Alan from NewfoundNames (don’t know him, nothing against him – I’m criticizing the blog post, not the person who wrote it) wrote a post I found pretty funny about 2 hours ago. The post illustrates a “development is king, Rick/Frank/Kevin are history” way of thinking which (IMO) is just plain wrong and here’s why:
I’ve Seen It All Before
I have a completely different background than most domaining bloggers, mainly because I come from the “development world” which most people see as the best thing since sliced bread (which it isn’t, just like domaining isn’t the best thing since sliced bread either). And believe me, I’ve seen it all before.
There was this “the death of SEO”/”the death of Internet Marketing” gimmick which dominated the Web a while back, it basically had the same principle as its foundation: “it’s too late for the average Joe to join the party”.
Let’s take “the death of SEO” as an example and compare the concept to “the death of domaining”, shall we?
The Death of SEO: “In the future, the SERPs will be dominated by major brands, see Wikipedia(1)… there’s just no room for the average webmaster(2)… SEO is dead(3)”
The Death of Domaining: “In the future, the rich (Rick/Frank/Kevin) will get richer(1)… there’s just no room for the average domainer(2)… domaining is dead(3)”
Here’s the thing: part one of both statements is true. Yes, major brands will end up dominating the SERPs more and more. Yes, the rich (Rick/Frank/Kevin) will get richer (assuming that they don’t go crazy and invest everything they have in LLLLLLLLLLL dot coms).
But does this mean that parts 2 and 3 are also true?
Nope!
The Web is what it is, plain and simple. Yes, people will have to adapt but that does not mean that industries like SEO and domaining will disappear just like that. Not by a long shot.
Let’s leave SEO, Internet Marketing and everything else aside, let’s refer strictly to domaining. Here’s an attitude I just don’t get, an attitude I see more and more frequently on forums (and also the attitude Alan from NewfoundNames seems to have): development is king, we all have to start learning how to develop. Tomorrow. Now. Yesterday.
Ok, so what I should understand is that domain investing in its purest form will disappear? Should I understand that investing in domains without having development as a part of your business model is something which can only have failure as a result?
Says Who?
Look, I consider myself a developer first and only then a domainer. But that’s just me, my choices and my business model. I think that it works best for me but who am I to say that it also works best for everyone else?
1) What if “company whatever” decides to invest 1% of its huge net worth (let’s say a total investment of $10 million) in domains and have “buy and hold” as its business model? No development, nothing. Let’s assume that they don’t even want to worry about parking optimization for whatever reasons. Again: strictly buy and hold. Let’s assume that they spend $9 million on a total of 10,000 domains and the remaining amount on renewals (let’s say $100 for 10 years per domain, so 1 million bucks would be enough to hold 10,000 domains for 10 years each).
Who am I to say that they won’t succeed? Who am I to say that they won’t make CONSIDERABLY more than what they’ve spent? Yes, their business model is different than mine but that doesn’t mean that it’s wrong. They have a lot of money at their disposal and can afford to buy 10,000 decent to great domains as well as hold them for 10 years each without even blinking. What’s wrong with that? Maybe they’ll succeed, maybe they’ll fail. NOBODY (not me, not Alan, nobody) can tell for sure.
2) What if a successful athlete/CEO/whatever decides to invest 10% of his net worth in domains with “buy and hold” as his/her strategy? Again, strictly buy and hold. They’ll continue to put food on the table by doing what they do best (competing, running companies and so on) and domains will represent an investment. Nothing more. Are you telling me that an athlete (for example) who earns $10 million yearly should start learning about building links effectively just because he wants to invest in domains? Seriously?
The list could go on and on. What Alan and others fail to understand is there will never be just ONE decent business model. “Ok people, as of tomorrow, all of us need to start building links”… seriously?
Concepts which have the idea that other concepts are dead as their foundation are DEAD… happy? 😉
What if the people behind “company whatever” don’t want to do that? What if CEOs/athletes/whatever who want to invest a percentage of their net worth in domains don’t want to do that? The Web is evolving and this also means that all sorts of “exotic investors” will start milking it.
