@Eric my cousin – Dude, lots of people are developing their domains successfully and making money. Just because you aren’t doing it doesn’t mean it can’t or isn’t happening. WhyPark is the foundation of this process, and with Parked.com behind them, domains that make nothing at landing pages are now poised to make “something”. And depending on how much you want to spend to develop, can make a lot more.

I am a fan of directories. I’ve tested some direct product and prices, and have done marketing surveys to see whether my domain website would at least pay back the cost of having a directory website built and managed. Do the homework first, check to see who your customers will be, whether they would bite at your directory price listing, and then go for it, or not.

Development today is NOT some big bugaboo or the monster under Elliot’s bed (I heard that Elliot actually controls all monsters, so be nice to him. I just gave some guys at a store today his blog address and said “get into domain investing, start here first”. I was sure to add that they needed to check Elliots blog roll…cuz I’m on it. whew)

Seriously, development is NOT that hard, nor expensive, but you need to do what any businessman would do starting a new business – Find your market, be sure you have your price point set, check your ROI expectations, and then jump in. One domain at a time for full development, but first go to Whypark to get the foundations for those domain buildouts prepared for their special ‘attention’ later.

Of course, you can contact me at my blog for more info on Whypark, and pick up some special advice from me, Al Franken.

By the way, I have no idea what the name is of the owner of this blog, isn’t that sad? I can’t find it anywhere on his blog! Even in the “about us” section. Why do bloggers who want to succeed in this industry hide their real names? I probably know, but forgot, because the blogger isn’t promoting their name enough. Come out of the shadows!

But, whoever runs this blog, if they email me and tell me their name (or remind me, I’m getting old), I’ll trade links.

Peace

If you want to sell a domain at high prices in today’s market you have to move your arse and start contacting end users, because the majority of domainers is not willing to take risks anymore.

I agree with Acro and I would probably have written a similar post if he hadn’t already: You can’t sell the same domains back and forth within the domain industry forever. At one point there must be an end user standing at the end of the line or the market values of domains will ultimately go down.

There was too much hype in the domain industry for years… You couldn’t expect this to go on forever. The bubble has burst and I think this is important for the industry to mature. Maybe domains will be handled more professionally and similar to other investments from now on.

Class act response!!

You can always get more and that is the risk you take with an auction (we have lost money on a few sales but also won big on others so yes – its just the game)

My comments and my distaste for the price of this name have been geared toward the industry as a whole for basically talking about development but missing an opportunity like this (myself included).

Another article is coming on this topic so people better understand where I am going – my only goal is for this industry to evolve faster and this sale knocked my idea of where we are back about 5 years.

I’ll PM you privately.

It’s not easy – but there are at least 1,000 people who would say it is – probably a LOT more.

Remember, this sport has many teams. While many domainers were “domaining” back in 2002 there was a whole other team of people developing.

Unfortunately that team never got the flyer about this domain sale.

Do not get me wrong, it is a good buy but many domains that were good buys are not making money because development is HARD.

Many of us get bombarded with names for sale from email newsletters, drop lists and more its almost like wait for auction day to look at the catalog since there are so many more before that.

Rick’s auctions were never of much interest to me before but the lesson learned here is I am always going to read his auction lists from now on!

Getting a site up and running is not that difficult.

OR, put a couple hundred bucks down a month on a solid directory platform like eDirectory.com, Databanq.com, or others and you’re off to the races in DAYS!

OR, maybe domainers should quit whining about development costs and form partnerships. Yeah, you lose $$$ in the long run, but you also form a team that can continue to develop additional properties. There are very few ideas that haven’t been developed already. I bet if the new owner of HomeLoans.net approached Steve Lombardi at ExpertHubs.com, he’d get an audience with the man.

However, let me say for the record, that your rant should have also covered the double tap of Mortuary/Mortuaries. $12.5k per…for the ONLY event guaranteed in life? THAT was the steal of the decade. Get a good designer and throw some directory software at it and you’re about done. I bet that industry is an easy SEO/SEM nut to crack.

@Acro – I have been screaming that for years. Only GD and RL effectively advertising outside the domain circle.

@Alan/@Steve – You both make valid points. The extension really doesn’t weigh much in SEO (I got a .ws up on the first page for “Freelance Writer” and others, but there is definite recognition value in TLDs.

@John – no doubt a scary time for sellers, but great for buying! Homeloans.net can be very simple to develop. Domainers make it way too difficult – or at least perceive it as such. Get a simple site in the air and start getting links and age on your site. You can always re-design (keep your URL structure) at a late date as traffic increases.

@Stephen – HA! I saw a TV commercial last night during prime time playoff basketball for http://www.SanDiego.org and about shit my pants! Extension be damned! And they rank first for “San Diego”. I think the adoption of other extensions is inevitable. The majority of small business owners would rather have the keywords that describe their business in another extension (.US is a big sleeper) than pay big bucks for the .com. That is the largest growing market, pay attention to it.

And gentlemen…let’s all call it like it is. I doubt most of us “missed” this domain or ‘were’ gonna bid on it but….. If you missed it, shame on you, you self-proclaimed bad ass domainer. I think we ALL thought this name was going for much higher than it did and assumed we’d be priced out of the bidding. We have all been rocked by the economy and watching spending. WE ARE the inner circle who is not buying domains for big bucks. You expect the uneducated consumer to throw a ton of money at a domain? Lets not be hypocrates. It is up to us and the auctions to educate main street, and the faster the better. This was an extremely smart purchase and kudos to all who continue to take advantage of this market.

I have a domain sales letter that has worked for several people – it’s free. Just ask.

J. A. Lohmann
214.679.9673
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Co-Founder / Partner
AdvertisingAndDesign.net
Dallas / Colorado
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LinkedIn.com/in/JayLohmann
+5200
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Twitter.com/FreelanceNation
@FreelanceNation