Brandable.eth

THE VOLCANO IN MIAMI 🌋 Over the years, I helped produce 28 domain shows on 4 continents. Some were truly important. But I believe this NamesCon in Miami will be more important than any show I ever produced. I always talk about timing. TIMING. TIMING. TIMING. All I can tell you is what I see. Then we’ll see whether I’m right. I see a volcano @NamesCon An explosion of ideas, relationships, deals & opportunities. And this goes well beyond Beanstalk Challenge. I said it last year, before Beanstalk Challenge was even thought of. I don’t have a convenient memory. Go look at the record. Look at what I wrote. I’ve never attended a NamesCon before. But I bought my ticket and booked my room the first day they announced i even though I have a place just 4 miles away. Because I believed I knew what was coming and I didn't want to miss a single minute. Everything that has happened since has only reinforced that belief. To me, this feels like TRAFFIC 2004. Except instead of 135 people, imagine that energy with thousands of people, including many you already know. That’s what I’m calling it: THE VOLCANO IN MIAMI. The proof will be in the stories that come out AFTER the show. The partnerships formed. The businesses launched. The conversations that turn into something nobody saw coming. Not just one or two stories. Potentially hundreds. I believe we’re approaching a milestone in our industry’s evolution. You can feel something building. Soon, we’ll find out how big it is. See you in Miami. I’m excited as hell!

Let's define swampland domains and oceanfront domains since so many domain investors focus on worthless swampland. Imagine it’s 1826 instead of 2026. You plant a street sign way out west where there’s no town, no road, no business, & no customers. You call it “Dot Whatever Way.” Congratulations. You’ve got a street sign. Maybe 100 years later, a city grows around it. But until people arrive & commerce follows, that sign isn’t doing a damn thing for you. You can be right about the location & still be 100 years too early. Timing is everything. I say it all the time. How old are you? Can you wait 100 years? That’s the difference between planting a sign & recognizing an opportunity whose TIME has arrived. When a gold rush arrives, RECOGNIZE IT. GREET IT. & GRAB WHAT YOU CAN! But make sure the gold rush happens in YOUR lifetime and it is actually gold, not something painted yellow. That’s the key difference. We’ve witnessed a .COM gold rush. It’s still going. We’ve witnessed an .AI gold rush. It’s still in progress. Now we’re witnessing what I see as an .SI gold rush unfolding before our eyes. Whether that rush turns into lasting adoption is still an open question. But there’s a difference between waiting 100 years for people to show up & seeing them arrive TODAY. That’s why I sat on the sidelines for the other extensions. I didn’t see the fruit ripening in my lifetime. With .AI & .SI, I see something worth planting for NOW. For 13 years, I’ve endured pressure, criticism, name-calling & domain stalking from domainers with a vested interest in getting me to buy into THEIR extension. I resisted. I was one of the few voices pushing back. They didn’t like it, & they didn’t make it easy. Their blah, blah, blah wasn’t going to sway me. Neither was telling me I was stupid, a dinosaur, or missing the next big thing. The only thing that sways me is NEW FACTS ON THE GROUND. NEW FACTS! NOT LOUDER MOUTHS! Something changed. I recognized it, reevaluated my position, & made a decision. SIMPLE! That's called business! In business, you either act. You don't act. Or you're paralyzed by indecision. The pressure didn’t change my mind. The facts did. ONLY FACTS! Then I simply marry those facts with a lifetime of experience and follow my instincts and gut. And over the last few weeks, I've articulated and shared my thought process. If none of that makes sense to you, then maybe you need to get some common sense before you buy your next domain name.

What happened with the .SI extension just a little over two weeks ago was a domain industry earthquake. The ground shifted under us without warning. The game changed. .AI had a cousin and a rival at the same time: .SI. Most of us didn’t see it coming. Kudos to those who did. I believe that earthquake is going to have major casualties. Between .AI and .SI, the new gTLDs & the ones coming online just got a gut punch. Who knew 2 long shots, ccTLD's, could emerge to challenge the alternatives & stand alongside .COM? For years, I described what was going on as a stampede.1500+ horses in a race where only 3 could finish in the money. Right now, .COM, .AI and .SI are the 3 I’m watching. Whether .SI earns lasting standing is still an open question. Here’s what I’ll be looking for: @DNJournal’s next sales report. I want to see what the numbers look like. What is this new shooting star made of? You can already see the results @NameBio Nobody can say with certainty how this will unfold. But there are clues. Weigh the evidence. Stay objective. Pay attention to the market cuz the market will decide. None of us gets the deciding vote. Our job has always been to get ahead of the market. We don’t chase markets. We anticipate them. That’s what investors do. They get ahead of the tide. They get ahead of the wave. They get ahead of the future. But let me say this as clearly as I can: marginal domains will not cut it. Focus on meaningful, 1-word domain names. Why waste your time with silly stuff at the beginning of a gold rush? A gold rush doesn’t guarantee gold in every shovel. We’ll see how much lasting value emerges when these names get to market. That’s still unknown. Is there a need? Is there want? Is there desire? Is there use? Is there a benefit? For the right domain names, I believe the answer is yes. But you still have to pick the right names. That goes for every extension. That IS the game. I expect this shift to put downward pressure on marginal names in other extensions. To me, we’re watching attention & speculative money consolidate in real time, whether people like it or not. SURPRISE! Do you hear that sucking sound? That’s the sound of money flowing through fewer funnels than it did just days ago. Many domainers will drop whatever they’re doing &, for better or worse, spend their time digging for .SI. Money & attention redirected there are money & attention unavailable somewhere else. That’s where I see pressure coming for other extensions. This happens in every industry. Marketing & business evolve. New alternatives change where people spend their time & money. Regardless of the long-term outcome, this looks like an immediate & sharp turn. Will many .SI registrations simply be protection for existing .AI businesses? Of course!! It was the first thing I did. I bought Betty .si because I had to protect what I already had in Betty .ai. That was a business decision. Leaving that opening was a risk I wasn’t willing to take. If I own the .COM, I don’t feel the same need for other extensions. If I’m building a business on .AI, however, I have to consider what a competing name on .SI could mean for my brand. For my business, owning both made sense. The headwinds facing other extensions could become stronger than anything they’ve experienced before. That’s my take. It doesn’t mean I’m right. But that’s what I see unfolding, given the circumstances. Now we watch what the market actually does. I speak earl & I speak clearly. I don’t wait for the outcome to show up with an opinion. Read what I said in 2013 & 2014 about the stampede. Read what I said in 1996 & 1997. And perhaps more importantly, read what I wrote last year. I said 2026 would be a monster of a year & 2027 would be even bigger. I’ve always taken a strong stand while explaining the pros, the cons & what could change my mind. 30+ years of putting my judgment on the record. That’s how credibility is earned. On the record. For the record.