Mistrust In Banks Will Lead To People Borrowing From… Each Other
P2P Lending, otherwise known as person-to-person lending, people-to-people lending, peer-to-peer lending and social lending, is not a new idea; it’s how lending started in the first place. P2P lending is, simply put, a loan between two (or more) people without the participation of a financial institution. Though commerical lending has been the norm for decades upon decades, P2P lending has not completely died off.
P2P lending has been seen mostly between family and friends; a father loaning his son $10k, or someone loaning their best friend $5k, for example. However, a fresher variation is becoming popular and could affect you as a domainer in many ways.
The internet has made it easier for strangers to engage in P2P lending. And the tough economic times on top of bank mistrust and a credit crunch has driven people to seek such financial help.
Now, don’t view this as a simple handing over of cash and trusting the borrower will eventually pay. There are contracts. Sites that help facilitate such loans do credit checks on borrowers for the lenders. This is serious business.
I know what you are thinking: without the threat of a giant banking being able to destroy you, people will abuse the loan: miss payments or stop paying all together. Wrong. Because other PEOPLE are involved, and not a faceless bank, people tend to be more willing to pay and do so on time, according to this Time article. They say that Lending Club, one of the largest facilitator of P2P loans, has a default rate of less than .5%. To give you some numbers to compare that to, here are some specific loans and their most recent default rates (that i could find):
Either it’s too early, I’ve lost my Google mojo, or there is a conspiracy… but I can not find what the latest subprime default rate is (from a legit source). Can you believe that? Seriously, search for yourself.
Anyways, I feel my point has been made. These appear to be a safe bet. People seem to be more willing to pay off other people than they do a bank. I’m sure that’s not the entire reason, but a good chunk of it.
This trend has been growing the past year or two, but I think we’re seeing the surface. I think this has potential to get real big. People will prefer to get their money from a person(s) at 5% lower than what a bank would give them. The banks, wanting to cash in on the trend, will likely even offer their own P2P lending networks. They’ll just offer the forum, credit checks and forms.
Mark my words!
As a domainer, arm yourself with this knowledge! This can grow into P2P lending for specific niches; people may want to loan money out to others in fields the know, understand and trust. DomainLending.com, SolarLending.com, RestaurantLending.com, etc. Even though domainers are a resourceful and motivated lot, I don’t see any of them building actual social networks that facilitate loans, but you never know. I’m more willing to bet on directories that show people where they can get loans, and information sites that educate people on P2P lending.
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Make Way For Green Collar Jobs
As the Going Green Train picks up more and more steam, new domaining opportunities are presenting themselves. And today, I have another list for you!
Fast Company magazine has published the best green jobs for the next decade. I’ll post a little comment about each, but you may also want to check the article out for what they have to say about their choices.
- Farmer - They claim that America has just 2 million farmers, and sustainable agriculture will require tens of millions. The new farmers will be small-scale local farmers. Sound familiar? That’s because back in November I claimed that local farming was going to get big. The article offered these related careers: urban gardener; farmers market and CSA coordinator; artisanal cheesemaker (artisinalcheesemaker/s.com are available).
- Forester - The modern forester will be moving away from the mass deforestation of doing things and more towards silviculture; the more efficient and environmentally conscious way of harvesting timber.
- Solar Power Installer - A bit of an obvious choice. This is more along the lines of personal solar power and not commercial. Again, personal solar power is something I blogged about last June. Couldn’t agree more with this choice.
- Energy Efficiency Builder - The article claim that buildings account for 48% of the U.S.’s energy use and greenhouse gas. So this should be one of the primary targets of a carbon cap/trade system. They point out that Passivhaus, which- and sorry for sounding like a broken record- I blogged about just days ago, would be a good standard for the U.S. to adapt.
- Wind Turbine Fabricator - The article claims that wind is the leading and fastest-growing source of alternative energy. They’re not citing any sources for this stuff. But they do make an interesting point: turbines are 90% metal by weight, creating an opportunity for auto workers to adapt.
- Conservation Biologist - Pretty much is what it says it is: biologists whose primary focus is to preserve the integrity of ecosystems.
- Green MBA and Entrepreneur - This time they cite a source and claim that legal, research and consulting account for the majority of green jobs. I think they’re dead on here. 10 or so years ago, companies began hiring their own IT people. Now, you’d be hard pressed to find a successful company that doesn’t have it’s own IT. And now, they’ll begin hiring their own green people.
- Recycler - Again, perhaps one of the more obvious choices. But stop thinking paper and plastic and start thinking steel, clothing, glass and other various construction materials.
- Sustainability Systems Developer - Green code writers!
- Urban Planners - I suppose I see it. I mean, due to the limited number of urban areas that would require persons such as this, this probably won’t be as popular as, say, solar power installers.
I think there is plenty of opportunity here, not just in domain names but also for those looking to develop them. The government threw a good deal of stimulus money at this area.
I’ll throw in a few of my own as well:
- Auto Mechanics - Though the article says that auto workers can adapt their skills to the wind industry, why not get a couple new skills so they can work on the new cars? You know, whatever ends up succeeding the petrol-based cars we have now: electric vehicles, hybrids, whatever. When I worked in the auto field, I personally saw old timey mechanics fade away as the mechanical-based vehicles disappeared off the road. These guys found it hard, and some simply refused, to work on the new cars that had computers and electrical systems. The current set of auto workers can learn from those earlier mistakes. Oh, and being that people have not been buying new cars as of late, that means they are driving more and more used cars. Those will eventually need service. So the auto workers in the service field may start seeing better days sooner rather than later.
- Smart Home and Auto Software Programmers and Interface Designers - I’ve been convinced that our appliances and other home items will be connected on a home network. Your fridge will know when you used your last stick of butter and put it on your grocery list for you. Your home security system will be on the network, allowing you to monitor it from work. I know, those aren’t green. They’re just the most obvious examples of a wired house. For green examples: your house will be able to tell you how much energy you are using in a more friendly way. Your car will give immediate feedback on your gas mileage (not new, but most cars still don’t do it) and your hypermiling techniques (new). These things will need programs to operate, and perhaps more importantly they will need smart, easy and friendly interfaces for the non-tech savvy to be comfortable enough to use them.
- Green Lawyers - Environmental lawyers will be en vogue. Not just those fighting FOR the green, but also against it. Yea, something tells me the oil companies can, and will, afford better lawyers.
Know of any green jobs not listed here? Share your ideas!
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Is Wikipedia Among Your Domaining Tools?
So, my wife and I are about halfway done with building a house. We’re having one built just outside a booming suburb of Houston. It’s taken up a lot of my time and energy as of late, but it will be worth it. (<— excuse for lack of posts)
While researching ways to make our new house energy efficient, I came across an interesting Wikipedia article on the Passive House. This article is a great example on how you can search for new hot keywords on Wikipedia.
This idea originates in Sweden and Germany, and is otherwise known as Passivhaus. In short, it’s the idea of making your house energy efficient using passive means of heating and cooling. While reading the article, I was bombarded with new ideas and keywords that I haven’t heard before. Immediately, my Domainer-Sense (much like Spidey-sense) kicked in and I found myself checking to see if any of them were registered.
This article is loaded with info for a hot niche: green energy. Whether you trust in the accuracy of Wikipedia or not is moot, really. These articles can provide you with new avenues to research.
I took a screenshot and circled many keywords in the article: click here to view the image. (I’ve tried making a thumbnail and a nice popup, but it’s either too early in the morning or my mojo is rusty)
So, after reading the article you now have:
- New ideas to hand register domain names
- Recognition of keywords that will help you identify domain names on drop lists and auctions that other domainers may pass up
- Tons of extra content for an existing green site
- Several small niche ideas, such as a site about passive solar design or one about ground heat exchangers
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The Most, And Least, Affordable Cities To Live In
The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index recently released some interesting info. The page has links to several excel documents that list the most, and least, affordable cities to live in. I’ll just discuss the metro areas over 500k people.
The most affordable cities
- Indianapolis, IN
- Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI
- Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
- Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI
- Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
- Syracuse, NY
- Dayton, OH
- Akron, OH
- Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH
- Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA
I can speak for many of the Michigan cities since I lived there for 27 years. Warren is a hole and is generally lumped in as Detroit. Troy and Farmington Hills are a different story (and quite frankly I don’t know why they are listed together with Warren). Troy and the surrounding cities were positively booming in the 80s and 90s, and though their economy is struggling like the rest of Michigan, they are doing relatively well. In fact, CNN Money has Troy listed as the 22nd best place to live. I grew up in Shelby Township, which is a couple miles east of Troy, and it’s 62nd on CNN’s list. Sterling Heights, also near Troy and adjacent to Shelby Twp, is 61st on the list. West Bloomfield Twp is, again, just west of Troy and 36th on the list.
These cities boomed in the 80s and 90s from people leaving Detroit looking for better neighborhoods and schools; and they found em. Detroit’s population has plummeted, but they’re all still there… just not in the city limits.
I suppose my point is that you need to thoroughly investigate your possible geodomain investments. Most people would be immediately turned off by hearing the word Detroit or finding out that a geodomain they are about to purchase is near Detroit. Look a little deeper and you may find opportunity.
The least affordable cities
- New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ
- San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City, CA
- Nassau-Suffolk, NY
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA
- Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL
- Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA
- El Paso, TX
- Newark-Union, NJ-PA
- Honolulu, HI
- Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
It wasn’t surprising to see this list cluttered with New York and Cali.
Ultimately, looking at the complete list I find myself questioning the accuracy. They have Ann Arbor, Michigan listed as the 22nd most affordable. Now, Ann Arbor is a major college town; home to the University of Michigan. My brother has lived there for about 10 years now and I can say that the community absolutely rapes the students of their money. While going to school, my brother rented an apartment which was really just a sectioned off room in a house. It was probably about 500 square feet, tops. Rent was $900 a month. Sound affordable to you? It’s disgusting.
So, the list has quite a few college towns in it and I’m guessing many larger college towns are similar to Ann Arbor. This is a direct conflict of facts. What am I missing?
As usual, this info is valuable to geodomainers. Arming yourself with this kind of knowledge will always pay off in the long run.
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20 Small Business Trends For 2009
Small Business Trends recently published loads of trends for 2009. This is not my most favorite of sites, and I don’t particularly agree with many trends that they predict. But they do get some right, and it’s always smart to check it out and decide for yourself.
Interestingly enough, they have .mobi listed as a global trend to watch for in 2009. However I don’t think they did their homework about our industry; this is what they said:
DotMobi is a top-level domain approved by ICANN (www.icann.org) and managed by the mTLD global registry and dedicated to delivering the Internet to mobile devices via the Mobile Web. According to Infoplease.com, there are more than 2 billion cell phones in use worldwide and that number continues to grow because many folks cannot afford a laptop. For a lot of people in emerging markets, the mobile phone will be the primary way to access the Internet. Learn more at, “Mobile Web Remains a Mystery to Most”
Now, I agree 100% in that the mobile web has a bright and exciting future. The one thing I disagree on is that it’s with the .mobi extension (and I know I’m not alone on this). I’m thinking that perhaps they are just assuming that .mobi must be used on mobile devices, and therefore must have a great 2009 ahead of it. I’ll chalk this one up to a reporter not researching properly.
Do check out their articles though, as they offer some comments on each trend I have listed here:
Top 10 global trends for small businesses for 2009:
- Disruptive innovation will be both the coolest and hottest new growth strategy in 2009 because it will transcend all boundaries and transform businesses.
- dotMobi will take global root in 2009.
- Diverse global business partnerships will shine and outperform those businesses that don’t make these critical alliances.
- Exporting (from the USA) will prevail in the first quarter of ‘09 and might start to strengthen later in the year.
- Twitter will replace the “call me” statement with “Twitter me” due to technology, convenience and time constraints.
- Entrepreneurs and small businesses will learn, if they haven’t already, everything there is to know about how to take a business global.
- Optimism will fuel global small businesses that have the guts to press on, even in the face of insurmountable obstacles.
- Women entrepreneurs will rule the global marketplace.
- Trusted crowds will become profitable clouds.
- Green and global are a marriage made in heaven because everyone wants to save the world.
Top 10 small business marketing trends for 2009:
- Authenticity
- Do-it-yourself marketing
- Tech-driven word-of-mouth marketing
- Eco and social responsibility
- Bootstrapping and simplicity
- Marketing to the “buy button”
- Paid memberships
- Mobility
- Wisdom of crowds
- Personal Branding
I’m becoming a big fan of the personal branding thing. If done correctly, it can do wonders for what you are trying to accomplish. A good example is Chef Patrick. I think he’s done a great job finding a catchy and easy-to-remember personal brand. What’s cooking in the domain world? Ask Chef Patrick! Combine that with a nicely designed site and good content and he has a winner. Good job, sir.
Neil Voron mentioned this trend back in my mega-post where domainers predicted trends for 2009. This is a great trend and it should strongly be considered if you are building a blog or niche site.
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