Geo Domains HQ

[cdnbigd]

Just thought I'd create a thread where we can all talk openly about Geo (Service) Domains. Seems like a hot topic which I've been discussing quite often now.

Let's get together and chat geo domains.

Advice, Questions, Statistics, Recent Sales, Venting Frustration, etc..

 

[New2Domaining]

Do you guys think we have to reg all possible variations of a geo domain, for example if we want to sell HoustonCleaners.com, and we email local businesses telling them how great it would be to own a short domain name, but CleanersHouston.com (or any other short variation there is, maybe not as good as ours, but still an improvement compared to their current one) is available for a regfee, a potential buyer who is interested in optimizing his domain name would just reg a name for a regfee instead of paying us $xxx, and we end up with having given free advice and no profit.

I used to worry about potential scenarios like what you described but now I just say what's meant to be will be. If my communication gives an end user the idea to register a similar domain, good for them. This "worst case scenario" can only happen a few times in relation to a particular domain and if I have the superior version of that particular domain hopefully it will appeal to the right buyer. If however my superior domain never appeals to the right buyer I will be glad I did not waste money buying up inferior versions of it to increase my losses.

Now if I feel that multiple versions of the domain make sense, are very strong and I would be proud to run my business on it I MIGHT CONSIDER purchasing more than one version of it but this is not usually the case. Personally I would not want to own and use CleanersHouston.com because it sounds awkward but maybe someone else would want it.

Just my two cents.

 

[33S]

I used to worry about potential scenarios like what you described but now I just say what's meant to be will be. If my communication gives an end user the idea to register a similar domain, good for them. This "worst case scenario" can only happen a few times in relation to a particular domain and if I have the superior version of that particular domain hopefully it will appeal to the right buyer. If however my superior domain never appeals to the right buyer I will be glad I did not waste money buying up inferior versions of it to increase my losses.

Now if I feel that multiple versions of the domain make sense, are very strong and I would be proud to run my business on it I MIGHT CONSIDER purchasing more than one version of it but this is not usually the case. Personally I would not want to own and use CleanersHouston.com because it sounds awkward but maybe someone else would want it.

Just my two cents.

Thanks a lot. Could you elaborate why CleanersHouston.com sounds awkward? Is it the word "Cleaners" specifically or in your opinion all business types before a location are not good?

 

[New2Domaining]

Could you elaborate why CleanersHouston.com sounds awkward? Is it the word "Cleaners" specifically or in your opinion all business types before a location are not good?

I am definitely not saying that all service + geo domains sound awkward, some work very well. Off the top of my head it's kind of difficult for me to explain why "Cleaners Houston" is awkward but for me the grammar is off. Someone might type "cleaners Houston" into a search engine but not many people who speak English fluently would say to another person "I'm looking for cleaners Houston"; they would be much more likely to say "I'm looking for cleaners in Houston" or "I'm looking for Houston cleaners".

That said, I have seen members on this forum talk about sales of domains that sound a bit awkward so some people do buy them (I guess). Maybe some people who have sold grammatically awkward domains might want to say something about them.

 

[33S]

I am definitely not saying that all service + geo domains sound awkward, some work very well. Off the top of my head it's kind of difficult for me to explain why "Cleaners Houston" is awkward but for me the grammar is off. Someone might type "cleaners Houston" into a search engine but not many people who speak English fluently would say to another person "I'm looking for cleaners Houston"; they would be much more likely to say "I'm looking for cleaners in Houston" or "I'm looking for Houston cleaners".

That said, I have seen members on this forum talk about sales of domains that sound a bit awkward so some people do buy them (I guess). Maybe some people who have sold grammatically awkward domains might want to say something about them.

Ok, thanks. I guess I should stick to location first business second, it seems to be a sure bet, I'm not a native speaker so I don't have a good "gut feeling" for it. Is PhotographyNashville.com awkward too?

 

[New2Domaining]

Ok, thanks. I guess I should stick to location first business second, it seems to be a sure bet, I'm not a native speaker so I don't have a good "gut feeling" for it. Is PhotographyNashville.com awkward too?

Yes, "photography Nashville" sounds very awkward to me. If you don't speak English fluently, sticking to geo + service might be a good idea unless you have someone to offer feedback for you.

 

[33S]

Yes, "photography Nashville" sounds very awkward to me. If you don't speak English fluently, sticking to geo + service might be a good idea unless you have someone to offer feedback for you.

I sincerely appreciate your advice. I would have spent quite a few hours trying to push awkward domains to end users without it. I used to measure rough value of available domains by their history, for example photographynashville.com has been registered since 2002, but since it's not too good I guess we can say people just reg and hold anything.

