Tonight I wanted to talk a little about geo-domaining. Local search is becoming more important so adding location information to your domain names can add value. It can be tedious however to type in CaliforniaCredits.com, FloridaCredits.com and so on. Many of these domains are already taken but there are opportunities.
Taking some of the names that we have discussed in previous posts which may already have been taken and adding location information can give you a useful domain. Will people type geo-localized domain names? You bet. How many? Well that will vary and you will have to find out for yourself. I can tell you that geo-localized domain names can be profitable even parked.
So the tip for tonight is how to do this without huge tedious amounts of typing. Bring out one of the most under-utilized programs you probably have on your computer. Yes, I am talking about Excel. OK, I hear the groans at the back but it can be a valuable tool.
I am attaching an example for you to work from. Basically all the U.S. state names and 2 letter abbreviations are in the left hand columns. I also left the capital cites of each state though I do not use them for this example but you can. I have entered two example keywords and you can delete these and write in your own. Those two keywords are the only typing you have to do.
Once you do that, in the right hand column, the list will change to combine the keyword with the state name or abbreviation. Highlight that full list and copy it. Now I go to my favorite domain registrar, Moniker.com and when you click on this link, you will see their usual registration page. Underneath all the tlds e.g. .com, .org etc, you will see “multiple domains?”. Click that and it will bring you to a page where you can register up to 500 domain names.
I usually change the default to “Check the entered domains plus” so i see the .org, .net etc. Paste your list in from Excel and scroll down to click “search”. Now it will check all those domain names for you. If you do decide to go on a spending spree with what you have found, do check their bulk discounts for some savings.
You can also do this with other registrars. The reason I personally don’t use others is that I am sure that Moniker will not steal my domain name ideas if i don’t pick them up straight away and you also have a window of time during which you can get back most of your registration money if you make a mistake or the traffic is far lower than you thought. See the site for details.
If you feel comfortable with Excel, then play around with it to concatenate various words. I can be used to add common prefixes or join words in various order e.g. PredictiveDomaining, DomainingPredictive. This example isn’t useful but you can see the potential.
Let me know how it works for you and if you have found any other useful applications. I hope it saves you some time and energy typing.
Geo-domaining example (Excel Spreadsheet)
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey! Thanks for the spreadsheet! I think the hard part is building a good keyword list. Because the end user domain name in these situations is different than for your typical type-in domain.
I’m trying to build an ‘ultimate’ geo keyword list but it’s lots of work (yellow pages etc etc). Also, in the meantime I’m not getting any offers on some pretty good geos (medium size towns) that are pulling in upwards of 30 type-ins a month. I’d like to be buying a lot more geos but I’m taking a break until I find some liquidity.
What about you? How goes it in the geo sales dept.?
I usually don’t buy them to sell them. I have some that make very good money from type-ins and some less so but all turn a profit.
If you are trying to sell geo-domain names, I suggest hooking up with web developers especially in the local area. You may need to give the web developer a percentage but it can work. If you make them aware of your portfolio of names, they can match them to clients and you give them a percent of the sale as an incentive. If you set this up with multiple web developers, you may even get them bidding on names.
I just think the usual outlets are cluttered and the goals is to get to clients who are motivated to buy. Who better than those going to web developers. Reminds me to make a post on this
Thanks for the tip! It may be that I’m either on the wrong track, or perhaps I came in too late, but could you give an example of a geo (it needn’t be one you actually own but perhaps close enough too it that the type-in ppc would be similar) that’s making ‘very good money’? (And if it’s not too personal, what ‘very good money’ might mean?). I drilled down to towns with as few as 40,000 and was unable to reg any realestate, insurance or the like. I decided to experiment with some end user geos- trades (plumbing, electric etc) because it seems like these would be valuable to local tradespeople, as in, printed on the side of their vans.
It’s probably early but so far this strategy isn’t working for me. These domains are meant to be sold to an end user- the ppc is minimal because the ads served aren’t local enough.
It takes a lot of work to find a good domain or else brute force programming and tasting. I have one domain that is a major American city with carinsurance.com that make $5 to $25 a click and gets about 10 clicks and up a month. I bought it in Feb 07 and was amazed it was still around. I have others related to medicine, dentistry and fashion with state names that i have picked up in the last year that turn profits. I do not look at small populations for ppc and i wouldn’t recommend you do either. You depend on a percentage typing in so you need a large population to start. If you want to sell, then you could look at small localities.
End user geo domains to be sold need marketing in my mind. As i said, I think you need to use a web development group or go market them yourself. If you wait for the buyer, you may have a long wait.
Also if you are not happy with the ads being served for ppc, try other companies and see if you get better ads served.
Barry,
Thank You! These numbers are the details so difficult to find. Without these sorts of reference points it’s impossible for those of us getting started to know just HOW bad we’re doing
No problem. To be fair, thats on the top end of the scale. If you can make $20 and up on a domain costing $8 and have enough of those, you can do well too.