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

Good Evening Folks!!

Want to meet the guy that is responsible for all of our success? He will be joining us in Silicon Valley and you can thank him yourself! Dr. Paul Mockapetris is a guy we can all walk up and thank in just a few days. There is no question that without his contribution most of us would have never been here.

Twenty years ago, Paul Mockapetris designed the Domain Name System
(DNS), which allows users to enter names (such as www.ieee.org) instead
of numeric network addresses to locate people and resources on the
Internet. Today, the DNS is the Internet's database of Web and email
addresses and is being embedded into new applications, such as ENUM for
IP telephony. Dr. Mockapetris defined the DNS protocol and created its
initial implementation. With Dr. Jon Postel and others at University of
Southern California's Information Sciences Institute (ISI) and SRI, he
deployed the initial root server system and coordinated with other
researchers the implementation of DNS on all Internet operating
systems. At ISI, he also implemented the first SMTP email server.

A member of the IEEE, Dr. Mockapetris has chaired the Internet
Engineering Task Force and has received the University of California at
Irvine's distinguished alumnus award. He is chief scientist and
chairman at Nominum in Redwood City, Calif.
Paul, on behalf of all domainers, THANK YOU!
Have a GREAT Evening!
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Do you know how to provoke thought? Can you provoke discussion? Can you make a domino fall without touching it? Can you make the middle domino fall without touching any of the others and making them fall? Oh, you probably never thought about that. When you do, you stretch your mind. You enlarge the boundaries. You may see things as others deal with it.

About 20 years ago a phenomenon started to unfold. Less people worked for other people as they began to work for themselves and profits in some sectors began to fall. That is something that has continued for all this time. The race to the bottom has had its costs. The race to unprofitability. Many question why I focus so much on sales. Well, if you have read some of my posts over the years you will have heard me time and time again state that nothing in this world happens until a sale is made. Not a factory opens, not a worker goes to work. Not a truck makes a pickup. Not a truck makes a delivery. No money has changed hands and so no sales = a standstill. Sounds kinda like the auto industry huh?

So to me there are two types of traffic. Traffic that can convert to a sale and traffic that can’t convert to a sale. One is EXTREMELY valuable and you could say the other is worthless. It’s worthless when one expects to buy that traffic to make sales and ends up with nothing but a bill Last time I looked, most businesses buy traffic to make sales. Why> Read above again.

Now worthless traffic does not have to be worthless if it is marketed and labeled correctly. If you sell gum, you may want to buy million and zillions of worthless traffic at a fraction of the cost of the traffic that is targeted because the price is so low that any business you get at all makes it profitable. Meanwhile the guy paying for the premium traffic is not having his equation work for him. How many times do you think a buyer of traffic needs to be stung and lose money before he does not buy again? So whether you want to deal with something like that is up to you. But at least be sensitive to the reality of what is happening and the direct effects you may experience without ever being near that “Domino.”

To me it is a clear difference and is a quite stunning difference. Like drinking a nice cold glass of sparkling clear water and feeling great and refreshed and wanting a second glass and drinking some sewer water and spitting it all up. How many times you think they are gonna buy that crap? Each time that happens it taints another group, another business,another industry, another opportunity. Wrong direction. Wrong outcome. JMO.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

It's April 15th and maybe money counts more today than yesterday. So let me take a moment to tell each and every one of you reading this that has legit traffic is getting screwed and tattooed. Some of you don't even care. Maybe today you care just a tad more. After you read this you are going to be outraged.

I really hate when the media spreads misinformation. I truly believe the foundation of a free country is a free media that is factual. Anything less is not acceptable except everyone seems to accept it when they should except it. Does that make sense?

People then make decisions on misinformation. Beliefs via misinformation. I have never seen it worse then it is right now. Mark Twain wrote something to the effect…..”A lie can spread around the world before the truth can put its boots on.”

