The Domain King's® thoughts on domain names, web traffic, increasing web sales, success, life, and plain-old Business & Marketing 101. Nothing happens until a sale is made!
The new gTLD demolition Derby is in full swing. It's hard to fathom just how TERRIBLE these domains are doing but hopefully, the following graphs and numbers will help.
As you can see from the graph below GTLD's have found a CLIFF and they are falling off it right now.
Growth for the period of November 2019 till TODAY in February 2021 has been ZERO!! GTLD's are back to November 2019 levels!! Imagine 1000 companies trying to sell something nobody really wants and COMBINED can't even get to a NET GAIN of ONE! It's almost impossible!! Call Guinnesse's cuz this may be record-setting!!
So there is 2021 for ya. Below we will show what today looks like as I could not find a single registration but we did find nearly 1.4 MILLION drops on just the top 10 LOL domains! Now about 29.5 Million Total and melting like the witch from Wizard of Oz!
It is starting to look like this every single day. Domainers that drank the kool-aid and finally threw in the towel.
Below is a graph of what I would assume is a Domainer BUYING about 7000 .Tattoo domains in 2019 and you will see them all dropping 1 year later. I could not fit the entire graph it was more important to show you the BUYING from 2019 then the graph that goes all the way down, today.
I could do this all day long with extension after extension. It's ugly! They are not even flatlining. They are bleeding and they are bleeding heavily.
So how many of the new G's are owned by domainers vs END-USERS. It would be my best guess that OVER 98% of all new G's are in storage by domainers trying to hang on.
Then there is the .Club HYPE!! PLEASE! It's ass backward folks! Just because clubhouse took off?? It's not HouseClub.com. If there was ANY beneficiary it would be .House. But .CLUB?? That's why so many domainers FAIL. They are ass backward. My WhoreHOUSE.com is a bigger beneficiary than the entire .CLUB registry! How do so many "Professional Domainers" get this so wrong. I think it is pure desperation!!
We have witnessed an epic marketing failure the likes of which have really never been seen before. 1000 new extensions and 1000 losers. Congrats!
I stated years ago (2013) that this was going to be a "Demolition Derby". IT IS! It's a "Clusterfuck". IT IS! Here are all my blog posts with "CLUSTERFUCK" and most talk about GTLD's!
In the meantime .com domains have continued to be more and more important and of course prices have reflected that. When I look at the top 10 new GTLD sales each week on DNJournal.com usually 6-7 slots are taken by legacy extensions like .net and .org. Those 2 extensions are the winner as I predicted YEARS ago RIGHT HERE in 2015.
If I can see this garbage coming 5 and 10 years in advance, what the hell is the excuse for not seeing it now in light of ALL the evidence?? I articulated only a FRACTION of the pitfalls. I wanted to be on the record. It was an epic lesson in foreseeable failure.
The registrars for the most part made out like bandits. They were bandits. They swallowed up MILLIONS of domain investor dollars like a vacuum cleaner. How many total drops?? TENS of millions. Maybe HUNDREDS! I don't blame them. They had bags of smoke and their job was to sell and market them. Foolish domainers looking for the "Second coming" got sucked in with dreams of riches but most went broke. The smart ones learned. They will chine in on the comments I am sure!
This failure was easy to spot because in my 50 years of business I have NEVER EVER seen a product with so many pitfalls. EVER! It was and remains the single biggest business clusterfuck I have ever seen. The only thing left is the funeral. And with Frank Schilling auctioning off his own GTLD's, the new GTLD era is over!! Matter of fact, it would have never taken off at all without Frank.
Your future business destiny starts and ends with your domain name. Great domains equal great destinies. If Social Media is your hub, destiny is in the hands of others. It can disappear on the whim of just one idiot with power. Are you in control of your own destiny or is your unknown pimple faced master in control?
They had caravans to transport the king's gold, but was not a very safe or fast way to move assets of value. They had stagecoaches that moved from east to west. How much gold could they carry before it would collapse or was attacked by outlaws? How safe was it?
You could bury CASH in the desert, but you had to pray nobody would find it. You could put all your dollars in a bank into an account that the government can seize on a whim. You can hide it in your mattress as long as the house does not burn down.
Bitcoin is fine. But it's not built on anything useful and you will never control the value. You can just enjoy the ride. #whiplash
Diamonds are small and easy to carry and easy to hide. But they suck as investments and can be stolen or cracked and become worthless. You would have a hard time getting a $100k CASH quickly even for a $1 Million diamond.
