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

Morning Folks!!

I write this blog for you. The reader, the surfer, the
pioneer, the lost, the searchers, anyone looking for just a little more. I also
write this blog for myself. I enjoy putting my thoughts on paper. I guess that
is a last century term. Putting thoughts on paper. I guess now just filing
thoughts for the future and the past. I blogged before there was a name for it.
It started in 1996. I made a post each and every morning and what was unusual
at that time was that I actually used my own name.

ButOwen keeps finding stuff I wrote years ago. Yesterday he
found one and it is one of the most basic of posts and thoughts to me back a
decade ago when there was no domain industry and so few saw what I did.

I do have some of my oldest posts locked away in one of my
computers. I talked numbers and facts and dollars and futures and pasts and
everything in between. When I started this blog it was an attempt to get my
thoughts out there in a more formal method and be able to keep track of them,
be on record and then see how things actually unfold.

The following is perhaps one of my best pieces. Short,
sweet, to the point and accurate in a day a decade ago that few saw what we do.

'The reason I say this is there are so many facets of a
domain name. It has the face value. It has the value with the mineral rights in
the form of traffic. It is a collectible like stamps, coins, art, baseball
cards. They are real estate on a scale never known before. They are power in a
way that has yet to be fully exploited. They are TV stations. They are
magazines. They are soap boxes. They are an advantage on many fronts. They are
a permanent direct mail piece. They are almost anything you want them to be and
so much more. You are an instant broadcaster able to compete with the likes of
NBC, ABC, BBC, and all the rest. Your domain can create a situation to capture
more eyeballs than all the TV stations put together.'~~ Rick Schwartz 1999

When I envisioned
the Internet, I envisioned a new media that would or could give every person a soapbox and a megaphone that could and would equal the most powerful. Soapbox.com
was one domainI really wanted. As you will see one of TRAFFIC’S past speakers
owns it now.

So I hope the folks that did not see the wisdom of having Steve Forbes, Ben Stein, Barbara Corcoran, (And there were many) I hope these folks will reserve judgement until they see what unfolds and THEN question the wisdom of having Rick Sanchez join a great list of TRAFFIC speakers. Each one offering us a little something. Each time we left with more than we came. If you understand this post than you will understand where we are going with this. If you can't grasp the notion that the trick is turning social media into profitable commercial media, then I guess we will have to agree to disagree until you figure out at the show and agree. :-)

Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz

Good Afternoon Folks!!

I am pleased to report that after months of looking(as I described in this blog post last week),negotiating and figuring out who would be a great guest speaker that is plugged in but not too close to the industry and can give us some insight from a slightly different perspective. Also, I did not even know about the Internet until I traveled internationally and started seeing CNN.COM every few minutes.

Nobody could argue that CNN has been plugged in from day one. The purchase of iReport.com meant a lot more than $750,000 for me personally. It was a sale that could be pointed to for many years to come by every domainer and every time a domainer watched CNN and saw iReport.com it would give them the fuel to keep going.

So I am happy to report thatRICK SANCHEZ, 3PM Anchor for CNN will be the guest speaker for TRAFFIC's 17th show and 5th Anniversary. He joins a great group of guest speakers over the years and I am sure he will be able to share things with you that will benefit your business and your future.

I am also happy to report that the fee we are paying Rick Sanchez is going to charity. Rick will have his honorarium go to a charity of his choice. I think that is pretty cool and I also think it shows a genuine desire to meet with our industry.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I live in a town of about 80,000 where there are 20 homes on the market between $10 Million and $25 million. There are also 70 homes between $5M and $10M. Then from $2.5 Million to $5 Million there are another 125 homes. Finally between $1 Million and $2.5 Million there are another 460. It’s even worse than that. Under $1 million has just under 4000 listings.

Yesterday I drove down every street in the city in the primmest of areas. I saw things that I really don’t like. I saw a number of homes in addition to the above that were just vacant and not maintained. Obviously bank owned. No for sale sign either. Dozens and dozens of them. What I saw that disturbed me even more was the observation that in an area where folks really maintain their lawns and plants and trees, they were no longer paying their gardners. It was quite obvious in many homes and many of these are not on the market. YET!
I was truly stunned to see what I saw.

You all know what I have been talking about for the past 18 months or so but this even put me back on my heels. This is disturbing. This is the beginnings of a possible catastrophe.
What is coming in the housing market will affect EVERY homeowner in the country. The market is about to take a plunge the likes of which we have never seen and it will take the GOOD stuff with it.

