"The Dev Pile"/ "The Dev List" - The lamest Gambit in the domain selling arsenal

[JMOT]

"£xxxxx for this domain else its going to be developed"

"I might flip it quickly for this xxxxx price otherwise its going in the dev pile"

etc etc

BULLSHIT!!! Simple as.

Is anyone else getting fed up with being spun this line??

I'm guilty of this myself before anyone gets all cranky on me

The fact is that most people here try this to attempt to squeeze a few extra £ out of someone during negotiations or, to cover up the fact that its never going to ever ever get developed to the level that should be done to yield both the quality user experience and revenues its capable of (i'm not guilty of this last bit, I know how to develop properly) unless you devote decent cash to it.

Why dont people stop bullshitting with the "going to dev it" line and just be straight up honest...

"I wanna sell this cos i think its worth a wedge and I want the cash"

or

"No, not selling for that little, imho its worth more and I dont care if I sit on it for the next 10 years"

Dont get me wrong, we all have dev lists of sites we are actually working on and really really are planning on doing so in the next 6 months etc etc but just sit back, look at your domain list, how many are you actually going to develop. Like really. Not in a delusional "one day - ideal world" scenario.

However, I can see where the "dev" idea comes from if peoples idea of developing a domain is some wanky storeburst clone or some badly written content with no thought to web design thats plastered with google adsense....


</rant>

 

[Edwin]

"No, not selling for that little, imho its worth more and I dont care if I sit on it for the next 10 years"

That's what I usually tell end-users if they balk at my pricing, though I put it a little bit more diplomatically. It helps that I can say it with a straight face, because it happens to be true.

You're right about the main point, btw! Although I'd call it the "second lamest" gambit, after the "crumbling seller" sequence, as per the below:

Day 1: Name for £1,000, absolute final price, no offers. We've already had higher offers but decided to sell now for _____ reason.
Day 2: Any interest?
Day 2 (afternoon): Reduced to £800 for a quick sale. Final reduction.
Day 3 (shortly after midnight): First £300 takes it!!!
Day 3 (early evening): Listening to offers over £50
(Bonus step) Day 4 (around lunchtime): Thanks for all the interest (!) Ok, back on the dev pile it goes

 

[Ashton]

In my case, I disagree. For the majority - I do agree.

I develop most of my names because I can do it fast and I can do it in an ok way - I was/am a web designer before ever 'domaining'

Like flightstokos.co.uk - It took me around an hour or so to have that all up and done. I keep my domain quantity at around 100, upgrading the quality when I can. Obviously 100 hours of work is pretty easy. I will also spend another 100 hours then tweaking them and doing SEO.

Dev doesn't necessarily mean a bespoke cms and award winning design. A recent example of 2 hours work is making me 50/week constant.

I would much rather that 50/week than the 50quid I could flip it for. All that for 2 hours is a brilliant reward for me.

 

[stevebrowne]

different timelines as well. My dev pile is for 20+ years time, when I am out of my day job and looking for income sources / something to do during the day.

 

[fish]

'honest gov'nor it's a lovely domain & i can just see you owning that one, worth every penny, got to be a bargain at £xxxx'

 

[Alien]

LOL.

I like this 'clearing my portfolio to make space' thing....

 

[JMOT]

different timelines as well. My dev pile is for 20+ years time, when I am out of my day job and looking for income sources / something to do during the day.

LOL you think we'll be using the internet the same way in 20 years time??

 

[stevebrowne]

Who knows? but I've got more than enough going on in my daily life at this point in time to worry about full-scale dev (seeing as I already do that all day anyway).

I'm sure domain names will be still be there somewhere though... They've been around for 26 years already in their current form, so there's every chnace they will be in 26 years time as well.