Here’s What I’ve Been Up To The Last Few Weeks and a Few Thoughts

Other than the daily lists I haven’t really been writing too much.  Life has been moving along wonderfully, just don’t have much to add about domain investing that I think you would be interested.  But some things have been happening

1.  No matter what business you’re in, business is effected by the weather.  There is a reason summer is slow online.  People are taking vacations, spending more time outside, and in general, spending less time inside and online.  It’s why there are mostly reruns on TV in the summer.   In Illinois we are having a very mild summer which has driven sales up at the nursery quite a bit.  Last year in July we didn’t have a drop of rain and it was 100 degrees a lot of the days. This year, record rain and mild.  We are on track to have the largest yields of corn in the history of the US.   People don’t realize how much weather plays a part in their finances.  Long story short, I have been twice as busy as normal at the nursery because we have so many more customers than normal.  And not because I’m doing something special but because the weather is great for planting.

2.  My daughter went to the One Direction concert the other day.  If I could capture the emotion and energy of 30,000 screaming teen girls I could accomplish anything.  And get ready for a new boy band named 5 Seconds of Summer.  They play all their own instruments and actually have some talent.  Wish they were listed on the stock market because I would be investing.

3.  I wanted to thank Daina Linton for introducing me to Shock Topper beer.  I like beer but never drink it because I don’t want the carbs or calories.  That’s changed lately. Not many but I have to admit I have one or two a week now.

4.  Speaking of drinking.   I changed my diet to no soda and no sugar a few weeks ago and got over the hump this week.  I have absolutely no yearning at all for candy or coke. It took 10 days or so were I was craving it but now I just don’t have any feelings one way or another towards the two.  And I feel like I am bionic.  It really has been a life changer.  I am running faster and stronger, have more energy during the day, and my body that wasn’t actually too bad before is slim and cut.  Can’t wait to see how this plays out.

5.  I’ve gotten more “would you like to this domain” emails than ever and it’s a domain that’s a plural of mine or has an adjective in front like “Best”.   People are getting desperate.  There are more investors that have portfolios left over from the parking days that are worthless.  They aren’t getting any traffic for parking and they make no sense to a business, so they are starting to add more aggressive mass emailing tactics.   I don’t think the effort to return is going to work out well for them.

6.  I will be starting a newsletter in the fall.   I think I can put out a pretty good daily newsletter that will be both entertaining and informative.  It will have the daily lists, some good links, some funny stories, and a few domains for sale.  I had another site that had a list and I got it up to 10,000 people and had incredible response.  I think I can do the same here.  I think I’ve proven I can be consistent and somewhat humorous.

7.  Raymond Hackney is the hardest working writer in our industry. I think he writes for no less than 5 blogs.  And does a good job doing it.  And I can’t even come up with one good article a day.

8.   I had one of those “Thank Goodness!!!”  moments.  I had offered $8K for a domain 6 or so months ago and the owner didn’t take it. Now I see it’s up for auction and most likely will not come anywhere near that price.  Not sure if I still want it but I am sure glad I have the choice.

9.  I was reading the article from Scott Phillips about buying a name from HugeDomains and all I could think of was that it took months for the sales people to get back to them.  That is absolutely ridiculous.  What business in the world takes weeks or months to get back to potential clients?  Imagine how many domains they would sell if they actually stayed on top of it?  Frank Schilling knows

10.  My domaining is not making my wife happy.  Because I am making so much extra money I no longer ask when purchasing things.  All the money from the nursery goes to her but I keep the domain money.  It’s enough now that I buy whatever I want, whenever I want.  I keeps my wants pretty low but I haven’t been checking in.  I was figuring if it didn’t impact our family budget why should I ask?  I now realize I need to include her regardless of where the money came from.  Just showing up with a new car is not the best plan.