Morning Folks!!

It's really not what I say today that counts. But it does. It is about what this post will look in 5 YEARS from now and beyond. Those 1997-1999 posts look better every day! But as I have been describing, we are NOW in the gravitational pull of why I invested in domains to begin with. The next 5 years will just be golden. I don't know how else to describe it.

The leaps we will be taking in the WEEKS ahead will surpass 2003-2004 by a country mile! Clear as day to me. Just look at the size of THIS industry in 2003 and look at this industry in 2013. If you don't see the difference, don't understand the difference, don't know what it means, don't you think you are missing a big part of the equation?

But enough of that. I just want to be so clearly on the record that when we look back, that is when this post has the most meaning.

However, if you want to change your life right this second and be reduced to tears, watch this right now for 1:46 minutes! I GUARANTEE it has an impact. And if not, please know you are BRAIN DEAD! ;-)

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Evening Folks!!

I am finished with the selection of domains for the live auction. Many great domains submitted and even tho I may have not selected your domain does not mean it was not a good domain. My selection was based on what was on the market right now. And I think you will like what you see.

Howard will be sending out the contracts next week. Please return them promptly. We can't start publishing and promoting until we get the signed contracts back. With that in mind we would like to publish the initial list no later than Monday the 16th. We may publish a little teaser list before then. So if you want your domains to be out there, help us with the process.

Thanks and I think the bidding will be quite intense!

Rick Schwartz

Afternoon Folks!!

Ocean, River, Lake, Pond, Puddle. Pick which one you want to aim for.

Hint: There is Pigeon Shit in the puddle. So pay attention if you want to avoid. One extra word can be the difference between a 6 figure domain and a worthless domain. I see it all day long.

So verbs and adjectives LIMIT your audience but at the same time TARGETS your audience. Target too much, you have a puddle or maybe just a dried up hole. Here is the recipe for the happy medium.

So here is a real world example of targeting and limiting.

HallofShame.com is universal.

It may not be the ocean of Shame.com for example, but it is a universal domain that is targeted and you know you are going to see some bad behavior when you get there. And in time can become subdomains to include different subjects, industries and companies etc.

What I did not do is use DomainHallofShame.com which would have been much more targeted, but much more limited when we are trying to hit a wider audience. Plus, I already have that ability. Add one more word and you are at worthess.

In each case you must decide who you are aiming for. In this case I am trying to vault over the walls of a POND that would be DomainHallofShame.com. What I am trying to do is jump into the RIVER because the River goes places. It has greater circulation than a pond. It travels. Sometimes you only want to be in that pond. And that is fine. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE! Many do not.

In my case the River may be better than the ocean. That is what targeting is about but you must have a target audience and they don't go to puddles and dried up holes. I could have also had DomainNameHallofShame.com or Domainnameshallofshame.com. Each one gets increasingly further away, harder to remember, less traffic and so on. On the other hand owning those combos can't hurt if you have a business. But that is the extent of it and the value is severely limited.

This is a 3 word domain that just happens to work because it means something. It is a known phrase. It has already been advertised and sold to the public before I ever entered the picture. Something most domains and most new gTLD's won't have the luxury of.

Now I have a running start and all I have to do is BRAND. Yes Brand. Not selling. I have nothing to sell. I have something to brand. Something the startup guys need to learn the difference about. If THEY are busy branding they are busy going out of business because they CAN'T sell. If they COULD sell, they would be busy selling because that way they make money and grow. Branding means you got  a bag of shit and the only way you can make it is trying to be cool. Good luck with that.

Point is, if you approach it from left field you may end up in left field. These are the basic building blocks I and most other successful domainers use and you can reject at your own peril. Most do. I can only put it out there.

AdjectiveKEYWORD.com

VerbKEYWORD.com

NounKEYWORD.com

DescribeKEYWORD.com

LetterKeyword.com (i or e)

NameKeyword.com

LocationKeyword.com

That is the foundation I use.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Do you make decisions based on false information?

See, false information most likely will lead you to a false assumption. So getting the info right is critical to making a good decision. But since folks are sometimes lazy, we believe the first thing we read and that sets in like concrete. Then FACTS are ignored because the concrete in the mind has hardened. Loosen up!

This is just another point or flaw of Human Nature. Our job is to fight human nature every step of the way because more often than not Human Nature is the trap door of life that screws everything else up. Reserve judgement until the facts are in and when new facts are presented, don't remain ignorant. Factor in the new info and see if the outcome changes things. If you don't do that.......how eactly can you make a good decision? You can't.

