Domain Development Thoughts	Visited: 7108 4.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Reece Berg June 15, 2009

Now before I go on, yes, I’m well aware many domain name investors work very hard. That said, I’m also well aware that many do not. The great thing about domain development is that it really is never ending — I can always try rank highers in the SERPs or rank for more terms. I can always try to get more links or spend a seemingly unlimited amount of time fixing up a website to make it more visually appealing, user and search engine friendly. You can add more content to the site to keep visitors coming back, you can seek out advertisers who might be interested in advertising on your site, etc. With domaining, you’re limited to buying what you can afford and by the availability of reasonable prices. Once you’ve spent all your money, you’re either going to park the domains or you’re going to make a serious (or not so serious) effort to sell them — possibly waiting months or even years until they’ve appreciated sufficiently or you’ve received an offer on your domains that you’re satisfied with. If all domain name investors were to go out there like Namemedia does and reach out to small businesses and other potential end users, I think most of them (and especially new domain name investors) would be much better off than as it stands right now — praying for that magical 5 figure offer on a 2008-2009 handreg, thinking domain name investors are going to pay double, triple, etc for handregs that you bought just a week ago. Some people can make those domain business models work for them and to that I say, good for you — we all have to find something that works for us and if that works for you, by all means keep doing it!

But handregs and cheap domains don’t work for most people — just look at the domain appraisal section on any domain forum for proof of that. Those coming into the game today are drawn to handregs because they’re cheap — “Hey, it’s only 8 bucks if I make a mistake!” And that 8 becomes 16, and then 24, and then 32, and then… I’ve actually seen a few new domainers  post 1000+ domains for sale — all handregs and all worth nothing. Being a moderator on Namepros, some new members like to think I’m a good person to  ask for help — nothing wrong with that and I like to help when I can. There’s nothing I hate more than telling a new domainer that every domain they own is worthless — it’s something that was completely preventable had they asked before buying rather than after. I can understand that those coming in with very limited budgets might not have much of an alternative to handregs, however people coming in with thousands certainly do and should at the very least ask for advice before investing in handregs.  In this depressed domain market, even many experienced domainers are having trouble consistently making a profit from handregs — what chances does a new domainer have? Slim to none may be an understatement. Worse still is that many new domain name investors forget the #1 rule when investing — Never invest more than you can afford to lose. There seems to be a great many new domain name investors who could benefit from domain consulting — I’m surprised we haven’t seen domain consulting take off the way domain investing has over the past few years.

I may get called out for saying this but I think domaining is more about patience and knowing when to sell rather than about working hard — at least if you domain the way most people domain. Some domain name investors “work smart” and if that works for you, again, good for you. I still don’t know why so many domain name investors are drawn to that idea of working smart rather than working hard and smart — won’t you accomplish your goals in the domain world that much faster if you do both? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you get twice as much work done — be that by working twice as hard, twice as long, or some combination of both, you’ll accomplish your domain goals twice as fast. Of course if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll probably lose your money twice as fast resultant from making this change! The way most people domain doesn’t allow for working that hard — there are only so many domains to buy, only so many domain inquiries, only so many domains which can be sold for a respectful price in this depressed domain name aftermarket..

Domain Development = Domaining + Domain Development

For a new domain investor, domain development seems like a must these days.. Domain development intelligently carried out carries much less risk, especially for a new domain investor, than domaining. If you purchase a domain for $X and you put Wordpress on it like I did on this blog, your total cost is $X — there’s nothing you have to lose than your time and I’d say that as a newcomer to the domain development world, learning from your mistakes when setting up your first blog/mini-site/website certainly isn’t losing at all — you’ve learnt skills that will no doubt come in handy when you decide to make a second go at it.

Domaining and domain development these days really go hand in hand — if you’re not a good domainer, you probably aren’t a good domain developer! That sounds like a pretty bold statement to make, but think of all those webmasters out there who still don’t understand simple domain concepts such as type-in and expired domain traffic or even how a better domain may make it easier to rank well in the SERPs. Even if the webmaster does understand these concepts, how many webmasters are as resourceful as domainers in going about acquiring a good domain for a low price? If you give the domainer $10,000 and the webmaster $10,000, who do you think comes out with a better domain? I’m thinking the domainer, the large majority of the time. Getting a better domain means you have a competitive advantage over any other equally skilled webmaster also contemplating entering your niche.

Take this blog as an example — it was getting around 1800 uniques/month undeveloped. Won’t it be a whole lot easier to get say, 2000 uniques per month when you already have an 1800 unique head start? Even if you did no site promotion and you botched the SEO so bad that Google gets you zero visitors, you still have 1800 uniques per month and if you can get even say, 10% of those monthly uniques to come back at least once per month, then over the course of a year you’ve grown your traffic from 1800 monthly uniques to 4200 monthly uniques — all with no ad spending and no help from search engines. Is it even possible for such a thing to happen on a bad domain? If you don’t spend money marketing your site and are receiving no love from Google, how exactly do you go about getting visitors to your website?

Even today, there really aren’t many good domainers who are also good domain developers and vice versa.  I’ve been told by a few domainers that domaining = buying, selling and monetizing domains and developing domains is webmastering — something entirely different. The two were once very different, however they appear to be merging together at a rather rapid rate.. Look at all the companies who setup minisite and website development services over the past couple years — there’s literally been an explosion in the number of companies offering domain development services and for good reason! As good as a domain can get, it’ll never be the next Facebook without being developed. As much as you like your own name as a domain, chances are it’s probably not making you hundreds of thousands per year like John Chow’s is.

Domain development gives the guy who missed out on premium domains in the 1990s a chance to make something of their domains. Plenty of people with a little work can soon be pulling in 1000+ uniques per month completely free from Google. That’d cost you one hell of a lot to get as a domain name in many industries — even if we say the domain equivalent is 200 uniques per month (taking into account the much lower CTR on developed websites) — how much would a credit card domain cost you with 200 uniques per month? With a CTR of 5%, you’d be getting 10 clicks per month at probably $3+ per click.. If you were prepared to pay 24 months revenue for such a domain, you’d expect to pay around $700 for such a domain (assuming it’s the type of domain which a seller would be willing to sell for such a revenue multiple). If you have the money, you might very well be better off buying that $700 domain and then developing it on top of that. Either way, you’re probably not best off waiting around for domain parking or magical end users to come around anhand you 6+ figs on a silver platter.

If you’re reading this blog, other domain name blogs, or occasionally read or participate on domain forums, you probably have a whole lot of knowledge about domain names. Why not setup a domain name blog and share that with people? If you make $500-$1000 a month off the blog out of free time you were spending on MSN/AIM/etc waiting for deals to go down, then you’re $500-$1000 a month better off than you were before. It’s small changes like that which count. Five hundred here, five hundred there,… It adds up. I think most of the ways to make money online have more than their fair share of people who want to make money but don’t want to put in the work. The Domain King has a lot of great quotes, however this one really sums up being successful on the Internet or in any self-employed business: “The map to making a million dollars is not making a million dollars. It is making a dollar a million times.” Who can argue with that? How many people wake up one day and find themselves with one million they didn’t have yesterday? One popular thing that’s often repeated in the domain development world is how little amounts of money can add up when there are many domains making little amounts of money. It certainly isn’t going to be easy to make 100 mini-sites each pulling in $1 per day, however if you managed to do it, you’d be raking in a cool $36,500 a year which won’t require all that much upkeep once done, allowing you to go build another hundred eventually or spend your time doing something else financially productive.

Domaining and Domain Development Too Hard?

A lot of people like to point the finger at their boss (or ex-boss), at the bank, at their friends, parents, etc. Most people’s lack of success is created by them and only them. How the hell do you expect to get ahead in the world watching 4 hours of television a day like your average American? Even if you got a job at a fast food joint for say, $10 an hour, that would be $40 more a day ($14,000+ per year) in your pocket. What’s somewhat funny is how people will balk at paying money for a Pay Per View event or settle for going to a crumby movie theatre to save a few bucks over the better one. But how many people can’t get it through their thick skulls that time is money, or perhaps it’s more accurately stated that your free time could be making you money. If you thought of watching an hour of television as burning a $10, $20, or whatever you make an hour bill you could have had, it sure sounds pretty stupid. I’m not saying someone needs to work their life away but 4 hours of television per day?!? And we wonder why the Flynn effect is reversing and we have an obesity epidemic…

Food for thought: If you’ve been watching 4 hours of television a day for 30 years, ask yourself:

a) how much of your life you’ve wasted watching television: 4 hours per day = 1460 hours per year = 60.8 complete days [including nights] –> 5 entire years  (that’s 24 hour days) of your life wasted

b) how much money you’ve missed out on earning

When you factor in inflation and the interest you could have been making on that money all those years, we might as well assume you missed out on earning $14,000+ every year and even that probably is on the low end, especially if you’re not working at a fast food joint and making $10 an hour. But even if you are — take that $14,000 and multiply it by 30. That’s $420,000.  Take off the taxes and you’re left with what — $300,000 give or take a few g’s? I hate to say this as I know the recession has negatively impacted a lot of people, however when you look at it this way, is your own laziness not the cause of your financial problems? That’s the problem with us Westerners — we like to blame everything which goes wrong on everyone but ourselves — be it financial problems, weight problems, marital problems, job problems, mental health problems, school problems, I could go on… Doesn’t our society just love to think there’s a magic pill “quick fix” for everything? Isn’t it pathetic how many people resort to buying get-rich quick after get-rich quick ebooks? Getting rich quick sounds so much better than building long term wealth by making good decisions today.

School problems — I just love this one.. Isn’t saying American kids today are bad at math or that Asian students are gifted at math a cop out for the real truth? How many parents in China let their children watch 4 hours of television per day and then spend a few more on the computer? I was just reading about China just now and apparently the average Chinese student spends a whopping 8+ hours in the classroom on weekdays  — if they were starting at 9:00am, that’d mean they go until at least 5:00pm. And then on top of that, many students enroll in additional classes after normal school hours. Smarter? Maybe. Harder working? Definitely.

Weight problems? I’ll give you the best advice there is and I’ll do it for free — eat less, exercise more, eat less calorie dense food, eat more fruits and vegetables, preferably fibrous ones, drink 8-10 glasses of water per day. There. Was that so hard? How many people didn’t honestly know that these are good, healthy choices to make? How many people aren’t perfectly aware that the Friday night pizza and twelve pack on Saturday aren’t helping? People make a conscious choice not to do what is best for them. Do some people have a genuine, legitimate reason for why they have weight problems? Sure, but it’s nowhere near the percentage that pretend that’s the cause of theirs.

A little sad or melancholic lately? You’re depressed! Let’s put you on Prozac and hope it doesn’t give you suicidal thoughts or actually make you depressed (both possible side effects)

Your kid doesn’t like being around people too much? He must be Autistic!

Have a short temper? You probably have Intermittent Explosive Disorder!

Have trouble getting it up? Would you like Viagra or Cialis for your ED?

Like to steal things? You’re a kleptomaniac — it’s okay, it’s not your fault!

Have a hyper child? He must have ADHD! Let’s give him Ritalin or better yet - Adderall. Turning kids into amphetamine junkies.. Isn’t that what drug dealers are for?

Seriously, when are some people going to wake up and start taking responsibility for their own actions? I’m not saying some people out there don’t have genuine problems - mental health related or otherwise, but I question how long it’ll be before anything going wrong in one’s life gets labeled a disorder.

Now after that long, slightly off topic rant, let’s relate it all to domaining and domain development — If you’re not realizing your domaining or domain name development goals, work harder and try to find a way to work smarter.

When you stop blaming other people and start blaming yourself for your own inadequacies, you’ll start getting somewhere.  If laziness is negatively affecting your financial well-being, then it’s something which needs to be addressed. The first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem.

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