I kid around with the title of this post, but in all seriousness, I want to make sure that the people reading my blog know that I wouldn’t be in the position I am in today without Frank Schilling and his Seven Mile domain blog.
Not only was Frank one of the first people to really go “all in” with domain names, but he was also one of the first domain bloggers who shared news, insight, and opinion with all of us – and he was happy to talk domains with anyone who commented. Looking back, it’s pretty cool that Frank was willing to take the time to share with all of us.
Not only that, but Frank was kind enough to link to newer bloggers that he didn’t even know, myself included, and every time he did that, my traffic went through the roof. It was such a trip when Frank linked to my blog, and it was an even cooler experience when Frank added me to his blog roll without my having to ask for the link.
Although Frank hasn’t blogged in quite some time, I urge you to look through his past posts  – even if you’ve read them all before. The passing of time changes perspectives, and you might be in a different place now than you were in when you first read Frank’s blog. I still haven’t met Frank in person, but I appreciate all he has done for our industry, and my blog still receives traffic from his blog (The #6 referring site in August). It really is the gift that keeps on giving!
I remember one of the first questions I asked on his blog was, “If you had to start all over again, and had $100K in your account, what would be your strategy?” and I can honestly say his answer changed my life. The advice and feedback on his blog are priceless and there is no question that Frank Schilling is a genius.
Thank you Frank
Amen! I always looked forward to checking his blog each day. I think enough time has passed, and we are in such a different economic and PPC environment now, that it would be worth it for Frank to pick up the Seven Mile blog again and share his thoughts with us. Even a once-a-month update post would be nice to see. But I bet that blog took up a lot of his time when it was in full swing. The only other guy at that level we hear from regularly would be Rick Schwartz. I’d also like to see Scott Day (the watermelon farmer) do a blog.
Elliot,
Just so you know, the links on seven mile to your site like:
https://www.domaininvesting.com/index.php/2007/12/07/opportunity-cost-of-lost-opportunities/
show up as page not found, although I’ve found this page on your site which is presumably the post he linked to:
https://www.domaininvesting.com/opportunity-cost-of-lost-opportunities
Should be fairly straightforward for you to set up redirects in wordpress for these old urls. More traffic for you and more links too – win, win 🙂
Agreed – Frank’s was/is a great blog, and a superb introduction for anyone new to the industry. If you haven’t seen it already, there’s a great recent FS interview on Paul Sloan’s new website – well worth a read!
playingtheangles.com/2009/08/frank-schilling/
Elliot. I just posted something similar on Rick’s blog. I too feel the same. Rick is the closest thing we have to what Frank used to offer, an almost Nostradamus like ability to predict the future.
Frank said years ago that he would buy generic keyword domains NO MATTER how long the tail IF it has the searches. THAT is something that the current crop of so called “gurus” STILL haven’t got.
I saw Rick pay big money for a 5 word generic a few weeks ago. I am not going to give away the niche, but it was a geo + keywords domain. In the near future as people move away from print advertising, yellow pages, etc they WILL be investing that money in generic domains that describe their products and they will begin to move away from PPC as well.
Teahupoo
I agree, he hasn’t posted in months (maybe years) but you could print out his archives and learn about 80% of what it takes to be a successful domainer.
I wish he’d post more, especially with the changes in the economic times.