Mobi gold rush !

labrocca · 03-06-2007, 12:14 AM

Originally Posted by hawkeye

OK!! This is what I don't get. I've been involved in domaining since '98. I've been reading forums and watching others etc. etc. to learn and be as knowledgeable as I can, so my falls aren't so hard. However, I've never read so many put downs, reasonings, 'let me tell you' advice, 'this is why it will never work!' ragging on any other extension before as this one! Nobody was saying ".info will be a failure because it has no traffic in the first 5 months so it's doomed!" ".US is unknown, we have .com, who needs it!" ".BIZ you're all throwing away your money" etc. etc. etc.!!! These and other extensions were accepted, bought, sold, profitered from, had successful websites, and have had and continue to have, a longevity in usage. Yet .mobi, the most reasoned need for, thought out for marketing, with set standards for a specific purpose, etc. etc. extension to roll out, and there is constant drumming of 'you're a fool if you think that will succeed' battering. Like any investment it is a risk, and for those that want to take that chance, that is their choice to make and live with. But why so many 'experienced' (yeh!) domainers, feel that need to adamently play 'devils advocate' to others on this extension is really perplexing. What is the real skeptism that so many seem to share on this extension, that they were unwilling to share with previous extension rollouts?? I'm sure a lot of domainers would have appreciated such feedback on those extensions, in hindsight! There must be a underlying reason, that only a few seem to be privy to, is my assumption.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/301564-frank-schillings-take-on-mobi.html

Will you all be ragging on .tel too??

Interesting you bring up other extensions. I remember a thread here about a year ago. Some guy was basically arguing with EVERYONE that .com, net and org are the only extensions that matter. At the time I had a large handful of .info's I been buying and even some .us names. Now I missed the landrush of .info so I was buying everything pretty much from other domainers for the past 2-3 years. Well...after developing a few .info's and trying to park a few ...guess what. I FEEL STUPID! I should have listen to this numbnuts of a skeptic. When you miss the boat swimming won't get you very far. 90+% of domains registered AFTER landrush (or even first 2-3 days) are generally speaking worthless. .info is in general a cheap n00bs extension...yeah I still have a few nice ones but overall I can't sell them for what I paid and I didn't even pay all that much. $3, $5, $20 for some...and I can't even sell most for ANY profit. They are not worth renewing. I have 40+ infos in my RF account that I don't even give a crap about. Some are even single dictionary words but no one wants them...why!? Because they have no traffic..no traffic means no money...no money ....no sale. Again...with Mobi the end-result may likely be the same.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Now mobi has been placed on a pedestal far higher than .us, .info, .tv or even .eu (oh so much hype for .eu it was disgusting). And the reason I personally get involved is in hopes of saving a domainer from FEELING STUPID in a couple years and losing a TON of money. IMHO that's also why Schilling wrote his article as well. I feel really sad for many of the mobi spectators that have these awful portfolios they THINK has some value.

Now to place all that I have said into perspective please remember that I still own .us, .info, and even .mobi's. I have renewed and recently even acquired some names. BUT I am very picky. Something I really wish more domainers were.

The article from Schilling imho is a "heads up" to domainers that aren't paying attention to the negatives of mobi.

mjnels · 03-06-2007, 12:34 AM

Originally Posted by labrocca

Interesting you bring up other extensions. I remember a thread here about a year ago. Some guy was basically arguing with EVERYONE that .com, net and org are the only extensions that matter. At the time I had a large handful of .info's I been buying and even some .us names. Now I missed the landrush of .info so I was buying everything pretty much from other domainers for the past 2-3 years. Well...after developing a few .info's and trying to park a few ...guess what. I FEEL STUPID! I should have listen to this numbnuts of a skeptic. When you miss the boat swimming won't get you very far. 90+% of domains registered AFTER landrush (or even first 2-3 days) are generally speaking worthless. .info is in general a cheap n00bs extension...yeah I still have a few nice ones but overall I can't sell them for what I paid and I didn't even pay all that much. $3, $5, $20 for some...and I can't even sell most for ANY profit. They are not worth renewing. I have 40+ infos in my RF account that I don't even give a crap about. Some are even single dictionary words but no one wants them...why!? Because they have no traffic..no traffic means no money...no money ....no sale. Again...with Mobi the end-result may likely be the same.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Now mobi has been placed on a pedestal far higher than .us, .info, .tv or even .eu (oh so much hype for .eu it was disgusting). And the reason I personally get involved is in hopes of saving a domainer from FEELING STUPID in a couple years and losing a TON of money. IMHO that's also why Schilling wrote his article as well. I feel really sad for many of the mobi spectators that have these awful portfolios they THINK has some value.

Now to place all that I have said into perspective please remember that I still own .us, .info, and even .mobi's. I have renewed and recently even acquired some names. BUT I am very picky. Something I really wish more domainers were.

The article from Schilling imho is a "heads up" to domainers that aren't paying attention to the negatives of mobi.

yea um............... it might rain tommorow, it might not.

you never know.

rosh86 · 03-06-2007, 03:06 AM

Hi,

as a dotmobi investor and developer, I have noticed that when looking for .mobi pages in google any search result on the first 10+ pages will either have the .mobi name parked or have it undevelopped ...

it is a shame, not to much that they are undeveloped but that they are loitering the web again with so many parked pages ...

