I have tried my hand at development. The majority of my smaller websites didn’t really earn much money. I have sold a couple of domain names that had relatively successful websites on them, and I still operate several websites, including this one. At the present time, I have no plans to take on any new web development projects, although I suppose that could change if the right opportunity came around.
Today’s poll question is: Do You Operate any Websites? You are invited to vote in the poll below and are welcome to share additional thoughts in the comment section.
Well, just like domaining, I believe developing is a skill. Certainly skills can be learned, but you either have the knack for it or you don’t. The same goes for sales, some people are just born to be in sales. Some aren’t.
I fully agree with you it seems simple but its really orders of magnitude harder to develope a proper site.
Dumb.com vs dev.dumb.com (almost done)
Yes.
Although I started purely in domain names in 2001, since then I have long been primarily an end user and buyer while domain sales takes second place to all that for me.
That is also why I have so much solid “empathy” for the real world of end users and the real value and potential of good domain names, enabling me to see far more clearly how much more they are often really worth than those who look at it only from the “domainer” perspective which has been so beaten down and at times deceived and self-deceived by various influences. That includes some that many “domainers” often view negatively and pejoratively as “long-tail” without having a clue how valuable they really are and can be in the real world with real end use. In fact I once had a site up on one of my super longest four word .coms that was so pathetic and so simple in design, with essentially only one banner and link on it, and yet a company listed on the London Stock Exchange came calling to try to buy it.
Agree with you John-
I have one descriptive domain (hand reg at 99cent) at parking and noticed that there were so much traffic and just put up one simple wordpress page with an ad and got a couple of sales…easy peasy
winkhub dot com
I set up my first website in 1997 aimed at the niche travel market, still going strong but in HUGE need of a redesign. I created a Facebook group to complement discussions around the subject matter — now has over 4,000 active and vibrant members — so the original website now serves as a “redirect” to that, plus selling a book I wrote.
I also have a Squarespace website for my consulting business and a WordPress one for another niche subject area. That is doing really well.
As a non-designer (I’m a journalist) I still find the old chestnut rings true: content is king. Put together a decent-looking site and fill it with good content, and it will work out.
Thanks for the non-domain related discussion, Elliot. (But I love domain names too and also dabble in those too …!)
Cool story. Like so many I wish I had jumped in earlier during the 90’s, even the late 90’s. I remember at one point I heard the news about the altavista.com sale out of the blue, it made quite a momentary impression on me, but then I did not look into the subject any further.
A nice post.
In fact, I wish more of your posts could focus on development.
Thanks, Elliot!
Just like you wouldn’t me to write articles about ICOs or IPOs, I am not well qualified to write about web development.
My favorite part of domaining is development. I loving making ‘something’ out of ‘nothing’ at all.
When selling a home, it has been largely proven that staging the home triggers the potential buyers’ imaginations and capacity to picture themselves in the home, thereby leading more easily to a sale.
In domains, some keywords could be used in multiple ways, so building it out one way, might make it less attractive to a buyer who was thinking about it in a different way. Nevertheless, for the most part, building a site on a good domain, even in a smaller scaled way, can stir in a potential buyer more ideas and confirmation of the value of that domain, and in my view can lead to greater attractiveness. A built out site, with good seo, can raise the visibility of the domain/site and enhance the value. Clearly, also, if a domain is generating income, it’s value is easier to establish.
One problem with developing a site is if a potential buyer sees a site when they enter a domain in the browser, they might just bail immediately, before you ever get to say, this is for sale.
I personally hope to develop at least 15 sites in the coming year. If it’s a site I want to sell, I will use a page peel ad or another kind of an ad prominently displayed that notes that it is for sale. Overall, I think that’s a tightrope walk with some competing interests that could confuse a potential buyer, but I still want to try it. I’ve built and ranked substantial sites for clients, and finally this year want to build some of my own sites (beyond the few I already have), rank them, and harness the inherent revenue potential in the keywords.