question Development of domains by other members? U list, they develope

[brindle123]

Not sure if this has been done on here but here goes...
I want to put domain owners with developers. We all own domains, but not all of us know how to develop them.

What if we have a thread or section where we can list our best domains, and if someone thinks they can develop them into something that is profitable for both parties, they contact the domain owner.

Many of us on here own some great domains that either just sit on the shelf, are parked, or we don't know what to do with them because we don't know how to develop them to their full potential.

There would be many things that need to be worked out, such as costs, contract issues or agreements etc.

There are always developers looking for domain owners to hire them. What if they could just look thru a list of domains that they think they could develop into something awesome that would make them more money than if they were just "Hired" to develop the domain.

Example:

Let's say I own cars.com and don't know how to develop it. I list it and a developer sees that I own it and I'm not using it, but would be open to the idea of him creating a site around cars.com for a portion of the profits the site makes. This would be a win win for both parties. The domain owner gets his domain developed and the developer gets to profit from partnering with a great domain name. The developer would also be inclined to make the best site that he/she could because they will be sharing in it's success, not just getting a little money to put it together.

What are other NP members thoughts or concerns about this idea?

I've seen alot of junk domains, but at the same time, I've seen domains on here that I would ask to develop if I could. We own a very large portion of all the domains out there. Let's try to work together to make more money and create business for each other.

Let's discuss it.

 

[Asfas1000]

There are a lot of issues, I can think around 10 off the top of my head.

I'll mention one, what if the idea fails to make money ? The developer has wasted xx working hours, what has the domain owner lost ?

 

[alinask]

From a developer perspective... why would i ever want to work for a domainer for free?

As a developer, I only need a second best domain name and develop the business on it. If it works, I will surely upgrade to a better domain later (and the money needed on this part depends on the agreements I can make - boostrapping, investments, partnerships etc). I don't see this as a strong option in the initial phase.

 

[brindle123]

There are a lot of issues, I can think around 10 off the top of my head.

I'll mention one, what if the idea fails to make money ? The developer has wasted xx working hours, what has the domain owner lost ?

That's part of the point. The developer should only offer to develop domains that they know can bring in money.

If I own cars.com, I think I would have 1000's of developers wanting to develop it for a portion of the profits.
Cars.com in the right hands should be able to make a profit right.

Now if I posted that I own carsthatonlyturnleft.com no developer in their right mind should offer to try to develop that, because it sucks.

The better your domain, the more developers that would want to develop it.

Yes there are many issues to work out, but that's what we're here for.

 

[Keith]

There are a lot of issues, I can think around 10 off the top of my head.

I'll mention one, what if the idea fails to make money ? The developer has wasted xx working hours, what has the domain owner lost ?

The developer and or project investor would retain equity in the domain should the project become worth millions or just a domain.

 

[brindle123]

From a developer perspective... why would i ever want to work for a domainer for free?

As a developer, I only need a second best domain name and develop the business on it. If it works, I will surely upgrade to a better domain later (and the money needed on this part depends on the agreements I can make - boostrapping, investments, partnerships etc). I don't see this as a strong option in the initial phase.

Would you build sex.com for a portion of the profits?
You don't own it, but I bet you'd develop it.
I'm not talking about working for free.
I post a list of domains.....you look through it....if you see something that will make you more money than the domains you own.....you contact me about working out a deal.

How hard is that? You are only out your time if you are a bad developer or the domain is bad in the first place.

It's like people offering up undeveloped property in New York City. If you build buildings and don't own the best land, then a land/property owner offers you the best land, you would be crazy to turn it down. It helps both parties.

 

[Asfas1000]

How hard is that?

It is hard

 

[Asfas1000]

There should be legal documents for all this stuff, don't you think ?

 

[brindle123]

The developer and or project investor would retain equity in the domain should the project become worth millions or just a domain.

Yes. It's incentive for the developer to build the best site they can. If you build junk then you don't get as much money!

If you build a site on a great domain, then you can make some great cash.

