Why Domainers Will NEVER Develop Full Blown Sites

[kortex]

First of all wtf am I. I'm freaking nobody but I have a talent for conceptualizing things.

Thesis: All the talk about serious development of sites by domainers is BS. Will never happen on any meaningful scale. Domainers income will continue to consist of two main sources: 1) monetizing their domains via ad revenues 2) re-selling them (mostly to end-users who actually will fully develop them).

1 and 2 correspond to renting and re-sale income in the real estate world respectively.

Here's why things will continue like this indefinitely:

1) Domainers SUCK at developing sites. It's not their thing. If they wanna fully develop they must outsource to someone good (expensive).

2) Fully developing a site requires a lot of investment of money and time. A domain's type-in traffic revenue alone does not justify such investment. Domainers are looking for ROI on their domains and will not accept such a risk/ROI profile.

3) The domain's type-in traffic is absolutely not enough to make the domain a meaningful business player in its vertical. (example: sex.com) Massive investment will be required in marketing (non-type-in traffic acquisition) as well as operating the site on daily basis - overhead, employees, etc. This is the era of "build it and they WON'T come unless you invest a shitload in marketing". Domainers will not make such investments. It's not their core business.

4) Full blown development and operating full blown sites is not domainers' core business. Thus they won't engage in it. For example, running even one "category killer domain" business such as software.com is a full-time gig. Marketing, competition, etc. Domainers don't wanna deal with it. It's not their business.

5) Domainers are like real-estate investors. They can rent and speculate in properties but they're not going to for example own, run and operate a store in one of their buildings. It's not their business.

Real sites will continue to be developed by end-users. There will be very low level cookie-cutter "mass development" which is nothing more than increasing RPM advertising yields for the portfolio. I think development is not the right word to describe that anyway.

 

[Sparhawke]

I have nothing in particular against the "go for it" attitude, I just think that if you are going to bluff you might as well at least hold an ace somewhere upon your person or make sure that you really believe that a domain is worth that much instead of the old bullshit route that most take where they get a $100 name and try to convince someone it is worth thousands.

A Birmingham butcher is not going to pay $7,000 for a domain that describes what he does is he?

Know what you can charge but know your market.

And the $300 figure was not what I was saying, I was saying that starting the ball rolling at a figure that is not completely out of the realms of reality is best, whether that is 10x, 50x or 100x as if it is bringing in a steady profit every month it can be assumed to pay itself off in time. It is when people are expecting to get 10,000+ multiplied that I have to wonder what planet they are on.

Anyways, on this point I think we are likely to always disagree so lets just agree to move on from going around in circles :p

 

[snoop]

Money 70: The best funds you can buy - CNNMoney.com

Always someone is making money...always. In times of war, famine, and economic strife.

This is what I said

"It is a bit like trying to find people who have made loads of money from stocks over the last 3 years."

Now you provided me a link of some "hot funds" the best of which have returned 2-7% a year over the last 5 yearsr? I think you are proving the point here, it is very limited. Asking for domainers who have made a lot of money in the last 3 years years is just like find stock market investors who have done well, needle in a haystack. Statistically it has to be when overall returns are negative. A lousy market is a lousy market, some might make money but that doesn't make it a good place to be, unless you are in that top few %.

If you want PM me and I'll give you my best forum if you don't already know about it. You can see for yourself. [/url]

See what? You've gotten filthy rich off your forums? Note what I was actually saying, the people who talk about success in the current market start talking about making a part time income blogging, or how they made a living doing something running sites working 60 hours a week. There is nothing wrong with that but it is nothing like the domain industry in the past. This isn't a good market in my view.

Unfortunately snoop you're one of the pure domainers that doesn't even dabble in development. I think that's why you feel that way.

Huh? I've been building sites for 10 years. Personally though I've found there isn't easy money in it, it is time consuming hard work, it also requires passion for the area. If you are really good you'll make a living. For most though it isn't even pocket money. When I see the sites most domainers call development it makes me reach for the sick bag, people trying to build ecommerce sites based on affiliate links, people putting junk content on domains and hoping it will go ok with adsense ads. This is the domain world equivalent of burger flipping. It offers nothing and has no future.

No one disputes that the internet is still growing and more users are coming online. Yet why aren't domains rising in value? I think it's because many are lowering their value on keyword domains and some of the best sitse online are using brandables.

I think this is partly true. I think that main issue for the industry though is PPC revenue, and the fact that the industry got way ahead of itself a few years ago, ie over speculation.

 

[labrocca]

You've gotten filthy rich off your forums?

Getting there. I've been getting $xxx,xxx offers for the site all of which I'm turning down. I'm not trying to get filthy rich to be honest. I have too many kids for that. I'm happy balancing my personal life with my business and making sure I'm doing well both financially and mentally. Sometimes it's more about spending the money than making it.

Huh? I've been building sites for 10 years.

Sorry must have confused you with someone else. Too many personalities here. My bad.

Personally though I've found there isn't easy money in it, it is time consuming hard work, it also requires passion for the area.

Absolutely it's hard work. That's the best kind of work imho.

When I see the sites most domainers call development it makes me reach for the sick bag

Yes, I know. My sites don't look amazing but that's part of why I like forums. Plain seems to be just fine. And I do use a forum script (mybb) but I write my own plugins for the software.

 

[snoop]

Getting there. I've been getting $xxx,xxx offers for the site all of which I'm turning down. I'm not trying to get filthy rich to be honest. I have too many kids for that. I'm happy balancing my personal life with my business and making sure I'm doing well both financially and mentally. Sometimes it's more about spending the money than making it.

Why not state what you are making in terms of profit and what the offers were?

Personally though it sounds like "day job" money to me which is what I have just been talking about. The new success stories are small time. There is nothing wrong with making a living from something buts let not kid ourselves that something is a great area when the best examples are people making 5 figures or running a site for years then selling out for 100k.

Absolutely it's hard work. That's the best kind of work imho.

That is really what stops people making a lot of money in my view, the fact that it can't be easily scaled/grown. It is "hard work", hard work isn't a good thing in my view.

 

[*AllThings.tv*]

Im sure this is why there called domainers

My name is Kevin and I approve of this post! :thumbup:

 

[MeanerDomainer]

Aside from the fact that most (and that does not mean 100%) drops are crap, a drop that does not get caught is not "lost" from the "market" in any way. It is very much "on the market", just available at a much better price.

People definitely make money on the stock market during a bear market because it is possible to short the stock market. Any and all movement either up or down represents an opprotunity. However, it is not possible to short the domain market, at least as far as I know (Unless, for example, some company in the domain business is large enough to be publicly traded so that you can short their stock).

 

[mrfrisky]

First of all wtf am I. I'm freaking nobody but I have a talent for conceptualizing things.

Thesis: All the talk about serious development of sites by domainers is BS. Will never happen on any meaningful scale. Domainers income will continue to consist of two main sources: 1) monetizing their domains via ad revenues 2) re-selling them (mostly to end-users who actually will fully develop them).

1 and 2 correspond to renting and re-sale income in the real estate world respectively.

Here's why things will continue like this indefinitely:

1) Domainers SUCK at developing sites. It's not their thing. If they wanna fully develop they must outsource to someone good (expensive).

2) Fully developing a site requires a lot of investment of money and time. A domain's type-in traffic revenue alone does not justify such investment. Domainers are looking for ROI on their domains and will not accept such a risk/ROI profile.

3) The domain's type-in traffic is absolutely not enough to make the domain a meaningful business player in its vertical. (example: sex.com) Massive investment will be required in marketing (non-type-in traffic acquisition) as well as operating the site on daily basis - overhead, employees, etc. This is the era of "build it and they WON'T come unless you invest a shitload in marketing". Domainers will not make such investments. It's not their core business.

4) Full blown development and operating full blown sites is not domainers' core business. Thus they won't engage in it. For example, running even one "category killer domain" business such as software.com is a full-time gig. Marketing, competition, etc. Domainers don't wanna deal with it. It's not their business.

5) Domainers are like real-estate investors. They can rent and speculate in properties but they're not going to for example own, run and operate a store in one of their buildings. It's not their business.

Real sites will continue to be developed by end-users. There will be very low level cookie-cutter "mass development" which is nothing more than increasing RPM advertising yields for the portfolio. I think development is not the right word to describe that anyway.

Would 3D Movie Forum - 3D Movies, Glasses, Reviews and 3D Home Cinema be a site you would call a fully developed website? Because i develop almost every domain..

 

[enlytend]

Would 3D Movie Forum - 3D Movies, Glasses, Reviews and 3D Home Cinema be a site you would call a fully developed website? Because i develop almost every domain..

Where are the reviews you mention in the page title? All I could find were stock Amazon product descriptions.

 

[labrocca]

Why not state what you are making in terms of profit and what the offers were?

Because I don't like my exact income published. I have some nosy people on my forum.

Personally though it sounds like "day job" money to me which is what I have just been talking about.

I make twice the amount of most people plus my wife is an RN so my household income is very good. I'm making in the $xxx,xxx per year from the site.

That is really what stops people making a lot of money in my view, the fact that it can't be easily scaled/grown. It is "hard work", hard work isn't a good thing in my view.

I enjoy hard work though if it's my type of work...like using my brain and marketing savvy. I wouldn't be happy working hard outdoors with a shovel even if it paid better. Physically I'm lazy but mentally I'm capable of 16 hour work days.

And if you're wondering my I'm posted a week later it's because I was on vacation in Zion National Park.

 

[DnEbook]

at the end of the day ........who cares

as previously stated 'domainers' .....not 'developers'

law of averages says some domainers will in fact be good developers

 

[mrfrisky]

Where are the reviews you mention in the page title? All I could find were stock Amazon product descriptions.

Its where people share their 3d movie experiences. I can go on about how im to stupid to run a forum based on vbulletin, but my guess is you are just nitpicking on how i developed it. If you dont call that a developed domain, what is?

Ps. its currently running on flippa and gets a lot of bidding activity, so yeah.

 

[JoeBiz]

First of all wtf am I. I'm freaking nobody but I have a talent for conceptualizing things.

Thesis: All the talk about serious development of sites by domainers is BS. Will never happen on any meaningful scale. Domainers income will continue to consist of two main sources: 1) monetizing their domains via ad revenues 2) re-selling them (mostly to end-users who actually will fully develop them)..

I was a design engineer by profession and am now a full-time domainer. The first thing I learned when I got out of school and went to work is that when you walk into the bosses office with a problem or complaint, you had better have three alternatives ready to present.


8^X