Is that a business opportunity? Something like "develop my domain"? Like a land-owner who lets tenants develop?

So, you pay for the domain name, list it on the development site, and a developer (say me) can pick and choose from what you have and build a product on your property.

There's a contract, you get x% of proceeds from my endeavor, I get a domain name specific to my needs, and we all benefit. The contract would also specify a dwell-time. I get 12 months, or 2 years, or whatever on the property.

Then the contract comes back up for negotiation. Maybe a sale is negotiated (you want my development, or I want your domain name).

If I have OnlineTumbleweeds.com and you like the idea of developing it, why wouldn't you just buy TumbleweedsOnline.com? I don't see what value the domain owner is adding. There's not going to be a ton of SEO value to an old domain that's just been parked.

Fair enough. I was thinking that perhaps owners of desirable domain names (short, catchy, specific, etc) who also don't have the time for development could benefit.

But, I think you're right. There'd be a lot of not-so-desirable domains to sort through.

A little bit like having a lease on your business address, yeah, I could see this work. It may be a lot better for the person owning the domain than for the person developing the property, though.

You'd need good contracts - you'd need clauses around trademarks, etc.

> It may be a lot better for the person owning the domain than for the person developing the property, though.

This is why I specified renting a redirect, so the developer maintains their IP. I suppose if I (the developer) were to build branding specifically around a domain name (which seems common) then renting could become more of an issue, especially if a new rental agreement cannot be negotiated.

> You'd need good contracts - you'd need clauses around trademarks, etc.

This is the other thing I was pondering. At the start it would essentially be a Craigslist sort of match-making service, and so solid contracts would have to be between individuals without guidance from the service.

Eventually, though, the goal could be to have the company be a registrar in order to control domain names under contract and payment processing (to make sure everyone gets what they agreed to).

I'm not sure the second point above is where a service like this should go, though.