Whether you are looking to save money on domain development or wanting to increase the sales of your domain portfolio; these basic skills will help you grow as a domainer and help you communicate more efficiently with providers during the development of your domain properties. In addition, you don't have to become an expert in these skills but familiarizing yourself with the basics can lead to better overall management of your domain portfolio.

HTML

HTML is good to learn for when you want to make small changes to text and layouts without paying extra development fees. Knowing this skill will also assist you when optimizing your pages for search engines.

Search Engine Optimization

Learning basic SEO eliminates the need to hire professionals to optimize your pages. It can also help increase the value of your domain portfolio as you learn how to target alternative keyword sets in domaining.

Marketing

Business networking, social networking, word-of-mouth promotion and offline advertising all fall within the marketing umbrella. Learning how to promote your website online and offline is a valuable skill that will not only guide you through SEO but provide a roadmap for targeted development.

CMS Management

Installing, configuring and using a content management system such as Wordpress or Joomla will help you save money on development costs. This includes learning how to FTP, chmod files and install components, plugins and themes that accompany the respective CMS. Even if you would rather not learn how to configure the basics at least become familiar with how to use one for basic content publishing.

Resources

Books

• Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes
• The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization by Stephan Spencer

Websites

• Lissa Explains it All -- HTML Help and Tutorials
• Wordpress Quick Start Guide
• Joomla Help Site

Articles

• 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action

Comments (9)

TeenDomainer January 22, 2011

Great points, when I began I really did not have the money to hire out so I was forced to learn everything myself and now I am so happy that I did.

TWood January 22, 2011

TeenDomainer: Not only that but it leads to clarity. I can't begin to tell you how many wrong paths I notice domainers take with development from lack of knowing basic SEO or marketing. Launching a site without understanding these aspects is crossing your fingers in hopes that it will gain traffic and/or monetize meanwhile the competition is running circles around your efforts.

Owen frager January 22, 2011

Great post. You need to roll up your sleeves and educate yourself. A free blog from google's blogger.com is the easiest for people who are terrified as I was. Then you can move to word press

Acro January 22, 2011

Those that endeavor into self-made projects will eventually realize why professionals charge accordingly There is a vast difference between education as knowledge and education as skill. Being a hobbyist developer might save one money or time but it will almost always come at the expense of quality.

Joey Starkey January 23, 2011

There is no better satisfaction then doing the job yourself. Not to mention if you are on a shoestring time is sometimes in more abundance then greenbacks. Plus if you learn to do it yourself, you can always take care of the emergency when you can't get someone else to answer the phone.

Matt Leonard January 23, 2011

Regardless of what you are investing in, the point is valid. Knowing enough to 'be dangerous' will save you time and money. Also, it's never wrong to get a second opinion!

George January 23, 2011

Some great tips Tia. I learned early on that one cannot assume that the SE's will just pick your site up for no reason. You must have compelling content that people want to link to, and you should only develop sites that you have an active interest in and are passionate about. I have a number of sites that I have begun to build out and now instead of using templates I am using simple html. It's pretty easy to learn and once you have a decent template you can re-use it. Here's a great tip: use .php includes on your pages for you navigation. This way you have one file to update if you decide to add new sections to your site. It's very simple and effective.

cars January 27, 2011

Well the world moves so quickly lately its hard to keep up , now i am supposed to learn 101 things for just social networking , although the list above seems to make much more sense and yes would no doubt save some money. Gotta admit i am a wordpress fan and have never done a ftp. All food for thought thanks , just wish i had a teenager in the house ...... they know everything : )

Donald Short September 02, 2011

Yes, all of these are crucial. WP and HTML is easy to learn, but SEO and marketing can be frustrating and expensive at times.

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