Stocks, we all own them. Manipulated as they are. Pieces of paper and a monthy statement. Whoo-Hoo
Watches are portable. You can put a million dollars on your wrist and always have enough to put a roof over your head. I give a thumbs up to a wristwatch.
But in all the years of scraching my head and scratching my balls, nothing has ever even come close to Domain Names. Now it isn't like I am against the other investments as many try and twist my point, they just simply can't compete with a meaningful and great domain name. The most portable asset in the history of man with the most potential value. And pretty darn safe!
Raw land is about liquid as a domain name. Not easy to sell raw land unless you want to give it away. You have to be patient and wait for someone with a need. With a want. With a desire. With the where with all. With an idea and a plan. And it has to be a value. Similar to Domain Names. You don't buy 10 acres today to put on the market tomorrow and expect to get much if any return. Silly! But that is the domainer strategy. Silly!
There is land and parcels everywhere that have been for sale for years. Decades even. Probaly the same in your neck of the woods. Land to be sold for premium $$$ need a specific purpose so one can calculate how things will unfold. What is different with a domain name? Unless you sell to another domainer that sees something you don't and let them reap YOUR REWARD!
Serious inquiries come from owning serious domains. So invest and collect great domains and eventually you will have a flow of qualified inquiries. Worry about buying and the sales will happen. Worry about sales and not much will happen. Focus on the hunt, the meal will come later!
I own each and every asset listed above plus others. But with my domains I can go to sleep knowing I have great value stored safely away and wherever I go those assets are a click away. I control my destiny. And if all else fails, I can actually roll up my sleeves and start building out. What exactly do I do with my other assets other than sell them? Controlling your own destiny has value far beyond what the untrained naked eye can see or put a value on.
I am bullish on domains in a way few can see or understand. I understand the value in our eco system when compared to other assets and other opportunities. Domains are the foundation of the internet and has yet to be recognized by those that should have seen it DECADES ago! The domain name is your world passport to autonomy and independence both financially and spiritually. It all starts with a Domain Name. Get your head around that!
I value my domains based on factors I have discussed in previous blog posts. There is NOBODY on this planet that can convince me otherwise. But it is time for many to wise up and see what I see. Everyone's future starts and ends with a domain name. I REFUSE to sell LIFE-CHANGING assets for anything under the value I see. If they don't see what I see, there is nothing to talk about. SIMPLE!!
That mindset has earned me over $21 million selling just 19 domains since I retired in 2015. Added to the 20 years of traffic and 20 sales prior to my retirement, would put me among the top 10 career earners by any professional golfer and just 4 or 5 slots behind Tiger Woods! But nobody keeps score like that except me! And I do! And yes, of course, I have but 1 goal......to match or exceed Tiger! I figure I'll be an active domainer longer than he'll be an active golfer. (God willing for both of us)
But 2021 is going to be a MONSTER of a year. No longer do I get hateful responses when I discuss a price with a potential buyer that may be 10 times higher than it was a few years ago. Now we have conversations and I am engaged in different conversations daily. Sometimes all day. So with that in mind, I will make the boldest of predictions, In the next 18 months I will exceed the $21 Million of the past 5 or 6 years. Possibly with one sale!
Why am I so sure? 3 words: Covid, Social Media. Covid is driving everyone online and social media is driving everyone to having their own website and not depending on the Masters of the Universe pulling the rug out from under them in a whim and leave folks without income or exposure or even a business. #WOKE
My valuation STARTS with real world expenses. So virtually nothing I own and sell will be valued at less than $500,000. That's my BASE. PERIOD! And to the base still has the value of the domain itself. So it won't be long before my floor is $1 Million.
Now you can go and dismiss that but before you make that mistake, let me share this with you. In 1996 my minimum value was $15,000. A few years later it went up to $50,000. In 1999 with my first sale of eScore.com my minimum had gone to $100k. When we started 2020 my minimum was $250k. That doubled by the end of 2020 and I would not be surprised to see it double again THIS YEAR!
$480k BEFORE salaries! Before lots of other expenses Local vs Worldwide +++ That's how I value Domains before I even get to value the domain itself.
And how about the store sign? Tens of thousands! Hundreds of Thousands!
And what if you have 100 or 1000 or more locations? This is not rocket science. You can see your physical store name on your sign from a block away. You can see your domain name from OUTER SPACE! WAKE UP!
