The domain industry isn’t perfect, but you need not run for the hills.
I got a kick out of a message posted on Rick Schwartz’s blog after he announced he would stop blogging:
I hope you all realize what is going on here. The message should be loud and clear. Rick has been warning everybody all year to help him mount a defense against what is coming. Very few are paying attention, and very few are helping him build the fort to protect against the coming invaders. So, rather than waste is time blogging to people who don’t listen, he is leaving us to fend for ourselves and he will use his newfound time to mount his own defense (probably by developing some of his domains and selling others). We have lost our visionary and a big industry voice.
WAKE UP PEOPLE! Rick stops blogging, Frank stops blogging, Yahoo kills arbitrage, Ask/Google, Snowe Bill.
The writing is on the wall.
Man, people sure do read into things! My guess is that Schwartz discovered how much work blogging is and decided he didn’t want to do it. It’s not worth his time. And Frank Schilling has a $20 million a year empire to manage, and blogging 24/7 doesn’t make sense. As a fellow writer, I’ve seen many blogs start and stop over the past several years.
So to look at a couple big domainers stop blogging and start crying that the world is ending is just silly.
Still others are concerned because Schwartz put one of his prized domains, Widgets.com, on eBay. I say “big deal”. Maybe he just wants some more cash, and widgets are hot right now. Putting it on eBay with a reserve may get the domain some press, which can be used to parlay the domain into a big sale to a web 2.0 company.
As for arbitrage, Yahoo killed arbitrage for Joe Domainer. But that wasn’t really about domaining, anyway. Registering domains for arbitrage doesn’t make you a domainer.
Google killing its search sub feed to Ask.com made sense, too. I know it’s tough to swallow, but there’s no reason Ask should have been allowed to take a Google search feed (not content) and syndicate it to every which domain parking company that didn’t have a direct feed with Google.
OK, so I sometimes get stuck in “the world’s ending” rut too. What’s really keeping me up at night? There are a few things, but it’s none of the above (even though the arbitrage thing really killed me given how many people I referred to a parking company that were doing arbitrage).
1. Snowe bill. It’s not because I think it will be passed in its current form (if it even gets out of committee), it’s because I think there will be a bill like this at least once a year. Don’t run for the hills over this bill; there will be many more like it.
2. Google allowing opt-out of domain parking. In theory this is fine, but because there are so many junk and fraudulant domain parkers out there, advertisers will opt-out in droves…hurting the honest ones. Look for Yahoo to follow shortly.
3. Parked-page blindness. Remember the term “banner blindness”? When banner advertising click-through rates dropped earlier this decade, it was blamed on people being “blind” to banner ads after seeing them so often. The same thing is starting to happen to text ads. Next, people will become familiar with parked domain pages and become blind to them. Is this what is driving down parking revenues? The best data point I have on parking revenue is from a domainer who owns tens of thousands of generic domains and says his revenue is off 10% from the start of the year. I blame the faltering economy, new Google and Yahoo guidelines, and parking page blindness.
4. Bottom feeders.
I recall a story about lottery winners. When asked what they would do if they lost their fortunes overnight, they said they didn’t know. When entrepreneurs were asked the same question, they said they’d earn it all back.
Opportunists may never get it back. Entreprenuers will. So which one are you?
Steven says
I do not think the domain community is coming to an end.Certainly no need to run for the hills unless once you do, you see hill.com for sale for pennies.
I think Rick did get fed up with people not wanting to become more involved in protecting their assets. I do not think it was a time management issue for Rick….it could be but I doubt it!
Bottom line…all the blogs should be promoting activism for promoting domain invests assets.
Andrew says
@ Steven – I don’t mean to say it was “time management”, but he didn’t feel it was worth blogging. Perhaps that’s because he was frustrated, which is just one of many reasons it may not be “worth it”.
Bonkers says
This POST speaks loudly and so true.
Elliot Silver says
Hi Andrew,
While I agree that the end isn’t near and the sky isn’t falling, I do think people need to be aware of the dangers that are looming. IMO, it isn’t the people who small or obscure portfolios that need to worry. It’s the mid-level people with some strong names but perhaps not a ton of cash to defend them. If Rick or Frank gets sued, they could easily afford to mount a legal defense. Someone who owns ReallyCoolWidgets.com is fine because nobody will want to take that type of name. It’s the people in the middle with second tier names that could be in the most trouble. I own some pretty good names, but it would be tough to spend $50k on non-recoverable legal fees to defend myself if a state AG tries to take away one of my geo names. However unlikely it is, there is still that potential.
Regarding Rick, he has always been outspoken and lively. When a self-appointed spokesperson throws in the towel and basically says, “I’ve said my piece, you’re on your own,” that is a bit scary to me. I am still bullish on domain names, but I think development is key to long term success at this point in time.
Jamie says
Great post Andrew! I agree 100% about the listing of Widgets.com on eBay as well. It was a cheap form of advertising for the domain and gave Rick a little more time in the “spotlight”.
Jeff Reynolds says
Make no mistake about it – a major shift is happening in the domain name industry. There are a number of things driving it: the faltering economy; legislative/regulatory/judicial activity; the crash in some segments of the parking industry. Doesn’t mean the world is ending, but does mean planning ahead and repositioning yourself to ride the next wave. Lots and lots of domain bargains will appear in the next few months as cash-strapped folks head for the hills. Buy category-killing generics and then develop them!!! As for Rick’s frustration, share it. How many big names are absent from the ICA membership list? Too many. We are headed for a rough patch and at least some of it is due to our own failure to act.
