We’re joined by three Domain Sherpas: Andrew Rosener, Frank Schilling and Shane Cultra.
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Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/review-20170417/
On today’s Review, Shane Cultra tells us about a domain he bought for $285 that Frank Schilling thinks could sell for $50,000 to the right buyer. There’s a ton of lessons learned for investors on today’s show. Stay tuned!
Michael: Hey, Sherpa network, thank you so much for joining me today. I’m Michael Cyger, publisher of DomainSherpa.com, and this is “The Domain Sherpa Review.” This is the show where we get into the minds of successful domain name investors using real examples, so we can learn strategies and tactics to become better investors. We have three segments to the review. We’ll start off learning what the Sherpas recently bought and sold, next, we’ll discuss and value an investor-submitted domain name portfolio, and finally, we’ll preview some domains going to auction soon at NameJet, with no reserve, and whether the Sherpas think they’re a good investment opportunity for you.
Joining us today on “The Domain Sherpa Review” are three past Sherpas and industry thought leaders. In order from left to right we have Andrew Rosener, CEO of the domain name brokerage firm, MediaOptions.com and CEO of Ganjapreneur.com, the leading B2B magazine serving the cannabis industry. Frank Schilling, CEO of the registry and registrar, Uniregistry.com. And Shane Cultra, publisher of the blog DSAD.com and owner of the Country Arbors Nursery in Illinois. Sherpas, welcome to today’s show.
Andrew: Thanks, Michael.
Shane: Thanks, Michael.
Frank: Thank you, Michael.
Michael: All right, Frank, I’m going to hit you right off the bat. I know a lot of people are going to be wondering, why you came on the air? And if I didn’t ask you about the increase in renewal pricing of Uniregistry-owned top-level domains like dot property, dot game, dot flowers, then I was going to catch it. So, you know, I don’t want the whole show to be about this because we wanna get into the investing, but let me try and summarize it and then ask you for a comment.
Frank: Sure.
Michael: You’re a business owner, Uniregistry.com is your business, you had hopes that some of the new top-level domains would be wildly successful that you invested in, they received fewer than anticipated registrations. So to make the TLD business model work, you raise some prices. Domain investors, like myself who owned some great dot property domains, were told that our pricing would increase from roughly $30 per year to $100 per year. You then decided to grandfather pricing of registrations made before September 8, 2017, and 9 of your TLDs having the biggest price hikes: dot audio, dot Black Friday, dot diet, dot flowers, dot guitars, hip-hop, property, hosting and juegos.
Frank: Right, the ones most people didn’t take registrations in, but yes.
Michael: Yeah. So, that’s what it comes down to. If you own domain names already, and if you buy any up until September 8, 2017, you get the pricing that you promised when you originally launched these domains.
Frank: Yeah. And so, you know, it’s hard watching this from the sidelines, and it’s hard rating the registry because everybody is like…You know, obviously I’m up on the stage, doing my dance, doing my shuffle, trying to sell my products and be the head of a registry business unit. At the same time, yes, I’m a domainer, I came up through the ranks with everybody watching this like anybody else, and like anybody on this panel, and then I could…there’s so much that I can say about a lot of this. Obviously you can imagine, we want the best for our namespaces. We’re not trying to torpedo our business, right? And the business isn’t so bad, that I mean catastrophic, it’s just not profitable.
Michael: Right.
Frank: There are parts of it, so we’re trying to fix the parts that aren’t profitable. And then there was never gonna be a moment…Like, these price increases are…we have to give a six-month’s warning, right? So then we’re talking about a September event. Nothing’s happened, okay? So that’s another data point. So you gotta imagine then, because we want well for namespaces, nobody is going…we’re not going to do anything to undermine the spaces. Meaning, we’re not going to let the price increases kick in, and then have there been no rebates or some ability for us to discount.
What we’re trying to do is basically raise prices for future registrating. Somebody comes in after September, so why not just grandfather? That’s the thing everybody asked — and there’s a very good reason for that. And the reason is, we consulted all the major registrars. You could imagine, the biggest registrars in the world — every one of’em — and then they said, “For God’s sakes, don’t do it this way, do it that way.” So we went ahead and did it that way. And then, guys, we were absolutely shocked, as shocked as you guys — more so — when some of those registrars completely turned around and acted in ways that would just completely shock us.
They were like, “I can’t believe that you did this.” You know, it’s kind of like saying, “Go punch that guy,” right? And you go punch that guy, and you’re going, “I can’t believe you punched that guy.”
Michael: Gotcha. I wasn’t aware of that.
Frank: Yeah, a lot of people aren’t, and so we feel a little crestfallen about it, but that’s competition. There aren’t very many people who are involved in running registries and registrars, and we’re also domainers, and we’re actually trying to build brands and do things, and that can be somewhat consternating to people. And it makes people…makes others act in irrational ways that aren’t always easy to plan out, you know? But there’s no way that we were gonna let our spaces…basically undermine ourselves by stabbing our early registrants in the back. It was never gonna happen. When you’re governed by [inaudible 00:04:58], you can only implement price increases a certain way.
You can kind of say, “Well we’re going to grandfather registrants,” and then you can imagine registrars saying, “No, no, don’t do that,” because of the machinations of this science of trying to make that all happen, too much work for us. Okay, so, how about we raise prices across the board, but then we discount? And then registrants hear that going, “No way! I’m my being stabbed in the back!” So it’s really hard being the guy on the wire, but I take that role and you gotta have the thick skin when you’re running a business like ours, but at the end of the day we’re gonna make sure — 100% sure — our spaces thrive. I mean, I got in this business to win, I got here by winning –we’re gonna win again. You know, it’s just a category because our heart is in it, we’re passionate about it, and so we’re gonna make sure we see this stuff through in the right way.
Andrew: You’re going to be sick and tired of winning.
Michael: Sad.
Frank: There are other people are gonna be sick and tired of us winning.
Andrew: We’re gonna win so much, we’re gonna…
Michael: It’s going to be sad…
Andrew: …be sick and tired…
Michael: …he’s going to be…
Andrew: …of winning.
Michael: …winning so much. Yeah, exactly.
Frank: Other people are going to get sick and tired of us winning, but they gotta get used to it, because it’s just gonna happen, I’m telling ya’.
Michael: Hey, Frank…
Frank: You gotta go with it…
Michael: …so, I’ve got a…
Frank: …because we’re gonna make it happen.
Michael: …killer dot property. I love my intellectual.property. I don’t know, I think it’s gonna sell someday. I’m going to…
Frank: I can’t believe…
Michael: …hold onto it for a…
Frank: …you even [SP] bought [SP] that.
Michael: And I was bummed when you raised it, but I’m still going to pay that $100 bucks a year for that because some intellectual property lawyer is going to pay a lot more for it.
Frank: Well, you know, you won’t have to pay $100 bucks, you’ll be…
Michael: Right, it’s gonna be grandfathered.
Frank: Right.
Michael: So here’s my question, if I sell it to Drew on one of my…
Andrew: Give ya’ $2500.
Michael: …deals or whatever, will it see the change in registrants and the pricing go up? Or is it based only on the creation date?
Andrew: Good question.
Frank: It’s based on the creation date, so Drew will continue to see the grandfather price whether it is that registrar A, B…well, whether it’s at GoDaddy, whether it’s at Uni, whether it’s at Name.com. It doesn’t matter where it is. As long as that name doesn’t expire, it will have its discount applied in perpetuity.
Michael: Okay. So, if I was a domain investor and I was bullish about the new Gs that are…that prices are rising in the future, I might wanna look at some of them and see if I wanna buy any of’em before the prices go up. Because if I buy’em before September 8, 2017, I lock in the grandfather pricing.
Frank: That’s right, that’s absolutely right.
Michael: Okay.
Frank: So you have the…sort of like a put in the future. Everybody who watches your show, everybody in this industry — because not everybody pays attention to this stuff or cares…
Michael: Right.
Frank: …as much as domainers. Everybody who kind of tunes in and says, “Oh yeah, you know, that might not be bad,” is buying it today and forever as long as they pay their renewal at price…at that price. Those future registrants, after September 8th, we’re going to release a lot of the so-called ‘premium names’ that people are…you know, domainers are equally consternated about. They wonder, “How come you didn’t let NewYork.property.Frank [SP]? How come, man? How come? How come you kept that?” Well, because that’s incredibly valuable. I can’t let you have it for $20 bucks and run a registry for profit. I’m sorry, dude.
Go run your own namespace, apply next time, I’ll run it for you, you’ll see hard this is, you know? But what we’re gonna do is, we’re going to raise the base price and let a lot…you know, basically all of the ‘good’ names out at the higher price point. It’s a ballet, doing all this stuff…
Michael: Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Frank: …and it’s really hard to channel it. Mercies for your show, to allow us to kind of share some of this information [inaudible 00:08:12].
Michael: Well, and so, if you were thinking about investing in new Gs and you watch this show and you realize what’s going to happen with these…How many do I say? Seven or nine extensions, and you know that they’re gonna be grandfathered, do some reach out to people who might have some premiums, because they might not know that the pricing isn’t gonna increase, that it’s going to be grandfathered, and then it’s not going to switch. They may think it has less value because everybody was negative about the new Gs for a while there.
Frank: A lot of the premium prices, a lot of the people who bought their premium prices will actually get a price cut, so those people are actually gonna…We’re normalizing our pricing to just one tier above registration price, so if you bought a name, you know, in the early round and you paid a lot of money, there’s an equal opportunity to go around and try to buy those names today because they’re gonna renew at lower prices. They’re not going to renew at $1,000 bucks a year or whatever anymore. This is hard to watch for domainers and maybe this is above the efficacy level of a lot of the people who are early participants in the show, and I would really encourage everybody watching here who doesn’t really get or feel what we’re talking about as…and when we’re talking about these things as ‘opportunities’, they’re just lost, do not participate.
Don’t do this, because this isn’t for everybody, but there is money to be made. As you understand, okay, we’re in a new space, a new arena, a new time, and sometimes prices will go up and sometimes they’ll come down. But no registry operator in their right mind will crater their business, you know what I mean? To the detriment of all registrants in it, and future registrations, by making —- moves. We know what we’re doing. We’re trying to architect a price increase that will give the registry more cash flow for future years, and hence…
Shane: And I got a question here, I promise I won’t get too difficult.
