It always amazes me, I am surrounded by some of the most brilliant minds in the world here at The University of Illinois but many of them lack one thing. Creativity. You know the ability to approach things from a different angle. To take something ordinary and present it in a way that makes people laugh, think, or question. It’s made me realize over the years that the creativity I’ve been blessed with is much more valuable than my intelligence (my Mom says I’m smart) . I’ve been blogging for about 4 months in the domain world and I am certainly not the best blogger. I don’t have the inside information of Elliot, the vernacular of DomainGang, or the in depth research of a Fusible, but I am proud of one thing. I don’t regurgitate the same old information, over and over and over…….usually…. and I feel I write about topics that aren’t just a “my opinion” of the latest news.
I don’t have the ability to break stories. I don’t do this for a living and don’t have the contacts yet that give me that ability. What I certainly can do is write a blog that shows a realistic view of domaining from a guy that does this on the side and makes 15-25K extra a year doing it on a 10K budget. I think that people would rather hear that story than the 50th story on Sex.com. Sure, some of my stories are rehash stories, or my opinion on other blogs’ posts, ie filler stories, but I am surprised how many people’s entire blog is comprised of this. To make matters worse they get twice the advertising rates I do.
Domaining is a tough business but there is certainly room for all. The great people I’ve met like Jason, Morgan, Patrick, Oscar, and Ron have made this venture fun for me. I am hoping to to have a little fun with this unlike the bloggers that are me, me, me. You know the ones, the guys that rather than comment on your blog and spur the conversation, take it back to theirs and post about it. You know the guys, the ones that act like linking back to your site or giving you a permanent link will kill their SEO and the world would end because readers might actually leave the site, never to return. Hey I’m no better than them I’m just different.
I’ve got some big plans in the next few months. Some are improvements on what’s already being done in domaining. Some are a completely different angles that haven’t been tried. Either way, I can promise you this, they will be creative, thought out, fun, and should make money and that’s what I feel domaining needs.
I have read your blog now for a little while Shane, I think its good. What do you see yourself as ? I write a blog focused on one extension and add a little broader content on video and tv on the net. But I find domaining to be still a small industry that its hard to always write compelling content.
I appreciate the comment. I absolutely love your domain name, I’ll certainly check it out
I was reading through Domaining.com and it seemed like everyone was talking about the Sex.com auction and I originally came to the same conclusion you did. That everyone is just talking about the samething as if its new just to appear that they have something to contribute to the industry.
But after some thought, I realized that people who may not know of Domaining.com, NameBee or other domaining blog agreegators are seeing the news for the first time. Maybe to the people who read that specific blog its new to them.
So it’s unfortunate that people who use a domain aggregator to read the blogs (me) see the same topic discussed over and over again.
I just skip over them and read what other people are talking about in the industry like your post.
Step it up mate and get yourself into the domain world a little more. Your insight is valuable and you just need to take it up a notch. Totally agree with your post, real content is what it’s about, not news. Todays news is tomorrows fish and chip wrapper 😀
Ben,
I appreciate the comment and another one of the the guys I admire. Stepping it up is easier said than done but it’s something I plan on doing with time. I work 60-80 hrs building a brick and mortar business, domaining is part time. I’m stepping up my brick and mortar using what I’ve learned in domaining (ie newletter, online presence, online sales) but it will take time in domaining because you can only immerse yourself into so many things or you will get burnt out.