Now if there are no facts yet you base things more and more on assumptions. But each tidbit of info has to be factual for you to arrive at your intended destination even in an assumption. Your job is to check things off as they materialize and be nimble enough to change if the factual info points the wrong way. The more factual based info you have at hand the stronger your course is and the better chance you will get where you actually desire to go.

Look, since we can't live longer , we can certainly fight against wasting time. We can be our own efficiency expert.

Maybe making money in life has less to do with making money and more to do with setting it up efficiently and figuring a way to self sustain itself.  Maybe that's why many of us ended up in domaining to begin with.

Rick Schwartz

Afternoon Folks!!

It has just been 24 hours since I opened up submissions to the TRAFFIC Auction and the list we are putting together is sizzling! I think you will see a big difference as quality is way up.

Great domains at great prices and I think once published is the best list we have had in years. I have already selected 50 of the 75 for the live auction and a number for the silent as well. Some of those domains are very nice. It has been a pleasure looking thru some really nice portfolios as opposed to other years where my eyes were bleeding at this point.

So great job guys. Nice domains, attractive domainer prices and that will produce multiple bidders and that is what an auction is all about.

I expect to close submissions tonight or early tomorrow. So consider this the LAST CALL!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

After the great reception we had at last weeks inaugural show (which of course we did not know at the time) I asked Michael Cyger if he would like to do the show LIVE at T.R.A.F.F.I.C.? He immediately agreed. It was a no brainer and it was inspired by Joao that made the following comment.

"For people that still think Traffic is expensive, this is just a sample (and i really mean SAMPLE) of what happens at Traffic. It was the best thing i have ever done in my entire domaining life and believe me, for a portuguese guy it is not cheap at all to go there, but it is also priceless…so GO!"

And of course that is just one dimension of what we do at TRAFFIC. The formula is not based around the seminars even tho they are priceless and have the top domainers in the world on stage similar to what you saw on the show. We mix it up with different folks and different subjects and get a lot of points of view. QUALIFIED points of view. But just as important if not more is that the shows are based on breaking bread together and having One on One time as well as many different Group Times. We wrap that up with receptions, parties and Networking events and package it in a Ritz-Carlton smack dab on the Atlantic. But breaking bread together in different type settings is the glue that makes TRAFFIC the show it is.

Signups are far outpacing last years show and for the first time in YEARS, we expect a full sellout to the point we may have to stop selling tickets a week before the show starts. Our capacity is about 385 and the reason we are moving to a larger venue next year.

Further evidence that things are rebounding. It is a very aggressive atmosphere out there right now and this is a very serious business season. Very serious. Folks like JC Penny are fighting for survival. If they don't turn it around or get acquired, we could see one of the largest store closings in American History at some point.

But I got a bit off course. Today's show was just posted here. Hope you enjoy it. We enjoyed doing it!

Rick Schwartz

Evening Folks!!

So as I often do when I meet a business owner, they ask what I do and I say "I making my living on the Internet" and that usually starts things rolling. And that was the case last week when I went in for my new photo as I explained the shot was for my blog to Michael Lloyd. I found out he too had a blog and before the photo shoot even began we had agreed on each making a blog post and linking to each other.

And so it is. You will see he got one thing a little off with owning the .com and the .net but as an end-user and a 5 minute conversation got the gist of it. You must own the .com if you don't want to leak traffic to somebody else. He gets it and many domainers still don't.

His domain is simple. 2 words. .com. No pitfalls. Radio friendly, easy to remember and probably has no need for anything else EVER!

His job is to include it everywhere on everything he does and prints and send and gives and all the rest. Normally I would tell him to get extra domain names for traffic. But photo and wedding domains were some of the first to be used and they are hard to find. But he could get specific and add BocaRaton or Florida or SouthFlorida to a keyword he may be associated with. Of course without even looking it up I am sure BocaRatonWeddings.com is gone.But there could be a variable that can be plugged in and could get lucky or find one parked and make an offer.

As a domainer you may laugh at 1, 2 or 3 visitors a day to a domain. As an end-user, 1, 2, 3 more customers a day can transform a business.

I get off on this because it was not long ago I would walk down the street and not a single business was online or had a website. Today there is not a one without a website. It did not happen overnight but in historical terms it happened faster than anything this big that I can ever remember.

The dark side photo was something I was not sure I was going to do when I walked in. I brought the shirt and glasses for it but I decided I would wait and see how they were on the regular shot. I wasn't even sure it was a good idea. But I decided to tell them what I had in mind and they started getting excited about it and  then their creativity started coming thru and the rest is history.

So Donna, ladies, great idea and I love great ideas and follow thru on them and that is what makes the world go round.

Michael, nice to meet you and I am sure we will see each other again soon! Happy Blogging!

Rick Schwartz