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

Morning Folks!!

Who am I to predict something outrageous like saying 'I believe it's not only possible but actually #likely# that a small exclusive group of domain name owners will eventually end up on the Forbes 400 list of richest global billionaires by 2035'?
What are the past historical asset parallels to domain names that give me confidence in stating that my prediction that one or more 'pure' domain name investors (i.e. pure NOT referring to those owners of domain names that developed a business on it themselves) must and will come true?
When exactly in the maturation of premium dot com category domain name values are we currently experiencing in 2013 along the scale paralleled by premier baseball player salaries, Babe Ruth's earning less than $1,000,000 over his entire 1914-1935 career or the $30,000,000 in salary paid for Alex Rodriguez in 2012 alone?
Where in America will you find the incredible story of the family that pretty much owns an entire city where 200,000+ people live and work and play, and how did they accomplish this amazing feat over multiple generations? What does the story have to do with domain names in 2013?
How much difference is there between selling the oil for distribution, and retaining the land with the mineral assets versus selling the land itself and letting someone else have the produce of the wells drilled for oil? What are the parallels of the richest oil fields with the very best internet properties owned by domain name owners?
Why should you care about who I am or any of this stuff if you're among what I call 'the 500'? The '500' being a group of already for the most part affluent people that like Rick Schwartz bought domains as early as 1994-- the 500 or so people on the planet who are likeliest to be among those small number of future billionaires...if they keep playing their cards right.
Lastly...
Why is 'Rick Schwartz' speaking of 'Rick Schwartz' on the Rick Schwartz blog in the 3rd person? That's one question I can answer now, in brief. This is NOT Rick Schwartz, Domain King (TM) posting today. It's actually Danny Welsh.
Who IS Danny Welsh?
If you allow me the time, I'll tell you more of my background, who I am to make such claims and exactly why Rick has invited me into his living room and given me his blessing to talk to those of you among his closest colleagues today.
I'll even tell you in all transparency what's in it for me to work my ass off for the next 10-15 years to maybe even help make that prediction a reality for a handful of you that will be the innovators pursuing many possible paths to extract as much value as possible from the Golden Eggs produced by your assets-- without selling the Golden Gooses themselves-- and with favor, what we're doing with JointVentures.com just might be a part of that transformation.
Who, what, when, where, how much, why = not only the recipe for a journalist's story.
It's the facts and the story together that create a combination to unlock any sale of any product or asset.
And, ladies and gentlemen of the 500, I'm here to congratulate you all on having some of what might be the most valuable (albeit intangible) assets in history. Products and properties that have value that the facts and story to unlock the highest and best use of is still being gathered, still being told.
Who, what, when, where, how much, why.
I'll lay out a vision for you in exquisite detail for telling that story to Corporate America, to Madison Ave, to the CEO or marketing executive that covets your very best domain names for their own. We'll follow the path from start to finish over a series of a few blog posts the real Rick Schwartz has graciously allowed me to make as his junior partner with JointVentures.com.
My vision enfolded within his vision. Our vision and journey for the next 3 years that will be pivotal, and one on which we'd be happy to have some of you go along with us.
Please know that I'm thrilled to have a chance to serve many of you as clients starting in 2013. I will return soon with the first in a series of guest blog posts we think just might touch a nerve if you're among the 500. Just might make you feel like it was the mid-1990s all over.
Until then, I welcome your comments and feedback.
Danny Welsh
JointVentures.com

Morning Folks!!

Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house
not a creature was stirring except my Dell mouse.
The sites were ugly and few they were.
My wife of the day asked are you crazy sir?

I clicked and I clicked and so the day went
and before you knew it was money I spent.
I sprang from the desk to see what was next.
I looked into the window and only saw sex.

Broke open the numbers and threw up the page
Along came customers to unlock the wage.

If you don't see what I see then it is okay.
But what I see is life changing in a positive way.

What if this and what if that?
No time to waste said the George the cat.

So I clicked and I clicked and so the day went
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick!

But I heard him exclaim, as he surfed off the site-
Happy Domaining to all, and to all a good night.

And now you know the main reason I never became a poet.

Today marks the start of my 18th year investing in domain names. Stunning to me. The day that changed my life. I have never done anything this long. Every day is exciting. It's the greatest hobby ever invented and you make money too. On one hand it feels like just the day after last Christmas and on the other like a generation ago. How could I have even imagined that one act would change my destiny forever and in such a big way. Monopoly, the reality game. I risked $100 and hit the lottery!

I do believe that everything I learned up until that moment in life was all in preparation for that one moment. True destiny. I saw something clearer than I had ever seen in my entire life. It was a stunning event that allowed me to time travel in as far as I saw that direct parallel between .com and Times Square Real Estate. It did not happen overnight. The process took months and then about 2 years to fully evolve.

Somewhere early on while I saw what I saw I also saw a very big problem. I was looking at something that likely could survive over 100 years and could even take that long to manifest itself. It was at that moment that I decided to do everything in my power to spread the word. To educate and by doing that I would help bend the curve of time down from 100 years during my lifetime.

When I was born all the land had been sold. There was no more 'Free land'. There was only expensive property and more expensive property. Property I would likely never have the money to buy. Still that way. Could not buy much in Times Square today with my life savings. Wish I had been born during that land rush. Actually not. This is much better, bigger and more meaningful landrush.

Domains gave me a 2nd chance to do what those generations before me did and the wealth they created by doing it. An EXACT parallel. But with less work and I could accelerate the process. 90 day deals could be done in 90 seconds and that had great value.

But the .com to me had more dimensions than the physical. It had wider reach, broader appeeal and an infinite amount of floors you could add to it or land you could sprawl over. This was land on steroids. This was something bigger than me and bigger than anything I had ever seen. More powerful than an entire mall. And what if people actually go online? More than the 5% in the USA and the 1% or less worldwide at the time. What would it look like if people in the remotest areas could compete with the guy in New York City. It would look like TODAY! NOW!

How can something so invisible, so intangible so technical possibly do what I see? How is it possible? But the scarier question was what happens if it is not only possible but a reality? I found the answer in a restaurant. I overheard a table of fairly elderly folks talking about how they kept in touch with their grand children via email. That was the absolute confirmation for me that the Internet would actually take off and be important. Once I saw the oldest and the youngest embrace the same medium, it was over. The middle would fill in by themselves. And they did.

The first person that ever gave credibility to what I was doing was Joe Holler. He was one of the very few in those days with the credibility and technical know how that also saw the other side of that. The side called marketing. So while all the techies were laughing at me and my ignorance for spending $100 a pop on a domain name, I found one of the most respected techies of the day that was not laughing. Could not come at a better time. And while I was sure of what I saw, I woke up every morning and would second guess myself and ask myself if I was off the reservation. Nobody saw what I saw and this was getting very expensive. Luckily it was nearly 9 months before I had to pay the $18000 or so in invoices I had racked up. But by that time I was taking in money. More money with every passing day.

Who the hell would have thought in 1995 that mesothelioma would be the biggest payout on the net for years? lol So you can't predict everything. But you can predict some things. You can predict that human behavior is what you have to tap into to make money. You can predict how something will unfold based on a parallel if you can find one and it is in fact a true parallel. You can look at one thing and see how and why it will sell and look another and see how and why it will not sell.

To me beyond the parallels was this consolidation of some of our biggest mediums. I already discussed property. But the domain name and the Internet was also a yellow pages. A directory. It added another dimension because it was also a TV set. Also a music machine. A radio. A game device. It was all of our habits and loves in one place at one time. How could it not be the biggest thing the world had ever seen? How could it not? How could you stop it? How could you live without it? We can't. We are wired and hooked and logged on. We are connected.

If you don't think this is the greatest medium ever you are a wuss! You could not get laid in a whore house. You see the world with blinders on. We would not even have this conversation without it. Did I mention sharing? The phone? The video phone? The combination of a computer and the internet is the most dynamic duo that has even been invented since the automobile and oil. It is so big and still getting bigger. This is a giant that is still in puberty. It will take another 20 years just to catch up with the possible exploitation of what is available right now and not even adding all the things coming in the next 20 years.

To the trained eye there has never been so much opportunity in the history of mankind as there is today. Never! B ut it requires thinking and most folks don't have the time to think. The hours you need to think. The solitude you need to think. To figure out. To untangle. To clearly see what few can. To come at something from left field, right field, center field and infield. To look at something every way until you find THE way.

So all I can say is the future will be much more exciting than the past if you allow it and think of all the changes and the voids that have resulted. Real voids. Not imagined voids.

The one thing I have learned is three words that direct my vessel. Need, Want, Desire. It's the test that everything has to pass through. If you don't have the need or want then the desire has to be created. Nobody needed the .com back then. Nobody wanted it back then. But I knew someday they would desire it and it would take 20 years to manifest. They need it so much and want it so much now that they would risk being labeled a 'Reverse Domain Name Hijacker' to get it. Saw that too back then. Not in that form. How in the world could I and would I protect what many in the world would NEED would WANT and would DESIRE?

And that brings us to .whatever and let me be 100% clear. In success or failure .whatever will only drive UP the prices of .com. There is no threat whatsoever to investment quality domain names as I have described now for all these years in a multitude of ways. None whatsoever. And if you have the .com counterpart of an actual .whatever, then $10 million is about the bottom price that domain is worth at today's level and could only skyrocket from there. Eventually all this I have written about will have to be dealt with. I am not against the new extesions. I only see opportunity. But when it comes to investment quality, way too early to know if any will break out and meet that measure. But here is my prediction. We will know by the end of 20 years and that is when domains will BEGIN to be valued properly.

The game is not the same as 1995. But the elements that led me here are the same and better and I only see a lifetime of opportunity ahead no matter what form it comes in and no matter what direction the road may lead. The passion for progress still burns deep in me. Much deeper than 18 years ago.

Have a GREAT day!
May 2013 be your Best Year EVER!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

What exactly do 'Type ins' look like?

Well if you have never had a store or a retail shop then you are at a disadvantage in domaining. Domains are like having a shop. Whether it be donuts or diamonds, you have a shop. And that shop has an entrance. The difference is when you have type in traffic you have folks waiting at your door each morning waiting for you to put the key in the door and unlocking what they want and what they are looking for. If you have it, they buy. Maybe not 100%. But either is search. And whether you want to believe it or not, conversion of type ins when matched with a proper good or service blows the doors off search. But we need BOTH! Who in their right mind would poo poo bus loads of customers waiting at your door each and every day? Most of which decided you were a destination whether they were fed up with search results or whether that is their surfing style.

And if you don't have type ins? Then you are a slave to 3rd party search engines that may you you shit unless you pay and pay big!

Now we all need customers. What's the difference if I have 100 customers each day by type ins and the guy across town has none? He has to kiss the ass of search. Well he has to WORK and maybe PAY to get those 100 customers that I already started with. Not only that, he has to repeat that each and every day and some days he may come in to find no customers. However the domain with 100 type ins continues to get customers without effort like a clock. Day in and day out. Good days and bad days. Cold days and hot days. Etc. So while the other guy poo poos the 100 type ins he is also busy being a whore sometimes trying to get those 100 customers while the other guy is concentrating on selling something to the 100 he already has. Plus that 100 grows when matched with the proper item. It becomes 125 150, 200. Organically. By germinating on its own. Again not dependant on the master!

So if you are not wired to retail, not wired to sales, then it is hard to appreciate 100 customers. But for folks that understand that it is sales that makes the world go round, they look at it differently. If you sell cars you can have a stadium full of people. But f you can't zero in on the buyer quickly, you just waste your time and energy. So 1 million search hits looking for something specific only has value if it produces sales and what sales ratio that occurs. 1 million visitors and 10 sales or 100 customers with 10 sales. That is a real world equation. One makes a lot more noise. But the other is an efficient engine that purrs as she idles thru. Day after day after day. Beholden to nobody but your own customers.

Even on Christmas.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Yesterday I posted a story of the top 25 all time reported domain sales. Candy.com made that list tied for #8. But what makes my sale different than most of the others is that mine will continue to increase in ranking as I get royalties and other considerations. Matter of fact I will announce here that I have now exercised my option to buy another 2.5% of Candy.com just yesterday. That brings my holdings to 10%. So this book is still being written. This sale is still living and breathing and if/when someday Candy.com ends somewhere else, I get a piece of that sale as well.

How was I able to carve out something like this? Because of a shared vision and the vessel needed to get there. Pretty simple. A formula that was carved out of circumstance. The answer is always yes when you make a deal instead of no. But when you get a yes, that creates a circumstance to get some consideration. Now you can't do this all the time.It depends on the circumstance. Most of the time it is settled with money. With a dollar figure. But beyond that playing field there are a number of other playing fields that are created. Since those have been created and since nobody has more information then the 2 parties negotiating, that deal that is the ultimate 'Inside Information'. True knowledge. Confidence. Passion and all the rest.

Depending on the terms of the 7 higher reported sales than Candy.com, if they were straight cash deals, then I see candy.com eventually being much higher on that list. Since it was tied for 8th place with my very good friend, Roy Messer, I hate to tell him he is now in sole possession of 9th place. Of course that may depend on the amount of vodka supply he is getting for selling Vodka.com.

Some see a domain and see a sale. I see a domain and an entire world of options and possibilities that opens up. The limit is your mind and creative sense in both content and business outlook. My job is not to find 1 million people that see what I see. My mission is to find one. Find one for each domain that lends itself to be included in the final landscape of the Internet. That is worthy of Main Street. That is sensitive to the needs of who they are serving.

Look, some folks are in the cattle business and their job is to load up the truck and take those cattle to market. They are looked at by the herd. By dozens at at time. They are nameless. That is different than the family cow named 'Suzy'. Suzy the one that gives you milk and butter and cheese and you have decided to use for a lifetime. She may or may not end up on that truck. Chances are she won't. The table, maybe. ;-)

But now that you are shocked, take a moment to consider the difference. Consider the parallel. Consider things missing even if they are not easily visible or not that pleasant to think of. Consider the short term gain for the many years of satisfaction and production. Consider the value is still there either way but one pays great dividends along the journey and you can still have it end up on the truck. It still has value. But you tapped into something else. Something greaterthan just the norm.

If you want the best, then you usually have to overpay to get it. I have said it many times over the years. I would rather overpay for gold than get a bargain on worthless shit. And when you do it right, what you overpay for today becomes a huge bargain in the years ahead. That is the true measure of a deal. Not 10 minutes, 10 hours or 10 months later but 10 YEARS later. And when you measure by the generation and have a relaxed time frame you can do great things and put great deals together. But if you only see one playing field...........

Merry Christmas!!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

A little birdie just sent me a link to this article just release this morning chronicling the top 25 reported domain sales of all time. Just when you thought things were cooling off......BOOM!

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-20-most-expensive-domain-names-2012-12#

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

The domain sector has never been hotter except few in the industry believe that. I think they get discouraged easily. Some fold at the hint of adversity. This week you watched an avalanche of new extensions born and coming to market with so many behind them I can't even count. Each trying to duplicate history. Some will succeed. Some. But they won't succeed from just being there. They will have to do something new, dynamic, exciting just as a bare minimum to make an impact.

Look at all the money they are throwing at OUR industry. BILLIONS!! Who cares if they make it or not when BILLIONS are floating around. We have history to draw from. They have 'Late to the game syndrome' to draw from. Type in traffic is a natural event and does not translate to everything.

I am going to keep talking about type in traffic because without it, without human nature being interested in it, collapse is going to be the keyword for 70%. Nobody gives a shit will be the keyword for 25% and 5% will have some interest. Maybe. They will ALL reinforce and increase the value of .com.

800 numbers get type in traffic. Then came 888, 877, 855. 800 numbers still get type in traffic. 888 gets some tye ins....maybe 5%-10% of 800 if that. The reason why? It is easy to press 888 3 times in a row. 877 and 855 get virtually no type in traffic. Same human nature at play here folks.

Ass.com got about 1 million visitors in 2012. Ass.net got 15,000. Less than 2% of the .com. The .org got even less. Care to guess for .mobi? .xxx? .whatever x 1500 new .whatevers.

These are not emotions. These are raw numbers and folks have to deal with numbers. Tyoe-ins are the foundation that so few believe. Type-ins shows interest or there would be no reason to do it.

Now like I said there is money to be made here. But there is also a lot of money to lose as well. This is almost going to be like the 'Apprentice'. 1500 new folks will be handed aprons and their job is to create the next .com. Not the next 'Oil well' but the next fuel! That is what makes this so crazy. They would have to invent new fuel for a success.

The more they embrace the new extensions the more the .com will be worth. So while they are not getting type ins we are getting increased type ins because of confusion.

Speaking of confusion, I was looking over my top 20 domains in the last month or 2. Quite a few new entries came out of nowhere. $0 to over $1000/month on 3 different domains. $0 to $500 on another. That's just what I remember off the top of my head. That increase in revenue and traffic is a DIRECT RESULT OF WORK BEING DONE BY OTHER COMPANIES!!!!

They ALL have non .com extensions or have confusing domain names and 'I' am the beneficiary! I don't want 1500 extensions. I want 15,000. The more the merrier. I have silent partners that don't even know they are partners and the money I make is PURE profit with NO WORK while they are busting their ass because they don't get it. $1000 to ME represents how much to THEM????

The problem is they can't control human behavior. They make marketing mistakes that make me or the competitor lots of money. Saveme.com is the tip of the iceberg. So the 'Second coming' is going to make those with patience very wealthy. I know where the path leads them because numbers don't lie. Leaks in a ship don't lie.

If you own the .com of a new .whatever you have a domain worth MILLIONS before you even wake up. In success or failure for THEM, is a GUARANTEED success for you. Type in traffic is alive and well. The core domain investor has type in traffic. Those that have no type in traffic or don't want to bother hearing about it are in a different game. On a different field. We just intersect daily.

I have always been on record saying there are infinite ways to make money with domain names. Type ins are just one way. The easiest way. The way that gives you the most options. The way that paves the way to the future. The future that is unfolding now. Clarity on the Internet as far as who the leaders are. Google, Facebook, Amazon, eBay, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, etc. Many that were not here when many of us started this journey. This epic, life changing journey.

But the Kudos go to Mr. Johnson. He was bold enough to just give us the numbers. The most important numbers anyone reading this saw in the past year. When we hear of the future calamities, it could have all been avoided by heeding Mr. Johnson. He ain't making this stuff up.

That said I am going to find all types of ways to EXPLOIT .whatever. Even in a total success, the headwinds of so many at the same time doing anything might be insurmountable. What if 1500 hamburger stands opened on Broadway tomorrow. Could they all exist and make money? All in the same place at the same time and without even mentioning Mr. Johnson because many will not get that far.

I don't see .whatever as a threat like so many do. Quite the opposite. I have described the opportunity that comes in success or failure. We win. Regret lasts a lifetime. Think twice before you do anything because the future will show that the best days are still in front of us. Don't second guess yourselves after coming this far.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Advertise for elephants and you get elephants. Advertise for Pigeons and you get pigeons. You can fish for fish or hunt for whale. Both are the same. One result maybe 1000x the other.

So Over the years I have heard the promises of increasing your payouts by 10%, 20%, even 50%. I know first hand that parking on one platform vs another can have huge differences. I have seen swings of 400% on domains earning hundreds and even thousands a day. It's a FACT!

During the last payout collapse around 2005 Porno.com was down to making $1000/day. I switched PPC companies and that number went from $1000/day to $4500/day, overnight. How is that possible? That increase did not last for 1 day or 1 week or even 1 month. In FACT that level payout lasted until mid 2007 when payouts started sliding and have yet to recover. That is why I think many folks are just full of shit. The numbers prove it beyond doubt. So swallow whatever you crap you like to swallow. I'll pass on that bullshit. Do the math on the millions difference.

This is the FIRST time I have ever made this public. But it is part of history and time to put in on the record. The increase was not just for porno.com. It was across the board. My income quadrupled overnight with one flip of the switch. That was in the wake of getting $30,000/week for the previous 5 years, 1998-2003. From 2003-2005 payouts were still fairly strong by today's standards until the 2005 ppc decline. Or so I thought.

So you might ask yourself will payouts ever rebound again? The answer is still yes. Things go in cycles. Payouts from my view bottomed out the day Frank Schilling opened InternetTraffic.com. Now we have had ups and downs since then but that was the bottom from what I can see and it has been sustained for over a year and I see some pockets of strength.

So how much is your traffic really worth? A hell of a lot more than you think. Can you still take a domain making $10/day and have it make $100/day? Yes.

Two things happen when I talk about type in traffic. Those without it have to make a statement about it. Those that do have it understand exactly what I am saying. The first group is not even sure there are type in and if there are they are not sure how meaningful they are. They think the world revolves around faking out Google or at least being a contortionist and trying everything in the book for that traffic. For most, even when they get Google traffic it is 10 visitors, 20 visitors, maybe 50 or 100 in over 90% of the cases if that. And likely not as targeted as you think because you had to use 20 keywords instead of all focused on 1 keyword called the domain name itself. That is the ONLY keyword I care about. Bulls-eye!

So let me fix that. There are about a dozen multimillion dollar parking companies with Google and Yahoo buying over 90% of all that invisible traffic. PPC has led the parade for as long as I can remember once it was invented before Google was born.

Tyoe-in traffic is the foundation and they will NEVER be able to stop the flow of that very valuable GOLD! And if they don't type it in they will talk it in. Human behavior trumps all. It's what these businesses survive on and why they have rejected so much of the FAKE traffic that had been manufactured for those years before the crash. They paid for SHIT and it took them years and billions to figure it out.

The more type in traffic you have the ore likely success will be in your future if you make good decisions along the way. With no traffic you can do everything right and end up with zip. With type ins you can do everything wrong and still end up with money in your pocket.

NEVER underestimate the TRUE value of a type in. Never underestimate the lifetime value of a customer. Never underestimate big business. They WILL figure it out and that is at the heart of the 20 year plan. They just have one more error to make before they figure out exactly which direction they need to go. When that day happens, you will see what I see and what I have seen for all these years. The planets are getting closer not further. Water always runs downhill. They will always follow the water.

My 800 numbers still get 'Type-Ins' in the way of surfers. If there were no surfers there would be NO revenue on these 800 numbers. Human nature crosses all kinds of barriers and will slip through any obstacle. Domaining IS about type-in traffic or the potential to get it. Yes, there are ways to focus on domains with limited or no traffic that have value. Innovative names that may have value. But no value to those domainers personally until it is sold to a 3rd party. So the game is to sell, sell, sell. But when you have a domain with type ins, the game is hold, hold, hold. A completely opposite plan and thus you have the 2 sides. One side understands both and the other side only understand half the equation. Hope you all now have both halves. And yes, it is as simple as that and time will prove the simplicity as it already has.

I see things differently because I have seen different things over all these years.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

JointVentures.com got out of the bag before we were ready to announce it. So we have had to release HALF the program. Today I will begin to announce the other half. But first an update on how things are coming along. The contracts will start going out as soon as today. They will not all go out at once as we will just be overwhelmed. So we will be sending out a handful each day until the end of the week and into the weekend.

We now have 134 domains to lease and when we list those domains in the first week of January as those contracts come, it will demonstrate exactly what we are looking for and why.

That brings me to the other half of JointVentures.com. Until now you have only heard about the leasing part of the venture. That part was actually by accident as I have described before. But the foundation of JointVentures.com is a true Joint Venture.

We have all been down the mini-site road. The development road. This road and that road and many domains just end up back at PPC. Our formula is going to change that. Danny Welsh may be able to better explain it than me but here it is in a nutshell.

We all have really great domains that we know have the chance to make big money if we just focused on that one domain and no other. The curse of the domainer is we have to spread our love to thousands of properties and that is just impossible in this lifetime. So what to do?

Remember my truck story with the 10 trucks on the crest of the hill and they are all stuck. By themselves each truck driver is stranded. Just like we are! But if the 10 truck drivers used all their energy to get one truck over the crest then they could repeat that for each of the other 9 remaining trucks.

Enter JointVentures.com. We are going to marry domain names to third parties that have a passion to turn a domain into a BUSINESS and transform their lives!! We are going to tap into professional folks that need an opportunity and then give them that opportunity. I am oversimplifying it and in the days ahead Danny Welsh will make a guest blog post here to explain his vision that is linked to my vision. Hopefully it won't be the longest blog post to ever appear on Ricks Blog. ;-) (But it may)

What we are willing to do is take your under performing domain now on PPC and guarantee you more and then split the 'More' with you 50/50. So you keep making your current revenue and more and you give us time to do what we are trying to do.

Yes, I know you will have many questions and I am not going to go there today. But I want to give you an idea of what we are up to. The direction we are heading and why. I also want to layout a time line.

We opened in December because December does not count. I am on vacation. I don't work in December. This is not work....this is a mission! In January we will open up to the public. We will ramp up until TRAFFIC in May in which JointVentures.com expects to be a sponsor. Possibly a major sponsor.

We have to demonstrate in that time frame that we can do what we say. DEALS do that! It will take all of 2013 just to get thru our first phase. Like any other mission I have of this magnitude, it is a 3 year plan to start that just happens to culminate with the anniversary of my 20 year plan. PERFECTION! All I can say if you don't see what we see now, you will within 3 years.

Disclaimer: Unless the world ends on Friday in which case we need to start over again. ;-)

See you at the Beach!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

One ot the most often questions I am asked is how I got started with domains. Here is the answer. I did not approach domains as an item to flip. Besides there was no flipping in those days and only a handful of buyers on the planet. What I was doing was taking excess funds and investing in something I knew would take many years to pay off and take off. But I was willing to invest a portion of my cash and credit in domain names. So That's how it started.

When I started to actually earn money from those domain names I reinvested 100% of the proceeds because as an investment I did not need the $$ to live on. I could parlay what I already had and then parlay it again. My investments were always financed via my earnings.

Think of it as self powered. Self propelled. A solar business that recycled and reclaimed the earnings into more and more buys. Selling was not on the radar because collecting those names was so time sensitive. It was a race against progress. Each day others were figuring out as well. So there was no time to rest until about 2002-2003. The prior crash gave birth to a new channel that few knew of and even fewer respected. But nothing came without taking exceptional risk at the time and circumstance and the size of my wallet. Many were very tough decisions.

The beauty with flipping is there is almost a $0 entry bar. Few other things on this planet are so cheap and have such a huge upside. But flippers should also be transforming themselves into investors because that is a long term plan that will always pay you even when you don't work.

Flipping is a way to get started. It's a way to make a living. A good living. But as a flipper you should know when you have something in your hands that should NEVER be flipped. That's the point of this post. Flipping the ones that should be investments in your futures.

A guy that starts out today has to match his wallet with the patience to see it through. Clarity comes in time. There is so much more clarity today and that gives new folks opportunities as they come with fresh sets of eyes and new tools to work with. But they need to buy investment grade domain names not just random pigeon shit. That's the #1 reason domainers fail. They pick pigeon shit.

One thing I can tell you. Many domainers don't really understand what the numbers mean and they use Google numbers as a compass. Those numbers reflect so much broader terms and subjects than you think so many over estimate the value and usefulness. That leads them into the wrong direction and usually a black hole. I hear about exact matches and such but then the domain gets zero type in traffic. See the disconnect? It is about type in traffic. It does not have to be a lot. 10-20 potential customers a day have value. 0 has very limited or no value unless the domain can stand up on it's own. What does that mean? It means something that the public would accept and embrace and can be used commercially. What does that mean? It means something that sounds good, feels good, reads good, catchy, easy, passes all the tests and may have multiple functions. A generic, generic. Not a category domain.

All I can say and have been saying is there is a multitude of opportunity in domains. But 90% of that starts with current or future type in traffic. Yes a domain that gets zero today can get 100/day next year. That's called chasing the future and getting there before anyone else. But validation does not occur until they type it in. The domain is not 'Ripe' until there are type ins. So those that flip and have the time to watch some ripen will find great rewards with less work while building a stronger and stronger foundation.

Domaining is all about type in traffic. PERIOD! 90% of the game. Sure there are always exceptions. NNN have value, LLL may have value. But don't confuse that with domains with meaning. Domains that have a multitude of advantages. It's about guessing what others might think. The reason so few talk about type ins is because so many would go broke. PPC companies exist because of type ins. That's the model. Those are the domains that have value. Guaranteed value. Value that can be demonstrated. Then it is just a debate about the degree.

When I started 99% of the industries traffic had no value. There was no way to convert people looking for things to companies that could provide the good or service they were looking for and get paid. Except for adult that is. They KNEW what to do with the traffic. They knew how to convert into sales. To upsell. To trade traffic with their own competitors for their mutual benefits.

The problem with discussing an issue like this is one thing leads to another. When you come in at the beginning of a movie you might look differently on it as opposed to coming in during the intermission. The view is different. That is why history is so important so you can follow the bouncing ball and why it is bouncing and why it is bouncing a certain way and in a certain direction. It is why I try to give you a feel for things. No Google. No PPC. No aftermarket. 5% of the people online in the US and virtually none in so many other places. A mainstream doing everything it could to discredit doing anything online. Especially business. It was their greatest threat. So the movie is different when you see the entire show.

So even if you flip for a living you should have at least 1 out of 10 that are keepers. That are investments. That will eventually transform you from a flipper of domains to an investor in profit whether domains or any other opportunity. You can be flipping burgers or the restaurant owner with a chain of stores and all you have to do is THINK about it and what this all means to you.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz