Elliot Silver is going to document his journey with the development of his Lowell.com geo domain thru his blog elliotsblog.com.  This is a great way for others to learn, but geopreneurs have to keep an open mind and understand, what works for one geo domain, may not work for another, due to demographics, populations, and tourists attractions, etc.(Professional Geopreneurs Chime in Here please)  Use this study and others to come as an outline to your geo domain(s) development.  Overall, it should be fun to see Elliot take on this project and share his experiences, the good, the bad and the ugly with Lowell.com.  We will see alot of this type of teaching and mentoring thru blogging in 2008 to help domainers get a visual of what it takes to do it right or wrong.   I will be covering SouthCongress.com and AtlantaYellowpages.com in the same fashion in near future, and I encourage others to do the same and share your journey to development of your geo domains.  

(via elliotsblog.com) 

Like many domain investors, I’ve never developed a complete website. I know I should develop all of my names, but development is difficult and it takes quite a bit of time and money. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on the development of Lowell.com off line. After careful consideration, I have decided to blog about my ongoing experiences to give other domain investors insight into this development project.

While I hope this will give others the opportunity to witness a successful (or unsuccessful) development undertaking, selfishly, I want to document my progress so I can emulate and/or make improvements on my next project. I hope to be able to provide full details about various aspects of the development process, and I welcome any comments or advice.

So begins the journey into “The Lowell Project.” (more here)

 The future of website development will lay in the hands of visitors and consumers. If you provide the platform and opportunity, consumers/visitors will embrace it. Wikipedia has been doing it for years and grew into a power house over night because of it. Now Google.com launches “knol” beta, an attempt to encourage people to contribute knowledge and give wikipedia a run for its money. The difference is that authors with Google knol will be able to generate income for their submissions.

Smart websites and businesses are offering this option to their visitors to contribute content. People love to share knowledge and insight they have on subjects of interest whether thru writing or thru the submission of videos. It is rewarding to an individual when someone finds your advice useful or of interest. There are alot of knowledable people in different fields that never went to college to become a journalist, website developer, etc. etc. that want to express their oprinions and share their knowledge. Most of these people do not want the hassles of developing a website to do so. Allowing these individuals to provide targetted user generated content to the world benefits everyone involved, authors, visitors, and website owners.

Geo domains are prime pieces of property for this type of content because people know their areas very well, take pride in them, and have a way of connecting with consumer/visitor interests. User generated content creates loyal visitors, increases word of mouth advertising for your site as users take pride in their work, increases weblinks to your site, and allows the search engines to do their thing and increase traffic to your geo website(s). One post from a visitor on a subject of interest can start a flurry of activity and popularity to your site, as we all have witnessed in the past. Website owners can not do it alone and often miss topics of interest to visitors, sending them off to another site that fullfills their needs. Make this an option on your developed geo sites and watch your site(s) grow. Adding a blog to your developed geo domain(s) can bring value and increased traffic to your site. The most valuable asset is that this targetted relavent information is archived and will allow people to find your site in the future when searching the internet on topics of interest. The bottomline is visitors/consumers want the option to be interactive and provide their two cents on topics. Give them the option and watch your site grow in activity and traffic.

It’s a proven tactic, so get started! Encourage user generated content to your geo site(s).

Godspeed,
Steve