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Teach a man to fish - Co-creating Abundance

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Are you excited to see a free domaining course that is co-created by industry experts?

  • This poll is still running and the standings may change.
  • Yes, this is totally awesome

    40 
    votes
    74.1%
  • Yes, but it needs some work -- I will help to get it to the finish line!

    votes
    3.7%
  • No, there are other free courses that get the job done

    votes
    3.7%
  • No, I prefer people to pay for courses

    votes
    3.7%
  • It is digital so I can't burn it, but I would definitely burn it if I could!

    votes
    3.7%
  • This thread is stupid

    votes
    11.1%
  • This poll is still running and the standings may change.

Rob Monster

Founder of EpikTop Member
Epik Founder
Impact
18,389
You all know the famous proverb from Lao Tzu:

upload_2019-11-10_9-14-29.png


I think it also applies to domaining.

I believe in teaching people to become sovereign, so they can provide for themselves, provide for their families, provide for their communities and also have time to contemplate the meaning of life.

So with this in mind, I have sponsored a number of initiatives, which I will not name here because that would be promotional and the mods don't like that.

However, I do want to share something and invite input to it. About 6 weeks ago, Epik acquired 2 brands that had training products associated with them: DomainFlippa and Domain Graduate.

The Founder of Domain Graduate, Sean Stafford, and I have a shared passion for teaching people how to become successful domainers. This project fits my personal interest and calling: (digital) empowerment.

In the past, Domain Graduate and Domain Flippa were both paid courses. The existence of a fee implicitly meant that most people would never participate since there was a large toll at the entrance.

When Epik acquired these brands, it was with the specific goal of making the pie bigger. We want to help teach a lot more people to be good at domaining by tapping the wisdom of those who mastered it.

With this mind, I am sharing a living draft, of what is to become Domain Graduate 2.0. It is the collective wisdom of some professional domainers. You can download a copy here:

https://my.armored.net/index.php/s/dG7MkwJAp9H3L43

This document will continue to be iterated, so if you see issues or opportunities to improve, we'll use this thread to invite discussion about how to empower more people to become effective domainers.

As for the draft document, here is my ask:

- If you have time, review it and send any editorial feedback to @DomainGraduate.

- Comment publicly if you like to discuss or share some technique that you think belongs in the course.

- Feel free to invite non-NP members to visit this page to retrieve the draft course.

We will add an acknowledgement section collating the input and refrencing the attributed contributions. That section might get large, and that is fine!

In about one week, we'll have a final version and we'll publish it with a beautiful cover, and put it online at a new and improved DomainGraduate.com so anyone can download it.

After that, we plan to recruit translators to localize the document and where appropriate add local resource tips. Different countries will have different versions to reflect language, ccTLD, local laws and local customs.

Finally, for anyone who wants to contribute to the cause, domain name donations are welcome to the eRise Foundation, for which a latest update is described here.

So, that's it. Tell us what you think.

On behalf of the Domain Graduate Team:

Rob Monster, @Abdullah Abdullah, and Sean Stafford
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Continued suggestions are welcome. Thanks to the co-creators!

I timed myself, 10 minutes. Not sure what I would find if I spent more time, but some of the same issues haven't been corrected.

Domainapps.com, is that still a thing? Could be temporary but it's not loading for me - https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/domainapps.com.html

Places to buy and sell, for some reason where I'm most active, Namejet, still lot listed. I don't know if there is some personal beef or something for not adding them.

Aftermarket section, still hasn't been touched/fixed. Complete mess.

Escrow section. Didn't mention the most used Escrow place, Escrow.com. I know you have issues with them but if you're truly into educating new domainers, you would list them.

Outbound marketing, unless I missed it, didn't see anything about CAN-SPAM.

Spelling mistakes like "Before making plans to market a bane"

I guess you mean name?

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Let me just throw this suggestion out. You have so many projects going on at once. Have you ever considered just locking yourself in a room and just knocking this one out, finish it? Just take 1 day and get it done, go thru it line by line. It's not the type of thing where you're going to have new things pop up daily, weekly. Get it done, then maybe update once a year or something like that. But finish a project all the way thru.
 
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I timed myself, 10 minutes. Not sure what I would find if I spent more time, but some of the same issues haven't been corrected.

Domainapps.com, is that still a thing? Could be temporary but it's not loading for me - https://www.isitdownrightnow.com/domainapps.com.html

Places to buy and sell, for some reason where I'm most active, Namejet, still lot listed. I don't know if there is some personal beef or something for not adding them.

Aftermarket section, still hasn't been touched/fixed. Complete mess.

Escrow section. Didn't mention the most used Escrow place, Escrow.com. I know you have issues with them but if you're truly into educating new domainers, you would list them.

Outbound marketing, unless I missed it, didn't see anything about CAN-SPAM.

