A few days ago I acquired a great product-related domain name using Sedo. I saw the name at a good price, and I bought it after doing some due diligence, including a Whois History search and a quick search of the USPTO database. All of this came back without any problems, so I bought the name. As I’ve mentioned, I have been selling some domain names lately to pay off the cost of the Burbank.com acquisition, so I emailed a few clients and acquaintances offering this name for a good price.
Several hours after I sent the email, one of my acquaintances emailed me back with a listing from the USPTO. Unfortunately when I was searching for “this product” in the USPTO database, there were no listings; however, a search of “thisproduct” as a single word would have yielded the result. The product is similar to “Band Aids” in that other products in this category are often called “this product,” although it is less common than Band Aids, and the product has only been around for 5-6 years – about the same time as the industry. I emailed the original owner of the domain name (since 2003) and he told me
Do the Right Thing
Internet Commerce Association Publishes By-Laws
In a great step to bring added transparency to the organization, the Internet Commerce Association published their by-laws on their website today. Many people in the domain investment industry have expressed a desire to see the by-laws prior to joining, and this should help to alleviate some concerns. Knowing Michael Collins (ICA Executive Director), if you have any questions about the by-laws, send him an email and he will be happy to respond.
The by-laws can be seen on the ICA website.
Widgets.com – Looking for Widgets
Since the Widgets.com auction on Ebay didn’t reach its reserve, Rick Schwartz opted to develop the name, and Widgets.com has softly launched. The site is currently seeking widget submissions in exchange for cash prizes:
“Starting In May! Widget Contests! Exciting CASH Prizes!!Widgets.com Presents Weekly Contests For College Students
To Develop The Most Innovative Widgets!
E-Mail Contests@Widgets.com For Details!”
I think this is a cool idea, and I think they could even take it a step further. Yesterday afternoon, I spent a few minutes searching for a flight tracking widget. When I develop Burbank.com, I am going to devote a page to Burbank’s growing airport, and I thought it would be neat and helpful to include a flight tracking widget. Well… no dice. It doesn’t look like anyone has made a flight tracking widget for use on another website.
I would like to suggest that Widgets.com allow people to post requests for widgets. They could create a contest forum where website owners (like myself) could post a request for a widget in exchange for a fee. The buyer could choose to pay extra to keep it as an exclusive widget, or they can pay a reduced fee and allow others to use that widget. I think this could create stickiness to the site.
Why I Like GeoDomains
Based on my recent acquisition of Burbank.com, mini-development of Salinas.com, and recent launch of Lowell.com, you can probably guess that I like geographic domain names. I do have several other non-geographic domain names, so I am not just a geodomain buyer/developer, but I happen to really like these names. There are a number of reasons for this, and if I haven’t stated my reasoning before, I am happy to do so here:
1) People are always looking for information about large cities or tourist hotspots. Judging by the type-in traffic my geographic domain names receive, I can say for certain that people look for city information simply by typing the city .com domain name into their url browsers. Whether they are looking to move to the city, looking to visit the city or looking for information, the goal of my development projects is to offer all of this and make it easy for them to make travel plans for find a place to move. I am sure good PPC could be made, but that limits the growth of the domain name. While developed geodomains may take some time to develop and generate revenue, the upside is much greater than with PPC.
2) There are no products that I need to sell with a geographic domain name. Geodomains are almost always informational, so there is no inventory, fulfillment, or customer service to worry about. Sure there is client management, but I will get to that in a minute. Geodomains can be a great source of information, and if it is presented in an easy to read format, visitors should return.
3) To generate the maximum amount of revenue, relationships need to be established with local businesses. Unlike other types of product/service related websites where potential clients are located around the country (or world), all of the businesses I will be reaching out to are located in the same general vicinity. I can and will meet with local business owners and managers, explain why they need to advertise in the local directory, show them that their neighbors are advertising and try to convince them to advertise as well. Maybe it sounds easier said than done, but if the pricing is competitive and the businesses receive a return on their advertising dollar, the advertising will sell.
4.) Once a geodomain business model is successful, the model can be replicated in other city .com domain names fairly easily.
5.) Travel, Job, Ticket and other similar affiliate sites were practically made for geodomains. Most will actually help you create a white label solution so the affiliate site is fully integrated into your geodomain. While jobs.lowell.com might not look exactly like Lowell.com, it is pretty close.
6.) There are always people who are fully committed to their city. If the domain name is beneficial to the city, others will be very willing to help. With Lowell.com, I worked with a top photographer who not only provided images, he also gave me some great advice about things that should be included in the website. He is also going to introduce me to some of the city decision makers so I can introduce myself and let them know I want to help the city.
I don’t think geodomains are any easier to develop than any other type of domain name. I do recommend that the owner have a tie to the city he wants to develop and that the city is large enough that it can be fully developed. With smaller, non-tourist towns, it can be more difficult to get enough advertisers to generate revenue. One of the most important things to remember is that the website should not only reflect the personal tastes of the owner, but it should also be reflective of the city.
For now, I have enough geodomain names in my portfolio to keep me very busy with development.
Top Notch Domains, LLC Acquires Burbank.com
Top Notch Domains, LLC, a New Hampshire based domain investment and development company has acquired Burbank.com for an undisclosed sum. Burbank is one of the fastest growing cities in the state of California, with a population of over 100,000 residents. Previously, Burbank.com was used as a private Burbank news website.
The city of Burbank is known as “the media capital of the world,” as many of the largest media companies have headquarters or significant production facilities in the city, including Disney, Warner Brothers, and NBC. Burbank is located approximately ten miles from from Los Angeles, and it is home to one of the fastest growing airports in the US. It has beautiful homes, is a center for business and has a strong economy.
“We just launched our first geodomain website, Lowell.com, and I am looking forward to the development of Burbank.com,” said Elliot Silver, President of Top Notch Domains, LLC. “I am excited to fly out to Burbank on Jet Blue – non-stop from JFK, to begin researching this great city.” The company anticipates that a mini-site will be developed in the coming month, and Burbank.com will be fully developed by the end of Q3 2008.
Top Notch Domains, LLC also owns Salinas.com, which is currently being built into a guide of Salinas, California, a city of around 150,000 residents in California’s wine country. The company recently put the name for sale, but is reevaluating their position.
Lowell.com is Launched
There is still some work to be done, but I am happy to announce that I have launched Lowell.com! While my developer and I are still working out some of the kinks, we are at a point where we are able to release the first version of the Lowell.com website. I know it’s not perfect and many tweaks will need to be made in the coming days, but this is all a learning process for me, and I hope the launch of the site encourages others to develop some of their domain names.
There are still some grammatical, SEO, linking and other various issues, but I am comfortable enough with the presentation to launch it. If you notice anything funky – be it grammar, punctuation, spelling, links…etc, please be kind and drop me a note. This is my first “real” website aside from my blog and corporate site, so the learning curve is still pretty steep.
I would like to thank everyone who helped me by giving fantastic advice and recommendations. I really appreciate it. And to those people whose emails I haven’t responded to in the last couple of weeks, I apologize. Feel free to send them again and I will try to respond more quickly.