Skip Hoagland, Owner of Atlanta.com Becomes Major Investor And Partner Of The SimplyGeo.com, LLC Network

Posted by Steve under General on Friday, February 15th, 2008 8:19 am

SimplyGeo.com, LLC is proud to announce today the strategic partnership with expert and long time geo domain developer, Skip Hoagland. Skip has joined the team to assist in delivering an array of services to the underserved Geo domain industry and to provide educational tools for Geopreneurs.

Today marks an important milestone for the Geo domain industry with the announcement of this strategic partnership. Skip is owner to some of the World’s most valuable geo domains. With names like Cuba.com, MyrtleBeach.com, HiltonHead.com, Atlanta.com, Edinburgh.com and many others. There is no doubt that Skip is a certified expert in the Geo domain industry. He co-founded the AssociatedCities.com network of elite city.coms that has been very successful.

This partnership will enable hundreds of thousands of geo domain owners the opportunity to interact, learn, network, share ideas, and develop their geo domains into valuable assets. Skip certainly has the knowledge to share with Geopreneurs to prevent them from encountering many of the pitfalls of developing geo domains.

SimplyGeo.com, LLC will evolve into a leader of a variety of services as the market continues to mature and more investors move into the Geo domain industry.

(Steve)

“The internet offers an individual with foresight and an effective game plan, opportunity. When I launched the SimplyGeo.com blog approximately 2 months ago, I envisioned it evolving into the number 1 source of information for the Geo domain industry. I thought it would take 6 months to a year. Amazingly, it did not take this long. In a short amount of time, it has become the number 1 source of information on the internet for the Geo domain Industry.

I was stunned when I received a phone call from Skip and several of emails, stating he wanted to invest and partner in SimplyGeo.com. So we started negotiations and finally came to an agreement. Now SimplyGeo.com, LLC is formed and I believe it will grow into the voice for the industry.

A lot of you are probably curious as to why I decided to partner on a growing successful blog. Two reasons: The industry blog needed a proven name and face with experience for it to reach exponential growth and respect among professionals in the domain industry, secondly, it was a deal of a lifetime. It is not very often in life you get a chance to be mentored by a proven expert in an industry.”

(Skip Hoagland)

“I decided to invest with Simplygeo.com after my first visit. I was very impressed and saw very quickly the potential it had in exploiting the Geo domain industry and becoming a market leader. Since then, SimplyGeo.com has done exactly as I had envisioned for the industry in a short amount of time. Additionally, once I found out more about its management and capabilities, I knew this was management I wanted to be in business with and help become successful.

This is a huge and powerful industry that will change the way people get their local information in the future. Already we have seen a large amount of platforms being delivered by high profile companies for local content. There are different levels in the Geo domain industry that make it possible for anyone to get into the industry.

One area that has always amazed me is the destination arena. It is so small, yet very powerful. There are only 200 major City.com , 200 Country.com and 52 State.com owners. Traditionally, 95 % of the people on the planet get some type of media information from Media resources like Radio, TV, Newspaper, and Magazines etc.

This small elite and lucky group of geo.com owners will have a very good chance of shifting many consumers and advertisers from traditional media outlets to their sites. This trend is already starting to be proven. I think SimplyGeo.com will be a big help for many Geo.com owners in their quest for success in doing this. The industry now has a place for specific Geo domain industry news and Blogging, it’s SIMPLY GREAT.

I also want to thank Gaston Piarrette, our partner in Buenos Aires on behalf of Simplygeo.com management for doing an outstanding job on the logo that reflects exactly what the name implies.”

Thank you Gaston Piarrette for putting up with me and developing an effective logo and grapahic that has improved the look of the blog and defined the industry. Gaston owns an Offshore website development company. You will hear much more on Gaston’s Company and the services to come to SimplyGeo.com, LLC.

19 Responses to “Skip Hoagland, Owner of Atlanta.com Becomes Major Investor And Partner Of The SimplyGeo.com, LLC Network”

Lance Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 08:32 am
Congratulations, Steve and Skip! Exciting times lie ahead!
RubyRedDot Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 08:54 am
Wow, this is huge. Congratulations to you, Steve. I think I found another home here. As the new kid on the block, I will be watching these developments closely.

***SMO***

RubyRedDot,

Thank you. You are more than welcomed to this home as well as the Geo Forum!
Jessica Bookstaff Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 09:52 am
Congrats on the partnership!

***SMO***

Jessica,

Thank you. I promise I will send the email tonight! I believe you are the only female that reads the blog, and I thank you for your interaction. I look forward to more perspective thoughts from a professional women’s point of view.
Francois Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Congrats,

Someone having a strong knowledge and experience about geo domaining teaming with one having true comunication skills and a high motivation, this is a clever union.

My wishes of success

***SMO***

Francois,

Thank you. You were right on the money about comments=vitamins in your last post.
George Pickering Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Congrats. I was going to guess AssociatedCities buying SimplyGeo when I posted the other day. Good to see that my hunch was correct. Congrats Steve and Skip. This is huge.

***SMO***

Thanks George.

Thanks for all the discussions on the forum too!
Alex Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Congratulations on your partnership and much success.

I would like to state that Skip mentions the advantages of SimplyGeo to Geo.com owners a few times when as previously discussed there are many non .com Geo owners heavily vested in their respective GeoDomains that are working hard developing who read and participate on SimplyGeo.com and SinplyGeo.net.

Looking forward to all that’s to come!

***SMO***

Alex,

Yes you are right. PLease do not take offense. Geo domains in general is what he meant. I can assure you that the services to come and the blog are designed for all extentions and geopreneurs, not just .com. It is sometimes hard to break the habit of saying dot com I am sure you can understand, with his portfolio.

If I tend to drift that way from time to time, just slap me with an email, and I will get back on track

Thanks!
j Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Congrats Steve,

Your great work ethic has been noticed by some of the best in the industry.

j
Tommy Butler Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Congratulations Steve and Skip

Im sure it will grow bigger and better
tim davids Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
congrats to all involved…I was guessing the news was associated cities starting a blog (with a comment space:))

I part jealous and part excited. Any open banter in the. G E O space will help many peeps.

Here’s to sending us all to the stratousphere!
Sanchay Kumar Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 13:25 pm
Congrats Steve and Skip!
Brian Berke Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 15:11 pm
Congrats to both Skip and Steve.

In Skip’s comment he says” There are only 200 major City.com , 200 Country.com and 52 State.com owners. Traditionally, 95 % of the people on the planet get some type of media information from Media resources like Radio, TV, Newspaper, and Magazines etc.

This small elite and lucky group of geo.com owners will have a very good chance of shifting many consumers and advertisers from traditional media outlets to their sites. This trend is already starting to be proven. I think SimplyGeo.com will be a big help for many Geo.com owners in their quest for success in doing this.”

Here Skip is strictly referring to .com geo owners and not geo owners in general. I hope the spirit of this site will continue to be about geo owners in general and not have the same exclusive feel that associated cities presents.

I have first hand knowledge about major media companies being interested in using Geo.TV as there choice for geo media domains on the web. I have been approached about one of my major .TV cities by a major broadcast network that I am currently talking to and know of 3 other cities in which talks are ongoing.

Sure .com will be a major force, but it will not be the only viable way for media companies to enter the geo space online. I just want to make sure that while we all have differing personal investments and interests that this site is about exploring the potential of ALL geo domains, not just .com

Once again I wish your new endeavor the best and I look forward to continue reading.

Keep up the great work!

Brian

**SMO***

Brian,

I addressed this issue already. Take a look at my reply to comments please.

Did you miss the sentence that Skip stated “There are different levels in the Geo domain industry that make it possible for anyone to get into the industry.” before he started talking about geo.coms? There are many ways to get to the same goal, and SimplyGeo.com will offer tools and resources for all extentions for geopreneurs, and not exclusive to only .com, I assure you.

We want to help people become sucessful with what ever extention they choose as there vehicle. Please do not let a few words get you spun up. You know what the standard is on the blog. Take a look at the forum if there is any doubts.

Thanks!
Jessica Bookstaff Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 15:41 pm
No worries! I’m around and will still be a professional. and a woman.
Michael Castello Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 15:47 pm
Congratulations guys.
M. Menius Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 16:35 pm
Brian - “I hope the spirit of this site will continue to be about geo owners in general”.

Steve is making a commitment to insure all geo owners are included. Thanks Brian for raising this question, and thanks to Steve for recognizing that ALL geo enthusiasts deserve representation.

The involvement of Skip, and financial backing?, are great! Congrats Steve and Skip on expanding the reach of this excellent site.

After reading the blog heading, I thought “Oh boy, here we go, the .com folks aiming to take over the much needed democratic voice of SimplyGEO.com.” Am happy to hear that is not the case, as Associated Cities have made it clear .US, .info, .TV, etc. are excluded from their network.

Again, very much am enjoying the information and support occurring here. Joined the SimplyGEO discussion forum today as well.
Tim Davids Says:
February 15th, 2008 at 16:35 pm
so now do we hold the door for Skip and HE buys the drinks?
skip hoagland Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 00:07 am
Brian good point and sorry to keep waving the .com banner only in my responce. I agree this blog needs to be for all Geopreneurs no matter what the variation. I will continue to do all I can and support the industry as a whole 100%. My real point was to paint a picture on how small our world is becoming and using the “Specific Intuitive Non Trademarked Official Geographical Brand name for all these Geo’s seemed to be the best way to do this. Our company also owns city names with Classified at the end as well as other versions and categories and certainly see value in all these as well. Again in the end it really gets down to hard work and building, promoting and selling what you have, but certainly having a great name in DOT COM does not hurt.
Brian Berke Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 01:40 am
Skip,

Great points and I appreciate the feedback. I commend you on taking this new role. Thanks for being so gracious and sharing your thoughts and experiences with some of us who aren’t as fortunate to own generic .com city names, but still see the value in this space with other TLDs.

Michael Castello, whom I had the pleasure of meeting at DomainFest, has been a real inspiration as someone who has also achieved a great deal of success on the .com geo side, and is very encouraging and full of great advice and ideas. You guys are true pioneers. It’s really great and refreshing to see people at the top of their profession give back so much!
Alistair Male Says:
February 16th, 2008 at 19:43 pm
Congraulations to you both for having the foresight to progress the development of the ‘geo’ environment.

I am very new to domaining and appreciate the quality of this blog site, and am sure that in years to come it will be a great reference point for those both in the industry and those contemplating entering.

Best wishes for a successful partnership

Alistair
Jeff Jefferson Says:
February 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hi Steve, congratulations on your partnership. I seem to recall that you started this blog sometime in December, so getting to this level in approximately 2 months really says something about the quality of your site! I know Skip from the non-domaining world, and have found him to be a real gentleman in addition to being one of the top geo businessmen in the world. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this leads!!

Jeff

About

My name is Steven Morales and I entered the domain industry back in 1999. I started out in the greatdomains.com chatroom under the nickname ”texmex”. I have been in and out of the industry and have sold several of domain names over the years. Read more