My Thoughts On The Domain Game By Kesmodel

November 26, 2008 · by Scott

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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