Don’t Get Into A Business Because You Own a Good Domain!!

Seriously folks, don’t do it. I get asked by people all the time if I want to fund a business “idea” of theirs. It usually turns out that they have a good domain so they’ve developed a business plan to work with that domain. They never wanted to be in that business of course, and they have no particular love for the industry. Yet, they feel obligated to enter the market because of their name.

In 1998 I purchased Spanish.com for 5000 dollars. On or around the year 2000 I decided I would develop it and attack the language learning market. After spending about 100,000 dollars on trying; I finally realized that all the traffic wanted to do was cheat on their Spanish homework. In 2004 I sold it to Kevin Ham for an undisclosed amount and never looked back. I won’t make that mistake again. (developing it being the mistake)

As I said in my blog entry before this one, you don’t actually NEED a great domain to succeed. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it is a necessity. A good name helps but only helps. And it only helps if you have a strong desire to be in that business and do everything else right to succeed in that market.

This isn’t to say that buying a name can’t inspire you and give you an idea. Heck that happens to me too.

Just don’t get into a business you don’t care about simply because you have the name.

Don’t Get Into A Business Because You Own a Good Domain!!

Seriously folks, don’t do it. I get asked by people all the time if I want to fund a business “idea” of theirs. It usually turns out that they have a good domain so they’ve developed a business plan to work with that domain. They never wanted to be in that business of course, and they have no particular love for the industry. Yet, they feel obligated to enter the market because of their name.

In 1998 I purchased Spanish.com for 5000 dollars. On or around the year 2000 I decided I would develop it and attack the language learning market. After spending about 100,000 dollars on trying; I finally realized that all the traffic wanted to do was cheat on their Spanish homework. In 2004 I sold it to Kevin Ham for an undisclosed amount and never looked back. I won’t make that mistake again. (developing it being the mistake)

As I said in my blog entry before this one, you don’t actually NEED a great domain to succeed. Don’t fool yourself into thinking it is a necessity. A good name helps but only helps. And it only helps if you have a strong desire to be in that business and do everything else right to succeed in that market.

This isn’t to say that buying a name can’t inspire you and give you an idea. Heck that happens to me too.

Just don’t get into a business you don’t care about simply because you have the name.

How Important is a Good Domain?

You might be surprised to find out that I don’t think a great domain name is important to a business to have a successful web presence.

I completely disagree with people like Rick Shwartz who think that Hershey’s Corporation is stupid for not buying candy.com or Marriott needs to do some soul searching to find out why they didn’t buy hotels.com.

I agree with Madison Avenue when they try to explain to domainers on their panels that marketing executives would rather have a brand like M&Ms than Candy.com.

I myself have owned many successful websites that had lousy domain names. Was ConsumptionJunction.com a good name? Heck, I spent a small fortune on typos. You wouldn’t believe how many ways one could spell that name. That company has been sold and scrapped at this point but we had a good run before youtube.com. In 2000 our Alexa ranking was as low as 300 at one point. I wonder if the founders of youtube.com are wishing they bought videos.com while they are counting their Google cash.

What a good domain name can do is allow you to enter a market and compete with these big guys. They make it a little easier and sometimes a small edge is all you need. Yes, they also generate traffic and revenue if they are really good names but what makes them sell for far more than 20x earnings at times is that edge.

It’s the ability to call hotels in San Juan and tell them you are with sanjuan.com which gives that name so much value.

Just don’t believe the hype that a good name is necessary. They only help.

What is the problem with Network Solutions?

Why do they have to make life so difficult? I’m trying to transfer out two names that were registered there only four months ago. Both the names are unlocked. I called their support department and they told me they had to open a trouble ticket to their engineering group. Then after that, I get this email:

 

Dear Rick Latona,

 

Thank you for contacting Network Solutions Quality Processing Department. We are committed to creating the best Customer experience possible.

 

We have received your request to remove the Transfer Lock on your domain name, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.  In order to remove the lock we must first validate you as the rightful contact on the account.  Please fax a statement requesting the removal of the lock from the applicable domain name along with the information below for validation purposes prior to removing the transfer lock.  Upon receipt, validation will occur and the lock will be removed within 24 hours.

 

- Since your name is registered to an organization please supply a signed statement requesting the lock be removed from the applicable domain names. Please print the request on Company Letterhead, or provide a Business License, Company by Laws, or trademark papers.

 

Please also include a photo copy of your state issued ID or Passport. The signature on your ID should match the signature on the request.

 

On your fax, please refer to Service Request #XXXXXXXXXXX.

 

Please fax the information to:  XXXXXXXXXXXX.

 

If you prefer, you may scan the documents and email them to the address below.

 

Sincerely,

 

Kurt N.
Quality Processing Specialist
Network Solutions
knoll@networksolutions.com

They call that the best customer experience possible?

It’s time for a little shameless self-promotion

As if this site wasn’t self-promoting enough….

Most of you know that I’m the owner of DigiPawn, Inc which loans money on domains. Throughout the month of April we are offering 1% interest on your first month. That means that the cash is cheap if you can pay it back quickly.

Keep this in mind if you have an opportunity.

It’s time for a little shameless self-promotion

As if this site wasn’t self-promoting enough….

