Morning Folks!!

It's been a while but never too far away.

In case you haven’t heard my partners and I are opening up not only a domain brokerage, not only a marketplace on Stud.com but we have added some secret sauces that’s going to blow the doors off of the industry and open us up to the world.

Stud.com was born on July 1 via a Twitter post and for the last 100 days or so we have been working night and day to bring Stud.com online.

The domain marketplace is about 1/3 of what stud.com is going to be about.

In the weeks ahead we will unveil version 1.0 of STUD. But we won’t stop there. We have big plans for expansion as we add these new features.

Stud will be a paid membership if you want to list your domain names and free to those that want to shop and buy. Other services will be offered. Some free, some paid.

Stud will not only empower domainers we will show domain investors how to get top dollar for their prime Domain Names by “Breeding” them not just selling them. But when they do sell, they need to get top dollar.

OUR number one enemy are domain investors selling their assets way too cheap. When it comes to valuation domainers are either up in the ozone for worthless domains or they’re giving away life-changing domains for less than life-changing amounts. Sometimes even chump change.When will they ever learn??

Don’t come to Stud.com if you’re desperate and you need to sell your domain TODAY for the lowest price. There are plenty of venues that can do that for you and STUD is not one of them. We don't need millions of names clogging up the system. Therefore we will set minimum values and quality to be listed.

Come to stud because you are a founder of that domain name and maybe you deserve more than just a one time DESPERATE payday. Come to stud because you want to market and circulate your domain name and have it utilized for the highest and best use. Come to stud for the right reasons not the wrong reasons.

I wish I could tell you more but all I can say is I would not come out of retirement to do a project of this magnitude if it wasn’t going to be a big deal and I believe someday it’ll end up being my legacy.

I can’t tell you how excited I am and how I am busting at the seams to tell you more.

We've been going over the Stud project fine-tuning everything!

My detractors will jump on anything or will make it up so we need everything to be perfect. We want domainers to go “WOW, Stud .com is MINDBLOWING!”

If you want to be among the first to know when stud goes live and become a member, go to Stud.com and sign up on our email list.

Stay tuned for our grand opening in the weeks ahead. I think you will be stunned and delighted at the depth and width of the Stud.com project.

We are now in the process of marrying the front end with the back end and then we’re going into beta.

The minimum value for the first year will be $2500. However I want everyone to know that that number will be going up substantially. Those that sign up early will be grandfathered in for at least one year. And I will grant them one year more. However after that it’s just going to be whatever the minimum is. I hope to raise it to $5000, $10,000, $25,000 and eventually at least $100,000.

Stud.com will be based in Ireland

And finally this… In the nearly 26 years that I’ve been investing in DomainNames the time was never right to be proactive until now. I would never waste a moment on outbound or proactive sales until this year. We are in a new era. It’s not an era of desperation. It is the era of understanding and knowing just how important a prime domain name is to the future of any business and person on this earth.

Stop selling your best domains to support your crappiest domains. It's a terrible formula. Learn to negotiate from strength not weakness. If you are a "Cat on a hot tin roof" and you have to sell your name TODAY, Stud.com is NOT the venue for you.

We will be announcing particulars in the weeks ahead including some fantastic free perks offered by our new and growing partnerships.

Commission will be a flat and easy 10%. All fees will be split 50/50 between buyer and seller unless negotiated differently. There will be ZERO TOLERANCE for trademark violations. One warning only!

All domains under $10,000 MUST have a BIN price.
There will be no "Make an offer" on Stud.com. IT's WEAK!!!!
It says, "I will pull my pants down because I am desperate"
Portfolios and Domains must be approved.
And we are not the platform to dump 10,000 or 100,000 names into.
We want only your finest names.

Stay tuned my friends.STUD.com at your Service!

Sign up RIGHT NOW to be the very first to know when we launch and news along the way!!

Rick Schwartz

Have a GREAT Day!

Morning Folks!

"If I got 1000 Bitcoin for FREE I still made MORE w/Domains + I have 6500/6540 original names left! + Active Businesses #DomainNames are the only #digitalasset that has real underlying value! Our day in the sun is here!"

I had that tweet on Twitter today that is worthy of its own Blog post. So Let's take a deep dive. Well actually not too deep because there was no reason to dig deeper. The results are that stunning!

So....If I sold my 1000 bitcoin I walk away with a cool $60 Million. Not bad!! But Domains are better!

Domains have FACE VALUE. They have INTRINSIC Value and they have REAL value. They are unique and they are collectible. They can be reimagined in MOMENTS! They are visible and useable worldwide. Trillion dollar companies run their worldwide operations frm a single domain name.

But forget all that. Just forget it.

Besides selling only about 40 of my domains I have 6500 still to go. 1000-1500 of them with GREAT value! And rising! Bitcoin helps!

But the businesses I share in is the invisible hole in the donut that will allow me to buy bitcoin for a lifetime IF that is what I choose. Candy.com itself (now GreenRabbit.com after selling their Candy.com "Booster Rocket") will allow me to buy 1000 bitcoin when I sell my shares in about 3 years with my 8.88% share of the company.

Bestodds.com will be going live very soon and that will spit out it's own load of bitcoin or dollars or real estate or whatever I want for the next 20 years.

Punchbowl.com is still.an active entity with deals with Disney and others.

And now I have agreed to the basic terms of Property.com. Possibly my biggest deal yet. I will own 13.5% of that new entity.

In these businesses and others I am simply a Silent-partner. My only duty is done at the beginning. By picking the right ACTIVE partner.

It took a LONG time for the "Domain TREE" to mature, but now it is in full bloom and the fruit of 25 years is RIPE and VISIBLE! Visible and proven. Nobody has to take my word for it like it was 20-25 years ago. Now there is an active multi-billion dollar market that is growing daily and has never ever been hotter than right now in 2021.

With Bitcoin, I can buy it, sell it or use it. I can not control the value. The value would control me. With NFT's, I am still trying to wrap my head around that bag of smoke. But that just helps domains take their right role on top of the digital mountain. The TOP!!

Now please understand I own BOTH. I see synergy between them. But you have to cash in one to achieve that synergy and it goes both ways!

But make no mistake, a GREAT domain name is SUPERIOR to ONE bitcoin but possibly MANY bitcoin and like a golden goose, a domain can be spitting out a lifetime of bitcoin. Can a bitcoin do that?

And for clarification when I talk bitcoin I am also talking crypto but bitcoin is the first name associated with crypto for most. It's branded!

And of course, I am talking ultra-premium dotcom domains. That is always my basis.

And of course, it takes real work and talent to find those domain names. To recognize them. To understand their value and why. And then to either turn them into businesses, lease them or sell them etc.

So while I write about the 2 digital assets as competing, I am really just showing the depth of one compared to the depth of the other. Why one is the King of the Hill! Now you know, and now you know why!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Down, dirty, raw. I callout CEOs by name. I explain the difference between a hard-working Founder and a CEO looking for a 2-5 year gig. Explosive interview. I'll let the video do the talking.

I will note that the discussion about the $2.8 Billion company was about the sale of Bird.com and noting that the CEO of Bird.co passed up this once in a lifetime opportunity. I simply did the math and noted he was losing a MINIMUM of $140 million ANNUALLY in lost revenue simply because of confusion at only a 5% loss from the .co to .com. DUMB!!!

Enjoy!!

YouTube Link

Afternoon Folks!!

I received this email this morning and it is DESPERATE, UNETHICAL and DISGUSTING!! But it's not the first time this .CRAP model has been used to PUMP and DUMP! To inflate registration numbers just to fool and mislead domain investors and the public!!

This is one of the biggest gTLD models, STUFFING accounts with Domains nobody asked for or ordered! I have to act not to get it stuffed in my account??!! I have to opt-out?? BULLSHIT!!

Many companies will be fooled into paying renewals for years! That's a SCAM in MY BOOK! A TOTAL SCAM BY THESE COMPANIES!!

