Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

I do not define a man’s worth by their accomplishments in life.

It’s not who they are and what have achieved; what matters to me is how they got there and how they stand, as people, if their title and status were to be stripped off.

Mike Mann is well known for his domain portfolio, investments in the domain industry – including the Sex.com uber-domain – and for the Grassroots.org non-profit incentive.

At some point, I became concerned and baffled, due to his personal life being exposed – by no other than himself – and despite the initial shock, I realized that it was a man’s agony over the single most important “product” in life: his child.

That’s one thing I admire in people, and it’s fighting the good fight. In a game where the opponent plays a dirty fight, one must remain above the mud and the low blows. The truth shines above any dark cloud and as long as one sticks to the truth, they shall prevail.

On Friday, I started reading Mike Mann’s book “Make Millions and Make Change!” which I downloaded as a PDF from his web site, MikeMann.com. Reading hurts my eyes after a while, and because I didn’t want to put down this emotionally-charged but pragmatic publication, I started listening to the audio book, also available for free from Mike Mann’s web site.

And that’s another thing I like in people: sharing their life’s experiences, for free. If it were not for those individuals that share their successes and failures with others, it would take each and everyone of us several hundred lifetimes to achieve any progress on our own. Imagine, having to re-invent the wheel, daily.

After reading Mike Mann’s book in a single go over the weekend – a rare feat for me – I was left with a combination of amazement and epiphany. The amazement part was related to the sheer, honest simplicity of how things work in life but how badly we ignore the knowledge bestowed upon us by others. The epiphany part was even stronger; it was a sensation that by letting another moment pass by, not materializing what I had learned from this book, I would be undoing all of its benefits.

The third thing I outlined from this book is the reference to using your position, at any moment during your course to achieve success, finding the time to donate, to contribute – to shake hands with strangers that need a little bit of support; to acknowledge their own separate route in life.

By reading Mike Mann’s book you might have a different reaction, positive or negative. But you won’t know, unless you finish it – cover to cover.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/acroplex

This is the kind of news that you will be hearing a lot for the days to come, especially on its launch today.

Rick Latona effectively changes the paradigm of delivering a list of domains for sale: the domains are now placed on a 24-hour auction, with the clock ticking as soon as the newsletter notification goes out.

Such a selling venue is a welcome newcomer to the options available to the domain community that needs more eyeballs – and more end users – to pitch domains at.

Rick Latona’s new daily auction format offers a comprehensive list of domains, with full bidding transparency, starting at $1. Today’s list contains 120 hand-picked domains from Latona’s own collection.

For more information, head out to the press release and in order to bid go register at Latonas.com

In all honesty, I can’t recall how it all started with web development; I vaguely recall using Wordpad on Windows 3.11

Maybe because I’m about to push mid-4o’s or perhaps because it doesn’t really matter. There are things that one fails to register, for good.

At some point, however, I started using Arachnophilia, a brilliant HTML editor by programmer and world traveler, Paul Lutus. That was around 1996 but the editor is still being supported. Check the guy’s web site out, you will gain a lot from his philosophy in life.

During the same time, I used Paint Shop Pro at an era that Photoshop did not support layers. Adobe invested more in development and version 3.x introduced layers, something that took Photoshop a giant leap away from the competing software of its time.

Design skills are acquired by observing the trends around you and by using the tools at your disposal to emulate these trends. In other words, as a designer you don’t always try to be unique in your creativity. You are also bound to emulate, to reverse-engineer, to improvise on territory already explored.

A few days ago, the owner of the DNXpert blog talked down on tools used in the web development industry, specifically Dreamweaver, as opposed to ‘hand typing your code‘.

I laughed at this comment, only because I too had the same approach 15 years ago - when I used non-WYSIWYG editors. But I soon realized what a fool and a tool I had been; these tools saved me time and effort for a simple reason: I had full knowledge of the theory behind it all, using the right tool was simply an extension of my mind, my imagination, my vision.

Let me explain.

To this day, very few monkeys use tools: rocks to break nuts and sea-shells and sticks to poke bugs and bees out of their nests. These tools are essentially extensions of their own hands, arms, of their brain and intelligence. The ones that don’t use tools often depend on these tool-yielding monkeys for food.

If I were using Wordpad to type HTML and XML code today, I’d be a starving monkey.

Adobe is about to unleash the beast that is called CS5. In just four days from now, on April 12, the biggest bitchfest of tools dedicated to the serious web developer is about to be officially presented to the general public.

My goal in my professional life as a web developer is to always become better, to improve my skills and my capabilities, to serve my clients and myself better. My software upgrade will be monumental, as I am using CS2 – a tool that in my monkey paradigm would have been a 2-inch stick.

I want to own the foot-long bamboo to reach that pot of honey, and I’m going to get it. Because in web development, you’re only as good as the tools you use.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/acroplex

Upon hearing the news that fellow domainer Adam Strong sold CamRoulette.com for $151,000 its previous owner could not believe he let it go for a mere $1,400 just a few weeks earlier.

It happens all the time.

In the domain business, there are no if’s and but’s that can take you to the next level. You have to learn to play things by instinct. You have to trust yourself and your own gut.

As I wrote earlier, to evaluate your portfolio’s worth you often have to “rent” some eyeballs other than your own. You have to let it be evaluated by trustworthy, serious people that can return valuable feedback about your domain collection.

Domains aren’t like stamps that you stack away inside a book. They are live entities that live and breathe technology, history and knowledge. They are meant to be used as pointers to content, as servers of entertainment or as beholders of information.

How much would you have bought a domain for, had you known it’d sell for $150k in the future?

How long would you have held a domain before you dropped it and someone else built a successful business on it, or flipped it for a lot of money?

These are questions you need to ask yourself, as a domainer, constantly. Domain sales hindsight is always 20/20 but it is of no benefit to you if no money hits your account.

One of the reasons I frequent domain sales forums is to see what’s on offer. I literally skim through hundreds of domain listings daily. Since the early 2000′s with DomainsBot and their pioneering newsletter, I developed the ability to run through a list of domains and identify the ones with potential. I did and still do the same task with lists from major sellers at several venues.

A few years back, I placed on sale a hand-registered domain for $69. Nobody bought it, although that sales thread generated a lot of interest and a few sales of other domains. Times were different, but I was not discouraged. Last week, it was sold on Sedo for over $5,000. It was a domain I held onto for several years, knowing what it’s worth.

The idea is to develop the skills of domain vision and be independent of the usual white noise that wants to dictate how a domain’s worth is determined.

Above all, you need to believe in yourself.

For more news follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/acroplex

It’s quite ironic issuing this statement; as a web developer I am supposed to be pushing everyone around me to develop, build, create.

Right?

While this is true in small quantities, when a domain is truly one project that derives its potential from its owner’s imagination and vision, developing all domain names into web sites is not the smartest thing to do.

You’ve heard the usual mumbo-jumbo for months: develop, mass develop, build minisites and traffic will come flooding faster than a waterfall, even for the ugliest long-tail B’ class TLD that you own.

Wrong.

Without a concrete plan, throwing “content” onto a web site can actually kill its current revenue and potential.

Let me explain.

There has been some conversation lately over at DNForum whether a parked domain can bring in $1,000 per day or more – day after day. While some responses were skeptical and some negative, in all truth such consistent daily revenue is not only possible, it’s actually achievable.

The secret is simple: obtain domains that do well at their basic function of traffic generation. While this category includes the obvious generics and typo-domains, there are also domains with dormant traffic, sleeping giants if you must.

Would you develop a sleeping giant of a domain in order to monetize the traffic that’s already there to be harvested?

Again, as a web developer I would be biased if I told you to go ahead and develop. As a domainer, I will tell you: don’t do it.

In a nutshell:

Smart domaining entails being selective in your domain registrations, parking and development. With time and experience you will learn how to make the right choices about which domains to register, which domains to park and which domains to develop.

There is no single solution for all.

For more news follow me on twitter http://twitter.com/acroplex