Sometimes there is a lot of information that is provided in a long comment thread that goes unnoticed, many may not keep up with string of comments and some miss them entitrely.
It was big news this week that Tube.xxx and Tubes.xxx sold for $750,000. The buyer of those names Really Useful out of Turks and Caicos is owned by JT who was one of the founders of You Porn.
Really Useful launched the first ever .xxx domain Casting.xxx. That was covered in several non adult publications such as The Register.
JT had Stuart Lawley paste his comments from GFY.com in the comments and then made a post here. The notable takeaway from all of this was that JT said it was Frank Schilling and his video and take on the new gtld program. After watching the video JT said, “This video was fundamental in me embarking on the recent spending spree”
Of course many wonder why someone would spend this kind of money where many other domainers and adult companies are not. That is a very legitimate question. One that JT goes to great lengths to explain.
The following is the post JT made on GFY and then that is followed by his first comment on thedomains.
“With hindsight, I would have bought a lot more .xxx domains when I was part of the founders program back in 2011. The reason I didn’t was because my company had not launched any websites at that point and I could not afford more. The first 2 sites I launched in September 2011 were the first ever .xxx sites to go live, namely casting.xxx and orgasms.xxx. The revenues generated paid back the domain purchases within 6-8 weeks of launch. Since then, the revenues from those 2 .xxx domains enabled me to launch new site after new site. In my network I now have 17 of the highest rated websites of all time on the tubes. On the .xxx extension, in addition to the 2 mentioned above, I have mom.xxx and StrapOn.xxx
I have over the past 12-18 months, been adding to my collection of .xxx domain names, with some high profile ones being announced to the industry. Prior to me buying tube.xxx and tubes.xxx for $750k, I purchased teen.xxx for $400k, and a deal for BDSM.xxx, Mature.xxx, PublicSex.xxx which stood me in $200k. I also own the domains massage.xxx, Czech.xxx, party.xxx, erotic.xxx, callgirl/s.xxx, girlfriends.xxx, audition.xxx, agents.xxx, escortagency.xxx, kiss.xxx, 360.xxx cloud.xxx, mega.xxx and around 150 others. F*ck, I even own boycott.xxx
Not all of these domains were purchased from ICM, some were purchased from people who registered them on general release for the $80, and they did very well out of the small investment. And regarding the purchases, quite obviously, I am not paying for these domains in one hit. ICM registry don’t hide the fact that ANYONE can approach them for a domain on their “premium domain” list, present a business plan and repayment schedule, and if favourable, you pay your deposit and ICM will release the domain to you. It is what I have done with most of the keyword domains that I have purchased, and I have a LOT of keyword domains.
Also, another huge factor in me investing so much money into .xxx domains lately is the fact that ICM Registry have won the rights to .porn and .adult, and they are expecting to be successful at auction for .sex. ICM registry are grandfathering the rights for .porn and .adult to .xxx owners. So, with the my purchases of teen.xxx and mature.xxx for example, I will also have the domain teen.porn, mature.porn. (and .adult and maybe .sex). You see, you get 3 domains for the price of 1, potentially 4. That means that I can launch 3 or 4 separate websites on the 1 purchase.
Additionally, I have all the search term stats from YouPorn from late 2006 till the sale in May 2011. We used to get over 600m searches a month in our internal search engine. This gives me a very clear insight to the category killing keywords. As and when I can afford them, I purchase more.
The reason I purchased tube.xxx and tubes.xxx?
1. sentimental reasons because of my background.
2. One of the objectives of launching a pay site network was to emulate the tube sites of today. To achieve this, I had to build out a network of the best possible stand alone websites. I did this from the knowledge and experience gleaned from the content partnership program we launched at YouPorn in March 2007. Quite simply, from the inside of a tube site, you get to learn what the typical user wants to see and how to deliver. I studied the content on YouPorn on a daily basis, and still do, looking for what users liked, what they didn’t, and worked with the content partners to make their clips perform better, with fantastic results. YouPorn, for many pay sites, was the lifeblood to them keeping the site running. We were the #1 affiliate for most content partners that submitted their content to us, especially those that accepted our help.
Please look at this link: http://www.youporn.com/channels/most_popular/alltime/ You will see that of the top 12 highest rated websites of all time on YouPorn, 10 of them are mine. Its only Nubiles and BRCC that are not.
I am now in a position to launch the tube site that I have been working hard at for 3 years. In this time, I went from a staff of 4 people to over 80 currently today. My teams shoot in excess of 150 full scenes per month exclusively for my network. I have crews in London, Prague, Budapest, Florida and LA. All this has been made possible by simply joining the content partner programs of the major tubes, and delevering clips that their users will like. I wrote a guide on how to monetize the tubes, you can download it here: https://content.porntube.com . There is no secret to what I do.
Yes, I only have 4 .xxx domains live in all this time, however, many of the keyword.xxx domains I purchased was to monetize my existing content. For example, agents.xxx will be a culmination of FakeAgent.com, FemaleAgent.com, FakeAgentuk.com, and PublicSex.com will consist of FakeTaxi.com and PublicAgent.com. I recently launched a compilation site that consisted of all my cream pie scenes, under LoveCreampie.com, and we took over $5k in revenues in the first month.
In the advent of the 1,000′s of gTld’s being released, the search engines “have” to change. the users need to adapt they way they search. Please watch this short video by Frank Shilling, the worlds biggest domineer (sic), and the early adopter of .xxx domains http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p75KeJN9D0E He explains it way better than I could ever do. This video was fundamental in me embarking on the recent spending spree.
In writing this post, I have tried to be as honest and open as possible. Hoping to give you an insight into why I am spending so much money on .xxx domains and why this is working for me. I am not trying to antagonise you or anyone and really don’t want to start a riot. For sure, there are still .xxx haters on GFY, and everyone is entitled to their own opinions. Its clear that .xxx is not for everyone.
My closing note is that, as long as you pay your renewals, your .xxx domain will last generations. I have 6 kids, and I plan to leave them a legacy of some of the most powerful domains in the adult industry. .xxx is gaining traction, with the imminent launch of .porn and .adult, the extensions will be gaining speed. It may take another year, 2 years, 3 or 4 years to really deliver on the promises, but I for one, am grabbing as many keywords as I possibly can.”
“I am not looking for justification on anything I do, not least the price I have paid for the recent acquisition of tube.xxx and tubes.xxx. But I do feel that an explaination as to why I have made this purchase will hopefully help you understand better.
I was part of the team that grew YouPorn from zero (Aug 2006) to 370m users a month (May 2011). We did not buy traffic, we launched the industries first content partner program, purchased $m’s of dollars of licensed content and within months of our launch on 26th August 2006, we did not rely on user uploads. This is testament to the sheer lack of DMCA’s we used to receive each month.
It was not by accident that we had an average page view per visitor of over 10, which was near 50% more than that of our competitors. It was our choice NOT to have pop unders on the site, even though the high 6 figure offers were on the table on a near weekly basis. We chose NOT to save 10′s of $1,000′s of dollars a month by throttling our bandwidth, so very rarely did our videos buffer, even in late 2006. We also discovered that instead of adding new banner spots to the site, that when we removed them, it had a very positive affect on page views. Having less banners on our site actually increased our ad revenue. Vendors would bid 2-3 times higher on our ad space than those on comparable tubes, because CTR on our banners were 2-3 times higher. You see, only a small percentage of users have a “click” in them post masturbation. Serving less, but more relevant, more appealing banners, helped us increase the CTR, thus increasing the demand and revenues.
We also listened to our users, and had a 3 strike rule. If we received 3 similar complaints about a product or banner for instance, the service would be removed, reviewed and adapted or replaced. Also, we only did 2 major changes on YouPorn in the time we had it. In 2007 we changed the logo and in 2008, we changed the framework to show 5 thumbnails in a row instead of 4. The YouPorn users didn’t like us modifying the site, and they were very vocal about it. They were also very forward with their thoughts and ideas on how to make YouPorn even better.
