As I was reading one of Michio Kaku’s futurology books (for some strange reason, I’ve been thinking more and more about the relationship between astrophysics and economics over the past months), I couldn’t help but have a bit of an “aha!” moment with respect to domaining when he chose to make a point using the “handheld fan” metaphor.

You know how you’re sometimes hot and feel better by using one of those handheld fans? Well, scientifically speaking, due to the muscle use in such situations and all that, there’s actually a NET GAIN when it comes to heat. But because you feel cooler in the area you’re targeting, there’s a nice psychological effect there that makes you feel better despite… you know, despite you actually doing the exact opposite of what you should be doing.

Time and time again, I notice something similar in the domaining world.

For example, let’s say Joe spends $9,000 hand-registering 1,000 domains based on just some random data mining… usually not the best idea in 2019 and beyond. So, anyway, he buys all of them today, April 3 2019 and has zero sales for several months. However, let’s say on the 10th of October, he manages to close one deal at $2,000 and is feeling awesome… after all, he just turned $9 into $2,000, right?

Well, no, not really.

The problem with this equation is that he’s still $7,000 in the red and on the 3rd of April 2020, so in about half a year, he has to pony up another $9,000 for renewals. In other words, if he has no other sales and wants to keep all his domains, he will be $16,000 in the red by spring.

Unfortunately, it sometimes gets worse.

Blinded by the handheld fan effect, the proverbial Joe frequently chooses to double down on his strategy and invests another $9,000 this way. That $2,000 sale made him feel good about a bad strategy, so he ends up doing more of the exact opposite he should be doing.

Then 6 more months pass, zero sales.

Toward the end of March, he will be $7,000 + $9,000 in the red (since he bought another 1,000 domains).

At the beginning of April, he will be $7,000 + $9,000 + $9,000 in the red (renewal season for his first 1,000 domains).

Later in 2020, he will be $7,000 + $9,000 + $9,000 + $9,000 in the red (renewal season for his second batch of 1,000 domains)… a grand total of $34,000 down the drain.

In the absence of the fan effect, he could have just maybe cut his losses by not renewing any domains. $7,000 down the drain… but what can you do, just consider it a learning experience and move on. But through a deadly combination between a statistical fluke (the $2,000 sale) and the over-confidence it brought about, a $7,000 loss can turn into a $34,000 one and then some just like that.

Of course, all of this seems silly to you.

And it might even seem silly to Joe in hindsight.

But when you’re in the middle of it all, these things creep up on you and lead to mistakes that could have been avoided but haven’t been. Emotional responses may be great in other areas of life, but they’re career-ending when it comes to business or investing.

Food for thought…

Today: Short hacks versus .com – Questions and Answers / Forent.com sold for $7,108 / New New .BEST Domains for $2.75 / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Web design wanted – Budget: Up to $1,500.00 – Are you a website developer with the skill sets to build out an interactive domain industry related website within this buyers budget? Check out their guideline to find out more.

.baby now available for registrations – Yet another new gTLD to add to the mix. Are you going to register a .baby domain name asset? Which one would you choose?

Calling all .com owners, do you dabble? – Is your domain portfolio 99% .com and 1% new gTLD’s? Which new GTLD’s did you go for to break the .com cycle and why? Check out what some domain investors are saying.

Forent.com sold for $7,108 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a six-letter, brandable, .com domain for a high-four-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

New .BEST Domains for $2.75 – If you have been on the fence and thing about registering a .best new gTLD, this promotion might come in handy.

Short hacks versus .com – Questions and Answers – Are you investing into short hack domain names instead of the .come version due to the length of the domain? How do you determine the value difference?

“Go Big Or Stay In Bed” …..Coach Speak Investing – Are you investing in popular coach speak phrases? Do you think this is a niche that has some potential? Check out what some domain investors think about it.

… or why we can’t even use new gTLDs for April Fools’ Day purposes 🙂

Seriously, with new gTLD domainer to domainer sales being so darn rare, this headline is so hard to believe that not even the most gullible newbie domainers would take it seriously.

In other words, here we are, in the FIFTH year of ICANN’s glorious new gTLD experiment and we can’t even use most of them to get a good laugh out of people… if nothing else, I believe this makes it clear on just how many levels this entire new gTLD thing has failed.

Could things have been different?

I don’t know, maybe.

At the very least, they could have been a little bit less ridiculous. Perhaps they could have:

A) released a LOT less new gTLDs, as in less than 10% of the current number

B) decided not to release confusingly similar strings… if you want a good joke, forget about this post’s title, just think about the fact that some people thought it would be a great idea for .Law, .Lawyer, .Lawyers, .Attorney, .Attorneys, .Legal, .Esq and maybe even others that I forgot about to co-exist… what could possibly go wrong, right?

