Kevin Ham's Prescription for Success: New May Cover Story at DN Journal
The new May Cover Story is out at DNJournal.com. Kevin Ham is a name that everyone in this industry knows but only a handful of people really know the man. When you run a domain business that reportedly generates well over $1 million a week from various domain-related ventures and a portfolio of approximately 300,000 names, it is easy for the statistics to overshadow the human being behind them. Especially when that person is as humble and self-effacing as the 37-year-old Canadian doctor from Vancouver, Canada.
Despite all of his success, the domain business was actually a detour Ham took in an effort to realize other goals. We talked with him about how he got to where he is today and where he plans to go now that the financial obstacles that had blocked his dreams are out of the way. Ham also talks about what he thought of the Business 2.0 magazine cover story about him that made waves summer. It is an entrepreneurial success story about the power of faith and love and the importance of family and friends - the things Ham believes really matter in life. You can read all about it here: http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2008/may.htm
__________________ DNJournal.com - The Industry News Magazine NameNewbie.com - The Beginner's Guide to Making Money with Domain Names Also Visit: ThinkDomains.com * NewNames.info
__________________
† Did We Know That There Aren't Really Thousands Of Bands Who Might Be Interesting, We Will Get To Deleting All Bands That Aren't In Flames, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Deicide †
Biggest lessons in life come when changes need to be made. Kevin is a great domainer because he can adapt to changes. How many domainers tried to make money with the "new" concept of domaining years ago?.
When efforts to try to monetize the newly registered domains fail, most domainers give up. Thats the way their minds work. Dead end.. pack up and go home.
Not Kevin, even though at first his business was not really from parking domains, he learned how to monetize them. He hosted domains and personally sold ads on them. That takes insight and hard work. Especially if a person understands he was a pioneer in doing so.
The real example of the reason he made it was his ability to step back and look at his failures and ask the important question. Why are my campaigns not working.?
He put out his maverick business plan and he received no takers. He thought his low price for hosting was the answer. When no orders came in did he do what most of us do and quit? Did he lower his prices thinking maybe he would get advertisers?
No! He did what one out of thousands would do, he came up with a totally differernt approach. He raised his prices. He noticed a trickle of money coming in. So he really raised his prices, ten times what he first asked for his hosting services. Lo and behold, money started pouring in!
He found the formula for success.
Price the service to match the customer expectation of value. He did not get advertising revenue until the market got hit with the price point that it felt was the added value.
Who would have thought raisng prices ten fold was the answer to grabbing online advertising dollars. Only a maverick, Kevin Hamn did.
This story is why we are blessed as domainers to have Ron at Dnj as the domain industry reporter.
Many thanks Ron,
Roderick
__________________ GOODKARMACO, "Tenisonline"
Last edited by goodkarmaco : 05-14-2008 at 03:32 AM.
Thanks Roderick, much appreciated. Another thing I noticed about Kevin in putting this story together is his incredible attention to detail. I think this stems from his medical training. You cannot afford to make a mistake in that field because people's lives hang in the balance. You have to keep going over the information you have again and again to make sure you have the right diagnosis. As you pointed out, when things were not working, Kevn looked at every possible detail to see what he could have missed. He tweaked his prescription until he found the cure for his problems. He is a very interesting case study for success in any field, not just domains.
__________________ DNJournal.com - The Industry News Magazine NameNewbie.com - The Beginner's Guide to Making Money with Domain Names Also Visit: ThinkDomains.com * NewNames.info
All due respect to Duke, who is a good man and a class act. The following post has nothing to do with him or DNJournal, but this is the story that prompted my rant, so this is the proper thread to post it.
-----------------------------------------
RANT WARNING.
I guess I'm becoming somewhat sick of the industry that I previously loved. I'm tired of seeing a few people holding the majority of the most valuable domains. And I'm even more tired of seeing those people doing nothing but try to squeeze out every penny possible with parking pages, mini-sites and pages that LOOK developed, but are only skin deep.
But surely this is different, right?
Surely Mr. Ham who claims his own inspiration and strength comes "from above" and claims that's the whole purpose for getting into the business, has done some amazing things with his religious names? I bet he has spent countless hours and dollars to provide REAL, MEANINGFUL CONTENT to the people of the world looking for religious guidance.
Let's take a quick look at a few randomly chosen high-profile domains he owns.
Religion.com - Hmmm... no, just a bunch of sponsored links.
Heaven.com - Nope. Just a parking page.
Baptism.com - Afraid not. Another parking page.
Jew.com - Anybody interested in some paid links?
Christians.com - Sorry, just a parking lot.
Muslims.com - No real content here, just another parker.
So he's done nothing for real development or content. But you can bet he spent plenty of time making sure those keywords are optimized, and the site set up to make every penny it can.
