Skip Hoagland is a pioneer in the geodomain industry.  He is one of the largest city.com owners in the world.  He is a marketing genius and continues to set the standard for city.com branding and site development.  Skip is Co-Founder of the infamous AssociatedCities.com network.  In the near future, he will continue to promote the Geo domain niche by launching AssociatedStates.com and AssociatedCountries.com.  Some of the names he owns are Atlanta.com, BuenosAires.com, Edinburgh.com, Savannah.com, Hiltonhead.com, MyrtleBeach.com, Cuba.com, Fishing.com and approx 2000 others  in many other categories.  He is among a group of level headed professionals that I have had the pleasure of meeting in the domain industry.  It was a true pleasure working with Skip to provide this GeoView for readers of the blog.   

(SMO) When did you register your first geo domain?

(SKIP) I do not remember exactly, I just know when a person who worked for my company told me in 1995 that the Internet might adversely effect my tourist magazine business one day, I started to look into it. Another old friend of mine recommended to me to start buying domain names. I have never looked back nor cared for any other type of business since then. It has been hard work, but it has been fun, rewarding, and the best 10 years of my life.

(SMO) Why did you decide to pursue the geo domain industry?

(SKIP) I entered this industry because I already owned and operated several of tourist magazines in some of our markets like Hilton Head, Charleston, Savannah and many others. We already had the content, sales force, design capabilities, and offices. We took our magazines online which proved to be a smart and rewarding move for us. I like Coke’s business fundamentals; they don’t care what people drink, just as long as they own what people are drinking. In our case, we own both print and online brands. This has given us a huge advantage over the competition. Additionally, when you own the City.com brand, traffic is pure and consistently growing. We have grown every year with our online city.com brands/strategies and do not see an end in site. I see all city.com owners who take the time to develop their site correctly, having the same success and growth. We are profitable on every site we own. We are also successful in the areas we own local media services and this gives us a great advantage over our competitors.

(SMO) How have things changed over the years and what city.com name are you most proud of?

(SKIP) In the early days, domains cost $200 each to register. Now with cheaper registrations, WIFI, Skype, different technologies, and legal protections we are now capable of operating from anywhere in the world. Things have gotten so much better since the old days. We now operate offshore in Argentina for many of our projects and have moved about 80% of our company there. It is a great country and my partner Gaston Piarrette is doing a great job. I feel www.BuenosAires.com is one of the best designed City.com sites in the world right now.

(SMO) What are some things you have to focus on to become successful with your city.com?

(SKIP) I think many city.com owners in this industry have strong technical backgrounds, but lack essential Marketing, Sales, Content and Management skills. You also need to have financial resources available to make it all work. All 6 of these traits are mandatory if you want to develop your geo domain into a revenue generating machine. The main play for me has always been to stay focused on making great brand acquisitions. I always knew great things would come with this strategy. This is a full time job. I also have focused on Strategic Alliances as we have expanded.

(SMO) How has development of your geo domains affected traffic and revenue growth over the years? Do you recommend geo domains to be parked?

(SKIP) Like any product, the more you develop it, the better it becomes. Parking domains is a business for people who do not want to work or do not have the ability to build a real company. Honestly, Parking domains to me helps to destroy the Internet, not build it. It helps send more traffic to Google.com and other sources of information for what people are looking for.If people want to build real value for their brand and company they have to run it like a real business, with real offices, people, phones, sales, marketing etc etc etc. Isn’t it funny the harder you work the luckier you get. Don’t get me wrong, I also do some parking and consider myself a Google monetizer at times. I don’t like it, but with almost 2000 names to develop we have no choice. Unlike many others however, we have about 400 websites launched and 5 making a nice profit for us. I see this getting much better for us this year as we launch 30 more mostly Geo names.

(SMO) How do you feel about geo domains that cover an industry, such as HoustonApartments.com?

(SKIP) I think all sub domains are good and we have a few ourselves, but again they have to be built out and run like a business as well. Some Subs will certainly grow, however it will be hard for the owners to run them like a real business because of just being able to sell one category, versus many. Also the city.com sites can also rank high in all the categories and once someone visits a portal and gets the information they are looking for they will come back. The bottom line is no matter if you own a city.com or sub domain, you must serve a great meal to the visitor. If the food is bad you will lose many customers to Google and others.

(SMO) How did AssociatedCities.com come about?

(SKIP) Josh Metnick owner of Chicago.com and I co founded Associated Cities a number of years back, in fact I was in the middle of starting an association for Country owners with Juan Noreagas who owns Barcelona.com when Josh called me and asked me if I wanted to help him. I dropped the project with Juan and put my time on AC with Josh. It has been great and I think it has been a big help to many city.com owners and the industry as a whole.

(SMO) What role do you think geo domains will evolve into as the internet continues to grow and more consumers come online?

(SKIP) I see the City.com’s becoming the New Media companies of the future offering every category imaginable both local and Tourism. We simply have no limits. The world has become very small now with only 200 major cities, 200 countries and 52 states. All these Geo Names are controlled by a very elite group now of 400 owners. Once these owners continue to get together as a cross linking and advertising force, it will become one of the most powerful networks in the world for city, country and State information.

(SMO) What added features do you plan on adding to your geo domains in the near future?

(SKIP) I would like to see many of our sites become more local and start to replace Newspapers, Yellow Pages, TV, Radio, and Local Magazines for Local information. I am sure we will be able to do this in many of our markets. We are already starting to hire xnewspaper employees and will continue to do this when we can. I see Classified ads being great for us in many Categories. The Internet as a whole, not just Geo owners, will continue to shift the money away from old medias into new media pockets. It is happening in big number’s already and has just begun.

(SMO)Any advice you can give to new Geopreneurs entering this niche in the domain industry?

(SKIP) My advice for new Entrepreneurs entering this industry is look at those who are successful and try to follow their lead. If you can not do this, try and partner with someone who can do this for you. You have options. Sell your names for a great profit, lease it for 20% of all gross revenues for a 20yr deal, do a 50/50 partnership with 100% unanimous decisions, and perhaps the best course of action for someone who can not operate it themselves is simply sell the name 100% and retain a 5-10 % of the gross revenues in perpetuity with a lesser sales price. The bottom line is there are many options available. Be creative and select one that best fits your needs. Develop and unlock the power of a great geo domain instead of sending traffic to Google and other sites by having an undeveloped geo domain.