… but how many domainers are genuinely willing to support the content producer?
How would you define good domaining content? Well, I’d say it would need to have the following three characteristics at the same time:
1) useful
2) honest/unbiased
3) well-articulated
The thing is, offering such advice… well, costs. As someone who has been blogging for several (7-8) years, I can tell you that:
1) when providing useful tips, you’re frequently creating more competition for yourself (if for example you tell others about an overlooked domain category that’s been generating good results for you, you can rest assured a lot of buyers will become competitors)
2) providing honest/unbiased advice often comes at the cost of pissing people off, people such as… potential advertisers; for example, I’ve made it clear on more than one occasion that I don’t consider new gTLDs worth investing in for domainers; now look around and tell me how many new gTLD advertisers I have? Zero. Simply put, I’ve thrown $xx,xxx out the window by pissing off potential advertisers, that’s how much being honest/unbiased when it comes to new gTLDs has cost me personally
3) writing a well-organized and articulated post takes time and, you’ve guessed it, time is money; writing a long/detailed post can easily take let’s say 90 minutes and if I draw the line and calculate how much I’ve made from the blog compared to the time I’ve invested in it… let’s just say I haven’t been very generous with myself
… which brings me to the conclusion of today’s post:
While my goal isn’t portraying bloggers such as myself as martyrs who deserve a statue, it is important to point out that content producers do need to be rewarded and supported. Otherwise, they’ll move on to greener pastures and stop producing content.
I think that as a domaining content consumer (so as a reader of blogs), if you feel the overall quality of domain investing-related content has gone down, it would be a good idea to ask yourself one simple question before starting to complain: what have *I* personally done to support content producers?
Have I given them a donation? Have I bought their product(s)? Have I helped them spread the word about their product(s)?
For most content consumers, the answer to all of these questions is “no” and as such, while they have the right to complain, it’s an intellectually dishonest thing to do in my opinion.
October 16th, 2016 at 1:04 pm
Interesting read. I agree with a lot of the points you made. Corporations harbour their secrets to success, so I don’t see why it would be any different with professional domain investors. As soon as you teach someone else how to achieve the same success as you, that’s one more competitive adversary to compete with and a smaller pool of opportunities.
Though, I think the biggest depreciation for quality bloggers is the insane number of copycat bloggers that drown them out and duplicate the topics.
October 16th, 2016 at 1:39 pm
@Eric: very well pointed out, a lot of the rules that govern the corporate world apply to blogging as well 🙂
October 16th, 2016 at 2:33 pm
Back in 2009 to 2010 I attempted to monetize several content sites via a combination of Adsense, Commission Junction affiliate banners, amazon affiliate links and even direct ad sales. CJ was a total waste as I never received a dime in commissions despite sending hundreds if thousands of page impressions. With Amazon I think I got a $25 credit toward a book purchase. Adsense paid maybe $125 to $150 monthly but who can live on that? Since one of my sites was a local Geo I tried going to local advertisers – no luck. Yet I recall one weekend having spent fifteen plus hours producing sports video related to a three on three basketball tournament. Maybe I got a few ad clicks out of that? Hourly wage?
Google supposedly wants to promote content on the web but if content producers are not compensated in some way they move on. Fyi I did buy your book.
October 16th, 2016 at 10:54 pm
How to monetize a website efficiently and effectively is hard. Even large media companies are having trouble these days.
You’d be surprised by the number of high traffic website sites that break even. 🙂
October 17th, 2016 at 7:25 am
@Leonard: I’ve really appreciated your support over the years, your comments are always insightful as well as polite and the fact that you’re also willing to help with other stuff on top of that is truly awesome; thank you!
@YamadaMedia: definitely, a lot of today’s huge platforms aren’t even breaking even but they have deeeeeep pocketed investors behind them; the average blogger however… well, doesn’t 🙂
October 22nd, 2016 at 7:28 am
I feel you…
I do have a few that are thoughtful and appreciate the hard work I put in to the often CUSTOM research lists I post over on DG… even if they just share the URL on Twitter – Facebook – Linkedin or other
Social Media Sites — that tell’s me they appreciate
my many hours of work and that I am so generous with
sharing the CUSTOM Exclusive Research with them – that
they can $$$ benefit from… I can’t register everything
I find. I hate for my hard work (leftovers) to just sit
when I could be sharing them with others and helping
others… that’s why I have DG… I do get the occassional
PayPal.com donation to DomainBELL at yahoo.com email…
I always try to do extra for those folks as a treat… (private mailers with “left over cream”)
I think the reason folks give back to me is because my posts
99% of the time aren’t content available in lots of other places…
I think that 99% of my research lists / content shares are
exclusive research you will never find anywhere else…
I enjoy your site DomainingTIPS.com and another favorite
places of mine is NamePros.com and DNJournal.com as well
as Domaining.COM NameBio.com DotWeekly.com DomainNameWire.com
and lots of others…
~Patricia Kaehler — Ohio USA — DomainBELL
the domaining grandmother – older than dirt… (smile)
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