Links.com

Ya well that place leapfish says my crappy domain is worth 15K webscutest.com LOL anyway I don't know if you are working on the site right now or not but it looks pretty amateurish right now-- nothing in the main page at all - you have to scroll way down to find anything. I would either sell the domain - or at least see what you can get for it - or hire someone to at least fix it up for you. You could probably get someone here cheap that could do it in a couple of days just to clean it up and get some content

 

Listen to mad4. Spot on!

 

Well, whether it is true or not, it is a source for conversation.

Thanks for the link.

Rich

 

Hi Mad4,

Thanks much for the links. The designs are very interesting. Designers are being very creative. I am sure I will be experimenting over time. I think a fresh, clean look works best. I noticed that Yahoo has gone a bit more cleaner with their new designs. Google has always been the leader in minimalism.

I agree, that I think the site has some nice potential along the lines you suggest. The question is how to get there? Thanks much for your suggestions. All have been very helpful.

Regards,
Rich

 

Hi crazygirl,

Thanks for your comments. Yes, there is lots to do to make the site more world class. I appreciate your suggestions.

Regards,
Rich

 

Yes, I agree, I share many of his ideas and outlook.

Regards,
Rich

 

I have, for the time being, removied ads from the site to see if there is any impact in page viewing. Thanks for the suggestion. I will follow-up with any discoveries.

Regards,
Rich

 

"currently the worst use of the best domain"

you can quote me on that if you like

The best of the best?
You would never have time to sort out what is the best and what isn't. Would you recognise the best if you saw it?

You should get a webdesigner in ASAP to build you a cracking brand new directory, a stack of subdomains, 5gig email storage for webmasters (james@links.com ) your own milliondollar homepage rip off, some word clouds, and a few billion other things along the way......

or sell it.

Wouldn't surprise me if you could get $1Million+ for the domain.
Stick it on eBay with a $800,000 reserve, press should be worth something even if it doesn't sell.

best of luck with it, it could easily make you a few million in no time.

James.

 

Right on point.

"Best of the best" is only possible with a huge spam protected userbase that rates/reviews sites and a system that filters out low rated links similar like digg.com. You need a few programmers and designers to develop this. And only start to show ads after the critical mass of growth has been really reached. I think top 10 sites in 100 categories is an awesome idea.

My 2 cents ...

 

Hi James,

>"currently the worst use of the best domain"

>you can quote me on that if you like

lol. I probably will not be using it for any PR campaign, but suffice to say, I agree that there are many ways to gradually add value to the site. My quote would be "Links were not built in a day". On the other hand ... the quote is controversial and to the point.


>The best of the best?
>You would never have time to sort out what is the best and what isn't.


There are a couple of things I am counting on. First, minimalism. I am taking the viewpoint, that most visitors to the site are looking for the top 1 to 5 sites in any category. As long as they are of high quality, they will be satisfied. This saves lots of time and ensures the visitor that their visit will be worthwhile.

By keeping the number of sites very low, I will be able to maintain it. Of course, visitor suggestions and comments are always solicited and the category listings will rotate as newer and better ones become available. Whether highly moderated and exclusive listings are a better approach than spidering a web or managing very large directories such as DMOZ, remains to be seen. But I think it is worth a try. However, I am certainly open to other suggestions. This is an imperfect world, and certiainly Google's approach has lots of merit (using links as a way of scoring). Hopefully, there is a place for other creative approaches. In time, I hope to arrive at one that may be well-received.

>You should get a webdesigner in ASAP to build you a cracking brand >new directory, a stack of subdomains, 5gig email storage for webmasters >(james@links.com ) your own milliondollar homepage rip off, some word >clouds, and a few billion other things along the way......

Yes, I am always open to new, concrete proposals. I am a strong believer in evolving ideas.

>or sell it.

Another direction, but one that I do not want to consider at this time. I would like to build something worthwhile, and hopefully the money will follow.

>Wouldn't surprise me if you could get $1Million+ for the domain.

I have no idea what the domain would be worth, but I do appreciate your estimate. I guess it is whatever a bidder wants to pay for it.


>Stick it on eBay with a $800,000 reserve, press should be worth something >even if it doesn't sell.

This is a terrific idea. It probably would generate lots of attention. But then I would have to sell ... hmmmmmm.

>best of luck with it, it could easily make you a few million in no time

>James

That would be something wouldn't it. But for now, I am going to keep my feet firmly planted on the ground, with the singular idea to build something really worthwhile on this domain. Thanks for wishing me luck. Appreciate it.

Regards,
Rich

 

Hi Jim,

Yes, quality control is one of the major challenges of such a website. I have decided to take a very minimalistic approach with ads at this time. I am going to keep one small vertical ad on the site in order to monitor "potential". Hopefully the presence is so small, that it will not distract at all. However, I may modify this policy and go back to zero as time progresses.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Rich

 

Great advice !!!

 

Despite my somewhat negative post, I honestly do wish you all the best with it.
It seems you have a choice of possibly running a mediocre site for a few years on a great domain or cashing in on the domain, I appreciate that however long it takes... you still have the domain name to fall back on in a few years time if all else fails.

If you can't afford to invest a few $'s to actually open a great website on the domain, sell it.. or at least find out what it's worth. I respect your thoughts about wanting to do something with the domain but your current idea barely pays lip service to the domain it's on.

There is no shame in selling something if it could potentially be a lifechanging experience.
If someone wants my domain for $1M thay can have it right now regardless of how much money it makes me.

Words like
"There are a couple of things I am counting on. First, minimalism. I am taking the viewpoint, that most visitors to the site are looking for the top 1 to 5 sites in any category. As long as they are of high quality, they will be satisfied." confirm that you should reevaluate your postition because the thought of owning links.com and having 1-5 good sites in each category... frankly sucks!

I know that I wish everyone in one of my threads raved on about my domain name so much

It would be great for you to keep us up to speed with your sites progress, because it's a story that could make interesting reading.

best regards
James.

 

My idea is that a small set of sites that not only offers readers very quick and high quality access to information, but also offers new sites, a chance to compete against other sites, on quality of information alone, may in fact inspire more creativity and activity on the web. Links.com is certainly no where near there yet, however, it may provide web site creators new opportunies to "break-in". I hope this idea has merit. On the other hand, it may, as you say "sucks".

Thanks for your good wishes.

Regards,
Rich

 

Sell the bloody domain! But screw your head on first
I'l take it for a tenner if you are selling up

 

lol. Let me sleep on your offer.

Honestly, there is lots of differences of opinion on this. Creating a site that offers high visibility, based only on the quality of the site, I think may actually work out. I think it may benefit many creative developers - maybe even you - someday. Just something different that I am thinking about. However, your tenner does sound tempting, so give me a day.

Best,
Rich

 

Excellent! I will store it in a bombproof safe just to make sure I don't spend it I sure hope we can close this deal soon ^_^

 

The layout is totally broken on IE6 now, but inferring what it is supposed to look like, I think it's better

The posts could use pictures. Something, to snag skimmers.

 

Hi there,

Thanks for the heads up! I really have to remember to test the site with both browsers. IE is far less forgiving than Firefox.

Hmmmm ... I would love to use pictures, but I thought that pictures of sites were copyright. Am I wrong? It would be nice, and a great suggestion. Thanks for sharing this idea, and thanks for pointing out the problem with IE.

Regards,
Rich

 

Alexa does it. Pointers, anyone?