If You Owned This Domain - SpringBreakTrips.com What Would You Do???

skatenow619 · #1 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 06:42 PM

Hey Everyone,
I'm coming up with strategies on how to monetize a domain that I believe has some great SEO potential...

SpringBreakTrips.com

Now the obvious things are Adwords, Aff Programs, etc.

but, if you had this domain...

What would you do? How would you approach this from the ground up???

My current line of thought is creating a Spring Break landing site where various travel operators can advertise on, etc.

But, what software (scripts, content mangament etc.) would you use???

Keep in mind this domain has been around a long time but has never been more than forwarded to another page - no real development.

TIA

**wige** · #2 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 06:56 PM

Ooooh - saw the name and then so many ideas.... I am thinking social networking portal... people can post pictures and stories about their spring break experiences - where they went, what they did, what local attractions they liked and didn't like, while other users can come in to the site to plan their trips, even make groups, find agents and discounts... layer on top of that contextual advertising around the story and planning pages, and link reviews directly to on site database of popular destinations and attractions.

skatenow619 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-08-2007, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wige

Ooooh - saw the name and then so many ideas.... I am thinking social networking portal... people can post pictures and stories about their spring break experiences - where they went, what they did, what local attractions they liked and didn't like, while other users can come in to the site to plan their trips, even make groups, find agents and discounts... layer on top of that contextual advertising around the story and planning pages, and link reviews directly to on site database of popular destinations and attractions.

That's a great idea I love that! Thanks for the input.

would you develop the network from ground up (custom work) or use an already existing script?

nottheusual1 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-12-2007, 08:18 PM

Lots of very good open source stuff to do what you'd need. Start here:

Home - OpenSourceCMS

We use MODx for a couple of implementations. Took about a month to get really proficient at it. XML + CSS are wonderful together and there are thousands of skins available for the most popular packages.

Hope this helps!!

skatenow619 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 04:09 AM

I appreciate the link. I'm certainly familiar with Joomla, and several other CMS's. Not really certain what would work best here. Any opinions on something that can integrate social networking aspects + works great with search engines?

**wige** · #6 (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 10:57 AM

Honestly, I am a bit of a do-it-myselfer, and as I look at the big social network sites, they all seem to be built on a customized platform (facebook, myspace, etc) which gives the flexibility to customize the site to be very unique and meet the exact needs of the network you are creating.

nottheusual1 · #7 (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 04:26 PM

So far, MODx is working very well for a couple of clients. It has a great facility for Google-friendly/SEO stuff and is so XML-ey that the learning curve was pretty painless.

It did point out some glaring weaknesses in our CSS skills, though, so we learned - which was a skill update we needed anyway.

We were glad to not have to reinvent the wheel for once, and it really works well with mySQL, even custom table configurations. Documentation could be a bit better, but that seems to be a shortcoming of most open source stuff.

And all of the underlying stuff is PHP, so if you are able, the possibilities are pretty endless.

We moved to a RAD package for PHP a while back that tends to be more design/usability centric and generates all the code for you. Greatest thing is that you can output the results of your work in php, asp, etc. This has required fewer coders to do generic jobs and let us get more done without having to find more coders, and was considerably less expensive than offshoring.........

CodeCharge Studio for Rapid Web Application Development and Visual Web Reporting; DemoCharge Screen Recorder

phx-keith · #8 (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 11:26 PM

The place to start is looking for a niche to put your site up on and continue to look for additional niches until you are ready to tackle more competitive search terms. It is all about what people are searching for. Once you know that then you know what to do - give the people what they want!