Pinky Brand mentioned in an earlier interview that they were going to try to monitor the domain name usage so that it is dotmobi rules compliant.
However, my concern at this time is:

If there are over 400,000 domain registrations so far and there are at least over 51% non dotmobi compliant sites ...(calculation is made looking at the amount of developped sites vs the amount of registrations in my opinion).
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

How will dotmobi manage to look after all these dotmobis in the future, checking their compliance to their rules, if they can't do it in todays dotmobi jungle of only 400,000 names ... what will happen once there are over a million registrations ....

that makes me wonder ...

Pred · 03-06-2007, 03:30 AM

Originally Posted by rosh86

Hi,
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

as a dotmobi investor and developer, I have noticed that when looking for .mobi pages in google any search result on the first 10+ pages will either have the .mobi name parked or have it undevelopped ...

it is a shame, not to much that they are undeveloped but that they are loitering the web again with so many parked pages ...

Pinky Brand mentioned in an earlier interview that they were going to try to monitor the domain name usage so that it is dotmobi rules compliant.
However, my concern at this time is:

If there are over 400,000 domain registrations so far and there are at least over 51% non dotmobi compliant sites ...(calculation is made looking at the amount of developped sites vs the amount of registrations in my opinion).

How will dotmobi manage to look after all these dotmobis in the future, checking their compliance to their rules, if they can't do it in todays dotmobi jungle of only 400,000 names ... what will happen once there are over a million registrations ....

that makes me wonder ...

well, they can be compliant with a parked page.
i agree it's not ideal. but i have 2 developed & am working on more.
the others have to be parked while this happens. its still early days. the search engines will sort the parked from the developed im sure.
anyway. lets just sit back & enjoy the warm glow from the traffic auction for mobi. (hopefully)lol

Jasdon · 03-06-2007, 04:14 AM

I've got the greatest respect for Frank Schilling and what he's achieved. But no-one is right all the time.

We can only see how internet usage evolves before we can say who's right and who's wrong. In fact, not just usage, but monetization too.

I wasn't in the game for previous ext landrushes (except .eu - now if you want to talk about 'spade selling'...) but I guess that the .mobi movement has retained more momentum than others. One thing is for sure, if this thread had only attracted 3 or 4 responses, you could be forgiven for thinking negatively.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Getting back to Mr S - he proudly says that they do not develop any names, period. And there are guys who have been highly successful with just a handful of names that they have developed into websites. So who's right?

sdsinc · 03-06-2007, 04:32 AM

Originally Posted by rosh86

as a dotmobi investor and developer, I have noticed that when looking for .mobi pages in google any search result on the first 10+ pages will either have the .mobi name parked or have it undevelopped ...

I wonder how many .mobi have been regged purely for speculation/parking with no intention of developing. I don't think any TLD can be successful unless it's adopted and developed by end users...

Quote:

I have seen .mobi before, only back then it was called .cc and .info ...

That is one quote from the article that I would not agree with.
.info seems to be picking up and more successful than .cc
IMO it all boils down to relevance: .info has some added value. The pointless TLDs are poised to fail for obvious reasons ie. does the Internet really need .coop .musem .aero or even .tel.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564
Still there is no shortage of pointless TLDs. History repeats itself.

snoop · 03-06-2007, 04:44 AM

Originally Posted by hawkeye

Nobody was saying ".info will be a failure because it has no traffic in the first 5 months so it's doomed!" ".US is unknown, we have .com, who needs it!" ".BIZ you're all throwing away your money" etc. etc. etc.!!! These and other extensions were accepted, bought, sold, profitered from, had successful websites, and have had and continue to have, a longevity in usage.

Are you kidding? that is exactly what people were saying when these extension came out, in the main those people were right. There has been value increases but nothing like the rest of the market. The level of success has been rather minor, especially .biz.

goodkarmaco · 03-06-2007, 05:05 AM

The thing about selling pans and shovels to prospectors is the demand is better than anything selling in the store. Why sell ladies dresses when every customer is asking for and willing to pay a premium for prospecting supplies?.

Because the merchant sells pan or shovels does not mean no bonaza. Thats where the naysaysers are loosing sight of the .mobi discussion. We all know of the specualtive nature of digging for .mobi gold. Will that stop us?

When no one but domainers invested in the .mobi did we know if end users would buy? No, but we assumed they would. Will the worlds companies want a .mobi for their business? Not a big trend there yet, but I am seeing more and more saying yes to that.

To think that the domain is being hawked to poor souls who do not understand mobis success is not guaranteed is certainly showing some inclination to a secret agenda.

I have mined for Gold in just about every creek, river and ledge in Northern California. I have hard rocked mined, dregdged, panned, sluiced and sniped from up high to down into pockets into the earth.

Failure is a frame of mind. Is it a failure if nothing happens for a while? To me it is if you have the notion that it will pay out and yet you throw in the towel. I have found my share of Gold. But I would not have if I did not stick to my goals.