The point is if you don’t demand the truth, you’ll never get the truth. If you don’t demand facts, you’ll never get facts. If you don’t demand that crap traffic is not mixed with valuable traffic you’ll always be paid the rates that the crap traffic gets and NOW I am going to PROVE it.

I am going to continue to speak out about crap traffic. What’s the difference? Well, here it is.

A targeted clickthrogh is when you hand deliver a visitor that has an interest in something fairly specific. If you load up a Greyhound Bus with 55 people wanting to go to the casino that have money and are ready to gamble, then you hand deliver them to the casino, THAT is targeted traffic. That is the traffic type-ins and real traffic are. Then there is the crap traffic. These people and companies in THIS INDUSTRY load up the bus with 55 CORPSES that can never gamble again. WE BOTH GET PAID THE SAME!!!!!!

So these folks that disguise themselves as registrars and sponsors and domainers that could care less are costing folks with REAL traffic a FORTUNE. Now those are the FACTS! Those are the facts as I see them and I will repeat them often until Google, Yahoo and all our sponsors start figuring out the difference and I will get on the stage at TRAFFIC and articulate these thoughts for all to see for years to come. It is TIME to DEMAND that this STOPS. Google and Yahoo need to pay attention. THEY are enabling folks to do this by not understanding the real difference. They are enabling registrars and sponsors to do this. They are, perhaps unknowingly and unintentionally, SCREWING their own retail customers out of something that they don't really know about or understand to the degree they should imo. So I am saying it out loud so maybe folks will think about and discuss while they call me all types of names. And at the end of the chain are the domainers that have THE MOST POTENT TRAFFIC IN THE WORLD being mixed with CORPSES!!! That provides results and ratios that are skewed.
Now maybe you never looked at it quite this way. I use the word 'Corpse' as an extreme because it might as well be a
corpse if the chances of converting that visitor to a sale are nil. AND
THEY ARE! And we all know it! But now that I have illustrated it in the most elementary and dramatic terms, what is going to change? When? What's the excuse for letting even one more day pass with this practice in place? To me, doing it for just 5 minutes after you are aware of it is unconscionable. Year after year I have watched this abuse and with all the meeting and all the discussions 'Corpse traffic' is getting none of us where we need to go. Guess I won't be making many friends today. It's easy to be popular, just shut up, say nothing of substance, challenge nothing. Look the other way. The worst part is I probably only speak for the core domainers with that pure traffic while there are much more corpse traffic that folks are making money with. Retailers would be happy with what I said but they don't know I am even saying it or why. Maybe some day. Google and Yahoo? Who knows what goes on in their minds and meetings. All I can do is try and let them know the difference and how seriously those of us with really good traffic take it. Maybe they never looked at it in this light. Maybe we all need to. All I am saying is isolate that 'Corpse traffic' and sell it as a different grade. That should be the happy medium to make all corpses and buyers happy. ;-) No wonder some opt out of the domain channel. It isn't about the domain traffic, it is about the corpse traffic that makes targeted traffic have much less value. It is just one small diamond mixed in with a ton of sand.

Yes, these are extremes but untargeted traffic has the same value as a corpse to somebody buying that traffic trying to make a sale and obtain a new customer. Now if you don't care about that part of the equation , you should. THAT is what produces supply and demand. That supply and demand is what produces the payouts. The competition for good traffic is what drives up prices and profits. Just LABEL the traffic. Grade the traffic not just for the eyes but for the wallet and educate the end user on the differences. Why do that? If we don't, next year on April 15th, you won't owe much in taxes because payouts will continue to erode and worse. The only ones that can really demand this is Google and Yahoo. I learned long ago only a vey few sponsors are willing to do that. Now with $$ tight and businesses on the line, how low will some go to survive?

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

A little earlier this morning I wrote on this blog and said: “The bottom line, THIS period will be your very LAST opportunity to buy really good quality domains. Once this period passes, it is off to the races as values today will double many times in the next decade. Oh, I forgot, most don't look 10 years ahead. They have strategies for the next 10 minutes. The next 10 hours. Some get all the way to the next 10 days. But if you walk and all you do is look at your feet, you will surely hit walls all day every day. Folks want to know how to have success, but when you lay out a road map as I have done on this blog for the past 2 years, they will do everything but read it and take the info for free.”

The chill comes from me watching the Today Show and Author Suzy Welch (wife of Jack Welch former CEO of GE) is on and she published a book called 10-10-10 that describes much the same theme. A book I never heard of until an hour after I wrote that paragraph. My jaw dropped. It’s just little things like this that I see as confirmation that I am not too far off in what I see, what I believe and how I approach situations and life. I just wish that everyone reading this would and could understand the unlimited power they possess. There is nothing I can do or say to hold you back. Only YOU can hold yourself back. No outside force can overcome your will. There is and will always be one obstacle in the way of each of us and it is how we approach things and how far down the road we look for the fallout it may cause or the rewards it may yield.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I have not been buying domains for quite some time. But I have been
arming myself with a cash arsenal ready to do battle. Waiting for NOW.
Waiting for things as I saw them unfold. I predicted last year it would
be April when this really began to unfold. Well it is April and as you
can plainly see from the list below there will be some intense bidding
because there are great domains in there with low reserves. THAT is
what makes an auction and the results will speak for themselves. While
I still see a number of weak domains on the list, I also see some major
winners. The art is going through a list like that and coming up with
the ones that can be worth millions and bought for thousands. The ones
that when standing alone state a business. I always hear the EXCUSE
that what I did could not be repeated. First off you need to understand
it IS an excuse. We wake up everyday facing new challenges. Some folks
rise to the challenge and some folks complain about the challenge. What
folks don't grasp is nothing happens overnight. It takes YEARS of
fighting those daily challenges. EVERY day you have to move ONE STEP forward.
The #1 problem is those that complain are always the ones trying to
skip steps or accomplish too much, too fast. They fall on their faces and frustration and anger becomes the bi-product. Nobody has to be a victim of their own emotions. Folks need to master not only emotions, but faith in themselves.

I was writing the greeting page for folks coming to T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in less than 2 weeks. As I got to the end I realized that the New York Show will mark our 5th year. I am stunned. In some ways it seems like just yesterday. In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago. It may have been a lifetime. We all watched the evolution of an industry develop before our very eyes.

It’s been quite a ride for an entire industry. It has given birth to multiple shows, Multiple live auctions, Multiple deals, Multiple mergers and the birth of many great friendships and business relationships.

As I have been saying for a while, times like these will force really good domains to come to market. One look at the list below released by Moniker and the reserves will prove my point. Those looking to do better in domains in the years ahead need to start getting rid of their crap and liabilities and replace them with quality domains. I see domains EVERY DAY that can be bought for $1,000 and have huge upside potentials. But if you don’t understand the elements that constitute a great domain from a worthless domain, it is just pot luck. Don't buy another domain until you figure it out. Worthless lasts for a long time and you need to renew worthless. The bottom line, THIS period will be your very LAST opportunity to buy really good quality domains. Once this period passes, it is off to the races as values today will double many times in the next decade. Oh, I forgot, most don't look 10 years ahead. They have strategies for the next 10 minutes. The next 10 hours. Some get all the way to the next 10 days. But if you walk and all you do is look at your feet, you will surely hit walls all day every day. Folks want to know how to have success, but when you lay out a road map as I have done on this blog for the past 2 years, they will do everything but read it and take the info for free.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

