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

Morning Folks!!

17 Christmas Seasons online and I am still waiting for mainstream to get it right. Whether it was eToys.com that could not figure out that when people had to put in the http:// they would lose a lot of business. You type in etoys.com and got a 404 error. GENIUS!

Where are we and where are we going? Well this Christmas season was a giant step BACKWARDS! Retailers are now forcing their own workers to work on the one holiday a year few work. Most restaurants are closed but the waiters that do work make 3X the tips they normally do. But retail?? What happened to pointing them to your website on Thanksgiving? I mean this is just desperation at the worst because their remedy just may backfire.

The one day a year that your website should be carrying the load. Sales won’t necessarily increase because of the move, just change the dates the $$$ go into the register. I think they must have been consulting the o.co guys in this flawed decision. Sure, you will hear how much business they did, but who cares?

It just shows they STILL don’t get it.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I just don't get it. Like you, I am ripping my hair out. Folks want to save the world, build schools, hire teachers and all the rest. They don't seem to care about $4 BILLION a DAY in interest. $4 BILLION a DAY. How many could you feed, clothe, educate, etc. with that $4 Billion a DAY? I just don't get it.

Never in my life have I watched a President Squander his good will. Never in my life have I seen a President basically abdicate his duties with over a year remaining in his Presidenctcy. Never in my life have I seen somebody blame everybody in sight. Never in my life have I seen a President that can't seem to lead. And when he does lead, he goes where the majority do not want to go.

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden got booed at a NASCAR event this weekend. There is a reason for that.

Don't take my word for it, just listen to some of the more responsible Democrats. Even lefies like Chris Matthews is ripping his hair out. This country is in DEEP shit. Obama is fiddling while the country goes bankrupt. There is no excuse in the world for what is going on. I can narrow it down to 2 people. Harry Reid and President Obama. The only thing good about 'Gridlock' is they can't do anymore damage. Actually they can and are. Each passing day we dig deeper into this financial hole we will likely not climb out of without great inflation.

Sorry, but even the Democrats are calling for Obama to not run and have Hillary Clinton instead. We are in perilous times and it is self induced. The train is derailed and the guy in the Whitehouse seems perfectly content.

My biggest question is why would he run again and a bigger question is why would America hire him again as their CEO when he isn't doing the job he was elected to. Leading is a job. Having ideas is a job. Harnessing the power of Americans is a job. Turning the country profitable again is a job. The money people are going towards Romney. Lots of them. Last time most supported Obama. They are abandoning him and that is a great rebuke.

Lastly, his campaign to divide people is doing quite the opposite. He can try class warfare, but that is unbecoming a leader. That is a divider not a leader.

His support of Occupy Wall Street, along with Maxine Waters and Nancy Pelosi is probably the final straw for most folks that have a job and a mortgage. But the very worst thing he does is talk down his own country at every opportunity. I would call his administration a thugocracy and I can only hope the majority is as sick as I am. I don't like these years of intimidation when you don't feel free to speak your mind for fear of retribution. I never saw that until the last 3 years.

He is an incompetent CEO and a disappointing President. Look what I wrote about him on inaguration day. Look what I wrote about the world and our enemies. I just hope the Republicans put up somebody electable. This country will not survive a president that has his heels on the throats of business. He is choking the economy with uncertainty and fear. He is strangling the lifeline of our economic engine. It may or may not survive the year. It is MATHEMATICALLY impossible to survive 5 more years of meandering. It will all come down to the vote and we will be responsible for the outcome even more than Obama.

Personally, I think there will be clarity after the 2012 election because America will speak loud and clear. There is still right and wrong. There is still a sense of 'Can do' and I think the words of Obama will be what comes back to haunt him during the months ahead. The buck stops where? With Obama you never know who he will blame next. Who he will try and shut up or who he will try and shut down. He can try and pit Americans vs Americans, but that will fail. Americans want an optimistic leader with bold ideas and the wherewith all to carry it out.

Romney would probably be the most acceptable to the broadest electorate but getting through the primaries will be no small task at a time where Republicans want a true conservative. Going to be an interesting year. Mark my words on this one no matter which side of the political spectrum you are on. But if I were a liberal, I would be going crazy pissing away $4 BILLION a day when that money could be used for the very things we will have to cut.

