When I made my recent domain change, one of the big reasons I cited was the brandability that could be gained with using a “better” domain name.   Using a personal domain not only makes the domain/website difficult to sell, but it also limits the things you can do with it.  

In the past I’ve had a number of projects going on at the same time, which include having several different blogs setup.   While this method works for some people, I’ve felt for awhile now that it is probably better to keep it all under one umbrella, and having a brandable domain name now allows for that opportunity.  Setting up a subdomain or directory will fit much nicer under a brandable domain name and makes things easier to manage for the blogger.  It also saves a lot of the time that would normally be spent developing and branding each individual webpage. 

Along this line of thinking, I enjoyed seeing that Daily Bits has written a post that covers developing a website for user interaction.  In this post, Steven talks about some ways to further develop your website beyond just a blog to help increase the value and to help add more user interaction.   Some ideas mentioned include adding forums, adding quizzes/polls, video blogging, or even adding job boards. 

Some other options I would add are writing an eBook, creating a WordPress theme/plugin, writing a Greasemonkey script or Firefox extension, or even creating a Tumblelog for posting quick and/or random thoughts, links, or whatever else you feel like posting.   Keeping all of this under one domain can increase traffic, improve user interaction, and improve the overall value of your domain/website. 

How Can I Help You?

While I’ve never been a person that bases his success on numbers of blog comments, I have found that comments are a great way to gauge reader interest.  The basic idea is that the posts that receive the most comments are probably written about what people most want to hear about.  I try to keep an eye on the most commented posts so that when I write my next post, I have an idea of what type of stuff to write about. 

I’m curious to find out what additions you would like to see made to Slickmania?   Would you participate in forums or download an eBook?  Will you be reading my Tumblelog?  What else would you like to see?  Any input is appreciated!