The Rick Schwartz Domain Name and Traffic Blog:

Morning folks!!

Here is just a few little thought
widgets I decided to share:

#1 If you want to fly
the fastest plane first you need to learn how to fly.

If you want to make a
lot of money in the domain business the first thing you need to do is learn
what makes a domain have value. I see that as the #1 problem most have. They
don't know a good domain from a crappy domain. Nothing new. Been that way since
day one.

The domain business is
easy to get in. Take a few grand out of your pocket, search for a domain that
you think has more value than the price you can pay, buy it, flip it.
I will always be a .com guy and it is still my advice to focus on .com. However
never put blinders on. Sometimes it is ok to settle. But when you settle,
settle for a PRIME domain even if the extension is not .com. In other words, if
you want sex.com and most extensions are taken but you stumble on the weakest
extension .biz. GRAB IT!!!! But if you are going to get
moneyimadeatschool.biz.....what the hell were you thinking? If you are going to
get a crappy and weak domain like that, at least make sure it is .com because
if it is not, it is likely worthless.
#2 I have a few questions to ask domain investors today. 

Q1. How much money does
a PPC company make if domainers do not send their traffic to them?

Answer ZERO. It is OUR
traffic that is supporting all these companies. Without our traffic they are
not even in business.

Q2. How much is the PPC
service worth? If the PPC company makes ZERO without traffic, how much should
they be entitled to for the service they provide? What percentage is fair? How
do they arrive at that percentage. Is that before or after costs?

Q3. Since larger players
get a larger share wouldn't it be a smart idea for smaller domainers to unite
as a group and be able to offer a PPC company the same or more traffic than the
largest players? And if the largest players join can they not get another few points?

4. There is some vast
research being done and I can tell you that the numbers don't add up. So where
should the money earned from those domains go? The friends you made at the PPC
company or your own wife and kids?

Now don't get me wrong. PPC companies have over head. They provide an important service. But we need to sit down with our partners and see what's what. That is why transparency is such a vital issue as you will discover in the paragraph below.
This is December. This is the time to STOP what you are doing. HALT! CEASE!
Time to take inventory. Time to reflect on the passing year and set a course
for the upcoming year. Report card time my friends. Make sure you give yourself
honest grades. If your domains earn $1 million a year in gross ad revenue.....how
much should you get of that pie? And if your PPC company is telling you, that
you are getting 65%, don't you have a right and a DUTY to make sure? For
goodness sakes you folks count your frickin' change from a $20 bill at
McDonald's and don't do the same thing when MILLIONS may be at stake??? How
smart is that?

Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz

Morning folks!!

I never had a 'Guest' blog post until now. But today I woke up and read something posted by Kevin Leto and asked his permission to reprint this. This should put some things in perspective to what lays ahead for domain owners and PPC companies. Change the numbers. Experiment. But there is a lot of truth in the way Kevin looks at things and it rings true with what I know as well. Kevin is the man that led the team behind acquisition of my Men.com domain in 2003/2004.

Parking vs. Development

'When looking at the debate of Parking vs. Development, much depends on
the objectives a domainer has for his portfolio and the types and
quality of his domains.

A high quality type-in domain will obviously have a higher CTR on a PPC
page, usually 30% to 40%, sometimes even higher. Whereas on a web site
you'll see CTR's of 5% to 10%. So you will see a drop in revenues
initially.

The down side to PPC is it doesn't create traffic growth, nor build a
user base, nor offer any other revenue or site feature options. Bottom
line you are limited completely. The upside is simplicity, especially
if you need a monetization solution for tens of thousands of domains.

The down side to web sites are initial drop in revenues (for type-in
domains), initial development costs, and then management of them. The
upside is you now have the ability to grow traffic, grow a user base,
and have total flexibility for implementation of all sorts of features
and revenue generators.

It kills me when domainers say PPC is better. It is ultimately not, and
if you sit down and deeply think about how much money you have been
leaving on the table you'd fall off your chair when the realization
sinks in.

If PPC was indeed better than we wouldn't have any problems selling our
fabulous sounding one word domain names to major corporations all day
long. They'd be falling all over themselves to pay any price we ask.
It's not happening and it's not going to happen, with rare exceptions
of course.

Major corporations don't want to acquire just type-in traffic for 20
years multiples, on an undeveloped domain. They do want to acquire
USERS and a branded domain with a site that provides those users with a
positive experience that they gain information, products, services,
interaction or entertainment from.

Business.com is a fantastic domain as an example. It went from a
$150,000 domain acquisition to a $7.5 Million acquisition for
development as a search engine with companies paying annual fees of
$199 to be included and paying for ad clicks to their directory
listing, and just recently to a $345 Million acquisition by the R.H.
Donnelly company. Most domainers would have that on a PPC landing page
and would be making a ton of money surely. But would they be making
$345 Million with that strategy? The answer is no. What surely turned
Donnelly on was not just the traffic, but that established advertiser
goldmine in Business.com's databases. Those advertisers could then be
further developed as advertisers across their entire ad network.

Web surfers come and either click and go on or just move on instantly
when they hit a ppc landing page. There is no customer aquisition for
the domain owner. Zippo. The most cherished and valued prize on the Net
walks into your store and in seconds is out the back door to someone
else's site. It that smart business? I don't think anyone could argue
it is.

Let's look at a big domain that has 30,000+ type-ins per day. Let's say
it's been owned for 10 years. That's 12 Million visitors a year. 120
Million since registration. Think about that number. 120 MILLION people
have come to your store in the past decade. How many are 'YOUR
CUSTOMERS'? Not a single one. How many of their e-mail addresses do you
have in a database? Not a single one. What kinds of stuff are they
looking to buy? You don't know a single drop of info about them.
They've come and they've gone.

Now lets analyze the valuations. Under the PPC model, let's assume a
high 60% CTR paying 15 cents a click ove the life of the domain so far.
The math works out to $10.8 Million you've earned over the past 10
years. That is great wealth and no one could deny a totally successful
business.

Now lets say the site had been developed. After 10 years not only would
you have those same 120 Million visitors, you would have captured a
percentage of them in some way as repeat visitors, maybe a
subscription, maybe just registered, maybe sold them something
directly, any number of ways. But the main point is you would have tons
of repeat visitors, and they would have provided free word of mouth,
which would have brought in even more traffic and users. The revenues
could be anything here since there are so many ways to generate cash
flow when you have a web site. Surely in that time at a bare minimum
you could have earned equal to the PPC and probably many multiples
more. But the key point is you have not only an incredibly valuable
domain asset at this point, but an even more valuable customer base
asset. My guess is after 10 years you'd have at least 10 to 20 million
users, probably way more. Now you own an asset worth a fortune, and in
the hundreds of millions, and probably even close to a Billion or more.

So both ways make money, but the developed domain model is the true
ultimate long term goldmine. And yes, not every developed site works,
we've seen the dotcom bubble prove that, but the good thing about the
Net now is the economies of scale are so efficient you can take down
one concept and do another without much investment compared to the
early days, and you always have your base type-in traffic. That is not
going anywhere. If one building doesn't work, knock it down and put up
another until you get it right. It's that simple.

Now to the points about mini sites. I personally have found mini sites
work especially great for no-traffic domains bought at reg fee. They
grow traffic, no if's ands or buts. You do the math and even doing 1,
2, or 3 figs of revs a month, the numbers get amazing very very fast.

For most domainers I've polled, the majority of domains in their
portfolio get litle or no traffic. Why did we buy them and why do we
continue to then? It's the expectation we all say that one day they'll
be good for development. What happens is domainers end up having
thousands of these no traffic domains and basically get overwhelmed in
their minds when they reach the point of saying 'ok now how do I get
these all developed?'. 99% of domainers aren't developers. Nor do they
want to be. It takes a lot of multitasking type skills and loads of
energy to be a developer and even more to then manage it all
effectively.

You also don't want to put simple sites on exceptional domains. Great
domains deserve and need great sites. And that doesn't mean you need to
spend an arm and a leg to get that. It certainly costs more to build a
more robust site, but Internet technoloy has dramatically reduced the
costs to an insignificant number compared to the early days. Over the
past couple months I've evolved my mini site concept and system
structure about 5 times over into something more robust, scaleable, and
integrated with lots more features and capabilities than the original
mini sites. I've now got a system designed to accomodate simple sites
for no traffic domains reg fee domains, enhanced sites for moderate
traffic domains and full scale sites for the premium type-in domains
and have figured a way to still keep the costs in check even on the
larger enterprise style sites. So its not just a strategy of instantly
doing a zillion mini sites. You have to evaluate each domain and how
much potential it has and then deploy a precision developed and custom
tailored site on it. Once you do a few, then keep on going and build
out more and more and more of them and you'll soon have an enterprise
sized ad network in your portfolio. Since a small number of domainers
have the really huge traffic type-in domains, this is a way for the
less fortunate domainers to get to that level too by having hundreds
and thousands of small sites doing hundreds of visitors each a day and
adding up to a big number of visitors network wide. It's not easy to
get small sites into thousands of visitors per day, but it is easy to
get double and triple digits of traffic per day on them. You build with
the end user in mind and they will come back and they will do word of
mouth for you and traffic grows.

I've researched all the stuff you hear about SEO inside out, and there
are some valid and genuine ways to optimize sites using SEO techniques.
There are also many 'black hat' ways that SEO wizards do to get high
page rankings for clients. Many of these don't last very long in the
SERPS. My position is look at Google's basic algorithm mantra. It's as
simple as their home page is. Sites that provide users with the best
experience go to the top of the SERPS for the long term. You don't need
all sorts of fancy SEO stuff to accomplish that, nor be an SEO rocket
scientist. You just need to do basic SEO optimizing and provide the
highest quality site experience you can. Not only will you get good
rankings, but users will tell other users, users will bookmark and come
back again and again.

As I've indicated above when you place a high traffic domain on a site
you'll see an initial rev drop, but you will begin the process of solid
traffic and user growth that will take you to the real treasure of
dollars.

And here is where you have to really open your eyes wide and see
exactly where the trove of money is. It is not doing thousands of bulk
basic sites with Google AdSense on them. There is nothing wrong with
AdSense. It works. It makes money. But it is NOT the treasure trove
when you begin developing. It's just the first step of the advertising
monetization process. The gold rush comes when you enter Phase 2 of
development and have traffic built across many sites with well targeted
niches and users and can then sell impression based long term
advertising deals directly to major corporate advertisers. This is
where major major money can be made from advertising on developed
sites. Plus at this point you now have the ability to implement premium
subscription based type services and products to users to create
additional revenue flows, do lead generators, and all sorts of exciting
moneymakers.

Let's go back to the 10 year domain example above. Let's say after 10
years and your several hundred million visitors you had developed a
site and out of all those surfers you grabbed 1/2 of 1% for a
subscription of some kind. Not even taking into consideration the
millions of extra visitors that would have been grown by a site on the
domain, and just using the native type-in volume during that decade for
the base factoring, you'd have roughly 500,000 subscribers paying you a
fee every month. Or maybe just 500,000 subscribers with no fee but who
you could then sell premium rate advertising on, such as in a
newsletter. What's 500,000 subscribers paying you $9.95 /month? That's
$5 Million per month, over 10 years thats $600 Million. So what's
better? $10 Million or 10 to 20x that number by having a web site asset
to sell one day along with a great domain.

And think how much you could sell that asset for with 500,000 and up
subscribers, with major corporate advertisers, and a huge income
stream. Now you own a domain really worth the hundreds of millions of
dollars we all say our domains are worth.

Cha-ching $$$. Once you look at domains with this understanding and
vision, I think most domainers will quickly see the light, sit down
with a calculator and know the future much more clearly and without
hesitation, determine the wealth building strategy to aim for in the
years ahead.'

Kevin Leto
Decemebr 11th 2007

I think we can agree that was one hell of a post. Thank you Kevin!

Have a GREAT day!

Rick Schwartz

Morning folks!!

Where do I start? Let's
start with that I know a minimum of 3 people personally that have received this
form letter or what most folks consider a spam letter from Fairwinds Partrners.

The spam itself was
posted on the comments area of the previous post so no need to repeat. However
let's start with the a couple of quotes in the return email I sent them:

'So let me recap.
You THINK you are in the business of selling high end domains however you have
never actually sold one. Have you?? I think you misrepresent your abilities.
You call domainers cybersquatters and then send me that spam. That takes
BALLS!!!'

'So good job at
making your company look like a bunch of hypocrites. You trash domainers and
then want to broker sales by spamming them? That makes you ALL look like
FOOLS.'

To which I got a
response which included the following.

'While I am not
involved in CADNA whatsoever, I have read the materials closely enough to know
that CADNA also knows the difference between the two terms.  You may not
have read the CADNA Web site yourself so I will draw your attention to the
following text that appears at the top of the page'
        “Cybersquatting is defined by
CADNA as the bad-faith registration of a domain name that includes or is confusingly
similar to someone else’s trademark.
      
        CADNA is made up of many leading
edge adopters and generators of new Internet best practices, and as such this
organization knows the value of direct navigation practices and the importance
of direct search to making the Internet more navigable and rewarding to
worldwide web users.
      
