If the domain name industry wants respect from the mainstream, it needs to be more professional.
The single biggest threat to the domain name industry isn’t Google’s smart pricing. It isn’t VeriSign raising .com prices 7%. It isn’t the trademark lobby. And it’s not ICANN.
It’s professionalism. Or a lack thereof.
Like many industries, the domain name industry started as a group of wildcatters from diverse backgrounds. It has grown into much more; a multi-billion dollar industry. Yet many people still look around wondering why the domainer contingent doesn’t get more respect.
Where is Madison Avenue? Where are the end users? Why don’t they respect clicks from domain names?
They might not be here because a number of people in the industry aren’t professional. They start to investigate getting involved with domain names in some fashion, but are turned off by what they see. Turned off by the used car salesman approach. Turned off by the adult side of the business, which somehow gets co-mingled with the rest of it. Turned off by discussions laced with profanity.
Whatever the specific turn-off, it boils down to professionalism.
If domainers really want respect, we as a collective need to earn it. Not by telling people they’re wrong or stupid. Not by biting the hand that feeds us. Not by standing in front of a crowd with unprepared remarks. Not by becoming unhinged.
By being professional.
M. Menius says
Superb comments. Thank you for this post.
jblack says
Exactly. You totally nailed it Allen.
jblack says
Andrew, sorry 😉
David J Castello says
Good argument, Andrew. On the other hand, a lot of what we have and represent directly threatens the status quo in the midst of a extended economic downturn. Many domainers on the “front lines” are Geodomainers because we immediately came face-to-face with traditional media, local “Madison Avenue” and local “Wall Street”. The good news is that we are winning and will continue to to make progress, but it’s going to be a long slog. Yes, professionalism is quite important, but (unfortunately) I’ve discovered that a battering ram may get their attention and respect faster.
Andrew Allemann says
@ David – there’s a fine line between being assertive and unprofessional. You know how to walk it; many others don’t.
HBV says
I fully agree with this post. Perhaps the next TRAFFIC needs a domainer charm school.
Alan says
Wisest post of the year.
Aron - XF.com says
AMEN.
Many people aren’t coming to the shows for this reason.
I could say A LOT more, but eh — you said it 🙂
Mark J says
Bravo.
Bruce Tedeschi says
Who wrote this? That is because some domainers do it as a past time or hobby. Those of us that make a living from it, have to be professional. I personally have tried to include brokers in my network but rarely do I find someone who actually wants to work for it, not just send an email.
Rob Monster says
Good post.
I have been a full-time domainer since 2009. My first exposure to the industry in 2007 when I backed DevHub and Internet Real Estate Group as an angel investor. I love this industry but it is definitely a change of scenery from 8 years at P&G!
The domain industry is “rough and tumble”. There are a lot of streetfighters, that are street smart. Street smart people are often quick to doubt the intentions of others. It is instinct. For example, when Epik talks about revenue reporting, long-time domainers are blown away that we actually report our full unadjusted topline revenue. This is apparently atypical for the industry.
Sometimes we then spend cycles explaining that the reported revenues really are ALL of the revenue. Why might people ask such questions? People who lack integrity themselves usually doubt the intentions of others. The solution is simple. Stop doing business with people who lack integrity. It is not worth it. They will eventually move on to other industries in order to make a living. If the industry makes integrity and professionalism a price of entry for doing business, the entire industry will benefit.
To be clear, integrity does not mean someone is perfect. One can have the best intentions and still screw up or fall short of expectations for one reason or another. The solution there is to take responsibility — in whatever form makes sense — not because one has to, but because it is the right thing to do.
A big part of integrity and professionalism is personal accountability. Blogs are a good example worth discussing here. The Domain industry has an incredibly high concentration of persons with multiple-personality. It is ridiculous that there are bloggers with split/false identities and that blogs regularly include comments that are not made by real people in order to achieve “manufactured consensus”. The people who operate blogs have a duty to police their blogs, stripping comments that are made by unverified commenters, and rejecting blog feeds that are spurious at best.
Anyway, I am 100% convinced that if the bloggers raise the professionalism bar, the rest of the industry will follow! Andrew is spot on to raise this topic now. Good one.
PDAA says
I see an opportunity for Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu to commence with the Professional Domainers Association of America…send them your hard earned money today you MORONS
HolloNames says
@ Rob Monster: Hilarious, you seem to want to place a greater burden on blog owners to police their comment sections than you want to place on domain name investors to act ethically. What else would one expect from a guy who gave Schwartz a lifetime achievement award. Schwartz, Neu, Traffic all yesterdays news man. Anyone with a serious interest in this industry wants little if nothing to do with these clowns or at the very least does not want them to be the flag bearers for the industry. While alot may have changed in the last 8 years unfortunately little has changes with Schwartz and Neu, two of the biggest stumbling blocks this business has to gaining and real world respectability.
todaro says
disagree. personally… i don’t play dominoes but i have found domino players the most respectful and professional of all gamers.
Rob Monster says
@Hollo – With all due respect, let’s give Howard Neu and Rick Schwartz credit for being GENUINE. Love them or not, they are GENUINE. They will tell anyone who will listen exactly what they are thinking, and they do it with passion and zeal.
Now if these pioneers could add a patina of diplomacy and gravitas to their distinguished palette of professional skills, that would be great. Either way, I love those guys and applaud them for their service to the industry.
And I will never regret for one second regret selecting Rick Schwartz of the first recipient of the Pioneer Award. He was the obvious choice and judging from the job Rick and Howard did with TRAFFIC Miami, I would not rule out the possibility that Rick himself will be raising the bar. Personally, I am rooting for him.
Osy says
Great post!
The lack of professionalism is rampant among domain investors. Just check the tone and format of the emails many of them send. But this issue is extensive to the domain auction houses as well.
The question, Is this really and industry?, must be raised. Auction houses respond to your inquiries or support tickets if and when they feel like; promise you to add a domain to an auction event and fail to do so. This business is full of irresponsibility.
Tim Kissane says
The wildcat, roughneck aspect of domaining is part of what attracts me to the industry. It suits my personality far better than a corporate 9-5 cubicle. That said, nothing discourages me more than calling an end-user and getting the “not another sleazy domainer” attitude. It makes me wonder what their past experience has been. Some of this may be due to a general public misunderstanding of domain names and their value. But domainers who treat end-users like idiots certainly don’t make it easier for those of us who actually *need* the sales.
WQ says
You either are professional in character or you aren’t. If you aren’t, you can learn to change or you can fake it, if you want.
Im just a guy who stumbled onto the domain business a decade ago and works in my boxers at home. Nothing professional about me and I hate having to act fake.
Domainers have bad reps due to typosquatting, guys like John Z, and jealousy.
As far as how we act, well, there are the same kind in all businesses.
Ms Domainer says
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Amen to this post.
I recently received a domain query from a well-known domainer.
I promptly responded with my price.
No response, no “Thank you, but no.” Nothing.
It takes about 30 seconds (or less) to respond with a polite refusal.
BTW, I was willing to negotiate, but this dope will never know because of his non-response. Now I would rather see the domain drop than see this guy get it.
I’ll always remember this person for the boar that he is.
Perhaps other domainers don’t mind this kind of rudeness, but I guarantee you that business people outside of domaining would find this person’s selfishness offensive and immature.
*
WQ says
Ms Domainer, your post is a great example of the hypocrisy in this biz as well as with any.
The person does not give you a reply and now you resort to name calling and hoping he never gets the domain.
You want him to be professional with you but you are not professional yourself.
Sid Marcovitch says
When search engines began feeding text ads to otherwise empty websites displaying only illustrations of yellow hard-hats accompanied by the words, “UNDER CONSTRUCTION”, little did these behemoths of search know they were setting in motion one of the greatest treasure hunts of all time, but instead of Gold Doubloons and Pieces of Eight, this modern day bounty took the form of highly prized, generic, descriptive keywords and phrases followed by a period and the letters, “com”, “net” & “org”. There be no fool’s gold here, but rich, digital bullion of the intellectual kind: DOMAIN GOLD.
What could not have been predicted was that this strategic move to monetize websites without content would virtually ensure that the majority of those pages, published to the most popular of all keywords and phrases searched globally by millions each day, would NOT be developed into the ultimate content rich ecommerce sites and information portals represented by the keywords and phrases contained in the domain name, but would instead become a testament to the treasure hunter and the anathema of the site visitor: PARKED PAGES.
In response to market changes and declining revenues, the parked page business model has slowly evolved over the years in an attempt to meet the ever increasing demands of the search engine algorithm taskmasters.
Today, mass development of domain name portfolios is all the rage. The domainer recipe for feeding an information hungry public largely consists of ad networks and affiliate programs combined with scraped content half-baked to perfection and served-up with an oversized pinch of SEO to taste.
What’s wrong with this recipe? Instead of satisfying the site visitor, this approach is largely intended to feed the domainer. The site visitor is simply a means to getting paid. Not a great strategy for restaurants – or domain names.
The domain industry still has the ability to control its own destiny by giving up parked pages and investing time, effort, and money into creating a world class, next generation monetizing platform, that doesn’t break the bank of the portfolio holder to participate, while turning these keyword rich domain names into the ultimate content rich ecommerce sites and information portals.
It’s what the search engines want and what the site visitors deserve.
The domain industry must transform itself into a media company that owns and controls its own traffic. Historically, the domain community has preferred NOT to do the heavy lifting that follows the purchase of a domain name, but if we are to be in control of our own fate, the heavy lifting is EXACTLY what we need to be doing, and we need to be doing it now.
I have a plan to do this. Contact me, and let’s begin the work that will transform the domain business into a media powerhouse. The dollars spent to make this happen are nothing compared to the losses this industry will suffer if we continue down the path that puts the domainer first – instead of focusing on site visitor value.
The ultimate success of this plan would mean that hundreds of thousands of domain names now languishing in parked page and mini-site wastelands would begin to deliver rich, relevant, engaging content. In the process, the domain community becomes a power player that sets the tone for the future instead of remaining a splintered group without a compass waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Any takers?
Hal Meyer says
You make some good points.
The public equates domaining with Cybersquatting. They don’t understand the nuances. They don’t realize that there are legitimate reasons to own domain names. And, maybe they have never considered the existence of “generic” domains.
The most pathetic are the two guys from Florida who run a domain trade show. They both constantly preach professionalism and ethics, but neither exhibit it in their own dealings.
Henry says
When the price of entry is next to nothing, what do you expect? And we have come a long way.
Donald says
Rick Schwartz, you’re fired!
good says
Professionalism, amen.
Not too likely though, in terms of well mannerism and diplomacy, to define this industry in any way, any time soon.
That development model down the road that make domainers turn their holdings into businesses, that´s what would bring dignity and public respect.
And maybe it would help if some dinosaurs could keep the lid on once in a while, what do I know.
mansour says
Every respected business has few leaders and the domain business has none. Also if you drop the word domainers it may help. We have a long way to go ICANN.
Deke says
Domains and real estate have been compared many times, maybe we should be as professional as the real estate industry. Oh wait, nevermind! LOL
Kidding aside, I remember how in 1995-1998 I got many random, unprovoked “domain owner hater” flame emails. These always, and I stress, always, came from developers, and many still do today. Today there is a mix of those that dislike domainers.
….so developers won’t work with us quite often. They don’t see us as being on their level.
Madison Avenue usually does not want to work with us because, unless our traffic is packaged as a big purchase, they can’t be bothered with it. They need to allocate big bucks, not $300 a month contracts. Also they want to deal with real companies, not some company with some dubious sounding name in the Whois. They also don’t “get” where the traffic is coming from. They don’t understand Direct Navigation.
….so Madison Avenue does not want to do biz with us.
The end users are upset b/c many domainers put such a sky-high price on domains that it leaves a bad taste in their mouth. Until domainers actually start needing to sell, prices will remain high.
….so end users are averse to doing business with domainers.
I’ve found that jerks are in every industry I have ever been involved in. Professionalism, IMO,really has had very little to do with the reason why many don’t want to do biz with us.
gpmgroup says
This looks like there must have been some professionalism…
http://www.ricksblog.com/.a/6a00d83451f3f569e20133f545c74c970b-popup
Nic says
If you’re not getting respect, charge more for your domains. Works for me. Professional, too.
Nic
Landon White says
I will speak the truth….
Andrew here does police, more then the rest
but he is not a policeman or
A CONTROL FREAK…
Andrew has more Professionalism then any other Internet blog/forum
that i know of and he is sincere!
BUT..
As far as Domainers being Professional?
most of my clients are Gamblers and that
is because that is what a domainer is..
A GAMBLER.
Telemarketers are told to be professional,
but when they don’t get sales, THERE FIRED!
BUYERS ARE LIARS…when it comes to parting
with money domain buyers will tell you every story in the book,
to avoid paying what its worth!
I see the professionals in the Court Room every day’ lyng like a dog
trying to connive domain property with there phony pomp,
and they are very good at using there “professional manners”
to intimidate and bully to get what they want..
They say, that you sell the client or
they HAVE SOLD you when they don’t buy!
….ALL SUPER SALESMAN KNOW THIS….
THE DAY..Mr MAINSTREAM America…
recognizes Domaining…
will be the “DAY THE MUSIC DIED”
Domainers Anonymous says
You’re right, Andrew, and dog-gone-it, I’m going to do something about it by launching a “Domainer 12-Step” Program come January. 😉
Andrew Allemann says
You can work in your boxers at home and still be professional in your business dealings.
Ms Domainer says
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Well, WQ, I never named the domainer in question, nor did I ever email him, calling him on his rudeness. I simply shook my head in disgust.
And I never hinted as to his identity, except his gender.
When potential buyers email me, I always treat them with respect (even if their original emails are not exactly respectful).
I’m just giving an example of what some domainers do (or don’t do), and, yes, the domainer in question is a dope and a boar. Otherwise, he would have replied to my domain quote, even if we were far apart.
It’s just good business.
So what’s your point?
*
WQ says
My point is that you are a hypocrite and gave the proof right here on this blog.
RH says
Pointing out anonymously impolite dealings does not make Ms.Domainer a hypocrite. Just like you only pointing her out when there are plenty of doosey comments here does not make you a misogynist. Again IMO
WQ says
If this industry demands us domainers to be professional in character we have a long way to go as most were not professional in character to begin with, including myself.
The comments here are a great example.
But hey, this is found in EVERY industry.
It would be nice if the domain industry can be different than every other industry but it is highly unlikely.
Tony says
Comments here are as interesting as the post.
@Rob Monster, the following is not a comment, in my opinion it is art:
“Now if these pioneers could add a patina of diplomacy and gravitas to their distinguished palette of professional skills, that would be great.”
Bravo!
Johnny says
Thank you, I’m very ashamed of some people in the domain industry that make us look bad.
Seeing Rick blabber on his iPhone while doing number 2 and ranting like a crazy person during TRAFFIC was an incredibly embarrasing experience.
Biggie.us says
Hey Drew, it’s cool that you talk about professionalism, but for comparisons, one could look at domainers like they look at Rap vs Hip-HoP
Rap Music (in late 80’s early 90’s) and Domains ( early 90’s for the big boys)pretty much hit the scene one after the other.
and domainers have that Rap persona tied to them, when it comes to end-users and Wallst.
but if you notice, many rappers have turned to hiphop, which is a smoother more palatable brand of music….and many have “crossed-over” to be accepted by end-users IE:CoverGirl (queen Latifah), Chysler commercial with SnoopDog, Ice T playing a cop in tv series, Ice cube producing movies and tv shows and let’s not forget Will Smith, even Dr Dre ( who produces eminem and 50cent, now has a major deal with MS for windows laptops
the point is, it will take time before domainers are accepted into mainstream like rap music and like rappers, domainers will have to adjust their language to get accepted.
imo…
Louise says
Rick Schwartz is professional is why endusers like doing business with him – has to be! Wish I had that!
On the other hand, @ Andrew said: “Turned off by discussions laced with profanity.” It’s true. If you want my blog patronage, leave cussing off! That’s why I had to delete the link to Rick’s blog, not because he isn’t likely a nice guy, I’m sure he is, but because of a certain, “pigeon” term he coined which the latter half is offensive to me to hear over and over and over. Thanx for listening!
Wargy says
domaining is still in the infant phase.
When it comes to gTLD’s most domainers who are pro know how it works.
ccTLD’s is gonna be a new barrier for domainers but those who keep informed they will survive.
but all in all it is going fast. i agree domainers need be proffesional but they also need tobe aware.
And alot of domainers are not aware .. they regard the domaining as a lottery..
gTLD’s investing there is a no brainer…
And yet you see so many mistakes.
ccTLD’s like .de … you better know what you are doing.
Be pro.
less chance you get burned.
there too many players who think they are doing it right..
Bernard says
When looking to the faces you can see in DNJournal.com articles, your are not invited to confidence.
Frantisek Mrazek says
FFS there is no “domain industry” same as there is for example no “building land” industry.