One of the best developments in the last 10 or so years in the domain industry is the openness in which people share information. People have been more willing than ever to share their advice and experiences on domain forums, domain blogs, and on social media. This is a relatively new thing for the domain space, which was once much more hush hush.
Domain name investing is great because there are so many ways to find success. I may earn money doing one thing and someone else may earn money doing the opposite thing. Some people buy keyword .com domain names and spurn “brandables.” Others buy and sell brandables exclusively. Some buy domain names for parking revenue and others buy domain names that don’t earn any PPC revenue. Some people strictly buy .com domain names and others focus on ccTLDs or new gTLDs.
Put simply, domain investing is not a zero-sum game. Everyone can make money doing different things.
In addition to this, people have different benchmarks for success. Some people will only feel that their business is a success if they are making millions of dollars a year, and other people or more than happy if their business generates enough money to pay for dinners and other incremental expenses. Some people need to earn revenue each month to keep going and others can sit and wait for years. It runs the gamut.
When reading advice shared by random or known people, people need to be aware of these differences. I think getting advice from different people with different backgrounds is good, but it is important to understand that some advice will work for some people and some advice would not. It’s like any other type of investment. You can’t walk into Charles Schwab, and a financial advisor a check for $1 million and tell him to go to work. The advisor needs to know your life situation, your goals, and other critical information to make good investment choices.
We are lucky to have as many (free) resources as we do in the domain industry. It is important to know when to take advice to help your business and when to ignore it. Good advice may be good for you but not good for me. Knowing what to listen to and what to ignore is critical.
> “Put simply, domain investing is not a zero-sum game.”
The problem is that too many effectively view it as a zero sum game, especially those with influence at the top. I’ve posted about this numerous times before including recently. It winds up costing everyone including themselves.
p.s. And with some I’m sure you can substitute “consciously” for “effectively” there…
Free domain investing advice:
1. Trust no one over 30, trust no one under 30.
2. Think for yourself.
3. Only .com works!!!
Different strokes for different folks. Nothing wrong with that. Solid article and thoughts.
I’ve been preaching this for years (Since 2010 at least). “What works for one, more than likely won’t work for another”. It’s important that every single domain investor sits down and takes the time to evaluate their business plan (Yes, it’s a business model) and their strategy options. Build up their targeted niche and then, once the foundation is there, they can diversify and test new markets. It’s much easier when just starting out to have a focal point to build on, rather than trying to dip into 50+ different niches and spreading the focus too thin to benefit from.
@ Eric Lyon
I couldn’t agree more – that’s exactly right
Here’s one piece of advice: never take advice from a person who is trying to sell you something or get something from you.
The most fundamental advice for anyone getting started in domaining is to not jump in feet first. Take time becoming educated, and develop an informed perspective. You will need an investment strategy and intelligent rules for where to put your money. Also, learning does not end, i.e. you adapt. The more you understand about the target market you aim to sell into, the better odds there are of becoming profitable.
Haha. I like the “random” nature of this post. Lesser humans would take that as an insult but domaining has been more than good to me so I won’t reciprocate. Besides, staying classy is the ultimate prize.
Frankly speaking, MOST people think they are doing domaining right but time will prove them wrong. The Domain King has already made this point clear so I won’t waste my time repeating.
I assure you I meant “random” in a generic nature rather than being some sort of insult to a pseudonymic commenter.