It’s a tough question for domainers.
A couple days ago Austinite and online entrepreneur Neville Medhora blogged about a tough question he gets: “what do you do for a living?”
“Hi. I’m Neville, I Own A Rave Company.”
OK, so he doesn’t really own a rave company. But he has a drop ship site that sells lights that you might find at a rave (or in a dorm room).
When I met Neville at an event in Austin earlier this year, I of course asked him what he did. He didn’t really answer the question.
Domainers have this problem, too. If you just work for someone, it’s easy to say what you do.
“I work for BigCo 1.”
“I work for Some Bank.”
But as a domainer it’s hard.
When someone asks me what I do, here are some of the responses I give:
“I buy and sell domains.” – always and interesting one, as people initially assume you’re a cybersquatter until you explain it to them.
“I’m a blogger.” – that’s cool today, but may be lame tomorrow.
“I own a few media companies.” – then you have an answer “what type of media company”.
“I’m a serial entrepreneur.” – allows me to change up the explanation of what I do based on the response. If the person doesn’t care about domains, I then talk about the technology commercialization company I founded four years ago.
“What do I do? What don’t I do.”
“I’m in internet marketing.” – Some people assume you’re a spammer when you say this, so you need to clarify.
So I ask you, what do you tell people you do?
John Bomhardt says
I tell people I spend all day making sure my socks are pulled up while cashing my ebay checks that come in.
Actually, I just come out and say I buy and sell domain name real estate. Simple as that.
When they ask, and they always do, what is that. I then proceed to explain a little more and clarify the business.
People have got to come out and say it straight. It’s the only way domain industry is going to reach critical mass and become main stream.
If we dance around with semantics and avoid saying what we do in the clearest manner possible, then we’ll never be able to
Shai Neubauer says
The story of my life! The question I dread the most and that I feel I get asked every day. I have the same set of answers as you and I get the same set of responses. I think we need to figure this out here once and for all and come up with something. LOL
John Bomhardt says
(continuation) have the opportunity to present to the public the legitimacy of domaining and to help them differentiate between cybersquatting and the ethical way of doing it.
John
http://unplain.com
Chris Brown says
I get this very same question all the time, what is it that we do? does anyone have a defining answer. I just reply with the same answers as the rest of you ” I sell Domains ” or ” I am a Virtual property Developer ” even ” I am a Domain Name Broker” is there a defining answer to what we do? im not sure, but I do know its unlike any other business I have ever been involved in.
David J Rosenbaum says
I tell people that I aggregate web traffic and sell it to advertisers.
Ricardo says
I use to tell them that I buy domain names and lease them to Google and Yahoo.
They could understand that concept.
But, I’m sure most thought I was a cybersquatter.
Now, when people ask me, I tell them that I’m retired and also dabble in a little bit of internet type stuff.
Then, they say – “That’s great.”
And, then they start telling me about themselves.
๐
Ramiro says
I tell them that I am a lawyer, lobbyist, lecturer, and “domainpreneur”.
John says
I get my money for nuthin and my chicks for free.
Rick says
“Legalized Cybersquatter”
Johnny says
I do web work.
I work with websites.
Marketing, mostly internet marketing.
Those are the answers. I like privacy and I like to minimize what I do. If they ask further questions, I say I do basic HTML. In my case it’s true as I don’t really park but rather set up sites or mini-sites. If they ask me to give them examples, I say I have not been really doing anything latelly. If they ask what websites I worked in the past, I say – hmm, just all kinds of stuff.
Kevin Ohashi says
I make websites.
Premium Generics says
Great thought Andrew – this comes up all the time.
What do you do for a living? As little as possible!
We’re all just trying to turn a dollar out of 15 cents . . .
jp says
@Kevin, Good one.
When asked, I say “I’m a Domainer”. When they ask what that is, I give them the tagline from Domaining.com, which is “The Business of Monetizing and Selling Domain Names”. I feel like that is the best short answer I’ve ever come across. Of course when they ask, what does that entail, thats a longer conversation, but it sounds official and confusing enough that it tends to stop the questions right there. I am happy to explain if they like though.
I do think it is exteremly important that we tell people that we are Domainers. Hey, I don’t understand every job that other people tell me that they do.
If I’m the only Domainer out there then its clearly a made up term.
RKB says
I just say I am a ‘domain investor’.
Just simple.
namer.ca says
i am a name designer or namer for short
your opportunity at an attractive name design
or
i make eyeball traps
o.
J.R. Jackson (Internet's $8-Million Man) says
I tell people “I’m in banking” and they normally say “really?” And I go on to tell them I deposit a few checks in my “bank” each month because most of my income is “residual” and “automatic” which is very true.
Leads to a very interesting conversation about my 23 income streams – lol!
J.R.
Jay M says
I normally say that I’m a budding entrepreneur and own a web services firm ๐
SAL says
I reluctantly explain, building websites and buy domains.
And i get this, “that ain’t work, get a real job” . I wanna start shooting. But i respond, i prefer working for myself as i have for years, because i dont like answering to some dumbass monkey brain.
But everyone thinks i’m a wackjob because i’m up all night. ๐
Josh P says
Combining Chris with JP, how about: “I am the business of reselling and monetizing virtual properties.”
If asked to elaborate, say: “I purchase website entry points, also known as Internet domain names, in bulk at wholesale prices and resell them at retail prices to consumers who find personal or business value on their keywords.”
Or on a resume, “Virtual property resale and monetization.”
The B.S. potential here sees no bounds.
Josh P says
…except change ‘on’ to ‘in’ near the end of paragraph 2 above.
Rob Sequin says
I’ll use Internet Entrepreneur or domain broker or yes… I buy and sell domains but that either gets the glazed over look or cybersquatter response.
I don’t go out of my way to bring it up in conversation but I will say more people have been more interested in the past year.
When I do I talk with someone about domains I hear about their one domain, crappy web site or cybersquatter story. Seems like no one ever has an Internet marketing strategy or too much interest in domains. Just goes to show you how much more this industry has to grown.
Imagine the day when EVERYONE has at least one domain. That day will come and GoDaddy probably knows that and that’s why they buy Superbowl ads.
DennisJames says
I tell them, “I’m the only man on Earth who is losing money on the Internet”.
Tim_Myth says
Serial entrepenuer is good. I might have to try that sometime! I usually tell people I develop websites and ecommerce businesses. When they get too big for little old me to manage, I sell them, but until then I just keep depositing the income. Its vague enough that I don’t have to do a bunch of explaining unless the other person is interested in dabbling, at which point I direct them to my website where I help them learn how to do it for themselves…and of course get a few affiliate sales to boot!
DannyPryor says
@Dennis – pretty funny. I tell people I’m a web content developer. That actually shuts them up pretty quickly. They nod and say, “Oh – that’s cool.”
Nev says
Hmmm, I remember this conversation with you at the E&Y event.
Of course I would understand what you do, however a not-so-internet-savvy person might not.
I always thought of domains as virtual real estate….so I like Chris Brown’s (#4) comment saying, “I’m a virtual property Developer.โ
Althought I’m almost positive that response would just encourage an onslaught of additional questions!
Just say you do porno and get it over with ๐
Tan Tran says
Actually most of the time I try to change the subject to the economy and politics. ๐
I don’t say these but they are good ideas nevertheless:
1. I’m an internet pioneer.
2. I’m an internet entrepreneur.
.. and my personal favorite:
3. I’m the Donald Trump of the internet. ๐
David McAllister says
I say, “I generate Internet traffic for an online tobacco shop through the acquisition of expired domain names.” Generally, people will then preach to me about the evils of tobacco use and forget to mention the domaining aspect all together.