Rick Is Spot On – I Hope You’re Listening

Rick Schwartz wrote a post this morning titled, Are You Kidding Me?? Just 2.5 CENTS a DAY!? that I think every Domainer should read. It’s a simple concept but one that amazingly so many people miss completely. I get emails from people every single day, many with hundreds or thousands of domains, all wondering why they aren’t making any money.

As nicely as I can, I tell them that what they thought was a portfolio of assets, is actually a collection of liabilities. More often than not I tell people to stop buying more domains, drop what they have, and take the money that would have been spent on renewals on actual assets.

In his post Rick says:

So once you toss out your pigeon shit it allows you to have the dollars for meaningful domains that are BORN every single day of the week. BORN! But when you chase yesterday you can’t see that part of the equation. (Rick Schwartz)

Have you been renewing junk for years? Even if you only have 100 domains, that’s still $1,000/year – if you’ve been renewing these every year for three years you could have wasted $3,000. What if you took that $3,000 and bought one or two domains? That’s only with 100 domains, if you have 200, 300, or more domains and you’re not turning a profit don’t blame the industry, blame yourself.

It’s easy to come up with excuses for why you aren’t making any money with your domains. What amazes me is how few people will own up to the fact that the reason they are not selling or monetizing their domains is because they suck. It’s okay to fail, it’s okay to make mistakes, just learn from them and come back ten times stronger.

I burned through my entire life savings when I started in Domaining, most of it was wasted on terrible domains. One of the best moves I made back in 2008 was letting over 50% of my domains expire. I took that money and invested differently since I had learned more throughout the year.

Of course I still didn’t get it, even though I thought I did. Domaining isn’t something you can learn overnight, it takes time to master and to find your niche, but there are lots of great resources out there that can dramatically accelerate your learning. There are also people like Rick, industry legends, who take time out of their day to give completely free advice.

Now for those of you saying, “Sure maybe there were opportunities but it’s 2012, those are all gone!” You don’t get it. If that’s what you honestly think, you haven’t taken the time to learn our industry. Rick talks about this opportunity in his post:

“Opportunity comes and opportunity is born when you are aware and pay attention. It amazes me that EVERY old timer still hand registers domains and the guys with less success always LAUGH at this. Are you kidding me??”

That’s right, the pros (who have been doing this a lot longer than I have by 10+ years) still hand register domains. People like Mike Mann are buying tons of names under $70 and making a killing. You’re not too late to make money in this space, but you might miss the opportunity if you can’t say goodbye to your portfolio full of terrible domains.

In 2007 when I first started in the industry I thought I had come far too late to this party. What I learned was that we are all still early to the party, but, it takes more than just owning a portfolio of domain names, you have to have good domains that you can either make money with or that someone else wants to buy, period.

Don’t be afraid of failure, embrace it, and make sure to learn from it. My first $20,000 month blew my mind, my first $50,000 month changed my life. What made all the difference? Not being afraid to admit failure, learn from it, and change my approach. I still have a lot to learn but one lesson I’ve definitely learned so far is that if a domain name isn’t making money for you, and nobody wants to buy it, then it’s a liability, not an asset.

Want to know if your domains stink? Rick has a great test you can put each name through. Oh, and don’t feel bad if your portfolio shrinks, that’s just money saved and freed up to invest in real assets.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton