When I started Widest Media, it was my intension to operate a company that turned domains into powerful brands.

I meticulously chose each and every domain name based on their branding potential. When registering a new domain name or buying a domain on the aftermarket from an existing owner, I would carefully consider the many end-user options that the particular domain had.

We are now getting to the drawing board to roll out a few brands in the coming months. When I say brands, I am not talking about hit-and-miss mini sites, where the websites are set up with some basic pages, and clouded with Google Ads.

I am talking about real brands that will evolve. Setting up a website to receive 20 unique visitors and revenues of $2 per day is not domain development. That is domain wonderland.

I am more referring to setting up real businesses on a branded domain name. A business that offers products and services that people want, and will really come seeking for.

I hate loosing. I don’t compete unless I believe I have a good chance of winning. I don’t enter a marketplace unless I can either stand out in the crowd, or secure a particular niche in the marketplace.

This is the philosophy that I bring to domain names. If am going to sell or develop a domain name, the advantage of owning that domain name must be clearly evident.

Recently, one of my blog readers, David McAllister left a comment in response to the post A New Domain King is Born. In his comment David seem to suggest that I was a lazy domainer because I was busy dropping a few domains of certain extensions, rather than trying to sell them.

The domain industry is designed to encourage laziness. Register a domain for $8.95, sell it for $2,995, and wow, you have made a whopping profit. Repeat the process just ten times in a year, and you may not even need a day-to-day job (depending on your lifestyle).

People who are not “lazy” and really want to earn money from domains develop domains into real brands. But the problem is, many have tried, and many have failed. Just brainstorming the ideas alone takes time and effort.

Once you brainstorm the ideas, you have to then think of logo designs, page layout and themes, colour schemes, the nature of dynamic content, sales/revenue funnels, domain and web hosting requirements, search engine optimisation, web promotions and advertising, website maintenance, continuous supply of fresh content, customer service requirements, payment processing, service/product delivery etc., etc. and etc. Trust me, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

This is the very said reason why domain parking took off like wild fire. It was a first class ticket to a lazy lifestyle. Just register or catch an expiring domain name, park it, sit back and watch the monies roll in.

Building successful brands not only takes time and money, but it also takes marketing skills or monies to acquire those skills. Don’t be fooled by fancy logos and lovely landing pages. Don’t believe everything you read. Some people brag about making a killing from their websites, but by doing some basic research, you can easily realise that that is not the case.

If a website is not getting traffic, how can you be making such a killing? Please… try and fool someone else! You need traffic to earn money from websites, and even with a tonne of traffic, your website still needs to be set up in a way so that it can successfully convert the traffic into revenue.

Imagine a real estate developer building an enormous shopping complex, receiving no rentals for the units, or no shoppers. Waste of money, eh? It’s not about what you put up; it’s about reaching customers and enticing them to spend.

It is about the customer, stupid. Don’t start the project without thinking about the customers first. As they say, customers come first.