In part 1 we discussed why domainers need to become domainer developers. In Part 2 we look at the development options in a little more detail. So what development options are out there?
If you are developing domains yourself a basic development package can be downloaded from AceHTML.com, for free. You will require a knowledge of HTML and CSS to get the most out of it. But this package will enable you to do minor development work as well as more complex jobs.
Basic minisites can be created quickly and easily using free templates, such as the ones available from FreeCSSTemplates.org. AceHTML will be helpful here. I think, as a general rule, mini sites of up to 5 – 25 pages can easily be developed in this way. Larger sites would be easier to develop if you used some of the other packages I will discuss below.
The next step up is probably Wordpress blogging software. this is a package that, once you get used to it, allows you to rapidly develop sophisticated sites. A self hosted Wordpress.org driven website is a quick and easy way of developing sites and the variety of eye catching templates available make this the software of choice for all but the smallest sites or the most demanding sites. Wordpress is a popular blogging tool that is gaining a good reputation for itself as a Content Management System (CMS). Either way once you become familiar with the software you may never want to change. You can even add online discussion forums to Wordpress. See YouLookFab.com for a good example of Wordpress / forum integration.
Another feature of Wordpress is the multiuser option WordpressMU. This is a quick and straightforward way of developing a number of domains using Wordpress.
If you wish to add a forum to your site, or if you just want to have a website that is a free standing forum such as acorndomains.co.ukthere are a variety of packages available. SMF and PHPBB are two of the most popular free packages available. There are many more. Many developers prefer the paid for options vBulletin or Invision Power Board. Fortunately, it is possible, though not straightforward, to migrate between the packages, so it is possible to start with a free option to begin with and move to a paid option later on.
However, there are some more advanced packages which take you into the ‘professional sphere’. Joomla and Drupal are free to download but certain add-ons may cost. They are aimed at more advanced developers and offer integrated modules to make more sophisticated sites. Wordpress needs a lot of work to make it act as a CMS so many developers are seeing the benefits of Joomla and Drupal which are CMS, ‘straight out of the box’. However, the overall complexity of these two packages compared to Wordpress put many people off as has the lack of a wide selection of free templates/ skins. A paid for package that has many of the same features is Expression Engine. This is perhaps the most expensive option but is also gathering a following. For example, FemaleForum.com is build using Expression Engine and is an example of what can be done with only a moderate investment.
Development is an important way to make your domain names work harder for you. I’m not saying that domain parking should be avoided, but I do believe that key word rich domains in your portfolio should be developed out as soon as time allows. The options covered here will help you to do so.
Developing a domain has many benefits and I have explained why domainers need to become domainer developers previously.
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.
Many domainers and online entrepreneurs are attracted to the money making potential of developing geodomains – domain names relating to a geographical location such as a town or city. On the face of things this looks like a potential money spinner with city sites offering multiple revenues sources from things like accommodation booking, car hire and event ticket sales.
The development of geodomains is also reasonably straightforward, with many development aids available. The process is not that different to development of domains in general. However, there are some things to think about before embarking on the development of city, town or location based website. I have been working on a city site of my own – ManchesterWide.com – so I thought I would share some of my thoughts, based on my experience of developing ManchesterWide.com
All the pure geodomains are gone?
Yes – no surprises here – unless you have substantial money to invest. For those readers who are not domainers, domain names relating to specific locations are particularly sought after and regularly change hands for relatively large sums of money. Of those, .com domains are the most sought after. Dot coms are particularly sought after as they receive what is called “type-in” traffic. This comes from people typing the place name into their browsers address bar, followed by “.com”.
To make matters worse, it is important to realise the advantage pure .com place names have compared with domains that simply include the place name. London.com will receive high numbers of type in traffic but EveryoneLovesLondon.com, or LetsGoToLondon.com, for example, will receive comparatively little of this free traffic. If you choose to develop a .net or a .org domain , say London.net, you will bleed traffic and customers to the .com of that domain because people frequently type in the dot com version of the domain, in error.
Most of the larger city .com domain names in the US are in the hands of a few big players and are developed into travel sites and city guide sites. The interesting thing is that the success of geo .com city sites has revealed / confirmed that there is demand for such sites and proves that there is a market out there for city related information.
Is it worth it? Given the massive advantage of having a city dot com should you abandon any ideas of competing against the big players altogether?
There are opportunities for domainers who realise that they cannot simply copy pure geo domin websites. They also need to realise that without the type-in traffic that pure .com geos have, they will need to work much, much harder to generate traffic.
Have you missed the boat? If you are starting now, you are probably up against established sites and if you are thinking of developing a site related to a town or city of any significant size you are probably going to find some sort of competition. You have missed the boat if you want a .com version of the domain, unless you have between $xx,xxx and $xxx,xxx or more to buy a .com domain. You will also need the resources to develop it effectively. In all other respects the game is still wide open.
What about the competition? Type in the name of any reasonably large city into Google.com and the results you will get demonstrate that there are some big hitters in the top 7 – 10 results.
On the first page of Google search results you can expect to find the .com of the city, the city government site, the local University website, the government funded tourist information website, the website of the local newspaper and probably the websites of a lot of other big budget organisations.
For example, when typing in the word “SanFrancisco” into Google.com the first page of web results included:-
- Official tourists website
- The Wikipedia article relating to that city
- The .com website
- The city/ county Government ’s official website
- Two media sites (a radio station and a newspaper) for the area
- The local airport website
- The University website
I can only say that the competition is tough. However, there are lots of different ways to generate traffic, including optimizing your site for a number of keywords, using sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter and MySpace to get the word out. Regularly updated compelling, keyword rich content, will help, as will word of mouth and paid for online and offline media advertising.
I am still unsure what strategy will be best for ManchesterWide.com and I will update my progress here as I develop the site further.
First, let me wish each and every reader Seasonal Greetings, and wish you well for 2009.
Here are a few domain name related links to explore over the holiday period.
To start off here is one for people interested in geo domains. This is an interesting story of how geodomains are being used in the US online dating industry. Next, Predictive Domaining outlines the risks to Geo-domains, in an interesting article that covers many of the likely risks.
Now I’ve been visiting DNJournal.com for years but rarely ventured further than their domain sales listings and occasionally their headline article. Recently I noticed that they have a section called “The Lowdown”, that I had not noticed before. The Lowdown section is worth visiting as it contains lots of news articles about the domain name industry you don’t find elsewhere.
Here are two interesting articles from the Online Journalism Review website. They are slightly out of date but have plenty to offer domainers. the first is a 2006 article City dot-coms still waiting to strike it rich, which will be of particluar interest to anyone wanting to understand Geodomains. This article from OJR, How to make money on your news content website, is aimed at journalists, but has lots to offer domain developers.
Happy reading!
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