Developing Domains to Make Them More Valuable

[dndiva10]

Good morning. On another thread, I was told that I should develop some of my domains and in so doing I would get a better idea of whether they have value or not. Does "developing a domain" mean to build a website for the domain? And, in order to add value to the domain, do I need to develop a full website or just a landing page?

I would appreciate your input on how you have developed domains and made them more valuable.

Thanks!

DNDiva

 

[Ted.T]

Well, a site is always better than just a domain, the buyer has already a finished, or almost finished product. And this, for sure, increases the value of the domain.

About your second question, to increase the value you need a full site. Anyway, it could be a one long page, or a multi-page site. For examples, you can see the sites from my signature. Almost all are developed domains for sale.

Ted

 

[lothos]

Does "developing a domain" mean to build a website for the domain?

Yes

And, in order to add value to the domain, do I need to develop a full website or just a landing page?

A full website will be more valuable than a simple page.

 

[hopkism]

Developing has really been the only way I have had success. Domaining in the proper sense just doesn't really work for me. Yes, I have made some sales in the past, and some very lucrative ones. But I cannot do it on a consistent enough basis and in a way that utilizes my time properly to make it worthwhile.

However with developing I have had the luck of owning several profitable websites. A few require no work, they just sit there and occasionally make money. A few others I have to work at and add to on a consistent basis. They make more predictable money. Developing though has to be done with a schedule in mind, otherwise it can just be a big waste of time with no direction.

 

[dndiva10]

I'm interested in your answer, Hopkism. You say developing should be done with a schedule in mind - can you elaborate on that?

To everyone:
Do I need to have a professionally made website? Or can I just do one on my own? Let me be more clear...what I'm asking is: does the website need to be a polished and finished product in order for the domain name to increase in value? Or could the domain name realize some value increase from just a satisfactory site clearly built for just drawing traffic and monetization? I ask that so that I can assess how much of an investment I'll need to make into the site. A flashy site with all the bells and whistles will cost more than one I put together over the weekend for free. I'm a writer and I can do 20 some pages of quality web content in a couple days, but I'm not skilled enough to do a professional flashy website - I would need to hire someone for that.

Also, what key features should the website have in order to increase the value of the domain name? I've learned that quality content and lots of backlinks are two key features. Are there others?

Thanks for your input!

-DNDiva

 

[serverfm]

Good morning. On another thread, I was told that I should develop some of my domains and in so doing I would get a better idea of whether they have value or not. Does "developing a domain" mean to build a website for the domain? And, in order to add value to the domain, do I need to develop a full website or just a landing page?

I would appreciate your input on how you have developed domains and made them more valuable.

Well a landing page is better than nothing but unless your domain already gets a lot of natural traffic a landing page alone will not help much. You would have to add content, ideally on a regular basis this will eventually increase traffic from search engines and from links from other sites and this will increase the website value over the long term.

Do I need to have a professionally made website? Or can I just do one on my own? Let me be more clear...what I'm asking is: does the website need to be a polished and finished product in order for the domain name to increase in value? Or could the domain name realize some value increase from just a satisfactory site clearly built for just drawing traffic and monetization? I ask that so that I can assess how much of an investment I'll need to make into the site. A flashy site with all the bells and whistles will cost more than one I put together over the weekend for free. I'm a writer and I can do 20 some pages of quality web content in a couple days, but I'm not skilled enough to do a professional flashy website - I would need to hire someone for that.

No sure how you define professional but you don't need super professional design. With a blog style wordpress theme it's very easy to get a decent design you don't need to be programmer or designer to do that. Even if you can't do that just text (useful information) can do the job.

Or could the domain name realize some value increase from just a satisfactory site clearly built for just drawing traffic and monetization?

traffic = revenue and revenue will determine the website value. So traffic (and the quality of the traffic) will be determine the website/domain value.

I'm a writer and I can do 20 some pages of quality web content in a couple days, but I'm not skilled enough to do a professional flashy website - I would need to hire someone for that.

That's ok. In the end developing is about content creation. If you can write quality web content you have already the skill that is needed the most. You can always outsource the programming or web design part. It's far easier to outsource web design as there are many good web designers out there but much less good content creators.

Also, what key features should the website have in order to increase the value of the domain name? I've learned that quality content and lots of backlinks are two key features. Are there others?

An audience, traffic. Everything else(backlinks, content) is just done to increase that. If there is an audience there will be revenue from advertising/sales and if there is revenue there will always be buyer who want to 'invest' in your domain (means buy it).

In some cases people will buy sites even when there is little or no traffic/revenue because they like the content or believe it has potential for growth or they like the concept. Creating good and unique content (or backlinks) is hard to do so people will sometimes buy sites if you have already done that work fro them. If they don't have to do that work they will be glad to pay you for that.

my 2 cents.

 

[hopkism]

I'm interested in your answer, Hopkism. You say developing should be done with a schedule in mind - can you elaborate on that?
-DNDiva

When I first started out I was so excited about developing that I spent hours on end reading about link building, what Google wants, and reading the latest SEO blog that I was not actually putting in the effort to developing my projects. In this case, everyone profits but you.

Develop with a goal in mind. If you want 20 pages of content, set aside an hour to write one page, each day... That's just an example.

For me, I have scheduled time for when I write, research, guest post, market, etc. Each one is distinct and separate.

It took many months to figure this out but, honestly I think this is where so many of us fail. We spend all of our time dreaming and reading about tips and tricks that we fail to develop to our full potential.

 

[cyberincome]

If you are a writer then creating around 20 or so articles you have written and putting them on a website on the URL using WordPress sounds the way to go.

To add more value you need to have traffic or income from the site. Just writing great content is only a small part of this so you will need to be prepared to at least learn such things as setting up WordPress and keyword selection and how to get traffic if you want to keep costs down, or you can outsource everything but the content creation.

 

[lothos]

You could get a wordpress site up pretty easily. Trade a few articles to someone in exchange for a header

 

[south]

When I first started out I was so excited about developing that I spent hours on end reading about link building, what Google wants, and reading the latest SEO blog that I was not actually putting in the effort to developing my projects. In this case, everyone profits but you.

Develop with a goal in mind. If you want 20 pages of content, set aside an hour to write one page, each day... That's just an example.

For me, I have scheduled time for when I write, research, guest post, market, etc. Each one is distinct is separate.

It took many month months to figure this out but, honestly I think this is where so many of us fail. We spend all of our time dreaming and reading about tips and tricks that we fail to develop to our full potential.

Wise advice there.

Plan your work, work your plan.