Best Way to Put a Site to Use? (No Product)

Dan C. Rinnert · 04-18-2009, 11:26 PM

The other day, I found an expired domain name that I thought would be pretty good.

There are two possible uses for the domain.

Option 1: It could target a certain group of people for which there is a small audience. The advantage here is that there is a product available for that audience. However, the product is UK-based and I think most visitors would be from the US, and there are things that are going to be different, especially laws, so I don't know how useful the UK product would end up being for a US buyer.

Option 2: It could target another group of people. A larger audience, but still a niche audience. The advantage here is that the keywords used previously for the domain would be a good match here. The problem here is that I haven't been able to find any digital products on Clickbank or PayDotCom. Nothing. Well, I did find one eBook with MRR. But, after buying it, I found that it was an old public domain book. Now, public domain content can be great but, in this instance, things have changed so much since the early 1900's that a lot of that content is not going to be relevant (or possible even legal) today. And this is an audience for which a digital download would be ideal; often, it's something you don't want to wait for a book to arrive in the mail. And, there are plenty of books available.

Of course, I could use the Table of Contents of the public domain book as an outline for writing (or having written) an up-to-date eBook on the topic, but how to put the domain name to use in the meantime? I think I should get something up ASAP so as not to lose whatever backlinks may be remaining for the domain. I could grab some articles from article directories and put those up. I'm not sure about the effectiveness of building a list here, since I think many of the potential buyers are going to be the "I want/need it now" type and looking for immediate solutions.

Or, do I try for a dual-use site, selling to both groups? I considered that, but would that dilute the keywords by appealing to two related yet very different groups of people?

Dan C. Rinnert · 04-18-2009, 11:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwickcash

Try advertising or somthing bro.

Try reading this post bro.
For New Folks Looking for Minimum Posts

Dennis Gaskill · 04-18-2009, 11:55 PM

Dan,

Have you checked for back links? A lot of times with expired domains there are very few, if any, which is usually part of the problem with the site being unsuccessful and left to expire.

Assuming there are some back links, I'd set up a capture page for anyone that finds their way to it. Tantalize them with the selling points of the future product, which you can create yourself or hire out, and capture the name and email address of those wanting to be notified when the product is ready. You'd at least be building a mailing list while you're developing the product, and you'd have some ready-to-buy prospects.

Hope that helps.

jasondinner · 04-19-2009, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

The other day, I found an expired domain name that I thought would be pretty good.

Option 2: It could target another group of people. A larger audience, but still a niche audience. The advantage here is that the keywords used previously for the domain would be a good match here. The problem here is that I haven't been able to find any digital products on Clickbank or PayDotCom. Nothing. Well, I did find one eBook with MRR. But, after buying it, I found that it was an old public domain book. Now, public domain content can be great but, in this instance, things have changed so much since the early 1900's that a lot of that content is not going to be relevant (or possible even legal) today. And this is an audience for which a digital download would be ideal; often, it's something you don't want to wait for a book to arrive in the mail. And, there are plenty of books available.

Of course, I could use the Table of Contents of the public domain book as an outline for writing (or having written) an up-to-date eBook on the topic, but how to put the domain name to use in the meantime? I think I should get something up ASAP so as not to lose whatever backlinks may be remaining for the domain. I could grab some articles from article directories and put those up. I'm not sure about the effectiveness of building a list here, since I think many of the potential buyers are going to be the "I want/need it now" type and looking for immediate solutions.

Or, do I try for a dual-use site, selling to both groups? I considered that, but would that dilute the keywords by appealing to two related yet very different groups of people?

I think you just answered your own question.

Would be great if the info that was outdated could be updated by you or a ghostwriter.

And since you're "not sure about the effectiveness of building a list," that's even more
of a reason WHY you should build one.

It's better to build it and then to find out it's not effective rather than not build it and
find out it would have been really worth it

Seriously, what's one more action? It's just an opt-in page!

People are conditioned to fill out forms to get access to stuff online.

Dan C. Rinnert · 04-19-2009, 12:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill

Have you checked for back links? A lot of times with expired domains there are very few, if any, which is usually part of the problem with the site being unsuccessful and left to expire.

You're right. There are no backlinks I've been able to find. I remember now, the expired domain I didn't buy had the backlinks. This one didn't. But this one I bought for the name, which has the keyword and is generic.

So, there's probably no need to rush to put something together. Just take a little bit more time and plan it and do it right.

