Choosing A Domain: A Story filled with Turnovers and Triumph

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The Anatomy of a Domain: A Story of Headaches and Triumph

Setting up the Website:

Choosing an available domain that is pronounceable, affordable and relevant to your product is one of the more nerve racking and nail biting adventures.

I probably have 45 different names that I thought of while sitting on the throne one weekend. (Don't worry I totally took breaks for coffee and snacks).

Once you have out a couple different directions you would like try, comes the scary part. Punching them into GoDaddy or whatever Domain Service you choose.

FantasyLineup - Taken
FantasyLegend - taken
FantasyLegends - Taken
FantasyFootballApp - Taken
Fantasy Bros - Taken 

… See where I'm going with this, and once you find one that is available it sort of that moment where someone is trying to sell you a $1,000 Bose Surround Sound System for $15.99.

Hmm well it looks okay right? I'm sure it'll sound good when I play music. It's not a huge investment I might as well take the small risk. 

So you finally decide to pull the trigger. TAKEN ... Something is fishy, maybe I shouldn't have punched it in the checked it's availability so many times.

Did someone I know buy it up right from under me? I did ask a few people if the name sounded okay before I went to pull the trigger the next morning. 

F!... so to make a long story short, unless you have a very unique brand name that one one else wants do count on your first choice for domains to be out there. 

If you want to dabble in the world of the (co, BIZ, TV, NYC, etc.) feel free. But as long as someone else owns that .com domain.

Can your start-up ever really feel like it's yours? You may have spent a good portion of your life, sharing a room or even a bed with a sibling.

For your big moment to shine, to pour your heart into a project all of your own do you still want that sense of sharing a space with someone? 

Regardless if the domain is an abandoned blog, direct competitor or sex toys ecommerce site. You aren't married to anything yet; you can still manage something else.

And that was the run down of the domain purchasing escapades. I finally settled on FantasybroSports.com ... surprise surprise. If you managed to make it this far without seeing
Fantasy Bro Sports lining every crevice of this website, Twitter and maybe my lower back one day (Need to cover up this Pink Butterfly tattoo somehow).

So boom! Email confirmation, mashed in my credit card number and now FantasyBroSports.com is now mine. So just like every minor accomplishment you make along the way, you have to blast it out on every Social Platform you have ever signed up for. Pulling out the Yellow Pages to look up lost classmates (at least for the ones that have finally escaped the wrath of the Facebook). Doesn't everyone want to hear about my new Fantasy Football website? 

Tell your parents! and subsequently explain to your parents what it means to own a domain name. The process involved and why I couldn't get anything catchier like "FantasyExpert.com".

"Can I see it?" ... these four words shot through my chest like a gunshot. I barely have anything at all ... I have the rights to point a series of ASCII characters towards an ipv4 public web server. 

I still need a host. 

Any if you thought choosing the perfect (out of the available pool) domains, try figuring out whether to go with SquareSpace or Bluehost / WordPress.

I might save this for another day and another blog post.

Search Engine Optimization: (SEO) - Why am I not getting any hits? 

I got my flashy new website from SquareSpace jumped through a couple hoops to get everything redirecting properly now how do I get people here?

Apparently "Build it and they will come" does not apply to generating traffic to your website.

Finally got indexed on Google: (Courtesy of Google Webmaster Tools)

So the days of adding "Fantasy Football" in black font on a black background on a webpage is not long suitable to get ranked on Google. I'll detail all the tips and tricks I've come across with links to these high quality resources in the near future. 

As you can see below it's important to have your brand be associated with relevant keywords so people can find you when they search. As you can see there is still much work to be done.

Now that I finally have a steady stream of daily visitors, I need to find a reason to keep these people entertained as well as adding valuable content to keep them coming back.

Now it’s finally time to add some valuable Fantasy Football related content, and just as hard as it is that first day of high school when they stick you in Homeroom or August Madness as they called it many moons ago when I was in High School. Coming up with some grandiose way of introducing yourself is pretty difficult when you are put on the spot.

Which lead me to ask myself, are we a software company? At the end of the day that is ultimately the final product we are producing.

Then again, are we Fantasy Football advice blog rolled into an iPhone App.

When I've mentioned to my friends and family, "Hey I'm starting up my own business called Fantasy Bro Sports ..."

The dumbfounded looks on peoples faces as I tried to describe the blogging and iOS app portions of what I plan on doing really made me question if this whole thing was even viable. Don't get me wrong there were plenty of "Oh thats really cool i hope it goes well" which in reality were mostly polite ways to segue off topic. In a nervous defensive fit I started throwing out phrases like "it's a algorithmic analytical tool to help users decide on which players to start on their fantasy teams" which kind of sort of summarized what this is but boy the more verbiage I threw at them the less and less interested they were at hearing more. The one semi-positive reaction I got from people is when I mentioned the possibility of a Fantasy Football Podcast and many were quick to volunteer to become 

After some time alone I broke it down to this: 

"Fantasy Bro Sports is iOS app that takes the pain out of managing your Fantasy Football team"

I can't stress how important it is to use the KISS method (keep it simple silly) when pitching or shamelessly promoting your project or business.

More to come where we dissect our business identity and thank you for reading!

Have any questions about our progress? Need Fantasy Football lineup advice?

Tweet to @FantasyBroApp

Fantasy Bro Sports Blog - "It Can't be Done"

All we hear now a days as an IOS developer is, the App Store is full! 80 percent of iOS developers live below the poverty line.

Everything that could ever be made has already been.

The market has matured, there cannot be something fresh.

The ecosystem is too competitive to earn a livable income.

So what am I doing here? First and for most I’m here to prove that it can still be done.

This isn’t a personal vendetta (Okay perhaps it might be for a bevy of different reasons), it’s just the human response to “It can’t be done”, “You can’t do it”, “Don’t waste your time”.

Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Doubt is toxic and goes hand in hand with insecurity.

I’m not in the business of fostering either emotion. “It can’t be done” are the four most motivational words I can ever hear.

But anyways enough self-pep talk about the player haters (not the disgruntled Fantasy Football patrons who are going against a Running Back who just crossed 200 yards rushing or a wide receiver with his third touchdown reception).

I’m not sure what the parameters of this blog will be moving forward, it’s going to be part documentary style, noting my struggles with development of the iOS App, managing data streams, establishing a Fantasy Football related Podcast (Official name, date and frequency to be determined at a later date).

Enjoy Episode 2 of Tough Season: New Faces Ep.2. I love the draft advice in this one.

"Research is for non-champions!"