Rick Schwartz: Exclusive IDNBlog Interview

[sprewellpj]

Rick Schwartz discusses his domain investment and sales strategies, IDNs, and much more in the following exclusive IDNBlog interview. Regarding IDNs, Rick understandably points out that investors should try to stick to what they know, and given his English .com expertise...

http://idnblog.com/2009/11/11/rick-s...usive-idnblog/

[tee1]

Interesting read, great Interview for your blog. That should get a few more to sign up for the IDNnewletter.


edit: Does he still think IDNs and.coms are 2 different things? errrrrrr. Does he differentiate english.coms and idn.coms? or are they .coms

"Q: Can we expect to see you owning any IDNs in the near future?

A: Probably not. I believe in do what you do and doing it well. I have never been very interested in IDN. I am just not that smart. I am a dot com guy and always will be and for very good reasons......"

[jose]

Fact: he is a successful domainer businessman.

Now I ask: Do you think he "got lucky" or he "has the vision"?

If so, why was he dead wrong on flowers.mobi and does it means we (IDNERS) are all doomed?

[sprewellpj]

I know this is a divisive subject and many will disagree. I think Rick has the vision. He takes risks and is often (though not always) right.

[sarcle]

Originally Posted by sprewellpj

I think Rick has the vision.

He had the vision. He tried to keep the vision going with .mobi seeing a future in moblie internet. Yes, mobile browsing is growing leaps and bounds but .mobi is a totally useless and unnecessary extension.

The true vision is a global internet. One that everyone can access and everyone can share with friends. I couldn't remember or even know how to spell Веб-сайт.com if I were to see it on an advertisment so how could I expect the populations around the world to understand or remember an English domain name.

It's really bad though that the biggest domaining blog in the industry has yet to do a full article covering the topic of .IDN that has just about arrived and will change the Internet forever.

[IDNCowboy]

Instead of buying a .mobi for 200k he could have bought an IDN for a fraction of the price.........

He was lucky and was in the right space at the right time. He bought top quality generic .com's early on in the game....

[sprewellpj]

Originally Posted by IDNCowboy

Instead of buying a .mobi for 200k he could have bought an IDN for a fraction of the price.........

Hindsight is 20/20. He struck out on one .mobi name and made many millions with others. That's a nice overall return.

He doesn't know much about IDNs, and sticks to what he knows. Nothing's wrong with that in my book.

[jose]

Originally Posted by sarcle

The true vision is a global internet. One that everyone can access and everyone can share with friends.

I have always been sold that concept of the "global village"... in English.
That's why English is obligatory on the Portuguese high school, now.

[Rubber Duck]

I think the fact that he relies entirely on his gut and does not use metrics just about says it all. The gut has had some serious success but clearly has its limitations. For those of us that are less well endowed, we have to rely on our wits and analysis. For a non-native with IDN you are always going to be heavily reliant on metrics. The one thing we both have in common though is that we got in relatively early.

The other thing that I have noted is that Rick is getting out. He is distancing himself from TRAFFICS and he has also dis-invested most of limited number of outstanding names. Last week he was going on about selling the entire industry to Microsoft, and he listed the valuations of the portfolios. He has done well, but I don't believe he has done that well!

[Steve Clarke]

He had the vision, timing, luck and availability of cash, to amass a great generic ascii portfolio.
His lack of vision, on IDNS, means he's doing well enough to ignore them... but he's definitely missed the boat, by a country mile, this time around.
The guys with the real smarts...are the top domainers, who have quietly amassed a decent IDN portfolio, to add to their already decent ascii portfolios.
It seems that the ascii domaining community, will follow anyone with past success, even if their eyes are closed.

[hanidn]

Originally Posted by sarcle

The true vision is a global internet. One that everyone can access and everyone can share with friends. I couldn't remember or even know how to spell Веб-сайт.com if I were to see it on an advertisment so how could I expect the populations around the world to understand or remember an English domain name.

The goodest vision !!
That’s what I believed and that’s what I could invest my own one decade of time.
And I am moving to New York manhattan next month.

[Rubber Duck]

His real strength is getting better prices for his domains than everyone else. Indeed, sometimes better than can rationally be justified. His names in general are not always that remarkable but he can sell. I guess what has got Rick phased is not so much how he determines what a good name is or how to chose the right keyword for PPC, but how the hell does he sell a name he cannot even read?

Originally Posted by Steve Clarke

He had the vision, timing, luck and availability of cash, to amass a great generic ascii portfolio.
His lack of vision, on IDNS, means he's doing well enough to ignore them... but he's definitely missed the boat, by a country mile, this time around.
The guys with the real smarts...are the top domainers, who have quietly amassed a decent IDN portfolio, to add to their already decent ascii portfolios.
It seems that the ascii domaining community, will follow anyone with past success, even if their eyes are closed.

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

He has done well, but I don't believe he has done that well!

He has already made tens of millions.... He's better than all of us in terms of luck.

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by IDNCowboy

He has already made tens of millions.... He's better than all of us in terms of luck.

To clarify, he estimated his own net worth at $150 Million. As I said, he has done well, but I don't believe he has done that well.

http://www.ricksblog.com/my_weblog/2...on-part-2.html

[idn]

Quite frankly I am sick of hearing about him, FS, The Domain Game and every other celebrity in our little world. This is not a jealousy thing, I am simply more interested in the future.

Sure their moves took some guts and they definitely had vision, but being in the right place at the right time of their lives had a lot to do with it. This stuff is not brain surgery.

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by idn

Quite frankly I am sick of hearing about him, FS, The Domain Game and every other celebrity in our little world. This is not a jealousy thing, I am simply more interested in the future.

Sure their moves took some guts and they definitely had vision, but being in the right place at the right time of their lives had a lot to do with it. This stuff is not brain surgery.

He may be a good businessman but he is not that bright... posting his net worth.. shows you he is too into himself..

[Drewbert]

Originally Posted by hanidn

.
And I am moving to New York manhattan next month.

For the cheap rent?

[IDNCowboy]

Originally Posted by Drewbert

For the cheap rent?

Good luck ;-)

I own this realm

[sarcle]

Originally Posted by Steve Clarke

He had the vision, timing, luck and availability of cash, to amass a great generic ascii portfolio.
His lack of vision, on IDNS, means he's doing well enough to ignore them... but he's definitely missed the boat, by a country mile, this time around.
The guys with the real smarts...are the top domainers, who have quietly amassed a decent IDN portfolio, to add to their already decent ascii portfolios.
It seems that the ascii domaining community, will follow anyone with past success, even if their eyes are closed.

Domaining was a natural extension of what he was already doing. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he selling generic 1-800 numbers to companies before his domain venture?

Seeing how the Internet was exploding at the same time I can see how a person in his position could see the potential for generic domain names.

The problem is the domaining community that started with English speaking domainers only cares about English domains.

Honestly if I were to make $150 million on ASCII I probably wouldn't care about IDN either.

The problem I have with their domainer's conferences is the lack of willingness to accept anything they don't own. Why? Because they can't sell what they don't have.

It doesn't take a whole bunch of smarts to check a few dictionaries and overture scores. So his excuse for not getting into IDNs is BS.

That much money alone would allow him to hire native translators to register domains for him in most languages full-time.

[idn]

Originally Posted by sarcle

Domaining was a natural extension of what he was already doing. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't he selling generic 1-800 numbers to companies before his domain venture?

That and selling furniture.