How much brain power did it take to reg porn.com? (1.Viewing)

I saw this article on TLD investors and found it interesting but the funniest part is in the comments where Rick Schwartz is roasting a domainer.


Click on the graphic to read the source article.

Thanks for sharing [notify]MapleDots[/notify].

A good read and the comments section is definitely very entertaining lol. I'm not sure who that Matt guy is but Rick REALLY laid into him.

Rick makes enough interesting comments, blog posts and tweets that we should consider having a section dedicated to him, or better yet a section dedicated to domain legends/celebrities to keep up with what they're saying.

Thanks for the share @MapleDots.

Yes indeed.. some hot air there for sure between the King and Matt.

This Matt guy is right about one thing, none of these early domainers were 180 IQ geniuses in any way, but they did have one special gift that really helped them:

Prescience.

A guy like Rick saw the developing domain market and somehow understood what it would turn into and made the correct call to jump in with both feet. And it wasn't an easy decision, as I remember the first domain I bought was $80 US and it put a huge hole in my wallet. In fact, I don't think I would have been able to afford two domains at the time.

To buy hundreds or even thousands of domains back then was a big financial risk compared to hand-registering the same amount today. That's one factor a lot of people don't understand, as domain registration/ownership followed the unusual pattern of becoming progressively less expensive.

Being the right age with an income certainly helped Rick & Co. but even then you needed that special vision to see what this would turn into and the potential business opportunities it would afford.

It's funny when people use age as a way to put someone down. Sure, Rick and the others got "lucky" (using the commenters own words) in the 90's. And others, like this commenter perhaps, got "lucky" buying Facebook, Amazon or Bitcoin in the 2000's and 2010's...will he accept criticisms about that from someone younger?

We can't dictate when we're born so we just have to make do with what we have and take our best shot

Do you know how a bunch of those old guys got into domaining? They were in the telecom business. Back then, people owned payphones, you install a payphone and set your fees and collect on every call - then rinse and repeat. They also bought/sold premium phone numbers, 1-800 and 1-900 numbers, like 1-800-flowers, so exactly like domains - an easy to remember shortcut to remember a phone number rather than an IP address. But with the advent of the cell phone, the days of payphones were clearly numbered. A few of those guys caught onto the fact that domains are going to be the new 1-800 numbers that can be bought/sold for a premium for the best ones. Don't quote me on it, but I seem to remember that Rick was one of those guys that came over from that business.

rlm said:

Do you know how a bunch of those old guys got into domaining? They were in the telecom business. Back then, people owned payphones, you install a payphone and set your fees and collect on every call - then rinse and repeat. They also bought/sold premium phone numbers, 1-800 and 1-900 numbers, like 1-800-flowers, so exactly like domains - an easy to remember shortcut to remember a phone number rather than an IP address. But with the advent of the cell phone, the days of payphones were clearly numbered. A few of those guys caught onto the fact that domains are going to be the new 1-800 numbers that can be bought/sold for a premium for the best ones. Don't quote me on it, but I seem to remember that Rick was one of those guys that came over from that business.

Click to expand...

I don't think I ever heard this before but it makes 100% sense, and my mind is somewhat blown as I think about it. I did see a law firm use a 1-800 number during a Super Bowl commercial instead a domain too lol. I guess lawyers prefer to get people on the phone but it shows some companies still have that type of thinking. Thanks for sharing.

Isn't that a badass 1-800 number? lol

Check out more details here: 1800Justice.com

Some oldschool domainers also came in with some real estate experience and saw the analogy. Some came from porn, and supposedly some had biker gang money to invest/launder (in PPC times).

I still remember the first time I visited one of these domainers who was a customer at Tucows at the time, probably in 2003 or so. He lived in a warm, bright sunny place, but was very pale because he scoured the droplists every day and night, by hand... later he worked with scripts, but he barely saw the outside of the beautiful place he lived in at the time.

I guess another factor is what you consider early... people who registered their first domains in the mid- to late 1990s, or early 2000s? I think I started in 2003 or so (and never got really good at it) when Richard Lau convinced me it was not too late.

I started in 2000. The key back then (which I didn't know) was knowing about type in traffic and pay per click which were big at the time. And the type of domains that would get traffic, or have the best future demand.

I think many people starting out back then, without the guidance of someone in the know, would just buy domains and hold to sell. And it's amazing how many people when starting (even today) will invent the crappiest made up names and think they are great. Instead of going for simple one and two word combos, or short letter or number domains, or short brandables, there was probably a lot of good stuff available to register or buy for $xx or $xxx in the aftermarket at that time. I remember on one site seeing loads of LLN.com going for $20 to $30 each.

Pay per click income was good 20 yrs ago and it could generate the income to renew your domains along with the odd sale. But you had to know it existed first, and then how to plug into it.

There was no easy to find domainer community then, no popular domain forums, you would only hear the odd story in the news now and then that such-and-such domain name sold for $500,000 or a million.

Also, in the early 2000's you could create a webpage or website, submit it to dozens of search engines, and actually get search engine traffic fairly quickly. Partly because there were a lot less websites then, and this was before Google dominated so much and search advertising became such big business.

My first clue about other domainers and a domain community was when I sold a one word .cc domain. A few weeks later I did a search on the domain I sold, and up popped a link to the weekly DNJournal sales report which had reported my sale. I remember seeing all the other sales reported, and articles on domainers, it was an amazing and thankful eye opening to the domain world, and reading about people and the domains they had.

I remember back on New Year's Eve I believe, in 1999 when GreatDomains opened the first Domain Chat Room. It was incredibly exciting!

Typical site design for the time as well *THUMBSUP*