Here are a few more things to think about……….

The differences explained

The most important thing to consider if you are not from the UK is that British English differs significantly from English spoken in other countries. US English is different in many ways from its British counterpart, in particular

1) different words are used to describe something - sidewalk (US) / pavement (UK)

2) same words have different meaning in US and UK English - a ‘fag’ is a cigarette in UK English and means something else in US English

3) spellings differ - colour/ color, socialise/ socialize and so on

There are also differences in usage which are based on custom and practice.

This means that there are many different ways to make errors and its difficult to provide hard and fast rules.

Popularity of .UK domains

The .co.uk ‘brand’ is well established and there is a high degree of trust in the extension.

UK surfers recognise websites developed on .co.uk domains as more lightly to meet UK specific needs i.e. plumbers or dentists. Whereas, where the market for something is global or international the specificness of the .co.uk domain may be an actual disadvantage.

It has been said before but it is worth repeating, that the resale value of .org.uk domains is very poor and although there is a small market for the best generics, they should be avoided, at least initially.

Some helpful resources

From Wikipedia:
American and British English spelling differences

List of American words not widely used in the United Kingdom

List of British words not widely used in the United States

List of words having different meanings in British and American English

UK Domain Name Forums

AcornDomains.co.uk
ccTLDS.com

Domain name sales

DomainPrices.co.uk

Lots of people living outside the UK think they know all about the UK. They have seen TV programmes made by the BBC and that movie about the spy with Mike Myers in it. However, British English is different to versions of English spoken in other countries. So, if you want to invest in domains for the UK market you need an understanding of how things work in the UK.

Lets start at the beginning. The UK is a large modern economy which is usually ranked around 4th or 5th in most lists of the worlds most wealthiest economies. Around 60 million people live in the UK, of which around 51 million live in England, the largest of the four countries that make up the UK. (The others being Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)

The principal language in the UK is English. This fact makes it an attractive choice for US domainers who wish to venture into buying ccTLDs.

In theory, there are three country codes to choose from:-

.co.uk (usage is similar to .com)
.org.uk (usage is similar to .org) and
.me.uk

In reality, only .co.uk has widespread appeal (value) within the domain name market. Originally, .org.uk domains were intended for not-for-profit organisations and .me.uk is for personal websites. It is rare, but not unheard of for .org.uk or .me.uk domains to be used for commercial websites. However, .org.uk and .me.uk domains are valued at a fraction of equivalent .co.uk domains and usually should be avoided. The only exception, perhaps is if they are being purchased for their search engine optimisation purposes, as I am advised that Google does not favour any one the three extensions over the other two in terms of search engine rankings.

The big problem for many speakers of US English when trying to invest in UK ccTLDs is that a.) words are spelt differently in the UK compared with the US, b.) some things have different names in the US and UK, c.) cultural, social and economic differences between the UK and other countries may also be relevant.

What this means is that although British English and American English have many similarities they differ in many ways as well. This means that those looking to move into UK ccTLDs need to have some appreciation of the UK language and culture if they are to have any hope of maximising their profits in this area.

If you are developing domains yourself a basic development package can be downloaded from AceHTML.com, for free. You will require a knowledge of HTML and CSS to get the most out of it. But this package will enable you to do minor development work as well as more complex jobs.

Basic minisites can be created quickly and easily using free templates, such as the ones available from FreeCSSTemplates.org. AceHTML will be helpful here. I think, as a general rule, mini sites of up to 5 - 25 pages can easily be developed in this way. Larger sites would be easier to develop if you used some of the other packages I will discuss below.

The next step up is probably Wordpress blogging software. this is a package that, once you get used to it, allows you to rapidly develop sophisticated sites. A self hosted Wordpress.org driven website is a quick and easy way of developing sites and the variety of eye catching templates available make this the software of choice for all but the smallest sites or the most demanding sites. Wordpress is a popular blogging tool that is gaining a good reputation for itself as a Content Management System (CMS). Either way once you become familiar with the software you may never want to change. You can even add online discussion forums to Wordpress. See YouLookFab.com for a good example of Wordpress / forum integration.

Another feature of Wordpress is the multiuser option WordpressMU. This is a quick and straightforward way of developing a number of domains using Wordpress.

If you wish to add a forum to your site, or if you just want to have a website that is a free standing forum such as acorndomains.co.ukthere are a variety of packages available. SMF and PHPBB are two of the most popular free packages available. There are many more. Many developers prefer the paid for options vBulletin or Invision Power Board. Fortunately, it is possible, though not straightforward, to migrate between the packages, so it is possible to start with a free option to begin with and move to a paid option later on.

