Well RickLatona.com wrote on his site the other day that he was switching gears once again and moving into a new direction saying:
“We feel that domains just aren’t worth that much anymore”
“The domain bubble burst in late 2008.”
“Various sites and reports will show you that sales are still strong on the low end of the market, $x,xxx and $xx,xxx sized deals. Occasionally, we’ll even see some 6 and 7 digit deals hit the news.”
“However, those are rare and far between. ”
“There certainly aren’t enough of them for a broker to make a decent business out of them.”
Now I rarely call people out for business moves, as we all make a ton of mistakes and god knows I have still make plenty of them myself, but I don’t rip the business I’m in because I screw up.
The statement: “We feel that domains just aren’t worth that much anymore”
It’s just bullshit.
An excuse for failure.
And worse, untrue.
Domains are if anything worth more than they ever were.
Personally I’m heading for a record year in domain sales.
Domain Brokers are making money.
While Rick is throwing in the towel others that didn’t even exist a couple of years ago like MediaOptions.com and DomainAdvisors.com are making sales and making a name for themselves.
If you want to get out of a business that’s fine.
If you decide a particular industry isn’t for you then you should do something else.
But if you can’t sell cars then sell something else but don’t blame the car industry.
On the day Data.com sells for something closer to the high end of its reserve price of $5M then its low range of $1M, Rick says “domains are not worth much anymore”
Lets face it, Rick’s timing hasn’t been the best.
He got into the mini-site business and then pulled out said there wasn’t money in it.
Epic seems to be doing fine and DomainHoldings.com seems to be rocking with a similar, yet well advanced concept.
Rick got into the domain conference business probably at the top of the market only to exit with cancelling a show.
Yet TRAFFIC South Beach was successful and well attended last October and DomainFest in Feburary had a ton of people.
Now Rick declared “Domain names not to be worth much anymore”.
So I’ll say that as clear indication of a ‘market bottom” in domains as you’ll find anywhere.
If Rick wants to leave the domain name business, I wish him all the luck in the world, but don’t blame the business on your way out.
Back in the real world, business is good.
The Magazine Cover Indicator.
Picture of a bear with blood on it’s fangs on the cover.
Nice call Mike.
I think your argument is 100% valid and without fault.
That said, in my opinion, Rick’s decision to move into brokering profitable website properties as opposed to domains is a wise one.
As someone new to the domain side of things but also someone who has built numerous, profitable, content rich (200+ pages) websites/business/online brands, I believe Rick is filling a void that needs to be filled.
Flippa has too much garbage to contend with to sell a website business making $50,000+/year. Brokers of profitable, online website properties are few and far between. There is also no real established market price for profitable web businesses. On Flippa, sites making $50,000/year sell for around 1-2x yearly revenue. For most people looking for an exit, that just doesn’t make sense.
If Rick can establish a business brokering high-end, profitable, website properties with instant reach to over 10,000 investors AND establish a set market value for these types of businesses (a value that has real worth to the owners, not 1-2x yearly revenue), then he will have carved out a niche that’s been begging for someone like him to come along.
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But your entire post/argument is still 100% spot on.
Rick is a loser.
Totally agree. I thought his announcement was self serving while trashing the industry that made him money. His leverage is his 10K user list for the emails he use to send out, but once he starts putting out “buy this business” emails my guess is that list we quickly be cut in half by all the opt outs. What then? I think he invested his money poorly as evidenced by trying to shrug his other entities (digipawn, etc). I wish him all the luck in the world too, but I think the domain industry is on the verge of coming back strong. But that’s the great thing…we are all entitled to our opinions.
Jack
I don’t think Rick is a loser, think he is a guy searching for his spot.
I don’t think a personally attack like that is warranted.
Strikes me as a rather bold business from Rick, selling “internet properties” at 5 X Yearly when the going rate is 1 X.
GTFO.
Perfectly agree with you, Mike. He had some huge opportunities, some even unavailable to many in the industry, but he couldn’t take advantage of them.
Rick said the same thing about web design – In fact, it was one of the dumbest quotes I ever heard in this industry “there is no money in web design” which ending up in AEIOU closing.
I’ve said this from the very beginning with Latona’s and when you try to sell domains while at the same time promoting a pawn shop, watches and timeshares it will never end well and very few take you serious in my opinion.
I commend Rick for trying over and over again but it’s the same record every time.
I think Rick Latona will especially be eating his words in two or three , maybe four year’s time when domains skyrocket in value from their present levels.
Think about it. What the heck is $50,000 for a domain? That is a measly amount compared to all the SUVs that almost every family happily invests close to the same amount in. What’s a measly $100,000? One stinkin’ middle income family house price for a shot at Internet domination in a niche or category.
I call domains the best value of a lifetime, people. Get in now or forever hold your peace. Prices are going to the moon. Everyone, including big biz, is FINALLY starting to sniff out the opportunities. They’ve sure moved slow, almost 20 years of slowness, but they are waking up like sleeping giants.
My best revenue years from domain sales have been 2009, 2010, and now 2011, each year beating the previous.
There is no such thing as a domain market collapse. This is a BIG mistake by Latona, and a total fabrication IMO by Michael Arington, the latter saying there was a “domain bubble”.
Total bullshit people!!! Things have never been better and those with great domains positioned better than ever before.
I was happy to buy some domains from Rick’s Sedo.com sale. It’s too bad he did not recognize what he was letting go of.
well… if you send out a newsletter with a bunch of dot nets with a dash in them and want 5 figures you’re probably not gonna make that many sales. but that’s just my opinion… other opinions may differ.
@Todara
And if that Word-Word-Word.NET if making 5 figures per year…? It’s just looking at your investment in a different way.
I hope that there’s some quality control put in place with Rick’s new model. Brokering a domain sale is one thing. Brokering a site that has real sustainable rev is something else. That insurance site he’s got listed for $500k is pretty scary. If he’s not careful and does not do great due diligence people can get burned and then it’s game over for this business venture. I just hope he doesn’t let the pump and dump site builders burn him and his clients. Best of luck Rick, even if you did trash our industry while promoting your new venture.
And Mike Arrington, don’t get me started on that guy. He’s get no credibility, that’s why he cashed out.
How many business ventures has Latona launched that have fizzled or flat out failed?
Self promotion can only take you so far.
Brad
If Latona wants to talk, people have the right to defend their industry, I myself am having a record year, each month seems to get better, and better, and I am a nobody in this industry… imagine some of the big boys, Latona put a lot of money into adult, and .net domains, boo whoo for him…
Latona has been a failure in this industry for a while, seems to keep his name in the mud by buying sponsorships banners on the top of websites, now he is going to market high end money making websites to end users who have no idea how to maintain them, another failure, this is not a subway franchise, can’t hire some min wage workers, and expect similar results, you need experts in there tweaking day in day out…
Salesforce are about to launch something big at database.com, hence the data.com price.
I’m surprised he even had time to make the statement, considering how busy he must be dominated the wristwatch industry.
I have been busy just collecting generic keyword .com’s, country code and idn names for years. Some of my generic domains are selling hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of products on them. I don’t have time to try and sell my other names. Why would I. Cheapest investment in history. Generic product and service related names built out right with relevant content is a home run!
The trick is to connect with the supplier and sell their product and services via YOUR names.
no brainer. Great to see it really happening. The checks in the bank prove it.
Best.
ps.s unless someone re-invents languages all relevant names are very valuable to business owners interested in selling their products to the world. I just moved to larger products with bigger prices. bigger prices = bigger commissions!
Regarding brandable names, that is a costly road to take but still possible, but very costly only for those with deep pockets.
Whos’ going to buy a website based on some “approximate annual revenue?”
Buying on PPC or a random revenue stat doesn’t work without transparency which he doesn’t mention anywhere in his model.
Rick Latona is right. Besides, I wouldn’t argue with a Harvard man.
Domain business doesn’t have to be completely zero before it is declared dead. The way the industry is going, it is a dead piece of shit. The big company’s in the industry are nothing but sharks and barracudas.
This industry is stratified. Sure, some individuals who amassed hundreds of thousands of names are making routine sales, but that is not the way to judge an industry. A healthy industry should be robust and vibrant. Is the domain industry so? Of course not!
Even expiring names are set up for an elite tier to exploit. The parking company’s are shielded from FOI, and thus given the license to exploit the poor domainer with impunity. The sales data are not trustworthy. The UDRP cases are crooked; a domainer’s property can be co-opted anytime by one questionable arbiter. It’s a mad industry.
I watched Rick Latona setup one auction after the other. In one continent or the other. Then in one country or the other. Then in one state or another. One city or another. To one day after the other… and the sales continued to dwindle. Sure he over did it.
Latona is right on this one. He is innovating, by re-inventing the wheel — developed websites.
