If You are not Making BIG Money in Domains You May Need to Rethink 2011 Before 2011

Morning Folks!


In 1996 I never dreamed there would be groups just devoted to 3 number domain names. But there are and I have 3 number domain names.


In 1996 I never dreamed there would be groups that focus on 3 letter domain names. But there are and I have 3 letter domain names.


In 1996 I never dreamed there would be groups for this and that and the other thing. But there are and I have this that and the other thing.


For almost every sub-group, I have domains that match that group. Even 3D.


The big difference is I went wide and some drilled deep.


I only drilled deep in adult because that has proven over time that nothing you can do will kill the appetite for adult.


Soon, many new tld’s will come online. New opportunity for some and a black hole for others.


My only point in EVERY post I ever make is that a newcomer can get in the game on January 1, 2011 and make a lot of money IF he gets the FIRST buy right. The FIRST buy. Luckily you can make your FIRST buy right now even if it isn’t your first buy. Fool yourself! Pretend!!


You have experience that the guy coming on January 1, 2011 does not. You are light years ahead. You should whip his ass!! But, if you are not having the results you want and don’t do anything different, you lose. If you are losing, the last thing you want to do is the last thing you did again.


And, you don’t have to have money to make money in domains. You have to have a plan. You have to be smart. You can create opportunity! Did you read that? You can CREATE opportunity.


I have nothing to prove so the easy way out is the loser turning it back on me. That is why you are a loser. Want to change that? Get you mind thinking. But it is more than just trying to make $$$. Calling you a 'Loser' is not name calling. I would much rather call you a WINNER! But if you lose, that by definition is loser. Not personal!


If I was penniless and needed to change that today, I could name a few things I could do. The easiest and lowest entry bar is brokering a domain name. Just find a great domain name. Contact the owner. Get an agreement for a period of time to allow you to market and sell that domain.


A sale gives you seed money. A start. A direction. Of course you have to know how to sell, who to contact and how to talk to them intelligently. You also need to really know what a great domain is or you will be pissing in the wind. It takes the same amount of energy and time and expense to market gold as to market pigeon shit. Read that again. Please! Plus when you market “Pigeon Shit” you get frustration as the reward instead of a cash reward. Why would anyone in their right mind keep choosing Pigeon Shit?


And let me be 100% clear. It is not Pigeon Shit because I say so. It is Pigeon Shit because the MARKET says so. It may just be your timing. It is possible for Pigon Shit to turn into gold. But then wait until it turns to gold and THEN sell. Because right now, it is yet to be transformed. It is still Pigeon Shit.


I have Pigeon Shit. Yes, me too. The difference is I don’t try and sell Pigeon Shit. I let them drop. They are worthless. It is not worth my time to do a $25 transaction for something with no value. Nor would I feel good about it. The only reason I had the Pigeon Shit to begin with is I don’t chase yesterday, I predict tomorrow. When you do that, you may only hit 1 in 100. But for $800 in hand registrations, that 1 will pay that $800 bill dozens of times. It’s a formula that has proven to work for me for 15 years.


There is more opportunity in domains than anything I have ever seen in all my life. There are so many ways to climb the mountain. So many ways to approach things. So many ways to do whatever. Life changes ever minute and every time that happens a new domain opportunity is born.


My only point is that if you are not succeeding, it may not be comfortable, but do something different and try again. Don’t repeat failure, repeat success. You can only repeat something you did. So in January, grab a success and then repeat that success as many times as you can and do it as fast as you can for as long as you can.


The opportunity in domains is just beginning. It is not ending. It won’t end for anyone reading this while you are on this side of the dirt. Your only job is figuring out how to harness SOME of that power.


I was making well into the 7 figures before I ever quit my day job. I urge folks not to quit their day jobs until the time at work interferes with their domain business and ability to make money and grow their business. Then and only then would I have made the leap. So domaining is a natural part time entry until you ramp up.