        Many of the legal practices of
Domainers that deliver relevant content to direct navigators are not to be
discouraged, but celebrated. And as such, the object of CADNA is
cybersquatting, not domaining.”

ok, now
let's include some other points of fact about these folks who are heavily
involved in coordinating CADNA. I see them as disingenuous.

1. Josh Bourne
is still not telling the truth about the connection between DN tasting and phishing even after the
Anti-Phishing Working Group refuted it with a September report that found that
there was no relationship between domain tasting and phishing scams. Just to be
clear, I'm adamantly against tasting and am proud that the ICA adopted a Code
of Conduct that calls for an end to abusive tasting and all domain kiting and
has called on ICANN and VeriSign to shut it down with new fees, but this is
just illustrative of how CADNA ignores the facts and throws out unsubstantiated
and disproven charges.

2. CADNA is a cybersquatter by
their own definition that was cited to me above   (CADNA.com
was registered by CADNA Automotive of Memphis, TN, which
subsequently regsiered CADNA as a trademark, long before Fairwinds set up CADNA
and registered the .Org). I have an entire blog post about this here. True,
the CADNA definition printed above calls for bad faith as an element - but
CADNA members have attacked the same bad faith reference in the ICA Code of
Conduct.

3. Sarah Deutsch, a counsel for founding
CADNA member Verizon, picked apart the new ICA code of conduct in a
recent debate with ICA counsel Philip Corwin at the INTA (International
Trademark Association) leadership meeting -- and had the temerity to
say that when Verizon ISP run ads against TM typos under their new Advanced Web
Search service that's customer service, not infringement, at the same time
she's calling for higher statutory damages and criminal law penalties for
domain registrants and questioning whether parked generic pages provide
anything worthwhile to consumers. I think that is outrageous.

4. Now this one should
make you all chuckle. Go to the Fairwinds Partners home page. Scroll to the bottom.
There is a quote there that came directly from Steve Forbes. However that quote was
made by Mr. Forbes specifically for T.R.A.F.F.I.C. and released by us for   in a press release before our October show where he
was our keynote speaker.

'Internet traffic
and domains are the prime real estate of the 21st century,' comments
Forbes. 'This market has matured, and individuals, brands, investors and
organizations who do not grasp their importance or value are missing out on
numerous levels.'

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070920/clth050.html?.v=101

Nothing wrong, but Chutzpah is the only
word that really comes to mind. But don't worry, I am full of adjectives to
describe these hypocrits. I may have to blog just on that. This is going to
begin the unraveling of this garbage. I am not sure what their true agenda is
as it is confusing to me. When I wrote the organization in the summer shortly
after they came into being, my email was never answered to this day. I blogged
about it at the time. So what is really going on here?

Some may think this is
the end. Quite the contrary. This is the beginning. The only question is it a
new beginning of cooperation and working together for what we have in common or
will we have to slay this dragon as they continue to paint us all as
'Cybersquatters' every chance they get? Unfortunately we may already
have the answer and the evidence against them is mounting. The only question is
when do the companies supporting CADNA see the true picture? It is my opinion
that CADNA has the ability to tarnish the very companies and brands that they
represent. Wonder what their take on spammers is?

My advice to both these
companies is get your act together, contact the ICA and begin a constructive
dialogue. Short of that, expect blog posts like these from every legitimate
domain investor out there. It will eventually make its way to the media and
there is going to be a lot of folks with egg on their face. I can see it now.
Cybersquatters vs Spammers. the media would have a field day with that
match up. Let the games begin. However we will win as we define the difference
between Cybersquatting and Domain investing. On the other hand....a spammer is
a spammer is a spammer and EVERYONE hates spammers.

Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz

Morning folks!!

I am working
on a post where I am going to expose and share an unsolicted email I got the other day. IMHO I call this spamming. (Some may have a different take) by Fairwinds
Partners who is involved with  'The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse' (CADNA). At the very least it is an unsolicited email from somebody I don't know and addressed to 'Sir' not my actual name. Stay tuned for this explosive post. It just
may blow the lid off this organization that has a bad habit of painting
domainers as 'Cybersquatters.' I am going to give you the details and
you can decide for yourself if spammers are what they are or not. I was stunned when they contacted me wanting to represent several of my domains for sale at a discounted commission rate of 10% given their past history. It was obviously a form letter and I doubt I am the only one it was sent to. In their defense it was signed by a real person and  I told that person directly what I thought. Spam? You decide.
See you then!

Rick Schwartz

UPDATE!! Seems I am not the only one gettting the same SPAM. Another person has posted in the comment section and pasted the EXACT same email that I got. In Addition, another domainer has posted on Frank Schilling's board that he too has received this SPAM. The folks that are calling us 'Cybersquatters' may be one notch below.Have you been SPAMMED?? Send us the letters. Stay tuned for much more.

Good evening folks!!

Let's set the record
straight. Having a generic domain name does NOT make you a cybersquatter. It
makes you a smart investor as prices for these valuable assets just keep going
up in value. Just because you have a domain somebody else wants does not make
you a cybersquatter. However some of those crying 'cybersquatter'
are getting domains they should not win by flawed WIPO decisions and flawed UDRP
rulings. Some call them thieves while others accuse them of 'Reverse domain
hijacking.' Aided by a system with no rhyme or reason and a system that
has no room for setting precedent or following it. In my opinion some of those
rulings will be overturned in the years ahead and those domains will be
returned to the original registrants.

On the other hand, those
that buy domain names with company names and trademarks as part of the domain
name are probably cybersquatters or worse. We are not talking about folks with
portfolios that could have a handful of domains that could be in the 'Gray'
area. We are talking about those that register tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of infringing
domains and everybody is profiting from it from Google and Yahoo to everyone
down stream. I wish Google and Yahoo would take the profit out and stop paying
for that traffic. Ban that traffic!! Ban it TODAY!! The result will be rising payouts for
everyone playing by the rules with quality traffic. So as long as they pay, they are a big part of
the problem. They fuel the problem and the public needs to know.

But they are far from
the worst offenders. The worst offenders are the registrars. Not all, but many.
They are the real whores of the industry and they are harming legitimate domain
investors and developers. Many registrars are out of control and Verisign gave
them the license to do it and ICANN has done little to stop the abuse. Add to
that the $$$$ that Google and Yahoo pay for this traffic and that only fuels
the problem.

Earlier this week Dell
filed suit against some of those registrars. I applaud and support Dell and I
hope they put the fear of God into the other registrars who are abusing their
roles and hurting our industry. The entire story is here. But from what I understand Dell  has gone a little too far and used some tactics that will soon be made public. They themselves have over reached imo. What is in the wind is that Dell is using some counterfeiting law to seize computers and records with no notice.

