Today’s lesson is about realizing your limits and restrictions. It’s about knowing when you should zip it and listen instead of talking. It’s also about not letting white noise change your state of mind through some promised magic.
It’s about putting down the domainer ‘crack pipe’.
So you were told you will make a fortune with domains, a killing – unlike in any other market. They sold you the eBooks and the seminars, they gave you free accounts at PPC providers.
You read the eBooks and attended the seminars, then you parked your domains and did your very own mini-sites. Then waited patiently for the golden shower from heavens to arrive.
It never did.
Exactly what is the domainer ‘crack pipe’ and who is smoking it?
There are a lot of domainer ‘crack pipe‘ smokers – they promise to make you rich overnight. Do a simple check about their personal achievements and domain portfolios and think for a second: if they were as successful as they professed, would they really pass the riches on to you?
What they pass on is the domainer ‘crack pipe‘ – the illusion of success and grandeur. Which is fine, as long as they pull those blinds over people that have nothing better to do with their time.
But your time is valuable and you should be able to be successful without all this noise and second hand smoke. And since I mentioned smoke, beware of the mirrors as well – they go together in a seamless pair.
It’s very easy to fall prey to domainer ‘crack pipe‘ smokers: the promises alone make you stop in your feet, all while you were casually strolling downtown Domain Avenue. And sometimes, while looking around the marketplace with all the peddlers yelling their wares you can lose both your wallet and shirt in mere minutes.
In a nutshell: be vigilant. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Take what is promised to you with a pinch of salt. Add your own spices in whatever you do. Acquire chameleon skin.
And most importantly, don’t smoke the domainer ‘crack pipe’.
I don’t think it’s those claiming to make you rich overnight that are the crack pipe smokers, it’s those that believe it that are.
Mike – the ‘pipe’ is being passed around, hence the blind follow of the smokers.
Then, you too become one 🙂
It’s both.
I was never a ‘crack pipe’ domainer because I listened to the pioneers preach the word.
However, I did visit the Domain King early on and realized that I fit right in with the likes of the ‘get rich quick’ minds that have ‘built the internet for the authorities’ on the backs of the keywords that are the world’s economy.
In other words, my theory is that those who are holding a bunch of ‘product portal’ domains are sitting on nothing more than a steady trickle of revenue that may not be able to cover renewals if the fees become real sales taxes.
The days of keyword domainers controlling the free flow of goods, products, services, commodities simply because of the value of direct navigation are over.
I mean how can a few knuckleheads who happened to be in the right place at the right time and believed in something that, in hindsight, seemed to have been inevitable in order for there to be a global economy — which will inevitably revert to a local system due to logistics alone.
I salute the pioneers of the industry — you know who you are — and I caution anyone just entering the ‘domain speculation’ business. It’s not the same game anymore. The sales pitches look good on the surface but like someone else said, what reason would someone sell it to you if everything could still be done on auto-pilot.
I just entered this ‘business’ two years ago and just starting to see returns. You won’t be able to park anything on any platform where you are out of business off the platform.
Either buy solid keywords on the aftermarket or create your own ‘brands’ and build something starting with $7 that you will be able to sell.
I don’t blog but there are many in the space who are reputable, including those who are desperately looking for a way out from under all the renewals now that the PPC game is over. Rather than drop them they are trying the ‘site in a box’ approach and it won’t work with keywords alone.
Thanks, Theo
There’ll always be someone ‘selling the dream’, in any field. Human beings need the dream makers in life. They love it. They become alive through it. It gives them hope. And, some even catch that dream. Sometimes.
And, there’ll always be THOSE thaT are more of a dreamer, than a ‘doer’, with bigger ideas than their ability to bring them home. Or, they’re simply addicted to the dreaming pipe. They’ll pay the price for that.
It was ever thus.
But, I agree…the domain world is full of bloggers, pundits, know-it-all’s, soothsayers, fortune-tellers, ‘authoritative’ voices, and crack pipers…lol
If someone follows a crack Pied Piper, they better be sure the Piper they follow knows where he’s going….He often has no more idea than a rock on the side of the road…
“the first one’s always free”.
Purchased some decent e-books, but put the pipe down when I got a call offering a year-long seo coaching service.
For the bargain price of $6K and up.
I just opened a new Domainer Opium Den. come get your fix, lol 🙂
Bottom line domainers don’t work hard enough at it. Working 60 hours a week for years will make you successful. It is a job, not a get rich quick scheme.
@Bruce Tedeschi
The winner takes it all..
Don’t you just love Abba, come on admit it 🙂