Interview with Bruce Marler, Expert Domainer and Developer

During the tough times that Philippines has experienced with the typhoon calamities, I asked for support from domainers to post on how to donate to the red cross. One of the people that responded really quickly was Bruce Marler from BruceMarler.COM. A domainer and developer, at the same time, he’s one of the people that I look upto in the world of domaining. As a thank you to Bruce, I’ve asked an interview so that I could feature him in TechFilipino, here’s how it went…

How did you start Domaining?

I had started my technology career at ATT back in 1996 when they were first deploying their Internet backbone, based on this I became familiar with the concept of domain names early in my tech career. I bought my first domain in 1997 but did not start focusing a lot of time and effort into it until 2002. Around that time I was working for Lucent Technologies and with the downturn in the telecommunications industry I had to hedge my bets and started coming up with names for a business of my own, based on this I started checking on various available domains. It did not take long to realize the power of having the proper domain name for your business and that it really was no different than quality real estate.

How much time and money have you invested into Domaining?

Over the past several years I have been doing domain investing part time only while I focused on my sales position at a technology company. This past year I have quit my corporate job though and started focusing on domain investing and domain business development as my primary career. Anyone that thinks domain investing is easy work would be wrong, there are a lot of hours each day spent researching and negotiating domain acquisitions and sales but its something I love to do which makes it not seem not work.

What are the Highlights of your domaining career?

Without a doubt it was leaving my corporate position this year to focus on developing Missouri.me into a statewide media portal for the state that I reside in. Domain investing allowed me to acquire the name and build a business focused on web development and online marketing for small businesses in rural communities.

Top 3 Lessons that you’ve learned that you’d like to share to other Domainers

1) Research, Research, Research – Do not start buying and selling until you have spent many hours researching and understanding the industry. There are many people that are happy to mislead you and make money off of that. Take your time

2) .COM is King but creativity rules – At the end of the day .COM is the most popular domain extension, but if you are creative with your marketing and focus on building a business you will learn that having a great name is very important, but you can buy alternate extensions and do well also. For domain investing though .COM will always rule.

3) There are still good names available – It is still possible to find quality names at reasonable prices or hand registered. They may not be the million dollar names but there are solid product and service related names available, especially now that many domain investors have let quality names drop based on the downturn in the economy.

Top 3 tips for new or starting domainers

1) Do not buy names just because they sound cool.

2) Back to Top 3 Lessons Learned – Research, take the time to get involved on the domain forums, reading the blogs on Domaining.com, learn the industry and what makes a quality domain before you jump right in.

3) Focus on QUALITY over QUANTITY – One great name is better than 1000 bad names.

How do you see Domaining in 5 years time?

I think you will find domainers starting to focus more on quality names than just having large amounts of names mainly due to the drop in PPC revenues and the fact without the PPC revenue the renewal fees may be hard to swallow. You will also find domain investors finding news ways to creatively generate partnerships and revenue from their top properties. The parking companies will need to evolve as well, once again with PPC revenue dropping new revenue options by the parking companies will become very important.

Thank you so much Bruce for the support that you’ve given to Filipinos and for the time given for this interview, I look forward in reading more of your insights and experiences in domaining. Please go and visit Bruce Marler.