Do you want an automated site? Such as a dating site, social site, digg type, etc? One that you can basically "fire and forget" and make money from? Or do you want a site that you must upkeep? Which could include manually adding links, writing, etc? I suppose you could always hire out the manual portion and still sit pretty.
Yes, this seems like a very good idea. I will definitely spend time thinking about possible approaches. I plan on looking over your site, which looks very good, and if I see some possible areas where we can work together, I will PM you. Thank you for the offer and the advice. Rich
The more automated the better, but nowadays even automated sites need lots of caretaking. The spam issues as well as other legal type issues do require a good amount of manual as well as automated controls. Your point is very well taken, and at my stage in life, the more automated the better. As I look for possible scripts, one of the features that I look at are the spam/security control. Thanks again for your input. It is very helpful. Rich
Well it's your money and your domain but I think you are very wrong. Text links will ALWAYS have value to anyone doing business online, REGARDLESS of Google. Why? Because link are the Internet's word of mouth advertising. The best link buyers will buy for traffic, not only SEO. If you think that links will become worthless or even less desirable then I'd say you are being naive. I appreciate the fact that you have a lot of business experience and I'm sure it's going to help you considerably but you still won't get anywhere unless you pick a direction to take your website and actually take steps to move it along that path... I'm sure you already know that also. In either case I hope you get a good idea because you have a fantastic domain name and a chance to make something either really profitable or really special (or both if done right) all you have to do is figure out what's more important. PS: Drop the blog, they're associated with a more amateurish approach. Build a custom CMS and pay for a GOOD Web 2.0 style design. If you want to promote other people's content you'll need a killer looking website because the bottom line is that you are not offering any value-added service or insight that people need... and I think that's the major flaw in your current approach.
Hi Pete, Fundamentally you are correct. All types of text links are forms of advertisements, and are an important element to the growth of any website. I may still convince myself otherwise, but this is how I analyzed the potential of this market segment: 1) It is very overcrowded and competitive. 2) There are many forms of competition: a) forums such as Digital Point b) high-end sites with lots of advertising domain expertise such as Text-Ad-Links c) low-end sites that are full of spam and other inferior content that lower the usefulness and value of the site. Of these, the most valued would be the sites that market to high-end advertising, but I would need domain expertise to be competitive. I have no expertise in the advertising domain. 3) Google is entering into this marketplace and will represent even more competition. 4) The overall traffic for this domain segment (based upon Alexa) is dropping precipitously. I am not sure why, but I think customers are finding better ways to spend their advertising dollars or it could be that Google's recent actions have diminished the value of these type of links. I think I would be much more comfortable entering into this market if 1) I had a savvy partnership with a group that could provide guidance on how to market the site to high-end link buyers (advertising companies), and 2) I understood better why the traffic is dropping. I prefer a long-term upwards growth curve to one that is declining if I was to enter a market. It is a given that the current site is amateurish. What it gives me is a platform to experiment with as I slowly build traffic. I was looking at the Vivvo CMS platform which I was impressed with when I saw it. However, I am not sure that it is as stable and mature as the Wordpress platform (which gives me excellent spam control), nor do I think that any change in platform is going to give me any more retention until I get decent valued content. This I think is the key. Anyway, I would be very interested in how others view the text link market. So all comments are appreciated. Thanks again for your very helpful advice. Rich
One thing I find troubling from reading this thread is what you've said about automation. If you're looking at social networking, dating or text link advertising, you're going to need to spend a lot of time on it and produce something innovative, otherwise you may as well do what others have suggested and stick a custom directory script on there. I don't think an out of the box script is really going to cut it if you want it to be a big hit. Someone I know from DP actually had a very interesting idea involving a twist on a dating site last week. I might try and ask him if he wants to pitch the idea to you, because it may (or may not) take your fancy.
I think to really spice up your site, you need to link to http://www.bootyarcade.com in the games section Wow, I would give my right arm for the domain name links.com.... Best of luck to you whatever direction you take it.
Hi there, Yes, I totally agree with you. It will require something innovative and not an out-of-the box script. Scripts are handy to test out a basic concept and marketspace. However, to build retention, there will have to be some unique and have a real and attractive value proposition. This is the primary reason it has taken me this long to build something that I feel comfortable with. A really useful directory would be attractive, if I could think of a good concept. Ditto for a social bookmarking site. I think every site that is successful has some real value that it offers to its visitors. I would be happy to hear any new ideas concerning dating or otherwise. Thanks for the referral. Best, Rich
Thanks PoderOdunk. I'll give your site a shout out in my next blog of links. I do it about once a week to give my friends a small thank you. Cya around. Rich
That is a low profit type site. Try to focus on all the ideas that are out there that relate to links. The right idea might not be cool or romantic to you but if it is pulling in more cash who cares how sexy it is. You could have multiple sections even that would satisfy maybe three or four services/products around links such as reviewing link campaign services (where you get referals for sending users to programs such as http://www.text-link-ads.com/ or even google. Or, like some else stated. You could sell the domain. I might be interested in purchase or partnering with you on some ideas. PM me and let's toss some ideas around. Joseph
id say just tell the domain name. you can probably make over a million if you play your cards right. I'm sure google might even be interested in that.
No problem. When you mentioned dating in an earlier post, Eric's idea sprang to mind. I spoke briefly about it with him yesterday, and he thought the same, so I'm hoping he'll be around to pitch it at some point via PM. Actually, I agree with you on testing out the basic concept with an existing script (I didn't mean to sound quite so off-hand about out of the box scripts).
Hi Joseph, Thanks for taking the time to respond. The idea of emulating text-link-ads has its strong points, but I am concerned about whether I have the domain expertise (i.e. enough knowledge about advertising) and I am also concerned that the traffic to this site as well as similar sites is dropping precipitously (I presented a graph in an earlier post). Another idea that is frequently presented is developing Links.com into a high quality link directory. But I am not sure of the value proposition, other than using the PR of such a site to game Google. Does anyone actually use directories any more for anything? I never go to DMOZ since it is essentially out-of-date as is Yahoo's directory. Basically, I only use Google. Does anyone think that directories have a long term value proposition. I am looking to grow the site and increase traffic over the long-term. Thanks for your thoughts. Rich
My own opinion is that the only thing that will give a domain long term value is the bringing together of people, rather than links. Google, youtube, myspace, facebook - their value is generated by the community they bring together. I am using some directory software myself for my latest project, but again, its usage is based around building up a marketplace for people, not links. Oh, and I'm also part of a small team who has / is emulating TLA (ie. contextual linking in website content), although not yet released. It's not really emulation though, since they only just released the "in-content" link options themselves in Beta I believe. It would probably do very well short term on something like links.com - but in the end search engines will move away from using links so heavily in their calculations I'm sure, which then begs the question what will the popularity be like afterwards. Will people still want to buy contextual links for the purposes of traffic etc.
Hi OIOplus, Yes, this is pretty much along the lines of my own concerns and thoughts at this time. Social Networking does create more stickiness, if a real community develops. Then there is value in the traffic, just like a good TV show. But even TV shows come and go as the idea becomes old, so there has to be some flexibility built into the format so that it can transform itself as time passes. Search engines are an excellent example of this. The results are constantly changing as new sites come on board and new search capabilities (e.g. video) are requested by their users. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Rich
Thanks Respiro! It was some amount of luck and some amount of foresight that I still have the domain. In any case, I do need some amount of inspiration now to make something of it. Wish me luck! Rich
You could always turn it into something of a competition, to help with inspiration. Allow people to create a simple demo of an idea they have for the site, and then IF one looks as though you might want to take it on, offer them a stake in the business. Might help to pull in a few good ideas, and sometimes seeing something "there" creates more inspiration than just words. It could create some buzz in itself if hosted on the domain. "You chance to become a part of this great name". Just thinking out loud.
Hi, I actually thought about doing this a while ago but wasn't sure whether it would get participation. Does anyone else think that something like this would work? Have there been previous contests like this run on DP? Thanks for the idea. Rich
Just saw that business.com went for $360,000,000. Wish I'd been around at the beginning of things! Even if no one else is interested in the competition aspect (and I'm sure they will be), I have at least a couple of ideas to add into the melting-pot at some point.