Domain Development is Web Development is Business Development

OK, first off let me say I am guilty as much as the rest of us domain investors when it comes to calling the development of a domain "Domain Development". My question is why do we continue to do that, can I ask why is it any different for a domainer to develop a business on a domain name than it is for any other business owner to buy a domain name and build their business on their name? I can say for sure they do not call it domain development.

Short answer. There is no difference. We in the domain industry coined the term domain development when in reality there really is not a difference between a domain investor with a vision of growing a business on their key properties. The only difference is now you have become the end user of the property, you just got the name at wholesale value rather than end user value.

I am sure we as an industry will continue to call it domain development, but do not fool yourself. It will benefit us all to realize that we are just like anyone else with a domain name and realize that we move into business development (instead of domain development) as soon as a business plan is put in place and web development is complete on our properties.

I am sure I will slip up and call it domain development at times but I myself am going to make a conscious effort to move past the term domain development and start to use web development or more accurately business development when describing the building of a business on my own properties.

Also, we in the domain crowd need to start realizing the selling of a business that happened to have a great name is not the selling of a domain name, it is the selling of a business that happens to have a great domain name. Kudos to that business for having the vision to acquire a great name, but a company like Mint.com did not sell for the price they did purely on their name, it was done based on a business model.

Last thought, I watched with much interest all the discussions around minisites, their value, good or bad, etc during the past month. I have had success with minisites and will continue to use them in some cases. I know alot of people like to talk about the lack of value to the end user in them. I am a believer it is not the amount of pages on a site that matters, its the quality of the content. I am not saying all my minisites are the best of quality when it comes to content but my point is I believe their are times someone could have a one page site and if it has the data someone is looking for does it really matter to the end user if it does not have 100 more pages to look at. Now, I will say though that the real business model to make real money on one domain is not a minisite. To make real money on a domain it needs to have a business plan and full blown development behind it, but each business can have a different level of development required on the site, some one page, some one hundred pages, some just a form to take info. Every business is different.

All that said it is impossible to have a full plan on each an every name you own if you own one thousand names, it takes capital, time, and a lot of effort to get a business off the ground. Rick Schwartz got it write in this blog post. It is impossible to build one thousand businesses all at the same time. This is why I do think its unrealistic when every time people show support minisites people start to bash them and say the only answer is full development, it is just not realistic to think people can build a full business on everyone of their names.