Rick Schwartz’s rules of domaining

Rick Schwartz sent out a tweet yesterday saying:

I NEVER buy a #domain asking question: Is this $1k domain worth $2k? I ask a completely different question & get different result!!

Of course I immediately asked him what the question is, in which he replied in a series of tweets:

“There r multiple questions w/ multiple layers that lead 2 the SIZE of a pool of people in an industry that can extract Highest & Best Use.”

“It’s a series of questions #Domains MUST pass or it has NO value or very small value w/o kidding ourselves. Simple questions, simple answers”

“Wide appeal, wide audience, would seem 2 b a good starting point when picking a #domain. #Domains that overly ASSUME behavior, don’t do well”

My first rule is SIZE OF THE pool. Men(.)com half the population of the world. Candy(.)com everyone eats. Porno(.)com HUGE pool. #Domains

Second rule: VALUE OF THE SALE! Candy small value but very wide. Cars(.)com HIGH VALUE and VERY WIDE!! That’s the top of the tree #Domains”

“Fine, so WE can’t be on the TOP of the tree today like that. But there r branches with the same elements. There may be NEW trees!! #Domains”

“And they ALL lead to other questions and parts of the equation IF you follow the trail. Don’t be mentally LAZY! They ALL connect. #Domains”

So if we do our job RIGHT, we will focus on #Domains that can b bought from $100-$2000 that have a VALUE when HBU is found of $100k not $2k.

“Value will find itself when you follow THESE rules that apply EVERY SINGLE TIME. There are MANY more rules that MUST be applied. #Domains”

“Half the rules I post will be dismissed. 25% will be laughed at. I can only say, “Follow the recipe and find the GOLD” or #Bitcoin #Domains”

“I can apply those rules 2 ANY specific #domains in a SPLIT SECOND! I can look at a list of 100 & pick out the winner in les than 30 seconds.”

“That brings me 2 portfolios I get EVERY day. Almost ALL are #Worthless! STOP trying to sell Portfolios. You ain’t THEM! @thedomains Yung Ye”

“I ask folks 2 send their top 5 #Domains. So FEW r capable of something as simple as that! They don’t even know their own winners, if ANY!”

But before all those rules there is one even more universal. The rule of CONFUSION. NEVER EVER CONFUSE Customers! NEVER! #Domains

“A CONFUSED #customer is a LOST customer! A CEO that does not know that is an UNQUALIFIED SCHMUCK! #Domains #Startups #Branding #Business”

“Sorry, but SOME rules of business are BLACK and WHITE! Ignoring those rules are why the vast majority fail. #Domains #Startups #Branding”

“And if some #Domainers are #Confused about my tweets, let me remind you, you are NOT my customer!  #Domains #Branding #Startups #bitcoin”

“When folks pan for gold, all they do is sift out the DIRT. That’s all I do. #Domainers need to learn to SIFT OUT THE PIGEON SHIT!

“The way you pan for #Domains is by sifting thru a list of VALID LAWS as I have shown & what is left over, MAY be gold! #Branding #Startups”

“If you don’t use Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives in the right order your #Domains are probably #WORTHLESS! #SlamGrand #Branding #Startups”

“I doubt that Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives are on the minds of most #Domainers. Another reason they fail. #Domains #Branding #Startups”

“EndUsers: NEVER EVER dismiss loss of traffic. It’s akin 2 #shoplifting. Except u r doing the #stealing from yourself! #Domains #Startups”

You can also read the “The 3 steps to domaining success from Rick Schwartz” or “Rick Schwartz’s domain name strategy“.

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.

7 comments

  1. BITCOEN has made it to the frontpage of the drudge report.

  2. Agree with the size of the pool /addressable market component. Why I concentrated on jewelry, sports, dogs in particular.

    Also have to take into consideration (1) price and margin of the product or service and (2) consumers passion for the product or service. The former gives you an understanding of how much a buyer can actually afford and the latter leads to more impulse purchases/interactions from end users.

  3. I think at this point that Rick in his tweets is different from the rest of the market.

  4. • Just one of the things I love about Rick and his gratifying genius for this and even more gratifyingly his mental integrity underneath all the colorful splash. 🙂 It’s both substance and form, not just one or the other.

    • A lot to do with or the same as what I’m also getting at over here: https://www.domaininvesting.com/fruit-com-domain-name-sale-prices/#comments 🙂

    • AND GET THIS: one of the very reasons why I can show you a three-word .com that is easily worth 9 figures, not just 8 (though I won’t). But even without a deal for 9, it’s still worth it. (See DNW, Aug 2017 “Cold winds” thread.)

    • One of the reasons why I also wrote before that if Rick were the owner of Golf.com, for example, we could be reading about a 9 figure deal, not just 8 or 7.

    • And by the way, note how many times the word “gold” is used here, as both “gold” and “GOLD.” One of the reasons why I like the .gold TLD and feel it could have had great potential as a rare exception of value among the non-.com’s, but has been more or less killed by the pricing model and has suffered from a lack of vision regarding its broad-use potential. But don’t get me wrong, the focus here is .com and this is just a side note. .US is still also a still comatose sleeping giant that doesn’t have to be and never had to be that way.

    • One of the reasons why even the king himself was offering a bargain at $2 million for Queen.com, for example, and then later a bargain still at $2.5 million for it after the ill-fated effort to steal it from him. 🙂

    And certainly more could be said… 🙂

  5. For someone that sell domains he seems to tweet a lot, could be linking back to the blog. Just saying

  6. A lot of good strategies out there. Just remember that what works for one, may not work for another. Test a few strategies to find what works best for you before investing too much and getting stuck. 😉

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