My Thoughts On The Domain Game By Kesmodel
Published back in May, I finally got around to reading The Domain Game: How People Get Rich From Internet Domain Names by David Kesmodel. I’ll start right off by saying it was worth every penny. The book has already received a good deal of praise from various names in our industry. I wouldn’t be writing about it today if I wasn’t adding it to my list of recommended domain name research tools. Remember, I only recommend tools that I myself use or have used. I’ll never recommend a product just for a sale.
I still get a chuckle over all the ‘exclusive‘ interviews Kesmodel did for everyone. I’m not making fun of Kesmodel or the bloggers as the interviews were certainly excellent. I’m making fun of the abuse of the word ‘exclusive.’ Because they weren’t…
Anyone who intends on being serious in the domain game should purchase this book, though I highly recommend it to those newer to the industry. It’s priceless information, really. Any time you can get a detailed account of the birth of your industry along with stories told by the pioneers who were involved first hand, is absolutely valuable, if not inspiring. I say inspiring because I could relate to many of the figures that were early investors, and who are now enjoying life to its fullest (at least, I hope they are).
Since you can read loads of praise about the book in the links provided, I’ll offer a bit of criticism. The Domain Game has a completely misleading subtitle: How People Get Rich From Internet Domain Names. You will not learn how people get rich from domain names. A more appropriate, perhaps candid, subtitle would have been:
- How early pioneers GOT rich from internet domain names
- Extremely detailed individual accounts of early domain name investors beaten like a dead horse
- How you missed out on an opportunity of a lifetime, and how the tactics of the pioneers won’t work today (besides the hard work part)
In all seriousness, A brief and fascinating history of internet domain names and the pioneers of the industry would have described it accurately, if not too long. Almost the entire book is just stories of pioneering domainers, not current strategies and tactics.
I suppose I understand why the actual subtitle was ultimately chosen, as it’s a more friendly and familiar phrase to those unfamiliar with our industry. But it’s still misleading.
Of course, hard work and perseverance are general necessities that apply at all times. Ultimately, the book doesn’t really provide many specific tactics that one can use today. The strategies may be the same, but the tactics do not really apply in a market that’s not much like the one eight years ago.
That’s why I feel it’s not about how people GET rich from internet domain names.
Perhaps I am the only one who was bothered by this, and perhaps this is nitpicking, but I was completely annoyed and distracted by the way domain names were treated when at the end of a line and where the next line begins. The extension wasn’t treated as part of the word. So there were scores of domains where the domain itself is at the end of the line, and the extension is at the beginning of the next line. I just found it highly distracting. It took the smooth out of the way our minds work when reading.
There was also an instance or two where a longer domain name was at the end of the line and did not fit, so it was hyphenated and brought to the next line. Which domain were they talking about, ComputerGames.com or Computer-Games.com? I know what you’re thinking: obviously they were talking about the non-hyphenated version. The reason the doubt was there was because Kesmodel did reference hyphenated names too.
Again, this may be nitpicking; and I may be the only one who feels this way, but it made for a not-so-smooth read for me. In the end, though, it had nothing to do with the actual content of the book.
One particular section I would like to point out is in Chapter 9: The Future. You know where this is going. On page 182, a section called Exploiting New Term and Technologies talks about how watching emerging trends and registering the relevant domain names is more important now than ever. It gives a supporting comment by Rick Schwartz and a couple paragraphs of how Andrew Allemann does trend domaining.
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Another Local Trend Needs An Internet Presence
It’s been long predicted that the internet is going local. I don’t know of anyone who disagrees with this. People are dumping their Yellow Pages and are increasingly gathering their info from the net. And the best part about it is that the quantity of local areas combined with infinite types of business, lets you have unlimited choices when you want to purchase a domain name, or start a local website.
Today I want to tackle something that has been around forever, but has grown in popularity in the past year or so. More and more people are taking responsibility for the food they eat. And this trend I have today sees the colliding of several trends that’s driving its popularity through the roof.
- The demand is high enough for organic food products that they have made their way out of specialty markets and into the big box Wal-marts and Krogers.
- People are conscious of their carbon footprint, and, perhaps more specifically in this case, food miles. This may be new to the U.S., but it’s going to be huge. They are conscious of the footprint of the products they purchase.
- People want local. Most people would prefer to support local businesses. The general thought is that your putting back into your local economy.
- People are increasingly disgusted with the treatment of animals at mega-farms both here in the U.S. and overseas.
- Fear. Fear is the most powerful motivator. And people are afraid of salmonella and e coli. And they are afraid of foreign grown foods.
Combine all of these and what you get is a great trend: local farming. I’m talking produce, dairy and meat all being grown in your own city being sold in… your own city!