It doesn’t mean that Mike or Rick or Impulse or the other Mike will not sell a domain every week, they will. They have hundreds of thousands of them, or they have super premium domains, those will always do well. But, elitism is going to doom this industry. Figure a way to let the little guy make a living in this industry, or y’all can kiss it!
Latona – LOL. One excuse after another.
Take responsibility for your actions. Don’t play this bs blame game.
Admit you failed. Failing can lead to success but I see Harvard has a lot to teach you.
He’s partly right and partly wrong, as are most of the ‘domainers’ in these comments.
What died was the dogshit market; marginal domains that were fluttered back and forth between domainers for ever-increasing prices, or good domains that were grotesquely overpriced and just sat there collecting dust. A lot of people got their money tied up in good domains at kings-ransom prices and are now kicking themselves in the ass.
The demand for quality, definitive .com’s at non-delusional prices never went anywhere and per all indicators, is only getting stronger.
The catch? If you sampled 100 domainers, from them you might get 10 who actually, sincerely, practically comprehend what constitutes quality and potential saleability in a domain name, in spite of all 100 being totally convinced that they have some special insight that the others don’t. Of those 10 who really do ‘get it’, some will be much better at it than the others.
Too many people tried to copy Frank Schilling of Kevin Ham at a time when those opportunities no longer existed. The successful model for come-lately domain speculators was a pocketful of gold, compounded at every chance, rather than hoping for alchemy with a satchel full of salt,.
Honestly, how many of domainers own hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of names that are just total dead weight? Then, when they don’t sell them, they blame the ‘domain market’ instead of their own, shitty operating model.
I agree things got a bit overheated from 05-08- as is standard, whenever people are enthusiastically speculating on “hope” rather than bricks and sticks- but personally speaking, I dove headfirst back into domains in 2009 when I noticed some weird opportunities starting to arise that had been unavailable for the past 5 or 6 years. Prior to that, the last domain I acquired was in 2004.
If you’re smart and have the right intelligence type, there is still money to be made in domains, but not in the same ways people have been “blogging about”.
My only issue is that every few months, it is something new. From mini-sites to auctions to shows, etc…
So why would I go with them? Could be something else in two months.
And yes, Mike is right: Rick’s timing has never been superb.
Harvard man of all of a few weeks, my daddy can pay my bill into a harvard program, doesn’t make you intelligent, Latona is a hack
It is all talk talk and more BS talk…nothing more of totally BS…as usual.
That why I love this BS domain game and loving every minute of it.
@1-800-Auction. Quote:
“Even expiring names are set up for an elite tier to exploit. ”
What the heck are you talking about. If you can’t afford domains in auctions it does not mean that only the elite can play, it means you don’t have the cash.
@LS Morgan . Quote:
“………Prior to that, the last domain I acquired was in 2004.”
And this makes you qualified to comment on the domain market? Sounds like you are a novice. You are not even an investor at that rate, meaning a five year break between 2004 and 2009. How silly for you to even comment here. How could anyone take you seriously?
@ BS you are some offshore dude that makes non sense, and registers lame domains, and pretends to be some hot shot, its not hard to do a reverse whois, and see your fake address in seattle, traces back to a sweat shop in asia
And this makes you qualified to comment on the domain market? Sounds like you are a novice. You are not even an investor at that rate, meaning a five year break between 2004 and 2009. How silly for you to even comment here. How could anyone take you seriously?
—
You suck at understanding things.
Oh, and PS.
Click the linky, toolbag.
I love how some mud hut dweller types that from his $100 hand-crank UNICEF laptop literally within minutes of my latest escrow transaction being posted.
Usually, I feel little desire to “prove myself” but occasionally, ego gets the best of me. Mea culpa.
I bought domains in late ’90s and built a business on most of them (in one genre) that I sold for $x,xxx,xxx in ’06.
After the stock market crash in early ’09 I started buying domains on the aftermarket and have spent mid $xxx,xxx since, but once again, only to support a real business model, not to flip them to another investor.
Two of the domains I bought for combined $18K and turned down an offer for $80K + 2% of sales for perpetuity (just 6 months after I purchased them). Another domain I bought for $15K I turned down an offer for $40K 3 months after. These are just examples.
For Latona to claim the domain industry/prices is dead is just foolish. Perhaps the speculation and flipping part of the domain market is hurting like the rest of the economy, but I see incredible opportunity for quality domains (product related in my case) that real businesses can be built upon.
