I haven’t done a free-form post in a while so I though now would be a good time to let you all know what’s going on in my head! As a domain investor I am constantly bombarded by projects and opportunities and over the last two years I’ve learned a lot about prioritization. This year has been incredible for both my blog and my company but looking back, especially after a hectic week like this, I have some reflections.
First – stop doing too much! This is a message to more than just myself but to all the other Domainers out there right now drowning with projects. Yes – lots of work is good, but quality is paramount. This year I’ve really tried hard to put more time into less things. This doesn’t mean doing less – it only means doing more with less…make sense?
The next thing that has been very surprising to me (although maybe it shouldn’t be) is the number of people with huge portfolios of mediocre domains that are now trying to sell their names as quickly as possible. I get around 15 requests a week for brokerage and most of the lists I receive are domains I’m surprised people registered…not only that but many people are looking for unrealistic prices for their domains.
I think this may be just a consequence of the economy but one thing is very clear to me. In general, new domainers need to stay focused. Don’t just keep buying domains – generate revenue with your domains! This is something that I focused on from the very beginning and there isn’t a day that goes by where I’m not unbelievably thankful I did this. I hand registered tons of names two years ago and rather than trying to sell them right-away I developed them and monetized the domains. I was never into parking because I missed the boat on type-in traffic which forced me to focus on SEO. It is important for everyone to have a goal for each domain in their portfolio. If your goal is only to sell your whole portfolio, quickly…then you may have missed the goal of investing!
My final thought for today is how much I’ve learned this year about the power of social media services. Twitter, StumbleUpon, Facebook, and Digg have all changed my life this year. I’m amazed still at how many people are yet to embrace these services – yes, all of these are very different beasts but they accomplish a similar goal. So many people focus only on Twitter or only on Facebook and miss the swath of people using a completely different service. I am still adding more to my list of social media addictions but I can say that these four services have accelerated the revenue and success of my business, my websites, and my blogs in ways I would have never imagined possible.
Bored yet? I don’t do many posts like these but I think that sometimes a good old fashioned brain-dump might be interesting, especially for new Domainers looking to understand the industry better. If you learn anything from this post – let it be this: take time in your life, and your business to reflect on what you’ve done – point-out the good things and the bad things and learn from both. Without analyzing yourself you might never learn what has led to your successes and to your failures. Rick wrote a great post yesterday about learning from your failures and I think he does a great job of analyzing the industry and his business.
So take the time this weekend and get some musing done…you never know what you might learn! Heck – share it with the rest of us – I’m always interested to hear what’s going-on in the heads of fellow domainvestors!
As always comment and let your voice be heard! Don’t forget – you can subscribe to my rss feed to get a sample domain sales letter you can send to end-users – just email me once you’ve subscribed!
