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
Green Jobs
Very well said.
Tom T
Always enjoy reading your thoughts Rick! Spot on as always.
Matt
How do you deal with the issue of demand down?
Anonymous
The secret millionaire… You sure do keep a low profile on how you spend your money, but its nobody’s business I guess. You do have a domain that I have my eye on though. Hope it stays available long enough for me to get it.
BullS
“keep a low profile on how you spend your money”
The best revenge is always living well.
I don’t want to be famous ,I just want to be rich. It is always the ego that gets in the way.
John
One problem, however, is that “domainers” at the top of the pyramid influence the market and demand by teaching and brainwashing the market according to their own self-serving zero sum thinking agenda. If it weren’t for that we could all be doing better including them.
staff
Ds should stop buying more junk, then form a union bank (shareholding), then buy all premiums sitting at the top of the pyramid. They are also usually more comfortable (read addicted) in loosing 1k+ per year and they use food stamps to buy ‘CRAP’ at record highs.
Robert McLean
I would challenge any domainer on earth, even the great domain king to produce a more premium, hand registered portfolio of .com domain names than I have registered in the last 7 years.
I GUARANTEE that my names are far superior, even in the face of your millions, Mr. Schwartz!
Robert McLean
Sammy
Big censorship is going on.
Will people shift to alternative payment-platforms ?
Should we stop using PayPal ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgWIqd4Irjs
John
Domainers don’t care about such things, Sammy. Their “big picture” only extends to selling domains. (Sure, maybe a few exceptions.)
Rick
Being into domains these days takes money and patience.
From what I see most of the sales are 1000-20K and are to
people or businesses who will USE the domain. It is VERY
hard to buy and sell. Normally you have to wait for the buyer to come to you. I have tried many times to market certain domains but most companies simply do not “get it”.
GolfLessons.com is a great example. There is nothing better for the subject. I emailed and wrote to the PGA. Even if they have NO use for it what is 100K. Just by it and keep it. They spend that on one commercial.
Most domain owners are stupid, greedy or just do not get it. They will die with their domains.
The worst is Uniregistry. I assume they own most of the domains they are selling. Their prices are simply unrealistic. Unless a domain is VERY special, sell and move on. You may never get another offer.
Steve B
“Their prices are simply unrealistic. Unless a domain is VERY special, sell and move on. You may never get another offer.”
This is good advice. I’m starting to believe this more and more. I’ve received offers on some of my mediocre pigeon shit names, and every time I counter with an aggressive price, they stop responding. In my mind, I’m trying to start high and go down, but to them they’re pissed off I guess.
Larry Scott
I will never buy a domain from Uniregistry / DomainNameSales
Their prices are way overflated.
J.G.
sorry about misidentifying myself as a domainer in my email
Ibrahim Khan
to clean up all those pigeon shits, it will take time to realize, oh yeah they really shits and they have already lost money. And once its been cleared, it will be picked up another domainer and the cycle goes on. Same happened with crypto, people have invested in so many pigeon shit coins and lost money.
Franka
ALL my 800 + [down from 4000] domains have been handregistered ,so when i sell i always make a profit ,not much but money is money .
And I still call myself a “hobby domainer”
ps
make an offer
Steve B
Yes, Rick create a category for us “hobby domainers”
Sigma
I prefer the title Domain Speculator.
There are very few domain investors, as Rick mentioned, possibly less than 200 can hold that title because those 200 or so own 80% of the most valuable 1-2 two word dot-Coms with commercial meaning.
If you haven’t made at least $100K profit in domain name sales, you are not a domain investor…
Jose
I studied, not for webmaster, nor for domainer, I studied Strategy of the psychology of keywords, and it has helped me a lot to know what to look for the millions of users in Google, Yahoo, Big, and also what startups need , business and companies of this great online market.
If you have 5000 domains to rent and with purchase option, I have them in a portfolio of unregistered keywords, a moment ago I got 30 new all dot-com and 10 of 5 characters, pronounced well and easy to remember by the consumer and 25 of two words like the first, there are many free that we will never finish ..
I am a sales strategist and online advertising, when I have many keywords for claiming by consumers in their search engine I do the valuation of CPC, PPC, CPM etc. how do you do with your domain names.
I study Adwords but not finish because see an issue that I do not like the auction to be the first to reach very high some reach 500 USD without knowing how many visits clicked several times, then the pleasant surprise p pay millions of USD in a single month , 98% of Google’s benefits are from online advertising, even now.
Then I create my own method and those who require my services, repeat.
The most important thing for me as a person, is what I myself create and innovate.
Happy Day.
Jose.
Mark Thorpe
Delete the crap and hold onto the winners.
It’s called Portfolio Purge.