Geographic Domain Names Archives - Page 22 of 31

Create New Revenue Opportunities

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August 8, 2009

When I was evaluating my geo-websites, I realized that I could have great traffic and content, but based on my advertising placements and opportunities, unless my prices were sky-high, I would never be able to turn them into self-sustaining businesses. I have 6 banners on the top bar of home page, and they rotate throughout the site. Additionally, I charge for job listings and I use a hotel affiliate for reservations. Although I have signed-on a few local advertisers in the last few weeks, the revenue is still fairly small compared to my other ventures.

Over the past couple of days, I’ve looked at each section of my website with an eye on increasing the revenue. After comparing some of my sections (such as the restaurant section), I realized I need to look at each area as a completely separate revenue generating opportunity. By doing this, I created the first iteration of the Lowell Restaurants Guide, and I am rapidly working on iteration #2 (well, my designer is).

Comparing my website to a garden, I had been tending to it as a whole – just watering the entire garden to make sure everything received enough hydration. Instead of doing this, I am now tending to each individual plant, making sure each gets specific nutrients to stay healthy and grow as large as possible.

I am not looking to maximize the revenue on my geo websites yet. I am looking to create opportunities for the future. I am building the brands locally and I am opening up advertising opportunities. Watching Shaun in Kelowna has really inspired me to look at ways to build these into bigger businesses. Each day, I am working towards achieving this goal, and I will soon share more of my business vision for my geodomain holdings.

When to Develop .org Geodomains

Elliot Silver

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July 24, 2009

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org over com This advice goes against much of what I’ve said about geodomain names during the past couple of years, but hear me out. I am very interested to hear what David Castello has to say about my rationale – and I look forward to his comment, which I bet will happen soon. There is a time when developing a .ORG geodomain is a smart thing to do.

I will preface this by saying that I believe .org domain names are perceived by Joe Interweb as trustworthy, which is what you need for a website. The problem is that many people confuse .org with .com, and if the topic/content is similar, they are likely to just stay on the .com, patronizing the advertisers and making hotel reservations on that site. It’s easy to lose a potential customer due to confusion if you own the .org and not the .com, which is why I think many organizations own their .com, too, and forward traffic to the .org.

In any case, the perfect time to develop a .org geodomain is when the .com is a fully developed business completely unrelated to the city/town/region. If you visit Concord.com hoping to find information about Concord, New Hampshire, you will end up on Computer Associates’ website, and you will scratch your head and say, “shoot, I thought my buddy told me to go to Concord.com to make my hotel reservation. Shoot – what was that address again? Oh yeah Concord.org!”

If a person is looking for Lowell.org but types in Lowell.com, I hope that my site will give them more than enough information about Lowell, Massachusetts and they won’t even remember that they were initially looking for Lowell.org.

One example of a great .org domain name to develop is a name I am bidding on at Snapnames, but I probably won’t win. Worcester.org is up for auction (August 3), and I think this is a great domain name to develop because of what I said above. I am having a tough time managing 3 geo websites, so I doubt I’d have time to develop this, too – although I will be bidding less than I think it’s worth just in case.

So why is Worcester.org a great domain name to develop? For starters, I have tried to buy Worcester.com with no luck (even with a serious offer). The domain name is being used for its nameservers right now and doesn’t resolve. Worcester is a great city in central Massachusetts that’s home to a professional minor league hockey team, several colleges, many big companies, and is centrally located, making it great for conferences and events. The Worcester Centrum (now the DCU Center) hosts concerts and other events – I remember commercials for the Monster Truck rallies held their annually.

Anyhow, since it doesn’t appear that Worcester.com will be developed into a geodomain any time soon, I think the .org would make a great acquisition.

There are other similar .org domain names that are ripe for development.

Thank You, David Castello

Geographic Domain Names

Elliot Silver

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July 17, 2009

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If you read my blog frequently, you are probably well aware that David Castello from CCIN has given me great geodomain development advice on Lowell.com and Burbank.com. As I mentioned in a previous article, David’s advice led me to add banners across the top row of the home page on my geodomains, whereas before I only had the 6 spots on the bottom right.

Not only did one advertiser just renew a six month advertising deal adter nearly backing out after 3 months, but I analyzed my hotel affiliate revenue, and much of it is coming from clicks on the rotating banners on the top row. In addition, I have been receiving many inquiries for advertising from people clicking on the “Advertise on Burbank/Lowell.com” banner in the top row. This is a marked improvement from the side rotating banners.

Without David’s advice, I don’t think the results would be as good. As revenue begins to ramp up, I am realizing that all of the effort I’ve put in is beginning to pay off, and by treating my advertisers well, they are happy to continue advertising on the site.

One thing you can take away from this is that when you develop, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Look at successful websites and see how they monetize. For geodomain names, you can look at other Associated Cities member websites and adapt some of the commonly seen strategies. You can also look at the local news and newspaper websites, too. Not only can you gleen strategy, but you can also see who is advertising locally!

City in a Box Opportunity

Elliot Silver

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July 15, 2009

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I wanted to share an email I received from my friend Fred Mercaldo, one of the most respected geodomain developers whose company owns Scottsdale.com. Fred’s company introduced a new offering for other domain investors who own city/regional .com domain names. If I hadn’t developed Burbank.com and Lowell.com on my own already, I would not hesitate to turn to Fred and his expert team. If you have an undeveloped geodomain name – or if you have an underdeveloped geodomain name, you might consider reaching out to Fred about this opportunity.

Scottsdale.com has grown to include 4 additional geodomains in the Arizona market. In building these sites, we have developed a platform and system that Becky and I realized could be used for other geodomains, and have now formally begun to market the software as “City In A Box”.

We are big believers that geodomains be developed and not parked, and there are still many cities and state names that could benefit from our services. To see the actual site, visit www.mesa.com and www.sausalito.com. The package includes a complete, ready to monetize website, with a comprehensive Content Management System, customizable Channel and Directory categories, fully functioning Event Calendar, Stories, Articles, Press releases; easy admin area for all banner ads; ability to have visitors create user accounts, stat tracking ability for all advertisers or anything listed on the site, so reports for advertisers are easy; blogs, and full Optimization Elements.

This is not a typical template system or mini site; this is the result of many years of trial and error in the building and marketing of Scottsdale.com, and if I had the ability to purchase this package years ago, I would have saved literally hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are presently developing 4 other cities, and have the ability to build out 8-10 more this year. The total price for everything is $12,500, and for a yearly fee of $2,500 we will provide all upgrades and updates in the future.

Additional information, including a spec sheet can be obtained from Fred@scottsdale.com or Becky@scottsdale.com.

Treat Your Advertisers Well

Elliot Silver

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July 15, 2009

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When I first launched Burbank.com and Lowell.com, I had 4 banner spots available to advertisers rotating on the bottom right hand side of nearly every page. There were between 8-12 banners in total, so each banner didn’t get a ton of impressions. I was able to sign on one great advertiser on Burbank.com a few months after launch, and I was psyched.

A few months in to their commitment, the advertiser told me they weren’t going to continue to advertise on the site. The first person I called was David Castello to ask him how I should respond. I expected a great rebuttal which would secure the advertiser for another six months, but I was wrong. David’s reply was something like, “wait, you’re offering rotating banners on the bottom right of your site and you’re surprised the advertiser isn’t going to renew? Treat them well and they’ll never leave. You need to give them better placement on the site.”

Well, I made a big change a few months ago, adding a row of six advertisements to the top of the home page, just below the banner, and the response has been terrific. The advertiser informed me that her company will continue to advertise, and I just signed another advertiser on Lowell.com for advertisements in several sections on the site. In addition, I’ve had many more advertising inquiries of late and I am close to signing a nice advertising deal on Lowell.com within the next couple of weeks.

Traffic continues to rise for both of my primary geographic domain names, and advertisers are getting even more value. I am treating them well and allowing them to advertise locally in a cost-effective way. It’s a win/win for all parties. Just like I do on my blog and now on my geodomain names, if you give your advertisers the best placement, they will continue to advertise and support your efforts.

As an aside, the chart below is something I am very proud of because it’s been a lot of work. The publicly reported traffic numbers for Burbank.com are several thousand visitors less than my statistics are showing (perhaps because they don’t record type-in visitors), but you get the idea. Every month I work hard to beat the prior month, and it’s beginning to pay off!

“Newspapers Can’t Do It…”

Elliot Silver

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June 16, 2009

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Another geodomain owner has made the transition from a travel and tourism guide to a full-blown journalistic publication. Shaun Pilfold and his team have transitioned their website about Kelowna, British Columbia into the website about Kelowna. The Kelowna.com executive team hired some of Kelowna’s top journalists and photographers, as well as some of the best-known local personalities, which is going to drive continued growth at the company.

In addition to advertising online, Kelowna.com is also advertising the new website on the local radio, including a great line about how newspapers and television stations can’t do what they are going to do online. With a great domain name, they are able to grab the attention of radio listeners who will certainly remember how to find them online.

Sure, they didn’t need to have the Kelowna.com domain name, but it certainly gives them much more instant credibility within the community who will see the website and feel as if they’ve known about the site forever. I know the team is working hard to make the site better, and they will succeed.

As I’ve learned, there are always minor glitches that can happen right at launch. If you happen to see something funky on the site, please make a comment here, and I will let Shaun know about it. Congrats to the Kelowna.com team – and here’s to much more success.

Geographic Domain Names

Create New Revenue Opportunities

When to Develop .org Geodomains

Thank You, David Castello

City in a Box Opportunity

Treat Your Advertisers Well

“Newspapers Can’t Do It…”

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