Dan C. Rinnert · 04-19-2009, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasondinner

Would be great if the info that was outdated could be updated by you or a ghostwriter.

Would be nice to find a copy of the original book too. The version I bought doesn't have very good scans of some of the images.

Quote:

And since you're "not sure about the effectiveness of building a list," that's even more
of a reason WHY you should build one.

It's better to build it and then to find out it's not effective rather than not build it and
find out it would have been really worth it

Seriously, what's one more action? It's just an opt-in page!

People are conditioned to fill out forms to get access to stuff online.

Well, the thing I was thinking of is that I really don't have any thing at this point to offer them in exchange for signing up with the list.

But, now that I realize there are no backlinks, there's less urgency to get something up. So, I probably have time to figure out a special report or autoresponder course that could be put together to entice them to subscribe.

Dennis Gaskill · 04-19-2009, 12:49 AM

You could offer them a huge discount on the future product. I was about half finished with an ebook and needed a cash infusion, so I offered my mailing list a nice discount for purchasing it in advance. Got a nice influx of cash, and it built anticipation among those that didn't buy at the time, but did when it came out.

Now, my list knew me, so I already had their trust, but you could offer them a discount without asking them to pay first or without making a commitment to buy. They'd be signing up to your mailing list to be notified when the product was ready, at which time they can take advantage of your discount or skip the offer, such as they chose.

I know there isn't a lot of traffic, so you might not get anyone to sign up, but talking about the future product on the page could get the site into the search engines now, which will help you later. Good luck!

Just a thought...

Chris Wilkinson · 04-19-2009, 01:13 AM

Dan,

If you were just wanting to put something up quickly while you think of something better to do with the domain name then I suggest that you do a search on Google and see if there are any cached pages for that domain name. You could also try the way back when machine - http://www.archive.org

You could use these pages as an idea and get something up pretty quickly. Just remember, it's unlikely that the previous owner of the domain name had a great idea or maybe he/she did but they had no idea of how to market it.

It would be interesting to see what was on it before and to see if the origional idea can be improved upon.

Good luck with your new domain
Chris W

Dan C. Rinnert · 04-19-2009, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis Gaskill

know there isn't a lot of traffic, so you might not get anyone to sign up, but talking about the future product on the page could get the site into the search engines now, which will help you later. Good luck!

Good point. I have another site where I have an eBook-in-progress, and I get signups on that site, even though I don't do anything to promote the website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Wilkinson

It would be interesting to see what was on it before and to see if the origional idea can be improved upon.

The expired domain name service where I found the name had those links, as well as other stats. Not much of the original site was archived. They had articles, but none of the articles are archived, so I don't know if they were original or obtained from article directories. I'm guessing the latter. Not all the articles (judging by the titles and summary, which is all there is of them that is archived) appear to be strictly on-topic, so it looks sort of like they grabbed them from article directories using a script that looked for their keywords. I did manage to find one of the articles being published on other sites, and it looks like an article from an article directory, so I would guess that the other articles came from directories as well.

They also had a directory. Can't tell whether it was an add-your-own link sort of thing or if they hand-built it.

In any case, I don't see any indication of how they monetized the site. Maybe they had AdSense on article pages, or maybe they sold directory listings. There's nothing in the archived pages to give an indication. Can't see where they might have recommended any products either.

Quote:

Good luck with your new domain

Thanks!

MarkWrites · 04-19-2009, 04:07 PM

The advice Chris added was dead on. If you can find any information about what was on the site before, there may be a way to leverage what had been done before, even if it had been done poorly.

I've seen this with a number of expired domains where someone has a pretty decent idea but has absolutely no idea how to implement it. If you have an idea on how to make it work, you can swoop in and purchase the expired domain and turn this once failed online project into a winner.

