Comments on: Market your local domain names

By: Barry

Barry — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:43 +0000

LittleDevil, I would be interested to hear if any of them help you get a sale. Let us know how it works out

By: LittleDevil

LittleDevil — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:39:45 +0000

Awesome ideas Barry and Patrick. Thanks for the tips

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:22:26 +0000

Patrick, nice ideas. Definitely trade magazines, press releases, thought leaders in a field etc

I like the press release idea though writing press releases is an art.

How about finding a few of the top websites in the area and offering to write some articles perhaps along the line of the press release Patrick mentioned? Some websites are looking for good content especially from unique perspectives.

By: Patrick McDermott

Patrick McDermott — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:14:32 +0000

“Anyone else have any ideas?”

Here’s some:

1.You could try contacting the related Business Association(s) and let them know you have a
relevant domain that their members may be
interested in.

i.e. American Dental association for JawPain .com.

If the association has a newletter you can take
out an inexpensive classified ad or advertise on
their website.

You could offer a sales commission in lieu of
paying for the ad. They may be receptive.

—-
2.You could send out a Press Release featuring
your domain name and point out how other
companies have benefitted from generic domains
with examples. A la JawPain .com.

If the Press Release is picked up you could then
refer the End User(s) you contact to the release.
-

3.You can try and get an experienced domain broker
to represent your domain.

i.e. Kevin Leto of BigTicketDomains.com.

Kevin is experienced in contacting End Users.

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:13:11 +0000

Mike,
Do you think though that the plan to release all these tlds will confuse end users? Domainers will speculate wholesale but I worry about diluting the message to end usesers. Fodder for another post perhaps?

By: wanna develop

wanna develop — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:44:58 +0000

Patrick, great reply.. Sooner than later, everybody will learn and know about domains. Nobody knows when that time will be though

Best,
Mike

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:36:10 +0000

LittleDevil, unfortunately proper marketing of domain names takes a lot of effort. I know people who send letters or make phone calls to companies but cold calling is very tough. Finding the right person within a company is critical also.

If you don’t want to expend a lot of effort, what about taking out an ad in the trade press? It would not be cheap but that’s probably the trade off from not putting in a lot of effort.

Anyone else have any ideas?

By: LittleDevil

LittleDevil — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:22:34 +0000

Any tips on marketing domains to end user companies?? I like this idea, but sounds like a lot of effort. You guys got any tips on selling to end users like small businesses? For example, if you originally owned JawPain.com and you were trying to sell it — how would you have gone about it except for listing on sites like Sedo? Thanks!

By: Barry

Barry — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 22:04:44 +0000

Great points Patrick. Having a memorable domain name certainly pays off.

By: Patrick McDermott

Patrick McDermott — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 21:24:45 +0000

“Small business needs an online presence”

“Clearly this (dentist) needs more information
and education on domain names and website
development.”

Unfortunately domain names and websites are
like Home Alarm systems.

You don’t get one until you’ve been robbed.

Then you understand the need.

Many, if not most, small businesses don’t “get”
the need of a good domain especially the benefits
of the generic domains that could help bring in
business.

Read Elliot’s blog from today where he talks
about a tech company that has a product called
Juice Pads which is a wireless recharging system
for portable media.

The media actually call refer to these pads
as Charging Mats.

Even though there were two earlier competitors,
the folks at Juice Pads had the sense and
foresight to register several relevant generic
domains including ChargerMat.com
and ChargerMats.com.

The competitors just regged their company names,
it seems.

In terms of educating these business owners to
the value of domains,I think it would be helpful
to refer then to those that do “get” it.

Regarding your dentist I’d like to share with you something Andrew from DomainnameWire blogged
about some time ago.

He was in great dental pain.

He wanted to make an emergency appointment
but couldn’t remember how to spell his dentist’s
name.

It was a difficult name.

Then he remembered the URL on his dentist’s
business card.

The URL: JawPain.com.

He made the appointment.