Frank Schilling gives domain name advice ahead of 2017

Frank Schilling may have stopped blogging since 2014 but he hasn’t stopped giving domain name advice online.

Not only has he stopped blogging but his blog at SevenMile.com is actually broken and does not even display any of the posts. 🙁

Nowadays he mainly uses his Twitter account to speak his mind publicly.

That and a few conferences like NamesCon 2017! His keynote “The Evolution of Domaining” is on the 23rd of January at 10.00am:

A vision for the future of domaining and how we’re going to get there. The next wave of passive income generation for the savvy domainer.

This is what he wrote yesterday on Twitter:

  1. Learn the difference between good and bad names by telling your friends about what you find and see if they register them. You’ll find more.
  2. There are more good unregistered names available than there are active domain name investors to mine for them. The oceans are still full.
  3. The most successful domain name investors are the miners who patiently research short available names, and who purchase in a measured way.

What do you think about this advice?

Whether you agree with Frank or not, it is always interesting to hear what he has to say.

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

30 comments

  1. “short available names,”. !!!!!

    In a mobile World typing with your thumbs is a reality. Short memorable domains with fewer keystrokes are way easier to remember. Short domains will save lives.
    Extensions longer than 3 characters are too long IMO. .com and cctls are the easiest extensions to type. Actually .cc wins the easiest rxtenstion to type in the World.
    My $.02

  2. He’s a smart guy and a great domainer but his agenda no longer aligns with the average domainer making his advice a lot less useful.

  3. I guess the question that the industry needs to answer is if there are so many great domains and experienced domain investors by default should have the better domains, then why is the typical portfolio only turning around 1% annually?

    • Most domains are directed to new companies, rebranding, new websites, new products and so on. These are of course limited (but more of less steady every year) and the domains will always be more.
      If we had a turnaround of 10% then in 10 years there would be no domains left. But if it was 10% then domainers would buy more domains and the turnaround would fall.
      If the 1% can more than support the other 99% then the domain business is successful.

  4. Here is my concerns his 3rd point, they are Taryn at namejet, when they bid they bid their max, they do not bid, or buy in a patient measured way. They cause bids to max out this way, and go beyond.

    Another point is also doing with Huge Domains and their aftermarket bidding at other venues now, same with the new Uniregistry. If you are supporting their products, your business is providing them profits to outbid you. As well they have access to all your leads, and sale info to make better buys than you.

    Nothing personal, just general business advice, but if you really think about it, you will always come in 3rd place with such a model, it just does not work in business. That is why they are laughing when they see newbies pay more than most end users would.

    In 2014 I might have cared, in 2017 it’s all in one ear out the other.

  5. He said many times something and later changed, not keeping promises etc
    Just look what he said before releasing his newtlds and what happen later.

    I agree with Rich ” If you are supporting their products, your business is providing them profits to outbid you. As well they have access to all your leads, and sale info to make better buys than you.”

    Shame on you all who use Uniregistry you are just making your business and others more difficult.

    • Ada I swear in no other business could this happen, I don’t know why these guys don’t see the obvious in front of them.

      These people cost you money everyday they bid against you, then when you make a sale they take 15%, they have information to all your sales, and traffic data, they are big brother, they are the government, governing themselves, all with them help of your so called unitax doillars.

      In return you get worthless top coins, what a joke. They would be better off giving you Zimbabwe dollars.

      Time to wake up people, use godaddy, they are cheaper on registration, have a better channel with end users, they have their afternic as well. They are not reading your data, and going over to namejet to bid against you. Use efty, some good people run it.

      Either Uni needs to refocus on what business they want to be in, otherwise they will start losing business.

      Gee I wonder why you keep getting outbid, and you spend your entire months rent trying to buy a few second rate domains.

      • Uh, there is another business this happens and it’s actually a lot worse. It’s called the Toll Free Number business and many early domainers actually learned their craft with 800 Numbers.

        Out of the roughly 3 million “800” numbers, one porn company owns well over 2 million of them. The chance of you getting a # if this company wants it is 0%. This company hoards all the numbers for their porn business since it is technically illegal to sell toll free numbers, but like drugs, people still do it even on ebay. The toll free business is so corrupt, they rent each # to lots of different people all over the nation depending on which area codes they want. The domain business is not nearly as corrupt as the Toll Free Number business and the government doesn’t seem to do much about it or punish companies that hoard #’s even though it is said to be illegal.

        Vanity 800 numbers can be a lot more valuable than domains.

        Why do you think 1-800-FLOWERS was able to buy Flowers.com

  6. Regardless what his advice/tips are, they are always a great read. Even if they aren’t 100% accurate, you can usually fond some logic and useful tidbits in them.

  7. I agree with Frank on point 2 and 3.
    Lets say you need an short acronym.
    You can buy: (example) BMC1.COM or TheBMC.com or BMCCO.com BMCinc.com BMCllc.com there are millions of short names still available in .com for $8

    Or for that matter in new G’s,a little more expensive,true:

    BM.Company
    BMConsulting
    BM.CLUB
    BM.Cloud
    BM.City
    BM.Cool etc…

    Like it or not guys some of the new gtlds are here to stay.
    I get more inquiries on my new G’s then on my .com.

    Happy New Year to everyone .

    • That just means your .com are probably of lower quality, and you are probably paying more for premium gtld renewals.

      Most inquiries for new gitlds are from people looking to buy them from reg fee thinking you are the registry, they do not understand that you have already registered them, and are a reseller, not all, but most.

  8. I find his comments true and helpful. Happy New Year 2017 everyone!

  9. Rich@
    Yes my .com’s are lower quality and i only buy $25 or lower renewal on the new G’s.
    I only have about 8 names that are about $100 renewals internet.today asia.today and a few more.

    My point is there is plenty of names out there under $25 in any tld but you have to have a little imagination in creating one.My point is that Frank is right on point 2 and 3.

    As far as my friends go… on Frank’s 1 point ? I do not agree.
    My friends don’t know nothing about domain names.
    Maybe Frank has a lot of domain friends and then he might be right,again.

  10. I forgot to mention,that is true that the newer registrations like .blog,.online .shop, .store their premium are way to high $10,000- 135,000.
    I’m not talking about those.You could have bought .group super premium for $15 now on sale at GD for $5
    You can put just about anything before .group

    Tha’s just my 2 cents opinion.

  11. #3 most important. You will reg 1 mediocre name, you will reg 2, 3 etc. The worthwhile domains are rare! Being picky (or have emotional reasoning) among medium names is foolish! You need to stay with domains that are just about impossible to beat for that niche. It’s easy to get complacent and take mediums! Suddenly you will be inside of the box and forget what a good domain is! There are too many of these to ever be a smart investment. Yea, you can still reg good .com, .net, .org too <3

  12. Lately it’s quality over quantity for me …….it’s finding the money to acquire them that is more the problem, Happy New Years all

  13. Happy New Years Everyone!

    It’s why I call “Registrars” gold mining caves. You look for names like you would a gold nugget.

    I can’t wait until I find myself that one big golden nugget…

    • Precisely. During the gold rush, who made the most money? The companies that sold picks and shovels, while telling everyone what a great gold rush is happening. Registrars is modern pick and shovel sellers.
      Its up to individual investors to educate themselves.

  14. absolutely right

    maybe no all are short but GOOD

    look

    Bill Gates recently launched to invest 1 Billion in Energy Innovation
    he partnered with innovation-net

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-model-investing-energy-innovation-bill-gates?trk=prof-post

    i got

    MissionClimateChange.com ✔️
    MissionEnergyInnovation.com ✔️
    MissionGlobalWarming.com ✔️

    for 1 GBP @ FH each last week

    the ocean is still full
    that’s right

    wanna join me ? on the Mission ? CCTEI

    Climate Change Through Energy Innovation

  15. Agree 100% that there are still “names available”. This past year we bought the word for “birthday cards” in Chinese in both the .com and .cn as an example. This term in Chinese has 15 million results on Baidu. It’s not as simple as 20 years ago but there are names out there to be had if you keep looking.

  16. As much as I respect Frank, and I do, sometimes you have to take what he says with a grain of salt. He is a domainer first and will always say and do what is best for his business. Read between the lines.

  17. I totally agree with Frank especially on point 2 as I do have my own unique system in finding and registering such names like ARCoverage.com, BudGin.com, HueHair.com, TellyTablet.com, etc.

    Happy New Year 2017 to all!

  18. Well quite frankly I do really enjoy domaining with my own website despite my total deafness from birth but now am happily staying in South Africa following my early retirement on full pension from British Airways in 2003 at age 54 (now 67!). It is indeed difficult to find such good .com domains especially when just one short exact word is now almost impossible to find. But I am not looking for vast profits like these sold domains listed in DN Journal though I did manage to sell quite a few for some nice amounts such as 3DHololens.com for $1200 in only one month after registering, SolarJoy.com for $800, LegacyDrug.com for $650, etc. I am also happy to say that I managed to register GamingLap.com yesterday after reading about new gaming laptops for 2017!

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