Five Reasons You Won’t Succeed as a Domainer

[A D]

1. You pre-order hundreds of domains at every new TLD launch. .mobi, .asia, .eu – domain name forums abound with horror stories of domainers pumping in thousands of dollars into these much-hyped extensions only to see their investment sell for less than reg-fee a few years later. There is a reason why Rick Schwartz calls [...]

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[katherine]

Nicely put. And it's only 5 reasons, you could add more

 

[sashas]

I could add a dozen more ("You invested in .mobi!" for starters), but five a nice, round figure. "50 reasons you won't succeed as a domainer" would just scare people off!

 

[Tia Wood]

You invested in .mobi!" for starters

Even worse: .tel!

 

[DN BROKER]

Even worse: .tel!

even worse .co

 

[Raider]

.mobi, .asia, .eu – domain name forums abound with horror stories of domainers pumping in thousands of dollars into these much-hyped extensions only to see their investment sell for less than reg-fee a few years later.

There is a reason why Rick Schwartz calls himself ‘Dot Com King’, and not ‘Dot Asia King’ – in this industry, the tried and tested extensions still drive most sales."

As much as I agree with the article, I have to ask to one question; Why use Rick Schwartz in this example when it was HE who also hyped Mobi? and it was HE who LOST over $200,000 on his Mobi investments? An investment which BTW encouraged other domainers to dump THOUSANDS of their hard earned dollars into, which most of them NEVER recovered from.

Just seems a little hypocritical to be using his name when he played a major role in why many domainers did NOT succeed with this particular TLD... And much of the "Hyping" in my opinion should NOT of been allowed, where every time a notable business registered a .Mobi, we would see a new thread for that particular domain in Today's posts, followed by the usual mobi investors hailing the registrations as another affirmation of Mobi being the next dot com.

 

[ukbackorder]

Agree with Raider on this one. Although I see where you're coming from regarding 'dot-com king' Rick was a bad example after the way he shamelessly hyped the .mobi extension and probably contributed to financial woes for newer entrants to the industry. Apart from that though excellent article and exactly to the point.

 

[katherine]

Did Rick really hype .mobi ?
He bought an expensive .mobi domain but to him it was just a gamble. Many domainers took that as a vote of confidence in the extension. Which IMO it wasn't.

 

[sashas]

As much as I agree with the article, I have to ask to one question; Why use Rick Schwartz in this example when it was HE who also hyped Mobi? and it was HE who LOST over $200,000 on his Mobi investments? An investment which BTW encouraged other domainers to dump THOUSANDS of their hard earned dollars into, which most of them NEVER recovered from.

Just seems a little hypocritical to be using his name when he played a major role in why many domainers did NOT succeed with this particular TLD... And much of the "Hyping" in my opinion should NOT of been allowed, where every time a notable business registered a .Mobi, we would see a new thread for that particular domain in Today's posts, followed by the usual mobi investors hailing the registrations as another affirmation of Mobi being the next dot com.

I used Rick just as an illustration - that one of the biggest domainers in the world made his fortune on dot-coms, and not other extensions. Perhaps it was wrong to use him in the context.

I guess I could've added one more point: "You follow industry leaders blindly". We all can learn a great deal from the likes of Rick and Schilling, but at the end of the day, we are making bets with our money and have to analyze, understand and calculate ourselves. To hold Rick or Schilling or any body else for a bad investment wouldn't be appropriate.

 

[Raider]

Did Rick really hype .mobi ?
He bought an expensive .mobi domain but to him it was just a gamble. Many domainers took that as a vote of confidence in the extension. Which IMO it wasn't.

Soon after the purchase of Flowers.mobi. I recall reading some articles in which he wrote it was the next best thing to dot com.. He may not of hyped it to the extent that others did, but he clearly made that point and with his predictions, Predictions that a lot domainers listened to as you point out.

Now that I got the #1 .mobi I have aimed for since day one, (Tickets.mobi) it will be interesting to see how the old guard domainers learn I am a big .mobi fan. (No surprise for some) I see it as the next best extension to dot com and really nobody needs to agree with me. The more folks disagree, the more I know I am on the right track. So save the naysaying for 5 years not 5 minutes. Then we can discuss why so many of my good friends missed such a winner. They will just say…..”Damn, Rick was right again.”

http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2008/02/secret-mobi-fan.html

Good evening folks!!

Below is what may be the best .mobi domains released to date as well as a fantastic list of premium .com domain names. These domains will be auctioned off at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in less than 2 weeks. I would expect at least 2-4 of the .mobi domains will easily break the flowers.mobi record. I would think that Porn.mobi and Tickets.mobi will shatter the record. I don't think we are at the point to witness a 7 figure .mobi sale however if we were going to see that, this would be where we would see it. I consider these to be two of the very best .mobi names that you can buy . Risky? You bet. But the market for .mobi continues to be strong and I expect a very lively auction.

http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2008/02/a-new-mobi-reco.html

It would be nice to know how much commission he got from those auctions.

---------- Post added at 11:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:42 AM ----------

I used Rick just as an illustration - that one of the biggest domainers in the world made his fortune on dot-coms, and not other extensions. Perhaps it was wrong to use him in the context.

I guess I could've added one more point: "You follow industry leaders blindly". We all can learn a great deal from the likes of Rick and Schilling, but at the end of the day, we are making bets with our money and have to analyze, understand and calculate ourselves. To hold Rick or Schilling or any body else for a bad investment wouldn't be appropriate.

Agree

 

[ukbackorder]

Painful reading some of those blog posts now. Has to make me wonder sometimes how he made his money. Some of us made it without such blind stupidity - maybe it's not always what you know just how you sell it and who you sell it to...

 

[katherine]

Fortunately many domainers did not fall for this.
But there are plenty of ways to fail though - more money wasted than made in domaining

 

[sashas]

Fortunately many domainers did not fall for this.
But there are plenty of ways to fail though - more money wasted than made in domaining

I was fortunate to not be in that unlucky few.

But honestly, when Music.mobi sold for something like $675k, it did make me question my convictions really, really hard. And Doc was really convincing in the mobi forum as well.

 

[tekz999]

The worst is .info, look at what happen.

 

[sashas]

The worst is .info, look at what happen.

The biggest mistake the .info registry made was offering domains for $1.99. It still hasn't been able to shake off the 'spammer haven' reputation since.

 

[Tia Wood]

even worse .co

At least a .co DNS can be changed!