at all the undeveloped land in the world still today. Thousands of years and still nothing built on it. Then one day, it changes. It is like Popcorn. You never know which domain will pop next. You job is to make sure you have POPCORN in the pot and not pigeon shit. Pigeon shit will never pop! It rots!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

And the results are in. Thanks for taking your time to express your opinions on what these domains may be valued at. The result in parenthesis are the valuations from Estibot. Maybe you will see why Estibot is a total joke. It is flawed and has no value or even place in the domain industry! It should be marked: FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY!!

According to the geniuses at Estibot the 10 domains have a TOTAL valuation of $1.8MM. Can they really be taken seriously? Do they help or HARM the domain industry??

Moving on.....

Many did not like FaceFind.com. Here is what you are missing. Facial Recognition. The value of what is coming with this technology. $2500 purchase. I never mind exposing the price I paid because it has NOTHING to do with the price I sell. Potential Buyers that even bring that up and I would not even answer their emails.

Many of the valuations were very high. While I appreciate that, I don't think they merit that value at this stage of the Internet.

This experiment does show the difference in how folks look at any specific domain. Either way, looks like everyone agrees that the overall value in well into the 7 figures or more.

So that begs the next question. Is OUR job to sell ASAP or is OUR job to wait until the domain is matched with the right party? If I give this list to a broker how much are THEY going to be able to sell them for? How much money would I be leaving on the table? Being in a strong financial position is a HUGE part of playing the domain game the right way!

Just because I have never had a decent offer for TopSecret.com does that make the value any less?

Should one have a time frame to sell?

In my world, I wait until the fruit is ripe before I allow the fruit to be picked. It's just that simple.

1. TopSecret.com $77k - $3MM ($184,000)


2. Unemployed $80k - $2.5MM ($55,000)


3. Boardroom.com $75k - $2MM ($77,000)


4. FaceFind.com $7,500 - $2MM ($2,600)


5. Stud.com $30k - $1.3MM ($145,000)


6. Queen.com $300k - $10MM ($1,198,000)


7. Homemade.com $150k - $10MM ($83,000)


8. iFlirt.com $7.5k - $1.8MM ($3,500)


9. SXW.com $46k - $2MM ($47,000)


10. SmartGlasses.com $10k - $12MM ($5,300)

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

So let's play a little game today. I am going to list 10 domains. You tell me what price you would sell it for if you owned it and why if you like to expand.

1. TopSecret.com


2. Unemployed.com


3. Boardroom.com


4. FaceFind.com


5. Stud.com


6. Queen.com


7. Homemade.com


8. iFlirt.com


9. SXW.com


10. SmartGlasses.com

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I am always wrong. Just listen to the guys making less money. Working much harder to make less. My formula works whether it is 1995 or 2025. Just like real estate in 1995 0r 2025. But when you play the wrong game and you don't play smart, you make less money and work much harder and are probably stressed out all the time.

I work on CRUISE CONTROL!! You don't!

Cruise Control did not start with me and domains, it started with me and Furniture when I was 20. I had a choice, play in a fast paced industry like clothing that changes about every 2 days or go into something much slower and possibly just as rewarding and maybe more so.

I work on cruise control on everything I do and everything I ever will do.

What does Cruise Control look like?

I am early for every appointment or reservation. I never run late. Why? I PLAN! I plan my time well. I estimate well. I allow for unforeseen glitches. I have lots of time because I manage my time well. I am efficient. But I also wake up at 5AM. My days are 16 hours long whether I am working or not. They are intertwined.

Ever see a sign for luxury condo that says opening in Fall 2018 and it is now Fall 2018 and they are just starting to break ground? That's because of POOR ANTICIPATION!! Poor planning. Poor time management. Poor everything! They think "efficiency" is an apartment.

What I am saying is 90% of domaining has to do with your personal and business HABITS. 90% of any success or failure will resort to that. Maybe even higher. It's more important than the size of your wallet. The size of your brain and how it controls you or you control it.

Success is about Human Nature. Failure is about Human Nature. Human Nature is about habits and reactions. Knee Jerk reactions. Repeating the same mistakes and never learning but arguing more and more ferociously as their frustration and anger builds. How many times do you have to see the same behavior to know their reactions before they even know how they are going to react? That's because they are predictable. That means Poker ain't their calling either. Everyone knows but them!

I approached domains KNOWING it would be 20 YEARS! Domainers today play a bad game. If I played their game, I would be broke and nobody would have ever heard of me. But please keep teaching ME how to make LESS just like YOU! Thanks, but no thanks!!