Jeff Schneider says
Hi Andrew,
In my opinion you are spot on when you say there will be more Bills just like the Snowe Bill coming. The eyeball snatchers have a planned systematic approach to poaching small business owners Addresses.
I am promoting help from within the small business community to help build out a permanent cash cow for the I.C.A. I have donated the lease name of ” HelpRaiseFunds.com ” for the long term goal of raising funds to protect the small business owners rights in the eBiz universe. Please contact me through my website USeBiz.com if you are intersted in offering your much needed help. Thank You Andrew!
__________
Jeff Schneider / Former Marketing Analyst Rockefeller Foundation
Andrew says
@ Elliot – this is very true, and you and I are similar in this respect. We have good, mid-market domains but not enough money to fight a long lawsuit.
As for Rick, I’ll bet $10 he blogs again. Maybe not as often, but he’ll do it 🙂
We’re also in agreement that development is important, especially for mid-tier domains.
Andrew says
@ Jeff – it is a little startling that many of the big parking companies aren’t on the ICA list. It’s possible they contributed but didn’t give permission to have their name published (I joined prior to Feb 29, and apparently that means I didn’t automatically give permission to have my name published).
Here’s what you need to do. Email the parking companies you do business with and ask them to join. If they don’t want to join, ask them why. Maybe there’s a good reason they aren’t joining, but they should come on record to say it.
Andrew says
Is anyone getting errors whey they post comments on Domain Name Wire today? Either the page doesn’t refresh or you get a “duplicate comment” error? Want to see if it’s just me.
Thanks
Jeff Schneider says
Great idea Andrew, I’m on it! I’ll report back on the outcome. Gratefully Jeff Schneider
Ofer Ronen says
To offset the risk of parking revenues going down I’ve been advocating sending traffic directly to advertisers.
We’ve seen this work very well in terms of generating higher revenues, especially when advertisers can compete for the domain traffic.
Domainers diversify their monetization and either show a parked page or send visitors directly to advertisers depending on which pays better.
Ofer (CEO of sendori.com)
Steve M says
The only reason I’m running for the hills…is for the great exercise it provides…and to maintain the best view possible of all that really matters in our industry…
Join me, won’t you.
Damir says
Interesting post
I do agree with you in parts of it – there is NO need to make a BIG deal about a person not wanting to blog anymore.
The world will NOT End.
There are many freat domain name bloggers out there and YOU are ONE of them.
Keep up the GREAT WORK – and do not be affraid to express yourself YOUR way.
Jeff Schneider says
First off hats off to all the leaders that are stepping to the plate and joining the I.C.A.. I don’t know about others on this forum ,but I am in this industry for the long run. Maybe someone on this forum has a calculator handy. What is 5 % of the on line advertising Industry? That is the low low end of just the direct navigation industries, slice of the pie that we eat. This slice of the pie is only going to get larger, as the public starts getting wise on how to dial up companies addresses directly. Great Industry to be in right ?
Would you imagine in your wildest dreams someone wanting those kinds of dollars for themselves, and all they have to do is pick off small holders one by one and in so doing setting precedence as they go. Knowing that if the Snowe bill passes the take gets bigger. On top of this the small business owners have no $ coming in 24/7 to protect their interests, because knowone cares to pool assets to fund a passage residual income source used to protect their turf?
Our competition employs professional fund raisers, with a planned systematic approach to change our addresses to theirs. Its been going on now since I’ve been in the business for as long as I can remember.
The ad companies aren’t pushing direct navigation because they don’t control the addresses. They will not quit, without a fight. Please support a fund raising initiative for the I.C.A. “HelpRaiseFunds.com
ASN5 says
“Opportunists may never get it back. Entreprenuers [sic] will.”
IMHO, you have touched on the reason for the panic you see in the digital streets. The vast majority of “domainers” have approached domain name investing by seeking an opportunistic advantage.
This mentality has for years cascaded throughout the industry, as it were, and had even reached the point where a domain name was to be valued on multiples of what could be extracted out of it using theses narrow strategies.
To instantly change this mentality based on the avalanche of changes affecting the market will be difficult for entrepreneurs, but nearly impossible for those with only a tired opportunistic strategy.
In regards to the widgets.com auction on eBay, my personal impression was twofold: (1) the auction was either rigged as a publicity stunt, or he was foolish for not taking the $175K, and (2) either way, it was a sad commentary on the utility of his own TRAFFIC auctions.
After all, why would anyone sign up for an auction that requires months of exclusive access to their domain name and agree to a TWO YEAR claim on any future sale of the domain name, when one of biggest marketers for the auction uses eBay?
Andrew says
@ ASN5 – Thanks for your comment. And I’m ashamed I typo’d entrepreneur.
Just a note if you ever want to register a domain with ‘entrepreneur’ in it. Don’t do it. Most people can’t spell it. If you do register it, register some typos too.
ASN5 says
@Andrew
LOL, almost as bad as leaving the word out entirely. (As in “…when one of [THE] biggest marketers for the auction uses eBay?”)
Typos aside, I enjoy reading your perspectives.