So it all boils down to whether you have time, patience and a keen understanding of business and what is important to business. Don’t chase yesterday. It seldom works. Predict tomorrow based on history not yesterday. And of course……..stop playing with Pigeons! The same energy to play with Gold. I am rooting for your success. I don’t know if you have Pigeon Shit or gold. The only one that does…..your savings account. Or you can use this test. If my Pigeon Shit category offends you………


And of course it is one thing to buy Pigeon Shit for $8 and another thing to buy Pigeon Shit for $8000. I know. I have done both. But I admit it. I know the difference. I try and not repeat what does not work. The only thing I have repeated over the years that only has marginal success is trying to reach those in domaining reading this without the true success they want and deserve and only have anger and frustration banked up instead of happiness and dollars. But I figure with every post.....maybe, maybe, I sway one willing mind and they get to transform their lives. I may or may not know the result. That is good enough for me! We all have a way of giving back. Some donate to charity. I donate my time and words to willing minds and hearts. I just plant the seeds of thought and know some will germinate. Some with anger, some with greatfulness, some with nothing at all.


Have a GREAT Day!

Rick Schwartz







31 thoughts on “If You are not Making BIG Money in Domains You May Need to Rethink 2011 Before 2011

  1. Greg

    “CREATE opportunity” always a strong statement.
    Pigeon shit can be turned into fertilizer and fertilizer is big business, selling shit, something we flush everyday and turning it into cash is amazing. nothing to ship, no returns, very nice. Fertilizer can grow corn, but corn is still cheap. Corn gives humans energy, the proper focus of energy can produce work which equals money, money is good, its a cycle. Thanks again for a great post Rick.

    Reply
  2. LS Morgann

    Good post Rick.
    Speaking of”drilling deep…”, I have an off-topic question to ask of you or any of your readers.
    A recent ‘event’ on a NJ prerelease name has inspired me to drill deep for all the info I can on Mr.”Stanley Pace”, purportedly of Flower Mound, TX (with a Los Angeles area code)- a regular NJ bidder and large portfolio holder of what appears to be very crappy names and usually TM’ish names- precisely the sort of names that a company like NJ might be warehousing and farming for traffic. He’s been subject to any number of UDRPs, to which he hasn’t responded to any… Everything I’m finding is pointing me to one conclusion, but I’ll refrain from jumping to anything before I have more info and can coordinate the info I do have. Whatever is on google, I’ve seen. I’m going deeper.
    My initial question is- have any credible persons in the domain industry met Stanley Pace in person? I realize that Nelson Brady vouched for Hank Alvarez, so I’d be interested in hearing from people who are established and otherwise unaffiliated with domain companies.
    If anyone has any information or ‘interesting experiences’ with questionable circumstances, please be in touch with me: SM4SEO@gmail.com
    I’m hoping there’s a simple explanation and if there is, I’ll leave it at that.

    Reply
  3. steve

    Avoid the domain forums. 95% of posts and content on those sites are pigeon $#%@. Read a post of a buyer wanting somthing good like buycars.com and a budget of XXXXX. When you contact them they offer you $200. Or they offer you a trade and their domains are true pigeon #$$@. If you can find the few threads worth reading and ignore the rest then you are ok. But 95% is pure manure.

    Reply
  4. Lyn

    Could you please give examples of domains to look for other then one word .com’s? You mentioned once look for command type domains. Please share examples.
    Thank you.

    Reply
  5. David

    Many wise words. The think is only few will get your words and start with a new objectives.
    The reason is every human have a manipulative function that consist to prove to themselves they are right even they feel they are wrong. This why most people will just read your words without getting your emotions and your philosophy.
    The fact is that all our actions can impact and influence reality. That’s why we always try to find a way to escape from the true by manipulating our own reality and future actions just to prove that we are right.
    I am sure many have the experience of someone they loved and knew they had to leave but tried to find all the reasons to stay with. This is what I describe.
    I am sure you aware of that and I know that when you saying “no” is the best way to sell, even hundred times only few will get it. But in my view, this is a pure gift that you offer to us and it’s more that any domaining strategies. For that we thank you.