C) try to avoid extreme pricing confusion: is this a premium registration fee *and* premium renewal fee domain? Or just a one-time premium registration fee name? Perhaps domain promo which involves a low registration fee but is followed by premium renewal fees? What do you mean I have to give you a kidney to renew the name?

… so, yeah.

Honestly, this entire train wreck left a very bitter taste in my mouth, just felt like a huge money grab from start to finish. Again, I have nothing against the idea of releasing new strings, knock yourself out. Am I going to invest in them? Probably not. But still, nothing against this idea.

But the execution… it still makes me cringe, several years after the launch. I can’t even think of a word that does it justice, “epic fail” is nowhere near representative enough. Maybe one of you is an astrophysicist and can come up with a metaphor as to the multi-dimensional failure this entire thing ended up being.

For investors, of course.

I’m sure some developers are happy with their new gTLDs, nothing wrong with that. Hey, I even kinda-sorta thought about starting a personal blog on “Andrei.Horse” with the slogan “That’s What She Said” but my wife didn’t find the concept amusing 🙂

So, just in case non-domainers land on DomainingTips after performing a Google search and end up reading this post, I just want to clarify that it refers exclusively to new gTLDs as investment options for people who want to invest in domains.

But even if you’re a developer, I’m sure there are several aspects that pertain to new gTLDs that make you cringe. If you just want to rely on search traffic and don’t care about branding, great… but if you’re in it for the long haul and care about creating a solid brand on let’s say “Best.Lawyer”, I don’t think you’ll be happy that many people who maybe hear about you on the radio will land on Best.Lawyers, Best.Attorney, Best.Attorneys… or, of course, BestLawyer.com.

In the end, whether you’re a domainer, end user, developer or something else, I guess the common denominator here is that this entire thing could have and should have been run in a much, much, MUCH, M-U-C-H more coherent and professional manner.

C’est la vie…

Today: Biggest ccTLD sales of all time / MChain.com sold for $17,250 / New .HOMES Domains for $9.35 / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

keyword .com domains – Budget: Up to $800.00 – Are you sitting on any keyword .com domains names that cost you at least $300.00 to acquire? If so and you want an opportunity to double or close to triple your investment, check out this buyers specified criteria.

Buying brandables ending with Vowels | .Com only- Budget: Up to $300.00 – If you are looking to liquidate some of your brandable .com domain assets ending in vowel, be sure to check out this buyers guideline.

Looking for short .COM ending with «LEX» or «DEX» – Budget: Up to $60.00 ea. – Be sure to check your portfolio for a .com ending with lex or dex. If you are tired of them collecting dust and willing to take a wholesale price on them, this might be an opportunity.

MChain.com sold for $17,250 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a six-letter, surname, .com domain for five-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

New .HOMES Domains for $9.35 – If you are or have been thinking about investing in the new gTLD .homes, this new registration promotion might come in handy.

Biggest ccTLD sales of all time – What are some of the biggest ccTLD sales you ave seen over the years reported? Take a look at some of the breathtaking sales other investors are talking about.

Double hyphen domains dominating search results! – Have you been seeing more double hyphen domain names in the top of search results like other domain investors have been noticing? Do you think it means there is more value in today’s market for hyphens or could it just be their particular SEM/SEO campaigns?

As someone who also frequently wears his marketing hat rather than just his domaining one, I can tell you that the two most important words in the world of marketing are SPLIT TESTING… also called A/B testing or, generally speaking, just remember the word TESTING.

The main reason why split testing is such a dominant term among marketers is represented by the fact that you just never ever know what ends up working.

A lot of times, split testing reveals all sorts of weirdness.

I’ve analyzed landing pages which were amazingly beautiful but had depressingly low conversion rates and, the same way, I’ve come across landing pages which were cringeworthily bad but converted very, very well.

At the end of the day, as a marketer or domainer, you ultimately care about the bottom line. Not about how shiny your strategy is but rather about results, results and… results.

I truly do believe domainers will end up being grateful in the long run if they develop the habit of embracing split testing when it comes to pretty much anything related to investing in domains, including but not limited to:

A) “domain for sale” landing pages

B) negotiation replies

C) prices, anything from the last digits your prices end with to specific pricing methodology/strategy

D) domain auction bidding strategies

… the list could go on and on.

It may sound simple enough but most people just don’t do it. Be honest, how many landing page variations have you ever split tested? Or negotiation replies, or anything else related to domaining, for that matter? Based on my interactions with fellow domainers, I’ve come to accept the fact that split testing is one of those things which seem so obvious that you’d think talking about them is a waste of time… yet practically nobody truly internalizes the concept and split tests in a meaningful, sustained manner.

