The end is near. ย Day 18 of 21 days to becoming a better domainer. ย Let me take your back a bit. ย When I was in school, I HATED reading. ย Alright, hate is a strong word and I would actually have had to do some reading to be able to hate it. ย I guess I did read a little. The ingredients of the cereal box in the morning, the back cover of the book I was doing my report on, the answer key floating around for the literature test coming up in 9th hour. ย But that was it.
My first summer out of high school, I actually bought a book one of my friends recommended. ย No, it wasn’t a self-help book, just a fictional book and I actually enjoyed it. ย I mean, I read the whole thing and I didn’t even HAVE to. ย That was pretty much my slow climb to the point I’m at today where I really enjoy reading. ย Mostly non-fiction, business related books.
There is a lot off information online and you might be thinking, “there’s no need to read books, that’s old school.” ย I beg to differ. ย When I first started domaining, I couldn’t find enough information. ย It was all available on the internet, but in 10,000 different places. ย I wanted to know the history. ย I mean, I wanted to know why in the 90’s it cost $70 to register a domain. ย Who were the pioneers? ย Then I came across a book. ย The Domain Game.
It’s full title is The Domain Game: How People Get Rich From Internet Domain Names, which I feel is very misleading. ย Maybe good for sales, but it’s really more of a well written history of domaining. ย You can read my review, but I learned a ton. ย Foundational stuff. ย Not how to sell, but how it got to where it is today. ย You’ll likely even recognize some names in there. ย But this is info that hadn’t all been gathered in one place for me to read online. ย It took David Kesmodel’s time and effort to research and interview people to put this together. ย Many other books are just like that. ย They collect great related ideas, concepts and information all in one place.
Since then, I have read dozens of books on domains, website development, marketing, sales, business principles. ย Some have been great and well worth the time while others have completely sucked and were a waste of time. ย But you won’t know until you start digging in, asking for recommendations, or just taking a chance. ย I’ve learned more from reading and trying then I learned in college, which makes sense.
As I mentioned in a prior post, podcasts and audiobooks are great, but reading a book is an experience of it’s own.
