What do you do.. Hmm? Adsense... Casino... Stocks.. Pharma... Why not do it all?!! Pure genius right!? That is what Men.com does, man! The domain that was sold for $1.3 million by Rick Schwartz is a total failure today and a great case study. Look at it... Complete disaster, and we are being nice here and watching our words. God, I hate nothing more than to see good keyword domains first developed and then turned into linkfarms... Why why why??!
This is just the type of site that you want to avoid in creating... First of all, it has no content on the main page, so the display of Google AdSense ads is illegal and when you break the rules, you risk getting your account terminated and all earnings forfeited. Big NO NO!! Secondly, well... Blah!!! The website is a hot mess and it would not interest any visitor one bit... The bounce rates are extremely high I bet you and why on earth should somebody even spend five seconds of their time browsing such a useless and ugly site?! It's painful!
The owners of Men.com tried to run it as a "men's magazine" and did all kinds of weird stuff with it but it failed time and time over and over again and look where we are today. This is what happens when you try to be all sophisticated. FAIL! The domain should of been turned into some kind of a porn site (gay) or dating portal / adult community. Those are popular and always in demand.. Who the hell needs a men's magazine??! What is that even??!? Shame..... All those years, gone to waste. Coulda... Shoulda... Woulda!!!
You think that a cool domain that ends in .com is gonna make you successful and earn you millions of dollars??! How about a three letter domain that is easily pronounceable and very memorable?!? How about a generic USA dictionary one word??! Oh, no... They do not make you successful. They do give you a competitive advantage VS. everybody else, but that is about it... You must have a vision. You must have a somewhat proven business plan because without it.... You are hopeless and destined for failure. YOU ARE!!!
Learn from this case study of Men.com and the millions of dollars wasted here... It is very unfortunate, but I see it happening a lot in the domain business and will continue to happen of course as well. People begin full blown development and then get all tangled up and eventually call it quits when the solution to the problem is right under their noses. You first start small, get a taste of success and then scale up. How hard is it to comprehend this???!
You do not go from a nobody to #1 in a competitive niche overnight... If you think you can, you are crazy!! It takes a lot of time and hard work. Some cases month's... Some cases years. It is not too difficult to enter and grab some market share from a well established player, but for fuck sakes.. Try to be realistic. Hope for the best but plan for the worst. Have more than just one business plan.. Have a backup... Have two or three !! Try different stuff ;)
The biggest luxury about domains is when you decide to switch things up and start fresh with a clean new page, you can.. Any day, any time!! Nobody stopping you... Development can be fun and extremely rewarding if you know what you are doing but if you do not have a good understanding of what's goin on, it will become torture quickly... It will turn from you being happy and excited to conquer the world to hating everybody in this world... Overnight!!
So think twice before you make your moves if you have some big plans. Do not rush to do anything. Get professional consultations... Do not be a cheap ass. Spend that cash. It is money well spent. Do not assume that you know it all, because let me assure you... It is impossible. A second and third opinion is important and required, especially by insiders and people who's job is to be in-the-know. Research is the single most important thing in development and if you do not take this process seriously, you are fucked! Fucked fucked fucked!
What is next for Men.com ?! Uhh.. Lets see here. I predict that it will be parked soon. Real soon.... You know, I've turned down many domain development requests this year because the domains were just too generic. They couldn't be tied up to any one topic. Very similar to Men.com! It makes it really tricky to develop the website properly.
It is a real bitch dealing with such domains unless you got a lot of money to invest and in it for the long run.. Like I've been saying... You gotta invest your $$$ wisely only in the RIGHT domains!!! The domain name doesn't make or break your business but it sure does help. Learn from what is going on all around you 24/7/365 if you don't wanna end up as a loser in this business... Study everything and I mean everything. All of the best information is out there and it is free! Put in those hours analyzing others... Bust that ass :)
Observations at WannaDevelop.com
02/23/2010: Dozens of Amazon affiliate stores for sale.. Developed by DomainMassDevelopment.com 01/11/2010: Wanna be part-owner of DomainState.com with myself and a few others? Ok, read this now... 11/02/2009: FS gets it on with WP... It's about time, no??!?! 08/24/2009: If all else fails... Who is gonna pay the bills?!! 08/22/2009: Frank Schilling has the winning formula $$$$$$
