The domain investment business is fairly small, so there are many individuals that “everyone knows.” However, there aren’t as many individuals that everyone knows and likes. Mike Berkens is one of those few people. Mike’s company, Most Wanted Domains owns tens ft thousands of great domain names, and as far as I know, Mike is as bullish on domain names as anyone else in the industry. (You can read my “5 With Mike Berkens” interview for more detailed information.)
Mike started a great blog recently, and although I’ve linked to it a few times, I want to separately encourage everyone to add TheDomains.com to your RSS readers. Mike is one of those types of people that can move and shake the industry, and I have great respect for him. He has maintained a low profile until recently, and I am glad to see him blogging.
Mike is an influential guy in this industry, and his blog is a daily “must read.”
Mike Berkens' Daily Domain Blog
Great Castello Brothers Interview
I have a great deal of respect for David and Michael Castello and what they’ve done for the domain industry. Not only do they own an incredible group of developed geodomains including LagunaBeach.com, WestPalmBeach.com, and Nashville.com (among others), but they also have some other great generic non-geo related domain names names as well.
Aside from their tremendous portfolio of domain names, the Castello Brothers are genuinely nice guys who are always willing to give advice. I am especially thankful for the advice they have both given me for my Lowell.com development project. Recently, they were interviewed on SimplyGeo.com in a two part interview. Part One of the interview was posted yesterday, and Part Two was just posted today. This interview is a must read!
Creating Partnerships in the Domain Industry
There have been plenty of times that I’ve seen certain people in the business build a successful website, and I admired their vision, work ethic and execution. On more than one occasion, I’ve even said to myself, “I’d like to work with that person if I ever have an opportunity.”
With all the consolidation that has been occurring in the domain industry, it would be smart to continue to see various individuals and small companies putting their collective heads together to create something truly unique. I am sure that Bido is going to be very successful without even knowing exactly what it is, simply because Sahar, Darren, Ron and Jeff are involved, and these guys know the domain industry.
More often than not, domain investors and developers work individually or with a single partner. While this can be productive, it doesn’t always allow for new ideas to germinate. Working with a partner can teach all parties new things and new ways to solve problems. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one.
Obviously for this to work, the partners have to be able to work with each other, which can pose many challenges in and of itself. My advice is to be upfront with a potential partner if it doesn’t look like things will work out. A partnership can be a great thing, and it can help propel your business and the domain industry forward.
Hidden Issue of "Ghost Records" at Domain Registrars
A few months ago, I encountered a problem at one of my registrars where domain names were still listed in my account even though I transferred these names out to buyers who used other registrars. While the Whois records displayed the correct ownership, these names were still showing up in my account. This was confusing as the names still looked like they were under my control, but I didn’t have any control over them and they weren’t really in my account.
I contacted my account manager who asked me to list all of the names that shouldn’t be listed in my account, so the issue could be resolved by technical support. I was afraid to do that, as I feared a mistake would lead to the cancellation of a domain name I owned. Since there were at least a few dozen of these names, and I have a significant number of domain names in this account, the process of going through my records would have been tedious. Also, since many of the names involved were average names that I had sold, it wouldn’t have been as obvious as some premium generics I sold, and I was afraid that I would accidentally list a name I still owned.
I had never experienced this “ghost record” issue at other registrars, so I put the question out there on a domain forum, and a number of people emailed me telling me that they had gone through the same problem with various registrars at some point. Fortunately, as luck would have it, I was contacted by Jason Lavigne, Business Development manager at Rebel.com & Pool.com, who gave me a suggestion to pass along to my registrar. With Jason’s permission to post, this is what he advised me to do:
“The problem can be greatly reduced by regularly running a script to check against the whois or by using the registry message queue. The registry message queue advises registrars every time a domain is added or removed from a registrar and is more reliable than using the whois. If a registrar checks their message queue daily for transfer away notices and then adjusts their database they should be able to minimize ghost records as we’ve done at Rebel.com.”
With this information, I emailed my account representative and asked to have the customer support group run the transfer away script against the Whois records. A couple of days later, these ghost records were all removed from my account, and the problem disappeared.
Thanks a bunch to Jason for that great advice!
Being a Successful Domain Investor
What sets successful people apart in the domain investment business?
Sure, it helps to have money coming into the industry, but I don’t think this is what determines whether or not someone will be successful. I see people spending lots of money on poor names (in my opinion), and I know that it can be easy to go broke quickly if names are purchased without a solid plan or reason for buying. A buying, selling and monetizing strategy is necessary to have success in this business, and successful people have been able to implement such a strategy – whether on paper or in the person’s head.
I heard from an acquaintance yesterday who has had great success in the domain investment industry, and aside for being very happy for him, I was thinking about what made him successful. Is he the smartest person I know? Definitely not (no offense). Was he wealthy when he got started in the business? Not at all – in fact, he started investing with under $1,000.
So what do I think it is that has made him successful so far? He listened to everyone that offered him advice about the domain business. Instead of talking, he was listening. He knew others had spent months and years learning, and he was able to flatten the learning curve quite a bit. He never gets caught up in the fray of some forums, and he always comes across as professional. He maintains a low profile and doesn’t like the limelight. I would also bet he could name half of DNJournal’s YTD Sales Chart with a low margin of error. He knows his $hit in the business because he never stopped learning. There are tons of great resources out there for people just starting out, and thee are many people willing to mentor.
The purpose of this post is to let the people just starting out in the business know it isn’t difficult to become a successful domain investor. If you keep focused, listen, and learn as much as you can, you will be successful in this business. If you have a chip on your shoulder or take short cuts, you won’t be happy with the results. Sure, it may take a while to really “get it,” but once you’ve got it, you will be happy with the results.