No respect for intangible things

Many people have no respect for intangible things. Many people don’t understand how and why intangible things can cost (a lot of) money or simply pretend not to understand and play stupid to get a freebie.

The source of it all goes way back in the history on mankind. Only in the last few decades have intangible goods and services become something that people commonly purchase and use. Computers and the internet have made this a lot easier. People now buy or subscribe to things like data/information, software, music, movies, bitcoin and a lot others.

So today I read an article about a photographer named Tim Wallace.

One day he got this email:

Hi I have a very important client that I am currently working with to remodel their $12m coastal retreat home, they love your classic car work and would like to have **** print for their hallway as you enter their home. They unfortunately don’t really have any budget for this however so I was wondering if you’d be interested in sending us the high resolution files if we did the printing so that there is no cost to yourself?

He replied this:

Hi, oh wow that’s so cool and thank you so much for the kind feedback regarding my work. It’s such a tempting offer to supply them with my work for absolutely no benefit to my business what so ever and it’s hard to know what to say.

I think the fact that they have the revenue to purchase a $12m second ‘coastal retreat’ home would suggest that they are the type of people who feel that they deserve the very best but shouldn’t have to pay for it. Unfortunately I don’t really do business with cheap people and your offer clearly shows me that whilst they love my work they do not respect the hard work that goes in to creating that. Therefore I will have to respectfully suggest that you stick some of that overpriced drift wood art that you interior designers are always so good at knocking out on the wall instead. I’m assuming that you are getting paid or do ‘they love your work too’ ?
Lucky you, it’s such a fabulous project and your so lucky to be in their presence.
Good luck with it all”

Tim Wallace

Enter domains names.

How many times had you received similar emails from companies with tens or even thousands of employees that try to get a domain name for nothing or very cheap?

People don’t respect your ownership and/or the fact that you may have paid a lot of money to buy your domains. They may want to spend $10 for a domain name that their business will live on although they just paid $150,000 for their personal office renovation.

And of course domain names are not simply intangibles. They are intangibles that will also make you money. This is where you will put your work for the world to see. This is where your clients will come to shop for your products or interact with your services. This is what you will use every day for your emails.

Yet people that have spend millions on infrastructure, offices and salaries want to be cheap with the one of the things that will define their brand, drive revenue and will be used be employees and customers every single second of that business life. Of course this is not the only intangible thing that companies cheapen out for. Often enough they don’t want to spend serious funds on hosting, security and software and it always comes back to bite them in the ass.

Trust

Finally I wanted to share something I read on Business.com:

Trust is an integral factor in the marketing and sale of intangible products and services. As there is nothing tangible to show customers, trust and integrity become the pillars that support and promote sales. An organization’s credibility is built over time. Prospects favor those organizations that have a large base of loyal customers. Loyalty often represents the faith that customers have in the organization as a result of previous interactions.

The problem with the domain name industry is that it has a very low trust factor. Even well known companies like GoDaddy often get a bad rep. Sometimes because people don’t understand how domain names and hosting works and sometimes because even big companies try to scam their clients for $20.

The problem with domain name owners is that we are scattered and disorganized. We let organizations like ICANN, UDRP panelists, lawyers and big corporations run over us. But of course we are to blame for most of what is happening. Indifference to what is happening (as long as it is happening to someone else or some other extension we don’t invest in) and tolerance to people and companies that give us a bad name (domain thieves, front-runners, trademark infringers, etc) is what has brought as here.

And how do I know about indifference and tolerance? Well the numbers clearly show it. This post will get maybe 300 views but I was writing how I bought a domain for $20 and sold it for $200 I would get 2,000 views.