The drive to develop is a powerful one. Developed domains will always earn more, compared with simple domain parking, and even a domain that does not receive parking revenue may be able to pay for itself many times over with only a modest amount of development. Even mini sites consisting of up to 20 pages can be set up using free templates and can pay for themselves quickly.

The problem for many domainers is that they would like to develop some or all of the domains in their portfolio – but they are not sure how to do so. They have heard of free templates, Wordpress and so on but don’t always know exactly what the available choices are.

For those domainers with limited development skills, free template driven sites or Wordpress driven sites will be sufficient in a majority of cases. By contrast, Joomla and Drupal allow the development of more sophisticated websites with advanced functions such as forums ecommerce and so on.

Domainers have avoided development for a number of reasons.

Many people became domainers, lured by the dream of living off domain name parking revenue alone for the rest of their life like industry leaders, Frank, Rick and Sahar. The days when you could buy these ‘traffic domain names’ cheaply are long gone and the money is now in a.) development of sites a market niche or become leading ‘authority websites’ or b.) through the development of a mini sites (of no more than 5 – 10 pages, or less) on each domain.

Many domainers are not web developers and one way round this is to get someone else to do the work. Domainers with sufficient funds to contract out the development process to others may never have to worry too much about whats going on ‘under the hood’. However, web site building knowledge and skills are still important simply to understand what you need and to convey that to your developer.

I also think that if you understand what is involved in building different types of website you understand more about the market for that domain name and the potential for that domain name.

The good news is that you don’t have to be able to hand code your website from start to finish. There are lots of packages out there that do the hard work for you. And best of all – they are mostly free.

Free / low cost templates make development straight forward. Packages like Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal allow complex sites to be developed fairly quickly. They do take time to learn, however, but they make developing multiple sites straightforward and are well worth the effort.

In Part 2 we look at the development options in a little more detail.

Unfortunately, there are relatively few pure generic geo domains and many/ most of the best ones are being developed. The .com version of these place names are particularly valuable due to the ‘type in’ traffic these domains have and the marketing potential of generic dotcom domains.

This means that if you want to develop city/region websites you have only two choices. Pay significant sums for the .com version of the town/region of your choice, or buy a alternative domain that is cheaper.

That might be the place name along with a non .com extension, such as .net, .org, .tv and so on. Alternatively, you might want to buy a domain name containing the town/ city/ region name and a supplementary generic word such as SeattleGuide.com, TexasOnline.com or GoFrance.com. No one will be typing in these domain names directly into the address bar like they would with “Texas.com”, for example, but these domains have branding possibilities. Such domains are worth a tiny fraction of their equivalent one word place name .coms and unless they relate to larger cities and larger tourist resorts, I think they make poor investments.

I recently decided to build a city guide for my hometown of Manchester, England. As I had no budget to invest in a generic domain name I registered the domain ManchesterWide.com. Starting a new site has been quite a challenge and this will be my biggest project to date. It is also a web development project rather than a domaining project. Any payoff is probably years away and I am approaching things with the attitude that I am doing this for pleasure rather than profit.

ManchesterWide.com and the sites Manchester Wide forum are really in their earliest stages of development but if you are from Manchester or interested in finding more about the city, please feel free to visit the site and say hello on the Manchester Wide forum.

Pure domaining usually involves buying quality domains and parking them with one of a number of parking companies such as NameDrive.com and Sedo.com. The problem is that domaining world is changing – in fact it always has been changing – and its clear that domainers who fail to adapt will be left behind.

The solution is simple – goodbye pure domaining and hello domain developing.

There are many changes that could influence domaining in quite significant ways but my main concern is ‘more difficult trading conditions’ predicted by financial experts. I am old enough to remember the economic problems of the 1980 s and 1990s. Whether we are headed for a world recession or a 1930s style depression is far from clear at this point of time. What is clear is that we are going to be hearing a lot more about ‘problems with the economy’ over the next 2 – 5 years, and very little of it is going to be good news! Just about everyone,  who thought that they could buy quality domains and live off the parking revenue for the rest of their lives is probably in for a big shock.

What the domaining industry will look like after 3 or 4 years of economic recession is anyones guess. In a recession we would see lots of things happening that have not happened for a long time – increased unemployment, falling financial markets, people having less disposable income and lots of bankruptcies. Domainers should expect domains to take longer to sell and lower sales prices when they do sell (only good news if you are buying, not selling). PPC revenue is likely to be affected as companies attempt to save money by cutting back on advertising costs.  If people are generally spending less then affiliate ad revenue is likely to be affected too. On the positive side buyers will see more quality domains dropping and cheaper domain sales prices.

If ever there was a time for domainers to become domainer-developers, that time is now. Even basic websites will make more revenue than domain parking. Developing out domains just makes good business sense.

Basic web development skills are reasonably easy to acquire and there are many shortcuts and templates to make things easier for you. A simple minisite or niche site consisting of no more that 5 – 25 pages can be set up quickly using free templates or by using Wordpress (Wordpress.org). I am not saying the domain parking industry is finished – far from it – but developing sites is just such a better option.  In times of economic difficulty the pressure to maximize revenue is even greater than it used to be – goodbye pure domaining and hello domain developing!

You bought generic domains and, with the rise of domain name parking companies, you parked them and watched the money flood in. I accept there were many late nights and many problems for early domainers to overcome, but it is safe to say things are harder now.

Not all of the best domains are gone but domainers have to work hard to make money now and need additional skills. One of the most vital skill sets domainers need is web development skills, or at least an appreciation of what is involved in web development.

Many domainers do not want to worry about web development or site creation. Perhaps they are better off spending their time prospecting for domains or are better off concentrating on other business activities. (Those domainers will be sharing the revenue their domains attract with domain name parking companies, and thats not always the best possible option, for them.)

However, I think most people are not in that position.

For most domainers, developing out domains in their domain portfolio is a worthwhile use of their time and will lead to greater profits. I am not suggesting the creation of numerous minisites, but domainers should know which of the domains they own can be developed into profitable sites.

Lets be clear about this.

If you do not want a significant proportion of your profits to go to web developers in development fees, or if you would prefer not to share your revenue with domain name parking companies you need to acquire web development skills.

What skills? Well to start with a working knowledge of HTML, CSS and at least know what PHP and MySQL can do when integrated with one another. Ability to install Wordpress on a paid hosting service. Knowledge about website monetization options and search engine optimization is vital.

If you have no choice but to use web developers, perhaps because of time commitments, you should still have a good appreciation of the topics I mentioned above. That way you can talk to your developer in a language you both can understand, and are able to get from your developer exactly what you want.

Are you a domainer with web development skills? How important is it for a domainer to have those skils? Have you used developers to develop your domains? Would web development skills have saved you money and time? Share your experiences below….

I know that a lot of domainers are developers as well so the more advice we can get the better.

However, I think you will be glad I introduced you to The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper). He is a US based rapper whose songs include a number relating to internet marketing and web design.

The videos are very well done and theres lots to learn, so certainly worth looking at! Here are a few to get you started………

Link Building 101 Rap

Conversion Closing Rap

Social Media Addiction Rap

Did you find this as interesting as I did? Tell us what you think below and check out the rest of The SEO Rappers videos on YouTube…………