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Elements of a Successful Geo Website

Elliot Silver
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12

I am frequently asked what it takes to have a successful Geo Website, and I think there are many aspects of this. As far as I am concerned, the number one thing is to have the primary domain name, as it breeds trust, can open doors for advertisers, requires little or no explanation, and it helps with SEO. This said, there are other factors that can contribute to a great Geo Website.

Tourism – People want to learn about many things in a geographical area. Some people are looking to visit and they will want to know   travel information such as hotels, train schedules, flights, museums, activities, and other tourism information. Where it’s possible to do so efficiently and accurately, process tickets and reservations, as this will be “sticky” and bring the visitors back again. Use affiliate relationships where necessary/possible – especially if you can’t do this on your own.

Local business – Many visitors to the website will either live in the area or be looking to move to the area. You should provide local information such as restaurant listings, service companies, and other business information to make it easy for locals to find things. Use your site as a local would – ie searching for a real estate agent or taxi, and make improvements where you need it.

Events – Event listings are great because it’s content that’s given to you by organizations who are acknowledging your site’s reach. This is an opportunity to engage local organizations and businesses to discuss mutually benifical trades. For my sites, I am a media sponsor of a number of local events in each city. It takes time to build supporting pages, but it costs very little and builds your brand. Visitors also come to the site to find this information.

Unique Content – To get better rankings on internal pages, you need to have as much unique content as possible. Long tail keyword SERP position is important, as this will drive non-direct traffic to the site. If a Google-searcher is looking for a park in the region, you should rank in the top 10 for it. Unique content will help boost your rankings. It may cost more, but it’s worth it.

Good Site Architecture – I am not a SEO expert by any stretch, but I know it’s important to set up your site to enable Google, MSN, Yahoo, and other search bots to crawl it. The site should be easy for people to navigate, and it will generally be just as easy for bots to navigate and rank your site. This will help with your site’s SE placement, which will drive traffic. A successful Geo Website can’t rely alone on search engine rankings, nor can it alone rely on direct navigation traffic. Both are possible and likely if you start off on a good footing.

Build Your Brand – With a city .com name, you are already miles ahead of the competition since you essentially own the brand. If you don’t own the city .com name, you need to do whatever it takes to get your brand out there and to build community awareness. If people don’t know about your site, they probably won’t find it.

Photos – People want to see where they are going or moving, so it’s important to have great photographs. To save copyright infringement and legal trouble, I would recommend hiring a photographer from the area for a couple hundred dollars and give a list of photos to take. Make sure you work out the details about ownership of the photographs. I used Craigslist once with success and once with a bad situation (don’t ask). In the end, I found that my photographs and the photographs I had a friend take were best.

Social Media – One of the newest elements of great geo websites is the social media integration, where comments are allowed, people can post links on Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, forums, and other interaction. The more visitors are engaged, the more they will visit the site and advertisers. They will also help you determine what should be added to the site or removed.

When you have a great geodomain website, you own the city virtually. While the city/region might not like it, they realize that they can either become partners or enemies. I have a decent relationship with my two biggest cities, and although we aren’t working hand in hand exactly, we do have a good relationship because they know our goals are aligned.

Based on experience, I wouldn’t recommend meeting with city leaders until your site is launched completely and has a large following. However, I do think that working in conjunction with the city has its advantages and can be beneficial to your site’s success.

I am sure I missed some things here, so please pass along your feedback. The next topic (I think) will be monetization.

4 Number .com Domain Names for Sale (Updated)

Elliot Silver
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3

Sale ended a long time ago.

Using Whois To Detect Fraud & Counterfeit

Elliot Silver
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1

Last month, a friend of mine emailed me a link to a website proporting to sell Christian Louboutin shoes. She wanted to know if there was a way to tell if the site was fraudulent since it looked a bit fishy, and the prices were almost too good to be true. The website did look pretty poorly constructed, but there are plenty of places that sell close-outs, so that wasn’t 100% convincing.

I did a Whois check on the name, and lo and behold, the domain name was registered a couple of weeks prior. A new domain registration, coupled with all of these other signals led me to believe it was a site selling counterfeit products.

If you are ever in doubt about whether a website is legit, check the Whois. You can see who owns and operates the website (if it’s not private), and you can see how long it’s been operating. If you use the DomainTools Whois tool, you can also see historic thumbnails as well. Since many large brands monitor their presence on the Internet, fraudulent websites are generally shut down quickly.

NBA Player Gets Domain & Cash Judgment

Elliot Silver
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10

According to a news release today, prestigious law firm Winston & Strawn prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of NBA basketball player Chris Bosh, who not only won the domain name ChrisBosh.com, but he also won a financial judgment of $120,000 (including legal fees and damages). The $120,000 judgment does not include the attorney’s fees that the domain owner needed to pay for his own representation, of course.

The court ruled that the plaintiff had used Bosh’s name to generate revenues for the domain owner, without the player’s consent or approval. The release also noted that the defendant also owns something like 800 other domain names of athletes and other famous professionals, some of whom may see this judgment and look to file suit to claim their domain name back as well as any potential damages.

This should serve as a warning to people who register the domain names of famous athletes, politicians, and celebrities. There certainly are legitimate uses for these types of domain names, but there are also ways that owners can put these domain names at risk, and also put their business at risk. When you buy or own a domain name like this, you should consider the risk vs. reward of ownership, and see this case as an example of a major risk.

I frequently see people discussing this issue in domain forums, and now you have an answer.

Make a Good Offer

Elliot Silver
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0

A lot of domain owners have received offers on their premium domain names. Strike that. ALL owners of premium domain names have received offers on their domain names before. It’s virtually impossible to be the first offer someone’s received if they own a great domain name. To get there attention, your email needs to stand out from everyone else’s solicitation.

As a domain buyer, your job is to make an offer that is compelling enough for them to respond. If you insult someone with a lowball offer, they will delete it. Even if you think your offer is a “good” introductory offer, step into their shoes for a minute and imagine you’ve owned that domain name for 10 years and received countless emails. How would you respond to the email? If you aren’t impressed, they won’t be either, and they probably will delete it.

If you ask the domain owner if the name is for sale without naming a price, they will probably delete it, too. They’ve owned the name for a long time for a reason, and that’s because they haven’t received a compelling enough offer to sell it.

The best way to get a conversation going with a domain owner is to make a good opening offer. At the very least, you will usually get a response, and at the best, the domain owner will accept your offer. I enjoy negotiations to a point, but I generally make a strong offer at the outset. Maybe I can go higher, but maybe I can’t. However, it’s generally good enough to get a response.

I’ve also found it helpful to include my phone number in my email correspondence. People want to know they are dealing with other real people, and if they can give you a call to talk, they will generally feel more comfortable. This has helped seal the deal on a couple of acquisitions in the last few weeks.

People are willing to sell their domain names, but you need to give them a reason. For many it’s financial, and you can’t negotiate with someone who immediately deletes your email upon opening it.

No More Easy Money

Elliot Silver
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10

One problem I think many of us have is that we sometimes view our domain investments as a means to make a lot of money quickly. I know a number of people who got started in the industry after reading articles about people like Rick Schwartz making a lot of money with virtual assets, and they want to follow suit because it looks like a great lifestyle filled with “easy money.”

I must admit that the domain investor “lifestyle” I live is great, but it’s not exactly the stereotypical one that people probably think about. I work 12-16 hour days developing, researching, and negotiating, and I work every day. I enjoy what I do, and I set my own hours, so it’s worked out well. If I want to take a day off, I have the ability to do that. There are very few people in the industry who sit back and relax all day while drinking cocktails on the beach at night, although that stereotype does sound relaxing.

All of this said, I want to give a bit of a warning to people who may be new to the industry. Just because you see a specific type of name selling for a lot of money (and growing in value), it doesn’t mean that all similar names are worth the same amount of money. Simply because some people are investing isn’t a good enough reason for you to buy as well unless you know why the name is increasing in value and believe the rationale is correct.

Over the past year, prices in a number of verticals within our industry have dropped considerably, while premium domain names have kept their value. The reason is that many verticals (like 3 and 4 letter domain names) were perceived as being much more valuable than other domain names, and domain investors who were doing most of the buying couldn’t sustain the growth. Eventually, there were many more sellers than buyers, and the prices dropped, tremendously in some cases.

I am not going to preach and tell you what types of names are best to buy and what types of names aren’t. It really isn’t as easy as that. I will say that you should do your due diligence when you buy, and if you are looking to make fast money, you are in the industry at the wrong time. Just about everyone I know is working hard, and there is no such thing as easy money.

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