If you’re a data junky, I guess split testing seems natural and what I’ve just said probably doesn’t apply to you. If however you aren’t (again, a lot of people tend to call themselves data enthusiasts but don’t actually walk the walk), then you truly do need to perform a bit of domaining strategy assessment and figure out which improvements you can make on the split testing front.

I can pretty much promise that testing will reveal FACTS about your strategy that seemed anything but intuitive… but that doesn’t make them any less accurate or useful 😉

Today: Real Estate Related Domain Names Wanted – Budget: Up to $10,000.00 / Tirox.com sold for $5,502 / Savor vs. Savour domains – Niche / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Is “sweet spot” domain investing a viable strategy? – Have you used the sweet spot domain investing strategy yet? If you have, how did it work for you? Do you agree with this investors analysis of the sweet spot domain investing strategy? Check out what some investors said.

Looking for pronounceable 4L .com domains – $100 + – If you have any four-letter domain names you would be willing to liquidate for some fast cash, this might be an opportunity. Take a look at the buyers guideline.

Buying .com domains at 2-10% GD Value – Budget: Up to $500.00 – Do you have any domain names with a good Godaddy automated appraisal value? If so and you want to make a up to $500.00 in fast cash, be sure to check out this buyers guidelines.

Real Estate Related Domain Names Wanted – Budget: Up to $10,000.00 – Be sure to check your domain portfolio for one of these real estate related domain names. This buyer is ready to invest if yours meet’s their specified criteria and they fall in love with it.

Savor vs. Savour domains – Niche – Are you investing in either spelling of savor or savour? Have you seen any difference in inquires between the two? Check out what some investors are saying about the words.

Tirox.com sold for $5,502 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a five-letter, pronounceable, brandable, .com domain for a mid-four-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for

You know you have too many domain names when… – Do you have a funny story about large portfolios getting out of hand or control? Take a look at some of the hilarious things some investors are saying about big portfolios.

Warren Buffett (in)famously said:

“Today, people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value.”

… the same Buffett, however, also stated that:

“Cash is like oxygen, you don’t notice it 99.9% of the time, but when absent it is the only thing you notice.”

While the two seem contradictory to the point of some of you wondering if Warren Buffett was off his meds in at least one of those two situations, they’re actually not. Not at all.

Investors in general and domainers in particular need to understand that there’s a time and place for everything, including a nice little asset class called cash and cash equivalents… and in my opinion, we’re currently in such an environment.

I look around me and don’t see a ton of screaming bargains, warning sign #1 if you will. A lot of assets, including many domain types, seem overvalued at this point in time. Aside from this, there’s also the broader economic perspective, with the market kind of “begging” for a recession in light of the fact that we’re in record-breaking territory when it comes to the time that has passed since the last recession. Warning sign #2.

Since there can never be certainties and nobody can predict the future, it’s ultimately on you as an investor (domainer in our case) to choose how you position yourself.

After the Great Recession, for example, I was in full-on buying mode. Domain values had collapsed and I felt like a child with money in his hands in an amusement park. Again, there’s a time and place for everything, with some of my best acquisitions ever having been made after the Great Recession, when everyone was panicking. Before my time as a domainer, the same way, you had examples of people such as Frank Schilling who were snagging expired domains left and right after the Dot Com Bubble, when others thought this Internet thing was close to dead, that it was a fad all along and laughed at the many people who lost money via tech stock speculation.

Nowadays, IMO, the opposite is true.

The best play I see right now is aggressively accumulating a position in cash and cash equivalents. This means working even harder than usual so as to make more money, for domainers it can mean being more willing than in the past few years to accept offers, it might mean liquidating some of your positions in other asset classes that you consider overvalued and so on.

Of course, this attitude is not without risk.

As they say, the market can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent and even if you’re not burdened by let’s say debt, the market is remarkably good at testing your patient to the point of wanting to make you give up.

Also, as mentioned at the very beginning of this article, you’re guaranteed to lose purchasing power as a result of inflation but if the market ultimately agrees with you and there’s a deflationary event like a market crash, asset prices will plummet to the point of making it all more than worth your while.

So, as an answer to the question that constitutes the title of this post, I for one believe that at this point in time, cash rather than dot com is king. Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m in love with this asset class, on the contrary. I operate with the big picture in mind and am looking forward to eventually turning that cash into other assets.

But, for the time being, I for one am in cash accumulation mode.