However, there are some more advanced packages which take you into the ‘professional sphere’. Joomla and Drupal are free to download but certain add-ons may cost. They are aimed at more advanced developers and offer integrated modules to make more sophisticated sites. Wordpress needs a lot of work to make it act as a CMS so many developers are seeing the benefits of Joomla and Drupal which are CMS, ‘straight out of the box’. However, the overall complexity of these two packages compared to Wordpress put many people off as has the lack of a wide selection of free templates/ skins. A paid for package that has many of the same features is Expression Engine. This is perhaps the most expensive option but is also gathering a following. For example, FemaleForum.com is build using Expression Engine and is an example of what can be done with only a moderate investment.

Development is an important way to make your domain names work harder for you. I’m not saying that domain parking should be avoided, but I do believe that key word rich domains in your portfolio should be developed out as soon as time allows. The options covered here will help you to do so.

The drive to develop is a powerful one. Developed domains will always earn more, compared with simple domain parking, and even a domain that does not receive parking revenue may be able to pay for itself many times over with only a modest amount of development. Even mini sites consisting of up to 20 pages can be set up using free templates and can pay for themselves quickly.

The problem for many domainers is that they would like to develop some or all of the domains in their portfolio - but they are not sure how to do so. They have heard of free templates, Wordpress and so on but don’t always know exactly what the available choices are.

For those domainers with limited development skills, free template driven sites or Wordpress driven sites will be sufficient in a majority of cases. By contrast, Joomla and Drupal allow the development of more sophisticated websites with advanced functions such as forums ecommerce and so on.

Domainers have avoided development for a number of reasons.

Many people became domainers, lured by the dream of living off domain name parking revenue alone for the rest of their life like industry leaders, Frank, Rick and Sahar. The days when you could buy these ‘traffic domain names’ cheaply are long gone and the money is now in a.) development of sites a market niche or become leading ‘authority websites’ or b.) through the development of a mini sites (of no more than 5 - 10 pages, or less) on each domain.

Many domainers are not web developers and one way round this is to get someone else to do the work. Domainers with sufficient funds to contract out the development process to others may never have to worry too much about whats going on ‘under the hood’. However, web site building knowledge and skills are still important simply to understand what you need and to convey that to your developer.

I also think that if you understand what is involved in building different types of website you understand more about the market for that domain name and the potential for that domain name.

The good news is that you don’t have to be able to hand code your website from start to finish. There are lots of packages out there that do the hard work for you. And best of all - they are mostly free.

Free / low cost templates make development straight forward. Packages like Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal allow complex sites to be developed fairly quickly. They do take time to learn, however, but they make developing multiple sites straightforward and are well worth the effort.

In Part 2 we look at the development options in a little more detail.

The development of geodomains is also reasonably straightforward, with many development aids available. The process is not that different to development of domains in general. However, there are some things to think about before embarking on the development of city, town or location based website. I have been working on a city site of my own - ManchesterWide.com - so I thought I would share some of my thoughts, based on my experience of developing ManchesterWide.com

All the pure geodomains are gone?

Yes - no surprises here - unless you have substantial money to invest. For those readers who are not domainers, domain names relating to specific locations are particularly sought after and regularly change hands for relatively large sums of money. Of those, .com domains are the most sought after. Dot coms are particularly sought after as they receive what is called “type-in” traffic. This comes from people typing the place name into their browsers address bar, followed by “.com”.

To make matters worse, it is important to realise the advantage pure .com place names have compared with domains that simply include the place name. London.com will receive high numbers of type in traffic but EveryoneLovesLondon.com, or LetsGoToLondon.com, for example, will receive comparatively little of this free traffic. If you choose to develop a .net or a .org domain , say London.net, you will bleed traffic and customers to the .com of that domain because people frequently type in the dot com version of the domain, in error.

Most of the larger city .com domain names in the US are in the hands of a few big players and are developed into travel sites and city guide sites. The interesting thing is that the success of geo .com city sites has revealed / confirmed that there is demand for such sites and proves that there is a market out there for city related information.

Is it worth it? Given the massive advantage of having a city dot com should you abandon any ideas of competing against the big players altogether?

There are opportunities for domainers who realise that they cannot simply copy pure geo domin websites. They also need to realise that without the type-in traffic that pure .com geos have, they will need to work much, much harder to generate traffic.

Have you missed the boat? If you are starting now, you are probably up against established sites and if you are thinking of developing a site related to a town or city of any significant size you are probably going to find some sort of competition. You have missed the boat if you want a .com version of the domain, unless you have between $xx,xxx and $xxx,xxx or more to buy a .com domain. You will also need the resources to develop it effectively. In all other respects the game is still wide open.

