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discuss Domain Microfinance Program

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What do you think of the idea of a grant and microfinance program?

  • This poll is still running and the standings may change.
  • Brilliant idea - Go for it!

    53 
    votes
    42.7%
  • Good idea but you are in for a tough run

    19 
    votes
    15.3%
  • Long shot but it just might work

    22 
    votes
    17.7%
  • You are going to lose your butt on this one

    30 
    votes
    24.2%
  • This poll is still running and the standings may change.

Rob Monster

Founder of EpikTop Member
Epik Founder
Impact
18,389
As some folks here know, I am a big fan of Digital Empowerment projects that scale.

Over the last year, I have seen lives transformed by people becoming successful domain investors on a bootstrap.

I have been discussing with a few folks about introducing a Domain Microfinance program for emerging economies and for young entrepreneurs.

This could be a Digital Empowerment strategy for helping people to bootstrap domain portfolios. The idea was inspired by a discussion with a young Angolan.

The idea is this:

- People apply to get a microfinance grant. To get the grant, they have to verify their identity. This is done in order to prevent repeat applicants.

- Domains registered are limited to .com. With a budget of as little as $30, right now that is about 5 .com domains at a promo rate of just $5.49.

- The domains are powered by an SSL powered landing pages which domain owners can optimize and then use to sell or lease.

- Once the grant participants generate a certain level of sales or leases, e.g. $100, they can request an interest-free domain loan based on their portfolio.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Rob, as far as teaching and training goes, you yourself can write a crash course on domaining (with some help and input from the more experienced members here) to get the participants started on the right track, remember that they don't all have to become experts on day one just teach them the basics and give them a little time to learn the rest, as we all know somethings they can only learn once they start to interact with other domainers here and only after they have done a few sales on their own. Perhaps NamePros can make a special section for this project so that participants can ask questions and interact with some volunteer experienced domainers. As some of the more talented participants become more experienced you can use them to supervise and guide the rest. As I have mentioned before it's very important to make the program as self sustainable as possible both as far as education, finances, and supervision so that way the program can continue indefinitely as new participants join in in the future.

As far as vetting the applicants goes, as already mentioned you want to give first priority to honest, smart, motivated, and productive people who have a better chance of succeeding so that way they can help lift others out of poverty in their community, but as a devout Christian as you are lets not forget to also give a second chance to those who might have been caught in a bad situation due to the circumstances and the environment that they had to grow up in, so also give a chance to those who are willing to repent and help them make a fresh start in their life.

IMO

We have leads on training materials. We are good there. I bet we have that part of the supply chain solved within a week from now. @Braden Pollock is helping there. No need to invent. Easier to assemble.

I do believe NamePros will play a huge role in terms of creating a support community for new domain investors and sharing knowledge as well as enforcing standards of professionalism.

On that note, I am pleased to announce that we added @Abdullah Abdullah to the team today, based in Yemen and native of Somalia. He will be full-time at Epik from Monday and I believe will play a role here.
 
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With a budget of as little as $30, right now that is about 5 .com domains at Epik's rate of just $5.49
I started my domaining in 2008 exactly from ~$30 and my thoughts were about MACROfinance... )
 
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We have leads on training materials. We are good there. I bet we have that part of the supply chain solved within a week from now. @Braden Pollock is helping there. No need to invent. Easier to assemble.

I do believe NamePros will play a huge role in terms of creating a support community for new domain investors and sharing knowledge as well as enforcing standards of professionalism.

On that note, I am pleased to announce that we added @Abdullah Abdullah to the team today, based in Yemen and native of Somalia. He will be full-time at Epik from Monday and I believe will play a role here.

Is he resigning as mod?
 
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I started my domaining in 2008 exactly from ~$30 and my thoughts were about MACROfinance... )

There is a case study right there. If you will write it up, or video a testimonial, that is the type of story we need for this site. "How I got started?".
 
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Is he resigning as mod?

:) Is that your first reaction? Pity. Maybe congratulate the man first. He just got married too and now he got a pay raise for a job he can do from his home with his new wife.
 
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There is a case study right there. If you will write it up, or video a testimonial, that is the type of story we need for this site. "How I got started?".

As motivational as that might be, but some of the ways that people have used in the past might not be replicable due to scarcity or not acceptable any more due to TM or Spam regulations and guidelines.