 

[alinask]

Would you build sex.com for a portion of the profits?
You don't own it, but I bet you'd develop it. [...]

How hard is that? You are only out your time if you are a bad developer or the domain is bad in the first place.
[...]

If you think that the only missing piece is the development part, why aren't you developing it (by outsourcing)?
Software development is software development, business development is business development and so on

"Developing a domain" is just a part of the initial phase of the business, if the intent is to make profit. And the history tells us that while great developers might be great, many of them lack the bigger picture, as a business.

And no, i don't think that I'll develop sex.com. I'll better develop "p0rnHub.com" and make an offer later to upgrade to sex.com (or related to this principle)

 

[Keith]

Yes. It's incentive for the developer to build the best site they can. If you build junk then you don't get as much money!

If you build a site on a great domain, then you can make some great cash.

This is already being done at contrib.com.

 

[brindle123]

There should be legal documents for all this stuff, don't you think ?

Well of course. Get everything in writing first! That's the stuff we are trying to work out. The details of the deals. Don't work on something that isn't going to be worth your time.

Haven't you all seen domains that you thought would make a great website or business idea?

We see alot of junk, but man, there are some really good domains just going to waste. They owners are getting nothing or just peanuts for parking them.

 

[loredan]

Would you build sex.com for a portion of the profits?
You don't own it, but I bet you'd develop it.
I'm not talking about working for free.
I post a list of domains.....you look through it....if you see something that will make you more money than the domains you own.....you contact me about working out a deal.

How hard is that? You are only out your time if you are a bad developer or the domain is bad in the first place.

It's like people offering up undeveloped property in New York City. If you build buildings and don't own the best land, then a land/property owner offers you the best land, you would be crazy to turn it down. It helps both parties.

You came up with top domains as examples which are obviously not relevant for this. Put it the other way around ... who owns cars.com or sex.com surely has a few thousands to pay a developer and that's it.

I'd say your idea works best for mediocre domains (where the owner won't bother to spend some cash) and mediocre developers who would work for free hoping that six months or one year down the line would make some money imo .

 

[Asfas1000]

You came up with top domains as examples which are obviously not relevant for this. Put it the other way around ... who owns cars.com or sex.com surely has a few thousands to pay a developer and that's it.

I'd say your idea works best for mediocre domains (where the owner won't bother to spend some cash) and mediocre developers who would work for free hoping that six months or one year down the line would make some money imo .

You said it all

 

[korganian]

I think this could be productive if the domain is good and the developer is not flaky. Too many people have short attention spans and get distracted easily. I would think that both parties should agree on a fair valuation for the undeveloped domain and then agree on a rev share for income above that level based on minimum benchmarks of achievement.

 

[brindle123]

You came up with top domains as examples which are obviously not relevant for this. Put it the other way around ... who owns cars.com or sex.com surely has a few thousands to pay a developer and that's it.

I'd say your idea works best for mediocre domains (where the owner won't bother to spend some cash) and mediocre developers who would work for free hoping that six months or one year down the line would make some money imo .

UndevelopedDomains.com is owned by Rick Schwartz. He's got plenty of money to develop it, but hasn't.
He doesn't need to either.

I had to use those examples to get my point across. There are still awesome domains that are going unused regardless who owns them, what they paid for them.

Their are millions of mediocre domains and 1000's if not millions of mediocre developers.

There are also great unused domains that need developers, and great developers looking for projects.

I'm just trying to combine the two into something that works for everyone.

This is already being done at contrib.com

Thank you Keith. I'll check that site out. I'm not sure if they are looking for developers to build their domains or they are putting domain owners together with developers.

 

[brindle123]

This is already being done at contrib.com.

Just doing a quick whois check on the domains they list, it look's like contrib.com owns all the domains and is just looking for people to develop them.

I want to put domain owners and developers together.

If you only want a $1000 or whatever to develop a site that's great. If you want to make potentially millions or $10,000's, then you possible could if you got together with the right domain owner.

You are not out anything by looking for domains you know you can make into something. Don't offer your time if it is a junk domain. Junk domains won't get developed. Mediocre domains won't get developed.

It could be like "Shark Tank" for domains. They don't waste their time on bad business ideas.

If there are no good domains on this forum, then what are we doing.
I see potential on this forum.

 

[inforg]

I applaud your effort, but this idea has been floated for years without success. People don't want to work for free and it is too hard to police this kind of arrangement.

Give it a try though, who knows. Plenty of domainers would let you develop for them, I don't know any even mediocre or worse developers that would do this.

 

[mhdoc]

I appreciate your efforts to promote this. I've thought about it, but never done anything about it.

Making it work will require establishment of a trusting relationship between a developer and the domain owner. No matter how many legal documents are created, unexpected things will pop up that will test the relationship. If both parties are not committed to and share a common understanding of what "fair" means to them the project will fail.

I am buying my house using a New Mexico Real Estate Contract. This is a statutory document with a lot of history and legal precedents in New Mexico. (All the legal documents others in the thread mentioned are already standardized and in place for doing real estate this way.)

With a NM REC the house stays in the sellers name and the signed deed is held by a third party escrow company who also collects the payments. So if the seller dies, gets divorced, etc. the papers to properly transfer title are already in place. If I fail to pay the signed deed back to the seller is already in place.

In my case we had a really bad hail storm that did $13,000 of damage to the roof. Since the title is still in the sellers name the insurance company would only write the check to the seller. The roofing company was REALLY reluctant to accept a third party check in payment (they have been down this road before), but I assured them I had known the seller for years and there would be no problems with the check.

It bounced of course!

It turned out the seller had deposited the insurance check into a bank account she hadn't used for a long time and they put a hold on it!

It all worked out, but you can see where it could have gone wrong in so many ways if the relationships were not strong.

The success of many two person startups shows the power of combining different skill sets. Domainers and developers certainly have different things to offer and could benefit from working together.

 

[brindle123]

We buy,sell, and trade domains on here all the time. There are problems with that at some point also. Plus selling and buying domains even with established companies like Godaddy, Escrow, Flippa, Sedo also have problems. Seller and buyer reputations and feedback help. We build professional relationships on here all the time, we could do this. There will be issues and unforeseen issues that crop up, but I could see it working.

Just because it might seem hard to do, or the bugs aren't worked out, doesn't mean that it won't work. This is all part of the process to look at what the issues are, concerns people have, and get feedback.

contrib.com looked promising, but when I looked at it more, it looks like they are the domain owners and they are looking for developers to contribute. It looks like a Namebrite company or affiliate of some sort. Site was very confusing to me. Too much graphics and a little vague. Plus it's not a site for domain owners as far as I could tell.

If I built homes for a living and a land owner in Malibu posted some of his undeveloped land up for development, I would build homes on his site for a portion of the sales/profits. Maybe both split material cost or land owner carry that cost.

Ok my cars.com example was extreme. How about cars.online or tickets.online (I don't own either)? Those seem to have some value, are great keywords etc...

Plenty of domainers would let you develop for them, I don't know any even mediocre or worse developers that would do this.

There are plenty of domain owners that own junk reg fee domains, but some people on here have some great domains. The good ones either invested money in them or beat everyone to a great domain in the aftermarket, drop, or landrush.

No body wants to works for free, but if there was the potential to make much more as a partners vs just being hired to do one job for a standard fee, I think people would be interested. If the domain is good enough or the idea was good enough, everyone could profit.

Keep the ideas and concerns coming and maybe someday we could come together and establish something that there is a need for.

Let's take some money away from the parking companies if possible. It's a waste to park a great domain. Let's make each other richer either in monetary terms or just from the information we share.

Maybe you have a great idea, don't or can't get the name for it, or you have a great domain that needs to be developed.

If all the developers had great domains, they wouldn't be posting gigs on craigslist or other websites. Not trying to offend developers of course, just wondering why some even need to offer their services in the first place. If you can develop a great site, just get a great domain and create it. If you can develop a great site but can't find a great domain, then this idea might be for you.