What is coming will undercut the market in a way nobody has imagined. I am sorry my friends, even your homes are likely to suffer in a way you may not see coming. How much could your home go down? Well that depends. Let’s say you and your neighbor both bought a home worth $750k 3 years ago. Let’s say the bank foreclosed on your neighbor. The banks job is to dump that property asap and get that liability off the books. They really don’t care what they are going to leave behind because it is about to spin out of control regardless. So the house next door that you owe $700k on sells for $350k. What is the value of the home you owe $700k on? Or even $600k? Or $500k. Many will just walk away refusing to throw good money after bad. That will undercut the market even further and the $350k becomes a HIGH WATER mark, not a low water mark. So prices continue to go down.

This all creates further problems that begin to compound themselves as tax collections go way down and then services go with it.
Like I have said for a while, there is this small window of opportunity before the collapse, meltdown and the catastrophe’s that I believe will follow. That window appears to be getting shorter and smaller.

When you filter out the noise and listen to the business people on the front lines with no political agenda, there is no question things are about to get dire. So they can say all day long that the recession is over. I think it is nonsense. If you are in the desert with no water and some schmuck declares the drought over before giving you water to drink, what would you call it?

The numbers prove they are wrong. The numbers prove real pain is coming. The numbers prove that it may be a very long time before we rebound from all this. The numbers don’t lie. Corrupt bean counters do. Stockbrokers do. Bankers do. Everyone with an agenda lies. Numbers have no agenda. They just paint the most VIVID picture and in this case few really want to deal with the reality about to come. They don't do it now and they did not do it last summer. I DID!

If you want to know how this will affect the domain industry, then you can read my interview at DNJournal.com. Not for the faint of heart. I tell it the way I see it.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I bought domains because I was not smart enough or talented enough to get search engine traffic. Ignorance is a great thing sometimes! I bought domains because I did not want to spend a LIFETIME spamming search engines with misleading CRAP to get traffic. I bought domains because that was a non ending stream of traffic that could actually grow over time. I bought domains because it was a unique opportunity in time and those that did not see it missed the greatest gold rush in the history of mankind. I bought domains because in the future nothing would be so important or meaningful on a worldwide marketing basis. I bought domains because it was the greatest resovoir of customers, buyers, consumers, business people and on and on with virtually no limit ever to come to be. Where else can one domain produce 40,000 visitors a day for $8 a YEAR??? $8 divided by 14 million annual visitors. Let the bean counters figure out the cost on that one.

Now let's look at my SEO abilities. I have none. Zippo. I don't believe in a lot of the nonsense. I think relevance is the key. Popularity. Many other factors. So I believe SEO spamming actually can do harm. I think growing your business is the best way to get that ranking.

Now I will piss some folks off and they will try and undermine my listings but I don't really care as it is not going anywhere I truly make a profit. But if you type in 'Rick Schwartz' in Google I am #1 out of 750,000. If you type 'Domain King' you will see the same thing. But then I took it a step further. Where was I if I typed in 'Schwartz'? 26 million results and again #1.

Now there are still names I have yet to type in that I may rank high. 'Asshole' may be one some would agree on. Maybe one of the SEO guys can get me up to #1? ;-)

To be honest, I was always a bit jealous of singers. They sang and marketed their name and nobody can ever take that away. In my case I can't sing and while I always marketed my name in way or another, I marketed my companies or company I worked for name much more.

Many think domains have had their golden day and traffic is going down etc etc. Well in some cases they could be right. However if you look at the BIG picture, traffic, audience share, in the future is just getting harder and harder to attract and that is why you are seeing so many outrageous things going on. It's all gimmicks to defend a shrinking audience base in traditional media. That means the cost of doing business is going up. The cost of gaining new customers is going up. The cost of breaking out of the crowd is going up. That means that domains and traffic will become more and more in demand regardless of the current conditions. That soapbox is getting harder and harder to be heard no matter how big you are. No matter how big your megaphone is. What was once 3 channels competing for your eyes, ABC, NBC, CBS is now infinite. Infinity is killing these folks. What started in 2000 and 2001 is finally completing itself in 2009/2010. They were successful in delaying the inevitable. But they no longer have the power to stem the tide. What we are about to see is the greatest shakeout of business and industry in the history of the world. The greatest shift in power that the world has ever seen. The rules of yesterday will no longer be valid in many cases.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

PS: Did a search for 'Rick' and got 83 million results. I was #3. Beaten out by Rick's Caberet and Rick.com owned by Legendary DJ Rick Dees. So much for Rick.com and Ricks.com. Missed those. Had to settle for Dick.com lol

PS: And now the POWER of the domain name. I looked up 'The King' I am nowhere to be found which is no surprise. Of course people like Elvis, MJ, Martin Luther King and Burger King appear. My link to them? I own TheKing.com which redirects right to this blog. Take those 6 degrees of separation and reduce to 1.

