Try an experiment and over the next couple of days, have a pen and a piece of paper nearby to analyze your activity the “old school” way.

And in case you were wondering what I mean by “gaining knowledge”, I’m referring to reading articles or watching videos that genuinely help you from a business perspective.

Reading a blog post about domaining or a thread on a domaining forum about something related to our industry qualifies. Reading political discussions and things like that on domaining blogs or domaining forums (let’s face it, they do tend to appear every now and then) doesn’t.

And let’s not even mention funny youtube videos or other similar activities, I’m sure you know which category they fall into. Be honest with yourself and you’ll be able to manage your time a lot better without buying time management books and what not

I admit, it happened to me in the past but I luckily got outbid haha.

And it happened again today (I managed to figure out that it was a typo before it was too late), which is why I decided to write this post, I hope it will help you avoid embarrassing mistakes in the future

White people, black people, yellow people. Republican “rednecks” and democrat “hippies” as well as libertarians and so on. People from all sorts of backgrounds had the cojones to say “dear government, GTFO!” and I respect that.

We need to be careful what we wish for because an attitude such as “oh come on, a bit more government involvement won’t hurt” can and will have unfathomable negative consequences in my opinion.

That is all. /mini-rant

On a similar note, I remember talking to a doctor a while back and mentioning Dr. House (I like Dr. House btw) and he said the same thing about doctor movies haha.

Maybe it’s a general thing and if you’re involved in “Industry X”, then you’ll have a hard time being impressed by movies related to Industry X.

What about you guys?

When it comes to all of the previously mentioned industries, I’ve personally noticed such periods and guess what… none of those industries are dead. Not by a long shot.

Of course, things evolve, they always have and they always will. Adapt or gtfo!

But never make the mistake of blaming an entire industry for the fact that you’re not making as much money as you hoped you would. In most cases, you can find the culprit by looking in the mirror.

That is all

“But… but everyone uses Google!”

Sure, you’re right.

And how do they do that? By visiting Google dot com (or a ccTLD alternative).

“But what about social media websites like Facebook?”

What about them?

Same principle: you type in the domain, log in and do your thing.

“Oh yeah?! Then explain apps.”

Apps? Well, I have a question for you: do you think that launching an app without owning the domain is a good idea?

’nuff said.

When it comes to traditional real estate, I’ve seen quite a few but one of them became obvious today, so I’m going to share it. I live in a fairly small town and there are a few huge supermarkets. The owner of let’s call it SupermarketA spent a LOT of money and built the supermarket in an excellent area. The owner of SupermarketB, on the other hand, settled for some less than stellar real estate.

Now here are a few facts:

1) SupermarketB has better prices
2) SupermarketB bought and operates busses which bring people to the supermarket free of charge
3) there are small billboards such as “SupermarketB Is Just 2km Away” plastered all over town, literally all over town
4) SupermarketB spends a fortune on marketing

And despite this fact, SupermarketA is doing better. Going there is just so convenient that a lot of people don’t mind spending an extra buck.

Location, Location, Location!

The owner of SupermarketA built his business on a solid foundation, whereas the owner of SupermarketB spends a fortune each month trying to make up for the fact that the location of his business sucks.

I’m sure you can draw your own conclusions

When sending the initial email, be polite and not demanding. Words like “please” exist for a reason. So back to the guy I’m talking about, his email was anything but polite.

I thought that maybe it’s just a language barrier thing and gave him some pointers.

He didn’t thank me through his reply and, instead, emailed me some follow up questions.

Less than 24 hours passed without me replying, he sends me an email asking if I’m going to answer his follow up questions and the email ends with three question marks (???).

WTF?

What would you guys do in this case?

I don’t know about you guys but if there’s one thing life taught me, it’s that you should think twice before investing in something that is recommended by everyone.

Everyone is printing money like there’s no tomorrow and you do need a hedge against inflation in such an environment but in my opinion, gold will not be a lifesaver for people who invest at this point.

Thoughts?

In my opinion, the solution is education and not regulation. As time passes, people will become more and more informed and in my opinion, the Internet will gradually sort itself out.

Of course things are not perfect but come on, the commercial Web is not even 20 years old (again, I’m talking about the commercial Web, in other words the Internet as a medium available to the average Joe)!

Unlike many industries which went downhill, the Internet is becoming more and more useful to the consumer with each day that passes. From Google to Wikipedia to YouTube and even to Harvard courses which are accessible online. One step at a time, one website at a time.