What was the COST of building just one Sear's store? The land, the building, the furnishings, the employees, the YEARS of research to find a proper location??? That equation will no longer work! Get your head around that! That my friends is the proper comparison. The one I have used for 25 years and the one that I will use 125 YEARS past my own personal expiration date!
That said, I am open-minded and offer flexible terms and angel friendly financing by way of liberal lease options as low as $1000/month and equity deals for those with big and profitable ideas. Their wallets may be thin, but they can use the equity in their PROFITABLE idea to start using and exploiting my high-profile and sometimes high-traffic domains.
Getting a 6 or 7 or even 8 figure domain to exploit their business dream with possibly no upfront fee and a monthly note no more than a luxury car, is called OPPORTUNITY!! It's actually the opportunity of a lifetime and I guess I like doing business with folks that see that. If they can't get their head around something as simple as that.....what else can I say?
You can't buy what I have until you see what I see!PERIOD!!
In a few days, I mark the day that I got my very first Domain Name. LipService.com on December 26th 1995. I have had several monikers along the way. RickS, Mr800King, Webfather, DomainKing but I have always been Rick Schwartz.
It really was not until months later, in May, that I got my 2nd and 3rd domains. A birthday present from my brother. My 2 company names at the time.
Then I sent him an email and asked if he could get me 1 or 2 others. Then 1 or 2 more. Then 1 or 2 more and after a while he got sick of the work (Smart) and says go to this link and register them yourself.
AND THAT was my first day in Domaining.
I did not know how to cut and paste. I did not know how to search. I could barely navigate anywhere and when I did get there, I had no idea where I was, how I got there or how to got back.
So my only point of reference was a domain name. I knew how to type in http://www.lipservice.com etc. But it would take me a while to grasp the http:// part and you had to put in the www in those days. (Some sites still have not figured out that one)
So I was a know-nothing lost pup in a land of techies. Techies and I see a different sun and a different moon. Oil and water.
I was an idiot in their eyes. They were right of course. But I had a different path that they could not see or get their head around.
How do you advertise 125.66.139.81 on tv or radio or magazines or Billboard? Of course I was an idiot for asking that cuz everything comes from SEARCH.
“You don’t advertise on TV, you have links you idiot!” And that was how the table was set.
This idiot was dependent on those idiots!!!
I got kicked off my first host because of makeout.com and listing party chat lines. So I had to find another provider and another idiot to deal with. After a few idiots I finally found a host that understood how to point as many domains as I wanted to one page. Redirecting.
Redirecting. Wow!!
Funny part is all the genius idiots I had already dealt with told me what I wanted to do was impossible. So maybe now you understand why genius idiots don’t impress me. I actually like SMART people not those that think they are.
So remember I am in the wilderness. I am BLIND to where I am. I've been having the genius idiots lead me until then. I was dependent on idiots. And they were idiots for multiple reasons. They thought they had a 9-5 job as a hosting company for starters.
Their servers were up and down like yoyo’s and they had no sense of urgency. I was out of business, they were out of business and all their clients were out of business but they were GONE!! Gone on weekends and gone 16 hours a day.
Now they are CERTIFIED IDIOTS!!
So I discover I am a businessman in a sea of idiots. That sounds like opportunity to me. So I find this guy in Pennsylvania that hosts and has a brain and still has issues being a techie, but we found common ground. Maybe paying $1500/month for my domain hosting helped!
But I would have to rely on him to make update changes to my page or link changes. Until the day I learned to FTP. LIFE-CHANGING!!
I could finally take updates in an instant and not rely on 9-5’ers that may take DAYS and a 2nd email or even 3rd email to get something done.
The next thing I learned was to cut and paste. CONTROL-C, CONTROL-V, Then CONTROL-F
I was in pig shit heaven!!
With those simple tools, I was able to change my destiny. To this day I can’t do much more. Though I do know now how to search like a bloodhound now!
Through all this I am alone. I know nobody. That is until I started hitting the chat boards and getting banned from those chat boards and my posts pulled.
Professional businessman many of them with adult sites. They were talking BUSINESS!!! The business was TITS and ASS, but the discussion was almost all business!
That was when I finally came out of the wilderness for the very first time. Little by little I worked my way into the group. It took me about 2 weeks to make a name for myself.
“Serge” was the guy on board that everyone feared. One day Serge offered a $5 challenge. I stepped up and I said I would take that bet.
I lost!
So now I owed Sege $5. Serge was in New Jersey, I was in Florida. Serge sends me his addy, I send him the $5. But it was the manner that I sent the $5 that got the attention of Serge and everyone else.
