When Patterns Are Broken, New Worlds Emerge
As I was reading an interesting post on ElliotsBlog.com earlier today, it made me think about the lack of creativity we’re seeing in the domaining industry. Domainers see 5 or 6 figure sales, and immediately register variations of those domains. And the truth of the matter is the people who do that are cowards. It shows their lack in creativity, the characteristic that I see as one of the most important characteristics necessary to run a successful business.
Step outside of your comfort zone. Elliot brought up the point that no matter what, people are going to run to register domains similar to FrenchCookingGames.com, after CookingGames.com sold for $350,000. And I’ve seen it happen on numerous occasions. Seriously, if you can be replaced by a machine, you should be.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in following trends. But you need to be smart when following trends. Never bank on the idea that the owner of CookingGames.com would ever even consider buying a domain as bad as FrenchCookingGames.com. And the truth of the matter is, if someone invests 5 or 6 figures in a domain name, chances are they’re either not interested in bad variations of that domain name, or will sue for trademark infringement or cybersquatting in the case that they actually are interested. People spending that kind of money on domains aren’t stupid (generally).
Without creativity, you cannot be successful in business. You need to be able to come up with innovative ideas. One of the few things I absolutely hate is when people tell me they just weren’t born with a creative mind. I promise you, how creative you are is based solely on how hard you try in life and how creative you want to be. Just remember the saying, when patterns are broken, new worlds emerge. Think outside the box. Get creative!
You’re absolutely right. I think it’s a matter of this generations’ laziness. People are too lazy to think hard about stuff and so they just follow and copy what others do.
In the case of cookinggames.com the REASON the domain gets type-in traffic is not not because it’s a “good” domain, which it’s not.
It’s because so many developers with variations of the name have developed sites with cooking games.
Someone might play a game they find on a site like e-cookinggames.com, funcookinggames.com, hotcookinggames.com ect…
Which they find fun and in a week or 2 when they want to come back, the part it seems most remember is “cooking games” so that’s what they type-in.
Buying all the variations of this domain would actually hurt its value. I’d rather people hear the hype, make a site, promote the crap out of it. In the end with this domain I’m taxing the entire niche X percent of their return viewers.
Great post and great advice. Know your traffic, know your advertising base.