Different Circumstances Require Different Paths
First off, before I even start this post I want to lay some things out, this post by no means is a knock of the old guard, as anyone that knows me can tell you I have major respect for the people that have been leading the domain industry for years, but as of late I have noticed a few things happening and it caused me to think a bit about the shift I think is starting to occur.
First off, I would venture to bet that 95 percent of domain investors today started in the past 5 years, maybe even in the past few years. Myself, well I was aware and understood as far back as 1996 but cannot say I actively started focusing on picking out a few good ones until 2002 or so when a few unrelated events slapped me in the head with how quickly the quality names were going.
All that said, if you have not noticed, here of late there seems to be many more posts on various blogs, and not just mine, talking about how you have to be more creative, etc to be a domainer today. That is something that I have always thought but the issue with that is that the majority of the industry leaders we read about or continue to follow came from a different set of circumstances when buying their domain names. They came from one of the following:
1) Started buying back in the mid nineties.
2) They had money to start with.
3) They used the money from being able to sell their names based on item #1 above to be able to keep going big.
Now, lets be real clear here, they should be absolutely commended for having the foresight to grab this real estate early and understanding what they had. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, they took a different fork in the road than those who went before them and people thought they were crazy.
But I think now many domain investors are starting to see that they need to do things a bit different, many of the new blood domain investors just do not relate to the stories of names being bought at hundreds of thousands to be flipped for big profits, they are seeing they do not have the capital to do that. Or they cannot relate to picking up high type in traffic generics because they were not buying in 1995.
The point is, the new domain investor is having to think a bit differently and they are looking for info that relates to how they can move down a path of success.
Telling people that they cannot be successful because they do not have a one word generic dot com is not what the industry leaders should be doing, yet that is exactly the perception given off every day.
I love the stories of big name sales as much as the next person, but I continue to look for advice and success stories that relate to Joe Domainer starting today. I want to see more stories of people that have started in the past few years that did NOT start with large sums of cash coming into domaining or did not buy their names in 1995, but have still found ways to be successful.
If they were successful they did it by being creative, they did it buy finding a new path.
The advice that will help new domainers the most is the advice that comes from those that started in the same place they started.
If you have a success story you would like told, maybe someone you would like interviewed shoot me a message and I will see what I can do.
Todays domainers have to be different and they should be, I would love to see a story of someone doing something with networks of sites or even building geo domain network on a .Me? Why would anyone do that?
Very well put. I’m much more intersted in the people that built their empires Now. Congrats to those that started early but the past is the past and I can’t go back in time. I don’t have a million dollar generic so I don’t relate to those that do. Again, nice article and I may have to add my own two cents on my site as well
@TeenDomainer – LOL, maybe I should launch a .ME:) Or wait a network of sites, hmmm, good idea. Oh wait….
@Shane – Thanks much, appreciate. I have put this post together a few different times and never could get the words quite right, thanks for the nice compliment and I truly look forward to the post on your blog.
About time somebody has told people about this. It’s just that people get intimidated and quit once they know they can’t get their hands on premium gTLDs. I know a lot who’ve started and quit in a months time
@TechFilipino – Thanks for the support. There are ways to be successful.
Many of the people that started doing domain stuff the same time period I did forged a variety of different paths and the “where they came from is much more varied”. I now have friends that are millionaires as well as ones that have gone belly-up. New domainers can still work angles that the big guys are missing or are too slow to pick up on. Be smart and learn and adapt quickly.
I pose a question that’s a bit open ended here :
What makes someone a domainer ? What is domaining ?
I think everyone has their own perceptions and ideas and thus the varying paths.
@Adam
I agree completely with your question (if that is possible). I think in many cases people get confused between domainer, developer, etc.
Myself, I mix the two, the .ME side of me is pure developer, that is not domainer. But I have used the domaining knowledge to be able to create that business and it helps in other areas of the business.
As mentioned in other posts, people sometimes confuse buying domains for development and buying domains as investments. I want to scream sometimes when people confuse the selling of a business as the selling of a domain name. But I digress.
Anyway, good question, now to the short answer:
1 A domainer is someone who buys domain names with the intent to sell them at a profit.
2 A collector is a person who buys domain names with no plan on selling for a profit.
3 A developer is a person who buys domain names with an intent to build a business on them.
It is ok to mix and match #1 and #3 but never #2.
Great comment Adam, you are correct, work the angles, find your niche or area that you can be profitable at and focus there.
Bruce, a great post for people looking to break out new innovations that provide possible exciting new monetization paths for domain investors. Viva la Revolution!
“Telling people that they cannot be successful because they do not have a one word generic dot com is not what the industry leaders should be doing, yet that is exactly the perception given off every day.”
I find these type of blanket statements (theirs, not yours) very suspicious.
How do we as n00bs know that they aren’t just inflating their own .com bubble for their own self-interest and their own profits?
And how are they (we?) any different from the scam artists who flip/sell property/cars/shares with the promise of future capital gain – when in fact – there was little real value in the asset to begin with?
True value never has, and never will be about what you own. I know refugees coming into the country who literally had nothing 25+ years ago. Does that mean they were worthless? No! They are now the most successful (small)businessmen
It’s not about what you have. It’s about what you can do with what you have. The earlier domainers just had a headstart. A domainíng handicap, if I can put it in those terms.
So who are the real amateurs?
@Undergraduate – You hit the nail on the head. And I am not necessarily saying that is what is happening, but since creative thought is not encouraged in this industry people who think for themselves will automatically have the same feeling you have about the blanket statement you put out.
If you look at most technology industry sectors creative thought and out of the box thinking is a constant theme coming from the leaders, in our case it is actually discouraged. That is not very progressive at all.
@Undergraduate – Just saw your second comment, we were typing at the same time. I think they should be commended for having the foresight to get started when they did. They were innovators as far as being ahead of the game in understanding what domain names meant.
But as you are saying and I said in the post, today people who are getting started or have even been doing this for a few years have to be more creative, in most industries we find the leaders pushing to move the industry forward not trying to keep it in the same place. In otherwords they would push to have something like .ME take off since that is new opportunity. The reasons people push for that in other industries is that the leaders want to see the growth, in this industry they do not want growth opps, they want to see it stay status quo.
Guess what, anytime a sector of business has tried that they end up falling by the wayside and something new passes them up….
Oh, and one more thing, one of the problems we have in this industry is that we are way to inward focused, this is a problem, when you lose touch of where you really fit. Once you understand where you fit then you can learn how to take advantage of your positions of strength and how to strengthen your weaknesses. If you never take the time to do that then you will not see the bad stuff coming.
Ok, soapbox rant complete….
To clarify my statements:
“How do we as n00bs know that they aren’t just inflating their own .com bubble for their own self-interest and their own profits?”
“n00bs”: When I type ‘n00b’ I was referring to the new guys (domainers in this context, myself included) as a collective. I don’t mean it as a put-down, so please don’t take it the wrong way. In fact, I admire you guys for still trying to make it big in this industry, despite the fact that we’re all a few years behind, but nothing a few gallons of sweat, blood and tears won’t overcome.
“they”: ‘they’ referred to others. And I don’t mean accidentally discovered pioneers/innovators like Yun Ye, Kevin Ham, Frank Schilling etc etc. and who knows how many others who were never after the fame in the first place, who definitely should be commended for having the foresight.
“.com bubble”: halvarez. Enough Said.
@Undergraduate
Understood completely, I do not consider noob an insult, just means people new to it. As a matter of fact I never think it is a bad thing to be the next generation of something. Although I may of been around it for quite sometime I would not of considered myself engaged even part time until 2002 and not even hardcore until a few years back.
All is good:)
@bruce
“And I am not necessarily saying that is what is happening”"
Neither am I. Just a personal theory.
“but since creative thought is not encouraged in this industry people who think for themselves will automatically have the same feeling you have about the blanket statement you put out.”
It’s not just a feeling I have. In the sharemarkets it’s called Pump and Dump. Google it. Then click on the Wikipedia link. It’s happened before. It’s happening now. It’ll happen again. Across all sectors.
“If you look at most technology industry sectors creative thought and out of the box thinking is a constant theme coming from the leaders, in our case it is actually discouraged. That is not very progressive at all.”
Agreed. You are talking about ‘Groupthink’. Fascinating topic.
Groupthink is a favorite word of mine:)
This is about to inspire a new post:)
Just send the readers to the Wiki entry.
LOL, no not that, this lead me to a different idea, it may not seem related but this combined with another post I read tonight lead me to an idea. It may make some people mad, oh well…..