After watching “The Messy Truth With Van Jones” tonight and hearing Arnold Schwarzenegger compare United States’ relationships, foreign and domestic, to gardening, a lightbulb went off that this analogy also applies perfectly to domaining. It was a brilliant analogy. How so? “To have a great garden you must attend to it everyday”, so says the “Governator”. I will definitely not argue with him. Likewise, to have a great domain portfolio and recurring revenue you must attend to your portfolio everyday. So what does the “Governator” recommend? (Only his words verbatim appear in quotes, the rest is this writer’s application to domaining.)
“Pull out the weeds”
This is critical if you are to succeed. Learn to identify weeds from the wheat (domains that will provide for you). Let go of the domains that are clearly weeds. You must regularly, at every renewal, do the necessary weeding. This takes time to learn. I’ve held on to domains for years (thinking they will make a great website someday) until figuring out that they only look good from a distance. Once you get close, they are clearly weeds. At first it may be very difficult to separate the weeds from the wheat. Learn this skill and it will serve you well.
“Sprinkle the water”
For most domains, you will need to add water to make them thrive. Sprinkling water is the little things you do on a regular basis. In the vast majority of cases, this involves adding content. In other cases it will involve improving design and other SEO functions. Whether it is for your domain shop(s) or developed domains, you want to regularly add content to make them grow. Be generous with your “wheat” domains. Give them a lot of love and they will become your best assets.
“Put the seeds in”
You definitely want to extend the boundaries of your garden and to improve its overall appearance and make it more lush. To do this, you must sow new seeds. In domaining, this takes the form of new domain acquisitions and development projects. Train your eye to identify the “wheat”, this is much like training your eye to identify the “weeds”. Come up with a development strategy or a business plan for your most promising domains. Especially domains you are passionate about and can translate that passion into work ethic. Most seeds will take time to grow. But with the right plan, you can make few seeds sprout a lot quicker.
Finally, a gardner must develop the quality of patience to succeed in his or her efforts. The same is true in domaining. Without patience and consistent attending to your domain “garden”, it is impossible to be successful. Otherwise you will give up before there is any chance of success. Perhaps, the more we learn about gardening, the more we learn about succeeding in different aspects of business and life. What a concept.
