Schwartz vs Schilling: “I’d like to teach the world to Sing in Perfect Harmony”

Morning Folks,

Frank Schilling made a BRILLIANT video that he released recently. It really is brilliant as is his comment on Berkens Blog. The video immediately below.

There is no Schwartz vs Schilling but that seems to be the perception. I love Frank. We have never had a cross word and why should we? It does not mean I can't have doubts or ask tough questions. It doesn't mean I have to agree. It doesn't mean I have to disagree. We are all examining an unknown and we all come at that unknown from a different POV. The beauty is we get to share our visions, bet on them and REALITY will win.

Frank and I have spent hours 1 on 1 at TRAFFIC discussing domains and the future as well as emails and on my board and just a decade of conversations and friendship. In Frank's position he should be doing exactly what he is doing and doing so well. If I were his advisor, I would advise him to do what he is doing. But even Frank is going to have winners and losers when each extension is measured against the next. Some may go nowhere. But it only takes 1 to be another life changer. So I still keep an open mind and new evidence and new information is the formula to change my stance. That has not happened yet and the more I study things the more certain  I get. But I am sway-able on certain things. The only thing that can't sway me is that the value of GREAT .coms can only skyrocket.

That all said, I see Franks Journey and it really does remind me of the song and old Coke commercial.

"I'd like to teach the  world to sing in perfect harmony."

So "I'd like to teach the  world to sing in perfect harmony" is the tall order that Frank has taken on. Herculean task!

Think about the job to be done to complete that task. Some would say "Mission Impossible".  Ever hear me sing?

I mean even Coca-Cola can't pull off this one.  I can't sing. Frank can at least carry a tune!

I’d like to build the world a home
And furnish it with love
Grow apple trees and honey bees 
And snow white turtle doves
I’d like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I’d like to hold it in my arms
And keep it company

I’d like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills
For peace throughout the land
That’s the song I hear
Let the world sing today
A song of peace that echoes on
And never goes away

I’d like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
I’d like to hold it in my arms 
And keep it company
I’d like to see the world for once
All standing hand in hand
And hear them echo through the hills
For peace throughout the land
That’s the song I hear
Let the world sing today
A song of peace that echoes on
And never goes away
A song of peace that echoes on
And n-e-v-e-r g-o-e-s a-w-a-y

Point is changing Human Behavior is the single greatest challenge one can take on. I see no downside in what is coming other than the confusion it will likely cause and when folks are confused, Human Nature and Human Behavior kick in. To me, that is not a downside. That is a bonus. That is exciting. None of us can lose no matter which direction things go in as long as you are keenly aware of where we are each step of the way.

I don't see an AM/FM radio parallel. FM gave you stereo and music. There was a reason to change to FM. So there was a difference. And AM never died. It sizzles with advertising dollars even today. But still no parallel. TV was going to kill radio. I guess you guys don't remember that far back. Well did it? Did cd's? What killed radio? Nothing killed radio and it flouishes even today. Just look at SIRIUS.

The parallel might be 800 numbers and 888 and 866 and 855. And if investors bought all the 866 numbers, how meaningful would it or could it be?

The dynamics that must be there are end users and great content. Without those elements, I don't see much. I speak to end-users. Some will purchase defensively and never activate the domain. Others may buy a gTLD but they all said they would merely point it to their .com. The rest say they already have their .com and don't need anything else. That is the majority.

I just don't see that harmony coming anytime soon. I don't see this being done for the right reasons. The overall benefit is limited and as an INVESTOR these are the things I have to weigh. Again, I look at it thru the eyes of an investor and an end-user.

Just look at how .com unfolded and why. Then look at the other extensions and ask why they look more like .mobi?

Frank and I just disagree on how things will unfold and the consumer and future will determine things. Not any of us. I just know the epic challenge ahead and it will take many billions of dollars to sway behavior. And that is just the first stage to get to value. Domainers selling domains to other domainers won't move the needle much if at all. End-users are the ones that create value. Domainers create Tulips.

And I will say the same thing about .whatever that I said about .com. "Your first purchases are your most important purchases". Everyone just discounts that. But it is key to having the wind at your back and a future of success. And the beauty with our industry, you can wake up on any given morning and start all over again and do it a better way.

Look, we can be seeing the greatest launch of all time or we could be seeing one of the biggest duds ever. I measure success by TV ads. Radio ads. Billboards. Magazine ads. Newspaper ads. ADS, ADS, ADS. Continuous and widespread. That will be what I am looking for. That is how I measure the viability of an extension.

All I would say is this. I would GLADLY take what I paid for whatever .mobi's I have left. I would GLADLY take what I paid for whatever .xxx's I have left. I would GLADLY take what I paid for whatever .co's I have left. And many of you would too.

I can't wait to sit down with Frank at TRAFFIC. I want to see his vision as closely as he does. Does not mean he can convince me. But I am ALWAYS open to being convinced with new information and evidence that is real. I am always sway-able. But that is different from blowing in the wind and chasing every shadow. Exciting times and the only losers are domainers that have yet to learn the difference between diamonds and old broken coke bottles.

And the one thing Franks knows about me, nothing I wrote here is anything I would not say directly to Frank. And I probably just did.

Cheers Frank!! Congrats, good luck and even if we disagree or don't see the same vision, I am rooting for your success. I really do hope you can teach the world to sing. We are always looking for that next pot of gold.

Rick Schwartz



59 thoughts on “Schwartz vs Schilling: “I’d like to teach the world to Sing in Perfect Harmony”

  1. UFO

    One thing Frank doesn’t see the same as I do is that large corps will like the concept of these branding possibilities. But they will HATE all the confusion it creates. It is actually better for a corp brand to have 1 domain extension,one phrase and beat it into peoples brains.

    I see these extensions being used as marketing channel data (much as various domain names are used by corporates at the moment) and all the users will be directed to a specific part of the the corporate website.

    The world doesn’t revolve around domain names, the huge brands that can afford these extensions don’t need them to sell their product, the smaller brands are already vested in .com and have no need change.

    The change if it comes will be when small start ups use these new extensions and keep them as they move up the value chain, if they do (as they do now) shift to .com then these extensions will always be nothing.

    Reply
  2. UFO

    “The change if it comes will be when small start ups use these new extensions and keep them as they move up the value chain, if they do (as they do now) shift to .com then these extensions will always be nothing.”

    In effect these new extensions will pigdeon shit on a conveyor belt.

    These new extensions imho are NOT branding posssibilities for serious entities but they are useful for content providers.

    Reply
  3. Jonathan L

    Create a survey and explore what all your followers think about this face off. An excellent and probably priceless public forum between two respected icons in the domain world !

    Reply
  4. LSM

    One thing that cannot be denied is we will see a world full of .brands, we will see the barriers to the new TLDs come down in terms of cost and bureaucracy involved and that will have a huge impact.

    Frank is definitely right, the namespace of tomorrow will look quite a bit different than today but then again, I have no interest in being 20 years early on ANYTHING. Fuck being a ‘pioneer’. They get eaten by bears and die of malaria. Being ‘too early’ can ruin a man very easily. I’ll show up once the landscape is crystal-clear enough to imply where the opportunities will be.

    Everyone else, take up your machetes, hack away that jungle and hope you find Dorado rather than the edge of a cliff. Gimme a call once you get there. Then, I’ll come.

    Reply
  5. Observer

    Even though I am not a professional predictor, I can predict that Frank will say about the bright future of .whatevers. And the”inevitable limitation to .com value”.
    Most of which, Rick will not agree with. There will be no clear-cut answers until end-users take any actions. And it will of course take time. I am afraid the new development is likely to end up with the game of domainers. I wonder how enthusiastic end-users are about the new whatevers. With 700 new whatevers ahead, without domainers and investors, it will be difficult for the whatevers to survive IMO. Domain industry should thank domainers.