Spelling mistakes like "Before making plans to market a bane"

I guess you mean name?

--------------
Let me just throw this suggestion out. You have so many projects going on at once. Have you ever considered just locking yourself in a room and just knocking this one out, finish it? Just take 1 day and get it done, go thru it line by line. It's not the type of thing where you're going to have new things pop up daily, weekly. Get it done, then maybe update once a year or something like that. But finish a project all the way thru.

Thanks for the edits.

Will check with @Ala Dadan and @Riacontents for the next round of edits.

Serious question though, are you this much fun at parties?
 
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Thanks to @Mod Team Bravo and other Mods for moving this thread out of the status of "Promotional" and to the more reasonable and benign category of "Free Stuff". We'll take it.

Quick update on DomainGraduate.com:

https://domaingraduate.com/

A big new section has been added for OUTBOUND. Thanks to @rohitgoyal for his input along with great input from @DomainGraduate founder Sean Stafford and @Riacontents. It might be one of the most helpful sections in the whole course. And it is all free!

Continued suggestions are welcome. Thanks to the co-creators!

I believe that once updated and that all the corrections are made this could serve as a good reference for domaining.

It might be good to put a list of all the chapters that are contained in this book on the main website so that people can know what is covered there before downloading it. ( just an idea)
 
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I believe that once updated and that all the corrections are made this could serve as a good reference for domaining.

It might be good to put a list of all the chapters that are contained in this book on the main website so that people can know what is covered there before downloading it. ( just an idea)

@Ala Dadan - Great idea from @oldtimer. Please make that happen.

I am actually fine to take the whole book and make it a PDF page-flip, i.e. browse the book. It just increases site dwell time and makes the itself more useful. Please check that.
 
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@Ala Dadan - Great idea from @oldtimer. Please make that happen.

I am actually fine to take the whole book and make it a PDF page-flip, i.e. browse the book. It just increases site dwell time and makes the itself more useful. Please check that.

It would also be great to make it searchable so that when newbies enter a specific question it can take them right to the page that provides the answers.

IMO
 
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Just noticed... index on RHS of website is missing "Chapter 4 - Typo Domains"
 
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Just noticed... index on RHS of website is missing "Chapter 4 - Typo Domains"

Called away, didnt finish post @Ala Dadan
 
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I actually don't really have a problem with Epik being used as an example when talking about registrars. It's a good registrar .. good prices .. low commissions .. on a value/technical level, I don't have issues recommending Epik. (As long as it's accurate and ethical and not what @bmugford pointed out above .. although in fairness it is a very rough draft .. and honestly .. that shady style of writing isn't much of a surprise when looking at the book as a whole .. partially why I said I think a fresh start would be better to clear out all that questionable stuff)

That being said .. beyond Epik, there needs to be an obvious focus on GoDaddy's aftermarket simply because literally half of all expired domains in the world pass through their aftermarket. Sedo and even BrandBucket etc should be covered as well. I actually like Epik's wholesale aftermarket .. but unfortunately the expiration stream still needs to grow to get more .. with this year's growth, hopefully we'll see more growth there sooner than later.


But all that part of the discussion is missing the point here ...
I think what some are having a hard time understanding is how getting more domainers in the industry helps grow the pie? If you have a pie with 6 people .. nummm nummm nummm .. if you have a pie with 60 people it's indeed nothing but crumbs.

Maybe if we had a better auction marketplace (see that email you missed monday/tuesday .. lol), then more new domainers would at least give us more liquidity.

What's needed is ironically exactly what YOU keep telling us !!! :) .. Which is indeed to grow the pie ... but the pie isn't domainers .. it's end-user capital ... so we either need more end users .. or we need to better educate and inform end users on how the value of a good $3,000 is actually more profitable to them than if they acquired a $10 handreg. Or how a $50k domain is better for them long term than a $3k domain.


All that said .. sometimes you have an unmentioned detail that really clarifies everything .. lol .. kinda waiting for that ah-ha moment where you clarify what we still don't quite understand where you're going and how this indeed grows the pie ...

More record-breaking domain sales.

More auction events like NamesCon where big sales are made.

More domain brokers/domain sellers who are paid after a sale is made.

BPOs/call centers with domain sellers/domain brokers who will scout for end-users and who will educate them on the benefits of protecting their brand with a domain name.

It helps if the domain- sellers can recommend/sell turn-key solutions or packaged solutions(web dev, hosting, SEO, PPC, etc.) since most decision-makers end-users, domain-buyers who need convincing to buy domains do not have a ready team of web developers yet.

End goal is to have domains that are developed so end-users will get their money's worth and will be encouraged to buy more domains at premium prices.

Who will domain investors sell to if we don't have end-users who benefit from the domains we sell?

Indeed, enlarging the end-users pie is the key.
 
