- Impact
- 463
The Misconception: You should focus on the successful if you wish to become successful.
The Truth: When failure becomes invisible, the difference between failure and success may also become invisible.
I read this article on another forum a while back and thought it would make for good discussion here - http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/
It's a bit of a read, but I think if you take the time to absorb it you will learn an important lesson that every domain investor should heed.
Survivorship Bias is habit we fall into where we only focus on the successful, and ignore the failures. I'm interested in discussing what have you done that hasn't worked out - especially if you consider yourself a successful domainer, as there will be users on this forum that probably look up to you.
For example, the recent interview with Ali from Flippa on DomainSherpa was brilliant and inspiring - no question about it. But the interview only focused on Ali's success and doesn't talk much about his failures. How many people rushed to Flippa to emulate Ali's formula with the $300 + premium listings? The interview didn't discuss those times where the premium listing didn't work out and he lost money (or maybe it did and I've just forgotten, which would prove the Survivorship Bias theory!).
Domainers, maybe more so than any other group I've ever come across have a major follow-the-leader mentality, which is seen by all our showcase threads and trends.
So let's talk about those times where you tried and failed - and I'm talking about more than just handregging bad names. It could be a sales tactic, a strategy to corner a market or a type of premium listing that didn't work out. Maybe you tried selling .coms to the co.uk owner, or hacks as URL shorteners. Anything that you've done that yielded no success is just as important a lesson as those times you closed a sale.
I can start. I had read about the excellent parking revenue Japanese IDN's generate, so when the big data trend hit, I checked the CPC on the Japanese terms, saw it was rather high. I then went and registered about 30 Japanese big data IDNs - Including [BigData].jp. The theory was that as the CPC was fairly high, I should be able generate enough revenue in a year to keep the names that were showing promise.
Unfortunately, almost none of them made any money, and as I can't speak Japanese I wasn't confident reaching out to end users, and dropped all of the names.
The Truth: When failure becomes invisible, the difference between failure and success may also become invisible.
I read this article on another forum a while back and thought it would make for good discussion here - http://youarenotsosmart.com/2013/05/23/survivorship-bias/
It's a bit of a read, but I think if you take the time to absorb it you will learn an important lesson that every domain investor should heed.
Survivorship Bias is habit we fall into where we only focus on the successful, and ignore the failures. I'm interested in discussing what have you done that hasn't worked out - especially if you consider yourself a successful domainer, as there will be users on this forum that probably look up to you.
For example, the recent interview with Ali from Flippa on DomainSherpa was brilliant and inspiring - no question about it. But the interview only focused on Ali's success and doesn't talk much about his failures. How many people rushed to Flippa to emulate Ali's formula with the $300 + premium listings? The interview didn't discuss those times where the premium listing didn't work out and he lost money (or maybe it did and I've just forgotten, which would prove the Survivorship Bias theory!).
Domainers, maybe more so than any other group I've ever come across have a major follow-the-leader mentality, which is seen by all our showcase threads and trends.
So let's talk about those times where you tried and failed - and I'm talking about more than just handregging bad names. It could be a sales tactic, a strategy to corner a market or a type of premium listing that didn't work out. Maybe you tried selling .coms to the co.uk owner, or hacks as URL shorteners. Anything that you've done that yielded no success is just as important a lesson as those times you closed a sale.
I can start. I had read about the excellent parking revenue Japanese IDN's generate, so when the big data trend hit, I checked the CPC on the Japanese terms, saw it was rather high. I then went and registered about 30 Japanese big data IDNs - Including [BigData].jp. The theory was that as the CPC was fairly high, I should be able generate enough revenue in a year to keep the names that were showing promise.
Unfortunately, almost none of them made any money, and as I can't speak Japanese I wasn't confident reaching out to end users, and dropped all of the names.
Last edited:
