Earlier this week I posted an article which opened up the topic, “Who is the Greatest Domainer?” From feedback, it became evident that there was a problem around the whole definition of “Greatest” and over what period of time. I hope to outline my thoughts on this topic here.

To define “greatest we need to first ask, “Greatest in what aspect of business?” When a domain investor buys a domain name they typically have one of four ways they plan to make money from the transaction:

BUSINESS MODEL

1.       Traffic – the domain has traffic that can be monetized.

2.       Stock item sale – where the goal is to sell a lot of low value domains each year.

3.       High value sale – typically sell a few high value domains each year.

4.       Development – building a real business on a domain(s).

When we look at “greatest” then we need to consider in what business models is the individual regarded as being great. For example, Rick Schwartz is amazing at selling high value domains but last time I checked he doesn’t do development and certainly doesn’t optimize his traffic. This doesn’t mean he isn’t great (I think he is) but it highlights what he is great at.

I read an interesting article on The Domains asking the readers who they thought was the greatest domainer of all time. Why was it interesting? Because it didn’t ask the most important question, “By what measure?”

For instance, are we measuring someone’s success by the amount of money they earn or amount of profit? Whether they have built a sustainable business or sold one off high value domains? How about whether they actually give anything back to the industry versus take, take and then take some more? Or, how about how they treat others that may not be as monetarily successful as they are?

Can a person be regarded as “the greatest” if their personal life is a complete mess? They may have even sold a lot of high value domains and yet not have much to show for it after multiple family failures.

This past week I’ve been wrestling with developing a number of graphs in Google Charts. Wrestling is more of a polite way of me thinking a bunch of four letter words combined with hitting my head against a brick wall. It’s been a lesson in frustration while a carrot dangled tantalizingly just out of reach.

I hate giving up on anything…..it’s one of my strengths and is also one of my weaknesses. I’m like a dog with a bone. I’ll just keep on gnawing away at some problem until it’s fixed or in some cases redefined.

It all started when I decided to build a dashboard for some clients that displayed a few graphs on a webpage. How difficult could that be? After a few 3am working sessions, I figured out how to pull data from a database, convert it to JSON format, push it to Google charts and voila! Out popped a beautiful chart!

There was just one problem….I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to design, so I wanted to have the right colours. OK, solved that, tick! Then I thought, it would be nice if the clients could scroll through a date range……a few hours later, tick!

Those businesses that have a vision for their future tend to create it. A vision isn’t just a plaque you put up on a wall but a rallying call that gets people excited. It’s inspires them to go “above and beyond” for not just the monetary rewards but because they are building something great!

I remember back in the early nineties I had a web development company. It was the early days of the Internet and people were only just getting online. There was one thing that I clearly understood and that the Internet was a global phenomenon.

Even though we were a tiny little startup I decided to inspire the team with a big and very audacious vision! It was, “We change the world!” Every time we published a website we could see people from all over the world going to it…..therefore, in our small way, we changed parts of the world.

Do you ever feel like everyone seems to be putting their hands into your wallet and helping themselves? Bills and taxes keep on rising and living is more and more expensive each year while your pay continues to shrink in size. There seems to be less left over for you to enjoy life.

Many years ago I read a fantastic book that I would highly recommend to anyone…..and no, it wasn’t my book, Battleframe (although it isn’t a bad read). The book was “The Richest Man in Babylon” and the author illustrates a number of principles about managing money through stories…..it’s really a compelling read.

The first point he raised was, “Pay Yourself First”. What this means is keep some of the money for yourself……not your bills but for you. If you need to negotiate with creditors and pay them over a period of time then do so but whatever you do pay yourself now. An amazing thing will happen, you will pay off your creditors and also manage your expense line appropriately.