Most of you know that I’m the owner of DigiPawn, Inc which loans money on domains. Throughout the month of April we are offering 1% interest on your first month. That means that the cash is cheap if you can pay it back quickly.

Keep this in mind if you have an opportunity.

Realized Gains

Zip-Lining through the canopied rain forest in the Jamaican mountains, I can’t help but to think about Frank Schilling’s post on SevenMile.com. Like most of the big domainers, he doesn’t sell domains and he attempts on his blog to explain why that is so.

Perhaps because I was flying through the trees at night I could focus on the question at hand. When is the right time to sell a name?

I think back to my days at an Internet start-up in the mid-nineties. The venture capitalists would rant about how they would only invest in a company with one of three exit strategies. They would need to “go public” so their shares would be liquid, sell the company or the founders would need to buyout the investors.
What was their reason for this way of thinking? They wanted to realize their gains. They were keenly aware of the worthlessness of paper wealth. Gains aren’t realized until the cash is in the bank. Having something worth money is not the same as having money.

I think that many domainers out there have only paper wealth. I’m not speaking of Frank who has both. A good deal of domainers are sitting on names that are worth a pretty penny but generate little income and they refuse to sell the name. I just don’t see the sense in that.

I suppose part of it is personality related. For me, I can sell a name at or slightly below today’s value and feel comfortable that I can do more with that money than what I sold it for. If I was someone that didn’t have faith in my ability to buy something new for far less than today’s value I would struggle with it a bit more.
For now, I’ll take the cash and this little girl on an adventure.

All forms and comments now working

Everything should be back to normal on the blog. All forms and comments should be working just fine now. Sorry for the problems.

Why I’m Sporting an Obama Banner on My Blog (+other political beliefs)

Hillary Clinton can’t win. As long as the race comes down between Barrack Obama and John McCain, as a country, I believe we’ve already won.

It is my opinion that both of these men would make better leaders than we have had in many years.
John McCain has been my favorite republican for years. It’s his liberal tendencies that I like the most. I’d bet that he’s the favorite republicans of most democrats. I strongly believe he would be the best candidate when it comes to party differences. Most republicans loathe Hillary Clinton and Obama is probably too far to the left to get much republican support. Sure I worry about his age. We’ve all seen how the office can age a person. Look at any president’s pictures from the day they took the oath until the day they left office. They all look like they gain twenty-five years not four to eight.

While I’m not convinced that Obama can get us out of the Iraqi quagmire as quickly as he boasts he can, I do think that he’s a brilliant man and capable leader. We need a charismatic person like him in the White House to regain both our international respect as well as our own national self-respect. He seems to base his opinions on logic more than anything else. Logically, most of what our government does, doesn’t make any sense. Having a logical leader would logically help solve this problem. Follow my logic?

Hillary Clinton, I believe, would base her opinions on public opinion and polls more than anything else. She’s the quintessential politician and I don’t trust a word that comes out of her mouth.

Once Obama becomes the democratic candidate, the choice gets a little more difficult to make.

I don’t mind higher taxes which is the main reason my decision to be a democrat is an easy one. This isn’t a religious statement but being Godless clinches the deal. Take out taxes and God and I can’t think of a single reason to be a Republican. I personally feel that higher taxes are a necessity for our country. We can’t possibly provide healthcare and accept our global responsibility of protecting nations from bringing humanity to a state of destruction and chaos without the funds. I’m also in the globalization business and eradicating our national debt is the most surefire way of raising the dollar’s value. A higher dollar for me would far and away offset higher taxes. I also enjoy my personal freedoms, my right to surf whatever crazy websites I want without them being illegal and I’d certainly like to see stem cell research and other emerging technologies not stymied by the republicans. For all of these reasons I’m a democrat.

On the other hand, I firmly support The United States approach to policing the world. I’m worried that Obama will pull too far away from this. I’m sure many Americans and nearly everyone else will have a problem with this statement but let me explain.

After World War I the League of Nations was established. President Wilson and his foreign counterparts believed that the way to avoid another global conflict was for a group of powerful nations to police the world. They were right but they didn’t do their job. For twenty years they never took this task seriously and punished Germany for a war (WWI) that really wasn’t their fault but instead the result of all European powers building up their force to a point where firing started and nobody could even remember why. Fascism arose due to an do-nothing-League-of-Nations and before we knew it we were in another world war.

After World War II we tried again. This time we formed the United Nations and France, Russia, China, The United Kingdom and The United States took on the primary responsibility of policing the world. It was widely considered during this period that policing the world was a necessity. All the great thinkers of the age agreed.

What are we to do now that we are the sole remaining super power? I’ll tell you. We must police the world. It is our responsibility alone until the European Union gets its own common military in order and can share the burden.

Where George Bush will go down as one of the world’s worst presidents is his horrible handling of this awesome responsibility. Just because he muddled it, doesn’t mean the work doesn’t need to be done.
So once again I believe that we’ll be forced to make a presidential vote based on the lesser of two evils. While I believe McCain is the man to make the tough military decisions he’s still a republican and ultimately I’ll vote Obama. Hopefully, once in office, he’ll continue our long tradition of policing the world without getting us directly involved with unnecessary conflicts like the one in Iraq.

If there is a God, I pray to  him now that Clinton doesn’t win.

« Previous Page