Demand Media: Books They Read, Business Model, and Why You Should Care

Ever since Demand Media was profiled in a recent article in Wired Magazine titled “The Answer Factory” (if you have not read this article then set aside 10 minutes and READ IT NOW – then come back here and finish reading this post of course ) I have been extremely interested in learning as much as I can about them because to a certain degree the Demand Media business model mimics my thinking in running Domain Superstar LLC with John and also my other company 360 Quote LLC.

There is no real need for me to rehash the Wired article because you can just click on the link above and read it yourself but I would challenge all of the domainer/developers reading this post to see how you can take some of the ingredients for success from the Demand Media business model and apply it to your domains.

I would even go so far as to say that if you are a premium domain name holder or even a very strong niche domain name holder then you can take their business model a step further than even they can because certainly content is king but having the best domain in a given niche (i.e. a category killer domain name) coupled with great content can propel you to even greater success than your competitors who may need to work that much harder with a lesser quality domain.

I realize that what I am saying is nothing new and certainly nothing revolutionary but as with anything the only real success comes with not just a great idea but great execution. Rob Monster and Epik are attempting something similar in that they want to couple great content with great domains and truly leverage the power of a great domain. I am unsure about the soundness of their interlinking strategy from an SEO standpoint but it will be interesting to see how well they can execute on such a large scale as they already have a number of great domains.

Demand Media understands the power of domains as platforms for great content to some degree as they own a number of highly trafficked web properties as well as 50 or so niche web properties (and let’s not forget that they own eNom as well). However, there is one thing that Demand Media certainly understands about success on the web and that is the power of content.

While some may argue that the loads of content that the Demand Studio writers churn out every day is inferior in quality to many other sources of content it is important to remember that much of the content that they churn out is extremely long tail in nature and even if one agrees with the assumption that their content’s quality is lacking is still meets a need in the market because there is so little competition out there already for many long tail keyword terms. This of course is where I would like to say that their business model differs from mine in that I am a firm believer in attempting to publish only high quality content but then again I am sure that they would say the same thing

Demand Media certainly does a lot of things exactly right on the content side and if you are someone who wants to see some of the principles that they adhere to generate such success then look no further then the books that they draw inspiration from on the content side of things. Their most recent post highlights these books: “How Big Thinkers Help Us “Go Big” In Content”

What do YOU think of the Demand Media business model? In what ways can the Demand Media business model and content strategy help YOU develop your domains?

How Much Money Can You Make With $5 and 2 Hours?

I will be the first to tell you that I rarely take the time to watch video posts but I just took 6 minutes and 11 seconds to watch the following video and I am extremely glad that I did.

Check out this video from the entrepreneur boot camp of Tina Seelig during the Stanford Technology Venture Program. Tina recounts a classroom experiment that she did that involved her dividing the class up into teams who were given the goal of making as much money as they could in 2 hours and only having $5 to start out with. This video is just chock full of awesomeness on so many levels and I could blather on for a few thousand words about different applications to domaining, building an online business, etc. etc. ad nauseum but rather than do that I would challenge you to stop watching puppies play the piano or whatever on YouTube for just a moment and devote the next 6 minutes and 11 seconds to watching THIS VIDEO.

When you are done watching the video then leave a comment below and see if you could beat any of the money making ideas that some of the students had using the $5 startup capital and 2 hour time limit constraints…. (or if you are really brave then leave a comment below BEFORE watching the video and then watch the video to see if your idea was better than any of their ideas….)

Business Owner to SEO to Domainer vs Domainer to SEO to Business Owner

“Business Owner to SEO to Domainer vs Domainer to SEO to Business Owner” Wow, if this title doesn’t confuse you then please immediately submit a guest post so that I can replace your post with this one… Just kidding!

Alan Dunn had written a post earlier about Ad.ly that had a great little statement in it:

“The first step to success is to quit reading domain blogs – even this one – and focus on SEO, online marketing and viral marketing blogs.”

I love that statement and I was about to type out a long comment to compliment him but I decided that the comment was getting too long so I would just give him a quick compliment via his comment form and steal the meat of my comment for this post (Sorry Alan ).

The reason I love that statement is because it seems that the time line of my “career” as an entrepreneur seems to be exactly the opposite career path of many domainers (although I could be wrong as this is just what I have seen first hand). I was first a small business owner then an “SEO” and then lastly a domainer. I owned (and still own) a Florida health insurance agency and so of course being the nerd that I am I wanted to put up a website to help people compare health insurance plans online.

Once the website was up and running I quickly realized that I actually needed to get people to visit the site in order to make any money

This caused me to learn as much as I could about SEO and about all of the various factors that went into building a quality website that would give the search engines and most importantly the website visitors exactly what they were looking for. Once I started ranking the website high for its target keywords and working hard to provide a ton of high quality content on the site and a great user experience I naturally wanted to duplicate the process on other websites.

The more I learned about SEO the more I came to appreciate the importance of keyword domain names. An exact match keyword domain name is the one key element of a winning online strategy that cannot be duplicated. Let me say that again: your domain name cannot be duplicated.

If we can agree that domain names have inherent value (because of keywords, length, TLD, and any other combination of these 25 rules for choosing a domain name) and that domain names are unique (fact) then it’s easy to see why having the best domain name for a given market niche online is a HUGE sustainable competitive advantage that even the deepest pocketed competitors cannot copy (unless they buy your domain name from you for $$$ and then well, that is OK too )

If you are the owner of say DogFood.com then you have a significant competitive advantage in building a business online in the “Dog Food” niche that even huge Fortune 500 companies cannot duplicate no matter how hard they try. Purina.com and Iams.com and other very large dog food companies can pay out the wazoo for the very best web developers and the very best SEO company and they can hire a professional writing service to churn out hundreds of pages of dog food related articles every day (and you thought that sorting through lists of dropped domains was boring… that is if you are not saving yourself time and red eyes by using our dropped domain alerts instead… ) BUT they can do all of these things but if you are the proud owner of DogFood.com then you have a very real and very sustainable competitive advantage that they cannot copy

(Note, I chose the domain name “DogFood.com” randomly just because my Bull Mastiff Caesar and my Pit/Lab mix Mercedes both just got done chowing down and they now need some more dog food. Also, I just noticed that if you type in DogFood.com it redirects to PetsMart.com so it appears that at least PetsMart.com recognizes the value of this domain).

All of that to say that if you are a domainer then its time for you to branch out and learn as much as you can about SEO, online marketing, and general business skills. If you are a business owner then you need to learn as much as you can about the value of domain names and about bringing your business online. If you are an SEO professional then you need to quickly appreciate the impact that domain names can have on your search engine optimization efforts.

What about you? What is your story?

999 Small Business Ideas + Why Most New Business Ideas Are Worthless

I love hearing/thinking about/dreaming up new business ideas. Why? It’s fun and the payoff can be huge! Lots of hard work is involved of course but starting new businesses and new websites is something that is definitely enjoyable. I usually put up 3-5 new websites every week and I like to think of each website as it’s own individual business with its own market. From a domain name tools site to a website backup site to hundreds of other types of sites – it can be a lot of fun to think of new business ideas.

BUT…

Even the best idea is not worth a whole lot if you cannot execute. So before I give you a link to the list of 999 small business ideas I would challenge you to read this quote that I found here at the online version of the 37signals book: “Getting Real: Done! (Chapter 6)”. Here is the quote by Derek Sivers that I absolutely love in it’s entirety:

“It’s so funny when I hear people being so protective of ideas. (People who want me to sign an NDA to tell me the simplest idea.)

To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions.

Explanation:

* Awful idea = -1
* Weak idea = 1
* So-so idea = 5
* Good idea = 10
* Great idea = 15
* Brilliant idea = 20

* No execution = $1
* Weak execution = $1000
* So-so execution = $10,000
* Good execution = $100,000
* Great execution = $1,000,000
* Brilliant execution = $10,000,000

To make a business, you need to multiply the two.

The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000.

That’s why I don’t want to hear people’s ideas. I’m not interested until I see their execution.”

Before you set out to start a business or even register a domain name with the intent to develop the domain into something meaningful ask yourself, “Am I really serious about executing on this plan or am I just wasting my time by thinking up ideas that I never have the nerve/discipline/work ethic/etc. to actually do something about?”

I would challenge you to spend less time dreaming up things to do and more time getting down to brass tacks and tackling your big ideas. If you fail then so what? Chalk it up as a learning experience and dare to attempt your next big project.

Of course, remember I said that I love thinking up new business ideas at the beginning of this post so please don’t get the impression that I believe that taking the time to think up good business ideas is a waste of time. It’s not – BUT it can be if you do not follow through and execute.

Here are a few action steps:

1) Read this list of 999 business ideas.

2) Choose some of the best business ideas from the list to refine as your own.

3) Use tools like our premium membership, business formation services from MyCorporation.com, etc. etc. to execute on those business ideas.

What do you think?