Develop Domains in Bulk

For those just joining us, I've recently covered how to find available domain names in bulk. The links and spreadsheet I provided work best for Geo domains, but you can bulk register products and services, too. I've also shown you some great available .tel domains that I found using my spreadsheet and searching in bulk, so it's proof that premium names can be found! But how do you go about developing your sites in a way that is cost effective? That's what we'll cover in this post. It's not a complete reference but it will provide some direction for at least where to get started.

Don't Develop Your Sites

Parking is a valid use of a domain that already has traffic, but I'm not just talking about parking. Unless you were buying single keyword .com domains back in the 90's or you buy dropped domains with traffic, chances are your parking traffic won't cover your registration fees since Search Engines hate parked sites. So what do I mean? Well, one option that doesn't require development is .tel. You don't develop websites on .tel domains. The .tel registry runs the website for you. That's why domainers who park their sites, don't like them... because they can't park them. But it also frees you from having to do hosting and development. All you have to do is put content and affiliate links, build back links, advertise the site and get your site listed in search engines and you're making money without a single dollar spent on hosting, design or development. Dot Tel requires new thinking and new approaches to monetization, but it can be done. But that's "non-traditional" so let's look at more traditional services.

Why Park

You can point your domains to WhyPark.com and set them up in bulk in a matter of minutes. Now that WhyPark offers a free level of service now, you can even try it out without any cost, but they've hooked me. I just upgraded to their Enhanced Service and I'm really impressed with what you get for just $10 a month. You can't get shared hosting for that kind of price per domain, that's for certain. The downside to WhyPark is that their features are going to be limited compared to what you could do with your own web server, but for non-developers, and for developers who have way too many things on their todo list, WhyPark is a great solution.

Custom Development

I'm not going to lie. This option is not for everyone. It's a lot of work if you're a developer (I know, I'm in the middle of a large scale project myself!) and it can be quite costly. But the advantage is you have full control. If you are going to be running more than a handful of sites, then you'll need to step up to at least a VPS Hosting Solution which start at around $19 a month. Once you have a web server, you can choose one of the many Content Management Solutions out there such as Drupal, Joomla or even WordPress. These systems are fairly complicated to set up in such a way where they handle multiple domains, and most require third party components/add-ons to do it well. Once configured though, you can generally push content across multiple sites, pick and choose themes as appropriate, install and manage addons such as shopping carts or whatever features your sites need, and do administrative functions such as backups, restores and provisioning of new sites fairly easily. What you won't get with this solution is any hand-holding, any help with keeping the software up to date, your websites secure, your data feeds preloaded, your ad system installed or any other feature for free. It's all up to you. With great power comes great responsibility.

So is there a better solution?

Mass Domain Development Services

There have been a number of companies offering mini-site creation for anywhere from $99 to several hundred dollars per domain. You give them a domain name, some information about what you want on the site and a chunk of change and you get a hosted website with a few web pages, a template based design and some rotating Google ads. That's all well and good, but if you have any idea about what it takes to go from a mini-site to a really profitable web site, there's still a lot left to be desired here. That's where DomainMassDevelopment.com comes in. They create sites in bulk and are focused on providing exactly the kinds of services you need to get profitable quickly. And because they are taking advantage of the economies of scale that other mini site offerings don't have (at least not yet), they can do it for a very, very good price. At the lowest volumes, you get 10 domains for $999, and their bulk discounts can save you as much as %25 from there.
While I've chosen the custom development route for my largest project, I'm considering using them for at least two other networks of sites. If you only have a couple of sites but want more than what most mini-sites offer, they also have plans for you, too... including a WordPress based site with 30 custom created articles and 5 video posts for just $2499. If you looked at my cost estimates for developing GreenTips.TV, you can see that I can't really even do that much development myself at that kind of price. And I'm pretty cheap!

... Profit

So you've gotten your domain names, you've chosen how you want to develop them, how do you profit from them?!? Well, if you consider your registration costs, development costs, maintenance costs and renewal fees, if you developed just a single website, then that site has to recoup thousands of dollars a year in advertising, listing fees, affiliate links or whatever your monetization strategy is. But let's say you own and operate 200 sites. How much do you have to make per site, per day before you can retire? Well, okay... not retire, but how about not have to work full time at a day job? So, at 200 sites X 365 days a year, all you have to do is earn about $2 a site per day to make nearly $150,000 a year. $2 a day. $2. Per day. If you operate 500 sites, at 365 days a year, all you have to do is earn about 75 cents a day per site to be making 6 figures in profits a year!

It's a big freaking leap to go the mass development route. I'm 5 figures deep already. But now I've got 600 geo domains in my pocket... guess what I'm gonna do with them?