@Ron–who does make sense in this BS domain game?
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@ BS you are some offshore dude that makes non sense
I do believe Rick is absolutely right IF he referring to elite sales because those sales these days are far and FEW in between. Rick was use to that. That means those who don’t agree with Rick are most likely looking to broker just ONE big domain a year if that.
I see many $5K to $15K sales per month happening which is great for the domainers / brokers who own or broker 50 to 1,000 domains for sale.
However, If you have some good choice keyword domains that have a market then develop and monetize those to bring some decent income while selling the other domains in the $5k to $15k range. That really is the best way to beat this slowly recovering economy.
1 month ago I turned down 7 figure offer for .COM domain I own.
From 2007 till now I made 6 fig. profit.
domain names are the best and safest investment.
I lost some cash in .mobi, but made good $$ with .COM
@Pharr Road ,
You are assuming that these companies are playing fair when a domain expires? Do you think that they actually leave these things to random market activities? Mr. Pharr, you know what they say when you ASSUME? You make an ASS out of U and ME! Get a grip.
On Rick Latona, let me clarify my take on him:
The way I see Rick Latona, he is an enigma. I agree with him on some things, and vehemently disagree with him on some, and on yet others, I dont have enough information to make a call. For instance, his situation with Rick “domain King” Schwarz (T.R.A.F.F.I.C), or his other former business partner with the auction List, both fall in the latter category, I don’t have enough information nor am I interested in taking sides.
But when it comes to innovation, and dabbling into different ideas, Latona is a useful barometer for measuring stuff. He is like the canary in the mine field; he dives in when others are still talking. He reads a lot of books, and therefore should NOT be dismissed by a lot of you semi-illiterates. I don’t mean that in the nefarious way that illiteracy is used, I mean that you you don’t read books, you talk domain trash all day.
What many of the big boy domainers want us to be doing is cheering everytime someone sells a big domain; we don’t have to worry about actually making sales ourselves, or getting paid for parking, or web development skills. We are supposed to be star struck. Well, you are out of your goddamn minds. Your asses are going to be flat broke before I am, let me just tell you that. We have to make this thing where most people get paid for working hard and investing. Screw your selfish bullshit stardom!
And for you people that make your websites a “no follow”? You are the most selfish bastards I’ve ever known, but I still love all of you. Please, make this thing fair, or get out of this industry.
@ LS Morgan, I would not click on any link you post. All your posts are anti-domain hype for years now.
I started regging domains in August 1995 btw, when they were free.
When you are not good at investing, you slander, which is what you and Latona have in common.
Good luck with your ignorance of the domain market. You’ll need it to make a “landmine” sale….LOL . 🙂
@1-800 Auction, so you are mad at some companies keeping some domains and this is the reason for your failure?
Sorry, but you need to take responsibility for your shortcomings or failures. Why don’t you go apply for a job at Latonas?
It’s interesting how those that say the industry is dead spend a lot of time saying that.
If that were really true, why would anyone that thinks that invest the time in a single comment here, much less, several? If there is no money in it there should be no passion from the naysayers, yet the same people feel like they have to keep astroturfing their negativity.
This does not happen for no reason. Hint, hint!! 🙂
Yup the domain industry sucks
The 2nd highest domain sale of the week is TheCrown.com brokered by Frank from Sedo for us at $40K
A domain we picked up on the drop a year or so ago for $1,500
Seems like Rick just runs from place to place and doesn’t stay long enough to actually focus and drive his business to the potential it has. He’s had a lot of excuses for why his concepts don’t work. I’m sure if he looks at the facts though it’s because he doesn’t stay in one spot.
You have to have passion to stay in this industry and I don’t see it in Rick. I see someone looking for the quick buck.
I’d have to agree with you Mike, we have reached a bottom in the market.
MHB
The trick is at Sedo, brokering that deal for you because you are well, MHB. If it’s anybody else they will sell it for $500, they will be on the side of the buyer.
I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.
Yup the domain industry sucks____+++ that why I love it!!!
Dudh- to me it is just a BS game. I don’t care what you BSing about As long as I am having fun and making money, that all I care.
Love it when you guys go at it with all the egotistical bragging on how much you make and blah blah balh and going after each others’ throats.
Love the domainer fighting. The more you piss each other off, the better the soap opera is.