That's the gTLD world for you. Based on LIES, FAKE REGISTRATIONS, ACCOUNT STUFFING AND DECEIT. They have prayed on innocent companies hoping they don't notice this CRAP! CRAP! CRAP!!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

So I was invited to participate in a Clubhouse social with fellow domainers on Friday night. The modern-day "Party Line" with a purpose and some interesting views and voices.

On Sunday I stumbled into "DomainInvesting247" and before I know it I was on stage and fielding questions for 5 or 6 hours. I saw and spoke to folks I have not run into for many years. It is certainly addictive. I am realdomainking there if you want to follow me.

Since then I have been in some other rooms and have been exposed to some great stuff.

Last night I stumbled into a sales-room. I was invited on stage for a brief time. I would highly recommend domainers learn how to sell if they want to make more money with each and every sale. There was so much bonafide info that can be learned in minutes. There are rules of the road. There are ways to approach. But so much value so quickly and it can only make you $$$. Valid info by qualified folks hitting head-on sales mistakes.

Clubhouse will siphon off and suck the traffic off of Twitter, Linkedin and others. It may also spawn others doing similar things. So I look forward to the new and more fluid collaboration that is taking place in realtime 24/7. It is also therapeutic and humbling to listen to the stories and the paths folks have taken and the obstacles they overcome. Many have been homeless. MANY!! Incredible stories of success. Most people that are successful have overcome great adversity. Their stories are all unique but there is ALWAYS a common thread. The common lesson, you have to take charge of your own destiny!

So far the biggest takeaway and the biggest common thread, is staying away from losers and those that think negatively. It has been the single most common story of Rags to Riches I have heard there by DOZENS. They all divorced everyone in their life that was negative. They took control. The #1 path to success!!

A tip of the hat to all those giving and learning! Everyone from the most seasoned professionals to the novice of novices. But entertaining and educational it is.

So we will see where it leads.....Good luck to all.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

Next to domains my number one hobby is real estate. Just like I collect domains I collect real estate. And I noticed something this morning when I was going through the magazine called Luxury Home.

What I noticed was a change. No longer are most properties priced. Some had price upon request while a good percentage of them, more than I’ve ever seen in my life, say nothing about price.

There were few prices and here’s what’s happening. The market is so hot, and moving so fast that whatever price you put on today will be obsolete tomorrow. There is a parallel with domains too!!

I follow several markets in the United States and as much as 50% of anything that comes on the market is snapped up within the first 7 to 10 days now in these red hot markets.

For example in Asheville, North Carolina today on realtor.com in the last 72 hours, 36 homes have come on the market and nine of them are already under contract.

I have never seen anything like that in that part of the country ever before.

In Boca Raton in less than 24 hours there were 36 new properties and three of them are already under contract.

Now the rate in Boca is going to be slower than Asheville because you have much more choice and prices that are considerably higher.

So I’m going to dig a little bit deeper and go to 7-8 days. The percentage of sales of units on the market is 50%. That’s an incredible number!

I think typically it may be 5% or 10% if that. That is not a red hot market, that’s a white-hot market. And during that time the prices have gone up.

No when I go to 15 days it jumps even further to over 60%.

When we hit the 21 day mark The sales are at 70%

Now let’s look at a different market. Let’s check out New York City. The number one disaster in America. 720 properties were listed in the last three days a total of six or under contract.

That’s nearly unmeasurable.  Less than 1/10 of 1%. Disaster! Prices are plummeting!!

It’s great for bargain hunters however depending which way things go it may or may not be a bargain. What it is is a bloodbath! It’s a race to the bottom. It’s a race to who could cash out first. It’s not a race you want to be involved in. Desperation for many!

Right now there are 1340 properties in New York City that are on the market for over $5 million. Very few pending. I found one I just happened to click on 381 days on the market.

Is there opportunity there? Yes but we don’t know if the opportunity is just beginning or there is much more opportunity to come?

Let’s face it, New York is broken. It’s broken! It may take a long time to fix. It’s not attractive to pay over 60% of what you earn to somebody else. Not only isn’t it attractive, but the way I look at life if you give more than 50% of your earnings to the government you are a slave my definition. You’re no better than a junior partner in that deal. NONSENSE! So between that and the pandemic, they are fleeing New York City in numbers that nobody has ever seen before.

When you buy now you buy through someone else’s circumstance. They want to get out. They need to get out. They may sacrifice all of their equity to get out. New York City is a market of circumstance. But chances are the circumstances are going to get more severe as more and more people flee. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new units are flooding the market there every single day. It’s a disaster!

Spotting trends is one of the most important muscles that you need to build as a business person. You have to notice things that are different and are changing and are doing that in a dramatic fashion.

There is slow moving opportunity and there is fast moving opportunity. I have just shown both. Real estate in general is slower moving but right now it’s anything but.

Prices are skyrocketing. The cost of new construction on inferior lots is 2 to 3 times higher than homes that are existing and are in prime locations. That’s due in large part to new costs and those New Yorkers that are fleeing to Florida and used to paying prices from 5,000,000 to 90,000,000.

The more they make the faster they are fleeing to places like Florida. That is driving prices up. But not just up skyrocketing up!

Homes are going up 5%, 10%, and 15% a week! They won’t be able to build fast enough. And they’re not just coming from New York. For the first time, they are fleeing California and heading for Florida as well!

What does that mean? Well it means there are two things that could happen. The homes that are definitely overpriced will either come down in value and existing homes will go up in value and they will meet in the middle or the new homes will actually fetch those prices and existing homes will go up even more!

Now there are downfalls and pitfalls with all of this. When folks start to make obscene amounts of money whether it’s in stock market, bitcoin, real estate, domains or any other thing and it’s very widespread, that can be dangerous.

Think of it this way, if everyone was very wealthy and nobody had to work who would actually do the work? That’s the danger!

But in the meantime, you reap as much as you can and hope it’s enough because that steamroller of inflation is coming our way and it’s coming our way in a very big way!

And then of course I’m gonna have someone asked me what that has to do with domains? And my answer will always be you can’t be a SUCCESSFUL domain investor without being a business person. A business person has their eyes on multiple sectors. They look for changes. Any changes.

You have to be economically fluent. You have to understand the difference between a recurring bill and an income-producing asset. You have to learn about not overextending yourself and being in a position where you are stuck or at the mercy of others or time itself.

Domaining is about people and populations and audiences. Business is about people in population and audiences. They are directly related to a degree where it may determine your success or your failure.

Domains are about population centers. Cities and towns are about population centers. Buying power and value is about population centers. Swampland has no population. Domains have to be able to attract large audiences. They need to be targeted. Domains are about math. If there is nobody in the "Domain Audeince" what do you have?

When the audience flees places like New York City and the population declines and few are replacing that population, you have a recipe for a major crash! On the other hand when you are in an expanding population area and your audience is growing so are the prices.

So here you have a vivid tale of two cities or 2 areas and the dramatic difference that is usually not visible with the naked eye. Never close your eyes to big shifts like this. Possibly the most dramatic shift I have ever seen in my lifetime! There is a word for that.......OPPORTUNITY!!

Good luck to all!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I get asked for valuations on domains on a daily basis. Multiple times. Sorry folks, that’s one thing I don’t do. I don’t do valuations. However, I am starting to call out Pigeon Shit domains when I am asked in public.

I don’t even do valuations on my own names for the most part. Why? First of all the value of a domain name is extremely fluid. Possibly more fluid than any asset or investment I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. I decide on valuation at the time of inquiry.

But more importantly, it’s not my job and I don’t want that job. As I have stated many times before, I have two buckets when it comes to domains. Domains that have potential great value and domains that have no value and never will. So simple!!!

Once it makes it into the value bucket, then I weigh the possibilities and probabilities of that happening. Is it a clearly stated domain that meets all of the criteria that I have been posting about these last few days with these blog posts? It Has to filter through those benchmarks for me to put it in the first bucket of value.

Now let’s be clear, only a few go into the valuation bucket. Thousands and thousands going to the bucket of pigeon shit. The bucket that has no value. Liabilities are not assets. They are BILLS!!

But if I can collect a few in the valuation bucket, which is not easy to do by the way if you’re doing it the right way, then you sift through those and see which one might be the one above the others. So focus on the top domain in the valuation bucket and if you can afford all of them, you can buy all of them. If you can’t afford them all just pick the one that has the most value and the most versatility. But it MUST meet the basic criteria I have laid out. If you’re not meeting all or most of the criteria you’re simply on the wrong path. Here's my valuation for domains that DON'T meet my criteria......-$9/year. Just take 9 dollars out f your wallet and toss it.

Domains are taking their rightful place in the Internet ecosystem as we speak. It took a long damn time! Around 35 years and we’re still a ways away from the price but boy are we getting close!!

I have said this for many many years, decades in fact. We are the land barons of the 21st-century. If you did your job well, we hold the most valuable real estate ever known to mankind. The only thing between the potential valuation and today’s valuation is time. We all have to be sensitive to time however being sensitive to time does not mean giving away unique assets for lowball price is.

Links to related articles:

https://www.ricksblog.com/2021/02/enough-just-cuz-a-domain-with-a-keyword-sells-does-not-increase-the-value-of-your-domain/#.YCfypC1h0Ss

https://www.ricksblog.com/2021/02/i-dont-sell-domains-i-interview-potential-suitors/#.YCfwHy1h0Ss

https://www.ricksblog.com/2021/02/domainkings-10-step-guide-to-selling-domain-names/#.YCfwTy1h0Ss

https://www.ricksblog.com/2021/01/domain-names-the-most-valuable-portable-life-changing-tangible-intangible-asset-in-human-history/#.YCfwgy1h0Ss

If you get thru these 5 articles and still don't have a grasp for domains, or don't find anything of value or you simply dismiss it all, then enjoy your journey to nowhere. Sad but true!! Off-course and lost in space. Good luck with a soft-landing!.

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

The size and value of your audience decide your future before you do. Targeting an audience is the key to the success of any business, organization, or even charity. A profitable audience.

MainStreet.com (Not a domain I own or even looked up) has value. It's obvious because it represents commerce. If it's not obvious to you, find a job. It has an audience. That audience has the potential to be increased and specifically targeted.

ManeStreet.com (Not a domain I own or even looked up) has value. It does not pass the radio test, but still has value. That audience has the potential to be increased. But probably has less value than MainStreet.

DanielQSysemskiMemorialBridge.com (Not a domain I own or even looked up because I made it up as well as this non-existent person) has NO value and never will. NO AUDIENCE!! In 1 MILLION years that domain won’t have value. It’s a Liability not an asset!

Most domainers have the majority of their domains that will never have an audience. ZILCH!! NO CHANCE!! Those are all liabilities. Just bills!

We are talking tens and probably hundreds of millions of worthless domains. Worthless because they are not capable of getting an audience. And when I hear SEO guru's and every answer is the same about optimization, I have but one word.....BULLSHIT!!

Domaining is about getting memorable, meaningful, and important domains. If they are not, that's not domaining. That's not domain investing. That's not anything but a waste of time, money, and energy. SEO really has nothing to do with domain investing. It's nothing you talk about until there is a profit-making site attached.

So the MainStreet test is just another test that should be added to the test of my last post.

Do I have to explain those names? Will people misspell them? Will they easily forget them? Will they be able to tell others? Can content be matched to that domain that is intuitive? Is that content profitable? Is there a market for that content? Is it confusing? That's a lot of filters but a domain that I buy MUST meet ALL those standards and more! If I am doing it, why aren't you?? That's the path to success. To find domains that have the ability to be a successful business. And I focus on domains that have face-value. That has obvious value and uses. That has 1 and 2 words. WORDS!! WORDS!!

If you are ignoring this stuff or want to vehemently disagree.......I can't help you. Nobody can! These are simply the most basic, most important, and most imperative hurdles a domain name must pass if you want to filter out pigeon shit.

Even a brandable has to be spellable. How many MONTHS did it take takl.com to go out of business?? WTF was that?? They spent TENS of millions on Kathy Lee Gifford and endless commercials everywhere advertising a name nobody could spell or remember or even meant much. Everywhere! Until they went belly up and broke! They blamed it on Covid! Here's a memo from me to them, had nothing to do with covid. Had everything to do with a PIGEON SHIT domain name! They failed before they started. And remember, almost all failure happens at the start! The start of the Internet is the Domain Name and many times, that will dictate your success or failure before you take your second step!!!!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

I am so sick of domainers running around trying to sell any domain or register any domain that has a keyword in it from a recent domain sale. Talk about chasing shiny objects!!

Domain sales to end-users will rarely spawn similar sales! The reason is there was a specific use. Just because a company buys one domain in a sector does not mean they want to buy any others. They don't!! Nor does it mean that your domain has any more value than it did yesterday.

Domains are unique. Sales are unique. Need is unique. Their purpose is unique. Stop wasting your time trying to duplicate unique! I am not going to buy your domain just cuz it has a keyword of a recent sale or is in the same sector.

In the last 1000 emails from desperate domainers, do you know how many I bought?? ZERO!! Stupid, worthless names with a keyword that does not even match the other words. So stop wasting your time sending me crap. I am no longer even answering these emails. (Not that I ever did)

And if you spam me on Twitter, I am no longer going to remain silent. Besides blocking you, I am now calling out your pigeon shit domains so everyone knows it's pigeon shit. Worthless crap that can only be sold to a domainer dumber and less experienced than the current owner!

If you buy a domain and someone can't build their dream on it, don't buy it. PASS!!

Let's be clear, it isn't that domainers can't afford good domains, most domainers would not know a good domain if it smacked them upside the head. They pick and register worthless CRAP and the first thing they try to do is sell their worthless crap!

There is a tried and true path to successful domaining. It's not hard when you have the right mindset. If you have to drop domains because you can't afford to carry them, that's the definition of a wrong mindset.

If you are methodical and follow a simple path that works, you will grow your business and be able to afford better and better quality domains.

If you are flipping crap for $100, $250 and $500, we are in a different business. In real estate you have mobile home flippers and Real Estate agents. They are far from the same. Flippers are far from being sophisticated. A real estate agent can flip a mobile home, a mobile home flipper would be way over their heads trying to sell mansions.

Domaining is not a business to simply make a living. Domaining is not a business to be a schlepper. Domaining is about taking advantage of great opportunities! Being able to see and seize those opportunities. Even part-time and passively.

Do I buy domains every day? Hell no! Why? Because there are not enough valuable domains that will come to market on any given day. I can go weeks or months without buying. But when I see a domain I like, I am on it.

This year I have bought 3 domains so far. Probably the first .net I have ever bought on the open market, Watching.net $310. I like Friendseeker.com so I grabbed it for $1099. And I liked Cult.tv and paid $5605. It's rare for me to buy a non .com. But I like it because it follows the rules I set below.

Do I have to explain those names? Will people misspell them? Will they easily forget them? Will they be able to tell others? Can content be matched to that domain that is intuitive? Is that content profitable? Is there a market fo that content? Is it confusing? That's a lot of filters but a domain that I buy MUST meet ALL those standards and more! If I am doing it, why aren't you?? That's the path to success. To find domains that have the ability to be a successful business. And I focus on domains that have face-value. That has obvious value and uses. That has 1 and 2 words. WORDS!! WORDS!!

Domains are about WORDS! DH26Homesforsale.com has no value no matter what some SEO guru tells you! WORDS!!

I never look to sell. I simply look to add to and round out my portfolio. The sales will come!!!!!!!!!!! Do your job and sales will come. If you buy crap, wtf do you expect??

If you are struggling, those are the filters that will help you. That will guide you. That will make you money! And those that try and minimize those attributes have portfolios of Pigeon Shit! I don't know a single SUCCESSFUL domainer that ignores those points. But I know tens of thousands or more that do and they are all BROKE!! They drop domains to pay for the others. That's a failure. That should never happen. This is from poor budgeting and picking piss poor names that mean NOTHING!!

I take strong positions on things and that ruffles the feathers of folks with different agendas. You are domain investors, you should never be the victim of the agenda of someone trying to profit off you! Don't be used! I have nothing to sell you, but I am happy to share what I have learned in 25+ years as a successful domain name investor and a serial entrepreneur for 50 years! I look at things differently. Success requires that!

If you are on a limited budget, DO BETTER by learning about the attributes of a valuable domain name!!! GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

Rick Schwartz

Morning Folks!!

The Movers and Fakers It's a race to the bottom. A race of survival. A demolition derby. The big loser......unsuspecting "Domain Investors" and CHEAP startups making bad decisions and getting a start on the wrong leg.

Both .xyz and .icu hit about 6.7 million registrations as a high. .xyz hit their high of 6.7 Million and change in December 2016. .icu hit their high of 6.7 Million domains registered in March of 2020. Each has now shed over 3 Million domain registrations since their "Respective" highs.

And we are far from done. .xyz still has 284,000 upcoming deletes and .icu has a whopping 1 million more deletes coming on the heals of a whopping 3.2 million drops since last March. .xyz has 2.94 domains left in the zonefile and .icu about 2.3 million.

The two gTLD leaders are sinking! But wait there is more. When you peal back the onion, the largest domain registrar in the world has less than 10% of the .xyz regs and when it comes to .icu 192 total domains registered.

The next high flyer that is crashing is .Top. After hitting 3.8 Million registrations in December 2018, they have managed to drop 2.2 million names and are now sitting under 1.6 Million with 244,000 still to be deleted. Just 1.33 Million in the zone file.

That's a meltdown by any measure!

To me, these are all "MOVERS and FAKERS!" That's my PROFESSIONAL and PERSONAL opinion soley based on my knowledge of NUMBERS!

Then you have .site. After hitting its peak of 2.14 Million regs in late September 2020 it has been downhill. Now 1.7 million Registrations with 261,000 upcoming deletes. 1.253 Million left in the zonefile.

Next up is .vip. After reaching a high of 1.5 Million registrations, it now has a little over 1 Million with 127,000 upcoming deletes.

Then of course we have .Club. They have done more outreach and marketing then all the other stinkers combined. But even with that, they have truly struggled to maintain 1 million registrations. They have 1.1 million domains registered with over 60,000 upcoming deletes. A far cry from the 7 million originally promised.

.work is up next. Sitting in 10th place. They hit a high of about 750,000 names in November 2020. Now sitting at 566,000 in the zonefile.

.app hit their high just in late January of this year with 771,000 names registered. Today at 716,000 in the zone file.

But there is a little bit of a bright spot. Of the top 10 gTLD losers, there is one not doing bad! .online has been the healthiest. Hitting their top just days ago on February 1 of 1.95 million registrations. The growth has been steady. Today they have 1.7 Million in the zonefile with 129,000 deletes.

.shop is a little choppy and not as strong as .online but with over 800,000 registrations and only 33,000 upcoming deletes, it shows signs of life. But don't confuse "Signs of life" with something worthy of investment.

Now of course numbers don't tell the whole story but only a total fool would ignore more than HALF the story!

These are the top 10. The leaders. The movers and shakers or as I refer to most of them as the "movers and fakers"!

I am a numbers guy. Have always been, will always be. Numbers don't lie, PEOPLE LIE!! It appears they have had more deletes than registrations now. Isn't that a wonderful place to be for "Emerging Technology"?

I am a lone voice and of course I get LOTS of pushback from a multitude of different groups, companies and domainers. But while they whine, I just state facts and numbers. Its all right HERE!

And while they will attack me personally, what they can't do is attack the facts. I am sorry the numbers are not convenient for them. TOUGH! The 7 years of pointing out many of the pitfalls instead of overcoming those pitfalls. They have never directly refuted my points because there are too many to choose from. They pick 1 or 2 and IGNORE a hundred others because they have NO ANSWERS!! What I have predicted has unfolded as predicted. What they predicted, never happened then fell apart and never materialized! It's all on record!

Sure, dotcom is dead is the chant from folks losing their shirts. 51% of the universe uses a dotcom domain extension the world over. Almost 100% of the fortune 500. Follow the leaders, don't follow the losers! Good luck to all!!

Rick Schwartz