In my opinion it might be best to show them how to get started in today's market by concentrating their efforts on selling from the donated domain pool and then once they get a little more skillful to get into drops, brandables, or even hand registering new technology and trends. IMO
 
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:) Is that your first reaction? Pity. Maybe congratulate the man first. He just got married too and now he got a pay raise for a job he can do from his home with his new wife.

Yeah, I would feel that way across the board. I wouldn't want GoDaddy employees to be mods here either, conflict of interest. In the affiliate marketing forums, we didn't let affiliate network employees become mods. When we had an affiliate manager as a mod, it was an issue for other affiliate managers.

As far this, it will be interesting to watch. Seems full steam ahead, without any actual long term thinking.

Short version, if I have this right.

$30 to people who are broke, in poverty, where English isn't their native language, in a business where:

$30 isn't enough money usually

high failure rate

hand regs or other domainer's leftovers, names they want to drop, will be even harder to sell, than let's say an aftermarket pickup

most names will probably never get an offer, or could take years

You don't think this will end up just frustrating those who probably already have enough frustration in their lives?

Open an office, hire them, give them an actual job if you want to help. This is a disaster in the making.
 
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Good start -- keep 'em coming!

Here is my initial input for the intake questionnaire in terms of questions with form validation:



Introduction

The domain industry is an exciting part of the digital economy. At Epik, we are excited to introduce more people to the various ways to learn how to become a successful domain investor. If you are accepted into this Digital Empowerment program, we'll even help you get started with a grant. Once you have had some initial success, we will be pleased to extend the possibility of securing an interest-free domain loan for investing in .COM domains, the leading domain registry of the world.



Page 1


Email address

Name


Country

Birth date

Twitter handle: <field validate>

LinkedIn handle: <field validate>

Facebook handle: <field validate>


Page 2


How long have you been investing in domains? <1 to 10+ years>

How many domains do you own currently? <number up to 100,000>

Have you ever sold a domain name? <drop down from 0 to 10+>

Page 3


How large a grant are you seeking? <number up to $5000>

If you were to become wildly successful as a domain investor, what would you do with your wealth? <textbox>


Page 4


Are there any additional comments you wish to add about why you believe you can be effective as a domain investor? <textbox>


Run automated eligibility script to detect if eligible:

- MaxMind check
- Speed check to detect implausibly fast completion time


Page 5

If not eligible:

Thank you for application. Unfortunately, we are not able to accept your application at this time.

If eligible:

The last step is to complete Identity Validation. Please look in your email for instructions.



###
Sorry but these questions are bullsh*t - anyone with 1/2 a brain can fake the answers to these questions

15 - 20 min reading online and anyone can become a knowledgeable basket case.....you add in multiple people possibly working together to work out the best answers then you are going to have a serious potential fraud problem....

If this is a grant type of scenario then you are giving someone money if they meet certain criteria and adhere to some kind of framework, this can easily be manipulated.

I presume you will be keeping it all in house? Money is in the form of Epik Credit, name has to be registered at Epik? Is this just for new regs? Or will they be able to buy names via Godady Expired, Dropcatch etc etc

I mean if it is in house you minimise the fraud risk but take away free market principals and vice versa...

Regarding donating names, I would presume that the names being donated will not be the best quality and it will be like throwing sh*t at the wall, something will stick eventually.....giving people a false sense of hope/expectation
 
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Yeah, I would feel that way across the board. I wouldn't want GoDaddy employees to be mods here either, conflict of interest. In the affiliate marketing forums, we didn't let affiliate network employees become mods. When we had an affiliate manager as a mod, it was an issue for other affiliate managers.

As far this, it will be interesting to watch. Seems full steam ahead, without any actual long term thinking.

Short version, if I have this right.

$30 to people who are broke, in poverty, where English isn't their native language, in a business where:

$30 isn't enough money usually

high failure rate

hand regs or other domainer's leftovers, names they want to drop, will be even harder to sell, than let's say an aftermarket pickup

most names will probably never get an offer, or could take years

You don't think this will end up just frustrating those who probably already have enough frustration in their lives

Open an office, hire them, give them an actual job if you want to help. This is a disaster in the making.

Thanks @JB Lions.

As you know, I listen to all my critics. Let's see how it plays out. I was looking for some input on the intake questionnaire just in case you wanted to apply your ample intellect.

As for @Abdullah Abdullah, for the record he approached me earlier today:

upload_2019-9-21_14-23-21.png


We did one WhatsApp call, and I hired him on the spot. The notion that he is a NP mod was never a hiring criteria as I knew that would be at-risk the moment @JB Lions got wind of his new job. :)
 
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Sorry but these questions are bullsh*t - anyone with 1/2 a brain can fake the answers to these questions

15 - 20 min reading online and anyone can become a knowledgeable basket case.....you add in multiple people possibly working together to work out the best answers then you are going to have a serious potential fraud problem....

If this is a grant type of scenario then you are giving someone money if they meet certain criteria and adhere to some kind of framework, this can easily be manipulated.

I presume you will be keeping it all in house? Money is in the form of Epik Credit, name has to be registered at Epik? Is this just for new regs? Or will they be able to buy names via Godady Expired, Dropcatch etc etc

I mean if it is in house you minimise the fraud risk but take away free market principals and vice versa...

Regarding donating names, I would presume that the names being donated will not be the best quality and it will be like throwing sh*t at the wall, something will stick eventually.....giving people a false sense of hope/expectation

Thanks for the input.

Do you have any specific thoughts on weed-out questions to "out" the opportunists? Obviously we are not interested in being gamed.

As for registrar, yes, it could be at Epik but if we could get other registrars to co-sponsor the program, the user could select a registrar for deploying the funds. Fair point, especially about expiry stream.

As for the Horatio Alger story of rags to riches, well, you heard one success story already just today and we did even go asking for that one. Great story here if you missed it.
 
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One must admit that acquiring quality inventory is very competitive yet the vast majority of the world does not place much importance on the value of a domain name. Most domain buyers despite spending thousands of dollars on all kinds of routine business expenses (legal, IT, marketing, travel, accounting, etc) have a domain budget of $xx. What percentage of domain investors made a middle-class income their first year of domaining? it is my view that any effort to want to spread technological awareness and skills to less developed economies should focus on website development and design skills which are valued more broadly than aftermarket domains.
 
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One must admit that acquiring quality inventory is very competitive yet the vast majority of the world does not place much importance on the value of a domain name. Most domain buyers despite spending thousands of dollars on all kinds of routine business expenses (legal, IT, marketing, travel, accounting, etc) have a domain budget of $xx. What percentage of domain investors made a middle-class income their first year of domaining? it is my view that any effort to want to spread technological awareness and skills to less developed economies should focus on website development and design skills which are valued more broadly than aftermarket domains.

I think you are looking at this through western eyes.

If you make $250 a MONTH in many countries, you ARE middle class.

Wrap your head around that.
 
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This is a disaster in the making.

If this program is designed and implemented correctly with the genuine goal of helping those who are disadvantaged, then perhaps we should all give it a chance.

Although sometimes I get second thoughts as to whether it's a good idea to turn "honest, smart, motivated , and productive people" into Domainers. D-:

Although given the lack of opportunity in those places any help is better than nothing. IMO
 
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I think you are looking at this through western eyes.

If you make $250 a MONTH in many countries, you ARE middle class.

Wrap your head around that.

Wrap your head around my last post, you didn't touch any of the specifics.

This part:

$30 to people who are broke, in poverty, where English isn't their native language, in a business where:

$30 isn't enough money usually

high failure rate

hand regs or other domainer's leftovers, names they want to drop, will be even harder to sell, than let's say an aftermarket pickup

most names will probably never get an offer, or could take years

This makes sense to you? There is no logic in it. I really don't think you're thinking these things all the way thru.

If this program is designed and implemented correctly with the genuine goal of helping those who are disadvantaged, then perhaps we should all give it a chance.

Although sometimes I get second thoughts as to whether it's a good idea to turn "honest, smart, motivated , and productive people" into Domainers :)

Although given the lack of opportunity in those places any help is better than nothing. IMO

You tackle the points brought up in my post. Earlier I think you tried to tie me and others thinking this was not going to work as not caring about people. It's a truly ridiculous sympathy play on your part. I'm for things that make sense, this doesn't.

I already know how this is going to turn out. It'll be interesting to watch. There are much better ways to help people out.
 
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Wrap your head around my last post, you didn't touch any of the specifics.

This part:



This makes sense to you? There is no logic in it. I really don't think you're thinking these things all the way thru.



You tackle the points brought up in my post. Earlier I think you tried to tie me and others thinking this was not going to work as not caring about people. It's a truly ridiculous sympathy play on your part. I'm for things that make sense, this doesn't.

I already know how this is going to turn out. It'll be interesting to watch. There are much better ways to help people out.

We get your position:

- You think the idea sucks.
- You think Abdullah is a fool to work on it.
- You have no specific input on the intake questionnaire.

About right? Just checking.
 
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I already know how this is going to turn out. It'll be interesting to watch. There are much better ways to help people out.

Can you name some of those ways that the Domain Community and Industry can help the disadvantage.
 
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We get your position:

- You think the idea sucks.
- You think Abdullah is a fool to work on it.
- You have no specific input on the intake questionnaire.

About right? Just checking.

I think my posts are pretty clear. I think it's also pretty clear you're going to go ahead without addressing actual issues brought up by me and many others. These are things you're supposed to have figured out first.
 
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I think my posts are pretty clear. I think it's also pretty clear you're going to ahead without addressing actual issues brought up by me and many others. These are things you're supposed to have figured out first.

I am co-creating. I promise I have read all your posts. I am trying to distill the actionable take-aways but will re-read asap.
 
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@Rob Monster

It is a good idea and I hope it works out........

Do you have any specific thoughts on weed-out questions to "out" the opportunists? Obviously we are not interested in being gamed.

This is the problem, how do you weed them out? I would suggest looking through Grant application forms (small business grants springs to mind) and seeing what type of question they have and go from there

As for registrar, yes, it could be at Epik but if we could get other registrars to co-sponsor the program, the user could select a registrar for deploying the funds. Fair point, especially about expiry stream.

Personally I would focus on getting your own house in order and proving the concept works before reaching out to other registries. You can control the process much more efficiently and easily implement safeguarding procedures

As for the Horatio Alger story of rags to riches, well, you heard one success story already just today and we did even go asking for that one. Great story here if you missed it

I am not disputing the above, you need to be careful that you do not become the rag to someone else's riches
 
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I am co-creating. I promise I have read all your posts. I am trying to distill the actionable take-aways but will re-read asap.

I know you have been giving Epik credit rewards for pointing out bugs with the system or for giving suggestions for names for your new projects, perhaps you can also give an award to those who come up with the best ideas and ways to implement your new projects, that might get you more input, specially if you set a higher award for ideas that you are actually going to use.
 
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I already know how this is going to turn out. It'll be interesting to watch. There are much better ways to help people out.

It's a modern phenomenon that people think that a lack of funds is the only barrier to success.
A few pennies and a dream and the world is yours!

Micro-financing and similar programs have been around for a while and they don't work.

This is a form of Western Noblesse-oblige within a capitalist system. It doesn't make sense.

There are much better ways to help people out.
 
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I know you have been giving Epik credit rewards for pointing out bugs with the system or for giving suggestions for names for your new projects, perhaps you can also give an award to those who come up with the best ideas and ways to implement your new projects, that might get you more input, specially if you set a higher award for ideas that you are actually going to use.

We do it informally already. The Digital Empowerment grants will probably add some fuel to that practice of incentivizing co-creation. We can't help everyone, but we'll do our bit.
 
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I bless domains down in Africa.
 
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Bless you, Rob from down here in New Jersey.
 
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It's a modern phenomenon that people think that a lack of funds is the only barrier to success.
A few pennies and a dream and the world is yours!

Micro-financing and similar programs have been around for a while and they don't work.

This is a form of Western Noblesse-oblige within a capitalist system. It doesn't make sense.

There are much better ways to help people out.

@DU is certainly a hardened and determined skeptic. :)

As for the Microfinance story, the best known case study is Grameen. I think it did a lot of good. I think they could have used more technology to scale it, but I would still call it a success story:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/27271539/Grameen-Bank-a-Case-Study

There are many case studies about it and I certainly hope we can draw upon any experience folks have there. @Abdullah Abdullah was mostly working with UN refugee programs in Yemen.

Also, Rajkumar Prasad, aka @ERaj, is a person with a lot of experience working with aid agencies and government ministries. He is Epik's GM in India, working on the Indian subcontinent.

So, yes, I do think free market capitalism can work to lift some folks up. That's the game plan. If f folks want to contribute, they can.

The name search is also in progress for what I call the "Goodwill of Domains".

https://www.namepros.com/threads/the-goodwill-of-domains.1155109
 
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