Joint Venture Projects?

[Stewart]

I’ve looked, but I haven’t seen this exact type of inquiry on any domain forums that I’ve visited.

Hypothetically; As the owner of a large parcel of valuable land, am I best served by going back to school to acquire the skills necessary to build my own houses on this land? …or am I better off by finding a qualified house builder with the desire, the integrity, & the skills to build houses on my land, in exchange for a percentage of the returns or some performance based compensation.

Granted, other than certain inherent safeguards in place, this land would have to display obvious value in order to warrant this type of investment/commitment from an interested and qualified house builder.
As well, an interested house builder would have to possess the resources (both technical & financial) to succeed with such a joint venture of this nature. Or, a third party could be utilized to handle the financial portion of this equation.
Many of the worlds most successful residential, cultural, & commercial centers have been built in such a manner.

I wonder if this type of creative development has reached or has succeeded on the Internet.

The point: I’ve shaped my domain portfolio to consist of quality natural type-in names of exact products from a particular industry that booms around the world. In addition, I hold many prominent informational domains of interest from this same booming industry.
Given the fact that I do not possess the technical Website/Internet skills, I have some questions.

-As the owner of this (assumed for now) valuable virtual land (500+ type-in domains), what should be my expectations of finding Internet developers/financiers/visionaries interested in participating in a PPC (or other) type of joint venture utilizing my domains?
-What would the right webmaster want to see in order to feel that this was worthwhile to them, and that their interests were sufficiently protected in a project such as this?
-What would be some things that you would require from a website builder/optimizer in order to assure their technical & ethical levels are sufficient for this project?
-What would be some safeguards that would best serve all involved?
-Where would one locate possible investors for this type of project?

I am very interested in hearing experiences/advice on this direction of development.
I suspect that this scenario could be typical of a good number of (almost) domainers, and exploring it could open up a lucrative avenue for both effective webmasters and premium domain holders alike (and/or companies who bring them together).

Thanks.

 

[FreakyDeakyD]

-As the owner of this (assumed for now) valuable virtual land (500+ type-in domains), what should be my expectations of finding Internet developers/financiers/visionaries interested in participating in a PPC (or other) type of joint venture utilizing my domains?

Well, this dilemma consists of two parts. Finding/attracting the right people and secondly, convincing them to participate. I've participated in several webconcept development projects where I was not the owner of the domain. Finding the right people is as easy as being out there and having a meeting point for interested parties. Having success as a group, developing high quality webconcepts should be advertisement enough. I'm very much interested to talk to you more about this topic.
The part where you need to convince the possible participants is mostly based on trust. I'll continue on this while answering your second question.

-What would the right webmaster want to see in order to feel that this was worthwhile to them, and that their interests were sufficiently protected in a project such as this?
Trust is a key for working on webconcept projects. The developers are investing valueable amount of time and share very valueable amount of knowledge (when you attract the right people). This is something you will need to think of carefully. Not all interesting project will be PPC or other direct income project. I'm, for example, more interested in building a concept that gets a high return after a year or so. First we invest our time and when it get's succesfull, then we hope to start making some money. Of course, sometimes Google Adsense can compensate the costs of hosting (bandwidth).


-What would be some things that you would require from a website builder/optimizer in order to assure their technical & ethical levels are sufficient for this project?
A good portfolio. Not only to show what they are technically capable of, but also to which degree they are able and willing to think from their technical/expertise perspective and contribute good advise. The projectleader has to be familiar with alle aspects of the projects. Technical limitations and marketing and business concept aspects etc.

-What would be some safeguards that would best serve all involved?
Good question. I dont really believe in contracts that much. Of course this would be a good start, it doesnt really stop the owner from kicking out the rest of the participants once the project is done and the money starts flowing in. In small projects it may be help full to have each member control part of the PPC revenue. The problem lies in the fact that the project as a whole will rise in value and only the domainholder really has control over website. Trust remains to be the biggest obstacle. It's possible to protect everybody with good contracting, but contracting doesn't compensate trust for a 100%. It can even harm the trust if you focus to much on closing every possible danger. Contracts for me are just a basis to build upon. Experience of working together can compensate or better, can build trust.

-Where would one locate possible investors for this type of project?
A good website. I would do it online, building a community like this *WDT.NET*.

 

[Stewart]

Thank You...

Freaky,
Thank you very much for your willingness to share your experienced insights.
I truly appreciate your generous & direct answers to my questions, and I look forward to discussing this with you in more depth.
I will PM you.

 

[Echelon17]

-As the owner of this (assumed for now) valuable virtual land (500+ type-in domains), what should be my expectations of finding Internet developers/financiers/visionaries interested in participating in a PPC (or other) type of joint venture utilizing my domains?

Tricky question to answer. Financiers will always be very difficult people to get 'on board' as it were. If your idea isn't unique or niche then you'd better have a good reason why they should invest with you.
As for developers and visionaries, I think Freaky summed it up. The project itself is the attractment, well it is for me at least. I have, in the past, worked on projects purely because of the fun in developing something new and original, no monetary gain at all. Of course I'm referring to projects that were not my own.

There are 2 types of developer, in my opinion:
The developer who wants to make money from you.
The developer who wants to create your vision.

I'm pretty certain you can distinguish between the 2 just by talking to them. It's fairly easy to see where someone has passion and where the other has a wallet.

-What would the right webmaster want to see in order to feel that this was worthwhile to them, and that their interests were sufficiently protected in a project such as this?

Knowledge, trust (as Freaky rightly says again) and passion.
By knowledge I mean sufficient research into your projects to ensure that a demand or niche is met. The most annoying part about development is doing the same cookie-cutter sites over and over, variation is fantastic.
Passion is self explanatory, if you're passionate about an idea, generally it'll rub off on other people.

-What would be some things that you would require from a website builder/optimizer in order to assure their technical & ethical levels are sufficient for this project?

Unfortunately for you, not being technical yourself then your judgement is the best thing you can have. Portfolios will show you what a developer might be capable of, but it's your call at the end of the day. Beware of developers who use 'copy and paste' code, or scripts to give the impression of hard work.

-What would be some safeguards that would best serve all involved?

I hate to say it, but contracts. I've personally worked on projects that have promised 50/50 income splits, but as soon as the money started coming in suddenly they disappear. Passwords are changed, emails are rejected or bounced back and I'm left with a stale taste in my mouth.

Contracts needn't be massively complex, expensive or even technical tasks. Just something small, drawn up, to say that you agree to split everything a certain way is absolutely better than a verbal agreement. Even an e-mail I believe saying it holds up in a court of law (though I'll need to check, heh).

Alternatively, you could always start a Ltd company (cheap) and allocate shares to each other. That way everyone is covered, can't ask for more than that.

-Where would one locate possible investors for this type of project?

Right here?

 

[Olney]

This might be a little late but if the portfolio is that good to stand I would suggest selling one or 2 domains & just pay a good programmer to develop for you.

Not implying the poster but I've seen people ask for this kind of thing with a collection of relatively OK domains that the same technology could have made most domains work well in the situation.

I have a collection of about 500 Japanese keywords that I just sacrificed one good one at 6K to increase development money. The longer you wait the longer someone else may build it before you.

Also people who volunteer are the first to flake out. Personal money problems, girlfriend needs attention, they think the project isn't going to work, they realize they are doing most of the work, they realize the could do it by themselves, they actually get a job. This happens in the middle of long projects without pay.

If your portfolio is that good & important invest in it (development).