I spent $12.95 to overnight that $5.
Well, Serge knows class when he sees it and of course he loved it!! That $5 check is framed and still hanging on his wall, until this day. That made me a name. That made me credible and in a cyber world of the invisible, that made me real.
I always say all successes and failures happen at the start. That ladies and gentlemen, that was my start.
From there I developed the most potent traffic any of them had ever seen. My domain traffic sold at rates 100 times MORE than the rest! They need 10,000 visitors to sell a membership, my traffic needed less than 100 to sell one.
Remember, there is no mainstream back then. There was CNN and now much else. Amazon is 1 year old. Google was yet to be founded. eBay was months old. Graphic User Interface, GUI, had just barely arrived. Remember MSDOS?
It was truly the dark ages of the Internet.
But I took a good chunk of my earnings and kept buying mainstream names even though there was no mainstream. Mainstream rejected the Internet. Mainstream tried to bury the Internet. Mainstream tried to discredit the Internet.
They were all schmucks and idiots cuz they should have been embracing it. They rejected the idea of selling cars online. Rejected it!! How much were those sales worth that they rejected??
They did that for a DECADE before they figured it out. They were IDIOTS for letting so many years pass. I simply can't excuse their shortsightedness nor should anyone. They failed miserably and hurt their companies.
Give them an award! What the hell you want me to do? Praise them!!?? They did not see the single biggest tool in business history. So whatever education they had, did not work as planned.
And even today, 25 years later, they still have not figured out the value of great and strategic domains. And while they dither, those domains went from $15,000 to $15 Million and now accelerating.
I will leave you with a few recent Twitter thoughts and DEEP beliefs!
I hope I have explained my attitude towards idiots and where it came from and why it is so strong. But how do you respect incompetence? What is the point of having a degree or degrees if you miss something life-changing like the Internet itself? They failed the biggest test of their lives and that does not make them smart! It may make them irrelevant.
So, I have an exact match domain in DOTCOM that was making nothing and now is on pace to make over $1000/month and growing. I am enjoying the fruits of someone else's labor. They have overhead and employees and I don't. They spend time, I don't. I may be getting crumbs, but they are losing their cake!
They got a shiny new GTLD domain name and they don't even have a CLUE that they are paying and also losing THOUSANDS a MONTH in lost sales or lost customers. So just on the RAW DATA that domain is costing them an extra grand a month and growing at an accelerating and healthy pace of about 30%-50% monthly.
Remember, I am only getting crumbs! 3800 of THEIR customers got CONFUSED and GOT LOST! So what is the value of a customer? For each business it is different. But I will tell you this, only a FOOL or an IDIOT or worse would ignore such data. So the value of this particular domain went UP! Will I contact them?? HELL NO!! Will I try and sell them the domain? HELL NO!
Not only are the $$ increasing each month, so is the rate of growth!!
As you can see this domain was just sitting there. THIS is why you use PPC and THIS is why I don't use landing pages! This also is about VALUE!!! I can calculate a value based on my income. If the present pace of 33%-50% monthly growth keeps up, in 1 year I might be at several thousand $$ per month. Maybe $5k-$10k or more. Each month that domain is getting more and more and more valuable.
TO THEIR CONTINUED SUCCESS!!!
This is happening all over the Internet. EACH and EVERY business that chose a new GTLD to be HOME has a silent partner. Not only are the $$ increasing each month, so is the rate of growth!!
I am their SILENT and INVISIBLE partner!!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!
Don't be a fool, the numbers don't lie. PEOPLE LIE!! If you still want to build your dream on GTLD quicksand, you are a FOOL. Your company will look foolish and whether you know it or not, see it or not, the long-term costs are staggering!! Ignoring this makes you a foolish Ostrich!! Except your head is not in the sand, it is somewhere else. You know the old saying, you can lead an Ostrich to water but you can't make them pull their head out of their own ass! :-)
And this is only one of the HUNDREDS of pitfalls with the new GTLD's. But this is a BIGGIE!! The BIGGEST!! Companies wanting to be COOL and bleeding, bleeding, bleeding!! Led by cool but clueless CEO's and marketing teams.
Let's all congratulate Sahil Gupta for this WELL EARNED DISTINCTION of being named POSTER BOY!!! He EARNED IT!! Let others LEARN from it!! Feel free to circulate this poster!
Feel free to circulate! You can read the backstory HERE!