Let me tell you about speculation. Speculation is the opposite of what is known for sure. Mining folks who have never been in certain wilderness areas cannot be deterred from their mission, because some are afraid to go there.

.mobi owners are looking for the glitter of gold. They are staking their claims. That leaves less and less property to mine as each day goes by.

In my opinion it is actually good that many are dragging their feet as regards .mobi. That gives us a little more time to find that perfect .mobi domain to develope.

The nature of speculating is knowing full well failure may be the end result. That being said the thrill of hitting the mother lode is all that is needed to keep us washing dirt.

Mobineer · 03-06-2007, 06:01 AM

Goodkarmaco --- excellent analysis --- w/out being "mobi-biased"- and it's refreshing to see a POV from someone who's been in the trenches (river, creeks, etc) going after a dream --

per someone's opinion that mobis regged 2-3 days after landrush are basically worthless ---

maybe someone should start a thread showcasing top mobis regged even a week after landrush ---
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

I regged during the Sunrise trademark phase to protect USPTO TMs that my company owns; I regged over 200 during the landrush phase and hundreds more later...

I've offered none for sale and refrain from presenting it, but I receive offers continually, and surprising, the highest offers are for mobis that were regged in late October, November and even early December...

acquiring great mobis now requires a lot of luck, and a lot of determination, and looking in hidden locales -- maybe registering foreign name mobis ---

TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) is partnering with the registry to sell mobi(s) and to feature mobis on handsets --- what about Italian mobis? or Spanish? or German?

think about new technologies, especially in telecom, entertainment, media, on the "mobi" horizon ---

best of luck!

labrocca · 03-06-2007, 01:39 PM

The point of the analogy to the gold rush pick and shovels is not that there isn't gold in the hills..but rather that the people who really are making the money are the merchants (mTLD). Also it was a very small percentage of gold speculators that actually found any gold....which is exactly what will happen with mobi. Does this mean mobi speculators should drop their shovels and walk away? NO. But it does mean that you should have backup plan...like building a nice house on your property instead of paning for the gold. The sales threads, parking, and appraisals for mobi usually give me a giggle. I applaud anyone building a nice little site or has a plan other than to resell or park the mobi domain.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

It's important to understand WHAT you are doing and the RISK involved. I am not sure some of those in the mobi cult do.

Quote:

When no one but domainers invested in the .mobi did we know if end users would buy? No, but we assumed they would. Will the worlds companies want a .mobi for their business? Not a big trend there yet, but I am seeing more and more saying yes to that.

You do realize the problem with that logic? If a company wants to run a mobi site it's a good chance the domain is in the hands of a squatter. And not sure about you but I see a nice handful of threads here mentioning new mobile sites that are NOT mobi so where is this "trend" you refer to. Any proof to back that up?

mjnels · 03-06-2007, 02:34 PM

^ this guy wants PROOF to speculate... oh man, it just gets better and better..

goodkarmaco · 03-06-2007, 02:37 PM

The trend is not a big one. But it is one that is in the beginning stages.

When major companies invest in the .mobi, that is the trend. Not many have, but yes some big players are in the market now. I am not one to wait around untill all the lemmings are in the market. No chance for making money following the crowd in my opinion.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Every time someones says, mobi is going nowhere, I tell them they are probably right, for them that is. If they do not "buy in" to the .mobi future, they will never be in line for any payouts. For me it is going somewhere. I am not selling my house to invest in it. But I will "stake" a small claim here and there, where I feel some potential is for profit.

Five years ago a few investors got together and started ethanol plants in states like Montana. At first that drew no attention. As more and more awareness of fuel shortages became aware, the plants started seeing a return. Today corn ethanol is a very big business. Most farm equipment in the farm belt is run from our own renewable corn based ethanol now. The commodity corn has doubled in price in the last few months Thats a big deal. It is also a new trend. What brought that trend to the floor? Forsight. Was the investment in corn plants a sure thing? Hell no it wasn't.

But those companies are now reaping huge rewards for their very wise actions made of not following the crowd.

If you want a sure thing, you should probably be content with earning 3% by leaving your money in a Bank savings account. If you want to invest in new frontiers, some speculation is required. The outcome cannot be known as to its profit. That is why we love reading about success stories from people who went out on a limb and bought domains years ago that no one else saw potential in.

You can do that or play it safe. Its your and my choice.

What can be learned from that? Nothing I suppose if a person wants to keep their head in the sand.

agent006 · 03-06-2007, 09:27 PM

The main thing why I think the mega .com owners that are negative about .mobi is becuz if .mobi does become the default extension for mobile internet they are gonna lose money /value in their .com since they won't be getting that added traffic so that's where the haterade comes in but other than that I can see their logic in why .mobi will fail but if you were in their position of owning millions of .com names you'd probably want .mobi to fail since u want a monopoly on the internet.

All I gotta say is in 5 years time, we'll find out everything, for now everything is just PURE SPECULATORY SPECULATION.

ofclean · 03-06-2007, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by MinionDH

Two quick points:

1) Frank Schilling owns 300,000+ domains (mostly .com). If people favor .com over .mobi then he will make $$$ when people begin using the mobile web.