Maybe they’ll succeed, maybe they’ll fail. Maybe I’ll succeed, maybe I’ll fail. Nobody knows for sure, that’s what makes the Web exciting in the first place!
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I don’t see where that post “illustrates a “development is king, Rick/Frank/Kevin are history” way of thinking” at all.
I read it to just say “don’t take development advice from domainers.”
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:24 pm
Good article but you took mine out of context. There are many ways to make money online – buy and holding an asset (such as a domain name) is entirely respectable and some thing we and others do many times over.
The point was for people who want to succeed outside of the “buy and hold” approach to look outside of the domaining community for advice.
How many times do you hear domainers complain about development not working? Quite a bit and its because domainers (as a group) are 10 years behind other online groups such as SEO experts.
Nice write up but I certainly wasn’t saying domain investing is dead nor is development the only way to make money for all.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Alan, I think what Andrei means is that there’s something wrong with your back to school theme. Or maybe the fact that I personally got a vibe which sounded something like domainers need to go back to school. Maybe you insisted on the back to school stuff a tad too much. Both articles have valid points and together, I think they’re the best read of the past couple of weeks by far. Good effort both of you, if there’s anything we need it’s some fresh blood and sharp minds to spice things up!!
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
While we are being honest here let me throw my .02 in the ring from personal experience (50 – 100 developed sites worth of personal experience). What newbies need to know and understand is that each developed site needs constant TLC and massive attention to detail when it comes to securing your developed site. That is a huge distinction between domain name investing and investing in domain name development.
I personally have taken more than 50 sites off line becaue they became compromised by hackers and other plain bad folks that lurk on the unregulated frontier space that we call the Internet.
Message (make that huge warning) to would be developed site owners or proponents. Leran and know the difference and responsibilities that come with owning developed websites vs. domain investing and decide which monetization method best fits your time schedule and personality and risk acceptance level.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
nmwando
fair point – I never did win a scholarship for writing so point well taken:-)
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:12 pm
@Alan: first of all, thanks for dropping by. Here are two important statements from your article I don’t (and will never) agree with:
(1)”The economic variables of today we are forced to work in will certainly bring opportunity to many domainers but this opportunity must be considered more than just buying a worthy asset at cheaper prices than a year ago.”
(2)”Today’s economy brings a single opportunity to each and every person interested in online marketing to pick up assets at very fair and reasonable price however Success can START with a domain but no way ends there.”
My comments:
(1) Why MUST the opportunity be considered more than just buying a worthy asset at cheaper prices than a year ago? Maybe “company whatever” as well as the CEOs/athletes/whatever I’ve referred to want just that: to take advantage of the opportunity and buy decent assets at cheaper prices than a year ago in order to sell them at a later point. Nothing more, nothing less. Strictly buy and hold.
(2) Success (IMO) can start as well as end with a domain. There’s more than one way to skin a cat. What if I’m a professional athlete, buy banking.com today @ $200,000 and sell it 5 years from now to someone for $20,000,000? My success as a domain investor started and ended with just one domain, didn’t it? I never developed anything, I continued to put food on the table by being an athlete. I bought just one domain and sold it after 5 years. That’s it. You know what I mean?
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
You know what’s ironic? Even though Alan mentions that reading blogs is not very productive in his opinion, Andrei’s post as well as his prove the exact opposite. Both posts are great and I don’t know how others feel but I’m very happy that I spent 5 minutes of my life reading them 🙂
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Nick is right. These two articles alone prove Alan might be wrong. There is just enough good content from domain blogs to inspire thought and ideas. I’ve always been told if you sit through a two hour speech and take away one good thing away from it, it was worth the time spent.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:43 pm
(1) I used the word MUST since every business person investing in any asset should always consider the opportunities behind any investment. Today’s prices – names that were $50,000 last year and $20k this year – provide much less risk to other development models outside of buy and hold. So yes, I stand by its a MUST to CONSIDER other revenue — is it a must to develop? NO – but absolutely a must to consider.
(2) Success can start and end with a domain name (there are many we have bought and sold for profit and yes its a success) but most domain owners are investors with bigger dreams. This article was not for the guy who has $1m annual salary and just wants another asset to play the sit and hold game. Nor was it for the person that wants to do nothing more than buy and sell domains in the purest form.
You are right – success is measured in different ways but if you buy a domain for $10k today and sell it for $100k next year (just a name that was parked) then it really doesn’t make you a businessman but an investor (not I am not going to argue this comment – I have wrote many times about this and have no desire to rehash). Most domainers are investors first and businessman second. That’s the learning curve. Being self employed is hard enough however having all these wonderful assets and still not knowing what to do is even more challenging – that is why many a domainer never gets anywhere. The security is found by reverting back to a system that is comfortable again however we should all learn and grow and diversify. Choosing a good domain is not rocket science, SEO is a science – an ever evolving science – development is teamwork and administration – revenue is all of the above.
In theory I could agree with you but I could also use theory to support reasons why 100 other things in life don’t work the way they should.
So in summary – yes you’re right – success can be defined as just doing nothing and holding for a sale however I believe (or hope) most domainers have higher hopes than and for those who do – well, its those who should diversiy from reading blogs purely about buying and selling domains.
Maybe I’m wrong – maybe I’m not but hey – its all food for thought plus my opinion counts for about shit anyway lol
No more comments from me … better to chat over a bear some time. We both have valid points for sure – thanks for the banter .. seeya.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:46 pm
Nick,
yes the irony here is loud and clear :-)) LOL
… so lets have a do-over and say my advice starts tomorrow when these articles have become internet dust.
Good stuff – Thanks Andrei again!
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
@Alan (and everyone else): I’m also looking forward to meeting you, maybe at an Ad:Tech event in 2010? I’ll try to organize something next year, investing in domains is a fairly important part of my business model so maybe some of us could join forces and make things happen. A booth, an Ad:Tech auction? Hmmmm 🙂
A few statements I’d like to comment on:
“Most domainers are investors first and businessman second.”
True but that’s definitely not a bad thing IMO. Again, there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
“but most domain owners are investors with bigger dreams”
Why can’t you have big (or bigger) dreams as an investor who doesn’t want to develop anything? Do the people from “company whatever” who want to make millions by limiting themselves to investing in domains have bigger dreams or a person who wants to develop the next Twitter? Is there even a way to quantify dreams? Strictly money? Recognition?
“Choosing a good domain is not rocket science”
Depends on which side of the fence you’re on. I communicate with domainers, SEO ppl and affiliate marketers on a daily basis and as strange as it may sound, some people think that choosing a great domain is more complicated than coming up with an elaborate SEO strategy, for example. Your personality counts a lot: some people have personality traits which recommend them as good investors, others have personality traits which recommend them as artists and the list could go on and on. The same way, some people are just not meant to be investors/artists/middle men/etc.
“SEO is a science – an ever evolving science –”
It’s a combination between an exact science and an art IMO but more on that at a later point 🙂
“development is teamwork”
Nope, not necessarily.
The owner of Plentyoffish.com (huuuuuuge dating site) practically runs everything as a one man show. I think his girlfriend/wife helps with support-related stuff and that’s about it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:25 pm
@everyone: thanks a lot for your contribution and, even though I’ve only been blogging for less than a month, I gotta admit: I’m starting to love you guys (in a totally non gay way) 😉
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Hi your post is amazing, It’s incredible, I learned a lot about SEO and Man, this thing’s getting better and better as I learn more about internet marketing. Also as part of my ongoing mission to find the absolute best tools to make money, this is without a doubt at the top of my list. Everything happened so fast!
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Alan- for someone who recommends not reading blogs, seems like you spend a lot of time consumed in this one.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Dirk,
I’m too busy to usually reply to these sarcastic comments which take away from the entire point of my articles and/or comments but for you I will make an exception,
I would be a fool – probably the biggest fool – to say I do not read blogs. Blogs have become one of the greatest sources of information online and to blanketly say or even recommend no one read blogs is the equivalent of saying no one should eat vegetables.
