Rick Schwartz

Rick Schwartz has long been an outspoken domain investor. From creating the popular TRAFFIC industry conference to writing Rick’s Blog to sharing on Twitter, the “Domain King” has never been shy about sharing his opinions and offering advice about domain investing.

I would imagine that most serious domain investors who are on Twitter follow Rick’s account. People may not agree with everything he believes or posts, but I look at Rick as an industry leader. Rick was an early adopter of good .com domain names, bought many great domain name assets, sold a handful for a great deal of money, monetized his portfolio with PPC advertising, and he retained enviable portfolio of domain names to this day.

This afternoon, Rick announced that he is going to cap his Twitter followers at 10,000 (he currently has just shy of 9,500. He plans to privatize his feed so only followers will be able to access what he tweets about. As you might imagine, Rick shared this on Twitter along with his rationale:

I caught a LinkedIn post from Rick Schwartz this morning announcing a special domain investing segment on Clubhouse called “Domaining ‘Shark Tank’.” The event will be held this evening, and it will offer participants the opportunity to “pitch” a domain name or project during the Clubhouse event:

Domain investor participants leading the Clubhouse room will be Rick Schwartz, Kate Buckley, and Krista Gable. Krista let me know the event was created by Lady T –  @natina_jenkins on Twitter.

The Clubhouse room begins at 6pm Eastern time tonight (July 31, 2022). The LinkedIn post has a link to the Clubhouse room. I am not sure if you need to be approved in advance to participate / pitch, nor do I know what is required of speakers/participants.

It is generally assumed that operators of websites on non .com domain names will lose some traffic to the .com domain name. Even savvy Internet users can accidentally navigate to a brand matching .com domain name instead of the correct domain name. Depending on how the .com is being used, lost traffic can either be a relatively minor issue to a big problem.

A couple of days ago, Rick Schwartz shared some data involving one of his .com domain names where a non .com TLD is being used by another entity:

“Domain King” Rick Schwartz and Krista Gable will be hosting a Clubhouse room tomorrow, and Rick announced he will be giving domain name appraisals to participants. “Don’t miss your one and only chance to have the Domain King himself publicly valuate your domain live on Clubhouse,” the Clubhouse page says about the session.

I think this will be one of the most popular domain name-related Clubhouse sessions in a long time. The session was announced by Rick last week on Twitter:

The FIRST and LAST time I will ever do LIVE Public #Domain Appraisals!!

Domainers have asked me for decades to appraise their #DomainNames and I always say NO!

So this is the ONLY TIME I am going to say Yes!#Domains #RealEstate https://t.co/dw0n6WkACk

Tuesday October 5th! pic.twitter.com/BNTzMGb8WC

— Rick Schwartz 👑 The DomainKing® 👑 Since 1995 👑 (@DomainKing) September 29, 2021

Rick Schwartz recently announced he would open a domain brokerage. He later revealed he would be using Stud.com, a domain name he has owned for many years. Over the past few days, Rick has been sharing more details about how Stud.com will work:

So we are building this business, STUD .com, and we haven’t even done the economics to see if it’s viable.

But what we know is that it’s needed and when it is unveiled you will be PROUD. If we build it right, viability will take care of itself. #BreakEven#Domains #DomainNames

— Rick Schwartz 👑 The DomainKing® 👑 Since 1995 👑 (@DomainKing) July 23, 2021

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In late June, Rick Schwartz announced his plans to open a domain name brokerage. At that time, I speculated that he might opt to brand the business as Game Changing Domains and use the GameChangingDomains.com domain name he recently hand registered. It looks like I was wrong.

After reading additional commentary from Rick, it appears that he is moving forward with his plans using a domain name he has owned for many years – STUD.com.

Rick has teased a bit about the unique brand name over the past few days. He also announced that he will be talking about the launch of the website later today on Clubhouse with Krista Gable: