I am on vacation and find myself working again. I love this business, but one of the downsides is that I can never get away from it. Sure, I can schedule some articles in advance and maybe use Protrada to place backorders at the last moments, but there are plenty of things I can’t automate or set up in advance. It always seems to be a working vacation of sorts. I would rather be doing this than any of the alternatives though.
Here are some thoughts and updates on the weekend. You are welcome to share some of your thoughts and business updates as well.
A few people asked me about the weekly brokerage listings articles because they haven’t been published in a couple of weeks. I haven’t received many submissions from brokers lately, likely due to the Summer, so I didn’t publish any posts. Honestly, I can’t say that I missed them though. It’s a combination of annoying and depressing to see nonsensical domain names listed at absurd prices week in and week out. I am not sure if I am going to bring the series back.
I just launched the first iteration of Embrace.com. The website is a domain marketplace for .com domain names. The tagline says it all; “We Embrace .com domain names.”
One of the biggest challenges I face as a one man operation is making major acquisition and sale decisions. Considering a domain acquisition or sale for 6 figures is a real gut check, especially if it’s not necessarily a liquid asset.
I really like the DomainNameSales.com platform, but one of the very few things I don’t like is the messaging on the inquiry page. People are prompted to enter their contact information to get “a free quote.” I don’t know about you, but for 95% of the inquiries I receive, I ask for an offer to be submitted. Promising a “free quote” isn’t something I will generally do.
I am seeing lots of articles about non-.com domain names becoming trendy. I don’t think the new gTLD domain names have been the impetus though. I think extensions like .TV, .CO, .ME, .LY, and other ccTLDs were some of the first non-legacy extensions to become popular.
Rob Grant’s daughter Lana Del Rey is back on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
“I don’t know about you, but for 95% of the inquiries I receive, I ask for an offer to be submitted. Promising a “free quote” isn’t something I will generally do.”
Agreed…kinda turns the game around some.
This is the most stress free business one can get into. All it takes is money and creativity.
The weekly brokerage listings is the best part of the week and that what we all look forward to.
It is the absurdities of the prices and domain names that what makes it fun!
This is the most stress free business one can get into. All it takes is money and creativity.
The weekly brokerage listings is the best part of the week and that what we all look forward to.
It is the absurdities of the prices and domain names that what makes it fun!
Lana Del Rey is so hot! 🙂
I would sorely miss the weekly brokerage listings. I always get a chuckle out of the domains (and prices) posted in the comment section. Enjoy your vacation Elliot. It’s well earned.
I think 99% of the readers here look forward to the Weekly Brokerage Listings like they do the Sunday Comics in their newspaper. It’s always a funny list.
Hey and its not just the domainers with insane prices on hilarious names, though the brokers names are always better quality, their prices usually have no rhyme or reason and look like they just picked a good sounding high number.
No, I’m glad to see Elliot finally feeling this way about it. The weekly brokerage thread is the one I ignore and don’t even look at almost 100% of the time. May have looked 2 or perhaps 3 (doubtful) times total.
Can’t help noticing you have Cranky . *** listed, Elliot, because you’ve been getting a bit cranky over time and lately between this and your “don’t tell me you have a small budget” thread. Becoming an old domain curmudgeon before your time. 😀 😀 But most of your “crankiness” seems well placed and the kind I agree with and would say myself. 😀
Now one thing I like about the “Sunday Thoughts” thread is that it’s flexible and can include almost anything Elliot is willing to allow.
That said, i would call attention to the colossal albeit still temporary sigh of relief we can all experience now regarding the issue of Internet governance the big desired (by some) “transition” that was underway:
“U.S. delays plans to cede oversight of Internet administrator to 2016”
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/r-us-delays-plans-to-cede-oversight-of-internet-administrator-to-2016-2015-8
This is not a time to practically forget all about it, however, but rather more time to make people aware of it, otherwise it could become back to “square one” or worse. Glad the domain investing community did devote some substantial and much needed attention to it a little while ago, however. Keep fighting the “good fight” because just as much and more is at stake with this as was the case with the more popularly known about issue of Net neutrality.
Too bad they don’t offer new Protrada accounts anymore (as of February or so). Troy told me they stopped offering new accounts and were going to move the bid sniper service over to nameinvestors but I’ve emailed him every couple months and they never seem to have it done yet. I just went and checked again and couldn’t find it mentioned on the site.
Definitely think there are better uses for Embrace.com.