Time flies when you are having fun.
We are now at the end of yet another year, and what a year it has been. I have not really written any real domain blog post this year. This has been a tremendously busy year on all fronts in terms of business, career and personal life.
Despite the fact that I have not dedicated a lot of time to this blog and website, this has been our best year yet in terms of domain sales. That is pretty intriguing when we have done zero marketing. I guess the hard work that was done in the prior years is now paying off.
In terms of our online activities/businesses, we did manage to launch a few sites this year. One of these sites was Skull.net. We had a soft launch for Skull.net towards to the end of last year, and officially launched it at the beginning of this year. This website is doing very well, despite very little promotions and even SEO. Skull.net is a social networking site dedicated to humor, funny stuff, and online fun games. We also launched Coldest.com and Menaces.com within the online gaming niche.
Earlier this month, we had a soft launch for Aeroplanes.com. So far we are very pleased with how the new website is performing. We have got our work cut out with this website, in terms of developing it into a popular brand.
Having a flashy logo and decent website built on a premium domain name does necessarily mean that you have got a brand. Branding is more to do with user experience. So, if no one has used your website or has had any chance to interact with your product or service, then it is quite silly to say that you have got a brand. The website will become a brand after subsequent promotions, which will lead to exposure. There are domain names, parked domain names, websites and then there are brands.
Launching a website is not launching a brand. A website will need a lot of originality, creativity, passion and exposure before it can become a brand. Branding is a very powerful concept. However, it is widely misunderstood by many.
With Aeroplanes.com we are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that all systems are up to scratch. In the New Year, we will officially launch the website and kick-start various advertising campaigns. We expect our campaigns to be online and offline, and involve billboards, radio, TV, newspapers and magazines etc.
Aeroplanes.com will most likely resonate more with the British travel market, but we have seen positive results so far from North America and wider Europe.
Finding cheap flights and securing the cheapest hotel deals can be quite a nightmare. Creating a brand that saves time and money when search for travel deals should be a lot of fun. This is just phase one of the development project. We have even more exciting additions in the near future.
As for eBusinessDomains.com, we will have to rewrite the entire business plan in the New Year. So, lots of changes coming. Stay tuned.
Congrats on having a great year. However, I really dont understand why you would launch a travel business on aeroplanes.com. I think it would do much better as an aeroplane leasing, trading site. The many aeroplane dealer conferences and cnventions that they have every year would make it easy to target your audience and have them list their planes for sale, lease and even repair and maintenance services. Going up against the big guys in online booking at a time when Google is wading into the water is a big task. But then again I may be wrong. Im just a noob with an opinion. lol. Good luck.
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Hey Adinfinite,
Thanks for your kind words and feedback.
Believe me, we looked closely at all the possible options for this domain name. We looked at travel communities, blogs, wiki sites, forums, aircraft marketplace, aircraft/aviation services and many more options plus a few combinations of those mentioned.
When starting any business, you have to get a realistic and effective business plan, or else you will end up rushing into things on impulse or wild dreams. This could result in one wasting time and money developing websites/brands that will go nowhere.
Also, we needed to find a concept that we would be happy working with on a day to day basis. Selling/brokering Aeroplanes sounds great, and I’m sure the commissions would be as well. There would be no better domain name to build such a aviation-related business with, than aeroplanes.com. But there would be many obstacles to overcome, which may not be immediately apparent unless one is intimate with the aviation industry.
We can still enter the aviation business, as we do own quite a few other aviation domains such as:
Aeroplanes.tv
AeroplaneVideos.com
BuyAeroplanes.com
SellAeroplanes.com, and many more. Yes, I am a big fan of aeroplanes.
With the huge competition, it is indeed a risk. But that is what makes it so exciting. Also, one of the secrets of branding is that you don’t necessary have to use a keyword domain name. Here are some food for thought:
- Kayak.com has nothing to do with kayaking, boats or rivers
- Apple.com has nothing to do with fruits, or apple juice
- Orange.com has nothing to do with oranges or orange juice
And yet, these are very huge and well established brands. There is a branding secret behind all of this
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Congrats on aeroplanes.com, and well the other projects. Those are some great looking sites with lots of potential. Hope to see you blogging about their progress more.
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