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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After over 3 months of intense research, conceptualising and planning, we are now ready to build the monster. Yes, Aeroplanes.com will be a monster of a website.

I cannot tell you in private or public what we are coming with. But even if you use your wildest imagination, I doubt you would even come close to figuring it out. I personally want the project to have the shock effect, so I’m not going to say any more on this project.

Given the sheer size and complexity of the project, it may still be a while before we go live with Aeroplanes.com. We were aiming to launch at the end of November, but given my schedule before Christmas, and the amount of testing and tweaking that will be involved, it could be as far as January 2010. Well, Mint.com took 2 years to be launched, so, as they say “good things come to those who wait”.

Aeroplanes.com will be powered by numerous technologies, from all around the world. Most of these technologies power very popular websites/Internet destinations on their own. We are talking about sites within the top 1000 Alexa rankings, some even within the top 100. Yes, some sites only use one, anyone of the technologies we are using. So, you should imagine the sheer magnitude of what we are coming with!

I am a very fussy guy. I take great care in what I eat, where I live, what I wear, what I drive, which women I date, and the list goes on. Of course you already know my obsession with quality domain names .

So, when I decide to launch a new brand, you know it has to be the crème de la crème of web development. Anyway, enough of the hype (although my hype will have loads of substance to support it ).

Aeroplanes
Well, if you read this blog you will know from the comments on previous posts that the word “aeroplanes” (airplanes) is not so popular with Americans.

I love aeroplanes. I’m truly fascinated by these man-made beasts. It’s really hard to imagine how these things take-off and stay in the sky under the perfect control of a human being.

The Airbus A380 Aeroplane
The world’s largest passenger aeroplane is the Airbus A380, which is a twin deck aeroplane.

What is truly fascinating about the Airbus A380 is how it is built. Now, stay with me. There is a reason why I’m sharing all of this with you.

The Airbus all-new design Superjumbo, the A380, is the world’s first twin-deck, twin-aisle airliner.

Airbus’s A380 aircraft sections is transported from sites in Broughton (UK), Hamburg (Germany), Puerto Real (Spain) and St Nazaire (France) in a specially constructed huge roll-on / roll-off vessel, the “Ville de Bordeaux”, built by Jinling Shipyard in Nanjing, China.

First, the front and rear sections of the fuselage are loaded on an Airbus RORO ship, Ville de Bordeaux, in Hamburg, northern Germany, whence they are shipped to the United Kingdom. There the huge wings, which are manufactured at Filton in Bristol and Broughton in north Wales, are transported by barge to Mostyn docks, where the ship adds them to its cargo. In Saint-Nazaire, western France, the ship trades the fuselage sections from Hamburg for larger, assembled sections, some of which include the nose. The ship unloads in Bordeaux. Afterwards, the ship picks up the belly and tail sections in Cadiz, southern Spain, and delivers them to Bordeaux. Doors were specially made by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in Bangalore, India. A special IC was also made in India and delivered to Airbus specially for A-380.

From there, the A380 parts are transported by barge to Langon, and by road to an assembly hall in Toulouse. New wider roads, extra canal systems and barges were developed to deliver the massive A380 parts. After assembly, the aircraft are flown to Hamburg to be furnished and painted. Final assembly began in 2004, with first aircraft (MSN001) displayed in January 2005.

This is an aeroplane, with parts made not only in many factories, but many countries.

A Visual Representation of True Web And Brand Development
Now, I am going to provide a link below to a video on YouTube, showing the construction of the Airbus A380 in 7 minutes. I have always said that web development is hard work. It took me over 3 months just to conceptualise and plan the aeroplanes.com project, and to acquire/order all the relevant technologies (from various countries). This is before the developers were even identified.

Now, when you watch the video, use your imagination. I want you to imagine that they are not building an aeroplane, but rather developing a website (that will become a powerful brand). If you can do that, then you will understand my perspective of web development. You will also understand the complexity and sheer magnitude of the Aeroplanes.com project.

Click here to watch the video on YouTube - Building the Airbus A380.

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Greetings!

It is Saturday again!! A cold and wet day here in London, but the parties must go on .

Earlier in the week we heard the news of a minisite service provider closing shop. Well I’m not in any celebratory mood, though many of you may think that I would have reasons to be, neither am I in any “I told you so” mood.

I tried my best not to follow the tide by focusing on mini sites this week, but I guess the currents were too strong.

I personally only started reading domain blogs after I launched this one here at eBuinessDomains.com in September last year. And well, thank God I didn’t, because somehow, even till this day, I believe you read more nonsense than anything else. I will leave it up to you to judge my blog. The ignorance surrounding web development is no exception.

Lose the Mini Site Mentality
The domain industry is the industry in which we say “its all in the name”. Sadly when it comes to web development, domainers got it wrong.

With mini sites, the term alone creates a psychological death to the business model. Why “mini”? If we say that content is king, why do we focus on keeping these sites “mini”?

Another mistake that domainers made was to refer to the development of websites as domain development. That again, creates some sort of mental block to whatever success that could be acheived.

I won’t waste time expanding on the above, as most people would still not get it even after 10,000 words.

The Problems With Mini Sites
Mini sites themselves are not the problem. It’s like the Internet. Some people use the Internet to conduct business, stay in touch with friends and do online banking, while some use it to commit fraud, watch porn and incite hatred. The problem is not the thing, but rather how one goes about using it.

Where domainers are concerned, their business concept/model where mini sites are concerned is severely flawed. Well, in my opinion, that’s not even the case, as most domainers developing mini sites don’t even have a business plan as such.

Problem Number One – Mini Sites CANNOT Be A Replacement Model for Domain Parking
Domainers are trying to use mini sites to replace the domain parking model. Over the past three weeks I wrote a series on the domain parking model. You can click to read Parts One, Two and Three.

Domain parking is a numbers game. The more domains you have, the more money you could make, potentially. Domain parking is a set and a forget technology. Simply register the domain, park it and make money.

With web development, it is not a numbers game. It is a game of passion, persistence, determination, resilience, creativity, originality, and the list goes on.

You would not have passion and determination with mini sites. If a domainer makes an attempt at a mini site today and it fails, he would simply move on to the next. where is the passion or determination for success? However, if you were building a brand, you would have a more die-hard attitude to ensure that the one project succeeds, no matter what.

Websites, just like children, need tender loving care. If you wouldn’t be able to raise 10 kids, then you wouldn’t be able to develop and manage 10 websites unless you are running a fully resourced media company.

Problem Number Two – Enslavement to Domain Parking Mentality
Almost all of the problems will stem from the fact that domainers are enslaved to the domain parking mentality (model).

So, problem number two is their addiction to stats. Almost every time you see a domainer discussing mini sites, they spend more time quoting those little useless stats. They will say, oh, the domain is the exact match of X term that gets X amount of searches in Google.

No one is entitled to organic search traffic. No one. And as such, no matter what tricks you try, organic search traffic is never guaranteed. If you are depending on organic search traffic for success, then you have effectively thrown yourself at the mercies of something that you have no control over. Your business plan is flawed, as you have zero control over any form of success.

Problem Number Three – Lack of Business Acumen
Domainers who develop mini sites based on stats are not businesspersons. This is the clearest sign that they have no business acumen.

In business, you need to have control, over everything. You need to have control over the direction your business takes, the revenues, the costs, the growth, etc., etc.

Building a mini site and inserting a few Google Adsense spots is not taking control. If don’t see yourself advertising and actively promoting your business then you are simply trying to feed a dead cat.

Also, If you decide to grow traffic through advertising, what would you be advertising? What would you be selling? Google Adsense? If Google closes your account, the only thing that would be left standing is a bunch of senseless articles. The World Wide Web doesn’t need another mini site. It needs another web destination.

Problem Number Four – Domainers Don’t How To Monetize Websites Beyond PPC
Domainers notoriously have a lack of confidence. I am amazed at how people spend so much time, and money to build websites that will make them an average of $2 per month. Why, why, why? God only knows.

What is so funny is how they go around shouting and dancing when their revenues increase from $1.50 a month to $1.75. I really don’t get it. A typical example would be a blogger writing a post regarding one of their mini sites. If you are lucky he will admit that revenue is jut at $1.75; then you get a whole bunch of idiots saying things like:

”Wow, the site is looking good!”
”Thanks for sharing, you are genius.”
”How did you manage to increase your revenue from $1.50 to $1.75 in just 30 days?”

One word: Pathetic!

Don’t they realise that one single website can earn them as much as $2 million, or even $20 million a month, if it is branded properly? Focus on the big picture.

Problem Number Five  - Content is Not King, Passion is
I read earlier this week where a blogger was criticising a mini site service provider for the “poor content” (article) and the lack of promotion of the mini site after it was created.

I was just laughing. That is where the mistake is, where domainers expect a set and forget auto-pilot road to riches from mini site providers. Well, to be fair, some of these mini site service providers are pretending to provide these services in a bid to fleece ignorant domainers out of their monies. So they should take some of the blame. The reality is, there can be no automated roads to riches with web development.

If you are developing a website and you can’t write the content yourself, then you will have serious problems. That is why you should not focus on the volume of content, but rather your passion for the subject or niche. If you are passionate about a topic, it will be only natural for you to write compelling content.

Website visitors are not stupid. They will become your biggest fans when they see that you have a passion for the subject matter.

A web designer or developer should only provide the website. If you are not prepared to maintain the website, add content regular and actively promote the website then you are better off applying for a job at McDonalds.

I could go on, and on, and on. However here are a few other articles that you might find interesting (most recent first):

Domain Development - What Will You Build Today?

Mini Sites - Domains Dressed For Success?

Domain Development: How to Make Money From Your Website

The Art of Domain Development

With that been said, we will be launching our own web development services in the near future. We will share more on that in due course.

Have a great weekend!

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It’s Saturday, again!!!

Where is the time going?

I have been saying that web development is hard work. But the truth is, web development is damn easy. There is an orgy of tools (even free ones) that you could use to build web pages and even multi-page websites without even writing the opening html tags.

You don’t have to be geeky to build and maintain websites these days. So why do I keep preaching that web development is hard then? I am programmed to think “ebusiness”. Why build a website if it is not going to make you money, or provide supporting services to a branded website?

Now turning a website into a profitable ebusiness is the hard bit. One of the simplest ways to do this is via branding. Nonetheless, I am going to stop preaching the branding message. I now realise that a lot of people don’t get branding. Given that I am now fully engaged in full-scale web development across many niches, it might be in my best interest to keep my branding philosophies close to my heart.

You can’t afford to let the competition learn how you think and/or what you are planning.

Frank Schilling said it perfectly: “I lose a tactical advantage by openly espousing my ideas and beliefs about business. If I tell everyone everything I’m up to, I lose a competitive edge.”

As a matter of fact, when I read that statement I immediately decided to go ahead with my plan to cut blogging to a bare minimum.

Late last year, I blogged about my intentions to launch an affiliate program here at eBusinessDomains.com. Months later, at least 2 big domain industry players launched their affiliate programs. I don’t have any proof that I inspired any of their moves, but I am certain that there businesses out there incorporating every possible ideas floating about in domainer land.

Anyway, back to branding.

Here is a story, I will try to make it short…

I remember, some years ago I was providing consultancy services in the Caribbean to a client that wanted to set up remittance services. The client, who at the time was an ex-banker, shared this story with me about how this very-well known multi-national bank a few years back had tried relentlessly to sell the local banks a software that would enable them to easily and readily provide remittance services.

A remittance is a transfer of money by a foreign worker to his home country. Of course you must have heard about Western Union and MoneyGram. When this US based multinational bank was offering the software the Internet and ebusiness (online) was just about getting popular. The technology would allow the person overseas to send the money, and within minutes, the recipient could collect it from one of many locations, locally.

The banks rejected the software. It was expensive. They didn’t need it. They wouldn’t be able to recoup their costs. They didn’t fully grasp the concept. Blah, blah, blah…

Just a few years later, a private sector company signed up with Western Union and started offering remittance services locally. Now, money sent home by migrants constitutes the second largest financial inflow (foreign currency) to many developing countries, exceeding international aid (the number one financial inflow is tourism).

The local banks suddenly realize that they had had a gold spoon shoved in their mouths but they spat it out. When they tried to get a piece of the action, put their tails between their legs and approached the US multi-national bank, they were simply shown the door.

They had to spend many times over the cost of the US bank’s software to acquire or develop their own technology. This was happening while the private sector (non-banking) company was reaping sweet success and inevitably becoming the market leader.

It’s a long story. But what I am trying to show domainers here is that branding is where the money is. I feel like the US bank relentlessly trying to sell what was obviously a golden spoon. The sooner you understand the concept of branding and learn how to fully analyze the scalability of brands; you will stop wasting money in your domain efforts.

Some domains and niches are fantastic! Great! They are category killers. But you just can’t brand them. Some will need the strongest of end-users to turn them into successful ebusinesses.

I read somewhere earlier this week where BottledWater.com which recently sold for $45,000 is now a blog. $45,000 to start a blog???! The domain name would be worth millions to a company like Evian, but to a normal person/investor, not much. That’s even when they have loads of cash to build any pimped out website.

Some domains are asset rich, but cash poor. They cost a lot to acquire and can be flipped easily. However, developing them successfully will be no easy task! Invest in domains and ebusinesses that can produce revenue.

Anyway, I need to get some sleep. I have a very long day tomorrow, (or later UK time).

Have a great weekend!!

PS. I will fix any spelling or grammatical errors tomorrow .

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A new day has truly begun in the domain industry. For years, domainers failed to see any potential for domain names beyond domain parking. With the current economic downturn inevitably came a reduction in domain parking revenues, to say the least.

For most domainers, it was more like a monetization Armageddon. Parking revenues fell so sharply from glory, it’s like the domain parking world stood still.

I made very good income from domain parking. I still make good money from domain parking. I don’t list domains for sale that do exceptionally well with domain parking. As a matter of fact, I don’t market domains for sale based on parking revenues, but more on their keywords, generic characteristics, branding potential etc.

The ease with which domainers made money with domain parking acted like a magnet in drawing people to the domain industry. The force of this magnet was so strong that all that people could see, speak and hear was “domain parking, domain parking, domain parking, blah, blah, blah”.

No one was treating domains like branding tools or looking at domains in terms of their ebusiness potential.

Well, with the abundance of parking revenues, and the ease with which one could easily register a domain name and set up a parking page, why would anyone want to even think about lifting a finger?

My approach to domain name was never about parking revenues in the first instance. It was all about building a portfolio of ebusiness domains. I monetized my domain portfolio well through domain parking, and as is the case with so many other domainers, this resulted in a lack of urgency to develop brands.

Now, the tides have changed, and one has to look at profits rather than just a mere domain collection. With domains, either you brand them, sell them, monetize them or you drop them.

I was very careful from the outset to focus on domains with development potential. As I said, I did not acquire domains based on any traffic stats, but rather based solely on their ebusiness potential. So I think I got lucky with domain parking so to speak.

The domain industry is getting more and more focused on domain development. This has resulted in very fierce competition between web development companies that target the portfolio domainers.

At last, the vision that I had is slowly taking shape. I was preparing for this day for a very long time. As a matter of fact, I was getting ready from day one.

This is where people stop focusing on stats and gimmicks, and of course crappy domains, and start think business, or better yet, ebusiness. There is a big difference between the two in case you have not realised.

This recession, as terrible as it is for so many people and believe me, it is really horrible at the moment for a lot of people, it has created the right environment for success.

Did you know that some people use horse manure as fertiliser? Imagine something as disgusting as animals’ waste being used to boost the growth of vegetables.

Well this economic recession is like that horse manure. It is causing a lot people to think seriously about their future, re-energise their entrepreneurial spirit and start new ventures. This has resulted in a lot more people turning to the Internet to start an ebusiness.

With less focus on domain stats and more talk about domain quality, my domain portfolio is now a lot more valuable.

With a fierce competition now going on in web development land, it is the perfect time to get that fancy design for your website at reasonable prices.

With more people seeking to start ebusinesses, now is the perfect time to buy, sell and invest in domain names.

This is the moment I have been waiting for. I have been preparing for rain for years, and it looks like a storm is coming!