The 3 steps to domaining success from Rick Schwartz

Rick Schwartz has been tweeting non-stop lately sharing his view of the domain name industry and giving domain name advice to whoever that wants to listen.

On Sunday Rick made the following tweet:

“If you want to make it in domaining, stop skipping steps. You can’t get to 3rd base before you get to 1st base.Will ALWAYS fail.”

I couldn’t help myself and asked him what the steps are. These are the steps according to Rick:

  1. Don’t quit yer day job. You need income to buy domains.
  2. Start as hobby SLOWLY.
  3. Aim HIGH and first buys are MOST important ones!

I asked Rick if steps 2 and 3 are conflicted?

“Not at all. They dovetail perfectly. Don’t jump to buy, AIM. And when you do, don’t aim for shit. First domain MUST be marketable.”, he said.

I asked again: “But you need experience not to aim for shit. How do you know what is marketable?”

Rick said: “By reading MY SHIT!! lol ?? If they don’t know, why r they buying to begin with? They need to STUDY FIRST and then buy. They r Ass backward”

Haha. Ok that is what I wanted to hear. But most people just start buying shit after watching someone on TV selling a domain for $$$$$$.

You need to study first whatever you can and then start investing heavily. Read the blogs, forums, books, UDRP decisions, etc. But I am not that die hard like Rick is. You can buy a few domains at the beginning (cheap ones!) to see how the auctions are working, how to find domains in the marketplaces, learn about registrars and pricing, learn about drops, whois, etc.

This is what Rick would do if he had $10k for domain names today:

w/$10k, I would set aside $1000 4 hand regs & FED EX. Buy 9 GOOD domains for $1000 ea or BEST domain I can STEAL for $9000 & SELL.

One thing to remember is that there are not so many full time domain name investors. Good luck!

You should also read my post and comments from last week: “Rick Schwartz values his domain name portfolio at over $500 million dollars“.

Sold.Domains

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.

13 comments

  1. Seems like great advice. However, FED EX? What does he mean by that?

  2. Good tips, however, I’m also curious about the FED EX comment. Did he mean “Use Fed Ex to send overnight NDA or buyers agreement”?

  3. “Don’t quit yer day job. You need income to buy domains.” – Very true.

    But if you want to do domaining for profit, quit your day job 🙂

  4. This isn’t new advise by any means, 1, 2 and 3…

  5. 3 steps in domaining success according to #Zero:

    1.) Start #first step 2.) don’t start #second steps, if you had not done #first step 3.) start #thirdsteps if you have done the #firststep & #secondsteps?

  6. Quite understood but I only started domaining several years ago following my early retirement on full pension so now much more time to study or read interesting blogs, etc. However, I have just completely revamped my exclusive own marketplace Domains Feast associated with Sedo mobile-friendly domain offer pages, based on 3 important steps or points as below:

    1. Simplicity or At Ease (direct clicks to offer pages)

    2. Complete Security (Sedo’s unique own free Transfer & Escrow service)

    3. Privacy or Confidential (No Buyer information disclosed by Sedo such as email or phone details)

    Plus careful selection of domain names after extensive research or study of course!

  7. Maybe, A Fed Ex envelope in the hands of the RIGHT PERSON will get their attention better than a spam from a domainer. It’s more impactful. It can show urgency. It can show class. It can show importance. It can show a LOT of things depending what the letter INSIDE the envelope says.

    Guys like Mark will come up with some snide comment about being old fashioned. He talks out of his ass all over the place instead of learning what works.

    Old fashioned? Maybe. So is sex. Effective? You bet it is!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.