by Rick Waters

So you have a killer domain. Everyone you mention it to says 'wow' when they hear about it. They praise you for getting in on 'domain thing' so much earlier than they did. They recognize that you had the vision, foresight and guts to take a chance on new technology. Like the pioneers out West. They had the foresight and guts to claim property they knew would be useful in the future, be it property near the river, overlooking the valley, or just fertile land they knew they could build upon. We can learn from these pioneers. What did they do once they had their property? They created general stores, or saw mills, or saloons to make their property more useful. This is what many domain owners are doing now. But how to you get from A to B? How do you turn your killer domain into a killer website?

For the purposes of this article, I'm going to talk about tips involving custom development, the more feature rich, deeper websites rather than rapid deployment solutions like Dev Hub and Why Park. I will talk about how to turn Dev Hub and other rapid deployment systems into 'killer websites' in an upcoming article.

Survey the Land

Start by reviewing your properties to see which you can leverage best. Which domains are you most passionate about? Which do you feel you know the most about? Which can you afford to develop and ramp up more without over reaching? For example, one of my partners and I owned BassGuitar.com. I've been playing bass since high school so it's was a natural for me to serve as the day to day operations person for the site. I have some friends in the music business I can call upon to lend me a hand. Having more authentic content from those that are passionate about the website's topic will resonate better with your audience. For instance we employed an Indian classical music lover to write the copy for Sitars.net. We have a snowboarder leading the team at www.snowboards.com.

Website Species and Hybrids

Once you pick a name to develop, you need to select the type of website you plan to build.  There are a few standard 'species' of website. You can break them down into the following prototypes and their typical monetization strategies:

• Directories: Sites that sell listings to others and provide reviews, ratings etc. about the sites or companies listed within. www.SunTan.com or www.PalmSprings.com for example.
• Infosites: From mini sites to blogs to full blown hubs. Infosites sell advertising or sell information - Examples: TrafficGeyser.com ( Infomarketing ) and BackGammonSets.com
• Shopping carts: Sell products. Good examples are Snowboards.com, HandSanitizerStore.com and Scentiments.com, all of which are evolving into social commerce plays.
• Lead generation: Sell leads. Examples include InsuranceQuotes.com, DebtSettlement.com and CarDeals.com
• Communities: Sell advertising to companies wishing to reach the community and product to those within the community. BassGuitar.com and Snowboards.com are good examples of emerging communities.

Lately I'm favoring developing sites that combine elements rather than 'pure breed' sites that only do one thing and do it well.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Now that you've made your selection as to which name to develop and which type of website it will be, you'll need to do some planning and strategizing. I know it's no fun to plan everything out. That's like real business, right? But you'll have a greater chance for success if you treat your site like a micro business with a budget, goals, and P & L. The most important thing you could do to lay a firm foundation for your new web business is to develop a Website Strategy Document. A website strategy doc let's you lay out all of your thoughts so you can prioritize and plan. The authors of the book 'Website Design for ROI' provide a nice Website Strategy Document you can utilize: http://www.wd4roi.com/bonus-materials.html. Share it as a Google doc so that your partners or other members of the team can 'stay on the same page' as you: http://www.wd4roi.com/bonus-materials.html.

Pick Your Crew

To get to where you are going you are going to need a reliable and skilled crew. You have to have a team 'working' the site on an ongoing basis to keep it fresh. The team can consist of you alone ( if it's a smaller topic / site - a 'solo' sailboat of a site ) or an entire team ( if it's a 70 foot cruising yacht ).  You'll need some one with design talent for branding and interface. You'll need someone who can handle html and coding. You'll need someone who writes well to handle the content, you'll need a marketer and you may even need a business administrator. You also need someone who is knowledgeable or at least passionate about the topic you are covering to lend an air of authenticity to the site. There is often a lot of crossover obviously between these roles. It's possible you can handle all of these rolls yourself. More likely you will need to leverage your time by working with a few people you can rely on to help you.  Whether it's an e-commerce powerhouse like Amazon.com or a small home based e-tailer like Diecastcars.tv your site is only as good as the people involved in it.  Ghost ship sites just don't fare well on the sea of cyberspace so man the helm of your site or make sure you have someone who can.  TIP: Tap into talent at your local college or art school. Find affordable writers and other passionate role players at Guru.com.  If you don't want to project manage and want to stay more 'hands off hire a professional web development team.

Next time I'm going to get into the details of some top killer sites and offer you tips you can use to make your sites better.