Morning Folks.

The absolutely silliness and hypocrisy displayed by the TECHIES and adopted by everyone else without so much as a thought. Mrs. Kravitz must be in heaven! SHE is in charge. This is exactly how Mrs. kravitz would have handed it. Must be someone related.

Only on the Internet is there this “Iron Curtain” between
adult and mainstream. In this post I am going to show you how foolish this all
is. The absolute stupidity of it all. What JERKOFF made this rule that people follow more than going to Church on Sunday?

So this post is about an auction atChristie’s, one of the
most respected auction houses in the world and Chopard, one of the world’s
leading watch makers in business for some 150 years and making watches that sometimes go for many millions.

On this $40k white gold watch that was auctioned off back in
2007, it shows a beautiful, well endowed woman on her knees giving a BLOW JOB to a man. Apparently the
tick tock simulates up and down on his SHAFT! Nice touch.

Now if these 2 fine companies can manufacture, sell and promote nude people, BLOW JOBS, tits, on their watches and in their auctions, then it is time for mainstream to grow
up. Unless of course their parents never engaged in sex which would explain
everything!

So not everyone that buys toothpaste watches porno. However everybody that watches porno buys toothpaste. Stop making moral judgements and DO BUSINESS!! Imagine if stores in the mall did the same thing as they do on the web? They would be out of business. 'Oh Mr. Schwartz, we can't sell you that $150k Mercedes Benz because you just came from a TITTIE BAR!' 'Come back tomorrow and make sure you don't look at any tits first, have sex, get an errection or anything else that has any sexual overtones or connotations whatsoever.'

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I can’t say it has been easy to find someone to keynote at
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. this time. I rejected more speakers than any in our 5 year history combined. It
gets harder and harder to select the right person for the right time. Generally
few understand our picks anyway. Barbara Corcoran was a good example and now
she is in the big leagues simply because she has a unique understanding of
business and like us, she is a renegade investor.

So I went through hundreds of possibilities. Funny enough, even
Tony Hsieh of Zappo’s was offered to us. But we were looking for something a
little different. So we opted for folks like Jeffrey Jordan the CEO of Open
Table, Matt Mullenweg of Blogger fame and an old friend, John Reese of
Income.com. However all had conflicts. But I expect we will see these folks as
keynoters at future TRAFFIC events and eventually it became a real blessing in disguise.

We really had some great speakers offered to us but none
really fit what we need to accomplish at this point in time. Time was running
short. I was prepared to go up on stage and tell folks I would rather have no
speaker than to present a speaker that did not accomplish what we need to do at
this particular moment in time. That was what I was prepared to do. But I would
not give up and kept looking. Finally I reached out to Owen and he had an idea.
It was one of those regular Owen “Let’s jump on this windmill” suggestions. But that did not mean it was not a great idea. It was brilliant. It just meant that the odds were 100-1. But it was time for the long ball.

So I contacted the folks I need to and was even told by them that was a long
shot and explained why. But nonetheless, would make the offer. Well to my surprise,
he accepted. YES!
So another speaker may come to TRAFFIC and few will understand
why until he leaves. Not really. I think you will understand his choice and the reasons behind it. I expect to announce that person as early as Friday once it clears the hurdles and approvals that speakers like this need. So not a done deal, but we are very hopeful that everything will fall into place.

I believe the Internet is about the consumer and how he
thinks and how he uses the net and how folks are evolving. In my case it was
something forcing me to come online once a day. Just one time a day back in mid
1995. We all start similarly. Once a week. Once a month. Then the metamorphosis
happens. It turns into daily minutes. An hour. A few hours. And as we all know,
it finally consumes you! The social networks like Twitter and Facebook have
driven the initial push and in the last couple years have changed how the world
interacts. I watched my friends that have no association with the Internet and
how they evolved. How they changed. How they use it. How often. I started doing
that back in 1995 with my own father. Then my mother. Then my best friend that
hated the Internet and would never use it. (He uses it everyday now too)

Sometimes you can learn more from the man on the street than
all the experts in the world. Experts get too close to a situation and can no
longer focus on the BIG picture. Too much information.

