Copernicus believed the opposite of the masses.  When it was supposedly common knowledge that the Earth was the center of the universe, Copernicus had the guts to say that it was the Sun, and he had the research to back it.

If you missed out on the domain gold rush of the 1990s, don’t resign yourself to the common wisdom of the day that you should collect “niche” four and five word names.  There is still great opportunity.

Many countries have not yet realized the unlimited value of premium domains.  As a result, foreign language domains are often searched for, are brandable and are cheap.  Domain names that use foreign characters are called IDNs and they are the new gold rush.

Here are some ignorant reasons that lead people to avoid IDNs:

-The major players aren’t doing it: Though big name celebrity domainers aren’t registering IDNs, you can’t follow the herd and should think for yourself.  Think of any great minds and whether they listened to the prevailing logic of their time.  For the full Copernicus story, check the link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copernicus).

-People supposedly won’t want to type a domain name in one language and the extension in another.  Guess what?  They do.

The traffic stats are there (sometimes upwards of 10,000 hits a month for a handreg).  In many cases, a .com ending is actually seen as fashionable and western.  In addition, Verisign will likely alias (or forward) .com IDN names to forthcoming IDN extensions so that owners of IDN.com will get a free corresponding IDN.IDN.

-A bunch of new .IDN extensions are coming out soon (such as .РФ) and it is too hard to predict which extension will be the leading .com equivalent.  It is true that the IDN industry will be fragmented by multiple extensions but you should hedge your bets with various extensions rather than avoid premium IDNs altogether.

-It will take some countries years to fully recognize the value of domain names.  So what?  Have patience and you will be rewarded.