I think it is incumbent on
the professional domain industry to speak out against these abuses. To separate
themselves from that sector. That sector is largely made up of registrars and
those newer to the domain business. They see it as a way to make a quick buck
and Google and Yahoo and others are also profiting from this practice. They are
confusing the public and it is out of control. So out of control that the
backlash is going to hurt all of us in a significant way. That is why it is
TIME for professional domain investors to speak out loudly and often about the
state of things. We need to make it clear this is not OUR doing. This is the
doing of people and companies much higher up the food chain and it should stop
and stop now. The only way it will stop is to stop paying for that traffic. Make that traffic worthless. Let those with infringing domains collapse and disappear. That's my opinion. Yours may be different. This is a complicated subject. But from where I sit, this all stinks and needs to be corrected.
Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz

I bought Sirius
Satellite Radio at 49 cents. I bought hundreds of thousands of shares and made
millions of dollars when the net was at the lowest point. I wonder about the
rumors on Wall St. lol

I bought that stock for
ONE main reason. I looked at the impressive list of companies backing Sirius. I
FOLLOWED THE MONEY!! I do that all the time. In anything. ALWAYS....follow the
money. I did the same with .mobi. What caught MY attention were the companies
backing it. Why would they do that? I also saw a POSSIBLE difference in .mobi
if it ever became adopted as a standard by these folks that were investing.
Taking $200k out of my pocket to buy flowers.mobi given my financial position
was no big deal to me. I have lost $200k in the stock market quicker than it
took me to write this SENTENCE! Remember iOmega.com, quepasa.com, etoys.com? It
was left over $$$ that I had nowhere to invest. Seems it became a big deal to
everyone else as rumors by those with an agenda were planted within minutes or
hours of the auction. To me it was just one transaction out of thousands that I
make.

Just to set the record
straight.

First let me clean
things up. Seems there are rumors circulating that I need to put an end to. The
only way to do that is to state the FACTS from the horses mouth so all the
speculation of what 'Really' happened are finally put to bed and the
record is set straight.

I get no kickbacks or
anything from .mobi whatsoever. Not a penny, not so much as a dinner. NOTHING!
The share TRAFFIC makes off the auction is our business. But we make the same
off of any sale off any extension. The only relationship is their sponsorships
which have been modest but appreciated. Before the TRAFFIC show in October 2006,
I had never met, spoken to, emailed or had a relationship with anyone at
.mobi. I didn't even know that .mobi was not spelled .moby. :-)

So let me take you
inside my mind over a year ago when I bought flowers.mobi. First of all I never
registered a single .mobi domain during the sunrise period. My interest was not
there until about a week before the auction or whenever Moniker announced the
premium domain list. See, when I speculate with domains of ANY extension, I
focus on one word domains or 2 very meaningful word domains. But if I am going
to speculate on any extension other than dotcom, I am going to buy premium
domains. So I decided to wait until the Moniker auction at TRAFFIC because that
was going to be the first time that PREMIUM names with that extension would
become available. I immediately picked flowers.mobi as the most valuable domain
on the list and one of the premiere domains in the space should .mobi take off.
So I decided before the auction I would bid up to $100k to get it.

First of all I think
even if .mobi takes off it will be very narrow. It won't be the same as .com. I
believe folks will concentrate on different things. So I decided that
flowers.mobi was the prize. However I was interested in many of the other
.mobi's because I wanted a stake in some of the best premium domains. If I am
going to invest in a risky new extension, I am going to do my best to get
domains I believe have the best balance of price and future.

So quietly I bought
Laugh.mobi for $3k, celebs.mobi for $2250  and a few others like
eat.mobi. early in the auction for about 8k. Then wow.mobi for $9k, gossip.mobi
for $5k, Fun.mobi came up. I had also wanted that as well. When it hit $95 or
$100k I dropped out. I also tried to buy party.mobi.

As I stated earlier, I
was going to bid up to $100k for flowers.mobi. I knew that the
flowers.com attorney was there and bidding. however I could not see him
and I have no idea when he dropped out of the bidding. Some of told me $40k
while others have stated $100k. I still don't know as I write this. I know
there are other big companies investing in .mobi and I
ALWAYS.....'Follow the money.' But when several others bid 6 figures
it created a 'Market value' and that gave me confidence to bid higher
than what I planned. Now a 'Floor' was established as 3 or 4
people in the room were willing to pay over $100k and 2 or 3 of them went to
$120k I think. Then I duked in out with my friends at EuroDNS. Their last bid
was $190k if I recall correctly. So what others see as this great risk, I see
as a domain that the market said was worth between $100k and $200k set by the
market not a worthless appraisal. Not a rumor started with somebody with an
agenda.

I had no idea what a
firestorm that would create until I began reading what was said after the
auction on the boards when I returned to my room late that night. The rumors
were flying. They just made stuff up. They were not even there but once someone
starts a rumor, the mindless followers spread it like wildfire. Everything is a
conspiracy to them. THAT was the REAL story. But they were too busy looking in
the grassy knoll for some BS that somebody with a motive planted. Not that it
is possible that I saw something different in .mobi than any other extension.
Something I really don't need to reveal here but I have even tho that's MY
business. But I am setting the record straight regardless and maybe some of the
mindless folks that talk out of their butts will learn something instead of
making it up.

But there is ONE thing
different and it has nothing to do with compliance or anything like that. Let
me put it this way....If there are 450 lemonade stands lined upon a street and
I wanted to do business where would I start? Some would say get some lemons and
a table and sell lemonade. I would say let me focus on grape juice and I
bet I will do more business than most of the lemonade stands in my first day
than those there for YEARS!. That's the best I can do at this point in
time. But just like .com, I reach a point of investment and I slow down or
stop. I decided that $500k-750k was what I would RISK with .mobi.  Is it a
good investment? Ask me in 5 years. That is how long I expect it to be before
the seeds from my investment germinate or die. On the other hand, if I flip
them TODAY, the value of my investment has gone up and I will show that in a
minute.

Well there are the
facts. I get no preferential treatment from .mobi. I get NOTHING WHATSOEVER in
return. Not even a Christmas Card. lol But if I get one, I will let you all
know. I just buy things at one price that I believe their value will go up in
the future. I may be right. I may be wrong. That is what investing is all about
and I ain't done that bad for myself over the years. If folks decide that since
Rick Schwartz is buying .mobi they should too.....that has nothing to do with
me. They may buy because I buy but they do it silly and blindly if that is the
only reason. I just have a hard enough time taking care of my own business
and my own concerns and wiping my own butt in the morning to worry about the
other BS, rumors and such made up by folks in this business that have a motive
and an agenda.

Lastly.......

