Developing - high traffic or low traffic first?

[draggar]

I'm going to start a large scale development (yeah, right if you call it that) project.

This project may span 30+ domains that are all parked now. Should I develop the low traffic domains first to start bringing traffic to them and keep the ones bringing in a little revenue parked?

Or should I develop the higher traffic ones to get more traffic to them?

In the end I'd like to have all of them developed and hopefully making >reg fee w/ ads (Adsense, CJ, Amazon links etc..)?

[Johnn]

The low traffic ones may be still dead even after development so don't bead the dead horse. Get the one with traffic first.
Bringing the traffic to the dead ones may not be easy.

IMO

[draggar]

Well, there is little competition for the low traffic ones so I'm sure with some good development I could get them on the first page or two with Google.

The traffic ones have a lot of competition.

[Johnn]

Well, there is little competition for the low traffic ones so I'm sure with some good development I could get them on the first page or two with Google.

The traffic ones have a lot of competition.

You just explained yourself why they do and do not have traffic.
Don't be scare about the competition. More competition bigger market.

[trader]

A good question. My process has been to generally develop the low traffic names first on the theory (proven correct by the way) that traffic will slowly build up over time with good SEO work, etc. However, the high traffic ones are often best left on parking since parking usually pays better than developed site revenues, mostly because of huge CTR differences.

[Aleksandar]

Whatever you do, do it fast. I would develop the high traffic domains first and I would develop them real good... Then you can play and experiment with others.

[trader]

Whatever you do, do it fast. I would develop the high traffic domains first and I would develop them real good... Then you can play and experiment with others.

The problem with your advice is normally a high traffic parked name earns far greater revenue than the same name with the same amount of developed site traffic.

So the faster he does it the faster he loses money in effect, at least in the short run. However, don't misundestand as I am a huge believer in development with many develeoped websites.

[Aleksandar]

Yes I understand what you are trying to say.

Let's name his domain name "A" and some other developed website of equal traffic in the same niche "B".

Now here's a fact that I got out of your logic.

Undeveloped "A" is performing better than developed "B" (equal traffic, niche etc...).

So basically:

1. Domain name is better.
2. Parking is a better way of monetizing your virtual real estate.

As for the first fact I can agree. But as for the second, I don't.

Here's why:

1. Developed "A" will bring in even more traffic. Ranked No.1 in two or more search engines will boost the traffic a lot. It's free advertisment, use it if you have an exact match domain.
2. Decreased CTR will be covered by some nice paid advertisments. Maybe even out covered and more profitable.
3. Affiliate links - bonus income if we suppose that the website is already making the money it used to make when it was parked.
4. Adsense also - why not? If you have some more space to fill out, don't let it sit there waiting for months. Put some nice optimized well performing blocks of google ads. Traffic boost will probably make some difference and earnings will go higher. It's not the same league anymore like site "B".
5. Various other methods of site monetization, depending on the type of website (don't know what's the actual domain name so can't really give you any idea).

Basically, everything can be written down on paper before doing anything. So I will use this pre-last sentence as my advice to you. Do some research, write down the facts, calculate and calculate, then try to involve some different scenarios in the game and see if it's worth a try.

If you're domain is something like flashgames.com you can always park it again if you fail. You'll loose some money but it's not the end of the world. At least you tried and it doesn't even bother you anymore, it's sitting there, earning money, and that's it.

[DotComGod]

A low traffic name with stay that way without SEO work, developed or not.

At this point with parking in the crapper, there's no huge loss taking a traffic name off parking and building it out. Just have a well thought out marketing plan before you develop.

Every domain should be developed as it's own business and have a dedicated person to ensure it's success. With domains this is sometimes very difficult.

-=DCG=-

[Namefox]

Every domain should be developed as it's own business and have a dedicated person to ensure it's success.

-=DCG=-

I love this line...Thanks Adam.

[trader]

Every domain should be developed as it's own business and have a dedicated person to ensure it's success. With domains this is sometimes very difficult. =DCG=-

Not sure I understand the point. Do you mean if I have 100 developed sites in different verticals I should have 100 people working them, one for each business and site, or can one dedicated person be assigned to X number of sites?

[draggar]

I guess I need to clone myself then.

Thank you all for the feedback.

[ordersomething]

There's another way to go about it...
But it's a secret.

[dncsacnt]

high traffic domain of course

[hugegrowth]

Start with the high traffic domains first, you will get faster returns on your work. When those are set up, start working with the lower traffic names to see if there's hope.

[draggar]

I found the perfect target: a keyword.us and keyword.info (same keyword) pair of domains. Not bad traffic - about 100-200 hits a month between the two (about 2/3 the .info and 1/3 the .us) with no revenue (no clicks)

Point the .info to the .us and throw up a WP site with some AdSense. I have a few pages now of the specifics on the keyword and can easily expand on that.

[trader]

...Point the .info to the .us and throw up a WP site with some AdSense.

But the problem is I believe with standard domain pointing it will result in no revenue from the .info site as clicks will not count (as far as I can tell).

[draggar]

When they type in (domain).info it goers to the .us site - how would clicks not pay?