American businesses are coming to their senses, at least many of the major companies on the internet.  This past week, two major announcements were made on companies forming a networking alliance.  Gannett Co., Hearst Corp., the New York Times Co. and Tribune Co. have teamed up to create and ad network as a stand-alone company called quadrantOne.   Additionally, AOL and CitySearch announced they have formed a partnership to share advertising revenues.  Why have they done this?  To share each others local markets of consumers. 

It is becoming apparent to some of the major companies doing business on the internet that it is better to form strategic alliances and share percentages of established advertising networks, than having to compete and create a network of their own.  By teaming up, companies form a unified front and can dominate a market that will be beneficial to all involved in the network or partnership.  When you form a network or partnership of leaders in a market with the same goals and visions, growth of the network is eminent.   

The future of the internet is going to be combined networking associations for joint profit sharing.    Everyone wants access to local networks, everyone!  Local advertising is viewed as an Internet growth area, as smaller merchants and services grow more comfortable with the technology involved and realize the potential gains.

We are in great positions as geo domain owners as we are 100% focused on local.  There have been networks established for geo domain owners, all I can suggest is that you embrace them and take advantage of a unified front and benefits they offer.        

(via reuters.com)

If you haven’t heard, Ebay launched a free classifieds site called Kijiji.com sometime last summer.  The site has started to gain momentum among consumers the past couple of months.  Since then, it has grown from 362,000 visitors in July, 2007 to 1.8 million in January, according to comScore.

This is a great indicator for those who doubt that the local market is exploding.  This however, is more bad news for traditional media newspapers.  The internet continues to change consumer habits and the focus has gone from global to local with the current trend manifesting.  

As technology continues to advance, classifieds are evolving from the traditional stale black and white text.  Classifieds have become huge revenue earners in the online local market.  They will be mandatory for any developed geo domains wanting exponential growth.  

Do you have a free classifieds section on your developed geo domain?  If not, you are leaving alot of consumer needs on the table.  Consumers are addicted to classifieds, they are either looking for great deals, or listing them.  The word “free” builds traffic and loyalty, all while bringing in advertising dollars. 

Once you build loyalty and traffic, then you can start charging listing fees.  I have seen many geo sites that do not offer this and only focus on advertisers.  Remember, consumers bring in advertisers, so do not forget about their needs.  Your number one priority should be to meet or improve consumer needs before even thinking  about improving advertising needs. 

On a different note, what was ebay.com thinking when they chose the domain Kijiji.com for their local classfieds.  It just goes to show you that big media, even though they have been online all these years, has lost touch with effective internet branding.  Imagine having to pronounce this website to a friend or even spell it.  The only reason it has been successful with traffic is because it is linked on every ebay.com internet property.  ebay.com is a top 10 company for internet traffic.  So many great names to chose from and ebay picks Kijiji.com, go figure! 

Here are a few laughs to get your Saturday morning going.  The first video is amusing, as I am sure we all have experienced this stink bomb at some function from someone.

For those of you who have not worked out in a while, beware, the treadmill can be hazardous. 

What does this announcement mean to you and the future of the blog, business as usual!  There are a few readers and major geo owners who are concerned about the direction SimplyGeo.com will take after this announcement was made public.  I have even received a few emails and a phone call over it.  I had no clue you all embraced the blog that much! :-)  

Well, please allow me to clear any misconceptions that are brewing on the direction the blog will take.  The blog will continue to represent a unified front and voice for Geopreneurs, regardless of the domain extention.  There is no one that will pursaude me or keep me from representing the small guys on the battlefield.  Additionally, no one will keep me from expressing my concerns and views on the industry as I see them.  

I remain 100% in control of the blog and content selected to blog about.  The blog will remain 100% unbiased and will continue to deliver content as I seem fit, regardless if it is the unpopular decision at the time.  This was an essential part of the partnership that was non-negotiable.  Skip is well aware of this clause and fully supports it.

The Geo domain industry is just starting to take shape and hit mainstream after all these years.  As the industry matures, services will be added to benefit Geopreneurs.  The goal is to make SimplyGeo.com the industry Voice with the help of professionals such as yourself.  We needed a proven expert/face for the blog to reach exponential growth and represent the industry.  Skip Hoagland was the first to step up to the plate and make an offer. My name was not capable of doing this for the industry.  This is why it is called a strategic partnership.

Just as professional athletes are used to endorse products, Skip has endorsed the blog and future services to come that will allow the blog and industry to grow beyond just a blog.  This does not mean Skip has nothing offer readers.  He will provide articles from time to time and advice that will be beneficial to Geopreneurs.  Please keep an open mind and continue to embrace the blog.  We appreciate your support and look forward to helping you become successful and making your voice heard.        

From time to time, there “may” be post regarding strictly dot com,  please do not take it out of context.  People are free to have an opinion of what they believe in. When I start editing and demanding things be address as only one way, then it becomes useless for the blog to become a voice for the industry.  Keep an open mind please!

The SimplyGeo network is a marathon, and is not a 100 yard sprint.  It will take time to get things in place, so please be patient.  I hope that I have cleared any misconceptions and would like to thank you for your continued support of the blog. 

Godspeed,
Steve Morales  

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. 

Rick Latona has become a major seller of geo domains this month.  Overall, sales reported for the geo domain industry have been consistent with approximately 20 names a week selling.  This month, the first exclusive sedo.com auction on geo domains is being held.  It will have a huge impact on the geo industry as sales are completed.  

As always, I love it when I come across articles that validate the existence of the Geo domain industry.  Marchex has done an outstanding job proving how effective geo domains can be with the right game plan and platforms.  It is great to see the growth earnings from 2006 to 2007 with geo domains.  Additionally, the traffic they have continued to increase monthly. 

For those still in denial that the geo domain industry exist, you should read about the money Marchex has made so far with their geo domains. If you need further proof, take a look at the big bidding going on Sedo.com’s geo auction.  Amazing, only the second day of the auction and the top 8 names combined have netted over $2 million!

(via centredaily.com)

“Marchex’s focus on the local online opportunity led to our positive performance in the fourth quarter and increased momentum in our business,” said Russell C. Horowitz, Marchex Chairman and CEO. “Marchex is achieving leadership in local through two means: first, by building and delivering the most local-centric advertising platform in the industry, supporting clicks and calls; and, second, by delivering unparalleled utility and relevance to local consumers through our network of proprietary local Web sites. Our success in each of these areas is already leading Marchex to a point of scale that few companies in the local online industry possess, and is positioning us to capture increased market share and see accelerating growth.”