 

[soccertrick]

Great thread with a lot of useful info here. I have just registered:

FloridasRealtor(com)
OakvilleArt(com)
OakvillePhotography(com)

Oakville is the city I work in...

Thanks all

Aaron

 

[Omar Negron]

FloridasRealtor(com)

Hey Aaron.

I've heard the phrase "realtor" has trademark issues. Not positive on this but worth looking into.

-Omar

 

[Domain Lead Finder]

Hey Aaron.

I've heard the phrase "realtor" has trademark issues. Not positive on this but worth looking into.

-Omar

Yes you are right. Realtor is trademarked in the USA and some people will try to make you hand over the domain name based on this. If you are not putting anything up on the page that is realtor related, there is little they can do about it. They monitor the use of their trademark etc.

 

[azanmi]

In search google parses the 'in' out of queries so cleaners in Houston is essentially the same as cleaners Houston as far as search is concerned. Aesthetically however, you may get a lower CTR for the awkward phrasing

 

[Alessandro Couteau]

If any of you have six figure budget for country.com names give me a PM ... Ty

 

[pablohc86]

If any of you have six figure budget for country.com names give me a PM ... Ty

pm sent

 

[azanmi]

Bunch of offers on carribbeanislands.org AFTER I started putting time/money into building it out. Committed to making it a successful site now

 

[briguy]

Bunch of offers on carribbeanislands.org AFTER I started putting time/money into building it out. Committed to making it a successful site now

Never thought of .org for GEO keyword domains, (always did assume the org was basically for charities etc)

Not sure if anyone else is familiar with or use this free tool from Godaddy
https://www.namepros.com/threads/geo-keyword-domain-search.847788/


Any thoughts on this..
If you can't get your Geo domain in a dot com, (for example for USA based GEO's) how about using (dot)us ?

 

[TRY]

In search google parses the 'in' out of queries so cleaners in Houston is essentially the same as cleaners Houston as far as search is concerned. Aesthetically however, you may get a lower CTR for the awkward phrasing

HoustonCleaners.com is the best variation. I may be biased because I own it

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I shifted focus from Geos momentarily while I vamped up my brandable portfolio. I have my niche that I always monitor, but beyond that I've been slacking. Especially when it comes to enduser outreach.

Does anybody have an example of a sales process they use for selling Geos?

ie:

Step 1: List for sale on GoDaddy and other marketplaces to ensure a notification is sent to anybody who previously searched for that domain.

Step 2: Compile a list of related geo keyword domains, and the top sites ranking for said keywords. Do I call or email? How do I phrase the email or call? Do I have a set BIN price, or do I field offers first?

Step 3: What else am I missing? I'm about to go on a major enduser outreach campaign for a few hundred geos. I'll be starting with PhoneRepair(City).com/(City)PhoneRepair.com and (City)TVRepair.com / TVRepair(City).com. Any tips and / or tools to work in volume is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[hopkism]

Just thought I'd create a thread where we can all talk openly about Geo (Service) Domains. Seems like a hot topic which I've been discussing quite often now.

Let's get together and chat geo domains.

Advice, Questions, Statistics, Recent Sales, Venting Frustration, etc..

Thanks for creating this thread. I'm a huge fan of geo domains, but I have actually seen less and less discussion on them. Just a general search on Google for how to create, finance, and promote a geo domain returns a number of results from about 5 years ago. That leads me to ask if they are no longer a viable prospect for the top domainers or if those guides are perfect as is and do not need to be updated.

I just recently acquired two pure geo domains that I'm going to develop. I'm working on the business plans next month. Each has a budget in the mid 4 figures (not including the acquisition of the names which already occurred). One is a small resort town near where I grew up so I have a lot of experience and connections to take advantage of. It is a .org. The other is a little more adventurous as a .info of a major vacation/park/ getaway with the same experience and connections.

Even though both geo's have a relatively small number or residents compared to what most people would build a site around, they receive large amounts of seasonal and tourist traffic. Not only that but the tourism is not reliant on a particular attraction or feature but dozens.

I look forward to reading this thread and learning from the others.

 

[Michael Daigle]

Yes, that's the gist of what I did for a couple domains this morning. Still nothing though. They opened that email, opened the paypal invoice but didn't pay the invoice and didn't respond to my email. It's just nuts that someone who's "very interested" just walks away the second after they make that statement.

I was wondering, do you do more sales with BIN or better to not show the price and get offers and/or inquiries. My script can handle either way.

Here's an example of one of my pages.
http://www.idahofallscarpetcleaning.com/

I host my domain landing pages on Site5. I have a backend database which has the domain details. I have a custom website template that has Javascript that makes an API call to retrieve the domain details. I drop the source code into one domain, park another 50 pages and I instantly have landing pages for 51 domains.

I too invoice using paypay. I net $291 on a $300 sale. The buyer usually pays right away.

 

[cdnbigd]

Wow. I really like what you've done with the landing pages. Might be over my head with the Javascript and API calls but would love to learn how to do that. When I do email outreach, I usually put a price in there if I want a quick'ish sale. Otherwise, I just say it's available and accepting offers.

I'm still not sure if I could make more money if I put in extra time and build out a site, rank it and then look to sell it.

 

[bytedo]

I was wondering, do you do more sales with BIN or better to not show the price and get offers and/or inquiries. My script can handle either way.

Here's an example of one of my pages.
http://www.idahofallscarpetcleaning.com/

I host my domain landing pages on Site5. I have a backend database which has the domain details. I have a custom website template that has Javascript that makes an API call to retrieve the domain details. I drop the source code into one domain, park another 50 pages and I instantly have landing pages for 51 domains.

I too invoice using paypay. I net $291 on a $300 sale. The buyer usually pays right away.

That landing page is good. Great effort. Just to be clear you redirect the remaining 50 domains to the one where the source code is right? So buyers fill in the contact form and you raise a Paypal invoice, on receipt of funds you push domain. $300 less evil Paypal fee (thats what a friend calls it) and you are home and dry with $291.

 

[adsorbable]

Ok guys I have a question regarding your Houston cleaners discussion.. does the order of the domain make any difference besides it not being "grammatically correct"?

Obviously you want to go for domains that sound great and practically roll of your tongue, but can the position make a difference in traffic?

For example: Lets use TusconCarwash.com the keywords "Tucson carwash" sound better in the current order but when looking at the traffic stats for both, then "carwash tuscon" is the higher traffic option

Carwash+tucson =1000 monthly searches
Tucson+carwash=250 monthly searches

Would that up some of the domains value (generally speaking for geo domains) depending on example numbers like these or would search engines still pick up on both keywords interchangeably?

 

[Omar Negron]

Ok guys I have a question regarding your Houston cleaners discussion.. does the order of the domain make any difference besides it not being "grammatically correct"?

Obviously you want to go for domains that sound great and practically roll of your tongue, but can the position make a difference in traffic?

For example: Lets use TusconCarwash.com the keywords "Tucson carwash" sound better in the current order but when looking at the traffic stats for both, then "carwash tuscon" is the higher traffic option

Carwash+tucson =1000 monthly searches
Tucson+carwash=250 monthly searches

Would that up some of the domains value (generally speaking for geo domains) depending on example numbers like these or would search engines still pick up on both keywords interchangeably?

I am not sure if this answers your question but I was able to sell a geo domain that was actually backwards. It didn't sound grammatically correct.

Usually GEO+Service makes sense.
In my case, it was SERVICE+Geo

So it was backwards but still landed the sale. So yes, those names can sell.

-Omar

 

[Cdomains]

ike Frank Schiling stated, there will come a time where www.stock.photo will be more sought out of and maybe even worth more than www.stockphoto.com

I will take his word and opinion over yours anytime.

Let's not forget that Frank has a stake in this new tld game and will never say anything negative about it. He has a lot of money on the line.

 

[Domain Lead Finder]

Ok guys I have a question regarding your Houston cleaners discussion.. does the order of the domain make any difference besides it not being "grammatically correct"?

Obviously you want to go for domains that sound great and practically roll of your tongue, but can the position make a difference in traffic?

For example: Lets use TusconCarwash.com the keywords "Tucson carwash" sound better in the current order but when looking at the traffic stats for both, then "carwash tuscon" is the higher traffic option

Carwash+tucson =1000 monthly searches
Tucson+carwash=250 monthly searches

Would that up some of the domains value (generally speaking for geo domains) depending on example numbers like these or would search engines still pick up on both keywords interchangeably?

It usually makes no difference. If they have a car wash in Tuscon, and tusconcarwash.com is not on the table, they will take carwashtuscon.com no problem.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Purchased- Chicago // Travel // Agency
in king

Since I'm not really familiar with this niche I'd like to ask you for opinions and how should I operate now. Already made a list for potential end-users, and thought of sending outbound mails. Should I put a BIN on it or should I ask them to make an offer? If BIN, what price range would you recommend me?

Thanks in advance.