Join us for the latest edition of the iGoldrush Report as Morgan Linton teaches you how to narrow down your domain portfolio to a manageable list of 10 domains, then select the one single domain to develop into a brand. In the next 6+ minutes, you’ll learn the basics of analyzing your domains, how to select domains for development, and how to develop these final selections into brands. After watching this video, you should have a good start on developing the domain name that you’ve selected into a fully functioning, revenue generating website brand.
In this video, we teach you how to select the right domain to develop. If you’re like most domainers, you’ve been collecting domains over the years, registering newly expired domains, buying other domains, etc. You’ve likely got a large portfolio by this point and are not sure how to get started with developing these domains into revenue-generating brands. Rather than looking for a complete solution to develop all of your names at once, Morgan’s tips will help you focus and narrow your portfolio into one domain to develop.
- Narrow Your Portfolio – The first step is to go through your entire domain portfolio and narrow it down to 10 domain names maximum. Make sure that as you’re selecting these names that they are names you have interest in for one reason or another and you would like to develop them at some point in the long run.
- Research Your Domains – Go to Google AdWords keyword tool [1] and input the 10 domains you’ve selected to get the search volume and CPC for each of the domains keyphrases. When searching, use ExactMatch or even ExactMatch Local to narrow it down further. Next, organize your list by search volume or by cpc, depending on what’s important to you. If you want to focus on a site with high traffic, rather than big sales, go with search volume. If you want to focus on a site with big sales, organize by CPC. This organized list will help you decide which domain you’d like to develop.
- Select One Domain- Look up and down your shortlist and select the one domain that you want to begin developing. This may not end up being the highest search volume or highest CPC domain, but those stats will help you decide. When selecting this one domain, you need to make sure that it’s something that interests you and you’re passionate about. You may look through the list and say “Hey, let’s develop this auto insurance domain” because it has great stats and could make a lot of money. However, you may not have fun building it. At the end of the day, developing domains should be fun, so start with one that really interests you.
- Go Basic –Resist the temptation to get caught up in the “development” part of developing your domain. Start small and skip the fancy, expensive logo and themes in the beginning. Start with a basic WordPress blog with you telling your stories. If you’ve never used WordPress before, you may want to try a managed service such as ZippyKid [2] or WPengine [3].
Once your blog is up and running, just start writing. Try to do at least 2 quality posts per week to start. See if topics are coming to mind and if you’re having fun writing about the topic. If the answer to both of those is “yes”, then you’ve selected the right name to develop!
Once you’ve got the basic site going, you may want to get a logo designed (Try 99Designs [4] or LogoNerds [5]). You may also want to spruce up your design with a theme. You can search the large collections of free themes online or go with a professionally designed theme from our favorite, WooThemes [6].
That’s it! Start simple, develop one domain and develop in a niche that you really care about. If you follow these quick tips, you can narrow down your portfolio and select a domain to develop in one afternoon!
About iGoldrush Report: Paul Goldstone [7] (iGoldrush CEO and entrepreneur) and Morgan Linton [8] (popular blogger, domain investor, developer, entrepreneur) bring their expertise to you in an exclusive monthly video series that focuses on all topics related to domain names.