In 2009 I suggested we 'Give them Seattle' to satisfy the debt, today we would have to give away everything west of the Mississippi. How sad!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Evening Folks!!

eReal Estate Holdings, LLC, owner and operator of Condo.com and Houses.com, today announced the official launch of their third category-defining domain - Property.com (http://www.property.com). This latest addition extends the Company's online real estate platform into the massive global commercial real estate market.

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/pressreleases/11/11/p2143743/property-com-launches-as-category-defining-portal-for-massive-commercia#ixzz1eO09gRbl

Rick Schwartz

Afternoon Folks!!

Not often do friend and foe alike unite in a common feeling of loss until there is a death in the domainer community. Maybe times like this will make us 'paws' for a little bit to reflect and remember what is important in life and just how short it really is. How sometimes we need to dial it back and realize we have more in common than not.

After Donna Mahoney's suggestion on Mike's blog to induct Bandit into the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Hall Of Fame, she emailed me and during that email conversation I believe I came up with a perfect and befitting alternative.

I am happy to announce that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will present a new award in honor of Bandit Berkens. Starting in 2012 the Bandit Berkens. 'Goodwill Ambassador Award' will be presented to a deserving domainer that fits the description the best.

Only Judi Berkens and secret weapon 'Bandit' could get a NYC cop to pose this way

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I wrote this Saturday Night just minutes after we learned that Bandit had passed. Mike and Judy are obviously devestated but the support of the domainer community during tough times is always quite striking.......

Very sad night for Mike and Judy Berkens on the passing of Bandit. Known by most domainers from his appearance at many industry events. Bandit was 13.

Alina and I along with Freddy are just without words and know this is a really tough time for the Berkens.

I will remember Bandit the most as a Ladies Man as pictured below. A 'Bandit' that can tame even the toughest 'TRAFFIC Cops'

T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Miami 2010

Bandit at TRAFFIC 2011 just 4 weeks ago. Still with the ladies.

Mike and Bandit with TRAFFIC Cabana Girl

Bari Meyerson's picture from October 29th 'Bandit, Mike and Judy'

Alina with Freddy and Judy with Bandit at their Birthday Party

Christmas 2010

Bandit really did steal all of our hearts.
Rick, Alina, Freddy

Morning Folks!!

Just days away from December and every year I use the month of December to do two major things. First is to look back and see what was accomplished in the past year and the next is to see what the future holds for next year. I also take the month off. It's a working vacation. My mind is going but my body is relaxing.

December was the month I got my first domain. How did that happen? Doing exactly what I just described. Using the time to think, plan and then implement. 2012 is not going to be a boring year.

It's still a bit too early to see 2012 because we have yet to get the info from Christmas 2011. That is an important piece of the puzzle. Watch the news in the next 6 weeks. I look for big deals to happen. The last days to get your ducks in a row financially speaking.

If you never take the time to STOP, you can never reassess where you are. Here is myDecember 2007 post. I took inventory then and was not to happy with how things were set up. Take a look and see if the landscape has changed.

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

You read that right! Non Disclosure Clause is Bullshit. It can actually be a benefit to you. The penalty for violating a non disclosure is usually the return of the item and the money. OK. I can buy into that. Let me tell you all my secret deals and see if the buyer wants to give me back the domain for what he or she bought it for.

Get the point? It’s a paper tiger. It means nothing. It only means something during the first days of the deal. After that, meaningless and most of the non disclosure agreements can be violated with no penalty whatsoever.

Aside from that, I have only been involved with 1 non-disclosure deal and while I can never disclose, the buyer never had the broker sign the non-disclosure.

The #1 reason for non-disclosure seems to be “Embarrassment.” True. Companies are scared that others will laugh or think they overpaid. That usually goes away within days of obtaining the domain. Few ever regret buying the domain name.

So when folks want non-disclosure I say no. No! NO! and NO again! Why? Because I am trying to establish a market. The sale has more benefits to me and the domain industry than just the dollars. Look at the story and take out all my sales. Some like Men.com and iReport.com were markers in the sand. Sales like that help to build the foundation for other sales.

