Mining the Internet Gold Rush
"Your talent is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God."
— Leo Buscaglia (1924-1998)
Open Your Gifts
"To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."
— Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975)
I knew deep in my heart that this opportunity with domain names was my calling. Even though I didn't know how to do it, the timing seemed perfect. With the dot-com boom ushering in crazy money into dot-coms, companies raising millions of dollars for hock-eyed ideas like Webvan, raising ~ $800 million, valued at $4.8 billion with just $395,000 in revenues and $50 million in losses. Was that all it took to build a multi-billion dollar business? It didn't make any sense to me… But domain names did. With the coming implosion of these unsustainable dot-com companies, I could see a reset in the Internet and a massive opportunity with expired domain names.
But I didn't have any proof, and I didn't know how the domain name system worked. I didn't know when lapsed domain name registrations would default or when these expired domain names would become available again, but I knew there must be a system.
I decided to figure it out. I would give myself three months, maybe six months. If I couldn't figure it out by then, I would start a health practice (not a medical practice) that espoused preventative health lifestyles.
I asked my friends, church elders, parents and, of course, my wife for guidance. Everyone strongly advised me to continue my childhood dream of becoming a doctor. The Internet was a fad. After all, it was in a big bust. Everyone was predicting that Amazon would fail big and not last the next year as the big companies fell one by one. Masayoshi Son of SoftBank surpassed Bill Gates as the wealthiest person in the world at $96 billion for just three days, and then his fortune fell to $6 billion in the next year.
Going All In
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might."
— King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 9:10) (931 BC)
"Honey, I don't know how to do this, but I believe it is a big door of opportunity that will close if I don't do it now. All I ask is for your support. I just need one person to support me."
I knew I couldn't do it without my wife's support. We had a newborn daughter, Jessi, and we were moving back to Vancouver. This was an entirely unproven idea. I would have to put HostGlobal and DNSIndex on the back burner and potentially lose their income to pursue domain names. And that's what I did. I spent all my waking hours trying to figure out how these names dropped.
I knew domain names had to be registered for a year or two, and if the owner didn't renew the name before its expiry date, it would become available again for registration. I also knew that Verisign was the domain name registry that managed this.
I started downloading the dot-com zone files containing all the dot-com domain names registered as of that day and then 'diffed' them to see which domain names were deleted from the zone files the following day. Then, I ran the deleted domain names through 'whois,' a tool that allowed me to look up their registration data, including ownership and expiration date.
June passed. July passed. It was now August. I had looked at tens of millions of domain names but still couldn't figure it out. I joined all the domain name forums to get whatever hints I could. Then, on August 10, 2000, Some premium domain names on my list turned up! I ran the list through Whois to see who had registered them. There were a handful of names and companies. Noname (Yun Ye), Frank Schilling, Garry Chernoff, Scott Day… These were domain pros. It was a moment of great joy. Even though I had not registered a single domain yet, I finally cracked part of the code.
I found out that Verisign had not released any expired domain names from March until that day in August, which is likely why I was coming up empty-handed for all those months.
Through the domain name forums, I learned that the next drop would happen one day after my birthday, September 26, 2000. I also knew they would become available at 6:30 am EST, 3:30 am PST. This time, I would be ready. I was up with two computers, manually trying to register my list of 20 domains. Each one had a three to five-step registration process. I would only register five domain names on my list that day because the process was so slow. Goldmedals.com was the best one. It was likely that my five domains weren't on the domain pros' radars. I was like a domain scavenger eating the scraps left, deemed unworthy of immediate re-registration.
There Must Be a Better Way
"It's such a simple question that would make all things better. "Is there a better way? Can I be better today than I was yesterday? Can this generation be better than the previous?"
— Kevin Ham (1970- )
I had to figure out a better, faster way before the next drop. Could I program this and loop the registration process programmatically?
I researched whether this was possible. The Perl LWP Library could automatically sign in and go through forms. Wow! Incredible. I started studying how to program this and then found a registrar with a one-step registration process, OpenSRS (Tucows).
Next drop… I was able to register about 10% of a much bigger list. Now, I was competing with the domain pros.
How Can I Be Even Better?
What if I partnered with a registrar and offered to pay them more to register all the domains on my list? Go for volume. It was incredible how many domains Yun and Frank were registering each drop. Premium domains like performance.com were going to drop soon.
I spoke to Barry at Signature Domains. We did a phone deal. I sent him over my scripts and domain list and agreed to pay him $100 per premium domain and $10 for the rest of my top 100 domains.
He registered performance.com, potentially a million-dollar domain! I did it! I was so excited.
But when I spoke to him, he told me that he sold performance.com for $10,000. Someone had offered him that much. Guess who? Garry Chernoff. Hi Garry :) Smart move, good for you. Garry's a good friend.
I had never done business before, so I didn't have a contract. I thought one's word was good enough. But as heartbroken as I was, I thought, it's hard to deny a $10,000 offer versus my $100 deal. I harboured no ill will. I figured I had to adapt. I needed to structure a deal with someone who would not sell-out to the highest bidder.
I emailed more domain registrars. IA Registry, a web hosting company, a newly minted registrar, was interested. This time, I would meet them in person. I flew to North Carolina and drove down to South Carolina to meet with the team. David Wascher was the manager. We hit it off. I said I would register thousands of domain names. I also asked that they honour our agreement. I would allow my domain competitors on as they had different 'tastes' in domains, but I would like to approve only five. Yun mostly went after two-word domains but would later get beijing.com from IA. Good for Yun. He was from China, and it was a great 'catch'. That was a million-dollar domain.
I shook hands with David. He was good with his word, and I am grateful to him. We would go on to register domains like BlackFriday.com for $8. When I became successful, I tried to 'pay him back', but he would not take a penny.
Still no legal agreement. Just a handshake, a look in the eye, and honour in one's word--this became my underlying principle in business.
David, my heart goes out to you. I love you, wherever you are. I never fully returned the measure of grace and honour you gave me.
Life Questions
What are your gifts? List them.
When can you go "All in"? Set a date.
Is there an even better way? Think, plan and execute.
What is your #1 goal? Focus on it until you master it.
Life Advice Then
From my 29-year-old self:
"It is not the wealth or power that defines a man, but his character and the impact he leaves on the world."
— Alexander the Great (356 BC - 323 BC)
Trust your heart and connect the dots with your mind
If you are not a wholeheartedly YES, it's likely not for you. When your heart and your mind align, go all in.
When it's either your heart or your mind, let it ferment until they align.
No regrets.
Ask others, but ask yourself if this is what you truly want
Ask yourself, your older self in 50 years and even your younger self if this is what you truly want.
Pray and think and sleep on it. This is my go-to process.
Know when it is time to go all in.
Sometimes, you have to take the plunge to make it work.
Believe there is always a better way … every day
There always is.
Life Advice Now
From my 53-year-old self:
"If you want to take the island, burn the boats."
— Julius Caesar (100 BC - 44 BC)
Timing is everything … most of the time.
It's not too early … not too late—just the right time. It's proclaimed to be the top factor for business success, and I think it applies to life, too.
Is it the right time? If so, go for it. If not, be patient until you feel and know it is.
One yes leads to 10 more things, which then spawns ten more.
Can you pursue two ventures well at the same time? Unlikely. Something will give.
Great decision to go all in. It worked out well.
Easy in hindsight, much more difficult in foresight.
Determine the end destination.
The end is difficult to visualize clearly, but this is your vision--have one.
The clearer you can see and describe it, the easier it will be to get there.
Sometimes, the destination will reveal itself over time, but it takes time each day to practice seeing the vision clearly. Once it is clear, you will know what direction to take.
Honour the ones who helped you.
Life is full of ups and downs. When they are down, help them up. Stay connected. Don't let good and honour go unnoticed.
Next week: How do I make money?
The secret to a million dollars.
See you next Thursday!
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