    Reply
  6. BullShitwebsites

    Another excellent post!! Rick
    Steve–It should be 99% pure BS on all the posts/content.
    Just read Ricksblog and you all should be fine.
    *************************************
    “steve said…
    Avoid the domain forums. 95% of posts and content on those sites are pigeon $#%@. But 95% is pure manure.

    Reply
  7. Will

    Thanks again for a great post, Rick. You inspired me in 2007, I hastily dropped out of the game in 2008, and you’re inspiring me in 2010 as I eased back into the game this year. What if I’d stuck with it three years ago? I may have already quit my day job!

    Reply
  8. steve

    It is unfortunate that their is a lacking of skills in the domaining world. Not that I am a genius but I have all the skills that a million dollar business hires. So I can see problems everywhere and I see a mess in the domaining world. I can compare it to when I worked at companies and the managers were so stupid it gave you a headache. What will happen is candy.com wil grow and grow and then Hersheys will buy them out for $200 million. That is just how they play the game. In cases like yahoo and microsoft they mess up so bad that google becomes a giant and now competes with them.
    The other problem is people don’t have the skills and ability to rise to the top but they think they do. When I just ran into these people again and talked about what I did I laughed at how they tried to convince me to hire them as CEO…
    So you have people that have great domains and they correctly sit on them because they know they don’t have the management, programming experience, creative skills to develop these domains into awesome websites with millions in sales or just ad revenue.
    Others have the skill but not the money to acquire a top level domain. I once let a friend make all the decisions and I told him if you fail it is your fault and no one else is to blame. Well he made horrible decisions, thought he was a genius, failed…then blamed me. I then turned the company around, kicked him out, and made quite a bit of money…
    So to cut it short, people are failures. They are right working for companies. Most of them have horrible attitudes to top it off.
    The Internet let the true geniuses shine and now we see how few there are. But everyone has an excuse for why they aren’t zillionaires.

    Reply
  9. Anunt

    Sorry, but making money buying and selling domain names is over…that game is over…done…of course you can make couple of bucks here and there…but thats pocket change!
    Now, its time to get creative and build WEBSITES…thats where the big bucks are.
    If you are smart and have a unique idea…you can become an instant millionaire…all you need is less than $10 to register a domain name.
    You dont even have to know how to create a website…let the nerds do it at freelancer.com … you post your idea for a website, and the geeks will make it for you just the way you want it.
    So do you have that million dollar idea? There are alot of high school kids making millions on the internet with a fucked up domain name but with a great idea.
    Just the other day…somebody posted”FML” on my facebook…i didnt know what that was…but now i do…it stands for”fuck my life”…this guy built a simple website on the domain name fmylife.com and it was in the top 1000 alexa ranking sites…now its around top 5000…still good…his domain fmylife.com probably cost him $10…its a young kid from France that built this site…great idea on a $10 domain name…
    there are tons and tons of people like him…
    Anyways, my point is…making money in domains is over…
    Big money is in the websites…just need a super idea!
    Good Luck to all…
    Have A Merry Christmas
    and Happy New Year!!!

    Reply
  10. d sloss

    Rick i loved your post would appreciate it if you looked over my domains and give an opinion on what i have as a portfolio i could do with some tips

    Reply
  11. David

    Very well said. There is wisdom to the saying”The definition of insanity is doing the same thing but expecting a different result”.

    Reply
  12. Steve p

    I had a table at Domainfest trying to advise this route earlier this year to build out . the trouble was the guys who had made the easy money before could not see the point in deploying resources
    when they had not needed to do so before talk about heads in the sand
    and the rest wanted autogrenerated sites for 20 dollars a pop or so
    Well Google and the others would really like those kind of high quality sites on there books. not
    To make could money you need to put effort in and consider you investment maybe take`s 1-2 years to come to fruition with a little bit off management and investment along the way

    Reply
  13. Chadi

    Hey Rick,
    I don’t comment anymore on Domain Blog Posts. I’ve been a passive reader for a while.
    Your posts are different.
    I couldn’t agree more on the fact that”the last thing you want to do is the last thing you did again…”
    I speak to domainers who’ve preceded me by light yrs into this industry and it amazes me how bad is their appetite is towards TLDs that I consider to be a one in a life time opportunity, like the .co for instance.
    The usual response is:”I’ve lost big in .Asia, .Mobi, .Me…”. I couldn’t care any less about this so called .CO.
    However, for goodness sake, can’t you see the difference between this TLD and the other ones!!!
    I mean, get a baby in my side of the earth, and get him/her to choose a TLD for a company, and I’m sure his choice would be .CO.
    This is not an Ad for .CO. I don’t appreciate they high fees the guys are charging and so, sentimentally I’m not the least bit inclined to promote them for their eyes on only.
    .CO is shorter, neater and have been around as a two letter extension even long before the internet has?
    Why shouldn’t it be the TLD of the future? Is it the Colombia factor. How mean people still think Red Indians when they think America?
    Its just plain shocking that previous failures have totally blinded some of the best domainers to this simple fact. The typical answer:”well, .co could get there if the guys advertise it well…”
    With all due respect, I don’t feel such TLD requires too much advertising – not even a flying pig above the superbowl stadium.
    Its only a matter of time before this is proven to be true.
    So, yes, you are absolutely right. Even if you’ve lost a million on failed domains, you should keep an eye sober enough to recognize an opportunity when it passes by instead of dropping your experience along with the money you’ve spent in the wrong time.

    Reply
  14. Gianni

    Great post! I am one of the frustrated, angry domainers! Or should I say I was! Very inspiring, like everything in life you’ve just got to keep trying and some day it’ll all come good..
    Thanks

    Reply
  15. Kyle

    So what would be a good place for a newbie to start to learn how to sell and buy domains?
    Thanks
    Rick

    Reply
  16. Vern

    @Kyle… What works for me, when selling domains, has always been having my own Domain Name Sales Website (LittleBOT.com). I avoid paying commissions and I can deal with my customers 1 on 1 instead of having a middle man. I think”trust” what is most important and people trust the big middle-men like Sedo, Network Solutions, Afternic, etc. But if you can get your customers to say good things about you and their experience with you, than you’re golden! Good-Luck!

    Reply
  17. Vern

    Great post Rick! You have inspired me many times over, when you have owed me nothing. I greatly appreciate your time and effort when helping other domainers trying to reach and exceed YOUR current level.

    Reply
  18. roddy

    I think this has been the year to buy the gold , however i have had the theory of going forwards as well , my favorite hirerobots/com a long term reg but compared to the same amount going in the bank i am much happier to own the domain as an investment

    Reply
  19. You Don't Understand

    The obttom line is people either”get it”, or they do not. Most people have NO clue. Part of the reason is the scam extensions are brought out every year and many old=time domainers traffic in that horseshit trying to scam newbies.
    Everyone is in on the scam. The new domainers get scammed because they don’t know any better. The only good news to that is that if you know what the hell is going on you have less competition.
    You either understand what makes a name have value…..or you do not. If you have been in the game for any length of time at all, and you still aren’t making money, then you need to QUIT. Do something else.
    Rick is right in that the first buy you make is the most important. If you start buying garbage names you are dead….no chance. The best thing for most of you losers to do is to quit, and leave the success to those who have a clue.
    Get out. Stay out. And don’t come back. Losers.

    Reply
  20. Jessica

    Rick, thanks always for the inspiration. It’s not your achievement nor your acquisitions that made you a star- it’s your wisdom.
    More good health and blessings in 2011. God bless you.

    Reply
  21. DR.VEGAS

    Thanx Rick. Already re-assessing my portfolio and making the adjustments.Looking forward to a big 2011.

    Reply
  22. steve

    Once I realized the stock market was not only rigged but most companies were corrupt and inept. Well I quit the stock market.
    Thank god because it lost so much money later proving my point.
    Once the crooks got done with it you could buy in very cheap, dirt cheap. But I am into domaining and domain prices held steady.

    Reply
  23. MAJ

    Rick, how do you sell your domains? Just list them on Sedo or Afternic? That doesn’t really work. Your thoughts?

    Reply

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