So go ahead. If you sold a domain too cheap and it is now worth a lot more, you can talk without fear in most cases. The remedy in most cases is you have to give them their money back and you get the domain if they were to exercise their rights. I am not saying go back on your word, I am talking about the penalty for violating the contract. There really is none.

At the very least you can go back and ask them to release you from that clause. Many have a time limit built in. So after 3 years you can speak. So you can always use that as a backup.

I think folks would be STUNNED by how many deals we never hear about. For example, I would venture to say 3 of every 4 million dollar deals are never reported. Even in the iReport deal that was the final sticking point. NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, Not going to happen. Yes, I would walk away from the deal. YES! YES! YES!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Just a little footnote. On the Meet.me deal, the 3 of us agreed we would not sell with a non-disclosure. That deal would have not happened if a non-disclosure was involved. If it were involved, that information would have never seen the light of day. Nobody would know about that deal. That is why new info is so important and we all have a responsibility to support what we do.

Afternoon Folks!!

So why ask a question and then close comments? Maybe just an oversight. But I will post my comment right here.

DomaimGang asks a funny question about my posts today and this week. But I would like to focus on the statement below:

'Rick’s statement that you need to own the .com in order to launch a business on a different TLD such as .co really surprises me.'

Why would it surprise anyone. I have stated that for well over a decade. But more importantly, is NOW we have independent confirmation from somebody that spent millions to find out.

We have NEW INFORMATION. Why would anyone close their eyes to a major discovery by an end user? It demonstrated that if you plan to build a business on a non dotcom you will likely bleed a substantial amount of traffic. That costs money and profitability and makes your competition stronger if they are in the same field.

When the President of the company makes a statement like this based on the numbers, it can't be ignored. This is a bombshell. I recognize it. Castello recognizes it, I won't mention others but they are all old timers and they get it.

'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'

And btw, my 4 posts pale in comparison of your 10 posts this month so far on Rick Schwartz. :-)

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Never confuse the customer. That's just one of the takeaways from the O.co disaster. Sure, you can put lipstick on this pig but 5 months after they announce they are going to become O.com, the change goes down in flames.

There are many losers in this. Some are short term losers and then there are long term losers. As for winners, there is only one winner. Dotcom!

Now this does not mean you can't make money with different extensions. You can. Including .co. It does mean you are crazy to try and build a business on any extension other than dotcom UNLESS you own the dotcom. They will ALWAYS have a gaping hole in their advertising and marketing strategy/budget and that is a costly mistake if they don't have the .com counterpart.

What happened with this news is akin to a $25 million domain sale. It's a marker in the sand. Marking a significant day with new FACTS.

This is what I would call a 'Paul Revere Moment' because the following line is going to be repeated and repeated and repeated for YEARS to come. Had O.co just decided to make a change would be one thing, but when they said THIS, the WORLD changed:

'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'

You can't put this back in the box. You can't unring this bell. This is not a low level employee, this is the President of the company. It is out there and I and others will hang our hat on it for years to come. Whether it be .co, .net, or HUNDREDS and soon to be THOUSANDS of other extensions.

'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'

Do not forget that line. THAT is what this is all about. 'It's the traffic, stupid!'

But there is also some clarity for the first time. Plus the conversation now turns to traffic. They are finally talking about traffic. When they start targeting that traffic we will all know we have arrived.

Itr has always been about the traffic but now they are reacting to it and understanding it.

When Overstock first announced they would be O.com I thought it was a stupid idea. Not because of the .co. That was not the first thing that popped in my mind. The first thing that popped in my mind was that the Overstock Brand itself was weak at best. Overstock is certainly not on the lips of most people and when I asked folks, most never heard of them. So their move was a branding mistake and premature.

It was stupid. I said so then and I did not mince words but I also was patient enough to wait for a REAL result. So the birdie in the mine was born.

Until NOW most folks did not know or maybe even did not believe that there is traffic leakage from ANY extension to the .com. That was inside baseball. We knew, few others did. Now the world knows. That's a good thing.

Read my posts for the last 15 years. I have stated over and over and over again that .NET is an'Orphan' extension. The weakest one because of the leakage to the .com. So this is nothing new. What is new is a mainstream company articulating that for the world to see. That is HUGE! That will have huge ramifications.