Frank: No, go for it.
Shane: But I’m a business owner too, so I understand as well as anybody about hard…releasing and saying hard things that are tough for your customers, and the two things that bothered me or concerned me from both sides as a business owner is the lack of control of communication. So you knew what you were doing, you knew what you were thinking, but the timing and the release and you lost control of that communication. So you didn’t even tell us about the grandfathered until weeks after. When, if you would have controlled that early, you could have really avoided all of this chaos.
Frank: Don’t I know it, dude?
Shane: So in hindsight, would you do it differently?
Frank: Yeah. Hindsight is, you gotta appreciate, I don’t have entire control. Like now that all this has happened, and a whole bunch of aftereffects have happened and played out the way it is, I can speak a little more freely than before all this happened. In the beginning when we had sort of worked with major registrars around the world, and by that you can imagine everybody [inaudible 00:10:54]…
Shane: Did you have a plan released to…for you to control this dissemination of information yourself?
Frank: Yes. But as it was evolving, a couple of things happened. And you guys gotta…can see this. You guys are pros, and so you’ll imagine a couple of things happened. One, we’re successful as a registry, so when other…I’m not naming names, but you can imagine, there’s some registry operators who have employees who delighted the fact that we’re doing this, and who would take to forums in a drunken state at 3 in the morning, when a lot of these posts went up, “Weh, screw this, screw that!” You know what I mean? You know, and post under your name, Drew, or your name, Shane, right, you know? If everybody posted under their real name in forums under the comments, I think we’d see an entirely different comment thread.
Michael: Yeah.
Shane: There’d be four people.
Andrew: I mean, literally, if there was one single thing that I would love to eliminate from this industry, it’s anonymous comments on blogs. These people are a cancer on the industry…
Frank: No, no, no, no. No, no.
Andrew: …on society.
Frank: I think it’s good, because here’s why it’s good.
Andrew: No.
Frank: On the flipside, I actually think it’s good, even though I’m a victim and whatever. I’m on the receiving end of a lot of this vitriol and spit coming from the crowd, okay? But I accept it. And I like it because it’s unfiltered, it’s honest, somewhat, but you gotta imagine, not everybody…
Andrew: No.
Frank: …at home…
Andrew: Honest. —-.
Frank: Well, somewhat. Not everybody at home what [SP]…because they’re reacting to what they see, so it’s an echo chamber. And they’re right, you know? I can’t say, you know, if I agree that, okay, I’m running a legit business so I can’t…we’re going to put out this press release, and I’m not supposed to…even though I’m the CEO, I’m not supposed to just jump into the…You don’t see Bob Parsons jump into the freaking blog forums and beating [inaudible 00:12:30] trolls back. I mean, come on, right?
And you don’t see [inaudible 00:12:41] do that, so I’m not supposed to do it either. But I’m a domainer, so there’s an expectation — and I came up through the ranks as a domainer — so there’s an expectation that I’m gonna get into the fray and into the pit, and whatever. It’s hard, but I do like the unfiltered comments. But you gotta remember, there’s also…add to registries that don’t like us, there’s registrar competitors who don’t like us, forlorn ex-lovers, ex-wives. Anybody can could out…
Michael: Really?
Frank: …of the…
Michael: Let’s get into…
Frank: Nah…
Michael: …that, Frank.
Frank: …nah, I’m kidding. I’m kidding, I’m kidding. But anybody who could have less than our best interest at heart, it gives them an opportunity to jump out, and the anonymity, and into the fray, into a…
Michael: Totally.
Frank: …legitimate situation now. And raising prices, not popular. So hey, here’s a legitimate thing, but it turns into much more than it is. But the big takeaway is, just when you think…I’m surprised so many people really think we don’t know what we’re doing, and we’re going to do this and we’re totally going to create our business. I mean, come on, you know? How much did I put into this? I’m just going to sleepwalk into destroying my business?
Shane: The problem in our industry and all businesses is, we, as business owners, it’s about us. Although our customers make it run, our customers don’t wanna hear, “Let me run my business, and you tag along.” Domainers think that they matter in this, and it really comes down to end-users.
Andrew: Well people feel entitled.
Shane: It really always has been about end-users.
Andrew: People feel entitled, that’s what it comes down…Ask United Airlines right now.
Frank: You guys are both touching on it and maybe there’s a fine punctuation point to put a bow on this is, I mean when I grew up as a domainer, I had to figure every little nuance out for myself. And there was no forum to take to to go, “How come you didn’t tell me exactly what you’re doing, and why?”
Michael: Right.
Frank: I mean, come on. I mean, who does that in any business? I mean, we’re running a business, read between the tea leaves, look and analyze — think — think for yourselves. Don’t wait for somebody to spoon-feed you information, you’re never going to get rich that way. Think for yourself to think, what is this guy really gonna do? How would he do this? What would I do if I were him? And then navigate between the raindrops to make it work for you. Now you’re a domainer, you’re trying to make money. The Rolling Stones. Guess what? The producer of the Rolling Stones is going to let 1,000 front row tickets out. Make it work for you. But I already own half the front row tickets, I’m going to be diluted, you know? Make it work for you. You’re a scalper, you’re in the…you’re scalping tickets. Come on, what do you think?
Michael: Yeah. Everybody needs to figure it out for themselves.
Frank: Yeah.
Shane: Yep.
Michael: Thanks for going into that, Frank. Let me ask ya’ about that, and Shane, also. Hey, Drew, you, my man, have the clearest connection we have ever had in, like, two years of doing this show. Has something changed?
Andrew: Well, I’m in Venice Beach, California…
Michael: Cali, baby.
Andrew: …and we’ve got, like, 50 megs up and down…
Michael: Nice.
Andrew: …and here ya’ go, ya’ know?
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: [inaudible 00:15:28].
Andrew: The beauty of the first world.
Michael: Yeah, welcome back. All right, today’s show is sponsored by six awesome domain name industry providers so I’m gonna tell you about more doing the show. They include EstiBot, Escrow.com, David Weslow legal services, domainIQ, Efty, and my own DNAcademy. Before I tell you about them, we’re gonna start off with a segment called “What’s new, Sherpas?” where the Sherpas share one purchase or sale that they’ve made over the past few weeks. And we get to learn what they paid for or received for the domain name, why they thought it was a good deal and how the negotiations progressed, because we all wanna get in and find out how these guys are making deals happen.
I’m going to lead you through the questions but the other Sherpas will get to comment during the process. This segment we’re going to go Drew, then Frank, then Shane. Drew, what’s one domain name that you bought or sold or negotiated for the business in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain name and not the price.
Andrew: I just bought intellectual.property.
Michael: Oh, nice! That’s a killer domain, dude.
Frank: That’s good.
Michael: I don’t even…
Andrew: Can’t even…
Michael: …remember that one.
Andrew: …hold back. I went $2500 bucks, this guy…
Michael: No you did…
Andrew: …[inaudible 00:16:32] Cyger…
Michael: …not, you liar.
Andrew: …it was a great deal. I’m feeling very good about it.
Michael: All right, what’d you buy?
Andrew: All right, I’m going to switch over to a sale. Because you know what? I’ve been having a real hard time buying anything great lately. There just hasn’t been a lot of great names to buy at prices that we are willing to pay. I’m gonna go with rowingmachines.com. That’s a sale — rowingmachines.com, sale.
Michael: I thought you were gonna throw in a hyphenated dot net. Just to stick it to Adam Strong.
Andrew: If I had ever sold one, I might actually…yeah.
Michael: All right, rowingmachines.com was just sold by Drew. Frank, what do you think Drew sold rowingmachines.com for?
Frank: Mm-mm, I think 28k.
Michael: Twenty-eight k. Shane, what do you think?
Shane: I’ll say $14,000.
Michael: Fourteen k.
Shane: It’s a good machine, it’s my favorite workout machine. It’s a full-body workout.
Michael: Full-body, baby. Drew, were they close?
Andrew: Yeah, very, very close. So $20,000 what it sold for, so, you know, right…
Michael: Right on…
Andrew: …in the middle.
Michael: …the money, there. Nice job, Sherpas. How long have you owned that domain name for? Do you know [inaudible 00:17:54]?
Andrew: No, we brokered that one. That’s a domain that was owned by Blucora, a public company. They were the owners of Dogpile, for those of you that were alive before the Google era and on the internet.
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: I remember them [SP].
Andrew: They sold their whole search business to a…I forget the name of the company, but it’s a domainer guy. He’s a, you know, old domainer guy they…
Frank: Oh, oh, is that…
Andrew: Would it be Mike…
Frank: Michael Blend [SP]…Blender.
Andrew: Michael Blend, exactly, yeah.
Frank: Yeah, great guy, great guy.
Andrew: So he bought their search business. I think he had Dogpile, and there was a few premium domains that went with that deal — nation.com [SP]…
Frank: Michael Smith [SP].
Andrew: …shoes.com [SP]. And then the rest of the portfolio, which was…did some phenomenal domain names, we were tasked with selling. We have sold almost all the portfolio — just a couple left, couple names left — and yeah, rowingmachines.com was part of that portfolio.
Michael: Wowza. So I just typed it into EstiBot, and it came back at $194,000 EstiBot value. So I immediately scrolled down, and it only has, like, 8,000 exact match monthly searches.
Andrew: Yeah. Nobody’s going to pay you…
Shane: It’s a full-body workout.
Andrew: …190 grand for that domain. Don’t get me wrong, great domain, rowing machines…
Michael: Great domain, yeah.
Andrew: …are very expensive.
Frank: Michael has a place in Kauai he goes to a lot. I could picture him out there rowing on water going, “We gotta get a machine that does this.”
Michael: To do this for me. Yeah, how did you sell that one? Was it a lot of outreach?
Andrew: Yeah. Yeah, a lot of outreach. And it’s actually very funny. We got some backstory from the buyer. So it appears Blucora, or whatever subentity had acquired this domain in the first place, bought it from somebody who was in the…you know, the rowing machine space previously, I think they were an affiliate, and they actually went out of business and owed $50,000 or $60,000 to the guy who has just bought it. When we contacted him, he’s like, “What, rowingmachines.com?! You have no idea of the history we’ve got with that domain name. Yes, we wanna buy it, God willing, we’ll recoup some of the name that those suckers took from us when they went out of business.” So he was pretty ecstatic to get it…
Michael: Nice.
