Dear apd
I am aware that this is a domain name forum and did not want to talk too much about our plans for the
www.ANY-Village.co.uk project, around which all our 15,000 domain name registrations are based.
I was overwhelmed by your in-depth analysis of ANY-Village as it currently stands. You certainly know how to go for the jugular!
No one is more keenly aware and embarrassed by the current weaknesses of our websites than I am. I could add to your long list.
However, your suggestions for improvement are very helpful and constructive. Your idea about featuring village crime is simply brilliant.
It ties in neatly with web cams in villages (and yes, we registered
www.web-cams.co.uk for this purpose...). I envisage a photo gallery for clubs and individuals, genealogy information (gravestone inscriptions, census lists per village), events diary, unwanted items for local collection, local maps, weather, etc. etc. etc.
My application developer is dying to get on with the new village layout
(sneak preview at
http://www.any-domains.com/village/d...HBOCKING.CO.UK - no links work, very early days).
We hope to go live in February.
Currently a website with community information looks like this:
www.kettlebaston.co.uk leads to
http://www.any-village.co.uk/main.as...D=Kettlebaston
Village text is below the photograph. Click on the picture and you see the photo gallery. There are hundreds of such websites active - my problem was publicity and resources.
Which brings me to the domain names listed for sale at
www.sedo.co.uk
We are planning to sell 100 domain names each year to businesses to finance the future domain name renewals.
If we work on a sale price of between £500 and £1000 this should bring in £50K-£100K of revenues to finance the Nominet renewals and the webhosting and programming costs.
10% of any money raised in this way will go to one of our 5 chosen charities (same applies to any revenues arising from ANY-Village).
Naturally I do not know which 100 domain names will sell, which is why they are ALL listed for sale. But there will be an annual cut-off after 100 names have been sold. Over time the prices achieved should increase.
So many ideas. So many problems. So many opportunities.
But reading posts like yours gives me the drive to continue and make it all happen.
Again, apologies to all domainers for this non-domain related post.
But perhaps it gives you all an insight into how passionate people can be about some of the domain names you hold, i.e. VILLLAGE NAMES!!! ...
Best wishes
Angie