1-800
I’ll give you the trick to having you name sell at $40K rather than $500
Just say no
Pharr,
How many Google shares do I own? You don’t know?? How about other aspects of domain investing? You don’t know either? Then, the joke maybe on you.
Domain Investing is not a fraternity party. Just because I am complaining about the unfairness doesn’t mean that it cannot be made better.
There will be money made in this. I will also complain if something is unfair.
told ya!!
I don’t generally like to pipe in on these things because it just validates the comments and statements which I do not agree with.
However, in this particular case, I think I can be a pretty solid barometer for the market, so I’ll add my 2cents for what it’s worth…
We, MediaOptions.com, have had record month after record month. In fact for the trailing 18 months we have sold nearly $17 million in domain names.
I have myself invested nearly $1 million in domain names in the last 12 months.
Without too much self gratification, I think my point is clear that business is booming! Companies & investors who never before considered domain names an investment class are getting into the market. End users are waking up the value that domain names can have for their businesses.
What I will say is that the industry is getting more sophisticated. The cream is rising to the top and the rest is sinking. There is increasing competition for the best names and that will continue to drive up prices.
The fact of the matter is that this business is still in its infancy. There is no credit, no liquid exchange (like a stock market), no forum for shared ownership of the top premium domains, no single valuation methodology, no value added products like insurance for domains, etc…
Just wait till real credit at reasonable rates from institutional banks gets introduced into the domain market! The prices and competition that we see today will look like we were trading baseball cards instead of premium real estate.
So is the domain game over? Not from where I’m sitting!
LS Morgan has hit the nail on the head in my view.
The domain market came down significantly from the peaks of 2006-2007. If Arrington wants to call what proceeded “a bubble” he is probably right, with names like unclesam.com selling for 6 figures to a domainer, VC money rushing in for PPC portfolios right when it was about to take a dive and small domainers buying out every category of random letter domains they could think of. A lot of what we saw was probably best described as a bubble looking back on it.
Having said that in my view the domain market bottomed about a year ago, today it is a lot stronger than back then in my view, but it is nowhere near as strong as 2007 mainly due to the domainer-domainer market being significantly weaker now. So basically the market crashed (ie ~50% falls) and now has recovered somewhat.
The big exception to this recent improvement being the PPC market which is a drag on the industry.
Personally I think Rick Latona made so many blunders, he tried to get is hands into everything and none of what he did was done particularly well, he likes to blame market conditions but that isn’t the real problem. Jack of all trades and master of none, that is the Rick Latona story..
Latona does not follow thru! First I want to say I had first hand experience with RL with AEIOU and it was a complete fiasco. They couldnt even finish the simple tasks I had laid out for them and I do mean simple. I paid up front and in 6 weeks they didnt even have a template correct :?!! Then he comes out and states that business model isnt worth it ???? You have to do what you say in business or get out….They got out because they never followed through..PERIOD…and the funny thing is, they kept wanting to blame me for not explaining it better ? I gave them a graphic of exactly what I wanted, it cant get any better than that… I wouldnt want him to have anything to do with selling any of my websites ever, just from that experience.
While enjoying my morning cup of java juice this morning, I hand-reg’d (for $7.99) MiddleMarketBank.com.
This afternoon, I called the C&I lending division presidents at 20 top banks marketing the domain I paid 8-bucks for just a few hours earlier. I left 16 voicemails and got 4 of them on the phone – the four I spoke with expressed interest in the domain and said they’d get back to me – all 4 wanted to know how much I was asking ($15K).
I will continue to call regional to large banks until this domain sells – bottom line, there is still money to be made in this space if you’re willing to hustle a little. The domain biz is just a hobby for me – I own 2 profitable consulting companies.
– TBC
@MHB,
I hear ya’ on just saying “no”. I have two bidders (right now on Sedo) trying to get me to sell Together.TV for under $10K – not going to happen. Holding firm on my price, which is quite reasonable for a domain that could easily be a hot name for a “Social TV” company.
Bigcheese,
If the strategy was working well for you it wouldn’t be a “just a hobby”.
@Snoopy,
I don’t golf, I have money to invest, and I like words – domains were a natural fit for me.
Cutting to the chase… this article says is that a well-known domainer is selling off his generic names. This is news?
PPC takes a dive++, large portfolio domainers without traffic can’t afford their reg fees and we have a surplus of generic names for sale. Some manage to sell for high premiums but the _majority_ do not (hence only some sellers are optimistic).
