Domaining.org.uk

I have been looking into the opportunities in geodomains. Geodomains are domain names relating to a town, city, region or country. Examples of geo domains include Seattle.com, Texas.com and France.com.  I think the market for geo domains domains is very interesting with a lot of potential for those willing to really learn how to buy and develop these domains.

Unfortunately, there are relatively few pure generic geo domains and many/ most of the best ones are being developed. The .com version of these place names are particularly valuable due to the ‘type in’ traffic these domains have and the marketing potential of generic dotcom domains.

This means that if you want to develop city/region websites you have only two choices. Pay significant sums for the .com version of the town/region of your choice, or buy a alternative domain that is cheaper.

That might be the place name along with a non .com extension, such as .net, .org, .tv and so on. Alternatively, you might want to buy a domain name containing the town/ city/ region name and a supplementary generic word such as SeattleGuide.com, TexasOnline.com or GoFrance.com. No one will be typing in these domain names directly into the address bar like they would with “Texas.com”, for example, but these domains have branding possibilities. Such domains are worth a tiny fraction of their equivalent one word place name .coms and unless they relate to larger cities and larger tourist resorts, I think they make poor investments.

I recently decided to build a city guide for my hometown of Manchester, England. As I had no budget to invest in a generic domain name I registered the domain ManchesterWide.com. Starting a new site has been quite a challenge and this will be my biggest project to date. It is also a web development project rather than a domaining project. Any payoff is probably years away and I am approaching things with the attitude that I am doing this for pleasure rather than profit.

ManchesterWide.com and the sites Manchester Wide forum are really in their earliest stages of development but if you are from Manchester or interested in finding more about the city, please feel free to visit the site and say hello on the Manchester Wide forum.

Its been a while since I posted a links round up, so here are some interesting domaining related links that I hope you find useful………………..

A post on Rick’s Blog really got me thinking. Rick shares his thoughts about the value of generic dot coms. Read all about it here………

Next, do you have a bobblehead? Elliot’s Blog has an interesting interview with Warren Royal, owner and developer of Bobbleheads.com.

There are lots of interesting domaining articles on SelfMadeMinds.com. Scott’s latest post about obtaining domains from dissolved companies is the must read article of the week.

Two useful blogs for domainers who are developing or thinking about developing forum domains, or who are wanting to add forums to their sites. Community Spark is a blog by community development expert Martin Reed. Angela Connor’s blog provides a great deal of information relevant to online community management. Both are excellent sources of advice for domainers who want to build successful websites that include an online forum community.

Finally, in July I wrote about the great work that Steve Morales was doing in promoting the Geodomain name sector of the domain name industry.  He was involved in the SimplyGeo.net forum, the SimplyGeo blog and a geodomains social networking site. The forum and social networking site seems largely abandoned at present and the last post on the blog was on the 3rd October. This is a shame. I enjoyed Steve’s blog and enjoyed participating on the social networking site. I hope he gives it another try. If anyone knows what happened and if there are any plans start things up again please share what you know below.