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More record-breaking domain sales.

More auction events like NamesCon where big sales are made.

More domain brokers/domain sellers who are paid after a sale is made.

BPOs/call centers with domain sellers/domain brokers who will scout for end-users and who will educate them on the benefits of protecting their brand with a domain name.

It helps if the domain- sellers can recommend/sell turn-key solutions or packaged solutions(web dev, hosting, SEO, PPC, etc.) since most decision-makers end-users, domain-buyers who need convincing to buy domains do not have a ready team of web developers yet.

End goal is to have domains that are developed so end-users will get their money's worth and will be encouraged to buy more domains at premium prices.

Who will domain investors sell to if we don't have end-users to benefit from the domains we sell?

Indeed, enlarging the end-users pie is the key.

Thanks Anne.

Where I see emerging market leaders doing great is in a few areas:

1. Outbound domain selling: Let's face it. Most US domainers are not going to be promoting their expiry streams for which they did not get inbound inquiries. And yet, right now, today, I see hundreds of domains expiring on Epik and elsewhere that a bit of outbound research would surely yield significant sales. Guys like @rohitgoyal have perfected that method and have now started to teach others.

2. Brokerage, Leases and Arbitrage: Related to the above, I have seen countless examples of transactions being done simply because an intrepid entrepreneurs is willing to take the risk by securing the opportunity to market a domain that is perhaps premium but for which the current domain owner is not willing or able to do the spadework.

3. Development: This is where I think the explosion will happen. The tools for developing have become amazing. It is now possible to take a decent domain and bundle it with a move-in ready software solution and sell off a developed site. Epik aims to participate here to a meaningful degree with a range of tools and adapted marketplaces to help folks buy and sell entire digital businesses.

All of this makes the pie bigger.

And when people have windfalls, many of them give back through teaching and philanthropy.

Regards,
Rob
 
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Thanks Anne.

Where I see emerging market leaders doing great is in a few areas:

1. Outbound domain selling: Let's face it. Most US domainers are not going to be promoting their expiry streams for which they did not get inbound inquiries. And yet, right now, today, I see hundreds of domains expiring on Epik and elsewhere that a bit of outbound research would surely yield significant sales. Guys like @rohitgoyal have perfected that method and have now started to teach others.

2. Brokerage, Leases and Arbitrage: Related to the above, I have seen countless examples of transactions being done simply because an intrepid entrepreneurs is willing to take the risk by securing the opportunity to market a domain that is perhaps premium but for which the current domain owner is not willing or able to do the spadework.

3. Development: This is where I think the explosion will happen. The tools for developing have become amazing. It is now possible to take a decent domain and bundle it with a move-in ready software solution and sell off a developed site. Epik aims to participate here to a meaningful degree with a range of tools and adapted marketplaces to help folks buy and sell entire digital businesses.

All of this makes the pie bigger.

And when people have windfalls, many of them give back through teaching and philanthropy.

Regards,
Rob

Thanks, too, Rob.

Sales isn't my forte so seeing prime movers address the need is good news for me.
 
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Sales isn't my forte so seeing prime movers address the need is good news for me.

Here is an example of what I am talking about.

I am looking at a client who is in the process of dropping 100+ 5 letter domains ending in co.com.

Example: imkco.com

He did not get inquiries so he will drop them.

upload_2019-12-28_20-39-47.png


However, outbound has never been tried. Emerging market people are well-equipped to do this work.
 
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Just noticed... index on RHS of website is missing "Chapter 4 - Typo Domains"

thank you will review and will add it,

More work is coming to DG, and the HTML pages still need better formatting
 
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Just noticed... index on RHS of website is missing "Chapter 4 - Typo Domains"

I have just checked the site, looks like the navigation column had chapter 4 link missing, it is added now
 
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Here is an example of what I am talking about.

I am looking at a client who is in the process of dropping 100+ 5 letter domains ending in co.com.

Example: imkco.com

He did not get inquiries so he will drop them.

Show attachment 140189

However, outbound has never been tried. Emerging market people are well-equipped to do this work.

Yes, there are a lot of us who buy domains and just wait for inquiries on landers we post online. Yet how many of these landers get inquiries or visits?

It would help if there are domain sales experts who will market our domains and will deduct the payment from the selling price only when the sale is closed.

There are brokers who do this however the domain investor has to leave the domains in their hands, letting them market it for months, signing a contract that the investor can't sell it by himself while the domains are still with the broker.

In this set-up, is there a way for the investor to get an assurance that the domain is indeed being offered to the potential buyers and not just being parked (also just waiting for inquiries)?

Here's why a company focused on earning commissions from CLOSING domain sales (and not merely on broker fees which help them survive without actively marketing the domains) would raise the notch both for investors and end-users alike. They will have more motivation to educate end-users/buyers since their income would come from domain sales and/or after sale of domains (hosting, web dev, etc).

