Morning Folks,
There are two basic groups in domaining. Those that make money and those that would like to make money. Whether we like it or not, it is a very small group that actually makes money. An "Elite" group. Not that they are "Elite". But the group as a whole is elite because it is such a small but fairly powerful group of less than 2000 out of 7 Billion.
The industry is not growing. At least not yet. In a success, .whatever should grow this industry exponentially. With that growth it becomes less elite as more join those that make money. Or not because it may not unfold that way.
We have watched several waves of domainers come and go and come and go and come and go again. Many are the type that will chase shiny objects and we may or may not see that. Guess it depends on how shiny things are.
2014, 2015 and 2016 are just going to be fun. Lots happening. Lots of dumb business is about to be shown us. We are gonna die from laughing because some are going to make the dumbest mistakes you have ever seen. And some are going to be very methodical and fail anyway. It's just "Survivor" and it is being filmed right in front of us.
It seems you hear the same few extensions over and over when it comes to favorites. .Web is the front-runner almost every time. .App, .Blog, .Shop seem to be the runners up. Your guess is as good as mine. I can't stress that enough no matter how certain or opinionated I might be. But even in that race, I see .web vs .net if there is a race.
The key element for .com, like it or not, is type in traffic. That was the hidden pot of gold that is likely missing from the new extensions. Ask Google, they get most of the typos for .whatever right now and I bet it does not mount to a hill of beans.
Ask those in an elite group that are still standing. They ALL have type in traffic. Not on all their domains. But they have type in traffic and if not there would be no reason for PPC would there? So that is one of many missing foundations and how many have to be missing before you have a collapse? Type in traffic was the single biggest key and accelerator to domaining and growth whether folks want to understand it or not.
Each new .whatever has some dependence on other .whatevers. They will suffer the burden of the bad moves by others. So those with solid plans have the weak as their biggest obstacle not me. Nothing I can say can be as bad as a horse falling down right in front of you during a race.
Believe me, major mistakes have already been made by major players. It may not reveal itself yet, but in time, it always comes to the surface. So far the big winners are the auction losers which is funny and cool in and of itself.
This is an elite industry with even more elite people coming into it. If they succeed, they become more elite. .whatever barons and just like the Kentucky Derby, only a very elite group of people in the world could actually handicap this and from those maybe none of us will get it right. That is how you transform elite back down to earth.
700 horses coming out of the gate and the one thing that is pretty certain and almost all agree, some will be complete flops and be trampled at the gate. The only question is which ones and will they hurt others?
Rick Schwartz
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