The domain industry is made up of a diverse group of people with vastly different backgrounds. I’ve always found it interesting hearing about how domain investors became familiar with domain names and ultimately decided to invest some (or all) of their money in these virtual assets. Beginning today with my domain beginning, I will be posting stories from industry veterans, so you can learn how they became involved in the domain industry.
When I was in graduate school studying direct marketing at NYU, I wanted to earn some extra money – New York City is very expensive! One week, a family friend was contracted to clean the theatre curtains in the Empire State Building, and since I lived next door, he asked for my help. For 3 days, we cleaned the curtains, and I got some sage advice from him, an entrepreneur who has built a very successful business in California.
I was told I should find some type of unique product to sell online – maybe using a venue like Ebay. Since my apartment was small, the product would have to be compact, so the inventory didn’t take up too much space. I spent a few days looking on Ebay for products that were selling, and I saw that some domain names sold for hundreds of dollars. I looked into this some more, and I found unregistered names that looked similar to ones that were commanding big bucks.
After a few hours, I made my first purchase at Network Solutions. It was something related to the legal field, and I remember that it had a hyphen. I still have the receipt packed away somewhere, but I forgot what the name was. I do remember that I tried to sell it a couple of days later for a few hundred dollars to no avail. I eventually broke even on the name and found Godaddy, where I could buy names for much less.
I spent the next several months buying and selling domain names on Ebay, reinvesting almost all of my profits along the way. I continued to learn about what makes a good domain name, and had some good luck along the way.
Domain Beginnings: How I Started Investing in Domains
Follow Along as a New Site is Developed
While development is largely a private matter between a domain owner, his developer, designer, SEO manager and copy writer, CCIN has changed this, allowing domain investors and others to follow along as they develop Traveler.com. Not only will you be able to observe the development process, but you will be able to ask questions and provide feedback to make Traveler.com a leading travel resource.
People who are interested in following along with the development process are encouraged to join the launch group on Traveler.com for a backstage pass. As posted a few months ago CCIN has teamed up with Monster Venture Partners to develop Traveler.com into a leading website.
After A Big Sale – How Do You Reinvest?
After learning about Rick’s pending big sale, I am wondering what other domain investors do with the proceeds from a very large sale. Personally, I almost always reinvest as much as I can in better domain names for development or for resale. I would think that once you’ve sold a 7 or 8 figure domain name, you are less inclined to reinvest in lower value domain names. So I’d like to pose a question to those of you who completed large domain sales or anticipate closing on one:
When you sell a high value domain name, how do you reinvest that money?
- Do you buy other domain names?
- Do you invest in real estate?
- Do you provide seed capital for incubating companies?
- Do you invest in the stock market?
- Do you live off of your revenue in the French Riviera?
- Do you make it rain at the Spearmint Rhino?
HUGE Domain Deal in the Works
When you see that a HUGE domain deal is going to take place in the near future, who is the first person you think of that made the deal? If you guessed Rick Schwartz, you would be correct.
Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice, unless there’s a reason for it. While some people have said that Rick Schwartz is “lucky,” I would strongly disagree. Rick saw the potential in domain names many years ago, scoffed at selling most over the past few years, and has recently cashed in, while retaining some of his best names. Not only did Schwartz recently work out huge deals for iReport.com and Property.com (and RoomDividers.com last week), another deal is in the works that in Rick’s terms, “will blow the doors off the industry at the darkest time…..AGAIN!”
While the domain name in discussion hasn’t been publicly revealed yet, the deal is going to make headlines for Schwartz again – and for his friend Kevin who had a hand in the Property.com deal as well. While I won’t publicly congratulate Rick for this until the deal is done, I will say that from this and my own personal experience, it appears more end users are beginning to understand why they should own category defining generic domain names, and many are paying big bucks to get them.
Wishing My Best to New Orleans
As the storm reports continue to worsen, I want to take a few moments to send my best wishes to my friends at NewOrleans.com, FatTuesday.com, and other non-domain friends who live in the New Orleans area. I love New Orleans as much as I love New York, and I had one of the most fun weekends in my life in New Orleans a few months ago. New Orleans residents are some of the friendliest people I’ve met, and I hope they stay safe over the next few days.
Here’s hoping the storm isn’t as bad as predicted, and as they say down there, laissez les bon temps rouler.
Thank You to Rick Latona & Co.
I am floored and touched by something Rick Latona and his employees did for me and Karen. Shortly after I proposed to Karen, I thought about buying KarenSilver.com for her. Unfortunately, I saw that the name had been registered for a while, and there was a website on the site. Sadly, I didn’t even try to buy the name. I settled with a name that wasn’t as good, but I figured it was better than nothing.
Out of the blue last night, I received an email from David Clements (President of Rick Latona Auctions, LLC) letting me know that the folks at the Rick Latona family of companies acquired KarenSilver.com as a wedding gift. This is an incredible gift, and Karen and I are very appreciative. This is something that Karen will have for a long time, and as her career grows, this gift will have even more meaning.
To Ryan Steel, David Clements, Toby Clements, and especially Rick Latona, thank you very much for doing this for us!