Monday I wrote a post about one domain investor throwing in the towel on domain investing. The post has gotten a fair bit of engagement and a good discussion on Namepros.
Longtime member and domain investor Biggie asked the question:
where do “they” get these preconceived notions that domaining is easy, that you can make money fast and there are some assurances’ that you’ll make profits.
who feeds them this propaganda and hype?
because the term “domain flipping”, has been used as shorten synonym, for the work involved in the efforts of domaining…. many who us the phrase, really don’t have idea of what it takes to succeed.
it’s about the mentality.
imo…
I think that’s a good question and Bob Hawkes gave a couple really well thought out replies. I replied to Biggie’s follow up to Bob which you can read on Namepros.
Short attention spans and the need for immediate gratification
Back to the question, I think many just see the big sale, we live in a world of short bits and quick takes. TL;DR became a thing due to short attention spans.
So of course no one reads in depth about the topic of domaining. They know that Voice.com sold for $30 million, they don’t know (or care) how Micro Strategy acquired it, negotiated etc…
I know for years I wrote long educational type posts in the dot tv subforum of Namepros. Never recommending anyone to register a domain name or buy one, just what I see, what are others are doing.
I always go back to one member who has been off the forum for over a decade said.
“Hey eq those education posts are great I suppose to long for me to read, all I care about is money, can you get me money for my domain names? I only care about the money.”
In 2011 I wrote a post here that was inspired by a reader, “If I wanted to work, I would not be doing this”.
Domaining is also an activity where a lot of outsiders have little respect for the practice. That might lead to the belief that it’s easy. At a party years ago a woman said to me she was a wordsmith, it’s easy to come up with a domain name and then sell it.
When I asked her how she would go about selling it? She had no idea, she just knew it was easy to come up with word combinations.
A lot of those that are new to domaining come across domain names from other “work from home” “make money online” communities.
YouTube and other social media
Tonight I went to You Tube and just put in Domain Investing for the search.
It looks to an outsider like this domain name stuff is easy. To be fair to Michael Cyger, he used the catchy “Get Rich Quick in Domain Investing” knowing that’s what many would be searching for.
Michael’s video explains it’s not easy and explains why someone cancelled their DNAcademy subscription. He laid out a detailed story of the sale of CryptoCPA.com.
Catchy headlines aside even ranking a few listings above the one from Tanya J Joseph, a lady I am not familiar with. You can see that the Cyger video has one tenth the number of views of Ms. Joseph’s video.
She has a catchy title, a lot of good hooks, $1,000 a week, beginners. If you did not know this business you might think, “This stuff is easy?”
You can say it to the cow’s come home
Many people who are well known in the domain industry, who have made sales year in and year out. Have consistently stressed the fact that domain investing is not easy.
No matter how many times it’s stressed, a business with a low barrier to entry, that does not require a college education, (perhaps not even high school) that is perceived to be comprised of a skill anyone can do, (thinking up names) will have a flood of newcomers thinking it’s easy.
Domain investing is a very good side hustle, when you have other stuff going on like a full time job or another online venture you are under less pressure.
Starting out to become rich like the reader I spoke to is a fool’s errand. Starting out to make some extra cash is the best way to approach things in my opinion.
Shane Cultra talked about how he just wanted to make a few bucks, maybe pay for his Internet. If you like it and have some success you can take the next step. Full time domain investing is not for most people.
Domains g has always attracted a lottery ticket/ get rich quick mentality.