Domain Owl

Make 2011 the year you went out and stalked your end users for clicks. Why not? It works for door to door salespeople. But instead of opening the door and throwing a dirt clod on their rug, just find a informal group of your end users, like students, nurses, teachers, teenagers, librarians, sports fans, etc., and vacuum up page views and perform surveys about chosen topical areas. Don’t be snobbish about potential end users. Has anyone actually walked up to a police officer and asked them what they want in one mobile device website portal?

Why not give them something to do and talk about. What about a multiple choice test? Questions make any human being feel important, that’s just the way psychology works. Make the survey fun and amusing but with a few relevant data points as well. These types of features on a site furnish deep click through results that new domain buyers might be interested for a traffic domain buy or further development for warez.

And guess what: results make a news story and a press release that leads back your website and domain name.

The business card strategy can be one way to find new clicks. Print business cards that tell the story of your website. The old adage about something in hand versus two in the air is true. People can click away from websites but a business card will be in their purse or wallet, attache case or jacket pocket the whole flight long.

Someone fishing for something to write on, and showing it to someone else, just echoed your PR story for you, gratis. Use subterfuge marketing and plant your card in relevant books at the bookstore and library.

Not sure how to open the conversation? Just asking for an opinion about the logo, site design, or latest entry is a way to gateway your end user to checking out the site. Branding a descriptive figural domain is easy, for example orangedot.com is an easy-to-make logo.

A website about bicycles, for example, might have wheels or a bike in the logo letters of the domain name. One quick impression, and this will be the url tired/bored/interested people remember to check out on the train, in line at the bank, in traffic, whatever.

It can also be a way for domainers to observe the way people react to and comment on a website and its content in conversation. If end users are encouraged to think about and remember the domain name, they will be talking about it in future.

Think about how often people don’t have anything to write with, and get some pencils printed. Print stickers end users can put on their cellphone to remind them where to get great reminders, info bytes, and niche news updates.

Think about a website for students, for example. A fun short quiz with a witty answer key could be a newsworthy and forwardable link to send around. Such website features promote the domain name and furnish end users with opportunities to participate at the site, instead of just look at it. Another option might be to start a domain related and keyword rich forum where certain members of the student community could take a leadership role.

And for some demographics, the focus and target of their conversation will be to other niche end users as well. The benefit of this kind of traffic is a unique distribution deal with a producer of some product or service your end users need. That brings users to your site, and keeps them motivated to buy.

Perhaps someone is selling something related to your domain name on Ebay and wants to reach more qualified buyers. Comments will build links and referrers. Even pertinent Youtubes save end users the search time and typing. And guest bloggers will keep the persuasive tone of the website going for much longer , and new concepts for development will present themselves.

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Buying travel domains is an acquired taste in domaining careers that demands a certain hard driving point of view about domain name investment. But when you are traveling it’s the perfect time to assess whether or not that city has adequate website coverage. On the ground line of sight estimations about what information web seekers and search result finders want will be visible immediately.

Travel domains are domain names that correspond to content involving certain niches of geographical destinations or advice or travel fares and routes of certain intended demographics. Train trips, bus rides, city attractions, and restaurant reviews make the grade for topical and SEO friendly content. A local writer or native content contributor usually has the edge on any other researched writing, plus tips for local travel and buzz.

Travel searchers want to know what to do when they walk out of the hotel, what is the best and most fun thing to do or where to go to, and how is the best way to get there.  Yet often travelers are guided by available material from a hotel room or lobby brochure, which has been provisioned by advertising and licensing agreements. The visitors want to have a good time, they don’t want to drill down into fact checking.

It is surprising how many cities have geographical place names exactly corresponding to the municipality name, yet have little actual appeal to either the people that live there or the people that travel there. This is because many webmasters design a site that is unfriendly to the actual user yet pencils out in an academic or monetized site plan. The site may bring traffic, but may not be usable enough to go viral.

The usability of a site is related to its discoverability. The users of a good travel resource will be much more likely to convey the url to others on the plane, in the lobby, in the travel bureau or in the office. The types of details can range from movie showtime availability to driving time to local kid’s attractions. But some of these things can be populated by search results and RSS feeds.

Sometimes the travelers wants better data. They might want to know the best local place for gravy fries, a hot towel with a haircut, or a massage. But opening the hotel menu sometimes gives a queer slant on the blocks away restaurants and venues. Even someone staying in their own city might look askance at the offerings placed at the desktop of every guest’s room. Travel sites solve this problem.

Links can help provide quick reviews of the local offerings, especially when the hotel has free internet service. Sometimes just asking the concierge can yield some good results about weather, driving conditions, medical facilities, childcare, salons and more. Sometimes travelers are looking for niche dining and attractions to tell the folks about, and sometimes they want familiar branch locations of places they know without risk.

Making a viable travel domain site should include something no other sites   for that destination has. Local bus lines, museums within walking distance, hot or cold weather specialty venues might be of some interest. Travel makes people a little more open minded about how they spend time. People who might never go bowling or ice skating might get the urge by seeing a feature ad on a prurient website.

Promoting SEO for your travel domain may mean getting quoted and twittered about your updated content. People like to mention where they got their information when they blog about travel or vacation antics.  The article sites that allow links back can drive inbound link metrics up, and the outbound links can belong to local businesses and sites under review.

One of the most frustrating things to see happen when a travel domain is under development is the profit-colored glasses take over intuitive site design. Travel sites are really about content, they aren’t meant to compete with game sites or shopping portals. By allowing potential visitors to the travel destination to get a peek at what’s waiting for them, they will come to the well again and again.

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Monetizing a domain means different things to different people. To the external web browser, a charge for a post reading or blog product view becomes a limitation that can drive users away. Site traffic can dwindle when a crop of new users encounter a garage door slamming in their face. Before  a site migrates to a paid participation status some metrics need to be examined.

A website that offers advice and professional consulting information has value. A marketable domain has SEO value. A popular site with flowing visitor participation has membership value.A website with qualified content and readable material has instructional, educational, and entertainment value. These values flow from visitors, users, members, RSS feeders, Pod readers, and more media outlets.

To some members of a secret cache of privileged users, membership and paid product class sites leverage a new status. Many online browsers want to equate a dollar value for a dollar spent. Many SEO result viewers may simply switch off and move onto another site for what they are looking for. These check-out visitors may be lost if permanent fees are required to see the site content.

If your product for sale or membership privilege confers a monetary value, this changes the scenario. The comparison instantly shifts, however, to the relative market value of the product and not the imputed value of the webmaster. A community of people who feel the same way must be present to support the pay-for-play scenario, and a significant percentage of those users must be willing to pony up the funds at the same time.

An outstanding value in a free website advice may not compare to the relative professional value of consulting that comes with liability, legality concerns handled and insurance against failure. Hanging out your shingle online could bring a host of time consuming customer service issues the webmaster is not prepared for. Negative customer service feedback can bring a site to its knees in no time.

A conservative estimate should be projected for revenue return on eliminating free content. Lead-in teasers with follow up billing popups can irritate previously happy browsers. Before the billing or charging programming should be done, reviews and rankings at other websites should be mounted first. Customers may Google or search inquiries for feedback. if they find nothing it augurs ill for the profit possibilities frontier.

Yet, another approach by many domainers is to gateway additional content beyond the teaser paragraph with a message popup politely requesting a Paypal donation. Paypal “donate” buttons can make it easy for sometime visitors and regular customers to show their love informally without the hassle or threat of chargebacks. Framing the support option as a donation is a softer sell that a flat fee.

Primary goals for a domain promotion website are to sustain SEO value and discoverability. If the content goes behind a hidden door, will the website loser visibility? Will paying site users be motivated to share the content for free elsewhere? And will the cost of vending the product outnumber any potential revenues to be earned? What is the risk of trying the pay-for-pay version of the site for a limited trial time?

Webmasters should consider any site with a pay-for-play option to be part of a robust marketing campaign. A time-sensitive banner notification that the site will be converting to a paid membership can alert visitors to sign up. A more aggressive approach would be to notify any comment contacts that unless they sign up as registered members, their url links will be deleted.

Diversifying paid content versus free content can also create a class of premium users with advanced access. Premium user class members might be able to access time sensitive reports or data twelve hours or so before the general site visiting public. A “free trial” option of limited duration might be advisable. Or, the site might publish limited premium series articles whose access to that article class might require a one-time fee.

The metrics have a way of working out. If a site has 3,000 unique visitors a day, then the webmaster might shoot for a one-tenth of a percentile conversion rate to a paid membership. If the paid membership was $3.00, then the webmaster would be in receipt of $9 a day via Paypal. That’s $3,285 a year annual return for a very conservative membership expectation.

Now the webmaster and domain owner can budget in design elements, content contributions, link directory costs, and any other promotional items. Additional revenues can spring from proprietary products like E-books, print publications, and video seminars or audio coaching recordings. The business model for the website assumes ongoing unique traffic at this rate, (or growth), and refreshed original content readers find compelling enough to return to.

The overall of the website should be examined. Is the goal to take profit anywhere and everywhere, or to build a consensus core of users who can proselytize the site outward? What other benefits can be realized for the domain owner?Are other sites available to be publicized, or other domain names ready to be marketed to a likely buyer-filled audience?

The webmaster must decide if enough SEO benefit has been reached with current content to qualify for the additional scrutiny and critical commentary leveled on paid content. If site traffic and user participation seems able to support the site business model for paid membership, the webmaster should commence the programming for the required payment portals.

The timetable for the site’s turnover from red to black should include conservative revenue assumptions, evaluation of the competition, reasonable assessment of the market, and emergency and contingency administrative planning. Having these things thought through in advance saves money and time. Plotting these elements and dynamics on pencil and paper can make the webmaster best qualified to make the paid site membership decision.

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