I think we can say that no Domain Investor has ever quite seen or heard anything like this after losing a domain name he had no rights to and in the process a 3 member esteemed international panel UNANIMOUSLY found him GUILTY of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. About the worst thing that you can be charged and the found guilty of in reference to Domains.
Sahil Gupta gained prominence when he took to his Twitter feed with a RANT about the loss and the widow he tried to hijack the domain from and then started insulting all domainers.
Then Sahil Gupta did not like the comments of some of us and some believe he was responsible for getting OUR tweets DELETED or we would be locked out of Twitter forever.
Not smart!!
Sahil Gupta has no control over this blog or MY RIGHTS to free speech and MY OPINION!!
Just ONE MORE REASON to control your own destiny by having your own domain and not relying on social platforms like twitter that act first and you are pretty much powerless if you don't want to continue to be locked out whether justified or not!
It's been a while but some things have me come out of retirement. When it comes to REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING, I want the WORLD to know about bad actors.
Twitter may be able to ban me and make me remove 3 or more of my posts but they can't do JACK SHIT about this blog, my domain nor HallofShame.com that has a new inductee today and either can he.
I called him an ASSHOLE on Twitter. Big deal!! In my opinion, he is an asshole! Seems you can threaten to burn down a city on Twitter but if you call an ASSHOLE an ASSHOLE the name-calling police come for you!
I am holding up the release of this post until my 12 hour suspension is over so that the link to this blog posts on Twitter.
Tweets Removed by Twitter. Does anyone see "Physical Harm"? I see CIRCULATION!! I assume somebody complained. Now, who could that be??
Sahil Gupta aka @sahilAsAService on Twitter will have NO POWER when it comes to HallofShame.com. Just ask any of the HOTSHOT lawyers that are all listed. We keep it factual but it's hard not to sprinkle some emotion when you talk about a Reverse Domain Name Hijacker.
Sahil Gupta goes on a 25 post RANT on Twitter after losing an obvious decision. A first for any LOSER and CONVICTED REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKER that anyone remembers. Whining like a spoiled baby. Does he think a tantrum will help his brand and customers?
Branding a .io domain certainly was not the wisest decision to begin with. But for the $15,000 he saved being CHEAP Sahil Gupta just bought a HORNETS NEST and still does not have the domain. The domain that could have allowed him to grow his company. Now he is FUCKED! He poisoned the well. To buy that name now, the price is somewhere between $100k and NO FUCKING WAY!!
"1/n I'm Sahil Gupta and I run Spase, http://spase.io, and I can handle abuse but this is just a level of bullshit that can't go uncorrected."
"2/n What pushed me over the edge is this. Mrs Jello LLC, you've fucked with the wrong guy."
Sounds like a nice guy huh? It gets worse! But that is not a threat?? Why is that not removed?
What makes this particularly outrageous is the domain Spase.com that was trying to be hijacked by Sahil Gupta was owned by the widow of the late Igal Lichtman. (Mrs Jello) and a friend to many Domain Investors including myself!
According to the filing The Complainant’s business was incorporated as Spase, Inc. in February 2019. But the domain Sahil Gupta attempted to HIJACK was registered in 2005. OUTRAGEOUS! What an idiot! What a fool! What a moron. Is this what kind of people YALE produces?? Is Yale proud of Sahil Gupta?
So when I was informed of this I was outraged and when I saw the nasty responses and the names he was calling domainers, we had no choice other than to fight back and fight back HARD!
So since there is no legal penalty for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking in the form of jail time or substantial imposed fine, we have to circulate the FACTS and have Sahil Gupta deal with the fallout of HIS ACTIONS!! FOREVER!
If Sahil Gupta actually went to Yale and graduated......then you might come to certain conclusions and it certainly is not a good reflection on them and their idea of Capitalism.
Let's be clear, Sahil Gupta is an arrogant MORON and he is NFG! That's MY PERSONAL OPINION and it's also my PROFESSIONAL OPINION and I think it is shared with 99.9% of all professional domain investors and even others. We don't like THIEVES!!! This was an attempted theft by an abuse of the process and by any reasonable standard.
Sahil Gupta has to deal with this FOREVER! He can't run to Twitter and have this post pulled down. It's here FOREVER as well. That's the PRIME reason to own your own domain name. Do you want the Masters of the Universe to censor you?? To decide what is permitted? To protect the BAD GUY?
He NOW has a home on HallofShame.com just click the link to see it!
