Compile a List of “This Person’s Posts Are Worth Reading” Forum Users

DNForum and NamePros both have a LOT of members but the thing is, most of the people who are active there are simply regurgitating information and not giving advice based on their own experience.

How to identify “this person’s posts are worth reading” forum users? Here are a few guidelines:

1) Post count is not always a good indicator (a lot of people with hundreds or thousands of posts are unfortunately absolutely clueless)

2) Track record, track record, track record! In other words, if someone who is trying to sound like an authority when giving advice on a forum today has tried to flip crappy domains for pennies on the same forum yesterday, last week or last month, then that person is clearly only regurgitating information (he/she talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk). The “find other threads by this user” feature is a powerful tool, use it!

3) If the person’s track record cannot be clearly identified (maybe he/she has only started posting recently, for example), put him/her on your “to watch” list. Check out posts from that member maybe 2 times less frequently and based on his/her actions, decide if you will follow that person’s posts or remove him/her from your “to follow” list

4) If a person has a clear hidden agenda (someone who is constantly promoting just one domain type, for example), you’re better off not following his/her posts. While that member might provide value to the community every once in a while, you’d have to spend too much time filtering quality posts from garbage for it to be worth it

5) Be selective and FWIW, there are less than 10 people on my “this person’s posts are worth reading” list

6) Don’t spend more than an hour or two per week reading forums, it just isn’t worth it

7) When reading a thread where at least one of the people worth listening to is posting, ignore long posts which are written by folks who are clearly clueless (you can determine if a post is worth your time or not after reading the first 2-3 sentences, it’s really not rocket science)

A lot of people make the mistake of not understanding the difference between an investor and a flipper, the same way others make the mistake of not understanding the difference between an investor and a day trader.

Look Beyond the Hype

Sure, flipping sounds all exciting and everything (the same way day trading sounds more exciting than investing) but in most cases, it’s a boulevard of broken dreams just waiting to happen. We humans are always tempted to look for quick fixes, quick cash and so on. That’s a huge weakness, stop living in denial!

In most cases, flippers are not capable of thinking rationally and that’s mainly because they’re always under pressure. There are obviously exceptions but for the most part, having “gotta generate cash asap” as your domaining business model will get you in trouble at one point or another and before you know it, you’ll go from being rich on paper to desperately wanting to:

Break Even

Doing something as risky as flipping without huge margins is not exactly all that smart. You win some, you lose some and without impressive margins, you’ll find yourself at that marvelous break even point after drawing the line.

If you’re currently a flipper and all of this sounds painfully familiar, don’t worry! There’s no time like the present to put everything under the microscope and make some important decisions. Do you want to continue living in uncertainty? Dreams don’t put food on the table, this much is certain.

As far as I’m concerned, “buy and hold” is an approach which works far better. Holding a dot com, a dot net or a dot org for 10 years (!!!) costs less than 100 bucks! This is a huge advantage and unless you’ve been buying crappy domains by the thousands, you can definitely afford to be an investor without having to worry about reg fees all that much.

Ok but a Man’s Gotta Eat, Right?

Yep, you’ll never be in a great position to negotiate if you’re dealing with cash flow issues. Unless you have a LOT of money in the bank, it’s hard to believe that you’ll be able to pull this “I invest for a living” thing off

Monetize your type-in traffic effectively, develop a handful of sites, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket! As far as most people are concerned, investing is one thing and putting food on the table is another. Smart investments will pay off in the long run but in the meantime, get busy and make some money!