OK, well... I guess it's a matter of priorities. Despite being wealthy already, he is still more concerned with making money than anything else. That's fine. It's his right and his choice.
But I'm not impressed with Mr Ham or his empty, shallow parking sites. I'm not impressed with money. I'm more impressed with a 16 old kid who has a blog about bicycles and works hard to provide his visitors with something REAL.
Let's be honest -- A good part of this business is based on doing nothing. Greed and Laziness. Sitting behind our computers wanting to get paid for doing the least amount of work possible. Don't anybody here try to act like you are above it. Every single one of us is guilty, to some degree.
I'm a domainer, but I'm also a daily web surfer, and a human being looking for REAL CONTENT... and I'm getting sick of sorting thru 100's of B.S. sites to find the ONE providing real, honest, original content.
When domainers DO build a site, how often do you see it full of google ads, paid links, paid articles, paid reviews, etc.
WHY?
Because the golden rule of domaining -- We MUST make as MUCH money from our domains as we can, by doing as LITTLE work possible.
So... NO, I'm not impressed with Mr. Ham, or most any of the big-shots in this industry who are hording the bulk of great names. Are they good business men? Yes. Do they know how to make money and monetize traffic? Yes, absolutely. But I'm getting sick and tired of what these "talented entrepreneurs" are doing to the Internet, which is supposed to be a source of information, not parking pages.
Here's a final thought -- We often compare domain names to real estate. WRONG. Nobody who owns a piece of land in the real-world is going to put a sign out front saying "Hospital" to attract sick visitors, when there's nothing there but an empty lot.
__________________ I support Children:Wish.org | MissingKids.com
I support Animals:SPCA.org | SPCA.com Jeff | Armstrong | Grrilla - First 3 inductees into NamePro's Hall-Of-Fame.
You're absolutely right, Tim, and I know I fall right into what you're talking about.
As a result of greed and laziness, domainers aren't well respected in the public eye. It's our job to remove that image from the average, everyday person.
Domainers need to distinguish themselves from cybersquatters by developing sites for the purpose of providing unique services and content; making money should be secondary and come as a result of building a unique presence.
I love your illustration about a parking lot with the "Hospital" sign. It's a great analogy and really shows what a lot of us are doing.
__________________
Girls are like domain names; the ones I like are already taken.
Give him time It sounds like he will be developing alot more although it would take many lifetimes to develop all the ones he has , this is off an earlier article.
"But Ham is taking a longer view. The Web, he says, is becoming cluttered with parked pages. The model is amazingly efficient -- lots of money for little work --but Ham argues that Internet users will soon grow weary of it all.
He also expects Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo to find ways to effectively combat typo-squatting. Some browsers can already fix typos; Internet Explorer catches unregistered domains and redirects visitors to a Microsoft page -- in effect controlling traffic the same way that Ham is doing with .cm. "The heat is rising," Ham says.
When Ham buys a domain now, he's not doing pay-per-click math but rather sizing it up as a potential business. Reinvent Technology aims to turn his most valuable names into mini media companies, based on hundreds of niche categories.
Among the first he'd like to launch, not surprisingly, is Religion.com. Ham recently leased the entire 27th floor in his Vancouver building and is now hiring more than 150 designers, engineers, salespeople, and editorial folks.
Much of that effort is going into developing search tools based more on meaning and less on keywords. "Google is only so useful," Ham says.
The aim is to apply a meaning-based, or "semantic," system across swaths of sites, luring customers from direct navigation and search engines alike. Religion.com would then become an anchor to which scores of other sites would be tied.
"It's time to build out the virtual real estate," Ham says. "There's so much more value in these names than pay-per-click." Seeman's patent application even mentions the possibility of turning Web traffic from Cameroon and other future foreign partners into full-fledged portals.
It's all part of the master plan, as Ham aims to become the first domainer to move from the ranks of at-home name hunter to Internet titan. Smaller players have been selling out to VC-backed groups, and Ham expects that the best names will eventually be owned by just a handful of companies.
If he bets right, he might very well be one of them. "If you control all the domains," he says, "then you control the Internet."
....I just wish he'd stop buying them and let the little fish get a decent nibble before they starve
How much time does it take for a millionaire to develop a website?
Perhaps we should ask Rick Schwartz that question.
Oh wait -- he doesn't know either. He's another one who's always full of big development talk.... but usually ends up with very little real development to back up his big words, or his bigger ego.
Most of these big talkers couldn't 'develop' a headache if they pounded their head against the wall. And Rick Schwartz is one of the worst of all.
The guy lists the following sites as if they are developed property, even going so far as to call them (and I quote) "Our Newest Grand Openings".
NOPE. Not a single domain that he claims with a "Grand Opening" is a real company or developed website. Now, some may call him dishonest for making such ridiculous claims. In fact, quite a few people in this industry have called him much worse. But I'm not going to call him that.
