Breaking Down Walls: Making Your Way in the Domain Industry
We all want to map out the best way to succeed in an industry we love, but the real question is: how do we go about doing it? This is a matter of frustration for many a domainer, I feel. And here’s the truth for any aspiring newbie, IT’S NOT EASY, it never is. Like any industry you have to put yourself out there. You have to build up a reputation, you have to be seen, you have to be known, people need to be talking about what it is you’re contributing.
Its not all about the domain, sometimes its about the person BEHIND the domain. Look at eBay, take this as your primary example of how a reputation is formed. Say you come across a listing, BUYER A selling CAR A for $24,000, a reasonable chunk of change. Beside this listing you see yet another listing, this time listing the same CAR A but for a reduced rate of $23,000. BUYER A’s reputation is impeccable, BUYER B’s reputation has yet to be determined (meaning he has a reputation score of 0). Which buyer are you going too choose? For me it will of course be BUYER A, EVERY single time. Reputation means everything, it means you are going to get your product, it means you can trust the buyer/seller and it means you are dealing with a rational individual (ok, this isn’t a universal theory, but certainly in my personal experience it applies close to 98% of the time). It takes TIME and HARD WORK to build this kind of reputation.
In my opinion, in order to make your way you also need to contribute your fair share. The idea of “the big sale, the golliath, the one way ticket” is a fallacy. It’s a DREAM, snap out of it. SLAP yourself ten times hard and repeat the following phrase: “In order to move forward in this industry I need to put in the TIME”. The pioneers, the big game players of this industry, the Frank Schilling’s of this world all made their way only AFTER they put in the work. Yes, Frank was opportunistic, he pounced on all the best domains right after the .com bust and subsequently made a killing, in my eyes he is the man and I credit him for it; THAT is what I describe as entrepreneurial endeavour. But let’s not kid ourselves. Frank worked his ass off, he sat in front of his computer, twenty hours out of every day, working, working, working, collecting, collecting, collecting. His eyes must have resembled squares by the end of it.
And that’s the thing, that’s what it takes. It takes ENTREPRENEURIAL ENDEAVOUR and it takes HARD WORK. Right now you may be asking yourself why it is you should acknowledge this advice, after all, who are you to make such grand sweeping statements, what do you know about being successful in domain industry? Well my reply to that is little more than the next guy. But what I can tell you is that I’ve never got anywhere by sitting by and waiting for the next offer to roll on in. The end-user isn’t the key to a sale, YOU are the key to a sale. I can tell you that my lot has improved substantially as a by-product of increased effort and work on my part. The more WORK I put in the more rewards I seem to reap. The more I put my thinking hat on, the more I refuse to accept failure as an option in life, the more I SUCCEED.
Think outside the box, but stop thinking the quick buck is there for all to make. How many people do you see, just like yourself, populating the halls of Namepros or DNF, all waiting for their big-break, all waiting in the wings for that killer sale (a killer sale that I tell you, will only come after the work is put in). It takes more than that, it takes concerted effort, it takes a bit of playing the game, it takes the right networking skills, it takes communication and even, sometimes, it takes that little bit of luck. Sometimes its not about what the industry can do for YOU, but about what YOU can do for the industry. Small sales and little steps will eventually produce BIG rewards.
Keep it real.
====================================================
I thought I would post this here, might inspire a few souls.
domaino
We all want to map out the best way to succeed in an industry we love, but the real question is: how do we go about doing it? This is a matter of frustration for many a domainer, I feel. And here’s the truth for any aspiring newbie, IT’S NOT EASY, it never is. Like any industry you have to put yourself out there. You have to build up a reputation, you have to be seen, you have to be known, people need to be talking about what it is you’re contributing.
Its not all about the domain, sometimes its about the person BEHIND the domain. Look at eBay, take this as your primary example of how a reputation is formed. Say you come across a listing, BUYER A selling CAR A for $24,000, a reasonable chunk of change. Beside this listing you see yet another listing, this time listing the same CAR A but for a reduced rate of $23,000. BUYER A’s reputation is impeccable, BUYER B’s reputation has yet to be determined (meaning he has a reputation score of 0). Which buyer are you going too choose? For me it will of course be BUYER A, EVERY single time. Reputation means everything, it means you are going to get your product, it means you can trust the buyer/seller and it means you are dealing with a rational individual (ok, this isn’t a universal theory, but certainly in my personal experience it applies close to 98% of the time). It takes TIME and HARD WORK to build this kind of reputation.
In my opinion, in order to make your way you also need to contribute your fair share. The idea of “the big sale, the golliath, the one way ticket” is a fallacy. It’s a DREAM, snap out of it. SLAP yourself ten times hard and repeat the following phrase: “In order to move forward in this industry I need to put in the TIME”. The pioneers, the big game players of this industry, the Frank Schilling’s of this world all made their way only AFTER they put in the work. Yes, Frank was opportunistic, he pounced on all the best domains right after the .com bust and subsequently made a killing, in my eyes he is the man and I credit him for it; THAT is what I describe as entrepreneurial endeavour. But let’s not kid ourselves. Frank worked his ass off, he sat in front of his computer, twenty hours out of every day, working, working, working, collecting, collecting, collecting. His eyes must have resembled squares by the end of it.
And that’s the thing, that’s what it takes. It takes ENTREPRENEURIAL ENDEAVOUR and it takes HARD WORK. Right now you may be asking yourself why it is you should acknowledge this advice, after all, who are you to make such grand sweeping statements, what do you know about being successful in domain industry? Well my reply to that is little more than the next guy. But what I can tell you is that I’ve never got anywhere by sitting by and waiting for the next offer to roll on in. The end-user isn’t the key to a sale, YOU are the key to a sale. I can tell you that my lot has improved substantially as a by-product of increased effort and work on my part. The more WORK I put in the more rewards I seem to reap. The more I put my thinking hat on, the more I refuse to accept failure as an option in life, the more I SUCCEED.
Think outside the box, but stop thinking the quick buck is there for all to make. How many people do you see, just like yourself, populating the halls of Namepros or DNF, all waiting for their big-break, all waiting in the wings for that killer sale (a killer sale that I tell you, will only come after the work is put in). It takes more than that, it takes concerted effort, it takes a bit of playing the game, it takes the right networking skills, it takes communication and even, sometimes, it takes that little bit of luck. Sometimes its not about what the industry can do for YOU, but about what YOU can do for the industry. Small sales and little steps will eventually produce BIG rewards.
Keep it real.
====================================================
I thought I would post this here, might inspire a few souls.
domaino
