A New Domainer In Training

Been away from the laptop most of the day but sitting here now with a good friend of mine who happens to run the local cycling club. We will be taking over their website but in talking to me and following Twitter he has become very interested in domaining and also monetizing domain names. He comes from a tech and business background combined which I think gives him a leg up.

He will be a "project" for me and I am going to work with him each step of the way, we have already went down the initial things not to do:

1) Trademarks

2) Collecting with no plan

3) Buying 100 names your first month

I will be pointing him to a few posts I have done in the past that outline places to go to research domaining before he buys his first name (follow domaining.com, DNjournal.com, DNForum.com, etc, etc). And I plan on showing him how to use Estibot.com, Valuate.com and others to get data on sites (not for pricing but for DATA). This ought to be a fun little adventure and I will keep you updated on his progress.

All that said, if someone were to come up to you today and ask for advice on getting started in domain INVESTING (not development but investing) what advice would you give  them? What sites would you send them too?
Please comment with your thoughts.

It Is Not Old Domainers Vs. New Domainer

There have been a few comments in various places about new vs. old domainer talk lately and many of the comments I read first started around some of the posts I made in the last couple weeks.  I just wanted to make sure the spirit of some of my posts that I have done lately was clear.

I do not have any "us against them" agenda or thoughts. I can tell by reading some of the comments discussing my posts that people may think I do, well I do not. My comments are purely based on the fact that there is not just one group of domainers. There are multiple groups and some people that fit in more than one of the groups. I consider myself someone who fits across multiple groups (mainly .COMs but also believe you can build a business even if you do not have it).

But if you had to split into 2 groups it would work out to be those that started early or with capital and the second group would be those that are starting to find a bit of a taste of success or have had much success that came later to the game.

The difference is each group has different interests but are part of the same industry, the industry as a whole has one main goal but each group approaches the path differently. Sometimes that causes one group to call the other group crazy but at the end of the day we are all shooting for the same thing (plain and simple, profit).

I can tell after meeting with several people this past week, some who have been around the game for awhile, some of the frustration is that much of what is discussed is that much of the discussion in the domaining industry is more of the same yet things have changed and I think people truly just are looking for guidance to give them a way to be successful after the bottom fell out of PPC/Parking.

Anyway, just wanted to clear the air a bit, anyone that speaks to me outside of my blog knows that I have respect for people that had the foresight to start early, my mindset though is that it is time for some innovation and progressive thought on moving the industry forward, if that sounds like New vs. Old I do not know why, to me that sounds like someone just being interested in seeing the domain industry as a whole growing.

We are one industry with multiple paths.

The Unsaid Value Of Domaining.com

While hanging out with a group of fellow domainers at the Affiliate Convention someone brought up a very good point, something I had noticed but never really thought about much. The point that was brought up is that Domaining.com has really done a good job evening the playing field for new ideas to come to light in the domain industry.

It really leveled the playing field as far as giving people a chance to say their opinion, give info on what they find successful, and in general give a voice to people that may not be big names in the industry.

I know some would argue the value of having people that some would call "amateurs" having a voice but to me the most innovative thoughts come from those looking to find a new way to approach things, that is not to say there is not huge value in listening to the people that have been successful, there is value there.  But things are always changing and if you continue to look at things as they were 10 years ago sooner or later you will be left behind. If you would of told me I would be able to grow a business on a .ME 5 years ago I would of told you to run away, not so much now....

Admittedly not every blog is of the same value, we all have those we find interesting or useful but the fact that we can find them and be aware of those we may not of found otherwise really is valuable.

There are some great blogs out there with people looking at various domain monetization methods, new ways to approach buyers or maybe even take  a new extension and turn it into a business. I know people would like for you to think there is no value unless you have a one word.com with 1000 type ins a day but that just is not true. You may not be the same type of domain investor as that person but you can still be a successful domain investor.

Kudos to Francois and Domaining.com for letting new ideas come to light and leveling the playing field just a bit for people with new ideas. And also thanks to the person at the Affiliate Convention who brought this up as it really got be thinking the past few days.

Also, another great post to read today if you are someone looking for new ideas and thoughts about your domaining business is over at Fusible.com .

What Is A Domainer?

On a post of mine the other day Adam asked an interesting question, basically what is a domainer?

I think there are many people that even buy and sell domains that would have a hard time defining it. And I think even outside of that many people start to confuse domaining with development because in many cases people like to do both, like myself.

My quick answer to the question was:

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.

I think this is about as simple a definition as could be said and I actually think there are multiple levels to number 1 and number 2 which I will go a bit deeper into in a later post.

But I thought I would post Adams question here, leave a comment with your thoughts on what you think the definition of domainer is.