Those that have understood what I have been saying over the years and employed it have done well. Those that argue, enjoy winning the argument. I don't care. I am on cruise control. Always have been and chance are you never will be. You win.

If you are behind the 8 ball, get in front of it. It's never too late to change a bad habit. Selling too cheap is a HORRIBLE habit. But that is on YOU, not ME. I am simply pointing out the difference. If you can't maintain your portfolio, maybe you need another source of income or a job until you do. Better than pulling your pants down and losing opportunity because you are not on CRUISE CONTROL!

Ask yourself REAL questions. How many domains can you afford to carry? The annual costs are VERY LOW! Cheap! 100 domains is $850/year. $17,000 for 20 years. 1000 domains, $8500/year or $170,000 over 20 years.

There may be an initial investment to get the domain. But again, don't bite off more than you can chew. I started my portfolio with 18 names. That was it! At $100 each.

Stay away from fad domains. Buy domains with meaning that will pass the test of time. Buy an array of different type domains. Never go to heavy on a single key word. Go wide, not deep. None of us are smart enough to know how it all unfolds. So that is why I always went wide. Covered as many sectors as possible.

Meaning is important and more so than length. WeBuyUglyHouses.com. Their billboard and commercials are everywhere. 4 words. Who cares?? It's memorable and marketable.

Are you a mule? Mules sell to other domainers. Mules do the hard work so people like ME can buy from them on the cheap. So are you a domainer (thoroughbred) or a mule?? Unfortunately most are simply mules and mules are not very smart. However the smartest mule will make much more than the dumbest and laziest mule. But why be a mule to begin with? Why work at Denny's when you can get a job at Capitol Grill and make 10x more and have more dignity and live better?

There are many in Real Estate making millions every year. There are many more that make NOTHING!! NEVER make a sale. The difference has NOTHING to do with the real estate or the market. It has to do with the 10 inches between their ears and the habits they bring with them. I would wager that the majority of licensed real estate agents have sold less than 5 properties in their life. Of those, many sold ZERO. Is it the market or is it THEM????? What do you think they say?? DUH!

Rick Schwartz

Evening Folks!!

I am sure some domainers sold NNN.com domain for $1000, $5000, $25,000 or even $50,000. At each and every level, those domainers left BIG MONEY on the table. They were in a rush to sell. What else is new? I started pricing my NNN.com at $100k ++ back before it ever hit $5k. I watched them climb from nothing to $1 Million and some for even more.

As usual domainers sell way too cheap because they are clueless to the market and what is coming and the true value of a specific domain to a business or to businesses.

LLL.com domains are following the same path. But they are more important and have more value. There just has been no frenzy yet.

3 letter domains are selling for around $25k-37k. Way too cheap!! 1/10 of what the prices should be and probably will be in the not too distant future. LLL.com domains are worth a MINIMUM $100k! Any less is weak. Selling too cheap. A unique asset to fill a unique need of something very specific and you pull your pants down??!! WEAK!

Now it may not apply to qxz or some other variables that have few exact matches, but it does apply to a large swath of LLL.com domains. Like anything else, you need to do your homework. You need to do your research.

The difference between a $35k LLL.com domain and a $350k LLL.com domain is the seller! There are only a few variables. The sellers price and the buyers price. The sellers circumstance and the size of the buyers wallet. Then it's a game of chicken and a test of wills.

When an end user buys an LLL.com domain for $35k, they laugh all the way to the bank. Domainers continue to leave fortunes on the table because of their impatience. Play the game the right way and your inventory will be intact and your wallet will be a lot fatter! I will sell one LLL.com domain for $350,000 and others will show me how to sell 15 of them for $350,000. They do know how to sell more! But they make less and work a lot harder with more risk.

Every time I see an LLL.com sale for these prices I simply shake my head. Stop giving away diamonds for chump change folks! Desperate sellers getting desperate prices! You will regret in the years ahead.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I was surprised to learn that Teem.com was acquired a couple weeks ago. My 1.5% of the company was liquidated. I had no say. I was very disappointed until a few minutes ago when I opened THIS email!!

9/24/2018

Dear Virtual Dates, Inc.,

A payment is now being made to the Teem Technologies, Inc. securityholders. Your payment of $642,751.92 has been processed via the ACH instructions you provided to SRS Acquiom. Please note, ACH payments can take 1-3 business days to settle.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via email at support@srsacquiom.com or by phone at (415) 263-9018 and provide the following reference in relation to this payment: 429795.

Thank you,

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Now that GTLD's have been around and the shine has worn off, let's see where we are at.

So, there was a lot of excitement and BS about the new Gtld's. But let's make a comparison.

