Beauty and Domains.
Many accounts on domain forums make use of an attractive avatar, preferably female and non-identifiable.
There’s a reason for that, it seems.
It’s one thing if you use a known celebrity, such as Angelina Jolie, or Leonardo Di Caprio, to project both beauty and strength.
It’s another, to fully indicate that you are that other person, typically female; the concept, as simplistic as it seems, comes down to one word: demographics.
The domain industry has been predominantly male, and even though this has been changing fast in real life gatherings such as NamesCon, it’s a different story “online.”
Whether that avatar trickery works or not is another story, but the notion that women in the domain industry seek to take advantage of their looks to achieve domain sales, is both inaccurate and definitely sexist.
A recent successful story presented by DNJournal, covered the sale of the domain Refi.com by Kate Buckley, founder of Buckley Media Group.
While not everyone thinks this way, someone attributed the $500,000 dollar sale of Refi.com, to Ms. Buckley’s looks:
“As to selling top domains…I guess it doesn’t hurt if the domain broker is female and looks really hot.”
Ms. Buckley responded with a shot of caustic humor:
“Yeah dude, it’s not the years of honing my expertise and working my ass off, what makes these big sales happen is the lap dance I give them over Skype.”
Now you know why women in Domaining can be so successful – because they are focused and funny at the same time.
Having an attractive avatar has always helped me sell more domains…at losses!!!
Maybe it’s time I change my avatar I have been using the same one for 15 years now and it’s not helping in domaining at all this time around. 🙁
Now I know why I am getting so much spam!
I think the days of the sexy/hot avatar are actually coming to an end. In today’s markets, trust is harder to attain due to the rampant unethical business tactics being uncovered daily. People are now more skeptical of sexy/hot avatars than ever before. I have to admit, sometimes when I see an avatar that looks too good to be true, I find it’s exactly what I thought (Too good to be true), and they are not the person in the picture.
The catch 22 here is that people want to deal with real people. If you use a fake avatar (Blatant or otherwise) it sends a signal to the other person on a psychological level that they can’t trust you. If someone is going to lie about who they are and pretend to be someone different, how can you trust that they will not use the same deception in their business dealings?
Food for thought
Eric – Avatars serve both as a representation and a distraction from one’s real persona.
The avatar’s usefulness depends on the environment it’s used in. Eg. it’s common in forums – although I never understood it – to use a female avatar for a non-descriptive username. It’s like a flashcard to the mostly male audience.
I use my real photo and my real name and my real hard work. 😉 Great article! LOL!
Kate – Thanks. You definitely deserve the additional acknowledgement and attention, and with a brokerage track record that proves itself!
You know it Kate! The harder you work, the luckier you get! Every single time! Congrats and great job!
I recently switched to at least having an avatar. 🙂
Changing the name of my company to Stripper Pole Media. Gonna get rich!!!