I was discussing my business development and growth strategy with a friend in this business, and I thought I would share a bit of my business strategy from 30,000 feet. This is just a general overview (hence the 30,000 feet saying), but maybe it can help you set some goals for your business.

My primary revenue/income source is flipping domain names. I buy anywhere from 3-15 names on the aftermarket each month, and most of the time the goal is to re-sell them fairly quickly. The margins vary depending on the name/price, but it’s still a lucrative business, especially considering everything that’s going on with the economy (my business was up about 10% in the first half of 2011 vs. first half 2010).

Inevitably, I also have some domain names that are bought to flip but end up sitting in my portfolio for some period of time. Because I treat my domain investments as inventory (for tax purposes), the government treats them as if they were cash. For instance, if I sell a domain name for $10,000 profit and buy another name for $8,000, I am still on the hook for roughly $4,000 in taxes on the $10,000 profit, despite having spent all but $2,000 of it. This is one reason why I sometimes opt to churn and burn names even at very low margins. I am bullish on domain names, but I prefer to keep a strong cash position.

On the other side of my business is development. The purpose of developing some of my domain names  is to increase my income from sources other than domain flipping. I’ve tried many things, and a few have stuck and are making decent money. My geodomain investments are just starting to pay off. Revenue is increasing every month and the costs are stable or decreasing. My pet directories are doing well, with DogWalker.com leading the pack (pun intended).

Ideally, revenue from developed sites (including this blog) will eventually become 50% or more of my income.

I want to briefly explain why my goal is to convert my business from nearly 100% reliant on domain sales to a goal of 50% or below. From my point of view, revenue from developed websites (including all forms of advertising/monetization) is far more consistent than domain flipping. There’s also considerable pressure on me when buying high dollar domain names for flips. With a large and steady advertising revenue stream, I can afford to hold out for better deals on domain names and can take more development risks.

There you have it. I have been slowly transitioning my business into an online publishing company instead of being solely a domain investment company. Investing in domain names is still lucrative for me, but it’s less consistent and the goal is to keep my company operating even when I am not working.

I read Alan’s blog post the other day, and while I hope it really isn’t his last post, I understand what he’s saying about the noise. Comments on my blog and others often spiral out of control, but it’s certainly not something isolated to the domain industry. It happens on just about every website that accepts comments.

There have been several times I’ve thought about installing a Facebook comments for WordPress plugin. I don’t think it will be the panacea for the problem, but I do believe it will cause another problem.

If I install Facebook comments so that people are held more accountable for what they write, I believe I will then lose all comments from before I installed the plugin. Four years of comments could be gone, and that wouldn’t be fair to anyone who took the time to comment. Further, if the plugin was installed but later removed, all of those comments would be gone, too.

Despite the fact that additional moderation on my part might make things stay more on track, I don’t want to begin censoring my blog. I appreciate the time it takes for people to comment, and I like the fact that people are comfortable sharing their opinion.

At some point in the near future, I may prohibit people from posting without identifying themselves since I am held accountable for everything I write, but I don’t necessarily want the responsibility of ensuring that everyone is who they say they are.

I’d love to hear some feedback from you on how to keep things more on track.

When I started the DomainQuestions.com website, I knew that it would be highly likely that I would need to answer most of the questions. I enjoy helping others, so that’s totally fine, and I do appreciate it when people are able to provide their own answers and insight since many of the answers are more of a matter of opinion than fact.

I’d rather answer questions on a site like DQ than via email since many questions I get are repetitive and I can just refer to my previously answered questions when asked again.

That being said, there are some questions I just can’t answer. If you have a moment and want to give someone some assistance, please see the list of unanswered questions below. When someone posts a question, any responses are automatically emailed to them, so even if the question is old, the person will receive the answer… Thanks for helping!

• Any success with the Smartname shops? If so, what have you done to optimize the site?

• What are the differences in earnings from Adsense between CreditCards.com and CreditCards.mobi / cc / ws / im etc ?

• Is there any value in buying a SEO program like … Link Assistant SEO

• Does a keyword have more value as a  domain name  with a  high Google Search Network total or a high Global/Local monthly search total, or does it not matter?

• Is TRAFFIC worth attending?

• I have a number of domains names ending with 365. I know the Chinese like these. Are there any Chinese websites or forums where I can list these 365 domains?

• Is one time SEO for a small website good enough?

I’m out of town again, so comment approval may be delayed here.

It’s pretty clear that unique / helpful articles and content are primarily what drives search engine traffic to your website. A big problem for many small publishers like myself is researching various topics and then writing the articles for your website. This is especially true for those who operate many websites that cover a variety of topics.

I want to give you a tip on how you can get some great content while raising awareness of your website, all basically for free.

I’ve been emailing various organizations that are “friends of” specific dog parks around the country, and I asked them to send me an article I can post on DogWalker.com with information about the dog park.  I ask them to have the article be a specific length, and I provide links to three published articles so they can see the format I’d like to use. I also ask for an accompanying photo to help enhance the article.

Many of these organizations are very happy for the free publicity given to their dog park, and as a result of having good information about the dog park on DogWalker.com, the articles help to drive search engine traffic to the site. With thousands of dog parks and dog organizations across the country, the sources for these articles won’t dry up quickly.

Not everyone is responsive to my emails, but I do get a fairly good amount of replies. Some people send me links to published information, and I either pay for a TextBroker article or ask them to provide an article as requested.

There is one other benefit as well. You can ask the organization to provide a link back to your website, or even better, a deep link to the particular article on your website to further help. This will help index your article more quickly, will help it get better rankings, and it will drive even more traffic to your website.

Just some food for thought.