As the saying goes, “the shoemaker’s son has no shoes,” similar can be said about the development of some of my websites. I am a trained Direct Marketer, but I sometimes forget even the most basic direct marketing principles when building my websites and my blog’s brand. If I was looking at some of my websites from a marketing point of view instead of a domain owner, there would probably be significant changes.

Through my involvement in the domain industry, I have learned quite a bit about forums.   I am a member of several public and private domain and Internet discussion forums, and there are things about each forum that are cool, and things I find annoying. However, on most of my sites (with the exception of TropicalBirds.com), I have no forums at all.   I know that forums are a great way to interact, and they can also drive traffic (and repeat traffic) to a website, helping to gain trust and build a community.

With all that said, I decided to launch a Burbank, California forum yesterday on Burbank.com – with help from Kevin @ BigTicketDomains.com.   Using a customized Simple Machines forum, Kevin was able to set up a forum for me that can be used by Burbank residents and visitors.   There are still a few tweaks I need to make, but I think this is going to be a smart move in the long run.

The point of this is that you should think about your own background when building your websites.   If there are certain things you’ve learned in business or from your hobbies, you should consider incorporating them on your website.   Think about think things you would want to see if you were a user of your website, and make it happen.   If you enjoy using a particular feature, chances are good that others will as well.

Tap into your own background and knowledge when developing.   Sometimes lessons you’ve learned can be adapted and adopted by your websites.

I’ve received a few “partnership” offers, and I know that domain owners who have premium domain names receive development partnership requests often. I am sure Rick has received dozens of email requests from people who want to help him open a candy store on Candy.com. When it comes to partnership requests, it’s unlikely that the requester will be taken seriously.

It seems that most people want the domain owner to trust that they know what they are doing, and many times, they might, but they can’t prove it. Why would a domain owner be willing to risk his reputation (and domain name) on someone that randomly pops in with an idea? There are plenty of great ideas out there, but execution is what’s important. If you want to partner with me or another domainer, come to us with case studies of your successful businesses. Show us how much revenue you’ve generated by applying your idea elsewhere, and perhaps we can talk.

The problem is that most people have good ideas but no clue about the execution side of things. It’s very easy to tell someone else how they should run their business, but when it comes down to it, the execution is the most difficult part. Toys.com may look like a great $5,000,000 domain name, but a new company would probably have to spend double or triple that on the inventory, overhead, and fulfillment in order to set up a system that will drive a strong return on the investment.

If you do have the ability and a track record of successful web launches, you need to be willing to put in the time, effort, and finances with the hopes of sharing profits on a finished site. If you achieve agreed upon goals, you should get a percentage of the business, but not until that happens. If you are willing to do all of this, then perhaps we will entrust you with our premium domain names. If not, it’s probably best to find someone else for your experiment.

The other option is to do something on your own, start generating revenue, and then pitch the domain owner on integrating the successful business model with the industry defining domain name he owns. The key to all of this is that you must be able to build and manage a successful business, otherwise you will just waste your time and the domain owner’s time.

Because full scale development can take a considerable amount of your time, I would advise that you choose a domain name that is in a field of interest for you.   This is especially true if you have a full time job and become a developer on the side.   If I didn’t enjoy the domain industry, I would have a difficult time writing this blog every day (frquently more than once a day).

When building a full website, it’s important that you have unique content that is updated as regularly as possible.   Think about it for a second.   When you visit your favorite websites, do they look like they’re updated regularly?   I know I get annoyed when I visit some websites and the content is old – even if it’s just a day old (sometimes even a few hours old).   Visitors to your developed sites probably feel the same way, and they expect to see updates.

If you want your site to be able to compete with other sites, you are going to need to spend time working on it.   Before you start, I urge you to choose a topic of interest so you are less likely to get bored down the road.   Although it might be more expensive to buy a great domain name, once you’ve put in many hours and days developing it, you will be happy you bought the better domain name.

Had I really known what I was getting in to at the time, I probably would have flipped TropicalBirds.com instead of developing it.   Truthfully, birds aren’t that interesting to me.   I enjoy learning about a variety of things, but I am not a true birder.   It’s a struggle to get myself to build pages and add content to the site, but I am doing it because I know that will increase the value (as a result of traffic and revenue).

So take it from me, focus on developing on a domain name that is in a field of interest.   You will be thanful for it down the road.