Andrew: …and at a fraction of what he lost from the previous owner, I guess. So yeah, all’s well that ends well.
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: You know, I think 20 grand was pretty much spot on. Twenty, 25 is about what I felt that name was…
Michael: So I’m wrestling…
Andrew: …[inaudible 00:20:26].
Michael: …with a couple of data points regarding this domain name. One, the EstiBot was really high, and I couldn’t, offhand, see why it would be ranked so high, especially when the exact match search volume was low and keyword domain names have been somewhat depressed. What made ya’ think that this domain name had a $20,000…I’ll open this up to the entire panel, but Drew, start with you. What made you think that $20,000 was the right order of magnitude based on the metrics of the domain?
Andrew: So, first off, I think I’ve always said that I really love EstiBot but I just don’t love it in terms of the actual appraisal. But I really like it as a way to, very quickly and efficiently, pull a bunch of valuable data points.
Michael: Right.
Andrew: So, most importantly, let’s look at domain…you know, there’s a search volume, you look at the CPC, and you very quickly come into the order of magnitude of, this is a $15,000 to $30,000…probably upper limit of, like, 35, 40 grand. And you know, it’s a bang and there’s no other way to say it — it’s a rowing machine. You know, there’s brands out there, the average consumer does not know of any of those brands. The best keyword domain names are in verticals where the consumer is not aware of a particular brand, and so they go and they search for the exact match product, not the brand.
Frank: That’s exactly right.
Andrew: Prada doesn’t care about owning shoes.com…
Frank: Right.
Andrew: …because people that wanna buy Prada shoes go looking for Prada shoes. But you know, kitchen cabinets…
Frank: Gazebos.
Andrew: …[inaudible 00:21:56] — all of these things, these are great places to sell keyword domains.
Shane: [inaudible 00:22:02]…
Andrew: [inaudible 00:22:02]…
Shane: …excellent point.
Andrew: …[inaudible 00:22:04] huge [SP] discovery [SP] strongly in there, in those industries.
Frank: Hayneedle does that, right? They used to be…
Andrew: Yep.
Frank: …called…they had a better name, and they changed it to Hayneedle.
Andrew: Terrible…
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: …yeah.
Michael: I forget what it was called.
Andrew: Yeah, I don’t know. It’ll come to me.
Frank: Yeah.
Michael: And I’ll throw this out. So I always recommend that people look at two data sources, because you never know if the data is gonna be right or wrong in one of the sources. I love EstiBot for the data, like you’re talking about, Drew. But then I went over to kwfinder.com, which pulls Google information, Google search information, into it. It’s actually part of the service that we offer through DNAcademy, and rowingmachines on there has 135,000 searches per month at a CPC of a $1.50. Now that’s what I’m talking about with a $20,000, $30,000 domain name.
Andrew: Okay.
Michael: A keyword domain name. So I’ll ping Luke and ask him why EstiBot might be off in this case, or why he thinks it’s…why his system thinks it’s an 8,000 exact match search per month.
Frank: Let’s bridge’em [SP] in. Luke? [inaudible 00:23:07].
Shane: I’d say it sounds low to me, but…
Michael: Yeah, 8,000 sounds low, right? For rowing machines?
Shane: Yeah, it does sound low.
Michael: Yeah, it’s one of the most popular…
Shane: That’s because the reason Drew said, I couldn’t name one rowing machine brand, I’d have to…that’s what I’m going to search for, so…
Michael: Cool. All right, thanks, Drew. Frank, let’s go to you. What’s one domain name that you or your company has bought, sold or brokered in the past couple weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price.
Frank: You know what? I’m going to defer to Shane, because…
Michael: Can we come…
Frank: …[inaudible 00:23:33]…
Michael: …back to you?
Frank: …[inaudible 00:23:34] for me. Yeah, come back to me.
Michael: Okay.
Frank: That’s all. Yeah.
Michael: Shane, let’s go to you. What’s one you’ve bought or sold in the past couple of weeks?
Shane: Well, Uniregistry and I like exactly the same names on NameJet. If I see his name one more time next to mine… I think he cost me…well, we’ll find out an hour, but I think it cost me another $500.
Michael: Ouch!
Frank: I’m not even there, I’m not even there.
Shane: No, Drew is at least selling some of’em. Drew let a couple of four letters ending in C [SP] go in his last auction, which, surprising. But anyway, I don’t have a great one, I’m gonna always step it down when it comes from Drew to me. I bought a name that I liked, instantheat.com
Michael: Instantheat.com.
Frank: That is a good one.
Shane: Bringing it [SP] all [SP].
Michael: Yeah. Well, I like my instant water heater, so I can see instantheat working. Drew, let’s go over to you. What do you think Shane bought? You bought it, right, Shane?
Shane: Bought it, yeah.
Michael: What do you think Shane bought instantheat.com for?
Andrew: Yeah, nice name. Very, very nice name. You know, I probably bought 20 instant hot water heaters since the last 5 years. I don’t know. I’m gonna say he paid 3…$400.
Michael: Four hundred dollars. And what do you think it’s worth? Like, what would you price it at if you owned it?
Andrew: I think it’s a $5,000 to $15,000 name to one of these water heater brands.
Michael: Yeah. And do you think it could be more than just water, or do you think it could be space, even…
Andrew: Yeah, sure…
Michael: …or like a…
Andrew: …it could be hot sauce…
Michael: …brand?
Andrew: …it could be a bunch of things. But I think probably hot water heaters being the highest priced item in that category, maybe?
Michael: Yep.
Andrew: Again, this is all just top…
Michael: Yeah, yeah, yeah…
Andrew: …of my head.
Michael: …top of your head, right.
Andrew: You might do a Google search and quickly find something that’s, like, instant heat. There’s something that’s a bazillion dollars and, you know… But just my gut instinct is that $5,000 to $15,000, his name sells to one of those companies…
Michael: Cool.
Andrew: …and probably that is the best space.
Michael: Frank, what do you think Shane bought instantheat.com for?
Frank: Thirteen hundred bucks, it feels like, right? I would’ve gone that high…
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: …I think that’s right in there.
Michael: And then what about retail pricing? Do you agree with the range that Drew said, $5,000 to $15,000, or would you be tighter in there?
Frank: I don’t know about the folks watching at home, but I think about the only thing better than heat is instant heat.
Michael: Yeah, right?
Frank: You know? There’s nothing much better than that. Because it just seems so immediate, and I’m part of the MTV generation — I want it now. So, I like that name a lot. I think that’s one of those transcendent once you could get a lot more. It’s easy to say, it has a nice radio presence, easy to spell, don’t see a lot of typos in it — everybody can spell the word ‘instant’ and ‘heat.’ You know, it just rolls off the tongue nicely. There’s a transcendent, artistic quality in names like that, that just kind of take all those boxes, so I think you could probably ask 50 grand for that…
Michael: Wow.
Frank: …you know? And probably come up and get in the 30s.
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: I mean, from the right guy.
Michael: Right.
Frank: The secret to selling a name for 50 grand is to say no to 49, you know?
Michael: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Shane, what did you buy instantheat.com for?
Shane: For $285.
Michael: Oh! You’re feeling pretty darn good about that right now.
Frank: I’ll give you $1300 bucks.
Michael: That’s a quick flip right there, Shane.
Shane: I’m busy now at the nursery because it’s a busy time of year and I really don’t have time to play with the auction, so I just typed in $1300…
Frank: Oh, did you, really?
Shane: …as my reserve, and I walked away, and I totally forgot about it. And then you get the old, “Ding! Congratulations, paid for your domain.”
Michael: Wow.
Frank: Oh. Can I buy that?
Shane: I wasn’t even hot water, all I was thinking about the little things you put in your gloves. You guys don’t deal with it because you’re in Panama and Cayman, but in the winter we have these little package you open up and they’re instant heat packets and you put’em…
Andrew: Oh, yeah, yeah…
Shane: …in your pockets.
Andrew: …yeah, and you swirl [SP]…When I was skiing I’d always put those in my gloves.
Shane: Yeah, so that’s what came to mind. Then I started thinking, ah, and let water heater too, but it’s…
Frank: Is it at Uniregistry or GoDaddy?
Shane: It’s at GoDaddy.
Frank: Well if you wanna sell it, list it…
Shane: I will sell it.
Frank: …and I’ll…Oh, okay, well list it in the market and I’ll buy it now. Seriously.
Michael: Shane.
Frank: List it in the market…
Michael: So Shane…
Frank: …and I’ll buy it now.
Michael: …would you flip it right now? You bought at $285, Frank’s offering you $1300 for it. That’s quick cash…
Shane: Nah.
Michael: …right there. [inaudible 00:27:52] grand.
Shane: No, that is good money, but unfortunately my mountain’s a little taller than it used to be.
Frank: Ahhh, okay, okay.
Shane: Yeah.
Michael: Come on, Shane.
Andrew: [inaudible 00:28:02] domain names does somebody turn 600%.
Shane: Yeah, no, that’s exactly…
Frank: Yeah, we might [inaudible 00:28:08].
Shane: …I think that’s [inaudible 00:28:09].
Michael: A grand, cash, today.
Shane: And you know, the only way that you make $5,000 is when you turn down $1300.
Frank: Right, right…
Andrew: That’s still a lot…
Frank: …right.
Andrew: …of tulips [SP] to make $1300.
Frank: That’s funny.
Shane: There’s a lot of petunias in there, huh?
Frank: Yeah.
Andrew: A lot of petunias. That smells like a sweet petunia.
Frank: Well, hey, if you ever have a…if you have a bad month or something, I like that one, that’s not bad.
Shane: You know, I will keep the in my back pocket for eternity.
Frank: Yeah, that’s handy, that’s good.
Andrew: Yeah, you got a get out of jail free card.
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: [inaudible 00:28:38]
Michael: That’s a nice domain. Great grab, Shane. And I like it because it is a keyword but it’s also a brand. You know, hot water’s nice, being cool is nice, but he is a necessity for people in life. You need to…
Frank: It is.
Michael: …have heat. Everybody’s going to the space heaters because they’re more efficient, and so, yeah, instant…I think it’s…
Frank: Yeah, it works for…
Michael: …a great brand.
Frank: …air, it works for water, it works…That’s a nice line [SP], nice line.
Michael: Nice, yeah.
Frank: A thousand like that and you’ll never go hungry.
Shane: That’s right, that’s right.
Michael: Look at you, you came in here all humble and you knocked it out of the ballpark, dude.
Shane: [inaudible 00:29:14], we’ll see. As my taxes prove this year, it’s not anything until you sell something.
Michael: That is true.
Frank: Well that’s true. Ain’t that the truth?
Michael: All right, Frank, you got one, that you wanna talk about?
Frank: Yeah, I do, I do.
Michael: Okay, is it buy or sell?
Frank: It is a sale. And let’s see, and it was updated today at 12:01 p.m….
Michael: Wow.
Frank: …according to my new…
Andrew: Thirty minutes ago.
Michael: All right. And so this is one from your portfolio that was sold by one of your salesperson?
Frank: Yeah.
Michael: Okay.
Frank: Can you see it?
Michael: Yep.
Frank: Oh, shoot, let me see.
Michael: What’s the domain?
Frank: Ah, shoot, jeez. I’m [inaudible 00:29:43].
Shane: I just transferred it.
Frank: Here we go, [inaudible 00:29:46].
Michael: I just pushed it over to Shane.
Shane: Yeah, that’s right.
Frank: There’s the name.
Andrew: Kredit? Kort?
Frank: Kort. Dot com.
Michael: Oh my gosh.
Shane: Yeah, but it’s German.
Frank: No, you know what? The buyer’s from Sweden, so I think it’s Sweden.
Michael: Okay…
Shane: Oh, maybe it’s Swedish, yeah.
Michael: …so it’s Kredit, K-R-E-D-I-T K-O-R-T dot com?
Frank: Yep, yep, yep.
Michael: Okay.
Frank: Sold today at…
Michael: No, no. No.
Shane: You’re giving away half the game.
Michael: Shane, what do you think Uniregistry sold kreditkort.com for?
Shane: Man, there was two Ks in there, right?
Michael: Two Ks.
Frank: Yeah, yep. I’ll give you some more information — gets absolutely no traffic whatsoever.
Michael: [inaudible 00:30:32] that. So it is a German, or it’s not a German word?
Frank: No, it’s Swedish, I think.
Michael: Okay, you think it’s Swedish. Shane, what’s your best Swedish?
Shane: But I know my krona, so I’m going to say in krona, right?
Frank: No, that’s Danish.
Michael: Just give it to us in dollars.
Frank: Or is it Swedish [inaudible 00:30:50]?
Shane: That’s Danish.
Andrew: Yeah, that’s Danish, kroner [SP].
Shane: Oh, then I’m really in trouble.
Andrew: [inaudible 00:30:55] Swedish krona.
Shane: I will say $8,000.
Michael: Eight k. Drew, what do you…
Shane: I don’t know…
Michael: …Uniregistry…
Shane: …that’s [inaudible 00:31:01].
Michael: …sold kreditkort.com for?
Andrew: Oh, God, kreditkort. Why would you even, you know…
Michael: That’s going to be my next question to Frank.
Andrew: I’m gonna say…kreditkort. I mean, German would be…I’m going to shoot a little higher, I’m gonna say $12,000.
Michael: Twelve k.
Frank: Wow.
Michael: Frank…
Frank: Yeah, that was nice.
Michael: …so it gets no traffic, you’ve already said to. How long have you owned it? And can you flip back to the screen on your registry app and tell me how long you’ve owned it in your portfolio?
Frank: I can, actually. Hang on, I can do that. Domain data — I click that tab, and it tells me I’ve owned it since 2015.
Michael: Okay, so it’s a relatively new…
Frank: Yeah, relatively new.
Michael: …registration. Probably on the drop?
Frank: Yeah, probably, probably. It was through an auction. So this is a classic example of, you know, something you would buy just at a low price, in the hundreds, and then you would sell it. And it sold 2 hours and 35 minutes ago.
Andrew: Is all of your acquisition information in there?
Frank: Yeah.
Andrew: And you’d see your buy price when you pay it and…
Frank: You can enter that in the system, absolutely.
Andrew: Like, even for you, where this was all being built around your portfolio…
Frank: We actually didn’t so much around, we built it just around ‘a’ portfolio, but we manually inputted that data. But we do have the data added to the platform, so that’s sort of a ‘born on’ stamp which shows the created date.
Michael: So one of the things I like to record is, why you bought it. Do you have any idea why it was purchased, Frank?
Andrew: Credit card in Swedish, just looked it up.
Frank: Yeah. I’m not sure if you guys can read that.
Andrew: Wow, 22. Boom nice.
Frank: There ya’ go.
Shane: That is nice.
Michael: So it does mean ‘credit card’ in Swedish?
Andrew: Yep…
Andrew: Yeah.
Frank: …I’m pretty sure it does.
Michael: Wow.
Andrew: Yeah, I just looked it up, it’s ‘credit card’ in Swedish. Singular.
Frank: But I think it might be one of those things where they don’t say it that way all the time, you know what I mean? They use their own vernacular but we…
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: …but it translates, and that’s why we sold it — for $22,903.85.
Michael: Wow.
Frank: After commissions.
Michael: Congrats.
Frank: Thanks. [inaudible 00:33:12]
Michael: After commissions.
Shane: And all…
Michael: You wanna give a…
Shane: …you wanna give me…
Michael: …shout out to the salesperson?
Shane: …is $1300…
Michael: Who on your team…
Shane: …for my name.
Michael: …sold it?
Frank: Louie [SP] sold it out of the U.K. office…
Michael: Nice job…
Frank: …on Manchester.
Michael: …Louie.
Frank: Yeah, nice job, Louie.
Andrew: Louie. Hey, Louie.
Frank: He’s a great lad. I got a picture of him, let’s see if I can find Louie here. He’s in the app. Oh, here it is.
Michael: He’s in the app.
Frank: Yeah.
Shane: [inaudible 00:33:35] what Louie looks like.
Andrew: Everybody that makes you 20 grand is a great lad.
Frank: Well, he’s a little small in here. And the buyers’ names are blurred. Well…
Michael: Oh, okay.
Frank: …I [inaudible 00:33:43]. Yeah. But he looks great.
Michael: So I’ve got a request for you, Frank. Since I like to record why I purchase certain domain names, can you get a breathalyzer so I can record my alcohol percentage when I’m buying stuff?
Frank: There’s an app for that now, there’s an app for that for your phone.
Michael: There is an app for that.
Frank: You plug the thing in and you blow in it, and it records. Seriously, Gary [inaudible 00:34:00] gave me one. I’m totally serious — there is an app for that.
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Michael: We’re going to move on to the next segment of the show. In the Domain Portfolio Review, we take a user-submitted domain name portfolio and provide honest and constructive feedback to the owners so they can either cut their losses, continue to hold’em long-term, or figure out a sales strategy going forward. Today’s portfolio is submitted by Paul Botelho [SP]. As part of Paul’s submission, he made a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center so we can all find a cure for cancer. Paul’s list of 25 domain names it starts with goodkush.com, Drew, goodkush, and ends with staffingsolutions.com.
This segment we’re going to go Frank, then Shane, then Drew. So Frank, take a look at Paul’s list here and tell me what domains strike you as good domain right off the bat. Which ones do you like?
Frank: Well, ya’ know, I like goodkush at the top of the list, just because a nice ring to it and it has a nice…I’m really into short, radio sounding names right now, and it’s a cyclical…We all go through times where we want or we like stuff…and then we don’t like stuff, and that’s part of human…that’s the arc, you know? I’m going through my phase of arc this way versus the arc that way, you know what I mean?
Michael: Right. Looking through this list, and I hadn’t pre-looked at the list, so let me just take a look. I like superfoody, staymaui [SP], I like sparry [SP] — that could be something — smogtest is great, and he had…and I like the tennistips. Ah, wow, tennistips. Because he [inaudible 00:35:50].
Michael: I like that one.
Frank: I do, actually. Both those two. I don’t like [inaudible 00:35:53]. Golftips — I didn’t even see it there because it isn’t highlighted, so that’ll go in the next few years but there’s a good point of being early. Golf, tennis and casino, those have lower renewals, those are good. Those are amazing, actually.
Michael: All right, so for new gTLD, those are winners. You would hold onto those…
Frank: Oh, yeah.
Michael: …long-term.
Frank: All the dictionary world words are all gonna go, they’re going to get closely held. These are big dictionary words in the right name endings. I mean, tips. I mean we all need tips with golf and tennis, and casinolive just feels right. Scoreslive, I don’t like so much, it’s a plural, but it’ll be viable too one day, but just…Again, full disclosure, I don’t know what the renewal prices are like in here but if they’re…Depending on how these got bought — if they had a big upfront price and low renewal — lock’em in, forget’em, and you’re in the money. Your kids will thank you.
It is a time thing, not everybody’s in the game that long. And if you’re in the game shorter and you wanna make money in the next couple of years, and good money, there’s something here you could flip, but I don’t care for a lot of these are the ones. I mean I like goodkush, [inaudible 00:36:57], and that’s, like, superfoody, smogtests, [inaudible 00:37:01], staymaui. There you go.
Michael: All right, thanks, Frank. Shane, let’s go over to you. What do you like on the list, and why?
Shane: Yeah, I think it’s a really good list. Compared to some of the ones we’ve had in the past, you could…you gotta make money on this one. Honestly the one that really struck the right off the back was staffingsolutions. There are so many temp agencies with that name. I mean I think every city has a staffing solution company, and it’s a big market. The unemployment and the employment market is going to skyrocket in the United States with all our political dealings. I really feel that, as a business owner, I know the staffing’s the toughest thing we have going on right now.
Michael: Right.
Shane: You don’t have to worry about health insurance because you can’t find people to work to give’em health insurance, so… And think the marijuana names are solid. I’ll leave those for Drew, because that’s all over with him. And as far as the new Gs, you’re not gonna do much better. I mean, golftips, tennistips — all the tip names, he’s picked the right things that people need the most help with. So I think that’s…those are solid. Out of all the names, I’ll got the opposite, I’ll be the negative.
The ones that I don’t know that you could do a tunnel with are ukstudents. Preapprovemortgage — you forgot a D that’s an important part of the one-off name. There was another one that…dealsmexico. You know, you start throwing Ss and forgetting letters and all those…to me, those don’t make sense. But the rest of’em, solid names, you know. Thousands of dollars, so…
Frank: Bitcointurkey, I didn’t see it that way.
Shane: Oh yeah, bitcointurkey.
Frank: I saw it as the critter, not the country.
Michael: Exactly, I saw it as the bird — until I saw bitcoinchina. I’m like, “Oh, okay, I see what he’s doing here.”
Frank: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrew: Best name on the list, you guys are sleeping on it.
Frank: [inaudible 00:38:50]
Michael: Well, there’s a sleeper.
Shane: If it’s marijuana, we’re not touching it, we’re leaving it to you.
Andrew: Nah, I’m talking about…
Shane: Don’t put…
Andrew: …bitcointurkey, man.
Shane: …the ball in the tee.
Andrew: Bitcointurkey, that’s…
Frank: Oh. Oh, that’s the sleeper.
Andrew: The next unicorn.
Frank: Could be, could be. It’s a crazy business, it just might be.
Michael: Exactly. All right, Drew, let’s go to you, bud. Tell us about the marijuana domains. What’s good and what’s not?
Shane: Yeah, tell us how much…
Michael: What would…
Shane: …they’re worth.
Michael: …want [SP]?
Shane: What would you sell’em for?
Andrew: You know, here’s the deal, so…
Shane: Keep it short. I’m just…
Andrew: Yeah…
Shane: …kidding.
Andrew: …well, it’s the fastest growing industry on Earth, and so we’re still in the very early stages, people are chasing low hanging fruit, both in domains and otherwise. And so, you know, I think these…there are some really good names on here, but I think they’re going to be, like, stage two names. Right now these are great names that are trading among people, they’re speculating on cannabis names, they definitely still have a good chance of selling in the four figure range. I think two, three, five years from now these will be five figure names.
Maybe some of them are now if you find the perfect buyer. But good marijuana, good name — little bit long, though. I talked about it, we sold goodweed.com for, like, 50 grand to get some points in the company. But goodweed, it’s four letters and four letters, it just rings. It’s, you know, man, that’s some good weed. It’s got an historical precedence. It’s good weed. It’s just good…you know what I’m saying? Good marijuana…
Michael: Literally, in the…
Andrew:…good kush.
Michael: …locker room with my masters swimming this morning, somebody said, ‘good weed.’ [inaudible 00:40:35] here in Washington state, somebody threw that out. Not the…
Andrew: It literally started…
Michael: …dot com, like, the phrase.
Andrew: …Cheech and Chong, that was…it was, like, “That’s some good weed, man.” You know, it was, like, it’s got…it’s got precedence. So you know, goodkush — again, it sounds great, it rings. I think that name definitely has value, it will sell.
Michael: Which one do you think…
Frank: [inaudible 00:40:59]
Michael: …is the most valuable right now, Drew? Of the top five cannabis ones there.
Andrew: Probably goodkush. I mean, I don’t think any of them are really liquid, you know? They’re all liquid for maybe a couple hundred bucks, but…
Frank: Well, goodkush would go for more than that, I think. Remember, the standard of $1,000 bucks we could probably…
Andrew: Yeah, [inaudible 00:41:19].
Frank: …wholesale [SP] approach [SP].
Andrew: Yeah, and wholesale.
Frank: Wholesale.
Andrew: I agree, I agree. You know, I think beyond that, you gotta go looking for the buyer, and then again, think low, mid four figures.
Michael: Yeah, okay.
Frank: But I I’d buy these reviews. These golf tests and casino, I mean those three winners. Depending on, you know, like, low holding money, and depending…
Andrew: Yeah, I was just…
Frank: …[inaudible 00:41:40].
Andrew: …responding, because they were asking me about the weed names.
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: Sorry, sorry.
Andrew: And then, like, staffingsolutions is…for exactly the reasons that Shane mentioned. I mean, that’s a phenomenal name, and we’ve got probably…literally I bet there is a 500 plus companies out there that would like to own that domain. It also looks like it’s got a bunch of traffic, so…and those clicks pay. I think that’s a good name.
Michael: How did you determine that there might be traffic on it, Drew?
Andrew: Well the Alexa rank is 1 million.
Michael: Yep. And so, you know, I wanna point out people that are watching the show that are like, “I can’t find good domain names.” When you’re on NameJet or you’re on GoDaddy and you’re looking at expired domains, and you see staffingsolutions going for, like, a grand, that’s a no-brainer. Instantheat we talked about, Shane picked up for $285. These are the kinds of domains that can be purchased today, can be sold for 100 times more than you paid, if you find the right buyer and you hold it. Not 100, 10 times. Well, 100.
Frank: I’m sorry, I was just going to say I left staffingsolutions because it’s tough for email, and it’s got five syllables. I mean, it’s not easy to spell with the two Fs in there.
Shane: Yeah but you have, like, 500 people that name…
Michael: When you have a ton of…
Shane: …their company that.
Michael: …websites that are out there, like fpsstaffingsolutions or miamistaffingsolutions.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s just one of those things. It’s like, I agree with you, I’m not saying it makes a great brand, it doesn’t, but it’s one of these antiquated industries where there is some disruption happening. But still, there are so many companies that literally either having in their name or their tagline — staffing solutions.
Frank: Use it as a pointer.
Andrew: Yeah.
Frank: You could us it…
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: …as a pointer.
Michael: So what would you price that one at, Drew? Retail.
Andrew: Staffingsolutions, 25 grand.
Michael: Twenty-five.
Andrew: Yeah, I’d expect to sell that 15 to 25 grand.
Shane: Yeah, I wouldn’t sell it for under 10.
Andrew: Yeah, yeah, 15 to 25 is definitely where I’d sell that name. And I actually do like tennistips. I think that tennis.tips is, you know…while I’m not super hot on all your gTLDs, the ones that are just a bang on, it’s like…you know, it’s like, if you’re not stretching, then these have a [inaudible 00:43:52] least it will someday, or a tennis coach out there that would love to run that website and probably make a good living doing it. So I like tennistips.
Michael: Yeah, what would you price golftips and tennistips at?
Andrew: I actually disagree, I don’t like casino.live, it doesn’t necessarily roll off my tongue. Live.casino, I like, casino.live, not horrible. If it was nine dollars with a normal registration fee, it’d be like, “Oh, sure, okay, I’ll take that”…
Michael: Hey, Drew…
Andrew: …”on spec [SP].”
Michael: …casino.online just sold for over $200,000.
Andrew: Sorry, what, casino.online?
Michael: So what does that tell you about what casino.live is worth?
Andrew: It doesn’t tell me much. I mean, it’s two different things. I think casino.online, I think a fool and his money were parted…
Shane: And I wanna the check.
Michael: Frank, what do you think? Casino.live, what do you think the retail is — today and maybe 10 years?
Frank: You gotta have a strong answer to that. If somebody’s [SP] not [SP]…I would turn down in the 20s if I had that. Yeah, I don’t know what the renewal price is. If you’re telling me “It’s, like, 10 grand a year, Frank,” then I’m like, sell it for what you can get, because then…You know, you don’t wanna be carrying that. In 10 years, that’s 100 grand you’re carrying…
Michael: But if it’s $100…
Frank: …across.
Michael: …a year?
Frank: A hundred dollars a year, I’d lock it down for 10 years, as long as I could, just in case that, you know… But that shows you my thinking, I mean it’s like…I think it’s money in the bank. Fifty grand today, and at least — and I agree it’s not casinoonline, which is more of a brand out there. There was a good casino called casinoonline.
Michael: So would you ask 50 grand or would try and close it at 50 grand?
Frank: Well, that’s a good question, actually. I’d probably try to close it at a 50 grand, I wouldn’t take in the 20s for it.
Michael: Yeah, okay.
Frank: It’s too tasty. If it’s $100 renewal, I wouldn’t take it in the 20s. The 30s would even be tough. I might do it for a quick turn because I got a lot of names but if it were part of a smaller, closer portfolio, I’d hold off for the big money and ask, you know, quarter million bucks.
Shane: And what he says is a good point. Something I’ve been doing lately is, I think of the value of the domain minus five years of renewal, and if it’s worth less than the value of the name in five years, and to me it’s not worth holding.
Frank: Yeah, you gotta think that way in these times. It’s a new frontier where prices are higher on some of these renewals, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make money, you just gotta think different.
Michael: Right.
Frank: Yeah.
Michael: All right, what about casinotips and golftips? What would you price those that, Frank?
Frank: Casinotips — I like that too.
Michael: I’m sorry, I’m sorry…
Frank: Oh, sorry…
Michael: …my bad…
Frank: …oh, sorry…
Michael: …tennistips…
Frank: …I didn’t see that.
Michael: …and golftips.
Frank: I was looking for on the list here. I’m looking the list, and I don’t see it.
Michael: Tennistips and golftips.
Frank: Tennistips. Golftips I like a lot, because I mean that just rolls off the tongue — it’s what they call it. So, again, I probably…I wouldn’t sell that for 20 grand, you know? I’d try to hold that. You know, it’s tough, these are all right. These are going to be worth so much more in time. These are like a beautiful woman that gets more beautiful as she gets older. This is one of those types of…type of things. You just don’t wanna let this go.
Shane: It just happens to be the two sports you get to put their hands on their hips as you train them too. What do you think? This is going the wrong direction.
Michael: Yes it is, Shane.
Frank: But to his point, to this point, he’s got something there.
Michael: All right, which is more valuable, Frank, tennis or golftips?
Frank: Golf, golf, golf.
Michael: Golftips.
Frank: In my opinion. That’s what they call it. Tennistips — yes, it makes sense. Golftips — of course, you know what I mean?
Michael: All right, Shane, healthyfastfoodoptions.com. Does it have any value?
Shane: No. It’s too long. I forgot what you said after you even…by the time you get to fast food.
Andrew: I don’t even know, yeah. My blocked out what you just said.
Shane: Yeah. I was thinking about roasting pumpkin seed…
Michael: Shane…
Shane: …right in the middle of it.
Michael: …breakfastdelivery.com. Is it too niche?
