I've been thinking about this quote all day. Do you agree with it?

[Shap]

This was posted in another thread yesterday.

Originally Posted by Stephen

I remember Ron C. saying in Phoenix years ago, "Think of every domain name as a unique company. How many companies can you successfully run?"

I've been thinking about the comment a lot. It makes a lot of sense and so many of us do the complete opposite.

Do you agree or disagree with it? Why?

[Paul Markham]

Agree. Some people open sites with little thought. Just another place to filter traffic to.

[Cyandin]

Eh, I can agree to a degree. But that doesn't really apply to gibberish domains.

[Exit-chat]

I agree, but you need to continue to look to new ways to change with the times as they change in our business so rapidly.

If something isn't working any longer keep an eye on the market and change with it. Know when to cut your losses and find the things that work and put the focus on that.

What worked for us all 5 years ago, let alone a year ago might not generate revenues anymore. You need to hedge your bets and try and be ahead of the change.

[Amputate Your Head]

i agree with it.

putting it into practice is the hard part.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by Exit-chat

I agree, but you need to continue to look to new ways to change with the times as they change in our business so rapidly.

If something isn't working any longer keep an eye on the market and change with it. Know when to cut your losses and find the things that work and put the focus on that.

What worked for us all 5 years ago, let alone a year ago might not generate revenues anymore. You need to hedge your bets and try and be ahead of the change.

Got your email. Going to hit you up today

[dyna mo]

i don't have a problem agreeing that you can look at each domain as a unique company, but the question is how many unique companies can you run.

the answer to that depends on the amount of resources one has available to run those companies. lot's of peeps out there can and do run a multitude of different companies quite successfully.

12clicks gave me some sage advice years ago, it was "diversify as much as possible".

for me, it's important to determine what i am capable of doing keeping these 2 ideas in mind, i.e., diversify as much i as i can within my capabilities.

:-)

[Shap]

Originally Posted by Amputate Your Head

i agree with it.

putting it into practice is the hard part.

Yep for sure. It's interesting because if you look at two major segments of the industry free sites and pay sites they illustrate how dead on this quote was and is.

The general idea with free sites was it was easier to have 20 sites that did 50,000 uniques a day than have 1 site doing 1,000,000 uniques a day. Tgp owners opened as many sites as possible and automated everything. I believe Pay Sites did the same thing. They thought it's much easier to open 10 sites doing 10 signups a day instead of one site doing 100 signups a day. So they open quick cookie cutter sites and as many as possible to cover multiple niches.

If you look at where we are today. The pay sites that have done the best in this downturn seem to be those that have a really great product and in almost every case those are the programs that concentrate on one main site. Who are the biggest free sites? Tubes. Not bastardized tubes but mega tubes that concentrate on delivering exactly what the surfers are looking for.

Reality is the people doing the best today seem to be people that are doing exactly what this quote preaches.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by dyna mo

i don't have a problem agreeing that you can look at each domain as a unique company, but the question is how many unique companies can you run.

the answer to that depends on the amount of resources one has available to run those companies. lot's of peeps out there can and do run a multitude of different companies quite successfully.

12clicks gave me some sage advice years ago, it was "diversify as much as possible".

for me, it's important to determine what i am capable of doing keeping these 2 ideas in mind, i.e., diversify as much i as i can within my capabilities.

:-)

Absolutely.

[MetaMan]

I focus on 1 main project at all times now. The world is to much of a competitive market to slim down my business. Each time I have done that one sector suffers and I end up with less progress overall.

Now I focus on single projects fully. Good help is almost impossible to find so it slims your options even more.

[dyna mo]

btw, just finished reading "crush it"

pretty good read.

[Roald]

Agreed, just waiting on all the big tubes redirecting to sex.com now and put this to an even more (scary) reality ;)

[webairalex]

Thats is true, very few people really flush out a full business plan and if they do they usually haven't done their research.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by dyna mo

btw, just finished reading "crush it"

pretty good read.

Yeah. It's not life changing but it's a nice reminder and a great way to get fired up.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by MetaMan

I focus on 1 main project at all times now. The world is to much of a competitive market to slim down my business. Each time I have done that one sector suffers and I end up with less progress overall.

Now I focus on single projects fully. Good help is almost impossible to find so it slims your options even more.

