We all go through periods of discouragement and depression. At times like that it’s hard to motivate yourself to keep moving forward as a domainer or entrepreneur. The good news is that there are tools you can use to get through those rough patches.

I’m no exception. Sometimes the ills of the world, and my own personal problems, weigh on me like a sandbag on my shoulders. I feel lethargic and tired of my work. It’s easier at such times to pick up a good novel, especially a science fiction or fantasy novel, and lose myself temporarily in another world. Or I might begin several new online chess games and immerse myself in chess strategy. I have always been like this.

Now, however, this is a problem. I’m not a student or a 9 to 5 employee anymore. I’m a self-employed entrepreneur with a family, a business to run, and bills to pay. Furthermore, we are entering a challenging time, with PPC income down and domain buyers adopting a conservative stance as the U.S. heads into a recession.

So, what to do? It happens that I’ve survived stormy seas in the past and I’ve gotten to know myself well. Over the years I’ve developed a suite of motivational and organizational tools that helps me get through these rocky periods.

1. Affirmations

I’m a big believer in the power of affirmations. J. Donald Waters, a well known author and lecturer, says,

“An affirmation is a statement of truth which one aspires to absorb into his life. It has been said that we are what we eat. It could be truer to say, ‘We are what we think.’”

I began using this tool in my mid twenties, when I went through a dark and difficult period, and it made a huge difference.

Affirmations helped me overcome:

• negative self-images of myself
• negative self-assessments of my competency
• negative memories of my past behavior that replayed constantly in my mind
• feelings of jealousy toward others who are more “successful”
• self-pity and cynicism

At the same time my understanding of my own strengths and worth, and my right to realize my dreams, came into fruition. Along with this came a new faith in the future.

In subsequent years I wrote extensively, held a steady job for years (a first for me), started a business, got married and bought a house. All of this was possible because prayer, meditation, and daily affirmations enabled me to change my self-conception. I went from confused to intrepid, self-reliant and determined.

I didn’t intend for this to be a how-to on affirmations, but I do think this is an important subject, as I believe that many people are crippled by negative self-beliefs that have been put upon them by others.

My personal affirmations consist of three short lists, each containing different types of “I” statements: “I am,” “I will,” and “I love.”

“I Am” Statements

“I Am” statements are affirming declarations of some good qualities that I possess, or want to possess. For example:

1. I am a loving, attentive husband and father. I cherish my family and they are the most important part of my life.
2. I am a hard working, confident and highly successful domain name investor.
3. I am a natural moneymaker. I am good at making money, investing money, and increasing my wealth.
4. I am open to opportunities that others may miss.
5. I am a talented writer, with an original voice and important ideas to share.
6. I am an athletic man. I love working out, practicing martial arts, lifting weights, hiking, and strengthening my body in every way.
7. I am a spiritual person. Prayer and meditation are an important part of my daily routine.

To those of you who are already self-confident and self-aware, such affirmations may seem like a waste of time. But most people are full of self-doubt in some or all areas of their lives, and their doubt acts as a brake, shutting them down when they try to move forward.

Keep in mind that the affirmations do not have to be 100% true. For example, looking at the second one above, I am indeed a hard working and relatively confident individual. But there are times when my confidence flags. And I would not call myself highly successful yet. That’s where I want to be, but not where I am. The affirmations steadily mold my self-perception until they become reality. In addition, they act as motivational kindling, stoking my internal fires to move me forward.

There are three critical points to keep in mind concerning affirmations:

1. Make them ambitious but believable.
2. Repeat them frequently, at least two or three times a day.
3. Follow them up with specific action plans.

You may have noticed also that my affirmations are balanced across the various spheres of life, including business, family, physical and spiritual. That meets my needs, but yours can be more focused on one area if you wish.

“I Will” Statements

These are statements of specific, concrete goals that you intend to achieve. Again, make these challenging. They should stretch your capabilities, but be believable. “I will sell a million dollar domain name within five years” is great, but “I will become the richest domainer on earth” is not believable.

“I Will” statements can also cover all spheres of life.

I suggest that you write these statements down and keep the list somewhere handy so that you can review it, at a minimum, three times a day: first thing in the morning when you wake up, once in the middle of the day, and last thing at night before you go to bed.

In the beginning you will be skeptical of your own affirmations and you may find yourself thinking that it’s silly or embarrassing. You have been conditioned for years to believe that your dreams are unrealistic and silly, and some of that will come out as you read your affirmations.

Never mind that. Just keep at it, three times a day minimum, and you will find that in time your skepticism will disappear. As your faith in yourself grows, you will see opportunities that you did not see before. You will conceive of concrete ways to realize your goals.

“I Love” Statements

This may not be for everyone, and in fact I only occasionally use this portion of my list. These statements are appropriate for individuals who are deeply depressed, discouraged or negative.

Make a list of the things in life that you love, no matter how small or remote that may seem. For example:

• I love my parents, my wife, my children, and my close friends (it’s a good idea to name each person individually).
• I love the color of the sky in the evening just after sunset.
• I love a good banana split.
• I love the soreness in my muscles after a workout.
• I love the satisfaction of making a good profit on a domain name sale.

Etcetera. Reading this list over each day will serve to remind you of all that is good in life, so that you’re not constantly thinking of life in negative terms.

Disclaimer: For individuals who are clinically depressed or suffering some emotional trauma, I am not suggesting that affirmations should take the place of therapy or medical care. But they can augment your recovery.

What these are really useful for is long-term reshaping of your self-conceptions, which then changes your approach to everything in life.

To learn more about the power of affirmations and how to craft them, I’d suggest reading the following books:

Affirmations of Wealth: 101 Secrets of Daily Success

Affirmations for Self-Healing

Part two of this article will discuss simple organizational techniques that can keep you moving forward when you’re not in the mood.

Was Rick Schwartz lucky, or was he a visionary? Was Yun Ye lucky, or was he smart? Some struggling domainers complain that the most successful icons in this industry are guys who got lucky because they were in the right place at the right time.

Being able to look ahead and see what others cannot or will not see is not luck, it’s foresight. Some of these top domainers are people who recognized the value and importance of domain names in the early years, way back in the early and mid 1990′s, when the rest of us were creating print ads, selling retail, buying real estate, or whatever. Or in my case, riding a bicycle.

Yes, that’s right. In the late 80′s and early 90′s, I worked one odd job after another, from librarian to literacy tutor to electrical plant safety monitor. In 1992 I settled down in San Francisco and worked as a bike messenger. I was still in my 20′s and I loved the freedom and exhilaration of it. I lived in the YMCA and had a tiny room where I stashed my bike and my computer, my two most important possessions. But the computer was only for writing stories and my novel. I had never even heard of the internet at that point.

In 1994, still messengering, I made a delivery to a place called Organic Online. It took up the entire floor in a dilapidated building down on Third Street, south of Market, just above a sweatshop full of Chinese seamstresses. I walked into this huge, darkened room with workstations scattered across the floor and young people sitting in front of glowing monitors. “What do you people do here?” I asked. “Web design.” It looked fascinating and it sounded a chime in my brain, but I didn’t respond for another two years.

In 1995 I remember having a conversation with someone who told me about the internet. “What’s on it?” I asked. “Oh, not much,” he said. “A few discussion forums, and a few company websites that are just like brochures.”

“Doesn’t sound like much,” I said.

But by 1997 it was clear a revolution was taking place. So I went to the Software Training Group and studied web design. Since then I’ve mostly been self-employed though I was employed briefly as an internet researcher before the dot com crash, and then later in “media intelligence” – basically just a media clips service. In any case since 1997 my work has always involved the internet, whether it’s creating websites, blogging or buying and selling domain names. The internet has become a big part of my life and has enabled me to enjoy certain freedoms that I would not have had otherwise, and for that I’m grateful.

What about you? What were you doing in the mid 90′s? If you were registering premium dot com domain names, then hey, more power to you. I’ll never complain that you were just lucky, because I had the same opportunity you did, but I didn’t see it.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

- Thomas Edison

Having a hard time with this domain name business? Or for that matter, with any other challenge you’re facing in life? Have you been working at it for a long time and starting to feel like you’re not going to get there?

Don’t give up, evolve. Learn from your mistakes.

Here are five pieces of advice that will almost guarantee success. It took me two years to learn how crucial these points are, so pay attention:

1. Sell. As a domainer, focus more on the sell side and develop selling strategies that work.
2. Buy Revenue-Earning Domains. Only buy domains with the proceeds of your sales, not on credit or with your savings. Use the money from your sales to buy revenue-earning domain names. Ask the seller for proof of earnings and analyze the stats and the domain carefully. Is the traffic steady or declining? What is the source of the traffic? Is it easy to monetize? Is the domain easy to remember, pronounceable, and descriptive? Consider all these points and make sure the domain name will be profitable for you within a reasonable period of time before you agree to buy.
3. Buy Underpriced Domains. Look for deals where the seller is either desperate or is undervaluing the domain name out of ignorance. If the industry standard is to pay one year to ten years revenue depending on the quality of the domain, try to find someone who’s selling for 10 months to 2 years revenue. Make lowball offers and bargain hard; you’ve got nothing to lose.
4. Monetize Your Traffic. If a domain name is getting traffic but no clicks, look for alternative ways to monetize it, such as changing parking services, altering the keywords, developing a website, or redirecting the traffic to an existing website or affiliate link.
5. Dump or Sell the Losers. If a domain name is getting no traffic, dump it. Sell it for whatever you can get, unless you are convinced it has re-sale potential, in which case, return to point # 1.

Remember the coyote in the old road runner cartoons? In every cartoon he’d try some new ACME device or trap to catch the road runner, and each time he’d fail abysmally. Like maybe he’d try a rocket-powered harpoon, but he’d point it the wrong way and shoot himself instead of the road runner. Whereupon he would ditch that idea and try something else.

Even as a kid I remember being frustrated and thinking, “Why not just try the harpoon again, but this time point it the right way?” By the time I was ten I could not watch the road runner cartoon anymore because I was so annoyed at the coyote’s inability to learn from his mistakes.

Maybe I was a weirdo kid and missed the point of the cartoon, I don’t know.

Look, I know this is a cliche, but the night is darkest just before th dawn. The moment when something is the most difficult is often the moment before a breakthrough. Don’t abandon your dream, just refine your strategies, learn, adapt.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.
Thomas A. Edison (1847 – 1931)

Many new domainers feel that the domain name train has left the station. They look at the pioneers like Rick Schwartz, Frank Schilling and Kevin Ham and think, “Those guys took all the good names. There’s nothing left. It was a one-time deal.” Is that true? Can you still get rich with domain names, or is it too late?

Sahar Sarid recently wrote a post comparing the domain market now to Florida real estate 80 years ago. In response, Steve of Alledia.com (an SEO club for Joomla users) commented:

Chances like this don’t come around very often. Domaining had its window 13 years ago. Fort Lauderdale property had its window 80 years ago. It may well be that there are no such opportunities available right now. One may develop next year or not for the next several years.

To be fair to Steve, many folks struggling to enter and succeed in the domain name market express the same frustrations.

True, a beginning domainer with a limited budget cannot acquire a Business.com or Applications.com type of domain name, and maybe not even BusinessApplications.com. Does that mean that opportunities to get rich do not exist?

I’ll write a post soon outlining some specific ways to find good domain names. It’ll be a good one, so stay tuned. In the meantime, let me point out some broad trends:

1. Population Growth. The human population continues to grow, creating increasing demand in every consumer sector. The world population is expected to grow to 9.4 billion by the year 2050, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Insane, huh? Of course only a small percentage of these will be internet users, but with the spread of internet-capable mobile devices and cheap laptops, that percentage will continue to increase.

2. Internet Evolution. The internet itself is still developing to say the least. If you count from the invention of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and others at CERN in Geneva in 1990 or so, then the web is in its teens. It’s an industry in its infancy, yet thundering ahead like a hurricane. Can you imagine declaring 17 years after the invention of electricity that the moment had passed and there were no further opportunities in electric devices?

3. Internet Users Growth. The number of people with part time or full time internet access continues to mushroom, especially in the developing world. There are a billion people with internet access now, and there will be 1.5 billion people with internet access by 2011, with the biggest growth in the online population occurring in Brazil, Russia, India and China, according to a new report by Jupiter Research.

4. New Technologies. New types of handheld devices, new internet browsers for mobile phones, and new internet services for mobile users are all going to dramatically change the way people access and view the internet in coming years; these trends will also open up the internet to the masses of people who have cell phones but no computers.

5. Domain Trends. Like the World Wide Web, the doman name industry is constantly developing. Important new ccTLDs are being introduced, many more people are taking up domaining as a hobby or full time job, media companies are being formed based on domain names, and price appreciation is extending to previously quiet sectors.

In the next twenty years technology will evolve in ways that will boggle our minds. As for the domain name market, it’s busy and getting busier. When a market is busy it creates opportunity. As Thomas Edison pointed out in the quotation up top, opportunity is a function of the work you put in (and keeping an open mind). Study, learn and don’t shut yourself off to new ways of thinking.

Lastly, let me change the direction of this piece and point out, since we’re speaking of opportunity, that every sunrise grants you an opportunity to be a better human being. I hope that you achieve financial wealth and success in the domain name industry. More important than that, however, is that you keep peace with your own soul and be a force for positive change in the world. That’s what we really need, and that will benefit you much more than any domain name.

I love DNJournal’s detailed profiles of major players in the domain name business, telling how they got started and how they made it big. Today I re-read Sahar Sarid’s story for the third time. I’m also big fan of his blog, TheConceptualist.com. I learn something from it every day. So I went back and read his story again, because I am in need of some encouragement…

Like Sahar, I am intelligent and I read voraciously, but was a rebel in school. Like Sahar, I struggled for many years and once drove an ice cream truck. Like Sahar, I believe in looking ahead and creating my own opportunities, and like Sahar I believe in doing something that will benefit people and make the world a better place, not just enrich me personally.

And yet I’m struggling. I’ve been in the domain name industry for two years, but I don’t feel that I’ve gotten the return that I had hoped for. I needed to be reminded that many of the very wealthy domainers of today came from humble roots. I needed to be reminded that it doesn’t take a lot of money to get rich in this business. It takes grit, study, perseverance and the ability to learn from your mistakes.

Don’t get me wrong, my situation is not totally bleak. I’ve made some nice sales, and I’ve managed to build a portfolio that gets a lot of traffic, but only about 20 of my domains are truly profitable. As for the others, I have yet to figure out how to monetize the traffic properly. For example, I’ve got this one domain name, WebPark.net, that gets 500 uniques per month but has only a 1% CTR. The result? It makes a little over $1 a month. Ok, technically it’s profitable since it makes more than its reg fee, but it’s not nearly fulfilling its potential. Another, merkezi.org (merkezi means market in Turkish) gets 270 uniques per month and only 0.75% CTR. Less than one percent! You want one of them? Make me an offer. Maybe you can monetize them better than me.

I have many like that, and they’re driving me batty. Good traffic, low CTR. Almost all are parked at Sedo. I need to begin working on strategies to monetize them better. I’ll move some to other parking services, and for others I will build small websites. Others may become blogs. And some I will sell.

I spotted a few suggestion’s in Sahar’s bio that may help me, such as brokering domain names to gain experience, and finding a system that works and building on it. I do believe in this business, and I do believe in what I’m doing. I think I’ve got all the pieces of success laid out in front of me; I just need to figure out how to assemble them properly.

Are you struggling in your chosen industry, whether it’s the domain name business or something else? What strategies do you use to keep yourself motivated? Are there certain people at the top of the industry who inspire you? Tell me about them.

I became interested in domain names as early as 1997 or 1998, though it was just a curiosity back then. I held on to several good domains because I thought I might develop websites around them, not because I had any inkling of the way generic domain valuations would skyrocket. I also let a lot of good ones go.

I once owned TheService.com, and I let it expire. Not a giant-killer perhaps, but a pretty good domain. I also planned to register Islam.com. I checked it and found it was available, and I remember thinking, “I’ll register it next month, after I’ve paid my bills.” You can guess what happened. Someone else took it.

I could sit around kicking myself for missing out. Many struggling domainers spend a lot of energy bemoaning lost opportunities.

But you know what? Hindsight is 20-20. If I’d invested in Apple stock in the early days… If I’d registered that generic domain back in 1996… I’f I’d come up with the idea for that simple invention that everyone uses now…

People who only look back will always fail, because they see only a world of missed opportunities. They see a world of scarcity, not enough to go around. They see only what others have done.

Those who succeed look ahead. They see the coming opportunities or they create their own. They see a world of plenty, a world of a million waiting opportunities. Such people are limited only by the length of a day. This is true not only on the internet but in every industry.

Are you looking for opportunities? Read about future technologies and consider what markets they might open. Read Business 2.0, Entrepreneur, VentureWire.com, TheAlarmClock.com, and other magazines and websites that cover emerging trends.

Here’s an idea: whenever you find that there’s something (whether in the physical world or the internet) that’s persistently annoying or inconveniencing you, then make a note of that thing, because that is an opportunity. If it’s bothering you, chances are it’s bothering other people too, and that is an opportunity to create a solution. Creating solutions to everyday problems is how people get rich.

Hint: It’s Not the Number of Domain Names in Your Portfolio

An article on MSNBC describes the surprising findings of a study conducted by The Associated Press and MTV on the nature of happiness among America’s young people. This extensive survey presented more than 100 questions to 1,280 people ages 13-24.

What single thing do you think makes these young people the most happy? Cool clothes? A new bike or car? Music? An iPod? Being popular?

None of those. 73 percent of the respondents – almost three quarters – said that the thing that makes them happiest is their parents. Next was spending time with family in general, followed by spending time with friends, and then being with a significant other.

Wow! Who’d have thought?

The article covers the results of the survey in detail, so I won’t repeat all of that here. Instead I’d like to focus on the implications of this survey for domainers, and for internet entrepreneurs in general.

A Double Work Week

It’s no secret that entrepreneurs work long hours.

Research carried out by Durham University indicates that British entrepreneurs work much longer hours than the average employee. Twenty-eight per cent of the entrepreneurs work between 41-50 hours per week, 27% work between 51-60 hours per week and 26% work in excess of 60 hours a week.

What about entrepreneurs in developing nations? See this article, about two entrepreneurs in India. Nishant Sinha, 24, and Aditya Singhal, 25, founded Transwebtutors.com in their New Delhi basement. Both of them work at least 100 hours a week trying to develop their business.

And for some real craziness, check out this article from the Wall Street Journal’s StartupJournal.com. Among respondents to their telephone poll, one in five business owners read email and other work-related documents while in the bathroom, and about half did so while driving a car! About 20% said they worked during dinner four to five nights a week, and about 20% work a double work week, or 80 hours. Nearly 51% work on holidays and 47% work during designated family time.

Why We Do It

I work long hours too, and I understand the reasons:

1. Ambition. Entrepreneurs, by our very nature, are driven to succeed. We want to build something and to be in charge, and that takes time.

2. Always open. For internet entrepreneurs in particular, the workplace never shuts down. The opportunity to build your business, to get some work done, to make some money, is there 24 hours a day, and as a result it’s hard to regulate your hours.

3. No commute. To make matters worse, many of us work from home, so all we have to do is turn on the computer, day or night, and we’re at work. Sure, it’s a pleasure not to have to commute, but the flipside is that it can be impossible to tear yourself away from your work.

4. Security. We entrepreneurs are not bound by the constraints of a “job”, but neither are we afforded the security of a regular paycheck. Doing it for yourself is inherently risky, so we are driven to work hard in order to overcome that risk.

5. Family needs. Many of us tell ourselves that our long working hours are in fact in consideration of our families. We want to provide for them, make sure all their needs are taken care of. Forget the cool clothes and the iPod, we want to make sure they can afford medical and dental care, good food, college…

Wanting to take care of your family is admirable. Nothing wrong with that.

Unless…

I have a one year old daughter. I work from home and in fact my computer station is right in the center of the house. My daughter often crawls over to my desk and pulls herself up, trying to get my attention.

I don’t ever want to be so into my work, so obsessed, that I can’t take some time to pick my daughter up, bounce her on my knee, play with her, or take her outside for a walk in the yard.

Go back and read the results of that MSNBC study again. Even in America, where there are so many ways for kids to be entertained or distracted, what makes them happier than anything else is spending time with their parents.

Domainers and entrepreneurs, remember this. Your children won’t be any happier if you have 10,000 domains in your portfolio than if you have 1,000. They won’t be happier if you are making $1 million a year than if you’re making $50,000. They might be more financially secure, but they won’t be happier. What they need is you: your time, your attention, your love.

We entrepreneurs want to have it all. For those of us with families, maybe we already do.