2) Just last month at DOMAINfest he said, "Really good names in .info and .mobi will also have some value.”

You act like you guys aren't doing the same thing!

Everyone is trying to pump up their investments, especially you guys!

That being said, don't you think that he would have bought .mobis had he thought that they would be worth anything?

labrocca · 03-07-2007, 12:31 AM

Originally Posted by ofclean

You act like you guys aren't doing the same thing!
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Everyone is trying to pump up their investments, especially you guys!

That being said, don't you think that he would have bought .mobis had he thought that they would be worth anything?

And that's the truth of it. A lot of seasoned veteran domainers only dabbled in mobi grabbing a few select names. I would LOVE to see what guys like RJ and DCG bought for mobi. If we could see the top 100 domainers and what they hold for mobi domains it would create a better consensus on what the top pros think of mobi. Currently many are silent which imho is bad. If they were positive on mobi they would be more vocal (i.e. the members here) instead many are absolutely quiet and the few that have spoken say negative things....such as Schilling.

gou · 03-07-2007, 01:12 AM

Originally Posted by labrocca

Currently many are silent which imho is bad. If they were positive on mobi they would be more vocal (i.e. the members here) instead many are absolutely quiet and the few that have spoken say negative things....such as Schilling.

The wisest are always the quietest on Wall Street. Perhaps that could apply here as well.

Bodhi · 03-07-2007, 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by gou

The wisest are always the quietest on Wall Street. Perhaps that could apply here as well.

I think you are correct and that is true about most things. The smartest people are usually not the ones you see throwing their opinions on others.

As far as .mobi, I like to hear what people have to say either way, not that it makes much difference what anyone says here .mobi is such an unknown at this point, it is all just conjecture.

-REECE- · 03-07-2007, 06:04 AM

As someone who owns 100+ dotcoms as well as dotmobis... I can see how someone with all their eggs in one basket would like to conclude dotmobis will soar or crash... It's pretty obvious who's who -- let's see... Mobile phones are rapidly increasing whereas computers are not... People are increasingly buying UMPCs (roughly pda size full powered computers), subnotebooks, smartphones,... All this means alot more people will be accessing the internet on very small screens that *currently* are generally not mobile friendly.

Does this mean .mobi will succeed? Of course not. There are already programs out there that can convert screens -- actually, I have been using such a program since 2002 when I bought my first pda. Likewise, however, I would be inclined to use a well developed .mobi anyday over a program which attempts to downsize a 1024x768 to fit on my 320x240.

Like some have already said... Success really does depend on what .mobi domainers do from here on out. There are several big companies who've already invested in .mobi -- Ford has registered several names related to cars which they sell (ie Fusion.mobi for their Ford Fusion), Warner Brothers registered Friends.com, presumably for the TV show,... And we have countless others like DaimlerChrysler who've perhaps not went as far as Ford, but have registered key names for them such as Dodge.mobi... And then, we have all the big backers like Microsoft and Google who hold a hell of a lot of weight in determining what happens. Some guy with 300k names is a pawn in the scope of the powers at play here... We have mobile phone companies like Nokia who could force .mobi upon us if they wanted to by working with Microsoft and limiting their phones to .mobi addresses because they believe it's in the best interest of their customers, etc.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Now that's a hell of a lot of speculation there! What will happen... Who knows? Bottom line is that if I -- or anyone for that matter, got offered a name like sex.mobi

for $10, I think we can all agree you'd be a fool not to take it... Just an example of course, however there are plenty of names out there (not many left, mind you), that will be well worth their price regardless of whether .mobi becomes the mobile dotcom or not.

On another note, I do wish the dotmobi salesmen would get a grip. They sound like a bunch of idiots when they compare dotmobi's growth to taking the equivalent of 10 years for dotcom... And I remember distinctly that many people I knew didn't even have computers in the 80s... How exactly is it fair to compare .mobi's growth to dotcom's early days? It's a load of bull and angers me everytime I read such -- not because I fear the value of my dotcoms decreasing, rather because they're hurting their own extension. Anyone with even a nut for a brain would know the difference between 1985 and 2006/07... It's an entirely different world and making such statements as they have rightfully entitles fellow domainers to call them nothing but salesmen IMHO.

mjnels · 03-07-2007, 06:14 AM

nice post Reece.. would be great to see more of this level headed logic in the forums..

-REECE- · 03-07-2007, 07:15 AM

Thanks Mj

What some people fail to realize is that there really is no need to take risks if you play things carefully...

DotCC didn't materialize... I only ever bought 1 single DotCC -- oled.cc. While everyone was registering them as if they were the next dotcom (give eNIC credit for that one), I chose to not register any because I wasn't able to get any "high quality" ones initially and instead chose to focus my efforts on locating a few quality ones and investing in better known extensions in the meantime. Those familiar with where display technology is going... I think we can agree I won't be losing money on such a name regardless of it being dotCC.

If everyone were careful about which names they chose -- and I don't just mean restricting to dictionary words -- I mean intelligently thinking about domains before choosing them, there'd be a lot less at stake here and more people could relax like I am at present. Bioelectromagnetism.mobi is NOT a good domain name because it's 1 word... It won't get you rich regardless of whether dotmobi becomes the next dotcom or not. I don't know about all of you guys but I strongly dislike losing money on anything -- whether it's a reg fee on single domain or something larger (like a whole failed portfolio which thankfully has never happened). If you only invest in winners, you'll be a winner too (my apologies for how cheesy that sounds). Anything other than that is speculation, especially if you don't even plan on developing the site and are just praying dotmobi catches on and you hit the traffic jackpot.

labrocca · 03-07-2007, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by gou

The wisest are always the quietest on Wall Street. Perhaps that could apply here as well.

????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564
Then you don't know wall street. The second they have something already in their portfolio...they can't shut up about it. Sound familiar?

I read the wall street journal for like 5 years just about everyday fyi.

gou · 03-07-2007, 01:56 PM

Originally Posted by labrocca

Then you don't know wall street. The second they have something already in their portfolio...they can't shut up about it. Sound familiar?

People at Motley Fool and various fund managers sure can't shut up about it, but people like Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn avoid being outspoken.
It's called putting your money where your mouth is; Buffett jokes about it all the time.

labrocca · 03-07-2007, 03:20 PM

Originally Posted by gou

People at Motley Fool and various fund managers sure can't shut up about it, but people like Warren Buffett and Carl Icahn avoid being outspoken.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564
It's called putting your money where your mouth is; Buffett jokes about it all the time.

Any move Buffet makes...everyone knows anyways. He doesn't have to open his mouth. btw..I am a huge fan of his. I admire the man greatly. Read his wikipedia page it's full of awe inspiring stuff.

goodkarmaco · 03-08-2007, 05:39 AM

Yes, Warren Buffet is genius. When every one is selling out of fear, he is buying. Not just anything thing but buying the precise thing that is poised for a upswing. Its uncanny how a person knows what will jump in value. Some got it and some don't.

Speaking of shovels and picks and San Francisco the refrence to merchants making more than the gold pickers is true to a degree. Its true until a new strike was discovered and all the miners ran off to the newly discovered gold field.

If you had a store in some remote part of the country and you had a small town to support you, then you cannot compare that to the big money store merchants made in a gold rush setting. It is apparrent that the store that has miners clammoring for tools can mark up his product many times more that a poor farmer who needs a shovel.

Not all men who bought shovels paid a high price though.

One day three men walked up the side of Mt. Davidson looking for gold in the middle of the State of Nevada. History was made that day when the first tailings of silver were found in the black mud of that dirt dug from a hole. They did not want silver, they were looking for gold. But a small amount of gold was there, that was for sure.

Although for weeks those three men cursed that black mud for its weight and work involved to coax a grain or two of gold from it, they kept at it. They knew it held some promise.

Instead of disgarding this black grimy mud one miner had some samples sent off to a assayer, another state away.

That small effort was responsible for more wealth ever bestowed upon the mining communtiy. Its funny how fortunes can fall in our laps and we do not see them. Selling the claims for a small fortune thousands became extremely wealthy.

Kind of like domain flipping. Stock prices were going up hundreds of times, sometimes doing that daily.

The mine the Comstock, is one of the biggest silver mines ever discovered. The riches from the mine one man and a few of his friends invested into building the city of San Francisco.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Maybe you have heard of the loved Hearst Castle. We all know about the Hearst Newspaper syndicate. The owner of those entities was Randolf Hearst and his money from that mine pretty much moved mountains.

Its funny that domainers who talk about those selling shovels, making more than the gold seekers have the cart before the horse. If the gold rush was not a huge success that city would not have been built and America would not have been where it is today. You see much more wealth, then even building San Francisco was done because of a few who purchased a shovel and a pick. Those rich miners, investors, and stock owners who prospered improved the living standards for all.

The sad story portrayed by certain domainers that fortunes were not made and that merchants were the only ones making money do not know about the wealth bestowed to those that went after the glitter of gold.That wealth worked its way throught the economy improving the living standard for millions of people.

The United States mint produced hundreds of millions of silver dollars and all those silver dollars were from the silver found in the Comstock mines that run directly under the "old west" Virginia city at the top of Mt Davidson in Nevada. You can visit one of the oringinal mints just below the mountain in Carson City Nevada.

The Mount Davidson towers over todays city of Reno Nevada, sparkling before todays tourist. Back then it was just a hot, dry barren place.

Heres another interesting note. If you are a tourist you can be standing right in the middle of the town, looking at all the old saloons and the landscape and if you were not told about Comstock silver lode, ( plenty of gold came out of that mine too ) you could be looking right at it and not even know a fortune came out of the area around the piles of dirt.

When the days diggings have been washed and the nuggets are in the bag, then the profits can be weighed.

Gold is where you find it and when you don't find it, history shows it does no good to complain about it. What does pay off is to continue looking.

Maybe .mobi will be gold. Maybe it will not. But looking to improve the internet experience will benefit us all.

