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.
Domain Investment New To You – STOP AND READ THIS
In the past several months I have had many friends that have had interest in getting into domain investment. They had heard me talking about various things, whether it be a nice ROI on a domain flip or passive income from domain parking or Google Adsense. It was always interesting to watch peoples minds crank as they started grasping the "behind the scenes" work that happens to bring this little Internet thing to life. How SEO determines who they click on when doing a search. How you cannot just go buy any domain name and expect to have success.
I always enjoyed bringing new people into this industry but one thing I learned is that almost everyone makes the same mistakes. Here is a quick list of the most common mistakes I see from friends who have started dabbling:
1) Trademark Names - This is probably no surprise but it is usually the first thing that I end up explaining after already doing it once or twice.
2) Registering names because they sound cool - This is a pet peeve of mine that seems to continue even after some people know better. I cannot even start count how many emails I have received over the past few years from people sending a name to get my thoughts on it because it seems cool.
3) Registering hundreds of names in their first few months - Nuff said.
4) Leaving their names parked on their registrars default parking - Only person making money with this is the registrar you bought the name through, i.e. Godaddy in most cases.
5) Never listing their names with an aftermarket - I have recently had an experience with one person who had been a "domain investor" for 2 years but did not even know how to sign up for Sedo. Got that fixed but either way, 2 years and could not figure out why he had never had an offer for one.
6) Falling for the domain appraisal rip offs
7) NEVER SPENDING ANYTIME RESEARCHING THE INDUSTRY TO LEARN THE BASICS
This last one is probably my biggest concern. If you are spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to step into something new wouldn't you want to spend a month or so reading and learning about what it is you are stepping into. As much as domain investing is new to most people there are plenty of easy to find resources out there.
Two of the most recent people this came up with had been buying names and complaining they either a) were not getting offers or b) not getting any parking revenue. Now as far as offers, neither person had the names listed with any aftermarket site and as far as parking, if you have not put the time in to research what type of names bring revenue then it is likely that the names purchased will not bring revenue.
With both of these people, after a different but related question from each one I set a rule, I would not answer anymore domain related questions for a month or until they could prove to me they took the time to research and learn and they were not allowed to buy any more domains until they did research, I am sure they did not like me telling them how to spend their money or not to spend money but I was honestly trying to help. There is no quick answer or fast path to success in this domain game. There was a good post at Domainvestors.tv about this today as well.
Now, I did not want to send them off blindly so I gave them a few places to start with their learning, here they are in no particular order:
2) Namepros.com
3) DnForum.com
Now, the question is does it work. Does the tough love have an effect. Well without a doubt I can say in both cases it made all the difference in the world. Within a couple weeks of starting the research one of the people actually had hand registered a name that had dropped recently that is receiving on average a dollar a day in revenue from parking. In the other case the person has been able to register a few names of high quality that are prime for development and are minisites at this point. Both people now focus on domain investments that have keyword search potential and not on names that just "sound cool". Trademark names are no longer an issue and actually ROI on investment is.
I would say virtually all of us made mistakes when we first entered this little world, I want to make sure I help my friends sidestep those mistakes and have as much a fast path to success as possible.
