Scrolling through Amazon the other day and one of the suggestions for me was the “I Heart Rick Schwartz” t-shirt. Since everyone in my family already has one, I went on to the next item which was The Domain Sellers Handbook by Renata Barnes. This item is available for free as a kindle unlimited subscriber. If you like to read, $10 a month for a crap-ton of free reads is a pretty good deal, check it out if reading is your thing.
I’m always looking for something new when reading books on domaining. While The Domain Game remains my favorite on the topic, most books are geared at the absolute noob. The Domain Sellers Handbook is some how geared even a notch below a noob.
I never touted myself as a perfect speller, but nothing puts a dent in an authors credibility like finding a misspelling in the very first page of the book. This is in the Front Matter right after the cover of the book. “Buy buying and exact match searchable keyword…” Alright, it’s an honest mistake. But it’s not the only one. A book author needs an editor and the editor need to do his or her job. I’m likely to make a spelling error in this article, but then again, I’m not trying to sell it to you.
Chapter one was “about the author” and I wasn’t overly impressed. By the end of chapter two, “Introduction,” I wanted to stop reading. Passages like “What gets me is there is nothing solid online to say what you should or should not do in regards to buying and selling domain names” is a load of shit. If you’re reading this right now chances are great that you have been to domaining.com and have seen all the resources available to you. The bloggers and message forums in this industry have a wealth of information. The veterans of this industry like the previously mentioned Domain King and The Castellos of the world have always been willing to give advice to the newer folks. We have those like Shane, Elliot, and Michael Cyger who have come in at a later level in the game and still proved successful.
While I could go on about chapter two, chapter three, “Registrars” is more about trademarks than anything. Chapter four hits on TLDs but offers little value. The chapters go on and on and the information in minimal and in some cases, arguably inaccurate. There are 31 chapters in this book and only 219 pages. Most chapters wouldn’t quality as a decent blog post.
I won’t waste your time discussing how disappointed I am in the remaining chapters, but I hope I’ve actually saved you some time by guiding you away from this book. In retrospect, this looks like a poorly crafted ebook the author wrote to give away to sign up for a newsletter and then she decided to sell it on amazon. If you are interested in any books I actually endorse, have a look a the book store page and read the reviews that go along with them.
I’m hoping my next review is a book of value to a segment of the audience. This one certainly is not.
6 comments
I see others like these who will come on namepros and ask and keep asking for someone to write how to go about domaining when it’s all there .They then package their crap and go sell out and make money off new domainers.I dont need a book if I am new as i would just go through the resources others keep advising to use but you too much desperate sellers who don like to read but only want the “short cut “when they see others selling .
They quickly realize domaining takes time and skills and a bit of luck but it takes a lot of hard work and research and good pricing sales which more than 50% dont have.
@Unknowledge, I understand. So far there have been few books on the topic that have impressed me. Some good online research goes a long way.
Thanks for the review…………, at least you should have had the decency to message me directly rather than insult me off to the world publicly.
Lets see how good you are in publishing a book…
Well at least not many people are going to even read this blog thankfully seeing as your on page 5 and my blog is on page 1.
Lets put your money where your mouth is. An expert Domain Broker at least gets their websites on the first page of Google for the search terms, its only out of curiosity that I was searching my name and your bullshit of a review came up. This why I am a CEO and you are a Manager.
There will always be negative people in the industry with you being one of them and I open always open to constructive critisism, but when it gets personal thats when I intervene.
In fact I have mentioned you in my blog and you can even see the complimentary SEO Report I did for you. Call it Karma….. Your blog is bad….. just saying and I don’t just mean the content.
I am well respected in the industry so your comments are insignificant considering you did not fully review the book.
Don’t get me wrong everyone is entitled to express their own opinions on their own blogs, but you shoud do it in a way that is not disrespectful to anyone.
You omitted certain chapters that were uselful you just picked out 3 chapters and ripped into them. If your going to do a book review at least review all the chapters and also introduce yourself as an expert in the field.
@Renata, Thank you for visiting and responding to my review. First, I am not a domain broker nor have I ever claimed to be. Anyone who has approached me to sell their names has been referred to highly respected brokers in the industry. I also don’t claim to be an SEO expert, but I appreciate your analysis on my blog. When I publish my book, I will send you a free copy to critique. I provided my opinion of your book, just as you provided your opinion of my blog. Fair is fair. When you say on your blog that “he is only a manager and I am a CEO,” that made me chuckle. I too am a CEO of a registered corporation. That is not a difficult title to achieve. I feel you lost even more credibility with the attempt of using a title to claim your expertise. That said, I would be happy to review your second book if you would like. I will be equally as fair. Perhaps we could even collaborate on a blog post, or sing a duet together.