My point is to stop reading all the posts on DOMAINING blogs but rather branch out to blogs which carry targeted information for development, SEO, branding – any other blogs where the owners of these blogs have far more experience in actually putting other elements in place. Whether that means developing a website, success with viral marketing, mastering SEO (which I agree with Andrei also part art) or any thing that you have interest in for furthering the development of your website.
Essentially do not look within the industry – look outside.
Domaining may be a term used to incorporate all methods of monetizing a domain name but this term has not been braced by web designers, SEO experts, marketers and almost every other team except domain flippers and pure domain buyers and sellers.
The mistake most newbies make is to read domaining blogs and say hey – these guys own some great names so they must know what they are doing online.
Ownership of a domain and how to actually create a business, develop a website, market it, SEO it – all the elements used to get from A to Z online (recognizing that some just want to stay at A) – these are all different elements which can not be found simply by wasting your day away reading domaining blogs.
Would you read Matt Cutts blog to learn about Domain Values? No
Would you read Seth Godin’s blog to learn about Domain Appraisals?
There is no one blog to read for all domaining and my point was if you are interested in development then stop looking for any of the Rick’s or other popular – buy and hold em domainers – for advice.
For anybody not getting this point its ok. When I write its usually to provoke thought to those who want to listen – if nobody ever reads my blog again I’m actually totally ok with it. What I do not do is write to answer questions as I do not have all the answers either.
Andrei seemed to have a very interesting response to my article and thats the only reason I’m on this post as the discussion is worth it.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Reading blogs is something I actually recommend, listening to what others have to say never hurts (it actually helps a lot IMO, knowing how to filter quality from noise is an extremely important skill – and by reading blogs and even forums, you’re “training”, so to speak – which definitely helps you make informed decisions). As long as you don’t spend the entire day refreshing domaining.com, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about your productivity going down the drain because you read domaining blogs.
Of course, it’s true that expecting decent development advice from someone who only has an impressive track record as a domainer wouldn’t be very smart and, the same way, expecting decent domain valuation advice from someone who has never spent more than 3 figures on a domain would also be pretty stupid.
My business model revolves around building businesses (I’ll even be selling my own product, nothing related to domaining/making money online: as I’ve promised, I’ll blog about that project as a case study) on amazing domains so in my case, listening to what domainers as well as developers have to say makes sense.
If you only want to buy and hold, reading domaining blogs will be more than enough.
If you want to hand reg domains and make money exclusively by chasing after organic traffic, reading SEO blogs will be more than enough.
If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on domains, don’t want to chase after organic traffic and, instead, want to generate lots of traffic through social media websites, checking out a few Internet Marketing blogs which focus on the social media side of things will be enough.
If you want to buy and hold but also develop some domains, it makes sense to check out domaining blogs as well as SEO/Internet Marketing blogs.
It all depends on how you make or want to make money but again: while reading blogs is a good thing IMO, this doesn’t mean that you should get carried away and spend the entire day doing that. I, for example, spend about 30 minutes per day reading and that’s about it. I’ve got so much stuff going on that I wouldn’t be able to find more time even if I wanted to. I follow quite a few blogs and if you know how to filter quality from noise, 30 minutes per day are more than enough in order to stay informed and tune in to what others are saying.
If, in one way or another, buying and selling domains has something to do with your business model, reading domaining blogs and finding out what people who do this for a living have to say is a good idea. I used to be against reading blogs/forums back in the day, just like Alan, but quickly changed my mind after (on more than one occasion) the information I came across via a blog or a forum DIRECTLY helped me make some decent coin.
November 4th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
I think domain investment is “buy and hold” first and monetizing next.
in 2003 I started buying gold. did I “develop” it? no I was buying and holding (I still do). I look at good domains as a commodity, so nothing wrong with buying and holding. doesnt mean I am not into developing, but I dont buy a domain if I dont think “buy and hold” is good enough reason to buy it.
April 7th, 2010 at 11:58 am
The only problem is that the RSS is not responding with my google chrome browser :((
May 26th, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Amazing… 5 star study…I did notice the Feed wasn’t functioning, other people observe this kind of thing, or is it just myself. Lol
April 19th, 2012 at 3:29 am
hate? the video….but love the song….!