If anything is not 100% factual, I invite Sahil Gupta to point it out ASAP right here in the comment section. If not, I will assume it is FACTUAL!
But before my 12 hour Twitter ban started I asked for unanimous consent in making this CHUMP named Sahil Gupta aka @sahilAsAService become the NEW POSTER BOY for REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING. He would replace Márcio Mello Chaves and the SaveMe.com decision who has been the poster boy since 2012. Congrats Sahil. It's a worldwide distinction.
So I posted on Twitter: "By acclamation can we make Sahil Gupta aka @sahilAsAService the 2020 POSTER BOY for REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING? Please respond by Posting your "Hear Hear" HERE! A special Poster will be made in his DISHONOR!"
And a sea of "Hear Hear" was posted. Domainers had harsh words for Sahil Gupta and it won't be stopping anytime soon. Please post your thoughts and feelings about this below and being called "Trolls".
So in the hours ahead the new poster will be unveiled and your job is to CIRCULATE, CIRCULATE, CIRCULATE!
I thnk the right thing to do is to APOLOGIZE to Igal's widow and reimburse her for her legal fees. I'm sure he won't because HE seems to be without any character or class. But what should any of us expect from a CONVICTED REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKER.
Sahil Gupta of Spase.io was convicted by an esteemed 3 member International panel of a worldwide organization. The World Intellectual Property Organization out of Geneva, Switzerland. The only thing standing in the way of this PRICK stealing a domain he had NO LEGAL OR MORAL RIGHTS TO were these 3 fair-minded panelists!
He was too CHEAP to pay the lousy $15,000 for the domain. It was a CHEAP price! He was just too ignorant to realize it. But now he get THIS BLOG POST for FREE! He is a HEADLINER on HallofShame.com for FREE. And in the days ahead Google will circulate his deeds throughout the world and it will follow him FOREVER for FREE!!
Here is what THEY said in THIR decision:
"In the Panel’s view, the record in this case evinces that the Complaint was brought in bad faith within the meaning of the applicable provisions of the Policy and Rules. As previously noted, the Respondent registered the disputed domain name <spase.com> in February 2005, and had used the disputed domain name to generate PPC revenues for some (14) years prior the Complainant’s adoption of the SPASE name. The Complainant, after unsuccessfully attempting purchase the disputed domain name from the Respondent, then filed a groundless Complaint. See, e.g., GIGS United S.L. v. SIE MANTIC, WIPO Case No. D2014-1689; Personal Communication Systems, Inc. v. CDN Properties Incorporated, WIPO Case No. D2014-0664.
8. Decision
For the foregoing reasons, the Complaint is denied. The Panel further finds that the Complaint was brought in bad faith and constitutes an abuse of the administrative proceeding.
William R. Towns Presiding Panelist
Knud Wallberg Panelist
The Hon Neil Brown Q.C. Panelist Date: September 15, 2020
Sahil Gupta has to live with the consequences of HIS ACTIONS and HIS ACTIONS ONLY!! When you do a search for Sahil Gupta in a few weeks, this hijacking will be the first thing everyone sees. CIRCULATE! CIRCULATE! CIRCULATE!!
Frands Jepsen tried to steal Queen.com from me. Punch that name into Google and see what you get FIRST! Same with Márcio Mello Chaves who tried to steal SaveMe.com. There are others. Some of the lawyers that represented the hijackers and therefore IMHO aided and abetted cuz they knew better!!! For example Marie Lykke Kristiansen. She was the attorney for the attempted Queen.com hijacking.
Domainers consider Sahil Gupta a THIEF! Just cuz he did not get away with it has no bearing at how the domain industry looks at him and everyone else that ever tried this CRAP! He is considered a low-life THIEF!
I hope Attorney Stevan Lieberman is aggressive and goes for the $100k penalty for his client. If Sahil Gupta wants to learn the hard way, oblige him!!
If you would like to read the backstory, you can read it at here at DomainInvesting.com or read the decision itself HERE Another story about his Twitter rant can be found at DomainNameWire.com
*The REVERSE DOMAIN NAME HIJACKING POSTER BOY banner should be ready later today and I will update this blog post with it. Feel free to copy and CIRCULATE FAR and WIDE!!
This is no joke. ALL hands on deck! Unless your portfolio has no value. Then they will be doing you a favor!
But, if you have a domain portfolio with VALUE, this is not the time to be passive. We have to be united with one voice! This is a chance for the ICA to become truly relevant and opening up the doors to rank and file domainers.
