2009 is drawing to a close. I can’t believe that another year has gone by so quickly.

One of the things that I had set out to do this year was to take web development to another level. We did redesigned the eBusinessDomains.com website and launch a few other sites such as BrandingSuccess.com.

We also wanted to launch 2 full-scale brands before the end of 2009. That will not happen as one project took most of our time. Well a lot of key developments here at eBusinessDomains.com and in my other businesses took most of the time.

So in the end we only did some serious work on Aeroplanes.com. We have been working on the Aeroplanes.com project for some months now. I am truly excited about what is coming.

The developers have been busy for some while now creating, customising and integrating a lot of technologies.

In the research phase I contacted a lot of developers. I did promise to have some web developers handle different aspects of the project. However due to the complexity and sheer scale of the project, I have decided to contract only one company instead. So, if you are one of the developers that I had previously approached, please don’t feel insulted or sidestepped. I’m sure that after the launch you will agree that this was a job for one company.

I was hoping to have Aeroplanes.com launched by the end of November. This will not be a reality, obviously. As they say, choose 2 and sacrifice the other of time, quality and money. I am not sacrificing any. Period.

The project is a huge and complex one. Another reason why we would not be able to meet the deadline is that one of the technologies that we are planning on using is still in beta, and we will not be launching until this technology is given the all clear.

So, this may take us into 2010. This will be my last blog post for the next 3 weeks. I have some urgent and pressing matters to focus on elsewhere. When those matters are dealt with, I will then need to give the Aeroplanes.com project my full attention. By then, we should be in the testing phases and I will need to be on the ball getting the project ready for launch.

I will also need to start focusing on the strategies that will need to be implemented prior to and after the launch.

So, as for the next few months, it will be less domaining for me, and more web and brand development.

eBusinessDomains.com will take a backseat until we get Aeroplanes.com at cruise control heights. Taking off is one of the most key aspects of a flight. So, we will be doing a lot of checking and preparation before take off, and then a lot of work once we are in the air, web and brand development-wise.

When we focus again on eBusinessDomains, our main and only objective will be to decisively take our business to end-users. By developing Aeroplanes.com we are now end-users, and as such we should have some very intimate knowledge about ebusinesses.

I say again, web development is hard work. Laugh all you want. It is not as hard as doing manual labour in the tropical sunshine. But, it is nothing close to the minisite-level of web development (design) that some people only seem to be able to associate web development with.

There is web design, web development, business development and brand development. If we were launching a mini site we would have had a site up in July without even having to wink. We would only need to simply send an email and a Paypal payment to one of those minisite service providers. Minisite creation is barely web design. We are doing full-scale business and brand development.

In 2010 we will shake off the domainer mentality, block out the noise, and get clothed in the entrepreneurial spirit by launching full-scale Internet brands and doing business with like-minded entrepreneurs.

I’m blogging about the Aeroplanes.com project here as we don’t have any sort of temporary functional website setup yet at Aeroplanes.com, and our corporate site (WidestMedia.com) won’t go live until next year.

If you want to be notified of the launch of Aeroplanes.com or participate in any of our beta tests, then you can subscibe via email at Aeroplanes.com.

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It’s Saturday again!!

Why I am Blogging Less These Days
I took the right decision when I suspended advertisement on eBusinessDomains.com earlier this year. Advertisement revenue is good as at the very minimum, it could help to maintain the website.

However, personally speaking, when I used to accept advertisement requests, I felt obligated to blog regularly in order to ensure that my clients got maximum exposure for their products and services. I have tested blogging to the fullest. One of the tests was to see whether or not blogging on a daily basis increases traffic Yes, it did.

You will receive traffic from your blog subscribers, search engines and news aggregators (although some news aggregation sites are extremely biased, to say the least).

If you increase content on your website on a regular basis it will help with SEO. You will even receive more if the content is original. However, I am an entrepreneur. I have unashamedly said before that I blog to build the eBusinessDomains.com brand. Not to seek fame or popularity or to chase advertising dollars.

My main aim is to sell domains. Blogging brings traffic, but less than 5% of that traffic will result in revenue (domain sales).

So if accepting advertising requests on my site means that I would have to become a “post whore” (borrowing a term from Mike Cohen), then I would prefer to leave the cash on the table.

I conduct my businesses following some very simple rules and policies. One of them is, “keep the main thing, the main thing”.

You see, if I have to blog every time the dust lands on my wall just for the sake of maintaining a popular blog, then what time would I have to focus on business… the real business??? My main business here at eBusinessDomains.com is to sell domains. Well, that’s not quite true. My main objective is to successfully market domains to end users. And, that is only one business.

If blogging helps me in achieving that, that’s great. But my intelligence tells me that a lot of strategising, creative use of technology and clever marketing would help as well.

How could I achieve that by being a “post whore”?

Now, don’t get me wrong. Blogging has become natural for me. When I write a blog post it takes less that 30 minutes from subject matter to typing, to editing, to copying and pasting in WordPress, to formatting and publishing. Ironically, my blog posts are that long as I simply type whatever random thoughts are going through my head (hence the motivation behind these weekend domainer musings posts). So blogging does not take much of my time.

However, I need to focus on critical business processes and objectives, rather than seeking popularity or trying to gain exposure for other people’s products and services.

I am stretched across all sorts of businesses and clientele. I spent a year diligently building the eBusinessDomains.com brand and adding juicy content. Now, it’s time to focus on other brands, especially those targeting customers outside the very SMALL domain industry.

How Much Business Can You Do In The Domain Industry?
Rick Schwartz did a brilliant post the other day in which he shared his belief that there are less than 500 real domainers (that’s how I interpreted it, anyway). Now this could motivate you in many ways, as well as break you. You could be fired up to build the domain industry, or you could be motivated to start businesses outside of the domain industry. Or, you could simply quit the domain industry and write it off as a fool’s paradise.

For me, I don’t own a parking company, if you know what I mean. I have barefacedly said before that domainer-to-domainer domain sales activity is a grand and glamorous way of wasting precious time. So, any successful domaining that I do will have to be with end-users. Why do you think I was preaching the end-user message from the very minute I started blogging?

Aeroplanes.com Project
I don’t need to report to anyone on this project. My reason for blogging about Aeroplanes.com is to generate interest in the upcoming brand (global). At least, I am being honest!

We have been working on the Aeroplanes.com project amongst others for some weeks now. However, earlier this week, I gave the executive order to stop all work immediately.

In my rush to have this project meet certain deadlines, I failed to fully examine our partners’ technology. It is functional and very robust, but unfortunately, not suitable for the markets that we intend on targeting. Americans and American companies don’t seem to realise that there is a much bigger world outside of America, that English is not the only language and that there are numerous local currencies worldwide!!! Sorry, it’s not an insult, and I don’t have time to clarify that statement.

However, the error was priceless. I have learnt so much from the whole experience. So we are going back to the drawing board and we are going to take a whole new flight path with this project. A lot of people focus on an aeroplane taking off, but don’t realise that the landing is even more crucial.

We could have had a website up in less than a day, but would it be fit for purpose in terms of branding? No. Web development is hard work. Many have tried. Many have failed. Launching a website is not success. Success is when your website becomes a money making business. Not many people know how to achieve that, even when they have millions to squander.

Nonetheless, we have a lot of projects, including Aeroplanes.com that are now getting ready to taxi down the runway for takeoff! Stay tuned!

Have a great weekend!!

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