How to build a business around my superstar domain name?

So long story short. I own the domain name WeddingAdvisor.com. I had a website set up with it a years ago but have since closed it. Running the site by myself was out of my comfort zone. I’m not a tech or marketing guy and the people that developed the original site had the structure all set up wrong. Even back then people thought we were a subsidiary of TripAdvisor. Many said our name is golden thanks to TripAdvisor and HomeAdvisor.

My question is what can I do with the domain to make money? The wedding space is profitable. Should I do a directory site? Lead generation? Blog only etc? I need a vision on how I can make this profitable.

 

Trying to be realistic here. Godaddy's domain name estimator says it's worth between $6K-$7K. Obviously, it's only worth what the buyer is willing to pay. You never know, if you find the right buyer you can fetch $10K+ for it.

The industry as a whole is very competitive. You'll be competing against well established sites. The keywords in the name alone are not going to give the prominence / rankings to compete against some of those sites. You'll have to have a lot of great content to compete. Looks like you yourself are not super excited about the niche, otherwise you would have not closed the site. Based on that I am thinking maybe setting up a quick site (with a great looking WP theme) and then selling the site / domain name as a package?

If you decide to keep it I'd advise you against a directory site. They don't work anymore. Setting up a blog is not a bad idea.

 

Well it wasn't that i'm not excited about the niche its that i'm not a web person and didn't have it built out right to succeed or the know how to make it grow....that's why I shut it down. Paying hundreds a month on servers, etc and not making money is no fun. On the directory thing, was wondering why you are against it?

On the selling the domain part, I was offered 25K for the domain alone in 2017 and passed. The keyword "Wedding" is a popular keyword and profitable. If you want to look at other domains that have sold....debtadvisor sold for 14K, sexadvisor sold for 49K, weddingphotos sold for 14K. Many have said it has built in brand recognition due to TripAdvisor and HomeAdvisor. But its really only worth what someone will pay for it.

 

Search engines killed directories. I don't remember going to a directory for anything over the past 10+ years. Although, maybe you should clarify what you mean by "directory". In my mind a directory is a site with a bunch of listings (divided by categories / subcategories).

When you had it running in the past what kind of traffic did you get (daily or monthly)?

 

I am referring as a place where businesses list their business and someone who is getting married could find a wedding vendor in their area, i.e. venue, caterer, dj, wedding cakes, etc. Thats what I am referring to as a directory.

I was only getting like 200-300 visits a month. I didnt do a whole lot of SEO because mainly I didnt know how at the time. And also the wedding space keywords are competitive.

 

@DJV your plan to make a directory is good ...... In modern language you can say it business listing directory ..... Where any vendor can register his hotel, garden, spacious place for marriage or any other related party.

Because i am managing also few projects of hotel and garden owner in India and list to many websites who are offering vendors to list there property and user can ask question according to his need and area ....... and vendors try to convenience them to get business. They have also paid option to explore your property as featured. So its very good idea and you can start earning also very soon because vendors for this niche (wedding property) will be at least manager or owner of a property and if you have good traffics then they can pay very easily for premium membership or another advertisement option at website.

You can take a look at https :// www. weddingwire. com/ for more ideas.

 

Thats what I had before and it didnt work. I know who WeddingWire is but I dont want to just copy them. They have been in the space for years and is a billion dollar company.

 

I said that good for ideas ... copy will not work i am sure also ...... I think if you did it already that means you failed to explore your site by marketing or promotion online.

According to your domain name ..... You should offer some white papers or guide like "How to manage Wedding for low price" ... "Advice for Wedding Planning" etc etc.. .... Market these types of things online because there are many people who want to know about it ...... And wedding is regular events .. means can attract users any time ...... only need to convenience visitors that we are giving good information.

To get more attention you can use advertisement at Google Business, Facebook etc in your local area only because for local advertisement budget will be low.

Just take idea from online portal and make some different.

You can add additional feature to compare online portal for wedding like weddingwire and others that who is best ...... There are many ideas and its very beneficial niche market also ...... Plan and go ahead.

 

This may already exist, but could you turn it into a website and/or mobile app that became your personal wedding advisor by listing all of the things you need to do to plan and execute your wedding and offering a calendar or project timeline capability to plan everything out? It could include relevant content and professional advice at each step of the way, etc. The idea would be to pay a subscription for a virtual/automated service instead of hiring a real wedding advisor/consultant as many brides do.

 

Pay attention to the administrative details. ...
Ensure communications with your domain name registrar. ...
Lock the transfer of your domain. ...
Monitor expiration dates. ...
Register your domain name as a trademark. ...
Implement extensible provisioning protocol.

 

• Have you thought of a directory that businesses could pay to advertise on your site and maybe some type of rating system for people who have actually used that specific business for there wedding or party? I know the idea sounds simple but I wish something like this existed back when I was getting married. It's overwhelming trying to do everything by yourself like I did.

 

That’s what I had before. Businesses would pay to list their business.