Recently I’ve been reading a lot of “doom and gloom” posts – the equivalent of “the sky is falling”. If it’s not PPC declining, it’s the tm holders over-reaching – the new trend seems to be filing a UDRP with little supporting data. Furthermore, the overall state of the economy appears to include the domaining industry in its stagnant growth.
Did I mention that it’s not the flu season yet?
Time to go stealth.
Time to ride your own horses and take control of the reigns. Ignore the white noise around you. Give “the hand” to those that preach leadership and opportunity all while promoting their own benefit and no-one else’s.
Don’t talk about your projects. Don’t boast about what you’ve achieved and are about to achieve.
The time is ripe now for quiet, ninja-like moves. Practice your killer skills, avoid exposing your plans. Block out any means of communication that would allow you to slip up and disclose what you’re working on.
They won’t see you coming. Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.
Think about it.
*Now* I understand your dumping strategy for .tel 🙂
Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.
?
🙂
@Anon – Too funny 🙂
@RKB – If it seems “off the wall”, it’s about keeping quiet about what one is working on. I see a lot of announcements that hurt the “surprise factor”.
In the spirit of my post, I can’t disclose more 😀
Acro……man I know you from a long time ago ….. from DNF.
I know what you mean and I agree with you my friend.
I was just having some fun with that sentence 🙂
But most people just blow their own horn or there friends blow it for them these day!
That’s why there is no surprise.
Nice read, Keeping it on the down low has been what I have been doing for a while, but I think its time for me to come out and make a little noise.
There is a lot of BS doing the rounds of the domain industry these days. “Do this, don’t that, the end is nigh” etc. The idea is to keep the action plan to yourself and strike when you’re ready. The more you disclose about your progress, the easier it is to lose the advantage.
BTW, if you want to criticize me or my posts, you have to do so eponymously – this is for the LOL@LOL.com guy whose comment I deleted.
“Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.” – 😀 YMMD!
Well some need the “exposure/attention/respect” they get when telling the world about their projects & achievements, while others enjoy the fruits of their work at the beaches of “Stealth-Island” just waiting to pull the next aces out their sleeves.
…I prefer stealth mode.
True. It is a matter of preference and it depends on the circumstances surrounding one’s ability and willingness to succeed. While I am all for releasing “teasers” in the general sense, stealth mode allows you to focus more on the product, project or goal.
I know what you mean. I just signed the papers for a rather large domain purchase and have signed a developer for a big job $6000+ (well, huge for me considering I usually build my own sites=)) and I have not said a word about what it is.
The reason I like stealth-mode is that it seems to me that all the sites that make it big by domainers seem to be sites come off the radar rather quickly. It seems like you can either be a domainer “All star” and do a ton of 2-bit interviews on domain blogs or you can make good money by being a “stealth” developer where nobody knows your name and the money means more than the glory to me.
Even once my site is up I doubt that I will let anyone know that I am the owner. It is just too much fun letting people believe you are a newbie.
“It is just too much fun letting people believe you are a newbie.”
This is priceless 😀 Best of luck with your project. The market is raw and primed for “killer apps”. It’s been too long of the “same old, same old” to sustain the scorched land politics and the usual self-patting.
I am having real fun reading this blog post! Awesome discussion.
Wish I would not have shared things so much over the years because so many people copied what I was doing. They became competition and some eventualy more successful than myself in 3 different online business categories I have been involved in.
Acro, I wasn’t going to comment, trying to keep a low profile. 🙂 But I totally agree. I’m a big believer of flying low and keeping off the radar. It’s not so much because of what other people think of me, “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” It’s more about setting goals and trying to achieve them. It’s about staying focused and blocking out the noise. Keeping your nose to the grind stone and not letting external interruptions side track you. etc. etc. etc. When you do accomplish your goals, then your actions will speak louder than words.
Excellent post!
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
Albert Einstein
David – I’m all for sharing information and knowledge; just not trade secrets 😀
Dan – So true, while we’re “chatting” here we could have made a few thousand dollars! 🙂 I’m glad you liked this post.
“Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.”
I now know the right mindset for success. I am a pimp, and my domains are my bitches. Got it!
Good comments.
Fantastic post. Sound, simple, straight to the point advice that, in my case anyway, makes a lot of sense and almost reads like a horoscope.
“Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.”
What a quote! lol.
“Success is like a beautiful girlfriend: if you share her, she becomes a slut.”
Lmao, even though I don’t really agree – “Knowledge shared is knowledge doubled.”
However, I do agree about not letting the world know what you’re doing till you do it. Too many people don’t have any ideas, why they steal yours and implement them badly, killing your profits w/o really making any themselves.
I never did any press releases or went to any conferences or posted much on forums for the first 10 years I was domaining. I then sold some of my domains for a lot of money (enough to retire if I wanted to), and I feel differently about sharing now, and started a blog at ImpulseCorp.com. I am no longer scraping to get by, so giving out info to my competition does not worry me. Plus, over the years, I obtained a huge amount of info from other peoples’ blogs and postings, so I want to try to give back now. My main goal in life is still to make a huge amount of money though, that has not changed.
“David – I’m all for sharing information and knowledge; just not trade secrets”
That’s not the way I read your post the first time through — thanks for clarifying. It seems to me that we’ve all benefitted from the knowledge of others at one time or another, t’would be a shame to see that sharing go away. I also think we DO face some common threats (especially with regard to abusive or expanded UDRP, domain theft and domain-name price-caps to name a few) – where we can hang together or hang separately.
I am keeping so quiet I can’t comment.
you said it. great post.
I never give out secrets 🙂
I agree and disagree about giving out “secrets” because often times what you think is a secret is really not.
People are lazy and you can write something that is a secret and they do not even know it, unless you include in that writing… this is a secret! 😉
Spot on as usual. Sometimes people forget we all compete with each other. Not only that, it is hard to build a real friendship, trust or partnership with everyone hiding behind a keyboard.
While I absolutely understand your assertion of sluttiness, better words might come to mind to make your point without the typical overtures.
Those that say what they do and do nothing are the no-ones that everyone knows. But the ones who none know seem like nothing to most, but to few are everything!
I appreciate all the comments and the stimulating conversation that came out of it. While some did not like the “overture”, that’s my way of adding a bit of a spice to the dish 😀
Leon never takes off his shades young Theo, lol
Typically, providing assistance that leads to the sharing of wealth requires a lot of confidence by the providing party, that competition won’t hurt their niche. We can all contribute to the sharing of information and assist each other in general, but how many of you would actively and openly disclose the specifics of your projects? On the other hand, there are people that are immersed in complete secrecy.