What do James Robertson and Shane Cultra have in common?

If you are reading about domain names, you have probably heard of Shane Cultra – if not, go to his site, DomainShane.com, now, it is way better than this one… :)

Have you also heard about James Robertson?  Did his story remind you of anyone you knew?  Well, whether you have heard of James or not is irrelevant.  Lessons we can all learn from him are what is important. (I’ll give you some context later, but the image is a hint)

NY to Los Angeles to Orlando

NY to Los Angeles to Orlando

Think of the most successful person you know and keep that thought in your head while you read this and let me know what you think at the end…

What James Robertson can teach you about success

The life lessons/success story of James Robertson(your person’s name here) come down to the answer to this question:

Aside from the obvious money aspect, what separates a hobbyist from a professional?

Seems like a simple question, but lately I’ve been thinking more about why I treat domains and this industry like a hobby compared to two types of other people:

  1. Most people who just go away quickly because they were looking for an overnight success or million dollar flip
  2. Others who I’ve watched who have progressed to “Guru” or very successful levels from seemingly nothing

To give you some context, I started hobby buying domains back in 2010 and I am still at that level even though I follow the industry to some degree and love learning about it… not a success by any measure – what some domainers would call a hobbyist… what I would normally call something much worse :)

Two Success Factors for Domain Name Investing

There are two main factors that I realize have made all the [Read more…]

Domain-Pocalypse

Snowpocalypse

Riding home on a gator after the snowpocalypse.

Survived the Snowpocalypse here in the South… Got home late, but safe and sound.  Can’t sleep so I thought I would get a few random domain name thoughts out of my head to see if that helps…

  1. Domain Shane isn’t human.  He says he has a full time “real business”, a kid/family, runs ridiculous distances, scans/invests in the stock market, etc.  AND he has a great domain business that he works on only 2 hours a day including blogging, scanning lists of domains like the “secrets” one on this list that is still pissing me off that I missed…  I don’t buy it.  I have to get to Namescon next year and get his secrets after the tables and drinks kick in… Oh yeah.
  2. Secrets on Flippa.  That portfolio of names Shane mentioned that was on Flippa.com closed at $1150.  $1150 for 50 names is what, $23 each and even if they are renewing soon that puts your average price around [Read more…]

DomainSherpa.com Brandable domains

The latest domain name review from Domain Sherpa is out.  After writing the article about the Domain Name Sherpas last week, I saw Michael was running a themed domain review this week.

Michael Cyger

Michael Cyger
aka Domain Sherpa

 

Taking the plunge with Themed Domain Names

The topic?  “Really cool brandables”  These are domains that can easily be branded, but the opinions on what is really cool varies significantly so if you don’t know what they are, I suggest starting with this definition and checking out Shane’s article on why domains are irrelevant (not!) and Morgan’s assessment.  Also, if you are planning on buying some to resell, hold, etc do yourself a favor and carefully read Elliot’s experience – it may save you some time and money.

I hesitated to submit a name because it could easily get trashed… Knowing that I had a couple of domains that might fit the brandable description and trying to really dive in and learn to be a “REAL” domainer this year, I decided I had to submit a name!

Before I reveal which name is mine, go take a look at the list of names that were submitted and think about which ones you like (you have to scroll down to “Reader Submitted Domain Names”.)  I wanted to do that before I watched the review, but I was too excited – like a kid on Christmas morning.

So do I get a lump of coal or a diamond in the rough?

 

My brandable domain name

I will say this, there are over 100 domains in the list and I only really liked or understood the brandability of about 15 of them.

My favorites from other submissions, in no particular order, are PinkBear.com, Jumbrellas.com, and [Read more…]