    Reply
  6. Owen Frager

    Interesting example. Coke couldn’t even change coke. “New Coke” was the biggest marketing blunder in the history of man. The takeaway is that it wasn’t about taste, or needs or the world around it changing, it was about the power of a brand and the human emotional connections it makes in the hearts and minds of people. No other brand since COKE has ever experienced the same power and position in marketing as .com. In Frank’s example, FM is better signal and sound, Sirius is more choices but the web is a level playing field. What a site is called doesn’t improve the product delivered. In fact in my car I don’t listen to AM, FM or Sirius. I listen to my now mixes my way.

    Reply
  7. David Carter

    Fortune tellers called stock brokers call the markets every day – and they are supposed to know what they are doing. Without a crystal ball, the truth is that none of us really know.

    But the more I look at this, the more I fall on the side of “.com remains king”

    It will take a seismic shift in consumer and brand behaviour to move .com from the pedestal it currently enjoys.

    Just hope I begin to “get it” before that happens :)

    Reply
  8. leon

    ” large corps will like the concept of these branding possibilities. But they will HATE all the confusion it creates. ”

    Large corps will be confused??? They are already confused
    with just a few extensions.

    Reply
  9. Freedom

    Sincerely, I didn’t care of all the words and videos here or whatever

    I didn’t watch the videos heer and I din’t write the post.

    And I didn’t do that cuz the only thingh that matter is starting a petiton against Go ogle’s (and other search engines, in case they will try) will to run new gTLDs.

    Search engines MUST BE FAIR AND IMPARTIAL

    They can’t run new GTLDs, even a dumb can understan that.

    All others words and videos DO NOT MATTER, ONLY BULLSHITS

    Reply
  10. JBS

    .Com became powerful because EVERY brand utilized it. It will take nearly ALL the major brands we see everyday to switch to .brands or .whatevers before .com ever gets diluted as envisioned. 20 years is way too short for that to happen.

    What domains will Amazon.com, Autotrader.com, Cars.com, HomeDepot.com, Hotels.com, and so many more be utilizing 5 years from now? .Com without a doubt. That will be 25% of that timeline gone. .Whatevers will need much more traction by then for a 20 year shift to even be feasible, let alone assured.

    A few exciting startups will definitely gain notoriety from being on a new gTLD and that will be a story, not a behavior changer. A hundred successes on .whatevers and .brands versus millions of successes on .coms won’t quite fulfill the prophecy.

    Reply
  11. Jeff

    What Franck Schilling says would probably become true if end-users and domainers would be able to directly register any http://www.word1.word2 domain for a regular $10 fee at a global registry on a first come first serve basis (with some trademark priority of course). But with each new gTld managed by a separate registry against a $1M (or more) entry fee, it is unlikely that .anything will exist and be viable. So, .word2 will stay limited to some high-level brands and selected keywords providing a limited number of relevant combo possibilities for end-users. For all of them who dont fit within (90% of them ?), .com will stay the best option as it is today. The true revolution would have been to have given direct registrant access to http://www.word1.word2, or even better to have gone past the Tld concept by introducing http://www.word1word2 domain names. This would have been a real game changer for both end-users and domainers. The current revolution feels more like a big players fuzzy money game but I dont see the outcome on a market needs perspective. Of course some players will succeed and make money, but what a mess it will be !

    Reply
  12. entrrone

    I side with Rick. Frank is wasting his money and may as well be ripping it up and flushing it away never to be seen again.

    I too would love to recover registration fees on any non .com I have ever purchased.

    .whatevers have always existed in smaller supply and have always been shunned by end users. For good reason too. Ask overture how their O.Co lesson in leakage worked out. Absolutely NO other tld has ever caught on including shorter cctlds. What makes this new rollout any diff? That they will all come out simultaneously? Yippie. They will all fail together too. Seems kinda obvious that the same exact results as
    .mobi, .travel, .aero, .biz, .museum, .jobs, .cats and, my favorite, .coop will surely follow. To summarize, .failure lies ahead.

