Domainers as Developers

Are we - are you - a breed apart? How? Why?

[Webwork]

Do you see yourself, as a domainer-developer, as a different sort of breed?

Are domainers as developers a different breed?

Are you - my fellow domainer - a different thinker than all our SEO-focused colleagues?

How do you hold yourself to be different in your thinking, your planning, your actions?

[edited by: Webwork at 11:05 pm (utc) on Dec. 22, 2006]

[stu2]

We are all familiar with your jaundiced view of search engines and seo techniques :) But the fact remains, doing well in the serps gives you more traffic which hopefully, if you've done your development work well, will provide you with more income. It's true that's it's (almost) free traffic and we should not rely solely one one source of traffic. But it is seductive. Having high altruistic ideals is not the opposite of getting your hands dirty with seo. They are partners and go hand-in-hand.

[nick_mayhem]

Personally I went in opposite direction. I was a developer first and then became a domainer. And then as the need arised I had to learn the SEO tactics also.

[rocker]

We are all familiar with your jaundiced view of search engines and seo techniques :)

Search engines, you can't survive with them and you can't survive without them :)

Just do things that make search engines happy and they will reciprocate the favor.

[Webwork]

Jaudiced [google.com] view? Prejudice, envy or distaste? Not by a long shot.

Online business is about traffic. Some would argue that successful online businesses are about pre-filtered pre-qualified traffic. There are a multitude of channels for bringing such traffic to a web presence. Logical domain names are simply one channel.

I see search engine traffic as a gift. The SEO value proposition is that we can tilt the scale - the gift / no gift of traffic scale - in our favor. I don't ignore SEO's advice where it's consistent with my design perspective and principals. I just don't chase after the latest tips and tricks, for I am certain that for every poopular exploit there is a team of search engineers working to close down the loophole. Still, success-by-SEO is a viable business model.

My modus operandi has always been to build value for people, to follow the K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) principal, and to give some deference to a quip by Matt Cutts to the effect that it's not a bad idea to treat search engines as children.

I've been revving the development engines for a long time. Too long. All my study and analysis has my head ready to explode. Worse, I'm beginning to see the redundancy of a lot of what passes for knowledge or insight. What's more interesting to me is the fact that a lot of knowledge is actually created knowledge, which sounds like fun and likely explains the fact that those who know don't talk, much, as such created knowledge is only gained at some risk and some cost of time, money and effort invested.

I'm now bored with studying as well as domain research and collecting. It's all become trivial, in a certain way, at least in the sense that untested or non-applied 'knowledge' is akin to collecting cars that one never drives. In consequence I'm losing interest in talking theory or analysis or prediction about anything WWW. Thousands of interesting domains, wrapped up in research and analysis, interesting topics - and nada, stagnation.

How can I possibly be of any help to anyone - or even share in the fun or joy or excitement or interesting parts of success and failures - if I'm just dead weight, dead in the development waters, not moving and learning by doing? In the development world I'm a bore, bored, boring, nobody, nothing. Little more than a perpetual neophyte and dabbler, full of pseudo-knowledge from reading, study and research but not bloodied and beaten.

I'm just going to hang out with that awareness for awhile. Jeff the domainer who, as a developer, just isn't in the game.

Less talk until there's something new and interesting, some outcome of applied research and development to talk about. ;)

[edited by: Webwork at 1:08 pm (utc) on Jan. 5, 2007]

[stu2]

I was being a little bit provocative with use of the word "jaundiced" :) I understand exactly where you are coming from with your often stated comments about search engines. Heck, I even largely agree with you :) But occasionally I get the feeling you tip the balance too far, almost to the point of ignoring sound seo techniques. So thanks for clearing that up. It's comforting to know that you use sound seo techniques as much as the rest of us :)

Maybe you should try taking a look at bored.com :) <snip> if you must :)

<Snip I will not because that's just sooo right at the moment. Thanks for the laugh stu2 ;0)>

[edited by: Webwork at 2:58 am (utc) on Jan. 5, 2007]

[WinnerNames]

I am a VC who is also now a Domainer for the past 4 1/2 years . I have primarily focused on buying and selling domains and PPC Traffic programs. I plan now to spend some more time and money keeping some of the domains and developing them.

[edited by: Webwork at 2:59 am (utc) on Jan. 5, 2007]
[edit reason] Charter [WebmasterWorld.com] [/edit]

[centime]

I see myself primarily as a programmer, but, then I discovered www, this forum an seo, an domaining , all in mid 2006, and after buying domains feverishly for a month or so, I guess i might claim to have some domaining instinct, however, I only bought domains I could visualise developing myself. so i guess i'm still a developer with 1 finger in the domain pie :-)

I sure hope some of them do it for me :-)