Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

After reading a lot of articles online, I`ve learned that an idea alone, is worth nothing.  How do I make an idea worth something?

I like to call myself a domainer.  I buy, sell and trade domain names.  That`s not my actual business or my bread and butter, it`s just a hobby.

Lots of the domain names I own, I keep to use for a business/service I`d like to start.  Sometimes I think of an idea for a product or service and then I will immediately secure the domain name for myself.

At this point, I have so many ideas, but not a clue what to do next.  How do I know if my ideas (domain names) are worth anything and worth spending time and money on, to develop into something successful?

If I may, let me post a couple of my ideas.

1. LocavoreLounge.com
I own the domain name and I would like to turn it into a website with resources and services for people who live the "Locavore" lifestyle.  A Locavore is a person who eats food that is locally grown/produced.

2. ModderBlog.com
It seems like there`s lots of money in blogging, if the blog gets lots of traffic.  This blog would be for/about people who modify everyday objects into something that it wasn`t intended for or maybe just to improve it.  My thoughts on this was to have the "modder" him/herself write about the project and then I would post it.

3.  FlooringReview.com
A website where users can rate/review flooring products, retailer, installers, etc.

I probably should have introduced myself before posting this, but I usually like to dive right in.  I assure you, I`m not spamming the board and I`m not a troll. :)

Thank for reading.  I hope you guys have some good insight/feedback for me.

Speaking as someone trying to start a business, when I do a search for a domain name and find it`s been taken, I do WHATEVER I can to find some other domain name or version of that name. I have zero intention of paying someone other than the master assigners, for a domain name.

I do understand the idea that back when the Web was still fairly new, people with vision bought out names like IBM.com, DuPont.com, and so forth, then sold those back to the big corporations who were too slow on the move.

However, people who buy domain names without intending to use them, only to resell them to people trying to get a business going, hopefully will never make enough money to sustain that concept. It`s bad enough that the major buyers (Verisign?...I can`t remember) have bought as many domains as they could possibly imagine.

As far as I`m concerned, this is just plain secondhanding, where people who have no original business product try to piggyback off the efforts of someone else. To that end, I`d encourage you to start a basic business, build it up, and make something of it. There`s nothing wrong with later selling the whole business to someone who doesn`t know how to or doesn`t want to go through the basic startup phase.

So the bottom line is I`m biased against this "domainer" kind of activity. Nothing personal, y`understand, it`s just that it`s clogging up the works. :-)

Yes, I understand what you are saying, but you drifted off topic there.  My post was about the process of taking an idea or domain name and turning it into an actual business/service.  How do I determine the value of a selected name and if it`s worth to pursue building a business with it.  Get my drift?

I own several domain names that I intend to turn into sites. I look at it in 2 ways.

First, a domain name is just words; IMO, the value of the name alone comes from the current or potential interest in those words, their combination, internet trends, current culture, etc. Then, if I feel that domain name has a potential value based on those variables, what can I back it up with? I own 3 domain names that relate to blogs, and I think those names have great potential based on the words they are made of and the internet environment of today, but I won`t just slap a site online to utilize those names; I want to make the name and the site worth something together. So I feel they have value, and can be potentially good sites, when I can combine everything in the right way.

Second, it is something of a bass-ackwards way of creating a business. The norm is to have a business idea, start to build the business, then find an identifier. The concept you are using ( and me with these 3 domain names ) is grabbing a great identifier, then trying to build something solid behind it. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

In the end, how you value those names and their potential should be a combination of many things. Remember that something is only valuable if it has a use or demand by someone else.

I agree with Craig almost all of the time, but personally I don`t think the "domain flipping" concept is worse than anything else out there to make money. Not saying that I think it is either a good or bad thing, as it isn`t something I do;  I think it is being opportunistic for the most part. Granted, some will take it to extremes and try to get blood out of a stone in making a profit off of a name, but at the same time I think some people that are doing this are mostly exercising forethought, and gambling on what a name could potentially be worth.

Just my .013 cents worth.




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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

I did have a domain name that I was using, and had plans to grow the business when Cnet made an offer (almost 6-figures) that I couldn`t refuse.  (In hindsight, I wish that I had kept it.  Online.com.......).

But domain flipping BY the registrars is bordering on illegal restraint of trade, if not outright theft.  The theft occurs when someone searches for a domain name and finds one they like, only to be told that there is a registration pending (a lie).  In the meanwhile, the registrar registers the name then sends an email to the original searcher telling them that the name will be available in a few days after all, just send us $60 and we will grab it for you.

There`s a little known provision in the rules for domain registrations that gives the registrant a few days of no-fee use which encourages flippers to register names as they become available then advertise them for sale to the highest bidder only to exercise the unregister provision a few days later.  If this loophole were closed then flipping would not be profitable enough to continue.





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Steve Mann
Internet Videographer
MannMade Digital Video
My Email

I think my point here was better made by Webline, that the way you`ve posted your topic seems to say that every time you have an idea, you just go out and grab a domain name. Then you`re saying that because you don`t follow through on the idea, but "might" at some future time, you just hang onto the name.

(Actually, on yet another re-reading, I`m seeing it`s a deeper problem...addressed at the end of this posting. You seem to believe that a domain name is the equivalent of an idea, and that`s simply not true. An idea is a mental vision of something that doesn`t yet exist but that might exist with some effort and action.)

What it comes down to is problems for people who first have a busienss, then try to get a useful domain to match what they`re already doing. It`s that backward approach that Webline speaks about, and what I guess I was reacting to.

I`m not really opposed on a theoretical level to investing in domains and selling them later. That`s plain old capitalism, and I`m certainly a conservative capitalist. :-) What`s bothering me has more to do with the underlying proposition. Ideas, in and of themselves have no particular tangible value. It`s only after they`ve been turned into something tangible that they begin to take on value. And then, only if others (the marketplace) perceive that value.

So to keep it more focused, I`d say in a different way that your first step is to settle on one particular idea. Decide if that`s what you want to accomplish over the next 2-4 years. Write up a business plan, and begin the process of putting the idea into practical application.

The problem isn`t having ideas and no clue what to do next. Rather, it`s getting an education as to how to implement an idea. It`s an unfortunate side-effect of modern education that so few people have learned the basics of building something. Even so, with online tutorials, places like Startup Nation, and physical classroom studies at, say, community colleges, it`s not that hard to learn.

Words do not create anything, all by themselves, contrary to modern philosophers and their ramblings. Words are a necessity to us as a way to capture our observations and store them for more than ten seconds. You cannot create anything by giving it a name first, the hoping for "something" to happen. Instead, you create something then search for its appropriate name. If one doesn`t exist, then you invent a name to apply.

So: of your above thoughts, which one strikes you as the most appealing for the next few years?

Videography, I agree totally with the part about registrars taking names being searched, then basically "domain jacking" the people that did the search. My comments were more along the lines of private buyers that do research and then buy on the chance of a good return.





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M Hall
Website Critique Community
International Society of Curmudgeons

Great topic guys.. This is a big business. I have also thought of some great "sister" company sites I eventually plan on developing and have purchased the domain..or I think hey.. that`s a great idea for a name... I go ahead a register it. I don`t intend to hold it hostage. i feel if I use it great..if someone sees a value in it then a fair offer will do.. and that could be whatever. I recently sold a domain that meant nothing else to me, or so I thought for 4k. I was actually using it as an archice for my newsletters. We were all happy in the end.

 

erin

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Our Goal Is Your Success!
Founder Girls with Goals

Hi,

What does everyone think of our new website section that is JUST for people to list their internet business ideas:

http://ideas.webbizideas.com

jbizz...I would love to post your internet business ideas if you could develop them a little more, get you infront of VC`s, etc...

Jeff

To be honest, I did that a little bit myself, not trading domain names, but thinking of a "genius" idea and immediately reserving a domain name. The fact is that, as in the case with the topic started, I didn`t follow up with most of them. I still have plans for some of them, and some I have canceled.

Now what gets me is people who buy domain names specifically for resale -- same as people who buy concert tickets for resale. They don`t add any value, they don`t create a product or service -- they only add cost. And what they ask for these domains later on is often simply unreasonable.