There’s a pop culture phenomenon these days where everybody wants to be something they perceive to be cooler. Rappers want to be athletes. Athletes want to be rappers. Actors want to sing. Singers want to act. Ted Leonsis wants to be an SEO. SEO’s want to have Ted Leonsis’s ATM card. You get the point.
On this crazy money tree…err, Information Superhighway…we call the Interweb, the one thing that fascinates me the most is domaining. Maybe it’s because I feel if I wasn’t playing Gran Turismo all throughout college, I would have gotten a crappy job to fund my mid-90’s domain name buying spree. In my best estimation, I could have had about eleventy billion bucks in 2007 dollars had I gone on said shopping spree. I suck.
I own a crapload of domains these days, but not nearly the 100,000 or millions that the Professional Domaining Badasses own in their portfolios. Monetized by type-in traffic and the sales of these names, it’s always the domain guys who ball out of control the most when I show up at these Internet Illuminati Retreats (don’t Google it, it doesn’t exist…allegedly). Usually it’s a dozen guys with a Search background who might have hit seven figures, another dozen Russian Email Spammers who did seven figures, and then one or two domainers who did more than all of the Search and Email guys combined. And guess who worked the least? These domain guys literally sit on the beach all day whilst making millions. Their idea of a daily task is to remember to take a few Advils in the early afternoon to drown out that headache they got from hearing the “ching ching ching ching ching ching” of web idiots clicking on their CPC’d landing pages.
I’ve had one domain I bought for $8 sell for five figures, but that’s it. Nothing legendary, but surely enough to awake the degenerate gambler in me. I’m batting .05% on domain names, yet I feel like a roided up Barry Bonds stepping up to a pinata. Hell, I’m seriously thinking of buying barrybondspinataexplosion.com right now!
So, maybe the best New Year’s Resolution I made this year that I can share with you guys (and the legions of smokin’ hot chicks I’m convinced read this site religiously) is to try buy one domain name a day in 2007. Each night before you go to sleep, think of everything that happened that day and then go try to own its future* (assuming it’s not a trademarked term, of course) on the web.
*If you get to an emerging technology .com domain name before me, email me and we’ll probably buy it.
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11 Responses to “I Secretly Want To Be A Domainer”
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Ok …so you like to buy domains…yet you did not buy ScoreBoardMediaGroup.com Hmmm scatching my head …I guess that is the same reason I did not buy my own .net for my blog? I do believe truly in buying large groups of domains that cover every industry great example of this eBiz idea is http://www.verticalportals.com/. I believe they have over 1000 domains and still buying …
Love your viewpoint on this longterm concept.
You crack me up man - this is my new favorite blog by far - just don’t think you’re gonna stay under the radar a whole lot longer.
This should help to feed your addiction:
http://web-professor.net/tools/dh/
Jeff:
Thanks for the comment. Back when I started this site, I didn’t have the cash to buy scoreboard.com and hyphenated domains were getting keyword boosts in most major engines. Pretty shortsighted, but domain trust being what it is in modern search algos, it really doesn’t matter what I call this thing. Definitely wasn’t an investment grade purchase.
Todd:
Shhh, don’t tell anyone.
[…] I secretly wanna be a domainer too…. I Secretly Want To Be A… - Scoreboard Media Group __________________ […]
Guess you read that Business 2.0 article too…
[…] I pledge to extend myself outside of SEO only into even lazier and more defensible areas. Namely, domaining. I pledge to waste at least two hours a day on Threadwatch, WebmasterWorld and Bloglines. Not because I’m learning anything new, but because I’m bored. […]
My wife represents some of these guys as their attorney.
For once, the attorney compensation looks like what the guy working the drive through makes compared to the client. Truly massive cash.
They do get sued a lot and deal with ADRPs, but again, that’s what the (relatively) low-paid lawyers are for.
Wow. I just discovered this blog thanks to Chris Hooley…and all I can say is WOW. Not only are your posts hilarious, but they cut right to the point…much needed in today’s world of constant blogging bullshit.
I really only read a few blogs because I stare at a fuggin puter screen for 16 hours a day as it is. Your site posts crack me up and I agree with what Nate said. There is way too much BS out there and it is nice to find someone that calls it the way it is.
stumbled on your post through some links. who are the domain ballers you speak of seeing out in public ? Dont you know most of them don’t come out of their homes for fear of being mobbed by all the hot women outside their homes.
Okay so it’s been 243 days. Is your CPA running a tally for $7/day compounded at prime plus 2, muni bonds, and S&P 500 index fund?
One big time domainer commented (after buying a hundred k of domains at auction) that he wasn’t spending any money, he was putting it in “the bank”. I agree, given the domains he was buying, but I can’t say that for the reg fee domains.