The
Business Plan
If
you are looking for a fancy 100 page report filled with blue moon figures and
put together with bogus charts to impress and dazzle, you won’t find it here.
If you can’t appreciate that simplicity is the key to a profit making machine,
you won’t appreciate this plan. If it is essential to have the other 90 pages
of this report, borrow someone else’s because you just don’t get it.
I
entered the business world through retail furniture in 1973 at the age of 20.
In 1975 I went into wholesale furniture. I spent the bulk of the next 10 years
traveling coast to coast and border to border, opening new accounts each and
everyday. I then began the process of building a sales force, opening regional
warehouses and increasing the business more than 10 fold. I didn’t come home for
nearly 7 years other than when passing through as I worked the nation. I
traveled a 33 state territory by car and called on the accounts every 90 days
like a clock. It was in excess of 10,000 miles as I drove from Miami to New
Orleans, Houston, Dallas, El Paso, Phoenix, San Diego, Los Angeles, San
Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake, Denver, Kansas City, St Louis, East
St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, New York,
Richmond, Charleston, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and then back to Miami with
another 100 towns in between. It sure gave me a lot of time to think and it was
beyond valuable. I still display my collection of hotel room keys as it is hard
for anyone to believe I actually did this until they see these large vases
filled with keys from hotels and motels from nearly every city in America and a
few from Timbucktwo. I called myself the ultimate road warrior and unlike today
there was no Fed Ex, no fax, and no PC, no palm pilots and of course nobody in
real life ever heard the word internet. I often think of what I could have
accomplished with those tools then and how much more professional I would have
been and ultimately how much more I would have made.
Later
in the 1980’s I found a unique lighting product line and then later added a new
and exciting advertising product. I marketed both nationally and sold mostly
business to business in no less than 25 different industries. After traveling
and doing years of tradeshows, this became my transition from traveling
endlessly to working from my home and building a national product. My wife and
I worked from a 10 x 10 bedroom while importing from Mainland China, Hong Kong,
and Taiwan. In 1998 this home based business was sold for over 7 figures
proving it was one of the most successful mom and pop home businesses, with no
employees, in America.
During
the latter years I worked less and less as I had built a well oiled machine
that needed little input from me. We were advertising in excess of 100 monthly
trade publications and once the ad was perfected, that gave me a lot of time to
explore new things as I looked for new product to market. One of those things
was the World Wide Web. In 1995 it was a virtual wasteland of endless
nothingness. But I had never seen so much energy focused on one thing in all my
life so I decided that there MUST be more to it and it was a better use of time
than playing “Duke Nukem” or losing money playing options.
That
brings me to December 27, 1995 when I purchased my first domain and within
weeks realized that a profit could be made off this medium. In April of 1996 I went online with my
2 company names that matched my vanity 800 number. To my amazement a couple
orders came in and we accelerated the sales process, as we no longer had to
send out a catalog and wait. Now we could go online with the customer and hang
up with an order. It therefore became an important sales tool almost
immediately and few of my competitors at that time had that added feature. Of
course at that point in time less than 10% of the callers had Internet access.
As
I began to realize the power I began to obtain more domain names. I decided to
invest in 100. Thus my tiny home business was thrust into another dimension
that required more thinking and less work. No product to ship, just information
to give.
As
spring 1996 turned into summer I began to realize the true possibilities and
opportunities that a good domain name could present. It was INSTANT MARKET
SHARE in any industry you could think of and that begun the real race. By November
1996 I hade several hundred domains and the moment of truth was at hand. I had
two sets of domains hooked up. One set went to a business site and one set went
to an adult link site as I personally did not want to offer adult content but
benefit from their infrastucture. The adult related domains started producing
steady income. First $25 a day, then $30, $50, $100 and before I knew it we
were in spring of 1997 and making about $500 a day as a hobby on the web and it
growing every week. I also at that time met a group of webmasters online that
would discuss different issues regarding the net and the sites and how to make
them profitable. The mainstream part of the net was still unprofitable as
everything was given away for free so the adult arena was the only place to
look.
That
led to the breakthrough. That event was buying a domain name for $50,000, which
was unheard of at that point in time. I had finally equated real estate and a
good .com address as the exact same thing. Except in the real world it may take 30
years to pay off a piece of property. In cyberspace everything is accelerated
including how long it would take to repay $50k for a .com domain. To my
pleasant surprise, the domain that had been bought just 1 week earlier for $5k
and sold to me for $50k would pay for itself in less than 60 days!! Imagine, a mortgage paid off in 60
days!! On PRIME real estate! That lead to the birth of eRealEstate.com and a
way to convey that they were both the same just in different mediums. The
greatest land/gold rush in history had begun. Except this time you did not have
to leave your home and a bathrobe was considered proper attire.
Of
course those webmasters I was telling you about were all laughing at me. They
told me that I had more money than brains and call me all sorts of
condescending names. I would explain to them that getting domain names was a
“Unique opportunity in time” and that it would never happen again. To that I
was told I was wasting my time and they all had a good laugh, shook their
heads, and felt sorry for me since they saw me as totally clueless. In some
regards they were right. I hadn’t a clue how to get search engine hits and
because of my ignorance I was forced to find a “Back door”.
Well
those laughs became the fuel to go on and I aggressively started buying some of
the best domains on the planet. My next buy was a 3 letter domain that cost me
$12,500. I had to send the money to Germany and PRAY that I would actually get
the domain. Time was so crucial at that point that I had no choice as this was
even a better bargain than my first domain. Luckily everything went smooth and
in just a few weeks this was paid off as well and like an oil well, just kept
pumping in the profits. That brought me to what has become my most important
long term purchase of men.com for just $15,000. Men.com represents the largest
buying power on the planet. It represents 3 billion “Targeted” people. It’s the
flipside of women.com, an $850 million IPO.
Men.com
is just the tip of the iceberg in what is arguably the finest and most
extensive domain collection in existence. History will prove that this was an
opportunity that my father, grandfather, great grandfather and his great
grandfather never had. The Internet will rank with the inventions of fire, the
wheel, electricity, telephone, radio, TV and computers. It is an epic event and
the few that realized it early will capitalize the most.
I
continued to buy domains and have bought nearly 1/3 of our 3000 domains from
individuals and companies around the world. More than $1.5 million was spent in
obtaining domains that others owned and were willing to sell for the “Right”
price.
One
thing led to another and that brings me to December, 1999. What is significant
about December of 1999 is that as I began this journey I did not expect to even
focus on making a profit until this point. I was going to just try to put my
.com collection together and start the process of development at this
point. I was wrong. As of December
31, 1999 we own about 3000 domains. Of those domains about 300 produce 90% of
all the revenue but that is increasing steadily as the net develops. We get in
excess of 100,000 daily visitors just to our index pages and we made as much
profit as some of the biggest names on the net like ebay, and to me that is
quite an achievement.
I
have seen no rush to develop. I think it more important in these early stages
to learn from other people’s mistakes. I give Amazon an A+ for Market share. I
give them an A+ for branding. I give them an A+ for getting free advertising. I
give them an F- for profitability. I give them an F- for building a profitable
machine. I give them an F- on the future value of their stock. And the business
plan?? A business plan that can not tell you when a profit will be made is not
a business plan at all. It’s the same as building a bridge to nowhere. A 7 year
old, boy or girl selling lemonade on the corner that has a 5cent cost and a
retail of 25 cents has a better business plan.
I
see most of what we have as vacant land in Manhattan just waiting to be
developed. Right now they are no more than "Parking lots" that
produce excellent revenue. But as time goes on with 3000 quality domains we are
positioned to become the largest and most important developer on the net.
Comparing that to the largest developer in the real world, we have a lot less
machinery, materials, people, injuries, liabilities, red tape, scheduling and
zoning issues. In the “Real” world if you build a Sears and it takes 3 years to
construct it and it doesn’t quite work, what do you do? How much did it cost
you in time and money? On the net……I can fix it with a new idea with ONE simple
keystroke!!
While
I have been severely criticized for waiting to develop so many of these
properties, I believe waiting will become my biggest strength. What may have
cost you hundreds of thousand of dollars to do just a few years ago with 500
employees, can be leased today for just a few hundred dollars a month. While
others are concerned with “Branding” and “Market share” my only focus is the
dirtiest word on the net. PROFIT. And again learning from the pitfalls of
others is valuable beyond dollars.
While
others lose millions…..we make millions and are preparing to make billions!
That is the strength of a plan that is well thought out but is easily and
quickly adaptable to changing times and conditions. While I sit back and watch
this kaos, I am able to spot great opportunities and capitalize on them within
minutes.
The
net all comes down to “Targeting”. Just like a "Bullseye" is worth
more in darts......a targeted visitor is worth more on the internet. It’s worth
exponentially more dollars and that will unfold as our most powerful asset as
the net matures.
As
an example I have one site called ebid.com. The click thru rate on that site is
80x greater than a normal site. All because of “Targeting”. On just 1000 daily
hits more than 300 click thru to our 2 sponsors. Of those 300, 1 out of 3 sign
up. Thus just as a middleman on 1000 daily hits we were able to make nearly
$1200 a day. Just on this 1 site with no maintenance and nothing really to
offer other than giving them what they are looking for.
This
is where “Click thru” and “Impression based internet advertising collide. It is
my opinion that advertising based on the number of “Impressions” shown and not
based on “Clicks” received, “Flat rate” or by “Productivity” is the MAIN reason
that so many lose money on the internet. Mainstream advertising rates are based
on magazine or broadcast price guidelines and then applying that “Formula” to
the net. That “Formula” is flawed and does not work in this medium and the
results are the proof. Why pay for 100,000 impressions if NOBODY clicks to go
to your site? Wouldn’t you rather
have 25 targeted live clicks? Doesn’t that represent more value?
If
you purchase 100,000 impressions for $5,000 it means NOTHING! It’s the same as
loading up a bus with 50 people, passing a casino without stopping and then
repeating the process until 100,000 people passed the casino. Then giving the
bus driver $5,000 for it. You still have nothing but just WASTED $5000. I guess
you may as well collect the $5000 from every business you pass on the trip.
They all get the same value. ZERO! The bus driver can make millions!
Compare
that with a bus driver STOPPING at your casino and then unloading those 50
passengers at the front of your casino and then holding the door open so that
they can enter. Those 50 are already more valuable than the 100,000 and if you
had to pay $10 each you would still have $4500 left to buy more. So even if I
charged $10 a click thru, that $500 is a BARGAIN compared to spending $5000 for
nothing!!
When
a website spends $5000 and gets nothing he is not apt to try it again. But if
he spends $50 to get something, he will want more and give more dollars.
That brings me to the next point which is while others depend on Search engines
for traffic or buying traffic from a 3rd party, we are actually self
sufficient because we get our hits via “Type ins” to the browser bar. This is
where folks actually take the time and energy to bypass the search engines and
type our address directly into the address line on the browser they use. The
result becomes the most potent and targeted hits anyone on the Internet can
get. Our sites become destinations. 1 of our hits can easily be worth 10
regular hits or even 100 regular hits. So my 100,000 daily visitors really have
the “Buying power” of over 1 million people!! That’s the result of an internet
bullseye.
Add
that to the fact that our traffic grew over 50% just in 1999. Not because of
any work that I have done, just the simple growth of the net. I saw things that
NOBODY can see. After Christmas season in 1998 our overall traffic grew by 10%.
That was more than twice the growth of the preceeding 12 months. In the late
spring we experienced another 15% growth in addition. Then the biggest surprise
of all came in August. As a result of the free computers, back to school, great
deals etc……we experienced a 20% overnight jump and those numbers have been
maintaining as we go into the 1999 holiday season. I can only imagine at this
point what to expect.
Not
even the NY Yankees can fill Yankee stadium twice a day. Our visitors to our
sites can and I see that as real power and I see a growth rate that is
staggering. It would not surprise me to fill the stadium 4 times a day by the
end of next year. What makes our domains so valuable and the traffic ever
increasing is by standing alone each and every domain says exactly what it is
(Or will become) via an easy to spell and easy to remember .com address.
Recently we bought ChristmasCarols.com. Is it that far a stretch to believe
that during the Christmas season people will type that in to see what is there?
They will. They do. And when I build a simple site giving them what they want
and selling related items….it will make a spark. And of course this is my worst
domain because it is limited to only a few days of business. So let’s plug in
wholesalefurniture.com to that equation or lonelypeople.com or
realestateforsale.com or fishingtackle.com.
Thus
here I am. No employees, No office, No nothing and I am able to turn it into
millions BEFORE I go to work. Of 6 billion folks on the planet, NOBODY saw what
I saw nor do they see it or understand it now. Even as we are at the doorstep
of this new millennium and the Internet is the hottest spot on the planet, few
are able to comprehend exactly what I have accomplished and just what an impact
it will have. The value of our total holdings in excess of $1 billion and we
have dozens of domains that can be individual IPO’S.
My
plan is a simple one. I create revenue streams and not work. Oil wells pump oil
with no labor and little maintenance. My websites are modeled after oil wells.
They pump out cash 24 hours a day. And while they may laugh at my funny looking
sites. I will go to each 1 by 1 and make them pretty and add functionality as
the web progresses and matures but profit supersedes all other elements. Like a
boxer in the ring, pacing yourself for the long haul is key. While most on the
net are still struggling to find themselves, we have a clear direction and will
be standing as long as the net is a viable tool. Of course the thing that will
convince you is looking at the quality of the domains and realizing just how
important those domains are as the net develops. Each represent an automatic
market share in industries one would think was much too late and costly to get
into.
To
make it simple, my domains have out performed Microsoft, Dell, Amazon, ebay or
any other stock on the market. My $2 million investment has a current net worth
of over $1 billion in RAW and UNDEVELOPED
.com assets just waiting to be developed and brought to the next level.
Imagine the worth after development. I won’t live long enough to develop all
this property and that is my only reason in possibly going public. I want what
I have done to live way beyond my years and a public company is the only way I
can see this becoming a reality.
I
want virtualteacher.com to change the way we teach kids. I want
onlinediagnostics.com change the way we interact with medicine. I want wholesalejewelry.com and
wholesalefurniture.com to be a place where merchants and customers can come to
find bargains. I want tradeshows.com to become the world source for event dates
and planning. I want visitorsbureau.com to become a worldwide resourse for
travelers. I want to fishingtackle.com to be where folks around the world come
to buy their tackle and hard to find gear. I have ideas for men.com, personalads.com,
ladies.org, men.org, girls.net, so much property to develop and 1 by 1 or 10 by
10 they will be developed and each will turn a PROFIT by keeping it simple.
Some like BestSiteAwards.com have to wait for the net to mature and in January
2000 will issue it’s first awards for 1999. One of my favorites is
birthdayparty.com. I envision a future in which live cams will be an integral
part of everyone’s computer and as so many friends and families are so
scattered it gives them an opportunity to all congregate via a live and
interactive party.
Our biggest decision is to launch these domains as individual IPO’S in and of themselves, or to group them together as an entire group. At this point in time I doubt there is anyone that could fathom the extensiveness of our collection nor its’ meaning when looking 20 years down the road. Thus it is probably easier and more profitable to do them 1 at a time. Time has always been my best ally and now that has never been truer.
Remember…..“Today’s
visionary is tomorrows genius”