The domain industry has been changing, big time. A lot of smart people have taken notice of what is going on and making their moves. Unfortunately, a lot of people are still "thinking" things over. What does that mean? I'll tell you. That means they are stuck. They don't know what to do. They are paralyzed and stuck in their old ways. The game has been changing for a while now. Since 2005. Forget the golden days. 2006, 2007 and 2008 were CRAZY good years where all the hard work paid off from as early as the mid 90's. There was a domaining BOOM.. Now there is all the doom and gloom in 2009 and on.
I got in the domain game full time in 2004 and quit after one year because things had forever changed in late 2005 and it didn't make sense to me personally to stay involved. I saw better opportunities elsewhere so I went where the money was. It's as simple as that. I've recently gotten more heavily re-involved with the industry because I see some great opportunities with domain name investment and development in 2009 and the years to come. When everybody runs from it... That is when I come in and make lots of $$$
I've been talking to many key people in the domain industry and execs from just about every important company in the domaining world in 2009. I've also been exchanging notes with many other individuals who "get it" those people who see the changes coming and who are making all of the right moves by diversifying their domain investments, liquidating, developing all the right properties, making strategic partnerships, domain acquisitions and so on.
All of this people and companies are happy with how things are progressing and see tremendous growth still to come. So do I. Things are once again booming... Sort of! It takes time but the results are clear. It is not so difficult to predict how things will play out when you are using proven systems and processes that work, such as with development. People are more confident than ever before in their end-game as well. All it took is one huge recession to shake things up a bit and get people re-thinking their goals and so on... Heh!
There is now more than ever lots of stuff going on in the domain industry. Lots of exciting new services being introduced and people are as aggressive as ever in making things happen. Plenty of domain name conferences. Plenty of opportunities to go around for everyone buying, selling and developing keyword domains. So that was pretty much the good news.
The future looks bright for those people and companies who are serious about domains and everything that has to do with the domain industry. Only the dumb asses are still sitting on their domains, playing the waiting game. Hoping for a miracle to happen. LOL! Right... In the domain industry, there is lots of money to be made and people are realizing that domain parking is shit and it is so yesterday. So old... So freaking uncool :D People are way over it. What's next, that is the big question??! Where is the money??!? What what... Uhhh :)
The bad news... Well, the industry still is TINY and pretty fragile. Both online and offline. I don't have the time to analyze it all but it is what it is. For example, I've been advertising on the top domain industry blogs / news sources since the beginning of 2009. I specifically requested to have my banners linked up directly off my own server. Why? So that I could track everything that is going on within those sites and collect lots of data about the domain industry demographic and learn more about my potential customers.
Basically, I know how many people visit each and every popular blog. Which blogs those people visit afterwards. How many times they visit them daily.. How often and for what purpose. I know how they interact with my own website, WannaDevelop.com, I know how they do not interact with other sites. I know everything pretty much... Easy to normalize the data as well. It's good stuff. I have just as much data, if not more than Google on the industry. Heh!
Yep, I am an analytics freak and I have month's of raw data. It is all within the numbers.. Well, let me tell you this. Those people who do take part in the domainer online industry are a tiny group. The domainer community is very very tiny but it is no surprise to you I am sure. We are not talking about 1000's of people either... It's a really small community. No... It isn't the big dogs. They don't take part of the community. It is a totally different demographic.
It isn't the fortune 500 companies lawyers or marketing people either who are doing all this research on the industry in order to buy out all the generic domains. It's just mostly newbies and up-and-comers and some seasoned domainers who like to socialize and kill time... It's the same ol' people. There is also the random visitors who just stumble onto one of the domainer online resources but never actually get involved with the industry or even come back to find out more about it. It's too damn complicated.. It's also too SHADY.
Anyways... I applaud guys like Rick Schwartz, Rick Latona and Howard Neu for planning now more than ever many more domain conferences in 2010 and 2011. The aggressive approaches work. My WannaDevelop.com marketing campaigns are aggressive and they work lovely. People need to understand that nothing happens on it's own. You gotta make it happen. It takes a lot of time and money. It takes many people to make big things happen too. Business isn't easy. If it was.. Everybody here would already be millionaires.
It is great to see more and more partnerships created in the industry as well. Slowly but surely the industry is getting to where it needs to be. The smart people who are serious about what they do are positioning themselves well. There won't be too many domainers featured on CNN, Time magazine or your local 10 o'clock news or hundred million+ IPO's or anything like that, but people will still make lots of money in the domain game.. Without a doubt!
The industry will remain a thing of mostly the underground where there will always be money to be made if you are ready to tackle many challenges and don't mind to bust your ass non stop and not afraid to even exploit some loopholes and take advantage of them. It's a truly magical biz, unlike any other. You can be really creative with it and make a shitload of money in just a few weeks or month's.. Where else do you have this kind of opportunities?
So get off your ass and do something already for fucks sake. We are almost halfway into 2009.. Ask yourself, what have you done lately?! Have you cleaned up your domain portfolio? Have you developed anything?!?? Have you even kept up with the times? Do you know what's hot this days and what is really not?? Things are always changing in this domain biz. That is one of the best and worst things about it... You know? If you don't... You are FAILING.
One must evolve a million times in order to make it in this biz. Forget what worked in 2006 because that doesn't work anymore. Forget about the opportunities in 2002. That is history. The rules in 2009 may be written as you go... But wait, are there even any rules to begin with?! LOL.. NO!!! Hehe. Many people compare the domain industry to the wild west and it really is.
Everybody does their own thing but it all starts with a good DOMAIN NAME. So how about you start fresh? Not a bad idea right?! Yeaaaaa. It is a great idea actually. Pick your weapons, which happen to be those things called keyword domain names and go at it. Lets go... Much success to all in 2009. Cheers!! :)
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