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
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