We already have a lot of domains in the hands of domain investors; we have to "breed" end-users to create an equilibrium.

Thanks for envisioning to give (provide) tools that teach end-users and domain investors alike how to develop our domains the easiest way possible (turn-key web solutions) .

Might help if in your signature, you'll include a direct link to a directory of all your projects so we can check the updates every now and then. Thanks.
 
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Yes, there are a lot of us who buy domains and just wait for inquiries on landers we post online. Yet how many of these landers get inquiries or visits?

It would help if there are domain sales experts who will market our domains and will deduct the payment from the selling price only when the sale is closed.

There are brokers who do this however the domain investor has to leave the domains in their hands, letting them market it for months, signing a contract that the investor can't sell it by himself while the domains are still with the broker.

In this set-up, is there a way for the investor to get an assurance that the domain is indeed being offered to the potential buyers and not just being parked (also just waiting for inquiries)?

Here's why a company focused on earning commissions from CLOSING domain sales (and not merely on broker fees which help them survive without actively marketing the domains) would raise the notch both for investors and end-users alike. They will have more motivation to educate end-users/buyers since their income would come from domain sales and/or after sale of domains (hosting, web dev, etc).

We already have a lot of domains in the hands of domain investors; we have to "breed" end-users to create an equilibrium.

Thanks for envisioning to give (provide) tools that teach end-users and domain investors alike how to develop our domains the easiest way possible (turn-key web solutions) .

Might help if in your signature, you'll include a direct link to a directory of all your projects so we can check the updates every now and then. Thanks.

Thanks for the feedback.

For NameBrokers.com and Epik Marketplace, the typical model is non-exclusive representation as long as the domain comes to Epik registrars.

For migrating domains to platforms, this is really about connecting competencies in a methodical way. There are people with domains. There are people with tools and talent. There are investors who are chasing yield.

I believe there is an opportunity in connecting domains, talent and capital in a methodical way that makes it easy for an investor to manages dozens or hundreds of income-producing sites.
 
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Thanks for the feedback.

I believe there is an opportunity in connecting domains, talent and capital in a methodical way that makes it easy for an investor to manages dozens or hundreds of income-producing sites.


Do you have an existing web enterprise that taps this opportunity? May I ask for the domain name/link please if you already have such a business up?

Thanks.
 
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Do you have an existing web enterprise that taps that opportunity? May I ask for the domain name/link please if you already have such a business up?

Thanks.

There are two related developments:

1, Integrated brand marketplace to come online in Q1 2020:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/he...e-ultimate-digital-brand-marketplace.1167901/

2. CloudChase.com -- This is our answer to AWS/Azure, built on OpenStack. It is live already. and already being battle-tested by some Epik projects that use it like Armored.net and NameInvestors.com We are adding a suite of tools to make it easy to migrate sites into a managed cloud. This project is led by @Miao who came through the acquisition of Sibyl Systems in May 2019.

The goal is to make it easy for people with capital to buy sites that provide yield. I have a strong sense that this is the missing ingredient for a lot more new investor liquidity to come into the market. Domains need to have yield. Right now, for most domain holders, they are an expense predicated on someone else paying more. However, when it becomes a "business" a very different audience can buy it.

The end result is to create a model where people can buy, build, operate, sell, with maximum interoperability, e.g. through unified frameworks for single sign on and payments. If you think for a moment about the vast development capacity that exists in emerging markets to do the heavy lifting of building sites from the ground up, you can begin to see why this makes sense.

As I write this, I am returning from a holiday in southern Mexico.There are tremendously talented craftsmen there who build beautiful things. They get paid peanuts, but the products they sell also sell for peanuts compared to Seattle where I usually live. The same pattern occurs with digital goods. A Nigerian might get $100 for the same work a guy in Seattle charges $5000 to do. There is a gap to close there.

My thesis is that a Nigerian will be able to build that site, and rather than sell it for $100, he might operate it long enough to get a bit of traction, and then sell it to someone who wants that type of site that used a good domain, has SEO traction, registered users, verified stats and verified revenue. This is what we are working towards enabling at scale in 2020.

The end-result is to empower a lot more folks to realize their full digital capacity for value-creation.

@DnFolk
 
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Hi Rob,

Many thanks for the initiative and thanks everyone who puts an effort on it.

I will spend my time to read the complete document and get back to thread with my comments.
 
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Here is an example of what I am talking about.

I am looking at a client who is in the process of dropping 100+ 5 letter domains ending in co.com.

Example: imkco.com

He did not get inquiries so he will drop them.

Show attachment 140189

However, outbound has never been tried. Emerging market people are well-equipped to do this work.

WHere on the site or newsletter do you have a place where these domains are dropping?
 
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