Stop Blaming! You Picked the Crap you Own, Deal with it!

Morning Folks!!

So, the first day I was online I received a new and impressive title. I did not go to school. I did not earn a degree, I did not do an apprenticeship. But I had a BIG and important title. I was now a "Webmaster"!  Wow! I was like the captain of this ship and I was never even in a boat! Well done Rick!!

We use the term "Domainer" in much the same way. Every slob that walks in the door is a Domainer. YAY!!

Not so fast!

You can be a baseball player but there is a big difference between Little League and the Majors and everything in between. You might value the advice of a player in the majors more than a 2 year old playing whiffle ball in the backyard. But isn't that what we have in the domaining world? Where are the credentials? It's great to have an opinion. We all do. But not all opinions are created equal.

The bottom line is when I look at the domaining community and I would count folks that I think have important advice to share and those I would say are qualified to give advice is less than 100. I would say 350 are truly professional domainers. From there you have the intermediary group that are also domainers. They make a living with domains. Some years modest, some years better. From there I think you could say you have the Servicing Group. The corporate folks that work for companies in the space but their actual knowledge and understanding of domains and their value is very limited. Some are even deemed "Experts".

Then there are a couple other groups. Not sure which is next. They are the most and the loudest. Always trying to reinvent the wheel and climb the ladder 200 steps at a time and wonder why they keep failing and falling. They are the "Pigeon Shit Farmers" and the "Shiny Object Chasers". They are like birds in the sky and they shit over everything! Thousands and thousands. They come and go faster than you can keep track of and sometimes fly in flocks.

At every level personalities will emerge. Experts are born. Failures disappear.

The list is not that hard to put together. You always have guys like Frank and Mike. If you don't know who they are you are not a domainer! LOL

But the point is there are only a handful of people in domaining I take seriously. That really really know their stuff. That have a long record of success and also sharing. Sharing is a big part of it. Many like their privacy and are not known to most. They have quietly built empires. Have fantastic holdings and are doing quite well.

But it does not matter what level you are at. Demand is down. Demand is changing. Demand evolves. What is IN demand changes. And it may change many times.

Look at fashion. Some years High Heels rein and some years not as much. Short skirts vs long. They come and go. Fashion changes. What is in vogue changes. Domainers have to understand and adapt to those changes but don't lose control just because one sector is hotter than another. Be patient!! Just like NNN had their day, LLL may be the next to rock the market. It changes!

But in understanding change you have to follow it every day or ever period. You have to have a vision of tomorrow supported with something more than hope and wishful thinking. If you chase yesterday it is an automatic loser. Use the building blocks of yesterday with the material of today. Weave them together and you might be on to something.

Good Luck!

Rick Schwartz