We did not run video ads for a long time, and when we did, we pre approved each and every one. We were very protective over the user, and would not subject them to some of the nasty video banners that you see today.
As with the content partner program, we were industry first at launching many user experience enhancements. For instance, we created the “we recommend” algorithm. We could footprint a users activity, and after only 6 visits, we could categorize that user. This enabled us to know what the user liked, what he is likely to find appealing in the future, and deliver content on that data. For many users, the “we recommend” section was their first port of call. This also enabled us to serve banners that were relevant and appealing to that user. It also helped us identify the types of niche that we were lacking on content, and we would go and buy the rights to this type of content, to give to the users for free. If you can second guess what a user is going to like, and provide that for them, you have a happy, returning user, that will tell his friends about your site. With our algorithm, we were quite a few steps ahead of the user in that respect.
YouPorn was often described to as the peoples tube, it was a brand, a cult, a very loyal user base. Thats what Manwin bought from us in May 2011. Is it the same site today? No. Has YouPorn become “just another tube”? In my opinion, yes. Do I think it makes more money today that it did when we had it? Hell yeah!!! We were a team of 7, Manwin/MindGeek have 100′s of staff, optimising even the smallest of revenue streams, of course they make more money.
So there you have a little piece of history on how the incredible team at YouPorn did what we did. Which leads me to why I have paid $500k and $250k for tube.xxx and tubes.xxx respectively. I am not looking to justify the price I paid. If I wanted to do that, I would answer the calls from my ex wife.
As my previous post alluded, I have reached the pinnacle point with my pay sites that now enables me to start my own tube site. It needs NO support from content partners, I will NOT buy traffic, I will NOT be selling advertising and I will NOT be accepting user uploads. But what I will be doing is creating a very unique, and in my opinion, the perfect tube site, based solely on my experience.
So, what will I do with tube.xxx and tubes.xxx? First, let me explain the issues that the tubes face today:
Last year, on the YouPorn blog, they asked users “How can we make YouPorn better?” 2 of every 3 posts was “Please remove the disgusting video banners”. Unfortunately, for a user, these video banners have the biggest CTR you will find and make the most money for the tube. For me personally, I HATE it when I am looking at a very sensual video on a tube, for the NTV A and B banners to have very rough or violent sex video banners playing. I guess I am part of the 66% of tube users that also detest these banners. Take on board their comments about im ads, audio on pop unders and other annoying revenue generating methods that have crept onto the tubes, and that 66% increases to 75-80%. Those are users that are unhappy with their experience. Every tube does the same as the next, so that is why tubes are not seeing the loyalty that we did at YouPorn. Remove those traits, and suddenly you have a tube that will give those users the experience they deserve, and trust me, there are millions of them, each and every day. They won’t all find tube.xxx or tubes.xxx on the first day of their launch, and I am in no hurry for them to do so. But when they do find them, history (and data) tells me they will stick around.
The first to launch will be tube.xxx. This tube will only consist of my own brands content. Brands such as FakeTaxi.com, MassageRooms.com, FakeAgent.com, mom.xxx, StrapOn.xxx, which are some of the strongest brands not only on the tubes, but the industry as a whole.
Why will tube.xxx work? An existing tube user has been exposed to all of my brands. And I built each of my brands from within the tube environment, by joining the content partnership programs of them all. Each day, my tube edited videos from each brand are amongst the highest viewed and highest rated videos on every major tube. It is estimated that we have on average, 8-10m video views a day across the tubes. From this exposure, we have around 15m visitors to my pay sites per month. I’ll let you do the math on possible sales ratios and the revenues I generate on that traffic.
On tubes.xxx I will launch a carbon copy of tube.xxx but open this up to a few select pay site networks, those that allowed me to work with them over the years, helping them build their brands, as I did, within the tubes. Working with editors of these companies helping them edit the best possible tube edit from their full length videos. Making sure that they only put out the best possible representation of their brand with each video. So, on tubes.xxx you will have, not only my highest rated content, but content of other highest rated websites on the tubes. Its about quality, and not quantity. Of course, there are strict caveats to being invited to participate.