Imagine you are attracted to someone of the opposite sex. You've had a crush on them for a while. You really want to go out with them. You feel like you are in love. Finally it happens and you go out.

First they take you to a dirty and crummy second class restaurant but you overlook that. Your date is not dressed well but you overlook that. He has a shiny new car but it does not run well, it is very uncomfortable and has no A/C. But you even overlook that.

You finally get to a private and comfortable spot and then you find out they have STINKY FEET! That does it! Date is over. Crush is gone and back to the drawing board!

Many domainers fell in love and dated GTLD's with VERY STINKY FEET!!! LOL

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

So, the first day I was online I received a new and impressive title. I did not go to school. I did not earn a degree, I did not do an apprenticeship. But I had a BIG and important title. I was now a "Webmaster"!  Wow! I was like the captain of this ship and I was never even in a boat! Well done Rick!!

We use the term "Domainer" in much the same way. Every slob that walks in the door is a Domainer. YAY!!

Not so fast!

You can be a baseball player but there is a big difference between Little League and the Majors and everything in between. You might value the advice of a player in the majors more than a 2 year old playing whiffle ball in the backyard. But isn't that what we have in the domaining world? Where are the credentials? It's great to have an opinion. We all do. But not all opinions are created equal.

The bottom line is when I look at the domaining community and I would count folks that I think have important advice to share and those I would say are qualified to give advice is less than 100. I would say 350 are truly professional domainers. From there you have the intermediary group that are also domainers. They make a living with domains. Some years modest, some years better. From there I think you could say you have the Servicing Group. The corporate folks that work for companies in the space but their actual knowledge and understanding of domains and their value is very limited. Some are even deemed "Experts".

Then there are a couple other groups. Not sure which is next. They are the most and the loudest. Always trying to reinvent the wheel and climb the ladder 200 steps at a time and wonder why they keep failing and falling. They are the "Pigeon Shit Farmers" and the "Shiny Object Chasers". They are like birds in the sky and they shit over everything! Thousands and thousands. They come and go faster than you can keep track of and sometimes fly in flocks.

At every level personalities will emerge. Experts are born. Failures disappear.

The list is not that hard to put together. You always have guys like Frank and Mike. If you don't know who they are you are not a domainer! LOL

But the point is there are only a handful of people in domaining I take seriously. That really really know their stuff. That have a long record of success and also sharing. Sharing is a big part of it. Many like their privacy and are not known to most. They have quietly built empires. Have fantastic holdings and are doing quite well.

But it does not matter what level you are at. Demand is down. Demand is changing. Demand evolves. What is IN demand changes. And it may change many times.

Look at fashion. Some years High Heels rein and some years not as much. Short skirts vs long. They come and go. Fashion changes. What is in vogue changes. Domainers have to understand and adapt to those changes but don't lose control just because one sector is hotter than another. Be patient!! Just like NNN had their day, LLL may be the next to rock the market. It changes!

But in understanding change you have to follow it every day or ever period. You have to have a vision of tomorrow supported with something more than hope and wishful thinking. If you chase yesterday it is an automatic loser. Use the building blocks of yesterday with the material of today. Weave them together and you might be on to something.

Good Luck!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks,

When I talk about domains I am mostly talking about INVESTMENT QUALITY domains and not any other sector. But the term gets a little muddied up over the years. Domain Investors don't control the industry any longer as they once did. There is no real domain  investor show anymore. Shows are presented for the benefit of those trying to sell you something and that is fine! Just don't be fooled or misled.

Ever played "Musical Chairs" when you were a kid? If not, go look it up.

The so called "Domain Industry" is made up of mostly Musical Chair Players. These are the folks flipping worthless domains to folks that know nothing about domains. That is the #1 sector of the entire "Industry". I don't care if it ends in a .com or a .horse, worthless is worthless. The thriving industry of nothingness!

So as we play musical chairs someone will always be left holding the bag and lose. In this case you have thousands of these level players. They are loud, obnoxious and meaningless. They have their crap listed everywhere and spam their brains out. Their only hope is finding someone with less common sense then them. And believe me, that's a REAL challenge at that level.

An epic domain cleansing is about to hit the beaches of the "Domain Industry". They chased shiny objects and swallowed bags of shit presented to them by "Expert Speakers" all with an agenda for 5 YEARS!! That bag of shit is about to explode and when it does, it will be messy and costly.

This is not the "Domain Industry". This is the industry of "Pigeon Shit" traders.

Just like those chairs that keep disappearing, domainers will disappear at a rate that even Houdini would raise an eyebrow to. The jig is up and when it becomes the Mortgage/Rent vs Domain Renewals, it won't even be a close call.

Rick Schwartz