Mega-farms did away with this quite some time ago. But local farming has made a comeback. People are finding that if eggs are grown by a local hatchery in Houston and sold in Houston, they can:
- Support a local business
- Receive fresher product
- Have a significantly smaller carbon footprint
- All with the knowledge that the chickens weren’t mistreated in a mega-farm.
You see, if eggs are grown in Iowa, which is the largest egg producing state in the U.S., then are shipped to a primary distributor in Florida, who then ships them to a local distributor in Georgia, who then sells them to local markets, they leave a pretty large carbon footprint from all the trucks that have to take them to their destinations. This also takes time. And never mind the fact that Florida has one of the largest hatcherys already, only this distributor has a deal with an Iowa hatchery.
None of this is necessary with a local supplier. The food miles of products in major supermarkets is 27 times that of a local market. Supermarkets are starting to realize this as some of them now offer local produce, dairy and meat. They are jumping on the bandwagon. Next time you visit your Wal-mart, keep an eye out for the signs. I was at one today and saw local produce and cheese.
The number of farmers markets have grown 50% in the past decade, according to this NPR article. I know the article is relatively old, but it gets the point across. Here is a more recent success story. People can literally buy produce that was picked that day or the previous day. On top of that, they can meet the farmers that grow them. And in many cases, can even visit the farm where their food is grown. You can’t beat that for customer service. It’s all part of making the consumer comfortable. And right now, they are growing more comfortable with local farmers than a beef rancher from New Zealand.
I recently visited a Houston farmers market to see what the hubbub was about. This one has been around for a long time, but I’ve never been there. We arrived at 10am on a Saturday and most of the booths had already sold out for the day. One booth still had apples, and others had some produce I’ve never even heard of, but most of the others were in the process of closing down. You have to admire these people. They grow this food AND have to spend the time to sell it. How could you not want to support them by buying what often amounts to be a superior product? Sure they may cost more, but wouldn’t you pay $.10 more per onion for that? That’s what I mean when I say that people want to support local businesses.
Here is a guide on how to buy local from, get this, Kraft!
I think this topic would make a great site, whether you want to cover the entire country or just a state or city. A directory of farmers markets and other places where you can buy local, as well as the farmers themselves, would be ideal.
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TrendDomaining.com Is 6 Months Old Today, Answers: What Is Trend Domaining?
Today marks six months since my first post. It went by so damn fast! September and October weren’t my best months, but I can attribute most of that to Ike, Dead Space and some writers block. After all, there are only so many trends one can write about, ya know? Eventually you get to things that don’t really warrant a full post; as I’m trying to avoid small 100 word “editorials.” It’s kind of hard writing a full interesting article about the resurgence of sockmonkeys, despite their racist beginnings.
What is Trend Domaining?
Earlier this month, Elliot Silver wrote a post on his blog about trend domaining. There are some excellent comments and I recommend you check them out. I feel Elliot writes some of the best posts in the domain industry. You just don’t get any BS from him, at least that’s how I feel. He stated that though he does some trend domaining himself, it’s a flawed strategy. This sparked more than a dozen comments both agreeing and disagreeing with his opinion.
Now, I feel they were discussing a more extreme way of trend domaining; something that doesn’t fully represent what this strategy is.
So…
What is trend domaining?
In short: it’s the strategy of identifying future or fresh trends and registering the best related domains. But it’s a bit more complex than that. Identifying future trends takes a lot work and time to do the research. Spotting surging trends and registering the best related domains for them also requires a good deal of work and time spent. Both ways require an element of luck, as well as a knack for choosing the right successful trends over simple fads.
Now, I’m not trying to fool anyone. This is not a super secret strategy. And it’s certainly nothing I made up on my own. Domainers have been doing this since the beginning. After all, almost the entire point of purchasing a domain is that, one day, it will be valuable. This holds true whether you intend on flipping it, developing it or whatever. You are banking on the fact that one day someone will either want the domain, or the related content/product that’s attached to it.
You’ve all purchased domain names with the hope that a surging trend will increase it’s value. That’s the whole idea!
Now, like anything else in the world, this is a good strategy in moderation. It is ideal to get the category killer domain name of any given trend. Examples of category killer trend domains that I have registered in the past few months:
MicroTheaters.com
IPatriotAct.com
HyperlocalDating.com
These aren’t premium domains. But they are the absolute best domains you can get for their given subject, which makes them category killers.
For some trends, it is worth acquiring second tier domain names. For example: let’s take the trend of coworking; the idea of independent workers of like-minded values or goals who gather socially at sites like coffee houses or even home offices. I got in late and was unable to register the category killer of Coworking.com. But being that this is a local trend, I was able to pick up a decent second tier domain in LocalCoworking.com.
Will these pan out for me? Who knows. Time will tell. But, I feel they were certainly worth registration fees.
Again, this is a good strategy… in moderation. What Elliot, and some commenters of his post, were concerned about were people who dumped a lot of money into acquiring large quantities of domains related to a single, or even multiple trends in hopes of making a quick buck. The best example I can give of this are domains related to the U.S. Presidential Election where Obama, McCain, Biden and Palin domains were registered by the thousands.
And we’re talking absolutely horrible domains like DougTheBarber.com, JoeThePlumberDotCom.com and McCain–Palin.info (actual names listed on eBay). These terrible domains were listed for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. They were registered in large quantities by domainers hoping to make a quick buck on a trend. Their strategy is that perhaps one or two of them will sell for good money, thus making up for their other crap registrations.
This is an extreme strategy and not representative of everything trend domaining is. It’s akin to acquiring 2000 LLLL.com’s with the hope that some company named Quinn’s Water And Valves will bust down your door and throw money at you for your QWAV.com domain name.
And I will be the first one to tell you that this strategy is not a get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, it is the direct opposite. The idea is to acquire domains before a trend or early on in a trends life. You hold it and then sell, or develop it, when the time is right. That will not get you rich quickly. There may be exceptions, but not many.
Using this strategy in moderation also means that your portfolio should not be 90% trend domains. Anyone in any industry will tell you to diversify, and it absolutely applies here as well.
I think there may be a misconception that trend domaining involves hand registering only. Not true; and this is what makes trend domaining a valuable strategy for both novice and veteran domainers alike. Everyone can get in on hand registering domains. It can be fun even: Kevin of BigTicketDomains says that it’s “much like the excitement from the early days of domaining when treasures could still be found each day at reg fee costs“
But veterans, or those who have the funds, can purchase the category killers of future trends that have been registered for years. Examples would be:
WindTurbines.com
ElectricCars.com
NaturalGas.com
CarbonCredits.com
VirtualWorlds.com
These are just a handful of domains that you simply can’t argue against their future value. Novice domainers can’t touch these. But there are plenty of domainers out there that would be able to afford them. And they would be buying them with the expectations that these trends will keep on rising, making these domains more valuable next year, and the year after, and so on.
That is trend domaining.
Review of Trends Reported here on TrendDomaining.com
I’ve written about dozens of trends. I’d like to touch base on some of them now and share with you just where these trends sit today. In no particular order:
Aug 7th - Oil Bubble
The original post stated that the bubble was about to burst, which wasn’t a ground breaking statement by any means. However, in my September 1st Labor Day Recap I stated that the burst would show in October. Though this article is being published in mid-November, this particular section was written October 31st, where I paid $1.98 for a gallon of gas in Houston; less than half of what I paid earlier in the summer (Note: on Nov 5th I paid $1.89 a gallon and Nov 14th I paid $1.67 in Freeport, TX). In the original post, I also stated that everyone will move on to alternative energy. Well, as my bailout post points out, the government cemented my comment and this trend.
June 6th - Untooning
Inspired by the post made here on TrendDomaining.com, The Little Devil Media Team has put together Untoons.com. This site is exactly what I had in mind when I posted about the new art form. “Untooned” is now getting ~880 searches a month, according to Google’s keyword tool. It’s not a show stopper, but a nifty niche nonetheless. And one that, if you follow trends, you could have acquired the category killer.
July 28th - Nichepapers
This article shows the certain death of newspapers, but perhaps the birth of a new genre where magazines and newspapers merge into one: nichepapers. One commenter said “Do you mean magazines?” In a way, yes, but this goes much deeper than people realize. TrendBird threw support in my prediction by posting an article on the rise of nichepapers. This will get bigger, and there are billions of niches out there for you to be the first to offer a printed nichepaper.
July 17th - Virtual Worlds
At the time of the original post, companies had pumped $395m into virtual words. In Q3, they pumped an additional $148m, according to TrendBird. That’s a total of $543m so far this year. To put that into perspective, $543 million is:
- $16m MORE than the domestic gross of The Dark Knight as of October 26th, 2008.
- About equal to the value of a 204 year old Spanish Navy treasure discovered earlier this year.
- Just $57m shy of buying the same data center Google just bought.
- $145m more than a bridge to nowhere.
- The price tag of about 32 hours of warfare in Iraq.
In other words: it’s a hell of a lot of money. You think MMO’s are big now? Just wait… 2009 and 2010 are going to get slammed by them.
