The Dividends of Patience

Morning Folks!!


I understand the power of matching a great domain with great traffic to a company or partner that knows how to utilize it. The variance in payouts is not 25%. It is 2500% 25,000%. Go ahead and laugh. It's fact. I have one domain (eBid.com) that has made as much as $1300/day and as low as $.35/day. It currently makes about $50/day. I know the upside. I have been to the mountain. I have seen it with my own eyes. This was not isolated to a single domain. However the extremes on this particular domain are the biggest and help illustrate the playing field better than any other. For folks that don't believe this, ok. But you would be wrong and you won't take much away from this post.


I have been under an extraordinary amount of pressure from folks to come out with the agenda for TRAFFIC over the last couple of months. Several topics have been discussed. But at each point I was reluctant to plan the agenda. See I believe something would materialize. Something specific. Something that would be quite important to anyone that has income producing domains. But what I saw was no guarantee that is would happen and happen before April Well what I envisioned would happen finally unfolded LAST WEEK!


See I believed in the fall that it would take 6 more months of bleeding before domainers and others looked for a serious alternative. That day has come. There will be a multitude of new solutions coming to domainers next month. Just one winner can completely change the industry overnight. We all wish these companies well. What I can say to these companies is make sure your solution is just not replacing the same revenue stream. The minimum increase folks should see is 50%, 100%, or more to be viable.


I see what we have in prime domains as an oil well. A diamond mine. The treasure is there. The market may fluctuate. The costs of extracting may be higher or lower. But the treasure is still there. The treasure on that domain is still there and when matched to a good mining team can be extracted. Then again the traffic that is lost today, is lost forever. You can't reclaim what you already lost so time is of the essence.


We are in the midst of a great shift in traffic. Traffic is migrating away from PPC. That sector which was once the most dynamic is now showing signs of strain. There will be a breaking point and we will all witness it first hand. Some may even emerge stronger. But there will be less players. That is for sure.


The point is what was important last fall has little import now. Same things with each month since New York and in some cases each week. All along I knew that the show should be about new monetization alternatives. But that was not up to me. It was up to evolution and destiny. BINGO! The thing I saw unfolded and now we have the beginnings of the next phase of monetizing domain names.


In good times there is no motive to dig deep within us to do something great. When you witness your earning decline and you come to enjoy the comforts we have had, that provides the motivation for folks to not accept the status quo. So while it has yet to happen or unfolds, it will be the next 12 months or less that changes the entire industry. Domainer are stepping up and doing a wide variety of things. We will be hearing from a wide variety of speakers and they will be announced during the next few days and the week ahead.


So trust that when we have an agenda it is geared to what is important at the time of the show as well as the coming months. We hear all the time that shows pick an agenda 6 months or a year before a show. All I would say to that is I have never foucsed on yesterday's news. It is seeing the news before it is news. The next 6 months. The next 12 months. Just look how much the world has changed.


So I would have announced what the show was about in September in New York. But the universe had to cooperate. And so it did. The industry is ripe for a new big thing. How much will the delay cost you?


Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz


SantaClara.com to be Auctioned at Santa Clara T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

Evening Folks!!


Hot off the press!!

Moniker has sent me a few blockbuster names and I am happy to announce that SantaClara.com will be auctioned off at the Silicon Valley TRAFFIC that will just so happen to be held in Santa Clara in just a few weeks. Won't that be interesting? Here is an open invitation for the Mayor or City Manager of Santa Clara to attend the auction. Make sure to bring your Budget Director. Same with the local newspaper, travel agency, or anyone else that has an eye to the future and a sense of opportunity.


This is just an example of some great names coming to market. The submissions we have been getting are extraordinary and many more will be announced over the coming weeks.


Rick Schwartz