It's 2009 And STILL Nobody Knows What We Do!

I threw a surprise party for my girlfriend last night. I’ll tell you – surprise parties are a lot of work and involve perfect timing to work-out. Luckily this one went-off without a hitch and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so surprised in my entire life!! At the party I started talking with one of her friends about Domaining – of course nobody knows what Domaining is so I explained to him that I am a Domain Investor. He immediately said, “Cool – I know all about that – my brother does the same thing!”

I was elated! Wow – a fellow Domainer! He then went-on to explain that Domain Investing is registering Trademarks and then profiting from them. He explained a domain his brother bought which is now under some pretty serious legal scrutiny as it is a major infringement. I stopped him there – “that’s not what I do.” He looked confused, “well then how do you make money with domain names?”

I went-on to explain our industry and the concept of developing domains so they rank well in search engines. Then came the monetization step and he had the “ah ha” moment that most people have eventually where they realize what it is we really do. I had a similar conversation with a friend of mine in Australia who, after learning more about Domaining investing sat down with me and began taking notes. I made sure to caution him – don’t get overly excited and go-out and register a million domains – stay focused on a few to get started and do your homework before buying any domains.

Is it just me or is it absolutely frustrating that tech-savvy people, who read blogs, understand the Internet, even design websites themselves have NO IDEA WHAT WE DO! I have several friends who are web designers, each one initially thought Domaining was the same as CyberSquatting. Each conversation involves an entire explanation and usually a trip to Domaining.com and DNJournal.com to really prove that I’m not just making this whole thing up!

As an industry we need to do a MUCH better job of reaching end-users who don’t know about Domaining rather than just focusing on the few of us who do. Domaining should not have to be your primary income source to be accepted by the community – passion, drive and innovation should be! Just think – every car nut doesn’t have to be a mechanic to be accepted in the auto world. Every Audiophile doesn’t have to work for a speaker company. Baseball fans don’t have to be players themselves. If you’re making $1,000 or $10,000 a month with Domaining you should still be considered a Domainer!

So enough is enough – I know I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again: it is time to expand our industry and let the whole world know what we do! Someone who works in finance and makes millions of dollars a year would still be a valuable person to have at a conference or domain auction – the problem is, they has no idea our industry exists. The high school student who is a web programming whiz and builds sites in his sleep could make a great passive income to help pay for college – the list goes on.

So spread the word – we are in an amazing industry and EVERYONE is welcome – just bring your passion, drive and patience because this industry is going to be HUGE!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton