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.

 

[Alex P]

Im sure this is why there called domainers

 

[Sparhawke]

Domainers are a necessary evil of the internet, it is US who go out and do the research into what are good names for businesses which either get natural traffic or that tightly target their business or geo-locational niche.

Think TennisShoes.com for a shoe store, without us an end user may never find it and would probably end up with ShoeStoreAlabama7273.com

By removing a great deal of the crap names and feeding hungry businesses good ones (for the most part) we are doing the internet a great service and allowing people to find what they want.

If we didn't exist in such numbers then registrars would be able to get away with charging $500+ for any domain, regardless of how crap it is.

At least we exist to sort out the wheat from the chaff and make the internet a reasonably stable economy, so that people know that 935h90n7w5hpawur-aiwyr83-uk.com is not worth more than cars.com

 

[mhdoc]

I think there is still a lot of room for building out nice sites in selected niches that don't require a lot of time or a large investment. Not all mini sites are made from spun Wikipedia or PLR articles.

I agree domainers and developers don't think alike much of the time. I find some of the headlines domainers use as post titles pretty funny. "Triple premium" isn't something that ever crosses my developer mind

 

[enlytend]

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.

Agreed.

But there are also lots of us hanging out here who deal in domains but are not primarily "domainers" .

At least we exist to sort out the wheat from the chaff and make the internet a reasonably stable economy, so that people know that 935h90n7w5hpawur-aiwyr83-uk.com is not worth more than cars.com

Damn! Just picked that up. Ya think I should grace-delete? :D

 

[DomainTalker]

Domainers are a necessary evil of the internet...

so that people know that 935h90n7w5hpawur-aiwyr83-uk.com is not worth more than cars.com

Interesting take on 'Domainer Relevance Syndrome', there, Sparhawke...heh, heh.

...and the challenge for domainers is actually persuading many end users that Cars.com is worth more than 935h90n7w5hpawur-aiwyr83-uk.com...!!


I think the OP's point is well taken, in general. 'Development' of a domain in any really meaningful sense should mean 'build a business' on a domain - or, a serious activity of some kind - which would include exactly the same kind of focus and commitment of time/money & marketing etc as starting a real world business.....Anything less is really window-dressing the domain. Most domainers can't, or won't, do this with their domains.

Having said that, a lightly developed domain probably showcases the domain better than no development on the domain at all.....So, some level of development activity by a domainer should be part of their repertoire.

.

 

[Sparhawke]

Agreed, even if it is simple putting a wordpress page up will usually make a difference.

But my point was to say that some of us are not simply vultures trying to simply stifle the internet though you will certainly get a vast majority of those, but we simply facilitate others to find good domain names, which will in turn help them get good traffic.

It is all a pyramid with registrars and then us and the webmasters and then shops and then customers...

If you simply take one away or try to change the role of one you will simply break the fine balance.

This is perfectly illustrated when businesses take their tiny companies and shove them online with their family names without a clue of what they are doing. They may be known locally but having a website in that case is useless since the idea is to bring in new custom from people who do not know about them. If they do not have a descriptive domain name that can be remembered and make sense they might as well simply throw their money away.

Up in the North of England there is a mattress firm called 1stforchoice...what the hell that has to do with mattresses is beyond me :p

The internet is littered with millions of these company names that businessmen thought were a good idea at the time. Then they assume it is all a scam when it all costs them money without anything being generated.

 

[Kate]

I think the OP said it well, it's two different things.
Developing websites is webmastering work, it's not domaining.

Yet there are domainers that are developers too, or the other way round.
It's good to be able to diversify sources of income, and not rely on a single monetization option for your domains.
Okay, many domainers suck at developing, but most webdesigners have no clue about domains either.
Pretty much anyone can have a website built, if you lack the design skills you outsource. But building a website means little, building a fully-fledged business is what I call taking things to the next level.

'Development' is no guarantee of success and increased revenue. More than 50,000 domains drop every day, a huge chunk being from failed/abandoned development projects.

 

[ToryC103]

I'm not just real sure why the OP thought that he should share his "wisdom" with Domainers. The OP is preaching to the choir.

On a personal note, I got into domains because I'm a web designer. I usually have to explain to my customers why .biz is not a good choice.

 

[MicroGuy]

The domaining industry is slowly grinding to a halt. There are about 50 websites that get like 85% of all internet traffic. The supply of domains has FAR exceeded the demand for end user development. The only logically segment left for speculators is .COM. I must say it sure was a fun ride but now it's .COM or nothing.

 

[JTFranklin]

I build all my sites. Equals 5 more dollars in value!

 

[lexisdomains]

In the bigger scheme of things, most Domainers are short term investors; akin to 'Money market funds' investing strategy - or 'quick cash investing'.

Domainers are the FastFoods of internet commerce - We make burgers, not steaks; although sometimes we manage to make big... juicy... steaks.


Example: Rick Silverhttp://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2010/june-july.htm - .CA guru who made several scalable business models around his domain investments

Another Example: Mint.com - Fully Developed online Business model, which made this domain name very valuable.

So... Are you a 'McDonalds' or a 'SteakHouse?'

 

[Name Trader]

I think the OP is stating the obvious. Doesn't require any talent for conceptualizing things. But he captured the essence of a domainer well.

 

[ComKid]

Buying land and developing land are two businesses totally seperate from one another. A developer doesn't live off self investments alone.... if at all. They work with investors who hire them to develop the land.

Domainers are land men. We do with the land what we choose. We look for the land, research the land, negotiate for the land and we invest in the land. In real world business such as real estate, if a developer comes on someone elses land and throws a fit about how the owner can't build a house.....then don't expect to get that job and don't expect to be in the business long either. We invested in the land. If we devote our time and money putting something on the land then we can choose to do that as well.....at any time. If we decide to let the land go to the developer or hire a developer then sell later....then that is the land man's choice. Many won't develop though ....I agree.

Developers work with the land men/investors in the real world. No different with domain names. People just have to find their comfort zone with what they like to do.

Yes....it is safe to say some domainers won't hire a development company or firm to work their land until the time arises. Some domainers are not proficient at development but I would say most have a general knowledge of it. It is also safe to say some developers wished they caught on to domaining earlier....but that's a whole 'nother thread.

"Todays domainers will be the next generation of developers." Where will you fit in?

 

[~ The 34 Year Buzz!!]

Yet there are domainers that are developers too, or the other way round...

+1
When the domain market turned down, it was a great time to learn about developing.

 

[wot]

The domaining industry is slowly grinding to a halt. There are about 50 websites that get like 85% of all internet traffic. The supply of domains has FAR exceeded the demand for end user development. The only logically segment left for speculators is .COM. I must say it sure was a fun ride but now it's .COM or nothing.

Tell that to the Germans.

 

[bmugford]

The domaining industry is slowly grinding to a halt. There are about 50 websites that get like 85% of all internet traffic. The supply of domains has FAR exceeded the demand for end user development. The only logically segment left for speculators is .COM. I must say it sure was a fun ride but now it's .COM or nothing.

I could not disagree more. My sales have never been stronger.

I think many end users now are seeing that top end .COM might not be worth the inflated asking prices and are more open to alternatives at more reasonable prices.

Brad

 

[DnEbook]

with the inception of .xxx the doors are going to open for big changes including the idn revolution .......plenty left to specualte and develop ..... take your pick

 

[RogueWriter]

I'm not just real sure why the OP thought that he should share his "wisdom" with Domainers. The OP is preaching to the choir.

On a personal note, I got into domains because I'm a web designer. I usually have to explain to my customers why .biz is not a good choice.

I saw a local company using .biz. Once. lmao.

 

[liquidcherry]

Tell that to the Germans.

WOT??????(meaning what?)

Cheers

L.