Document: WM-007 P. Webb Category: Project 2017.02.08 Roadmap for BeachfrontDigital Abstract Far-reaching goals for BeachfrontDigital. Body BeachfrontDigital[1] is a domain portfolio management tool I built and launched late last year. To quote the "About" page: > BeachfrontDigital is me scratching my own itch and taking cues from > The 7 Day Startup. I buy domains on a regular basis and often from > more than one registrar. As a result, I tend to forget I have some > domains! *True story*, I ran a WHOIS search *on a domain I own*, a > couple months ago. Terrible. 😩 The name is a result of a conversation I had with co-workers about how domain names are like the premium waterfront properties of the 80s. Of course, the domain `beachfront.digital` was available so I snagged it ASAP. Since launching BD in October, I've made updates here and there and it seemed like I was going to get valuable feedback from early beta testers who assured me they would sign up at $6/year *instead of* the regular $11/year price…turns out, *nobody* wanted to beta test and my messages were ignored. Was it because of the upfront cost? Was it because I didn't have a bunch of features fleshed out? I'll never know. However, of the friends I reached out to for feedback Wojtek Witkowski[2] was the only one who got back to me. Through him and a prospective customer/commenter on Hacker News, I learned a few things: - I wasn't offering anything that a spreadsheet couldn't handle. - $6/year was still too much to charge for someone who has <10 domains. - To make charging for my service palatable, I'd need to create a sync system for registrars. - Not all registrars have public APIs (see: Hover). - There are *so* many registrars. It's not cost-effective to maintain syncing for each. - Creating a sync system based on undocumented APIs like some people have done with Hover is a *terrible* idea. Undocumented APIs means they can break at *any* moment. For these reasons and more, *I have decided to make BeachfrontDigital free* when V2 goes live. I'm currently working on a stock photography site for people of color so upgrades and changes to BD will occur in March (when I'm not playing my Nintendo Switch, hehe). I also plan to update the site with a visual style reminiscent of the 80s. Here's how the site used to look: 📸[First version of BeachfrontDigital][IMG1] Here's how it looks now: 📸[Second version of BeachfrontDigital][IMG2] As you can see, the styling went from pretty cool (the logo was levitating and the background grid moved as well) to extremely sterile. Nothing's *wrong* with a sterile look, that's what this blog looks like, haha! But for something with the URL `beachfront.digital`, it could stand to look a *bit* more impressive. A key missing feature is the ability to import your domains. If you've already got a method to organize your domains and you want to use BeachfrontDigital, you sure wouldn't want to type everything again right? *Hell no*, who has time for *that*?! I intend to make the wishlist feature more robust, as well as the personal analytics. For example, I'm paying $2027 for 75 domains per year 😅. Anyhoo, watch this space and @BeachfrontD[3] on Twitter for updates. 🕸 References [1] [2] [3] [IMG1] [IMG2]