2008 Goals and Beyond

It’s the time of year when I evaluate everything that happened during the past 12 months and set new goals for 2008. This is always a great time of year, because it allows me to briefly reflect on the positive things that have happened, and allows me to think about the things that could have been better. There is no point in sugar coating things, so deep personal reflection is essential in order to grow.

Although I think this reflection should be made internally, I will share a few of my goals for 2008, and if you would like to share yours as well, I welcome it.

Domain Investing
– Purchase 1-2 premium domain names with the goal of developing them in Q4 2008
– Trim down my portfolio, only keeping strong generic domain names and a few speculative names

Domain Development
– Successfully launch Lowell.com
– Create strong relationships with Lowell businesses and civic leaders
– Begin phase two of Lowell.com, including some social networking capabilities and newsletter
– Build several miniature websites using the hybrid development concept I discussed a couple of weeks ago

Blogging
– Continue to write 1-3 original blog posts per day to give advice to readers of my blog
– Teach people about the value of domain names using well-executed examples
– Forge advertising relationships with industry leading companies

While you are thinking about goals, it is important to think about more than what you would like to accomplish in 2008. You should also take some time to consider (or reconsider) your life goals. What do you want to accomplish in life? Where are you now compared to where you want to be? What can you do in 2008 to make it easier to achieve your life goals?

This will help you stay in track in business and in life.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

4 COMMENTS

  1. Sound advice! Your first four items are in tune with my own goals for 08 (I have another geo name I am developing).

    On the note of hybrid development – I recently discovered Amazon astores, and it took me less than an hour to make this:

    http://vacuumretailer.com/

    I think it’d be a great alternative to parking for buywhatever.com or whateverstore.com domains.

    One more goal for 08 is to add some indexable content 🙂

    Cheers
    – rich

  2. Good outlook and very attainable. I am encouraged by the “little guy” taking on big corporate. Developing is what I have been trying to accomplish since 1995. Some projects have been very successful and some not. It is so important for our industry to make strides in developing domain names that help build out the internet one brick at a time. We then draw away power and money from the search engines by placing content within our own real estate in definable ways. That real estate truly explodes in worth once we get the preferred “qualified” visitor. Qualified visitors are those that view a site with the intention of finding specific information, then buying from advertisers that offer what they are searching for. I would much rather go to Daycare.com to find information on starting or finding a daycare, buy insurance to protect that business and then advertise my daycare on Daycare.com to further my business. Search engines send visitors in several directions but Daycare.com would move those qualified visitors right to the paying advertiser and other verticals like subscription membership.

    I hear many domainers mention that they only buy domains and are not developers. When I started in this business I was not a developer. It is not something that you need to take a college course for. If you can write an email or use a word processor you have the power to develop a site. Whisky.com undeveloped was getting just 200 hits a day. With a page created a day it is now at 2000 to 3000 qualified visitors and this took less than nine months. This is something advertising agencies will come to understand as being a positive for future marketing strategies. We need to rid ourselves of the old standards of clicks and hits. The surest standard is what revenue an advertising client is making from a site. Only then are those advertising dollars justified. Showing stats of thousands of visitors does not cut it. Making them profit does.

    The general public needs to find quality information on quality sites. That will enhance the brand that IS “domain names”. We need to be careful not to create markets within markets. Domainers buying names just to have to other domainers buy them has a limited life. It could create its own bubble. Developing names is the long term future. It does not have to be a premium name, a .com or a huge site. It just has to have a good idea and memorable name with content.

    I enjoy reading your blog. Happy Holidays

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***

    You are 100% right – and I think everyone should take your words of wisdom to heart. You and your brother have built highly successful websites and have shown that with a good domain name and intelligent strategy, you can create highly successful brands. If you produce a product that is well received by the intended audience, they will return as happy customers – and they will tell their friends. This will increase the value of your site to your advertisers, to your visitors, and ultimately to your bottom line.

    Thank you for reading my blog and for posting a well written comment. I wish you much continued success.

  3. Hi Elliot

    Congrats on the new name and good luck with developement
    been also agree with mini sites as been doing that also.
    Take a tip when builing your mini sites make them same brand as your main site.
    samples
    glasgow.com/glaasgow is our new launch site early Jan
    but have also rebranded our other sites
    http://www.glasgowrestaurant.com
    http://www.glasgowrestaurant.co.uk
    http://www.glasgownightlife.co.uk
    http://www.glasgowbar.com
    http://www.glasgowpubs.co.uk
    http://www.glasgowclubs.co.uk

    you get the idea any for info elliot just ask

    ***UPDATED BY ELLIOT***

    Good idea – Thanks, Tommy. Have a good 2008.

  4. Cool to see buywhatever.com referenced. I actually registered that domain name in 1999 when in college, but let the Network Solutions papers go unpaid and lost it after about 3 months…no money in. I had not thought of the domain in some time, until now. A couple others I always liked were crazydays.com and 2 I know Frank Schilling has now imow.com and foosballtables.com – wish Frank would send foos back my way…I keep the Network Solutions $70 invoice paper in my file as a reminder of bad business decisions, learning curve, and when I was so poor that $70 was a lot of money.

    Great blog Elliot!

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