On top of that, in a move that didn’t make any big headlines, Google is now doing adsense for INSIDE virtual worlds.
June 7th - Zeppelins
No no, not the led kind; the flying kind! Even though this predicted trend wasn’t panning out for me, I still feel I was on to something. Well, Airship Ventures launched recently in California, as reported by Boing Boing. It’s just the beginning. I think this has great potential for a healthy market.
Sept 3rd - Coworking
The post was actually about Edopter.com, a social trendcasting site. While browsing the site, I discovered new trends such as Coworking. Recently, “coworking business” was listed by Mashable as a business idea that will thrive in a down economy. Fortunately for me, I picked up localcoworking.com just in time for the trend to get big.
Aug 13th - Carbon Trading
I declared that the next big green trend will be carbon trading. On October 9th, the House revealed their plan to implement a carbon cap and trade system. Make sure you check out the best keywords in my original post, they’ll help you pad your portfolio with valuable domains.
Nov 7th - DNA
June 28th - Robotics
These two posts may as well be merged, as many of these trends fall under both. Just days after my post, Time named the Retail DNA Kit the #1 invention of 2008. On the transhuman note, the first commercial bionic hand was 14th on Time’s list. The synthetic organism was 21st. Or should that be under robots? Bionic Contacts were 24th. The mobile, dexterous, social robot was named the 17th best invention of 2008 by Time.
What’s next, artificial hearts? We’re getting closer and closer to being bionic!
Outside of that, there are dozens upon dozens of advances involving DNA that are hitting the news nonstop. One of the more interesting, and important, pieces of news was a glimmer of hope for AIDS patients.
Aug 30th - Body Art
This trend is huge. Every single day I am seeing articles on social sites about piercings, tattoos, paint, mutilation and anything else you can creatively express with your body. I’m also getting loads of organic traffic looking for all kinds of body art.
Aug 11th - Vinyl Wall Art
My 3rd most popular post; all due to organic traffic. This is because there is a huge demand, and not nearly the supply to meet it.
June 10th - Lego
All I really need to say is that this is my second most popular post of all time. It wasn’t popular at the time of posting, but through organic traffic it gets tons of hits; 10-20 a day for lego related terms. And this isn’t even a lego site. I still feel you could make money with a good Lego affiliate site.
June 8th - The ’80s
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/25/cassette_mp3_player/
June 4th - Virtual Fitting Rooms
These have a great future! They’re popping up everywhere.
June 1st - Space
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was named the 3rd best invention of 2008 by Time. The Mars Rover was 18th.
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Hyperlocal Dating Gone Guerilla
I’m not one to give you a link, say two sentences and move on. But this evening a domaining article made the front page of Digg, which doesn’t happen very often. And the only reason I’m posting about it is because it involves one of the geodomain ideas I had written about.
The full article can be read here.
The author basically uncovers a massive advertising campaign for online dating using lawn signs littered about towns with their respective geo+dating.com printed on it.
I unwittingly wrote about it back in August, here.
A real fascinating, and well-written article.
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News Aggregation Or Stolen Content?
A couple weeks ago Jamie Zoch of DotWeekly.com posted about aggregation feeds here, and a few months earlier here. I left a brief comment with my opinion on the first one.
A few aggregator sites use my feed; one even asked my permission before doing so. Another one, DNHeadlines, sent me a courteous email informing me of their adding my feed and giving me the opportunity to deny it. Which I didn’t. I believe well designed aggregators like these can provide value to the domaining community.
But there are some sites out there that just plain ole steal content and provide absolutely no value. I started receiving pingbacks from one such site this week. That site is lp6.net. Scroll to the bottom to see who owns it and visit his main site.
This site has “domain name trends” plastered at the top of the page and uses feeds, including mine, to display full articles without any linkbacks or credit.
Other domaining sites lp6.net rips off:
TheDomains.com
DomainNameNews.com
DomainFlipper.com
fka200.com
DMueller.com
RickLatona.com
There may be more, but I stopped looking.
Now, this isn’t something I would normally post about. This is something where I would just send him an email and move on. But what prompted to post is this comment from the about page of his own main website:
- “commerical [sic] use of web site code and content is strictly prohibited unless authorized by me. Non-commerical use and modification is permitted provided that my name and a link to *********.com is displayed with the content. All derivative works must adhere to this license.”
Emphasis by me.
I dunno, it just rubs me the wrong way that he posts this in his about page while actually doing it to others.
i am very curious, how does everyone feel about sites like this? I’d like to know whether you run a blog or not, in fact I’m curious if non-bloggers have a different opinion. Am I overreacting here?
EDIT:
A little over an hour after posting this, the site was taken down and parked.
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