
Domaining really is like a lot of other businesses, the haves and the have nots. In a conversation with another domainer yesterday, they told me they did not agree.
“Raymond everyone is sitting on valuable domains, they just need the right timing for a big payday.”
That is a nice sentiment and some would say never rain on someone else’s parade. Over the years the tone has shifted from someone giving the facts, to that person being a troll or a hater.
Appraisals are a great example, when someone posts an appraisal request for a name that most would consider not good, they either get others who want to be positive telling them it’s great and a five figure name. They get silence from those who think the name is bad because that person does not want the blowback.
Domaining as a community has become a lot more segregated. You have people who only go to Namepros, take pride in telling me they don’t read blogs and social media is for assholes and losers.
There are other that despise Namepros and see it as either a cesspool, or newbie central. A place where domain wanted threads ask for a 20 year old .com, registered in 30 extensions and they might have $500.
So some really just communicate on social media places like Twitter and Facebook and now Clubhouse has gotten into the mix. These places have their detractors, I had a reader email me about a month ago telling me they would unsubscribe if they ever saw me “talking shit on that idiot app!”
Someone who I have known for well over a decade said they thought many were wasting their time in domaining. These same people could have spent a fraction on BTC, ETH or other crypto coins back in the day and made a real fortune.
“People like Schwartz and Rosener are killing it man, these people buying new gtlds or covefe domains are just spinning their wheels.”
Different Strokes for Different Folks
The point I have always made about the domain community and have fleshed it out a bit in various polls, is that people talk like their way is the only way. The approach you take to this business is not the approach others take.
10 years ago this June, Adam Dicker created a firestorm when he defined a real domainer, in a post that was taken down from DNForum he wrote,
Newsflash: just because you can install wordpress you are not a domain expert!
He took shots at DomainSherpa, Chef Patrick and Morgan Linton. If you don’t make a good living in domaining you have no business giving out domain advice or pretending to be someone important in this industry.
Many people in this business are hobbyists, some are making no money and for some it’s an added bonus. Rick is not the norm, the Booth Brothers not the norm, Andrew Rosener not the norm.
There are some new people who kick butt like Yogi and Swetha, Mike Carson has made a fortune dominating the .io extension.
The discussions need to get deeper and more productive than .com is king and everything else sucks. Finding a niche to carve out will usually be more productive than following the crowd with inferior domains in a hot sector.
Whether some are wasting their time in this business is up to them. One domainer has created a post at Namepros about losing interest in domaining, it has over 6,000 views and a wide array of opinions.
“everyone is sitting on valuable domains, they just need the right timing for a big payday”
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That is definitely not true. Many domainers are just sitting on bad domains, being a pollyanna will not help, the comment is like getting the “effort” award when you come last in the running race.
I can’t believe it’s been a decade since Dicker said that. I remember telling my wife I am not a real domainer honey, you need $500K.
Thanks for the article good stuff.
Was Dicker wrong about Cyger, Chef or Linton? I say not.
Rick is not the norm, the Booth Brothers not the norm, Andrew Rosener not the norm.
BullS is not the norm!!