Virginiacitytourism.com Cathousesofnevada.com

ekal · 03-08-2007, 06:06 AM

Quote:

But looking to improve the internet experience will benefit us all.

Ah - the crux of the matter....
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564

Are the .mobi registry and .mobi investors looking to improve the internet experience or make a quick buck?

The sensible answer is of course both, but the degree to which you think they're trying to do one or the other probably shapes your view of .mobi

03-06-2007, 03:06 AM	#53 (permalink)
rosh86 NamePros Regular Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Chichester UK Posts: 391	Hi, as a dotmobi investor and developer, I have noticed that when looking for .mobi pages in google any search result on the first 10+ pages will either have the .mobi name parked or have it undevelopped ... it is a shame, not to much that they are undeveloped but that they are loitering the web again with so many parked pages ... Pinky Brand mentioned in an earlier interview that they were going to try to monitor the domain name usage so that it is dotmobi rules compliant. However, my concern at this time is: If there are over 400,000 domain registrations so far and there are at least over 51% non dotmobi compliant sites ...(calculation is made looking at the amount of developped sites vs the amount of registrations in my opinion). ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 How will dotmobi manage to look after all these dotmobis in the future, checking their compliance to their rules, if they can't do it in todays dotmobi jungle of only 400,000 names ... what will happen once there are over a million registrations .... that makes me wonder ... __________________ coming soon:www.ExpertMobi.com Wanted: Premium .mobi - Budget: $x,xxx

03-06-2007, 05:05 AM	#58 (permalink)
goodkarmaco Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Blaine, Wa. Posts: 1,976	Mobi gold rush ! The thing about selling pans and shovels to prospectors is the demand is better than anything selling in the store. Why sell ladies dresses when every customer is asking for and willing to pay a premium for prospecting supplies?. Because the merchant sells pan or shovels does not mean no bonaza. Thats where the naysaysers are loosing sight of the .mobi discussion. We all know of the specualtive nature of digging for .mobi gold. Will that stop us? When no one but domainers invested in the .mobi did we know if end users would buy? No, but we assumed they would. Will the worlds companies want a .mobi for their business? Not a big trend there yet, but I am seeing more and more saying yes to that. To think that the domain is being hawked to poor souls who do not understand mobis success is not guaranteed is certainly showing some inclination to a secret agenda. I have mined for Gold in just about every creek, river and ledge in Northern California. I have hard rocked mined, dregdged, panned, sluiced and sniped from up high to down into pockets into the earth. Failure is a frame of mind. Is it a failure if nothing happens for a while? To me it is if you have the notion that it will pay out and yet you throw in the towel. I have found my share of Gold. But I would not have if I did not stick to my goals. Let me tell you about speculation. Speculation is the opposite of what is known for sure. Mining folks who have never been in certain wilderness areas cannot be deterred from their mission, because some are afraid to go there. .mobi owners are looking for the glitter of gold. They are staking their claims. That leaves less and less property to mine as each day goes by. In my opinion it is actually good that many are dragging their feet as regards .mobi. That gives us a little more time to find that perfect .mobi domain to develope. The nature of speculating is knowing full well failure may be the end result. That being said the thrill of hitting the mother lode is all that is needed to keep us washing dirt. __________________ GOODKARMACO, "Tenisonline"

03-06-2007, 02:37 PM	#62 (permalink)
goodkarmaco Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Blaine, Wa. Posts: 1,976	speculating, does not spell sure thing The trend is not a big one. But it is one that is in the beginning stages. When major companies invest in the .mobi, that is the trend. Not many have, but yes some big players are in the market now. I am not one to wait around untill all the lemmings are in the market. No chance for making money following the crowd in my opinion. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 Every time someones says, mobi is going nowhere, I tell them they are probably right, for them that is. If they do not "buy in" to the .mobi future, they will never be in line for any payouts. For me it is going somewhere. I am not selling my house to invest in it. But I will "stake" a small claim here and there, where I feel some potential is for profit. Five years ago a few investors got together and started ethanol plants in states like Montana. At first that drew no attention. As more and more awareness of fuel shortages became aware, the plants started seeing a return. Today corn ethanol is a very big business. Most farm equipment in the farm belt is run from our own renewable corn based ethanol now. The commodity corn has doubled in price in the last few months Thats a big deal. It is also a new trend. What brought that trend to the floor? Forsight. Was the investment in corn plants a sure thing? Hell no it wasn't. But those companies are now reaping huge rewards for their very wise actions made of not following the crowd. If you want a sure thing, you should probably be content with earning 3% by leaving your money in a Bank savings account. If you want to invest in new frontiers, some speculation is required. The outcome cannot be known as to its profit. That is why we love reading about success stories from people who went out on a limb and bought domains years ago that no one else saw potential in. You can do that or play it safe. Its your and my choice. What can be learned from that? Nothing I suppose if a person wants to keep their head in the sand. __________________ GOODKARMACO, "Tenisonline" Last edited by goodkarmaco; 03-06-2007 at 03:10 PM. Reason: misspell

