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

Morning Folks!! 

I am sure many of you keep asking or will ask why I spend so much time talking about things other than domain names. Well there are many reasons. The easiest example would be a real world developer.

Before he buys the land he has done research to make sure it can sustain itself. That the traffic is good. That the demographics support their business formula. That the growth of the community will continue. They familiarize themselves with all sorts of interesting information. As they go from city to city and town to town looking for new sites to build on they discover things. Flaws, weaknesses,
strengths, things that work, things that don't work. So they get a peek into the inner workings of things to have a view most folks can not have until they have been under the hood so to speak.

So targeting a specific domain name is more than just writing a check. You look for past performance. Current performance and then you go thru a mental check list of sorts. Future performance may lead that list. See, for every virtual world event, problem, solution, etc there is a real world parallel.

Let's say Sears builds a store. They have an entrance on their 3 sides and one entrance to the mall. That is because there are real world limitations that are without limitations in the virtual world.

For example....Sears is a department store. They have lots of different items. What would stop them from having a sign or another doorway to their store for folks looking for something specific. Imagine if Sears owned Jewelry.com and when you typed it in you would be transported to Sears Jewelry Department. And if they owned shoes.com and you landed in their shoe department....and appliances.com and luggage.com, etc.....I would bet you that had anyone at Sears had that foresight they would be a much stronger company today. From where I sit, that was a colossal failure and a missed opportunity to regain the crown they once held. A failure of merging what was learned in the last century and not having a vision of this new century.

Where are the Hero's of corporate America? Are they brain-dead? Do they not see what is coming. Isn't THAT why they pay them the big bucks? And they are failing daily! For the cost of building just ONE STINKING Sear's store they can corner the market on these "Department Names". It will insure they will survive and thrive. Without that strategy we will just watch them die!! The people running Sears are MORONS!!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Sure I can rub people the wrong way sometimes. Many times. That's what happens in life when you are totally frank and honest when asked a question. I don't put if thru my "Friend Filter" to come up with a bogus answer not to piss them off. My friends are real friends to begin with because they KNOW I am going to tell it like it is. They don't expect me to protect them. They would not even ask!

I am driven, have passion, certain of my direction, steady and don't allow others to distract me from my vision and goals. But what rubs many the wrong way in the beginning is what also makes great friends, allies and associates down the road that last a lifetime.

Look, many, strike that, MOST folks are much more 'Charming' than me. When I think back in my life of all those 'Charmers', their stock usually goes down in time. They are great when you first meet them. They are likable at bars and with one liners but they lack substance and character when they over promise and under deliver. As a charmer many others will then begin to make excuses for them and that just fuels what they do best. Charm. Their shortfall will eventually blame you. But hey, they are charming!

Charm eventually wears thin when the substance is missing. When others find out it was a bunch of smoke. When charm actually turns into being lied to, fooled and mislead. Ah, the road of a charmer. If I was shortsighted, I would certianly take that road and DELAY my worries. Charmers are in all walks of life and business. They are all around us!

But I am not wired like that. Ask me a question and I don't think to myself  "What do they want to hear?" "What will they like to hear?" I take a different path. I tell them what I actually believe, what I actually think and what I see. That of course gets me in trouble and some, MANY, get pissed.

But while they are pissed at me and charmed by the phony charmer there is an intersection and at some point, usually 3-5 YEARS, I can win over most of my enemies. At least the ones with good hearts, open minds and some sense of being objective.

I win them over by just being consistent and doing what I do and them observing and understanding how I tick. They actually get to the point of appreciation in many cases becuase I am consistent. I have spine. I have a set of values that most share. I think character counts more than anything on this planet. I think character counts even after you are dead and gone. Character was the first thing I ever wrote about online. I know many don't care. I do. A LOT! The people I associate with do. The people I do business with do. The people I try to reach do. Some, hopefully most. The others, I avoid like the plague. I burn those bridges.

Some folks demand respect. I always went about it the old fashioned way and try and earn it year after year and decade after decade. I didn't always have good character. It once came with excuses for my own shortcomings of which there were many. I was a "D" student! But I turned it around. We all have that power.

I learned that excuses were weak. Calamity and drama follows the weak and is weak. Unintended consequences are weak. Turn that around and you build a strong character and life. I learned to put one foot in front of the other and take the weight off my shoulders of the entire journey. I learned to work hard when there was money to be made and not stress out when things were tough.

I remember stealing baseball cards from a store in New York City when I was about 10 maybe 11. I got caught by the owner. I took about 5 packs of 10 cent baseball cards and just stuck them in my pocket. Luckily in those days they did not call the police. They would just put the fear of God in you and that was usually good enough for most. It was for me. I never shared that with anyone until today. Not proud of it, but I was 10 and that is one of the stupid things 10 year olds do. That was probably the day I started to build my character from ground zero.

btw, I collected some 3000 baseball cards back in the early and mid 60's. We would "Flip Cards" in the hallways and I was really good. I won a lot. Ever play "Leaners"?

When we moved to Maryland, my mom made me throw those cards away. 3 shopping bags full of them. Those cards eventually were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly much more! They were all from the mid 1950's to mid 1960's. Gems and true collectibles.

So maybe my domaining career began back then. It was definitely the beginning of my collecting career. Coins and Stamps came next. I still love collecting. Besides domains I collect cars, watches, cell phones, hotel room keys, Real Estate, Shirts, Presidential memorabilia and Autographs. Oh, did I mention domain names?  Some say it's a pretty good collection.

The first day I ever came online I knew from that point forward it was all about reputation and character. Those were the 2 things you could not screw up or you were DONE! So I carefully built an online presence. I earned my wings with my thoughts and deeds. I made sure I was consistent and I was careful in the words I used. I was one of few that used their real name back then. I loved this medium the minute I figured this one aspect out. Everything was on the record with a time stamp!

The Internet is the Magic Carpet that has the ability to make your dreams come true. It also has the ability to destroy. It's the burial spot for many reputations because it is all written in ink and it never goes away. It really is on your permanent record!

In life I always give folks a choice. "I can tell you what you want to hear." OR "I can tell you the truth as I see it." Well stories are for KIDS not business people! I REFUSE to tell you what you want to hear. I refuse. It's not in me. And that pisses people off. It's natural. And many stay pissed at me for years. That's on them. That's their loss.

My only sin, telling it straight and they can't handle it. I Talk about numbers. Numbers have no personality. They are an exact science and they do tell a story. They do paint a vivid picture. They do mean something. They show the way to the future. So, folks that ignore or run from numbers are FOOLS at best and that alone pisses folks off the most! Sorry, you're a fool if you bastardize the numbers. It shows a person that can't handle the truth. That runs and has to bend it to survive. Numbers are the ONLY constant we have and it puts fear in many because they don't want to hear what the numbers say. What they SCREAM out! How they diminish their dreams. How they fool, fools!

But during those years a lot of folks will blow smoke up their asses. They will find themselves on the short end of the stick. Even their best friends will lie, cheat and steal during those years. And me, I am just always the same. I don't change with the wind. I can't be true to anyone if I am not true to myself. Just look at my writings from 20 years ago and you can see the same tone, thoughts and consistency. I can be the devils advocate. I can see both sides and WANT to see both sides. It's like a fork in the road. I like to see what's down both paths before I commit to one.

So the powerful be damned. I am not a team player because there is no team! My only allegiance in life is to be honest and tell it like it is from my viewpoint. So I did not fall in line with the industry on GTLD's regardless of how many domainers were at the trough or how many friends. Regardless of the pressure or anger. Regardless of the consequences. Regardless of how friendly we were. But friends don't lie and bullshit friends. The truth is a bigger and a better friend than any domainer is.

So time has always been my best ally and now you know why! Maybe that helps you understand how I roll and I can win you over. Maybe not. I don't care. I am always on record for the record and if you can't handle a straight answer then don't ask for it. Go read Dr. Seuss. He is much better at fairy tales and bedtime stories than I can ever be. It's not becoming of a business person to be an ostrich.

Rick Schwartz

PS: I started this post on September 13, 2012 and finished it this week. More to come from the vaults. Never before published blog posts!

Afternoon Folks!!

I wrote this a few days ago but decided not post it. Like over 150 others. Then this morning I read a blog post at TheDomains.com about how new blood in domaining thinks about old-time veterans like me. So here it is.

It's so easy for the know-nothings to dismiss us if we are "Old-timers" in the domain business even tho they are trying to replicate what we did. They frame it like us against them instead of experience vs. no experience. But the truth of the matter is they are the ones with Closed Minds and we are the ones with Experience. We just don't spit in the wind and think we invented rain! Bless their hearts!

