Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Perhaps I have high expectations from people; I engage in communications with a polite, friendly tone. When someone makes several attempts to get in touch, I assume they are looking for dialogue, not mud-wrestling.

Alas, this is often quite far from the truth.

Yesterday, I received a call from the owner of a .us domain – he runs a business in the Midwest and I happen to own the .com. It’s a two word compound that is also a generic term for the industry it represents. Like saying “blue chip”.

The first sign of a buyer with no manners: he called, my answering machine picked up and he left no message.

I called back, spoke to his secretary, left my name and phone number and the reason I called as he was in a meeting.

Today, he called back while I was out for errands. Again, he left no message on the answering machine, he simply hang up.

So I called back and he sounds flabbergasted that the domain is owned by me and not some other company by that name (that company went bankrupt 7 years ago and let the domain expire).

Now, when I communicate directly I am giving the other party the opportunity to place an offer, after it’s made clear to them that the domain in question is lawfully my asset. This time, it was obvious I am dealing with a person that has no idea about domain pricing; to keep it short I gave him a low $x,xxx number.

Not interested! came the answer, and before I could thank him for his time and wish him best of luck with his business, the guy hang up on me!

What a shame this same individual worked for a large bank in the past and is also praised among his peers as an excellent business man and golfer.

Out of spite, I decided to give the .net owners that compete in the same business a chance to own the domain – at a price lower than what I offered to this domain redneck – if they talk nice to me on the phone.

As for our domain redneck, he’s clearly not in touch with his line of business at all.

A few days ago I explained why I don’t consider myself a domainer, a title and word that has yet to make any dictionary.

Simply put, the activity surrounding ‘domaining’ is not only misunderstood to those outside of the industry, it’s also often distorted and abused by those in it.

Allow me to explain, once again, that unless someone woke up one fine morning with a university degree that says “Domainer” on its certificate, no such pure thing exists.

My earlier post was about how the domaining universe is expanding versus contracting – Rick Schwartz used the word “shrinking” – and that’s solely because those that want to call themselves “domainers” are a fast-dying breed.

As a graphic designer & web developer, I have the luxury of observing the domain industry from a distinct standpoint, avoiding the pitfalls that many newcomers – but also old-timers – are running into.  You too can do the same, even if you are a musician, a real estate broker, a forex trader, an IT guy or an aspiring American idol.

To succeed in what you do with regards to domain names, you must step aside and away from the “domainer” mentality; keeping an one-track mind of what constitutes our industry is not going to get you anywhere. You need to take your industry’s perspective and carefully apply it to domain names; this way you will be having a distinct advantage over any self-professed “domainer”.

The domain industry is not in danger of contracting, simply because there is untapped territory that no hard core “domainer” will tell you about: the world outside of “domainers” – and this should be your business target, your goal, your oyster.

And reaching out, exploiting if you must the riches of that outside world, you have to first shed your domainer mentality – as if it were a sin.

There’s a new trend in the domain community: to dip crud in gold and promote it as if it were Aztec treasure.

While that epidermis of gold might look attractive, it’s actually *described* as attractive – all while it isn’t.

Epik aspires to be the next one-stop-shop for the hordes of frustrated domainers that are being swayed by the “evil” PPC companies. Rob Monster is extremely talented and systematic in his acquisitions and managing the company’s expansion.

I’m not judging Epik’s work, I’m judging their methods.

Brand new buzzword: development-worthy domains.

I will tell you, straight up, that the sister of “sour grapes” is the “sweet potato“: raising one’s expected worth by giving it a positive name or value.

In case you don’t get it: Every domain is “development-worthy” but those that receive this title are supposedly selected via a thorough and consistent process – during which they are given a “certificate” and thus about 10% of a valuation increase.

Take your best generic; it will actually be downgraded if it receives the title “development-worthy”. It is not an automatic gate to riches, not yours anyway.

