Domain Owl

Domain name buying and selling is an industry, with good luck and bad luck and hard times like everything else. Long Term domain investors have learned by now not to put faith in empty promises and get rich quick schemes.  Quick recovery financially is not a guaranteed result nor is a cash windfall for every domain purchased and developed into a website.

New domainers should evaluate their best method to break into the domain name game and crack open some profit possibilities. Various approaches can be performed to break into domaining, and some are better for an individual or for a group of investors or a team of web promoters. Marketing can get the word once a site is developed and launched, but that has to be a preplanned adjunct to site development and launch.

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The speed of the investment capital outlay on a domain name will start the clock on the return of investment-plus-profit scenario. Therefore a conservative domain investment strategy will put less pressure on the individual operator or project team members. A more aggressive capital recovery strategy makes every keystroke operate at a higher premiums that some campaigns cannot equal.

Different domain names will have a wider audience at different times, such as annual sporting event (Olympics) or in certain seasons (travel sites).  Ongoing steady url advancement is  the ultimate goal. The investment in time and resources during different times of the year and in anticipation of a wider and faster clicking audience online should be integrated into the domain name publicity and marketing plan.

Achievable goals in traffic building, social network attention and link building can set the stage for larger campaign to follow. Each name may have different attributes better for some methods of domain promotion than others. A catchy buzzword and flashy logo will draw some users out of curiosity, while other sites may bring only discoverability with intense keyword seeding and SEO element density.

Monetary clickthroughs trail from these dynamics. But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Google, Ebay, or Yahoo. Each of those domains started as press releases and conversation starter tidbits about what the site was all about. Breaking down results from day to day domaining tasks can bring the domain name owner’s value growth goals to fruition.

Having a site is essential in today’s domain market. For those domain investors relying on parking and traffic hits, the risk is palpable. Now more than ever web users and browsers online are looking for a content result or website experience with depth and individualized options. The most basic web user is puzzled and disappointed by a parking page online, and they know they can find amusement and information elsewhere and navigate owner

A parking page or registrar sponsored landing page signals disinterest on the webmaster side, and is matched by a complementary response in the end user. the template and site builders available inside virtually every hosting plan make a index page or parking placeholder a statement of neutrality that forms an assault on an expectant end user.

Searching end users will refer to buzz already being reported about the site from other channels.  If no press release or meta tags exist, the discoverability  for the site  (and the domain)  is too low. There must be a plan to cement the domain’s footprint with associated text and keywords in dozens of spaces online before true stickiness can be tested. Patterns of clicks online from the promotional material to the destination site must be grooved for future users and search engine bots to follow.

Simply trying to monetize a domain with no site behind it is risky and leaves  a bad taste in the mouths of end users looking for a online destination and a web experience. Guerrilla marketing works best with some “flavor” behind it, something to do or see when typing in the domain name as an url address online. Intense investor or sponsor efforts must be matched by a seamless, clean designed site with solid content elements to recommend it.

A projection of formal development of a domain name, and the tools and individuals using them should be assigned and plotted. Even a pencil and paper three month plan can get the wheels rolling under a domain inspiration or grassroots blog project. These calendar notations can be edited and rescheduled.

Domain promotion and marketing is time consuming. Just organizing a SEO optimization strategy draws time and energy from team members or the individual webmaster or site programmer. Milestones such as traffic peaks and click volumes should be the goals. Revenue of the affiliate and offers links will follow if the primary goal of site traffic and domain discovery is developed.

Some investors take the plunge into immediate name investment, sometimes in the auction and premium domain name arena. The investment scenarios should be matched with equal investment in formal link exchanges, content adding, text SEO and code density keyword optimization, and clean design for end users. For domain value growth, marketing and promotion benefit when there is more site product to to “sell”.

Each domain project is different, but the thirst for success is the same everywhere. Working through the various challenges and domain name elements is what distinguishes experienced domainers and long term domain investors from hobbyists looking to strike cash flow without effort. When online traffic, public interest, SEO value and a launched site follow the domain purchase, the domain name  investment is sure to pay off.

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Goal setting is important in any business enterprise. But when resources and ongoing fees are involved time is of the essence. Organizing your time with respect to domain management and domain development should play a role in appraising. Here are  five things to consider when making a development plan for a domain you own or when looking an extra name acquisition or a renewal for an existing domain name.

1. Estimate Daily Time Contribution

Too many domainers try to make new websites on the fly, skipping steps and cutting corners. These shortcuts are taken for reasons of time. Better sites in more critical stages of development will get robbed for this “extra child”.If there is a better time to put pressure on yourself or your team for launch mode, then reschedule the buy or delay the domain development project start date.

Set goals for future domain value, progressive page rank, Google SERP result position and ad revenue which are realistic in scale to the time devoted to that single website. Have a completeness in your domain marketing plan and business agenda that provides elasticity for best decision making for development resources like hosting, link promotion, and content planning.

2. Handoff Support

Look for ways to get exterior contributions made to the site without you logging in  for a few days. This gives the domainer a break and allows them to get some perspective. Handoff support can mean that the domainer can absorb a new technology, attend a trade conference, and or spend time with the family/staff without being a slave to the mobile phone. But the overall site development impetus is not lost as a hidden cost.

3. Dot to Dot Domaining

This is like the fast-track product development model, with a twist. By quick hitting on everything from website design to web hosting to SEO building to content spinning, a site can be up in no time. Improving the site is always an option. But many ops forget the elastic nature of the web and stall a site launch over endless “tweaking”. Fast tracking a domain to a site can free up time for real required development, such as link building, product fulfillment, or communication with clients and customers.

4. SEO Strategy

So many theories abound on how site optimization for search engines works today it’s almost a lucky guess. The basic domain development model that never changes is to build a site with unique content and individual participation options for eligible site visitors.This should not be overly ambitious and should be based on research.

Theoretically the search engines should assign premium values to such a site. But the plan for the site should include benefits and rewards from user participation and content authoring, not just dollar signs.

Understanding the relationship of your site’s SERP ranking and the stages of development it must pass through is key. Search engines don’t like colors or Flash or any particular theme. But the calendar has to have a start date to establish beginning metrics. Hanging up site launch for some hidden x-factor that will punch your site to optimum results is unrealistic.

Site SEO begins on day 1 of your site, and it can never begin if you have no site up. Reworking a site map later is a task for a rainy day. But getting the message out should be a full time job if you have researched your site purpose well. Many anterior networks of marketing and domain promotion require site urls and a domain to register them properly.

5. Deputation

Learn to deputize. Holding on tight to the project until it screams for mercy annoys all your team members. Unless you can let others lead, learn to assign areas of responsibility to others and allow them to grow into positions of accountability. This imputes distrust and a tendency to implode and play drama queen. Nothing says trouble like this.

Everyone has a personal boundary in a collaboration. When it is crossed, some individuals try to save the situation. Others become angry. Some may actually leave. Every domain development project should have assigned backup areas and cross training to prevent an entire site from depending on the wellness, attitude and availability of one single person.

If you think alienating contractors is a never ending privilege, guess again. Those horror stories about people taking off or quitting in the middle of the project usually involve clients who make demands so over the top the provider gives up and flees. All the brainstorming and all the communication has just walked away with no intention of coming back.

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In speaking with a client today concerning making his website, the entire campaign to get traffic and new business for his company unfolded. But the customer remarked,  that he was “just talking about a website”, but what I was talking about was marketing and advertising. I had a hard time not falling out of my chair. Where in the online business world, or even click and mortar commerce, did he think the two were supposed to be separated?

This client owned a small contracting business and had a FaceBook page. He was awake to the Internet possibilities.  But the effort to get the website up was “ongoing”. Big red flag: the client didn’t even have a domain picked out yet. This told me that no timetable or launch date had been set. Without these milestones, website projects and domain sites wither and die. Domains get registered by competitors because the project team waffles around.

One of the biggest reasons a website never happens is that the domain marketing effort is devoid of strategic initiative. The necessary decisions about form and intent never get made. Without a game plan the project simply never has a shape and becomes an endless talking point that ever materializes. I wasn’t surprised to hear that the client both scoffed at a coherent marketing plan and had no site up yet. The two tend to go together.

One of the ways to evaluate a potential website’s strengths and weaknesses is to see what kinds of options to participate visitors and referred readers will perceive when the landing page loads. Can they call, email, to stop by the office? Just the integration of company data to directories of local business was probably not even done.  A broad campaign to saturate the site with discoverable keyword elements and SEO related geo data was indicated.

Without anything online, there is nothing to market, discuss, or promote. Practically any business today that does not have a website feels very fly-by-night, not the vibe a customer is looking for in a construction contractor. This type of site can be as bare-bones as possible and still serve its purpose. Very little flash and flimflam features need to be added. I suggested the client author both write a blog detailing past projects with photos, and contribute to his own keyword rich forum describing construction issues.

Astonishingly, the client told me his brother was a web designer and was “working on the website”. This is another red flag. Websites are professional advertising tools, not weekend hobbies. Unless the strictest standards of professional respect are brought to bear, nothing will result. The world is full of back burner website projects that never see the light of day. That a family’s livelihood depends on this site production makes the situation acute.

The company name hadn’t even been searched for the associated domain name yet. I could tell at once that the “brother” was extremely ambiguous about the project and controlling his brother’s commercial success by suppressing progress. These are sticky dynamics where nothing but the truth will serve. I told the client to get his domain secured with capable hosting.

The client was wearing a company t-shirt with lots of text almost constructed like a minisite front page. The construction services, I told the client, had an appeal for immediate geographical users. These would be prospective customers who would be looking for companies to do work locally.  These,  I told this client, would be looking up the services using keywords and local city names or even possibly zip codes to find workers.

I advised this client  to emphasize his Spanish and English bi-lingual service and outline all the contracting services his company did with a short paragraph or two each. These would be a valuable SEO incorporation of important keywords relative to the search engine descriptors browsers would use to find local project help. I told him the information on his t-shirt, expanded into sentences and paragraphs, would make an excellent website.

I also suggested he link to another minipage where images and short descriptions from past projects could show people without reading how the company worked and what kinds of projects he did. This type of simple task compeltion would both lead to the meaning of the domain, but support its keyword and topical subject matter. We discussed a domain name with the geographic suffix if the company name dot-com was taken.

These steps immediately focused the domain buy and initiated a sketching out of the domain name in the customer’s mind. Every stage of the text construction and the content writing would now lead back to the domain name. With an independent hosting buy and a website project under personal control, the client was now individually responsible for his domain and construction progress for his new company website.

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