People often questioned (but thanked) me for sharing with them my knowledge of the tubes and my proven business model in monetizing them. I did this, not only because I am a nice guy, but knowing that one day, I will create an exclusive, invitation only tube site that will be unrivalled in the industry.
I’ll also give you an insight into the revenues I make and why the sale prices stated in the press releases are in fact true, and achievable for my company.
I soft launched FakeHospital.com on Sunday 19th Jan 2014. Today, Friday 24th Jan 2014, I have over 700 members. On immediate revenue, another 6 days and I would have received back 100% of my outlay on the site. Looking at lifetime member value, I made my initial investment back in the first 3 days. The first tube clip hit yesterday, on YouPorn, it had over 1/2m views in the first 24 hours, already the highest viewed clip of the week and had a CTR of 2.34% on the banner. There were 62,701 unique visitors to the FakeHospital.com yesterday alone. This site alone will pay for tube.xxx and tubes.xxx by autumn 2014.
We also saw the same impressive results when we launched FakeTaxi.com, but this site took a little longer for me to break even, 16 days in fact on instant revenues. MassageRooms.com took me 21 days.
Every minute of my time spent with YouPorn, I was planning for my pay site network, planning the sites I would launch, and the day I launch tube.xxx, will make all those endless hours of watching porn and staring at data worthwhile.
I launched my first pay site in September 2011 and reinvested every penny into new sites. 2 years and 4 months later, I have grown from 1 site to 17, from a staff of 4, to over 80 today. I don’t have a fetish for hiring staff, but I do have a blue print for what’s needed to support each new site and I do not sway from that.
I’ll be the first to admit, its happened a lot quicker than I originally planned.
So, to answer all the questions:
Did I really pay the prices mentioned in the statements issued by ICM? Yes, but most on a payment plan schedule that is offered to each and everyone of you.
Am I happy with the purchase of tube.xxx and tubes.xxx? I set my heart on these domains in 2011, so I couldn’t be happier, really.
Have I over paid for them? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and to me, so is value. I am very comfortable with the prices I have paid.
Would I have paid more? Absolutely, and ICM knew that, but they are as excited as me to see these domains launch.”
This is my first post on TheDomains.com. I read a lot of comments from you all when Mike posted about my purchase of teen.xxx and BDSM.xxx etc and again with the latest purchase of tube.xxx and tubes.xxx
Feel free to ask me anything, and I will always answer any questions honestly.
I don’t consider myself to be a domainer, although I do own a lot. Maybe I look at domains differently to most on here. I develop websites, and very profitable ones at that. I have a very clear plan on the future of my company. For instance, I already know the next 20 websites that I will be launching, many of which are already in production. Some of these are tubes, some are “marquee” sites, such as BDSM.xxx, teen.xxx and girlfriends.xxx, and some are compilation sites using existing content on keyword domains such as mature.xxx, publicsex.xxx and kiss.xxx.
When planning sites, I look for niches, look for who are the players in those markets, tirelessly study their content on the tubes, join their pay sites and if I feel I could improve on this, then I start to build a team. Once everything looks to be falling into place, I secure a domain name. These can be $9 .com’s, as many have been such as FakeAgent.com FakeTaxi.com, Lesbea.com, and some are high priced as you have read.
I dont regret a single purchase of any of my .xxx domains. I would not sell any of my .xxx domains. I am also in the market for more. As Stuart mentioned, late last night I was offered viral.xxx and one hour later, it was in my GoDaddy account, and payment made via PayPal. Viral.porn will make a GREAT tube
In general availability in Dec 6th 2011, I registered around 70 .xxx domains. When ICM offered domains for around $10 (March 2013 I believe), I registered around another 50 domains. I have a game plan for everyone of them. Some I will develop myself, others I will work with adult companies such as AdultCentro.com. With them, I am launching a network of sites under the “love” brand such as Lovemoms.xxx (I have 30 other “love***.xxx domains and to build them into a network pass group of sites. They supply all the content, billing etc and you just pay for the bandwidth your paying member uses.
i’m not very familiar with what the typical .com domainer does with their domains these days, but in adult, there are some very clever companies with some very sophisticated platforms available for you to use. All you really need is a logo, and within days, you are up and running. You do not need any technical expertise to launch a site, they have support for that.
I am always interested in buying domains, especially .xxx, .porn, .adult. I consider them the best investment I can make. As in my pt1 post on GFY, a deciding factor to me was the YouTube video of Frank Shilling talking about the new gTLD’s coming to the internet. His short video literally put everything into place for me. It made me really understand the historic changes of the internet today, and the landscape for the future. I believe I am the best placed company in adult to take advantage of what will likely be.
The most important takeaway from this is that when someone is an end user they may see some value in an extension that most domainers see as Fool’s Gold. A lot of the new gtlds which may be very narrow in scope are going to want to find their JT, so that someone is out there developing their namespace and bringing some light on the benefits of their string. Will it happen ? Leave a comment.
Ryan Jenkins says
Did i read this right, after Frank S said on his video thousands of new names are coming out, you go and pay $750K for some .xxx, which have a claim to fame for defensive reasons, 99% of people do not even know .xxx is live..
Furthermore you want to leave your children a treasure trove of porn .xxx domains, and content… lol
enough said…
BullS says
Whoa whoa ..stop the press!!
“My teams shoot in excess of 150 full scenes ”
Where was I in the scenes?
What, you think I am not good enough!!
Watching porn online is the most boring sh+it, after awhile you hear the same freaking doggie chokin gasping noise.
Some people loves to watch while I like to PERFORM.
ontheinterweb says
@BullS
you were probably at home talking to your jade tree plant and posting irrelevant comments on domain blogs.
frank.schilling says
Firstly that’s very flattering. I have 3 brief comments as this post is about JT not me.
1) JT is wise to do this. .XXX is the most logical generic adult name and with ICM Registry agreeing to match the SLDs at registration price with .porn, .adult and (potentially) .sex, they are creating a legacy spectrum that is nearly impossible to dis-intermediate. .XXX was essentially blackballed by the industry but with Stuart’s shrewd governance, that stigma is slowly lifting. Even the most short sighted critic can see the trifecta of strings, working together, have the ability to eventually displace .com as “the” extensions for adult websites. Google some adult terms and see how well they rank already.
2) JT’s development work on sites in the space and the work by those like him make this a self fulfilling prophecy. As he and others build sites on names in extensions that are resonant and meaningful to them, other’s will follow and try to emulate their success. This same pattern will repeat across millions of other sites, genres, topics and across thousands of extensions. You will see it as round 2 comes and Uniregistry looks forward to serving you then by facilitating the operation of your own GTLD. Longer tail extensions in future rounds will have even fewer names per extension. I predict there is at least one person who will leave a disparaging comment about new GTLDs who will eventually operate their own extension. Perhaps it will be our infrastructure that runs it for them.
3) To all those who don’t yet get it, who don’t understand or feel it, or who still equate this to .mobi, info etc .. I encourage you to think differently. None of these spaces (at the moment) have the ability to ‘singularly’ displace .com. They don’t have the ability to ‘collectively’ displace .com (yet) .. and they don’t have to. Some of these spaces will only have tens of thousands of registrations ever and that’s okay. Take my .guitars, we only planned for 20,000 registrations. But electric.guitars will be a VERY valuable SLD one day. This example goes for every other namespace and the keywords in it.. Don’t measure the value of the domain names in a space by the number of registrations in the space. Measure the value of the names by the way the registry is run, the way the names are priced for registration and renewal and the way your registrations are governed and retailed. That is what drives the value of names on the secondary market. That and the string’s natural drawing power. The din-level traffic that trickles to domain names comes from the gravity of the keywords and the resonance of the name in the hearts and minds of users. The words we use to name websites are not changing. The location of the dot is changing. While it may take a while for that shift to happen, it will happen eventually.
Good luck to all.
ontheinterweb says
some people just cant get their head around the “changing where the dot is” thing..they keep trying to figure out the new most popular best TLD that will “rise above and conquer them all” or something..
thats the old angle. there doesnt even need to be a “best” with the insane amount of word combinations coming.. as a dough mainer, its about the word combination now, not the TLD and which one will be “credible.”
they sorta all need each other to be credible.
a strange .mobi here, weird .biz there, and random .info here n’ there are right now the oddballs with green hair and a mohawk and unacceptable career-ruining tattoos, in a crowd of 110,000,000+ “normal” .COM’S
when a much larger percentage have brightly colored hair, a mohawk and/or random tattoos its not so weird anymore.
that strange guy with stretched earlobes that nobody would hire 15 years ago gets hired all the time places now.
BullS says
ontheinterweb
My largest indoor jade plant gives me more pleasure than anyone else!!
Acro says
@ontheinterweb – Saw a woman cashier at IKEA today with stretched earlobes and inserts. She was a gorgeous redhead, but such body modification still freaks me out.
I agree with the rest that you said.
Domenclature.com says
@frank.schilling
When all is said and done, there’s one simple question on every ones mind: is purchasing new GTLDs an investment grade proposition?
In order for you to answer that question, you have to get-off your high-horse as “the Frank Schilling”, and give sound reasons why a poor guy with limited resources, who is already aving difficulties now making ends meet, barely getting any respect at home now, should invest their hard earned money in these extensions.
You have to look all of in the eye, and tell us, assure us, knowing how much we respect you as our dot com frank Schilling, YOU TELL US WHY anybody should INVEST THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY ON THESE TLDS FRANK?
Alan says
The adult market has changed significantly in the past 5 years, I don’t see any value in purchasing or developing .XXX with a market that is grossly over saturated with thousands of free sites.
Acro says
The adult market works on a different waveform than any other market. Kudos to those that can turn any keyword into a money maker. I mean, tubes and xhamster etc. it’s all about content, even if it’s tits and ass.
@Domenclature – You should have come to NamesCon but you waived that right to credibility when you claimed to be in Vegas but unwilling to spend $199 to enter the conference’s doors.
For the record, and in Frank’s defense, he’s never on a ‘high horse’ of any kind; probably the most approachable entrepreneur of his caliber that I have had the pleasure of meeting and collaborating with.
ontheinterweb says
LOL is this Domenclature for real? or is this another “Jeff” troll type of character?
who is suggesting people with limited resources having trouble making ends meet and “hard earned money” should invest in domains at all?
i think you should have a beer and re-read your last 100 posts.
Domenclature.com says
@Acro, & ontheinterweb,
Please, give Schilling a chance to answer a serious question. Don’t act like sycophants.
(the last conference in Vegas id NOT meet my approval, hopefully Mr Lau will explain how much he collected and what’s gonna happen to the dough. If it’s his private conference business, np).
ontheinterweb says
dude, your posts are insanely over the top and make no sense. you’re acting like the domain police and everyone owes you something. its kinda adorable actually..
every post, its like you want to be the .COM superhero who is “on the side of good and pure domain speculation.” almost all of your posts have some weird built assumptions.
and the way you tell people you’re gonna “stop reading their blog” if they dont answer your questions is usually pretty hilarious too.
Domenclature.com says
@ontheinterweb
You’ve always accused me of those two things, perhaps I’m open to such criticism. But, I’m consistent. Why NOT spend time answering me points tho? It appears that your role is to troll, and insult without being insulting? Kind of like a “cute” troll?
I hate sycophants. Look at the synonyms: yes-man, bootlicker, brown-noser, toady, lickspittle, flatterer, flunky, lackey, spaniel, doormat, stooge, cringer, suck, suck-up ewwww
ontheinterweb says
cool man, i would have just used the word “ass kisser” but using big words and telling people to look them up is pretty neat too.
Domenclature.com says
@ontheinterweb,
We could just spend the whole day talking about those kinda stuff, or we CAN ask frank Schilling to look us in the eye, and tell us why a poor guy with less than a few grand in his bank account should spend it investing in these new extensions that he is peddling. You decide.
cmac says
you know whats going to be the most valuable word with new gtlds? “DOT” because its going to be right in the middle of every business name that uses these ‘domain hacks’.
something DOT something…
who knows i guess but breaking up your business name with ‘DOT’ in the middle seems, well broken.
ontheinterweb says
“….a poor guy with less than a few grand in his bank account.”
who/what/where gave you the idea its smart to invest in ANYTHING when you have less than a few grand in your bank account?
Domenclature.com says
@ontheinterweb
99% of domain investors, unfortunately fall within this range. NOW, when some of write in their interest, we come across as “superheros”. BUT know it now, most domainers have no boot to piss in, or a window to throw it out of. They’ve been buying, and buying, but NEVER selling. The whole thing was sucking newbies in for years, but now some of us write and challenge proponents, for every ones’ benefit. It’s not being a superhero to challenge high fees for conferences; or challenge a gTLD pusher here and there; it’s simply acting wisely.
ontheinterweb says
99% of “domain investors” in the category you mentioned should probably drop every domain they have (.com included) and go find a day job and stop making bad decisions like thinking they’re capable of “investing” in domains when they have only $1,000 to their name and limited experience.
you know the advice i question? people that say newbies starting out should “take that money and buy one good .COM with it because it will go up in value”
without research and experience “good” is meaningless.
Domenclature.com says
@ontheinterweb
Exactly!
I’ve been involved in the fight to debunk domain parking as a business model; I’ve wrote against powerful forces, including Google.
I’ve wrote and fought against high domain conference prices. I’ve wrote against Sedo and other aftermarket tricks; I’ve wrote against drop catchers, and removal of domainers from the food chain;
I’ve praised bloggers and domainers such as Eric Borgos of Impluse for their hohesty, and contribution of great data; Yes, I’ve fought entrenched interests. I have threatened not to visit Elliots blog and this blog here, Berkens’ Blog. Those are the two Blogs I’ve threatened. I carried out the one on Elliot because he censored my comments revealing how much he paid for Burbank.com. I’m yet to carry out my threat on Berken’s Blog. he’s been cool.
frank.schilling says
“”When all is said and done, there’s one simple question on every ones mind: is purchasing new GTLDs an investment grade proposition?””
When I started buying domain names, there were no blogs, no domainer publications, no news – no nothing. I sold a few small real estate holdings and plowed it all into domains, not knowing what to expect. There was nobody to talk to, nowhere to post, nothing to read; and everyone I told, thought I was nuts. If you are too unsure or too broke to take a registration price flyer on a dictionary word name in a new namespace in 2014 and you need an iron clad guarantee from frank schilling that these are investment grade assets, then maybe domaining isn’t for you. Nobody is going to hold your hand to prosperity. Do your research, use your head – and take your own risks.
ontheinterweb says
people are still thinking that with hundreds of gTLD being introduced around the same time that there arnt going to be any “good ones” available for registration price. (under $100)
could be true, but i doubt it. theres too many combinations of words this time. that would take a lot of brand new “domainers” right away.
and anyone who thinks that should check out whats available in .TRAVEL for clues… its somewhat restricted but not hard to get a UIN and has been out for years. you can register super generic stuff in .TRAVEL for $99.
im not saying its an “investment grade asset” or even a good idea necessarily but what im saying is the school of thought that all the “good hacks” will be taken when hundreds are introduced at once is pretty unlikely. registries holding out for super-premium prices might eventually give up that idea and take what they can get.
domainers will probably continue to register stupid stuff. its enthusiasm before research, nothing new.
Michael Berkens says
Frank
Funny when I spoke on the domain blog panel right at the end after people in the audience had time to make comments like Ron site had an outdated look and other petty bitching points I said exactly this
“”
2014 January 26
frank.schilling permalink
“”When all is said and done, there’s one simple question on every ones mind: is purchasing new GTLDs an investment grade proposition?””
When I started buying domain names, there were no blogs, no domainer publications, no news – no nothing. I sold a few small real estate holdings and plowed it all into domains, not knowing what to expect. There was nobody to talk to, nowhere to post, nothing to read”
facebook_user_87731b672b6b7a43d754645b8f620210 says
Wow if it’s true. But likely it is not true that someone paid those prices.
Steve Cheatham says
Say what you will about new extensions, it is way to early to tell. There will be some that simply don’t make it. Others will be rock stars. The only question in my mind is how fast these extensions will take to get right side up. The tld investors will have to be able to hold on for the ride. I have bought a few names.as investments in a couple of tlds that I think have a lot of promise.
JTPorn says
When is the next Domain convention? I might come along, you all seem like fun 🙂
JTPorn says
@Ryan Jenkins
“Did i read this right, after Frank S said on his video thousands of new names are coming out, you go and pay $750K for some .xxx, which have a claim to fame for defensive reasons, 99% of people do not even know .xxx is live..
Furthermore you want to leave your children a treasure trove of porn .xxx domains, and content… lol
enough said…”
Ryan, as my GFY and other posts eluded, I based my purchase on data from my existing domains.None more so than:
Casting.xxx is exact same site as FakeAgent.com
Bounce rate for the last 28 days:
Casting.xxx 22.53% sales ratio: 1:696 Ave transaction value: $37.11
FakeAgent.com 33.67% sales ratio: 1:907 Ave transaction value: $33.31
Traffic:
Casting.xxx
Direct traffic 51%
Search Engines (Organic) 26%
Referring sites 23%
Misc 1%
FakeAgent.com
Direct traffic 44%
Search Engines (Organic) 38%
Referring sites 17%
Misc 1%
Apart from the bounce rate, I see virtually the same results on orgasms.xxx vs DaneJones.com, but the bounce rate is skewed by an affiliate otherwise it would be pretty identical.
You can make your own assumptions on my figures. All 4 sites launched in late 2011, so the data is historical.
Also, regarding your comment re leaving my children a legacy of porn and content. I can only assume you believe that everyone in adult is a bad person and the industry stinks? I’d like you to know that I have met some of the most honest and friendliest people in this industry. People that take the time to help you, and guide you. This was very important for us at YouPorn. Not one of the 7 people at YouPorn had ANY adult experience, and we had very little online experience between us either. This played an important part in what YouPorn became. I have always respected my peers, and occasionally, like the past week, I will post my thoughts and processes on the boards for everyone to read. I will engage in dialogue, both positive and negative. I speak at every industry seminar I attend, and I often have my own work shop on how to monetise the tubes. I am approachable by anyone, and I spend at least an hour a day on Skype simply helping other web masters. Of course, there are some unsavoury characters in the industry too, as with most, and the good guys tend to distance themselves from them.
With that said, if any of my 6 children wanted to enter into the industry, I would not discourage it. They would be entering into one of the most lucrative online industries, and entering alongside me. They would have everything and everyone at their disposal. I would make sure their involvement is behind the camera of course, and to teach them the workings of my company. I would then set them up with their own company, funded of course, help them choose the niche, the domain, help them pick their crews and editors, and set them on their way. I guarantee they would be able to pay me back with-in the month, and be earning more a month than their friends dad would earn in a year. Of course, they would reinvest that money into more sites, and before you know it, they would have a really useful company on their hands.
I could and would do this for each and every one of my children. My kids have seen me come from relatively nothing pre 2011, to what I am able to do today, and seen the rewards that hard work and attention to detail brings. I, like them, have never and will never have any problems spending the porn $$$. All shops, jewellers, car showrooms accept them 😉
JTPorn says
As with any ranting post, of course I got the numbers round the wrong way, they should of course be:
FakeAgent.com
Direct traffic 51%
Search Engines (Organic) 26%
Referring sites 23%
Misc 1%
Casting.xxx
Direct traffic 44%
Search Engines (Organic) 38%
Referring sites 17%
Misc 1%