by Chris Woodward
Whenever I get some spare time I like to jump over to DomainSherpa to see if I can find a recent interview that interests me. Michael Cyger conducts a new interview with a successful domainer every 2 or 3 weeks and does a great job. Today I watched his interview with Page Howe, a self-proclaimed “Regular Joe Domainer”, who runs JoeDomains.com. Page does a lot of buying and selling domains on a daily basis but one thing I found really interesting was how a lot of his business comes from buying and selling hand reg’s. It requires a good chunk of time but if you want to watch the interview you can view it here.
If you’re unfamiliar with Michael and the DomainSherpa interviews, there are several reasons you might want to take a look. Here are a few reasons I enjoy watching them when I get a chance.
1. You can learn an awful lot. Michael interviews people who are successful in the domaining industry. Most of these people share their path to success and strategies they use to be successful today. With 30+ interviews to date, there is a ton of information available throughout the interviews on the site. Just be careful though…if you’ve ever read a dozen golf magazines trying every tip to correct your swing, you probably know that can easily do more harm than good. It’s best to find a strategy or tip you can relate to and stick with that until you’re successful with it.
2. Micheal interviews some big names. It’s not every day you can get some insight from the top players in the game. But Michael consistently provides interviews with some of the biggest names in the domaining industry…Rick Schwartz, Mike Mann, the Castello brothers, etc.
3. There is bound to be an interview you will find interesting. Whether it be domain development, flipping, geo names, lead gen…at this point there is an interview covering just about any and every aspect of domaining that may interest you. Whether you want tips on a strategy you’re already involved with or to learn about something new, you can find it there.
4. Michael does a good job conducting the interviews. As I’m sure Michael has discovered, domainers love to talk. While successful domainers do keep some things secret, most love to talk about their strategies and will do so forever if you let them. Heck, the average interview is probably 1 hour 15 mins and most would be longer if Michael didn’t force a change in subjects every now and then to make sure everything gets covered.
So who would I like to see interviewed? Well this is probably a biased opinion and I’m sure he’ll hate me for saying this, but how about Shane Cultra? I think Shane brings an aspect of domaining to the table that most blog readers can relate to…and that is that he is a successful domainer while also holding down a full time job, owner/operator of the family gardens nursery. I think most out there in the domaining game aren’t full-timers and do it on the side with the hopes of becoming successful and therefore could learn a lot from Shane. Plus, he’s becoming known for 5L brandables, NNNN.com’s, and developing plant related domains since that is a niche he is familiar with.
Whether Shane earns an interview or not, I’d recommend you check out the DomainSherpa interviews, especially if you’re new to domaining. You can learn a lot in a short amount of time, and that’s what getting started is all about.
In an age where information span is so short, I find these interviews to be useless. I go to the “takeaway” written part, view it for few seconds, and move on.
I agree Chris. He does a great job. I agree with Lass in some respects. I get busy and the interviews get long but if I have Rick Schwartz on the line I’m asking him as many questions as I can. The only problem is having both people’s face on the screen the whole time. It’s tough for an interview to keep a good face when listening. Leads to odd facial expressions. There’s a reason that interviews cut to the interviewer and to B roll shots. Still a great job. I’ve been watching Michael for years. Even when his name used to be Morgan Linton.
every week not ever 2 or 3!
Michael is not a long time in this business but his blog is the best on The internet.
Karl,
He does a great job but really? Best on the Internet? You don’t get out much.
Great blog, I agree! Congrats to Michael.
An interview is likely warranted but who is going to chase Shane down physically to get him to sit still for an hour+ interview ? btw Chris, I’d much rather hear/see an interview between you and Shane than Cyger.
oh and you all should check out the interviews Monte did back in the day on webmaster radio.fm A lot of those are good too. I’m not sure what Cyger adds new to the mix other than picking up where others left off and adding video (gah who wants to look at you dudes for an hour+)
It could be vastly improved if the interview would be real time with a chat.
his interviews are incredible, I’m shocked that more people don’t know about them/take advantage of them. If you are serious about domaining you’d be a fool not to at least watch the interviews of the bigger names/operations (which is actually a large portion of them).
His interviews can run rather long but they all contain good information and beyond the written points he puts, the interview is important because you can tell a lot more about the person on reactions to questions/comments and their tone on answers to questions.
If anything, if anyone he interviews are people you’d like to meet and possibly do business with at a future event, you can get a lot more familiar with them through these interviews than through anything else.
I think Michael Cyger is making an excellent contribution to the domaining industry and is taking what guys like Morgan and Mike Sully (where the he’ll is Sully??) were doing to the next level in terms of regularly interviewing heavy hitters and industry stalwarts. Yeah, so the the webcam is a bit crummy at times and there is no flash production apart from the intro, but I personally have learnt a great deal from the contributors.
As for the people who are saying the videos are too long, I agree on a certain level, but the videos are often filled with golden nuggets of information. Again, these are not average dominers, these are the Schwartzs, the Pollocks, etc etc. If you can’t be bothered to sit and watch the interview the do as I do and grab the audio and play it while at the office, while you’re washing your car or preparing dinner or commuting. Us domineers are supposed to be tech savvy people who know how to use our time productively right?
Thanks to stuff Cyger is putting out, DomainSherpa is fast becoming an invaluable resource in domaining. FACT.
Shane, feel free to correct and spelling errors. Damn iPad.
If you guys don’t like watching their faces then just read the transcript. I have read every interview, most of them are great, but I have never had time to press the play button.