[thelist] advice on acquiring a web property

[Steve Cook]

Interesting that your judgement of the domain is being affected in a
negative way by someone having had a site on the domain. I've read some
advice guides for reselling of domains before and almost all state that it's
best to have something on the domain, even if it's very very basic, in order
to be able to show that the site gets traffic. Personally, I've never domain
squatted, but I always did think that putting up something shoddy could
affect the value of the domain negatively.

However, in this case, I would consider what your goals are for the site. If
you think that the domain itself can be a major source of traffic to your
site, then there's probably not too much damage done. The vast majority of
internet users don't remember which domains they have visited before based
on the name of the domain - it's the content that people remember.
Personally, I would be more worried about the fact that in this country
.co.xxx domains aren't in common use. Will this domain really help drive
business to your site, or will it just confuse people?

Gah! I'm not at all sure this is helpful, but it's early in the morning ;-)
Good luck anyway.

.steve


> 4. The site is by consensus of several experienced developers 
> very poorly 
> done and I'm not sure there many people who would revisit it, 
> as it is now.
> 
> That said, do you think that if the site is purchased, 
> redeveloped and 
> properly marketed it can be of value, or would the existing site have 
> already created an irreparable damage in those who have 
> visited? Something 
> along the lines of "This sucks, I'm never coming here again".
>