    Keep up the good work, Rick.

    Reply
  13. JBS

    “So, .word2 will stay limited to some high-level brands and selected keywords providing a limited number of relevant combo possibilities for end-users. For all of them who don’t fit within (90% of them ?), .com will stay the best option as it is today.”

    Exactly, this first 1,000 or so (English) keywords to the right of the dot are a fraction of the words required to allow the kind of freedom envisioned. And unless this first wave of extensions are a huge success, there just won’t be those successive waves of new gTLDS on the horizon. And if the first wave of keyword gTLDs are a success, they would be diluted with additional waves, providing increasingly diminishing returns for gTLD owners. My prediction – there just won’t be those successive waves. At best, one more wave of new gTLDs in the next 10 years. And that just won’t be enough for .everything to become a reality.

    Reply
  14. Scott Alliy

    There is money in HOPE CHANGE and in MISTAKES (as in costly mistakes) You Don’t have to be in the outdoor concert stadium to hear the music! And you don’t have to be in the EYE of the hurricane to get wet. Investors and domain and marketing and legal services businesses that hang around the GTLD events to come are bound to benefit financially from the fumbles, follies, trials, and tribulations to come as GTLD registrars compete for attention and eyeballs.
    Pay attention to the first launch activities of e4ach new registrar but if you really want to be ahead of the curve position yourselves to provide backend or alternative services that registrars whose grand plan fails to produce will then seek out is where the real opportunity will be in my opinion.

    Reply
  15. JBS

    “as GTLD registrars compete for attention and eyeballs.”

    .Co and .xxx were lucky to have launched separately from the coming wave of new gTLDs. Competing directly, the marketing cost to acquire the same number of registrations they did would be at least 100X. No registry will spend that marketing.

    In reality, the hope of the new gTLD owners (including Uniregistry) is solely dependent on the IDEA of all these name combinations being available by the PUBLIC. Listen carefully to Frank’s video, his pitch is all about the aggregate.

    So, some very temporary HYPE (not marketing) will come, followed by an initial rush to register. However, when the hyped up public’s IDEA meets REALITY there will be DISAPPOINTMENT. And that can’t be good for this viral marketing effort.

    Reply
  16. Scott Alliy

    JBS, This quote from this post by Rick is what I think is an important statement “None of us can lose no matter which direction things go in as long as you are keenly aware of where we are each step of the way.”
    Just like the hardware store weatherman and media get paid reporting storms that frankly never occur so to will the massive efforts and the combination of all the GTLD registrars yield opportunities for savvy investors.
    That opportunity might be picking up potentially valuable domains on the cheap either from underfunded or ambitious registrars in need of quick name sales or in consulting, reselling, or marketing services. The opportunities might be in starting. GTLD drop or appraisal service as well as parking or end user sales.
    Truth is this GTLD thing is big wide and as MIke Berkens pointed out long ago heavily funded. While all domain investors should be skeptical none should turn their back on what could be the biggest thing to hit our industry since the original dot rush.

    Reply
  17. John

    I would not be surprised if Frank picks up his pace of purchases of .com domains as these new TLDs are launched. ;)

    Sell one, buy the other. What an incredible investment strategy.

    Reply
  18. JBS

    I think a good analogy might be Y2K if you remember the unbelievable hype. I did my research, never paid a consultant for “fixes”, and actually quit my day job and launched my own business in 1999. It was a good call but an educated one.

    We are all trying to separate the hype from reality and see where the opportunities are. For some, that may be ancillary services around the new gTLDs. For me, as a domain investor / end user, I am trying to both protect my turf (current domain holdings) through any necessary defensive registrations but also see if it is better to keep buying more dot coms or try to acquire one of the very few premium new domains to come that are on the “used.cars” level. It is a dilemma but I am leaning towards staying with dot com. Thanks to non-answers to so many tough questions, red flags are starting to fly. The 20 year scenario is a flawed assumption at this point. Only a dot-less domain free-for-all could enable enough phrases in 20 years.

    Reply
  19. Joao Mesquita

    This is just my opinion as a domainer. After 5 renewal cycles i’ll start looking at data. After 10 renewal cycles i’ll start investing. Untill then, i am not going to buy a single one, simply because the majority of end users know crap about buying the best domains or else we, domainers, wouldn’t even exist in the first place (there are plenty more end users than domainers).
    And 10 renewal cycles from now many domainers will go broke, so i’m really not worried, because for the first time since i can remember i can sit back and enjoy seeing end users showing me the path to the gold.
    If i am wrong, so be it.

    Reply
  20. Dean

    It’s a glass half full, half empty conundrum, or to quote the movie JFK, it’s “A Riddle Wrapped In A Mystery Inside An Enigma.” It’s too soon to make an assessment either way, this could play out many different ways?. Best case scenario, the new Gtld’s are a huge success financially and in popularity and they elevate the status of the .Com’s in the process. I think there is a little hidden kernel of wisdom if you dissect the recent Jetgo dispute and why .Com will not loose relevancy even after the flood of new Gtld’s..

    Reply
  21. M Altaf Hossain

    We have been wasting too much of our times scratching our heads. What will happen, let it. When Rick started his board a few folks were there to comment with positive feedback. Now ?, so many folks understands domains. What a great awareness from 5% to 90%! Let’s wait and see the trends with launching new gTLDs. But my concern is how to remember those numbers?

    Reply
  22. JBS

    “We have been wasting too much of our times scratching our heads. What will happen, let it. ”

    Unless you are interested in purchasing some of the limited, premium domain phrases. You have to make your decision and get your bankroll together BEFORE they launch or you will miss any early opportunity.

    For those that are considering if / what to acquire, it seems like a good time for as much input as possible.

    Reply
  23. Larry

    it’s not human behavior thats the problem
    the lack of credible alternates has been the problem
    I see grandparents snapping selfies on iphones
    hows that for new behavior
    i see people tweeting and texting and saying lol
    the internet is a cauldron of new behaviors..
    people arent married to a TLD, only domainers care
    perception is reality
    brand TLDs will become the new commercial king
    and ccTLDs will increasingly offer a credible alternate
    just my 2cents
    cheers

    Reply
  24. JBS

    Here is a discussion I would like to see: What do you think the most premium domains will auction for and what will they be worth one or two years later?

    Names such as:

    auto.insurance, car.rentals, car.loans, find.jobs, and the often mentioned used.cars.

    Are they worth 5 figures, 6 figures, more? All I hear discussed are the “new gTLDs” and not any specific domains. Yet even the most skeptical among us would gamble some amount for names like those.

    Reply
  25. tcr

    imo gtlds will trade and sell as domains do today. so the question? will owning .cars gtld extension become more valuable then owning cars.com or owning the .loans .lawyer gtld extension. be worth more then lawyer.com loans.com ? will we see one day someone sell the ownership of a gtld extension for far more then any single domain has ever sold? this is what Frank see’s imo

    Reply
  26. Josh

    I think I see Frank’s point. It’s not that any ONE TLD will take off necessarily (although it may). It’s that people will be reprogrammed to move the dot. People will try to type whatever.they want. When it’s not even a valid TLD or doesn’t work, the browser owner reaps the rewards as the search defaults to Google if it’s Chrome or Bing if it’s IE.

    Reply
  27. Kassey

    I’ve learned to never say never. Instead, I’ll keep an open mind and actively looking for opportunities as the game unfolds.

    Reply
  28. Jared Nyaberi

    Warren Buffett said this: “Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Greedy When Others Are Fearful” Why is this quote important for domainers? We should learn by observing. Observe the actions of the top notch domain investors like Rick and Frank. Based on my observations, domain investors had better hold on to their best dotcoms. Furthermore, for those investors just now starting out, the best time to buy dotcoms is now.

    Reply
  29. Chris

    I see the subdomains of .coms getting a lot of the traffic. I think Find.Jobs will be great for whoever owns Jobs.com to set up a Find.Jobs.com subdomain and capture that free traffic that someone else is going to be doing the work on Find.Jobs to create. And of course FindJobs.com will get some of that traffic too.

    How mainstream is .TV today? The only major .TV I see any significant branding for is MLB.tv. And .TV has been around for how long?

    Everyone is wired for .com today. Sure that can change, but changing the wiring of the world will take quite a long time, and that is even if you are successful. I hope the gTLDs all die and shrivel up the way of .mobi because they were born out of self serving desires of a few.

    Reply
  30. Anita

    Is it just me or did anyone else find the sentence written by Frank in answer to all the comments on Berkens Blog a bit hard to read with the dots in between? The first time I read it I was very distracted by the dots and then I had to ignore them to read the sentence correctly. Found that funny :-)

    I’m pretty convinced that until the time that http://keyword/ URLs without any dot or an extension (probably even without the http) becomes a reality there is no way any extension can come on par with .COM. In my minds eye I see us ultimately just speaking to go to a particular “website” where prefixing words like “find” or “search” would result in going to search engines while just saying the keyword like “cars” or “books” or “brand” would go to the URL with just the “keyword”. Whenever that happens it would be the actual gold rush IMHO.

    Until then (for the next 1-3 decades at least) the demand for decent .coms will continue to skyrocket and the new extensions will only help in fueling that.

    Reply
  31. Domenclature.com

    :-) Anita,

    Schilling knows that it will take getting the entire world to place dots after every word to change people’s attitude, and thinking for .whatevers to catch fire. Smart man.

    Reply
  32. Now You Know

    Gtld stands for “great to lose dollars”.

    Rick is right: the .com tide has gotten too strong. Frank better learn how to swim cuz he’s going to need a life preserver very shortly.

    Reply
  33. JohnnyNames

    Coke is the “Real Thing” …. most of the new gTLDs will Not be … ICANN’t is irresponsible & reckless in allowing/enabling Sooooooo many new extensions to be launched in such a short period of time….Toooo much for the Web marketplace to absorb so quickly…or even like and/or respect …. the biggest and/or surest winners over the short term will be the IP & TM lawyers

    Happy Trails !

    Reply
  34. UFO

    Ok, my last statement on all this, in some ways it should be an article…

    Look at how and why .com became what it did; It was free to have them at the start, people took them to build websites (not to hold for $), it was the only alternative.

    Hence, new TLDs are competing against a standard, standardisation matters. New TLDs are fighting greed (Because they are not issued free and the best ones will be priced accordingly which means new TLDs are more like the IPO’s that have no incentive to buy and those that do will be domainers/investors).

    Investors in TLDs will HURT the potential for TLDs to expand and gain market share, Market share at a critical mass is determined by websites and advertisers (traffic) to those websites, educating eyeballs.

    So, even if we consider all the sorts of barriers / strategy etc above then there is a fundamental risk / return consideration. Consider that the registries are fully knowledgeable of market value and price the best domains accordingly (because they’re profit maximising). Then where is the money to be made for any domainers? The only money might be second tier extensions that have some bump for exact keyword matches and that you’re going to develop…and! That the registries somehow mispriced.

    Are you going to wait 20 years for the new TLDs to mature? Fund that initial cost price and cash outflows for no traffic?

    Anyway, the biggest thing to realise that the registries are fully knowledgeable and they ARE NOT going to give away value when they could simply hold for themselves.

    Reply
  35. SGK

    I think this time Rick is right, .com will always the King at least in this 10 years, because .com is more respectable for using in company websites, The problem is a good .com now is already rare, and sometimes it will out off stock when every people still want to use .com, and also with the growth of internet. In the next view years, a cheap and good .com will be almost impossible to find. And it will come to a time for people to choose between using .com with a junk keyword or get a good name with other Tlds because a good .com is already rare and very expensive. I just imagine, if in less than 10 years a .com domain that is bought for only 100 $ can be worth million of dollars now, how do you think it will be worth in the next 10 or 20 years? Might be in the next 20 years, the cheapest .com worth more than a thousand dollars. And the category killers worth almost hundred of dollars. who knows? If it is happened, might be a new fortune company in the next 20 years choose to make its own Tld because the cost will be almost similar with buying a category killer .com. And if this is happened, I think what Frank said will be the true……But who knows what will happen in the next 20 years? Will there be a new technology in internet that can change every thing….who knows?

    Reply
  36. Anita

    UFO, your words:

    “Are you going to wait 20 years for the new TLDs to mature? Fund that initial cost price and cash outflows for no traffic?

    Anyway, the biggest thing to realise that the registries are fully knowledgeable and they ARE NOT going to give away value when they could simply hold for themselves.”

    … are so BANG ON. Pity the people who do take the bite into that apple :-) without knowing what they are getting into. I see no value whatsoever as well especially because of the question “why would any valuable domains in .whatever be available to the general public??”

    Reply
  37. Edwin Hayward (@uk_domain_names)

    I wonder how many of the new GTLD registries plan to wildcard all unsold inventory?

    In other words, if we take .loans as an example, will they wildcard the domain such that example.loans resolves to their monetisation/parking platform of choice until the day that “example.loans” gets registered by someone?

    If so then I can see the registries winning a second time – first, by selling domains but then also by capturing stray traffic from careless fingered visitors and experimental typists.

    Reply
  38. UFO

    @ Edwin Hayward (@uk_domain_names)

    Also, in terms of due diligence, what do domainers know about the renewal costs and the rights of these registries to ramp them up?

    @ Anita

    Perhaps the saying ‘poachers becoming gamekeepers’ is the correct reference to these new TLD registries. All these registries are selling a ‘Dream’ but are domainers actually part of it?… I don’t think so.

    Reply
  39. UFO

    @Edwin Hayward (@uk_domain_names)

    Yes, all these registries will have contracts with google/yahoo et al to soak up all the mistypes and misdirects. When registries are effectively being run with ‘domainer’ knowledge then there is no room for domainers further down the chain.

    Admittedly, its a pity I couldn’t be in the background of one of these decent TLDs as it would have been interesting to see whether say you could do some sort of inverse renewal registration fee where it was zero if you had more than x hundred vists PA etc. See, if you treat your TLD as one big domain and all the domain holders as affiliates then the money making opportunities start presenting themselves.

    Reply
  40. Owen Frager

    If Frank’s first-class video were backed with $250 million in Global TV advertising starting on the Super Bowl- it would be in our heads like the James Earl Jones Sprint commercials and it would work equally well. Showing it to a few domainers might get partners, employees. But of winners or losers in the crowded name space, it will be the one who unleashed Marketing with a capital M well beyond the reins of the best we’ve seen with .CO who will win. If anyone has the means, desire and money to make it happen, you are looking at him in that video.

    Reply
  41. s. mugavero

    However, the spin starts at :35 of the video. There’s millions of available and undervalued .com, .net and .org domains available.

    Reply
  42. s. mugavero

    he has it correct starting in :19 of the video “the name space that was created for commerce”
    That’s accurate Franky, and they have spent trillions of dollars over the last 20 years to brand that.

    Reply
  43. s. mugavero

    Truth, when it can completely appear is a thing so naturally familiar to the mind, that an acquaintance starts at first sight.