What about the competition? Type in the name of any reasonably large city into Google.com and the results you will get demonstrate that there are some big hitters in the top 7 - 10 results.

On the first page of Google search results you can expect to find the .com of the city, the city government site, the local University website, the government funded tourist information website, the website of the local newspaper and probably the websites of a lot of other big budget organisations.

For example, when typing in the word “SanFrancisco” into Google.com the first page of web results included:-

• Official tourists website
• The Wikipedia article relating to that city
• The .com website
• The city/ county Government ’s official website
• Two media sites (a radio station and a newspaper) for the area
• The local airport website
• The University website

I can only say that the competition is tough. However, there are lots of different ways to generate traffic, including optimizing your site for a number of keywords, using sites like Digg, Stumble Upon, Twitter and MySpace to get the word out. Regularly updated compelling, keyword rich content, will help, as will word of mouth and paid for online and offline media advertising.

I am still unsure what strategy will be best for ManchesterWide.com and I will update my progress here as I develop the site further.

Cruises.co.uk £560,000 ($1,099,798)
Phones.co.uk £175,000 ($344,710)
FreeCreditReport.co.uk $300,000
4×4.co.uk £38,500 ($75,360)
FreeCreditReports.co.uk $70,000
BusinessNetwork.co.uk £21,500 ($41,000)
LegalJobs.co.uk £20,000 ($39,392)
GiftIdeas.co.uk $37,950
KGB.co.uk £18,000 ($35,600)
Glow.co.uk £20,010 ($31,015)
Flirting.co.uk €18,000 [euro] ($26,240)
DiscountTravel €16,000 [euro] ($23,633)
Searchers.co.uk £10,000 ($20,520)
ClassicCars.co.uk £10,100 ($19,897)
PetrolPrices.co.uk £8,600 ($17,028)

Some good sales over the $100,000 mark. Its also worth comparing these sales with domain sales during 2007.

Here are a few domain name related links to explore over the holiday period.

To start off here is one for people interested in geo domains. This is an interesting story of how geodomains are being used in the US online dating industry. Next, Predictive Domaining outlines the risks to Geo-domains, in an interesting article that covers many of the likely risks.

Now I’ve been visiting DNJournal.com for years but rarely ventured further than their domain sales listings and occasionally their headline article. Recently I noticed that they have a section called “The Lowdown”, that I had not noticed before. The Lowdown section is worth visiting as it contains lots of news articles about the domain name industry you don’t find elsewhere.

Here are two interesting articles from the Online Journalism Review website. They are slightly out of date but have plenty to offer domainers. the first is a 2006 article City dot-coms still waiting to strike it rich, which will be of particluar interest to anyone wanting to understand Geodomains.   This article from OJR, How to make money on your news content website, is aimed at journalists, but has lots to offer domain developers.

Happy reading!

Frequently, people try to put together some sort of league table of factors and there is even a list of ‘factors’ on this site.

Inevitably, there will be some argument about the relative rank of each factor. And every so often someone will add in “but of course a domain is only worth what someone will pay you for it!”.

Its not that this is a bad approach and these factors are important. The problem is that there  is something missing from the great debate about what a domain should sell for. There is one factor that is often ignored in the debate.  Its a factor that is rarely mentioned. This factor can make a big, big difference in the price a domain sells for, but is rarely discussed.

That factor is this -

the price you can sell a domain name for will be influenced by your ability to negotiate the best price possible for a domain name.

Think about that for a moment…………..

In January 2008, top domainer and industry expert Rick Schwartz negotiated the sale of iReport.com, a domain possibly worth “four or five figures” for a jaw dropping $750,000.
Or read how a UK based entrepreneur entered into negotiations that led to him rejecting a $57,000 profit.

And remember negotiation skills apply just as much to selling as they do to buying.

There are perhaps three areas that domainers need to have some familiarity with in order to negotiate confidently.

1.) Domainers need to be aware of general market prices of domains and the markets for different types of domains e.g. four letter domains, geodomains, forum domains, generics and so on

2.) They also need to be aware of the future potential of the area / industry to which the domain relates

3.) Domainers need to develop an appreciation of sales and negotiation skills and tactics - others will use them and you need to be aware of what people will throw at you

The need to exploit the full potential from a domain means that the price a domain sells for is influenced by how the various valuation factors stack up and (almost more importantly) the negotiating ability of the parties involved.

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.

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.