Been a Long Time Since I’ve Written Some Random Jumblings: Have Some Today

Ever since I started putting a little more effort into my daily list I haven’t been able to make time to write much else. That changes in Fall and Winter but I had a little time today to put down a few of my thoughts. Domain related and some not.

1. For some reason, a lot of domain investors seem to think they have to choose a side on the dot com vs gTlds. You can support dot com and all the gTLDs at the same time. They can both go up in value. Beach front homes and the brand new homes built 20 miles inland can both go up in value. As a domain investor I want as many things increasing in value as I can get. Flipping is how I make a living and I want as many categories as possible to flip.

2. In tomorrow’s DomainSherpa you’re going to see that us domain investors only have the ability to price domains by range. We know bad names, good names, and great names. But pricing those names is all over the board. Tomorrow you have two of the biggest names in domain investing (and me) and we agree on quality (for the most part) but are guessing on price from that point on. Frank Schilling says something to the effect of “your pricing shows we all don’t know anything” after I say what names I liked and didn’t like. But goes on to prove later that all we really know is that some names are much better than others for end users. How good and how much those names should and will sell for is based on sales effort, enduser need and budget, length, and ability to help the enduser make money.

3. If the new gTLD owners know what they know now and we started over, there would be 4 times as many applications and the bidding on strings would be completely different. I know its easy to say in hindsight but I’ve read and talked to several string owners and they are slowly getting a handle on these things. Now that they have their sea legs you’re going to see some real business moves in the near future. I think we all knew that there was some money to be made just by applying and getting bought out but I think it was bigger than many imagined.

4. If you count the amount of money I would have spent this week if I hadn’t been outbid in the last 5 minutes, I bet it would be $250,000. Of course I wouldn’t have purchased all those names if I would have won a couple but I don’t ever remember being beat out so many times in the last few minutes as I have in the last 7 days. 5N.coms, short names, even lower quality names. It makes me want to start selling names, but I am smart enough to know that it shows the increasing value and scarcity of good dot coms. No need to sell mine unless I get a price that I get a good enough price to reload the portfolio. It would be different if it was a “hot” market like dot info and dot io were/are. In my opinion, dot com is not a hot market, its a hard market. Hard to replace your assets if you sell.

5. NamePros is killing it. Amazing to watch how they have become THE forum in our industry in such a short amount of time. Yes, they’ve been around for a while but it wasn’t until they added Eric, James and the group that they stepped out front. Raymond has been a big part of them as well but I think he’s a part of almost every domain site on the Internet so that statement would be redundant. Congrats to everyone’s efforts

6. I have managed to age amazingly well except for two things. My hair and my eyes. I am physically in the best shape of my life. I feel great, my mind feels like I am in my twenties. I laugh and smile all day long. But my hair is leaving me slowly and it drives me crazy. Its the wrong type of balding to get plugs and no way in hell am I wearing a wig. I know I can wear a tight haircut and I should accept it gracefully yet in my mind I am strong and beautiful and when I look in the mirror I am Woody Harrelson. And my eyes. I am in that in between stage of needing reading glasses. Half the time I can read things without a problem. The other half of the day, usually the later part of the day after I’m tired, my eyes start to blur and I just can’t see. I don’t carry reading glasses yet but I am going to have to start. Again, in my mind I am young and strong, and then I go into a dimly lit restaurant and have use my phone to read the damn menu. Middle age is a bitch.

7. I have done a lot of good things when it comes to family and the best was finding my wife. We will be married 20 years this Wednesday. She literally made me who I am. Put me in my place when I needed to be shot down, encouraged me when I didn’t think I could, financially supported me when I wanted to try new things, and challenged me to work hard. When I sleep in and decide not to train she has been known to say “you know that guy that beat you last race?, he’s out running right now”. And when I finished an Ironman the first thing she said was “That’s a fantastic time for someone that didn’t put in enough training”. And I didn’t take it hard. It was the honest truth and that’s why I love her.

8. The other thing I did right was my daughter. I always felt the most important thing I could do for my child was to love her mother. Having happy, laughing, and loving parents around kids generates good kids in my opinion. We taught and led by example, the value of good effort. If you teach someone the value of good effort they can use it to do anything. Everyone makes time to do the things they like. If your friend comes into town and you want to see them you make time. If you don’t you are busy. We’ve taught our daughter to make time for things that are important, whether they are what you want to or not. I and everyone that knows her are amazed at how much she gets accomplished every day. She makes the time and gets it done so she can free up time to do the things she deems as fun. I am proud when people say “I know where your daughter gets her work ethic”. I may have not been the greatest person but I certainly have done my part by leaving a pretty good girl for the next generation.

9. I did not have an Ashley Madison account but I am looking up all the domain investors names I know and searching the database to let you know who does…..Just kidding.