111.org $1 - $5,000
15yearmortgagerates.com No Reserve
24.org $25,001 - $50,000
700.com $10,001 - $25,000
accreditation.com $5,001 - $10,000
ad.com $250,001 - $500,000
affiliateadvertising.com $1 - $5,000
aircraftengines.com $5,001 - $10,000
allterrainvehicles.com $5,001 - $10,000
allusion.com $1 - $5,000
announced.com No Reserve
antihistamine.com $5,001 - $10,000
athletic.com $25,001 - $50,000
authorization.com $10,001 - $25,000
automating.com $5,001 - $10,000
backgammonsets.com $1 - $5,000
backhoe.com $25,001 - $50,000
baptistchurches.com $1 - $5,000
barbequegrill.com $5,001 - $10,000
bargain.travel $1 - $5,000
bicentennial.com $1 - $5,000
bionic.com $5,001 - $10,000
blackpanthers.com $10,001 - $25,000
boatrepairs.com $5,001 - $10,000
bottledwater.com $25,001 - $50,000
breeding.com $25,001 - $50,000
bribes.com $1 - $5,000
buffoon.com $1 - $5,000
buildingpermits.com $5,001 - $10,000
businessbankruptcy.com $1 - $5,000
californiacommercialrealestate.com $1 - $5,000
campingsupplies.com $10,001 - $25,000
cancun.org $5,001 - $10,000
caribbeanvacations.com $100,001 - $250,000
carpetstores.com $5,001 - $10,000
chargingstations.com $10,001 - $25,000
cheerleaders.org $1 - $5,000
collegecourse.com $10,001 - $25,000
comedyclub.com $50,001 - $100,000
commitment.org $1 - $5,000
corporatejets.com $50,001 - $100,000
cosmetician.com $5,001 - $10,000
creditchecks.net $1 - $5,000
cureforcancer.com $1 - $5,000
datingwomen.com $5,001 - $10,000
debtcollection.org $1 - $5,000
debug.com $10,001 - $25,000
dietandexercise.com $1 - $5,000
dietician.com $25,001 - $50,000
diets.net $10,001 - $25,000
discountairfares.org $1 - $5,000
discretion.com $10,001 - $25,000
domainauction.com $100,001 - $250,000
downriggers.com $1 - $5,000
earnmoney.com $1 - $5,000
europeanvacations.com $100,001 - $250,000
ewills.com $5,001 - $10,000
executiveassistant.com $5,001 - $10,000
exhibiting.com $1 - $5,000
explored.com $10,001 - $25,000
fatalattraction.com $1 - $5,000
federalairmarshals.com $1 - $5,000
ferriswheel.com $1 - $5,000
filebankruptcy.com $50,001 - $100,000
filet.com $10,001 - $25,000
financing.net $50,001 - $100,000
findjobs.com $100,001 - $250,000
fixture.com $25,001 - $50,000
flatpaneltvs.com $5,001 - $10,000
flightinstructors.com $10,001 - $25,000
floridaattorney.com $5,001 - $10,000
foreclosurerefinance.com $1 - $5,000
freightlines.com $1 - $5,000
garagekits.com $1 - $5,000
gardencenter.com $10,001 - $25,000
gardenofeden.com $10,001 - $25,000
ghoststories.com $25,001 - $50,000
glasspanels.com $1 - $5,000
glutenfreerecipes.com $5,001 - $10,000
golfcaddy.com $1 - $5,000
governmenthousing.com $10,001 - $25,000
graders.com $5,001 - $10,000
greatfalls.com $10,001 - $25,000
hairwax.com $5,001 - $10,000
headshot.com $5,001 - $10,000
highspeed.net $1 - $5,000
homemortgage.net $5,001 - $10,000
hotproducts.com No Reserve
illegalimmigrants.com $10,001 - $25,000
imageconsultants.com $5,001 - $10,000
indianaforeclosures.com $1 - $5,000
influential.com $10,001 - $25,000
intelligentdesign.com $1 - $5,000
invasion.com $10,001 - $25,000
john.mobi $1 - $5,000
jonesboro.com $10,001 - $25,000
junk.net No Reserve
kidnap.com $10,001 - $25,000
kingcrab.com $5,001 - $10,000
laptopcomputers.info No Reserve
lineart.com $10,001 - $25,000
lists.net $1 - $5,000
liveauctions.com $25,001 - $50,000
loancalculator.com $250,001 - $500,000
lz.ca $1 - $5,000
maintaining.com $1 - $5,000
marketingfirm.com $50,001 - $100,000
marriages.com $25,001 - $50,000
mbajobs.com $50,001 - $100,000
mediarooms.com $10,001 - $25,000
migraine.com $100,001 - $250,000
millionaire.org $5,001 - $10,000
modernhouses.com $1 - $5,000
mouthguards.com $1 - $5,000
moviemaking.com $10,001 - $25,000
movingservice.com $1 - $5,000
mr.org $5,001 - $10,000
noevil.com $1 - $5,000
nonprofits.com $10,001 - $25,000
officesupplystores.com $1 - $5,000
onlinetelevision.com $10,001 - $25,000
organicchicken.com $5,001 - $10,000
organictea.com $10,001 - $25,000
oxygentanks.com $10,001 - $25,000
packages.net $1 - $5,000
photodeveloping.com $1 - $5,000
physicalexamination.com $5,001 - $10,000
pinballwizard.com $1 - $5,000
pitches.com $5,001 - $10,000
plans.com $100,001 - $250,000
popupblockers.com $1 - $5,000
pornos.net $25,001 - $50,000
primers.com $5,001 - $10,000
punks.com $1 - $5,000
Realty.com $1MM - $5MM
Redistribution.com $1 - $5,000
Reelect.com $1 - $5,000
Refund.me $1 - $5,000
Reimbursement.com $1 - $5,000
Rejected.com $5,001 - $10,000
Relatives.com $25,001 - $50,000
Rentcenter.com $10,001 - $25,000
Repaired.com $10,001 - $25,000
Researchcenter.com $10,001 - $25,000
Respected.com $1 - $5,000
Retrain.com $5,001 - $10,000
Roomairconditioners.com $10,001 - $25,000
sacked.com $5,001 - $10,000
salinas.com $50,001 - $100,000
samuraiswords.com $25,001 - $50,000
sanbernardino.com $25,001 - $50,000
santaclara.com $100,001 - $250,000
season.com $25,001 - $50,000
sham.com $10,001 - $25,000
shutter.com $10,001 - $25,000
siamesecats.com $1 - $5,000
silos.com $10,001 - $25,000
slots.asia $10,001 - $25,000
sports.info $5,001 - $10,000
stallions.com $10,001 - $25,000
statenislandrentals.com $1 - $5,000
steakknives.com $10,001 - $25,000
stimulant.com $5,001 - $10,000
sued.com $1 - $5,000
sushirestaurants.com $10,001 - $25,000
taxinformation.com $5,001 - $10,000
telemarketers.com $25,001 - $50,000
terrorist.com $10,001 - $25,000
toasterovens.com $25,001 - $50,000
trafficaccidents.com $10,001 - $25,000
transferring.com $1 - $5,000
travelconditions.com $5,001 - $10,000
usedhummers.com $10,001 - $25,000
viajes.com $1MM - $5MM
vixen.com $10,001 - $25,000
wager.co.uk $1 - $5,000
weddingcards.com $10,001 - $25,000
WeddingGift.com & WeddingGifts.com $250,001 - $500,000
workoutclothing.com $1 - $5,000
ycg.com $1 - $5,000

Here is the post I made on a certain blog today when that blogger WRONGLY complained and accused me of not posting his comments on this blog. Anyone can go back and plainly see I post all his less than flattering posts as well of that of others.

So here is the post that I posted on his blog to set the record straight.

Just for the record 'Friend'......I posted EVERY response you ever made to my blog. Most of them were nasty, some were two faced. But no matter how the tone of those responses were I have posted EVERY single one. I figure if you want to make a fool of yourself, why not let you. So I post ALL of them!
Sooo....if a post had an error, it was NOT with me not accepting the post.
As for kicking you off the board years ago that you repeatedly bring up.....Get over it big boy.
As for WhyPark....I talk with experience. I used that service. My income was cut by 66% and I have NEVER gotten paid for that traffic. So THERE you go! Not ignorance, experience.
Rick Schwartz

So be a man and print a retraction. I don't want an apology. I have found that apologies from you are time limited and worthless.

Update: I want to apologize to Craig Rowe of WhyPark.com. After a number of emails it was determied it was NOT WhyPark.com that I ran the test with. Craig helped me to remember the company when I told him the circumstances surrounding the test which I believe closed down not too long ago. Also the post that ignited all this has been rightfully retracted. Time to move on. None of this back biting ever made a domainer a single penny. The real crime is the waste of time and energy.

Morning Folks!!

If you don't think we are in historical times, then don't read any further. At this point there will be nothing I can say to convince you. Not only are we in times of history, we are entering a tipping point. The next 6 months will be the wildest and most crucial days we have seen financially and there is a pretty damn good chance that we will see the same things happening politically. Things are moving so fast that they can not even be reported on. Things we may pay dearly for in the future by not paying attention now.

Now we may dodge a bullet, but even if we do it is a bullet we will have to deal with again and again and again. Interesting that folks see my posts as doom and gloom sometimes. But I NEVER see dealing with REALITY anything but imperative in any situation. Knowing the perils trump knowing anything else. Survival is always key. If you don't survive, you have no way to thrive.

In my life I have worked for a number of people. Some did not pay me. Some screwed me out of millions. Some took valuable time away from me. Some kept me from breaking out much sooner. But when I look back at those days and those situations and those people, I only remember the things I gained. The good things. The silver lining. I never had time to carry that baggage of anger with me. Only time for the lessons I learned and the things I could apply in the future.

So while the economy is in turmoil, deal with it! Don't deny it. Figure out how these times are going to make your life better because of the new opportunities coming and that are out there right now. I can tell you without question that there has NEVER been more opportunity then there is right now. Never! But if some don't have the keen eye to recognize opportunity, then maybe it is not there for them. But only them.

Folks have a choice. I am just illustrating that choice. If you look at my writing over the years I repeatedly say I LOVE times like this. THIS is the time that fortunes are made and fortunes are lost. The ones losing fortunes did not take the peril seriously when they could. The ones making fortunes are being careful,savvy and are pouncing on opportunity after opportunity. They are likely to pay dividends for a lifetime.

So my posts are anything but doom and gloom. They are a road map to deal with reality and come out of this era in much better shape than you entered it.

Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

We all know mini sites are all the rage. But do they really work? In a word....no they don't. They make me feel good, but I make less money and that does not make me feel good. So if you develop, you need to develop a business, not just another site. Better yet, develop a relationship with the end user. The income will out perform PPC by as much as 10x or even more. Much more.

So I can look back over the years and without doubt, short of a full blown business, selling traffic to the end user that understands traffic and is sick of paying thru the nose for unknown quality is the way to stabilize your income and then grow it again.

It is really not uncommon to make 5x, 10x, 20x as much. And on domains with traffic that PPC can't convert, the numbers are even more substantial. Right now I am looking for an end user for a domain I have. Specialties.com that makes ZERO on ppc but has 100 daily visitors. When I turn $0/day into $10/day, I can move to the next domain. Repeat, repeat, repeat. End users are getting more sophisticated and in time this will be much more common.

Point is, when you are looking for answers, look in lots of different directions. Mini sites could work on one domain and have no results on another. Test, Test, Test. That is what allows me to write these things with a fair amount of confidence.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

A website is never done, it just evolves. That is the way I see things. So I am happy to announce the opening of Version 4 of the TRAFFIC website. I think you will like the clean light feeling that makes navigation a breeze. We will be adding the final touches for about another week. There are many updates coming. But I think you will already see an interesting change. We'll be adding videos and other snips from previous TRAFFIC shows. We also hope to broadcast interviews each day live and direct from the show. This site will be the place to check for updates.

I want to thank the Skenzo Team as well as Danny Pryor in making this the best version ever! These guys went above and beyond and they deserve props from all.

http://www.targetedtraffic.com/

Hope you like it!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz