The shopping mall that is the internet

If the internet is like a shopping mall it’s a big mall! … looking forward and trying to predict the future I can draw a few conclusions:

- Some shops I think will work will not, even with lots of effort & investment
- Some shops I think will fail, will survive and even prosper
- Some shops I just don’t understand

If I agree with the above three sentiments then perhaps I’m safer just buying the shops!

Shopping Mall

But what is a shop and why would someone find it desirable?
A shop is not only a domain name, it’s a store front, perhaps a first venture perhaps expansion and a second or 3rd storefront as a company seeks more exposure, does the company moving into the store expect to advertise? Of course they do, but they would also expect passing trade which can pay the rent and therefore the best shops in my eyes with the potential to lease out would be;

  • Short, memorable and keyword specific
  • Have history in the main search engines of at least 8 to 12 months
  • Rank top 10 for it’s own name
  • Have passing traffic which can be verified
  • Have old backlinks from it’s first 12 months in existence

What does that mean?
If you want to lease shops and start now your 8-12 months away from having a good product
If you leave it until tomorrow you will be even further behind

Barriers to entry?
BarrierMoney or lack of - if you believe in your capital item you could look for funding even if that means on a credit card you could then do a balance transfer to another card and get 8 to 12 months interest free on it giving you time work on it and get it leased before even having to pay interest. In a local ccTLD market like .co.uk domains you can buy on a budget and get a lot for your money, spending £450 and get a £900 return each year on it means money can be re-invested to grow a portfolio.

Barriers to entry?
All the best domains are taken – absolute crap, it’s much easier to say that than do any work.

All the best domains are already registered but that does not mean they are owned by steely entrepreneurs who will not sell, many domains are forgotten about and sit vacantly unused awaiting a new owner, in many cases owners of domains undeveloped are open to the idea of selling and not at extortionate rates either, don’t get me  wrong I have had my fair share of replies to enquiries stating numbers well outside of my budget but the next reply could be like one of many I have had whereby my offer is instantly accepted.

I have given numerous examples of domains that have been easily bought by contacting their owners and hopefully very soon I can give an example of another massive domain that was secured with a bit of research and a couple of emails.

About Scott Jones

Scott hails from the north east of Scotland and started earning online at the end of 2000 building websites for local businesses during which time he won an award from Lord Alan Sugar for Excellence in Enterprise. After having quite a bit of success with domaining Scott mainly runs educational evergreen websites which generate over 3 million visitors per month but is always on the lookout for a fresh thinking out of the box way to turn a buck. Follow on Twitter.

Comments

  1. Should it be ‘all the best domains are being registered by Scott’!! :)

  2. Hi Scott, Yep I agree some excellent domains are still available its just finding them. I tend to see a domain, have a great idea, buy the domain and before I’ve even started with the site I’ve bought another domain name with another idea and so on and so on..

    Maybe nominet should only allow 1 domain per week per person haha, that might help me a bit really.

    Interested post, shops that take no running, that once established look after themselves would be great!

    Cheers

    Mally

  3. If you know what you’re doing (even if you have to learn by trial and error) then even small shops can give you a nice extra income over time. There is not need to build a huge shop. Instead you can just add several small shops.

    Having more shops will be a lot easier if you sell digital products though.

  4. bharath says:

    Domains are land,
    developing them into shops, apartments, hotels etc depends on the land(domains).

    So, what is the best thing to do?

    If you have money, best option buy land(domain name) which is ready to be developed.

    then give it to somebody for developing(say it takes 1 year to develop).

    Rent it or Sell it then split the money (60% land owner 40% for the builder % depends on the cost of the land).

    There is one more option. buy land and develop your self which is the tough thing to do unless you have help and money.

    Best this is buy good land in the right location. You never loose. Don’t buy farm land middle of no where.

    Buying land in suburbs(2nd grade domains) is bit affordable and grows faster and will be good return on investment faster than prime land(generics).cities always grow.

    cheers

  5. Thanks to your constant talk about purchasing domains Scott I just had to go buy another one. :)

  6. Setting up a store is easy with some low xxxx$ investment for scripts, seo, basic promotions but the main target should be the target buyers, because in India its seriously hard to get conversions because buyers would think 100 times before making any payments online.

  7. Setting up a shop is relatively fast and easy. However, getting name recognition and traffic is the most difficult part. In addition, having a server to accommodate the anticipated traffic can be costly.

    Tony’s last blog post..P.S. I Love You

  8. Joe Stevenson says:

    If you check out GoDaddy domain auctions they have really great aged domains that can be top level domains, at highly reduced prices. This may help when trying to start your own website. Hope that tidbit helps.

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