Domaining.org.uk

Mobile communications firm Orange launched an ad campaign in the UK this month.

The ad campaign (TV, outdoor and print) focuses on the theme of “I am”, as in I am who I am because of everyone. You can see the ads I am talking about on this description of the campaign, here.

There are billboards all over the UK advertising Orange and urging people to “search online for “I am” “, instead of asking them to visit Orange’s website at Orange.com.(In fact the website is not mentioned at all).

This form of navigation is fairly new. I call it ’search phrase navigation’. It has important implications for the use of domain names in marketing, which I touch on later in this article. Now, I have covered this topic on this blog in May this year and at the time speculated about the threat this form of marketing held for domain names. In that article -’Keywords are back and this time its serious‘ - I wrote about a few Japanese firms that were using this form of search phrase navigation, however, this is the first time I have seen it in the UK.

The way it works is that a company chooses a phrase, not necessarily one that that relates directly to their business, and builds a marketing campaign around the phrase. The company website is then optimized so that it ranks well in search engines for that phrase. Customers are urged to enter the phrase in the search box of their favourite search engine, instead of the URL of the company website. If all goes well a search using this phrase will then bring up a list of websites with the company site at the top.

With this form of navigation you don’t need a memorable or category killing domain name. (You only need a memorable phrase.) In the case of Orange your search takes you to a very ordinary sounding – www.i-am-everyone.co.uk.

The lack of reasonably priced generic domain names is encouraging companies to look for other ways of getting their message out there. While generic domains rule the address bar they don’t necessarily rule when it comes to searching.

Having said all this, generic domain name holders do not need to give up, quite yet. I understand that, at the time of writing, if you type in the phrase “I am” into Google, Orange does not appear in the first page of Google’s natural search results - yet!

I have been reading a lot about GeoDomains and Geo Domain development at the moment and I have to admit that this is one area of domaining that, until recently, I have tended to avoid. That is mainly because of the costs of acquiring good geodomains -especially town and city domains. However, I think that a lot of domainers are taking an interest in geo domains and I thought I’d take another look at this potentially profitable niche.

It might be best to start with some definitions. GeoDomains fall into two categories:-

Pure geodomains - for example Seattle.com, London.com and Birmingham.co.uk

Geo generics - for example SeattlePlumbers.com, LondonDentists.com and BirminghamBars.co.uk

I would like to discuss Geogeneric domains at a later date. So, the rest of this article concerns pure geo domains.

It is not hard to see the value in pure geo domains. The business model is, on the face of it, fairly straightforward. If people are typing the geodomain of a large city, say Ontario, its quite clear they want information about that city. If someone types the word ‘Seattle vacations’ into Google and the results include say, Seattle.com or Seattle.us or even Seattle.info then you know they are likely to look at these three as a priority.

Perhaps the most important thing domainers need to know about GeoDomains is that all the best ones have gone and are in the hands of domainers/ end users. So, you are going to pay decent money to get your hands on the best ones! (This week DNJournal.com reported that LasVegas.asia sold for $30,000 and VisitPanamaCityBeach.com for $25,000.) By best ones I mean pure domains that are the names of towns, cities, counties and regions of any significance.

Dot com geodomains are highly sought after. Place names with the related country codes are also highly prized, examples of which include Boston.us and London.co.uk. Many of the most highly prized pure geo dot com domains are in the hands of three players who between them own hundreds of the biggest city names in the world. These are:-

Boulevards New Media  owned by Dan Pulcrano (e.g. Seattle.com, Los Angeles.com)

Castello Cities Internet Network Inc owned by David and Michael Castello (e.g. LongBeach.com, Nashville.com)

Geo Domain New Media owned by Skip Hoagland (Atlanta.com, MyrtleBeach.com)

The rest are owned by mainstream media organisations, domainers and a wide variety of internet entrepreneurs.

There are various approaches to the development of these domains. Some go for a basic consistent approach when developing out their domains while others go for more of a complex ‘visitor guide’ approach perhaps with more interactive elements such as small ads, job vacancies and, occasionally, a small amount of visitor generated content. Some have news and perhaps employ journalists. Some seem to be for local residents while others are aimed at tourists and business visitors.

Domainers interested in finding out more about geodomains could start their research at the geodomain website owners trade association website AssociatedCities.com. Here you will find links to the association’s 110 members sites. Mostly, but not exclusively, these sites relate to towns and cities in the US. There are also a great many UK geodomains that are well developed and certainly worth a look - Glasgow.com, LondonTown.com and Manchester.com are my favourites.

There is an interesting article about Skip Hoagland of Geo Domain New Media in DNJournal.com, this week, that is worth reading. Skip together with Steven Morales have built up a series of Geo domain related websites:-

GeoDomainer.com (social networking site)
GeoDomain.com (a premium geo domain auction site)
GeoDomains.com (a media company)
GeoBusiness.com (business tools/ services for the geo industry)
GeoAuction.com (an auction site)

Steve also writes the GeoDomainers blog SimplyGeo.com, which is a well produced and well written information source. Finally, there are two dedicated geo domain name discusion forums SimplyGeo.net  and GeoOwners.com. Both have potential and are definitely worth a visit.

What do you think of geoDomains? Do you own any geo domains or any geo generic domain names? What does the future hold for such domains? Have ‘ordinary’ domainers missed the boat or are there hidden gems still out there waiting to be found?

Why not share your thoughts below.