Shane: Yeah, they’re not going to get my delivery. Nah, I don’t think they have that. You know, food delivery is…
Andrew: Food delivery…
Shane: …I don’t think…
Andrew: …meal delivery.
Shane: …that’s ever…I don’t think that’s panned out as well as everybody thought it would be, but there’s still a market there. But no, not breakfast. Nah.
Michael: All right.
Frank: Cashforbitcoins, one none of us talked about that, but actually not be bad for a cash conversion site.
Shane: Yeah.
Michael: You know, right now people are making connections on Craigslist and stuff to exchange Bitcoin for cash in the local supermarket or coffee shop, and so, yeah, something…
Frank: Yep.
Michael: So you’d hold on to that one.
Shane: Anything in Blockchain and Bitcoin, yeah.
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: Yeah, yep.
Michael: Cool, all right. Smogtest. Do people still have to get smog tests on their cars? I haven’t got one in a while.
Frank: Nope.
Shane: [inaudible 00:48:23]…
Andrew: Here in…
Shane: …doesn’t think so.
Andrew: …Venice, man, you get smog tests all over the place. And it’s, like, literally these stations that the only thing…
Michael: That’s all they do.
Andrew: …they do is smog test. That’s it.
Michael: I remember getting a smog test in California on my old VW. Yeah.
Shane: Yeah, that worked out real well for VW, didn’t it?
Frank: Yeah.
Michael: My old, old VW, my 1967 VW.
Shane: Ah, it’s perfectly fine, just drive it.
Frank: That’s got a little…
Michael: [inaudible 00:48:44]
Frank: …light if it did. I was thinking about it is a little light from a dead star, it’s got a little bit of a Y2K vibe to it. So you [inaudible 00:48:53] with that somehow, you know?
Shane: In Shanghai area, Beijing, they definitely take it.
Frank: Yeah, I don’t think they call it a smog over there.
Shane: No, I don’t think they do. Yeah, and somehow we always forget that they don’t speak English in the rest of the world. We pretend like it’s, “Oh, you should get smogChina, they’ll buy it over there.”
Frank: Yeah, exactly.
Michael: I’m going to my kreditkort dot something.
Shane: That’s right.
Michael: Hey, Paul…
Frank: [inaudible 00:49:15]
Michael: …has about…he said he has about 300 domain names, and he threw out that 2% of them are new gTLDs. Does that seem about right to you guys? Do you guys generally make recommendations to investors to spread their investment portfolio? Does 2%, smaller percentage like that, single digits, sound right? Not for you, Frank, but for other…probably for your [SP] two [SP], actually. Let’s start with Frank, and then we’ll go to you, Drew.
Frank: Just very quick. You know, I believe in new gTLDs but I’m a practical man. These are going to take time, you’ve got to buy them right. Don’t backup the truck and buy everything at once. If there’s a land rush and you can really clean up, go to town, but just know that you’re probably going to delete half of’em over time. But that’s part of the ballet of domaining is, you’ve gotta accept that on any given day you’re going to register names, and maybe some of them are stinkers and you let’em go, but if you’re not taking those risks and impulsive… All the people that were successful in this business are really impulsive, because they make tons of mistakes but they also get tons of accidental of winners…
Andrew: And super high propensity for risk.
Michael: Yeah.
Frank: It is.
Michael: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Shane: Oh, yeah. [inaudible 00:50:19].
Michael: Hey, Frank, do me a favor and just clip together your microphone. Is rubbing against your collar and giving a little bit of static as you’re chatting.
Andrew: Just go ahead and please close your shirt, I’m not enjoying looking at [inaudible 00:50:29].
Shane: Or just open it all the way.
Michael: I did not say that, [inaudible 00:50:30] from me.
Andrew: I thought you were gonna tell him to open his…close his shirt.
Shane: Just go all the way.
Frank: [inaudible 00:50:35] too.
Shane: You just couldn’t…
Andrew: Literally telling him…
Shane: …just let it be pleased.
Andrew: …that was free.
Shane: The only thing I wanna hear is the [SP] next [SP] one [SP].
Andrew: The next one is not.
Frank: No extra charge.
Michael: All right, Drew.
Andrew: You have made so many people’s year. Okay, I forgot what I was gonna say. No, I do know…I do know what I was gonna say. So, here’s the deal. I am outspoken about my disbelief in the new gTLD program, only for the reason of that I don’t wanna be the guy that everybody comes at “You told me these were a good deal, that I should be buying…backing up the truck and buying this and that and blah-blah-blah-blah.” I am buying these things. I would love to buy intellectual.property from you, and I’m going to fight you tooth and nail as soon as this is over.
But I think that you need to be successful in dot com, and then once you’ve done that, once you’ve figured out the formula of, okay, I can now identify a valuable domain name, I can identify an order of magnitude of what it’s worth, I can buy it for less than it’s worth, and sell it and make a profit. So when you’ve completed all those steps, and repeated that multiple times and you feel good about it, then you can explore other options. But if you can’t make money in dot com, I guarantee you will lose in the new gTLDs.
Now, been successful in dot com, and net, and org and whatever, and legacy TLDs, and so when I see something like a golf.tips or an intellectual.property, that’s a bang on domain that I’m very, very happy to get in at a low level and tuck it away. And like Frank said, these things aren’t ripe yet, the market’s not there, there is very little or no liquidity, unless you’re giving it away for the same or less than you paid.
Michael: Right.
Andrew: And you know, so I don’t want to say that these don’t have value, because they do, some of these are phenomenal naming solutions for the proper application. But don’t come into this as a newbie and think, oh, I missed it the dot com thing, I’m going to jump into these new gTLD thing, because you’re going to be the guy that’s crying on the forums. You’re going to lose your ass. If you don’t understand the naming business to begin with, it’s very hard to come into something that’s brand-new, there’s a lot more intricacies than there is in dot com, such as variable pricing, variable renewal, premium upfront price, premium renewal, standard upfront price but premium renew…There’s so many different variations of these things, and so if you don’t…And quite frankly, I’m confused.
I really am. I’m totally, totally confused. I kinda shut down. People send me a list of names and it’s like, God, I don’t even…there’s some names in there I might buy, but if you’re not telling me what the renewals I need to do…
Michael: Right, right…
Andrew: …I don’t even wanna look at it.
Michael: …right.
Andrew: It’s just confusing. So, that’s my standpoint. So to say 2%, you know, look, if you’ve made money in dot com, you’ve got a sustainable business model, then I think it would be smart to hedge your bet and get a little bit of the new naming space. And [inaudible 00:53:56] all your extension, I think you should just be looking for the one-offs, like a golf.tips. I’ve never bought a dot tips domain. I’m not even sure I knew there was a dot tips, right?
Michael: Right.
Andrew: But golf.tips is a great domain, so if I can get that for a decent price, you’re doing great. Hang on to it for five years.
Michael: Yeah, I agree. I think Paul nailed it with…You know, I hope this whole portfolio was similar to this and he saw…and he heard from you guys which domains he might wanna think about letting expire or putting into an auction with a really low buy it now price, or throwing on to NamePros and passing on to somebody else who maybe could monetize it some way. And just upgrading his portfolio, because he picked some…picked off some great new Gs as a small percentage of his larger dot com portfolio.
I’ve heard from you guys, he’s heading in the right direction. Paul, thank you for submitting your portfolio and making a donation to cancer research. We hope this review has been helpful to you in your domain investing activities going forward. Before we jump into the domains going to auction soon, I wanna tell you about our three other sponsors.
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Michael: We’re going to move on to the marketplace list. This segment is sponsored by NameJet. We’ll be reviewing about 10 domains going to auction soon that have no reserve. If you like one of the names below, click through soon, because once they go to auction, you lose your chance to put in a minimum bid and be a part of the auction or even just watch the results. The links below go directly to NameJet. They’re not commissionable links, they just wanna see how much traffic we’re sending them.
The list starts with a three letter ndw.org and it ends with socialtube.com [SP]. And I’ve also given you guys what the high bid was last Friday — it may have gone up from there. This segment will go Shane, then Drew, then Frank. Shane, let’s start with you. From an investment perspective, what do you like on the NameJet list, and why?
Shane: Well first of all, it goes further than socialtube, we go all the way to zenzhuan [SP], or something.
Michael: Yeah, you’re right, I’m sorry.
Frank: Jenjuan [SP].
Michael: I scrolled down too far on the list. It’s zenzhuan, or yeah. It goes further than socialtube by another three domains. So what…
Shane: So, and…
Michael: …do you think…
Shane: …the other thing…
Michael: …of the list, Shane.
Shane: …that I absolutely…this preying on…this should be illegal, preying on 48-year-old eyes, this unemloyment. That’s just asking for me to miss the P and buy the wrong name, and I’m…Did you see it like that or did you…
Michael: I do. I like to throw those in there every once in a while just to see if you’ll catch it, because this is what happens to us investors. We get in there, we don’t see a word…a letter that’s missing, and then we put in a bid, and I want to point out to people or I wanna make fun of you guys if you miss it.
Andrew: If I’m going to bid on a domain — because I’ve made this mistake so many times, I’ve bought so many typos for way too much money that were worthless — if it’s over $1,000 now in an auction, I’ll copy and paste the domain and put it in Google to see if Google corrects me. For this very reason.
Michael: Yeah.
Shane: I started wearing glasses. That’s what I did. I mean, I can’t see anymore.
Andrew: It’s not my eyes, it’s my brain.
Michael: You spotted it, buddy. You get credit for it. Unemloyment — do not buy.
Shane: Yeah. And then, like I said, I make it worse. I put it on a list and then say, “Wow, that’s a great…you can buy unemployment for $800,” you know. Stupid, stupid stuff, so… I’m pretending like that one’s dead, so I didn’t even see that one. I liked the list above. This is the first time I’ll ever say this, but I like the portfolio a lot more than I like the NameJet list.
Andrew: Yeah.
Frank: Wow, yeah.
Shane: I don’t think I’ve ever said that ever in our years of doing this, so… Nothing here is great. I do like quickdiet because I think America’s fat, and a quick diet sounds wonderful to them.
Frank: Man-to-man.
Shane: And that’s exactly what they’re looking for, they want instant gratification. And I can see that when I turn the channel 2 accidentally instead of channel 3 and there’s a infomercial for quickdiet.com and they’re showing me how I can use…lose 30 pounds in 30 days. “But if you lose more, make sure you stop, because you could lose more.” That’s what they always say. So that quickdiet I really like.
Frank: That’s a good [inaudible 00:58:15], which I like that.
Shane: I boid. I’m a big, big fan of four letter dot coms with good letters. I don’t care if they’re vowels, that’s…You know, people…
Frank: You’re a smart man.
Shane: …talk about the Chinese…
Frank: You’re a smart man, that’s exactly right.
Shane: I know, that’s because you and I are frickin’ bidding against each other. I’ll just join your company and we’ll just split her up, for the sale.
Michael: Yeah. Hey, so, let me back up for a second and ask you about the quickdiet. If you pick that one up, what would you price that one at retail, Shane?
Shane: I’d probably put a buy now at, like, 5 grand. That’s one of those, I’m not looking to sell it to become…The buy now, I’m learning the buy now market. We’re always learning our trade, we’re always learning, there are certain things that…A little story. Josh, every day, sends me his buy it now sales, and I joke with him, I wanna see five a day, that he gets buy it nows. And I’ll be damned if every day I don’t get pinged three to five times with $399, $999, $2250, $4500.
Michael: Wow.
Shane: Just buy it nows. There is an art to figuring out a movement price, and there is volume. And a name like that, you put it up, somebody makes an impulse buy — people like impulse buys — and that’s one that I would do that to. So, yeah, 5 grand. Maybe these guys will tell ya’ something different.
Michael: Yeah, I’ll ask’em. And then what about biod? Yeah, it’s four letters, but it’s bio, plus a letter D.
Shane: Yeah, but I think it’s still gonna be an acronym when it’s all said and done, so… Again, this is BrandBucket, where I pay attention to them — $8500 to $2705 [SP]. They put a price on it, I’m not sure how they pick it but they move a lot four letter dot coms.
Michael: Yeah, yeah.
Shane: And Uniregistry, I’m sure too. Frank sends me his sales at night so I can check’em out.
Frank: We saw one or two.
Shane: Yeah. I figured if you out there buying’em at the regular rate you are, you’re not a dumb man, you have the sales side that warrants the purchases, so…
Andrew: They’re not sitting on the shelf.
Shane: No, not exact…not at all. You’re not buying more bread, you just put it behind the other bread.
Frank: Well, you know, kinda we do. I don’t look at the buys that closely and I don’t look at the sales that closely, I just look at the P&L. At the end of the month, how much that we spend on acquisitions? How much did we make? What’s the trend? Because the trend’s is your friend, right?
Shane: Yeah.
Frank: I miss the days when I actually got into the trenches and looked at what we’re buying and selling, but I know the man you hate.
Shane: That’s doing the bidding? Yeah.
Frank: Yeah, yeah. Well it’s man and robot, so…
Shane: Yeah. Well I’m learning the robot guy, so…
Michael: All right, what’s one more that you like, Shane?
Shane: Say that again, I’m sorry.
Michael: What’s one more that you like?
Shane: I like premiermedical [SP] but I do think people mess up the word premier. Believe it or not, I think people can’t spell premier. But I think any need medical name is gold. I mean it’s just a huge, huge industry. And everywhere I go is now an assisted living retirement home, there’s every corner is being filled with it, so I think medical names are a good purchase for many, many decades to come.
Michael: Yeah. And so if you were looking at premiermedical, you might type into Google just the words and look at how many companies show up for premiermed…
Shane: Yeah.
Michael: …premiermedgroup.
Shane: Yeah, upgrade name, that’s what I put…that’s what I use to call them. Companies that wanna upgrade to a better name.
Michael: Premiermedicalassociates.com.
Shane: Absolutely. If a company is gonna upgrade, it’s going to be what they already…a name they already possess. I mean, that’s not always true. Obviously they’re gonna…they could change to a really fancy brand. Like IGLOO was not called anywhere near that, but at the same time, if you’re a company for 30 years and you’re Johnson’s Premier Medical, premiermedical might be a shorter name to upgrade to.
Michael: And so the high bid was $101. If you were looking at that one realistically, you tend to be a somewhat frugal buyer, you’re not throwing down $10,000 here and there on NameJet for different domain names or…And especially with instantheat.com for $285, would you pick this one up for a few hundred dollars and look to sell it…
Shane: Yeah…
Michael: …for three or five?
Shane: …I’d be $700 and under, probably. Something like that. Although, again, that’s what it’s worth to me but there are so many names in that price range. So that’s the problem with me is, there’s only so many $700 ones. It just depends on the day. I think we all say the name we bought Tuesday may not be the same we bought Friday, even though we feel exactly the same about it, because something else came about, or how you’re feeling, or what you were doing that day. And to say any different is lying.
Michael: Right.
Shane: You know, that’s just how it goes.
Michael: Yeah. Cool. Thanks, Shane. Drew, let’s go over to you. What do like on the list, and why?
Andrew: Don’t love this list at all. I think, really the only names that stand out to me, I like eforce. Nobody talked about it. Again, I don’t love it. Like I said, I don’t love any of the names in this list, but if I’m gonna pick a couple that I would maybe bid on, I like eforce. Just kinda could be a good SEO brand or web marketing. Something.
Michael: What would you price it at if you picked it up?
Andrew: Probably, like, 5 grand, $7500, something like that. And so, you know, I wouldn’t wanna pay more than a couple hundred bucks.
Michael: Right.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean I like the biod.com. Just I like four letters in general and [inaudible 01:03:56] biodynamic, biod could be vitamin D supplements, biod could be a bunch of things, you know? Good man [SP]. You know, southwestmortgage, that’s money in the bank. I mean, if you can get it for cheap, if you can get that name for a couple hundred bucks, go call the probably 20, 30 companies that are probably called Southwest Mortgage or some variation of that, and you’ll probably land a 3 to 5 grand sale for that. That’s pretty much it, you know. Saulspizza. I guarantee you there’s 100 Saul’s Pizza out there, but you better be buying that name for $69 and hoping to flip it for under $500, if you want…
Shane: I was not gonna pay lot for that pizza.
Michael: That’s what I was going to ask ya’.
Andrew: Well, well, if you’ve got a Saul’s Pizza in your town, I suggest buying this name, knocking on Saul’s door and saying, “Look, Saul, I want pizza for a year. You know, I’m coming in for a slice every day for a year. Here’s saulspizza. Thank you”…
Michael: Exactly.
Andrew: …”very much.”
Michael: That’s the way to do it. It’s like that rare cards.com that we talked about on the last show, Shane. Like, yeah, I’m gonna pick it up just for that one baseball card collector or basketball card collector that gives me a Michael Jordan rookie card or whatever, in exchange for this domain name. Yeah.
Shane: Yeah, something out-of-the-box.
Michael: Yeah, exactly. All right, cool. Thanks, Drew. Frank, anything else on the list that these guys didn’t pick over? That they didn’t see, that you like?
Frank: Great question. You guys know what the surest way is to make a…add 50% to the value of a name on this list?
Andrew: Talk about it here on the show?
Frank: No, nope. Just to buy it.
Andrew: Yeah.
Frank: The minute you buy it, immediately becomes, oh, it could be this, it could be that. It’s the human nature. And it’s interesting, because I heard you guys talking about…I wouldn’t normally do this but I’ll show you, just I was offline, I just sold this name — I think. I don’t know if you guys can read this.
Andrew: Littleitalypizza.
Frank: Yes.
Michael: Okay.
Frank: And there is the price. Can you see the broker, Dan, what it says there?
Andrew: No.
Shane: I see Dan.
Michael: Well Dan closed it, we don’t see the price, though.
Shane: Don’t give too much.
Frank: Face [SP] up [SP], Frank, we need to switch to…
Andrew: Eight k pay in 24 payments? Is that what it says?
Frank: Twenty-four hours.
Andrew: Oh.
Michael: I didn’t see the price. How much?
Frank: Eight k.
Shane: Eight thousand.
Michael: Eight k.
Frank: Eight thousand.
Michael: Wow.
Frank: So $8,000 bucks, but here’s the name, littleitalypizza. It’s kinda long, but how many Little Italy Pizzas are there? They’re like, just to you point about how many Saul’s Pizzas are there?
Andrew: Yeah.
Frank: So, you know, names like this, the surest way to…Saul’s Pizza, I guarantee you, whoever donates to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Society who buys that name, who comes back here in [SP] months [SP], when we look at it, we’re gonna look at it through an entirely new optic because…And that’s an important lesson to those watching, because it’s the nature of the domain business to light more what you got or what’s before you as…you know, sometimes than what’s on auction. When I look over the list, I looked at that one right away before I even [inaudible 01:06:59], and quickdiet totally reminds me of instantheat. Like, oh my God, the only thing better than a diet is a quick diet. Lose this weight, like, yesterday. Get my summer beach body back.
Shane: Quickly over.
Frank: Exactly. And eforce is a great name. I think it was Drew touched on it, but I really quite like that. And I didn’t even see the “B,” biod, as bio D — but now I do, I like it even more. And lapi [SP], another four letters, kind of just has a nice little ring to it as a brandable, cute little site, or something brandable. Socialtube I like on here, and that zenzhuan is probably something really great we’re all overlooking.
Michael: Right.
Frank: I don’t speak Chinese but I’m sure that the reason it’s on here is because somebody did look it up…
Michael: I think it’s somebody’s…
Frank: …and throw it…
Michael: …name.
Frank: …in this list.
Michael: I think I may have looked it up when I was pulling the list and it might be a common name.
Frank: I agree, premiermedical is really tough to spell because nobody can spell premier, but when I type ‘staffing solutions,’ and I just did a couple of times, for some reason I really wanna hit the C. So it’s like one of those, where your human behavior kind of works…yeah, against me, anyway. I like premiermedical for that reason, I think that’s great. There’s probably more Premier Medicals than there are Staffing Solutions. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like one of those that…
Shane: A lot more money.
Frank: …there’s just a lot of’em. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michael: Computerprivacy.com, it’s such a big issue, especially now with…you know, that the Senate ruling that ISPs can sell our personal browsing data. Is that an investment quality domain name?
Frank: You know, it doesn’t rule out the tongue, computerprivacy. Quickdiet and instantheat just feels right. Just feels like, of course. Whereas, computerprivacy just…and I don’t even think they call it that. I’d like more computer privacy.
Michael: It’s internet privacy is the phrase.
Frank: Internet privacy is the phrase, yeah. Yeah, something like that. Online privacy, privacy online, keep me private — things like that.
Shane: Yeah.
Frank: So you know, I agree, this isn’t an incredibly strong list, but I definitely think there’s money to be made in these. And not anymore though, now that we’re talking about it.
Michael: Well, you know, what’s fair is, you guys should not bid on these and we should have let the…
Frank: Open [SP] market [SP]…
Michael: …[inaudible 01:09:12] get it.
Frank: …let’s [SP] say [SP] that’s actually not…that’s not a bad [inaudible 01:09:14].
Shane: What’s fair is, I never do because we talk’em up so much they run out of my price range, so it works…
Michael: I know…
Shane: …out perfect.
Michael: …exactly.
Frank: Yeah, and I don’t even look but I’m sure I see some of those that we get, but I know that we don’t get’em all on the days that we talk about’em, so…
Michael: Yeah. All right, Sherpas, we’re at the end of today’s show, I’d like to give you guys an opportunity to share anything you have going on: brokering, selling, what’s going on with your business, deals you’re offering. Drew, what kind of the domains you’re looking for if you want people to email you with stuff that you’re looking to buy? Anyone you give a shout out to? Let’s start with you, Drew.
Andrew: So yeah, certainly always email me. If you’ve got good one word or two word dot com domains for sale, we are always buyers. Andrew@MediaOptions.com, very simple. Otherwise, we are running our spring option on NameJet, we’ve got a lot of inventory selling on there, reserves are low, we’ve had a very good sell-through rate so far. Frank has picked up a number of our names and…among many other folks. So, there are great deals to be had, and check it out.
Michael: Where do they go to find those?
Andrew: Everybody gets mad at me when I say something…
Shane: Back slash…
Andrew: …like that. I’m not even gonna go there.
Shane: …flash [SP].
Andrew: I don’t know, just go to NameJet and click on our banner.
Michael: Click on the Media Options banner on NameJet.com.
Andrew: And I’m going to leave it at that.
Michael: All right. Thanks, Drew. Frank, anything you wanna promote, give a shout out to?
Frank: Yeah. Business is running really well, Uni’s doing good. We dropped the Android app yesterday for market, so that’s…and that’s getting lots of downloads. It’s also in Chinese, so we’re actually getting a lot of Asian usurers who are downloading that from…Actually in Vietnam as well, funny enough. You know, registrar is rolling along great and renewals are coming around on new gTLD stuff, so we’re doing okay there. You know, to the extent that on the good stuff, that we’re making money there. And life is good. Honestly, I can’t complain. I truly born under a lucky star. Thank the Lord.
Michael: So thanks, Frank. Shane, let’s go to you, bud.
Shane: Well, when this is playing I will be running the Boston Marathon, so I’ll be running the Boston Marathon Monday. Yeah…
Michael: It’s Monday.
Shane: …this Monday. And thank you to Verisign, who…
Frank: Wow.
Shane: …was nice enough to sponsor, I’ll be wearing dot com during the race.
Michael: Is it breathable. Is it breathable or is it gonna chafe? You know what I’m talking about.
Shane: I will say, it’s a big…it’s not really a running shirt, I was trying to figure out how to tailor it. I mean, it’s a large but… And GoDaddy was nice enough to send me a shirt and sponsor me, but they sent me a cycling shirt, so…
Frank: Ohhh.
Shane: But I…
Michael: That’s awesome.
Shane: …promised’em I would wear it in IRONMAN and wear a GoDaddy…
Michael: Yeah, the next IRONMAN. Yeah, your next…
Shane: …in cycling but…
Michael: …time in Kona. So what’s your anticipated time for your marathon, Shane?
Shane: So don’t put any pressure on me…
Michael: No, no…
Shane: …but I’m not…
Michael: …no pressure at all…
Shane: …[inaudible 01:12:22]…
Michael: …but it better be…
Shane: …[inaudible 01:12:22].
Michael: …sub 3:10:00.
Shane: I’m going to try and beat 3:25:00, so I’d like to run…Qualifying for me, an old man of 48, is 3:25:00, and I think I’ll…I mean, I already qualified to get in there but I think I can run faster than that. I haven’t really been training as much but I’ve been running…like, I’ve been doing the errand style, where you barely run during the week because you’re so busy at work, and then I run 35 miles on the weekend. So…
Frank: Wow.
Shane: …we’ll how that plays out.
Frank: Great. That’s good for you, buddy.
Michael: Awesome.
Frank: That’s great.
Shane: It’ll be fun. There’s nothing like Boston, you know, it’s just…And Elliott’s wife will be running, so I was…
Michael: Oh, nice.
Shane: …hoping to see him at mile, I think he said 13. So, I couldn’t believe it was probably six years ago? I was newer to domaining, and there was Elliott, “Yeah, Shane!” sceaming. Like, a million people in the crowd, there’s Elliott poking…And you know, and Elliott’s the tallest guy in the world, so to find him through the crowd was pretty strong. It was great. He’s…
Frank: Well, he’ll find you…
Shane: …good sport.
Frank: …and that dot com business [SP], though.
Shane: Yeah, it’s a big, bright, green dot com shirt, so I’m sure you’ll see some pictures on Twitter of me wearing it…
Michael: So if you wanna…
Shane: …but now it’s like a…
Michael: …track Shane, type in ‘Boston Marathon’ into Google, go to the website, and then they…They track ya’ every mile, don’t they?
Shane: Every mile, yeah.
Michael: So I’m going to be tracking your mile pace, I’m going to see when you hit that wall, I’m gonna see you push through it, man. Push through it.
Shane: Yeah, no, it’s…I’ve got no problem. This will be my 36th marathon, I’ve pretty much figured this thing out.
Frank: That’s incredible.
Michael: Crazy.
Shane: Yeah.
Frank: What’s a secret to running a marathon?
Shane: To winning it? EPL. Basically drugs. But…
Frank: Oh, too bad.
Shane: …the secret to life and marathons is to consistently work hard, eventually you’ll get there.
Frank: Well that is a…
Shane: It’s really a…
Frank: …it is my impression.
Shane: …inch by inch, life’s a cinch. This honestly is true — the hardest part of anything is just getting out of bed and doing it. Because you can sit there and lay there all day and come up with a million excuses why not to do something, but when your wife and your daughter call you names when you’re laying there… The one they always say is, “Hey, you know that guy that beat you last race? He’s not running right now.” I’ve heard that, like, 1,000 times. So, anyway…
Frank: That’s awesome.
Shane: …it’s not a big a deal.
Frank: That’s a great mantra, that’s my mantra for life. I mean, that’s how I do too. I had never run in a marathon, I get bad knees. But I mean, in business, that’s it, you just don’t quit, you just keep going.
Michael: Yeah, just keep going.
Frank: But you can’t fake that…
Shane: You’ll get there.
Frank: …you gotta really wanna do it. If you don’t wanna do it, you’ll never get there.
Shane: Yeah, I’ll tell a quick story then go long. But my wife pointed this out 20 years ago, and she said, “When you want to do something, you always find a way to do it: you find a way to get off of work, you find a way to find the money, and you find the time. When I ask you to go see my parents — you gotta work, you can’t afford it, and you’re too busy. So anything that you really wanna do, you will find the time to do it.”
Michael: Yeah…
Shane: And she’s right.
Michael: …that is true.
Shane: That’s exactly right.
Frank: Spot on. Girl’s got it.
Michael: Give a little bit more love to your in-laws, Shane. Come on, buddy.
Shane: Oh, I know. Well, after that speech, I go every time.
Michael: Seriously, yeah. Hey, I wanna give a quick shout out for DNSeattle that’s coming up. It’s going to take place at the Amazon headquarters in Seattle, Washington on May 25, 2017. This is my event, I put it on every single year, this is our fourth year, Amazon’s going to be our premier sponsor this year. We already have supporting sponsors GoDaddy, Donuts, Rightside, all local in the Seattle area. Payoneer Escrow also came aboard, and Above.com. Eighty tickets went on sale last Thursday, we’ve already sold…we only have, like, 35 of’em left, I think.
So if you’re in the Pacific Northwest area, come down from Vancouver, over from Idaho that the whole Straighrazors team, Luke Webster and his team are coming over from Montana…Idaho, sorry. Sorry, Luke. Idaho, up from California, Oregon. It’s a three-hour event, it takes place on Thursday night from 6 to 9 p.m. Lot of socializing, networking, we’ve got an educational portion that handles in there…that takes place in there, DJ Staten [SP] from Rightside is gonna be spinning some ninja [SP] tunes there. After the event we usually go to a bar in the local area. Last year I think we shut down the bar at, like, 3 or 4 a.m., we were sitting on the…I don’t wanna name names, who was there.
But we were sitting on the couch we bought, like, five bottles of wine just to sit there after they closed everything down, we had a great time. And I wanna give a shout out to Hexonet. My Hexonet boys up in Vancouver, they were the first two to buy tickets. I hadn’t even announced anything yet, they found where the tickets were selling, they bought the first two tickets. So, thanks for doing that. Mark Levine from Minneapolis already bought his ticket to fly out here just for this three-hour event. Mark, you’re crazy but I love ya’. Thanks for coming out. All of the proceeds from DNSeattle — all the sponsors, all the ticket prices, all the proceeds go to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center right here in Seattle.
They’re doing groundbreaking work to help us all find a cure for cancer. So if you’re…if you can make yourself available or you’re in the area, definitely get a ticket ASAP and join us at DNSeattle at Amazon’s headquarters. If you receive benefit from today’s show, please post a comment below, the Sherpas love it. They love getting some positive news, right, Frank?
Frank: I’ll take anything.
Michael: And thank today’s Sherpas. I wanna thank Paul Botelho for submitting his portfolio and making a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, thanks to NameJet for submitting their portfolio and sponsoring that portion of “The Domain Sherpa Review.” And thanks again to our Domain Sherpas, Andrew Rosener, Frank Schilling and Shane Cultra for sharing their experience and insights. We’ll see you all next time.
Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/review-20170417/