.tv The 'Think Big' Thread

[dottvfan]

Picking up on the suggestions from an earlier thread, here is a working proposal for the formation of a .tv consortium, being members of namepros who are sick of the talk and are willing to pay for the development of .tv domains in joint ventures with the owner(s) of .tv domain(s) in this forum.

For example.

Mr X owns [insert domain].tv. Mr X lacks the financial resources and experience to develop the site. Mr X needs help.

A consortium of investors have invested $X into [insert company name and jurisdiction]. The purpose of that company is to enter into joint ventures with domain owners to develop domains (one at a time) by paying for professional development of a website. The shareholders (irrespective of class of shares) annually elects its board in the normal course and original members are issued with Class A shares entitling them to a PRO RATA percentage of revenue profits/revenue from Project A and a smaller % of revenue from future projects (see below).

Mr X leases his name to the company in return for X% of the A shares. The lease is perpetual unless terminated [termination riights require further thought] , in which case Mr A gets domain back, and A shares are surrendered back to company.

At the end of the development, further investors are invited for the development of second domain (Project B) to be acquiired by the company.

See process above.

100 new shares are issued in a new class (B shares). 80% of these shares are issued to B consortium members (new members), less % issued to domain owner B.

The price of B shares is determined by the cost of development of Project B. B shares have equal voting rights to A shares.

B project investors and B domain owner are entitled to 80% of profits/revenue from Project B.

20% of Class B shares are issued for nominal value ($1) to the holders of the A shares to reflect the risk they took by being the original investors. A members are entitled to 20% of the profits from Project B and 100% from Project A.

C project - see above.

I realise this is just a broad outline of how things would work and requires substantial further thought and input but let's consider it a work in progress. As per my previous post I am prepared to pledge now that I would join this consortium. Let's explore this further to see if we can sketch out a framework to attract as many of us as possible.

 

[jeffoverman]

i like the idea....having company here and need to read all this through.

good thinking on this..guess my worry is how we all cash out, roi and etc.

its like the cowboys.com idea lol but with more shareholders

 

[localexperts]

When you become a company, typically you get anything from 1X-3X revenue

unless you have a revolutionary ideas like YouTube.

I've purchased a couple companies/domains, 1X revenue b/c the investors were worried their SEO would not hold and they wanted out.

 

[dottvfan]

you'll have to send me a link to cowboys.com

re cashing out - you have shares - so as you would expect you have to find a buyer. There will likely be a term requiring that they first be offered to an existing shareholder as is standard with most close companies. One of the reasons for the classes would be for easy distribution of profits.

Bigger issue would be in relation to sale of the company or the domain. These are matters that will have to be agreed in advance and a binding agreement documented.

At some point I will put my legal skills to use and put together a list of matters usually found in shareholders agreements for similar projects for open transparent discussion. In all likelihood the project will take at least 2-3 months to get off the ground but if the time is spent up front, an the venture is successful, it will make life a lot easier in time.

 

[cityforums.com]

not social networking

agreed

number 2 reason for all company failures: lack of capital

social networking would normally require big cash infusion

ie ning

http://www.crunchbase.com/company/ning

 

[bigdipper]

I may be interested.
In fact, I'm willing to do a lot of sweat work + research to get it lifted off the ground.

Which category should we focus on? (Which has the potential to make the most amount of money?)

GEO? Social networking?

Great question - i was thinking the same thing! The obvious answer would probably be to follow the ad dollars.

Real Estate, Travel, Law, Finance, Lending, Mortgage, etc. are the obvious culprits. However - there could be some nichey stuff out there that individually may have not crossed our minds? If we could add an element of general appeal or fun to the mix - so much the better. (Legal.tv - while no doubt a great concept, would be a bit boring to some, but not others, etc...)

How about a subscription site? Listings, auctions, tours, dating... 1st month FREE - then they pay per?...

It would be nice to do something where the "users" would actually generate the content for us. This would be great for obvious reasons.

Maybe local experts/millers and some others would be willing to toss some categories/ideas/thoughts into the ring?

 

[dottvfan]

Off to bed - see you all in the morning!

 

[TheBulldog]

Legal is my best performing niche.

As an example, one of my lawyer sites gets very few visits a day, say around 15, but on average I get 1-2 clicks of not less then $1.50 and random clicks the highest of which was $14.

 

[localexperts]

Respond had a partnership with Lawyers.com - we powered their Legal Service By Request product

Of the categories, you threw out - this offers the highest return for the least amount of competition.

The big thing with Legal is that you get two things a) alot of restrictions - for example we couldn't sell "leads" to lawyers - that is illegal or attorney client priviledge issues and b) alot of lawyers who will target you if you don't have your act together - for example your TOS better be buttoned up tight. Also, many patent attorneys will target you.

Mortgage, Finance - all good categories. The only issue is that the market is fairly saturated. Trying to get alot of traffic is hard. Getting the advertisers is easy.

If you can get traffic, then any of those categories will work well.

 

[MillersCrossing]

Respond had a partnership with Lawyers.com - we powered their Legal Service By Request product

Of the categories, you threw out - this offers the highest return for the least amount of competition.

The big thing with Legal is that you get two things a) alot of restrictions - for example we couldn't sell "leads" to lawyers - that is illegal or attorney client priviledge issues and b) alot of lawyers who will target you if you don't have your act together - for example your TOS better be buttoned up tight. Also, many patent attorneys will target you.

Mortgage, Finance - all good categories. The only issue is that the market is fairly saturated. Trying to get alot of traffic is hard. Getting the advertisers is easy.

If you can get traffic, then any of those categories will work well.

same thing with financial planners - you cant set up a ppc campaign unless your company is a RIA - registered investment advisor....

getting alot of traffic can be bought - the difficult thing is making it cost effective....growing traffic organically is entrepenerial in nature - you need to think outside the box - fresh daily content, seo, cross linking backlinking,, blog submissdsion etc etc are the most well known ones

 

[TheBulldog]

So let's look there for a minute.

I personally don't care if they are seen since they aren't that good anyway.

For .tv names in the legal range, I have

TrialLawyer.tv
DallasLawyer.tv

Neither are great, and I wouldn't offer them up likely because I have to believe someone on here has something much better.

 

[james0306]

I hope I am not too late for the party yet.

Please keep me informed. Same as mckennaronnie and Len, I would be more insterested once we have the target domain(s) confirmed.

 

[mckennaronnie]

I'd go for a Geo.
Not aiming for Boston.tv full video site or anything though. A decent though basic Geo site that could slowly be built up, gain the traffic organically. Maybe i think this just since i've spent a lot of time looking into Geo's but i feel they give you a great number of options on where to focus your attention, possible income streams and slowly building something from the ground up.

Maybe pick a Geo area that doesnt have too much competition yet though of course this might mean less of a market but use it as a learning curve to build up so if it works out then maybe site 2 could be a larger Geo area/market with greater potential.

A travel destination Geo would probably be my idea just now.
Off top of my head i'd say a site like this with maybe 5 - 10 video intros to each individual location or major tourist attraction: www.balearics.com
Nothing revolutionary but the potential is there, plenty of users only searching for such content, companies within these tourist areas are used to spending $$'s on online advertising...etc
Maybe not the most exciting idea but its a proven formula, especially when you have a pure Geo name that gets high search numbers. IMHO

 

[dottvfan]

Good thinking Ronnie - I am inclined to agree. What we can do will really depend on the names on offer, and whether the consortium buys a domain (from someone at NP or otherwise) or enters into a JV with the domain owner.

I think rather than focusing on a market now we should see what becomes available, have a look at our budget and decide which one we can do the best job with.

 

[mckennaronnie]

I might have a domain to offer but of course it all depends on the details. I'm not too keen on spending lot sof time or money on this idea though as to me its more of a hobby/experiment so i doubt i'd trade one of my domains for a share in this.

Should i post any domains i have that i feel amy be suitable? i'd probably rather sell that trade for shares but i'm happy to discuss anything.
Let me know where i should post any domains i own that might work for this.

I'll gladly help planning, discussions, research and maybe even some design but i need to make it clear that it will never be a top priority to me or something i'll throw lots of time/money into as i really have doubts. I'll be happy to put $xxx into it as an experiment & spend some time trying to work out the best plan but thats about my limit for now as i have other business that is priority.
Just thought i should make that clear.

 

[hullswingerscom]

Lawyers and geo/sport are good but ...maybe it should be a name what goes with the tv ext

tv is Visual kinda thingy

 

[dottvfan]

Agree Hulls I am sure the group will want a mediacentric site. Any other interest in joining the group, leaving the domain and development aside to Part II (which we'll take offline)

 

[mckennaronnie]

Lawyers and geo/sport are good but ...maybe it should be a name what goes with the tv ext

tv is Visual kinda thingy

Sport goes with TV/Visual content of course though i feel it would cost too much & be too risky to go down any sport route.
Geo can be made very visual with a little creative thinking too though i am 100% sure that a full video site like Boston.tv is the wrong option.

At this time i'd say that having video content is NOT a priority, that can come later. Get a business 1st though decent content, build traffic, build a brand, provide a service...etc Do all this before worrying too much about .TV needing Video content.
.Tv doesnt always need video content.
Its a business we/you are trying to build, not just a site that looks nice.

 

[dottvfan]

Agree - it all depends on the name but let's try not not to distract the thread.

 

[Steven]

Go with GEO? If so, let's stick with US geo.
We can retrieve the business database from odditysoftware.

 

[mckennaronnie]

Go with GEO? If so, let's stick with US geo.
We can retrieve the business database from odditysoftware.

Good Luck getting a US Geo to use, i dont think you have much chance of that.

Personally i'd go for a travel destination Geo to focus on holiday bookings, hotels, car hire which can all be set up very easily. Plus also sell business directory, advertising space....etc