So Damn Shady - The Internet is a Dangerous Place

I’ve been in the Internet business for a while. In my time I’ve met some shady people. To tell you the truth, I’ve spent a LOT of time with some of these people. Buying and selling domains and websites in mass puts you in a lot of businesses after all. At one point I actually started writing a book about some of them but decided on not being the whistle blower.

Without naming names, there are the guys in the download business. These are the guys that install AdWare on your computer. They can pop a window to tell you to buy a stock at 9:30 a.m. or copy every email address out of your Outlook. Hell, they can have 1 million users send 10 emails each so spam blockers won’t detect a single server farm sending 10 million emails. You could be spamming. They can do anything they want because they have an exe file on your box.

There are the phishers, spammers, scammers and theives….

Then there are the people that specialize in billing. They are the ones that run many adult and dating sites. They also do a lot of mainstream stuff. You think they are in the business of selling tits, ass, Sundays in the park or punch the penguin games but they are really in the billing business.

I have a nickname for them. I call them shoe string salesmen. They are the ones that buy an old couple’s shoestring company that has been around for years and has excellent credit and then use the merchant account to sell adult site memberships. They tell the surfers that the site is free as long as they enter their credit card number to verify that they are 18. Buried in the terms of service are multiple pre-checked cross sales. The unsuspecting surfer with a hard-on thinks he’s getting away with something but what he doesn’t know is that he’s subscribing to 3 or 4 other sites as well at $39.95 per month each.

Well, it appears Master Card has finally been shown the light. Clearly they’ve had enough charge backs to call it quits. Maybe Visa will finally follow suit to end this shady practice. As recent events in the global economy have shown, if business can’t police itself government will do it for them.

Thank you Santa for the gift I wanted most

I’ve often been quoted saying that what I do for a living is answer emails. It’s really all I do during the day and somehow, through this process, multiple companies are run.

In fact, I have little time for anything else. I answer emails at traffic lights, at 2 a.m. in the morning and often, rudely, during dinner with my family! I have to, if I don’t I’m screwed. I simply can’t keep up with them.

A couple of months ago I was on a flight from Atlanta to Las Vegas. The guy sitting next to me started talking about how many emails he got. So I bet him $5 that I got 4 times as much or more. We both checked the newest emails on our iPhones while we were on the plane and when it landed we checked how many new emails downloaded. He had 22 new emails come in during the flight, which would be a lot for a normal person. I had more than 250.

If you fill out a form on this site, I get an email. If you fill out a form on DigiPawn, I get an email. aeiou.com and a host of other sites, send me emails. Every penis enlargement and v1agra company on the Internet, sends me email. When I send out my newsletter I’m bombarded by replies that unfortunately are mostly people trying to sell me their names.

I can’t and won’t use spam filters because with so many tens of thousands of domain names, the subject matter of an email that I need to see could be about virtually anything.

Christmas falling in the middle of the week is a disaster for businesses. It means that New Years will also fall in the middle of a week. It means that the world is more or less shut down for two weeks.

Yes, I have been enjoying my holidays but I’ve also used this time of only thirty emails per hour to empty my inbox and task list. I have no more reminders on Outlook that I’m snoozing every five minutes. A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind and my mind is currently uncluttered.

For now.

DigiPawn’s 1% Financing Offer is Back!

From now until the end of the year, the first month’s interest at DigiPawn will be only 1%. Please email me, use the contact form or fill out an application at DigiPawn.com if you need more information.

Last time we did this promotion we did a lot of deals so bring them on. We are ready.

Look out history, here I come! Did I mention I’m an Obama fan?

You know your kids go to a good school when a U.S. Senator donates tickets to the presidential inauguration ceremony. I just won the tickets at a charity auction.

That, however, was the easy part. The hard part is going to be finding somewhere to stay. I’d really rather not stay outside of Washington D.C. and everything decent appears to be booked.

If you or someone you know lives there and wants to rent their place out, let me know. Now I have to look for transportation.

On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog

Peter Steiner created this famous cartoon on July 5th, 1993 for an issue of The New Yorker. Considering that the first graphical web browser (Mosaic) was launched on April 22nd, 1993, it’s really quite amazing how quickly Mr Steiner “got it”.

It’s not that nobody knows you’re are a dog. It’s actually obvious to everyone when you act like one. It’s that most people think that no one notices their dog like behavior. Therein lies the brilliance of this cartoon which has been published countless times since.

The amount of rude comments I get is astounding. Today, I had someone submit 25 domains all about Christianity but they weren’t good names. They had other keywords in them that I didn’t like and none of the names had any real business opportunity. So, I denied the application the way I usually do by sending a quick reply “Thanks for thinking of me but I’m afraid I wouldn’t be interested in representing these names”. What does this Christian do? He replies with “There isn’t anything wrong with any of the names I submitted. Certainly they are comparable to some of the ‘quality names’ I’ve seen ‘represented’ on your site…so I guess I should just assume you are prejudiced against Christians / Christianity in general or maybe you’re just into porno. Maybe I should get RickLatonaHatesChristians.com”

Here’s one of my personal favorites. Someone submits bestofbabiesworld.com and wants me to list it in the mid x,xxx range. I politely decline. So he replies with “How about these? rickisnowaprimadonna.com, rickthinksheisnowanexpert.com, rickisfullofhimselfandotherthingstoo.com, rickyknowsbest.com, youcancallmedickforshort.com, iamsofullofmyselfthereisnoroomforyou.com and finally gofuckyourselfyouoverblownasshole.com”.

Now was that really necessary? The fact is that I have no obligation to accept any names. I’m running my business the way I think it needs to be run. I’m picky about which names I list and I try to make sure all of the pricing is reasonable. Do I make mistakes? Sure I do. I make them everyday! However, I think I’ve proven that I know a thing or two about a thing or two. Why would these people want to be my enemy?

One thing that I have noticed to be absolutely true is that on the Internet Everyone Knows Who You Are! I’m constantly finding myself doing business with people that I haven’t done business with in 10 years or more. You never know when you will need to talk to someone again about something new. Don’t be a dog because people will remember your actions.

I’ve deleted so many other good ones but I think I’ll add to this post as new ones come in.

Starting out in the domain business? I may have an opportunity for you.

If you are new to the domain business or struggling to really get off the ground, I may have an opportunity for you.

I have many names that could be good directory names. For example, a name like EastLyme.com represents a tourist town with lots of hotels, bed and breakfast joints, condos and houses for rent.

I do not have the time to sign those small businesses up as advertisers but you might.

So, if you can afford a down payment, I will set you up with a lease to own contract where the name will be yours once you’ve made all of the payments.

I’m not a saint and I’m not doing this as a favor. I expect to make more off the name than if I sold it outright for cash now. However, I won’t set the terms unfair.

I have thousands of names that fit this profile. If you A) Have at least enough funds for a few hundred dollar down payment and B) are willing to put in the time to make the site something of more value and C) are interested in this proposition, contact me.

Do not contact me if you don’t fit A, B and C above.

We are also willing to do the web design piece of this for you. Essentially, we are looking for budding entrepreneurs. We will give you the tools you need to be successful but the rest is up to you.