Developing Domain Names With Social Networks
Developing Domains, Monetizing Domains February 19th, 2008
I’ve been thinking about developing a few of my domain names into social networks, and I’ve been researching various possible software platforms. I’ve considered such varied solutions as Drupal, Pligg, a combination of Wordpress and phpBB, and Ning.
All of these are open source and free except for Ning, which is a hosted application that lets you build your own full-featured social network. It’s free, but Ning runs ads on your network, unless you pay a (fairly low) monthly fee in which case you can do away with the ads or run your own if you like.
By the way, the Ning blog recently wrote a post on the unveiling of Magicians.com. I remember July last year when the owner posted the following on the NamePros.com forum:
Hello everyone,I’ve owned several excellent domain names for some time, but have not posted them for feedback in a forum like this! If you have any thoughts on value or other for these domains, please let me know! I look forward to your posts! Have a great day,
Magician.com
Magicians.com
Illusionist.com
MagicComedian.com
The respondents valued these domains anywhere from $50,000 to $200,000 each, although one fellow had a unique offer:
I wish I had one of those names. Are you interested in my first born child?
Anyway, I’m glad the owner chose the development route and I’ll be interested to see if he sticks with the Ning platform over the long term.
In the course of my research on social network solutions I came across this fantastic article on TechCrunch, from July of last year:
Part One: Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network
Part Two: 34 More Ways to Build Your Own Social Network
Michael takes a superbly detailed look at all the solution providers in the social networking space. I have not yet decided which solution I’ll be using, though I’m fairly sure I’ll go with Ning for those domains that I feel have a good chance of attracting a large user base.
For communities that might be smaller (a few hundred members or less) I will choose a solution with no monthly fees and no cost after initial set up (aside from hosting of course).
Have you developed any of your domain names into social networks? What software did you use? What success have you had?
Popularity: 77% [?]
hi greeting
.1.
please fully evaluate
other ad-supported solutions
b4 going only with ‘the ning
.2.
once your social network being up
then please let us ken it
cheers ThANKye 2w
Hi there,
Thank you for your blog post and links to some great articles on how to develop a social-network. I also agree, strongly, that developing Magicians.com was the wise thing to do!
By the way, if you dig into Rich Schwartz’s blog a bit, as well as conceptualist.com, you’ll find some great posts on this topic.
Ning has worked out very well for me. I’m working on some very exciting things right now to further convert the traffic I receive to Magicians.com beyond membership. At some point, you need a revenue stream. As for now, my goal is to continue building traffic and registered members.
Feel free to stop on by and join us at Magicians.com!
Magically yours,
Ryan, founder, Magicians.com
*****REPLY FROM DOMAINERPRO*****
Thanks for taking the time to comment, Ryan, and best of luck with your site. With a great domain like Magicians.com, you’ve got a big leg up.
Greeting from all of us @ DNHour,
As you know, DNHour.com is a social networking site for domainers developed using Pligg. The main aim of DNhour.com is to provide a platform for domainers to collaborate and share information online. If we had started as a traditional static website, we would have had a hard time trying to update the website daily. Fortunately, DNHour’s members have been quite active in contributing news to DNHour, thus giving us more free time to venture into other virtual properties. We are hoping to develop more social networking sites in the future. Do update us with your experience using Ning. Till then, hope to see you more in DNHour!
Michael Cheok
- CTO of DNHour.com -
Do you have any other domains in development? I would love to look at them. Can I add you as a friend?
I took a look at Magicians.com. For such a professional domain, the design looks quite amateur — is this due to a limitation in the flexibility of Ning as a platform? I would think that with such a premium domain name one would want the site to look more professional, so perhaps a more custom platform would be necessary? I while back I looked at Ning and I thought that they allow you full customization, though perhaps that takes a much larger investment when working with a propietary and less well known platform such as Ning?
Does anyone have any thoughts or insights on this?
FYI - update on my domains:
I’ve put up for auction Illusionist.com at the Roundtable Conference…
http://blog.domaintools.com or http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/04/illusionistcom-for-sale-in-live-auction/ for more info.
Thanks,
Ryan Ogaard
Magician.com, Magicians.com, Illusionist.com
hi
i own several domains (krew.com, babbo.com, leadingcompanies.com, africareport.com). I’m not really using these domains at the moment and am consering parking them with sedo.com
I also own www.proudofusa.com and www.proudofamerica.com and wonder what (and how!!) to do with them. With the US elections coming up wonder if this could become social networks/blogs or even retail sites?
any ideas?
ray