Some folks think that
just because I run a tradeshow, just because I have a private forum, just
because I am who I am that I should not be allowed to bid at the TRAFFIC
auctions. Well to those folks, I would say I never abdicated my being a
domainer when I decided to share my knowledge and promote the industry. I take
folks on the boat I created and the next thing I know I have to deal with folks
trying to throw me off my own ship. I am a domainer. I have been a domainer for
a dozen years. I am going to continue to buy domains whenever and wherever.
That includes TRAFFIC and the Moniker auction and any other auction I feel I want
to participate in. Those that don't want me to bid because they perceive that I
have an unfair advantage are wrong. I am a domainer just like them. The next
thing they will complain about is my bank account has millions more than they
do and so THAT gives me an unfair advantage. To those folks.....GET OVER IT!
Work hard, make good decisions and get rewarded. Every second you are minding
MY business, you are ignoring yours. Does THAT sound like a good decision? A
good investment of your time? It sure looks foolish to me.

As far as Sahar and the
'rest of the story.' I have no idea what he is referring to. It could
be something simple like all the publicity the flowers.mobi sale created.
What's the value of that? But I will ask him before I finish this just to see.
(Already revealed above)

Anyway, that's the real
story from the horses mouth. Take it or leave it, those are the FACTS. If you
want to make up lies in the face of facts, knock yourself out. But don't expect
me to allow you to get away with it. The industry now knows the story behind
the story. I may have written it earlier but I was still actively buying .mobi
and was not in my best interest. Now I have the stake I want and it's on to the
next investment. And that is what it is.....an investment that may or may not
pay dividends. Those that say I am promoting .mobi are making it up. Look at
any of my posts about the extension. They are well balanced. They show BOTH
sides of the coin. I have no idea if .mobi will be a hit or a bust. If it is a
bust I lose up to $750k. If it is a win, then who knows. I like bets with
'Who knows' based on my gut. Some go to Vegas and gamble, some do it
on Wall St., I prefer to do my own gambling on my own business using
a gut instinct that has served me well.

And in the interest of
full disclosure. Jim McCann the CEO and Founder of Flowers.com will be our
keynote speaker at TRAFFIC in Las Vegas. So now you will have some other
conspiracy theories to make up and talk about. I hope you will be more creative
with this one. Do you think I should wear my Flowers.mobi shirt to dinner?
Deliver flowers to his room from FLOWERS.MOBI? Have the limo pick him up with
Flowers.mobi all over the sides? Nah....not my style. I'll just enjoy the talk
from a guy who has walked the same path as us and has one of THE greatest
success stories of all time to share. I will learn more from his words than the
$200k Flowers.mobi cost me and I will still own the domain name. Besides, I
would rather discuss Candy.com with him. Shazaam!

Now that we took care of
that, lets peel back the NUMBERS. The numbers tell all. Numbers  don't lie....people have agendas. People make things up. But numbers tell a story. A story most are AFRAID to look  at and even more afraid to understand. My best business friend is numbers.

If you read my comments
I have always addressed both sides of the .mobi debate. I am in the middle. I
admit I am not smart enough to know what others THINK they know. I know to trust the numbers and tune out the bullshit on both sides. Whatever extension folks focus on there is
a narrow line between just investing in the extension and promoting that
extension. IDN won't be big because somebody says so. It will be big when/if
the market says so. When the numbers say so. Same with .tv, .biz, .info .whatever. It will be big when Ron
Jackson's chart shows it is big. Shows by real world, verifiable sales. In 2007
so far of the top 100 reported sales 91 are .com. So dotcom is KING, not
because I say so but because the market says so. Of the 9 that were not
.com......2 were.mobi.......3 were .net.........1 was .org.........1 was
.info.......and there were 2 country codes, .co.uk and .de. This covers domains
with reported sales from $82,000 to $9.5 million so far in 2007 as of last
week.

Then we can jumpover to
the 'Global contenders. Their range for the year is $15,000 to $300k. Here
is the BIG answer. Of the top 100 there are 28 .mobi's occupying those spots.

.net = 43
.mobi = 28
.org = 16
.info = 9

Lastly the country
codes. With the exception of two 6 figure sales, the range was $10-$85k. That
also included .cc, .tv IDN and some 335 individual country codes competing for
this spots. So if you just sit there and study Ron's page and FOLLOW THE MONEY,
it is pretty easy to pick the finalists. You pick them from REALITY by sales
not wishful thinking by me or you or anyone.

Here are the extensions
in the order of what the MARKET says by actual real world reported sales.

.com
.net
.org
.mobi
.info

Then .co.uk, .de, .tv,
.us, idn

http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm

Follow the money, look
at the numbers, gage the market, don't listen to rumors. The newest extension
on the list is outperforming extensions out for many years. THAT is the
reality. They may become another 'Tulip' run. But at this point
nobody can say definitively either way. Those that think they know on either
side, know nothing. It's just too early to tell.

Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!

I decided that I should make this a standalone post given the gravity of things that have occurred. Sunday was not a pleasant day. It is hard to prove your innocence to somebody that makes up the lie to begin with. The false accusations about me I can handle and I have. But the ones about Monte and Moniker and TRAFFIC, that may linger for some time. Maybe the silver lining from all this is we learn that there is a way to behave. There are boundaries. Just because something is legal does not give a license to abuse it. This industry needs to step back and take a serious look at themselves. Ron Jackson wrote this in his 'Low Down' section yesterday and I think it deserves some attention before we sell our soul:
'This business has undergone some dramatic changes over the past five years. When I came in it was mostly composed of a small, tight-knit group of individual entrepreneurs that just about all got along well. Competitors hung out together, shared drinks and stories and worked together to expand the industry for everyone’s benefit. Over the last couple of years, with far more money at stake and new win-at-all-cost players entering the space, I am seeing more flare ups between competitors. It is not a welcome change and, at this stage of the game, I don’t think it does anyone any good. Fortunately there is still more of what Cahn calls “coopetition” (competitors co-operating to advance the entire industry) in this business than corporate world knife-in-the-back tactics and I hope that philosophy remains in place for at least a little while longer.'

And now.......The words that have set off a firestorm:

Jay Westerdal writes: 'When I look at the bidding on Shopping.mobi I see that the winner was bidder #338 Rick Schwartz. Rick bought Flowers.mobi
for $200,000 earlier this year and set the high water mark for a
DotMobi name. Surely Shopping is better then Flowers, so what “other
financial obligations” would allow Rick to back out of the successful
winning and binding bid?

This just looks bad. We need Transparency in this industry.'

Now the questions:
Did you bid and win shopping.mobi yes or no?
Did you then back out of the purchase, yes or no?

It is important to clear the air. Jay's blog has raised very
damaging accusations to say the least. If you want to make such bold
statements on ' why ' there is a mobi market it is crucial to not look
as though you are fixing it!

Rick Schwartz Responds....Even tho the above question was poised by
some anonymous poster it is a good question and needs to be answered. I
did not win shopping.mobi so the answer is NO and Jay must
have made it up becuause it is an outright LIE on HIS part and I expect
an apology and a retraction. A BIG apology and LONG retraction
explaining this incident considering he circulated to 10,000 of my
peers and now showing up on the industry boards. I hope folks on those
board will post a link so the record can be set straight.

I did not win shopping.mobi so there was nothing to back out of,. This is very
damaging to me and Jay should know better than to LIE. People should
now begin to question HIS motives. I expect YOU and others to go back
and have Jay explain his made up tales. Then you should ask other
questions of why he was motivated to do this without verifying with ME?  If you have ANY backbone
you will.

Jay spread this lie to 10,000 industry professionals accusing me of
backing out of a deal and casting shadows on Me, Moniker and the
TRAFFIC Conferences. It was done with the worst of motives and fair
minded people will see that. He was able
to email me TWICE the day before asking for access to my private forum,
but
when I told him no and the reason, Jay did not have enough CLASS to
email me and ask me directly about this. Instead he CHOSE to drag my
good name, Moniker and TRAFFIC thru the mud with info that was not
factual and done by a person that has a motive to hurt his competition.
A motive to hurt Moniker. A motive to hurt TRAFFIC. A motive to hurt
Rick Schwartz. The post by Jay yesterday that I learned about shortly
after I made this initial post this morning is an outright LIE and is
not factual. Backing out of a deal is one of the worst violations
anyone in this community can make. Even when the TRUTH comes out and
Jay is forced to apologize, there will always be those that will keep
spreading the lie. So how do I EVER fix that? THANKS JAY!

In Summary:

A. I did NOT buy shopping.mobi so Jay should first learn to be factual
or stop lying. However I did bid on it and then dropped out.
B. Comparing a bid on one domain compared to a bid on another domain
in another auction a YEAR apart does not take into account someone's
circumstance or bank account or commitments or MY personal valuation. So this is just a STUPID comment from a so-called
'Businessman.'
C. Jay is bitter that I will not grant him access to my private board
on Friday. I said
'It was a little too close to home.' Instead of understanding he
complained how it was not fair. etc. etc. etc. So instead of emailing
me to validate his info, he saw a chance for a sucker punch and he took
it!
D. I have invited Jay to TRAFFIC even tho it is not in my best
interest and he attends. I invited him to be on a panel even tho it is
not in my best
interest and put him on 'Meet the bloggers'. In return this is what we
get!!?? A post done only to hurt the premiere show and auction in our
space and cast false shadows that hurts everyone and every business
whether you realize it or not. We are all on the same boat and those
that drill holes in the bottom to try and sink their competition are
being foolish and selfish at best and something I can't say publicly at
worst.
E.
Finally, Jay wants to hijack the subject of 'Transparency' the subject
that TRAFFIC announced it will focus on in our Las Vegas show in
February. Fine, let's start with Jay. With his way of doing business
and selling private info about others.....He certainly proved he does
not have the credentials to lead the way into a transparent business.

Rick Schwartz

Further Update.

Monte from Moniker posted some of the email but I would now like to show 2 quotes that should show the intent of Jay:
'Rick,
If you didn't buy it. Who did? I would be glad to print a
retraction if I am wrong. However I am using my notes and that is what they
say.'
And the clincher......

One more TELLING quote from Jay's email:
'Trust me, I would have preferred to ask about it on your board first
and do some investigating there.... oh wait. If you don't want me there
that is totally up to you.'
So Jay could email me TWICE the day before his blog post but could not email me to verify the info??!! THIS was payback for not allowing him
in my private forum and of course to damage me. Jay has a lot of answering to do and I am sure
most will be BULLSHIT! Jay you screwed up BAD in front of EVERYONE in the
industry.  I don't even know how to tell you to fix it. The damage has
been done. Just don't want to hear lame and silly excuses for trying to
ruin my good name. Ruin the name of TRAFFIC. Ruin the name of Monte and
Moniker. I think people are going to think deep today. Maybe I am an
easy target because some don't like me. But when they put themselves in
MY SHOES and have THOSE FEELINGS go thru them, they may even give me  a
fair hearing.

Latest Update........

Jay posts a 'Luke warm apology on this site. Normally I would post a
link. I don't want to do anything to circulate the lies Jay told today
anymore than they already are. So This is the part as it relates to the
sale that accused me of welshing on. He BURIED the link from his
original post under comment #24. If he had ANY CLASS he would have put
it on top, in red, so nobody would miss it. But like I said, that is
just one of the things that makes it a lukewarm apology. So this at
least begins to clear the record and states I did NOT buy shopping.mobi
So I am going to do what I can to fix the mess that Jay created. He
could give a shit about cleaning it up or he would be on every board
and he would not be blaming HIS STAFF for HIS LIES!! THAT is the most
telling. Blame his staff for HIS CRAP!???? That's a real MAN! Blame his
staff!!! Good one Jay!

Jay writes: 'My staff notes also reflected inaccurately that Rick Schwartz was the
winning bidder of Shopping.Mobi. He in fact was not the last bidder,
the audio recording clearly shows it was bidder #161 on the phone (the
Sri Lanka Investment group). I want to apologize to Rick publicly for
making such a big mistake. I should have done more due diligence rather
then relying exclusively on my notes. I will try and do a more through
job reporting facts in the future.'

Jay, I don't believe a word out of your mouth any longer.
yesterday/today you said you reviewed the video and it was your notes.
Now you blame your staff. Thanks for setting the record straight after
you dragged my name thru the mud for the last 2 days. You know that
won't erase the damage you have done. Now you just drag your own staff
thru the mud. What next? You have NO CLASS!
Transparency is
finally here. What you did is transparent to the entire industry. You
tried to inflict damage on Moniker, Monte, TRAFFIC and me. The only
thing you did was stain the entire industry for your personal gain. A
mistake is forgivable. Your statements prove it was your intent to do
us harm no matter what the cost to the industry and are just the back
peddling now because you have no choice. At the end of the day, you
harmed yourself and your event worse than anything else you could have
ever done. The saddest part, I doubt you will change your ways. Others
may give you the benefit of the doubt as time goes on and they forget.
But Howard, Monte and I and our staff's know how many other things you
have done that we NEVER complained about publicly. This time you got
caught! Jay, you are a very smart guy. Time to use that energy to stop
abusing things for your personal gain. Stop screwing with people's
privacy. Stop the things you do that everyone knows you do but would
never say out loud. I have been told at times some things you do to
invade people's privacy that make me cringe. YOU now have a MOTIVE to
DIG into my stuff and others. STOP IT before you get any deeper! People
in this industry want their PRIVACY and it is not up to YOU to
distribute it and make a profit. The domain community is ANGRY at what
you are doing.

Rick Schwartz

Photo courtesy of  DNJournal.com

This just in:

'This is Stephen Douglas (Right in the photo with Jay on his left). I was the executive producer for the Domain
Roundtable Conference 2007 and had a five year contract with Nameintel.
However, because of failure to pay me fairly nor follow my directions
and other breaches by NI, I am no longer connected with Jay Westerdal
or Name Intelligence as of October. I do not endorse nor consult for
him nor agree with his blog comments attacking or judging Marchex,
Enom, Snapnames, Moniker, Rick Schwartz, Traffic, or Moniker. Jay
opinions are... NOT MINE. I currently have a lawsuit filed against NI
for my fair commission payment and joint venture profits as per my
contract. More information about the REAL JAY WESTERDAL on my blog at http://www.successclick.com.
Please forgive my unfinished blogsite -- I'm too busy to even get it
together the way I want. However, I have figured out how to post.
My apologies to all those people who are scratching their heads
wondering what Jay is doing. As far as Jay talking about
'transparency', he should start with looking at his own company first.'

Morning folks!!

Just say .mobi and domainers take to their battle stations. The emotions stirred up by .mobi is not normal....BUT last night I may have figured it out. It started with the folks in a certain part of the business who felt threatened by .mobi. They think it is their time in the sun and out of nowhere comes .mobi. The .mobi names sell for high prices while their investments sit and languish. Their reaction is normal and predictable.

Now since there are several hundred extensions and only a handful are meaningful.....what is the natural reaction? They hate the new kid on the block because the extension they are invested in may not be doing as well unless it is dotcom or one of the country codes that do well. A few other extensions are showing signs of life. But if I list them there will be a debate inside the debate and this debate is going somewhere else.

So how many extensions? How many years? Compare the selling prices on .mobi to all those extensions and you see why the anger is so close to the surface. How can it take off so fast while other extensions have done nothing?

For the .mobi haters, .mobi won't make the other extensions more or less valuable. What it WILL do is suck the $$$ and the oxygen out of the investment side of those extensions and THAT is exactly what is happening and it would be natural for that to piss them off.

Point is, sometimes it is not important to know why something does well. If there is a market.....there is a market. It is created by US. If it had no validity there would be no market because there would be no interest. No dollars exchanged. How many extensions are people invested in and they are just not getting the return and there is no interest? They can't afford the renewals and that in itself makes one angry and bitter.

In every post I have made about .mobi I say both sides are full of shit because neither side understands the reality. Neither side has looked at things other than one way. Neither side probably embraces my reasoning above. So like I said, both sides are full of shit. (I mean that in a friendly way).

What is not full of shit is that .mobis are selling at higher prices and rising in value faster than about any other extension but .com. At the auction, ALL .mobis not only sold, they had THE most active bdding. When other domains were not selling the chants were for more .mobis because they are fun auctions to watch.

If you are allergic to .mobi let me tell you how silly it is as a businessman. If you sell black shoes and black shoes sell well because they are the primary color, don't think you are a prisoner to black. One day the BROWN shoe comes out. It will never sell scream all the black shoe salesman. Meanwhile  the brown shows are selling very well and the profit margins are pretty good. But you are a BLACK shoe salesman. That BROWN shoe is for idiots that know nothing about fashion!! Meanwhile folks are making money selling the BROWN shoes for whatever reason and they are taking some of the market from the black shoe guys. (And frankly who cares their reason because the reality trumps everything else)

Nobody is forcing the BLACK shoe salesman to sell BROWN shoes. The brown shoes may not even sell so why worry? But the BLACK shoe salesman has had a knee jerk reaction to BROWN shoes without looking at the other side. The BROWN show salesman are not any smarter. They just do the same thing in reverse. Many are juyst looking for the second coming of dotcom. That won't happen either. It adds up to a big fat missed opportunity by BOTH sides.

So either we are all here to make money or we are not. The money you make on BLACK shoes spend the exact same way as the money spent on BROWN shoes. Turning a blind eye to either might cost you money down the road. Sell both and I am quite sure you will do well.

I bought a portfolio of 125 nnn.mobi names earlier this year. Was it because I am a .mobi believer?? HELL NO!! I am a believer that I bought these domains at the right price and I can sell them for much more than I invested IF that is what I choose to do.

Point is the whole .mobi debate is just silly and it has to do with more than a new extension. That new extension is sucking up the dollars that may go to other 'Off Broadway' extensions. It is hurting those markets and it is hurting them in a significant manner. THAT is one of the BIG reasons that the tone of this debate is where it is. Those arguing may not even have a vested interest....but they have fallen into the TRAP of those that do.

Have a GREAT day!
Rick Schwartz
UPDATE!!!!!

The words that have set off a firestorm:

Jay Westerdal writes: 'When I look at the bidding on Shopping.mobi I see that the winner was bidder #338 Rick Schwartz. Rick bought Flowers.mobi
for $200,000 earlier this year and set the high water mark for a
DotMobi name. Surely Shopping is better then Flowers, so what “other
financial obligations” would allow Rick to back out of the successful
winning and binding bid?

This just looks bad. We need Transparency in this industry.'

Now the questions:
Did you bid and win shopping.mobi yes or no?
Did you then back out of the purchase, yes or no?

It is important to clear the air. Jay's blog has raised very
damaging accusations to say the least. If you want to make such bold
statements on ' why ' there is a mobi market it is crucial to not look
as though you are fixing it!

Rick Schwartz Responds....Even tho the above question was poised by some anonymous poster it is a good question and needs to be answered. I did not win shopping.mobi so the answer is NO and Jay must
have made it up becuause it is an outright LIE on HIS part and I expect
an apology and a retraction. A BIG apology and LONG retraction
explaining this incident considering he circulated to 10,000 of my peers and now showing up on the industry boards. I hope folks on those board will post a link so the record can be set straight.

I did not win shopping.mobi so there was nothing to back out of,. This is very
damaging to me and Jay should know better than to LIE. People should
now begin to question HIS motives. I expect YOU and others to go back
and have Jay explain his made up tales. Then you should ask other
questions of why he was motivated to do this without verifying with ME?  If you have ANY backbone
you will.

Jay spread this lie to 10,000 industry professionals accusing me of
backing out of a deal and casting shadows on Me, Moniker and the
TRAFFIC Conferences. It was done with the worst of motives and fair minded people will see that. He was able
to email me TWICE the day before asking for access to my private forum, but
when I told him no and the reason, Jay did not have enough CLASS to
email me and ask me directly about this. Instead he CHOSE to drag my
good name, Moniker and TRAFFIC thru the mud with info that was not factual and done by a person that has a motive to hurt his competition. A motive to hurt Moniker. A motive to hurt TRAFFIC. A motive to hurt Rick Schwartz. The post by Jay yesterday that I learned about shortly after I made this initial post this morning is an outright LIE and is not factual. Backing out of a deal is one of the worst violations anyone in this community can make. Even when the TRUTH comes out and Jay is forced to apologize, there will always be those that will keep spreading the lie. So how do I EVER fix that? THANKS JAY!

In Summary:

A. I did NOT buy shopping.mobi so Jay should first learn to be factual or stop lying. However I did bid on it and then dropped out.
B. Comparing a bid on one domain compared to a bid on another domain
in another auction a YEAR apart does not take into account someone's
circumstance or bank account or commitments or MY personal valuation. So this is just a STUPID comment from a so-called
'Businessman.'
C. Jay is bitter that I will not grant him access to my private board on Friday. I said
'It was a little too close to home.' Instead of understanding he
complained how it was not fair. etc. etc. etc. So instead of emailing me to validate his info, he saw a chance for a sucker punch and he took it!
D. I have invited Jay to TRAFFIC even tho it is not in my best
interest and he attends. I invited him to be on a panel even tho it is not in my best
interest and put him on 'Meet the bloggers'. In return this is what we get!!?? A post done only to hurt the premiere show and auction in our space and cast false shadows that hurts everyone and every business whether you realize it or not. We are all on the same boat and those that drill holes in the bottom to try and sink their competition are being foolish and selfish at best and something I can't say publicly at worst.
E. Finally, Jay wants to hijack the subject of 'Transparency' the subject that TRAFFIC announced it will focus on in our Las Vegas show in February. Fine, let's start with Jay. With his way of doing business and selling private info about others.....He certainly proved he does not have the credentials to lead the way into a transparent business.

Rick Schwartz

Further Update.

Monte from Moniker posted some of the email but I would now like to show 2 quotes that should show the intent of Jay:
'Rick,
If you didn't buy it. Who did? I would be glad to print a
retraction if I am wrong. However I am using my notes and that is what they
say.'
And the clincher......

One more TELLING quote from Jay's email:
'Trust me, I would have preferred to ask about it on your board first and do some investigating there.... oh wait. If you don't want me there that is totally up to you.'
So Jay could email me but THIS was payback for not allowing him in my private forum. Jay has a lot of answering to do and I am sure most will be BULLSHIT! Jay you screwed up BAD in front of EVERYONE in the industry.  I don't even know how to tell you to fix it. The damage has been done. Just don't want to hear lame and silly excuses for trying to ruin my good name. Ruin the name of TRAFFIC. Ruin the name of Monte and Moniker. I think people are going to think deep today. Maybe I am an easy target because some don't like me. But when they put themselves in MY SHOES and have THOSE FEELINGS go thru them, they may even give me  a fair hearing.

Latest Update........

Jay posts a 'Luke warm apology on this site. Normally I would post a link. I don't want to do anything to circulate the lies Jay told today anymore than they already are. So This is the part as it relates to the sale that accused me of welshing on. He BURIED the link from his original post under comment #24. If he had ANY CLASS he would have put it on top, in red, so nobody would miss it. But like I said, that is just one of the things that makes it a lukewarm apology. So this at least begins to clear the record and states I did NOT buy shopping.mobi So I am going to do what I can to fix the mess that Jay created. He could give a shit about cleaning it up or he would be on every board and he would not be blaming HIS STAFF for HIS LIES!! THAT is the most telling. Blame his staff for HIS CRAP!???? That's a real MAN! Blame his staff!!! Good one Jay!

Jay writes: 'My staff notes also reflected inaccurately that Rick Schwartz was the
winning bidder of Shopping.Mobi. He in fact was not the last bidder,
the audio recording clearly shows it was bidder #161 on the phone (the
Sri Lanka Investment group). I want to apologize to Rick publicly for
making such a big mistake. I should have done more due diligence rather
then relying exclusively on my notes. I will try and do a more through
job reporting facts in the future.'

Jay, I don't believe a word out of your mouth any longer. yesterday/today you said you reviewed the video and it was your notes. Now you blame your staff. Thanks for setting the record straight after you dragged my name thru the mud for the last 2 days. You know that won't erase the damage you have done. Now you just drag your own staff thru the mud. What next? You have NO CLASS!
Transparency is finally here. What you did is transparent to the entire industry. You tried to inflict damage on Moniker, Monte, TRAFFIC and me. The only thing you did was stain the entire industry for your personal gain. A mistake is forgivable. Your statements prove it was your intent to do us harm no matter what the cost to the industry and are just the back peddling now because you have no choice. At the end of the day, you harmed yourself and your event worse than anything else you could have ever done. The saddest part, I doubt you will change your ways. Others may give you the benefit of the doubt as time goes on and they forget. But Howard, Monte and I and our staff's know how many other things you have done that we NEVER complained about publicly. This time you got caught! Jay, you are a very smart guy. Time to use that energy to stop abusing things for your personal gain. Stop messing with people's privacy. Stop the things you do that everyone knows you do but would never say out loud. I have been told at times some things you do to invade people's privacy that make me cringe. YOU now have a MOTIVE to DIG into my stuff and others. STOP IT before you get any deeper! People in this industry want their PRIVACY and it is not up to YOU to distribute it and make a profit. The domain community is ANGRY at what you are doing.

In 1996 I started to go to chatboards to see if any other
people or industries had discovered the power of a domain name. I would make a
post about who I was and what I have been doing and what I discovered. Usually
they would just delete my post. I even used my real name. Wasn't good enough.
Why would they listen to a moron paying $100 for a domain name that was free
just a year or two ago or less and they did not want them when they were free.
They would say we have 66.154.67.109 we don't need anything else. When I asked
them how they would advertise that on Radio or TV.....that challenge was too
much for them to overcome and they would ban me and delete all my posts at that
point.
The ONLY place I found ANYONE receptive was in the adult
industry. They thought I was full of shit too. I remember before I ever got my
first BIG check. I actually thought my calculator was broken. While EVERYONE
else was talking about making 1/10 of ONE PENNY per visitor, I was making 10
cents per visitor. 25 cents per visitor. I REALLY thought I must be doing
something wrong. Then the check showed up. HOLY SHIT!!!!! I was doing nothing
wrong I was doing it quite right. Most did not even believe me. They thought I
was making it up.