Yeee--eee-eesh

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-20-2007/0004549338&EDATE=

I honestly feel bad for dudes like this.  All successful domainers had moments in the beginning where they went through the same thought processes as this guy..  How do you know what a good name is unless you somehow manage to get one, understand what makes it good, and then capitalize on that by buying more with the same characteristics (generic intent type-in traffic)?  I remember my earliest acquisitions and I felt so optimistic and confident about them. I remember buying a few hundred domains and particularly the feeling of walking on the clouds -- a confidence ran through to my bones that I had "made a wise decision" and that I was "set for life" as a result of making those name purchases. Years later I looked back on them after subsequently acquiring 'good' domain names and I actually deleted the names that I previously thought were so great.

From the story, Quote:  Steven believes when your back is against the wall you are forced to come out of your comfort zone. The American dream is pulling oneself up by their boot straps.

By selling some of his domain names such as LockYourBet, FirstInTheUS, DareToVacation, APlanToWin and ThisTo.com he hopes to generate monies to start up http://www.FollowMeForFree.com and support his family.

He is absolutely right about the American Dream IMO, but he is using the wrong kinds of names to get there.  There's no traffic in those, and they have no instrinsic break-up value. I genuinely feel for this guy and admire his spirit.

This piece actually reminds me of a story Jeff Tinsley told me after he sold Greatdomains.com ..  Jeff said some guy came to the Greatdomains office who had just spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in life savings to buy domains..  they were terrible names like hot-b2b-4-u.com.  Thousands of them.  He had them on the side of his car with prices and drove his car cross country to the Great Domains office in California.  Jeff had to break it to him 'in person' that his names were no good and took the time to (gently) explain why.  That's hard.

We've all been there..  It still happens today.  How are you going to pay the bills and stay relevant without cashflow?  My heart goes out to this guy and folks like him. It's those of us who make this very mistake,  recognize it as a mistake, and then double down to take the right path ..  those are the people that survive as success stories.

Comments

[owen frager]

some wisdom I learned a long time ago from Rick's Board:

"With Fab and Google dropping revenue and mergers and consolidations shifting power, this is the time for a leader to take bold moves and guide his sheep to gold

I agree with both of you. If everyone tries to make money doing what everyone else is doing, then the competition in that is extremely high.... and this can be precisely the time to do something different. This is especially true if you can learn something about that "different" area that other people do not."

[James]

Frank,

As you say, we've all bought a few stinkers - but if there are degrees of 'wrongness', these are testing the limits of the scale!

I hope it clicks with this guy before he spends all he's got...

James

[Adamo]

I think all readers here feel for this guy. This type of PR release was practically a daily phenomenon back in 1999-2000. I also started out registering concept 'gems' akin to these, 100 variations on a theme that I won't embarrass myself here by recalling! Several months and $3500 later, the proverbial finally hit the fan, and the realization dawned that the sagging mound I was sitting on wasn't a pile of gold after all! I can laugh about it now, but then again I wasn't an unemployed laborer with three kids pinning his entire hopes on that worthless pile. While it's always inspiring to read the great success stories, one is sobered a little reading about those that 'got' domains but just didn't 'get' the right ones. 'There but for the grace of God go I'.

***FS*** Very well said.. There but for the grace of God go "I" - too

[Rob B]

Reminds me of names I started off regging in 2000. The theme I chose was the coming "XM radio", I regged a tonne of XM .com names like countryxm, rapxm, rockxm, and so on. Wish I knew then what I know now, I always wonder what good names were still available to get for reg fee in 2000. Hopefully this person will do more research on domains and if he sticks with it will acquire better quality names. There are a few positive things going for him - he has a good attitude, he started his own company, he knows how to put out a press release online, he is getting into domains - he is getting it going and just needs to find the right direction. Some people will never even open up their minds to try something new. You never know what can happen in domains - Macau.com was apparently regged in only 2002 and sold last year for half a mil. There are still opportunities out there.

[Drewbert]

"Steven sold http://www.AnnaNicoleSmithTheBook.com for $2,850,000.00 on eBay, and then the bidder reneged."

Well KNOCK ME OVER WITH A FEATHER!

[Edwin Hayward]

I guess many of us have "been there, done that" - I certainly left hundreds of "themed" domains on the cutting room floor that I was initially rather excited about...

But time marches on. What's different in 2007 to, say 1999, is the level of information out there if you only choose to search it out and read it. There are several popular, competing domain forums, all with "newbie" sections, plus endless guides pointing to the wrong/right way to choose domain names, plenty of media articles about type-in traffic etc.

So while the mistakes being repeated are still "understandable", they're less forgivable today than they were perhaps 5 or more years ago, and they will be progressively less forgivable as the average level of clued-in-ness across the industry rises. When you're operating seemingly in a near-vacuum, all you've got to go on is a hunch. But when there are blogs, forums, trade shows, media reports, sites, and even a magazine to guide you, ignorance is somehow that little bit less excusable!

***FS*** Very well said Edwin.

[Steve]

Frank some one sent me your link because of my release March 20 about the unemployed laborer I am that person Steven Hafto, Cut to the chase, what can I do? How do I do it?
What I wrote is just the half of it. You probably won’t believe how bad it really is. I am not looking for sympathy I need help I am looking for help, any help……………..Thank you
You can give my e-mail out i am open to any help thank you