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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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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Materials Of The Future: Magnetic Ink, Stone Paper And More
I have another list for ya. I’m a fan of lists, even biased lists (not that unbiased lists exist, right?). But my main problem with lists are putting them across a ton of pages. Forbes does this. I can’t stand it!
This list is brought to you by Popular Mechanics, who also puts one per page. I know they are getting impressions for their advertisers, and they have a right to. But we also have a right to bitch about it. Not to mention their crappy Sharp expanding-ad that won’t close. CLOSE DAMNIT!
So anyways, this list is 16 Wild Materials You May Find In Future Products. The people over at Inventables picked the 16 materials. I found this one fascinating and loaded with keywords.
- Magnetic Ink. This ink contains particles of iron, making it magnetic and conductive. How could this be useful? instead of circuit boards, we could have circuit paper made using your printer and using circuit fonts.
- Ceramic Cloth. Can be used to insulate against extreme temperatures.
- Flavor Changing Additives. Nanospeheres encapsulated in microspheres. You taste the microspheres first, and then later the nanospeheres. Willy Wonka wants his everlasting gobstopper recipe back.
- Electronic Paper. Flexible display technology.
- Conductive Velcro. They call it “Hook & Loop” since Velcro is technically a trademark. Anyways, this is interesting because once you connect the Velcro, it completes a circuit. Backpack alarms!
- Translucent Concrete. Concrete that allows light to pass through. Perhaps a way to collect solar energy?
- Temperature Sensitive Glass Tiles. Not sure how useful these can be as they seem to be just novelty. But novelty has its uses…
- Anti-graffiti Film. Quite interesting and obviously quite useful.
- Stone Paper. Paper made from calcium carbonate as opposed to wood. In other words, it’s environmentally friendly.
- Water Expanding Plastic. Plastic that expands in water. I sat and thought about this and am really unsure how this can be useful. The article says it can be used to produce a cast for enlarging sculptures or fossils. But why?
- Anti-fog Film. Water slides off the surface instead of fogging it up.
- Water Soluble Glass. Again, quite interesting. But not sure how it can be used.
- Magnetic-attracting Paint. The paint contains iron powder, making it magentic and conductive.
- Compostable Stretch Fabric. Contains wool and ramie. Ramie is strong and expensive. It is used as industrial sewing thread and fishing nets.
- Edible Glitter. Um… Looks like fish food.
- Paper Honeycomb. Lightweight and strong packing material.
Now, before you go registering anything based off of these keywords, be sure to check the trademarks. It’s possible the companies are trying to trademark these, if they haven’t already.
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