If You Had 4 Hours to Develop a Domain?...

[Grrilla]

If you had 4 hours to develop a domain, what would you do? How would you do it?
In a recent post, a suggestion was made to put in a couple of hours of development on a name, as a means of increasing the odds of making a sale. I think most of us would agree that development will help sell a name. Likewise, I'm fairly certain that most of us would also agree that it is quite easy to spend a couple of hours simply on the creation of a logo, or working out a color scheme and a style for a page. Of course, there are templates and apps avail that help shortcut the time spent on graphics.

Given that these shortcuts are part of our equation, what are the 1,2,3... steps or the outline you would use if you were under a 4 hour deadline to develop a domain, and you didn't have the luxury of loosing focus and getting sidetracked. Looking for the "Iron WebBuilder" perspective here.

 

[jon]

Good question..
Im pretty confident that i could whip up an average design in less than 4 hours. If the domain has a theme, that would make it easer. As with a logo.
I know personally i would pay more for a domain if it already had a unique design and a logo from which i could work from.

Depending on the type of website it is you may be able to install some kind of script to actually make the website functional. Maybe a phpbb forum and skin it up with your own design and logo?

Also, in the 4 hours submit the url to a few search engines, make a banner add that could be displayed on other websites, and if you still have some time left try and get a few pages up.

Overview:
1.Make a logo
2.Make a design
3.If possible install a free ready made script from hotscripts.com, if not try and get a few pages of content up.
4.Submit to search engines

 

[mole]

4 hrs for a good site? I would suggest http://www.typepad.com Works like a dream.

 

[armstrong]

Its a good idea, and something I'm also trying to achieve. I think 4 hours to develop each domain may be enough, if you spend some time beforehand preparing a well-thought-out templating system geared for domain sales, and perhaps some PPC income. Right now I have a 6-page system (not yet finished) with the ff:

- index.php : keyword definitions, plus a few words (100-200) about the subject
- resources.php : links to related popular websites (not end-users, but really useful info)
- blog.php : a place for me or guests to quickly add content on the fly
- sites.php : links to possible end-users (so clicking on the links would show up on their logs; also backlinks may show up in google)
- contact.php : a contact page for purchase inquiries
- links.php : links to my other domain mini-sites in the same niche

if you have an adsense acct., then you can place PPC ads on every page

 

[.edu]

I use a css template that most of the world used that you can get from BlueRobot.com and I customized it to a cookie cutter style template for easy content management with a little bit of php code. The end result is a ready to go cookie cutter style technique I have in which all I do is change the color of my adsense banner and news feed, which you can get free from anywhere + any aditional content I want to add within minutes. This technique I came up with allows me to set up a skeleton site within minutes. I got this idea from a webmaster forum so it was not really my idea but I know of many others that use this technique and the sites look nothing like a cookie cutter site but a site of rich content. Even Mozilla.org used it!

 

[Grrilla]

Great info and TX for sharing your approaches and shortcut methodology. Exactly the kind of info I was hoping for.

Now that I have arranged for server space, (w/ another NP member), putting up my own mini-sites for a large group of my names, and relying less on parking, has become less hypothetical, but still remains daunting. I will use your info to synthesize my own approach, and hopefully will spend less time dilly-dallying in Photoshop and Flash, creating folders filled w/ site "elements" that are still sitting on my HD, many that I have forgotten about, or that are difficult to find, when I need them.

Probably should do a major reorg of my Doc folder, as well, but am afraid I could get lost in that for days.

 

[Prosperous]

If you had 4 hours to develop a domain, what would you do? How would you do it?
In a recent post, a suggestion was made to put in a couple of hours of development on a name, as a means of increasing the odds of making a sale.

Maybe you increase the odds, maybe not; depends on the name and how well it is developed, among other things. Also, for example, is it worth it, for example, developing a name for a few hrs and then maybe get $10 or $20 more for it in a sale than had it remained undeveloped? That's what happens to a lot of those cookie-cutter/template sites, it seems.

Personally, I find development very, very boring. And html just sucks, as do these other 'languages', as far as I am concerned. I do like doing graphics (logos and stuff) though.

Now, I have had some huge sites, where the passion for the site('s subject matter) outweighed the dreadfulness of webdesign/development, so those I did develop myself. But in general, I think developing sucks. :D

Cheers,
Rob

 

[Grrilla]

Maybe you increase the odds, maybe not; depends on the name and how well it is developed, among other things

Can't argue w/ that. I think it could be a waste of time to go out and indiscriminantly develop every name one has regged, particularly if the portfolio is large. But I am thinking there is a middle ground between the sites that one is passionate about and wants to go full-tilt boogey w/ and those that show minimal potential and would, in all probability, only garner minimal profit. My interest here is w/ the names that show good potential and have already exhibited a wholesale value that is high enough to make the effort worthwhile.

There is a feature on the php DN seller prog that I am currently working w/ that allows for a url link to a page that features a logo and the proposed artwork for the name. I have decided to build single pages and create a logo and graphic look for the domain, as a sales aid, just to get off the blocks and start moving forward. Then, I can go back and start building my top priority sites as time and priorities dictate.

I like the above ideas that can help make "cookie cutter" sites look less "cookie cutterish", and content can always be added in to make the site more relevant. But I'm not as adverse to working w/ html as you are, although in time, I could see that as being a possibility, because I too, would prefer to spend more time in the graphics dept.

 

[csmaster2005]

well if it's a decent name, it's worth developing. This is giving me the idea to maybe write up a system in php to have making a site easier to do... but I'd have to think about how to do the design part to where easy to change design

 

[kaliboy2g]

It does increase the odds of selling it.
If you are trying to do this, tell us the domain so that we can be exact in telling you what to do.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Some affiliates can give you complete looking sites and affiliate income. For example, see my site Video.us which was set up in about 20 minutes.

Fabulous.com has some templates that look like developed sites as well. A good example of this is AffordableSkiing.com or this AdultNovelties.info.

These are nice quick ways to do many or your premium domains quickly with something other than the average parked page.

 

[kaliboy2g]

Im sure you can find a bunch of free professional templates. Drop me a pm and i can help

 

[csmaster2005]

ah, forgot, setting up an affiliate would be great, and very quick IMO

 

[kaliboy2g]

yea an affilate way to go would be best. Most of the time they have the HTML for landing pages and you can copy it and work out a banner for your site.

 

[Grrilla]

Damn, I've got my work cut out for me. (Don't we all.)

I have names @ Fabulous, and haven't availed myself of their templates. That's a relatively new addition, isn't it? I wasn't to happy w/ the Roar affiliate choices- often not pertinent enough to the site's subject, and didn't like having my domains opening to a Roar page, and didn't spend the time to line up my own, hand-picked affiliate progs, which Fabulouw does allow.

So what are the top couple of affiliate sources/brokers? If I had to choose, I would pick a large and wide variety of choices as the top quality I am looking for. I can see where a prioritizing and creating a portfolio hierarchy will help, because I can see using about four or five different approaches, depending on the quality of the name and the market: Full on site, mini-sites, (1-3 pagers), Affiliate progs, as well as parking, ( a few of my names receive decent revenue). Than there is also forwarding to my DN sales site to consider.

 

[1rrr1]

Its a good idea, and something I'm also trying to achieve. I think 4 hours to develop each domain may be enough, if you spend some time beforehand preparing a well-thought-out templating system geared for domain sales, and perhaps some PPC income. Right now I have a 6-page system (not yet finished) with the ff:

- index.php : keyword definitions, plus a few words (100-200) about the subject
- resources.php : links to related popular websites (not end-users, but really useful info)
- blog.php : a place for me or guests to quickly add content on the fly
- sites.php : links to possible end-users (so clicking on the links would show up on their logs; also backlinks may show up in google)
- contact.php : a contact page for purchase inquiries
- links.php : links to my other domain mini-sites in the same niche

if you have an adsense acct., then you can place PPC ads on every page

well the above method took me much more than 4 hours... too bad. but there is still profits afterwards and i also have a google adsense account so it give extra revenue as well

 

[onewordonly]

I guess it would be worth doing as long as you are selling it for more than what your time is worth. For example if you charge $50 an hour for whatever you do and spend 4 X hours on a website then you need to make at least an extra $200 on top of the domain price.

 

[Grrilla]

Should we also include the time spent searching, researching, evaluating, backordering, regging, managing accounts, and promoting our names, as well, or does that fall under R&D and used as a write-off?

 

[Wilfredo]

Find a nice design/logo.

 

[domainsusi]

If you had 4 hours to develop a domain, what would you do?

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