New Construction: Web Real Estate Basics

Do you own a second home or a rental property? According to Harris Interactive, 25% of American Baby Boomers own more than one property. Thats nearly 20 million Americans with two or more real estate properties. .

Do you own any web/internet properties?

I was talking to a good friend about a domain name that I owned ( www.destiny.com ). The name is being leased to another party who has not put it to use yet.

It naturally led us to the idea of "developing" this web property (which was being leased). We felt that it had great potential if it is properly developed. When it comes to web real estate, Destiny is a prime location.

My friend has since asked me to help him develop a Web Property that he has had in mind for some time called WineInvestor. This property caters to a select community of people investing in Wine for fun and profit. It allows my friend to pursue a passion while cultivating a new business (and keeping his day job!).

Here are the basics you need to pay attention to while creating this kind of Web Property.

1) You. Why do you want to create a Web Property? Outline exactly what you expect to get from the property. Fortune? Fame? Fulfillment? How much time can you devote to this?

2) Your market. Why will people come?

3) Your offering. What will they do once they show up? read blogs? play in community space? conduct transactions? take tests and quizzes? play games?

4) Your brand. Choose a good name - pay attention to size, fit, resonance. If you must spell the URL or parts of it, find another one. Work out your property's personality.

5) Your business model. How will you make money? Ads? Online sales? Commissions? Where will you get your inventory?

6) Your hosting service. Where will the servers live? What capabilities do they have? Are they reliable?

7) Your marketing plan. How will you get the word out? Will you utilize Search Engine Optimization? Search Engine Marketing? Mailing lists?

8) Your development partner. This may be the single biggest cost of your project. Its like hiring the construction firm in traditional real esate. Exercise rigorous diligence but DO take advantage of the global marketplace. Read more at my blog entries on searching, the screening process, finding the signal and hiring a global development partner.

9) Your strategy partners. This is akin to hiring architects or landscape designers for your property. Choose them carefully and spend their time (and your money!) wisely. Big opportunities include getting help in Branding, Marketing or Project Management.

10) Support plan. You'll need to have a solid support team to stand behind your site unless you want to spare your spare time tinkering with software!

By paying attention to these basics, you can create a strong foundation (pun intended!) for your new web property. Of course, you can always call us to talk about our Internet Property Development offering. Read about this and other Team and a Dream offerings here.