Who is buying at the high premiums? Short-term, it doesn’t matter who they are. A sale is a sale. There will always be inspiring success stories to be told. Keep them coming.
But _long-term_, regarding the market for domain names in general, it does matter who is buying. Are they financially sound buyers or the next wave of web failures? If it’s the later, then we can expect another fallout when “the bubble bursts”, like the one that spawned drop catch domaining almost 10 years ago, but doubtfully of the same magnitude. Consequently, domain names will be harder to sell, and easier to buy. But fear not, they’ll likely be yet another bubble, so long as we stick to using DNS and the monopoly it creates: ICANN will just keep creating more names to sell to keep the game going.
++PPC: This is really the topic that needs to be examined more closely. If enough major brands and major content providers decide Google is a worthy partner, then will Google still feed ads to small websites? Why bother? Considering how well Apple and Facebook are getting along with major brands, it seems the pressure on Google to partner and work better with major brands in order to compete is there. It’s conceivable that a few major deals could completely alter Google’s revenue structure, making ad feeds to parking companies almost irrelevant to their bottom line.
If PPC dies, can domaining survive? No self-made domainer like the well-known ones mentioned can collect 10,50,100,500 thousand domain names and just sit on them, waiting to sell. PPC is what allowed them to do what they did. If PPC is dying then we can expect to see various strategies by major portfolio owners to address the reg fee problem. They have to become salesmen, selling off generic names or offering domain name related services, or both.
There are certainly still opportunities (that’s an understatement), but selling domain names or related services are obvious ones and will be subject to increased competition and falling demand going forward, whether anyone calls that a bursting bubble or not.
Former domainer now selling domain related services. This has become a recurring theme.
See I like BigCheese attitude…just have fun and you can make money.
If you are serious abt it, it adds more stress and pressure and you are doom to fail.
I just hand reg PoopApp.com and created a site for it.
An app to identify animal poops.
Will be huge- again..this is just a fun project.
Data.com was a steal for any amount under $5 million.
Why are you guys saying Rick is a failure? You guys are such idiots!
I have done several six figure deals with him and he turned around and sold that same name he bought from me for much much more within couple months for huge gains!
Rick has made good money in everything that he has done in domains. Just because he stops doing something doesn’t make him a failure. Why continue something that isnt working anymore?
Rick made tons and tons of money buying and selling domains and also brokering domains…then when he felt like this business is done…he stopped…moved on to the next biz.
He also made great money lending money for domains…now its slowed down…so he is moving on.
He made a nice profit on AEIOU mini-sites…i bought few from him…and i have seen several domainers bought from him also…he took in alot of money…and when biz started slowing down…he closed it and moved on.
Rick is a fast mover…he makes tons of money…then when that business slows down…he gets out and moves on…This makes him a winner in my book…you go where the money is…you take it and run…and move on to the next thing.
His next move is selling money making websites…watch and learn…he will make tons of money in this…and when it dies down..he will close it down and move on.
He is a great success…a true winner!
Anunt
No one said he didn’t make good money in business, and he has every right to change course and do something else, but don’t blame the business and industry he made the money in and on the back of.
Instead just say I think there is better opportunities elsewhere or I don’t want to do this anymore.
No Problem
But don’t say the business that feed you is dead and gone.
I believe domain names will pick up again this year now that .co is in the mix.
In my opinion , you have to buy both .com and .co to get the full ecommerce
experience.
it’s Epik with a K 🙂
Steve
Somebody actually is reinventing the language of the Internet
What was previously known as “dot com” will now be known as “dot brand”
The biggest problem with domains I have ever faced is explaining to idiots there value. EVERY single person I seem to meet sees no reason for them and acts as if having them means nothing (keywords, specifics,geos…). I own over 1000 super solid domains and I get maybe 5 inquiries a year with maybe 1 or 2 1,xxx sales. I must say no matter the value to a smart domainer…. DOMAINS ARE FLAT DEAD ON THE STREET!!!! IN ANY EXTENSION!!!!
I have also bought names from him, a few years ago and he is a good negotiator…
It’s just harder to sell names atm but still possible to sell names at a good price, you just need a good sales pitch.
I still have some nice offers on brandable names in $x xxx
The market will pick up again and the prices will allways go up in the long term…
If you can’t wait that long then maybe the market is not for you.
Most of the time it takes longer now to find an end user. You also need a good strategy how to make money
Rick, prophet of truth, and others with the same mindset seem to declare this business is dead based more or less from their own personal success/failure rates more so than the success/failure rates of the general domain investment community. Only empirical statics relating to market growth, and inflation values would shed light on this industries current (and future) outlook.
I saw it more of a promotion for his new business. It’s a linkbait and some bloggers and ate the bait.
This story is as big as “The domain industry became 1 individual less” i.e: I don’t care specially that this individual believes in untrue facts about the industry,
. GO DOMAINING GO!!!
Thanks for this. Very, very much!
🙂
Typical Rick the loser Latona!! Sticks his little small petite gay foot in his big crappy mouth!! Anyone ho thinks domains are great investments has to get their head of their nasty A$$! What a total FOOOL Latona is to put it lightly! Domains are selling REGULARLY and continually! Perhaps this derelict Latona will go in this new direction and move to Syria and see what life is all about living in a cave where this FOOOOL belongs!!! besides HELL that is! What a WHIMP!
Got a little into the last post a little too much seeing I wanted to slam little gay boy Latona! Typo is corrected as follows: Anyone who thinks domains aren’t a great investment has to get their head out of their nasty A$$! This is you derelict Latona! Now go to hell where you belong!
The biggest problem with domains I have ever faced is explaining to idiots there value. EVERY single person I seem to meet sees no reason for them and acts as if having them means nothing (keywords, specifics,geos…). I own over 1000 super solid domains and I get maybe 5 inquiries a year with maybe 1 or 2 1,xxx sales. I must say no matter the value to a smart domainer…. DOMAINS ARE FLAT DEAD ON THE STREET!!!! IN ANY EXTENSION!!!
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If you own over 1000 domains ie $8000 in reg fees, and get one or two $1000 sales a year (with no other revenue) the portfolio is worthless, that is a fact. There is no point blaming buyers who “don’t understand” these unsellable domains.
come on, who cares what the guys says, he sells used watches
LOL
he was never a ‘player’
a wanna be
the real players don’t sell
the accumulate
some then do development deals
a decent name with a business model is 100M for ‘angel investors’ and 500M for cash rich public companies to acquire if not more and BILLIONS in potential IPO’s
selling the foundations of future empires for 200K or 2m or even 20M is a joke if you understand the future of commerce
it’s all digital
no one leaves the home soon
> if you understand the future of commerce, it’s all digital
yeah, just might not be .com.
MHB: ditto for me.
My experience with him was that he was very arrogant towards me when I reached out to him in the past when trying to learn the ropes years ago.
I do wish him the best in whatever he ties next and there is money to be made for all of us.
I have seen the market slow down some but I do not see the values going down. It is actually up to the sellers to get what they want from a name whether it be a quick flip or holding it for years.
UPDATE
RickLatona.com has now published a post explaining his post:
http://www.ricklatona.com/2011/06/11/are-domains-worthless/
Huh??
That post didn’t really make sense either by him.
Seems Harvard man needs to ask business 101 questions to himself
What’s your costs? How much is enough? He is not a frank schilling and dosent have that kind of bank
Luxury rentals, big houses , etc
Wake up and smell the coffee.
What a bs post imo.
seems like he’s admitting his portfolio just doesn’t generate enough passive income.
the original mould of the “cybersquatter” was a hustler and a salesman, to use someone else’s words. this person would register a domain name in hopes to sell it to someone, e.g. a major corporation, who would be willing to pay a premium for it. his leverage was the public’s growing use of the web. in those days, the names often if not always mirrored a trademark.
laws were passed to curb that activity. but it still lives on with generic names.
so many people still dreaming of gouging some deep pocket technology-phobic company for an otherwise inexpensive and easily acquired domain name.
but there’s whole ‘nother side of domaining apart from the “cybersquatter” mentality. it’s not focused on sales. the top tier domainers are not the pure salesmen. they’re not the hustlers. for the most part, they’re not selling.
of course, that’s an opinion. some see the salesmen as the “top domainers”. but i think there’s a lot they don’t know and are unlikely to learn anytime soon.
“cybersquatting” (making domain sales) will always have its appeal. but that’s not the true value of “domaining”. again, that’s an opinion. those who do see the true value generally are not posting about it. they are modest and keep a low profile.
the domain salesmen and hustlers are a highly visible group. but one opinion is that they are only the tip of the “domaining” iceberg. the portion below the surface is enormous by comparison.
in sum, another opinion is that this story is much ado about nothing.
I have never been a big fan of Rick. But I do understand what he’s saying. A lot of you guys see these one word domains being sold for millions and you want to believe that’s going to make you rich some how. In comparison to the amount of domains out there and the ones sold the domain business is not a gold rush anymore. Look at what the prices on Namejet use to go for and what they go for now. We all got caught up in the hype and still do. Hanging on to this one big sale that you heard about wanting to believe this business is huge but it’s not. Not to mention all the BS’ers “The Big Guys” still stringing you along like a drug dealer so you’ll keep buying into the idea that keep them rich. Why? because there isn’t enough end users buying domains and that want to pay the price we want for them. More money is being made by selling to investors and that’s not enough to keep “the dream” going. And the more fear doom and gloom we talk about it has stopped them from buying too. We’re like little kids that want to believe there is a Santa Claus. The trip to Disneyland isn’t over. But kids it is. The more extensions that are being released are going to make it worse. What are you going to do buy up every extension on earth to protect your name?
Think of it this way, it’s like diamonds. There are huge ones that have no flaws that sell for millions. You walk into a huge casino with 2,000 machines and you only see 10 jackpot. That’s the domain business. If you think I don’t know what I’m talking about, I have worked in Nat’l and Global advertising for 30 years. I am going to take that high price name and develop into a huge business or campaign to make a large return for my client.
So to make a very long story short, we all thought we were going to sit on our ass and sell these domains so easily. Sure Media Options a new company is doing great. Look at how many one word domains they have to sell. Ask these people that claim to sell millions of dollars every month in domains to show you their actual sales records. Then ask yourself why aren’t you so rich selling your domains?
I believe (and take it for what it’s worth) the way to make big money in the virtual world is to turn your domain into a real business yourself. Find a niche build a business.
Wow! Where is all of that venom coming from? Sounds like you can’t stand on your own merits and need to attack Rick to boost your ego. Hope it worked for you because you sound like a lunatic. And if you’ve ever worked with Rick’s “Ex” you’d understand why he hit the road.
Business is GOOD here in the Bell Camp of DomainBELL
as well… But I work my butt off for that to BE…
I love what I do though – so the hard work isn’t
an issue for me in my success…
I’ve watched Rick Latona for over 10 years…
He doesn’t stay with anything very long…
I’d say he’s going through a major midlife
crisis or something similar…
I learned awhile back to not become involved
in anything he’s connected with… he’s here
today – tooting his horn – and gone tomorrow
complaining…
I’d say his 15minutes have long since past…
I hope he finds happiness in life… It’s obvious
he’s a very unhappy man…
~Patricia – DomainBELL
Rick is one of the pillars in the domain industry I look up to, and hope he sticks with this business model. The type of businesses I am building I want a venue which will appreciate it as an alternative to Flippa. You go, Rick!
Just read ricks update and he makes sense end users are hiding like cockroaches in the light hoping you will drop that great domain matt cutts has all the generic domainers holding there balls because the sky is falling parking ppc is dead thank god what latona is saying and domainlords also is the money is in developing our property,s if you have a high search and i mean search engine search not direct type in then relax hold it till you can develop it do a google stats search on a domain pick any good search term and look at the difference between the search query and the actual dot com /net/ org search volume and the discrepancy is huge, search is where it,s at not direct type in i have industry domains that get 5000 to 250,000 exact Google searches a month but might get 1 or 10 direct type in searches, any smart business could use these domains and really do well but as prophet of truth put it domains are dead on the street to most business,s because they have not got a clue of how the web really works, when i talk to regular people the kind that go to Google for there answers they tell me they look at the domain to tell if it,s a good site they do not care about seo search volume or what all the pro’s think there not even aware of this side of domaining it is all about the name, we need to think like users not domainers.
yeah patrick.
if google, or msft, had their way, all type-in would be in a search box. it’s their business. if users become indifferent enough to how the web works, we might see the address bar disappear. google has products that lack an address bar. when you power on, you’re connected to google. it is the “default browser” war taken to a new level.
but the present reality of web traffic is something different than the vision of these companies.
type-in is not dead. for many popular sites, the referral logs show it is a close second to search engines. this must apply to generic names too.
search engines have to “kill” type-in to make it go away. they have to obscure the address bar. they won’t simply overtake type-in as a means of navigation because users “prefer search engines to the address bar”.
as patrick says, many of today’s users don’t even know the difference between the two.
Maybe he wants you to think that, so he can scoop good domains up on the cheap….. hello!