Bottoms up, bottoms up, ey, what’s in ya cup
Got a couple bottles, but a couple ain’t enough
Bottoms up, bottoms up, throw your hands up
Tell security we bout to tear this club up
Bottoms up, bottoms up, pocket full of green
Girl, you know I love the way you shake it in them jeans
Bottoms up, bottoms up, throw ya hands up
Bottoms up, bottoms up, bottoms up
It’s not every day one of your best friends turn 30. When my friends go through those youthful milestones, we do something old-fashioned, we save for it and then we do it right, no holding back. Heavy jet to Vegas; choppers from the airport to the Vegas Motor Speedway, racing Ferrarris and Lambos for the day. A bus full of dancers ferrying us back to the hotel. Then the club, and a five-figure bar-tab at Palazzo’s Lavo (on a Tuesday no less) an afterparty – waking up on a bench in a roped off section of a club with people vacuuming around you, wondering what happened. Any one memory would have been enough to last a lifetime, if only I could recall a few more. My friends deserve it and all the guys chip-in. We work hard and we play hard. Boy did we laugh hard. It was a great trip.
Looking out across the dance floor of the club I was struck by what a bubble Vegas is. As bad as things get in the suburbs off Sahara Ave., the party in the clubs seems to roll on. Dollar bills in the air, making it rain, Crystal Rose by the magnum, spraying the crowd with it. It’s like its own little world. The domain name business has operated in its own little world for years as well.
In fact, names have never sold more consistently, to the point where a model of selling domain names is a consistent flow of bankable revenue. 9-11 didn’t stop it. The .com bust was a hiccup in the flow. The financial crisis of 2008 (which continues) only seems to have steeled the resolve of those trying to buy names.
You could say the domain business is very much like the Vegas nightlife. When times are good people drink to celebrate, the angel and equity money is all too happy to spend big bucks for a good name. When times are bad, people drink to forget, and in the domain world, money comes out looking for a hedge. Something of real intrinsic value in a sea of uncertainty.
For the longest time I heard skeptics say “if PPC advertising goes away, then so will the value of names.” Well those guys (and you know who you are) were just DEAD WRONG folks. PPC is completely dead at the moment … perhaps on life support – and name sales are chugging along like never before. Masthead names are not breaking out at new highs in the millions of dollars, but companies and people have finally come to the realization that a quality name is going to cost them tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and those sales are flowing at a pace I could never have imagined.
It’s remarkable how quickly things have reversed. Only a few years ago 80% of domain portfolio revenues came from selling advertising. Today those dollars come from name-sales and leases and development. The Well of ready, willing and able buyers is much deeper than I previously thought. Domainers like me are practically priced out of good names at auction. While I lament the death of the wildcatting dynamic which brought me so much prosperity, in this new market era there is a floor to the prices that people will accept for the good names we own, and there are many more savvy people now, who can tell the difference between the good names and the crap.
It wasn’t so many years ago when people asked what I did for a living and the first part of my answer consisted of: “Do you know what a domain name is?”. Today when I tell my line of work, I get replies which run from “I have a brother who does that”, or “I’ve heard of some guy in Vancouver who owns the Internet!” All that knowledge goes to firm up prices and set expectations for the value of names which mean something.
I find it funny that this maturation of the domain name space is occurring at such a terrible juxtaposition to the broader economy, or perhaps it’s not such a coincidence. Interest rates are at zero percent folks. We are all being cheated by the assorted governments around the world as they race to debase their currencies so that 1 dollar buys 50 cents of “stuff” in the future. It’s the only way we seem to be able to get out of the present value of the debts we’ve accumulated. The frying pan of social unrest, food-lines and real pain has been overruled, in favor of a slow fire of currency debasement. Eventually this system will self-destruct. As a frequent traveler I have already seen the beginnings of it and how it might end. The trends in payment always start with the things we need, in particular that most precious of evaporating commodities: fuel. I tried to buy gas recently in Canada with a crisp new US $100 bill and the attendant wanted nothing to do with my paper at any exchange rate. “I need Canadian dollars or a credit card, no US paper”. After fuel it usually moves to food… so I was shaken when a similar situation occurred in a Toronto restaurant 3 days ago. The closer the Greenback gets to parity with the Canadian dollar, the lousier the exchange rate I’m offered, the grumpier the foreign recipient and the greater the lack of respect I received from those a was handing the paper to.
This is the beginning of a real problem folks. I grew up in Canada and can tell you that any sane Canadian of my youth would have taken a US dollar and run like the wind for the nearest border and outlet mall. Well those days are gone. The Chinese, the Oil states and others who have accumulated hundreds of US billions have the same problem on a much larger scale. Remember congress voting down the Dubai ports deal because of national security issues? Or BHP being blocked from buying Potash Corp in Canada, or the Chinese oil co’s being told they can’t buy US refineries. Nothing of value seems to be for sale at any price in US dollars, unless there’s a huge premium attached. This is only the beginning of that trend. The smart money is burning their dollars (or borrowing everything they can at 0%) to buy anything with permanent value. It’s the main reason the stock markets are up right now even though the mood is down and there’s10-12% unemployment. Put those Zero% Benjamins anywhere but the mattress. Anything that will bring a return.
On the Internet, the domain name is equivalent to Gold. It is the only packaged item online which is globally tax-free, portable, with value that is universal across different cultures – and has withstood the test of time. As I’ve stated on my website:
“The humble domain name stands resolute as the only tangible asset on the Web. Everything needs a unique address and on the Internet, your domain name is the physical real estate you occupy in the hearts and minds of people. After the first dot com bust, the only asset left to resell was often the DOMAIN NAME of the company that failed. If anything on the Internet should have any value at all, it is the Real Estate which underpins your location on the Web.”
Well gang, we live in a domain world with dismal PPC revenues and stunted advertising revenue growth for publishers. Things have never been worse and the white knight coming to save us seems be the domain name itself. I am not the only one to realize the truism of the italicized and underlined words above.
The “dollars” are flowing to domains, as surely as I write these words. Two sales for $30,000 in the last 30 minutes as I typed this. This is going on each day. The biggest risk I see is that we wake up one fine morning and the money is no longer worth anything. Or currency controls stop us from exchanging the cash freely. That is by far the clearest and most present danger we all face in the domain name business. At least we’ll have an audience we can complain to. Perhaps the next tea party like movement or the next global sea-change where CNN doesn’t dare to tread, will be born from a network of websites, unable to make money displaying advertising, which all broadcast some other information or content to the millions who come.
Whatever the future holds, I sleep well knowing that I have generic names bringing an audience of tens of millions of monthly visits. Domain names offer something tangible and real in a world that is quickly becoming surreal. Judging by the sales que forming in my inbox, I am not the only one who feels that way.
They say in Vegas, the real winner is the person who walks into the casino, bets some significant wager, wins, and then walks out the door, never to return. Well on the Internet, the real winners of the last five years have proven themselves to be those with traffic producing domain names. There is no logical talk-around for the value of the real estate which underpins the Web. If you own some good ones, then cheers to you, and bottoms up baby. You deserve this drink.
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Flows like poetry! Good to have you back posting, Frank – Always a pleasure to read these blogs.
Rob
Hi Frank,
Nice post!
I totally agree that domain names are the new “gold standard”, that is holding its value regardless of any outside influences (including related influences such as PPC).
With China gaining fast in overtaking the US as the world’s largest economy, a lot of things that once seemed the norm (such as the US dollar being accepted as the number one currency around the globe), will suddenly be in competition with new forms of trade (I would not be surprised to see domains listed in the top of this category).
Cheers,
Ron
P.S.,
Thanks for the drink in South Beach … that was a fun night!
***FS*** Great to see you too. I still think we’re a few years from that, but some version of that will come eventually Ron.
Spot on. Cheers, Frank.
The Vegas imagery is Sloan-esque, circa December 2005.
Some very good nuggets in this article.
***FS*** Thanks Elliot.. wish you were there.
Hey Frank, do you know what I like about domains? When ever you start something in this world, the first thing that comes to your mind is, well, who else is thinking about this idea? how different are they going to be from you? will they be your biggest competitor one day? on and on and on. Then you relasize there is no sure way to know that and end up that thought with a gasp. But with domain names, when you hit the register button to buy a .com and it replies now you own that name, you know for sure that no one else in this world of 6 billion people thought about that name at that point of time. It must have been a great feeling. Did you have any moments like that, you would like to share?
***FS*** So many I can hardly remember them all mark. But I remember the day I got antarctica.com thinking to myself.. “man my retirement just got a bit more likely”.
Hey Frank,
I was just there on some biz.. it’s funny, you walk down the Vegas strip and you couldn’t even tell that we’re in a financial crisis. Get off the strip, talk to the locals or cab drivers and they will all say how bad the real estate market is there. But, the same people will tell you that if your a investor or someone with cash at hand, you can get some great deals on property.
There’s nothing like Vegas.. Vegas Baby!
Cheers!!!
***FS*** I’m with you Dan.. it’s an amazing town
“earth to Franky, earth to Franky” — Can’t relate to the financial strength you are describing, but here’s to hope!
***FS*** I can hardly believe what happens sometimes.. You will get there bro. Keep trying.
with the continued printing of the us dollar 2.7 trillion just sitting on the sidelines there is to much liquid currecy floating around.the dollar is backed by the good faith and credit of the us gov and what little uncounted gold their is in fort knox.
in the future portable assets will be coveted, and what will happen in the next 5 yrs is the default on aaa us gov debt.then a restructuring of currency worldwide. the us greenback will no longer be the preferred currency of choice. i would guess a basket of currency.will become the norm.
it is not good to hear a single propertier will not accept us currency.cash rich nations will exacerbate the us currecy problem in the future.i predict the us will have different color paper money for different monetary dominations in the future…….mmm….
***FS*** Dude.. it’s already happening. We lived through 20 years with an unchanged USD 100 bill, then less than 10 years ago we got Super 100′s.. with the security ribbon.. Now just a few years later counterfeiting has supposedly gotten soooo bad that they desperately need to change again??: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwEBIC0a4RY&feature=player_embedded#! … It’s total BS. It’s all about controlling the currency people use, and making it easier to nullify old paper. That’s a bad harbinger. The government knows it can’t service it’s debt long term. I wouldn’t be surprised to see paper currencies with tracking chips next.
I’ve noticed an uptick in interest, too.
Obviously, no one has quite the portfolio that you do (mine isn’t within a million miles of it) but I have noticed a significant uptick in inquiries, especially over 2010.
One thing I’ll take away from this meltdown is that while the stalwarts get hit very, very hard in times like this, smaller, more nimble operations that lend themselves well to the trailblazing entrepreneur seem to get a ton of attention. I’m sure there’s a lot of human psychology that drives this phenomenon during bad times and obviously, the intrawebz is about *the perfect* playing field for this sort of thing. I’m sure this is at least a contributing factor to increasing interest in names.
I wouldn’t have thought it going in, but I’m starting to really wonder if domain values aren’t bulletproof against larger market forces, or is this just reflective of one place in time, where the growth of internet relevance is still charging upward and smart people realize the role a good name plays in it all?
I’ve been a selective buyer of names (in the $500-$5000 range) for the past couple years and apparently, doing it right as I’ve profited heavily off every single one. I’m holding tight right now, but I do wonder if there isn’t more headroom on heavy hitting names.
***FS*** I think there will be opportunities to buy in the coming months.. Something has to break at some point. That said, i’d be careful and only buy the values I’m passionate, or sure about.
All true. You know what I like most about this post Frank? You are telling everyone how good this industry is doing. Letting others know how we are making money and “spending” money. That is what an economy should be doing; prospering. There has definitely been a shift in people not understanding what we do to really wanting to know what we do and achieving it. I noticed it especially this year and David and I have been doing this since 1994. The general public will react to success, we just have to keep getting our stories out through the media. The downturn is forcing the public to look for alternative income and unique business opportunities. As an asset class we DO have longevity and have the numbers to prove it. It can only get better for domain names especially those get direct navigation and have a developed purpose. Many are starting to exodus from the old industries to the new ones. There is still a lot of wealth to be created as people listen, learn and have fun. The future is not so much money but more so leverage.
***FS*** We can all just tell the stories and share the experiences as they happen. It is what it is.. and you totally nailed it Michael. Everything is moving online. It’s good to own the real estate: http://www.redorbit.com/news/international/1939756/internet_income_accounts_for_over_7_percent_of_uk_gdp/
Thanks Franky, excellent stuff. I do have to wonder if we are not being prodded into a single global currency. As I would hope would be the case, domains would become even bigger global assets as deals and e-commerce would thrive without currency borders. IMHO, M.
***FS*** I agree with that Mike.
Nice post Frank. What effects do you think the slew of new top level domain extensions will have on the domain market? Will they just make .com and cctlds stronger, or dilute the possibilities that new people looking for domains have? Like you said aftermarket domain sales seem to be holding or getting stronger, so maybe people aren’t worried about these soon to come new extensions. I think applications start May 2011.
***FS*** I’ll be writing about these in the coming months. Suffice it to say I’m not worried about their impact on good .com’s. The same thing will happen as with the phone system so many years ago. Short codes didn’t supplant phone numbers.. and 888, 877 and 866 didn’t supplant 800. It just grew the pie for everyone. New TLDs will never be as cheap as a good .com and the 200k application/25k renewal rates and Icann fees set a floor price on the value of $8 .coms. People will make money in new TLDs but there will be much more risk for registrants than in the legacy extensions.
Frank,
How do you feel Afternic’s DLS, with the new eNom deal and instant transfer, will affect trends? Would you consider using it?
Seems like adding a financing/leasing option would up the ante. Startups aren’t expected to buy their building on day one, why should they be asked to buy outright their virtual real estate?
***FS*** I think the only relevant marketplace with market-making power (real power) is Godaddy. You should try too cleave a deal directly there rather than fooling around with also-ran marketplaces like afternic and enom. Enom’s a fine registrar and afternic is the light from a dead star.. It was great in 1999 then went broke.. then was resurected by the Collins brothers and sold to Name media, then they bungled it. i’d steer clear of this re-launch. The only really relevant marketplace which owns sales leads is godaddy IMO. I would always cut out the middle-man and deal direct there if i could. Startups with a generic name can buy their related domain for as low as 10k early or as much as 2 million later.. it’s up up to them. CNN paid Rick Schwartz 600+k for ireport.com after launching the brand. What was ireport worth 2 years prior?
Great post Frank and really valuable insight! You are so right about the devaluation of currency. I’m still blow-away when they won’t take US bills in Canada – things are changing.
My 30th Birthday comes-up in April, don’t think I can beat the jet to Vegas followed by helicopter to race track – sounds like a blast though!!
Looking forward to meeting you at a future conference!
***FS*** You can do it right too Morgan. You don’t need airlift to buy hapiness. The Canadian thing was troubling. I found that reluctance to take US currency in several places. It was a real sobering eye-opener for me. I found a similar dynamic last week in Toronto.. You should try it. If iit starts in Mexico I knnow we’ll have real trouble.
Nice post, never been to Vegas, on the bucket list….I noticed you finally shifted personalloans to an affiliate landing page, could still use some sprucing up, surprised you haven’t found the right partner to really cash in on this one of a kind gem to develop out and leverage some search traffic as well, some of the payday loan companies are paying over $90 per lead these days, it can be a real nice niche biz, but super competitive to those of us lacking the ultra-premium domains…
***FS*** Thanks so much for the tip Don. I really appreciate it. Let me know what sprucing you think is best and I’ll try it. I have no ego about learning and am not afraid to tell you that I don’t know what I don’t know about lead-gen.
I recently made a trip down to Costa Rica…and they love dollar bills down there…especially the women…they wouldnt take their own currency colones, they wanted dollar bills instead…LOL.
Anyways Frank, my question is: Not all domain names are holding their values…especially the dot mobi domain names. Flowers.mobi was purchased for $200k and was sold recently for only $6,500…it lost over 95% value in less than 4 years.
Frank, i know you only like dot com domain names, but does dot mobi have a little chance of coming back in the future?
What about the guy that purchased flowers.mobi for only $6.5k…did he get a great deal?
bottoms up baby…cheers!
***FS*** Anunt, remember back in the early Iraq war and invasion of Baghdad? They stopped issuing Iraqi dinars (with pictures of Sadam’s face) and replaced with a new currency, but because they couldn’t print the old dinars anymore, they increased in value on the street. People started selling iraqi dinars online hoping to make a quick buck. Try to pass a dinar with sadam’s face in baghdad today and the exchange rate is considerably different then the apex after the war
Those Costa Rican girls have been taught all their lives that the USD is worth X.. they won’t stop loving it till they try to buy something with it, and the seller says no-mas. Then again, some third world Countries are so bad that any currency is better than their own. The USD is a big float globally and it’s not going away overnight. But the fraying at the edges has started. Re: .mobi. As a registrant, I’ve been against .mobi since the beginning. I told everyone that those sales were not real and not sustainable. By the time new TLD’s launch, flowers .mobi will be worth HALF of what this 6.5k seller paid. See if my prediction sticks.
Frank, what’s your current take on cctlds? I see .co.uk names cropping up in your weekly lists of offers you’ve received from time to time. I guess I’m curious to learn how those offers stack up vs the .coms – for example, are you getting more as a percentage of all the .co.uk names you own (I assume you’ve got hundreds of times more .com names than .co.uk names). And do you think the weakness of the US dollar and the debt crisis is going to prove a boon to cctld investors?
***FS*** CCtldts depend on the Country you’re in. In Canada they are very useful because of the long border, big trade partner to the south and different currencies between them. In the UK they are not as popular as .com (I was just there and saw 3 or 4 coms for every uk. In germany .de is the only thing that matters.. France has an even split between .com and .fr and every .fr seems to own the .com too. In the US .US is a distant star to .com. That said the debt crisis and currency crisis to come, knows no borders. People will not give up on .com because of a US based financial or currency crisis, but if the US get’s scared and does something foolish like shutting down part of the Internet during a time of domestic instability or starts monkeying with how the Internet runs, then I could see an immediate fracturing of the root and non-US based tlds will become more desirable. Verisign could move to Switzerland .. that sort of thing. That would be bad for America.. and I’m long term (after a re-organization) bullish on America. Hopefully cooler heads prevail and none of that comes to pass.
Hi Frank,
Great post, I connect with one of the replies you had to type in a name and find that it is available at this stage of the game is a
great feeling.
About two months ago I typed in (letshaveabeer.com) and it was available, out of 6 billion people in the world either no one thought of it, or most likely no one was interested.
I have big plans for this BABY! and its not for sale.
Take care,
Lets Have A Beer!
***FS*** I like that name! More likely it was registered, dropped and nobody saw the release to snag it – either way it’s a find. If you could get 7,000 names that good or better, you’ll be set for life. Someone in the beer biz will always give you $1500 for that name wholesale.. $1.5k X 7k =$10.5mm – Repeat!
Great post, always enjoy reading your stuff.
Frank,you said, “I wouldn’t be surprised to see paper currencies with tracking chips next.” actually, the end game is when all currency as we know it goes digital. I talked to a guy at a conference in July, from Scandinavia, and I’m sure this is already true elsewhere as well, but he was telling me that you now need nothing more than your cell phone to ride the train. you purchase the train fare from your phone, and it sends back a digital bar-code which you can then scan when boarding the train. no paper involved. paper money is slated to go the way of the dodo, when all is said and done.
As for China and other countries holding dollars, i’ve thought for a while now the problem for them is how do they exit the dollar “quietly”? what i mean is for those countries holding so many billions of dollars they cant just sell off or it could potentially start the landslide that tanks their own investment. Yet they’re surely coming to the realization that they’ll never recoup from a country that is going/gone bankrupt, so maybe now they’re all out looking for the greater fool to dump their dollars on. Its a bit of a catch 22, and maybe one of the contributing factors to why there hasn’t been a major crash yet. However anything can happen. Its also likely these countries are no longer going to help finance the US debt further by buying more dollars, and what may possibly be a last ditch effort on the horizon to try to keep the US dollar afloat will be a government scheme for mandatory IRAs and the nationalization of retirement, as was outlined by Ron Holland earlier this year: http://www.lewrockwell.com/holland/holland12.1.html
I’m no economist but i read a lot and that’s a bit of my current takeaway on the situation. and btw, nice favicon
***FS*** Only Scandinavia and Finland and a few other pockets of people in Japan really consider electronic currency a viable alternative to physical cash. The first time my debit card didn’t work and I was stuck, was the last time I went anywhere without a stack of cash. Look at the world. 90% of those on Earth still deal exclusively in cash. It’s only in our western world that plastic is the norm.. And that is going to unwind before it gets stronger. Nothing like a good old fashioned financial crisis to get people moving to cash, especially at zero percent. I think gold coins will comeback into fashion before currencies go digital, but I could see money getting a best-before date if things get really bad out there. And if that happens, then gold coins or silver coins will find their way back to the mainstream. Re the Chinese holdings of USD.. There is a theory that the Chinese have already hedged a great many of their holdings via derivatives contracts. The Chinese are no dummy’s. They invented fiat currency. Some of the so called “problems” we’ve run into in the markets supposedly stem from these derivatives contracts converting out of dollars and into other currencies, hence the Fed’s desire to keep asset prices high. It’s all very interesting and will play out in our lifetime.
You are spot on Frank. I have been toting Domain Names value as a borderless & easily transferable store of wealth since I got into this game. You’ve got gem stones and gold sure, but try sending $100,000 in gold coins to a buyer in China instantaneously as he wants to get out of cash and into something “else” he can sell in any other currency as he sees fit.
The concept of internet real estate has never been displayed so well as now. Turn fiat currency into real assets which have future earning power or at least inherent future value. From my vantage point in Panama, I am seeing millions (if not billions) of dollars flowing in from foreign countries. They are all looking for a safe place to put there money where it can be invested without restriction into any vehicle and local of their choice. Whether it’s into foreign government infrastructure bonds or domain names. There is a flight to real assets and domain names are on the radar! Money is going into raw land the same way it is going into domain names. The parallel is precise.
***FS*** Wow, thanks for the comment Andrew.. sounds like you see it even more clearly than I do. Mucho gracias
Thanks for another great post. I’m going to Vegas for the first time in a week and very much looking forward too it. Nice analogy of the domain name to gold. Digital gold.
***FS*** Thanks Amanda honey.. travel safe.
Great post Frank as usual. Im from the outside looking in at the US economy and how its affecting the world including us on he other side of the pond. The Canada/US dollar situation is rediculous! Saying that they wont accept Euros in some parts of Northern Ireland and most if not all of UK. Same for Sterling here as it fluctuates so much i suppose.
What are your thoughts on ccTLDs and their recent rise on the DNJournal sales reports? I am seeing the local domain extension (.ie) becoming stronger than the .com alternative due to a local/trust factor and increasing by the week. Same for .co.uk/.de over recent years.
Cheers from Dublin!
***FS*** I really like CCtlds .. I always have and own a great many, for all the reasons you just gave. It identifies the locale without using the city or state in the name. You don’t need Dublin in the body of the name.
Oh and thanks for making us all feel old Morgan! ;P
And the domain salesman of the year is…….Frank Schilling!!
On a serious note, this strategy would be burning the furniture for firewood for some domainers. But you have soooo many domains, you can sell 1 every day of the year and sell just 360 domains. For 10 years: 3,600 domains. For 100 years:, and you’ve sold just 36,000 domains–but a fraction of your portfolio. And if you sold 2 or 3 a day, we’re still talking fractions.
So I predict you will be the domain salesman of the year for many years to come
***FS*** None of us live forever and we can’t manage from the here-after. That said, I still love the traffic side of the bsiness, but I’m grateful I have the option of name-sales. Long live domains.
@FS It is happening in Mexico… you can still use USD with street shops, but many hotels, restaurants, etc. now want VISA (Amex sometimes) or pesos.
***FS*** I saw it in Europe too. Very uunsettling. There are always the currency exchange places, but it used to be that everyoone anywhere would take a US dollar. There is without a doubt an unholy change happening there. I’m sure it’s for the best, but it feels like we’re beginning a slide down an unsettling slope.
@ Frank
100dayloans via cj.com is paying $92 per lead right now, with such a premier url u could probably get them to create a self hosted/private label form for your site as well as providing you some content. once you move into the development world as you now appear to be doing, might as well try and get some organic traffic as well and really ramp up the $$ from this site. You could probably get ranked quite easily in the search engines with some on topic content, backlinks and proper title/header tags for your site…if I were u I would reach out to any number of top seo guys (aaron wall, johns wu, etc) and offer them a rev share split based on earnings above your historical averages, create a win-win and multi-million dollar lead gen website in the next 12-24 months, yes it will take some time, but u will be very well rewarded in $$$ along the way, just dont hook up with a seo/dev firm that gets too aggressive or promises the world, I am sure within your spere you can get the right partner.
If you dont like the 100dayloans offer u can look at leadpile.com, they offer java based self hosted forms or reach out to credit.com or any number of the large affiliates and I would probably include thinkcash.com in that group, they have a nice site, converts well, better consumer pricing, etc. they suspended their cj affiliate program a while back, but when you drive the rolls royce you tend to get opportunities not available to everyone else so I would definitely reach out to them as well…as for your present design, it just doesnt pass the eye test compared to you competition, gotta sell security, instant gratification and easy process real quick with these or consumers bounce…youve got a multi million dollar domain with a kmart special logo…these are all just my opinions…really enjoy the blog posts over the years…keep up the good work!
***FS*** Thanks sincerely for your tips here.. I’ll consider 4 real.
Great post as always Frank. I think money will continue to flow into real assets, including domains. I also agree that currency controls are coming. There is no way that we can have this level of currency debasement without currency controls following. Do you think currency controls will benefit CCtlds?
***FS*** Thank-you george. I think there is a human behavior chain which goes with domain names which is very hard to break. If you read some of my replies under the other comments on this post you’ll see what I mean. It’s a hard ship to turn ut if governments start regulating US based registry traffic then all bets are off.
Frank,
Great post! As I mentioned to you when I met you quickly at T.R.A.F.F.I.C., I appreciate the time you dedicate to your posts.
Physical gold is essential, and silver is approachable for the masses. Everyone should have possession of both… Not to mention a slew of valuable domains.
Notice that there are limited Gold commercials for turning your gold into cash…. Consumers finally realized they were duped selling when gold was at an all time high of $700, $800 and even $1,000… Now they will need double the $US to buy it back.
Stay ahead of the curve but don’t panic.
Those with domains will have great flexibility. You don’t carry them in your pocket but they are available to you from anywhere in the world.
Time will tell.
***FS*** Your last line is quite prolific Cue. None of us have a key to the future.. But smart people can infer what might come to be. Be safe my brother.
I only just today realized that’s you Frank in the photo, with a new blond look. Why the change, just to try something different?
***FS*** LOL I’m hiding from creditors. Seriously tho, just trying to keep it fresh.
RJB I recommend you to visit the blogs of people that appear in this site: HelloMagazine.com
Be careful with your looks Frank, you have many admirors, so you might find many people with blond hair and beard the next domaining meeting that you attend! LOL
w.r.t. domaining I find intriguing what will happen to those countries with established .com.ccTLD that suddenly make available the .ccTLD version (present examples: .mx and .co)… will the .ccTLD make people in the country abandon the .com.ccTLD? woudl this take many years to happen? would it be possible for both ccTLDs co-exist? (easy joke for .co lovers here) or would the .com.ccTLD perdure and the .ccTLD never take off? or would this all confuse people in the country about its own ccTLD and increase their usage of the global .com?
just some doubts that I have… hope you have the chance to share your thoughts on this issue…
great post by the way!
Frank,
Great post as always…I just hope when I’m in Cayman Kai this year…Hopefully, they don’t laugh at me at Run Point or Kaibo when they see my US dollars…HA!! HA!!
***FS*** LOL .. I think you’ll be fine in Cayman as we’re a small economy and pegged to the dollar 1.20 to 1 . I guess we’re going down together
Drinks is on the house: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Revmkhxu7dk&ob=av3e
If you decide to pursue the lead gen opportunity let me know. I’ve been doing SEO for several years and am willing to work on straight commission. I can get it ranking across the board.
***FS*** That is very flattering.. I move slow, but will definitely keep it mind. Thanks Amanda.
Hi Frank,
Great post… very insightful indeed. Thank God for domain sales huh?
I’ve always said domains are the best investments and its nothing less than awesome to have a non-stop flow of offers in the inbox daily AND to be able to sell a name to raise a chunk of change for whatever reason. No 9-5 can do that! Its been an incredible 10 years and I’m just as grateful to be in this business!
Hope all is well with you and yours.
Roy
***FS*** There aren’t very many guys with your vision Roy. I’m going to ask Santa for a time machine to beat you to that name
Frank,
I see a few excerpts in here that will surely reach the “famous quotes in domaining” thread over at DNforum LOL. Seriously, I speak for more than just myself when I say that your insights are an inspiration for any domainer at any level of the game.
That said, what would you say is the most important aspect for beginners to consider when entering the game?
***FS*** This probably sounds so cornball and contrived Jerry and my attention span is so short that if I was a new domainer reading what I’m about to write, my eyeballs would probably roll into my head and I’d skitter forward to the next comment, but the truth is: “”" You have to stick with it, try each day and persevere. Why are there so many people in the domain biz with ADHD, who still have the desire each morning to hit the ground running? Why are we all drawn to this industry like an ongoing game of D&D? You have to find your level in this space and WANT TO DO IT. If you don’t want to do it. Or you’re forcing yourself because of the money at the end of the rainbow, you’ll quit. The game is the money.. If that makes sense. It’s about the game and the money comes as a by-product.
300,000 or 400,000 acres of prime digital farmland, I’d for damn sure be getting some tenant farmers involved.
A zero risk model would be to open up a segment of the portfolio to 50/50 development partnerships with renewable 1 year timeframes. To offset any loss of parking revenue and to cover renewal, perhaps all development partners would have to compensate average renewal/annual parking income + a premium upfront to get the ball rolling (a pittance relative to the earning potential of these names once developed and marketed…)
In time, as the talents and abilities of the partners became clear (along with the viability of their development schemes), some of these partnerships would evolve into significant e-businesses earning big bucks, of which you’d have a 50% stake. In these cases, you’d be creating your own end-users and perhaps, buyout options could be involved on the front end… Some operations would simply earn a helluva lot more than parking. Others would not work out and those names returned to the vault until a better partner or a buyer came along.
A boilerplate proposal template and a talented project manager or two at the top vetting the proposals and applicants, the whole operation would be super lightweight, nothing but upside and require little to no work on your end. It would also serve to unlock some of the colossal earning potential that exists in these names and put a living, human brain behind them who has a vested interest in seeing them succeed. You might become the BRK.A of operating ebusinesses.
(And thanks for that rumcake last year, by the way. Never did get a chance to say that direct. Those things are stooooooopid good.)
Frank – great post.
My company, Vero Group, can do the same as Amanda, but better and for less. Just let us know when you want to start. Been doing it since 1997.
Logan.
Hi Frank,
The new look suits you well!
I read somewhere you use to be involved in affiliate marketing, can you recommend some good reads or perhaps a good online source for information?
I have reached that desperate stage of life where you feel like time is running out and I want to make a go at my own business venture etc. Sick of being someone elses employee.
Gary
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important.
I do respect you as a well spoken articulate individual who invested very early in domains. I disagree with this latest blog you have written. One of the things you mentioned is that “Whatever the future holds, I sleep well knowing that I have generic names bringing an audience of tens of millions of monthly visits. Domain names offer something tangible and real in a world that is quickly becoming surreal.” Truthfully I believe Domains are not as that tangible anymore. Type in traffic does not work for generic names since people will type in once that name and never go back to it a second time. More and more people are using huge search engines like Google and Baidu to get where they want. As more and more people from around the world use search engines particularly Google to get to where they want to go, domains become less relevant. Relevancy of the web site to the searched term becomes more relevant especially since search engines have changed their algorithms.
Sincerely,
Oliver Hetfield
Centro in August reported a narrower fiscal full-year loss after writedowns on its properties shrank. The shortfall was A$652.7 million in the 12 months ended June 30, compared with a loss of A$3.5 billion a year earlier. Centro wrote down A$487.9 million on its properties, down from A$2.7 billion a year earlier
thanks !! quite helpful post!
Some people compose with no passion, but yours is obviously evident of how much you enjoy doing what you do. It is nice to see your love for writing in your work. Continue stimulating other writers like me.