Via Wikipedia:
“Investment or investing[1] is a term with several closely-related meanings in business management, finance and economics, related to saving or deferring consumption. An asset is usually purchased, or equivalently a deposit is made in a bank, in hopes of getting a future return or interest from it. The word originates in the Latin “vestis”, meaning garment, and refers to the act of putting things (money or other claims to resources) into others’ pockets. See Invest.[citation needed]. The basic meaning of the term being an asset held to have some recurring or capital gains. It is an asset that is expected to give returns without any work on the asset per se.“
When you add work in the mix you are not just investing anymore (or Domaining) but you are now developing, you are now creating.
I’m a big fan of Peter Drucker, in particular, his teachings in relation to understanding the core of your business.
Over the years, especially in my early years investing with domains, I was what I call a “Domainer”. I only invested in domains for the purpose of generating passive income, whether from parked pages or the sales of these domains. In addition, my personal definition of what I do and what is my business has changed to something other then a Domainer or Domaining (won’t get into it here, maybe sometime in the future). This has helped me do what I do better, not confuse issues when issues arise, and in my organization, understand where I am, where my value lies.
Back to development, development in most cases is extremely time consuming and expensive, and as many have said many times in the past, it is not for most. It is extremely important for you to understand what you are, a Domainer, a developer, maybe both, or maybe something entirely different? Whatever it is, being in the domain industry (if you are that is), understanding what Domaining is means better understanding what you are. My wish is you understand better your core as the more focus you are, the more you understand your core, the better your chances are to succeed.
Source: Posted on TheConceptualist by Sahar Sahid -- Reprinted with permission -- June 3, 2008