If you did not come to Asheville or are not on Twitter, it's been a while since we last talked!
As many of you know, starting last May I have had a series of about 120 videos on Twitter talking about Domains, business, common sense, and life! I am preparing to tape season #2 in a few weeks.
Last night I unveiled the first in a series of animations that I hope will effectively explain what I see and why I see it. Why the vision I had nearly 25 years ago was so strong and why 25 years later it is even stronger.
I had a 20-year plan and that timeframe kept my sanity intact. But as I enter my 25th year I also am entering a new phase. A more proactive stage.
I have history on my side now. Something I did not have back then. What I believed so strongly in had yet to be proven. But I knew it was a matter of time. I knew in this sense, time would prove to be my best ally.
When it comes to domain names, I see things before others. Good, bad or ugly. Opportunities and rabbit holes. Places to make money and places where you will lose your ass. It's not luck (tho I will take all I can get and am thankful for all the luck I have had) it is simply a keen understanding and action when necessary. It's knowing when to pull the trigger and when to pull away. It is focusing on gold and not on tin even tho they be similar in color and able to fool the foolish.
In the coming months, I will launch Rick.tv to be the home of these videos and animations. I will also have them on DomainKing.com, Twitter and Youtube. They will circulate in time. Nothing more than a note in a bottle and sending its way by sea. Simply sharing what I see and how I see it and hopefully will be re-launched and shared with other notes in other bottles.
Most of these will focus on domain names in general, but I will also have some dedicated to specific domains or groups of domains. And of course, I will always sprinkle in some common sense and personal stories of failure and success in the hopes it might be beneficial to you or the next guy.
It is the first in a wave of proactive marketing that I will start doing but in a passive manner. I am still retired and want to stay that way. But as I have done for 25 years, I plant seeds every day of my life in the hopes some will germinate.
I hope you enjoy it and share it widely. Here is my first seed of the day! Hope it becomes your too!
This is what I would call an "Easy Reference Post" for me to refer back to or point others to when I need to access my prior domain sales. So please indulge me. It seems I never have a list that's easy to find or to add on to. Now I do!
The first sales (1998-2003) are mostly lower on the list and occurred when 5 and 6 figure sales were almost unheard of, and folks would laugh at me for even asking these prices. The laughter stopped when I started getting those prices and then completely silenced when I sold Men.com for $1.32 Million. One of the very earliest verifiable, 7 figure domain sales. Before to was just the rumored Business.com for $7.5 Million with murky details.
Men.com sold for $1.32 million in 2003, acquired for $15k in 1995. Plus earnings of about $350,000 during ownership
Candy.com $3.0 million + several million in Royalties + 12.55% Ownership currently valued at over $5 million+, acquired for about $100k in 2005. (Will end up being my biggest sale ever)
Porno.com sold for $8.88 million cash, acquired for $42k. Plus earnings of about $15,000,000 during ownership. Escrow.com's largest cash sale EVER!
eBet.com sold for $1.35 million, registered for $100 in 1997
Teem.com sold for $36,000 plus stock. Final total after buyout $1.15 million registered for $100 in 1998
989.com sold for $818k, registered for $100 in 1997
899.com sold for $801k, registered for $100 in 1997
Portfolio of 10 NNN.com names (Undisclosed. Between $2.5 million and $3.5million)
9595.com sold for $180k, registered for $100 in 1998
iReport.com to CNN for $750,000 acquired for $5000 in 1999
Punchbowl.com too MyPunchbowl.com $60,000 plus stock
ChinaTours.com $200,000
TokyoHotels.com $200k++
RockStars.com $180,000
FreeSexCams.com $150,000
GayEscorts.com $121,550
PartnerCash.com $110,000
eCruise.com to iCruise.com $100,000 & Stock
235.com $100,000
SydneyHotels.com $100,000
eScore.com $100,000
RoomDividers.com $75,000
273.com $50,000
236.com to IAC (Undisclosed)
Total sales in EXCESS of $23,000,000 AND I continue to receive royalties from multiple sales/leases totaling several million so far with over $7 million still to paid out to me.
Property.com/Properties.com was sold 3x in 14 years. I paid $811,000 for the pair and took in over $850,000 so far. So I am not in a bad position there for my $8.50/year x 2. One day the right buyer will come along. It's in the intersection I speak about. It's only a matter of time and patience. I get $1 million offers several times a year, But that won't cut it.
So my 33 domain sales have an average of $701,649++ SO far, and they increase annually! Plus factor in that many were early sales in the late 1990s and early 2000s. So in the modern era of the last 15 years, my average is much higher.
It would have been much easier and, I would have sold many more domains if I did not know how to value my own assets. Easy to give things away when you undervalue them. Doing that gives me the ability to say NO because I have purposely put myself in the strongest position I could. Nobody could or should be able to value domains better than yourself. Your value is the key. Stick to your guns!
33 sales and I never made the first contact with any of them. That's #1 on the list for selling domains at high prices. If they are not coming to you, then perhaps you don't have what they need. Like I have said, great domains put you in the middle of a busy intersection. Worthless domains put you in the middle of a nasty swamp. Don't get mad at me, get mad at yourself if you are in the swamp. You picked what you got. Right?? You decided to pull the trigger at whatever price, and you chose to value it at whatever cost.
Some still question my sales ability cuz I don't sell many domains, and I don't sell often. Domain investing is about PICKING great domains not SELLING them!! Pick right, and sales will come. There is always time for outbound sales, but that won't happen until big business understands the value. We are very close thanks to social media and their abuses of privacy and free speech as well as the most important of them all, autonomy! On the WHIM of some low-level MORON, anyone can be put out of business with one click on many of these platforms with no appeal process and no reason given.
I really don't care if you agree with my steps or not and I am used to it. Most won't. But if you are not making MILLIONS with your domains then maybe, just maybe, take it seriously. This is my suggested path. There are many other paths but again, if you're not making millions on that path, don't argue.
Best is to have one domain and build a successful business not a "Feel Good" site. One is being a business person and the other is being a starving artist. Sorry, but I DO make that distinction and before you just dismiss it, you should think about it too. Businesses have a cash register.
1.* Focus on .COM domains that are easy to spell and pass the radio test.
2. Make sure you have another source of income to support your investments.
3. Target with a rifle not a shotgun. Your first purchase may be your most important.
4. Each purchase should be like it was your first except armed with more knowledge
5. Hook up the new domain to PPC and see if it has traffic and who is bidding on that traffic.
6. Select secure registrar.
7. Make sure your whois is public.
8. Test, Test, Test.
9. Patience. Patience. Patience. You are not selling umbrellas in a rain storm. You are selling the most important decision they ever made.
10. Learn how to sell.
11. Learn how to write an effective email.
12. Learn to personalize.
13. Learn how to stay focused on their needs, not yours!
14. LISTEN to them and stop talking.
15. Answer their questions honestly and truthfully.
16. POINT OUT PITFALLS before they even ask!! That is STRONG selling!
17. Protect them as well as sell them! That's STRONG selling
Side note: That's what pisses me off about the GTLD guys and how weak they are at selling is this: At least have the BALLS and the DECENCY to tell them to add the WWW before the domain until it is recognized. Alert them to the confusion so they can avoid the confusion. But they are weak and they don't do that and the only thing they can do is bash .com's. That's weak! So until they do that, it's just a fraud to me.
18. Stop talking about Escrow.com. It won't help you close a sale and you are wasting time and space to actually add value. BIG MISTAKE!
19. Stop talking about how old the domain is. It won't help you close the sale and you are wasting time and space to actually add value.n BIG MISTAKE
20. Stop talking about PRICE and talk about USE! Their use, not your needs. Not your desperation.
21. Don't send out another email the same day or even the next day asking if they got your email. BIG MISTAKE. Send it in a few weeks with some news and value. Send them an article. But wait a few WEEKS or more.
22. Watch my twitter videos and allow yourself to change bad habits into good ones.
23. Filter out all the noise. There are only a handful of credible sources in the domain industry. If they have something to sell you, question their credibility. Start with DNJournal.com and focus on a few credible blogs.
24. Success in Domains is about longevity and the future. Lasting power. Focusing on domains of value because they have the right elements.
25. Create income streams early and often.
These are such basic elements and folks that skip steps on a ladder always fall off the ladder. Take it, leave it or post it and follow it. Your choice. It's as valuable as you make it or just discard and forget.
And for the first time ever, I am not allowing comments on this post. It will remain in its pure form. There are many more points I can make. But this is a decent start.
GOOD LUCK!!
Rick Schwartz
*If you want to ignore, resist or argue about this, there is nothing I can do for you. Working at Denny's vs owning Capital Grille. I don't do Denny's. Can't help you until you figure out for yourself. Good Luck on the journey.
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