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began
in a private forum he started back in the
industry's Stone Age (circa 1999) and continued
when the blog era arrived a few years ago. Rick's
Blog had been one of the most
popular (and certainly the most
controversial) soapbox anyone in this
business has ever stood on. Love him or hate
him, just about everyone visited his blog
each day to see what the outspoken Domain
King and T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founder was going to say next.
So,
when Schwartz announced
today that he was going into semi-retirement
as a blogger, a lot of people (as you will see
in the comments section on that post) viewed it
as the end of an era. Even though
Schwartz will still post from time to time,
especially in matters related to the ongoing
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference, it is the end
of an era in many ways - an era of domain
wildcatting that saw a lot of fortunes made -
many of them based on the sage advice that
Schwartz dished out daily.
A
lot of people love him for that but he has
plenty of detractors too, largely because
he
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 Rick
Schwartz |
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says
what he thinks and if it offends someone, so
be it. Schwartz has ruffled so many feathers
along the way he probably should sue
Frito-Lay for having the temerity to infringe on
his trademark by calling their potato chips Ruffles! One
way or another I wouldn't be surprised to see
him end up with a piece of that company one day.
Lord knows he has a financial interest a lot of
mainstream business enterprises these days (both
online and off). His desire to expand
further into other business categories is the
reason he decided to re-direct the time he has
devoted to blogging to building contacts and
partnerships in other fields.
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Like
many, I will miss reading what Rick has
on his mind each day because he always
managed to come up with
something you could learn from or be
entertained by or go ballistic over
(often all three in the same post)!
Coming from the media business I always
thought of Schwartz as the Ted Turner
(known during his heyday as Captain
Outrageous) of our industry. Like
Turner, Schwartz is smart as a whip and
wildly successful despite being so
outspoken he has made a line of enemies
a mile long. But he has also developed
an equally long line of devoted
fans and friends who count on him to
offer guidance through the minefield of
domain investing and to speak up on
topics others avoid.
There
are probably as many points of view
about Rick as there are people in the
business. Personally, I have always
gotten along extremely well with him.
When I was a newcomer to the business,
before DNJournal.com was of any interest
to anyone, he
treated me with |
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courtesy and respect and
generously shared his knowledge on any
topic I asked about. I know he will
always give me his honest opinion on
something and I appreciate that he is
one of the few who tells you what he thinks,
rather than what he thinks you want to
hear. |
He's
been through the wars, so those opinions have a
lot of value to me. I don't always agree with
them but I always have to give them serious
consideration because they come from someone who
has already been there and done that
(and, at least with respect to domains, done it
better than just about anyone else). So, even
though there are still a lot of great blogs out
there, the absence of RicksBlog will still leave
a gaping hole in my own media consumption
day. 
Rick
Schwartz at work in the home office of his Fort
Lauderdale Beach
condominium with a huge portrait of his idol, Albert
Einstein, looking on. On
the plus side, while he is off blazing trails
in new businesses, I know he will have a lot
of valuable new experience and information to
share with us on those future occasions when he
does sit down in front of his keyboard to pound
out an update. His critics are not looking
forward to that, but I'm starting to miss those
ALL CAP sentences and multiple exclamation
points already!!!!
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