Well… this is as good a starting point as any other for this first missive on the revamped, updated website.
I’m sitting here in the office in Fort Lauderdale on a late October afternoon reflecting on all of the changes that have taken place over the past 18 months that have led me back to this part of the internet industry.
Where to Start?
With several thoughts clamouring for attention in my head, it is important to let the ones that clarify where we are going with this business endeavor bubble to the surface. That both sets intentions and gives us something to come back to when we lose our way (and I’m not going to pretend that none of us are not distracted by shiny objects).
But there is another compelling reason to be clear about what we are doing and that is: some of you out there are on similar paths, facing similar challenges. So, in the interest of community problem-solving, we hope what we share helps you solve your startup problems.
We Buy, Sell and Broker Domain Names
And we’ve been doing this since 1996, although I did take a detour to start (and sell) other businesses…
Back in the mid-90’s when we started, HTML and CSS were co-mingled liberally in an HTML file and Perl was the language of choice for what were called, “web scripts.”
What a heady, high time it was…
During our first two years as web developers, we built sites for a used car dealer, for ourselves (of course) and for a pilot who had an aviation-supply side hustle.
Building a “shopping cart” website stretched our capabilities far beyond what we walked in the door with. And we credit Selena Sol and their open source “information wants to be free” philosophy and Perl scripts for making that website possible and a career in this industry possible.
Then we discovered blogging.
Blogger, WordPress and PHP
When Blogger launched in 1999, it would be a few years before we stepped into the fray. LiveJournal was our first “weblog” platform. It drove us to Blogger. After Blogger, we hopped on the WordPress train, and never looked back until Ghost came along.
As the offline business grew, we left Perl for PHP and a set of scripts called ZenCart. Like Selena Sol’s shopping cart scripts, ZenCart was ahead of its time. It allowed us, with much less effort, to build and manage shopping cart websites. And build we did. We built shopping cart websites to sell t-shirts, candy and gift baskets and blogged about our lives like the world even cared.
We left Yahoo for Gmail, began Tweeting and joined Facebook with our college email addresses.
Search Engine Optimization became the new god and we dove in with every White Hat tool we could master. But with two businesses outside of domaining and adventure-in-the-sky calling, we needed to make choices.
The Fork in the Sky
We closed our shopping cart websites, put website development and domaining on the back burner and chased the clouds to scratch an itch that began to burn.
Our WordPress, web development and SEO skillsets fell by the wayside.
Time passed. Years went by. And Gutenberg – the sea-change to WordPress that began in 2018 – came upon us. Words like, “Block” and “Full Site Editing” are now bandied about by the WordPress cognoscente while those of us who did not hop on the Blockbase bandwagon are coughing in the development dust shouting, “Hey! Wait!”
Coming Full Circle
It’s 2022 and we find ourselves back on the ground, with rusty skillsets and a portfolio of domains we love. What to do? Develop them, of course!
Our passion for developing our ideas is too strong to ignore. And so it is back into web development and domaining we go. Some of us (ahem) have to re-learn WordPress and Javascript and JSON to bring our ideas to life. Which may lead some of you to ask…
Why not Jumpstart Your Ideas and Outsource the Development ?
What fun is that?
See, “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” Also, we’re a local microstartup again – note the emphasis on local. And we’ve learned a thing or two about money and finances along the way. So we are a bit more conservative than we were when we started in 1997 – buying every book, tool and marketing course we could find (including courses offered by internet marketing guru Corey Rudl, may he rest in peace).
What Worked Then Still Holds True Today
Corey Rudly was right about how to make money on the internet. The process is still the same whether you have a brick and mortar business, a drop-shipping business or a digital product business.
It isn’t magic and there is no short-cut.
Choose your product or service, build a website on a great domain name, write compelling copy, drive traffic to your website, satisfy your Customers, get feedback and grow! With the added benefit of video-on-demand, there are now even more creative ways to reach and educate Clients.
Welcome to Domain Names USA
We’re a brick and mortar Domain Name Marketing Company in Fort Lauderdale, FL providing Brandable and Premium Domain Name Sales, Support and Acquisition.
Call us before you purchase a domain name!
