Afternoon Folks!!
All things come to an end. What you have grown comfortable with in our small pond is coming to an end. Sadly there is nothing that can be done but remember the good ole days. Folks, this is the sunset of the good ole days. Things are changing that makes our pond something that we will just remember. It's not in our control and it is not our fault. But progress and age are going to rewrite what domaining looks like.
There are two keywords you are hearing of this year,"gTLD" and "Leasing". One will cost you money. One will make you money. That's how I see it. The next phase is coming at us faster than you might think and the WORST mistake I could make at this stage is be LATE to the game. To the landing of this new phase.
I have patiently been waiting on the beach all these years. Now it is time to prepare the runway. Build the infrastructure. Get ready for the assault. Why now? Because the movement is already in the air. The plane has taken off and now it is just the time to travel here and land. 18 years of waiting STANDBY at the gate waiting for the plane to taxi on the runway. That plane has finally taken off. There are 1900 bumps along the way so it won't be a smooth ride. But when we emerge on the other side in 2-3 years, folks will look back like it was always that way and new folks coming in won't know any different. They will just think it was always like that just like many of you think there was always a domain aftermarket and auctions and unlimited places to register a domain name as opposed to one that did not work well. Working like your local DMV in those days. But "Horrible" has its privileges.
In 2-3 years nobody reading this TODAY will even recognize the "Domain Industry". It is about to change in an uncontrollable way and voices like mine will be drown out by thousands with an agenda. Including myself and maybe you too. That is the way of the world. That is evolution. We can't control it but we CAN HARNESS IT!!!!
It is that "Drowning out" that will elevate great domains names to their proper place in the eco chain of business. The more everyone yells me, me me, the more the domains will stand out as a way to.....stand out!
See it is the gTLD''s that will make leasing a viable option. It's just so simple and that is why you are seeing a WAVE of folks focusing on this area. Progress is not to be feared. It is to understand what happens when something new is introduced. ALL of our voices will soon be drown out by 1800 STAFFS of "Cubicle Whores" each with their job spreading great rumors about their extension. There will be announcements of multi million dollar deals and maybe NONE will actually be done from an arms length. 1900 competing motives. They will rip each others eyes out trying to survive. Let's see how long t will be until "Consolidation" begins. I suspect very quickly. Each consolidation is an exclamation of failure!
That's the difference going forward. It won't unfold the way 99.9 expect it will. It could be ugly. All I know is you will see a lot of caucuses lining the road to the future. All with high hopes. Most based on the second coming of something that will never be repeated. Each step only fortifying and increasing the value of .com no matter what they spew in their own self interest.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
