I have always been very selective on who I take seriously, and heed the advice of. The ones I have decided to listen to, have been a huge reason for any of the successes I have had. A person’s level of success goes miles beyond words. When those truly successful domainers speak, everyone should listen. That is, if you care about having “real” success.

So I agree, less is more as it applies to taking advice. Quality over quantity.

Good advice is always certain to be ignored, but that’s no reason not to give it. - Agatha Christie

The dice have yet to pitch. Once they have stopped rolling we will all be in a sound position to say whose advice should have been listen to. I think it will prove that you should have been analysing the arguments not following the Guru. When it comes to sophisticated investors, perhaps you should take a leaf out of Rick Latona’s book who has now added IDN.com to listen of domains he is seeking to buy. How serious he is I don’t know. I have not approached him with any domains. Now is a bad time to sell the cream of the your IDN portfolios, so we will be shadow boxing for a few months yet. The bottom line is that ASCII crowd was never going to be our real market. You might have been useful if you had come in with some early cash. It is is unlikely that any of you will be able to outbid the Chinese and Arabs, or indeed the Russians in the end game. So we will just have to put it down to a missed opportunity. Who will win? I don’t know, but what I do know is if IDN are worth 10% or more of their ASCII equivalent, my portfolio will be worth a damned site more than Ricks.

If you’d like legal protection before you reveal/pitch your ad idea, buy a copy of the latest edition of Patent It Yourself by David Pressman; where you’ll learn that for about $100 you can file a provisional patent application (which gives you a year before having to put out the bigger bucks for the utility patent you’ll need).

Though it sounds like your idea may be protectable “only” in the US; PIY explains exactly how to do so.

I agree that it is very important to make a distinction between those with sound ideas and experience vs. posers. There is plenty of bad advice out there in all walks of life, and there are people looking to exploit the naivete of newbie investors.

Regarding domains in particular, many of us moved into the “long shot” realm of alternative extensions. I would not characterize these people as “unsophisticated” or devoid of sound experience and advice. In fact, many of these folks are insightful and intelligent having already become profitable on their investments. I would suggest to anyone entering the domain game that they keep an open mind, and do not limit themselves to the advice of a handful of self-appointed experts. Future and evolving opportunities usually lurk beneath the surface … out of the masses view. I, for one, prefer to not look down on others’ ambitions under the pretense of “I know best”. Look, learn, adapt, persist. Successes are not made overnight. Nor is there only one true path to the end goal.

Something should be said too for the value of the journey. And that, in itself, is the attraction for many people. That being said, I support following the example of proven, successful people. Good direction acts as a springboard. In the end, persistence is probably the greatest ingredient in building success. That refusal to give up.