Today: .CA To Be Released (TBR) Weekly Pick List / Zic.com sold for $28,001 / Urgent Buying Domain for medical training courses – Budget: Up to $500.00 ea. / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Cumberland.com Sold for $250k ..and some excellent advice – Wow! This domain sold for almost ten-times what some three-letter .com’s have been selling for. Take a look at the advice behind that sale.

Buying one word .org – Budget: Up to $200.00 – Are there any single-word .org’s in your portfolio that you would liquidate for some quick capital? If so, this might be an opportunity.

Insect or exotic/reptile type name – Budget: Up to $100.00 – Be sure to check your portfolio for one of these insect or exotic reptile domain names if you’re needing some fast cash. Take a look at this buyers guideline.

Urgent Buying Domain for medical training courses – Budget: Up to $500.00 ea. – Do you have any medical training course related domain name assets in your portfolio that meet this buyers specified criteria that you would sell for some fast cash?

.CA To Be Released (TBR) Weekly Pick List – Are you investing in .ca ccTLD’s and looking for a list of dropping domains? Check this list out to see if there is anything that interest you dropping soon.

Zic.com sold for $28,001 – That’s kind of a weal domain name sales report for a three-letter, pronounceable, brandable, .com domain for a low-five-figures. I would have guessed that one would sell for way more. How about you?

How to find a development partner for your domain – Have you ever thought about developing one of your domain names but don’t know how to do it? These domain investors are talking about how they found a partner. Check it out.

I found myself spending a bit of time on TikTok today, an app primarily used by kids, tweens and so on… basically a platform through which people publish short funny videos and stuff like that.

Something struck me like lightning: it’s just ridiculous how much traffic this one app that I didn’t even know existed had. You see kids who become instant-celebrities in the blink of an eye. Random quirky funny vids that get millions of “hearts” and the list could go on and on.

I firmly believe that at least once a month or so, domainers should download the hottest app(s) and see just what’s working online these days… in my opinion, it will be an eye-opening experience.

Now don’t get me wrong, there have been “Internet sensations” and “wiz kid” case studies let’s say ten years ago as well… but nowadays, more and more, it’s becoming straightforward. Almost institutionalized, really. One platform after another is giving people the change to tap into a humongous user base and create a career just like that.

Now, of course, as Rick Schwartz points out… if you live by social media, you might just die by social media. And he’s spot on in that there are also very sad case studies involving flavor of the month online celebrities that died along with their platform… remember Vine? Yeah… 🙁

Therefore, this entire equation00 needs to be taken with a grain of salt and I do believe that among other things, this experiment that I’m suggesting (should you choose to try it) will illustrate that domains aren’t going anywhere and that there’s an Internet freedom-defining role that comes with them. While TikTok or any other social media app can ban you just like that with little to no recourse, domains are a lot harder to ban/take down. Not impossible, just a lot harder.

On the other hand though, unlike domains where the burden of carving your own little niche lies exclusively on you, social media sites do enable you to tap into a ridiculously large audience pool just like that and take advantage of the *existing* eyeballs each platform has.

At the end of the day, I believe your conclusion will coincide with mine: that domains and social media can complement one another nicely but that if you aren’t doing your very best to understand the social media phenomenon in a truly meaningful manner… you’re doing your career as a domainer a disservice!

Today: LVBO.com sold for $10,249 / Tips learned by myself and a veteran domain investor / Buying Brandable & Pronouncable 4L.coms – Budget: Up to $3,000.00 / And more!

Here are the new discussions that caught my eye in the domain community today!

Wanted! Two word .com – Budget: Up to $2,000.00 – Make sure that you are not holding one of these two-word .com domain name assets. This buyer is ready to invest if you have the right one.

Looking for domains that gets TONS OF TRAFFIC!!! – Budget: Up to $500.00 – Be sure to check your domain portfolio for any traffic generating domains that are not converting for you good enough. This buyer will take them off your hands if they meet their guideline.

Buying SquadHelp Listed Domains – Budget: Up to $50.00 each – Do you have any HelpSquad listed domain names that you would sell for up to $50.00 a pop? If so, check out this buyers specified criteria.

Buying Brandable & Pronouncable 4L.coms – Budget: Up to $3,000.00 – Be sure to check your portfolio for a pronounceable or brandable four-letter .com. This buyer is ready for a smooth transaction if you have the one they need.

Tips learned by myself and a veteran domain investor – What have you learned the hard way through trial and error versus what a seasoned investor taught you? Take a look at this investors story.

LVBO.com sold for $10,249 – That’s not a bad domain name sales report for a random four-letter .com domain for five-figures. Do you think it should have sold for more or less than what it sold for?

The day I started domaining – Success in developing domains – Have you ever thought about developing a domain name asset to build more value? If you want to hear a great story about a 6 year investor that made the choice to develop a few, here you go.