So these folks will argue with you but they are all show. They have nothing concrete they can point to. Just hoping and wishing seems to be a strategy. They talk about keywords as the holy grail but when you point out that keyword.mobi is worthless and keyword.net is worth 1% of .com assuming you can even find a buyer. Keyword.crap is nothing new. Worth Less. Much Less.

We heard the same defensive arguments for every extension ever released. .TV, .Biz. .Mobi, .Info, .whogivesadamnshitabouttheextensionanywaysjustsomethingelsetoremember

They can't point to very much to support their argument except a few sales some of which are questionable with VERY flimsy evidence to support them. Seldom if ever their own sales.

GTLD's made a huge mistake the day they made it GTLD vs .Com. Good job Paul!! That was the day they lost. It should have been used as an aid to compliment but they decided to go head-on and guess what? It was a head-on collision and GTLD's not only LOST, it will be YEARS before they can mop up the mess.

There are 1000 newbies for every old timer. They make a lot of noise not a lot of money. Slap each other on the back while trying to emulate my 20 year plan even tho I tell them 100x their recipe is much different and won't work. The only similarity is the 20 years. But not many if any of them will survive that long. Why? Attitude, experience, cash flow.

You think they might be interested in what is different? Instead they can only resort to insults to bolster their arguments. That's funny! They have yet to learn to be skeptical. To be critical. To see who benefits when they buy into it. They are fish and they will bite on any bait. That means they lose. They are somebody else's TROPHY!

Meanwhile stupid old timers deal in Gold while the know-nothing geniuses corner the market on .horse.manure. Enjoy your .crap as you go broke! But I bet your $$$ would have gone further NOW had it still been in your wallet and not theirs.

So which keyword.mobi would you like to buy from me today? I will be happy to sell them to domainers. They are the only ones stupid enough to buy them. Bill.mobi, Cruises.mobi, Eat.mobi, Gossip.mobi, Celebs.mobi, LAUGH.mobi, Wow.mobi and MORONS.mobi. The ONLY thing they are good for is a TAX LOSS!! So anyone using the argument that keyword plus .crap means something, think again! Want some numerics? 975.mobi, 931.mobi, 517.mobi. They are all worthless and only a total fool would try and build their empire on this .crap.

Remember, NOBODY has to remember .com. It is synonymous with the Internet. Many commercials don't even NEED to put their .com on their commercials. But I don't recommend that. So there is no such thing as a ONE WORD .CRAP!! You will always have to remember 2 things and you will always have to put http://www.Crappy.Domains so people even recognize it as a url.And not a typo!

As long as folks will beat their chest with .crap.I will show them just how foolish they are! Not one of them would ever even DARE to read my posts from 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 where I lay it all out in detail.

The stampede is in full swing and the top gtld's are all PURE .CRAP! 33% of all new GTLD's are .Top which is CRAP, .Loan which is CRAP and .xyz which is CRAP! Enjoy your .crap sandwich. I have my own .crap as I have shown.

I have many non .com extensions. Many single keyword NON .com and you know how many offers I have gotten in 23 years? ONE! Just one! Early on when the .com was not available I would get .net. I sold men.com for $1.32MM, but have not gotten an offer for Men.net or Men.org. How about Ass.net? 3 letters, keyword. Traffic! Where are the offers? Where is the demand? There isn't ANY!!! Wake up! Want a perfect xxx keyword? How about xxx.sc? As a domainer I don't even know what .sc stands for. But I got a great keyword so it must be worth a fortune right?? Sorry, your keyword is a bogus argument if it does not end with .com. This is all KEY SHIT! Not KEY WORD! Deal with it!

How about a GREAT 2 letter domain? I got one. Never had an offer. Never got an email. NY.biz. You like Tits?? How about Tits.net? Which extension would you like me to show you something prime and also show you something that nobody wants? We have all been there and done that! Newbies will learn. Maybe not!