'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'

That is the key sentence to focus on. Nothing else in the release matters. But there is still a variable there. How MUCH leakage was there? We can guess at this. But let's look at the FACT that 5 months after they went to O.co they change course. 5 MONTHS!!! How much money did they spend in that re-branding effort? New commercials, new ads, new this and new that.

They did it 1 week before Thanksgiving. That is more evidence on how much leakage. Would you have liked to be a fly on the wall during those board meetings?

My estimate is as follows. 25% would be the very least leakage. But i think it is more. 50% would probably be getting close. My guess is they brought in a focus group, ran the commercial and then asked folks to simply go to their website.

So if that focus group had let's say had anywhere between 25% and 75% of folks going to O.com, then you can see why they would do something so drastic they know would be very embarrassing. The exact number we can speculate on. Just look how many times we have messed it up on blog posts or comments. CONFUSION!

But the FACT is it was so much leakage that they were forced to make this move after a huge investment.

Re-branding was a huge mistake when the original brand was not fully branded. But that is just a debating point. What can't be debated is the FACT of the traffic leakage. It's always about the traffic.

There is no excuse or justification. There are now facts. Facts to look at and plug in. But when we agree that this 'Experiment' is a big deal, we can't go back and say it doesn't mean much when it fails. And this was much more than a failure.

The single biggest loser, let me see, there are a few of them. But the biggest loser is down the road. I will have to re-read my August post on .Whatever and see if I need to change any of my thinking.

The gTLD's MOMENTUM is the the single biggest loser. How many companies will rethink their plans? How many will see this as the deciding factor? None of us know but I will guarantee you the answer is greater than 'None.' It may even rise to 'Many.'

Next up is .XXX. They have a different vision. Together we will see how that birdie does. I don't know, you don't know, but the birdie will know. The birdies cousin did not do well and this could be the next fatality. But sex sells and so I would say .XXX is the last best chance. A failure there is a nail in the coffin of .whatever as far as domain investment goes imho. We can count the carcases and come to a conclusion at that point. But I will still wait for the results and as always, time will tell.

I will also see what happens with the .XXX lawsuit. Mike Berkens wrote a piece yesterday and gives some good reasons why companies should get their .whatever. We will see if they take his advice. One thing is for sure, understanding of domain names and traffic on the Internet are still in the elementary stages. Folks that at this point should be fluent in domain names can hardly speak the language.

Those that don't understand how meaningful that one statement Mr. Johnson made is just missing the entire picture and wishing won't make your assets worth more. Taking in new information and adjusting is key. This was HUGE information. Nothing we did not know, but now confimed in a very public way.

I will be using that quote for YEARS to come. Forget the .co, (allthough the confusion factor here is off the chart) put in any extension. If you are going to mass market, you MUST own the dotcom version. SIMPLE. One sentence says it all! Thank you Mr. Johnson. You are my hero!

'Mr. Johnson said customers responded well to the O.co advertising, but after watching the spots, 'a good portion' of those who sought out the website went to O.com, instead of O.co.'

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz

Afternoon Folks!!

The biggest cloud we all have over us is the uncertainty of the future. The world has never quite been in a fog like this. Out of orbit. The future is uncertain. Things are tense. But that does not mean you can't do well in times like this. Matter of fact, if you see it clearly, you will do quite well.

You have heard the expression 'You have to ZIG while other ZAG.' This is a case in point. We know there is uncertainty. How do you overcome that? You become CERTAIN. Really. You become certain on something you believe. You become even more certain while everyone else is scared and uncertain. Fear does not work in business. Strength works in business.

Uncertain is what takes our strength away. Don't fall into that TRAP. Oh yes, it is a trap. A trap 99% will fall into. They are zagging, time to zig. This is the time to be strong. Buy fear. Fear is a great motivator. You are now armed with a method. Use it.

Let me give you a bunch of others. See my zigging and zagging and compare it with how things have unfolded. I start out with a set of uncertainties because I took the time to identify them and then apply them to the future. You only need to get the big things right. How did I see in 2007 and 2009 what is unfolding now? The clues were all there. They are always there. Whether folks take the time and stop to examine is only up to them!

Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz