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

Morning Folks!!
Which dirty little secret do you want to hear first? How many do you know first hand? Actually there are dozens of dirty little secrets. I don't have the time or inclination to go through all of them, but there are many and I see it growing. Trust is definitely going to be an issue going forward. The worst kinda scams are from the people you know and trust. Just ask 'Bernie.' So we are entering a phase that others have talked about. Except this phase may be pretty ugly in what goes on.
I think the last phase could be labeled the abuse phase. Starting at the beginning was the 'Geek' or 'Free' phase 1994. That was followed by the 'Dark' phase 1996 where domains had gone from free to $100 a pop certainly was a dark period with still such little understanding of what existed on the net.
That was followed by the 'Adult' phase in 1997. That was followed by the collapse. 2001/2002. Then we enter what I would call the 'Frank Schilling' phase. This is the post collapse phase in which drops and ppc and mega portfolios emerge. This becomes the domain industries first big boost. That leads into the mega sale phase when we have the Men.com mark the end of the collapse and the biggest rush we have seen to date. 2004. That lead to the trade show phase 2004/2005. Which led to the formation of an industry. 2005. That led to the 'Cut their nuts off' phase. 2007. Which led to the 'Auction Phase' ($12.5 Million T.R.A.F.F.I.C./Moniker auction) 2007 which leads us to the 'Abuse' phases where many took advantage and we are paying the price today. 2008
So here we are in 2009. The next phase. What is it called? I don't know yet. There are other phases. I could and should have mentioned the Marchex deal. The VC phase. There are so many. Like chapters in a book. Perhaps this is 'Book 3' of it all. Or book 4? We can each sit down and name our own personal phases. Maybe the 'Steve Forbes' phase. Whatever you want to call it I call it lifting an industry from obscurity to front and center. A rising tide helps all of us. We can all assist in raising that tide. It happens one contact at a time. Like making a million dollars. You don't make a 'Million' dollars. You make a dollar, 1 million times.
Have a GREAT day!!
Rick Schwartz

Morning folks!

Good Afternoon folks!!

Just wanted to list a few updates since March.

TRAFFIC at Disney World was not the biggest TRAFFIC but it was certainly the best by all accounts of people that were actually there. Here is the DNJournal review. Many others have blogged and written about it as well.

Whizzbangsblog
DNZoom
NPR covers the auction
Acro's take
DomainNameWire
DomainNews Interview at TRAFFIC

It was quite a magical week and we expect to be back there in early 2010 after shows in New York in September, Australia in November and then just 2 scheduled USA shows in 2009. One in Silicon Valley and then back to New York City. The costs to put on shows like this and the costs involved in coming to TRAFFIC are both very high. We know it is out of the reach of the part time or casual enthusiast, but I hope in time they too will have good fortune and be in a position to attend.
We do our best in bringing price levels down the earlier you book. So we hope that helps folks reach the level this conference was designed for. Those that dislike our pricing don't understand what we try to do and try to create and ultimately have been successful accomplishing. It is something money can't buy. Only faith in being able to see and then seize great opportunity when it passes in front of you is the price of this ticket. Folks that come to TRAFFIC don't really 'Pay' to come. That's a myth. They get 'Rewarded' with money making opportunity. They get 'Rewarded' by making face to face deals with ones in positions to make those deals. They get 'rewarded' with dividends at each and every corner. So that is the truth as well as the secret of what happens at TRAFFIC. We create a very special atmosphere and circumstance and then bring great people together that are focused on business and enjoying life. Like this speech given by Dr. Kevin Ham. Then we wrap it up in a very personal non traditional trade show mindset. It's like getting concierge service because we try and accommodate each and every attendee whether they are in need of special meals or need anything out of the ordinary, we get it done!

And getting it done is what we did when it comes to 'Transparency.'

The board of advisor's of TRAFFIC have officially adopted the  'T.R.A.F.F.I.C. TRANSPARENCY SEAL OF APPROVAL.' You can read the details and qualifications here.

The 'TRAFFIC WALL OF SPEAKERS'  is a page I put up on Sunday as a tribute to every speaker at TRAFFIC since our inception in 2004. See how many folks you know. Look at the quality of who we have had come and share their stories. Isn't that what this is all about? Sharing our stories? No  two  are alike. No two have the same result. Just the unique domains we own and the unique story behind them. The way in which each and every one of us climbed the same mountain. Each forging a different path.

Hope you all have a GREAT and safe summer! See you in New York City!

Rick Schwartz

Every once
in a while somebody will find an old post of mine and that happened this
morning. Thank you Owen! This post as you will see was written on July 4,
1998. There was no domain industry. As you can see, I am still trying to sell
the concept that the Internet was here to stay and just how important it is. So
this is an interesting perspective from nearly 10 years ago. My goodness, look
how the universe has changed in the past decade. What “Orbit” were you in a
decade ago? Think back to that time and what was different. Look how the world
has transformed itself in this decade. This is extremely timely as the new proposed law will change the life of every person that owns one or more domains if passed. We have come from total obscurity to being the #1 asset to legislate away from the current owners. Don't know what I am talking about? Read what Mike Berkens has to say after you read the following post. Now maybe folks will see the reason to support the Internet Commerce Association. 

From July
4th 1998........
Morning All!!
This is my 3rd annual July 4th post on domains.
Second on Ynot - and I believe the first was on Jonathans OLD board.
The first year they laughed me off the board
The second year they began to see what I saw
The third year I would like to show you where this 'Domain train' is
ultimately going.
First of all you MUST visualize a domain as a PHYSICAL piece of property, land,
undeveloped land.
Second you must realize that it is a MULTIDIMENSIONAL object because of
'Product branding' and WORLDWIDE address.
Third you must realize the special 'Uniqueness' ALL domains
inherently have.
Fourth......it is FREE to get to and hopefully EASY to remember and SPELL.
Fifth and MOST important, you must realize just how VALUABLE that real estate
REALLY is.
I have said one thing numerous times since I started down this path.....and 3
years later......I believe it stronger than ever!! 'The price of domains
(Electronic realestate) will go up faster than ANY other land EVER known to
man' I had made $0 at the point that I BELIEVED that statement to be true.
When I talk about domains I talk of PRIME domains. Not some of my silly
'cams' or 'gos' or 'starts' or other such veins.
(That is for down the road)  I am talking
corner properties in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, South Beach.
1 or 2 word domains that are TARGETED to a SPECIFIC group of people.
So where do I see myself at this point.......
I see myself in Times Square and I own a few corners plus a BUNCH of land on
42nd st.
When I arrived.....it was like a ghost town....it was barren and empty and MORE
than scary.
Today......I hear the sounds of a MASSIVE construction project underway. Trucks
and cranes and banging and digging and everything else you can imagine.
AND IT HAS EXPANDED!!
Those sounds are being heard in other geographic regions as well. It's not only
Manhattan!!
They have expanded to KANSAS if you were talking in domain terms, and with new
highways opening up in the form of different extensions......things get even
more interesting!
THIS is the year that the mainstream WILL figure it out. I started this journey
expecting it to be 4 or 5 years down the road before it hit. That would make my
ultimate predictions come true in the next 18 months.
So What will happen??
First of all how many of you would have imagined a year ago that the board
would have soooo many postings in references to domains....buying, selling,
trading? That IS significant.
I believe that the 'Multi national' companies of the world may begin
to see what I see. When that happens....AND IT WILL HAPPEN.....you will see a
significant amount of buying going on and the prices will go thru the roof! I
see numerous domains that will become next to priceless BECAUSE they WON'T be
for sale. THAT will cause other domain prices to rise.
Location! Location! Location!
I always believed it was a lot easier for a crummy restaurant to be successful
in a prime location with built in traffic than a GREAT restaurant that nobody
is able to find. Doesn't mean the GREAT restaurant won't be
successful.......but it DOES MEAN:
that he MUST be MUCH BETTER!
that he has to work MUCH harder!
that he has to give them a reason to go out of their way!
that he will always look down on the guy with the great location!
BUT
At some point......the GREAT restaurant may want BOTH!
The BIG money IS coming! REALLLLLLLLLLY Big!
I believe it. I believed it in 1995. And I believe it stronger on THIS July 4th
than any other!
I remember last July 4th when I said to friends and such that a company's
website address would appear in every commercial, every magazine ad, every
billboard and at some point in time will become MORE important than even their
800 number. Guess what - yes, they laughed at me. I got more than a FEW raised
eyebrows.
I would say on THIS July 4th that ANY company without a presence on the net is
LOSING BUSINESS and their competition is gaining it! It indicates a company
with little foresight and if you were an investor in one of these companies I
would say it was time to change.
Keep your eyes on Disney, Microsoft, and some OLD GIANTS, plus a few unknowns
to lead the hottest race you have EVER seen. Look at the domains Disney and
Microsoft are buying up RIGHT NOW.
The BIGGEST factor!
Let's say Sears decides to build a store in Osh Kosh......It costs them $25
million, takes them 2 years to build after 5 years of planning.
VERY SLOW......VERY EXPENSIVE!
And if they get it wrong.....Ha ha!!
Now if Sears decides to build NUMEROUS websites TARGETED at different groups of
people they could take that same $$$$ and do some SERIOUS damage on the net!
AND they can do it overnight!
WHY did I stop advertising my Dirty phone numbers in all those magazines I was
in back in 1996?
Cuz on the net I could take it and turn my money around in days and I no longer
had to wait 6-9 months to get a return!
Maybe others will come to the same conclusion......If they follow the
$$$$$......then there isn't a doubt in my mind.
Sorry for the Long and Boring post......But I LOVE tradition!!
Have a happy and SAFE 4th!!
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

In a few minutes I am off to Las Vegas and TRAFFIC. But before I go I would like to share the message that will be inside the printed show program. Whether you attend or not, it's something to readas we are going to have a very interesting 2008.
Hi Folks and Welcome to
Las Vegas and TRAFFIC WEST 2008.

This is the 13th year of
my 20 year plan. It may be a 20 year plan, but the finish line does not happen
the minute you hit 20 years. It is a process that happens over time and many
things have to fall in place for this to happen. As I see it, 2008 is THE most
pivotal year in this industry. The entire future of our space will be
determined in the next several months. If the domain industry rises to the occasion,
then the 20 year plan is right on track and it will be a great ride. If not,
the consequences won't be seen today but the ride to the 20 year mark will be
rough and unpleasant and you had better have loads of lawyers on staff.

This is the year that will
determine if your destiny is going to be in your hands or forfeit to those
predators that want what you have because the value of domains has
skyrocketed into the thousands of dollars, and in many instances in the
hundreds of thousands and even millions. Just because the market has
yet to recognize it does not mean that we can surrender what we believe
due to the ignorance of others. That ignorance will transform itself into
a monster unless folks grasp what is a natural phenomena. That is why you
have to look back at history to see what will unfold in the future. That was
why we had Steve Forbes as a speaker.  As an historian, he understands the
threats to take over our assets as has happened in the past. That is why we
will hear from Jim McCann who is a walking history and may have fought some of
the battles we are yet to see.

Some tell me I should
not say things like this. I am the most optimistic person you will
meet. That optimism does not mean I am blind to reality. Blind to threats.
Blind to bad weather just because the sun is shining today and all is well. I
know this industry is very charitable. If you want to continue to be able to
give and provide, then fortify your own livelihoods by supporting the
organization that may be the only thing between us and the predators that will
surely come to get our assets; not in the marketplace, but  rather resort
to the courtroom where they can outspend and out wait you while making your
lives miserable.

On the other front is
transparency. Payouts with no rhyme or reason. The numbers don't lie and
we are seeing things that are troubling. Like I have said several times in the
last few months....'We count our change when we give a $20 at McDonalds
and don't do the same things when BIG money is at stake. Personally, I think
that is insane and lazy and I could go on and on.

Recently someone posed
this question:

'When will all
these companies stop treating us like mindless 'traffic' and more
like 'partners' or at least offer those of us interested this respect?'

My answer:

'That's an easy one....When DOMAINERS show up and demand it. For years we have done nothing to protect
our assets. THIS is the chance to press for concrete changes. With a unified
mind and purpose, there is strength to demand transparency and
accountability.  Without it, there is no reason why any change to increase
our income should take place. Only domain owners themselves can demand their
fair share.'
So, while things are still good, we are entering some uncertain economic times.
We have real challenges and in the coming months we will see if domainers are
up to the challenge.

Thanks for coming to
TRAFFIC. Howard and I along with our wives and Ray will do everything we
can to provide the tools and relationships you need to achieve whatever dream
you carry with you. When you bring GREAT people together, GREAT things can
happen.

Rick Schwartz
CEO and Co-founder
WORLD ASSOCIATION OF DOMAIN NAME DEVELOPERS, INC

Morning folks!!

I never had a 'Guest' blog post until now. But today I woke up and read something posted by Kevin Leto and asked his permission to reprint this. This should put some things in perspective to what lays ahead for domain owners and PPC companies. Change the numbers. Experiment. But there is a lot of truth in the way Kevin looks at things and it rings true with what I know as well. Kevin is the man that led the team behind acquisition of my Men.com domain in 2003/2004.

Parking vs. Development

'When looking at the debate of Parking vs. Development, much depends on
the objectives a domainer has for his portfolio and the types and
quality of his domains.

A high quality type-in domain will obviously have a higher CTR on a PPC
page, usually 30% to 40%, sometimes even higher. Whereas on a web site
you'll see CTR's of 5% to 10%. So you will see a drop in revenues
initially.

The down side to PPC is it doesn't create traffic growth, nor build a
user base, nor offer any other revenue or site feature options. Bottom
line you are limited completely. The upside is simplicity, especially
if you need a monetization solution for tens of thousands of domains.

The down side to web sites are initial drop in revenues (for type-in
domains), initial development costs, and then management of them. The
upside is you now have the ability to grow traffic, grow a user base,
and have total flexibility for implementation of all sorts of features
and revenue generators.

It kills me when domainers say PPC is better. It is ultimately not, and
if you sit down and deeply think about how much money you have been
leaving on the table you'd fall off your chair when the realization
sinks in.

If PPC was indeed better than we wouldn't have any problems selling our
fabulous sounding one word domain names to major corporations all day
long. They'd be falling all over themselves to pay any price we ask.
It's not happening and it's not going to happen, with rare exceptions
of course.

Major corporations don't want to acquire just type-in traffic for 20
years multiples, on an undeveloped domain. They do want to acquire
USERS and a branded domain with a site that provides those users with a
positive experience that they gain information, products, services,
interaction or entertainment from.

Business.com is a fantastic domain as an example. It went from a
$150,000 domain acquisition to a $7.5 Million acquisition for
development as a search engine with companies paying annual fees of
$199 to be included and paying for ad clicks to their directory
listing, and just recently to a $345 Million acquisition by the R.H.
Donnelly company. Most domainers would have that on a PPC landing page
and would be making a ton of money surely. But would they be making
$345 Million with that strategy? The answer is no. What surely turned
Donnelly on was not just the traffic, but that established advertiser
goldmine in Business.com's databases. Those advertisers could then be
further developed as advertisers across their entire ad network.

Web surfers come and either click and go on or just move on instantly
when they hit a ppc landing page. There is no customer aquisition for
the domain owner. Zippo. The most cherished and valued prize on the Net
walks into your store and in seconds is out the back door to someone
else's site. It that smart business? I don't think anyone could argue
it is.

Let's look at a big domain that has 30,000+ type-ins per day. Let's say
it's been owned for 10 years. That's 12 Million visitors a year. 120
Million since registration. Think about that number. 120 MILLION people
have come to your store in the past decade. How many are 'YOUR
CUSTOMERS'? Not a single one. How many of their e-mail addresses do you
have in a database? Not a single one. What kinds of stuff are they
looking to buy? You don't know a single drop of info about them.
They've come and they've gone.

Now lets analyze the valuations. Under the PPC model, let's assume a
high 60% CTR paying 15 cents a click ove the life of the domain so far.
The math works out to $10.8 Million you've earned over the past 10
years. That is great wealth and no one could deny a totally successful
business.

Now lets say the site had been developed. After 10 years not only would
you have those same 120 Million visitors, you would have captured a
percentage of them in some way as repeat visitors, maybe a
subscription, maybe just registered, maybe sold them something
directly, any number of ways. But the main point is you would have tons
of repeat visitors, and they would have provided free word of mouth,
which would have brought in even more traffic and users. The revenues
could be anything here since there are so many ways to generate cash
flow when you have a web site. Surely in that time at a bare minimum
you could have earned equal to the PPC and probably many multiples
more. But the key point is you have not only an incredibly valuable
domain asset at this point, but an even more valuable customer base
asset. My guess is after 10 years you'd have at least 10 to 20 million
users, probably way more. Now you own an asset worth a fortune, and in
the hundreds of millions, and probably even close to a Billion or more.

So both ways make money, but the developed domain model is the true
ultimate long term goldmine. And yes, not every developed site works,
we've seen the dotcom bubble prove that, but the good thing about the
Net now is the economies of scale are so efficient you can take down
one concept and do another without much investment compared to the
early days, and you always have your base type-in traffic. That is not
going anywhere. If one building doesn't work, knock it down and put up
another until you get it right. It's that simple.

Now to the points about mini sites. I personally have found mini sites
work especially great for no-traffic domains bought at reg fee. They
grow traffic, no if's ands or buts. You do the math and even doing 1,
2, or 3 figs of revs a month, the numbers get amazing very very fast.

For most domainers I've polled, the majority of domains in their
portfolio get litle or no traffic. Why did we buy them and why do we
continue to then? It's the expectation we all say that one day they'll
be good for development. What happens is domainers end up having
thousands of these no traffic domains and basically get overwhelmed in
their minds when they reach the point of saying 'ok now how do I get
these all developed?'. 99% of domainers aren't developers. Nor do they
want to be. It takes a lot of multitasking type skills and loads of
energy to be a developer and even more to then manage it all
effectively.

You also don't want to put simple sites on exceptional domains. Great
domains deserve and need great sites. And that doesn't mean you need to
spend an arm and a leg to get that. It certainly costs more to build a
more robust site, but Internet technoloy has dramatically reduced the
costs to an insignificant number compared to the early days. Over the
past couple months I've evolved my mini site concept and system
structure about 5 times over into something more robust, scaleable, and
integrated with lots more features and capabilities than the original
mini sites. I've now got a system designed to accomodate simple sites
for no traffic domains reg fee domains, enhanced sites for moderate
traffic domains and full scale sites for the premium type-in domains
and have figured a way to still keep the costs in check even on the
larger enterprise style sites. So its not just a strategy of instantly
doing a zillion mini sites. You have to evaluate each domain and how
much potential it has and then deploy a precision developed and custom
tailored site on it. Once you do a few, then keep on going and build
out more and more and more of them and you'll soon have an enterprise
sized ad network in your portfolio. Since a small number of domainers
have the really huge traffic type-in domains, this is a way for the
less fortunate domainers to get to that level too by having hundreds
and thousands of small sites doing hundreds of visitors each a day and
adding up to a big number of visitors network wide. It's not easy to
get small sites into thousands of visitors per day, but it is easy to
get double and triple digits of traffic per day on them. You build with
the end user in mind and they will come back and they will do word of
mouth for you and traffic grows.

I've researched all the stuff you hear about SEO inside out, and there
are some valid and genuine ways to optimize sites using SEO techniques.
There are also many 'black hat' ways that SEO wizards do to get high
page rankings for clients. Many of these don't last very long in the
SERPS. My position is look at Google's basic algorithm mantra. It's as
simple as their home page is. Sites that provide users with the best
experience go to the top of the SERPS for the long term. You don't need
all sorts of fancy SEO stuff to accomplish that, nor be an SEO rocket
scientist. You just need to do basic SEO optimizing and provide the
highest quality site experience you can. Not only will you get good
rankings, but users will tell other users, users will bookmark and come
back again and again.

As I've indicated above when you place a high traffic domain on a site
you'll see an initial rev drop, but you will begin the process of solid
traffic and user growth that will take you to the real treasure of
dollars.

And here is where you have to really open your eyes wide and see
exactly where the trove of money is. It is not doing thousands of bulk
basic sites with Google AdSense on them. There is nothing wrong with
AdSense. It works. It makes money. But it is NOT the treasure trove
when you begin developing. It's just the first step of the advertising
monetization process. The gold rush comes when you enter Phase 2 of
development and have traffic built across many sites with well targeted
niches and users and can then sell impression based long term
advertising deals directly to major corporate advertisers. This is
where major major money can be made from advertising on developed
sites. Plus at this point you now have the ability to implement premium
subscription based type services and products to users to create
additional revenue flows, do lead generators, and all sorts of exciting
moneymakers.

Let's go back to the 10 year domain example above. Let's say after 10
years and your several hundred million visitors you had developed a
site and out of all those surfers you grabbed 1/2 of 1% for a
subscription of some kind. Not even taking into consideration the
millions of extra visitors that would have been grown by a site on the
domain, and just using the native type-in volume during that decade for
the base factoring, you'd have roughly 500,000 subscribers paying you a
fee every month. Or maybe just 500,000 subscribers with no fee but who
you could then sell premium rate advertising on, such as in a
newsletter. What's 500,000 subscribers paying you $9.95 /month? That's
$5 Million per month, over 10 years thats $600 Million. So what's
better? $10 Million or 10 to 20x that number by having a web site asset
to sell one day along with a great domain.

And think how much you could sell that asset for with 500,000 and up
subscribers, with major corporate advertisers, and a huge income
stream. Now you own a domain really worth the hundreds of millions of
dollars we all say our domains are worth.

Cha-ching $$$. Once you look at domains with this understanding and
vision, I think most domainers will quickly see the light, sit down
with a calculator and know the future much more clearly and without
hesitation, determine the wealth building strategy to aim for in the
years ahead.'

Kevin Leto
Decemebr 11th 2007

I think we can agree that was one hell of a post. Thank you Kevin!

Have a GREAT day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning folks!!

Well we are into November. The home stretch. The retailers and their suppliers around the globe depend on what happens in the next 10 weeks to make their year. Each Christmas business and industry has TIMIDLY increased their online spending but still have yet to take that real PLUNGE. Each year I wonder if this will be the year? The year that they can no longer ignore the dollars spent on the net that out produce the dollars spent on the newspapers, TV and other media. Each year we make progress and each year all the analysts are surprised. (I Can't believe they pay these people to be 'Surprised.' Don't they get paid to predict significant changes before they occur?)

So will THIS be the online Christmas many have always expected? Will the same sorry folks be marched out to tell you not to spend online? How dangerous it is? Marched out like a political attack machine because they know their days are numbered? These people who are funded by those with most to lose. Is this the year they get it? Can they figure out that Google is approaching $800/share for a reason? That they are the fastest growing, most valuable company in the world for a reason? Can they figure out that the newspapers are not only going down in circulation but in readerehip as well?? Same with other mediums. And talk about 'Stickyness'.......Imagine how many MINUTES someone used to read a newspaper or magazine and how many minutes they read now?

There are so many invisible things going on it is hard to keep up with and it will take years for them to even ask the right questions let alone report on it. Imagine the day when companies begin to announce that more than 50% of all their ad budgets will be spent online??!! That day is coming. There is no question about it and it will be an avalanche the likes we have never seen before. This is an inevitability. It could happen sooner than anyone even expected and then the guys we pay to get these things right and predict these events, will be 'Surprised'!!

So for all you analysts that are going to be surprised.....don't be. I just told you what was going to happen. Now figure it out for yourselves and alert your clients. If you don't do that.....prepared to be SURPRISED and then go get a job you can actually do!!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

When you see companies buying other companies
for hundreds of millions or billions and there is no profit center,
there is a REASON for this. A MAIN reason. They buy others because they
have yet to learn how to do it themselves. So they buy at crazy
prices.
Now if they are smart they will at least learn what makes things
tick and be able to create their own entities with the better and more
profitable results. Now WHEN that happens.....and it WILL happen.....it
IS evolution......it is almost guaranteed to happen, then the focus
will SHIFT from buying a site that somebody has already made to buying
that domain name and putting your own idea on it.
The Internet is like figuring out the Rubix Cube. You can struggle with
it for a very long time before you figure it out. But when you DO
figure it out, you can REPEAT the process over and over again AND you
can accelerate the process. DOMAINS are directly on the targeted path.
They MUST stumble over domains once they figure out the Rubix Cube.....I mean figure out the Internet.
Predicting 'When' is what gets everybody in trouble. It is an
evolution. Meaning it is not measured in TIME, it is measured in
MILESTONES. That is why I talk in 3, 5, 10 and 20 year intervals. Study
the history of television, or real estate, of oil wells of the gold
rush. They did not happen overnight in many cases. It was an evolution.
TV is still evolving. It happened in a PERIOD of time. The thing to
focus on is what will occur in our lifetimes. I say this because the
Internet and domains will out live everyone here by many years. Having
a billion dollars at age 90 does not have the same value as a few million at
age 30. The sweet spot of life is what it is all about. My sweet spot
is passing quickly. lol.
Folks ask me all the time how to get in the
domain business today. The answer is like getting on a moving
Merry-Go-Round. You have to TIME it right. Get up to speed. You have to define an ENTRY
POINT. THEN you can assess where you are and where you would like to
go. Then you put your plan into action and don't be afraid to change
course 100% as you learn new things. The point is how you play the game
depends on the MOMENT you get in. No two moments are alike. No two
opportunities are alike. I got on at a POINT IN TIME. Everyone else
gets on at a POINT IN TIME. Depending on that POINT may determine the
direction.
So when folks ask 'Can you get into domains and be successful if
you started TODAY?' The answer is YES, but when they ask ME how to do
it.....I can't tell them. It is a different set of circumstances and I
would have to STUDY the market for several days, weeks or months to create a new formula. But
there is no question there are many successes to have out there. If I
started again today I would still be very successful. I have no idea
the BLACK HOLE I would exploit without doing my homework. But what I do
know is I have a tried and true formula for success when applied to
whatever I need to apply it to the result will be successful. While
others measure time in seconds and hours, I measure in milestones. In progress. In achievements. In evolution. THAT my friends is a KEY
ingredient and so few get that.

Have a GREAT Day!