The Lazy Domainer’s Way to Fail

I thought I’d start a “smackdown” category of my blog where I refute a lot of the nonsense that’s out there about domaining. I’m somewhat scared to do this, as there is so much nonsense out there, that I could spend all of my time just adding entries to this category. However, I think that it’s worth at least refuting a few of these articles, just so that people know that there is another side to the story.

Today I read the article “Stay Away From Domain Name Speculation” at http://seanabc.blogs.ie/2007/11/03/stay-away-from-domain-name-speculation/. In this article, basically the author, even though he admits “I never got involved in domaining” does not hesitate to give advice about domaining. Oh, I never went to medical school, let me give you some medical advice. Not.

The author makes 5 fundamental errors, which all domainers would do well to avoid:

1. No Research. You wouldn’t invest in stocks or real estate without doing research – why would you invest in domains without doing research? Sure, everything on the internet does look easy – the market is growing fast, and even if you are not the best in your field, you can still do well. However, that does not mean you can skip putting in the time and effort needed to learn the fundamentals.

2. New Registrations. You can definitely make money from newly registered domains, and in future posts I will discuss how to do this in more detail. And the ROI can sound amazing – buy a domain for $8 and sell for $1,000 – that’s like 1150% profit. However, the reality is, especially in established name spaces like .com, almost all of the good domain names are gone. This is the result of many, many domain investors and domain tasters having gone out and registered them. If you can find a domain that is available, the chances are, at least at the present time, the domain is not worth more than registration fee, otherwise someone would already have registered it.

3. Catchy Domain Names. The author recommends thinking up a “catchy” domain name. Maybe if you’ve got millions of dollars to brand the catchy domain name, that’s a good idea (or maybe not even then). The problem with catchy domain names is that they are rarely worth more than registation fee. Why would someone pay a premium for a catchy but meaningless domain, when with a bit of creativity they could come up with a different, yet equally catchy sounding domain name that has not been registered yet?

4. Domaining is Easy Work. Actually, to do well at domaining, you need to spend a lot of time and effort at it. You can’t just drink a beer, sit down at your computer, come up with some wild ideas, and see what domains are available.

5. Domaining Is Only For Exceptional People. The author concludes by making this statement. This is simply false. Domaining is probably the best opportunity that I know of for investing and making money. It is so early in the industry that pretty much anyone can do well, and there are a multitude of ways of making money.

In all fairness, one thing the author does get right: he recommends that you be very selective in the domains you purchase. Of course, that’s very important and is one of the keys to being successful in this business.

For a wonderful success story about how people can succeed in the domain industry, check out this story on Sahar’s blog. A couple things are important to note: Mr. Giordano worked 16 hour days to be successful, and he avoided the hand registration strategy. Oh, and he made $110,000 profit in a month’s time. Hardly sound to me like domaining is something to stay away from.

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