***Stop the nonsense, split rev. and develop now!
I recently saw an idea (from Onassis I think)
If I remeber properly, he was offering the developers
1) 80% of revenue for the first X years
and
2) a (I think) 30% of revenue if that name was sold.
I would add $10/hour for the developer's services too.
As a developer with my own names, I think that's a better idea than insulting developers with ridiculous offerings/hour, or leaving names with huge potential underdeveloped, letting others get your place in search engines instead and risking your medium and long term gains.
As a developer and domainer, the only way to take me out of developing my own names would be such an arrangement...developing more powerful names than mine, knowing that because of the symbolic $10/h (or whatever you negotiate) I will ensure that at least I put food on the table if the arrangement goes sour.
Do you think this is bad for you? Look at what you get:
1) developed .mobi names that can start making a reputation with search engines TODAY,
2) that will look much better if you want to sell them (you'll sell them for more),
3) advertising profits much better than those made on parked pages,
4) and who knows, if your site is good, maybe repeat users/customers and a continuous stream of revenue though repeat sales.
Do you have to split revenue? Yes, but only for a few years and then it is yours to keep.
Remember that undeveloped names will be "blacklisted" at some point by s. engines, no matter how good they are, as more quality website come online. Either you develop now, or someone else will come with a standard/nothing special name and take your place on search engine result pages.
""Oh, well, I don't care because my name is great and I rely on direct navigation."" Well, there are at least three things wrong with that kind of thinking:
1) Search Engines are constantly improving their tehcnology, and raising the bar regarding websites quality and content. They hated parking pages all these years and they'll keep on hating them in the years to come, because they make them look bad. I cannot see why the mobile web will be different. Do these parking pages make them money because in the end of the day those are their ads people click on? Yes. But their reputation is more important, so parking pages are out if it is up to them.
2) The bookmars and navigation systems in mobile devices are more and more advanced, and this will affect the way people access websites. The direct navigation system goes against Google's philosophy of business. manufacturers and some software companies that are also trying to get in the middle and "assist" the search of users, bypassing the direct navigation method
3) Just a thought, but if Google is successful in making their webpage as the start page on every mobile device on earth (make no mistake they'll work very hard and pour a tone of money at it)...then what's the value of even the best name to a certain category? If Google thinks that other websites have better content...forget it about the power of your name to attract users! You'll be invisible no matter how good your name is.
I am not saying that those names are useless today or in the future. What I am saying is that a lot of people think that direct navigation will last forever but you have manufacturers (Nokia Motorola, most of them), Google and other s. engines, AND software companies (apart from internal search or "recomendation" engines from your favourite social networking site) conspiring against the direct navigation business, and thus the value of those domains in the short and medium term.
So...if you think making a good split with a developer is expensive...imagine the alternative:
- people getting more savvy about parking pages (and not clicking on them anymore but hitting the back button),
- Google and others getting in the middle and skipping your site altogether,
- and your name losing 80% or more of its value overnight when the domain market realize that direct navigation doesn't make sense as it did before... (they will eventually realise it)
Do you think that you "always have time to develop"? Think again. Before, at the beginning of SEO, the pagerank logaritm was much simpler, but it kept getting complex. Now it even takes into account not only how many pages, inbound links, how old the domain is, in order to sort search results. I wouldn't be surprised if the logaritm doesn't include soon (if it is not doing it already) the time lapse between your domain being bought and developed, and punishes your site the wider the gap between these.
Now, the other silly phrase I hear from some people: "I don't care about Google"
Well, that's your option and your right. But I wouldn't be so quick not taking into account the actions of a company with such a strong dominance in most markets it is in. In most countries in Europe, Google's market share is between 70% and 92% last time I checked.
The only solution is developing...as soon as possible, and getting indexed and a position in your market of choice as soon as possible, no matter what the developers charge. It is a sellers (developers) market now. If you don't like it, and you can risk to lose your investments in domains names, fine.
If you get what I am saying...uderstand that a good domain is only half the equation. Finding a good developer and making a good split with him will multiply the intrinsic value of a good domain name many times over, and it is a great long term investment that will bring you revenue year after year.
Guys, a really good developer is a specialist that has a strategic view of the market, marketing skills, seo skills, and is well informed on what's going on in the domain world. Having acquired those skills has been a risky personal bet and the opportunity cost for him (studying and not producing money with his time) has been very high.
He is in demand and it is normal that he charges high fees because he has the rare ability in this world to turn a piece of stone into a diamond. As any other specialist, it won't work on your mine if he can work on his, and if he does he'll charge you appropriately because he's helping you to extract a a ton of money from it. What else would you expect? Nothing personal here...simple economics. Demand and supply laws at work.
If someone is interested to get me working on their names instead of mine, PM me with the details, current uniques, overture data, etc...and your exact wishes for each name.
I the meantime...you may want to re-read this post and decide on your immediate course of action. Fast!
Greed could take you all the way to bankruptcy, whereas the capacity and streetsmarts to share your (potential) wealth is what will make those riches possible in the first place.
What do you prefer, a smaller piece of the cake than you imagined, sharing it with the chef or to stay here dreaming but hungry? You have the ingredients. Time to call a good chef. Don't let it go to cook someone else's cake.
Good luck!
