What would you do with this domain? (premium)

[Flushdraw]

Hi,

I've recently bought a premium 1 word sports domain and looking at options for development.

Lets say the domain is football.net - how would you develop it? Keep in mind that you are not very knowledgeable on this sport and so writing quality content must be outsourced.

Option 1 :

A primarily news based site. Updated daily with the latest news around this sport with the aim of getting into Google News to boost traffic. Also a number of blog sections from ex-professionals and a few die hard fans.

Earning potential with this plan?

- Adsense (tbh never used it)
- Selling Banners - How many UV's would I need to make $1,000/month from advertising in say 4 different spots?
- Bookies affiliate links. Adding odds for match previews etc. Are gambling affiliate links allowed if applying to Google News? There won't be banners everywhere, just a few odds in the occasional article.

This would be my preferred development plan with one problem - funding. I have a couple of friends who say they would write for free but I'd expect ex-professionals and quality content writers to charge for this so I either have the option to fund this with my affiliate income from other sites or sell some of my other sites to fund this for a long period and take the chance it will be successful and be able to fund itself after 6 months or so.

Option 2

A dropship store selling specific sports related products. I'd rather not do this but it is an option. It would be harder to gain natural links and quality content and so rankings would be harder to achieve.

Option 3

Sell the domain at a profit.


Any thoughts would be much appreciated

Thanks
Rob

[MJ]

My vote would be for all of the above.

[Randy Ray]

If the profit were large enough, I'd probably go for the option of selling it at a profit.

[Flushdraw]

RR - I think I could sell it for quite a large profit but I would have to find an end user. I wouldn't have thought with a 1 word sports name it would be that hard but I would prefer to hire a broker to find one. Any suggestions on where to find a decent one?

MJ - News based site with a store? Could be a possibility, but it would mean more expense until the site is making money. That's my main problem - funding the site to keep it running until it attracts enough visitors and exposure to fund itself. It won't be like my current sites where I can update them as and when I please. This site will need to be updated with posts at least 3 times a day but probably more, and as I won't be writing the content myself, it could be quite expensive.

[chaumi]

[QUOTE=Flushdraw;150214]RR - I think I could sell it for quite a large profit but I would have to find an end user. I wouldn't have thought with a 1 word sports name it would be that hard but I would prefer to hire a broker to find one. Any suggestions on where to find a decent one?

You could have a look at Sedo. They offer a broker service (and take a percentage of the final sale value)...and I'd imagine they have some heavy contacts in the domaining industry. If it is a one word premium they'd probably know who to approach to get the best price. Sedo are one of the biggest domain sellers (take a look at DNjournal dot com for recent sales...domain sales link top left hand corner...you'll also get a bunch of other names who you could approach to broker it))

[KevinMcC]

If I didn't know much about the sport I'd probably sell it.

If I did follow the sport and wanted the site I would probably hire some news writers to cover everything about that sport. 1-3 articles per day for a year or so and slowly try and build some links to it. Very little advertising to start, and then would try and get into G news down the road. It would probably cost about $10,000 in content for the first year but may be worth it down the road.

[Flushdraw]

That's my initial plan Kevin although it's the cost of the news content until it makes money that worries me. It's a risk to put a big chunk of my earnings into a site that is not guaranteed to be successful, especially when I've got plans for a new house and a few trips away this year.

Is there a recommended time to wait with a new site until applying for Google News?

[Randy Ray]

I sent you a PM, Rob, with the contact info for a domain broker I've worked with. Hope he makes you a million bucks.

[Bauss]

I would setup a sports blog and integrate it with adsense. You will obviously need to gain some knowledge for the sport.

[addz123]

I'd still need to know the domain to comment. If it was .net I would sell it instantly. If it was football.com then that is a completely different story. For such a long term investment it needs to be brandable, and if you wrote 3 articles per day for a yr then the domain wouldnt matter anyway, you'd have a great site.