-Verb (used with object)
1. to bring out the capabilities or possibilities of; bring to a more advanced or effective state.
*Referenced from Dictionary.com.
To understand the definition of develop, here is a little insight to give you an idea of what it takes to truly develop a domain name which I personally believe is a misnomer. There is no such thing as developing a domain name. It’s the development of an underlying business using that domain name as a foundation. One must consider this question, “Do I have the multitude of tools, time and business savvy that is required to develop a successful business?”?
A great domain name is not all it takes, although I wish it was. It does gives you a good starting point and usually helps determine the business you will develop, especially with category controlling names. Take our domain name, www.FuneralHomes.com for example. The domain name told us exactly what our target market was going to be. Now it was up to us to develop and implement the business plan and strategy around the name.
Would it be easy? YEAH RIGHT!!! Simply design a website, buy some traffic and we have now developed the domain name, right? Well unfortunately my friends, that is not the case. The real case in point of the domain name business development is no different than the normal business development strategies. How are we going to make money? From Who? What business are we in? Where are we going to be located? When do we expect to be profitable? Why are we developing THIS business or “domain” as most would put it? Aside from figuring this out, there are a multitude of considerations such as: the time; energy; thought; expertise; planning; implementing; hiring; firing; buying; analyzing; designing; revising; testing; marketing; paying; selling; converting; reanalyzing; creating; building; SEOing/SEMing; overhead costs, as well as many other considerations. And after all of this, there is the most important question, “Will we be Profitable?” If you cannot answer all of these questions without hesitation, this is probably not for you, as it is not for most people.
Ideally, we all as domainers had the idea of creating a business when we registered our first domain name, at least I know I did. That was great insight. But somewhere between the initial vision and the tens or hundreds of thousands of domains we have amassed since that time, we have lost that vision. Through the successes we’ve had through buying, selling and holding onto our domain names, we have formed new ideas that ultimately have left many of us with too large of portfolios to ever develop these into individual profitable underlying businesses. This has blinded us and left us with not enough skill set, time and everything else that is required to successfully developing a business that was our initial vision. Therefore, many of us have been left with a limited exit strategy of selling to one of the big portfolio acquisition companies as that is one of the few alternatives available. Or, we continue with the intent of developing a business around some of the domain names we own. Ideally, if we all sold out and had hundreds of millions of dollars collectively to invest and create, would that be enough to develop a handful of premium names into successful businesses and deliver on our vision? The answer is NO. Not because we are not talented enough but because we all carry a different skill set for the most part and that skill set is not developing businesses. Often the analogy is made between domain names and real estate and I like the analogy. I use it often when explaining what our company does. However, through out time, there have been very few land owners that were successful real estate developers. The successful “developers”? are the ones that partnered with proven architects; engineers; builders; designers; lawyers; realtors; property managers and tenants/buyers. Amazingly enough, the most successful land owners are the ones that cash out when possible and stick to what they know, like going out and buying more land and investing wisely. Ultimately, it can take years to see a profit on a long term project. The analogy is a great one as both require a specific skill set that encompasses a multitude of aspects when combined create the successful business. Is it possible to take a domain name, build a business around it and have an effect on an already established business? Of course it is, with the right skill set, knowledge, team and not to mention, enough financial backing we were successfully able to launch, www.FuneralHomes.com. Because of this successful business plan, we now have the knowledge, vision and intestinal fortitude and know what it takes to launch other domain names/businesses that we will develop. Ideally, finding the right mix of talent and implementing a plan is the beginning recipe for success. Making it all work together is an entirely different ingredient that very few people know how to mix into the equation.
The point of this story is, there is a lot more involved in developing a business than anyone can imagine. Furthermore, it is beyond most people’s skill set to develop a self sustained successful business (one that is not reliant upon income from the Google & Yahoo feeds of the world) as that is really not an independent business model. Especially when Google considers parked domain names “search engine SPAM”? and won’t index them. The fact is most small businesses fail due to unforeseen circumstances; not having the right plan; not knowing enough about the business; not having the right team and a multitude of any other factors that I may or may not have mentioned that make a business successful, albeit, profitable.
So before you make what could be the biggest financial and time consuming decision of your life, consider all of the factors I’ve outlined above. And keep this in mind, it is better to team up with a proven winner, than risk becoming a big loser.
ALWAYS REMEMBER
“IT’S WHAT YOU LEARN AFTER YOU KNOW IT ALL THAT’S IMPORTANT”?
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Its an outstanding article I ever read. Are you teacher? How do you know all that projected here?
That’s the reason all people do not succeed in business. It is tough and a lot of unseen factors that come up when we start a business . i saw it as I failed in many and lost a lot money. but I gained the knowledge.
Best regards,
Making 5 copies of this article.. taping a copy next to my whiteboard, putting one inside the center console of my truck, one in my sketch book, got one folded up to stick in my wallet, and one extra copy to hand to my business associate when I see him in the morning. Thanks for speaking the truth, people need to HEAR it.
*Clap * Clap
Darren got it right. I noticed a number of people who clearly need to read this article. great advice.
Thanks
Nicky
Nice post, can we jointly develope a couple of my domain names like http://www.mediarati.com, http://www.bazaah.com, http://www.metronist.com, http://www.veetube.com and http://www.recipeder.com to mention a few.
—-ANSWER—-
You may contact Darren Cleveland regarding such business opportunities through the Recall Media Group site.
Cheers
Sahar
“…It is better to team up with a proven winner, than risk becoming a big loser.”
This is a great article to say the least but I also must say that I am disappointed with RMG. Several months back I spoke with Mr. Cleveland via phone. We submitted our portfolio to them and they expressed strong interest in what we owned. We filled out the requested document for our intentions and outlook for each domain. After receiving no response, we tried for almost two months to reach out to Mr. Cleveland by email and phone. When he finally responded he stated that our portfolio “did not” fit what they were looking for but that RMG would like to keep the door open. I must say that that is a doorway I will think twice about stepping into again in the future. I wish Mr. Cleveland was as thorough with us as he was with the time he took to write this great article.
Who lost here?
—-ANSWER—-
I’m sure Darren have already replied to you privately on this.
Cheers
Sahar
Mr. Cleveland chose to leave his answer in a phone message. I was surprised by this considering how long we tried to reach him. There was no simple apology for the long delay nor any reasoning for RMG’s change of heart. The message was in itself lukewarm. Why would we reach out one last time after this treatment. So, after reading his post here we saw it as an opportunity to reach out to you Sahar; considering that it was after reading DNjournal’s article about you that sparked us to contact RMG in the first place.
I would say cheers in return but this was nothing less than a humbling experience for us. Thanks for at least taking the time to read my comments and posting them here. I appreciate that.
Ken
—-ANSWER—-
Np Ken, we will review our application process and improve accordingly.
Cheers
Sahar