Want to start my Domaining.com journey by putting a perspective on AI that I hope you will find interesting on the table, as there seems to be a fair bit of interest in this direction… for obvious reasons.
My perspective, as someone who:
- Runs GiganticWebsites.com, where we leverage the best of what genAI has to offer so as to turn great domains like DN.org into sites with thousands of articles
- Is no stranger to domain name investing, even if I’ve been focusing on my One Minute Economics YouTube channel over the past few years and haven’t been as active in the domain space
- Is no stranger to research and while I have a PhD in economics and international affairs rather than computer science, I do believe my “skeptical researcher” mindset helps me draw the right conclusions in an AI space where delusional hype and legitimate disruption somehow manage to seamlessly coexist
Let’s start with… the beginning: is AI all hype?
No.
Is AI mostly hype?
No. If you are thinking about making a comparison between AI and let’s say pump and dump altcoins or the altcoin space in general (where there is one legitimate project for every 1,000 scams… maybe not even that), you are not approaching things with the right mindset.
As a matter of fact, I’m continuously gobsmacked by the sheer number of AI use cases that exist today and how it’s not all “potential” this and “potential” that.
Simply put, genAI enables us to create the type of website that can cost $xxx,xxx – $x,xxx,xxx for $x,xxx – $xx,xxx over at GiganticWebsites, to refer to something I have first-hand experience with. Or if we are talking about industries like customer support, AI chatbot solutions frequently render entire support departments obsolete. With case studies which make it clear that not only can said support departments function with far fewer people, the average response time goes from something like 15-45 minutes to instant and the average resolution time goes from let’s say 120 minutes to 5 minutes.
So, does this mean our AI overlords are able to take over?
No, far from it.
My biggest pet peeve with AI is seeing people claim that just because Large Language Models have impressive use cases such as the two I have mentioned, Artificial General Intelligence or AGI is just around the corner… a ludicrous statement!
Spoiler: no, it’s not.
It’s not as much a matter of AGI stealing your job as it is a matter of a random dude who knows how to use existing AI solutions taking your job and that of 15-20 coworkers.
An impressive feat with implications that are yet to be fully understood, but a far cry from taking over the world.
Also, color me skeptical when it comes to the Sora examples OpenAI has shared. Especially when I think about the numerous nervous breakdowns I had working with DALLE on the visual front. Now I’m not saying it cannot be done. Or that they are lying when stating that the AI videos on their Sora page were generated directly, without modifications.
I’m more so stating that they are almost certainly omitting to mention certain things.
For example, it would have been truly impressive if they simply had a list of 10 prompts and that’s it. Those are the prompts, those are the outputted videos, that’s what we’re putting on the site. But something tells me they most likely had a gazillion prompts and cherry-picked the very best outputs.
The same way, I can generate truly gorgeous art via DALL·E and post it on my socials as if it’s something that took me a couple of seconds to achieve… when in reality, that one amazing piece of art probably came after 123,456,789 failed attempts and three laptops thrown out the window.
Therein lies the key distinction I think people need to wrap their heads around, the fact that the answer is “Yes” to both of these questions:
- Is AI creating legitimate disruption across multiple sectors? Yes!
- Is AI overhyped? Yes!
As an economist, it is easy for me to acknowledge that whenever something truly revolutionary like AI emerges, us humans tend to get carried away: hype, speculation and the whole enchilada. Whether we are referring to the British railway manias (plural!) of the 1800s or the dot-com bubble, blockhain technology and other more recent examples.
Were railways a game-changer?
Of course, with them making it possible for individuals who had never even traveled to the nearest town to all of a sudden make things happen miles and miles away.
Was the internet a game-changer? Or blockchain technology? Or AI?
Yes, yes and yes.
But in each of these instances, fortunes were not only made but also lost due to precisely the aforementioned hype. I guess if humans were robots, we could adopt game-changing technology without acting like maniacs. But alas, we are not, so hype comes with the territory and needs to be understood for what it is.
What about domain names?
Needless to say, some have done very well by investing in the best AI names early on. However, investing in future trend domains is quite difficult and for every person who has done well, you can find several others who:
- Were forced to sell too early
- Spread themselves too thin by buying hundreds or thousands of mediocre future trend domains which are still to this day worthless
- Paid end user prices on the buy, leaving little to no meat on the bone
Should you invest now?
That’s for you to decide, with there being two main dimensions of risk at the moment of writing.
On the one hand, settling for scraps and assuming that a rising tide will lift all boats. I’m sorry but just because something like Money.ai is probably a 7-figure domain at the moment of writing, it doesn’t mean your Money-Online.ai is worth anything. It’s not, and you shouldn’t expect a rising tide to lift a boat that sunk a long time ago, more specifically the minute you registered such a domain!
On the other hand, there’s also the risk of playing a big boy game if you don’t have big boy money. For example by overpaying for domains if you are not financially resilient enough to keep having strong hands. No matter how optimistic you currently are, risks that range from personal (medical expenses or emergencies) to systemic (a financial crisis, for example) should be factored in.
What about development?
I strongly believe domain investors should experiment with domain development at least once.
However, just like when aiming for ultra-premium domain acquisitions, they should not overestimate their financial firepower, nor should they overestimate the boost an awesome domain will provide.
Far too many times, I see domain investors who pay $xxx,xxx for a domain, decide to develop and are then frustrated that when their low $xx,xxx domain development investment isn’t paying off enough.
“I already have a great domain, now I just have to innovate” is just plain delusional in terms of thinking, as if the domain will do all the heavy lifting for you. It will most certainly not. Will it augment everything you do with the project? It will indeed, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with a high domain acquisition budget but a shoestring domain development one.
The same way, I’d avoid mass development.
Can GiganticWebsites be a great solution for your best domain or a couple of your best domains? It sure can!
But can we develop your entire 10,000-domain portfolio this way?
No, not even close.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. For a handful of your best domains at best, development can be an excellent solution. For everything else, keep experimenting with domain for sale landing pages, parking if traffic exists and so on.
As much as I appreciate your business and think GiganticWebsites represents a perfect fit for premium domains, I am begging you not to be delusional. See the service as one through which you can turn one domain or maybe a few into long-term revenue sources that enable you to invest in domains from a position of strength. After all, it’s easier to say no to offers when you have sustainable revenue coming in. But if you think buying a $50,000 domain and spending $xxx on development will yield magical results, please stay far away from domain development, whether you outsource to us or attempt to do it yourself.
It takes money to make money as a domain investor.
It also takes money to make money when developing and while AI levels the playing field like perhaps nothing before it, not even this technology puts free lunches on the table. Which I think is a more than suitable final statement, so I will put an end to what has become a monster post by wishing you all the best and reminding you to never jump in without understanding the risks involved, whether we are referring to domain investing opportunities or Web development.
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