Epik lists several such “development-worthy” domains daily and I have yet to be impressed in any way.

Epik’s latest blog post is titled “Seriously folks, who is dropping these?” which caught my attention obviously.

Then, I saw the pricing Epik has tagged to these domains that were dropped and which are now stuffed inside the Epik “content” window, with the RSS feed at the bottom and I wasn’t sure what more to say, other than shake my head in disbelief at those “development-worthy” long-tail beasts.

peoplephotography.net $140 -> Directory or How-to site.
mbadegreeprograms.net $2800 -> Directory
skiffs.net $1200 -> Store
customplasticbags.net $3800 -> Store
overseaspropertyagents.com $1300 -> Directory
airsoftsites.com $2000 -> Directory
boyinfantclothing.com $820 -> Store
hdmireceivers.com $1400 -> Store
ayrcw.com $50 -> Backorder
edhardyshirts.net $4000 -> Offer to Ed Hardy
aquahat.com $870 -> Store
carmelvalleycalifornia.net $1100 -> Directory
centralairsystem.com $880 -> Directory

A few months ago I implored Rick Schwartz to consider making TRAFFIC an invitation-only event, once again.

That conversation generated quite a bit of feedback and obviously invited opinions for and against the argument.

In today’s blog post, Rick stated that his intention of getting domainers together at a TRAFFIC conference without sponsors and “outsiders” has one extra reason: the number of domainers is shrinking, all while the industry itself expands.

This celestial paradox of a universe that expands and contracts at the same time requires some analysis.

The very definition of a domainer is not clear and thus, the numbers can deceive – intentionally or unintentionally.

A domainer - according to Rick - is a full time investor in domain names, who reaps his or her livelihood solely from the returns of a domain portfolio.

Using that logic, I am not a domainer, as my primary business is graphic design and web development. If you’re doing any type of creative, marketing or advertising work while delving in domains – whether you are successful at it or not – then, by Rick’s definition, you are not a domainer.

I will admit it then; I am not a domainer and I never was. In fact, I will go one step further and I will say that I don’t want to be a domainer.

Rick’s argument of “domainer shrinkage” reminds me of that Seinfeld episode, where George is caught with his pants off after coming back from the shower. Elaine witnesses a “scared turtle” of a manhood and George is forever scarred by the excuses he has to come up with.

In today’s domaining world there is no such shrinkage, simply because domainers are not what they used to be – gold-digging cowboys of the far west. Domainers of today are graphic artists, musicians, poker players, stay at home mothers, basketball players, lawyers and judges.

Some domainers live in Madison Street penthouses or Boca Raton mansions, others share apartments with their family in Spain, India or Kazakhstan. Some are 17 years old and still at school while others are 78 and still going strong. Some have budgets of $10 per year and some spend $1 million in every new TLD landrush.

I see an ever-expanding domainer universe, forever leaving the center of the domainer Bing Bang and forever refusing to look back to the core. But then again, I am not a pure core domainer.

Just four days ago I wrote about how a controversial new indirect taxation would affect thousands of .GR domains and their cash-starved operators; most of them Greek entrepreneurs operating portals, news web sites and forums.

That indirect taxation – called “aggeliosimo” – was meant to be an extension of the current taxation implemented onto press (magazine, newspapers) radio and television advertising.

The good news is, that by some unexplained reasoning that particular article was removed from the massive law up for voting this week at the Greek parliament.

Therefore, aggeliosimo no longer applies to Internet advertising.

Surely the backlash was enough for the law-drafting pencil pushers to realize that the introduction of the aggeliosimo tax was not only unethical, but also impractical to collect: Good luck with collecting that 21.5% aggeliosimo from Google Adwords advertisers.

It’s unfortunate that a lot of things in Greece are done under pressure and without much planning, when it comes down to technological progress. This is a lesson in provisioning laws according to their impact to society and business, not simply to collect a few “drachmas” here and there.