04-18-2009, 11:26 PM	#1
Dan C. Rinnert I have a lame list. War Room Member Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: One Second into the Future Posts: 4,259 Blog Entries: 1 Thanks: 810 Thanked 2,175 Times in 1,003 Posts Social Networking	Best Way to Put a Site to Use? (No Product) The other day, I found an expired domain name that I thought would be pretty good. There are two possible uses for the domain. Option 1: It could target a certain group of people for which there is a small audience. The advantage here is that there is a product available for that audience. However, the product is UK-based and I think most visitors would be from the US, and there are things that are going to be different, especially laws, so I don't know how useful the UK product would end up being for a US buyer. Option 2: It could target another group of people. A larger audience, but still a niche audience. The advantage here is that the keywords used previously for the domain would be a good match here. The problem here is that I haven't been able to find any digital products on Clickbank or PayDotCom. Nothing. Well, I did find one eBook with MRR. But, after buying it, I found that it was an old public domain book. Now, public domain content can be great but, in this instance, things have changed so much since the early 1900's that a lot of that content is not going to be relevant (or possible even legal) today. And this is an audience for which a digital download would be ideal; often, it's something you don't want to wait for a book to arrive in the mail. And, there are plenty of books available. Of course, I could use the Table of Contents of the public domain book as an outline for writing (or having written) an up-to-date eBook on the topic, but how to put the domain name to use in the meantime? I think I should get something up ASAP so as not to lose whatever backlinks may be remaining for the domain. I could grab some articles from article directories and put those up. I'm not sure about the effectiveness of building a list here, since I think many of the potential buyers are going to be the "I want/need it now" type and looking for immediate solutions. Or, do I try for a dual-use site, selling to both groups? I considered that, but would that dilute the keywords by appealing to two related yet very different groups of people?
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04-18-2009, 11:55 PM	#3
Dennis Gaskill Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Wisconsin, USA. Posts: 4,113 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 2,405 Thanked 3,422 Times in 1,592 Posts Social Networking	Re: Best Way to Put a Site to Use? (No Product) Dan, Have you checked for back links? A lot of times with expired domains there are very few, if any, which is usually part of the problem with the site being unsuccessful and left to expire. Assuming there are some back links, I'd set up a capture page for anyone that finds their way to it. Tantalize them with the selling points of the future product, which you can create yourself or hire out, and capture the name and email address of those wanting to be notified when the product is ready. You'd at least be building a mailing list while you're developing the product, and you'd have some ready-to-buy prospects. Hope that helps.
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04-19-2009, 12:49 AM	#7
Dennis Gaskill Senior Warrior Member War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Wisconsin, USA. Posts: 4,113 Blog Entries: 2 Thanks: 2,405 Thanked 3,422 Times in 1,592 Posts Social Networking	Re: Best Way to Put a Site to Use? (No Product) You could offer them a huge discount on the future product. I was about half finished with an ebook and needed a cash infusion, so I offered my mailing list a nice discount for purchasing it in advance. Got a nice influx of cash, and it built anticipation among those that didn't buy at the time, but did when it came out. Now, my list knew me, so I already had their trust, but you could offer them a discount without asking them to pay first or without making a commitment to buy. They'd be signing up to your mailing list to be notified when the product was ready, at which time they can take advantage of your discount or skip the offer, such as they chose. I know there isn't a lot of traffic, so you might not get anyone to sign up, but talking about the future product on the page could get the site into the search engines now, which will help you later. Good luck! Just a thought...
	Three for FREE: Easy Web Site Money \| Marketing with Free Reports \| Profit Chains HTML Codes \| eBook Master Course CSS Made Easy \| Learn HTML \| HTML FAQ

04-19-2009, 01:13 AM	#8
Chris Wilkinson Stuck In The 80's War Room Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: Northwest England Posts: 183 Thanks: 4 Thanked 3 Times in 3 Posts Social Networking	Re: Best Way to Put a Site to Use? (No Product) Dan, If you were just wanting to put something up quickly while you think of something better to do with the domain name then I suggest that you do a search on Google and see if there are any cached pages for that domain name. You could also try the way back when machine - http://www.archive.org You could use these pages as an idea and get something up pretty quickly. Just remember, it's unlikely that the previous owner of the domain name had a great idea or maybe he/she did but they had no idea of how to market it. It would be interesting to see what was on it before and to see if the origional idea can be improved upon. Good luck with your new domain Chris W
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04-19-2009, 04:07 PM	#10
MarkWrites HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Washington State Posts: 275 Thanks: 139 Thanked 48 Times in 35 Posts Social Networking	Re: Best Way to Put a Site to Use? (No Product) The advice Chris added was dead on. If you can find any information about what was on the site before, there may be a way to leverage what had been done before, even if it had been done poorly. I've seen this with a number of expired domains where someone has a pretty decent idea but has absolutely no idea how to implement it. If you have an idea on how to make it work, you can swoop in and purchase the expired domain and turn this once failed online project into a winner.