03-07-2007, 06:04 AM	#68 (permalink)
-REECE- NamePros Expert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 8,996	As someone who owns 100+ dotcoms as well as dotmobis... I can see how someone with all their eggs in one basket would like to conclude dotmobis will soar or crash... It's pretty obvious who's who -- let's see... Mobile phones are rapidly increasing whereas computers are not... People are increasingly buying UMPCs (roughly pda size full powered computers), subnotebooks, smartphones,... All this means alot more people will be accessing the internet on very small screens that currently are generally not mobile friendly. Does this mean .mobi will succeed? Of course not. There are already programs out there that can convert screens -- actually, I have been using such a program since 2002 when I bought my first pda. Likewise, however, I would be inclined to use a well developed .mobi anyday over a program which attempts to downsize a 1024x768 to fit on my 320x240. Like some have already said... Success really does depend on what .mobi domainers do from here on out. There are several big companies who've already invested in .mobi -- Ford has registered several names related to cars which they sell (ie Fusion.mobi for their Ford Fusion), Warner Brothers registered Friends.com, presumably for the TV show,... And we have countless others like DaimlerChrysler who've perhaps not went as far as Ford, but have registered key names for them such as Dodge.mobi... And then, we have all the big backers like Microsoft and Google who hold a hell of a lot of weight in determining what happens. Some guy with 300k names is a pawn in the scope of the powers at play here... We have mobile phone companies like Nokia who could force .mobi upon us if they wanted to by working with Microsoft and limiting their phones to .mobi addresses because they believe it's in the best interest of their customers, etc. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 Now that's a hell of a lot of speculation there! What will happen... Who knows? Bottom line is that if I -- or anyone for that matter, got offered a name like sex.mobi for $10, I think we can all agree you'd be a fool not to take it... Just an example of course, however there are plenty of names out there (not many left, mind you), that will be well worth their price regardless of whether .mobi becomes the mobile dotcom or not. On another note, I do wish the dotmobi salesmen would get a grip. They sound like a bunch of idiots when they compare dotmobi's growth to taking the equivalent of 10 years for dotcom... And I remember distinctly that many people I knew didn't even have computers in the 80s... How exactly is it fair to compare .mobi's growth to dotcom's early days? It's a load of bull and angers me everytime I read such -- not because I fear the value of my dotcoms decreasing, rather because they're hurting their own extension. Anyone with even a nut for a brain would know the difference between 1985 and 2006/07... It's an entirely different world and making such statements as they have rightfully entitles fellow domainers to call them nothing but salesmen IMHO. Last edited by Reece; 03-07-2007 at 06:14 AM.

03-08-2007, 05:39 AM	#74 (permalink)
goodkarmaco Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Blaine, Wa. Posts: 1,976	Gold has many colors Yes, Warren Buffet is genius. When every one is selling out of fear, he is buying. Not just anything thing but buying the precise thing that is poised for a upswing. Its uncanny how a person knows what will jump in value. Some got it and some don't. Speaking of shovels and picks and San Francisco the refrence to merchants making more than the gold pickers is true to a degree. Its true until a new strike was discovered and all the miners ran off to the newly discovered gold field. If you had a store in some remote part of the country and you had a small town to support you, then you cannot compare that to the big money store merchants made in a gold rush setting. It is apparrent that the store that has miners clammoring for tools can mark up his product many times more that a poor farmer who needs a shovel. Not all men who bought shovels paid a high price though. One day three men walked up the side of Mt. Davidson looking for gold in the middle of the State of Nevada. History was made that day when the first tailings of silver were found in the black mud of that dirt dug from a hole. They did not want silver, they were looking for gold. But a small amount of gold was there, that was for sure. Although for weeks those three men cursed that black mud for its weight and work involved to coax a grain or two of gold from it, they kept at it. They knew it held some promise. Instead of disgarding this black grimy mud one miner had some samples sent off to a assayer, another state away. That small effort was responsible for more wealth ever bestowed upon the mining communtiy. Its funny how fortunes can fall in our laps and we do not see them. Selling the claims for a small fortune thousands became extremely wealthy. Kind of like domain flipping. Stock prices were going up hundreds of times, sometimes doing that daily. The mine the Comstock, is one of the biggest silver mines ever discovered. The riches from the mine one man and a few of his friends invested into building the city of San Francisco. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 Maybe you have heard of the loved Hearst Castle. We all know about the Hearst Newspaper syndicate. The owner of those entities was Randolf Hearst and his money from that mine pretty much moved mountains. Its funny that domainers who talk about those selling shovels, making more than the gold seekers have the cart before the horse. If the gold rush was not a huge success that city would not have been built and America would not have been where it is today. You see much more wealth, then even building San Francisco was done because of a few who purchased a shovel and a pick. Those rich miners, investors, and stock owners who prospered improved the living standards for all. The sad story portrayed by certain domainers that fortunes were not made and that merchants were the only ones making money do not know about the wealth bestowed to those that went after the glitter of gold.That wealth worked its way throught the economy improving the living standard for millions of people. The United States mint produced hundreds of millions of silver dollars and all those silver dollars were from the silver found in the Comstock mines that run directly under the "old west" Virginia city at the top of Mt Davidson in Nevada. You can visit one of the oringinal mints just below the mountain in Carson City Nevada. The Mount Davidson towers over todays city of Reno Nevada, sparkling before todays tourist. Back then it was just a hot, dry barren place. Heres another interesting note. If you are a tourist you can be standing right in the middle of the town, looking at all the old saloons and the landscape and if you were not told about Comstock silver lode, ( plenty of gold came out of that mine too ) you could be looking right at it and not even know a fortune came out of the area around the piles of dirt. When the days diggings have been washed and the nuggets are in the bag, then the profits can be weighed. Gold is where you find it and when you don't find it, history shows it does no good to complain about it. What does pay off is to continue looking. Maybe .mobi will be gold. Maybe it will not. But looking to improve the internet experience will benefit us all. Virginiacitytourism.com Cathousesofnevada.com __________________ GOODKARMACO, "Tenisonline" Last edited by goodkarmaco; 03-08-2007 at 02:09 PM. Reason: misspell

03-06-2007, 04:14 AM	#55 (permalink)
Jasdon Account Closed Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: UK Posts: 1,014	I've got the greatest respect for Frank Schilling and what he's achieved. But no-one is right all the time. We can only see how internet usage evolves before we can say who's right and who's wrong. In fact, not just usage, but monetization too. I wasn't in the game for previous ext landrushes (except .eu - now if you want to talk about 'spade selling'...) but I guess that the .mobi movement has retained more momentum than others. One thing is for sure, if this thread had only attracted 3 or 4 responses, you could be forgiven for thinking negatively. ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 Getting back to Mr S - he proudly says that they do not develop any names, period. And there are guys who have been highly successful with just a handful of names that they have developed into websites. So who's right?

03-06-2007, 06:01 AM	#59 (permalink)
Mobineer Account Suspended Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 234	Goodkarmaco --- excellent analysis --- w/out being "mobi-biased"- and it's refreshing to see a POV from someone who's been in the trenches (river, creeks, etc) going after a dream -- per someone's opinion that mobis regged 2-3 days after landrush are basically worthless --- maybe someone should start a thread showcasing top mobis regged even a week after landrush --- ????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=301564 I regged during the Sunrise trademark phase to protect USPTO TMs that my company owns; I regged over 200 during the landrush phase and hundreds more later... I've offered none for sale and refrain from presenting it, but I receive offers continually, and surprising, the highest offers are for mobis that were regged in late October, November and even early December... acquiring great mobis now requires a lot of luck, and a lot of determination, and looking in hidden locales -- maybe registering foreign name mobis --- TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile) is partnering with the registry to sell mobi(s) and to feature mobis on handsets --- what about Italian mobis? or Spanish? or German? think about new technologies, especially in telecom, entertainment, media, on the "mobi" horizon --- best of luck!

03-06-2007, 02:34 PM	#61 (permalink)
mjnels Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Sunny Florida Posts: 2,181	^ this guy wants PROOF to speculate... oh man, it just gets better and better..

03-06-2007, 09:27 PM	#63 (permalink)
agent006 NamePros Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 87	The main thing why I think the mega .com owners that are negative about .mobi is becuz if .mobi does become the default extension for mobile internet they are gonna lose money /value in their .com since they won't be getting that added traffic so that's where the haterade comes in but other than that I can see their logic in why .mobi will fail but if you were in their position of owning millions of .com names you'd probably want .mobi to fail since u want a monopoly on the internet. All I gotta say is in 5 years time, we'll find out everything, for now everything is just PURE SPECULATORY SPECULATION.

03-07-2007, 06:14 AM	#69 (permalink)
mjnels Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Sunny Florida Posts: 2,181	nice post Reece.. would be great to see more of this level headed logic in the forums..

03-07-2007, 07:15 AM	#70 (permalink)
-REECE- NamePros Expert Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 8,996	Thanks Mj What some people fail to realize is that there really is no need to take risks if you play things carefully... DotCC didn't materialize... I only ever bought 1 single DotCC -- oled.cc. While everyone was registering them as if they were the next dotcom (give eNIC credit for that one), I chose to not register any because I wasn't able to get any "high quality" ones initially and instead chose to focus my efforts on locating a few quality ones and investing in better known extensions in the meantime. Those familiar with where display technology is going... I think we can agree I won't be losing money on such a name regardless of it being dotCC. If everyone were careful about which names they chose -- and I don't just mean restricting to dictionary words -- I mean intelligently thinking about domains before choosing them, there'd be a lot less at stake here and more people could relax like I am at present. Bioelectromagnetism.mobi is NOT a good domain name because it's 1 word... It won't get you rich regardless of whether dotmobi becomes the next dotcom or not. I don't know about all of you guys but I strongly dislike losing money on anything -- whether it's a reg fee on single domain or something larger (like a whole failed portfolio which thankfully has never happened). If you only invest in winners, you'll be a winner too (my apologies for how cheesy that sounds). Anything other than that is speculation, especially if you don't even plan on developing the site and are just praying dotmobi catches on and you hit the traffic jackpot.

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Mobi gold rush !

speculating, does not spell sure thing

Gold has many colors