My response to a recent question asked on Namepros follows.
New domainers generally want a “get rich quick” scheme (I refer to this as DN Journal Hypomanic Disorder). There never has been one folks.
Most top generics were regged pre-97. You can look at these guys as super lucky to get such a good name for cheap. I prefer to look at them as having amazing determination to renew these domains for 10+ Years. That’s not luck. They could have sold it all these years and chose to hold it until now. Some of the domains regged in the late 80s were near-worthless for an entire decade. Do you have it in you to renew your “worthless” domain for 10 years?
Imo, most of the people here wouldn’t be all that much better off even if they had gotten into domaining in 1988 instead of 2008. Who wouldn’t cave in to a $10,000 offer from CNET for your TV.com way back in the early-mid 90s before any of your friend even knew what an Internet was? You needed more than luck, you needed more than access to the information — You needed vision.
Nothing’s changed… Many domainers walked away with $10-$100k profit from very small investments in LLLL.coms pre-buyout. Vision. That was November 2007, not all that long ago… There will be more opportunities, there always are and always have been. Hindsight’s always 20/20 — it takes real balls to put your hard earned greenbacks on a hunch, but that’s what you’re going to need to do to hit it big nowadays.
Is it harder nowadays? Imho, no (coming from someone who’s been around for “awhile”). It’s never been easier to learn about domaining, there’s never been so many domain auctions, conferences, blogs, magazines, press coverage,… Back when I started, there wasn’t a Namepros and most people surfed the net with Yahoo, AltaVista, and Webcrawler 
And you know what? I made more this year (already) than I ever made back then…
If you make a sound investment in domain names today and hold it for 15 years, you’ll most likely make out very well for yourself. With risk comes reward… There isn’t as much risk involved in buying an LLL.com today as there was in 2004 when I watched them on eBay go for a nickel on the dollar (this actually isn’t a metaphor!).
Past gains have been phenomenal… But since the Bust, it’s largely been a compounding effect. LLL.coms didn’t go from $500 to $10,000 overnight — they slowly went higher month by month, year by year. I was certain in ‘04 that paying $500 for QXZ-LLL.coms was insane! Vision. I didn’t see it then — I see it now.
My advice: Read, read, read. Learn as much as you can about this industry. Whether you choose to develop, handreg, or purchase aftermarket domains, pick a niche and stick to it. Nobody can possibly be an expert in all areas of domaining, so pick a niche and become an expert in that niche.
I was doing some WM work for a library a few years back which had the following inspirational poem on the wall:
The more you read, the more you know.
The more you know, the smarter you grow.
The smarter you grow, the stronger your voice,
When speaking your mind or making your choice. (author: Jim Trelease)
I couldn’t agree more. Those are words to live by and certainly reflect my domaining journey…
Slow and steady wins the race. It might “take money to make money”, but saying “I can’t”, “I came too late”, “It’s too hard”, ad infinitum certainly isn’t doing anything but creating a negative environment that promotes and encourages failure.