    Reply
  44. AlanR

    When it comes to all the new gtld’s coming out, I guess in a way, we can blame guys like Rick Schwartz for this whole f-ing unwanted mess. They started the dotcom gold rush way back in the early to mid 90’s and now we have the legends based around the phenomenal success of dotcom domains and the early investors. They were the first wave in to scoop up the easy to find gold since they had the common sense and foresight to do so and now there is lots of envy by the late comers. These guys started the domain industry as we know it today and since most of the dotcom gold has been registered and because of success stories like Rick, a lot of people are thinking up ways to start up a new gold rush in order to line their pockets.

    Reply
  45. AlanR

    Part 2
    These registries and registrars know that deep in the souls of many domain investors, there is the sense that there will be a “second coming”. That there will be another tld that will either surpass, be equal or at least, be close in value to dotcom. Give me a break! There will never be a “second coming” or anything close! The only thing that could come close to a “second coming” is when people finally wake up and realize that all along, the best investment is still dotcom, which will then reenergize the market. In the beginning, dotcom was pretty much worthless! If you would have given a lot of the top domains away then, most would have let them drop because they weren’t worth the renewal costs to those who couldn’t see what a few did see. Now after 20 plus years later, dotcom’s have a value that very few could have ever predicted.

    Reply
  46. AlanR

    Part 3
    So now with all these new gtld’s coming out, they are also worthless so why would anyone take a chance in tying up their money for 5 or more years with such slim odds knowing the history of other tld’s, is beyond me! They are worthless because there isn’t anything to base their value on. But unfortunately, history always repeats itself and the fools will rush in when the doors open because a lot of the people they look up to and trusted gave them false expectations! Stick with dotcom, it has a proven history!

    Bucko

    Reply
  47. Neil@eTRAFFIC.ME

    From DomainersNews, good luck to eAustralianOpen, and iAustralianOpen!
    Australian-Open.org has more targeted clicks than the Australia’s official tennis portal…

    Reply
  48. Altaf

    ‘The new gTLDs is for the newcomer and the millions of people that are being born’….only 5000 domainers…there are millions of newcomers who want to register .whatever and build a bullshit site to show their friends.’
    Anunt’s above remark got my attention. Anything that startsup will never go in vain as millions of new born users will replace us soon and the world will be guided by that prime rule. Not only 900, but many more fold of extensions may arise or vanish as the time will tell that.

    Reply
  49. Jeff Schneider

    Hello Rick,

    Frank Schilling knew enough to come into the game at a later stage than others and leverage the house in .COM Business Model Addresses. He also knows that the .COM Business Model remains the Point of Purchase Epicenter to the Worlds Largest Consumer Base. Anyone who thinks that Frank is idly inactive, on the buy side, in the .COM secondary market, doesn’t understand Smart Money.

    Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)

    Reply
  50. Ramahn

    The new gtlds are like having customers on your automated phone system enter 2549, 32147 or 221084635, etc after entering their soc/birthday, instead of pressing “#” #=.com the standard. Another one… if Ave, St, Rd, Blvd are .com, net, org and info. the new gtlds would be like having an address: 2814 Jefferson 1 Atlantic. At least that’s how I look at it. Thoughts?

    Reply
  51. Jeff Schneider

    Hello Rick,

    The best thing about the .whatevers is the fact that now the Madison avenue Ad companies are taking a look at the URL space as marketing tools. All the years that traffic was expecting to see Madison avenue take notice of our Industry has now happened. They will soon figure out which Conference they really need to go to from the NamesCon experiment, where they will find trafficless extensions. The best is yet to come. We should thank Frank for his hard promotional work and his behind the scenes efforts. His team is now checking through his old wishlists from the early 2000s and finding what he could not register back then. This is just heresay or is it? I know I have all my old wishlists and have been checking them twice to see whose naughty or nice. ( .COMs are Dead )

    Reply
  52. UFO

    @Jeff

    May well be right. More companies may well think there’s great marketing potential to be realised and then really realise that .com is the URL that will deliver traffic and max marketing spend impact.

    Reply

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