So the "Stampede" I talked about years ago should be visible to the naked eye now (except newbies). Extensions "DYING ON THE VINE" which I have also talked about many times is also now visible to the naked eye (except newbies). And domainers buying all this fools gold is also visible to the naked eye.(except newbies) What isn't visible is anyone acknowledging ANY of the pitfalls let alone 122 of them! They can't even look at it. They can't even talk about it. They, as so-called business people, can't even discuss it in a rational, logical, non-emotional way. They are too invested to allow new evidence or information to be part of anything. They did not ask the critical questions first. They can only dismiss it like whistling past a cemetery at midnight on a dark and rainy night! Good luck with that work ethic Mr. Newbie. And your next career will be??

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Are you a local company or are you a global company? If you are a local company you can do lots of different things and tricks and not worry about it. Your business is small. It's intended to stay small. That's fine. However if you intend to grow and grow without limits then you may want to be careful of how you present your company to the public.

Your domain name screams out whether you are local or global. You cant silence her. You are either on the world stage or you are not. You are in the major leagues or you are not. You make the championship round or you dont. If people forget who #2 is imagine when you are 3rd or 4th or 34th or 434th.

Why place any type box around your future that can only limit and suppress that future? Why take that global ability away from yourself?

Cctld's are fine. But it does say we service a limited area. It silently says that. It doesn't matter what extension you choose is fine and it will work, but without the.com counterpart you limit yourself. You communicate to the public things you may not want to communicate. And you're not there to correct them. Remember that! You are not there to correct them. Perception is reality. The perception is local not global. That's the perception whether you like it or not. Whether you accept it or not. Whether it's helpful or not.

Recognize it and give it a number value. Because that number will never be zero. What number am I talking about? Business loss. Business loss multiplied by the lifetime of that business.

That's the loss that's 100% profit. Pure gold. It can't be dismissed. Those that dismiss this number dismiss all types of other things as well and it's costly. They don't count this, they don't count that. Eventually they may go broke. They underestimate EVERYTHING!

I do the opposite. I ADD 20% to every expense whether needed or not. That way when something unexpected happens, and it always does, I am financially prepared and it does not make a dent.

I would make domainers cry if they saw how may people get the extension wrong. Tell 100 people just ONE TIME that your website is at whatever.net and you will have close to 50% go to the .com counterpart and YOU are not there to tell them they got it wrong. And that's with a .net. What happens with .crap?

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

One of the famous lines from the Godfather. "Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in."

That may be a line in a movie for most, for me it was a cautionary take because it is so easy to be pulled back in. It's like going to a casino, winning many millions and you go back and you lose it all. But in my case, it is staying retired. I was retired from 1998-2004. Then I got pulled back in and did TRAFFIC for 10 years until I stopped and could retire again. I wanted to quit TRAFFIC in 2007 and leave at the highest point. But Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in.

I have ideas every day and then I realize the last thing I want to do is be pulled me back in. I am out and I want to stay out. If not I would be globetrotting doing all types of deals and finding new products to bring to market.

So to prevent that, THIS is what I refer to to keep me out of the damn casino of business.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

So, I have 153 blog posts that I have written and never published. This is one of them. My thoughts, Franks thoughts on new extensions from the year 2000. I wrote this back in 2014. Get ready to DIE LAUGHING!

FOR THE RECORD and ON THE RECORD!

Do you know what the difference is between those two lines below that read EXACTLY THE SAME? Do ya??

I know a lot of you don't like my thoughts on the new extensions, but step back for a moment. Well let me tell you the difference. One was written in the year 2000 and one was written this morning.

So let's  leave the hype and hysterics aside before we all puke! The numbers tell a pretty ugly story for anyone will to even scratch the surface of what is going on.

Deja vu all over again?

You need BOOTS to wade through all the crap I have been hearing the last few weeks. If you are normal, your head should be spinning and we have hardly begun. You know I love numbers and they paint the best picture. But what is almost as valuable and many times more valuable is history.

Would you like to be a fly on the wall and read the conversations of 1999 and 2000? Read my posts then as I am posting one below from the year 2000 talking about the NEW EXTENSIONS! Would you like to hear my thoughts? Frank's thoughts on Gtld's in the year 2000? Thoughts from many of the leading domainers that have survived the test of time? And many that have never been heard from again?

Here's just a tidbit of history Make sure you look at the date stamps. Make sure you draw a line from 2000 to 2014 and see where it goes:

Morning Folks!!

I believe the last comment I left on Twitter before I deleted my account was on December 31st last year. Not easy to break a habit but this was not hard. Later on when the privacy issue hit Facebook, I did the same thing there.

