Comparto parte del articulo de Feb. de DNJournal.com sobre Eric Rice de BulkRegister.com
http://dnjournal.com/cover/2007/february.htm

The Eric Rice Story: How A Displaced Domain Executive Survived (and Thrived) Despite Domain Industry Consolidation

In last month’s cover story, a panel of domain industry experts agreed that consolidation was the biggest trend in this business in 2006 and that it would be again in 2007 with big fish like Demand Media, iREIT, Marchex and Name Media continuing to gobble up the smaller fish in the domain sea. When news hits of still another buyout, most people focus only on the company names of those who have been ingested; names like eNom, BulkRegister and Afternic in 2006. However those deals also impact real people and often change their lives in dramatic ways.

This story is about one of those people, former BulkRegister.com General Manager Eric Rice, who left the corporate suite to fly solo last year when his company was bought out by eNom (who in turn was acquired by Demand Media).

BulkRegister was based in Baltimore and Maryland happens to be Rice’s home state. His close family and and personal business ties there ruled out moving to the Pacific Northwest where eNom is headquartered. So, Rice had to rethink his future in the industry and answer a question many of you have undoubtedly faced in your own life, “What do I do now?”
This kind of scenario is a jarring experience for most people, but for Rice adapting to something new was nothing new. “I’ve been an ambulance driver, a whitewater rafting guide, a ski instructor, director of a day care center and a high school teacher. I even owned a rafting and sea kayaking company for five years."

"I was paying my own way by the time I was 14 years old just because that was how I was,” Rice said, adding “I’ve had a lot of fun!” Fun is an ingredient that no potential entrepreneur should discount. You’ve got to love what you do because you are going to be spending a lot of hours doing it!

Rice hit the ground running when he left BulkRegister and soon found ways to multiply his income. We’ll tell you how he did that, but to help you fully understand it, we first need to retrace the unique road Rice has traveled to get where he is today.

Rice grew up in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland where his parents, Jay and Dianne, have operated a Christmas tree farm for more than 25 years. They were also school teachers which brings up one of Rice’s most embarrassing childhood memories. Rice told us “I had the rare opportunity to have my father for 8th grade science and I am probably the only kid in America who ever got paddled in front of the class by his own dad!" You won't find it in the teacher's disciplinary manual, but Rice's dad defined his infraction as "lippin’ off."

Deep Creek Lake is in western Maryland’s Garrett County, a beautiful tourist destination about an hour away from Pittsburgh that has one of the country’s few ski resorts that run into a lake. Deep Creek Lake also features some of the best whitewater rafting in America and Rice took full advantage of the many natural wonders surrounding his birthplace.

"I knew how to snow and water ski from the age of four and there is an adventurous side to me that never really subsides. The older I get the more I do."
"I am still into all of these sports I conquered growing up and some new ones like wave skis which are kayaks with surfboard bottoms that you ride ocean waves on. The bigger the waves the better. I guess I could do pretty well on Survivor given the chance!,” Rice said.

Rice’s grandfather, Ruthvan Morrow, was a well known naturalist, photographer and writer who mapped out Maryland’s vast Cranesville Swamp, a geographical oddity left over from the retreat of the last Ice Age that hosts plants that appear only in that part of Maryland and in Antarctica. “Until the 1950’s it was largely unknown and unmapped and almost impossible to get into. I went on many trips into the swamp with him and we would routinely stay there for a few days at a time, even when the temperature was near zero,” Rice recalled.

Though he grew up in a rural area, Rice obviously never had a chance to be bored. Others who have grown up in small towns have been eager to escape to the big city, but Rice loved his surroundings and stayed nearby when it was time to go off to college, enrolling at western Maryland’s Frostburg State University. “I majored in history and psychology, then got my master’s from Frostburg in history and education, but teaching didn’t last long for me,” Rice said. “I found it harder to sit still in that environment than the students did. In fact, I was only a high school teacher for six months before I resigned at the end of the first year.”

Rice calls Frostburg State “Sales University” because practically everyone he knows from his college days has been extremely successful in sales, marketing or as entrepreneurs. “We are all the type that have our cell phones in our ears day and night and never are working on just one project,” Rice said.

Rice’s own path as an entrepreneur kicked into high gear in 1996. “I started buying up properties in Baltimore within walking distance to the Inner Harbor. I ended up with over twenty properties in what has turned out to be the best redevelopment track in Baltimore.”

That led to Rice opening a real estate brokerage and development company called Results 1 Realty. “Our real estate brokerage has completed over 30 development projects in Baltimore and has 20 sales agents,” Rice noted.

“I have dumped most of the earnings back into the properties and after ten years the bulk of those properties are mortgage free, allowing use of the equity and cash flow to invest in other areas. "You can imagine I lot of that money goes into domain purchases these days and development of new real estate websites for areas all over Maryland and Washington D.C.”

“My best domain development project today is our website, Results1Realty.com, which gets a lot of traffic and produces a lead about every two hours,” Rice said. “The traffic is 100% organic although we started testing PPC just last month. We close about 100 of those leads a year with an average total commission of $6,000 per close. Plus one in five people use our mortgage partners and one in four use our title partners. The site costs about $5,000 per year to maintain and add on to. Taking those leads to close is the absolute best use of traffic for a real estate site as we get a huge ROI on those leads.”

“I just leased two generic real estate domains from LeaseThis.com that I had previously been trying to purchase. It is a good solution for both the domain owner and us as a business owner. The domains have type in traffic which we will get the benefit of. We have also invested in new sites in other parts of Maryland and D.C. that are already producing leads and we are looking at using our approach to hit other medium-sized cities where we think our lead generation sites will do best.”

While building up his real estate operation, Rice, true to his multitasking nature, also used his sales and marketing expertise in a corporate position. “I was Vice President of Business Development with JDA Advertising, a direct marketing company that served dozens of software companies."

"We later changed the name to Connected Brands and went national – creating online advertising, branding and direct marketing strategies for leading companies like Avid Technology, IBM, Sybase, Symantec, Cybercash, Comcast and dozens of others," Rice said. It was in that position that BulkRegister first heard about Rice and recruited him to come and run their registrar business. “I accepted because I saw the raw potential of what they were sitting on. I rapidly pushed us into the aftermarket and domain monetization side of the business.”

The job allowed Rice to become one of the very few people who have developed and controlled the portfolio of a top 10 registrar. “That was a very lucky position for me to be in because overnight I was able to create lots of traffic and then test monetizing and optimizing that traffic in a variety of ways. We tested extensively so I gained a lot of knowledge about types of traffic, parking providers and different monetization programs,” Rice said.

“I devour things that I like so I spent hours educating myself on monetizing domains while getting a salary and preparing the company for sale. Somewhere along the way I started buying my own domains and portfolios and have ran with that as a personal business ever since. BulkRegister was a great training ground,” Rice noted, adding “the registrars sit in a position that every domainer would like to be in.”

Since going out on his own, Rice has proven that opportunities still abound in the domain business. “I think I represent the domain name investors who didn’t get started as early as some “industry legends” but have still had good success over the last several years and especially in 2006 which was a much more competitive market for acquiring domain names,” Rice said. “You see many of us not only buying domain names but providing niche services as well. I aggregate traffic for about 50 clients and that provides another revenue stream. Overall the ability for people like me to get in and do well shows how vibrant the overall market is."

“I have followed the tactics I used in real estate and have pyramided my way into a considerable portfolio of domains that have traffic by buying and selling all the time," Rice said. "I keep some and I sell some but all of the money goes back into more domains. I am always buying and increasing the optimization and overall revenue on a domain through a variety of tactics. This creates an immediate increase in value that I can either keep or trade in. In real estate I did this by rehabbing and reselling every 3rd property and putting the profits into the other properties. It is pretty similar in domains.”

“Also for the first time I have started financing domain purchases (both as a borrower and as a lender). I am also buying domains in my self-directed IRA. The profit from selling a domain or parking goes back into the self-directed IRA tax free. Self-directed IRA’s allow you to direct the money into any investment you choose. This is especially valuable on domains I would be flipping quickly and paying ordinary income on, as well as for parking income. For people who don’t already have an IRA with money in it, it may not make sense to open an IRA just to buy and sell domains because you don’t know where tax rates are going to be in 20 or 30 years," Rice said.

“I built my portfolio in just about 24 months so there is hope for the person who didn’t get in early. I can’t really say I have any great generics but that doesn’t bother me as things are moving in the right direction with income from my own domains and from services I provide. My average domain produces $3 per day in income but that is across hundreds of domains. I have many other domains that don’t produce income but are worth $500-$5,000 to the right buyer. Most of those domains were purchased for less than $300.”

Rice also had a prediction. “I think some of the most interesting people in the industry are going to start to be people you may not have heard of a year ago. People who really have to put their nose to the grindstone and constantly be innovating to get models that work. I do several things that I really think nobody else is doing right now. I was forced to try these ideas by necessity because of how competitive other models are.”

Rice played a key role in turning BulkRegister into a registrar that attracted many professional domain investors (and in turn attracted the attention of new owner Demand Media). “BulkRegister cared more about the customer and the customer’s ability to manage domains and the security of the domains than anything else. That is what made us exceptional. We introduced 25 new management tools and features in the two years before the acquisition, most of which were directly based on feedback from BulkRegister members. People could really see that what they told us they needed they received, " Rice said.

“It’s interesting that when I wanted to start charging a $99 annual membership fee I was told that nobody would pay it. The reality was that nobody had a problem with it because of the great value they had with the BulkRegister system and support. People managing domains worth thousands and millions of dollars will pay for features. It’s a real opportunity for registrars right now."

"Many registrars seem to think about their client's domains as a $7 commodity while their clients think about the domains they own as assets worth millions of dollars. In many cases it isn’t even the value of the domain but the business built on that domain that has value. Who would keep valuable domains at a registrar that has poor tools, poor support and poor security? Many registrars need to wake up and understand just what it is they are handling and the value they can provide to their clients,” Rice said.

BulkRegister’s development of a sophisticated domain aftermarket was undoubtedly a key factor in eNom and Demand Media’s desire to buy the company. “Helping to orchestrate BulkRegister’s foray into the domain aftermarket was extremely rewarding and one of the most interesting things I have done in my life," Rice said. "The registrars sit in an incredible position. It was amazing how a small tweak to a process could improve revenue dramatically across our portfolios.”

“Some registrars just don’t seem to get this aftermarket they own or how to capitalize on it. The right strategies could make them worth 5-10 times what they are worth today, maybe more in the long run. There is a preoccupation with registrars to discount the ideas of others and just work in their own little world. In the domain aftermarket space it just seems to get even worse. It is hard for some of them to grasp that each of them has a media and advertising company that can be woven right into the model.”

Due to contractual requirements, Rice is not at liberty to say much about the sale of BulkRegister but he did say, “We set out to sell BulkRegister when the valuation came to where we wanted it, so it was no surprise. It did happen faster than we expected but so did our aftermarket. Demand Media purchased a good business and I’m pleased that the BulkRegister brand will continue to exist. It’s a good situation and everyone’s hard work has been rewarded."

"I am still working with BulkRegister founder Tom Cunningham and we plan on investing right back into the domain and internet space as the right opportunities come alone," Rice said. "Tom and I and our team developed a franchise model in the web development and marketing space several years ago called Truepresence. That business unit has a new management team and is growing rapidly. Tom also has several other businesses that he continues to operate including his new data center at Baltimore Technology Park."

"The BulkRegister sale allowed me to take my stock equity in BulkRegister and move it into domains and domain related businesses. I am really enjoying developing new ideas that are already bringing in lots of revenue for myself and my clients," Rice said. "It was probably a good time for me to get out on my own as the opportunities are considerable. Advising hosting companies, registrars and domainers on how to add even more value in the domain aftermarket is the crux of my new consulting practice, Domains For Media LLC, so I look forward to remaining intensely involved in this area and I hope that registrars and hosting companies start thinking and improving. We bring them ideas they may have never thought of.”

"I don’t think some registrars are maximizing the revenue they can make in the aftermarket. I know from my work with several of them that a registrar or hosting company can make $2.50-$4.00 per year in pure profit for each domain name they manage as a registrar or reseller. That means a registrar with 1,000,000 domain names under management (not to be confused with names they own) should be adding at least $3 million per year to the bottom line," Rice said. "These are astounding numbers but easily attainable. People sometimes look at me cross-eyed when I talk about numbers like that but it is a reality for registrars and even hosting companies. It’s exciting to apply my knowledge to these companies and see immediate results when they follow a proven process.”

Given his recent success it would seem unlikely that Rice would return to another company’s executive suite, but he doesn’t rule it out completely. “Most likely I will be on my own although you can never tell in this industry," Rice said. "That’s the beauty of the whole domain industry – you don’t have to work for someone or be a huge company to create value and do extremely well financially. One good idea can set your sails on fire – quickly. Just look around. I love the innovation. Whether it’s a new parking company doing innovative things or someone building tools for domainers, something new seems to pop up weekly…and many times it actually adds value overnight.”

"It seems to me that the later you got into domains the more innovative you are or have to be," Rice added. "I find some of the most interesting conversations at shows like T.R.A.F.F.I.C. with people who are just a year or so into it and who are making big money. There are just so many avenues including selling services to the domain owners themselves to make your mark in this industry.”

While domains have enjoyed a huge surge over the past couple of years, Rice believes the bull market will still be running long after you and I are gone. “I think in 80 years the chart for domain performance will really look like the housing market for the last 80 years. You will see some little blips from changes in technology, economic recessions and other things but over all you will see steady increases in the value of good domains,” Rice said.

“Let’s take Cameras.com (purchased for $1.5 million in 2006) as an example. Some might say it was a lot to pay for a domain. I say, “who cares - it will be a cheap price in ten years!” Cameras have been cameras for the last 100 years and will be cameras for the next 100 years. You might not monetize cameras.com the exact same way in 10 years that you do now but you still own cameras.com and it costs you $7 to keep it up every year. Your initial investment might have been the only expense you had to start a very lucrative business," Rice said.

"Now look 30 years down the road when that domain has been paid for long ago and you won’t see much problem with the $1.5 million price. In fact everyone will be talking about the old days when generic domains were “cheap.” It is not much different than real estate I bought in 1995. Today’s market prices are the future prices everyone would kill for. In 20 years we will all wish we had bought cameras.com for $1.5 million in 2006!”

"Of course, that doesn't mean bad domains are worth anything. Some people seem to think that any domain they register is worth something. Many are not. It’s really important, whether you’re starting out or established, to have strategies to get to domains with consistent long term traffic," Rice noted. "Where someone starting out, or even someone with thousands of names already, will find success is in ascertaining which domains they can acquire that have great generic traffic in categories where the traffic will remain valuable for a very long time."

"Another thing for someone to understand is the simple fact that the market is expanding, and so are opportunities and the potential for creativity to result in payoffs. It used to be there were a thousand or so domainers. Now you’ve got people coming at it from all kinds of directions and they are finding new and unique ways to make money. The point is that there are many paths to profitability in the domain space so nobody needs to feel like they have to follow exactly in the footsteps of someone else," Rice said.

“In the last 12 months I have taught 4 friends to buy revenue domain names. In each case they have built portfolios that are producing revenue of $2,500-$4,000 per month. They were all new to domains. That itself is a testament to what is possible. Where else could someone build a revenue stream so fast?” Rice asked.

Rice obviously gets excited when he talks about domains but there is another subject that he is equally passionate about. That is dogs (and no I don’t mean bad domains – I mean the canine variety). Rice and his fiancé Valerie live on the South River in Annapolis, Maryand but he also has a farm in western Maryland that his father keeps an eye on. “At the moment, 23 dogs reside on the farm,” Rice said. “At least that is the number my nieces came up with when they tried to count them all a few weeks ago!”

Read more... : http://dnjournal.com/cover/2007/february.htmDominiosIDN.com ||

“I have followed the tactics I used in real estate and have pyramided my way into a considerable portfolio of domains that have traffic by buying and selling all the time,"

Esto para los que partidarios de la filosofía "retengo que mañana valdrán más" (pero también valdrán más los otros!).:: el roce hace el dominio ::

Posted By: Corso

“I have followed the tactics I used in real estate and have pyramided my way into a considerable portfolio of domains that have traffic by buying and selling all the time,"

Esto para los que partidarios de la filosofía "retengo que mañana valdrán más" (pero también valdrán más los otros!).

Pero tambien vendrán millones de usuarios nuevos a la red Es como las ventas, entre mas se vendan, mas valen los dominios interesantes que uno tiene.DominiosIDN.com ||