So as we celebrate our 5^th anniversary with our
17^th show, I think you will see TRAFFIC take a much different course
than any other show. That is until they follow in our footsteps. But we are headed to the other side of
this mountain. Isn’t it time to meet your surfer? Meet your customer?

Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

As you have watched your incomes decline are Domainers’
ready to have some backbone? Are you ready to speak out? Are you ready to
confront those that are taking the LION’S SHARE OF YOUR INCOME?? Oh yeah, I
forgot, our share is a big secret! The tide is about to take a massive turn.
See it is not where we are now, that does not count. We can’t do anything about
that. But you sure as hell can take back your future and look 1 year down the
road. Just 1 year.

There will be an article coming out in DNJournal.com in the
next few days. I say what others won’t. What others can’t. What others may
think but won’t say. Who is in control of your destiny?

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

If your 'Friend' costs you 50% of your earnings, is that a friend? Some, even many, let their personal friendships decide their
domain placements. We all have friends and relationships. Of course you want to
do business with the folks you like and the folks you get along with. Not everything is about money. However, business IS ABOUT MONEY! So my best friend in business is Ben Franklin. Who is yours? I will
defer to his wisdom and his testing ability to decide how and who to do
business with.

No Room for Family Pic.
Don't let your friends squeeze out your family

One of the things I like to pride myself on is finding out
the strengths and weaknesses of each program out there. I test. I test. I test.
I test a lot. It costs me a LOT of money to conduct these tests. But that is
how you learn. That is how you find your guiding light. That is how you find
out things your “Friends” don’t want you to find out. Most work on a loyalty
basis and not a business basis. It really is a balancing act. But at the end of
the day, Ben Franklin has to be there. For a few points, stay with your
friends. Not worth being a whore for 2%, 5%, 10%. But when you talk 25%, 50%,
100%, 400%, and more, well “My Friends” that is what I call a very COSTLY
FRIENDSHIP! What would you call it? And if you don't believe that the swings can reach those levels, that is because you are clueless and have failed to test to find the truth. It's no big deal to pay money and get laid. It is a big deal to pay money to have a 'Friend'.

So is the well being of your family more important or are your 'Friends' more important? Ben Franklin is laughing his ass off on this one. He says 'Wake up Domainers.' You watched your incomes be sliced by 50%, 75%, 90%. Your FRIENDS have not been sliced that sharply! In some cases they have even had gains. All at YOUR EXPENSE! Some come one come all, defend your 'Friends'. I wonder how many expansion projects domainers have financed? We may be the biggest annonymous angel investors the world has known. Don't tell anyone. Not even yourself!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

What grade is the universe in? Internet grade?

See, we are the founders. The professors. The originators. The first to embrace the net on a daily basis and make our lives revolve and evolve
around it. But we have had a tremendous head start. The key is always timing
and so the question to ask is when do the masses reach where we are? First, the
answer is probably never. But they will end up somewhere along our path. We
just don’t know the degree. In some cases, maybe many cases, they may eventually
exceed us. But the focus of this post is the masses.

Ok, the masses now know how to email. That only took about
10 years. Then the past 5 years have been a bit more engaging with Facebook and
Twitter. Plus lots of research on Google and Yahoo and now Bing. So folks are
using and engaging and exploring and building and blogging and sharing and
contacting and reaching out and a lot of other ands. Many do this with the TV in the backround. But the point of all this,
the Internet has finally been unleashed. The economy accelerated this more than
any one thing anyone else can do. The masses are now looking at the mountain,
exploring that mountain and spending more and more time dwelling on how to
expoit that mountain.

It takes a recession to make things like this occur. Just
like 2003 was a turning point, so will 2009/2010. When folks became unemployed this time, they did not run to
the newspaper. They did not run to the personel office. They did not run to a
head hunter. They ran to the Internet. They stayed on the Internet. They networked on the Internet. This just shows the vivid and very quick
change in habits. Something that could take 10-20 years was condensed into
10-20 MONTHS. When you recognize things like this you can get slightly ahead of things and do very well. You can chase what happened yesterday. You can try and catch what is happening today. But the real trick is figuring out what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade and be there before the masses. Be there before the CEO's. Be there before as many folks as possible. Be there FIRST!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz