Over the years on Rick’s board I posted many questions to members, some to help others, some to learn myself. In all events, I always learned something from these discussions. I was thinking why not try and create this sort of learning experience here on the blog, in comments area? That concept is the birth of this new category called “Debates”, where I will post some questions or some arguments and others can jump in and contribute their opinions, discuss with others, as well I will jump in from time to time and discuss as well. So not knowing how this new category or idea will do, let’s just try it out and see, shall we?
So, here we go..
Many domainers have started at same time but over the years, achieved different results. Few even started after you however did much better (and some much worse) than you. My question is why? and how do we change the pattern to do better, much better?
Great Idea!
Thats a loaded question. Many many variables can alter the course of ones path. Just a few might be
1)Financial ability - Big difference between starting with $50 bucks versus $20k
2)Who you know - If you already have friends or contacts this can speed you along very quickly.
3)Available time - Part time can be slower than full time, especially for research.
4)Understanding quality - This is pretty much a big one. There have been those who had the money and time, but didnt understand what a good domain was, and just wasted time and money on trash. Others have started with very little and skyrocketed with the right domain.
5)Right place, right time - I won’t say luck, but being in the right place at the right time and recognizing the opportunity is a factor.
6)Personality - This is a factor although it may not seem so important in the impersonal world of computers. But, an outgoing individual will be more likely to spend more time in forums chatting, learning, and meeting the right people.
I think the pattern of failure for many people can be altered with domain education. This has to be the biggest mistake made, buying garbage domains. I’ve done it, even have a couple I’d be ashamed to mention still kicking around.
Learning what is good and whats not is not black and white though. On e domainer might focus on large category domains while another may focus on the subcategories and the power of the collective. There seems to be several paths to take toward success in domaining. I am always trying to learn more, and every domainer should as well.
Thanks, David V
I love the idea, Sahar. David already went ahead and posted a pretty detailed outline of really dead-on reasons, but I also feel it’s because people just have what it takes. You need the motivation to end up somewhere–and if you do, chances are you probably will end up where you want. We also all choose different niches. In domaining, just as an example to keep things simple, lets say two people started in 1995 and everything was available. One might be a real estate agent and another might be a ring collector. One guy will go after CARealEstate.com, RealEstate.com, etc, while another will go after Rings.com, RingShiners.com, etc. They both started @ the same time, but the Real Estate domains will do better in the future. That’s my take on it. It all depends on what you’re interested in. Some have the ability to stray away and “find the money.” You just have to adapt to things quick to chase success before others get to it.
Hope I made some sense, still a little drowsy after a crapload of medicine today!
Adding to Davids list, as a person who has been investing in domains for less than 1 year I would also like to add that taking risks has also been an important factor for my own success. I have personally had to leave the comfort zone for many purchases, most of which have turned out to be fantastic investments.
For those just getting started, I dont think anything is more important than doing your research and learning from as many other successful investors as you can. Sahar, Rick, and Franks blogs along with domain industry events such as the Traffic East conference have all helped me make better purchase decisions and far fewer investment mistakes. As a person who has started investing with a fairly limited budget I dont think that financial ability is one of the most important factors. Coming up with creative ways to purchase domains and snowballing revenues from current domains into new purchases has helped me increase my portfolio quite substantially in just a few months.
I like David’s list especially 4 to 6. 4 should be unlined in Red. Balls should be added to 6. It is no good just talking a good strategy.
Looking at those who have done better than us I can see few differences:
1. They stayed more focused when we were taking breaks or doing many different things.
2. They were nurturing the cash cow instead of looking for new cows
3. They were working partnerships, making things happen
4. In all cases, they were scaling better than us.
5. They worked on instincts, not numbers (we’ve done the same too)
One of the keys is diversification. Some will tell you it’s better not to put all your eggs in one basket. The way I see it there’s time for diversification and time for laser-sharp focus. At start, it’s not about all your eggs in one basket, but all your eggs in the RIGHT basket. Later you can diversify but at start, focus focus focus.
And at the end of the day, if I look today at those who have done better than us, I always remind to myself: the game is not over yet, it is just the beginning.
Sahar
I forgot to add, the ones who have not done as well as us, I feel have not taken the necessary risks, did not put the time and effort we have, acted too slow, indecisive, and were always skeptical about everything they hear.
Being what I call “a natural born teacher” i know the feeling of helping others, not for the sake of manipulating others or worrying about your own benefits of such help but for reasons one cannot describe, as they come deep within a person, something I feel you either born with or you don’t. Rick Schwartz is one of those who loves to teach and love to help others. Yes, he has interests in mind many times however in most cases, he is doing what he does for the sake of others, because it’s in him. recognizing that early on I noticed many were always questioning rick’s motives not understanding in most cases there weren’t any, just him trying to help. I said to many over the years “who gives the advice, for me, is more important than the advice itself”. At times, you really have to trust your instincts and believe the one who is trying to help you is not doing it in order to manipulate you. Of course, you do have to be careful, can’t explain how to find if the right person is right or wrong, but for me, I do my homework, I check, I learn, very facts, and once a decision is made, I pretty much trust the person and listen as carefully as possible, asking more, learning more, kind of like “soaking” every bit of information I can.
Sahar
I totally agree with David V. I’ve seen people who have been around a lot longer than I have in domaining do much worse and some who have started earlier this year smoke me away. I think the biggest factor is understanding quality. A person can spend thousands on bad domains but smarter people can take less money and spend it on better domains.
I think people who both understand quality who have thousands to spend on a name will more along much faster in this industry. That’s why I stress to new domainers to take the time and study the industry before spending that first dollar.
I believe that many of the above posts are bang on, but i know in the ccTLD market (.ca) i see people posting and buying names for 100s of dollars but that with just a little bit of data mining better names are found at reg fee. There is a belief that all good names have been regged and that is just not the case with dot ca. So essentially mis allocation of funds is what i see the problem in my limited arena.
Thanks.
Very interesting concept Sahar.
As regards the topic, I started domaining this year. Bought my first domain in April.
I am from Eastern Europe, so my financial possibilities were limited. Actually I had $20 to start with. And, yes these $20 were all my money at that time (In May, I got more $230 from somewhere else).
But I recognized domaining being a lucrative business. And I was able to sacrifice my time, and read all the journals and forums all day long.
I started subscribing and learning from forums (especially namepros) back in January. And for 3 months I read about domains every day, without registering any domain, knowing that if I put my $20 in wrong hands I will loose in this business.
For 3 months, I even did lot of incentives, hoping I will raise $7 to register a domain. However I did not succeed with that :).
But that determination and the continuous learning made me succeed in a way. Today I have a portfolio of almost 400 domains, mostly .com’s. I register domains every week, that I sell later for $30 - $100. Not very much, but in January I wanted to make $5.000 at the end of the year. And I made double than that.
I see on the forums people that started earlier, and did not succeed at all, almost every day I meet people registering in their first day of domaining 500 hyphenated, trademarked .name domains (well, not all together, but you understand what I mean).
What is needded in domaining? I will stress the internal factors, because the external ones were well covered by David in a post above.
1. Patience. Lots of people do not have patience, and think domaining will earn them a fabulous ROI in a short time.
2. Having realistic expectations. Knowing your goals, knowing what you want from domaining. Is it a part time job, where you put your spare money and spare time, or you want to make a living out of this. Setting your goals is very important in any part of life. Domaining is no exception.
3. Taking calculated risks. Know what you may loose, never risk more than that or you will loose your clear mind. I saw people risking too much (more than what they can afford) on some speculative markets (new tld’s future technologies that will eventually rise only in the next decades etc).
On the other hand, in order to succeed one needs to take risks. But calculated ones.
4. Being optimistic. A pessimist will only see risk in every opportunity while an optimist sees an opportunity in every risk. I think this belongs to W. Churchill, but I am not that sure.
Anyway, anybody who said that was right.
The attitude of a person plays a crucial role. I see people who started earlier without enthusiasm, while I see others (like Giode whose story was covered on conceptualist.com) who have unlimited desire to succeed, and believe they will. The person I talked about, started domaining also in April and dedicated 16 hours out of 24 to domaining a day. Now he has a 7 figure portfolio, and he started this year with $x.xxx budget.
5. How far you can go depends on how far you can see. While your goals must be realistic, your dreams must not. If one wants to make a yearly 20% ROI from domaining, will he make more? No. Only in exceptional cases.
6. Dedication. Hobby, part time or full time? Those people that made it big, dream about domain names. While people make a profit even when they do it part time, you can make it really big when you dedicate yourself totally to it. I know there will be persons even in next years who will succeed in domaining, and there will be people who will fail. It all starts here. This is the key. Without using this key, people failed even in the early days of the game.
7. Build your reputation. On the long term this is a key. Having a good reputation will lead to more relations, more possible partners or deals.
8. Interact with others. Help others. Do not stay isolated. Once I inquired via an email about a domain. His response was a domainer like, so our conversation turned into one about domaining. He had many good names, but never heard about the domain forums. I was quite amazed, because he surely had a big and quite old portfolio. After I told him about some sites, he started rethinking his aquisition strategy, and had some nice sales too (just to mention it, he never heard of sedo even). Only Snapnames where his portfolio originated from. Linking with others is important, I am sure there are lots of other “anonymous domainers” who just make it on their own.
There is still more room to domaining. Just need to be optimist, be determined, and even today there will be domainers who in some years or even months will make it bigger than most of us.
Lastly, money is too an issue. Always here people complain that they have not enough start up money and “if” they would have they would surely succeed.
Sometimes I also feel bad I had no more money when I started. But on the other hand it is better like this, that I did not have to manage lots of money. And as my funds grew, my knowledge grew proportionally.
The pessimists will always find excuses. And they always did. Those did not succeed.
These were more the internal factors, and not ones like the market and investment strategies. Hope I am not way off topic.
Alex
“acted too slow, indecisive”
In my case that has frequently been the case. While I’ve done ok, there have been many times where I’ve been too slow or indecisive on something. Last week for example I called about a domain i’d been meaning to call about for 2 months. the owner told me he just bought the name for $5k. I would have paid 15, and I missed the name because I didn’t make a phone call that would have taken me no more than 5 minutes….don’t delay folks.
Good idea Sahar.
Many of the reasons have been listed above and all are solid facts, but this subject is deeper than black and white short answers. Here is my odd ball look at it from outside of the box.
***Goals
The key for success is to establish short term realistic goals that will help an individual determine success levels reached/accomplished. Those who are successful domainers, have goals outlined, and will continue to be successful as they continuously reestablish new ones. Those who do not do well, simply lack realistic short term goals or no goals at all, or only have the long term “I want to be rich off of domains” goal when starting out. Your short term goals should map out to your long term goals. Without goals, their is no measurement for success. Success can not be measured off of someones elses accomplishments. (At least it shouldn’t) While everyone is in the same general business(domaining), everyone has a different interest in the domain industry that they pursue and prefer to own. Of course everyone wants any domain that earns revenue, but human nature sets us apart and our personal interests take over leading us into different paths in domaining.
As an anology One can not compare the success of the Automobile industry with a company that sells cars, or sells auto parts, or sells tires. Each have different goals and paths that determine success levels. They can not use each other to measure their success because they are not same products being offered.
It is human nature to always compare what they have with what others have and how they got there. It’s funny because even the rich people do this trying to use anothers success as a measuring stick for their own success. It may just be that the other guys you are using as a measuring stick, may be using you as one as well trying to get where you are. =)
—-Define what “success” is for you, not other peoples success. Get advice from people who are on top today on achievable goals starting out. Stick to those realistic short term goals and watch yourself become successful.
**Marriage/kids
This will determine whether you can pursue the domain business thoroughly and intillectually. The wife/husband and young kids come first and they will not settle for you staying on the computer day and night building the domain business up, even though it will give you financial freedom in future if done correctly. Single people can do as they wish, as well as those older couples who have older kids already. These are the guys/gals who are very successful in the domain business. A young family will take priority, changing your game plan and domain goals outlying success. Maybe it’s a $5K sale. It will definitely limit the amount of capital you will have available to use. Your goals have to be in conjunction with family goals so everyone stays happy.
—If you don’t believe me, you single people out there get married and see if you live the same lifestyle in front of the PC domaining…. =) If you are married and have kids, domaining needs to be a family event, so they get it, and can be apart of it. So you can reach your goals collectively.
**Health
This is big. As you need it to spend all that time in front of the computer and networking. If someone starts out good, and gets sick and has to leave the game, things may not be good when they come back.
**Common Sense
No matter how much you read and how many seminars you go to, or how many people you talk to, domainers will simply will lack it and make all the wrong purchaces, and miss the opportunities to make the right ones. The term “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink it” holds true daily. We all know it….
**Streaks of Luck with Capital
With the right sale of a name, this can launch your game plan into hyper speed. Almost everyone on top of the game at this point, had this happen. This is why they are where they are today. They used the capital from a nice domain sale to build their empires. Many domainers spend the money they make from sales or revenue and never reinvest smartly. Always putting them in the same starting position.
—–Use capital earned from the business wisely to accuire additional domain streams of revenue. Do this consistently 100 X’s and you are on top of your game. Sure you can spend some of it, but if you don’t reinvest you will never build wealth.
**Day Jobs/Time Mangagement
This will always prevent someone from pursuing full time. Only when you build enough domain revenue, can you slack from the day job. For most, they have to provide for their family and can not jeopardize the quality of life they have. For most with Day jobs, it will take that one great sale for them to pull completely out and go full time domaining. I would dare to guess that 90% of domainers are part time. Daily work and family responsiblities will always limit an individual in domaining, as there are only so many hours in a day. Those who are successful are very effective in time management.
—-Time management, realistic short term goals and reinvesting revenue will help you reach success.
That is my two cents worth for why people do well and poor.
GodSpeed,
Steve Morales
Hi,
Great points by everyone…
Steve that might be your ‘two cents’ worth…lol…but worth a lot more than that…very nice points.
I sure can not add to this…
So…
I have to ask Sahar…who’s the girl with your mom in todays blog header?… sister? niece? friend? girlfriend? wife?
Looks like the lighting of the Menorah…
So…
Happy Hanukkah!
Peace!
Dan
—-answer—-
Thanks Dan!
The girl next to my mom..Michelle, a close friend.
Sahar
I’ve really enjoyed reading everyones insight. Just have one comment to add. There comes a point for everybody when learning something new, that the “lightbulb” clicks on and you get it, then you wonder why it took so long to “see the light” and say DAH! thats it. The turning point clicks earlier for some, later for others, and all the great points everyone made plays a factor as to when.
Great comments Steve M!
We may eat up some bandwidth Sahar, but this is a great idea, learning from each other. Thanks David V