Trust is a big issue no matter who you deal with. When you lose trust you have 2 choices. Continue to swallow SHIT, or just walk away. I am the walking away type. Period, the end!

I don't miss it and I enjoy my new found time. Is what I am doing a trend? Maybe. I doubt most are disciplined enough to just walk away. But some have and others will.

Changing habits in the general population is one of the things I study most. That's why I had a 20 year plan. It was about the general population adapting to a new medium that so many were calling a "Fad" back then because Brick and Mortar was SCARED TO DEATH!

Sears was a top 3 retailer and my advice to Sears back then: Close ALL your stores and work from the Internet at Sears.com. I think they might be in a better place today had they done that. Instead they will soon be joining ToysRus and many others in liquidation. Talk about a fall from grace. They should have a college course just to study the rise and fall of Sears. And I know most domainers eyes glaze over every time I bring them up. Not sure how you ignore something like this if you are a businessman.

In business and as a businessman you must adapt. We need to recalibrate. I do that on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. I watch my young peers that should be much more adaptable, limber and able to take in vast amounts of new information actually rejecting things before even considering them. They should be the most open to change. In general, they are not.

My dad lived until 88 years old. But he was writing computer programs via a Radio Shack cassette recorder. I have no idea what the hell he was doing. But he remained on the cutting edge until the very end. He was not too good at it but he never got old mentally. I see way too many 25 yer olds that are. They are rigid, inexperienced, close minded, wishful thinkers with no understanding of human nature, sales, budgets, recurring bills, customer service, advertising and how to successfully run a business for the long term.

When we work for others we mortgage our souls because THEY own OUR time. In my view of things, I worked hard to own that mortgage. To own my time. To be master of my destiny without interruption.

Twitter can be a dangerous place. A few words can destroy you, your family and your career. The power of the written word is back! But you have to be careful with words. Very careful.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Nearly 2 decades has passed and I started to think isn't it time to ask what the Domain Industry stands for? Can anyone answer that? Does the Industry have a message? Has the Industry done anything of import? Is there an industry?

I look back and thru all the noise have we left any legacy? I don't know that we have been good stewards of the Golden Goose that has fed many families for many years and will do so for many more.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Since 2000 the time folks have spent online has increased dramatically from 3 hours a week in 2000 to 24 hours per week in 2016 according to an MIT study. But the question is when does it peak? And how many hours does it peak at?

As folks that make our living online we spend more time than most. Early on I was online for 15 hours per DAY. So 100 hours per week. I peaked many years ago. Today I spend about 2 to 8 hours a day. Some days even less. I go out of my way to stay offline.

But the question is when do the masses decline in time spent online and how will it affect domains and prices? I don't have the answer. I just have the question.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Such a cop out! "If we don't sell the domain we will develop it". Get real! Slapping some crap on a domain is not developing a business. A business needs product or information. A business needs a cash register. I don't think some know the difference.

Ricksblog.com is developed, but it's far from a business. HallofShame.com is developed, but that too is far from a business. On the other hand, Francois's Domaining.com IS a business. He sells things. He has a cash register. He takes in money. He has customers.

Point is developing is for feeling good or a cop out for buying a questionable and possibly worthless domain name. But it's something that really goes nowhere. It's not a business with a full circle idea that results in PROFIT. It's closer to art. A business needs a way to pay you and that happens with a cash register. Maybe it's time to start with the cash register and work backwards. Not the first time I have brought this up.

But how many of us have pissed away money on silly mini-sites and other "Development" that resulted with no results? A business starts with an idea, a product or service and a way to pay.

But be careful with opening a business. Many folks create work but don't create a profit and have a formula that will never allow them to make a profit. Sorry, but profit is the only way you stay in business and any fool can create work.

Personally, I don't want to be in a business again where I have to ship product, have inventory or fulfill orders. I like selling and shipping information. Cost is low and everything can be fully automated with little to no customer service.

The curse of domainers is many times we have too many good domains. Too many shiny objects that we actually own. But it's hard to focus and pick just one. When I started, I always believed there was a time to collect domains as fast as you can, and I did, and a time to sort them out and decide which ones could run the most profitable businesses or to focus on just one domain. I have yet to get to the last step!

But when I look to the "Next BIG Thing", it seems to always start with a domain name.

Rick Schwartz