I play alot of live and internet Texas Holdem poker.  There are many different types of poker games that are designed to appeal to an individuals character and mind set.  You have RAZZ, 7 Card Stud, Omaha, and Texas Holdem to name a few.  Texas Holdem is the most popular of them all with the highest payouts and most recognition for winners.   RAZZ is not so main stream and appeals to only a small field of poker players, yet several of people make a fortune at it, out of the limelight.  

The domain industry can be compared to the poker industry when you think about all the personalities there are in this industry and the path they chose take.  Most domainers prefer to invest in generic dot com names because of their high payout possibilities.  Additionally, most domainers in this category build large portfolios to monetize their ROI thru PPC.  In between, there are other types/categories that appeal to individuals such as different domain extentions, branding domains, targetted service domains etc…All are profitable.

Then there is the RAZZ niche, Geo domains.  Geo domainers in general do not own large portfolios of domains.  They focus on a fixed amount of geo domains (An Area) to develop into useful websites for visitors and advertising hubs for local businesses. Professional geo domainers make a fortune out of the limelight by maximizing their time on a few outstanding geo domains.  Geo domains are commonly described as cities, countrys, and states.  But there is alot more to geo domains than just these categories.  Other categories include popular locations in a city, beaches, neighborhoods, regions, popular streets, and domains that cover large business industries locally, such as AustinHomes.com, DenverCars.com, and AtlantaRealestate.com as examples.  Geo domains are the perfect solution for local business advertising because they are targetted in what consumers are searching for on the internet locally.  Generally, any good geo domain will generate targetted type-in traffic from consumers.  This is valuable traffic that local businesses are willing to pay for to expose the services they offer.  

Development is essential for any geo domain in order to increase traffic and maximize advertising profits.  If done correctly, your site’s traffic will grow from consumer word of mouth advertising, to include search engine traffic.  There are no other domain niches in my opinion that have the opportunity to grow traffic 10 times fold simply thru word of mouth advertising. That is free traffic to your site! The majority of people who visit a general geo domain are from the area and will do word of mouth advertising about the site to other LOCALS if they had a positive experience while visiting.  The great geo domains have the best of both worlds, visitors from all over the world seeking information and locals.    

The value of these domains will continue to rise as more people find ways to unlock their hidden streams of revenue.  This is really a no brainer niche (Cash Cow) for domainers who are willing to get involved in their domain(s) to maximize profits. 

Godspeed,
Steve 

   

 

I have been busy since launching SimplyGeo.com trying to get an effective game plan together that will represent the geo domain niche appropriately.  Today, I did some site upgrades with a few more small ones to come as I figure things out on wordpress.  So, if there are errors on the site, please report them to me and bare with me until I get everything resolved.  I did loose the comments left from readers unfortunately.  I apologize. (Wordpress guru please send me an email)   

It is extremely difficult to find decent news articles that pertain to this niche, so I have been brainstorming topics to conduct research on and present to readers that will be worth their time.  Additionally, I am communicating with geo owners to gather additional topics and information.  One of my goals is to minimize articles covering the domain industry in general and stay focused on Geo Domains with a twist of new comer information. There are just too many outstanding blogs covering the domaining industry in general such as Sahar’s and Frank’s blogs.     

Here in the near future, I will be publishing interviews with individuals and companies who are successfully utiizing  geo/local domains as a business model to embrace consumers’ needs and wants.  Many of the interviews will be from people you have never heard of before. The first interview is scheduled with ChicagoLive.com, a subsidiary of The Chicago Tribune.  ChicagoLive.com  recently launched this week as a site where Chicago citizens can upload and share videos of the Chicago area.  The second interview is currently being scheduled with AssociatedCities.com.  Lots of emails are flying around in order provide effective coverage of this neglected niche. 

Bare with me as I get things together and line up interviews and content. 

Thanks
Steve 

       

Here is another blog article focusing on local advertising from an expert with a twist of domains. This is a excerpt from Greg Sterlings Blog.

”Here are the top-level findings reflected in the release:

63% currently advertise in a printed Yellow Pages directory, the most commonly named form of advertising among the respondents by nearly a 2-to-1 margin

Small businesses ranked the printed yellow pages first as the medium that generates the most calls from potential customers

About 53% said they expect to buy online ads featuring videos within the next couple of years

About 23% advertise online currently, and two-thirds have their own Web site

More findings:

20% expect to spend more on Internet Yellow Pages

38% expect to spend more on Internet banner ads

43% said they spent more on keyword-search traffic this year compared with last year, and 34% expect to keep increasing that spending next year”

As you can see, small businesses plan to spend much more on local keyword-search traffic next year. Geo domains will contain these keywords they will be paying for. There will be alot of deals established with these types of advertisers and geo domain owners in 2008 as businesses now understand the value of a targetted geo domain name. Read more on the article.

Enjoy!

 The future of website development will lay in the hands of visitors and consumers. If you provide the platform and opportunity, consumers/visitors will embrace it. Wikipedia has been doing it for years and grew into a power house over night because of it. Now Google.com launches “knol” beta, an attempt to encourage people to contribute knowledge and give wikipedia a run for its money. The difference is that authors with Google knol will be able to generate income for their submissions.

Smart websites and businesses are offering this option to their visitors to contribute content. People love to share knowledge and insight they have on subjects of interest whether thru writing or thru the submission of videos. It is rewarding to an individual when someone finds your advice useful or of interest. There are alot of knowledable people in different fields that never went to college to become a journalist, website developer, etc. etc. that want to express their oprinions and share their knowledge. Most of these people do not want the hassles of developing a website to do so. Allowing these individuals to provide targetted user generated content to the world benefits everyone involved, authors, visitors, and website owners.

Geo domains are prime pieces of property for this type of content because people know their areas very well, take pride in them, and have a way of connecting with consumer/visitor interests. User generated content creates loyal visitors, increases word of mouth advertising for your site as users take pride in their work, increases weblinks to your site, and allows the search engines to do their thing and increase traffic to your geo website(s). One post from a visitor on a subject of interest can start a flurry of activity and popularity to your site, as we all have witnessed in the past. Website owners can not do it alone and often miss topics of interest to visitors, sending them off to another site that fullfills their needs. Make this an option on your developed geo sites and watch your site(s) grow. Adding a blog to your developed geo domain(s) can bring value and increased traffic to your site. The most valuable asset is that this targetted relavent information is archived and will allow people to find your site in the future when searching the internet on topics of interest. The bottomline is visitors/consumers want the option to be interactive and provide their two cents on topics. Give them the option and watch your site grow in activity and traffic.

It’s a proven tactic, so get started! Encourage user generated content to your geo site(s).

Godspeed,
Steve

Came across this PR article today for the .tv extention. I have often wondered how succesful this extention could be for geo domainers and businesses if the platform currently being offered had no limitations to end users. The platform that is currently being offered is very limited and keeps you trapped into the .tv social network with no way of expanding commercially. User friendly technology that is offered “out of the box” is an ingenious idea, as many people do not have the skill sets or money to develop websites effectively. But I think they are missing the boat by keeping it limited to just a social network. People and businesses want freedom to be creative on the internet, and want nothing less than the easiest tools available (technology) to do it with ease. How cool would it be if a tweaked commercial .tv platform was offered for domainers and businesses to build targetted video content for consumers? I feel geo .tv domains would be outstanding websites for consumers and all involved would benefit from this type of platform.

I would love the option to go to HawaiiVacations.tv and see videos on the hot tourists attractions with pertinent information in a commercial setting. Would love it even more if the tools were in place now to do it seamlessly. Currently, it is not being offered, and this is why there are thousands of great geo domains still unregistered. Unfixed registration prices also have alot to do with it as well. This technology would even be better if it was made available in the .com arena! Do you think the .tv extention would be great for geo domains if the platform was made availble?

 

Every Sunday, I will compose a list of geo domains that have sold during the week through the popular aftermarket auctions. I will be using DNjournal.com, Afternic.com, NameJet.com, and Sedo.com to accuire data. I think it is important to establish a record of sales for this niche so we can later see how these domains have performed throughout the year and to assist sellers in realistic selling prices. Please submit data on certified private geo domain sales that are not in violation of any nondisclosure agreements in the comments section. The Geo Tracker may not be upto date 100% on Sundays due to DNJournal.com publishing their sales records during the week, however, I will make sure to add what I have missed on the weekly Geo Tracker. I have compiled all the sales I have come across from 3 Dec to present for the first Geo Tracker.

Moniker Traffic Transaction Completed–MaineLobsters.com $45,000.00
GeoDomain Expo Transactions Completed–Kazakhstan.net $15000.00, FountainHills.com $15000.00,
Snapnames.com Sales–AnguillaVacations.com 2468.00,
TDNAM.com Sales–Glimpse-Indonesia.com $3165.00
Sedo.com Sales–Mallorca.net $36653.00, EU.nu $7478.00, Geographie.fr $1759.00
NameJet.com Sales–MarshallCounty.com $5600.00, NevadaProperties.com $4900.00, SouthFloridaVacations.com $4100.00,

Afternic.com Sales
NewOrleansMusicians.com $300.00, CambridgeHouse.com $5247.00, World-News.com $1888.00, utahrealestateinvestor.com $700.00, DallasRealestate.mobi $250.00, PenderCounty.com $5000.00, MaineListings.com $2888.00, WilliamStreet.com $2850.00, WashingtonBlog.com $2000.00, uillinois.net $1500.00

 

Here is an article that AssociatedCities.com published recently on local advertising forecasts for 2008. An eye opener for many on the data presented by the Borrell Study.

“Driving most of the growth is the popularity of local search and online video advertising,” the Borrell study said. “Local search advertising will more than double [in 2008] to $5 billion while locally placed online video will triple to almost $1.3 billion.”

Another article Labeled: No Slow down in ad spending on the internet.

In 2008, I believe we will see geo domains rise in value, turn into revenue generating machines, and sell more often to end users than traditional generic domains. It will be an exciting year for the geo domain niche, especially if your niches are cars, realestate or recruitment.

Steve