[Ravage]

Originally Posted by dyna mo

btw, just finished reading "crush it"

pretty good read.

It is. I'm looking to pick up his newest book, 'The Thank You Economy" this weekend.

[dyna mo]

Originally Posted by Adult Rental Chris

It is. I'm looking to pick up his newest book, 'The Thank You Economy" this weekend.

yeah, it started off pretty typical i thought, the whole * i was an entrepreneur child* story stuff but he moves on and nails the social media paradigm shift and closes with several idea dense chapters.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by Adult Rental Chris

It is. I'm looking to pick up his newest book, 'The Thank You Economy" this weekend.

It comes out March 8th

[CaptainHowdy]

I'm stucked at your avatar...

[pornguy]

In some aspects I can understand the thought. BUT. at the same time lots of companies have domains that do not bring in more than a few sales a month here and there and thats fine as that was not the point of that particular domain.

Kind of like saying each tire should be treated as an individual car.

[Kiopa_Matt]

I don't agree at all. I've had clients who only had the one domain name for years and years, because that's all they needed for their business. Then I've had clients with 3,000+ domains for one of their several operations, because that's what the operation required.

A domain isn't a business. It's a domain. Same as a certificate of incorporation isn't a business either. It's a certificate of incorporation.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by RDFrame

I don't agree at all. I've had clients who only had the one domain name for years and years, because that's all they needed for their business. Then I've had clients with 3,000+ domains for one of their several operations, because that's what the operation required.

A domain isn't a business. It's a domain. Same as a certificate of incorporation isn't a business either. It's a certificate of incorporation.

Fair enough. But I think the true message of the quote is FOCUS. If you split your attention between 50 projects the results will probably be inferior to what you would do if you focused on a handful of them.

[Varius]

Really depends on the niche/market/type of business.

I agree with the idea, in the sense that most companies should have a flagship product/site which is constantly being updated , new features added, analyzed, etc... they may then build out a few complimentary products, but never neglect the main business.

However, I disagree with the idea with regards to those who prefer to build/scale-out networks of sites.

For example, if you build a network of blogs with the idea that each is to generate a single sale a month consistently after setup with no further work required (yes, it is very possible). You obviously want to scale that out as much as possible.

So, both methods, if done properly, can pay dividends

Note: with the second method, the reason it often fails for people, is they don't necessarily set it up so it can be consistent without further work and it tails off after a few months of neglect. However, if done intelligently and with the proper research and execution, it is possible to have these kinds of setups simply keep growing.

Example: you acquire a solid type-in domain that is not "trendy", but something generic where you don't expect the traffic to fluctuate much year to year. This is much more consistent, say, than registering a new domain for a hot topic, throwing up a blog, making a few posts, spamming some backlinks, then wondering why in a few months traffic has dropped to nothing and it no longer makes sales.

[Varius]

Originally Posted by Shap

Fair enough. But I think the true message of the quote is FOCUS. If you split your attention between 50 projects the results will probably be inferior to what you would do if you focused on a handful of them.

Agree on FOCUS. I've worked with too many people in the past who were spread out all over the place, jumping from one thing to another, and everything suffered as a result.

[sortie]

I agree with it, but there's still another type of company that mostly "acquires things".

DEcash buys 100 domains, Joe Blow builds 100 domains. Same thing to me.

[Barefootsies]

Originally Posted by Shap

The general idea with free sites was it was easier to have 20 sites that did 50,000 uniques a day than have 1 site doing 1,000,000 uniques a day. Tgp owners opened as many sites as possible and automated everything. I believe Pay Sites did the same thing. They thought it's much easier to open 10 sites doing 10 signups a day instead of one site doing 100 signups a day. So they open quick cookie cutter sites and as many as possible to cover multiple niches.

That methodology, and the appeal of it, is not rocket science. It's something that Kellogg's pioneered many years ago, in regards to shelf space. Which is also reflected in the auto industry, as well as many others. An example would be Ford/Mercury or GM/GMC.

I am not saying it's right or wrong ace as it serves a purpose. I am simply pointing out that this 'technique' was established, and existed, long before online pornography.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by sortie

I agree with it, but there's still another type of company that mostly "acquires things".

DEcash buys 100 domains, Joe Blow builds 100 domains. Same thing to me.

Important to remember the workforce hahaha has. When you have 100s and 1000s of employees it changes things.

[CyberHustler]

I disagree... because of the way I run my networks. I won't explain any further because fuck yall... but to count every domain as a unique company

[sortie]

Originally Posted by Shap

Important to remember the workforce hahaha has. When you have 100s and 1000s of employees it changes things.

Yeah, but if you are building 100's of topsite list as your domains like in the
old days then you don't need any employees for that.

Just make a new one everyday and move on.
There was good money in that in the old days.

[dyna mo]

i've been thinking more about this and how it would apply to a tangible product, or if the comment was made strictly about web properties.

any thoughts?


also, Shap, sent ya an email earlier.

[Ravage]

Originally Posted by Shap

It comes out March 8th

ahh cool. For some reason I thought it was out already.

[dig420]

Originally Posted by Shap

This was posted in another thread yesterday.



I've been thinking about the comment a lot. It makes a lot of sense and so many of us do the complete opposite.

Do you agree or disagree with it? Why?

You'd be better off to think of domain names as individual office spaces in your business building. You need to get them all filled up, as much as you can.

[mynameisjim]

Bigger issue is you have to determine what your own style is.

Some people seem to do well with that huge shotgun approach. Other people are good at building one thing and tweaking it over and over again to make it better.

There is no ONE way to be successful in business. You have to figure out which situations put you in a position to use your skills.

[Shap]

Originally Posted by mynameisjim

Bigger issue is you have to determine what your own style is.

Some people seem to do well with that huge shotgun approach. Other people are good at building one thing and tweaking it over and over again to make it better.

There is no ONE way to be successful in business. You have to figure out which situations put you in a position to use your skills.

Good point

[seeandsee]

yes and no, some domains i use just to setup some shit, same as my garage, so i look at them as my properies, house, business appartments, garage, farms etc :p

[BestXXXPorn]

The short version:

Most adult website owners are too busy creating trash throwaway sites that skim traffic and are meant to convert immediately. They don't bother with building out anything that has value to the user.

Sponsor sites tend to be a little bit better but the model of tons of niche sites under one umbrella all with varying designs still MASSIVELY detracts from the brand. In fact I would argue that most sponsors don't have an inkling as to what branding is and how it can effect the perceived value of a company and it's offerings (or at least don't think it applies to them).

If you want to see an example of how it's done right; take a look at Brazzers. Say what you will about their methods used to get to the top, they're killing it. Brazzers is becoming more and more of brand by the day and with the launch of their sign in Times Square and their branding campaigns... They're playing the big business game. Probably completely foreign to most people here... as the adult industry has led a sheltered life.

But I digress; I can understand why most affiliate sites choose to crank out trash sites. They're cheap, tons of prebuilt scripts are already available, and they are more profitable up front. It's the easy money. However, that's not how you build a lasting company that has value, clout, and a relationship with its customers. They stand no chance of being a major player or even grabbing a measurable percentage of market share. In fact, I believe they do a great discredit to this industry by adding boat loads of confusion into the mix. Have you ever been lost in the maze of traffic skimming TGPs, blogs, etc...?

I vote you toss aside your bank of 2,000 adult domains and focus on building a real company; on a single domain. Use feeder sites, sure, but make sure they have some value as well (blogs with actual real posts, etc...). Obviously there are exceptions in everything but as a general rule of thumb; can we smarten up and stop building crappy sites?

[TheLegacy]

I do agree - whether you actively use the domain or not - it is still it's own separate entity until hard work is put behind it. Although you may copy another one of your sites - it is still in cyber world a domain company name which can either do better - worse than any other one's you may own

[michael.kickass]

Originally Posted by Cyandin

Eh, I can agree to a degree. But that doesn't really apply to gibberish domains.

I agree :2cents:

[pradaboy]

Unless you're a domainer

[Odin]

Certainly agree to an extent. I buy up existing sites from time to time, and can manage them well when they are well established. However, if I am focusing on building a site/business from scratch, apart from maintenance of other sites, I only focus on the one thing. Competition is fierce, no time for fucking around on half assed projects.

[CyberHustler]

Originally Posted by dig420

You'd be better off to think of domain names as individual office spaces in your business building. You need to get them all filled up, as much as you can.