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Developing Domain Names: The Lowell Project

Elliot Silver
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0

Like many domain investors, I’ve never developed a complete website. I know I should develop all of my names, but development is difficult and it takes quite a bit of time and money. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the development of Lowell.com off line. After careful consideration, I have decided to blog about my ongoing experiences to give other domain investors insight into this development project.
While I hope this will give others the opportunity to witness a successful (or unsuccessful) development undertaking, selfishly, I want to document my progress so I can emulate and/or make improvements on my next project. I hope to be able to provide full details about various aspects of the development process, and I welcome any comments or advice.
So begins the journey into “The Lowell Project.”
***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***
Just as an FYI, the current site looks absolutely nothing like how the final website will look. I am keeping the current site up (which came along with the domain name) in order to avoid delisting in search engines that could possibly occur if I take it down.

Writer’s Guild Strike Boon for Internet

Elliot Silver
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0

Several weeks ago, on the eve of the strike by the Writer’s Guild of America, I mentioned that the writers strike could be a boon for websites as people tune in online rather than watch reruns and countless reality shows. Now that the strike has been in place for weeks, there are some signs that writers may opt to move to the online distribution channel instead of waiting idly for the contract issue to be resolved.

According to a recent article in The Guardian about Hollywood writers moving online, “Seven groups are thought to be working on forming companies to challenge the dominance of the studios.” It appears that some writers are choosing to bypass the studios and create direct to consumer content via the Internet. Just as direct marketing does, this content can be highly targeted to a specific niche. Writers will have the creative freedom to express themselves, and they will be able to produce material of their choice, without the normal studio oversight.

I don’t have the time to do this, but I think it would be neat if someone set up a website specifically for the striking writers to distribute their work. YouTube and other video sharing sites are great, but it would be neat to have a specific website devoted to the striking writers, to give them the opportunity to display their skills and allow visitors to compensate them.

According to an article in CNN, the gaming industry is capitalizing on the writers strike, and I don’t see a reason why Internet television couldn’t see the same gains.

Wired Magazine: Vote on Tech Trends

Elliot Silver
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4

Wired magazine discusses tech trends for 2008, and they are running an editor and user-submitted vote on predictions for the new year. One vote of interest to people in the domain investment community is the poll question related to the .mobi extension:

“Get ready for a new internet extention (sic): .mobi for mobile devices and cell phones”  

Will corporate America and independent web developers make 2008 a boom year for .mobi, or will issues like the voided .mobi auction lead investors to publicly air their grievances about the situation?

Hybrid Development: Increase the Value of Domains

Elliot Silver
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6

While some domain names have high paying keywords, frequently the traffic isn’t significant enough for this to make a major impact on the name’s value. When the name is parked, you may generate a decent amount of revenue from targeted type-in traffic. However, unless something out of your control happens, there really isn’t much of a way to increase traffic to the name with a parked page.

One way that may boost traffic, increase revenue, and consequently increase the value of your domain name is to build a stripped down website. This is a hybrid development project where you add limited (but relevant) content, which should help you with your search engine placement. As a result, more people will find your website, and they may be more likely to click on the Adsense links, generating additional revenue. The more you continue to update your site, the more likely it is that people will find you and return.

In my opinion, the key to this is developing these hybrid sites in areas that are of interest to you. This will encourage you to post more often than if it was a mundane topic or something you didn’t care about. The more passionate or knowledgeable you are about a topic, the more likely it is that people will find you. The job of Google, Yahoo and other search engines is to present their users with the most relevant website based on their search query. If you are able to provide this, you will be placed higher. Of course there are things that make this more complicated, but that is the general idea.

TopNotchDomains.com is Relaunched!

Elliot Silver
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4

Yesterday, I announced that my blog was redesigned, and today, I am pleased to announce that my company’s website, TopNotchDomains.com was redesigned and launched this morning! The redesign comes on the heels of a logo contest I started on Sitepoint (after seeing the success of Sahar’s contest). Initially, I planned for just a new logo and business card, but I was so impressed with the quality of work of Mike McAlister and his SixOneFive Design company, I asked him to redesign my website.

I know the difficulty in finding a great quality designer who is trustworthy and cost effective so I wanted to briefly talk about Mike’s company. The main focus of SixOneFive Design is on creating brand identities. They work on complete image overhauls with logos (like my projected started), business cards, letterheads, websites, etc. The company stays on top of new design trends, and they integrate it into their work. Mike provides high quality work with a quick turn-around, and from my experience, the price was more than reasonable.

Another project Mike recently finished was a complete overhaul on ClickFacts Security & Audit which can be seen at ClickFacts.com. Other samples of Mike’s work can be seen at his site SixOneFiveDesign.com.  I hope you like the new look on my blog and TopNotchDomains.com, and I would like to thank Mike for his hard (and speedy) work.

***Although I am never paid nor compensated for my blog entries, I want to make it clear that Mike did not ask me for this recommendation, nor did I receive anything in return. Mike created a great website, logo and blog header for me, completed it very quickly, and he did it at a very reasonable price.

ElliotsBlog.com Unveils New Theme!

Elliot Silver
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7

Last week, I held a contest on Sitepoint to create a new logo for my company, Top Notch Domains, LLC. I had never used Sitepoint before, but I thought it would be interesting and worth a shot. I received several high quality submissions, and eventually chose a winning design.

I was really impressed with the designer’s work, and I began discussing a revision of the entire website instead of just the logo. We agreed on a very fair price and timeline, and he is currently in the midst of revising the site, which will probably be unveiled this week. While I was reviewing the first round of revisions on my company’s website yesterday, the designer sent me a test header for my blog, just in case I wanted to make it match the company’s website. I hadn’t even asked for it, but he thought it might be good to keep the look and feel consistent.

I am very happy to unveil the new design of my company’s logo – and the new design of my blog! I have been impressed with the quality of work the designer has done, and I think the blog looks great as well. If you would like to learn more about the designer (Mike McAlister), his company is called SixOneFive Design.

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