I'm just going to call him a JOKE. Because that's exactly what he is.
He's the only person on the planet who has GRAND OPENINGS for PARKING PAGES.
Give me a break!
His tall-tales might not be so irritating if he hadn't been haunting the Internet for years now, being rude to so many people and acting like he's some kind of Hollywood Celebrity Movie Star. Hey Rick, Hollywood called -- they aren't interested.
Sorry buddy, that's a shame. But good luck with that next group of "Grand Openings" anyway.
__________________ I support Children:Wish.org | MissingKids.com
I support Animals:SPCA.org | SPCA.com Jeff | Armstrong | Grrilla - First 3 inductees into NamePro's Hall-Of-Fame.
Very true many of the big players are playing with our heads.
Some of them talk about" giving back" to the industry. Like another high profile domainer recently interviewed by Dnj, giving back to the industry by donating boat loads of his parking money to his favourite University.
Give me a break!.
Giving back to the domaining industry is not done by giving a sizable donation in his name to the Univeristy he attended. This is a slap in the face to all domainers who worked their butts off.
Afterall his success was all based on his vision and hard work from outside the University. When this certain individual attended the University no help was offered to figure out how to make money in domaining.
So a guy gets rich domining and instead of picking a domain problem and solving that problem he hands over buckets of cash to one of the biggest social programs in America, (higher education). Then talks about "giving back". Flushing money down the toilet is givng back too.. but it does little good.
Domainers don't need to give millions to their favourite University, your and my tax dollars are doing that already. Does it matter that millions of kids who don't want to work go to college to get out of the house and not have to take a job?. Why work when you can party at college, get room and board, all on loans backed now by your and my taxes. Loans that are now in default payments that are the highest in history.
Of course each domainer has the right to chart their course, but with all the hurdles for the domain business and the attacks on the front to consficate domains coming from big money, my view is those who "made it" should be stepping up to the plate and try to make a difference.
Not make a difference for all the worlds problems. Make a difference for the domain communtity.
Like Rick S big talk on how the focus for a recent Traffic convention was to be "transaparency in parking". We had a chance, now it is gone. Nothing is being done and we will continue to get the screw.
If these power players of the domain community want to throw millions of dollars to the wind, fine. I just think money can be better spent. Give a million to start a in depth look at why parking companies are not transparent.
Hire the laywers, get the records, get the books open, change domain history.
Then the Franks, Hams, Ricks of the domain world will leave a legacy.
__________________ GOODKARMACO, "Tenisonline"
Last edited by goodkarmaco : 05-14-2008 at 11:35 AM.
Reason: misspell
They don't OWE anyone anything, they are just making a living like everyone else and have been very helpful by sharing what they have learned over the years, they got in at the right time and deserve everything they have - snooze you loose !
Most of us just Snoozed Time to get over it and look to the future
Oh well, at least it's been an interesting thread.
I blame Gazzip for everything.
__________________ I support Children:Wish.org | MissingKids.com
I support Animals:SPCA.org | SPCA.com Jeff | Armstrong | Grrilla - First 3 inductees into NamePro's Hall-Of-Fame.
What i find ironic is the message that Rick has been repeating over and over, how the big companies like Hilton Hotels or the big advertising agencies don't understand the power of generic domains and how it could contribute to their brand, online revenue potential if they used generic keywords for their business...primarily or complimentary.
For which i agree with, but here is what i find ironic.
He doesn't do much with his premium domains as well, he's basically repeating the same message over and over, criticizing these corporations for not seeing/taking advantage of these opportunities, adding that the cost of a premium domain is a fraction of their advertisement budget overall...which is true....
But he does the same thing with the domains you listed in your post.
1:There are tons of web developers out there that would LOVE to develop some of the premium domains that are simply parked right now
2: You have the budget to offer these developers a start up advance and you could offer them a revenue percentage deal.
It doesn't take millions or hundred thousands of dollars to create decent websites from the premium domains parked out there, and by offering a revenue share for life, you can develop tons of domains and build a real media empire that not only generates more money then parking, but is also a more viable solution for the long term.
And added on top of that, you increase the value of your web property by X times.
So when you have the money to get the ball rolling, why would someone like Rick for instance (he's not the only one of course with top premiums and the money to get things started) not focus his efforts to build out a media empire, instead of bitching on corporate America?
And ironically when he does criticize corporate America, criticizing himself at the same time.
Now you could argue that Rick wouldn't need to build out his domains, he doesn't need more money, he is content with his current revenue stream, but how would that make him any less in his own words..."stupid" then corporate America.
Yes, he was one of the pioneers that foresaw the value of domains, i'm more referring to the potential of premium domains he's and plenty of others are neglecting and keeping them parked instead of developing them...while having the capital to develop one or ten domains at a time and rinse and repeat.
Hiltlon and plenty of other businesses are content at how they operate, at how much money they make, the same as Rick.
I see an equal level of "stupidity" by corporate America and Rick...
Bring in other people, organize and share.
It will generate more revenue compared to parking ten times over!
I'm just as guilty as the next guy when it comes to parking and making revenue from virtually doing ... not much.
At the same time, i'm making even less with well developed sites - it's a catch 22.
Of course, both scenarios are considering normal domains, nothing anywhere near the caliber of Ham's or Schwartz's domains.
Bottom line, the industry is becoming more competitive, the owners of no brainer domains are the lucky ones and the rest is going to get screwed by Google, Yahoo and everyone else that can take something from us.
And regarding db's "rants" - only one thing i can say: "AMEN, brother!"
Face it, these guys were doing this LONG before any of you were. They had a vision and went with the basics available to them, parking pages. It's the only way without a developed web site (other than selling). When Kev was registering God.com and Heaven.com and Hell.com and whatever else he owns you were debating if you should spend the $50 on a .com you searched for a godaddy or other. (Well I was ) You were "on to something" when Kev was "on to investors" for more money to invest in great keyword domains. They all come at a price tag. Especially at the end of the year. Who's paying for that? Kev himself? or the investments he received? did he even receive investments? I don't know and I really don't care but he had to do this somehow with "other people" that knew what was going on in this industry. He's a doctor, doctors make decent coin per year. He would have also had to spend 6+ years learning how to become one! What? he got a tip and discovered that he wouldn't practice anymore, instead he would become a internet legend by hoarding domain names? Get the point? someone tipped him. How much bloody time does a Dr. Have to sit on the chair all day registering domain names? is my final point. Shouldn't he be saving lives?
Insider information if you will. On second note, it's really simple math to consider the fact that hmm, only 1 person can own this particular .com and if I buy it for $50 I can easily resell in the future to someone who can't have it and wants it. Let's keep in mind humans want ANYTHING they cannot have. Doesn't matter what it is. All of you in here want something you can't have. Correct me if I'm wrong.
I'm huge on getting rid of parking pages. They do nothing. I'm also aware that I will never earn a million from parking domains. Parking companies want to do the same thing and they USE YOU to make their "investors" understand we have "thousands of clients .. we need more money". The more money flowing in the more fancy the cars, planes and travel becomes. Your quality of life increases and you want more. It doesn't stop really. Earn your first $1000 from the web and you'll undoubtly want $2000. Make a million you'll want 2 million.
If you want to earn money on the internet you better get off your asses and start learning how to develop web sites. Simply put. Read the fine lines about these guys ... they don't know how to develop sites or what to do with their million dollar names and obviously have no intention of doing so. But now they are being forced in a way to do something because as you saw quoted above .. money is starting to die down as the people learn about these ads and don't want to click em. Don't believe me? check out NamePros and DNforum and DP forums where almost all the users that are connected with Adsense feel everything is decreasing... quickly. People aren't STUPID. It only takes one average joe 10 seconds to land on a parked page, click a link and discover wait... this isn't like google, this sucks. When he sees it again he clicks BACK or clicks Google.
What we're seeing now is the hoarders are finding that PPC is decreasing and it's time to "Develop" the sites into businesses. The money is going away fast. Time to develop. It don't matter, they will always have the edge of any NamePro domainer or enthusiast because again, face it they are worth millions. Money talks, bullshit walks.
There is a lession to learn here. Develop your web site and stop using parking programs.
We've seen Tax on email, tax on digital goods, tax on this and that... it's only going to get worse. We've also seen concern regarding "Better register your .com for 10 years" as registrars will be able to charge you what THEY feel your name is worth not to mention The Snowe bill trying to squeeze in like flin. On second thought, I'm not "as informed" as many of you domainers so I kinda look at Google as Big Brother. Didn't the Bush administration force google to hand over search results not too lo
, this is off an earlier article.
Now that is a rant 
Time to get over it and look to the future 
what did I say ??????????????????
) You were "on to something" when Kev was "on to investors" for more money to invest in great keyword domains. They all come at a price tag. Especially at the end of the year. Who's paying for that? Kev himself? or the investments he received? did he even receive investments? I don't know and I really don't care but he had to do this somehow with "other people" that knew what was going on in this industry. He's a doctor, doctors make decent coin per year. He would have also had to spend 6+ years learning how to become one! What? he got a tip and discovered that he wouldn't practice anymore, instead he would become a internet legend by hoarding domain names? Get the point? someone tipped him. How much bloody time does a Dr. Have to sit on the chair all day registering domain names? is my final point. Shouldn't he be saving lives?