Interview with Lord Brar from DomainingTips.com

This time I had the pleasure to interview Lord Brar, known from places like DNForum and Wickedfire as a serious domainer. At his age, he already has many years in the industry and knows his stuff real well. He’s also a great person to talk to, and here is your chance to find out some things about him you probably didn’t know…

Real name: Lord Brar
Known on forums as: Lord Brar
Age: 22
Location: Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Blog / website: http://domainingtips.com
Year you started in this business: 1999
Has made the majority of online income from: Domaining.

Tell us briefly about your background before you started making money online
When I bought my first domain and made my first site, I was in ninth grade. So talking of background before I started making money online, I spent most of my time chasing girls and playing basketball, tennis and squash.
However, I come from a pretty decent family background and my dad was a Colonel in the Indian Army. I am glad that I had the support of my family – both financially and emotionally – when I was starting up and that was a major help.

What particular sites, forums, blogs or individuals played a role early on in getting you into the domaining business?
I’d have to say that a lot of it was due to the help I personally got from other people who I happen to knew in real life or had met online and then kept in touch via ICQ. A lot of message boards which I used to visit back in the day that don’t exist anymore or are nearly dead – no point in mentioning them. At one stage of my life, I had a very successful online entrepreneur as my mentor. I would rather not mention his name as we didn’t part on a good note and still aren’t. However, discussing and debating ideas with him was a major part of my learning.

In last few years I have been active on DNForum.com, WickedFire.com and SitePoint. I also read a few blogs, books and magazines regularly. However, I believe more in doing and learning. That is how I have learnt most of what I know now.

Tell us about some of the failures you had to experience before you finally started seeing some success
I don’t call them failures but rather experiences. I have a lot of experiences which I learnt from and moved on with a determination to never repeat the same mistakes.

Remember – you should learn from the failures but it is important to not keep regretting them. You can’t do anything about the things which have happened. To quote from one of my favorite movies The Thomas Crown Affair – “Regret is a Waste of Time and so is gloating”.

What is the most important lesson you have learned with regards to running an internet business?
If I have to choose one lessons then I’d say that the only way you will discover what works and really makes money is to experiment. Starting a website is remarkably cheap as compared to an offline venture – so, if you have an idea, execute it.

Don’t wait for someone else to come and tell you in a step-by-step way to make money. It will never happen because people who “really” make money are too busy doing that rather than preaching about it.
If someone is spending time to tell you how to do it then he or she always has a hidden motive behind it and a plan to profit from it. Don’t ever expect a free lunch.

Do you work alone or do you have a virtual team of other people who assist you?
My business employs eight full time people and quite a few freelancers. IF you want to scale up what I do online, you have to depend a lot on freelancers.

What industry conferences do you usually attend (or not) and why?
In last few years I have attended a few industry conferences related to my offline ventures. The very first internet conference I went to was ICANN New Delhi this February. I plan to attend ICANN Paris too in June this year.

I would love to attend Affiliate Summit and Ad:Tech. As a matter of fact, I was all set to attend Affiliate Summit West this February and even had my hotel booked but couldn’t get the Visa. You can blame Bush’s Patriot Act for it. Let’s hope I get a US Visa soon and would then start to attend these too.
When friends and family ask what you do - what do you tell them?
I tell them that I am into Digital Media Business. Not trying to seem dumb, they give me a look that they have understood what I do.

What areas of this industry (if any) do you see yourself expanding into other than what you currently do?
I have way too many ideas to list here. However, PPC Marketing is one thing which I have tried but not done well at. That is something I would like to crack and scale up.

Do you re-invest some of your earnings into things like stocks or mutual funds?
Yes, I actively invest in stocks and mutual funds. India story is a really big opportunity and there is no way I am going to miss out profiting from it! To quote an investment banker friend of mine from UK – “If you are young, living in India and still can’t get rich then you are either dumb or extremely lazy“.

What is your long term financial goal? Some people dream of saving up for their own beach house in the Seychelles, while others want that Lamborghini Gallardo in their collection. Or to put it differently; where do you see yourself 5 or 10 years from now?
I love living a fine life and, without going into details, there are a lot of things I am working hard to achieve and will do so.

Most underrated affiliate network?
IncentaClick – they have some amazing offers and working with my super-cool affiliate manager Fraser, who I happen to know ever since he was my AM at Azoogle – is a pretty good reason in itself to try out IncentaClick.

Name up to three quality books or ebooks that you would recommend to newbies starting out
1. “Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt” by Harvery Mackay.
2. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.
3. “Losing my Virginity” by Richard Branson.
Bonus Recommendation – “Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham as it will help you understand the basic concepts of investment and speculation.

What would you say is one of the biggest mistakes a newbie can make as an aspiring domainer?
I’d say that there are two fatal mistakes that a newbie can make;

(1) Registering Thousands of Domains. Don’t try to do this till you know what sort of stuff people are looking for and renewals are expensive.
(2) Thinking that domains are easy money. You will spend a lot of time, money and effort in reading, researching and developing domains. Be Prepared.

If you were starting over from scratch with domaining today, and had $1000 to spend, how would you invest that money?
I get this question fairly lot. I have described my own strategy and my advice for others in this post on my blog: How I “Really” Make Money from Domain Names

What are your hobbies / interests? What’s “your thing” outside the online world?
Here is what I do outside the online world – learn golf (you don’t want to be anywhere in my vicinity when I am teeing off), work-out in gym, watch Polo, make new friends and flirt a LOT with every hot chick who comes my way.

Shameless plug. Do you have a product/service/ebook/course/webinar/whatever that you would like to tell readers about?
Oh boy, this is what I was waiting for! Be sure to read my blog at DomainingTips.com and subscribe to my newsletter. Also be sure to check out and purchase our kick-butt Link Building Software at EasyLinkBuilding.com.

Lastly, anything else you would like to say? Shout outs to anyone?
Be willing to put in hard work into your online venture and have patience. Overnight Success is a “Big Fat Lie” the media wants you to believe. And, what’s that old saying? Yes, “Rome Was Not Built in a Day”.
If you have any question – especially Domaining related – feel free to contact me. If you mention that you found me via Profitapolis.com, I will be even more inclined to help you out. =)